Chương 18: Apparently, My Sword Is Terrible

The morning alarm went off inside Matt's trailer at Ironvale. For several seconds, he didn't remember where he was. Then a heavy diesel engine rumbled somewhere outside. Metal struck metal, a forklift reversed with an electronic warning beep, and farther away something near the Ironvale Works Gate produced a deep rhythmic impact. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. Matt stared at the ceiling.

"Indiana." Right. No Cinder Crows. No eternal orange orchard. Murder factory. He got out of bed. Coffee came first. Matt slotted Perfect Temperature long enough to correct the mug exactly where he wanted it, then sat at the fold-down table with two swords in front of him. On the left: BEGINNER LONGSWORD Required Level: 1 Physical Damage: 4–9 On the right was the clean Foundry Longsword he had picked up and immediately started using during yesterday's Ironvale recon.

FOUNDRY LONGSWORD Rarity: Normal Required Level: 9 Physical Damage: 6–14 Implicit: Accuracy Rating +45 Matt took a sip of coffee. Four to nine. Six to fourteen. Yesterday, simply swapping to the clean Level Nine Base had already reduced a Scrap Hound from three basic attacks to two. That made the comparison difficult to ignore. Matt rubbed his forehead.

"I didn't just outlevel you." He looked at the Beginner Longsword.

"I failed scheduled maintenance." That was worse. As a former logistics coordinator, Matt felt personally attacked by his own negligence. Before fixing the weapon problem, however, he still had morning production to handle. Both Crafting Skills had reset overnight. Matt switched out Perfect Temperature and equipped Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward. Then, instead of pretending Ironvale had conveniently provided an infinite pile of disposable Boss loot, he opened the local market.

Cheap clean beginner Bases were everywhere. Helmets. Gloves. Boots. Belts. Nothing premium. No perfect Implicits. No unusual Base properties worth preserving. Commodity inputs. Exactly what Matt wanted. He bought ten inexpensive clean Bases and enough common compatible Crafting Currency for the batch. Actual money out. Actual input costs. Actual manufacturing.

"Factory open." By now, the process had become routine enough that Matt didn't narrate every result to himself. He prepared each Base, guaranteed Maximum Life, guaranteed an appropriate Elemental Resistance, recorded the rolls, and moved on. Some rolls were mediocre. Some were good. One Life result made him briefly consider keeping the item. Matt compared it with his current Gear.

"No." Market pile. By the time his coffee was half finished, ten newly crafted beginner Rare items sat ready for consignment. Both daily Crafting pools were empty. Matt looked at the batch.

"Factory closed." Twenty minutes. That was becoming the bizarre part. Not that Crafting was profitable. Matt understood the economics now: useful guaranteed outcomes were scarce, demand was enormous, and COPY had given him professional specializations without taking them away from their original owners. The strange part was how quickly something absurd had become part of breakfast. He checked the batch economics once. Base purchase cost. Currency consumed. Marketplace fees. Comparable recent sales.

The projected value added still landed in the several-thousand-dollar range if the market behaved normally.

"Breakfast pays for Indiana." Matt considered that sentence. Still unhealthy. He packed the finished Gear into shipping containers and drove it to Ironvale's Marketplace Dispatch Counter. The system worked exactly like the one he had used in Ashfield. Staff verified each Item ID, confirmed ownership and modifiers, sealed the Gear into insured consignment, and activated the listings only after the physical items were in Marketplace custody.

Once that happened, Matt no longer needed to care whether the eventual buyer lived in Indiana, Kentucky, or California. The Marketplace logistics network handled storage, routing, insured transport, and final delivery. No System teleportation. No magical item transfer. Warehouses and trucks. Matt approved professionally. The final tray disappeared behind the secure counter. 10 LISTINGS ACTIVE Now he could focus on the more embarrassing problem. His sword.

◆ Yesterday, Matt had bookmarked a Bastion video titled: BEGINNER WEAPONS: DPS IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY He hovered over it. Then shook his head.

"No." Bastion was excellent at explaining why something mattered. Today Matt wanted numbers. Written numbers. Tables. Ranges. Something he could scroll backward without sitting through a twelve-minute introduction. He searched for beginner Physical Warrior weapon mechanics instead. One of the first useful results came from a large community reference site. DELVERFORGE PHYSICAL WARRIOR WEAPONS: WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERS Matt clicked.

