Chapter 8: Meeting In The Blaksmith'S Workshop

Before getting into the chapter I'll address a couple things.

First off, I have changed the theme of the blog so that everything is more well organized and cleaner. If you encounter any issues just tell me.

Something I might have forgotten to mention about my Patreon is that it doesn't have upfront payments. This means that you won't be charged when you become a patron and payments are only collected at the start of each month. This should clarify things to those that might have been interested in making a pledge but decided not to since other people tend to have this option on and it would have incurred double charges since we a pretty close to the end of the month. I have also edited both pages to clarify this.

Now a couple notes regarding the chapter itself.

Let's start with the name of a certain character in this chapter. As you can see, her name is a German word, but I believe the author made a slight mistake with the spelling of the word. So, I proceeded to investigate a bit with dictionaries and found the proper one to replace it. It was honestly a small mistake because the meanings were pretty similar but I changed it for consistency. Obviously, I'm not knowledgeable about German so if there's someone that does in the comments and finds something wrong with it, feel free to point it out in the comments.

Finally, there's the gender of the character that is accompanying her, the author doesn't really use a gender pronoun for this character and only does when he's writing what Hind is thinking. So we can deduce that Hind's first impression of the character is that "she's a girl". However, we can see that the character has a male name and is wearing male attire. Until it's confirmed in later chapters, I'd probably go with the usual feminine male character that looks like a girl. There were some lines without a pronoun where I had to use one for it to make sense in English.

After paying 300G to the receptionist NPC in the blacksmith's workshop, I wanted to start crafting right away...but before that, I should observe the players around me.

It's not like I have that many materials after all...I don't really want to fail.

I was able to obtain a bit of information about crafting from the newly released Walkthrough sites.

According to them, they make the best of use of the VR system and depending on where you strike the iron, how much power you put behind each strike and even the temperature of the iron when you strike has a different effect. It perfectly simulates reality and it makes a big difference whenever you are skillful or clumsy.

Of course, as a game, it does skip some parts of the procedure, to sum it up...it gives an experience that is pretty close to reality.

There have been mixed reviews about this part.

It's a game, so isn't it fine to just make it a skill and have it automatically make it?

It's a VR game so it's fine, if you want something like that, just play a non-VR game.

Basically, it amounts to these two opinions.

TB is the latter, the type that has no assistance for skills.

Having said that, what would those that are clumsy do...

「Hii, what is this!? H-hot! It's just a bit, but it's hot after all!」

「C-calm down ojou-sama!」

...What's that!?

Ringlets! Aren't those blonde ringlets!? It's the first time I've seen them.

Besides, she's even wearing a tight dress and it's amazing that she's even accompanied by someone dressed up as a butler...

What's this? Some kind of role-play?

It's still the second day, but both of them have already decided on their attire.

However, the one with the ringlets was holding a bright red mass of iron and getting agitated, she was in a situation where she was endangering her surroundings.

「Ojou-sama! For the time being, let go-」

「Ah! M-my hair is on fire! Aaah! My HP is decreasing! Do something!」

「Hiii! Water, can anyone bring some water!?」

...Ah, her ringlets caught fire.

Being in a burned state, her HP was gradually decreasing...so realistic.

Even though her hair was burning, it was just visually and it's not like her skin was really burning.

Since it can't be helped, stealthily so they don't find out, I cast the spell to heal debuffs 「Recover」 on the ringlets girl.

You recover MP just by walking after all...it's not like I'm wasting anything.

Well then, let's just leave that aside for now.

First off, I should search for a player I can copy from.

「O-oh? The fire is gone...」

「I wonder why...ah, ojou-sama! There are some remains of a spell effect!」

This is bad!

I wanted to start to move away in a hurry, but the ojou-sama had her azure eyes locked on me as if she was calling me over.

What should I do...

These kind of people are fun to to look at, but I don't really want to get involved with them...

「You!」

「Yes...?」

Sure enough, she talked in a harsh tone.

If she was a person with a high level of pride, she would usually say something like 「Don't do something unnecessary!」 but...

「Y-you have my gratitude...if that had gone on, I would probably have had to waste a healing item...」

Because she had honestly expressed her gratitude, my eyes were going in circles.

I shouldn't have judged her by her appearance...I'm reflecting on that now.

「Don't mind it. It was just a coincidence, I would have felt bad if I just watched after all」

「I-I see...no matter the reason, offering gratitude to your benefactor is a practice within my family. Tell me your friend code! This favor, I'll return it a hundredfold!」

「Eh...it's fine...」

「Te・ll・Me!!」

I take back what I just said.

Just as her appearance suggested, she had a forceful personality...

Without being given much choice, we exchanged friend codes and I registered her as a friend.

Her player name was 「Herrschaft」...she had a name that suited her.

