I was used to regular Elementals, but a Fire Elemental?

I had never heard of it.

I opened my bag to see a small orb the size of a fingernail inside the inventory.

I picked it up and the information popped up.

[Fire Elemental]

The soul of an Elemental with the power of fire.

It can absorb the power of fire from nature. Infusing it into a Stone Elf will evolve it into a Fire Stone Elf.

I couldn't tell a lot about it, but I was certain about one thing.

'Fire Stone Elf!'

I had never seen it in the game. That was how fresh the term was to me.

However, I had personally experienced the Stone Elves in Royal Roader. I had also seen how the Stone Elves became much stronger once the Elementals went inside them.

That was why I was able to easily imagine a Fire Stone Elf.

It should be at least stronger than Stone Elves with the regular Elementals.

'Jackpot!'

However, there was something I was looking forward to even more.

This was already the completion of the fourth quest. I just needed to complete one more quest to reach the level of Best Blacksmith. Using Jewel Alchemy at that.

Then I would be at around Akto's level.

No, I might even be at a higher level than Akto was when he was alive since I already know the secret of Jewel Alchemy.

"Then is the final quest the only one left?"

"Oh, indeed!"

Bangart who was standing there with a blank expression quickly snapped out of it. He then closed his eyes as if he was receiving a message from Volca.n.u.s.

The other Dwarves quietly watched us as if they were thinking that they might witness a historic moment.

I was praying as I waited for Bangart to speak.

'Please let it be a quest that I've already completed.'

Bangart finally opened his eyes.

"This is the fifth and final quest to become a Best Blacksmith. You must overcome a lot of obstacles to become a Jewel Alchemy master. One of those obstacles is to find out the secret of Jewel Alchemy."

I almost screamed in joy after hearing that.

I had already completed that as well. Of course, that was only if the 'Jewel Alchemy's secret' that Akto taught me was what this was talking about.

And that was indeed the case. Bangart showed an extremely shocked expression as he blanked out.

"You are truly an amazing human. You completed three levels of the Best Blacksmith quest at once."

"I've always been a bit special. Haha."

I heard the voice again in my mind at that moment.

< you="" have="" completed="" the="" fifth="" best="" blacksmith="" occupation="" quest.="" you="" have="" received="" natural="" power="" as="" a="" reward.="">
< you="" have="" completed="" the="" 15-part="" continuation="" quest="" and="" all="" your="" stats="" of="" increased="" by="" 3.="">

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It definitely lived up to my expectations. I was thinking that the rewards would get better as the quests progressed but wow, natural power.

The one I had last time was useless because the energy was completely spent and it wasn't like the energy restored itself.

Was this one similar to the other one?

[Natural Power]

The power of nature that is the source of life for Elves and Elementals is within this item.

The energy can be restored by hunting monsters.

Energy: 999/999

It was slightly different than the last one. No, it was much better than the last one. Although there was only half the energy as last time, I could restore this one through hunting monsters.

That meant that I could use it forever.

"Hahaha. To be able to have such a great honor. I was able to create a Best Jewel Alchemist."

Bangart raised his chin and happily laughed.

I'm sure it is an honorable moment for him. Although he was just the proxy of a G.o.d, he was still able to include his name in a page of the history of blacksmiths.

"You can finally challenge the Legendary Blacksmith level. You grew to stand side by side with my son in almost an instant. You truly have the qualifications to be friends with the Dwarves."

It was truly a historic moment. I felt like the time I invested in the Dwarves Village today had exploded in my favor.

"Then this is the first step to becoming a Legendary Blacksmith."

Please figure out the second secret hidden within Jewel Alchemy.
You will be given the Jewel Create skill as a reward should you succeed.>

Jewel Create? Did I hear wrong?

The name makes it sound like it is a skill that allows me to create jewels.

"Does that mean I can create Jewels of Creation or Chaos Jewels or whatever I want?"

"I do not know that much."

Bangart shook his head.

That was not the only weird thing.

"Why are there no levels for this quest? Shouldn't an occupation quest be divided into five levels?"

"I was wondering the same thing. Goonto had different levels when he received the Legendary Blacksmith quest."

I was stupid to ask.

It was obvious that Bangart would have no idea about this. Bangart's role was just delivering Volca.n.u.s's will.

n.o.body would know the reason behind this. There was n.o.body human or Dwarf who had attempted to become a Legendary Blacksmith with Jewel Alchemy.

Anyway, I was certain about one thing. My Legendary Blacksmith quest was not divided into levels.

Of course, there was no proof that I would immediately become a Legendary Blacksmith after completing this quest.

Actually, there was nothing I was certain about. The only way to deal with it was to experience it with my own body.

I had no reason to push it back anymore. Combining jewels is probably the best way to figure out the secret of Jewel Alchemy.

I had not fortified any of the weapons I had promised to fortify either. I might feel something if I combine more Jewels of Fortification and fortify their weapons.

If not, I will aim for the next opportunity.

I started to combine Jewels of Fortification again.

But it seemed as if my Jewel Alchemy had increased quite a bit in that short amount of time. It took less than 20 seconds to combine two jewels into one. The fact that it decreased from 1 minute to 20 seconds meant that it was a significant change.

But that was not it. The results were shocking as well.

[Jewel of Fortification: Fortification Index 15%]

This is possible?

I had combined two jewels with Fortification indexes of 7%. Then the max should have been 14% in the resulting jewel.

