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Clang! Clang!

My ears rang with the sounds of the metallic hammer slamming down onto heated metal repeatedly. Though it was quite a noisy sound, no one in the room turned away in annoyance.

It was an important moment whether the processing was successful or not.

“Hmm…”

I tried my best to look calm in order to not betray any emotions, but it wasn’t that easy. My lips felt like they were drying up, just like they would in real life.

It wasn’t just me that felt this way as all the others looked the same as well. The manager looked upon the process as if he’s half interested and the lawyers had a lukewarm expression as well. They may be good at hiding their facial expressions, but their fists being balled up tightly was a clear indication that they were anticipating the result of the process.

There was actually a study released by a company that people feel excitement when seeing other people take risks for them, such as having a blacksmith craft an item that has a chance of failure attached to it. Of course, the emotion they have at the end depended on the outcome of the crafts, but the reports showed that people felt an immense amount of catharsis in seeing someone else take on a process with huge risk on the line compared to when they were attempting the process themselves. There was also the matter of whether they actually wanted it to succeed or intentionally fail, but that’s another subject…

‘Do these people wish for success? Or failure?’

I suddenly had that question in my mind.

In the lawyer’s point of view, they may be excited to see it succeed since they would be getting a commission bonus on their end, but people didn’t like it when others became successful, it was their basic instinct, so I thought perhaps they half wanted me to succeed and half wanted me to fail.

Then what about the manager? It was illegal for them to receive any kind of gift or reward from any users and they were always watching every user’s actions, so it was hard to imagine them becoming corrupted so easily. Therefore the probability that they wished for failure was higher in my opinion.

“?”

The manager looked at me with a curious expression as if he had noticed I was looking at him. Feeling a little ashamed from his glance, I looked back at the processing and concentrated.

Clang!

The tempering process which produced a rhythmical sound of clanging had finally stopped. With the tempering process finished, Jasmine proceeded to insert the Orichalcum and all of the materials required for the forging into the cast.
I wasn’t sure what kind of shape it would turn out to be. If it were a legendary item, its shape would already be predetermined, and if it was a high-tier unique item, it could take form in hundreds and thousands of different shapes.

Though the chance of getting a duplicate of an existing item became lower at the higher tier. In the end, only the legendary tier was a completely unique item.

Even if the process were to fail, with Orihalcum as one of the main crafting materials, the end result would be at least an ancient tier item. Of course, even ancient tier items had their tiers in their stats in the low, medium and high, so there was the possibility that it could come out with low stats as well in the worst possible situation.

After completely sealing the cast, Jasmine started to chant several magic spells.

These were blessing magic that was exclusive to the crafters. They were basic buffs that they would cast in order to increase the chances of success in each element, so anyone in the crafting profession would know of these skills but there was a huge difference between low and high proficiency in those skills in terms of how effective it was on the item.

The ultimate buff of top-tier blacksmiths was applied as well. This incredible skill dramatically increased the chance of success for items of unique tier and upwards.

As it was a P-tier skill, I was aware that not all Master Smith had acquired the skill yet, and some even had to borrow money in order to purchase and learn it.

Golden light emanated from within Jasmine’s body for a moment as if an angel descending from the heavens before it flowed into the cast that had been sealed airtight.

Slowly and little by little, the golden glow was absorbed into the cast and finally dissipated completely.

“It’s over.”

It seemed like it was extremely exhausting for her as Jasmine wiped her forehead covered in sweat as she spoke.

“Ah… Then?”
“The only thing left is to open the cast. Shall I do it, or would you like to do it, Miss Artoria?”
“…”

She presented me with the choices. It seemed she was also a little scared of making the final decision by herself. I had to take a moment to think because the choices were unexpectedly pushed to me. The others glanced at me anxiously while they waited for me to make a decision.

So they couldn’t outright tell me to open it since I’m the owner of this armor, yet they’re wordlessly pressuring me, huh? But I also knew that to keep delaying this tense moment from ending wouldn’t be great for my heart.

Even though I knew this Blue Sky system command, I never thought I would actually use it until now. I said the word while praying to the goddess of luck to smile down upon me.

Growth item. Certain stats increase depending on the character’s level.
Increase HP by 50%
Increase all defense by 30%
Increase all stats by 5
Increase attack power by 10% (Only if owning at least 2 legendary items)
Increase attack power by 20% (Only if owning at least 3 legendary items)
Increase attack power by 30% (Only if owning at least 4 legendary items)
*Cannot stack these effects]　

“Whooa…”

An exclamation from the bottom of my heart filled with joy rang out. The extra effects that it had didn’t even come into my view. Why? Because it was a legendary item. Being an item of that tier meant that the extra effects it had were guaranteed to be amazing.

My prediction came to be true, and though it was a risky gamble, it was well worth it. I did prepare myself for failure, but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t hoped it to turn out great.

Everyone in the room had a strange expression on their face, probably wondering whether to congratulate me or not. Because…

The legendary tier item [Vassal of Light] has appeared in London city. The system message didn’t pop up until now.

“Congratulations!!!”
“Congratulations.”
“That’s amazing! I’m kind of jealous a bit!”
“Whoa~”

Various reactions came from others.

“Thank you.”

Though I feel like I could fly right now, I still bowed to them politely and thanked them.

“Now then, I will be going since I have a lot of work pending…”

The manager who was likely the most jealous of them all left with a bitter smile on his face. He probably thought it was best for him to leave immediately since there would be nothing to be gained even if the crafting was a success. I didn’t feel particularly regretful that he left in any way, so I didn’t stop him.

After telling the lawyers that I would be properly paying an extra commission rate for the success of the trade and crafting, the lawyers looked satisfied and thanked me for the great show before congratulating me again and logging out. Though they did connect into the game for a moment, they were still busy lawyers in real life.

“Phew. I guess the only problem left is between us?”

Covered in sweat, Jasmine walked towards me with a peculiar tone in her voice.
Anyway, the two of us were the only ones left in the mansion. Mentally speaking, there was a man and a woman left in a single house. As I had plenty of reasons to be mindful of her actions, I took a step back.

“Hm? What’s with that expression?”
“?”

What kind of expression was I making?

“Hehe. You look as if I was going to pounce on you, that’s so cute. Don’t worry. I don’t have any interest in that, I only like males.”
“Ah, sorry.”

Realizing that I had misinterpreted her actions, I felt like I wanted to crawl into a rat hole. It seemed like due to Katalina’s influence on me, I felt that Jasmine’s actions were easily interpreted as seductive, but I didn’t go as far as to think that she may have other intentions in her mind as well.

“Now then, as you promised, you have to take me in as a guild member.”
“Of course.”

Since I already had the experience of inviting someone to join my guild as a member in the past, I invited her right away with no fuss.

Normally, you would need to go to the guild management building in the villages or cities to go through the official process, but I was able to directly invite and accept people to join my guild because of my authority as the guild leader.

“Congratulations.”
“… Huh?”

I was about to congratulate her for joining the Camelot guild, but because of her sudden words of congratulating me instead, I felt that her words meant something different.

“You became the guild master of the very first Grand Smith after all.”