"Written article." He took another sip of coffee.

"Thank God." The article opened with a warning box. If you are below Level Twenty, stop asking for the perfect weapon. You are going to replace it. Your goal is not perfection. Your goal is to stop carrying garbage. Matt slowly looked toward the Beginner Longsword.

"… Personal." The opening sections covered concepts he already knew from equipment Crafting: Base Type, Required Level, Item Level, Implicit, and modifiers. Then came a much larger heading. THE PHYSICAL CORE THREE Matt leaned closer. For an early-progression Physical Warrior weapon, there are three modifier families you should understand before you start getting clever. 1. ADDED PHYSICAL DAMAGE Example: Adds 1 to 3 Physical Damage The explanation was straightforward.

Flat Added Physical Damage increased the weapon's own underlying physical range. A 6–14 weapon that gained +1–3 became 7–17 before local percentage scaling. Matt looked at the Foundry Longsword. Six to fourteen. Simple enough. Next: 2. INCREASED PHYSICAL DAMAGE Example: Physical Damage increased by 48% The important word in the explanation was local. The percentage modified the weapon itself. That was different from Physical Damage increases on Matt's Passive Tree, buffs, or other character-side effects.

A warning box made the distinction explicit. LOCAL WEAPON MODIFIERS VS CHARACTER MODIFIERS A local modifier changes the weapon's displayed damage. Character-side modifiers scale attacks made using the finished weapon. Matt paused. His Passive Tree already provided substantial Physical Attack Damage, with Master of the Arena adding more Melee Physical Damage on top. Those bonuses had spent days scaling the attacks he made with a weapon whose own damage was only 4–9.

If the weapon itself became 10–25, those same character-side bonuses suddenly had a much stronger foundation underneath them. Matt looked at the Beginner Longsword.

"You really were being carried." The article summarized the relationship neatly. Flat damage without percentage scaling leaves value on the table. Percentage scaling without enough underlying damage magnifies a weak foundation. A competent Physical weapon usually wants both. Matt nodded. Good Base. Flat Physical. Weapon-local percentage Physical. Then his character-side scaling afterward. Third: 3. INCREASED ATTACK SPEED Matt immediately recognized the family.

"There you are." Bastion had recommended Attack Speed on Gloves. Weapons could carry it too. The article pointed out the obvious part first: damage per hit was not damage over time. Two weapons with identical physical ranges were not equivalent if one attacked substantially faster. Then came the caveat. DPS is useful. DPS is not your religion. Matt smiled. Higher Attack Speed could mean more attacks in the same window. It could also mean faster Mana consumption if a Delver spammed Mana-costing Skills.

Different Skills interacted differently with weapon speed. Timing, positioning, and recovery windows still mattered. Apparently veteran Warriors all eventually became irritated teachers. The beginner summary appeared near the bottom. BEGINNER PHYSICAL RARE Added Physical Damage Increased Physical Damage Increased Attack Speed Get these three onto a competent Base before congratulating yourself for rolling something clever. Matt stared.

"Three core families." Not a perfect weapon. Not every useful modifier. A coherent foundation. That was enough. The article also explained the Foundry Longsword's +45 Accuracy Implicit. Accuracy wasn't a direct hit percentage. Enemy Evasion and other System factors still mattered. But having more attack reliability built directly into the Base without occupying one of the weapon's crafted modifier slots was useful. Matt looked at his sword.

"So I accidentally found a good Base." Another glance at the +45.

"A very good one." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. He had the Base. He had Currency. He knew which three modifier families he wanted. Now he needed the Crafters. ◆ Ironvale Crafter Row looked considerably more impressive when it was actually open. The warehouse doors were raised, and people moved through the building carrying equipment cases, weapon racks, sealed Currency containers, and clipboards. Matt stepped inside. Then stopped.

"… Costco." The ceiling was enormous. Long service lanes divided heavy workbenches from waiting areas, material counters, equipment scanners, and public observation zones behind thick transparent barriers. Crafter stations were organized by specialization. Armor. Jewelry. Weapons. Attributes. Utility. A large display tracked the day's remaining guaranteed services. Matt headed for Weapon Crafting.

