The Furnace, the Cauldron, and the Steel Ingot

There was no shortage of high-quality steel ingots in the warehouse.

Normally, materials like this were hard to come by. For other blacksmiths, these were the kinds of resources they had to get by joining a guild, buying at auction, or gathering through quests.

But if you were on good terms with a merchant company, you could just walk into the warehouse and carry them out.

Of course, whether McCraney would be happy about that was another question entirely...

That was Fantasy Online 2 for you—even steel had different traits depending on where it had been mined.

In any case, the preparations were finished.

Taking the Dwarves Woo and Ju with him, Tae-hyun headed for the furnace.

Now it was time to melt the main ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠material.

"So how do you melt Black Iron?"

"First, we'll run the furnace as hot as it can go and add a few elixirs we use. After that, we put in the Black Iron and melt it down."

"And after it melts?"

"We'll mix in the ores you brought in the proper ratios and make armor from them. But, Lord Tae-hyun..."

"Yes?"

"Do you happen to have a particular shape of armor in mind?"

Tae-hyun's Blacksmithing skill was relatively high, and several of his other blacksmith-related skills were pretty well developed too, but he wasn't actually a blacksmith.

The true essence of a blacksmith was discovering and creating weapon and armor recipes for yourself.

Exceptional weapons or armor were often given special names from the start.

Artifacts.

And items like that massively raised the fame of the one who made them.

In fact, several blacksmith rankers were currently going all in—gathering materials, collecting difficult recipes, and deliberately trying to craft artifacts.

Even if it was hard, one success meant huge profit.

In other words, if you wanted to make something, materials and skill levels mattered—but the recipe mattered too.

Recipes could be learned from NPCs, studied from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠written instructions, or discovered through trial and error.

But Tae-hyun had no need for that.

Because he had the Dwarves Ju and Woo.

This is why it's good to have talented blacksmiths around.

"The shape of armor you want?"

"Yes. If the armor gets larger..."

"Then you'd have to mix in more of other metals, like steel," Ju and Woo answered at the same time.

"Do you want something like a knight's full plate armor?"

"No. I don't need full-body armor like that."

Armor that completely encased the body had its advantages—but it had drawbacks too.

In an emergency, you couldn't move with agility.

The defense was incredible, and you could afford to evade less when taking hits, but that wasn't Tae-hyun's style.

In Fantasy Online 2, Tae-hyun's style was built around insane evasion—slipping past enemy attacks with speed and precision while carving in damage.

That was a different path from a heavy, durable tanker.

"Armor that covers the torso is enough."

A breastplate.

Armor that protected only the chest and torso area.

He had never intended to cover his whole body anyway, so protecting his core was enough.

Everything else, I dodge. The moment you're forced to tank every hit, you've already lost the fight.

At Tae-hyun's words, the two Dwarves spoke again.

"Just the torso?"

"Then I don't think we'll need to add that much of the other metals."

The two Dwarves immediately spread parchment over the table and began sketching armor designs with quick strokes.

...!

Tae-hyun's eyes widened.

To be fair, the odds of producing an artifact in this situation really were high.

He had two outstanding Dwarf blacksmiths, himself, and hard-to-gather materials on top of that.

If everything went well, an artifact was absolutely within reach.

Suddenly, he felt motivated.

Tae-hyun wasn't the sort to pass up an opportunity like this.

"Good! Let's do this!"

"Ah... but it'll take around three hours for the furnace to heat up enough."

"......"

Three hours of spare time.

Most people would have relaxed and waited.

But Tae-hyun wasn't most people.

Bang!

He set up camp right in front of the furnace, placing a cauldron on one side, a workbench on another, and a training dummy on the third.

Since they were inside the merchant company's building, just about anything he needed was available.

The Dwarves Ju and Woo stared at him curiously, wondering what exactly he was doing.

Hissss—

...!

First, he boiled water in the cauldron and started cooking.

And this wasn't just ordinary cooking.

Tae-hyun made full use of the merchant company's warehouse.

If each of these had been put up for auction, chef-class players would've come running in a frenzy to buy them.

But Tae-hyun mercilessly tossed them straight into the pot.

A sight that would make any chef foam at the mouth and collapse in horror.

If you use expensive, rare ingredients, your Cooking skill rises fast.

Since he hadn't gathered them himself, Tae-hyun felt no restraint whatsoever in abusing them for skill grinding.

Using his skill, he churned out dishes one after another.

Once he'd dumped all the ingredients into the cauldron and it began to boil, Tae-hyun moved to the side.

The workbench.

Tssst, bang!

Tssst-tssst, bang!

A string of small explosions followed.

It was the same as cooking.

If you had plenty of materials, there was no need to deliberate over what to make.

Tae-hyun was raising every sort of production skill as if he intended to empty out the merchant company's warehouse.

He was going to the royal palace soon anyway.

There was no point in conserving materials.

The only thing too precious right now was time.

And while he cooked, while he raised his Engineering skill, he also...

"Swordsmanship too?!"

The Dwarves Ju and Woo exclaimed in disbelief from the side.

