Free Web NovelChapter 9: Chapter 9- The First Commission.
The woman stood before Leo in silence.
She had the posture of someone accustomed to being waited on rather than waiting for someone.
She stood there with her hands crossed, back straight and still, quietly pondering something.
Leo’s notification panel was already going haywire.
[Hidden quest detected.]
This rich royal missy is offering me a hidden quest?
Leo’s thoughts were rushing.
The woman’s eyes swept across Leo’s face once again, as if confirming something.
"If you’re interested, you can go to the Royal Palace. The palace appreciates talent."
"Huh?" Leo blinked.
Seeing her serious pondering expression, he almost thought she was going to ask back the money or threaten him about the origin of the sword.
"I appreciate the offer," Leo nodded, keeping his voice respectful. "I won’t promise anything, but I’ll visit when I have time."
The woman gave a slight nod and turned back without another word.
Leo watched her go until her silhouette disappeared within the crowd.
He checked the hidden quest. It was already accepted.
No time limit, No penalties.
He could take it slow.
Curious...
He gathered his belongings and headed towards the market exit.
The afternoon crowd was already thinning in the Market.
The moment he turned around a corner, past the merchant’s cart, a figure stepped out from the shadows between the alleyways.
The sudden appearance of a person scared the shit out of him.
He looked who was the person.
It was the same robed Royal woman.
Shit!!
His hand flew to his sword hilt, ready to strike at any moment.
She followed me? I should have known. The royal family is too narrow-minded. They can’t even part with a few gold coins.
All sorts of scenarios were going through his mind.
Seeing Leo’s guarded stance, the woman couldn’t help but let out a disdainful laugh.
"Hahaha..."
She tilted her head. A little bit of amusement and contempt flashed across her face. "If I wanted you dead, you’d already be dead."
She shook her head.
Sigh.
"Calm down, kid."
The woman took out a token no larger than her palm from her robes and handed it to him.
Leo hesitated.
It seems I am overthinking?
He let out a relieved breath and let go of his sword.
He took the token from her. The token was heavier than it looked — solid bronze, with edges worn smooth. The front had nothing written on it.
He turned it over. "Imperial Palace, Blacksmith Division." And beneath the text was the old crest of Ironhaven: a pair of hammers crossed over an open flame.
"Take this token. I forgot to hand you this previously," the woman stated simply and walked away again.
The woman paused mid step and turned around. "Show this at the gate of the palace and ask to see a steward."
She was already walking away.
Then, without turning, she added, "Oh... and if you’re lying about forging it, don’t bother coming."
With that said, she really disappeared.
Well, one thing at a time.
Leo walked away.
Just as he neared the marketplace exit, he stopped again.
A notification panel appeared before him.
[Whisper]
[Vanguard Knight: Hey!! You a blacksmith?]
Leo stopped in his tracks, shocked.
He didn’t have this guy — Vanguard Knight — as a friend in his contacts. How did he know I’m a blacksmith?
Wait!, you can send Whisper to anyone?
Leo was confused.
Players had to add each other before they can send messages or Wisper.
But this guy was not following the norms.
He worried the player might have linked him to the server announcement.
But before he could finish his thought process, the whisper came again.
[Whisper]
[Vanguard Knight: You sold three Uncommon-grade blades in a single sitting. It’s an easy guess.]
Good. Looks like he hasn’t connected the dots.
He exhaled in relief.
Leo scanned the area. By the fountain, a warrior in full plate raised one hand in a casual wave. The warrior made his way through the crowd and came before Leo.
The guy was definitely a rich man — Leo could see that at a glance.
Using his Forge-Sight, Leo found that he was covered with high-level armor and equipment from head to toe.
As Leo was observing the man, the man spoke again. "I want you to help me forge a broadsword. I want to commission it. Can you help me?"
Leo looked at the broadsword on his back and asked, "But you already seem to have a decent sword."
"It’s a Common-rank trash now." The knight admitted anxiously. "I’m planning to run a dungeon tomorrow, and the boss is pretty much the toughest my party has ever fought. So I’m in very urgent need of upgrade."
Leo rubbed his chin and thought about it.
This man looks rich, the pay would surely be good. Right?
He couldn’t help but ask, "What’s your offer?"
"I’ll supply the materials upfront — enough for two forgings in case you fail one. And five gold coins on delivery. How about it?"
"Make it ten, and I’ll get it done by tomorrow."
The warrior raised an eyebrow. "I can offer seven gold."
Leo shook his head. "Final offer. Nine gold coins. Take it or leave it."
The warrior narrowed his eyes for a while and was lost in thought.
He remained silent for a moment, then looked at Leo, coming to a decision.
"Okay, deal."
The system chimed, informing him about a player-to-player contract.
Myth Online seemed to have a dedicated framework for crafting commissions, binding both sides with penalties if either party broke the terms.
