MM - Chapter 141 - SCAMMER LIFE

Raine diligently created another ten Original Blueprints for both Basic and Intermediate Structures. Since he already received the Proficiency for the base schematic, he only earned another 10, bringing him to 13 total Proficiency. He had just enough time to make a short list of materials before moving to his next task.

If left in the bloomery any longer, the copper matte would reach too high a temperature and begin separating out additional impurities. Since he didn't have the tools to deal with anything approaching pure copper, he quickly used the provided tongs to retrieve the lump of impure metal and brought it to the anvil. He hammered away at it with strokes containing significantly more power than any normal human could achieve.

The matte was quickly separated into smaller chunks that would typically be made into ingots. He loaded them on a tray and slid it into the furnace to keep warm. He cleaned the bloomery, reloading it with another pile of ore, then accessed his notes. With everything needed firmly in mind, Raine took out one lump of copper after another, beating them into shape. Sparks flew as his arm blurred, repeatedly smashing them without ever needing to reheat one to finish it.

[Basic Machinery: (Engineering Schematic - Novice) Contains the requisite knowledge to craft most basic machinery]

[Congratulations!]

[Obtained 1 Engineering Proficiency for completing your first piece of machinery!]

Raine ignored the little loading bars above each item as he finished them. He didn't need ZionLine to tell him he was making garbage. The ugly nails, hooks, fasteners, and spikes were child's play compared to the significantly more complex machinery he'd made in the past. Time flew as comforting heat and exertion combined with the relaxing beat of the hammer. After five rounds of melting ore and beating it into shape, he had a healthy stock of machinery.

Next came the fun part. Raine withdrew canvas, poles, and rope, all made by crafters of different professions. While anyone with enough knowledge and resources could technically create anything inside ZionLine, for the system to acknowledge the final product and add attributes or bonus effects, every part had to be made by someone with the appropriate schematic and crafting class. Since not every profession could make all the needed items for most final products, that meant a healthy amount of trading between professions was the norm. 

Top-tier crafted equipment was equivalent to raid drops, meaning the crafter economy—trading between professions—was widely considered the most robust economy within all of ZionLine. Supply would never meet demand, which was just how the crafters wanted it. Driving up prices and keeping them there had created countless mega-wealthy individuals in the past, and Raine doubted this time would be any different.

It only took him a few minutes to jury rig the first set of assorted parts together. He knew which corners he could cut so as not to invalidate the final product. When every piece was in the right place, the contraption shuddered. A holographic line appeared on its surface, moving as it scanned his product from top to bottom, judging its worthiness. Raine was working on the next when the scan finished. A hiss was released, and smoke rose into the air.

[Craft failure!]

[Novice bonus applied: Future crafts of the same product will receive a stacking 1% bonus success chance (Bonus lost upon first successful completion of product)]

Forgot about that. The system sure is nice to novices.

Raine wasn’t overly bothered by the failure; there was a reason he bought so many materials. He stored the trash item for now. He could sell it as is for a scrapper to recycle the parts or do it himself once he rented the proper facilities. His next two attempts also resulted in failure. He only had access to the 5% bonus from his title, and the base chance of success was close to ten percent, so his expectations were low.

His fourth attempt yielded a surprising result.

[Congratulations!]

[Obtained 1 Engineering Proficiency for completing your first Gromglenn Lesser Skydrifter!]

The winged contraption shimmered as its many pieces reformed into a relatively pristine-looking device that might actually be worth trusting your life to.

“Nice!”

[Gromglenn Lesser Skydrifter: (Engineering Schematic - Novice) Activate outside of combat to hopefully glide from a high elevation. This device is prone to failure. You have been warned]

Raine could have stopped there as he didn’t have any other buildable schematics with easily attained parts. Deciding he was enjoying himself too much to stop, he shrugged and put together the rest of the drifters. By the end, he successfully made five.

Previously, he sold a few to Talerra for fifty gold each, a price that anyone who knew what they could do would gladly pay. After spending around a hundred gold on materials for these five, he could have netted a hundred and fifty gold in profit.

I could still salvage about half of the materials used in these failures. Assuming another two successes, that’s seven total, or three hundred and fifty gold. Two-fifty profit in a few hours is insane for something anyone with the right knowledge can do. Once the credit exchange shop opens, that gold could be turned into five million credits. That’s enough to live comfortably for life. If I was capable of this in the past, I wouldn’t have needed to suck on CronGate’s teet.

