91: Baker, Not Smith

“My stuff’s pretty damned straightforward, so I guess I can go first.”

Eris watched Rachel Baker the Metalsmith shove the entire rest of the brownie in her mouth and chew leisurely for many moments, as if taunting the fact that she chose to go first and then spent twenty seconds in silence eating a dessert. After a long while, she finally swallowed, brushed a lock of her short black hair back behind her ear. When it had been hanging in front of her face, it was so dark compared to her almost milky skin that it nearly looked like ink was dripping from her scalp. However, the only stains on the neck of her white tank-top were ever-so-slightly yellow from sweat.

“I think the first thing to do is confirm that all of us have Crafter’s Cunning and Crafting Points?”

There was a mutter of general acknowledgement around the counter of brownies. Well, except for Bailey, who grinned.

“I don’t!”

How she could look so happy and cheerful about the fact she didn’t seem to have a class anymore was beyond Eris. Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, well you’re a special case, Princess. We don’t know what the fuck’s going on with your stuff anymore.”

Bailey nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Okay,” Rachel continued. “I’m just gonna read out everything, right from the top, word for word. That way there’s no misunderstanding or misinterpreting or mishearing or any other ‘misses’ you want to throw in there. Just everything, as is.”

Rachel took a deep breath, then spoke.

Name: Rachel Timmus Baker

Age: 20

Class: Metalsmith

Level: 7

Vitality: F-

Physical Defence: F-

Magical Defence: F-

Tenacity: F-

Strength: F-

Dexterity: F-

Mind: F-

Control: B+

Craftsmanship: D

Skills: 9

Crafter’s Cunning {Passive}

You are knowledgeable when it comes to items. You may Inspect unknown materials and items.

Crafting Points {Passive}

You have 4 Crafting Points, which you may spend on certain abilities while in the process of crafting. When beginning a new craft, current number of Crafting Points resets to 4.

Metallic Finish {Active}

For each Crafting Point spent on Metallic Finish, the Quality of the craft is increased by 40%. Can only be used on smithing crafts.

Crafter’s Intuition {Passive}

When Inspecting raw material using Crafter’s Cunning, you also learn the most and least conductive stats or types of magic for that material.

Heavy Hammer {Passive}

Your Control stat increases by six ranks.

Magic In Metal {Passive}

When completing a smithing craft, an enchantment is applied to the item based on the materials used.

Anvil’s Rhythm {Active}

When activated, Magic In Metal no longer applies an enchantment to finished smithing crafts, but your Craftsmanship stat becomes equal to your Control stat. Lasts until deactivated.

Full Set {Active}

You may touch at least two of your completed crafts and bind their magic together in a Set. While a single creature is actively wearing or wielding all designated pieces of a Set, each piece gains a 15% bonus to Quality for every other piece in the Set. If any pieces are not being worn or wielded, each piece in the Set instead suffers a -25% penalty to Quality for every other piece in the Set. Once all the pieces of a Set have been designated, it cannot be changed.

Mender’s Touch {Active}

While handling a damaged craft, you may permanently reduce the craft’s maximum Durability by 10% but slowly repair any physical damage on the craft for as long as you continue handling it. When used on a craft made by you, the maximum Durability loss upon use is reduced to 5%.

When she was done, Rachel leaned away from the counter and stretched her arms out above her head. Eris had to fight from raking her eyes over the girl’s toned, muscular figure. Gods, she was hot.

“So yeah,” Rachel said. “I had exactly three skills at first level, and only got one skill each time I levelled up. Very, very limited and simple in terms of what I’ve got, if the fact I only have one skill that uses CP wasn’t already an indication of that. On the upside, I have some meaty bonuses when compared to other Smiths, obviously making up for my general lack of… well, everything else.”

“Each Crafting Point giving a forty percent bonus is nutty,” Tatum whistled. “And that’s not even to Potency, either. That’s just straight-up Quality- the best thing you can increase on an item.”

