Nurtured By the System

Noah left for the Dragon Wing Auction House in Eternal Flame City and took in all the materials he had gotten from B Class and C Class dungeons. These dungeons had dropped the most materials that were useful, the others were all of lower quality. He then hurried back.

"Follow me to the other room." Albert then entered the door on the right behind him. The room was a massive hall. "Set everything here."

Noah put two shipping container size sacks of materials onto the large tiled floor from his inventory.

Albert waved his hand and both bags were cut from the middle opening out into large piles. Snapping his fingers, some of the materials rose out from the piles, the dwarf brought them in front of himself and set them down. His eyes moving as he looked through all the items.

"Oh?" The dwarf walked forward smiling as he looked at everything, Albert then picked out a deep red ovular stone, he brought it close to his eyes as he inspected it, "How long has it been since this Protected Zone opened? Around four months? Yet stuff like this is already dropping! Boy, I apologise for just calling you lucky before, I should've noticed your one of those heaven blessed gold mines that are nurtured by the system."

Noah got close to look at it.

[Bloodstone]

A B Class material used for upgrading weapons.

He didn't see anything special about it. Upgrading a weapon, well couldn't technically all materials do that? How was this red stone different.

Seeing Noah's unenthusiastic reaction the dwarf rolled his eyes, "B Class items only drop from B Class dungeons and higher in the Eternal Battlefield. I'm talking real dungeons, not the sad excuse for ones you have here, in the Protected Zone. The A Class dungeons here aren't even at the level of a weak D Class dungeon on the outside."

Albert had other items float into his hand as he looked at them, he continued his explanation, "To put it into perspective for you, the strongest human from one of the human races that entered before you is only at level 300 and still goes around clearing C Class dungeons. So B Class items are essentially more valuable than national treasures for your race."

"But it's only that valuable on the outside, in the Protected Zone its price is probably a hundredth of that D Class staff your wearing." The dwarf raised all the materials he had brought close to himself. He then snapped his finger, the bags that had been split open resealed as if time had reversed. Noah impressed, stored them back in his inventory and followed Albert back into his office.

"How about I give you some advice? I'm a Master Blacksmith, I normally make B Class equipment on a good day. Yet I came all the way here after signing an unfair contract and had a restriction placed on me, now even making a D Class weapon is a challenge."

Albert opened the door as he continued, "So why am I here? For access to high-class materials for a low price. Beginner Races don't realise that from the drops of monsters, materials are the most valuable here. The system allocates a large pool of resources to each race in a Protected Zone. From this Skills, equipment and other items are all limited to E Class, with a few at D Class. What you have equipped now is already close to the best you can get here."

"As for materials you have some good stuff, but you aren't even close to getting your hands on the real treasures here. Materials that drop here can go even higher than A Class. Boy, stop whatever you're doing and store up on good materials. A Class dungeons take a month to regenerate so you won't be able to get much from them, you'll have to rerun B Class dungeons. I say suck out all the worth you can from the dungeons. When you're outside the protected zone you'll thank me."

"Make sure to return the favour by coming to me whenever you need to forge anything. Okay, let's get back to the sword." The dwarf said looking at Noah. He set down everything on the table in his office.

"Wait, what did you mean by 'nurtured by the system'?" Noah had been confused by what Albert had said. He hadn't heard about this before.

"That's just a name we call people like you, who the system goes out of its way to give good drops to."

Albert saw Noah's surprise and laughed, "Why are you surprised? Did you think the system was unbiased? Its main purpose in the Protected Zone is to help a race become stable enough to survive in the Eternal Battlefield. Needless to say, it'll give a few people who'll help the race prosper better items. I can already tell you've awakened a good talent and have high potential from all the items you showed me. But don't worry, I can't do anything to you. I told you I signed a contract, it was to assure I can't harm your race in any way."