AVAILABLE WEAPON SERVICES Added Physical Damage — 8 uses remaining Increased Physical Damage — 3 uses remaining Attack Speed — 10 uses remaining Matt stopped.

"…All three?" For a brief moment, the solution looked absurdly simple. Watch three Crafters. Copy three Skills. Go home. Guarantee all three core Physical modifier families whenever he had the right Base and Currency. Still random rolls. Still Item Level restrictions. Still Currency costs. But the category-level uncertainty would disappear. Matt opened the specialist details. Added Physical Damage Specialist — C Attack Speed Specialist — C Increased Physical Damage Specialist — B Matt closed his eyes.

"Of course." B-rank. Tempered Edge. He had already encountered it in Ashfield. COPY had rejected it there. Nothing about arriving in Indiana had changed his current C-rank ceiling. Still, Matt moved toward the station. A broad-shouldered Crafter accepted a two-handed axe and compatible Currency from a customer. The Skill activated. Matt's interface responded. UNIQUE SKILL OBSERVED Tempered Edge — B COPY FAILED — Current Maximum Copy Rank: C"… Still B."

The resulting Craft landed in the correct Increased Physical Damage family. The numerical roll remained random. Exactly as expected. The ability didn't produce a perfect weapon. It removed one category of failure. A massive advantage. Just not one Matt could steal yet.

"Fine." He moved to the Added Physical station. A younger woman worked on a heavy mace. Currency touched steel. The Unique activated. Matt's interface flashed. WEIGHTED EDGE — C Crafting / Active Effect When using compatible Crafting Currency, up to 10 times per day, guarantees that the resulting modifier belongs to the Added Physical Damage family. The exact minimum and maximum added Physical Damage remain subject to the item's eligible modifier range. Flavor Text Steel does not need to be clever.

Sometimes it only needs to arrive with more of itself. The mace updated. Adds 2 to 4 Physical Damage Matt smiled.

"Copy." COPY COMPLETE — Weighted Edge — C One. The Attack Speed station was next. A dagger lay on the workbench while its owner watched closely. The Crafter activated. QUICKENED TEMPER — C Crafting / Active Effect When using compatible Crafting Currency on eligible equipment, up to 10 times per day, guarantees that the resulting modifier belongs to the Attack Speed family. The exact value remains subject to the item's eligible modifier range. Flavor Text The first strike proves you can wound.

The second proves the enemy was too slow to stop you. The dagger gained: Attack Speed increased by 6% Matt nodded.

"…I like that one." Then he noticed the wording. Eligible equipment. Not weapons specifically. Matt checked the Cooperative reference page. Weapons. Certain Gloves. A few specialized equipment families. Bastion's recommendation immediately returned. Gloves — Attack Speed. Matt glanced down at his own Gloves.

"…Later." First:"Copy." COPY COMPLETE — Quickened Temper — C Both newly copied Skills had their own untouched daily capacity. Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward were exhausted from breakfast. Weighted Edge and Quickened Temper were fresh. Every copied Skill kept its own rules. Matt looked toward the Tempered Edge station. Two of the three core weapon families were now deterministic. Added Physical? Guaranteed family. Attack Speed? Guaranteed family. Increased Physical? Still gambling.

"So I can manufacture two-thirds of a sword." He paused.

"And gamble the middle." That sounded about right. ◆ There was, of course, a sane solution. Matt checked the Tempered Edge service board. Guaranteed Increased Physical Damage Service Fee: $300+ Three hundred dollars. Not remotely threatening to Matt's finances anymore. He could hand over the Foundry Longsword, pay the specialist, guarantee the correct modifier family, then use his own copied Skills for Flat Physical and Attack Speed. Simple. Correct. Probably what he would do with an expensive Base.

Matt looked toward a nearby vendor selling clean Foundry Longswords. The Bases were common Ironvale drops. Cheap. Cheap enough that several experiments plus ordinary Currency cost less than a respectable finished weapon. That changed the question. Matt wasn't deciding whether three hundred dollars was affordable. It was. He was deciding whether he wanted to pay someone to skip a lesson while the lesson was still cheap. Matt bought two additional clean Foundry Longswords. Now he had three.

His original field-tested drop. Two expendable market Bases.

"I can pay three hundred dollars and get the right answer." He looked at the swords.

