Alchemy Cakes and the Canyon Stairway
Diving headfirst into what players called the 100-level job quest—or simply rank grinding and rank slog—Vulcan's first choice was cooking of all things.
Sure, the cooking skill existed, but it wasn't something he needed to rank up. The reason he picked it anyway was simple: the dishes he was making weren't ordinary food.
He used alchemy to brew potions first, then mixed those potions into the dough. The cooking process itself became alchemy—what players dubbed alchemy cuisine.
The finished dishes were recognized as alchemical products in their own right, granting extra proficiency gains alongside the crafting completion.
And that was just the start. There was a reason Vulcan kept churning out labor-intensive cakes via alchemy cuisine.
He wasn't using the crafting sub-skill of architecture to make a single object. Instead, he assembled countless miniatures into a diorama.
It was time-consuming, but the results were undeniable. Shaping each tiny piece with crafting was one thing, but combining them into a full scene spiked his proficiency even higher.
On top of that, he dotted the cakes with alchemy-forged mana-infused decorations and etched magic circles with crafting, training magic imbuing all at once.
In the end, he pushed Legendary Alchemy, Legendary Crafting, and Legendary Magic Imbuing—all past 90% proficiency.
"How much is all this even worth...?"
But Vulcan's face was grim, pale as a sick man. He just stared at Tud, who was wolfing down the alchemy cuisine successes and failures like a bottomless pit.
"At least there's no leftovers, I guess."
Slurp! Chomp chomp!!
The material costs for this grind weren't cheap. He'd burned through his gathered herbs and most of Tud's workshop stock.
At least the workshop items were all bound, so he couldn't sell them anyway—that was a small mercy.
They were useless unless he used them himself, but he'd discovered a silver lining: even bound items could be transformed into unbound ones by using them in crafting completions.
"Whew. Not sure if this was the smart play."
Even so, those were premium materials for brewing rare, high-value potions once his skills ranked up later. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but with Dragon Eye letting him inspect exactly what they could make, Vulcan's gut twisted harder.
No helping it. There were only two ways to rank up crafting skills.
One: Like now, throw high-end materials at high-difficulty, high-grade crafts. Rarer materials and higher item levels meant bigger proficiency jumps—even failures gave decent gains.
Two: Go quantity over quality. Instead of 0.3% per high craft, spam cheap, common materials on low-grade items for 0.1%—or even 0.01%—gains.
"Practically wiped out and this is all I get? Talk about rotten luck."
Neither was guaranteed, of course. Proficiency gains were random. You could dump fortunes into premium stuff and barely budge the needle—or mass-produce junk and rank up effortlessly.
Or the opposite. So Vulcan gambled, dumping all his bound materials with abandon.
He'd hoped low-rank thresholds might use less, but nope—shattered expectations.
With all three being Legendary skills, who knew if this was bad luck or a bargain? Impossible to say.
'Tud said it wasn't just one, so aim for the next.'
Hoarding might pay off big later, but it'd slow his growth. Better to grow fast, snag even better materials, right?
Besides, Tud's preparations weren't a one-off. He'd never dump endless riches upfront, so the next secret spot might overflow with even more goodies.
It had to.
"This should be enough to move to the next phase."
Alchemy, crafting, and magic imbuing were on the cusp, but Vulcan had no plans to keep cooking.
He was sick of the smell—might as well stink of sweat outside. Besides, the next plan needed all three skills anyway.
"You seriously not tired of eating? You could film an eating show!"
Hmph! If Tud were in his true body, he'd devour hundreds of times more without batting an eye.
Vulcan needled Tud, who was still demolishing his cakes and pre-stocked chocolates without a care. Shaking his head, Vulcan headed out of the village.
Quick resupply, then off to his next destination at top speed.
Hmm, crafting this time? There are some decent ores here, yeah.
Vulcan arrived at the canyon outside town, dotted with clustered mines.
Narrow paths flanked by cave entrances and shafts at regular intervals—big enough for hordes of miners without crowding.
But it looked precarious. Some entrances were ground-level, but plenty floated mid-cliff, accessible only by thick ropes.
"Nah. Crafting's last."
Vulcan zeroed in on that danger. Kuzar's miners were hearty folk, but clannish and territorial.
