“Yeah, I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything with them,” the man, still smiling, shrugged. Seeing Sam’s expression, he seemed to want to correct himself. “Oh, no, wait. It’s not that I can’t; I can, but I don’t want to... Do you know how crafting works?”
Sam shook his head. “No... not really.”
“Well, when crafting with items like this, there is a chance that you’ll fail and ruin the materials. Usually, this is a very low percentage that can be mitigated with skills or experience, but... These are some weird materials; they look expensive, and since I don’t want to reimburse you if I fail...”
This made sense to Sam, though he didn’t like how it turned out. “What if I’m fine with it failing and won’t have you reimburse me?”
“That’s a better option, but if I fail and ruin expensive materials, that word gets out and... I’m sorry, I can’t risk that, man.” The man looked genuinely apologetic at the end, but he refused to take the job.
“Ah... well, do you know anyone that might be willing to try out?” Sam wanted to look at what could be done with this, but he would like to speak to a crafter willing to take the chance to find out.
“Ask around, there’s always someone fresh and new, willing to take chances.” The man smiled but toned his talk, hinting he wanted to end the conversation and speak to someone else.
Sam nodded. There was no need to linger at the moment. “Thank you, I’ll ask around, then.”
Leaving the stall, he proceeded to ask around in the area, ask other crafters, but he got the same answers. The materials read as rare enough; without knowing too much about them, they didn’t feel like trying it. Some commented that the percentage of success was too low; others just didn’t want to risk the reputation hit. At least the people in the front row of crafters had this kind of excuse.
Sam got a feeling that the front-row crafters were very focused on reputation and only took things they knew would work out, which somewhat made sense; a crafters reputation felt like an important thing.
“Yeah, sure, I can have a go,” a young redheaded girl replied to the crafting question.
She looked to be around 15 or so, with long red hair in a high ponytail and goggles lifted onto her head. She wore a leather apron of sorts over some simple clothing.
Compared to the other crafters, she didn’t have a proper stand but sat on the ground with a rolled out carpet of sorts with various tools, weapons and knickknacks.
“Y-you are?” Sam almost stammered in surprise, finally finding someone to give it a go.
“Yeah, why not. This seems fun.” She smiled back, not seeming to mind the risks involved.
“That’s great to hear. I haven’t done this before so... what can you make of this and what will it cost me?”
She took the Eye and Tooth, both being surprisingly large in her hands. She put on her goggles and started inspecting them from all angles and thinking. Through the dark green lenses of the goggles, Sam could barely see her eyes glowing.
“I haven’t worked with these materials specifically, but I can see that, separately, I can make a simple dagger out of the tooth, and the Eye can be used for a staff or something. Or I can combine them into a magical dagger.”
Taking off her goggles after her eyes stopped glowing, she held onto the materials, seeming to wait if Sam wanted them back or have her start. “I want $200 000 for it if I succeed, and I want to not pay you if I fail.” She smiled.
Sam was a bit uncertain about her; in a way, she seemed a bit too willing compared to the others, but she was also the only one he had found willing to try. He hadn’t expected these materials to be that weird or unique; perhaps that was because it was some boss-drops?
“Sure, go for it, merge them into a dagger.” He smiled, where he was immediately jumpscared by a window opening in his view.
A contract, it was simple and seemingly standard. They had agreed on a sum, conditions and results, he needed to agree on that so he didn’t run away without paying, likewise, she couldn’t steal whatever she made. An interesting sub-clause was that he had to willingly agree to admit if he had the money or not. It was strange wording, but if it was in there, it had to be a working condition. He had the money, so that wasn’t a problem. The contract also displayed her name: Cyra Bennett. It was more than enough to send her money when he got back. And him agreeing to this would probably still let her get her money if he dies before he comes back.