"Or I can find out exactly what that three hundred dollars is protecting me from." There was no contest. Unfortunately. ◆ Back in his trailer, Matt cleared the table. Three clean Foundry Longswords sat in front of him. FOUNDRY LONGSWORD Rarity: Normal Required Level: 9 Physical Damage: 6–14 Implicit: Accuracy Rating +45 Matt opened a new spreadsheet. TARGET CORE THREE Added Physical Damage Increased Physical Damage Attack Speed Not mandatory. Not perfect.

Just the coherent Physical weapon structure the guide recommended. Matt equipped Weighted Edge and Quickened Temper. Prototype One was one of the purchased Bases. Weighted Edge did its job immediately. Adds 1 to 2 Physical Damage Correct family. Mediocre roll. Fine. Then came the uncontrolled step. Increased Physical Damage. No copied guarantee. Matt applied compatible general-purpose Currency. The result appeared. Critical Strike Chance increased by 9% Matt stared.

"…No." For somebody else's build? Potentially useful. For Matt's target structure? Completely off course. Prototype One moved aside. PROTOTYPE 1 — OFF TARGET That was what the $300 service protected against. Useful data. Prototype Two started better. Weighted Edge produced: Adds 2 to 3 Physical Damage Matt's eyebrows rose.

"Better." He applied the uncontrolled second Craft. The result: Physical Damage increased by 19% Matt stopped. Correct family. Actually useful. Then he checked the eligible range. 18% — 50% Nineteen. Matt stared at it.

"…That is aggressively near the bottom." The annoying part was that the sword was already good. Objectively. A 6–14 Base with +2–3 flat Physical and +19% local Physical was comfortably ahead of his old Level One weapon even before Attack Speed. The rational move was obvious. Use Quickened Temper. Finish it. Equip it. Go kill robots. Matt looked at the third clean Foundry Longsword. Then back at nineteen percent.

"…This is how it starts." Perfect-roll disease. Yesterday he had learned why a +8% Movement Implicit sold for substantially more than +7%. Today the System had shown him a range of eighteen to fifty and handed him nineteen. Matt closed his eyes.

"I said I wasn't becoming one of those people." He opened them. Prototype Three. His original Ironvale drop. If this one failed, Prototype Two was still a perfectly usable fallback. That was enough justification. Probably. ◆ Weighted Edge added: 1 to 3 Physical Damage Worse minimum than Prototype Two. Good maximum. Acceptable. Now the uncontrolled Craft. This was the step Matt could have removed entirely by paying a professional. That was exactly why he wanted to feel the variance while the Bases were cheap.

He applied the Currency. Light spread across the blade. The modifier resolved. Physical Damage increased by 48% Matt froze. Outside the trailer: THUNK. THUNK. Some distant Ironvale machinery continued working. Matt did not. He stared at the number.

"…Oh." Forty-eight. Eligible range: Eighteen to fifty. Not perfect. Close enough that Matt had absolutely no complaint.

"Forty-eight." Something deeply irrational lit up in his brain. This. This was why WhiteBase had an entire career yelling at people. Random Craft. Correct family. High roll. Dopamine. Matt smiled.

"There you are." The third core modifier did not require gambling. Matt used Quickened Temper. The result: Attack Speed increased by 7% The System recalculated the finished weapon. RARE FOUNDRY LONGSWORD Required Level: 9 Implicit: Accuracy Rating +45 Physical Damage: 10–25 Modifiers Adds 1 to 3 Physical Damage Physical Damage increased by 48% Attack Speed increased by 7% Matt remained quiet for several seconds.

"… Okay." This time he didn't need a calculator. The relationship was visible. The original 6–14 Base gained +1–3 flat Physical, becoming 7–17 before percentage scaling. The local +48% modifier then scaled the weapon itself until the displayed range settled at 10–25. That was where the weapon card stopped. Matt's Strength did not appear inside that number. His Passive damage bonuses did not appear inside it. Heavy Strike and Cleave did not appear inside it.

Those systems applied when Matt attacked with the finished weapon. He looked at the Rare Foundry Longsword.

"So this is the foundation." Then he looked at the Beginner Longsword. 4–9. Back to the new sword. 10–25. Matt stopped. The weakest weapon-damage result from the new sword was higher than the old sword's maximum. The top end was almost 2. 8 times higher. And the new weapon attacked seven percent faster. And carried +45 Accuracy. And all the same character-side scaling would now work from the stronger Base. Matt looked at the old sword.

