Chương 39: Apparently, My New Sword Needs Seven More Dexterity

At 9: 21 the next morning, Matt was nineteen minutes early for an appointment that required him to do absolutely nothing except watch someone else work. He considered that a perfectly respectable use of time. Iron Junction's Crafter Hall was larger than anything he had seen in Ashfield, Ironvale, Cinderfall, or Gravetide. The building sat near the center of Camp like a hybrid between a machine shop, a bank, and a union hall.

Delvers moved through the entrance carrying weapon cases, armor bins, crates of clean Bases, and sealed containers for high-value Crafting Currency, while digital boards above the front desk listed public demonstrations, paid commissions, appraisal queues, and available workstations. Matt stopped in front of one listing even though he had already memorized it.

PUBLIC SKILL DEMONSTRATION Crafter: Evan Rourke Skill: Tempered Edge — B Category: Physical Weapon Crafting Observation Access: Permitted Time: 9: 40 AM He had failed to copy Tempered Edge twice. The first time, COPY's limit had been C-rank. The second time, COPY's limit had still been C-rank. Today there was no reason for the answer to remain the same. Matt checked in at the front desk. The woman behind it found his reservation on a tablet and looked up.

"Matt Hayes. Observation only?"

"Yes."

"No commission?"

"Not today." She tapped the screen twice, then slid a temporary visitor badge across the counter.

"Workshop B-6. Public bench section. No interference during activation, no touching client materials, and no entering the marked work area." Matt clipped the badge to his shirt.

"So stand there and behave."

"That is the simplified version."

"Excellent." He followed the signs deeper into the Hall. Open work areas lined both sides of the corridor, some occupied by Crafters performing routine services while customers watched. One woman was working through a stack of boots. Farther down, two Delvers were arguing over whether a modifier on a spear justified the listed service fee. Matt barely slowed down. Today he was here for one specific Skill. Workshop B-6 already had a small crowd gathered behind the observation line.

Most looked like Crafters or Delvers interested in the demonstration. A man near the front carried a secured weapon case and was speaking with a Hall employee, presumably the customer whose commission everyone else was about to watch. Matt took a place near the back and waited. At 9: 39, Evan Rourke entered through the side door.

He was older than Matt had expected, somewhere in his forties, dressed in ordinary work clothes with reinforced gloves and none of the theatrical nonsense someone might have expected from a high-rank Crafter. No glowing robe. No enchanted hammer hanging dramatically from his belt. He looked like someone who had performed the same valuable service several thousand times and had long since stopped finding an audience interesting. The customer's case was opened.

A clean one-handed axe Base came out and was secured on the workbench. Evan inspected it, checked the Currency being used, confirmed the commission, and rested one hand near the weapon. Then the Unique Skill activated. COPY reacted immediately. UNIQUE SKILL OBSERVED TEMPERED EDGE — B Crafting / Active When guiding an eligible Crafting Currency application to a physical weapon, guarantees an Increased Physical Damage modifier family. Modifier value remains random. Maximum Uses: 10/day There it was.

Exactly the same Skill that had rejected him before. Matt didn't need to think about it.

"Copy." COPY COMPLETE Tempered Edge — B Stored Unique Skills: 21 Matt stared at the notification. He had expected success. The System had told him yesterday that his maximum copyable Rank was now B. There had been no real reason to doubt it. Expectation still wasn't the same thing as confirmation. For the first time, a B-rank Unique Skill sat inside his Archive.

"… Okay." Evan finished the customer's craft while Matt was still looking at his own interface. The resulting modifier was good, not perfect. That was useful confirmation too. Tempered Edge guaranteed the modifier family, not the roll itself. Exactly what Matt had expected. Exactly what he wanted. The crowd began to disperse once the demonstration ended. Matt stepped out of the traffic flow, pulled out his phone, and sent Laura the report he had promised. B-rank COPY confirmed.

Tempered Edge — B successfully copied at 9: 42 AM. Stored Skills: 21 Active Slots: 3 Maximum Copyable Rank remains B. No additional changes observed. The reply arrived less than a minute later. Acknowledged. Development record updated. Continue normal operations. Report further changes. Matt pocketed the phone.