As if he didn't know what Albert was talking about Noah didn't show a change of expression. Other than Alice he hadn't properly told anyone else about his talents. Finding out how rare having five Awakened talents was he decided to never tell anyone else.

Seeing that Noah didn't want to continue the topic Albert looked at materials, "I planned on only making a simple D Class sword before, but with all of this making something simple won't be possible."

"These five are the main materials I'll use. First is this Bloodstone, the system doesn't give a full explanation about what a Bloodstone is. It's an item that when submerged into someone's blood will imprint on to the person. If it's then attached to a weapon, it will turn it into a special type of equipment called- Bloodline Equipment." Albert showed the dark red smooth oval stone.

"Bloodline Equipment is something only the person that Bloodstone has imprinted on can use. It's connected by bloodline so doesn't use an equipment slot which means you can equip another weapon. If those two weren't enough, it also increases the times you can reforge a weapon. It's why even as B Class material it can have its price go higher than some A Class materials."

Noah had to look at that pebble-like stone again, its uses were outstanding. Just this one stone could give him a great boost in attributes by allowing him to equip another weapon.

The dwarf lowered his hand and pulled Noah close taking out a glass bottle and knife, "fill it with blood then give it to me."

"How much?" When Noah had been listening to Albert talk, he had confirmed with his Truth Seeker talent that Albert wasn't lying. Then even crosschecked with the system that the contract Albert was talking about existed.

"A quarter full, enough to submerge this."

Noah cut his wrist with the knife he was given and quickly filled the bottle until it was a quarter full. He then drank a healing potion closing the wound and gave the bottle back. Albert took the bottle and dropped the Bloodstone inside. Then he sealed and put it away.

From the pile, he pulled out three ingots of metals, "Refined Mana Steel, Magic Light Titanium and White Mist Steel. I'll alloy them together for the blade. Refined Mana Steel is the most versatile metal, found in almost all high-class weapons. Magic Light Titanium when alloyed with White Mist Steel has the ability to reproduce and enhance a contamination added to it. That's where the Black Estoc and this Cursed Stone do their parts. That'll turn it into a strong curse element weapon."

"The rest of the materials are supporting materials that'll help with the process. So it'll take around 20 days for me to complete it. You'll pay when you come to collect it," Albert said.

"Can you finish it earlier?" He wanted the D Class weapon before the start of May to start doing A Class dungeons. The Ancient Magic Wood Flintlock had only taken 7 days so he thought it would take around that much time.

"20 days is already the lowest amount of time. It'll take that long to forge a D Class weapon," Then the dwarf pointed at Noah. The Flintlock that was holstered at his waist came out and floated in front of Noah.

"You see that Superior Life Crystal on your gun, if you find something like that matching the element of your sword I'll be able to finish it much faster and make a better end product. These magic crystals, usually only C Class and above need it. But it's possible to add it to a D Class weapon improving it overall. I'm currently using this D Class Darkness Crystal you had but it won't be much compared to the A Class Superior Life Crystal."

"However I suggest you don't get your hopes up thinking I'll make a D+ Class weapon like that gun, even if you give it to me. Oliver was able to do it by modifying it, but I can't do the same, the entirety of the sword will be decided by the bloodstone working with the materials to match you. I have no control. The most I'll do for you is increase its potential using these other materials I've taken so that when you leave the Protected Zone it'll be easier to reforge it into a C Class weapon."

"How do I get good Magic Crystals?" The Superior Life Magic Crystal had dropped from a C Class dungeon, so it didn't seem to follow a particular pattern like other materials that only fell in the same class of dungeons.

"The same way you got the other, luck! They can drop anywhere but it would be best to try the B and A Class dungeons."

"I see, thank you." Noah nodded and turned around.

As he left he was stopped at the main desk by the dwarf.

"Take this token. After 20 days you'll need it for verification."

The bronze token had an engraving of a valley, river and sun at its centre. On its border, it had Dwarven Blacksmith Association written. Putting it away Noah left.