@DestinyStar@ZelosseTailpinLvl 11
Day 16 Afternoon
There was nothing to do until he received a reply from the Guild Leader. So, Tailpin stood up again and took a look around. He didn't want to try anything experimental with loot that he already thought of as belonging more to the guild so he had to find things that he could test the limits of his remaining abilities with. He had never gotten around to testing his Synthesis skill and now he had earned a Fletching skill when he hit level ten. He hadn't been hunting in a place that gave materials for that skill so he had put it out of his mind. Specifically, when he tried to use it there had been a request for an item he didn't have. Now, though, he had idle time and a little money to spare. Maybe he could find one of these "Attribute Prism" items.
There was a part of town that wasn't very busy or loud. It was just an intersection of back streets with some empty storefronts and blank signs. While one of the streets connected to the market, it was far enough away that few people thought it would be a good place to start a shop. Besides, buying an actual store was a lot more expensive than just a stall. Still, there were two big benefits to this area. One was a single, slightly shady looking, merchant vendor who hung out in a dark doorway in this part of town. The other was the fact that unpurchased business buildings could be entered by anyone.
You couldn't change anything about the building's interior or conduct a trade within the building but you could do your own crafting in privacy or get a little safe zone swordsmanship practice in, for those who knew real sword forms. Eventually, Tailpin intended to buy a storefront like this. It would make for a good place to store and organize any crafting he did, along with the large amount of materials that he tended to accumulate.
For now, though, he had business with that shady vendor. The guy stored his merchandise in a hidden room under a loose paving stone and it took a few minutes for him to get the items you bought and bring them up to you. But, this guy carried a random inventory. Tailpin had visited him twice before. Between those visits he had seen equipment up to level twenty, but never more than one piece at each level, random potions and crystals, and the occasional rare component material. But, one of the things that he always seemed to have was crafting equipment. Nothing for blacksmiths or leatherworking, he only carried equipment that matched uncommon crafting skills.
As tailpin quietly entered this derelict part of town and spotted the vendor, the shady NPC greeted him with a furtive grin and a glance from side to side. He approached and the vendor spoke in a raspy whisper.
"Welcome back."
Then the shop window popped up with the list of what he had in stock. Tailpin paged through the list in silence, marking several items that caught his eye, and then hit the bottom of the list. There was one left. Last time there were two. Still, it was here. There was a single unit complete set of fletching tools. It was low level equipment but it was a travel set and didn't require a building to use it. The price had gone down too. He selected it and ran some quick totals before completing the transaction. He was almost out of money now. He looked at the list again and spotted something that hadn't been there before. This time, the shady fellow had an "Attribute Prism" in stock.
Actually, the vendor had three and they were very inexpensive for an item with no level that was required by a skill. He purchased them all and concluded the transaction. He turned away and jogged to a nearby empty storefront, without listening to the vendor's vaguely creepy come-again line, opened the door and headed inside without hesitation. As the door closed behind him the open space fell silent.
Here was true silence, a thing that few people ever really heard. He stood still and softly held his breath for a moment, feeling that silence settle like a shroud in the dusty building. Here he could work in peace until he received a reply from Delcastle. Tailpin took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a sigh. Then he walked quietly to the back of the room and opened a door there. Stairs led down into a room that could serve as a forge or a storage room, depending on the equipment the owner wanted to install.
Tailpin just needed the floor. He pulled his newly purchased set of tools out of his inventory. It was a rolled sheet of thick leather bound by a cord. He lay it down and sat in front of it before undoing the cord. The "Traveler's Fletching Set" rolled open in front of him. It had a wide variety of tools divided by four categories. The categories seemed to be fletching, shaft, head, and assembly. Next he pulled out some of the miscellaneous crafting materials that he had purchased. An iron sword blank, a couple stout sticks, a chicken's tail, two boar tusks, and a rough rock. These weren't just random items, they were random items that Tailpin knew a little bit about. The sword blank was a sword smithing material, the sticks seemed to have a number of crafting uses, the boar tusks could be made into weak dagger blades, and he had heard that rocks could become whetstones. The chicken's tail he just thought sounded funny and it might be interesting to see what it could do.
He started with his Refining skill since none of these items had attributes as they were. The stout sticks surprised him by refining into different items, a "Maple Switch" and a "Thorny Branch". The iron sword blank just gained an attribute, "Heavy". The tusks both gained the same attribute, "Hardened". The rough rock became a "Crystal Ore", whatever that was supposed to be good for. At least it had an attribute, "Refined". The chicken's tail actually did something rational. It refined into ten "Short Feathers" with no attributes.
