RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 205

He quickly made his way to the coastal guard station and took the forging services quest. He was taken to a forging room which was similar to the intermediate forging room of the forging association, but there were a few specific differences from those forging rooms.

The first thing was that there was a board at the forging room where there would be specific items he could select to learn. The items he could select depended on his level and his reputation in the coastal guard. He could pay a certain amount of money to learn these recipes. There were also other rules for getting designs through forging services quest in NPC organizations.

At the first attempt of the forging services quest, the forging designs available to the player would depend on the reputation and level of the player, but that is only for the first forging design purchased. The consequent designs available for purchase would depend on his performance. Initially, he would only be given iron and bronze grade equipment. but higher grade equipment designs would only be provided if they perform very well. As the grade of the equipment designs increase in level, higher grade like dark gold designs would even require contribution points instead of silver or gold coins.

Apart from the designs available, even the duration of the forging quest and the number of attempts by a player depend on their performance. For every piece of equipment, a player would be given three sets of materials required to craft an armament or more depending on the general rate of success of the forging design which is a predetermined value by the system.

The number of attempts success and failures for each player attempting forging quests are noted and based on that the rewards are given. This would be used to determine if one can continue. If a player has a bad rate, he could also be denied further attempts of the forging services quest by the organization. So, the first equipment to forge should be chosen carefully if a player wanted to be able to make use of a forging services quest.

The list had a bunch of items available on it. Most of them were armors and the weapons were mostly wands, scepters and bows. The weapons were mostly intended to support the coastal guard. So, the weapons were mostly intended for long distance attacks.

Balthazar browsed through them and decided on a level 18 weapon called Moonstone wand. He chose this because he had already had experience with it and he also knew to modify it and create a level 18 weapon called Moonstone Pike.

[Moonstone wand] (Bronze weapon)

Level 18;

Materials Required: Moonstone x 1; Magic Essences x 2; Copper x 1; Wood x 1;

Requirements: Intelligence: 36;

Intelligence + 10;

Special Effect: 10% increase in range of all spells at night.

Durability: 65/65;

The materials for the wand were provided by the coastal guard as soon as he selected the design. A guard came in with three sets of the required materials and gave them to Shadow and left. Balthazar quickly started working on the wand.

To Balthazar, weapons like spears, wand were the easy ones. They needed skills he was already well acquainted with. He easily shaped the wood into the form of a rod. He mixed the magic essences with copper, used it to coat the rod and make a small copper head at one end of the rod into which he embedded the moonstone.

For a novice, it would be a time consuming and hard process to shape the materials into the right size and shape, but it took 10 minutes for Shadow to make the Moonstone wand. He did it with the first set of materials. He was putting more care in forging them than the usual as this was a particularly good way to quickly earn experience at night time in the game. He wanted to continuously do the quest to quickly gain experience and increase his level.

He continued to work on the forging services quest for a period of nine in-game hours (three actual hours) managing to maintain a success rate of 80%. Even the defective ones ended up being iron grade equipment. It was decent work and it let him gather experience quickly enabling him to get to level 19 easily. It was always faster to gain experience through secondary professions as long as one had the materials and a good capability and rate of success.

Even experts would need some time to get used to creating new equipment which causes them to have an low rate of success initially. By the time, they have practiced enough to have a success rate close to 80%, most of them would have created enough to have crossed the level of the design they have been practicing. After that making more of that equipment would be considered a waste of time as it no longer gives decent experience. Thus, unless one gets lucky and somehow is naturally good at creating a certain equipment, the secondary occupation services quest aren’t particularly useful to most players. Balthazar didn’t have this problem and thus, it was extremely profitable for him to take this quest. Still, he stopped it as he couldn’t be doing at all night in the game.

After that he decided it was enough for the night as he had another engagement in the evening and that was far more importantly to him than increasing his experience or forging proficiency. He needed to attend the function that was being held for him and his cousin. Even his plans for the guild required him to attend this event.

He quickly got out of the gaming pod, took a shower and made his way into the main hall. He had Glen waiting for him in the hall. Arthur and Winston decided to let Glen move along with Balthazar as his assistant and bodyguard on Asklepian. Glen had used a facial mask which was approved to be used by Winston on the planet. Together they went to the Ambrosia restaurant where the event was being held.

Most of the hotel still operated as usual, but the party was held in the penthouse at the top of the hotel. As he came close to the hotel, he noticed that the security was much tighter than the usual. He had to scan his invite in the lift to get him to the penthouse.

The penthouse on top of the building was often used for private parties and it had been renovated multiple times since the construction of the restaurant. The roof was about 70 feet high and the room brightly lit. It was in a circular shape with an ring like balcony inside the penthouse about 30 feet above the floor. Apart from that there were 4 rectangular balconies outside.

The walls were decorated by red tapestries bearing the insignia of Asklepian and Ambrosia restaurants while the balcony had a number of paintings arranged on its walls. A pattern of large chandeliers adorned the centre of the roof providing light to the entire room.

The entire place was bustling people and Richard was talking with someone near the door. Most of the people in the place were waiters serving various items to the few guest that have arrived. They were all wearing black trousers and white shirt with the insignia of the restaurant on their chests while they carried several delicacies to the attendees.

