Chapter 67: Chapter 66 - Maintenance Break
18 February 2024
Katalysis, 43rd Floor
"Oh, you're finally back to end my quarantine? Wonderful! How's it outside that door? Was it worth leaving me alone to suffer here?"
The ever sarcastic tone of Tekion's voice tingled my ears as I pushed open the wooden door into the room. The blacksmith turned at me, sitting on his own bed with a table pulled in front of him, on which a sword was lying flat on the far table edge.
Beside the sword, a small black anvil stood horizontally right at him, who was spinning his hammer playfully at the moment that I had arrived. Rakuno followed me in as well, sticking her head out at Tekion's little set-up.
"Didn't wanna be your alarm clock," I replied as I brought down my system menu. "But here, got you some treats."
A system window popped up by Tekion, who stared at it for a while, before sighing with a smile.
"Unbelievable. The source you got these from?"
"I hope you still remember that blacksmith with the creepy rapier."
Tekion leaned back onto his bed, letting out a whistle. "Heh, the materials that he sells might be decent, but I can't ignore his handiwork. His style of craft kinda scares me, to be honest."
"Aren't you quite the bizarre smith as well?" I pulled over a chair. "Your habit of making insane piles of weapons still puzzles me to this day."
"They're experiments. I've always been striving to make the best weapons with the best stats."
"Yeah.....no wonder your material reserves always drain off so damn easily."
The blonde blacksmith simply gave another "Heh" before sitting back right up and pushing the blue button on the system window.
"Well, my job here's to basically give your weapons a good scrub for any of you who needs it. And that means I expect the materials to keep on flowing. Lest I get bored on use them all up in a single day."
I gave him a stare of annoyance. Though, if the materials that I had given him have met his expectations, I would go that same smithy again some time soon. Unlike him, I wouldn't particularly mind walking into a store full of spiky swords and rapiers if my only intention was to get crafting materials.
Rakuno stayed by the door, holding it in mid-swing gently. I turned to her, wondering about her refusal to have a seat.
"Don't you wanna take a seat or something? You could get your weapons maintained." I offered.
"Thanks, but I'll just return to the other room," She said. "And wait for them to be back."
She smiled just before it got covered off by the door swinging close. Tekion shrugged, as he got back to work on the anvil.
"I so miss my regular customers. They're always willing to trust me with their weapons."
"Cut her some slack," I turned back to him. "Everyone has the right to choose their favourite smith. Plus, at least I'm your regular."
I reached for my spear behind my back, pulling it up the same way one would with a sword. The double bladed spear, with the name Binarium Edge, felt a little lighter than I normally would feel as it rested on my fingertips.
It had been a good few months since this masterpiece was crafted by the very same blacksmith in front of me. I could remember Tekion's hyped up face as he and I saw the glowing pole in his smithy on that day, after the last strike of his hammer that completed the crafting process.
That was the time when we had opened our eyes even more about the SAO weapon crafting system. It wasn't limited to crafting swords, rapiers, daggers or even the much rarer bows which we had already been aware of. But unlike the Bow & Arrow skill, which was considered a full weapon skill by the system, there weren't any new weapon skills created when I first equipped this seemingly new weapon.
The reason being, there was simply no need for the system to create new skills for a weapon with fundamentally the same type as its base version.
In my case, the double-bladed spear was simply a spear with an extra blade attached to its other end, effectively making it a symmetrical tool of combat. Equipping it for the first time saw changes to my Spear skill, adding a skill mod that wasn't even planned to be unlocked through skill leveling. I later realized that it was the Double-bladed Spear skill itself, and in it contained a completely new skill tree with the basic skills unlocked, just like every weapon skill would when they were first obtained by a player.
"That's double the skills that you can use during combat!" Tekion had exclaimed during that time. "2 skill trees in just one skill.....amazing!"
