Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

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"..."

'This is getting annoying…'

Dale looked around, but everywhere he looked, he could see players, their numbers seemingly growing by the minute.

To a point where he felt stuffy as he started to miss the peace and quiet from the first and second days…

Even here, on his path to the smithy, somewhere rather 'off road' he could see crowds of people in line to get inside a small house…

This was Barme's house, and also the sole Smithy of the Village, right now, he was also the sole NPC merchant that could fix and sell new gear and items…

Not like the players needed his services right now, after all, they weren't hunting, right?

It would be naive to think like that... Even here, players were constantly battling each other to see who was the top dog...

In other words, the players may be limited in regards to PVE, but PVP was booming!

Since they couldn't get XP outside, why not battle each other and get something out of their time?

It was risky to fight inside the Village, but they had to fight somewhere, those that were caught were punished heavily... But those that didn't profit from their demise.

One day, these conflicts of power would be transferred outside...Or somewhere the Villagers wouldn't easily think off... A hidden place for players to fight each other.

But even then, they would need Barme's pricy services to fix their gear and sell out their excess loot...

It wasn't his fault they were pricy, but Barme simply had too little to work with, so with high demand, comes high prices.

And with low materials, their value increases too.

Thankfully, the players had a lot of money since even the miscellaneous quests gave quite a sizable amount.

And deeming they had nowhere to spend it all...

"Excuse me…" Dale said as he grabbed a player's shoulder on the line

"Eh? Wait for your turn man… You?!" The player replied with some annoyance before being flabbergasted

He took a step to the side, and his little commotion also attracted the attention of the other players, who also stepped aside for him.

"Thanks." Dale replied with a small nod as he took a step forward

He stepped inside while the players wondered if this was a special event…

In a sense, it was, as Dale was about to give Barme a massive repertoire of items to work with…

…

/Creak!/

The door to the shop opened, and the first thing Dale noticed was that it was rather empty, but even so, it had little space inside as a lot of old wood and other miscellaneous materials could be seen scattered around the place.

There were only 4 players inside, and they all frowned when they saw Dale, but they soon changed when they realized who it was…

"What? Who is it?! I say… NO MORE THAN 4 AT A TIME!..."

"Oh?!... Dale! I... Apologies, I didn't know it was you." Barme said with a smile as he saw him enter

He was holding a box filled with cleaned weapons and armor, surely a new batch of things he had just repaired.

"How are you doing?" Dale asked, ignoring the players

"Tired, very tired… Things are getting quite rushed and I'm now suddenly filled with work, yet I have no materials to work with…"

"It's been a ride to try and accomplish all of the commissions I've been getting, sometimes I have to straight out refuse some customers, simply due to my inability to work due to a lack of materials…"

Dale nodded, saying:

"I'm working on it, soon enough, I'll have those mines in working condition, or so's the plan."

Barme smiled.

"I know, if there's someone that can do it, it's you, but remember, Rest is a wealthy man, make sure you take some time off from time to time."

"Don't worry, I do so every night." He said with a wide smile

Dale didn't worry about the players, and in a sense, he thought this was good.

From their perspective, this was an 'Event', one that was hinting at a possible future…

Like a cutscene, they were lucky to be part of…

This would cement his position as a Villager even further, and perhaps even prepare the players for the future… The same thing he had been doing so far.

And of course, there was no need to say it out loud due to how obvious it was, but Dale had plans to make even more use of this never-ending workforce that was the players.

After all, someone had to mine the ores in the Mines, right?

But of course, first, he had to go there…

Naturally, there is a certain risk factor associated with revealing this conversation to them… As the players may get overly excited that somewhere out there, a hidden Dungeon may be waiting to be discovered…

That the game was 'hinting' at this possibility...

Some may try to seek it out, but unless they want to risk meeting the same fate as the others trapped in the Jail cells, they'll remain put until they reach a +10 favorability.

And taking Rodi as a base, Dale calculated that it would take at least 3 full days for even some of the quicker players to reach that requirement.

He had time, but not much.

"Besides… I imagine you're here for 'that', right?" Barme asked with a serious expression

Dale nodded, unwilling to say anything further in the presence of these players.

"Okay… Go inside, I'll close the shop for now…" Barme said as he turned to the players

Dale opened the door and got inside the room, and it didn't take long for him to hear Barme's screams…

"GET OUT! I'LL BE TAKING A REST FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!"

"..."

'So that's how he is with people with low Reputation…'

Dale shook his head, focusing his attention on the room.

It was mildly hot, though, it was to be expected.

A normal person would be sweating already, but Dale simply felt warm… Comfortably warm.

He soon saw the reason for this, it was the blazing hot furnace burning in the corner of the room.

An Anvil, tools, buckets filled with water and other strange substances, and even some finished and half-finished products laying around.

Most of it were screws and nails, the normal you would expect a countryside smith to make…

Long were his days when Barme would make swords and spears, now the sharpest thing he makes are the hoes for farm work…

Not even arrowheads… Resko had long lost its sole dedicated hunter.

/Creak…/

The door opened behind Dale, it was Barme as expected, holding now an empty box.

"Sorry for the wait, those guys were quite persistent…"

/Thud/

He dropped the box and pushed it aside with his foot as if it was trash before saying:

"What do you have for me?" He said with lingering excitement

Smiling, Dale asked, "How many boxes do you have?" as a grin started to form on his face.

"Hm…"

Barme looked around, and indeed, there were many empty boxes laying around…

"A LOT!"

