Faceless Phantom

The thick bearded dwarf with glowing eyes, Hagwim, was smiling widely as he approached me.

"Laddie... Can I ask you a favor?" He asked as his smile still formed within his facial hair.

"Sure... What is it?" I asked nervously.

"Take a look at this." He opened a parchment on his hand and gave it to me. "I want you to forge me this weapon."

The blueprint showed a drawing of an axe. There were also a writing that explained about the details. It seemed the axe was around 70-75cm tall. The haft was slightly curved, and the grip had some sort of leather straps. The knob was slightly protruding forward and it adorned with unique shaped pommel.

For the head part, the blade was shaped like a half moon. It had top spike, and also beak shaped one on its back. On each side, there was a symbol with some sort of inscription on its right.

"Is this...a rune?" I pointed the symbol with my index finger.

"Indeed, laddie. It's a dwarven rune, which means Might. And that inscription beside it is some sort of carved spell to bring the axe back to its user. I mean...like..." He paused for a moment as he stroke his beard. "If you throw it or drop it, you can call it back and it will be flown back to your hand."

I smiled to his explanation as some similar well-known scenes flashing on my mind. "That's cool."

"Yeah. That's really convenient, ain't it? Burhahahaha..." Hagwim laughed. Then he cleared his throat and continued, "Ahem... Anyway, will you do it?"

///////

Hagwim's Ultimate Axe

Quest:

Hagwim wants you to forge his most powerful weapon. Depending on the quality, it will greatly impact the tide of battlefield.

Reward:

Unidentified Axe's blueprint

Inscription of Holder

Dwarven Rune of Might

Accept?

///////

'Greatly impact the tide of battlefield, huh?'

The better the quality, the better the chance of winning the war against the Dark Army. That meant I had to do it seriously. I needed to pour my skills and soul to create the axe.

If I declined the quest, who knows what's gonna happen. However, I couldn't let the chance slide away. It was a great opportunity for me to improve my artisan skills. Moreover, the impact with the tide of war made me very anxious as well.

I took a deep breath and nodded. "I'll try my best. But... Don't expect me to perfectly make it. But of course, I will definitely create it the best as I can."

"Don't worry, heheh... I trust your skill. I believe in you, laddie." He smiled widely and tapped my shoulder. Since I was sitting down, he could reach it easily. "You can use Dalgor Artisan's Hearth. In there, you will find everything you need. You know the place, right?"

"Yeah..." I nodded.

"Alrighty then. I need to go back and meet Neptos and Feleon again. Good luck!"


Thus, he left me with a heavy task on my shoulders. I took another deep breath as I looked at the blueprint again, but then I scoffed lightly and smiled excitedly.

"This is gonna be interesting..."

・・・

Using portal, I went back to Dalgor alone.

The grand underground city of dwarf was looking majestic just as I remembered. And the fake night sky on top of it was still as beautiful as ever.

When I looked around the city, I noticed there were some changes. The buildings which were crumbled before now fixed. Though some parts were still ruins, it was a good development. The city might become inhabitable again in the near future.

As I was about to get near the training ground, I heard noises from there.

"Hyah!"

Clank! Clank!

Fwoooosh!

"Hyaaah!"

Swoosh! Tang! Tang! Tang!

I saw the four elves and two humans were trained by the five dwarves. Once they noticed me, they were all immediately stopped and greeted me with a respectful gesture.

I didn't respond and just smiled at them. Then I took a deep breath.

"Can I ask all of you a help?" I asked nervously.

All of them answered in unison while their head bowed. "Of course, Your Excellency!"

I immediately glanced at the five dwarves. It had to be them who taught that pointless manner. Of course, the very respond suddenly made me uncomfortable. It still felt really strange for me to be treated like that.

"I want to test my newly made armors. Please don't hold back to attack them." I said gently.

"Yes, My Lord."

As they said that, I began to walk toward the training dummies. And then I made two of them wearing the armors.

I walked back again to the others. "Okay. Let me see if they can survive arrows."

Two elves immediately made a line after they bowed at me. I looked at their status window as they pulled the arrow.

///////

Yul'Tania

Race : Elf

Job (Class) : Moon Ranger

Hobby : Animal Lover

[Stats]

HP : 4310/4850

MP : 4565/6830

STR 256 VIT 143

DEX 237 AGI 239

INT 185 WIS 172

///////

'Okay... Pretty good Elf Ranger-like stats. With Animal lover, she can tame one later for scouting and any other uses.'