The reason he'd brought out the dummy was to swing his sword.

Watching Tae-hyun slash away, the Dwarves shook their heads.

There's definitely something wrong with this guy!

Still, neither of them said anything.

Tae-hyun was an important guest of the merchant company, and what he was doing didn't actually harm them.

At least, that was what they thought.

It didn't last long.

"Ah. The food's done. Come try it."

"Pardon?"

The two Dwarves asked at the same time.

Then they turned and looked at each other.

In a cold voice, Tae-hyun asked,

"Don't tell me you don't want to eat it. Not after I worked this hard making it."

"N-no."

"That's not what we meant..."

"Ju says he wants to try it!"

"Woo?!"

In the end, they started betraying each other!

Such was the astonishing effect of Tae-hyun's cooking.

No matter how high-grade the ingredients were, watching Tae-hyun sweep them into a pot like that made the final product look deeply unappetizing.

The two Dwarves bickered, each trying to force the other to eat first.

"Haha. There's no need to fight like that. I made enough for both of you."

...!

The two Dwarves' faces turned pale.

"It's good?!"

"Really?!"

Ah, so that's a situation bonus?

Making bombs on one side, swinging a sword on another, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cooking at the same time—looked at one way, it was an almost impossibly difficult situation.

Since he'd successfully completed the cooking under those conditions, he'd received an additional reward.

When you look at stuff like this, Legendary class skills really are good...

Throw ingredients together carelessly, and somehow the result still tastes good.

Make something sloppily, and somehow it still comes out well-made.

That was all thanks to the class skills of the Avatar of Archisus.

And that wasn't all.

The Avatar of Archisus was absurdly helpful when learning all kinds of production skills.

Luck really does go way better with crafting skills than I thought.

Normally, when you first started learning a skill, you'd spend ages stumbling around at the Beginner stage.

But the Avatar of Archisus skipped right over that phase through overwhelming Luck.

Since he produced above-average results almost every time thanks to Luck, his skills rose at a terrifying pace.

It was great, but...

Something about it still left him feeling vaguely dissatisfied.

The other Legendary classes all look ridiculously strong and flashy, but the Avatar of Archisus feels kind of plain.

Lee Se-yeon was called a one-woman army and led around an undead legion.

It felt like living your life perfectly well, then suddenly seeing an old friend who's doing way better than you and getting irrationally bitter about it.

And besides, Tae-hyun hadn't even chosen a Legendary class because he wanted one.

Whatever. This isn't the time to worry about that.

Watching the Dwarves wolf down the food, Tae-hyun smiled in satisfaction.

"Good, right?"

"Yes!"

"It's amazing, sir!"

"That's good."

"...?"

At Tae-hyun's tone, both Dwarves felt a sudden chill of unease.

Why?

Tae-hyun dumped out a fresh pile of materials he'd brought from the warehouse.

Not just high-end cooking ingredients, but all sorts of miscellaneous materials were heaped up there.

Among them were ingredients that looked poisonous or disgusting at a glance.

"Now that you've eaten all that, clear the rest away. I need to make something else."

"...?!"

There was still a whole cauldron full of the dish he'd made with expensive ingredients.

And now he was telling them to clear it out?

They already ate it, and I got the Cooking bonus, so the leftovers don't matter. It's not like I'm selling it.

He needed to clear it away quickly and make new dishes to feed them.

The Dwarves turned to look at the furnace.

It still wasn't hot enough.

There was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no escaping Tae-hyun's hands.

"C-couldn't we eat a little more of this?"

"No. If you fill up on that, you won't be able to eat the next dish."

The dishes made carelessly with high-grade ingredients might taste strange, but they weren't life-threatening.

Those other materials over there, though, looked like the kind of things that really could threaten your life if handled carelessly.

The two Dwarves' faces went pale again.

"Uwaaaagh?!"

Dwarf Ju sprang into the air on the spot.

Spicy, salty, sweet, sour, bitter...

Every flavor imaginable danced across his tongue all at once.

"Ju, are you okay?"

"I'm okay! I survived!"

While the two Dwarves hugged each other in joy over having lived through it, Tae-hyun checked his Cooking skill.

Hmm. Nice. Handling all kinds of ingredients really makes it shoot up.

He'd raised his Cooking skill, experimented with a wide variety of ingredients, and memorized the recipes that resulted from them.

Three birds with one stone.

Meanwhile, the furnace was nearly ready.

Afraid Tae-hyun might subject them to yet another culinary trial, the Dwarves hurriedly shouted,

"It's ready!"

"Let's begin right away!"

"Looks a little underheated to me. Want to sample just one more dish?"

At Tae-hyun's question, the Dwarves recoiled in terror and shouted at the top of their lungs.

"No, absolutely not!"

"This is enough! We desperately, desperately want to make the armor right now!"

"Exactly!"

Their manners had become incredibly polite.

Tae-hyun shrugged as if he had no choice.

"Fine. Can't be helped."

The way he said it, anyone would think he was the one doing them a favor.