Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 64: Weapon upgrade

When Ye Yan heard about the new title, he became speechless. He never liked loud music and being in crowded places and, but now, he became known as a partygoer. It is not funny, not funny at all.

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[Partygoer] (Title)

Description: You are a party lover. Whenever you go, you will shake things up.

Effect: Increase your charisma when speaking with common people by 3 points and decrease your charisma when interacting with serious people and nobles by 2 points.

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Ye Yan concentrated and visualized the details of his new title. It is not entirely bad, but it would be better if he hadn't got it because now, he will have problems speaking with nobles NPCs and he is afraid of it messing things up in his quest.

He will need to speak with an NPC inside the palace to get the territory to build their guild headquarters, so with this decrease in charisma, he may lose the chance of getting the quest.

And if he has to put on the red shoes to speak with NPCs in the palace, he will feel really strange. If he has to sacrifice his dignity for the growth of the guild, so be it, but he will try everything before having to resort to it.

After being almost kicked out of the Adventurers' Guild, literally, they met Ashardalon and the others in front of the guild.

When Conan explained what happened to them, My Girl, like the sensible person he is, almost rolled on the ground from laughing so much. He really is someone that deserves a beating.

After putting them in this situation, he not only doesn't feel bad about it, but laughing uncontrollably. 

"No more singing!" Ye Yan only said this phrase to My Girl. He knows that it isn't really his fault but, even so, Ye Yan wants to beat him so bad that he almost couldn't hold himself back and do it.

After agreeing about meeting in front of the arena tomorrow, each player went looking for the craftsman that would upgrade their weapon and a piece of equipment for them.

Ye Yan went to the General Craftsmen' Guild looking for someone that could help him upgrade his fan. 

The General Craftsmen's guild headquarters is a building similar to the Alchemists' Guild but, as they are not as famous as the alchemists or the forges, the place is not as luxurious or impressive as both guilds.

The place can even be described as messy. Inside the five square pagoda looks like a market, full of people coming and going all the time.

Some craftsmen that don't have their own shop put a blanket on the floor, sit down, and advertise their work. Sometimes, so many craftsmen do it that make the place cramped and people have a hard time even passing through them to get to the balcony.

The artisans that do things this way are those that can only produce low-level goods, thus they don't have enough money to buy their own shop in the city. However, they are exactly what Ye Yan is looking for now.

After the investment of players, these craftsmen can change their lives in the future, buying their own shop or giving up and changing professions, or even keeping their status quo[1].

Ye Yan is the only one among his friends that want to upgrade a special kind of weapon, thus only he went to this guild. The others went to the Forges' Guild.

The fact the craftsman he is looking for is in this guild is good news for Ye Yan, because their services are cheaper than forgers. 

They recruited some apprentice craftsmen to their guild, to help them do future upgrades but while they don't reach enough proficiency in their skills, they can't help the guildsmen upgrading even the more simple weapon.

Ye Yan looked around with difficulty because the place was crowded but he saw one craftsman with many fans around him in a blanket on the left side of the guild, near the wall.

Ye Yan passed through the crowd of players and NPCs with difficulty but reached the craftsman after a few minutes of pushing and excuse me. 

He doesn't want to pass through this experience again. Not only he had to stand people pressing on him from all sides, but he thinks someone even groped him!

It was worse than getting on the metro at peak times.

He thought about jumping on peoples' heads to get there but it would sure make him be kicked out from the guild.

The artisan is a bald old man with and a mustache, a long beard, simple clothes, and a perverted face. Only the turtle shell on his back was missing to be the copy of a certain martial arts master.

"Hello. I would like to upgrade my fan. Can you do this?" Ye Yan asked the bald old man.

The old man looked at Ye Yan and noticed that his guild emblem has a yellow edge, representing his status as guild leader.

"Of course!" The old man answered enthusiastically. "You just need to tell me what you want and hand the materials. Don't worry, I will price it according to the material and your needs. It will be a very fair price but if you introduce a pretty big-breasted woman to me, I make it for free! What do you think?"

The old man started speaking with a flattering look on his face but soon his face started to change, showing a perverted expression.

Ye Yan ignored the old man's suggestion and showed him the materials he had gathered to upgrade his weapon.

He showed the old man a light blue fabric that he got in one of the wooden chests in the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon, some sharp throwing knives, a gold bar, wire web, bee needles, and poisoned needles, together with his fan.

Ye Yan told the old man what he has in mind and the old man thought a little and said he would need at least five hours to complete the upgrade. It would cost him one gold coin if he succeeded and 30 silver coins if he fails. 

however, if he fails, Ye Yan would lose his fan and as it was a quest item, he can't get another one easily.

The old man said that the success change is about 80%, so Ye Yan decided to take the gamble and handed everything to the old man.

He decided to do it now, not only because he didn't want to go back to the craftsman guild soon, but also because of time. 

Doing it now, he will not waste time walking to and from the guild and can go do his quest soon after the duel tomorrow.

It is a risk to do it now because if his fan breaks in the process, he would have to use another weapon in the duel. 

But in the worse case scenery, he can use his hammer and go hulk on them. Then he decided to do it now.

After handing everything to the old man, he waited next to him, observing all the process of upgrading.

If his weapon needed a forge, he would just hand everything and leave, only coming back at the time when the forger ends the upgrade. But, because the craftsmen that can be found in this guild can't be trusted, he needs to wait.

The craftsmen services here are cheaper, but if he didn't wait next to them, the craftsman can take his items and run away with them.

While waiting, Ye Yan observed the old man's work from time to time and used his communication stone to speak with Spell Bound. Even if their guild is homeless right now, they have much work to do.

After his guildmates completed many quests in the Adventurers' Guild, plus the experience give to them by the 10 points influence they got when completed the first clear of the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon as a guild, they could upgrade the guild to level 1, increasing the limit of players the guild can have.

Ye Yan and Hu Ling invested a huge amount of money for the guild to grow faster in the initial stages. This, plus the equipment they deposit in the Guild Storage in the Bank (because the guild still doesn't have a headquarter) help the new guild members to increase their level faster.

The guild members that made use of the guild resources need to sign a contract with the guild because if they decided to abandon the guild, they could just steal the items and the guild would suffer, thus, for this kind of situation to not happen, they have to refund the guild for the items and pay a 20% the item value as penalty.

After seeing the old man busy himself with his work, arranging the blades in the fan, and molding the gold bar using his own hands, Ye Yan had to admire the old man for his expertise.

After five hours, Ye Yan finally could see his upgraded weapon. And he didn't even need to ask the old man, because it is clear that he succeeded.

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[1] Status quo means the existing state of affairs, particularly concerning social or political issues. To maintain the status quo is to keep things the way they presently are. [Dictionary]