"Government achieved." He started toward the exit. Six steps later, he stopped. Weighted Edge. Quickened Temper. Tempered Edge. Matt slowly turned his head back toward the Crafting benches, although there was no reason to return to them. He already had what he needed. Flat Physical Damage. Increased Physical Damage. Attack Speed. Three modifier families. Three Crafting Skills. Three active COPY slots. For weeks, there had always been a missing piece. Weighted Edge could guarantee flat physical.

Quickened Temper could guarantee attack speed. But the local Increased Physical Damage modifier—the one that made the entire weapon scale properly—had remained outside his personal crafting package. Not anymore.

"… I can build the whole weapon now." That realization changed the rest of his morning. Matt left the Crafter Hall and headed straight for the equipment market. ◆ His current sword was still good. That was important. The Rare Foundry Longsword had lasted far beyond the point where Matt had originally expected to replace it.

He had found the clean Base back in Ironvale, tested it against Scrap Hounds, crafted it into something genuinely useful, and then carried it through Cinderfall, Gravetide, and into Iron Junction. Its final physical damage was still 10–25, backed by flat Physical, +48% local Physical Damage, and +7% Attack Speed. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. For a Level 9 Base, it had done more than enough.

Matt pulled it from the sheath and looked at it before opening the market listings.

"You did your job." Then he started searching for its replacement. One-Handed Sword. Normal rarity. Clean Base. Level requirement seventeen or below. No useless modifiers already occupying space. No "almost good enough" Rare that would force him to build around somebody else's mistakes. He wanted raw material. The clean Bases appeared first. Matt skipped several immediately. Too slow. Bad physical range. Wrong Attribute requirements.

Overpriced because someone had decided a fashionable sword shape deserved a thirty-percent premium. Then one listing made him stop. BROADSWORD One-Handed Sword Physical Damage: 15–21 Critical Strike Chance: 5. 00% Attacks per Second: 1. 45 Weapon Range: 1. 1 m Requires Level 17, 30 Strength, 30 Dexterity +40% Global Accuracy Matt read the physical damage again. Fifteen to twenty-one. That was the clean Base. No flat modifier. No local percentage modifier. No attack speed craft. Just the sword.

His Foundry Longsword's original Base had been 6–14.

"…Oh." That was already enough to get his attention. Then he saw the requirement line. Level 17. Fine. Strength 30. More than fine. Dexterity 30. Matt checked his current Attributes even though he already knew the answer. DEX: 23. He stared at the seven-point gap.

"… Of course." Not impossible. Not even particularly serious. Just inconvenient enough to become a problem. Quick Frame solved it temporarily. His current Iron Junction combat loadout already included Quick Frame, so as long as the copied Skill remained active, the Broadsword's Dexterity requirement would be satisfied. But that wasn't the same as actually meeting the requirement.

If a Boss demanded Anchored Step instead, or some future fight made another Unique Skill more valuable than Quick Frame, Matt did not want his weapon choice quietly deciding one of his three COPY slots for him. Still, that was a future optimization problem. The sword itself was exactly what he wanted. Clean. Level-appropriate. Strong Base damage. Good Attack Speed. Useful implicit. Price: $480. Matt bought it. Five minutes later, he was carrying the secured weapon case back toward his trailer.

The Attribute issue could be dealt with later. He had Crafting to do. ◆ Matt cleared the trailer table completely before starting. The new Broadsword went in the center. Three pieces of Crafting Currency went beside it, each separated enough that there was no chance of confusing the order. He had learned a great deal about crafting over the last several weeks, but perhaps the most important lesson was that "I know what I'm doing" was not a substitute for physically organizing expensive materials before using them.

Then he opened COPY. His current combat loadout was Sweeping Tempo, Quick Frame, and Overmuscle. All three came out. The replacements went in one at a time. ACTIVE UNIQUE SKILLS Weighted Edge — C Tempered Edge — B Quickened Temper — C Matt looked at the three names for a moment. Three slots. Three desired modifiers. That was almost suspiciously neat. It did not mean he could apply all three Skills to one Currency use. That rule had never changed. One Crafting Unique guided one application.