Rachel nodded. “Yep. I may only have four CP, but I haven’t seen anyone else who can get a one-hundred and sixty percent raw bonus to Quality using one skill. Well, Eris doesn’t count but that’s obvious. It would probably be a good skill to copy, too. Getting a scaling skill with a forty percent bonus to Quality per point, and her crazy number of points means big profits.”

“That’s if the skill ends up getting her ability to level up at all,” Grace mumbled. “It may simply copy as is which would make it a useless CP spender compared to what Eris already has. Forty percent is a lot, but not compared to Eris.”

Even Eris had to tilt her head in acknowledgement. With the thousands and thousands of percentage of bonuses she could throw around like pocket sand, it was a little jarring to swoop all the way back down to what should have been considered ‘normal’.

Rachel sighed. “Fine, we’ll put that one on the bottom shelf. The Intuition skill is exactly as it sounds- it lets me look at unworked materials and figure out exactly what it would be best used to make.”

“Because each material has a different conductivity to certain kinds of stats or magic,” Eris said. Rachel flipped a thumbs up with a grin.

“Ah, so she isn’t just a pretty face after all- she’s got some brain cells rattling around in there.”

Grace cleared her throat, cutting in with the explanation.

“I have Crafter’s Intuition, too. Unfortunately it isn’t nearly as useful anymore since pretty much any material that can be used for crafting has already had all of their interactions recorded for easy research. A few hundred years ago, it would have been very helpful to learn that iron is a very blunt, sturdy and straightforward material, so when used to make something, the stat bonus it provided would almost exclusively be Vitality, Tenacity, Physical Defense or Physical Power. Trying to make a ring out of iron that gave a stat bonus to Mind would be near impossible, and incredibly inefficient. That knowledge back when information was much scarcer would have been invaluable, such as knowing exactly what kinds of magic or stats different kinds of gemstones are naturally attributed to. Nowadays, you can just read a book that’ll tell you everything.”

Rachel coughed. “-Which is a long-winded explanation as to why it isn’t a priority for you to replicate, Eris. That’s if you don’t get your own version of it on your own. I would imagine that old Artificers would have probably fallen in love with the skill.”

“And I don’t think Eris would be able to use it even if she did replicate it,” Addison mumbled. Eyes turned towards her and she quickly clarified.

“If the necklace lets her copy skills exactly as they are with no changes whatsoever, then Eris wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. Crafter’s Intuition is specifically tied to Crafter’s Cunning, which Eris doesn’t actually have. She has Artificer’s Cunning, which is a completely different skill.”

Professor Kull furrowed his brow. “That is a very valid and concerning point. We would need to do testing with that enchantment of the necklace to see how replicated skills are integrated into Eris’s kit, and how much leeway, if any, they have. I think for now, we should operate under the safest assumption being that the skills follow their exact wording to an extremely strict degree.”

“Which does make things a little bit simpler, actually,” Rachel chuckled. “When in doubt, follow the semantics of wording. Not that there’s any in Heavy Hammer. Just a flat, six-rank bump to Control. Turns it from a D+ to a B+. I craft faster than pretty much any other smith, and I can pull forty pounds of workable metal from fifteen pounds of ore. Doesn’t do shit for the actual power of the items that are made, but my efficiency is cracked.”

Almost murmuring like it was an afterthought, Hima hummed. “How much metal do you think Eris can get out of that much ore with her new necklace?”

The room went still for a moment before Rachel blew a loud raspberry.

“Fuck if I know. Control at my rank already gets wonky to try and understand. I can cut a potato right down the middle and end up with two halves that are each bigger than the potato I started with. It’s awesome for getting more stuff out of a limited supply, but damn if it isn’t ever annoying when trying to work out the math of how much material I actually need to make something.”