But it had come out at 15%. That meant that a resulting jewel with greater Fairy Energy than the two starting jewels had appeared. It was as if I had pulled a different kind of energy that existed in nature into the jewel.

I quickly opened my skills window to check.

[Jewel Alchemy: Advanced Level 7, 1%]

That was indeed the case. It was not just that the skill level had gone up. It had jumped two levels as it had just been at Advanced level 5.

I guess it makes sense since I became a Best Blacksmith and was now challenging to become a Legendary Blacksmith.

I continued to combine Jewels of Fortification.

The maximum Fortification index naturally increased more than before as well. I combined two 15% jewels and got a 25% jewel as a result.

That was probably the maximum level for me right now.

But something was weird. I felt something different than normal as I combined the two Jewels of Fortification.

It was something I had felt from before.

It was a different feeling than the Fairy's Energy. It was some dark energy that had bothered my concentration every time I combined jewels.

That was why I had pushed this different energy off to the side and only focused on the pure Fairy's Energy for a while.

Thanks to that, this different energy was unable to hinder my concentration anymore.

But this different energy was slowly revealing itself again.

But it wasn't like it was hindering my concentration. In fact, it seemed to be working as a medium for the combinations.

Maybe the reason the time for combining went down from 1 minute to 20 seconds was because of this different energy as well.

'What could this be?'

I focused on this different energy as I continued to work. I had pushed it off to the side in the past, but now I made it so that it could get along with the Fairy's Energy as I combined jewels.

The feeling became stronger every time I combined more jewels.

I then started to flinch at a moment.

'Ah! This feeling is……!'

It was definitely something I was familiar with.

However, it was not a good feeling. It was the dark energy I felt whenever I hunted monsters.

It was very similar to Dark Elf Rohas's energy.

Then I was able to come to a hypothesis.

The Five colored Jewels. They were not created with Fairy Energy alone. They were created in combination with Dark energy, in other words, in combination with the Demon Lord's Energy.

That was why I felt Dark Energy along with the Fairy Energy every time I combined Jewels.

Of course, I wasn't certain about this. There was no proof that Dark Energy was the Demon Lord's Energy. It wasn't like I had personally seen the Demon Lord before.

I should be able to figure out the ident.i.ty of this Dark Energy by the time I fight against the Demon Lord.

I then realized something as I got to that point.

It was what Akto had told me at the Demons' Mine when I had figured out the secret of Jewel Alchemy.

[It is your turn now. I hope that you do not end up like I did when the time comes.]

It was far from a congratulatory remark. He had sounded like he felt sorry for me.

I had not understood why he sounded that way back then, but now I was able to understand it.

I could also understand why Akto's Soul had been sealed there.

He had gone there after realizing that the key to the second secret was with the Demon Lord. His soul was captured by the Demon Lord after he failed.

'Then I am almost certain.'

It was not a quest that could quickly be resolved. I will only be able to challenge it after I build the necessary skills to fight against the Demon Lord.

That meant that I needed to be at least level 600. It was still long in the future.

'Fine! You'll choke if you eat anything too quickly. Let's do it step by step. Start with the things I can do right now!'

I continued to work.

It didn't take long to fortify the ten weapons as my Jewel Alchemy level was so high.

I started early in the afternoon and it was still early in the afternoon after I finished.

Of course, I was not done yet. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say that this was the start of the real deal. It was time for me to show them my skills.

Of course, I had already shown it to them. The other Dwarves were all shocked while I was taking care of the quests Bangart gave me.

But those were too abstract to really tell my abilities. It wasn't enough to make the Dwarves beg for my help.

I wanted to show them something more concrete.

For example, something like this.

"Great Patriarch-nim. Do you have any more Jewels of Fortification?"

"Of course. Why? Do you need more?"

"Please give me a few more. I will fortify your weapon for free until the third level because you created such a wonderful gathering for me. Of course, you will need to give me Chaos Jewels as rewards to fortify it anymore than that, just like the other Dwarves."

"To the third level? Is that possible?"

The other Dwarves all looked shocked as well.

But they were not that shocked. They should have been able to tell that much based on how I had cleared the quests.

In fact, they should all be quite curious right now.

Bangart seemed to have the same curiosity as he cautiously asked.

"Then just how many levels of fortification are possible?"

Actually, I was curious about that as well. The fifth level was possible in the past, but more should be possible now because my skill has gone up.

"I'll find out once I try. But I have to start with the third level."

I instantly combined the jewels and finished the third level fortification.

This much was child's play by now.

The Dwarves didn't seem shocked either as if this was an obvious result. However, they could not look away from me. This was when it became serious.

"The fourth level requires two Chaos Jewels. Will you do it?"

"Of course."

Bangart quickly handed over four Jewels of Fortification and two Chaos Jewels.

The fourth level was quickly finished as well.

Bangart checked the status of the fortified weapon. His jaws had been dropped since a while ago.

"Is the fifth level possible as well?"

"Of course. That'll be three Chaos Jewels."

"H, here you go."

Bangart seemed out of it. Weapon fortification was rare even in the Dwarf world, but here he was, getting a fifth level fortification done on his weapon.

However, this was a regular thing for me. The first time was hard, but it was always easy from the second time onward.

I combined the Jewels of Fortification on the spot and fortified the weapon again.

'It definitely feels different than before.'

Translator: Miraclerifle

Proofreader: Borderline m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t

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