If he wanted three guaranteed modifier families, he still needed three separate applications. That was fine. Today, he had all three. Matt picked up the first Currency. Weighted Edge activated. The application settled into the sword. CRAFT RESULT Adds 5–9 Physical Damage"Good." Not perfect. Not disappointing. Good. The Base had effectively moved from 15–21 to 20–30 before the percentage modifier even entered the calculation. Matt set the first Currency aside and reached for the second. Then he stopped.

Tempered Edge. The Skill had been in his Archive for less than an hour. He had spent weeks unable to copy it. Now he was about to use it himself. Matt activated the Skill. TEMPERED EDGE — B Daily Uses: 10 → 9 No warning. No failure. No strange incompatibility between COPY and B-rank. The Skill simply worked. Matt guided the second Currency into the Broadsword. CRAFT RESULT +62% increased Physical Damage Matt went still. The weapon card refreshed.

BROADSWORD One-Handed Sword Physical Damage: 32–49 Critical Strike Chance: 5. 00% Attacks per Second: 1. 45 Weapon Range: 1. 1 m Requires Level 17, 30 Strength, 30 Dexterity +40% Global Accuracy Adds 5–9 Physical Damage +62% increased Physical Damage He compared it to the sword he had been using. Old weapon: 10–25. New weapon, not yet finished: 32–49. The low end had more than tripled. The high end had almost doubled. Matt sat there for several seconds without touching the third Currency.

"That is not a small upgrade." The important part was that Tempered Edge had not created the entire difference by itself. The Base was much better. Weighted Edge had produced a solid flat roll. Tempered Edge had supplied the missing local multiplier. Those pieces multiplied each other instead of merely adding another small number onto an old weapon. That was the real improvement. For the first time, Matt had a good current-level Base and all three parts of his physical crafting package available at the same time.

He reached for the final Currency. Quickened Temper activated. CRAFT RESULT +11% increased Attack Speed The finished item appeared. NEW ITEM BROADSWORD One-Handed Sword Physical Damage: 32–49 Physical DPS: 65. 2 Critical Strike Chance: 5. 00% Attacks per Second: 1. 61 Weapon Range: 1. 1 m Requires Level 17, 30 Strength, 30 Dexterity +40% Global Accuracy Adds 5–9 Physical Damage +62% increased Physical Damage +11% increased Attack Speed Matt looked at it. Then kept looking at it.

Most of his progression so far had come in pieces. Thirty more Life here. A few points of Resistance there. A better Support Gem. One Passive Point. A piece of Gear that solved one problem without creating two new ones. This was different. This was a weapon he could put beside the old one and understand immediately. 10–25. 32–49. Even without touching a monster, the difference was obvious. Matt picked up the Broadsword and turned it in his hands.

"Yeah." He checked the card one more time.

"I like this sword." ◆ The requirement warning was still there. Matt managed to ignore it for almost five minutes. Then the red Dexterity number finally became too annoying.

"Right." DEX 23. Required DEX 30. Seven short. The System had apparently decided that successfully crafting a very good sword did not qualify him for seven complimentary Attribute Points. Unreasonable, but consistent. Matt reopened COPY and removed the crafting loadout. Weighted Edge, Tempered Edge, and Quickened Temper went back into the Archive. His normal Iron Junction combat setup returned. Sweeping Tempo. Quick Frame. Overmuscle. Quick Frame came online. The requirement warning vanished.

REQUIREMENTS MET Matt looked at the Broadsword.

"Cheating remains extremely convenient." He could use it. That was the immediate problem solved. The permanent problem was different. Quick Frame was already excellent. Matt had no objection to using it. The objection was needing it. COPY had three active slots because choosing the correct three Skills for the current problem was part of the entire point of the ability. He did not want one slot silently reserved by a sword. Still, that could wait until after he found out how the weapon actually felt.