Now, the Synthesis skill worked with attributes, according to its description. It allowed the attribute of one item to be transferred to another. However, it only worked on components and the component from which the attribute was drawn was sacrificed. He decided to start with what he could tell about potential. The items in front of him could easily be sorted if he just checked whether or not they were components for his Fletching skill. There were only a few. The "Hardened Boar Tusks", "Thorny Branch", and the "Short Feathers" were compatible with Fletching. The others were not so he set them aside as sacrificial items. With the items sorted it was time to get a handle on this skill.
He set one of the tusks and the sword blank in front of him and pulled up the joint menu that popped up when he selected Synthesis. There was that red space again, a gap between the two items that indicated the need for another component. He placed one of the "Attribute Prism" items in that spot and it turned white, no problems. Then he confirmed his selections. The sword blank and the prism glowed before shattering into nothingness, only the tusk remained. He pulled up its information. It now said that it was a "Heavy Hardened Boar Tusk". Picking it up, he could tell the difference. It was a couple times heavier than it had been before.
"So, that's the balance." He whispered into the silence.
From that point, the rest was simple. He sacrificed the "Crystal Ore" and added "Refined" to the "Thorny Branch" then tried to use his Fletching skill to make an arrow. The "Heavy Hardened Boar Tusk" was converted into five heavy arrowheads with very sharp, hard edges. The "Refined Thorny Branch" became five shafts of dark wood with what looked like a fine grain to its surface. Upon closer inspection, Tailpin saw that the whole surface of the shaft was covered with thorns that were much like quills. The feathers were simple and simply became twenty "Fletch Feathers", ready for attaching to an arrow shaft. After crafting was complete, he looked at the specifics of the arrow that resulted.
He spoke its name aloud for the feel of the sound. "Hedge Boar's Resentment." It was an arrow that could penetrate armor and would remain stuck, causing continuous damage, because of the quills which were placed to spread out and pierce the target after passing the armor. This would be useful but the process to make it was a little expensive. It had cost one Attribute Prism per attribute transferred and then the final product had produced only five arrows worth of materials. Still, it would be worth something. A specialty arrow like this could fetch money if he couldn't use it.
Though, he checked the level of the arrow. It had no level marker and no specific damage stats. He checked again. Still nothing. Maybe it did damage based on the bow used... so, if that was the case then the damage he could do would be relative to his new bow. It would scale with his level, so long as he could find and refine the components. Useful, but it did have a range modifier. 50% Reduction. So, he had to get close. Even with his Longshot skill he'd only get this arrow out to an average range.
He took a breath and prepared a summary of his findings in a small message field and then saved it. He was still waiting on a reply from Delcastle so there was no point inundating him with messages. Besides, he didn't know if Delcastle had even found a market for those components yet, never mind a trick arrow that required Refined components and probably an archer to craft it. He could experiment more once he had more money to throw away or more component loot from the field. For now, he had his proof of concept and understood what he would need for both Synthesis and Fletching.
That was enough progress for now. He packed up his tools and items and sat against the wall. There was time yet to enjoy the quiet before heading back out. Besides, he was so tired. He'd gone almost twenty hours without sleep and he had been hunting or running around town for most of that time. His eyes slipped closed and he rested.
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Smarter'n'meLvl 15
Day 16 Sunset
Smarter'n'me found himself facing the same set of fists he had faced before. But now, oh ho hoo hee, now they were so much more fun. But boxing wasn't for the scrawny old man in snake tights, oh no. He lunged low and right, using a strong high kick to the face as a feint, and came up behind his oldest acquaintance. Then he grabbed him into a headlock and forced his wrinkled snub nose into Smarter's armpit.
"You calling me late?!" He shrieked. "You ulcerous hemorrhoid of a pus-laden-pre-pubescent-crocodile! I had things to do, you lazy sack of depleted gamete jelly!"
He jumped in surprise when he heard the brat's voice. Literally, he jumped about ten feet up in the air with that itchy set of yard-long nose hairs still held to his armpit. Then he flipped over and delivered the head that belonged to those nose hairs to the digital stones, hard. Why? Why not? Then he scampered away before the dust settled and jumped up to where that brat's voice came from.
He saw her. He saw her outfit. The bridge of his nose turned just a little red. Then he slipped backward and fell back down to where he had been in a plume of dust. Out of that plume of dust came a thin voice, trembling with righteous anger, among other things.
"You decrepit old wretched bag of unmentionables! How did you let her wear that thing! Isn't there some kind of age restriction on dressing like a cosplay hooker!"
1x Laugh
