Chapter 17: Chapter 16: IRONWOOD BLUEPRINT AND A COSTLY MISTAKE
The fragrant aroma of fresh pine wood shavings still filled the corner of my wooden workbench in the Craftsman District workshop of StoneBrook city. My pale fingers slowly brushed across the surface of the newly completed oak shortbow with outstanding craftsmanship quality. In the peaceful atmosphere after the battle that was beginning to restore my mental freshness, a sudden memory flashed through my mind.
"Ah, that’s right. I have that item," I muttered softly.
I immediately opened my virtual dimensional storage, sorted through the pile of leather and claw materials I had obtained from the Grizzly King, and took out an ancient leather scroll emitting a faint silver glow. It was the [Blueprint: Ironwood Longbow] (Rare). The valuable blueprint that was my reward for successfully claiming the First Clear of the eastern area boss this afternoon.
With rising curiosity, I opened the leather scroll to check the material details and production requirements. However, the moment my eyes read the main requirement line at the top of the virtual document, a long sigh immediately escaped my lips.
[Blueprint: Ironwood Longbow (Rare)]
Class Requirement: Player with Carpenter sub-class
Proficiency Requirement: Carpenter Minimum Level 10
I glanced back at my crafting status icon, which was currently only at [Carpenter] Level 7. It turned out that the high-level knowledge embedded in this rare blueprint was still tightly locked by the system’s limitations. I wasn’t allowed to touch ironwood until my proficiency foundation reached the beginner Adept level.
"Still three levels short, huh? That means I have to keep producing things to chase these woodworking experience points," I monologued while tapping my chin.
However, honestly, I was starting to feel bored if I had to keep cutting and carving monotonous wooden arrows. I wanted to make something different, something more personal that would challenge the precision of my high-dexterity fingers.
My gaze fell on the small leftover pieces of pine and oak wood scattered across the table. Their size was too small to be made into weapons or arrows, but they had very beautiful grain if carved carefully. A creative idea suddenly came to mind. As an albino Elf girl with a striking appearance and long silver hair, I didn’t have any accessories to adorn my head yet.
"How about I make some hair accessories for myself?" I muttered with a faint smile.
I grabbed the smallest carving knife available on the workbench and began executing that idea. I took a small piece of hard oak wood and started carving it into a four-petaled clover-shaped hair clip symbolizing luck.
Sret... Sret...
The carving knife in my hand moved with extraordinary speed and smoothness. Every curve of the petals was engraved with microscopically neat detail. After the basic shape was complete, I used fine stone sandpaper to slowly polish the surface until the golden-brown oak grain emitted a very elegant natural shine.
Ding!
[System: You have successfully produced ’Clover Wooden Hairpin’ (Common)! Workmanship quality is very neat!]
[System: ’Carpenter’ skill proficiency has increased!]
Seeing the first success, my creative passion burned even brighter. I switched to a softer pine wood piece. This time, I intended to make a traditional Elf-style hair stick with the tip carved to resemble phoenix wings spreading. The process of making this hair stick required a higher level of concentration because the wing parts were very thin and prone to breaking if pressed too hard.
However, the combination of my mental focus and hand stability in this game truly made the complicated process feel like enjoyable recreation. I carved, formed small cavities between the fake feathers, and finished it with a perfect final touch.
Not stopping there, for the next hour, I continued producing various other items from the remaining materials. I made several pairs of round wooden earrings with ancient rune carvings, a neatly woven pine wood bracelet, and even a small jewelry storage box. Every item I completed always received a high-quality rating from the system, which constantly pumped my crafting experience points upward at a steady pace.
Ding!
A chime much louder than usual suddenly echoed in the corner of my vision, followed by a thin white light enveloping my workbench.
[System: Congratulations! Your ’Carpenter’ skill has reached Level 10!]
"Finally, I reached level 10," I said while stretching my slightly stiff hands.
Without wasting time, I immediately opened the production skill menu and pressed the golden button locked on my woodworking icon. Just like combat skills, production skills also required a Skill Break process after reaching certain level caps to advance to the next tier. I confirmed the command, allowing some of my skill points to be deducted as system administrative costs.
Clang!
The virtual golden chains wrapping around the axe and saw icons on my screen shattered into pieces.
[System: You have successfully performed a Skill Break on the ’Carpenter’ skill]
I checked the detailed changes after the breakthrough process. Unlike archery or slow walking skills that gave me new active skills like Stealth or Vital Shot, this Carpenter sub-class apparently didn’t unlock any additional skills in my active menu.
"Hmm, no new skills?" I muttered slightly disappointed, but that disappointment immediately vanished when I read the newly updated passive description. "But that’s fine, the passive effect makes me much more skilled and efficient in using all kinds of woodworking tools. Carving speed and cutting stability increased by 20%."
