Vol. 13 - Chapter 723 - Rank-Up Time - Aruru!

"Aruru, come on in."

Marie-senpai said, gesturing toward the door behind me. With a click, it opened, and Aruru stepped inside. Aruru and Marie-senpai were from the same hometown, and Aruru had looked up to Marie-senpai like an older sister even before coming to the academy. So, it wasn't surprising to see Aruru visiting Marie-senpai.

However, calling Aruru at this moment… did it mean there was a surprising reason involving Aruru? It couldn't be.

"Guess what, Aruru has finally reached max level!"

"I did it!" Aruru exclaimed.

"Whoa! Seriously?!"

My eyes widened in shock. Aruru's leveling up had been a top priority, so I'd been showering her with ores and drops from the «Armored Beast Iron Field Dungeon.» It seemed she had finally hit the cap. This called for a celebration! A big one!

"Aruru, you did it! You truly outdid yourself! And congratulations!"

"Who—hold on, Mister! No, not again! You have gone wild?!"

"What, What's happening?! Wh-wh-whoa, don't lift me! Hey?! What's going on?!"

"The last production job is complete!"

Before I knew it, I had my arm around Aruru's back, lifting her small, Marie-senpai-sized body with a flick and twirling her around.

"Marie-nee, h-help me?! What is this?!"

"Ah, so Aruru didn't know. He sometimes goes a little crazy like this when he gets super happy. It happened to me too."

"No way?! And when does this stop?!"

"It lasted about 10 minutes for me, but I have a feeling he wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't made him. Well, he'll calm down after a while. Aruru, please bear with him."

"Marie-nee?!"

"Here we go, spin, spin, spin~"

"Ahahaha."

"Is this really something to laugh about?! Hey, Zephyr onii-san, calm down already?!"

And so, 10 minutes later, Aruru and I had a grand spinning session.

I even tried to grab Marie-senpai-senpai, but she managed to escape. A pity. However, while Aruru was Initially surprised and flustered, she seemed to settle down after a bit and matched my pace. Well, it felt more like 'resigning herself' than 'matching my pace' as her feet were off the ground, but I probably imagined it. We shared in the joy together.

"Alright, we can finally talk now."

"Marie-nee, I won't forget how you abandoned me. I still feel like the world is spinning."

"Don't sweat the small stuff. More importantly, Mister, aren't we forgetting something more important? Aruru has reached max level!"

"You're right! Now, we're going to proceed with Aruru's Advanced Job Rank Up!"

I nodded firmly to Marie-senpai-senpai, gripping my fist tightly.

At long last, I will have the three indispensable production jobs assembled! This meant taking another step closer to conquering advanced dungeons!

No, wait, don't rush it, me. Confirmation first!

"Aruru, first, I want to ask. The job I want you to take is the «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame». It's the zenith of blacksmithing, who can manipulate divine flame and process any metal. Do you have any objections?"

"Haa... That was long decided, though. Ever since I joined «Arc-Arcadia», I was long prepared to have the «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame», and my answer hasn't changed even now."

Aruru earnestly replied to my question.

Indeed, when I first scouted her, I had already explained to her my condition—that I would have her go through rank-up one day, and acquire the «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame».

This advanced job was much closer to the heart of blacksmithing than the standard advanced job «Master High-Dwarf». It was a must-have to forge the ultimate-grade equipment, and in particular the weapons. This would be another, and an irreplaceable, wheel on Eden's journey to the top.

Regardless, it had been four months since I discussed this with her. I wanted to confirm that she hadn't had a change of heart. I was relieved that she hadn't.

"Great! In that case, let's get moving. I will get you to finish the prerequisite now, then we will head to the measurement room!"

"Wait, right now?!"

"He is the immediate-actor, after all. Aruru, do your best. I bet you're going to get a new task once it's all done."

"As expected of Marie-senpai-senpai, you understand it completely! Now that I have all three pieces, once Aruru's Advanced Job Rank Up is done, we'll have a strategy meeting! Please keep your schedule open for then!"

"Alright."

With that, I led Aruru out of the «Wappen Seal Sticker» guild and headed back to «Eden.» I then paid a visit to Hannah, who was working in the alchemy workshop.

"Hannah, I'm sorry to interrupt your shop preparations, but can you spare some

time later?"

"That came out of nowhere, Zephyr. Well, call me anytime."

"Alright! I think I'll be back in about 30 minutes, so see you later!"

"Ah, Zephyr?! Aren't you going to see the completion of our new alchemy workshop?!"

"I'll see it later~"

Without further ado, I also got a schedule from Hannah, retrieved one of the «Advanced Job Ascension Ticket», and turned to forge.