"I was fighting robots with a butter knife." That was unfair. The Beginner Longsword had been perfectly fine. At Level One. Black Hollow had been appropriate for it. Strength and Passives had extended its useful life. Ashfield's fragile Rabbits and Crows had hidden the problem for longer than they should have. Nothing was wrong with a Level One weapon being weak at Level Nine. Matt picked it up.

"It wasn't bad." He set it down gently.

"It was eight Levels late." That part was on him. ◆ Matt checked the failed prototypes again. Prototype One had useful flat Physical but an off-target Critical modifier. Prototype Two had good flat Physical and a miserable-but-functional +19% Increased Physical Damage roll. Neither was worthless. That mattered. Weighted Edge had already guaranteed that both experiments contained at least one relevant Physical modifier before the random step wandered wherever it wanted. COPY wasn't eliminating Crafting randomness.

It was shrinking the failure space. Three prototypes. One result Matt actually wanted. Matt started to write 33%. Then stopped. Three samples. Absolutely not. He deleted it and wrote: 1 / 3 SUCCESSFUL TARGET RESULT — SAMPLE TOO SMALL TO CALL A RATE"Better." Do not become bad statistics because the third sword gave dopamine. Weighted Edge still had seven uses available. Quickened Temper still had nine. Matt's eyes drifted toward his Gloves. Good Life. Good Resistance. No Attack Speed.

Quickened Temper worked on eligible Gloves. Matt stared for several seconds. Then looked away.

"Later." He knew just enough about Crafting to understand why impulsively modifying equipment he currently relied on could be stupid. Affix capacity mattered. Base choice mattered. Maybe those Gloves weren't the pair he wanted to invest in long term. The entire point of today was to understand before clicking. Matt switched back into his normal Ironvale combat setup. Then stood and drew the new sword. One basic swing. The difference wasn't dramatic. Seven percent Attack Speed did not transform Matt into a blender.

But he had swung the old weapon hundreds of times. The new one completed its attack cycle slightly sooner than his hands expected. Matt swung again.

"…Huh." Windrunner Boots all over again. Small percentage. Constantly relevant. He sheathed the sword.

"Field test." ◆ Matt selected another Ironvale Instance with the Boss already defeated. Instance 91 — 34/64 — Boss Defeated Same Dungeon. Same enemy family. Better weapon. Useful comparison. He entered. CLANG. HISS. THUNK. Ironvale no longer made him stop and stare. Progress. A Scrap Hound dropped from an overhead structure a few minutes into the route. Yesterday, the Beginner Longsword had needed three basic attacks. The clean Foundry Base had already improved that to roughly two. Matt drew the crafted Rare.

The Hound charged. He swung. CLANG. The new blade tore deeply into the front plating and twisted the Construct sideways into a railing. Still active. Barely. Matt finished it with the second swing before the Hound could complete its counterattack. Two hits again. But the first had done dramatically more work.

"Good." More importantly, the first Skill comparison came moments later. Another Scrap Hound. Matt used Cleave. The red arc struck. Metal burst apart. The Hound collapsed immediately. Matt lowered the sword.

"… There it is." Yesterday with the weaker setup, the same enemy had survived the first Cleave. Today: One. That was not merely a bigger damage number. It meant half as many Cleave activations for that target. Half the Mana. Less time. No second attack window for the Hound. Matt continued. ◆ The first mixed pack arrived inside a loading hall. Three Scrap Hounds. Two Rivet Drones. Almost the same problem as yesterday. Matt activated Quick Frame and met the Hounds first. Cleave swept across all three.

Two Constructs died immediately. The third survived with its plating badly damaged. One normal swing finished it. Above him, a Rivet Drone fired. Matt stepped aside and answered with Blade Projection. The Mana-formed copy of the new Foundry sword crossed the hall. Hit. The Drone dropped. One shot. Second Drone. Blade Projection. Dead. Silence returned. Matt checked his Mana. The bar had dropped. Of course. Skills still cost Mana.

But yesterday an almost identical pack had required repeated Cleaves, repeated Blade Projections, more time inside enemy attack patterns, and a Mana Flask afterward. Today the pack was simply gone. Matt looked at the remaining Mana.