As Richard saw Balthazar, he excused himself to get to Balthazar. “Young master, Balthazar. Didn’t expect you to be so early. I was under the impression that you like to make a late entrance like master, Robert,” said Richard as he came to receive him.

“I just wanted to not be late. I was told by Winston to bring myself here a bit early. Something about wanting me to introduce to a few people,” said Balthazar.

“Yeah. I know, but you are far too early. Winston didn’t arrive yet. Anyway, let me introduce you to the few gentlemen who have already arrived. They are all locals, but you got know about them sometime,” said Richard as he took Balthazar towards a group of middle-aged people.

“Councilman Carson, let me introduce you to Colonel. Blyth, youngest colonel of the border armed forces,” said Richard calling for a black-haired fat man who was about 5-feet tall. After that he continued to introduce other people in the party to Balthazar. They were all from the planet and most of the ones out of the planet wouldn’t arrive that soon.

Glen didn’t talk much and kept mum. He was more concerned about the security of the place and began to include himself in the security personnel after introducing himself as Balthazar’s bodyguard. This continued for some time during which Balthazar acquainted himself with the political structure of the various local powers of the planet through Richard.

Soon, others came to the party and it began to get more lively. Robert also joined him and so did Balthazar’s friends whom he invited. Afterwards few more from different planets joined the party. Even D.i.c.k, Barbara, Evelyn, Ichigo Suzuki had come to greet him. They had been temporarily staying nearby as they had a meeting with Winston to discuss about the Nirbadh pirates.

They had congratulated him over successful completion of his trials while Evelyn Price and Ichigo Suzuki wanted to discuss more about his future plans. They took him aside and began to try and persuade him. Evelyn wanted him to join her outfit as usual and also wanted details of his own plans while Suzuki was offering something entirely new. He wanted Balthazar to stay to the border force as he did before, but as a member of a monitoring unit that would patrol and inspect the stations of the border force on a regular basis. He felt that Balthazar was a good fit for it as he had managed to identify and rectify an error which evaded regular maintenance and also have silently taken measures to try and stop the rebels.

Balthazar found Suzuki’s proposal extremely enticing and he felt that it might also be a good opportunity. It could also be used as a cover for his operations if he joined Evelyn’s outfit, but he also felt that it would be a lot of work if he actually took it. So, he asked for a few days’ time from Suzuki to consider it and moved to D.i.c.k.

He wanted to talk to D.i.c.k the most currently and D.i.c.k also wanted to converse with him about his intentions in using the ShadowCard. As Balthazar took D.i.c.k aside to a balcony, he had received an unexpected message from Glen which had put him on alert.

Glen had been monitoring all the people in the place since he arrived. He had been originally tasked to protect Balthazar on his journey by Arthur. The party today was considered a primary test of his abilities by Arthur. It was meant to be a simple thing and no danger to Balthazar is expected as there were strict security measures and it would be close to impossible to get any arms near the place. Many important people would be attending the party. So, not only the building but a large amount of area around it is under strict supervision by various drones, snipers and other personnel to maintain the security.

Despite knowing all this and not being a part of it, Glen took the job very seriously. He hardly knew anything about Balthazar, and it was a good opportunity for him to study Balthazar’s behavior and patterns. If he is to be a good bodyguard, he needed to know a few things about his clients in case he is acting under duress or being forced to do anything. Some people care about others more than themselves sometimes and Glen knew that firsthand. He also knew that Balthazar cared for his sister and Robert a lot. So, he considered it very important to get to know Balthazar’s habits and mannerisms for the sake of his mission.

As such, he had also kept an eye on all the people who interacted with Balthazar. During that he found someone a bit suspicious. Later, he found this person always peeking a look at Balthazar as though he was obsessed with him. He was sure that Balthazar had a stalker and decided to have a talk with Balthazar first as he suspected that Balthazar might recognize the person and it would give a better idea on how to tackle the situation.

“Balthazar there is someone who seems to be stalking you, since you have arrived. He is currently behind you,” said Glen through a microphone which he had embedded in his mouth. He could activate and connect to other people through his wrist device. Balthazar who had an earpiece was initially surprised but held himself back.

“Details?” asked Balthazar through his wrist device as he conversed with D.i.c.k and took him towards a balcony so that they could talk privately. Balthazar hadn’t worn a microphone as he never expected such a situation to happen and he had to converse with a lot of people directly. D.i.c.k also realized that something was wrong when Balthazar abruptly asked for details, but he also continued calmly deciding to play along.

“The waiter with black hair holding a tray of clams,” said Glen. “Looks unarmed but had been following you for a long time. Had his eyes glued on to you.”

Balthazar and D.i.c.k moved to the balcony and hid themselves behind the door while Balthazar had a look at the person who Glen indicated to have been following him. As he had a look at the waiter, he had a sudden feeling that he had seen the person before.

“I know the guy,” said Balthazar. “Give me a minute,” he requested D.i.c.k and messaged the same to Glen as he thought about the face that struck a chord in some lost corner of his mind.

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