Anyone could enter with a mine pass, but the hazing inside made PKers seem tame. No one welcomed sudden rivals.
Usually, you'd grind village quests for entry favor. Vulcan skipped that tedium—dealing with them head-on instead.
Mining first, then? Decent ores here, but digging and smelting yourself? Time sink.
"Yeah, but that's not why I'm here. Now, where is it... Ah, there."
First, Vulcan headed to the canyon-center rock dam—piles of worthless stones from selective mining.
They carted junk away to avoid blockages. The heap was massive, nearly sealing the path.
No traffic that way anyway, but where else to dump it?
"What? Use these rocks? No rule against it... but dump 'em anywhere and you're in deep shit."
Claiming ownership was easy. No need to buy—they were trash even to miners, who paid laborers to haul them off.
Someone taking them? Jackpot. Minor rep work for negotiation, but his Legend Incarnate title had the foreman NPC nodding after one glance.
What're you gonna do with rubble? Statues?
"Half right."
Tud eyed him oddly, but Vulcan smirked, echoing Tud's words as he subspatial-pocketed a huge load.
No weight penalty that way. He crammed till full, then hopped down and spread them ground-level.
"Compaction!"
Magic happened. Mana drained as the gravel fused into a flat, solid foundation.
Reward for grinding compaction endlessly. It ranked up to handle stone alongside dirt, forming neat square slabs when piled right.
Not crafting, huh?
Tud wasn't impressed—prepping foundations was crafting 101.
But Vulcan had no plans for a forge and anvil here. The foundation itself was his material.
"Heh heh heh. Watch this. Slather on some alchemy-reinforced adhesive..."
He spread enhanced glue on the slab, compacted another matching one.
"This width good? Heave!"
Clang clang!
He hammered chunks off with a pick, stacked it atop the first.
Repeat thrice. The system caught on.
Architecture 'Stone Foundation Stairs (Common)' completed.
Non-recipe architecture detected. Recipe auto-registered.
You can now craft this architecture more easily.
A three-step stone stair. Crude, not artistic—but who cared? Straw or wood would've been simpler, but free unlimited stone? No contest.
Stairs for what?
"What else? One-kan tower architecture!"
No stopping there. Vulcan triggered the recipe from Tud's secret workshop.
A one-block stone tower rose, height perfect as intended. Stuck it to the cliff.
"What the hell's this nonsense?"
NPCs griped like Tud at first. But as one-kan towers and stairs rained down, complaints vanished.
"Huh? Whoa?"
"What's that?!"
"Stairs? Reaches the second level!"
"Nah, still climbing! Think it'll hit five? Sick of rope hell."
Thud thud thud thud!
Stone stairs snaked up to high shafts in moments. Skill-spam speed left no room for interference—even Vulcan paused for Meditation to regen mana.
No one stopped him. They halted work to gawk.
This lunatic?
"Eheheh. See? Now the real fun begins."
Rumble rumble rumble—
Now the main event. Vulcan stacked one-kan towers relentlessly, slotting stone stairs to link every shaft into a massive walkway.
Kuzar miners—used to dumping ore below, rope-theft losses, overload falls—cheered wildly.
"Mind helping? Need these stacked..."
"Of course! Hey, quit slacking—help out!!"
Solo was brutal, but enlightened miners pitched in, accelerating everything.
Heavy three-block towers and stairs? Miners laughed at that—strength was their game.
The mega-stair guzzled space, but Dragon Eye blueprinted it perfectly on envisioning.
Vulcan just supplied blocks and directed.
"This'll finish early... Can't slack."
Hauling alone would've taken ages—hence instant-build skills.
With steady supply, Vulcan whipped up extras in downtime.
A break spot for miners. Rough exterior, but alchemy, crafting, and magic imbuing made it special.
Couldn't etch the prefab mega-stair, but rest areas got cooling magic via crafting, plus alchemy potion for rockfall durability.
Mana for imbuing was tight, but solved simply.
'Money's king, after all.'
Tiny mana shards embedded. Cooling needed peanuts; cheap too.
Mass-producing them rocketed his near-90% skills over the edge.
A triple rank-up on mana shards alone. Perfect timing—the mega-stair finished.
Notifications flooded Vulcan's vision.