There is Something Wrong with This Game

[Dalmagna Blacksmith]

It didn't take long for Hecate to arrive at Dalmagna Blacksmith from the Teleportation Gate.

As she had scheduled, Hecate took out all the armor sets she had made and handed them over to Dalmagna, to which he happily accepted all of them without further ado.

"Here it is, all the promised armor sets." (Hecate)

"Good! Let's start engraving them right away!" (Dalmagna)

And thus, they started doing the boring Glyph engraving activity again.

During this period, they simply repeated what they did the day before, where Hecate helped Dalmagna to engrave all the armor sets with Glyph symbols that he had specified. The difference with yesterday was that Hecate's Engrave Glyph has now reached Lv6, which makes her system assistance more efficient and powerful so that her work can be completed more quickly.

Seeing the obvious growth in Hecate's skills made Dalmagna smile broadly.

'Too bad she is a Human and not a Dwarf.'

If Hecate was a Dwarf then Dalmagna would not have hesitated to immediately impart all of his skills to her, not just shallow and cheap Blacksmith skills but real Blacksmith skills. His other student, Shuna, was indeed qualified to be the successor of his skills. But unfortunately, regarding the issue of affinity, Hecate was still much better.

No, rather than affinity, Dalmagna felt Shuna's problem was in her thinking and attitude.

Whenever Shuna did Blacksmithing activities, she never seemed to focus completely and was always thinking about other unrelated things.

It was clear that Shuna had other matters on her mind and Blacksmithing was not her main priority. As for the matter that was troubling Shuna, it was beyond Dalmagna's understanding and Shuna herself had never explained anything to him. But he could guess that it was a problem regarding things in the "upper world" where she came from.

He remembered Shuna's conversation with Hecate in the past, one of which was Shuna complaining about homework and the deadline for submitting it. This conversation made quite an impression on Dalmagna's memory, because it was very similar to the situations he often saw at the Solstreus Magic Academy in the past.

'It seems Shuna is something like a Scholar in the upper world. Meanwhile, Hecate... I wonder what her Jobclass in there. Oh well, I'm also curious about the development of magic in the upper world.'

It was normal for him to be curious.

After all, this was about the "upper world" where the immortal existence called Players came from. Unfortunately, this curiosity may never be answered as he had no way to cross over to the upper world and could only imagine based on their words and conversations.

Dalmagna couldn't help but sigh as he suppressed his curiosity.

He still remembered that he had work to do at the moment and should not think about unrelated things. With that in mind, Dalmagna, who had stopped for a moment, resumed his work again.

And then, it took them around three hours to finish engraving all the armor sets.

"Okay, that's the last one. Before I conclude our work, you may do what Players can do." (Dalmagna)

"Yes, teacher." (Hecate)

Hecate nodded, then she took a potion from her inventory and drank it. After that, she touched the Save-Crystal in the room and accessed her storage, taking out some equipment.

Dalmagna understood exactly what Hecate was doing, as he had spent nearly two years observing the Players frequently consuming potions before completing quests. In summary, they were increasing their EXP and proficiency rewards through this action.

Sure enough, what Hecate did was exactly that.

Spoiler

Item Name:	Super Exp Potion (8★)
Durability:	10/10
Effect:	– Increase EXP gain rate by 200% for 1 hour.
	– Increase Proficiency gain rate by 100% for 1 hour.
Description:	A miracle potion made by the power of Origin.
	No mortals recorded were capable of making this potion. It was said that the normal EXP Potions that exist today were actually the failed result of attempts to reproduce this potion.

Item Name:	+9 Morgream Cloth (5★)
Requirement:	Female, Lv50
Type:	Armor - Body
Durability:	490/490
Crafter:	Unknown
Effects:	– INT +15, DEX +2, VIT +10
	– STR -5, Max HP -10%, Max SP +10%
	Upgrade Bonus: DEF +36, MDEF +45
	[★] Soul Essence: Erebrem Rubreum         – Prevents the usage of Skills and Spells
	– Increase EXP gain by (<small>10×UpgLv</small>)%
	[★] Soul Essence: Erebrem Khartasys
	– Prevents the usage of Items
	– Increase EXP gain by (<small>10×UpgLv</small>)%
Description:	A robe made by Morgream Silk.
	Very light, comfortable cloth made just for young woman.