Raine snorted. He would never have been satisfied with such a mundane, carefree life. Growing old and fat while being pampered by beauties who only wanted his money held negative allure. No matter how much fun he was having crafting, it paled compared to a good life-and-death struggle with everything on the line. That was the life every cell of his body thirsted for.

With 15 Proficiency, Raine was halfway to becoming an Adept. He’d also been cooped up for several hours and had a backlog of messages to get through. Deciding to challenge himself, he sat at the drafting table and started on his next two sets of Original Blueprints. He had several in mind for each schematic, which should more than push him into the Adept grade.

[Basic Fortifications: (Engineering Schematic - Novice) Contains the requisite knowledge to Design and create Blueprints needed to craft basic fortifications]

[Basic Traps: (Engineering Schematic - Novice) Contains the requisite knowledge to Design and create Blueprints needed to craft basic traps]

His quill moved with practiced ease as his eyes danced across his HUD. Several messages from Talerra were right at the top, each marked as urgent. Chuckling, Raine selected her Ncode from his list of contacts. 

She answered so fast she must have been staring at her interface, “Master Alaric! Thank God you’re still alive! I was about to try you again. Earlier, I learned Damian sent assassins to track you down, but I just discovered he sent Origin of Sin. They could be coming for you right now!”

“Origin of Sin?” Raine considered the implications of her warning, glad she was already fulfilling her end of their bargain. He nodded distractedly, eyes on his blueprint, “Okay.”

“What?! What do you mean, ‘okay?’” She demanded. “Origin of Sin is ranked 89th in the world’s most dangerous assassination organizations. They’re in the top 10 within the United Territories of Amanath! How can you be so calm?!”

“How can you get so worked up over a group that can’t reach the top 50?” Raine shot back, ready to end the call. “Thanks for the warning. Let me know when the next stage of your competition is.”

“Wait, don’t—”

Raine ended the call, returning to his messages.

When it comes to women looking out for my well-being, Mel is more than enough. As if Damian wouldn't order a hit after everything I did to him. But to send a group not even in the top 50? What an insult. Now I feel stupid for all the contingencies I put in place.

Origin of Sin, huh? I hope they can put on enough of a show for my plans. If not… Ugh, please don't tell me I have to order a hit on myself…

Raine sighed. The combination of annoyance and a woman nagging him triggered a reminder that he still needed to call his mother. He put the finishing touches on a wall-mounted spike trap, earning another point of Proficiency. Dropping the quill into its jar, he punched in her Ncode from memory.

As usual for someone who refused to communicate in any way other than face-to-face, she didn't answer. Raine knew he would get a scolding if he didn't try at least twice. She picked up halfway through the second attempt.

Victoria KongRu was the picture of middle-aged competence. A harsh life full of back-breaking effort had put a permanent scowl on her face. Like Raine, she had dark hair and strong features that most would consider handsome. To Raine, she was the embodiment of feminine drive and passion. Nothing was good enough for her, except for her sons.

In the past, she died too young. Seeing her stern expression again was exactly the emotional blow he knew it would be. Raine's voice was strained, pressure building behind his eyes, “Hi, Mom.”

Victoria squinted suspiciously at the black box that should contain his face, “Who the hell are you calling Mom? You damn scammer! I'm not falling for your crappy voice changer. You barely even sound like my son.”

Oh yeah, I have a new ZL Ncode and my face call settings are blacked. Not that she would recognize me after taking ReGen.

Raine's hesitation was taken as an excuse to continue berating him, “Couldn't even bother scraping together a passable face and just called, huh? Whatever. Better luck next time, loser.”

Raine suddenly found himself desperate to keep hearing her voice, “Wait! Mom, it's really me. Remember when I fell off my bike at Gege's place?”

She scoffed, “Hah! Nice try! I just told that story to Martha last week. I'll let her know she's got another bug in the house. Thanks for the heads up. You kids really suck at this. Back in my day, we were actually convincing.”

“Martha? You still talk to that bi-uatiful woman? Ahem. Anyways, I just wanted to make sure you paid off the house with the creds I sent.”

“Ohhh, so it's those creds you're after? Well, you wouldn't know about those unless… So, you've even got little Ricky tapped? Well, now I'm even more surprised you're putting in so little effort.”

Exasperated, Raine let a hint of frustration bleed out, “Would you cut it out already? Look, I'll prove it's me. Ask me something only I would know.”