"…That's the real upgrade." The weapon didn't just increase damage. It reduced the number of actions needed to solve the same encounter. Fewer Skill activations meant less Mana. Shorter fights meant fewer incoming attacks. Less sustained pressure against Evasion. Less damage for Armor and regeneration to deal with. A dead Scrap Hound could not bite him. Very advanced theory.

"Damage is defense." Not always. But here? Absolutely. ◆ A Press Walker gave him the next comparison. The Construct lumbered from behind a stamping machine with its hydraulic arms raised. Matt moved inside the first swing. Heavy Strike. BOOM. The Rare Foundry Longsword drove into the Walker's chest. Armor folded inward. Yellow Mana lights flickered. Then went dark. The entire Construct collapsed. Matt stared.

"…That's more like it." One Heavy Strike. Not every Press Walker would necessarily resolve identically. Damage ranges existed. Enemy variation existed. Positioning mattered. But the result was now inside the range Matt wanted. A Rivet Drone appeared farther down the hall. Blade Projection. One hit. Dead.

"Good." The +7% Attack Speed became easier to feel as the fights accumulated. Not because Matt saw seven percent written in the air. Because familiar sequences compressed. Swing. Recover. Step. Swing again. The second attack became available slightly sooner. On one Hound, that tiny timing difference let Matt strike again before the Construct completed its follow-up bite. The Accuracy Implicit was quieter. No dramatic notification appeared when +45 Accuracy mattered.

His attacks simply felt more reliable against Ironvale's faster targets. Not guaranteed. Not magical. Useful.

"Base really matters." Again. Everything kept coming back to the foundation. ◆ Twenty minutes later, Matt found a larger group. Four Scrap Hounds. One Press Walker. Two Rivet Drones. Yesterday, he would have approached cautiously. Today? Still cautiously. Just faster. Matt opened with Blade Projection and removed the first Drone. The second shifted sideways, causing his next shot to miss.

"Still have to aim." Good. Equipment had not solved being wrong. The Hounds charged. Cleave. Two died. Two survived, one badly damaged. Matt turned with Quick Frame, used a second Cleave, and erased the remaining ground trash. The Press Walker was already close. Matt slipped past the hydraulic arm and used Heavy Strike. The Walker survived. Barely. Matt smiled.

"… Still tanky." A basic follow-up finished it. The surviving Drone fired. Matt moved. Blade Projection. Dead. He checked the battlefield. Ironvale had not magically become Ashfield. Some enemies still needed multiple actions. Construct durability remained real. But the friction now felt appropriate for a tougher beginner Dungeon rather than evidence that Matt was dragging obsolete equipment through it. Chloe's message from yesterday came back. Both things can be true. Ironvale was tanky.

His old weapon had also been terrible.

"Fine." He could accept both. ◆ Matt deliberately tested the Beginner Longsword one final time. For science. A lone Scrap Hound wandered near an inactive conveyor. Matt drew the old weapon. It immediately felt wrong. Too familiar. Too weak. The Hound charged. Matt swung. CLANG. Still active. Again. CLANG. Still active. Third. CLANG. Dead. Matt stared at the sword.

"…Nope." He immediately switched back to the Rare Foundry.

"Retired." Experiment concluded. ◆ Matt stayed inside Ironvale for a little over an hour. His route was similar to yesterday. The monsters were similar. His pace was not. The new weapon reduced the number of repeated Skill casts he needed, which meant fewer Mana Flask interruptions and fewer extended fights. That mattered more than the raw DPS number alone. Seconds repeated hundreds of times became minutes. Minutes became additional packs. Additional packs became more loot. Matt sighed.

"Everything becomes money." There was apparently no escape. Ironvale also dropped far more weapon Bases than Ashfield had, at least along Matt's current route. He had already learned not to pick up every white item. So he checked. White sword. Poor Implicit. Leave. White axe. Required Level Ten. Strong Base damage. Clean. Matt secured it in the weapon loops on his loot bag for later appraisal. Another Foundry Longsword dropped. Accuracy +41. Matt compared it with his own +45.

"Not as good." He almost left it. Then checked recent market value. Still worth enough to carry. Into the loot bag. Matt sighed.

"I have become the guy who checks white swords." The entire Dungeon had become more interesting now that he understood what he was looking at. Yesterday: Robot. Today: Robot containing potential manufacturing inputs.

