The World Dragon's Heir

Breakfast was brought to them by ringing a bell marked "Kitchen". Pops pulled the string, and a few minutes later a preteen girl in a maid outfit rushed in pushing a cart with two trays on it.

"Good morning, Master Smith and Apprentice Dominic. Your meal is served. Oat porridge and toast with dried fruits," she offered, then set the plates on the table and rushed away.

"There is water and tea in the kitchen there, brew us a pot, would you? It’s an apprentice’s job to have the tea ready in the morning." Pops informed him with a serious look.

"Got it. No more ale for breakfast. I’ll have the tea ready every morning." Dominic agreed.

Pops laughed and poured himself a pint of ale from a keg in his storage item, then sat down at the table and uncovered his plate.

"No more breakfast ale for you. And only one for me because the tradesmen here are sticklers for the rules, and it wouldn’t do to show up to work smelling of drink." He joked.

He was also dressed in a uniform outfit, but much fancier than Dominic’s, with actual gold thread and bronze ornaments attached to it, compared to his completely plain outfit.

"First things first, though. You need to wear your Trade Skill Core in the open while you are in the Forge. The heat won’t hurt it, and the rules demand that everyone proves their skill on demand. Where do you have it now?" Pops asked.

"In the pocket of my apron." Dominic shrugged. Nothing he wore while working had sockets, it was all disposable other than the apron, which didn’t have any adornment.

"I thought it might be something like that. Here, I bought you a tradesman’s bracer set. Put the Blacksmithing Core in one, and if you’ve got another gem attuned, stick it in the other." He instructed.

Dominic took out his Blacksmithing Core, and the Magitech Orb of [Minor Skill Gain Rate Increase] that he had gotten from Bella as part of the price for the Mana Revolver.

"I should likely level these up a little bit. I’ve got plenty of goblin cores, but I was saving them in case I needed them to craft stuff. I could likely use half of them to get some levels on the gems." Dominic suggested.

"What sort of trip did you have that the blacksmith ended up killing Goblins? I swear that we went over this." Pops asked.

"It was chaos. Everywhere we went, there were more of them. But I also went out hunting once with the guards and some friends I met in Aramos Village, and then there was the defence of the farms when the Hobgoblins led an attack. So in all, I’ve got like forty cores." Dominic shrugged.

Pops laughed and patted him on the head, squashing his hair flat.

"That’s more than enough to get you some respect for your skills. It looks like your Trade Skill Core is already up to Apprentice Three, and growing well, but a bit of a bump to Apprentice Five would put you in the ranks of senior apprentices, and halfway to being able to challenge the advancement to Journeyman.

I’ll let you keep your secret on how you managed to get the core to level up twice in the same week when you didn’t know any recipes at all, and only one Forge Rune, but you should put at least one level into that Trade Skill Core."

"Alright, let’s see how it goes." Dominic agreed.

This would be the first time that he had ever performed the process of transferring the magic from one core to another or to a magitech item, but in theory it was simple enough. Hold it in your hand and focus the energy on the destination.

Dominic focused on the first of the Goblin’s Mana Cores and pushed the magic out of it into the Trade Skill Core. A hint of magic flowed through him from the enchanted gem, giving his mind a hint of the knowledge that Pops had embedded inside.

That was what he was after, so he continued the process, going through three of the cores before he managed to get it to level up, and then another twelve to get it to level five. That solidified a bit more of the crafting knowledge from the trade skill core in his mind, and left the Trade Skill gem just a bit brighter and a bit lighter yellow than it had been.

As Dominic’s skill as a Blacksmith advanced, the colour would slowly go from a flickering yellow to a solid and bright yellow, then gain flickers of blue as he advanced through the Journeyman ranks. When he reached the entry to Master Smith, it would have advanced as far as it could, and from there on it was up to him to craft a masterpiece item suited to his trade skill to accept the knowledge of a master artisan.

Pops had hidden his Masterpiece for years, pretending to still be a Journeyman, but in the end, nobody had believed that he hadn’t advanced, and now he had been recognized as the Royal Master Weaponsmith.

At Apprentice Five, Dominic was halfway through the Apprentice Rank advancement, which got exponentially harder with every step. Good training could get you through the early stages with relative ease, and Dominic’s luck at getting a Rare blueprint had made that process incredibly quick, but there wasn’t much now that would accelerate the process like that again.

Another Rare Recipe would help, but not as much as the first. Going from Rank two to three, as he had when he got the mana revolver recipe, was dozens of times easier than going from Apprentice Five to six.

That was where the Minor Skill Gain Rate Magitech Orb came into play. Advancing it would help his bring other skills up more quickly, and although it was the lowest grade of Magitech Orb, it was by far the most valuable item that Bella had traded him for the Revolver.

As he held it in his hand and felt the Attunement finalize, Dominic prepared to transfer the majority of his cores to the device, hoping to get it to Rank Three.

Advancing Magitech items was more tricky than a Trade Skill Core. The trade skill would progress in a linear fashion, absorbing magic to fully attune to the user and unlock all the knowledge contained inside. But for other Enhancement Gems, and especially Magitech Items, how well they attuned to you made a significant difference in how much effort it took to make them advance.

Not just everyone was well suited to every enhancement, after all. Every person’s body and mind were different.

The first Goblin Core settled into the Magitech Orb, and it seemed to come to life, awakening from its dormant state to welcome him. The device buzzed in his hand as the magic was integrated, and Dominic continued to add cores to the growing sense of attunement that it was generating.

After twenty-five cores, Pops called a halt to his efforts.

"That is enough for today. You’ll run right out of them if you don’t stop now, and it’s not going to reach another level before you do." He warned.

Dominic paused his fuelling to look at the Orb. It had just broken through to Rank Three, glowing with a dim but steady golden light between the delicate gears inside its protective cage. It was a beautiful sight, and it would be a shame not to wear this one all day.

"Put them both in the bracer, and let’s get to the forge. You’ve got a design to test."