Chapter 186: Strange Dream (2)

Red sucked in a deep breath as his Appraisal result appeared. His eyes glued to the Attribute. +1000 Dexterity was crazy, especially when it came from a weapon. This dagger was a cheat code if it gave +1000 Dexterity by just holding it.

He imagined his old self, a level one with this dagger. The chance of him dying while hunting was almost zero. No one was going to be able to kill him with +1000 Dexterity.

Not just stats, but there was another thing there, maybe a skill. A weapon that granted a skill and a big boost in one stat. He didn’t know what the skill did, but there was no harm in having one more skill.

Then his eyes moved up to the quality. This was the first time he heard about Epic Quality. It was certainly higher than Rare, but he didn’t really know the gap. He didn’t know whether Epic was one rank above Rare or two ranks above Rare or even three ranks above Rare. The + indication told him that it was above average for an Epic Quality dagger as well.

Red was about to check the other Mana Smiths. He wanted to see the equipment made by them, comparing the quality and attributes. It was until a notification appeared before his eyes.

[You have learned a skill: Mana Smith’s Boon!]

He paused, blinking his eyes a few times. He hadn’t figured out what happened to him, and he didn’t know where he was. This looked like a dream, but it was weird that a skill worked in his dream. Not only did his skill work in his dream, but he also learned a new skill now.

Red opened his status, and it worked as well. He found the skill and was shocked to find Mana Smith’s Boon was actually a Tier 5 skill.

’What’s actually happening!?’

He didn’t have the answer to the question. He had mixed feelings right now, confused, shocked, yet also happy to get a Tier 5 skill.

[Mana Smith’s Boon: Grant one random attribute to the equipment made by the user upon completion if the equipment is Rare Quality or above!]

Red looked up at the Mana Smith in front, realizing where those two attributes came from. It was a skill, a passive, but with a strict condition. As of now, he has never made a Common Quality equipment, let alone a Rare Quality one. His head was overwhelmed with a lot of information, plans, and confusion. That was when Levelheaded took action.

He got calmer when the skill was triggered, and there was other good news. A level for one of his most helpful skills.

[Levelheaded has reached level 23!]

Red was about to check the other Mana Smith’s creation. It was some kind of information gathering about the weapon’s quality as well. Before he could check the other stations, the space twisted, and he was sucked into it. While confused about what happened, the surroundings changed once more.

Once more, he was surrounded by Mana Smith from his race. He figured out that Mana Smith might be his race’s identity. That explained why he couldn’t use the Mystic Chef Class Stone. That was still maybe; he didn’t know for sure.

The same as before, the room was filled with workstations. It was a smaller workstation compared to the previous one, and they worked on a different thing. They didn’t make equipment, but were doing something else.

Red was curious what they were doing, so he approached one of the workstations closest to him. Mana Smith stood before the workstation, his eyes focused on the smooth, yellowy leather on the workstation. Then his right hand moved, directing his hand to the leather.

That was when he sensed mana coming out from Mana Smith’s hand. He was confused at first about what happened until something appeared on the leather. It started with a line. The line was red, and it curved, forming a circle on the leather. The circle was not that big, around the size of his fist.

’How?’

That was the first thing that came up in his head. How did that line appear? What was Mana Smith doing?

Then more lines appeared, drawing into another shape inside the circle. The line was still in red. The line formed a diamond shape, but with curved lines below that looked like the diamond had feet.

The Mana Smith filled the circle with the same drawings, filling the circle exactly with eight of those diamond drawings with an extra line on their feet. The Mana Smith drew those on top of each other, but it felt like his eyes were playing tricks on him. It didn’t look like they were on top of each other. He could see the clear line that separated the diamond-with-feet from each other.

’What is this? An illusion?’

The Mana Smith then took something from below the workstation, something blue. It was Magic Cores, four Magic Cores that were bigger than Mediocre Grade Magic Cores.

He tried to use Appraisal on that core, wondering what grade the core was for it to be bigger. It was certainly a core from a strong monster. To his surprise, his appraisal didn’t work. He didn’t know what happened, but he didn’t receive information about the core.

Red did it again, using Appraisal on the core again. Just to be sure, he got closer, but nothing happened. It didn’t work on his third and fourth attempts. He gave up and tried to see what Mana Smith wanted to do with that Magic Core.

The Mana Smith put the Magic Core on the edge, right at the edge of the circle. He put the four Magic Cores in opposite directions from each other that would draw a + sign if he drew the line.

The Mana Smith directed his hand, then he sensed mana from the Mana Smith again. This time the mana was more subtle, fainter. That was when the drawing was glowing in blue.

He was still confused about what the Mana Smith tried to do. This was not something he had learned yet, until information came into his head. The Mana Smith in front of him was drawing a rune, and he was currently in the Rune Weaving process.

The process continued until the Magic Core lost its glow. The drawing, the unknown rune, absorbed something from that Magic Core.

The Mana Smith threw the dimmed core that had become a rock, a useless rock. Then he picked up the leather, inspecting the drawing. He brought the rune close to his eyes.

Red was unsure what the Mana Smith tried to do, but he waited patiently. This was the only clue he had about the rune, so he didn’t want to miss it.

Mana Smith seemed to be satisfied with the drawing, nodding to himself. There was no smile, though, just a nod before he took something from below the workstation. It was the black dagger, and he had a hunch that it was the same black dagger he saw in the previous vision.

He used Appraisal on the dagger, hoping this time it would work. He wished the skill didn’t work because he used it on the Magic Core.

Abyssal-Iron Dagger

Condition: Perfect++

Quality: Epic+

Attribute: +1000 Dexterity, Abyssal Touch

The Appraisal worked this time, and he was right about the dagger. It was the same dagger. Then he looked at the Mana Smith and realized it was the same Mana Smith who made the dagger.

Mana Smith put the dagger next to the yellowy leather with a rune on it. He then picked up the leather, placing the side with a rune on top of the black dagger. The positioning seemed to matter. He placed the rune above the hilt.

Red sensed a large amount of mana, more than when the Mana Smith used Rune Weaving. The mana engulfed the leather and the dagger. Both the leather and the dagger started to float. It stopped when both reached the Mana Smith’s chest level.

Then he saw a red glow from below the leather. He sensed how more mana was drawn out from the Mana Smith’s body. It stayed like this for half an hour. Through Mana Sense, he estimated how much mana was used in this process. He felt like the Mana Smith was using more than three thousand mana.

New information popped out in his head. It told him this was the Rune Engraving skill. The Mana Smith engraved the rune into the dagger. The dagger with the leather on top slowly came down to the workstation.

The Mana Smith took the leather and turned it around. The drawing was no longer on the leather, and the yellowish leather turned dark gray as well. He threw the leather into the dump before picking up the black dagger.

Red assumed it was a success, and the rune was on the dagger now. However, he didn’t see the rune on the dagger. The drawing was not on the dagger.

’It fails?’

He then used Appraisal on the dagger again.

Abyssal-Iron Dagger

Condition: Perfect++

Quality: Epic+

Attribute: +1000 Dexterity, Abyssal Touch, Extreme Sharpness IV