[COMMISSION CONTRACT - Greatsword]
Client: Vanguard Knight (Player)
Forger: Leo Stone (Player)
Materials: 4 Steel Bars, 2 Iron Ingots, 1 Mana Crystal
Reward: 9 Gold upon delivery Penalty (Forger): freēwēbnovel.com
Material cost ×2 Penalty (Client): 3 Gold
Time Limit: 24 hours
Leo confirmed from his side and received the materials from the guy.
He tossed them directly into his inventory.
Four steel bars of high quality, two iron ingots of Rare quality, and a mana crystal that looked like a tiny blue sphere.
Leo was seeing this mana crystal for the first time and was wondering what it was.
His Forge-Sight pulsed, and Leo saw the status screen of the material.
[MANA CRYSTAL (Small) — Quality: Good]
[Use: Enchantment catalyst — consumed on forge]
→ Application: Crush into powder during final shaping stage (≥80% completion).
Fold into the steel grain with the last 20% of hammer strikes. Crystal binds elemental property to the weapon’s core structure.
[Resonance: Fire-attributed] → Eternal Flame compatible: +15% enchant rate → Forge Resonance synergy detected Warning: Single-use.
Timing is critical — too early and the energy disperses, too late and the grain won’t accept the infusion.
Leo saw the detailed procedure on how to use it. Although he had no blueprints for it, he had seen it on recipe book somewhere.
After a thorough inventory of what he had, Leo walked back to the smithy.
...
Hugh’s Smithy was empty.
The old man had gone somewhere, leaving the forge silent.
The bellows were cold.
Leo started the forge and laid the materials on the bench.
Since nobody was around, Leo directly let the Eternal Flame mix with the forge fire.
Golden fire rose through the forge, dyeing the smithy in an amber-gold hue.
He had previously forged a broadsword, but he had forged it using iron ores only.
This was his first time working with steel bars.
He studied the bars for a moment.
The steel bars were highly processed and purified steel, so he only needed to melt them along with the ores and pour the molten liquid into the mold.
The ores will be melted first while steel bars will not melt at the same temperature.
But if I heat it more to melt the bars, it will make the ores unusable.
A dilemma.
This is troublesome.
He set the iron ores and steel bars separately on the bench.
So I need to melt both at once, but at different temperatures.
The problem was finding the right temperature.
If I heat both at once, the carbon content of the ores will be burned away, making the sword weak. Should I try to heat them separately? But how do I bond the two metals if I melt them separately?
Since gaining the mythic class, I have gained a good sense of heat and fire control. I guess I can try to heat both of them at once at different temperatures.
All sorts of ideas were crossing his mind. He did not know which to follow.
"Damn old man, where the hell did he go when I need him?" With Hugh’s experience, Leo believed he would know how to solve this problem.
Let’s just try to melt the two at once.
He had never tried to control the fire at two temperatures.
Two zones. Same forge, different temperatures at the same time.
It was either going to work or he was going to waste the materials.
But Vanguard Knight had supplied extras for exactly this kind of failure, and Leo trusted his instincts.
Leo placed the ores and bars into two separate crucibles and placed them in the hearth.
He controlled the temperature of the two crucibles such that both were maintained at their different melting points.
When both metals and ores had melted, he poured them into one crucible and let it mix for a while. He poured the molten mixed metal into the mold.
As the mold was settling, Leo sat down in a meditative position and closed his eyes, remembering the broadsword he had forged before — the shape of a greatsword, with its heavy blade and thick spine, along with its reinforcement points. He went through it thoroughly and stood up, ready to forge.
He picked up the steel from the mold and checked.
[Molded Steel]
Quality: Good Grain Uniform Impurities.
Minimal Failure threshold reduction: -15% Estimated yield
1 Greatsword + scrap → Forge Resonance: +4% Rare chance
The steel bar increased the forge resonance to 4%. Four percent.
Well, at least it’s better than zero, and failure chances are reduced by 15%.
Leo set the steel onto the anvil and raised the hammer.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The first strike tested the steel, then the second strike started compressing and bringing the lump into shape. Leo’s wrists rolled and danced with rhythmic technique.
Leo kept hammering rhythmically and slowly entered a state of deep focus. His wrists found the angle on their own. His shoulder drove. His grip stayed loose between strikes, tightening only at the moment of contact.
The visions he had seen from the Ancestor’s Echo started to surface in his mind, and his hammering technique began to show some essence of style from the ancient times.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
It was more like muscle memory than vision.
Slight adjustment in his elbow position that improved the striking angle, change in footwork and stance that distributed the weight better.
Techniques bleeding through the Echo into his body, smooth and unhurried.
Leo didn’t question it.
The metal started to take shape. Thick spine, heavy belly in lower half for chopping weight, taper running clean from mid section to the edge.
