Chapter 43 - Soul Resonance

After eating, Arthur grabbed the materials from the shop’s storage and got to work crafting the items he needed.

He didn’t know if he’d have to pay for those materials later or not, but that didn’t really matter. He had enough money, plus a share of the shop’s profits to use.

The materials consisted of steel for the two swords and the pair of daggers, along with treated pine wood ready to be made into a high quality bow.

He walked over to the workbench and prepared to craft. Yuki, once again, was watching everything.

"Try using Soul Resonance to put a bit of my attributes into your item," Yuki said. "You should’ve done that with the armor too, but you’re dumb and forgot."

"Hey, hold on. You also forgot to remind me."

"But I was sleeping. That’s my excuse."

"..."

The Soul Resonance skill seemed pretty peculiar. Arthur was dying to test it on his weapon. Of course, he’d only use it on the items he planned to keep for himself, saving the best items for his personal use, always. Lending or giving the best itens he could craft wasn’t the best idea.

Since he was so eager to test Soul Resonance, Arthur decided to make the sword he would use as his main weapon first. The process was the same as he was already used to.

He selected the item recipe on the forge. A one-handed steel sword. Then the process began, melting the steel while controlling the fire, pouring the liquid ore into the mold to start producing the item.

This time, however, during the part where he hammered the item into shape, Arthur activated the Soul Resonance skill.

The moment he did, a stream of energy left Yuki’s body and flew into the item. A blend of colors, white mixed with blue. The strangest part was that the temperature in the room dropped out of nowhere, as if someone had opened a window or the shop’s heating system had broken down.

And that was with Arthur standing right next to a furnace running at extreme heat.

Yuki’s main attribute was ice, obviously, so that explained the sudden change in temperature.

Arthur kept hammering and shaping the item, and when he finished the handle, the system notified him that the crafting was complete, and that it had been a success.

[Froststeel Sword (Rare)]

[Type: One-handed Sword]

[Level Requirement: 10]

[Attribute Requirement: 23 STR, 15 AGI]

[Damage: 65-65]

[Elemental Damage: 20 ice damage]

[Bonuses: +12 STR, +12 AGI, +10% ATK Speed]

[Soul Augment: Chilling Hit]

[Chilling Hit: Each attack against your target slightly reduces their movement speed, attack speed, and stamina regeneration. The effect can stack up to a 10% reduction in each of these attributes.]

The item was simply too good! Arthur knew it was the best weapon available right now, and with the knowledge he had, it would be hard for even the level 20 dungeons to drop a better weapon.

’This sword is level 10, but its power is comparable to level 25 weapons. So OP.’

After producing the weapon, Arthur equipped the sword and swung it a few times inside the shop. All the employees were staring at him, stunned by what he had created.

That same blacksmith from before came over to take a look.

"How did you add that ice attribute to the weapon so easily? Only very experienced blacksmiths can do that, and it requires several unique materials. You, however, used only steel..."

The sword had a blue aura around it, with small snowflakes constantly coming off the blade. Any NPC or player who saw the sword would know it was something special.

"I can’t share my secrets, sorry," Arthur said.

The blacksmith wasn’t angry at the answer. In fact, it only made his admiration for Arthur grow a little. Little by little, Arthur was earning the employees’ trust.

Before, he had been just some random guy who got control of the shop because he was friends with Ray. Now, they were starting to see him as someone skilled.

Anyway, Arthur decided to move on to crafting his bow right after. The profession that allowed bow crafting was called Woodworking.

It was a pretty lucrative profession. Besides crafting bows, which already sold for good money since there were tons of Rangers in the game, the profession also allowed players to create other wooden items, like furniture for houses.

That was hugely popular among players. Everyone loved buying houses and spending a good chunk of money just decorating them to make everything look nice.

The basic recipes for each profession went up to level 10, so the bow made from pine wood was unlocked for Arthur to craft.

From level 10 onward, however, he would need to start buying or finding recipes, and level up each profession. In other words, Arthur would have to spend more time focusing on that to truly improve his skills.

For now, none of that was necessary. He selected the recipe for the pine bow and followed the whole process the system showed him. Since the wood was already treated, he only needed to cut the mold and shape the bow correctly. Any mistake in that part could mean ruining the item.

After that, he made the string for it, using the web of a spider found in the region, the Snow Silk Spider.

That web was great because besides being flexible and durable, it was also resistant to the cold, which was essential inside the Kingdom of Aldora.

Of course, Arthur used Soul Resonance again, adding the ice attribute to the bow as well. The final result was impressive.

[Snow Pine Bow (Rare)]

[Type: Bow]

[Level Requirement: 10]

[Attribute Requirement: 17 STR, 25 AGI]

[Damage: 105-105]

[Elemental Damage: 30 ice damage]

[Bonuses: +20 AGI]

[Soul Augment: Long Shot]

[Long Shot: Increases your damage the farther you are from your target. Maximum allowed increase of 15%]

The bow, just like the sword, was way too powerful for the current stage of the game. Its damage was relatively higher than the sword’s, but bows had a slower attack speed than swords. That was the game’s way of balancing things.

But being able to attack from a distance was great too. Arthur could already picture himself starting every fight by attacking from range first, chipping away at the monster’s health, and then going in for melee combat.

Arthur still needed to craft some basic arrows, plus the items he would use for the contracts. So he stayed in the shop a little longer...

The sword and bow he made for the contracts had attributes similar to the ones he was using, but they lacked the built-in elemental damage, which lowered the final damage quite a bit. Still, they were impressive items.

The new pair of iron daggers he made for Shadow Cloak were great too.

He then messaged her, and also Point Blank. It was time to trade in the Rogue contract and switch to a contract with a Ranger.

And after that, all that was left was finding a good Swordsman in the region.

’And then I’ll finally get out of this place and take the number one spot on the level ranking.’

That was Arthur’s current plan.