Now, my crafting foundation is ready. It was time to execute my real main goal: making the Ironwood Longbow.
I reopened the rare blueprint to check the specific list of raw materials required. This Rare-tier weapon required 5 [Ironwood Logs] as the main component and 1 [Beast-tendon Bowstring] (Monster Tendon Bowstring).
With steady steps full of confidence, I walked over to the middle-aged NPC material merchant stall who had served me earlier this morning.
"Uncle, I want to buy five Ironwood logs and one Monster Tendon Bowstring."
The NPC uncle looked at me with widened eyes, as if he couldn’t believe a level 10 beginner player was requesting mid-tier materials.
"Ah, Ironwood and Monster Tendon String? Those are very difficult-to-obtain special materials, Adventurer. The price isn’t cheap. One Ironwood log costs 2 silver coins, and the Monster Tendon String is priced at 5 silver coins."
Hearing those price figures, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"What?! Two silver coins per log and five silver coins for the string?!"
I quickly calculated in my head. The total cost for one set of bow materials reached 15 silver coins! That was an extremely fantastic amount for early-game player economy. I glanced at the remaining loot money I got from the Grizzly King, which I had initially thought was very abundant. After deducting this cost, my virtual wallet would immediately shrink drastically.
"Damn... so expensive," I grumbled inwardly while handing over my silver coins with slightly trembling hands from reluctance. "If I had known, I wouldn’t have spent my money buying so many pine and oak logs that piled up on the workbench earlier!"
This was a fairly severe financial management mistake. Because I was too excited to level up my crafting by buying materials in bulk earlier, my remaining cash capital was now in the red zone. I only had one golden opportunity with these expensive materials. If this bow crafting failed, I wouldn’t have a single coin left to buy replacement materials.
I returned to my wooden workbench with a much more tense mood. Five logs of pitch-black ironwood with extremely dense grain and very heavy weight now lined up before me, alongside a remaining stiff and rough grayish monster tendon string.
I took a deep breath to calm my mind, closed my eyes for a moment, then began activating the blueprint in my crafting menu.
[System: Do you wish to begin crafting ’Ironwood Longbow’? Base success rate: 45%]
"Only 45%? So low," I whispered anxiously. However, the boost from my high DEX value and the newly unlocked Carpenter passive effect should be able to secretly raise that percentage. "Begin crafting."
First Attempt.
I took the first ironwood log. The natural properties of this ironwood were truly very different from the soft pine or oak wood. This wood felt as hard as a steel plate. When I tried to cut the end using the hand saw, thin sparks even appeared.
I tried pressing and carving the bow curve section to create a flexibility effect. However, because the internal structure of the ironwood fibers was too strong and rigid, its elasticity became very poor. When I tried to apply slightly stronger mechanical pressure to test its bendability...
KRAKK!
The thick ironwood in my hand suddenly cracked in the middle and broke into two useless pieces.
[System: Crafting Failed! ’Ironwood Log’ material destroyed!]
"Damn!" I cursed softly, feeling a drop of cold sweat trickle down my temple. Two silver coins had just vanished into wood scraps in the blink of an eye.
I tried to analyze the mistake in the first attempt. I had forced the traditional curvature angle on wood that had steel-like density.
Second Attempt.
This time, I used the carving knife much more slowly and carefully, thinning the ends with micrometer precision so the distribution would be more even. However, the wood’s overly strong nature once again became a boomerang. When I tried to attach the stiff monster tendon string for the first time, the resulting tension was too great on one side.
SNAP!
The bow tip peeled and broke before the string could be properly attached. The second failure. Another two silver coins are gone.
Third and Fourth Attempts.
My mood became worse as time passed. Failure after failure continued in succession. On the third attempt, the bow was successfully shaped but had a structural defect in the grip that caused it to break when drawn. On the fourth attempt, my sanding was too thin on one side, making the bow unbalanced and breaking when its flexibility was tested.
Now, only one final ironwood log and one remaining monster tendon string were left on the workbench. This was my last chance. If this fifth failure happened, all my crafting capital would be completely destroyed.
I stared at the final ironwood log with sharply narrowed eyes. My brain spun hard, trying to find an alternative solution outside the standard blueprint instructions that seemed flawed if applied raw to an early-level character.
"The natural properties of this ironwood are too strong, rigid, and lack natural elasticity... That’s why it always breaks when receiving bowstring tension," I analyzed while glancing at the pile of leftover wood in the corner of the table.
My gaze fell on a remaining piece of [Softwood Log] from my earlier woodworking practice. Softwood had properties that were the complete opposite of ironwood: it was very elastic, easy to bend, but had very low physical durability.
A bold experimental idea suddenly crossed my mind. "What if I try combining these two opposing types of wood?"
In the real world, this technique was known as making a Laminated Bow combining two different material layers to obtain both tensile strength and compressive strength simultaneously. I didn’t know if the realistic Second World Online system would support experiments outside the blueprint path, but I had no other choice.