Yes, our guild house now had the required workshop! As a fact, the renovation had been successfully completed over the past two days. We now had the best alchemy workshop and best forge! Oh, and the shop also came out nicely. Now, we were just a few touch-ups, like exterior decoration, away from being a bona-fide shop.

I wanted to take a closer look, but we had decided to do that when everyonegathered in the morning. It was still 8 AM, Saturday morning. Not all members had arrived yet, so the guild house tour was postponed.

Aruru's Advanced Job Rank Up was the urgent matter at hand.

"First, the equipment! Aruru, you need to equip a full equipment set of nine pieces, including weapons, that you made yourself from scratch. This also includes accessories."

"Huh?! I have them, but the ones I have left are just practice pieces, so they're weak, you know? Marie-senpai-han took all the good ones."

"Their strength doesn't matter; it's just to meet the activation conditions. The time has come to make use of what you made before!"

"So that's why you had me make that to my exact size!"

By the way, normally, accessories were not a blacksmith's forte, so what they made was often strange in performance. «Craftsmen» and similar jobs were the best for them.

Though, among equipment series, there's a set that includes metal accessories made to match the armor. Apparently, productioners were irked by situations like 'I already forged the entire set, why in the world should I outsource the last accessory piece?!'—it's something peculiar to them—so to avoid that, I had Aruru craft several accessories that are currently in «Eden». After getting a hang of it, she's quite familiar with their crafting now.

But I digress. I had previously asked Aruru to create a full set of nine series items, from weapons to shields, armor, and accessories. This was because one of the activation conditions for the «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame» was "Forge and equip a full set of nine series equipment."

The tricky part was the "nine-piece series"; normally, the set would have like five pieces or seven pieces including one accessory and a weapon, so nine-piece series recipes were quite rare. Furthermore, the user had to craft all nine pieces by themselves from scratch and equip them to undergo the advancement, which had made this particular job's discovery quite impossible.

The other conditions were like "Craft an advanced weapon, an advanced armor, and experience Severe Fumble 10 times each." Aruru had already cleared them. I had long passed to her the recipe and materials from «Iron Mountain Beast - Donkonga» for this very reason. Then, the rest of pre-requistive were 'Have 700 DEX', an expensive investment at the level of standard job, "Lightning Flame Steel Dwarf LV75", "Dwarf Blacksmithing LV 10," "Metalworking LV 10," "Blacksmithing Mastery LV 10," and "Enhanced Blacksmithing Up LV 10."

Ah, wait. As the high-ranking high-tier job, there's also the jewel arrangement. The jewel in this case was called «Jewel of Heavenly Advancement.» It's said to be an item necessary for promoting evolution, primarily used by «Dwarves» and «Elves.» Even though it wouldn't make her a High Dwarf this time... well, it's fine.

With everything already set, I visited the measurement door, which no longer required a permission to use, with Aruru. I handed the «Jewel of Heavenly Advancement» to her. She was currently clad in what could only be described as full plate armor, with a one-handed axe and shield strapped to her back. It might just be a man's nature, but she looked rather cool.

"You're too prepared."

"I've been preparing for a long time!"

"...I finally understand what Marie-nee meant."

Aruru said, for some reason, with a look of profound understanding. She nodded, took the «Jewel of Heavenly Advancement,» and used it immediately.

"Oh? This is beautiful. It might even be usable for weapon effects," she mused.

"You can do that?!"

I exclaimed. This was news to me!

"When you use a skill with a weapon, an effect occurs, right? You can manipulate how those effects are displayed to a certain extent. Like generating sparkling particles, like this. Well, it doesn't change the performance, so this is merely eye-candy."

"No, no, no, that's amazing!"

Back in the game, you couldn't adjust weapon effects like that. But in reality, even such minute details were possible. That was a discovery! I'll have her make one for me next time!

"So, I just need to touch the «Dragon Statue» as is, right?"

"Yup, that's right. And here's your ticket to advancement."

"I'll gratefully accept it... Oh, I'm getting nervous now."

As decided beforehand, I handed the «Advanced Job Ascension Ticket» to Aruru. With her hands free since her weapon was on her back, Aruru took the ticket with one hand and touched the «Dragon Statue» with the other. Then,

"It's really there! The «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame»!"

"Don't let your thoughts wander."

"I know! «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame«, I choose you!"

With slightly trembling fingers, Aruru tapped on «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame». Momentarily, everything but «Blacksmith King of Divine Flame» blacked out in the job manifest.

With that, Aruru successfully acquired the high-high ranking advanced job!