After watching Varge's fight, many players slowly tasted the joy of discovering talented, unknown players and special fighting styles.
Some of the audience members dispersed, randomly switching arenas in the hope of finding the next talent. Others stayed, thinking that the possibility of another talent appearing in this arena was just as high.
Dream Avenue also slowly spread out, looking for more potential recruits.
Liam assisted for a while but after a wave of uninteresting fights he gradually grew bored. Soon, he decided to do something else.
Liam told his plan to his friends and communicated with C to return back to Dream Avenue's guild hall. A light flashed and Serena appeared as well.
"What? Not continuing to watch?", asked Liam as he ruffled his sister's hair.
"Annoying! I wanted to stay with you for a while but maybe I will rethink..."
"Haha, do you think watching me is more exciting than the tournament?"
"We'll see."
Liam smiled at his sister as they left the guild hall. They walked along the nicely designed path outside and came behind the building. There were two more small buildings here, both belonging to the guild.
One was a small hut surrounded by crates and with black smoke continuously rising from a chimney. The other was of similar size, located next to a small herb garden. Those were the smithy and alchemist workshop respectively.
Liam brought Serena into the smithy, ready to profit from the EXP boost.
As soon as he opened the door a wave of heat washed over the siblings and a rhythmic clang reached their ears. Finding someone hard at work in the smithy the siblings weren't surprised.
Although even Dream Avenue's professional players went to watch the tournament for now, the guild still had their NPC blacksmith.
Liam glanced towards an anvil and found a towering man with a bare upper body, which was covered in dirt and burn wounds. He looked exactly how one would imagine a blacksmith.
This was Onvin, an intermediate blacksmith whom the guild had recruited from a large NPC shop in Svebrial. With the right materials he could craft some equipment of above average quality, which could be used or sold.
However, Liam wasn't interested in Onvin right now. He ignored him, letting the NPC continue his work.
Instead, Liam and Serena approached the boiling furnace, ready to forge their own masterwork.
"What are we crafting?", asked Serena.
"Something complicated which gives a lot of EXP. A scaled armor!"
"Sounds quite difficult..."
"It is."
Liam frowned faintly. He didn't have the recipe for the item he wanted to forge. Thus, he had to dig deeply into his memory. Slowly a complicated recipe resurfaced.
After a few seconds Liam looked at Serena with sober eyes.
"Let's go."
"Yes."
First, Liam browsed through the guild treasury. Thanks to everyone's efforts it was brimming with items. Using his abundant contribution points Liam bought all the materials he needed.
Next, he began smelting the basic material. It was a form of magically empowered iron with superior hardness and potential.
The flames in the furnace burned high, emitting a terrifying temperature. Luckily Liam and Serena had surpassed the limits of humans and could easily endure for a while.
It had to be said that even Serena had reached level 34 solely through indulging in various professions. Although she enjoyed cooking the most, she had also spent some time in the smithy, the alchemy workshop, and others.
She happily became Liam's assistant now. Following his instruction, she helped Liam hold multiple bars of metal into the flames.
After recalling the recipe Liam had a definite order in his mind. Counting down twenty seconds he abruptly told Serena to retrieve the metal.
The young girl saw how focused her brother was and didn't dare to drag him down. She reacted perfectly, acting in sync with Liam.
The siblings placed the metal on the anvil. But now came the most difficult part. Hitting the correct spots on the metal. Since he didn't have a recipe, the game didn't provide any indicator and Liam had to work based on his vast experience.
This was quite a delicate step. Any deviation from the optimal procedure would impact the quality of the final product. Liam trusted his memories as he used the heavy smithing hammer.
After a few hits, however, his confidence quickly increased. As an experienced blacksmith he could see that the metal took on the form he imagined.
A short while later the metal cooled down, forcing the siblings to reheat it before continuing the moulding. Those two steps had to be repeated for a third and final time before the rudimentary front of a chest plate with additional leg protection had been formed.
The siblings repeated everything to forge the back as well before melting the edges of both pieces and welding them together.
Next, the same had to be done to attach two burly shoulder pieces. An impressive, heavy armor gradually took form. But Liam looked at his sister, noticing how her arms trembled faintly. Sweat ran down her neck and slowly she looked quite exhausted.
Fortunately, the next step was more suitable to be done by a single person, granting Serena a break.
Liam brought out another metal and began to forge intricate scales. Despite their fine appearance they were surprisingly sturdy.
During the forging process Liam had to uphold his concentration to perfectly count the seconds during the melting and always use the most suitable amount of strength.
Eventually dozens of scales lay before him, looking quite gorgeous as they reflected the orange furnace fire.
Liam placed them on the armor, arranged in the magical pattern in his memories. He finished by retrieving a pitch-black draconic scale from this inventory and placing it in the centre of the chest plate.
As soon as he did so, the armor suddenly began to light up. Mana gathered towards it as it underwent a special transformation. The black colour from the central scale began to spread like the branches of an extensive tree, giving the armor a sinister appearance.
The magical phenomenon engraved all kinds of tiny and large patterns on the armor, which could magically enhance its power and grant it special effects.
A few moments later the mana calmed down. Serena came closer, caressing the scales which now felt like real dragon scales, their grey-black appearance quite ferocious.
"Wow. This looks so hard! Are you giving it to one of our tanks?"
"Sure. But we're not done yet.", answered Liam with a smile.
"Really? What's missing?"
"Right now, this armor is at most of uncommon grade. If we want it to unleash its full potential, we need a rare grade armor!"
"So what are we missing?"
"Now that we are done forging, we still need to enchant it."
Serena appeared rather confused looking at Liam. Enchanting was an advanced technique and not many blacksmiths had practiced it yet.
But Liam was quite familiar with it. He grabbed the scale armor and brought it to a dark table in a corner of the smithy.
To Serena the table looker somewhat out of place with its fine and precise tools. Even quills and ink could be found.
Liam didn't think much of it, putting the armor down and fastening it. Next, he bought two amber-coloured gemstones from the guild treasury.
He held one of the gems against the armour's left shoulder part and grabbed a tool which resembled a pen. Carefully he traced the outline of the gem, not daring to go too fast or too slow.
The tip of the pen produced a blueish, magical light which magically bound the gemstone onto the armor, similar to a modern welding tool.
After he was done with the first gem he repeated the process with the other side, combining both gemstones with the armor.
Liam took a deep breath. Such fine work right after the physically exhausting forging process was quite the challenge, even for him.
Although there was no need to finish the steps without taking a break, Liam liked to stay in the flow. He found it easier to keep up the correct state of mind if he completed everything in one swoop.
Thus, he didn't take a long brake before beginning with the last step. Wielding the pen-like tool he began to weave intricate patterns between the two gemstones, like multiple small magical circles combined.
This was the most difficult of all the steps. The thickness of the lines, the correct paths, everything influenced the final product. This step alone could determine if the armor stayed within the uncommon category or if it became a top equipment among all rare items.
As Liam had explained everything beforehand, Serena stood at the side not daring to even breath loudly. She watched Liam's focused face with great anxiousness, praying for everything to go well.
Liam's moved his hand steadily like a profound master of calligraphy. Each line was drawn with great meticulousness. He exuded the air of a richly experienced grandmaster. One last flick of his wrist and the magical pattern was completed.