Novel Full Chapter 1653: The Forging Grind (1)
Chapter 1653: The Forging Grind (1)
“Though it has been over a year since you last claimed your stipend of Technology Points from the guild, with your position as a Lesser Elder, as well as the director’s authority, it is still possible for you to claim all of your stipends from the past year.”
Tapping on the tablet she was holding a couple of times, the attendant in front of Valyr and Byron looked at the two with a calm expression.
“I didn’t know that.” Valyr faintly nodded in understanding. “How many points would I be able to obtain in total?”
“Has your class rank increased?” asked the attendant in response, to which the young man shook his head.
Nodding at the reply Valyr gave her, the attendant went silent for a bit, her hands consistently interacting with the tablet as she computed the final amount for the young man.
“Including the agreement you’ve made with the Imperial Production Guild, with your position as Rank 4 Lesser Elder, you shall obtain a total of 1.8 million Technology Points.”
’Quite a decent chunk.’ Though slightly caught off guard by the amount he’d be receiving from the guild, the young man eventually nodded at the woman’s words, recalling that the last time he obtained his stipend from the Blacksmith Guild netted him over a million Technology Points.
’However, unlike before, I now have [Rekindler of the Second Spark],’ thought the young man, causing a faint smile to appear on his face as he received the stipend from the attendant.
’I don’t know if the effects of that and [Herald of the New Era] stack additively or not, but if it does, then I effectively have over 10 million Technology Points at my disposal.’
’On second thought, it might even reach 20 million since I plan on spending most of it on unlocking advancements beyond the First Industrial Revolution,’ inwardly muttered Valyr to himself, causing the smile on his face to widen just as he received confirmation from the system.
Ding!
[You have received 1,800,000 Technology Points.]
“With the Technology Points out of the way, I suppose you’re planning to head to your private workshop, then?”
Seeing that Valyr had finished his agenda at the guild’s main hall, Byron went ahead and asked the young man what he planned on doing that, slightly fearing that the latter might shirk his duty once more.
Fortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.
“That’s the plan,” replied the young man with a nod. “Though, aside from working on the empire’s request, I also plan to forge a lot of items that I would like to sell through the guild’s channels.”
“That’s not a problem.” Hearing the words that left Valyr’s mouth, Byron’s eyes faintly lit up with expectation. “However, keep in mind that the guild will take a small cut of the profit as both advertising and commission fee.”
“Then again, with your position as a Lesser Elder, the cut the guild takes is quite near to the lowest cut the guild is willing to go.”
“Speaking of which, how many items do you plan on selling through the guild’s channels?”
“I actually haven’t thought about that.” Valyr briefly fell into pensive thought, the gears in his mind turning as he thought about the number of items he could forge.
By the time he’d gotten a rough idea of his production rate, the young man faintly nodded as he looked at Byron, only to then give out a number that left the latter at a complete loss for words.
“…I suppose a couple thousand pieces of equipment will do.”
…
“…Whew.”
Arriving at the private workshop Byron had allocated to him in the past, the young man took a brief moment to familiarize himself with the layout once more.
Closing his eyes for a bit to compile all of the materials he would need for the equipment he planned on forging, Valyr soon sent a message to one of the guild staff, listing down all of the materials for the entire forging session.
“Alright.” Receiving a response from the staff that procuring all of the materials he asked for would take a while, the young man sent a brief reply as he went ahead and arranged some items in the workshop according to the production line he had in mind.
“I suppose I’ll stick with the layout I used back at Algerie Kingdom for now,” muttered Valyr to himself as he thought out loud, only to then arrange the anvils his copies would use in a similar fashion.
However, seeing that there was still plenty of space within the workshop for him and the copies to move about, the young man decided to double the number of anvils within the workshop, deciding to work with a total of four production lines this time around.
“Thankfully there’s three furnaces in the workshop,” said the young man, letting out a sigh of relief as he moved the anvils a bit closer to the furnaces.
By the time he had arranged the anvils in a way where two production lines would share one furnace, the staff member he contacted earlier had finally arrived with the materials he requested, which unsurprisingly occupied a good portion of the workshop the moment they were brought out.
Rearranging the piles of materials in a way where it wouldn’t obstruct the movement of the copies he planned on conjuring, the young man soon nodded in satisfaction, taking in a deep breath as he slowly tuned both his thoughts and senses to entirely focus on forging.
“[Ephemeral Bodies of the First Blacksmith].”
Whoosh!
While that was happening, Valyr went ahead and conjured all of the copies he would need for the production lines, swiftly sending out sets of instructions to all of them according to the purpose they would serve in the production line.
After making sure that the copies set to deliver the near-finished products to him would not collide against one another, the young man let out a faint sigh to further relax himself, only to then send a message to his other self through [Soul Entanglement].
’It’s time.’
’Time…?’ asked Ataraxia through their connection, only to then realize what was going on through the vision Valyr was sharing with him. ’Is it time to work on the empire’s request?’
’That, as well as the armor sets you wanted me to forge,’ replied the young man. ’I also plan to forge some equipment to sell after that, but that doesn’t need a high level of refinement.’
’I see,’ said Ataraxia in response. ’Fortunately for you, the guild has yet to make its next move so you can start forging whenever you want.’
Valyr widely grinned at those words.
’Glad to hear that.’
’Since that’s the case…’
’[Zen: First Lotus Step].’