If I remember correctly, I think it means reign in German.

It gives a bit of a sense of chuunibyou, considering her attire too.

「Since the name is a bit long, can I just call you Herscha?」

「I don't mind, Hind」

「Alright. How about registering that butler over there as a friend while we are at it? Though I won't force her」

Since we are already at this point, I should do that too, it was that kind of thing.

I asked the timid person dressed as a butler.

Though, she was playing around with her short bangs and timidly fidgeting...

「Hurry up Walter! Don't be timid, grow a spine!」

「Y-yes! I'm sorry ojou-sama! ...P-please do!」

After Herscha pestered her, we ended up exchanging friend codes.

For some reason...

「Well then, we'll have to excuse ourselves here. Next time we meet, I'll definitely repay this favor! We are going, Walter!」

「E-eh? Ojou-sama, what about the blacksmithing?」

「Silence! There are things people are not suited for!」

「Y-yes! I apologize, ojou-sama!」

「Ah, wait a moment. From what I see, both of you don't have a job with healing spells, right?」

「? Y-yes. What about it?」

「In that case, take this as a freebie」

I pointed at Herscha and cast the healing spell 「Healing」.

The HP she had lost while being burned was fully recovered.

Unlike MP, HP doesn't recover by walking.

There was a notice that they were going to implement hunger, but currently, other than healing jobs, you could only rely on medicinal herbs and potions.

Since the game has just launched, people shouldn't be that wealthy, so there's no harm in economizing.

That's why I healed her but...Herscha stiffened.

Hey! What's wrong? ...It's no use, I was waving my hand in front of her eyes but there was no reaction.

Did she just short circuit calculating how many times she'd have to repay this favor...? I even said it was a freebie.

「Oh well. I'll be going. See you, Walter」

「Y-yes! Thank you, Hind-san!」

...They were quite weird.

With that being said, two new names had been added to my friend list.

Well then, let's return to checking my surroundings.

I obviously haven't done any blacksmithing before, beginners are better taught by someone that is more skillful, there was no choice but to steal their methods after looking at them.

However, everyone is so focused on their own work...even if I tried talking to them, the chances that they would ignore me are high.

Hmm...ah, that person over there.

Striking the iron while being awfully unconcerned and compared to other people, there were no wasted movements at all.

I feel a bit bad, but let's get behind her and watch her methods.

The workshop is still crowded with players after all.

What was before my eyes was a girl with glasses and ruffled hair, besides her, were a large number of already finished weapons.

Was it a player that specialized in crafting? There were a lot of weapons that you wouldn't normally see...

Like that, I observed the blacksmithing flow for a while, after some time, the workshop next to her was freed up so I started to move over there.

For the time being, I've been able to confirm the flow of the process, so let's give it a try.

I took the iron from my inventory and I was going to throw it into the furnace that was already hot...oh!? That's!

「Shotel...wait, a Khopesh!? You are making quite the unusual weapon, huh...they appeared a lot in older games, but it feels like it's the first time I'm seeing one」

「!?」

....Hmm? My eyes met with my neighbour's...oh no!

Did I get too excited and say that out loud!?

Since she seemed so concentrated on her work, I didn't plan to bother her.

Seems like today, I'm not paying much attention.

I have to concentrate...

For a short while, she looked like she had stopped her trembling arm from fatigue but...as if she had made up her mind, she turned to face me and asked me a question.

「...E-eh...do you know what a Khopesh is?」

「Eh...ah...yes. It's an Egyptian weapon, right? The blade is wider than the Shotel, so the way it's curved is different. If I remember correctly, it was shaped to snatch away the weapon or the shield of your opponent」

「Then, then! ...H-how about this one...?」

Her eyes were glittering full of expectations...

The next weapon she took out, was a single-edged blade.

The reason she showed me at a distance where it was very close to touching me, was probably because I could have the weapon information displayed if I touched it.

When I took a glimpse, it said that it was a Cutlass but...

「Hmm, the blade is quite long so it's a Szablya, right?」

「! H-how about this one!?」

「This one is easy. It's a Hunga Munga, right? it can also be called Kpinga. In Japan, they are called African throwing names. What's this weapon classified as in TB?」

They are so nice, minor weapons.

If Yumir was here, we would be able to talk about them more...

The Hunga Munga is a knife with a shape close to a 「卍」, it can be used as a knife to kill a person, but it can also be thrown like a boomerang to attack your opponent.

The previous two could be classified as blades, but what does the system classify an Hunga Munga as?

A knife? or maybe a throwing weapon?

「...A」

「A?」

「A kindred soul!」

The girl with glasses, while being somewhat agitated, grasped my hands tightly.

Whoa, what should I do?

Even though it was because of my own careless actions, I might have been caught by another weird person...