“So… Eris cuts down a tree and makes a forest?” Bailey offered. Rachel shrugged.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised anymore. And if she replicates my skill to boost her Control up that high, and then having that be all sorts of multiplied by the necklace? We might be looking at a ten-thousand to one ratio, if not even higher.”

“As incredible as that is, I can’t actually envision that being all that useful for Eris right now,” Grace said. “The necklace alone pretty much covers any and all Control needs that Eris would ever have, and since her Control is going to be increasing with every level, and she’s going to be levelling up extremely quickly from her Wonders-”

“Fine, fine, good point.” Rachel waved her hand. “Plus, since the Syndicate’s probably going to be waiting on her hand and foot, the odds of Eris actually running out of materials she needs is effectively non-existent. The more important thing would be to just increase the power even further, so maybe my enchantment skill? It doesn’t even use CP like a lot of others do, its completely passive and just… puts an enchantment on the item.”

“Smithing only, though.” Ophelia said calmly, nibbling on her own brownie that she still had. “Just like how my enchanting skill is culinary crafts only. And Tatum’s would be stonework only. If Eris copies them, then she’d only be able to put enchantments when using that specific style of crafting. If Eris wants to copy an enchanting skill, the best one would probably be something that Grace has, since being an Artisan doesn’t limit her in that way.”

“Okay, good point, but what about Anvil’s Rhythm? If the only downside of the skill is weakening a different skill that Eris wouldn’t even have, then it’s a permanent, completely passive buff.”

Once again, Grace shook her head. “Even if it works without having Magic in Metal, it would actually make Eris weaker to activate, because it would make her Craftsmanship equal to her Control, and if I remember correctly, her Control is weaker. Without your Heavy Hammer skill as well, it’s less than useless for her, and she can only copy one of your skills.”

“Okay, can you stop pissing on my damned parade?”

Rachel shot Grace a hostile look, obviously getting annoyed by the fact that the Artisan had shut down every single one of her skills thus far. Grace blinked, recoiling a bit into her chair. In an act to save the pregnant woman, Eris abruptly cleared her throat.

“She’s right. My Craftsmanship is a D, but Control is three ranks lower at E. Full Set seemed interesting though. You combine items together and the more you have, the stronger every single one of them becomes?”

“Yeah,” Rachel nodded. “If no other skills in my entire repertoire are any good, I at least know for a fact that you could go nuts with that one. I certainly have.”

“How exactly does it work?” Eris asked. Rachel grabbed another brownie from the tray and took a long, chewy bite before swallowing an uncomfortable amount of time later.

“So, the gist of it is that any time after I finish making something- even weeks or months after I do it, I can bind that craft to anything else I’ve made. I can bind as many different items as I want, but all of them need to be right there next to me, and I bind all the items I choose at the same time. I can’t bind two items together, then add a third the next day, then two more a month after that. It’s all at once.”

Rachel stepped back from the counter, gesturing with her hands in a way that was likely intended to be comprehensible, but looked a little bit like she was trying to strangle an invisible chicken.

“Nothing actually changes about the items when they’re bound. If every single one of them is being left alone and isn’t being worn or used, then they remain exactly as they would be without being bound. Same Quality, same Durability, everything. The second that at least one of them is equipped though, the effect kicks in.”

Rachel grinned.

“If someone is wearing and/or using every single piece in the Set, then it gives the Quality bonus which becomes higher the more stuff is in the Set. Two piece set and both are being worn? Both items get a fifteen percent bonus. Five piece set and all equipped? Sixty percent Quality boost to each item.”

“That’s some crazy power,” Hima’s eyes were wide. Rachel shrugged.

“Yeah, but that’s not always the case. If even a single one of those items is unequipped for any reason whatsoever, every bit of that Quality is reversed and applied as a penalty almost twice as powerful as the bonus. That makes the skill a balancing act.”

