"Blop!"

"To reach the maximum, 100th level of average smithing, 2475 points is required!"

Whoa! That"s actually far less than I was expecting! Taking into account the fact that the cost of evolving my abilities was increasing ten times by every stage of said ability, I thought that every single level of the said stage would cost me at least one hundred points this time, but for some reason, it was only twenty-five points? While I can"t be sure about it, I believe this might be attributed to levelling up the system. I wonder how costly it would be without it?

But no matter how nice surprise it is for me, it doesn"t change the fact that I simply can"t afford it right now! With almost nine-hundred points that I currently have stored, I could raise it up to about a third of the maximum potency, but just by harvesting Eve"s essence once, I should be able to get it all the way up! While I thought that, I already proclaimed that we came here with other intentions, blocking my hand here…

I guess instead of making the weapons, I will try to create this funny item that was on my mind for a long while already!

Taking a look around the small room, I quickly located inconspicuous storage ring, lying on the single shelf that was carved out of the back wall of the room. Even with being the only loose item in the entire place, with the forge, anvil and tools rack standing in the way, it wasn"t that easy to notice it!

Pus.h.i.+ng it down on my finger, I peeked inside, only to spot a great array of various treasures that would be hard to come by on a standard market. While Venna told that she would deduct the price of the materials that I will use from the profit made on the action, I didn"t bother to estimate their gross value but simply shuffled through them until I found what I was looking for. 

Putting the items that I was going to use aside, I turned my consciousness back to my own storage ring only to fish out some of the cheap resources acquired all the way back in the wandering sword sect market. While I should be able to create what I wanted with my smithing ability, it would be way too far from the result that I was looking for, forcing me to develop yet another crafting ability.

Taking out a few pieces of wood and a small lump of metal, I threw a small amount of ore into the crucible and started the fire in the forge, before taking out a small knife and sitting down with the wood. 

After carving down a few thin sticks out of the single piece of the wood, I turned my attention back to the metal, fis.h.i.+ng out a forming tray from the tools track, before pouring some of the metal on in. Making sure to spread it out into a single, even layer, I waited for it to cool down to the temperature where I could grab it by hand while still changing its structure. 

Carving out three ovals and ten super thin and short sticks with my energy sword, I grabbed the roundy boards and modelled them in my hands to make a small bowl out of them. As soon as they looked more or less like I wanted them to look, I grabbed the wooden sticks I made before and after making a small cut at one of their endings, I pushed the metal bowls in the opening, creating a makes.h.i.+ft spoon!

"Blop!"

"Trinketer ability acquired!"

Seeing that just this was enough to get the ability I wanted, I threw the remaining bowls and metal sticks back to the crucible and started maxing out this ability. Forty-five points to max its first stage, ten points to evolve it into the second stage. Four hundred and ninety points to max out the second stage and another hundred to evolve it again.

For the total cost of only six hundred forty-five points, I got it to the first level of average trinketering, meaning the third stage. With that, the specific item that I was going to craft would have some quality to it!

"What are you doing?"

With Eve busying herself by playing with Pengu, she continued to watch me with curiosity, unable to make sense of what I was trying to achieve. Thinking how I only made a single spoon that I myself would be scared to use so far, it was no wonder that my actions could confuse her, but I couldn"t way for her reaction for the final results of my apparently confusing approach!

"You just sit tight and try to hold your excitement back! If I succeed, I will bring an enormous change to this world!"

Unsure whether I would be able to craft something as great as my imagination, I had to hype myself to improve my confidence in my crafting skills. While I had this moment of transition where my body would learn more secrets of the craft just by levelling the ability up, I still had to do something with it myself to get any self-a.s.surance!

Taking out a big energy crystal, I made sure to empty it almost completely, keeping only the minimal hint of energy inside. With that done, I used my energy sword again to turn it into a spile and thin stick, around six inches long. While I could easily make it even longer, since there would be a lot of material around it, the ending length of the product would reach at least eight inches, already putting it on the longer side. 

With the circular rod of energy crystal done, I placed it aside for a moment, turning my attention back to the liquified metal in the crucible, ready for crafting. As I was going to use it only for the sake of a small mechanism, there was no point in using more elaborate materials on it. 

Pouring some of the iron back on the tray, I once more waited for it to solidify, before carving a long, straight stick, and a small rectangle. Putting it aside, I approached Eve with a knife in my hand.

"What are you going to do?"

Seeing the resolve in my eyes, she initially wanted to back down, but with the size of the room, there was no room for her to do so!

"Don"t worry. Pengu, while I know that it might sound rude, but I never found anything softer than your fur. Would you mind if I took just a small bit of it?"