Second World

After paying for the special room's one-hour fee, which was ten gold coins. The shopkeeper took Jack into a room in the innermost part of the workshop. Inside the room was a furnace that was twice larger than the ones in the other rooms. There were also various kinds of tools inside.

"Do you want to do the etching yourself or do you want to hire a blacksmith to do it for you?" the shopkeeper asked.

"If I do it myself, will there be an instruction to show me how to do it?" Jack asked.

"First, you will need to be at least an intermediate expert blacksmith to attempt the etching."

Jack had no problem in this department. "I'm a basic master blacksmith," Jack informed.

A glint of surprise in the shopkeeper's eyes. He then continued, "If you haven't done it before, then you have to learn its manual first. I can give you the manual for fifty gold coins."

"How much is the cost to rent a blacksmith to do it?"

"Twenty gold coins," the shopkeeper answered. "Please note that you also need mana cores when you embed the weapon orb. We only provide the etching to open up the slot on your weapon."

"That's okay, he knows," Peniel informed. She had told Jack about this. Higher grade weapon orb required more mana cores when it was embedded. For the unique-grade weapon orb Jack possessed, he would need to spend 75 mana cores. This was the cost that he needed to repay when he removed the weapon orb and embedded it into another weapon.

"I will do it myself. Here are the fifty gold coins," Jack said.

The shopkeeper nodded and gave him a book. Similar to the technique book, an interface appeared when he touched the book, asking if he wanted to learn it. Jack clicked accept.

The shopkeeper left him afterward. Jack approached the furnace and another interface appeared. Jack chose the option of etching a slot for the weapon orb. An instruction video appeared then. The tools to be used were a small hammer and a chisel.

Jack placed his Storm Breaker on the work table. He then proceeded to work following the video instruction. The difficulty was not as high as when crafting equipment, so Jack didn't take long before he finished the work.

There was now an indentation at the center of Storm Breaker's cross-guard.

"One weapon can only have one slot for a weapon orb?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Peniel confirmed.

Jack nodded. He stored his Storm Breaker and took out his Mana Leech Staff. He only had one weapon orb at the moment, but he decided to just etch the slot on both his weapons. He needed to come here to etch his weapons, but embedding didn't require a special facility. He could embed the weapon orb anywhere. So, with both weapons already having available slots, he could just embed a weapon orb in case he found another one.

"Peniel, if there is a weapon orb, I assume there are also armor orbs?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Peniel answered.

Jack rolled his eyes at his fairy companion. If he didn't ask, she might not have told him until he actually found an armor orb.

"I assume the process of etching an armor should be the same as a weapon?" Jack asked again.

"Yes," Peniel answered again.

So, Jack unequipped his Sword Fiend's Gear set and etched all of them, in preparation if he found any armor orb.

After finishing with the etchings, Jack took out the Orb of Raijin. He then proceeded to touch the orb to the staff. An interface appeared asking if he confirmed to embed this weapon orb into his magic staff. Jack confirmed.

The weapon orb disappeared from his grip. A loading bar then appeared. The bar filled up in a few seconds, he then saw the orb fixed at the back of his staff which was where he had etched the slot.

The orb emitted a brilliant purple color as lightning streaks occasionally traveled along the staff. Jack checked his staff's specs.

*

Mana Leech Staff, level: 60/90 (unique magic weapon), embedded: Orb of Raijin (Unique-grade Weapon orb)

Lightning damage: 632

Range: 60 meters

Attack speed: 1

Energy: 300

Intelligence +20

MP +200

Standard attacks convert 1% of inflicted damage into MP

Mana Steal Aura: All hostiles within a 5-meter radius lose 30 MP every second, and the lost MP is transferred to the staff's owner. Duration: 2 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour

All skills or spells that deal lightning damage +20% damage.

Each standard attack has a 5% chance to produce chain lightning that strikes up to 7 hostiles, dealing 50% lightning damage.

*

"Cool," he said after seeing his staff's upgrade. This should increase his long-range capabilities.

After exiting the workshop, Jack headed to the zone portal and teleported to Heavenly Citadel.

He had sent Grace a message, informing his plan. It was actually more convenient for him to travel alone since his Pandora's speed was unmatched, but he was afraid if he didn't tell Grace and just waltz off by himself, she would be angry again.

She was currently doing the Legacy Dungeon with Jet. So, Jack just waited for them inside the Guild Hall. Jack thought those two had ended up rather close after he left them at the Village of Peace.