Before agreeing, he felt like he wanted to know more about her, taking a look at her with Appraisal active:
[ Cyra Bennett - Mana Smith
Level: 23
STR: 2
DEX: 5
VIT: 7
SPT: 15
HP: 55 / 55
Damage: Crafted Fire Dagger (S): 120
Defence: 50
Abilities: Mana Smith, Crafter’s eyes, Craft item, Rare Materials, Exotic Materials. ]
[ Mana Smith: Rather than hammering or physically contacting the materials, the Mana Smith uses a magical field to craft. This allows crafting with materials that are problematic with physical contact. ]
[ Crafter’s eyes: Allows inspection of items to see what they can become through crafting. Cannot see the result of crafting. ]
[ Craft item: Allows crafting items from materials. ]
[ Rare Materials: Opens up crafting with Rare materials. ]
[ Exotic Materials: Opens up crafting with Exotic materials. ]
Feeling fine with what he saw, she seemed like a decent crafter in Sam’s inexperienced eyes. This let him agree to the contract with more confidence; it’s not like he intended not to pay anyway, so it all looked fine.
“Great!” She smiled at him and put her goggles back on. “This’ll take a few minutes.”
She sat down on the ground with the items in her lap. Her eyes started to glow behind her goggles as she placed her hands around the objects. They started to glow vaguely as they hovered between her hands.
Sam had never seen anyone craft before; he had seen videos so he knew roughly what it looked like, but as with most things, it was something very different seeing it firsthand.
“That’s kind of neat,” Janik chimed in as Cyra was focusing, doing things to the materials between her glowing hands. He had been trailing behind Sam for a while, so he had missed their talk. “What’s she making?”
“She said she could merge the Tooth and Eye into a dagger, she could make things of them separately, but I felt this made more sense.” Sam still didn’t have any experience or data to base this on; he just somewhat felt that the tooth and eye belonged together.
“Well, I’m eager to see what she makes,” Janik added with a smile.
Sam inhaled to bring the conversation further but stopped himself as he overheard two men talking a few steps away.
“Dude, isn’t that the snake? The one that sells venom at TAC?”
“I... You might be right...” The second man sounded uncertain, but Sam turned towards them out of curiosity nonetheless.
Looking at them, he saw someone lightly armoured with a sword on his hip and a bow in a quiver on his back, as well as another man who looked like he wore an entire car worth of metal across his body. It felt like a rogue-type and a warrior-type. A quick Appraisal confirmed this, they were both level 64. The warrior, Jake, had heavy-hitting skills on top of some defensive and HP boons. The rogue, Ralph, had stealth and ambush-based skills and abilities.
“Hello.” The rogue smiled at Elara, who was coiled around Sam’s neck. “We didn’t see you in TAC today.”
Sam was surprisingly happy about this, though he felt like a third wheel in a way he was still happy that she had people who knew her like this, even if it was just as a provider of a certain service.
Elara faced them and smiled as her tongue tasted the air between them. “I am with my master today.”
“Oh, so you’re her owner?” the Rogue, Ralph, asked. “Then you must be Sam.”
Sam knew that Elara was showing a ‘title’ or ‘name’ of sorts to other Players, which was listed as Sam’s Companion. Which was how she was officially recognized as a Player’s Companion rather than just a random Snake. The only reason she could wander about in TAC without being attacked.
“I am,” he replied, not seeing the value in trying to hide his name as they already knew it.
Ralph’s eyes widened in excitement as Sam confirmed who he was.
“I have been buying your companion’s venom for days; it’s amazing! A bit expensive, but it can take out some targets even here on the Fourth Floor!” he excitedly confirmed. “It takes a while since the damage is so low, but it can kill a Styrger in 2 minutes, a Whisp in about 45 seconds, and a Stalker in a bit over 2 minutes. Just hide and snipe it, then wait.” He smiled widely like he had been relying on this for a while.
“I’m glad to hear it.” Elara smiled back, taking pride in her customer’s happiness.
“Listen, I don’t suppose you could give me a discount? As a returning customer and here out in the field?” Ralph asked with a surprisingly honest face.
“No,” she replied as she shook her head. “If Master doesn’t intend to use my Venom today, I can sell you at full price, which is now $31 000.”
“Wait, 31? It wasn’t that much before.” He looked genuinely surprised.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“My venom has improved since before, and it’ll continue to improve now that Master is back,” Elara replied with a hint of pride in her voice.