Item Name:	+9 Apprentice Bandana (3★)
Requirement:	All Classes, Lv10
Type:	Head - Upper
Durability:	150/150
Crafter:	Unknown
Effects:	– DEX +1
	Upgrade Bonus: DEF +9, MDEF +9
	[★] Soul Essence: Wisestrum Ferret
	– Increase Gold gain from quest rewards by (<small>10×UpgLv</small>)%
	– Increase EXP gain from quest rewards by (<small>10×UpgLv</small>)%
	– Increase Proficiency gain from quest rewards by (<small>10×UpgLv</small>)%
Description:	An ivory colored bandana, used to be worn by a certain diligent apprentice and absorbed this apprentice's obsession.

Item Name:	+9 Training Shackle (4★)
Requirement:	All Classes, Lv60
Type:	Armor - Legs
Durability:	690/690
Crafter:	Unknown
Effects:	– STR -20, AGI -50, DEX -25
	– Increase STA Consumption by 30%
	– Prevents the user from wearing Shoes
	– Very heavy
	– Increase EXP and Proficiency gain by (<small>10×UpgLv</small>)%
	Upgrade Bonus: DEF +36
Description:	A shackle that chained with a heavy iron ball.
	It was originally used to prevent prisoners from escaping, but somehow it was remodeled into training equipment.
	The Cursed Glyph that was previously engraved there to prevent the user from unwearing this item has been removed and now this item can be worn and unworn at will.

Item Name:	+9 Training Bracelet (4★)
Requirement:	All Classes, Lv40
Type:	Armor - Arms
Durability:	600/600
Crafter:	Unknown
Effects:	– STR -15, AGI -40, DEX -20
	– Increase STA Consumption by 17%
	– Somewhat heavy
	– Increase EXP and Proficiency gain by (<small>5×UpgLv</small>)%
	Upgrade Bonus: DEF +36
Description:	A weight bracelet used by Knight militants for their training.
	This item was made based on the Shackles used to restrain prisoners' legs, but this one was used to restrain a person's hands.

[collapse]

Just for this time, Hecate has prepared a Super EXP Potion which can only be obtained by exchanging 10 Glory Points.

Ordinary EXP Potions only increase EXP gain by 50% and that was all. Meanwhile, Super EXP Potions offer more benefits, not only do they triple the EXP gain, but they also double the Proficiency gain.

As for the equipment, these were actually all old items in Hecate's storage, which she had recently taken out again.

All the equipment she took out were very special because they served a specific purpose, namely increasing EXP gain. However, for various reasons they were ultimately impractical to use in battle, so they could only be stored and forgotten. It was just recently that she remembered their existence.

Of course, all the equipment that Hecate took out weren't originally +9. They are a mix of +4 to +6 items, and for the current Hecate, those numbers look very ugly in her eyes.

After she took the equipment out of storage, she also took out some other materials to upgrade them.

'Uh, this girl is really...'

Dalmagna silently watched how Hecate upgrade them in a haphazard manner. This girl really dared to upgrade all her equipment in succession and so quickly, yet everything still worked. He was a little surprised with her absolute success rate upgrading all the equipment. No one knew what he was thinking at the moment.

Eventually, Hecate ceased working on the equipment once they had all reached +9 and did not proceed any further.

Of course, some of them were still possible to upgrade to +10 and some were not. But when she thought about the regional broadcast a while ago, she restrained herself and immediately put them on.

Still, +9 was already good enough.

"Okay, I'm ready, teacher..." (Hecate)

“Then, I now declare this quest complete. You have done well, my student.” (Dalmagna)

The moment Dalmagna said his words, Hecate received several notification windows.