Dale laughed.

…

For the next 10 minutes, Dale filled box after box with all sorts of items in an orderly manner, all under the watchful gaze of Barme, who was extremely excited for seeing such a large assortment of gear in what seemed to be his entire life at this point…

The last time he remembered the shop being half full was when he was just a small child… And that was long ago.

"Hum…"

He grabbed a box filled with the broken remains of armor that were once owned by one of the Elite soldiers of the Southern Corps, with a large frown on his forehead…

"Is there something wrong?" Dale asked as he noticed his twisted expression

"Yes… Quite a big one at that… I'm trying to figure out what to do with this pile of scrap."

"..."

'Ah come on... They're not that bad...'

"I can see that the things you gave me are divided into 3 categories…" He said as he grabbed a rusty sword from one of the boxes

"There are a few pristine items, such as swords, and shields that had little to no use or were well maintained… Probably the ones you got from those Outsiders, right?"

Dale nodded, those were the last remaining items from the loot he got from the players.

Unfortunately, most of it was left behind in the Wall due to a lack of space…

"The other category are these… I don't even know what to say… Corroded pieces of trash? Even that seems to be much." Barme said harshly as he kicked a small piece of a gauntlet that fell on the ground, disappointment written on his face as he did so

"Unfixable and overall terrible… You got these from the Catacombs right?..."

"No, don't even reply, I'm sure you got it from there since you showed me something similar last time you visited me."

"Like last time, I'll tell you that these are unrepairable, no matter how many I try to fuse together... Only a God would be able to revert these back into a usable state."

"They're corroded at their core and in a disorderly way... I can at most scrap them for extra materials…"

"After all, despite being good pieces of gear when intact, they're mostly ceremonial in nature, because no matter how wealthy the Southern Corps once was, there is no way it would bury every single one of their soldiers with a full set of high-quality heavy armor..."

"!"

Dale didn't expect that, but as he thought of it, things started to make sense.

Albeit some of thee undead were able to block his attacks, many of his blows passed straight through their armor.

Would that truly be the famed armor of the Southern Corps? Obviously not.

"All of these are made from a mixture of Iron with... Likely RedWood Wax."

"RedWood Wax?"

"It's a form of organic material that when heated and treated becomes pretty strong while also being very shiny, about as strong as steel."

"When mixed with iron you get this... Although the wax itself has already degraded... Wuck, no wonder it smells so bad..."

/Crunk!/

He threw the armor piece on a box as if he was tossing something in a trashcan.

"Lastly, we have these broken pieces of High-quality gear… These deserve some praise, I can clearly see all of their traces and... That's a bit too much detail for a non-Smith."

"I would like to fix them all but..."

"Most of it… 95% of it cannot be repaired, at least, not with my Skills and tools." He said, disappointed

"And even the ones that can… I'm heavily considering if I actually should, given how bad they look..."

"The effort may not repay the time spent trying, it may be easier to just do it from scratch."

"Some can be fixed quite easily, like this shield, it simply has a large cut in the upper section… Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough to protect its wielder against whatever abomination was able to cut through it."

"Smelting it should pose no challenge, and with an extra patch, it'll look brand new... Aside from the paint and details, those aren't fixable."

"And I won't spend 2 of 5 hours on a project just to make it look good, we have no time for that."

Dale nodded, but said plainly with a smile:

"No need to tell me all of that, I'm giving it all to you, do whatever you wish with it."

'I have no need for these items… As he said, they're broke trash.'

'Apart from a selective few, they're better in his hands.'

'Who knows? If he fixes or creates something new from them, the prime target to be their master is actually me!'

'Right now, they're trash, but if they can be repaired, all the better... A full set of High-quality gear.'

'I win in any case.'

Barme smiled at Dale's words.

"I didn't know it was my birthday haha!"

He looked at the many boxes around him and said:

"This will do for now, but I'm telling ya, it won't last forever…"

"I really need a supply of materials…"

"I can perhaps fix or make a new set of armor by smelting another 2-3 pieces, and fix 3 swords by sacrificing another one… But these materials will eventually all end."

"Not to say how well made they all are… I'm thinking if I'm even capable of fixing it all… It has been so long since I actually did my best in the forge that I actually forgot how it felt to make something new from scratch."

He grabbed one of the high-quality shoulder pads.

"This gear too… It's made from extremely high-class materials, some of which I don't even recognize, they're also imbued with special effects I can't replicate on my own…"

"Although mostly faded, it still carries a faint scent…"

Dale tried sniffing around, but didn't quite get what he meant…

"HAHAHA! Only a proficient blacksmith would be able to discern it."

"Overall, even if I were to fix some of those items, they wouldn't be the same as they once were."

"Maybe, if I study each individually I may be able to fuse those pieces together to make a single one that retains its enchanted properties... But that would be too much to bet on."

"I was told you brought quite the assortment of books right? I'll have to read some and see if I can learn the methods used to make these pieces, including more information about their materials, and how to process them, otherwise, it'll be a fruitless effort."

"I see..." Dale said

"I left the books with Misgurd on the third floor of the Guild, go check it out once you're free."

"I'll do so, that's a given…"

He then looked at Dale and said:

"Is this all? I don't believe this was all you got."

Dale smiled.

"The main dish is left at the end right?"

Dale opened his inventory and took a new assortment of items…

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Notes

Sorry for the delay, my keyboard was having some problems, and I'm working on fixing it.

Until then, peace!