His thumbs ran carefully along the flat edge of the blade feeling the grains in the surface.
Smooth. No cold shuts. No stress lines. Now for next step.
He reached the final step of integrating the mana crystal into the sword.
Leo picked the crystal up.
It was warm in his palm, heavier than glass, lighter than it looked. The interior dense with compressed fire-attributed energy.
Crush it to powder at eighty percent completion. Fold it into the final twenty percent of strikes. Let the grain accept it.
As he was feeling the crystal in his palm, the eternal flame stirred.
Eternal flame surged through his body enveloping the crystal. The crystal in his palm began to vibrate.
A notification flashed:
[Ancestral Echo: Cascade Triggered]
[1,247 forging traditions synchronizing..... ]
[Soulbond resonance detected... ]
[Unknown memory fragment incoming....]
....
And then
.....
Darkness covered Leo’s vision.
Then a faint light flickered. He saw a cave, and a forge burned at the center of the cave.
The forge did not use any wood or coal, but the fire remained burning, just like his Eternal Gold Flame.
A blacksmith stood before the forge.
Above the forge on the ceiling, inscriptional drawings carved into the stone ceiling glowed.
The drawing showed a circle split in half by a vertical line, and seven dots were carved around the sides of the circle.
The blacksmith noticed Leo’s presence but did not look up at Leo. He just voiced out his thoughts: "You are early."
The hammer rested against the anvil. "The new forge holder....." A pause. "The forge is not ready for you yet."
Another pause....., longer. "And neither are you ready for it."
The vision shattered, and he was back in the forge.
Leo stumbled back, and the hammer fell to the ground.
Leo looked at the crystal he was holding.
It had gone dark.
He gasped for breath and his legs went weak, collapsing down.
The crystal slipped from his hands falling down.
He staggered back, about to fall, but just in time, Hugh’s large hand caught him by the shoulders.
"Easy, boy, easy." The old man’s voice was rough. "You don’t look so well. What happened?"
"I don’t know."
He didn’t even notice when had Hugh came back to the smithy. "I... I saw something,"
He supported himself on the bench. "A vision. And the crystal ..."
Hugh picked up the crystal from the ground.
He turned it over and let out a whistle.
"Burned clean through." He turned it again. "I’ve handled a lot of crystals, boy. Never seen one emptied clean like this. How did you do it?"
"I really don’t know." He shook his head. "The mana within it seemed to be gone."
He had two sets of materials but only a single crystal.
Leo’s face went pale. "Hell... I need it for my forging. What do I do now."
Leo looked at Hugh. "Do you have any extra crystal to spare?"
"I don’t have any. These mana crystals are dungeon loot drops. They’re used in alchemy too, so small-time suppliers don’t keep any stock. We don’t have any here. Moreover, they’re super expensive." Hugh shook his head in pity.
"Dungeon loot drops... Then I should be able to buy them, right?" Leo asked hopefully.
Hugh shook his head again. "You can’t buy them here. But the crystals are used to imbue an attribute to a weapon. The sword is still a sword without the attribute, so don’t mind."
Leo thought for a while.
I didn’t have any crystals in the past but I still managed to forge fire-attributed weapons. I have eternal flame. I can definitely do it without the crystal. Right?....
Leo stood up and checked his notification panels.
[Forge Session: Paused]
Item: Unnamed Greatsword
[Commission] Progress: 60%
Projected Quality: Uncommon (stable) Rare (requires resonance)
[Warning] Mana crystal: DEPLETED Ancestral Echo cascade consumed 100% of crystal energy.
[Replacement required.]
[Ancestral Echo Recognition]
The seven-dot symbol is not a forge mark.
Classification: CARTOGRAPHIC
Estimated origin: Pre-Pantheon Era
[Hidden Quest Update — First Fire]
The symbol from the vision has been cross-referenced against the Ancestor’s Echo database. No forging tradition matches this mark.
Leo swiped away the notifications and was about to start hammering.
[Eternal Flame: Workaround Detected]
Mana crystal fire enchantment can be replicated using Eternal Flame as the enchantment source.
Process: Channel gold fire directly into the blade during final shaping stage (≥80%).
No crystal required.
Warning: Consumes 25% MP per infusion.
Max 3 infusions before cooldown.
→ Synergy: Ancestral Cadence + Eternal Flame detected. Repair-on-strike may extend enchantment window.
Reading it, Leo let out a grin. "I knew it was possible. I never had a crystal, but I made many fire-attributed swords."
Leo kept hammering the steel. He was determined to finish it today and deliver it first thing in the morning tomorrow.
The hammer rose and fell.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The golden fire channeled through his arms, into the steel, thread by thread. The blade drank it greedily.
Just a little more...
Then —
[Ding!]
[FORGING COMPLETE]
...