Spoiler

	<big><big>Quest Completed!</big></big>
	<big>Became Dalmagna's Assistant</big> Rank: C
	Quest Description:
	╭─────────────────────────༺♦༻─────────────────────────╮
	<small>• You have helped Dalmagna complete his commission. • Dalmagna is very satisfied with your performance, and decides to increase your reward.</small>
	╰─────────────────────────༺♦༻─────────────────────────╯
	Quest Rewards:
	╭─────────────────────────༺♦༻─────────────────────────╮
	<small>• EXP +10000000  • Free Proficiency Points +4000000 (Can only assigned into Blacksmith skills) • Dalmagna's Favorability +50 (Current relationship: </small><small>Cordial</small><small></small><small>)</small>
	╰─────────────────────────༺♦༻─────────────────────────╯

You have received 10,000,000 EXP!

Your +9 Apprentice Bandana boosted your EXP gain by 90%

Your +9 Morgream Cloth boosted your EXP gain by 180%

Two of your +9 Training Bracelets boosted your EXP gain by a total of 45%

Two of your +9 Training Shackles boosted your EXP gain by a total of 90%

The Super EXP Potion you consumed boosted your EXP gain by 200%

The final amount of EXP you receive is 70,500,000

Your level has risen!

Your level has risen!

<small><small><small><small><small><small><small><small><small>22-223</small></small></small></small></small></small></small></small></small>

You have gained 4,000,000 free Proficiency points!

Your +9 Apprentice Bandana boosted your Proficiency gain by 90%

Two of your +9 Training Bracelets boosted your Proficiency gain by a total of 45%

Two of your +9 Training Shackles boosted your Proficiency gain by a total of 90%

The Super EXP Potion you consumed boosted your Proficiency gain by 100%

The final amount of Free Proficiency points you receive is 17,000,000

You may assign the Free Proficiency points to your Blacksmith skills.

You have assigned 17,000,000 free Proficiency points to Item Upgrade!

Item Upgrade has leveled up to Lv7!

Item Upgrade has leveled up to Lv8!

Item Upgrade has leveled up to Lv9!

Your relationship with Dalmagna has become Cordial.

Congratulations! You have fully earned Dalmagna's trust!

You have been rewarded with Character Card: Dalmagna.

You can use a Character Card to get one skill from that character.

[collapse]

Hecate was a bit surprised when she saw one of the notification windows, but she remained calm.

Unexpectedly, Dalmagna's rewards were very large. The EXP reward enabled her to advance two levels, from 135 to 137, while the Proficiency reward allowed her to raise Item Upgrade skill level by three, from Lv6 to Lv9.

Of course, the proficiency reward was points that could be freely assigned to each of Hecate's Blacksmith skills. However, her skills other than Item Upgrade were already at high levels, and those points were not sufficient to level them up.

Not to mention, she still had some +9 equipment that needed to be upgraded to +10. With this, she hoped the upgrade process would be much easier in the future.

Without further ado, she pressed the confirm button and with that, her Item Upgrade officially rose to Lv9.

"I have received the reward, but teacher, is it okay to give me so much?" (Hecate)

"It doesn't matter, I just used up the entire quota rewards I collected over the past months." (Dalmagna)

"I see, thank you very much, teacher." (Hecate)

Hecate did not think too much about it and just accepted it without any burden.

Only Dalmagna as a Native understands that these rewards did not come out from thin air. Behind the quest system which was very familiar to Players, there was a hidden mechanism behind it that they didn't know about.

These quest rewards are actually "quota rewards" given by Goddess Norn to Natives, as a means of payment for them to be able to hire Players to do things, and these quotas can only be replenished by praying to her.

Now that he used it all up on Hecate, that meant he wouldn't be able to assign quests for the time being.

Initially, Dalmagna planned to give the previously saved quota to Shuna. But then, Shuna was not present when he needed her and instead Hecate was there. And ultimately, he had a change of heart after witnessing Hecate's performance earlier.

'I feel bad for Shuna, but well... this is life.'

Dalmagna couldn't help but sigh.

He then walked towards the table where there was a cocktail bottle that Hecate had given him three days ago. He took a sip of the cocktail and enjoyed the taste of the alcohol burning down his throat.