Anyone can take a guild’s entrance exam as long as they can pay a hefty fee. It may seem expensive at first, but you will be paying for a higher realm mage’s time, besides, you can earn a fortune by joining a guild.

  Assuming you get accepted.

  — Excerpt from the Overview of Imperial Guilds

  Day 86, 1:10 PM

  Since I was good at it, I focused on blacksmithing. For some unknown reason, out of all the crafts available, I enjoyed beating up steel the most. It was relaxing and gave me enough time to think, just folding and hammering at the metal over and over again while contemplating life.

  All my lives. The monotonous action, which still required great focus, was an excellent backdrop to do some heavy thinking. Like - what am I doing with life?

  A very important question I haven’t asked myself in a long while. As a king, I led a life of leisure after Manny and I established our domain. I was a horrible father. I loved my children, but the one I really loved was Manny. My kids, everyone after the fifth, were a blur — names with achievements, familiar faces.

  My concentration slipped along with my hand, and I smashed my hammer into the tongs instead of the glowing metal, ruining the tool.

  “Focus, kid,” someone said behind me.

  I snapped around, face to face with massive pectorals bulging behind a leather apron made of red scales. I looked up until somewhere high in the cloud strata I saw a tanned face. Dandelion was tall, but the man who had snuck up on me was a giant standing at nearly eight feet.

  “You’re good with the hammer, precise too, but your mind was wandering.”

  “Thank you for your compliment, sir,” I told the guildmaster of Thunderbluff’s blacksmiths’ guild.

  “I don’t deal in compliments, just call it as I see it, and you’re a diamond in the rough, kid.” His nostrils flared, no smile on those thick lips framed by a carefully trimmed beard.

  It hadn’t happened in ages, but I was struck dumb. The man had killed the conversation with all the skill of a dragonslayer or something.

  “Get your head out of the clouds and focus on your work. You might be a novice now, but a journeyman badge is just behind the corner if you keep doing things properly.”

  He turned and left without another word. I considered what he said, and he was right. I decided I would spend a loop lying in bed and sorting through my tangled emotions and the mess my three previous lifetimes were, but for the moment, I was leveling weapon master and learning how to smith.

  The seven days before the scheduled battle passed quickly enough, and I was back in the arena. The conditions of my battle were different from the ones Longshanks and I had originally agreed to, but she broke the deal the same way she did in the previous loop. There were eight wooden tables scattered around the arena, and whenever I picked up a weapon I had to return it to its table before picking up the next.

  My opponent was a mature woman who appeared like she was in her fifties, but knowing what I did about mana and knights, she was probably in her early two hundreds. Despite her glare, and seemingly unfavorable setup, the fight was trivial.

  [You have defeated an enemy by using weapons of three different weapon categories with which you have proficiency.

  You have leveled up.

  Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.

  Never Flanked - Your opponents have a difficult time flanking you when you wield a weapon with which you have advanced or higher proficiency.

  Always Ready - You instinctively block surprise attacks when you are holding a weapon with which you have advanced or higher proficiency.]

  Once more a familiar skill choice, and I chose Always Ready. The skill saved lives. Then, instead of getting stuck, the five days spent shooting arrows in the previous loop added on top of a day and a half in the current one paid dividends.

  [You have achieved proficiency with ten weapon categories.

  You have leveled up.

  Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.

  Expert Knifemanship - Your skill with knives and daggers improves.

  Expert Spearmanship - Your skill with spears improves.]

  For the first time, the notification showed something resembling a glitch before I recalled that at higher levels you often got to pick up something you missed during the early levels, but the option sucks with the weapon master.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Neither skill was important to me, both were at expert tier, so I picked spearmanship, hoping it would help improve staffmanship or provide a synergy or something.

  [You have achieved advanced proficiency with five weapon categories.

  You have leveled up.

  Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.

  Initial Sense of Danger - You sense unseen attacks before the strike lands and know how much danger they pose.

  …]

  I didn’t even bother reading the second option and chose the skill which kept me alive through most of my first reincarnation. Last time I had it, it came from the bodyguard class. I was planning to pursue the class just to get the ability, but even after claiming it, I planned to try the bodyguard again. If I could increase danger sense’s tier, the skill was bound to improve.

  I checked my level up condition and knew my weapon master run was over. Achieve a master proficiency with a weapon category.

  On Everrain, I was a master of the staff, but Blunt Weapons Master didn’t come up this time. It was time to abandon weapon master. The class was good to me, gave me combat options, seven attribute points, and I earned a bunch of manarium, which I had to collect from Longshanks.

  “Well, that was exciting,” the woman said once I reached her counter. The battle really wasn’t exciting, it may have been flashy. I had dodged blows by a hair’s width, and had to leave the weapons on the table and pick up others all the while, but for me, it was a chore. Worse, it was a chore I repeated, thus utterly bland.