The man thought about it for a moment. “What’s the resist limit now?”
“25 and above,” Elara replied like this was a talk they had had many times before.
“So, 24... That’s not bad.” Ralph looked at his friend. “It's not enough for the Cloudhorn or Boss, but it’s enough for the others.”
Jake nodded. “At 31k, they still pay for themselves.”
Turning back to Elara, Ralph smiled. “In that case, I want 10 doses today if you can.”
Sam was a mix of surprised and proud. In this moment, Elara had made over $300 000 without moving from his shoulders.
She extended from his shoulders to turn around and look at Sam. “Do you want my Venom today?”
“Nah, I’m good. You can do with it as you want.” Sam smiled back.
“Sweet,” Ralph broke in. “But... since we don’t have the terminal here, how do we do payment?”
“We can sell our cores and give him the money,” Jake chimed in as he thumb-pointed at his full-looking backpack.
“Oh, yeah, that’s not a problem. We’ll just set up a contract now, and we can do that afterwards, is that fine?” The question at the end was directed to Elara.
She nodded slowly. A few seconds later, a contract window popped up for Sam. He was a bit surprised that he had gotten involved in this, but it made sense once he read it. The contract itself was fine, but since Elara was ‘just’ a companion, his input became a necessity.
When the formalities were done, she proceeded to envenom some of Ralph’s arrows.
“Thank you.” He smiled in the end, looking quite happy about the transaction. Giving the group a wave before leaving.
Dia had been following around, confused for a while, but stepped in and looked at Elara closely. "Elara thirka gur?"
“Yes,” Sam replied. “If she wanted to, she could kill any one of us with one bite. It’s that strong. You almost have a chance to resist it, but as you are now...” His tone was in the sense of pride, but he knew how horrifying this was. As the venom didn’t have a duration, the only thing that could stop it was an antidote or a healing effect.
A pulse of light from Cyra took all the focus; it was bright and powerful but only lasted a split second. Looking towards it, he saw Cyra holding her creation. It was a long dagger made of bone, the blade was flattened or filed down from the round tooth shape it initially had and even had a vague green-blue metallic sheen. The handle was simple and oval with a pommel. The most striking thing about it was the almost organic-looking cross guard, almost looking like solidified tendrils, and in the center of the cross guard was an eye with a teal iris, looking around erratically as if searching for something.
“Jeez, I think this is the most creepy thing I’ve made,” she commented as she looked at it more, holding it up as the eye flicked around erratically but snapping still to stare at her like it was peering into her soul.
“Oh shit,” she suddenly commented as she took her goggles off, her eyes stopped glowing. “I made something legendary!”
Sam looked at it closer, not having seen a legendary item before.
[ Sentinel’s Watch, Legendary Tier, Damage: 260
-Sentinel’s Gaze: Can see hidden things.
-Sentinel’s Sense: Can sense hostility to the wielder.
-Absorb Life: Each damaging hit absorbs a small bit of life force that can be used to heal the user on demand.
-Upgraded damage: The Sentinel’s Watch is a dagger that does damage like a High-S ranked sword.
-Precognition: After hitting a target, the user gets a premonition of the target’s intended action within the next few seconds. ]
Sam was incredibly surprised at what he saw. As were Cyra, Janik and any onlookers that reacted to the light. There were comments about a legendary item, and people wondered about it.
“I’ll give you ten million for it,” a man stated from the side to Cyra.
“I’ll give 14!” Another broke in, trying to outbid him.
This started a small bidding war until she hesitantly broke in. “It’s not mine,” she forced a smile as her gaze turned to Sam. “He commissioned it, I just lucked out with its rarity.”
The weapon listed that it could sense hostility. Sam didn’t need it at all to feel the eyes on him, it was to the point that he almost wanted to activate invisibility and disappear. But that would have the opposite problem...
“Listen here,” Janik broke in, taking all focus. “All of y’all should just stop; it’s not for sale. And if it comes up for sale, it’ll roll into the marketplace or somewhere else. Stop badgering him.” His voice was commanding but not rude.