Rachel held up one hand with an open palm. “I can make some crazy set of armour and weapons or whatever with like… a hundred different pieces, combine them all as a set, and then give them to somebody so that each and every piece is about twenty times as powerful as they should be. It would undoubtedly be stronger than stuff even the highest level smiths are making. However, having a hundred pieces in the set means that the person needs to keep track and take extremely good care of a hundred different things, and that’s really hard to do in a fight.”

Rachel sighed. “One single strap breaks to make their bracer fall off, or they accidentally drop their weapon, or anything at all happens, then every single one of those items they have equipped turns into toilet paper. At that point, the armour would disintegrate off of them, and they would be left with absolutely nothing in the fight when they need their items the most. They were practically immortal up until that point, but all it takes is one teeny-tiny thing going wrong for them to dive into Shit Creek with their mouth open.”

Then, the smith lifted her other hand like she were balancing the weight of invisible plates. “On the other end, I can play it small and safe. I make a Set with like… five pieces at a maximum. It makes it a whole lot easier for the person using it to make sure that every single piece stays exactly where it’s supposed to be, and even if something does go wrong and they lose a piece, the rest of the Set would still be functional… kind of. Definitely a good skill for Eris to replicate, because I can only imagine that combining it with all her other crazy bonuses is just going to be disgusting.”

“Except that it wouldn’t be the best of your skills to replicate,” Kull said flatly. “-When Mender’s Touch is right there-”

Rachel held out a finger, annoyed. “Ah-ah. Stop. I know exactly what you’re playing at. It wouldn’t actually be all that useful for Eris since anything she makes is pretty much going to be indestructible anyway and would never need to be repaired, but you aren’t looking at it for that. You’re thinking about having her use it on the Obelisk to fix it.”

“That is an option,” Professor Kull nodded.

“Yeah, and that isn’t gonna work, okay?” Rachel let out a long sigh.

“Big thing is the name. Mender’s Touch. Touch, as in, I have to be touching the thing and examining it, and rolling it in my hands and using my fingers to push material back together. Stuff like that. Last I checked, anything that touched the Obelisk was sent on a silver platter to somewhere that wanted to kill them, and Eris was sent to a literal prison. And that was when the Obelisk had more than two percent of its Durability left. For all we know, having Eris touch the Obelisk again might just cause the thing to blow up right then and there. And even if it didn’t, and just teleported her somewhere random like before, she’d only be touching the Obelisk for a fraction of a second. Mender’s Touch is NOT that fast. Trying to repair an item in as terrible condition as the Obelisk would take at least half an hour of constant contact. Full Set is the better skill, period.”

Rachel took a few deep breaths. Professor Kull was unfazed.

“Are you done?” he asked. Rachel nodded.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good, because I wasn’t intending for Eris to use the skill on the Obelisk. I assumed that she could use the skill to try and repair the dozens of old-world Artificer artifacts in transport to Marrix that are in horrible states of damage and decay after having rotted for four hundred years. Any Gifted crafter with a similar skill could never use it on Artificer creations, but an Artificer may very well be able to do so, in the same way that she was able to Inspect them when nobody else could. I imagine having a few dozen of the most powerful objects the Syndicate’s ever seen in top working order would do wonders for the war effort, wouldn’t you.”

Rachel, and everyone else for that matter, just blinked a few times. Eventually, Rachel let out a little cough.

“Okay, so I guess we know which of my skills she’s taking when we get around to doing the deed. Poppy, wanna go next?”

Ophelia chuckled, polished off the last bit of her brownie, then stood on her tiptoes to kiss Rachel’s cheek.

“I’d love to, my little Honeyplum.”

Rachel’s cheeks flashed red so quickly that she may as well have had a bucket of paint thrown on her face. Rocky laughed. “Aww, she calls you Honeyplu-”

Rocky was silenced by the brownie-turned-projectile that slammed directly between her eyes with enough force that it exploded into a shower of chocolate flecks and sent the Leatherworker reeling.

Eris had to admit- for a crafter, Rachel had one heck of a throwing arm.