  “Are you up for any other exhibition matches?”

  Longshanks had earned a lot of money on the event, and while I wanted to just end the conversation, take my money and leave, I couldn’t. One doesn’t burn bridges unless they have to, and having a shady, semi-criminal associate was never a bad thing.

  “Not right now, but I’ll think of something when I need the money.” I smiled, and she smiled back.

  Give people simple reasons they can understand and they won’t delve too deeply into your other motives, like floating blue screens nobody else can see.

  I collected my winnings, seventy-five third realm gems and sixty second realm ones, before amiably parting ways with Longshanks, hoping I wouldn’t see the woman again.

  Her credibility took a nosedive when she changed the terms of our deal without consulting me, but it also served as a warning. Blindly trusting others because of convenience represented a lethal level of negligence.

  “See you around.” I gave her my best kindly smile, hiding my displeasure before heading back to the blacksmiths’ guild.

  The blacksmiths’ guild charged either a fee for using a workstation or took ten percent of whatever you were making. I paid for my materials, rented the tools and the station and got to work.

  I had been making blades and ax heads for a week, leaving them to the guild to sell, but with my class open for change, I decided to go with something small and simple. Horseshoes were something basic for a smith to make back on Arborea, and I knew the general shape. With my level of skill, I believed it was a quick and simple item to make which would let me enter the class, and it was.

  Half an hour later, I had a horseshoe, I was a level zero blacksmith, and felt quite smug with myself.

  “What’s that?” The red-aproned giant scarred the life out of me.

  I turned around, realizing this world didn’t have horses and consequently cared little for their footgear.

  I’m an idiot.

  “It’s a prop for a sport.” The lie comes smoothly. “I need to make twenty-nine more, then I can show you how it’s played, if you’re interested.”

  The giant looked at the shoe and snorted. “Don’t waste good steel.”

  With that, he left, and I was uncertain of how to proceed. On one hand, my level up condition was to forge twenty items and horseshoes were quick to make, but if I did it, the grumpy guildmaster would be angry, and he could probably fold me in half if he decided to do so.

  On the other hand, I could make twenty daggers, each wasting more time than it took to make thirty horseshoes and burning days of my valuable time.

  The choice was obvious. I would rather fight the guildmaster than waste three weeks.

  Ten hours later, a stack of twenty horseshoes lay scattered around the floor, the final one reaching perfection beneath my hammer when a level up notice arrived.

  First level blacksmiths got Initial Metallurgy or Initial Hammer Proficiency. Neither was useful to me, but I followed my recent trend of upgrades and took the Initial Hammer Proficiency. I wondered why it wasn’t called hammermaster or something similar, but I realized it as soon as I tested the skill.

  I lamely waved the hammer as if attacking air with an intent of missing, and nothing happened. The skill didn’t correct my lame moves. Then, I started hammering steel, again intentionally botching the attempt, and my arm moved by itself to strike properly.

  Why didn’t they call it initial forging?

  I checked my level up condition, and after sighing got to work.

  [Name - Dandelion Blackfist

  Class - blacksmith level 1

  Health 25/25, Strength - 25, Agility - 25, Physique - 25, Wisdom - 25, Intellect - 25, Willpower - 25, Presence - 25, Charisma - 25, Composure - 25

  Abilities - See Abilities for more information.

  Attribute points remaining - 4

  To level up, temper a metal object you are making to significantly increase its durability.

  Statuses - none]

  [Abilities - Initial Appraisal, Initial Forest Ambush, Advanced Looting, Literate, Inferior Heartcore, Initial Mana Gathering, Initial Mana Circulation, Initial Black Fist Arts, Advanced Body Reinforcement, Master Rider, Initial Fast Reader, Initial Reference Checker, Expert Calligraphy, Initial Arithmetics, Initial Persuasion, Initial Photographic Memory, Initial Time Optimization, Initial Logical Deduction, Initial Steady Hand, Initial Eye For Detail, Initial Seal Deconstruction, Initial Seal Prototyping, Expert Staffmanship, Expert Swordsmanship, Expert Spearmanship, Initial Clubmanship, Initial Flailmanship, Advanced Knifemanship, Initial Axmanship, Initial Macemanship, Initial Slingmanship, Advanced Bowmanship, Piercing Weapons Master, Battlefield Mastery, Always Ready, Initial Sense of Danger, Initial Hammer Proficiency]

  [Anarchist Level 7

  Abilities - Rage, Redo, Blunt, Heavy Handed, Direct, Insightful, Precise, Amicable, Visionary, Godly ??, Gate Sealer ??, Vengeful ?, Grandmaster Rider ?

  To level up, force the authorities to impose justice upon a party they had previously ignored.]