///////

Rael'Ganas

Race : Elf

Job (Class) : Moon Ranger

Hobby : Workout

[Stats]

HP : 7305/7510

MP : 4030/4260

STR 305 VIT 253

DEX 218 AGI 215

INT 153 WIS 152

///////

'...' I was speechless. I just could scoff lightly in disbelieve looking at the strange Elf.

SWOOSH SWOOSH!

Suddenly, they released the arrows and they were shot toward the armor in an arc.

PING! PING!

They were not stopping there, they shot at them again and again until their quiver was empty.

Some arrows got deflected, some changed their course by the armor surface and design, some of them had the arrowhead bent and even got separated with its body.

I took a closer look. I smiled as the armor didn't even had a bent.

'Okay... They can withstand an attack with 300 STR.'

I looked at the two elves. "Now... Can you guys shoot them with your ability?"

They nodded and took another quiver. Then, they began to pull and aim the arrow again. But this time, the arrows imbued with their mana.

Unlike before, the arrow now went straight really fast toward the armors.

FWOOOOSH!!!

At that moment, I could see the armor specialty activated. And unexpectedly, the arrows had the same fate as before.

PING!

I could see everyone expression. Just like me, they were all shocked with the result as well.

"Okay... Now aim for the weakspot..."

The elves nodded and they did what I asked once again. They aimed toward the gap in the armor. The parts which only covered by chainmail. The neck and the armpits.

Fwooooshh! Thwack!

Thump!

This time, both dummies got taken down. As we came closer to see, we were already expected the result. The arrows were on the ground and the chainmail didn't even had cut.

'The chainmail Misty made is truly durable and strong.' I thought as I saw two of the dwarves lifted the dummies back standing again.

"Alright, next... Uhhh...please attack them with magic."

Two humans and an Elf walked to the front, so I checked their stats.

///////

Gepetto

Race : Human

Job (Class) : Puppeteer

Hobby : Mad Sculptor

[Stats]

HP : 2560/3350

MP : 5820/6680

STR 205 VIT 145

DEX 272 AGI 195

INT 297 WIS 275

///////

///////

Tearha

Race : Human

Job (Class) : War Healer

Hobby : Cook

[Stats]

HP : 3550/3550

MP : 4960/6570

STR 110 VIT 162

DEX 218 AGI 205

INT 285 WIS 263

///////

///////

Na'Euntia

Race : Elf

Job (Class) : Spell Singer

Hobby : Singer

[Stats]

HP : 3650/3870

MP : 3530/7120

STR 125 VIT 155

DEX 240 AGI 238

INT 325 WIS 296

///////

Since there was only one left, I checked his stats as well.

///////

Kal'Theon

Race : Elf

Job (Class) : Moon Templar

Hobby : Gardener

[Stats]

HP : 6150/8150

MP : 2050/4350

STR 218 VIT 323

DEX 249 AGI 275

INT 238 WIS 212

///////

'They are improving faster than I thought.'

The dwarves training method was harsh. I definitely could understand how hard training with them was since I already went through it. For them to keep that up, I truly respected them.

'Their jobs and hobbies are also very interesting...'

Each of then had their own unique status. And the combination made me wonder what kind of future stats and skills lied ahead of them. I also couldn't wait to see how they fight later with full power during the war.

Gepetto grinned and his hand gently stroke the cheek of strangely designed wooden mannequin that hugged him from behind.

"Come... Come to life my darling!"

The mannequin released the hug and began to stand behind him. Geppetto then do a little dance as it followed his movement.

Looking at his skit, I was speechless. But then the tip of my lips slightly went up as I scoffed lightly.

Gepetto stretched his hand forward, aimed his palm toward one of the dummy. Of course, his puppet did the same thing.

Then, a dark orb formed in front of the puppet's palm and it was shot in an arc toward the dummy.

Meanwhile, Tearha chanted a spell.

"O' Holy One, please grant me a light to cease away the darkness. Light Ball!"

An orb of light formed on her staff and she thrown it toward the other dummy.

At the same time, Na'Euntia vocalized a melody as she put her hands on her bosom while her staff was swirling around her.

"Hmmm~ La la la la~"

She then caught the staff and pointed it toward the dummies. Two orbs were formed, lightning and wind, and both were shot in an arc toward both dummies.