Dia looked to Janik and saw Sam’s uncomfortable expression; she seemed like she wondered if she should do something, but as Janik took control, she relaxed a bit.
The eyes that moved from Sam to Janik came back to Sam, almost as if checking if this was true or not. Sam managed to force a nod, which had people show their dissatisfaction both visually and audiorily.
“T... thanks.” Sam managed to force out to Janik, realizing that this overwhelming social pressure hit him harder than any bossfight, which was somewhat weird if you thought about it.
Janik smiled with a thumbs up but didn’t get to reply before Cyra started talking.
“Well, I’m a bit sad giving this away now. It’s kinda creepy, but I’d earn a fortune selling it... And it’s way better than the flaming dagger I made before.”
She hesitantly reached her hand out, handing the weapon to Sam. Her hands shook almost like she was trying to hold back but at the same time giving the product to her customer.
Sam took it and immediately felt weird. He got a strange, piercing, cold sensation from several angles. Following the feeling, he locked eyes with a young man with an envious, angry expression. As soon as he noticed Sam looking at him, the sensation faded, and the man turned around, leaving the area. The eye on the dagger looked around, intensively, aggressively, searching and staring at everything.
Dia looked at it and smelled it as her ears flattened out. She didn’t seem to like the eye in its jerky movements. .it locked onto her for a few seconds, which had her jump a little, before it looked away, which made her calm down considerably.
Janik looked at the dagger, which in turn had it look at him. “That’s kinda creepy.” he smiled at it, which had it look away, inspecting something else. “I’m sure selling it would set you up for life, but something tells me you’re not going to. Its abilities are insane.”
“Yeah,” Sam replied with a smile. “It’s retty cool.” He didn’t consider it creepy but rather neat and intriguing. Already, it had proven to work fine, and he was looking forward to testing it out in combat, especially the precognition.
A window suddenly opened up as Sam was staring into the eye, feeling surprisingly happy with this.
[ Sentinel’s Watch requests; Are you my owner? ]
“Oh... Eh...” Sam was surprised, not sure what to make of this, but it made perhaps a bit of sense. He didn’t expect his weapon to be sentient. “Yes, I guess,” he answered in the end, ignoring the confused Dia and Janik.
[ Sentinel’s Watch has bound to its owner. ]
Sam knew that thinking questioningnly about something had the System give him the info if it was available, so he did so regarding this kind of bond.
[ Sentinel’s Watch bond.
This bond is necessary for the proper usage of Precognition. Other abilities work while holding or using the weapon, but proper ownership is required. This is a transferable bond that can only be done from the bonded Player during a change of ownership. ]
“Hah, neat.” Sam was happy with this, he didn’t intend to get rid of this dagger, but, if it became a thing in the future, it was possible.
“What... are you doing?” Janik finally asked.
Sam looked at his party and saw some worried eyes. “Oh, don’t worry about it. It was just a request to bond with the dagger, it’s needed for its abilities. I kind of just answered it.”
“Wait, it’s sentient?” Janik asked, looking at the dagger with a worrying expression.
Sam looked back at it. “That’s a good question. Are you?”
There was no response.
“I honestly don’t know,” Sam continued after a few seconds of nothing “it’s not responding but there was a window popping up saying that the dagger requested to know if I was its owner.”
“That’s ominous,” Janik added, his smile fading ever so slightly.
“Let’s go test it out. Where’s the first Dungeon, and what can we expect in there?” Sam smiled, ignoring the fact that his clothing still had plenty of salt in its fibers.
Janik chuckled as he took out his phone, using a moment on it. Giving Sam some time to turn to Cyra. “Thank you for your help. I’ll only say positive things about you, and I’ll come back if I find something more like this. Is that ok?”
Cyra smiled back. “Yeah, absolutely. Enjoy your creepy-ass dagger!” Giving him a thumbs up, she hid her envy pretty well.
The group left the area, following Janik’s guidance to the first Dungeon on the Fourth Floor.