Matt carried the Broadsword outside and headed toward one of Iron Junction's open practice lanes. He didn't need a Dungeon run. He didn't need to find a monster. He certainly didn't need to invent an excuse to hit something dangerous immediately after crafting new equipment. A few dry swings would tell him enough. The first did. The Broadsword moved cleanly through the cut. Its balance was different from the old Foundry Longsword, but not awkward.

The higher Attack Speed was noticeable without feeling frantic, and the weapon returned to position quickly enough that Matt immediately understood how much smoother Cleave was going to feel. He swung again. Then once more. No target. No damage numbers. Still satisfying. The new weapon felt like a Level 17 sword rather than a Level 9 sword that had survived because its modifiers were unusually good. Matt lowered it.

"This is going to be rude." He returned to the trailer before that sentence encouraged him to go find something with a health bar. ◆ The next problem was jewelry. Of course it was. Matt sat at the table and pulled up his current equipment. Seven Dexterity did not sound like much until he looked at the Ring slots already holding the rest of his setup together. Elemental Ring was effectively non-negotiable because it eliminated Elemental Shield's Mana reservation.

His Gravetide Rare, meanwhile, was one of the pieces keeping Lightning Resistance at 75% while also providing Life. Replacing the latter with the first Ring that happened to say "+7 Dexterity" would solve one problem by reopening older ones. Matt had spent enough time fixing elemental Resistances to know exactly how stupid that would be. What he needed was not merely Dexterity. He needed a Ring with at least seven Dexterity while preserving enough Lightning Resistance to keep the rest of the setup intact.

Preferably Life too. Matt stared at the equipment screen.

"Of course the sword created a jewelry problem." That was almost reassuring. A weapon upgrade causing an accessory problem felt correct in a way that a completely clean improvement would not have. Gear interacted. Requirements interacted. Resistances interacted. One slot changed another. He opened the Marketplace and started entering filters. Ring. Dexterity. Lightning Resistance. Then he stopped. The Broadsword was still lying across the table. Thirty-two to forty-nine. He looked at the market search.

Then back at the sword. Matt slowly put the phone down.

"No." Not because the Ring problem didn't matter. It just didn't have to matter tonight. There would always be another optimization. Another slot. Another modifier. Another number that could move three percent in the correct direction if he spent forty minutes filtering listings. He had just copied his first B-rank Unique Skill and used it to build a weapon whose minimum damage was more than three times that of his old sword. He was allowed to enjoy that before immediately turning it into a spreadsheet problem.

Matt took the old Foundry Longsword out one last time and laid it beside the Broadsword. The difference looked almost unfair. The Foundry Longsword had still earned some respect. It had carried him through Ironvale, Cinderfall, Gravetide, and into Iron Junction. For a Level 9 Base, it had lasted far longer than it should have. He ran a cloth over the blade, checked the sheath, and placed it into the trailer's secured storage instead of listing it for sale. Backup weapon. History. Maybe both.

Then he returned to the table. The new Broadsword remained there by itself. Much better. Matt opened his planner and added the only things that actually needed attention. GEAR New Broadsword — COMPLETE Requirement issue: DEX +7 Temporary solution: Quick Frame Long-term solution: Ring Replacement Ring: DEX +7 minimum Maintain Lightning Resistance Prefer Life He paused. One other category had been sitting in the back of his mind since he started browsing B-rank listings after yesterday's unlock.

He had seen the term several times without giving it much attention yet. Meta Skills. Matt added one more section. COPY B-rank access — CONFIRMED Next research target: Meta Skills That could wait too. Tomorrow, maybe. Or after the next Dungeon run. Matt closed the planner. For once, there was no reason to open another market tab. No reason to start calculating the resale value of B-rank-assisted weapons. No reason to search every publicly observable B-rank Unique Skill in Iron Junction before bed.

Those problems would still exist in the morning. The sword would too. Matt leaned back and looked at the item card one more time. 32–49. 65. 2 DPS. His first B-rank copy had already paid off. The Dexterity problem could wait. He smiled.

"Worth it."