I immediately split the final ironwood log into very hard thin layers as the outer core of the bow, then carved a piece of softwood into an inner bow layer that functioned as pressure dampening. Using natural adhesive glue available on the workbench, I joined the two wood layers under iron mold pressure for several minutes.
After the glue dried, I grabbed the carving knife and began smoothing the shape with extremely high care. My hands moved like a surgeon’s, ensuring the fusion of the two wood grains went perfectly without any air gaps.
When the combined bow structure was complete, I took the monster tendon string and slowly attached it to both notched ends of the bow.
Sreeek...
The bow curved beautifully, creating a majestic Longbow silhouette with a combination of pitch-black ironwood on the outer side and bright cream softwood on the inner side. There was no cracking sound. No wood splinters.
Ding!
A very magnificent golden light suddenly exploded from above the workbench, illuminating my entire face.
[System: Absolute Success! You have successfully created a new item through the lamination modification method: ’Laminated Ironwood Longbow’ (Rare)!]
[System: Because you successfully produced a Rare-tier weapon through independent experimental methods, you have received a large Carpenter proficiency bonus!]
"Success! Hahaha, I really did it!" I exclaimed with unrestrained joyful laughter. The tension that had built up from the four consecutive failures earlier instantly vanished into thin air.
I immediately grabbed the new longbow with both hands, intending to check the extraordinary stats embedded within it. However, the moment my palm gripped the bow handle and tried to draw the string to test its strength... my face suddenly froze.
Ugh...
My slender arms felt extremely heavy. When I tried to pull the bowstring back toward my cheek, the string felt incredibly stiff as if pulled by steel chains. The bowstring didn’t budge more than a few centimeters, and a very strong physical rejection sensation immediately blocked my character’s movement.
A red warning system notification flashed before my eyes:
[Warning: Your Strength attribute does not meet the minimum requirement to use this weapon!]
[Item Specifications: ’Laminated Ironwood Longbow’ (Rare) requires a minimum of 5 STR to be functionally drawn due to the monster tendon string’s high tension level.]
I lowered the bow with suddenly slumped shoulders, staring at the beautiful object with a very sad and disappointed feeling.
"It requires a minimum of 5 STR..." I complained in a voice filled with frustration.
Currently, my raw (STR) stat was only at 2 points. The expensive monster tendon string I had bought turned out to have too high a tension level for the fragile physique of a magical Elf like me. This Rare-tier great weapon from my independent crafting modification now ended up as a beautiful decoration in my inventory that I couldn’t use in battle at all.
I sat limply on the round wooden workshop stool, propping my chin with both hands while staring at the black-cream longbow lying on the workbench. My tactical mind began spinning again, trying to find a way out of this physical attribute deadlock.
"It seems I’ll have to try again next time... replacing the string material with something much more flexible and highly elastic," I analyzed as the first option. If I replaced the stiff monster tendon string with spider silk or mystical plant fibers in the future, this bow’s STR requirement would definitely drop significantly.
The second option was to raise my character’s own STR attribute to reach 5 points. However, the memory of the racial penalty from my [Albinism] trait immediately made me shake my head quickly. Every manual attribute point allocation into STR or AGI would be cut in half by the system.
"I need additional accessories or equipment that has a +3 or +4 STR bonus," I decided firmly. "Because it would be quite a shame and feel like a huge waste if I had to spend my valuable (AP) points just to manually raise STR."
It would be much better to look for low-tier rings, necklaces, or leather belts with +3 or +4 STR stats at the player market or from monster hunting results in the new area later. That was a far more efficient solution to cover my physical deficiency without ruining the focus of my main stat development centered on DEX and INT.
I let out a long sigh, organizing the new laminated longbow along with the remaining wooden arrows and hair accessories I had made earlier into my dimensional storage. This marathon crafting session of more than two hours, combined with the nerve-wracking tension from the series of ironwood failures earlier, had truly exhausted my remaining mental energy for the day. My vision inside the game had even started to feel slightly blurry from the accumulation of system nerve fatigue.
"It’s time to rest," I whispered softly to myself.
I stood up from the workshop bench, stepped out of the Craftsman District that was beginning to darken because the day in the game was already turning to evening. I walked leisurely through the still-bustling streets of StoneBrook, then returned to the cheap inn where I had rented a room this morning.
After entering the inn room and locking the door tightly from the inside for my character’s safety, I lay down my albino Elf body on the soft wooden bed. I closed my eyes and called up the main system interface in my mind.
"System, Log out."
Syuuuuttt...
The aesthetic wooden inn room scenery slowly faded, replaced by the silent darkness of the digital transition space, before my consciousness was finally pulled back across the boundary of reality, preparing to awaken again in my real physical body inside the medical capsule.
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