And so, four magic orbs hit the armors simultaneously.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As the magic explosion dispersed, we looked at the armors. Interestingly, both armors were still unscathed. They could withstand more than 300 INT magic as well.

I smiled as I knew they were ready for the war.

With the satisfying result, I was done with the armor test, so I excused myself to leave and said to them to keep up their good work. I headed to the hearth afterwards and checked the materials Hagwim mentioned.

Surely, he didn't lie. There were dozens of boxes of ores stacked. As expected of dwarves, their greediness toward collecting minerals astounded me.

Thus, I prepared some things to be done before forging the axe. Making ingots, practicing several methods in folding and shaping, improving my precision using hammer, etc.

After a day and night of shutting myself within the hearth, I went back to Wildcliff.

I got back to my room and rested for a whole day. Once I got up, I planned to hunt monsters with Mirage. More grinding to prepare the war.

Yup, I must never got tired of it. Well, it was the point of MMORPG. Grinding, grinding and grinding.

I knocked and she opened the door soon after.

"Finally, you're here. You were sleeping a whole day yesterday." She pouted. "I was waiting for you to get up."

"Yeah, sorry. I was tired after preparing some stuff." I responded.

"Oh, okay..." She said and she hid her lips for a moment. "So... What are you planning to do now?"

"I umm... Firstly..." I nervously took out her armor from my bag. "Here... Take this."

She looked down at my hand and paused for a moment.

"New Armor? For me?" She asked surprised, then her lips formed a joyful smile on her face. Her eyes scanned me from head to toe. "Oh! You're also wearing new armor. It really suits you... Tee hee..."

Seeing her face, I unconsciously smiled as well. "Yeah. Thanks..."

"Okay, wait a minute." She closed her door as she said that.

So I walked toward the balcony and chilled there while I was waiting for her. The scenery of Wildcliff City was indeed beautiful from up there.

I enjoyed the gentle breeze until, a moment later, she finally came out.

"Umm... Zeroth..."

As I heard her beautiful voice, I turned around to look at her.

Full body silver plated armor with unique wing patterns and shapes gently shined as the sunlight touched it. Her head was adorned with a circlet which had two wings on each sides. And her hand armed with newly made white staff. As her single wing spread on her back, she looked truly gorgeous as an angel.

I used Astral Eyes to look at her status window.

///////

Mirage

Race : Ania

Job (Class) : Astral Alchemist (Sealed)

Hobby : Crystal Siren

[Stats]

HP : 9150/9150

MP : 12850/12850

STR 378 VIT 342

DEX 415 AGI 394

INT 465 WIS 457
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[Equipment]

Head: Angelic Circlet (Unique)

Body: Angelic Breastplate (Unique)

Bottom: Angelic Leggings (Unique)

Arms: Angelic Gauntlets (Unique)

Feet: Angelic Greaves (Unique)

Main Hand: Staff of Echo (Rare)

Off Hand: None

Mantle: Mantle of Light (Rare)

Accessories:

Ring of Harmony (Unique Mythical)

Set Effect:

Angelic Set - Gentle Light

+200 Light Power

+25% Healing Power

+50% Light and Dark Resistance

///////

I was glad. The Angelic Set I made was unexpectedly good on Mirage. Not only its appearance, it also boosted her healing spells. Furthermore, the staff increased her Siren's skills damage as well.

Thinking back, I planned to buy instead of crafting the armor myself. However, I didn't have the chance to do it. We had been through continuous event from rescuing the slaves, going to Savanh, Atalancia, and then preparing war strategy against the Dark Army. Thankfully, I could save a lot of money for future use.

In that journey, I achieved a lot of experiences. However, that still wasn't enough. I had to test it on the field, fighting in real battle. And the place I used for that training was Atalancia.

As we arrived there, I used Water Blessing on us and looked around the Underwater City. I took some quests from the Board and merchants. I had a lot of fun as well since it could be considered as sightseeing. I could see different type of fishmen, like... Blob fishman, puffer fishman, sea eelman, sharkman and so on.

Anyway, I gotta point out that I wasn't racist, I was just amazed by how fantasy could be happened in front of my very own eyes. It was a truly wonderful experience.

Moving forward, I was done after I got about twenty quests, which mostly subjugation and collecting materials.

Thus, as I had done preparing, we were ready to do some grinding.