Surviving the Game: The Rat Assassin

Professions

Liora spent the rest of that day and the entire night transforming the Mithril they had brought back, almost all of the party members choosing a design that only took a single Mithril bar to make. Only 5 of the 40 chose a design that would take the two she had expected the majority to pick.

“You made out like a bandit on that exchange, didn’t you?” Larissa asked as Liora shrugged in response.

“I may have made a few more bars on the exchange than I thought I would. Most of you chose simple designs though.” She said as Larissa pulled out the 6 pounds she had carried. She put it in the smelter, and of the 6 pounds more that she put in, 3 pounds of refined Mithril came out in a bar shape. “So this is your pre processed into refined bars that I can now forge into other things. She said pulling out a few more metal bars and parts of bars that she arranged in an order dictated by her profession skill for whatever she was making.

Larissa could tell the materials were all of extremely good quality, most of them Epic or better. The Mithril itself was Epic Quality even as raw ore. She watched as the one Mithril bar and parts of others became an extremely intricate sword exactly like the one she had requested when she saw it in her list of makeable swords. Each one guaranteed to be unique because of the enchantment that came on it made it a random item each time. Larissa had got lucky that Liora learned the tricks to guide the random bonuses to the Class she wanted to wield it, so that it matched the intelligence and wisdom stats she needed as a Sorceress.

“5 of you chose designs that will take 2 Mithril bars, and each of you brought out 3 bars worth of ore. So for 34 people, I earned 2 bars of Mithril each. For 5 of you, I only get one which is what I was expecting anyway. Plus I get to turn it from Mithril Bars into the weapons they will become, which improves my profession proficiency and able to make better weapons.” She said as she showed Larissa a few more as she kept processing the orders people had made for their blades. Each time she adjusted the recipes until they were just to her liking before she activated her profession skill to transform the raw materials into perfectly forged blades.

“So you made 73 bars profit on the trade of getting us to carry the ore for you. Sneaky.” Larissa said making Liora laugh as she pulled up the interface and scrolled down. The list of ingredients she was using spelled out exactly making Larissa laugh more as none of them had realized.

“Just because you didn’t bother to look doesn’t mean I didn’t try to tell you what was being used. If me saying hey, here is a whole bunch of ore to carry, I will make you a weapon of your choice and only hand you three bars worth of ore for the trouble? You bet there is profit in there for me, as each of those 73 bars will be made into weapons that sale for 1,500 to 30,000 gold each.” Liora told Larissa who looked at her sword and held it up. “22,000 Gold please.” She said as Larissa looked at how it was perfectly molded to her hand and gave her the perfect bonuses to her Class as she couldn’t believe what the blade master had told her about the sword she had just received.

“You took a bar worth 1,000 gold, and turned it into a weapon worth 22,000 gold?” she asked as Liora shrugged.

“So far the cheapest one is my throwing stars over there that I can sell for 1,200 gold each. I can make 20 of them from each bar. So it is right about average for the value I make from a single bar of Mithril. Most of it will go to the Guild, especially considering we need to level up the Class and Profession trainers again.” She said as Larissa nodded.

“We are going to have to purchase them for the other Halls as well, the ones here only work here.” Larissa said formally.

“That is fine, we will have a bit of gold to spare when I sell 70 Mithril Weapons on the Auction House at a starting price of 30,000 gold each.” Liora said as Larissa went wide eyed as she did the math. Minimum of 2.1 million gold for what they had brought out of the mine for her. That didn’t include the fact that she had brought an equivalent amount up to what they had, another 300 weapons worth of materials that she could use to enhance her profession as well as her pocket book. A good chunk of it however was being used to equip the members of the Guilds, her weapons requested across the board as everyone knew she was the best bladesmith in the entire game.

“Ok, just out of curiosity, how much do you plan on donating to the Guild from what you are making there?” Larissa asked her.

“Well I was hoping to get 7 million gold from the auction house, but we will see I suppose. Most of that will go to expanding the Barracks Halls of each team of the Alliance, as well as placing Profession and Class Instructors as well as forges and the like for everyone to work on their professions there. We really don’t have the space in headquarters to accommodate 5,000 members all at once yet.”

“So you are hoping for 7 million Gold to donate to the Guild, yeah you have definitely earned your right to be the Grand Master of the Alliance.” Larissa said shaking her head before she helped Liora take 200 different weapons to the Auction House. She had 100 more she was donating to the Guild Vault that Players would be able to choose from on their own. She had 38 more to deliver to specific people, their weapons specifically crafted to match their own needs from a weapon to make them even more powerful.