Jet had gone into the dungeon with Grace to evaluate her improvement with the Phantom Beating Stick technique. They had also left one spot so Grace could summon Oswald. Jet gave the two some pointers on their martial arts while they beat through the dungeon.

"So, you people can beat the medium difficulty without me already?" Jack asked Tip who was at the control panel inside the Guild Hall. Jeanny and John had left early in the morning to meet Tim and Sonny to discuss their cooperation in developing the players leveling center inside the Valley of Tempus.

"Yeah, most of our levels are good enough for that already," Tip said, before he asked, "Hey, do you want to try the Hard difficulty?"

Before Jack could answer, Peniel spoke first, "I suggest you don't waste your time. Although every legacy dungeon had a different difficulty rating, even the Hard difficulty mode of the easiest dungeon required at least a full party of level 60 adventurers fully decked with super rare grade equipment. And I suspect the Ice Throne Legacy dungeon you have here is not one of the easiest dungeons. I suggest you only try that when you are at least level 70."

"You heard the lady," Jack said.

*

Jack chatted with Tip and also Captain Whitebeard, who was also inside the Guild Hall while practicing his skills and spells. At one time when Captain Whitebeard was talking, he cast his newly learned Acceleration spell on the mouse. The mouse ended up speaking five times faster. Both Jack and Tip couldn't understand what Whitebeard was saying, all they heard were squeaks.

Jack was laughing himself off, saying that now Whitebeard sounded more like a proper mouse. Peniel rolled her eyes at Jack's prank.

"Are you bullying my captain?" A voice was heard. They turned and saw Grace entering the hall with Jet, Bowler, and The Man. Bowler and The Man were among the party that had entered the legacy dungeon with Grace.

"No, no. We are good," Jack said and patted Whitebeard's head, to which Whitebeard responded with a slap on Jack's hand.

"You all completed the dungeon?" Tip asked.

"Yeah. Here, another Heart of Ice," Jet said and tossed the item to Tip.

"Oh? Heart of Ice? What do you need it for?" Jack asked. He had also gotten that item before, he used it on his Amulet of Summoning, allowing him to summon the Ice Demon Fiend.

"This thing can be used to craft the Ice Cannon Tank," Tip informed. "The materials required to construct those tanks don't necessarily need this Heart of Ice. But with this material, the tank will be even more powerful. This Heart of Ice can enhance the Ice Cannon Tank's ice shield ability. The ice shield can take more punishment before they are depleted. The ice shield can also regenerate faster. This Heart of Ice increases the tank's survivability by a large portion."

"Amazing," Jack remarked and asked, "Did we lose any of the five tanks during the last war?"

"Yeah, two," Tip replied.

"Too bad…"

"Yeah, it takes a lot of material and time to craft those tanks. But we will make better ones in preparation for the next battle."

"Better ones? Aren't their stats fixed?" Jack asked.

"No, a mechanical weapon such as those tanks can be crafted not only from fixed materials," it was Peniel who answered. "Just like that Heart of Ice. You can use other ice property materials to replace it, but its resulting effect won't be as good. By using rarer materials, you can produce stronger Ice Cannon Tanks."

"The blacksmith level of the ones who craft the tanks also affects the end product," Tip added. "As our blacksmith players increased their expertise levels, so too will our Ice Cannon Tanks be more powerful."

"Great. Now, who wants to go for a road trip to the Republic of Palgrost?" Jack asked.

"Count me in," Grace replied.

Jack nodded. "Any others?" Jack looked at Jet, Bowler, and The Man.

Bowler came forward with a beaming face. "Great! I have always been interested to see that country. Let me jo–Ouch!

His words were interrupted because he had been kicked on the leg by Jet.

"Hey, what was that for?" He protested.

"Aren't you forgetting you have promised to help me with a quest? You can't join their trip!" Jet uttered.

"What? I never–oof!"

Bowler's words were cut again. This time by The Man whose hands grabbed him from behind and covered his mouth. "All of us can't join. It seems that only boss and madame boss can go on this trip."

"Madame boss?" Jack turned to Grace, who just shrug. "Anyone else in this headquarters? Maybe I should ask them."

Jet gave Tip a stare, who immediately responded by saying to Jack, "No need to check the others! I've tasks for them. Only the two of you are free at this moment."

"Hm, too bad," Jack said and turned to Grace. "Seems like this time it's just the two of us on the trip."

Grace again replied with a shrug.