76 Artifact Smithing
Artifact smithing!
Eren picked up thoughts and knowledge related to artifact smithing the most out of all the answers made available to him. He decided that it would bridge the gap between his path and his gift.
Eren’s path was a path of many skills and many specializations. It was believed that the path of a battlemage was more profound than the rest. This is because it held the essence of almost all the paths known to all the rankers.
Since the path required him to be proficient at multiple things at once, he couldn’t focus on one path or style that would suit him. He needed to focus on them all and use them to his advantage whichever suited his needs the most.
However, how could one person be proficient at multiple things? Or, how could they be proficient at many things and still find time for themselves to progress steadily in their ranking journey?
The path of a battlemage was a conundrum. It forced most rankers to restrict their choices as they advanced in their class and improved their ranking status. In doing so, they ended up losing the advantage the battlemage path had offered to them.
Could they be blamed though? Sooner or later, everyone would prefer divergent progress over a near-eternal plateau. Thus, the path of a battlemage was not chosen by many.
The bottlenecks received by the previous generation of battlemages had become examples for later generations, discouraging them from looking at the path in a positive light. Miranda only had good intentions in her mind when she wanted to prevent Eren from choosing this path.
Know thyself!
Eren had developed certain confidence about himself ever since he had those unique experiences in his life. The Viktor Vladimir part of him was still there. The previous Eren was still there. And their memories had concocted a unique existence that was the current Eren.
This Eren Idril had decided that he wouldn’t limit his path because the possibility of infinity seemed scary. He had promised himself that his journey would begin in infinity and it would end in infinity. His class as a battlemage was only the beginning of the infinite possibilities he had in his mind.
The fear was there. The panic of getting lost was there. Yet, he couldn’t help feeling excited. The hustler kept his right hand over his heart. It had become a way for him to soothe himself. To calm erratic heartbeats.
‘Seek and ye shall find.’
Eren said to himself and smiled. He had come to realize that the path of battlemage and the path of artifact smithing needed to be combined. This combination was to serve as his solution for the infinite possibilities he was embarking on.
Artifacts and weapon sets.
He needed to create a set of artifacts for himself to accommodate various battle styles without getting lost in the process. Without getting overwhelmed by the efforts and options.
These artifact sets would serve as a medium. It would bring out the full potential of his class as a battlemage while staying equally compatible with the rest of them. Since the weapon sets could be many, his options could be many. Despite that, he would remain a battlemage at his core, unencumbered by any specialization.
Eren had many ideas and many concepts in his head. He felt like he needed to jot them down in case he forgets them. However, these thoughts and pieces of knowledge had missing links.
Most of all, he didn’t know where to start because the knowledge he had gained was too profound to be called something elementary. He needed to brush up on the basics of artifact smithing, study the subject of runes and carving methods, and all the other nitty-gritty related to the subject.
Only after filling in the blanks and understanding the subject of artifact smithing at its roots could he make use of his ideas obtained through the state of epiphany. It was bound to cost him a lot of money to gain access to the information that was restricted.
Money for knowledge was one thing. He would need money to get his hands on resources that were required to make his knowledge about artifact smithing come to reality. He needed to brace himself for wasting a substantial amount of those resources he had paid just to get his basics down.
‘Hehe. The answer to every problem in life is money.
At this point, I’m ready to believe that any civilization in any part of the world in every world works on the concept of pay-to-win.’
Eren said to himself and smiled sarcastically. There was already a loan on his head. He was as poor as poor can be. He had no place to call his own. Even his biological parents who had been missing hadn’t left him anything.
Just like the gypsy clan he once belonged to as Viktor Vladimir, the current Eren Idril was still a nomad. With zero background and almost no support from anyone except for the semblance of it from Rumi and Reece.
Eren was grateful for the support that was given to him despite everything. However, he couldn’t count on it forever. He needed to pay his dues before finding his own way. The path of infinity was not something he could tread upon while indulging in a picturesque life.
Like most rankers, Eren had decided that he would leave Earth and settle in one of the numbered Oasis when he breaks into Awakened rank. Despite all the dangers Gilaahan posed, it was an ideal place for rankers to grow at tremendous speed.
The Numbered Oasis had many ranking resources that he could get his hands on with relative ease. Earth may or may not have those. And even if it does, he was sure that he’d have to pay extra while getting committed to an organization.
For unhindered and uninterrupted growth, Eren needed to leave the Earth when it was time for him to do so. And yet, he could see that it was going to take a while.
He had heard the experiences of rankers that were senior to him. What happened to him wasn’t ordinary. No ordinary ranker skips three stages of Meta rank while still being a newbie.
He knew his infinite mana core had a hand in it. However, could he base his plans only on something that may or may not happen to him the second time?
‘I need money.
Not for the sake of having it. Not as a status symbol. And not to live an aimless life.
I need money so that I can use it as a tool to broaden my path. I need the damn money because that’s how the world works.’
Eren finished his thoughts while storing the corpses of the two beasts in his storage. He was just about to leave the area and look for Reece and Mia when a thought came to his mind.
‘Hm? Where was this wretched bear heading to?’