"This is definitely a disease." ◆ Back at Ironvale Camp, Matt sold the ordinary metal materials and Mana Stones. The potentially useful Bases stayed with him until he could check prices properly. Then he returned to the trailer and opened the Black Hollow Group. Matt: weapon updated Chloe: Numbers? Matt: old 4-9 Matt: new 10-25 Pause. Ethan: WHAT Chloe: Matt. Matt: what Chloe: Your minimum weapon damage is higher than your old maximum.

Matt: yes Ethan: ACCOUNTANT FORGOT DAMAGE Matt: you already used that joke Ethan: IT GOT WORSE Matt laughed. Chloe: How does Ironvale feel now? Matt considered the question. Matt: still tankier than ashfield Matt: but normal tanky The reply came immediately. Chloe: There you go. Then: Chloe: Who crafted it? Matt paused. There were several ways to answer badly. He was not telling them how COPY worked. Not yet. Matt: had some help from crafter row True. Crafter Row had shown him the Skills.

What happened inside his Archive afterward was the omitted portion. Chloe: Good. Chloe: Glad your weapon finally caught up to your level. Ethan: NEXT WEEK HE DISCOVERS HELMETS Matt: already have one Ethan: WE'RE SO PROUD Matt closed the chat. ◆ Weighted Edge and Quickened Temper now sat in the Archive. Tempered Edge remained behind the B-rank wall. That meant Matt could guarantee two parts of the beginner Physical weapon core himself. Flat Physical. Attack Speed.

The middle stage—local Increased Physical Damage—was still random unless he paid a B-rank specialist. For now. Eventually, if COPY's Rank ceiling rose to B, that entire category-level gamble might disappear too. Not the numerical rolls. Never automatically the numerical rolls. Good Bases would still matter. Item Level would still matter. Currency would still matter. A low roll would still be a low roll. But asking for Physical Damage and receiving Critical Strike Chance? That failure mode could disappear.

Matt smiled.

"…Eventually." Appropriately dangerous. The two failed prototypes still sat on the table. Prototype One was off-target. Prototype Two was actually decent: good flat Physical and a low but valid +19% local Physical roll. Matt could finish it with Attack Speed and sell it. Probably should. Quickened Temper still had plenty of uses. Those daily Crafting capacities had economic value. His eyes drifted toward his Gloves again. Attack Speed. Again. Matt looked away.

"Tomorrow." Two Passive Points were still waiting too. Also tomorrow. This restraint was becoming exhausting. Marketplace notifications from the breakfast batch had accumulated while he was inside Ironvale. Several sales had already completed. Matt checked the ledger once. The morning's income made today's prototype Bases and wasted Currency look trivial. That didn't mean mistakes no longer mattered. It meant Matt could afford to experiment aggressively at this stage. Later, the numbers would grow.

More expensive Bases. More valuable Currency. More valuable finished equipment. And, if his progression continued, more income too. The lesson wasn't to become afraid of expensive Crafting. It was to understand the system while every zero was still small. Matt added one line to his notes. MAKE CHEAP MISTAKES WHILE THE LESSON IS CHEAP. WhiteBase would probably approve. Possibly after insulting him. ◆ Finally, Matt picked up the Beginner Longsword. Level One. Physical Damage 4–9. No reason to keep using it.

Its resale value was almost nothing. He considered selling it anyway. Then stopped. Black Hollow. First Dungeon. First actual monsters. The Old Foreman. Ashfield. Cinder Crows. Briar Husks. Ironvale, briefly and regrettably. The sword had been with him through the entire first stretch of his new life. Matt stared at it.

"Retirement." Not sentimental. Mostly. He opened the storage compartment beneath the bed and placed the Beginner Longsword inside. Then closed it. The new Rare Foundry Longsword waited on the table. Matt picked it up. Ten to twenty-five. Seven percent faster. Better Accuracy. A coherent Physical weapon instead of a starter Base being dragged eight Levels past retirement. Matt looked toward the storage compartment.

"In your defense, you were Level One equipment." No response.

"In my defense…" Matt paused. There really wasn't one. Outside, Ironvale's distant machinery continued its endless rhythm. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. Matt rested the new sword across his knees.

"Apparently, my sword was terrible."