When it was announced that the Mithril Blades were coming up on the block, suddenly the entire hall was filled as she looked around and they all got the opportunity to look at exactly what she had brought and the bidding wars started promptly. Liora smiled as her bottom price was where they had started at, each one now being fought over as they all knew they had only one hour to get what could be a limited edition weapon right now. Even though Liora has more at the moment, this auction sold to every player that was willing to pay the price.

The cheapest item that day sold an hour later for 42,000 gold, making her total haul from the auction 10 million after fees that she was already using to upgrade the Team Barracks of the Guild Halls. Larissa was amazed as Liora let her see what she was doing as the money came pouring in. She hadn’t lied as she started spending the donation on expanding each Hall to be able to sleep 2,000 people as well as have all the profession and class trainers at the same level as the main hall, but not specialized like the ones the Main Hall was upgraded to. The Main Hall also had the Profession Masters who were learning they could teach those below them, and the teaching was actually better for the student as the information was shared player to player instead of by the rigid rules of the game.

“So why are player made characters better then NPC?” Larissa asked as Liora looked at her with a smile.

“You don’t have a primary profession and you are trying to learn which ones are the best. You dirty dog, you could have just asked.” She said grabbing Larissa by the hand and taking her to a secluded place where she actually had secured it against players and monsters alike.

“Okay, so I am asking which are the best ones.” Larissa asked.

“So there is a lot of debate on this, but I will use examples like the ones you just saw. So Bladesmithing is a lucrative one, especially when you can go to a dungeon like this morning and come out with 420 Mithril Bars to work with. A lot of good and powerful weapons only taking one Mithril and some crappy iron or copper, or bronze. All in with that, including paying for the materials on 75 weapons I donated to the Guild, it cost about 120,000 gold to make and keep everything I did. We just sold half of what I made, for 12.2 million gold and spent 10.4 million on the Guild buildings that will ensure we keep moving into the future.” Liora told her.

“But, it is only so much use to me, as sometimes the weapons that you loot from quests or other avenues can also be hard to beat. So I do Leather working as well, so that I also have the best armor I can get my hands on. My other primary is the Apothecarium Skills, as you would not believe the amount of health potions I use killing the dungeons the way I do. So the benefit of a Profession is how it can benefit you. Did you know if I made and sold my health potions they would be far more effective then the same level bought at the medical clinic? Because I have made and used so many of them, that mine are 70 percent more effective then the ones the doc makes. My recipe is also very different as it combines three different types of health restoration just in case one of them needs addressed as well. Like antitoxin included in the health potions, any profession can have enhanced recipes over what the system starts with. Something I picked up while I was experimenting as I had three different types of potions, why not combine the ingredients and make it into one. So Larissa, what would benefit you most for survival?” Liora asked as they discussed pros and cons of the professions that they knew.

When they returned to the Main Hall that evening for dinner, Liora had informed the other 38 people that had been with her and Larissa that their Mithril weapons were ready for them. They were surprised she was so quick about it, Larissa laughing as they saw hers was already equipped to her belt. Liora however made the others wait until after the main course had been served, the weapons coming out one by one as she announced who they were for. They all thought they were just fancy basic weapons, until they pulled them from the scabbard and they felt the power specially attuned to them fill their bodies.

The entire guild celebrating with them as each of them was forced to do the same so everyone in the guild that wanted to see their reward for that first run this morning. Members of the other parties getting the same reward from the other professions, depending on who they went with. Larissa surprised when they began seeing pieces of armor and trinkets from the jeweler that specialized in them. Most of them had no idea that for the Mithril stuff they were also making a killing on the auction house, the returns sometimes 60 times what it took to make the items.

“Wow, you weren’t joking that the Guild would benefit greatly from this.” Larissa said sitting next to her.

“Porter the jeweler over there, made 60,000 gold from what he made with just one Mithril bar.” Liora told her as Larissa looked at her stunned.

“I have always wanted to make fancy, shiny things.” Larissa said making all the girls around them laugh. “Seriously though, I learned your point at dinner today. Even though the tailor doesn’t sound like it would be that profitable, the Master here said she has some patterns that she makes that make her killer money. So I think I know the 3 I want to choose, but not sure how I would go about it.” She admitted as Liora smiled.

“Leatherworking, Jeweler, and Enchantress.” She said as Liora nodded.

“Not a bad combination, especially as we don’t have many Enchantresses in the guild. If you focused on it at first, I might have a few thousand gold you can borrow for materials to practice. I might even have a few items you can practice on.” She said as Larissa nodded excitedly as dessert was served to them.