913 Adjusting for Efforts

Seeing how the man's expression while looking at him made him feel like the former wouldn't take no for answer, Valyr briefly had a look of confusion on his face, only to shrug his shoulders in nonchalance soon after.

'I guess he wants to make sure that the quality of the weapons I make are up to par,' thought the young man to himself, feeling that it was the most likely possibility.

After all, Julian had tasked him with a quest that only needed him to forge six weapons a day to fulfill.

Yet, with the overall improvement given by his new class, as well the five extra pairs of arms he gained through [Ephemeral Limbs of the First Blacksmith], he was churning out weapons at a rate that was twice that.

With that, the young man had Julian accompany him to the workshop he was occupying, immediately getting back to work the moment he got back.

Briefly glancing at what Julian was going to do in his workshop, Valyr eventually shifted his focus towards the pile of materials he'd allocated, grabbing one of them with the help of Azure Energy.

Whoosh!

Infusing a bit of his energy into the furnace to get the fire going again, the young man placed the pile of materials to the side of the anvil for the meantime.

"Azure Energy sure is handy when it comes to minor tasks like these," muttered the young man to himself, thinking about how it allowed him to do more with less when compared to mana.

After waiting for the furnace to get up to temperature, Valyr soon began to chuck into a bunch of the materials into it.

Bringing out his Hammer of Beginnings, he then shifted his gaze towards Julian, who now stood in the pile of weapons he'd finished forging before.

Picking up one of the swords to get a better look at them, Julian immediately felt the great amounts of effort put into that weapon, tossing it in the air for a bit to get a sense of its weight and balance.

"It's well-balanced…" Taking a few steps back, he then proceeded to do a few basic combat movements with the sword, each slash making a soft whoosh in the air.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Once he was done, he then identified the sword with his identification skill, asking Valyr more information about the weapons in the meantime. "Did you really forge all these weapons in just two days?"

Naturally, Valyr nodded as he looked back at him, confident in his abilities.

Of course, he also had an idea on what was going on in the man's mind. "You could watch me forge, if you want. It doesn't take that long for me to forge a weapon anyway."

Nodding in response, Julian inwardly had a wry smile on his face, thankful that the young man understood his intent. "It's just to make sure that the rewards I'm giving out aren't falling into the wrong hands."

"A considerable number of blacksmiths have already thought about buying the weapons needed to fulfill the quota from outside," said Julian, prompting Valyr to nod. "Fortunately, there has been no such case of one getting away with it yet."

"But still…" Continuing to go through the pile of finished weapons, the man's eyes gradually widened in surprise, seeing that the lowest grade among the weapons was Uncommon+ grade. "Did you really forge all of these in just two days?"

"Almost all of these weapons are Rare grade. Some are even Rare+ grade."

"Even I'm not confident enough I'd be able to consistently churn out this much Rare grade items," said the man with a slightly bitter smile. "Uncommon or Uncommon+ grade, I could still manage. But Rare and above? Not a chance."

"Just watch me," replied Valyr with a confident smile.

Whoosh!

Seeing that the materials he'd put in had reached their optimal temperature, Valyr went ahead and took them out of the furnace with a pair of tongs, adding more materials in the furnace in the process.

Then, glancing at the hodge-podge of glowing red materials on his anvil, he soon activated [Ephemeral Limbs of the First Blacksmith], revealing the five extra pairs of arms that had been helping him all this time.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

At the very moment these translucent limbs appeared around Valyr, Julian looked at them with both shock and understanding, now getting an idea as to how Valyr was able to churn out that many weapons in so little time.

In the past, Julian had tried utilizing a similar method in his forging, considering that his class had also given him a skill that allowed him to conjure extra limbs.

However, unlike Valyr, he wasn't able to reach the same level of quality while making use of the extra limbs. With that, he chose to rely on his two hands once more, gradually improving upon his craft to this very day.

Of course, just because he chose to return to using two hands did not mean others would do the same thing.

With that, he decided to ask Valyr more about it, partly due to his past with the method. "Wouldn't controlling this many arms confuse you? Wouldn't it decrease the quality of the finished item?"

"It's definitely confusing, plus it's putting on a considerable burden to my brain." Valyr nodded in agreement, grabbing the spare forging hammers from the tool rack before giving it to the additional pairs of arms. "It's also reduced the quality of what I make at first, hence the Uncommon+ grade items in the pile."

"However…" While Julian was still in the midst of processing that information, the young man grinned as he got to work. "I've already gotten past that phase."

Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

"Now… whether I use the extra pairs or not, I can forge just as well."

Making use of the five extra pairs of the fullest, Valyr proceeded to go through the various steps of the forging process, gradually hammering the material into the rough shape of an axe.

Watching the sight from afar, Julian's attention was immediately fixated on it, seeing as how the steps he put in great detail were being done at speeds slightly incomprehensible to him.

Though, whenever he thought that the resulting output would be lacking in quality, Valyr would fix it at the very end, removing both glaring and minute imperfections on it to the point where the entire thing felt harmonious.

By the time the young man was finished with his first axe, Julian felt as if he'd watched a master conductor at work, conducting an orchestra where each instrument's greatest strengths could be shown in full view.

"[Superior Analysis]."

Ding!

Hearing the notification sound resound in his mind, Valyr adorned a faint smile after seeing the axe's stats be more or less similar to the ones he'd forged before.

Tossing it into the pile of finished weapons, Valyr was about to continue working on another axe, only to be stopped by Julian.

"To think you forged that axe in less than two hours…" Looking at the young man, Julian gave him a slightly apologetic smile. "You've hid your abilities well, Valyr."

Valyr chuckled at his words. "I wasn't even hiding it, though? No one really came to check in on me while I was forging."

At that point, Julian chuckled as well. "Well, whether you were hiding it or not, the rewards I'll be giving you through the quest are definitely lacking in comparison to the effort you're putting in."

Whoosh!

"And so…" Bringing up a screen before him, Julian tinkered around with it for a bit before looking at Valyr with a slight smile.

Ding!

"I've decided to correct that."

[You have received an update to the quest: Forging Weapons for War.]

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