Victoria shot right back, scowl morphing to include disdain, “Don't you take that tone with me, you little scramp! Trying to steal from my family and hoping you'll get lucky after digging a little. You want a question, fine. How do I turn this thing off? Oh, would you look at that, I found it.”

Raine’s jaw dropped when the connection ended. He couldn't manage to be mad after doing the same thing to Talerra only minutes ago.

Well, I tried. She definitely accepted the transfer if she's working so hard to protect it. Wow… She's kinda awesome. Looking so different, I bet she'd even try to box me if I showed up at her place.

That thought put the smile back on Raine's face. He messaged Richtor, letting him know to tell their mother that it really was him who called and that he has a new Ncode. He doubted it would be that easy to convince their mother, but it was a start.

Well, this is what I get for avoiding her until after taking ReGen. 

There were a few messages from Frontier that had been piling up for several days now. Their insistent efforts to hire him to assist with the production of WIDOW were getting old. Raine was about to ignore them as usual, then realized there was something they had that he still wanted. Raine sent his condition to Frontier’s CEO, Marshal Falmaris. The man responded within fifteen minutes, confirming Raine would host a seminar to answer his engineer's many questions, and in exchange, Frontier would supply what Raine requested.

He agreed, then sent a message to Captain Hemlock—the Corpus he met at Soulgen, asking what it would take to procure extra enforcement for the event. The Captain replied a little while later, no doubt having taken the request up the chain of command. “We were going to be there in force at the mayor's request, but since you asked, our armored evac carriers are beyond dated…”

Raine grinned, happy to play along and secure a positive future relationship that he would undoubtedly be leaning on again. “If it helps Carter City, I’m willing to make a small donation. Order them and bill my assistant.”

“Thank you, Expert KongRu! Carty City is eternally grateful. It just so happens we could use some new body armor, too.”

Raine rolled his eyes, “Don’t push it, Captain.”

“Right. Right. Maybe next time.”

That takes care of the biggest issues for the event. Now, I can focus.

Another hour flew by as Raine completed several more easily remembered blueprints. He was already starting to hit the depths of his memory on Basic Traps when he heard a satisfying ding, and his HUD danced with eye-catching colors.

[Congratulations!]

[You have become an adept Engineer. To have survived long enough to become an adept engineer requires considerable restraint and thoughtfulness. Or, perhaps, it was merely luck. Either way, you're finally doing something right with your life! Carry on, curious seeker of danger and excitement]

[Adept Engineer's Privilege: +5% increased chance to complete novice-grade crafts. +1% critical success chance for novice grade crafts]

[Proficiency required to reach expert grade: 30/150]

The law of five was in full effect, proving why so few crafters reached master in the past. Once he became an expert, it would take a staggering 750 Proficiency to reach master. As far as Raine knew, there weren't that many engineering schematics in all of ZionLine. It took considerable research and effort to create each Original Blueprint, and those two tiers below you didn't yield Proficiency. Additionally, if someone beat you to your creation, you got nothing for all your hard work.

Raine tried not to think about the incredibly tall summit that was becoming a master engineer. Sifting through his inventory, he withdrew and learned a schematic acquired long ago.

[Gromglenn boomstick: (Engineering Schematic - Adept) (LVL 30) A handheld or throwable gadget capable of releasing an explosive force dealing 500% of wielder's highest damage type in a 5-meter radius. (It is suggested, but by no means required, to utilize the throwable option)]

Perfect. All I need are the materials.

Since they weren't something he could simply get his hands on yet, Raine focused on scrounging as many Original Blueprints from his memory as possible. However, until finding more base schematics, he was limited. He earned another 15 Proficiency before Mel sent him a message.

“I'm finally in! That took so long. I might have stress-eaten everything in your kitchen. Want to spar? I'm itching to fight for some reason.”

She was hungry? She had two servings of Qi Ock Gri a few days ago… Even with the ReGen requiring huge sums of nutrients, she should be set for another couple weeks. Unimportant. Now that she's had ReGen, I can test if there's a correlation between the more potent dose and reaching Genesis. As far as I know, she never developed a mental ability in the past. If she does now, it will prove that ReGen is the gateway to Astra Infernum's dominance…

Unable to contain his excitement, Raine replied to her message, “Good. I'll be there in a few. I've got some special training planned just for you.”

“I don't know if I should be excited by that, or terrified.”

“Both. Definitely both.”