And he was right, in a way. Though if I was going to be as amazing as he thinks I would be, I would have to grow that skill tree first, unlocking more of those special spear skills. Ever since then, my combat style shifted tremendously, from once thrusting and swinging around to spinning around daringly, getting hits in as much as possible with both of those dagger-like blades.
The crafting recipe for the double-bladed spear was simple: a normal spear and a dagger made from the same material being the main ingredients. Other similar kinds of weapons might be crafted using this logical principle, as hypothesized by Tekion, but if there really were others, we would have to try to craft them out using countless trials and errors, despite the double-bladed spear being our miracle discovery.
As such, we gave these kinds of weapons a blanket name as well: Sub-types, as they are inspired by the base weapon types that players usually see and use. They can be used like their base counterparts, but also can be used in an entirely different way if used in respect to their sub-type.
Tekion stared at Binarium Edge with a subtle pause, lowering his hammer from a swing he was about to do.
"The usual?"
"Yeah, the usual." I replied out of habit, as Tekion put his sword off the anvil. Gently placing the spear on the anvil, I sat back while Tekion brought up an appraisal window for it.
".....Durability's still the problem here," He tapped the window with his hammer. "Even though you've dedicated some of its enhancement points to durability, it's still decaying as fast as ever."
"Can't be helped, can it?" I slumped a little in my seat. "Didn't you say that crafting a new one's the only solution?"
"Adamantine's a B-class crafting material," Tekion raised his hammer for a swing. "It's already a miracle for a weapon made of such stuff to last that long. I'll do whatever repairs I can to slow down its durability decay as much as possible, but I got a feeling this is gonna be its last maintenance session."
The room went into silence as I merely stared at the hammer swings striking my spear. Each strike produced a sharp tinge, its echo piercing throughout the room.
After a few swings, Tekion's voice, though overpowered by the sounds of the strikes, broke my intensifying stare.
"Maybe you've been using Binarium Edge too much. Been wondering if you're still using that bow."
Truth be told, I haven't, ever since I had Binarium Edge. After the Kesoko campaign quest, there didn't seem to be any need to use a ranged weapon in field dungeons and quests. The distance advantage seemed meaningless if I went to take on field bosses as well, since aggro manipulation was common during combat. As an archer, I would find myself in more vulnerable situations than I was wielding my spear.
Besides, using a bow with other players grabs a ton of attention. I'd rather not take any risk of anyone pestering me about the method to obtain one, especially when even I still treated it as a mystery of sorts.
"Not much," I replied. "Plus, I was never a genius with the bow. Iro's a faster learner than me."
Tekion tiled his head towards me, his hammer still striking. "Ah, Irokei! One of my special regulars. Always comes to me for her bow, as if her dagger didn't need any maintenance as well, heh."
"Does she still practice everyday?"
"Heh, you bet. Hearing her voice feels like a chore now. Lots of 'Triple Chaser!' s lately."
"That's how the bow works. I didn't even realize it back then."
"Apparently, Misuko helps her with training in her time off, by becoming her moving target."
"That's cool. Aiming at a tree all the time is boring....."
Another silence ensured, this time a little more awkward. Tekion's hammer landed another blow on Binarium Edge, before lifting it up with both hands. I received it gently, bringing it back onto my back just as it always has been.
"Just remember that you're still a bow user," Tekion reached for his sword, and placed it on his anvil. "Assuming you didn't remove the Bow & Arrow skill from your skill slots, that is."
"Never did." I simply replied, wondering about his strange concern for my bow.
A message icon popped up in front of me, as did Tekion, as we touched them by habit. A message window then appeared, with the sender being Krieg.
"Krieg?" Tekion gave it a perplexed stare.
"He's usually not the kind of guy who sends messages in party chat." I stood up as I read. "It's an emergency."
Urgent tapping from the door came right after, as I went to get it. Swinging it open, I saw Rakuno with her own message window in front of her, carrying a concerned expression on her face.
"Let's just go!" Her voice was almost the volume of a shout, as she headed for the stairs leading down to the first floor of the inn.
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