Fantasy World Online II: Second Chance

Day 111-324: Balt

For three more days Balt forged swords. On the fourth day his master came and announced that he had finished his apprenticeship.

[Congratulation, you have completed your apprenticeship with Grand Smith Hovel.
Skill Learned: [Mine] [Mineral Appraisal] [Smelt] [Mineral Fusion] [Forge] [Temper] [Draw] [Design][Measure] [Engrave]
You have learned the craft of a Dedicated Weapon Smith, do you wish to rank up from Crafter to Dedicated Weapon Smith?]
[Yes/No]
[Congratulation you are now a Dedicated Weapon Smith.
As such you are granted a 30% discount on all crafting supplies and material, a 10% discount on Land Property and the right to open your own shop and brand.]

When a crafter is recognized as such he is given the chance to open his or her own workshop at a low cost. However the accommodations he or she is entitled to are only a basic workshop with basic equipment. To obtain a better work place monetary compensations would be required.
As a result many players in crafts decided to wait until they have gathered enough money before they open their shop and do their craft on the outside using portable furnace, tool kits and simple designs.

In Balt case he made a deal with Hovel, the owner of the Rusty Ore smithy. The agreement was simple, in exchange for a workspace, a bunk bed and the right to sell the items he has forged in Hovel's shop,Balt would give 30% of the benefits of his item's sell.

In this fashion Balt had a safe place to connect and disconnect, the chest to store his materials, a forge and anvil to work on and, most importantly, clients.
Three months steadily went by as Balt connected to
Second Chance, forged weapons and sold them to players and a few NPCs. Because of the diversity and free choice in the sword's blade, guard and hilt and the decorative gravures Balt's work quickly became known by all. Even with only 70% of the income being his and the expanses for the coal and ores Balt still rilled in revenues.

Unknown to him, every time a player gathered fame or killed a dangerous beast while wielding his weapons, some of it affected Balt. Recognition of his work brought more clients as NPCs favored his work and nobles commended decorative pieces.
Two more months later of mining ore, forging weapons and decorating them Balt decided that it was time for him to have his own forge.

For the first time Balt was going to do something not directly related to smithing. After some research on the internet he went to the Architecture guild and talked to the clerk. He was given blue prints of all available smithy designs and started browsing them.
It took him three hours but in the end he chose a two story. the bottom floor had a workspace in the back with a forge, a extra room to store material and a store in the front with many weapon racks and a large window to attract clients. The second floor was composed of two bed room and a kitchen.

Once he had chosen the designs he had to select the plot of land where to built the shop. There was more than a thousand plots available, he took out those that were in less frequented areas and those that wouldn't enable him upgrades.
In the end he chose a large piece of land by a main street in the North area of town and paid for the immediate start of the construction. It cost him more than a hundred gold coins for the land, designs, internal furniture and the material needed to built it all but he was assured that the workshop would be ready in three weeks.

So, after paying for everything and confirming the next day that a team of builders were working on the construction he returned to the Rusty Ore and started forging swords for the opening of his shop. He spent the three weeks doing so. Every time a client came by he would advertise the future opening of his shop and kept the best weapons from being sold in the Rusty Ore.

Finally when the three weeks had gone by and the construction finished he placed close to a hundred swords, knife and blade type weapons in the shop's racks, transferred whatever ore and ingot was left in his magical chest and thanked Hovel for his hospitality.

When he turned the Close/Open sign to Open a system window appeared.

[Please determine the shop's name: Slice & Dice ]
[Do you wish to hire personnel? Yes/No]
[Do you wish to set automatic closing and opening? Yes/No]
[Congratulation, you have opened your first shop.
Fame has risen.
The shop will be considered open when you are present in the ground floor.
The shop management window is now available in your menu. it permits you to access the shop's inventory, proceeds and possible upgrades and modifications.]

Balt opened the shop management window and saw that he was low on material. Since he had no smelter he could not turn ore into ingots so issuing quests to mine or buy ore was useless. instead he put up a request for ingots with a fixed reward of five silver the ten iron ingots. considering that ten ingots would produce three swords or ten knife he deemed it economically reasonable. For a week he sold his already forged weapons and received ingots in massive amounts.

Unknown to Balt, the reward was better than all others and players, most of them merchants, bought the ingots in bulk or went to mine and then smelted them to sell them back to Balt. As they did so the average price of ingots and ores rose. the other smiths, afraid that the price may rise more also started to buy ores and ingot in bulk making the price rise even more.

After two weeks like this the potential profit was no longer worth it and Balt, after seeing a documentary about the price of metal going up on TV, a situation he was unknowingly responsible for, retracted the offer. He then started to forge again. Since he still sold his weapons at the same price while the other smiths had adjusted them to the cost of materials Balt's swords were among the cheapest on the market and his business boomed.

His days went eventlessly, forging on the morning, researching new blades, guards and hilts and new swords in books on the afternoon while stopping when a potential client entered.

After a month of successful business he decided to hire a clerk and posted an add for the open application. The post was taken before the end of the day. A merchant type female player took the selling duties which allowed Balt to focus on forging and improving his technique and knowledge of weapon smithing.
She counseled him into adding a crafter status plate next to the shop entrance and he yielded. A crafter status plate was a metal or wooden plaque on which the crafter's skills and abilities were inscribed for clients to see and compare to other crafters. In this way players were able to select shops depending on the crafter's proficiency in his or her art.

Balt's plaque read such:

[Balt, owner and manager of Slice & Dice:
Civilisation: Pholien Nationality: Last City
Class: Dedicated Weapon Smith
Primary Craft: Weapon Smith
Secondary Craft: none
Status: Free Man Reputation: Excellent
<Talents>
• [Cloth Armor] [Leather Armor]
<Skills>
• [Mine] [Mineral Appraisal] [Smelt] [Mineral Fusion] [Beginner Forge] [Temper] [Beginner Draw] [Beginner Design][Measure] [Beginner Engrave] [Beginner Strike]
<Affinity>
• [Resistance to Heat: 5%]
<Education>
Languages: Common Language
Cultures: Persian, Pholien, Roman
History: Persian, Pholien, Roman, Greek]

As he worked in the forge he wore a leather apron and a pair of large gloves for protection above light woolen t-shirt and trousers when he wasn't in the forge he wore a leather jacket above the tunic and his largest and heaviest iron hammer and a dagger in his boot. "Just in case" he told himself but he knew deep down that he wanted to look as cool as those mercenaries that always came to his shop for repairs after a long day of hunting and grinding.

He had also bought his own forging tools such as different size of hammer, engraving chisels and pinches, chosing the ones with the most durability over look.

All in all Balt was one of the most well known and wealthiest crafters of second chance.