The Art of Craft - Part 1:
Two weeks can be a short time in a person’s life… or an eternity if you spend them with in-laws who hate you to death for taking their daughter on a wandering life of adventure…
The truth is, when I saw the transport leave with the two of them, I could finally breathe easy… and look, in those two weeks I had tried to ingratiate myself with my in-laws, but there was no way…
I even took them to Papoo Village to see the territory of the papoo… and we ended up in the middle of a Red Papoo wave with the King in front… For a moment I thought if they wouldn’t kidnap my in-laws and take them to the tallest tree there was … at least the hours it took us to rescue them would be of peace for me, but I didn’t count on my brave father-in-law, who stamped his cane with a handle-shaped of Kiana Arkadian on the head of Papoo King himself… the poor monkey ran away between howls of pain…
But it was all over… now my interest was in a convention of crafters that was going to take place in Next Island… An event that for the first time was going to be held here instead of Calypso… Of course, Chief Socrates had pulled a lot of strings for it …
Let’s see, I dedicate myself to crafting vehicles and clothes, but it never hurts to have the opinion of experts on these topics, because we had two of the most famous Crafters from the entire Entropy Quadrant as guests at the Symposium: Martre and Soul.
I met Soul years ago in his Rocktropy redoubt… He spent time in an area dominated by hordes of zombies and other creatures… He had specialized in vehicles and furniture and had ended up owning shops on all the planets, including Next Island.
And where was the event going to be held? Of course, at Caroline’s, the only place big enough and cozy enough and with a big stage to put on the whole show.
There was no room in the bar… the lecturers’ table on the stage was set up, and all the seats in the bar arranged in rows and rows with an order that had never been seen before…
We were all talking when suddenly there was silence… The Sponsors of the event appeared through the side door followed by Marte, Soul, Kotter and some other famous crafter… The applause grew louder as they took their seats… The organizers gave a short speech to officially start the event, and later they gave the floor to the first guest, who turned out to be Soul… he took a sip of water, cleared his throat and began his speech…
-Craft is the art of creation, the art of design, but it is also the art of combination… To all those who dedicate themselves or want to do it, I will give you some advice: worry less about the result and more about what you get collaterally…
He paused as we all listened expectantly.
-I’m not talking about the waste, or the opal obtained in the HOFs… A large part of the profit in the craft is due to the AI that is in charge of creating what we tell it through the BP… The AI is in charge of analyzing the results, see what was obtained and interpolate new combinations of those elements, giving rise to new BP to make new items that can have a great MarkUp… And it does that every time we click…
That was something known: The crafting machines could create new BP by analyzing what was created, the materials, the skills of the crafter and the gods know what else… But it was something apparently random, meaningless… Soul continued his speech:
-But what almost nobody knows is that the result can be predicted in advance… My colleague Marte and I have developed a prediction method based on countless analyzes carried out in our manufacturing process… -A murmur was heard in the background, while some crafters smiled and rubbed their hands thinking about future profits -Let’s see, let me tell you that this method is not going to be made public, since it has been our initiative without any type of subsidy or state aid, so it belongs to us, but… As a scoop I will tell you that a new BP of a high performance weapon could be discovered in the next few days… And that, both due to the materials and the results, the probability of it being discovered here on Next Island is very high…
I barely heard the rest of the speech… In my mind I saw the discovery, the new weapons, and lots of money… As soon as I left Caroline’s I was going to try to be the discoverer of that BP…
The Art of Craft - Part 2:
A weapon… I mean, you should craft weapons to get a BP from weapons… If it’s high performance it could be a BP of level IV, V or more…
That means trying to craft big guns… I’ve never done that, so I don’t know if it will be profitable, or I’ll leave a trail of debt behind me when I have to escape my creditors on Next Island.
Katalina knows my manias and my things, and she was already thinking about the complications that all this BP mess was going to give rise to.
The first thing was to decide which weapon to craft… The most logical option is Armatrix, but its high production cost would drastically reduce the number of attempts to be made… It should make cheaper weapons…
-And why don’t you make weapons from another planet? - Asked Katalina - Surely in Cyrene or Toulan there are cheaper weapons to build than those Armatrix…
Katalina was right… She should try to find something on another planet, even if she needed to import the materials…
Three hours later, she had tired eyes and a sore head… But she had narrowed down the list to Toulan’s weapons… Specifically, she had three possible options:
• Thaqafa Blade M1 (L) Blueprint
• Thaqafa Blade M2 (L) Blueprint
• Thaqafa Blade M3 (L) Blueprint
Ok, in Cyrene there are even cheaper weapons, but they use cubes, and some have a great MU, and there are not always the necessary amounts, so…
The M1 was the cheapest option, and with more common materials in Toulan…
• 6 x Maro Ingot
• 3 x Sunburst Ingots
• 2 x Yashib Ingot
• 2 x Caldorite Ingot
That was definitely the weapon, and besides, the BP was level V… Now, the search for materials… Again a good time looking at the Toulan Auction House, and the store directory…
If I found them, I could go pick them up but I didn’t want to risk being shot down by a pirate, so it was best to rely on planetary transport… The materials in Auction can come here that way, but the materials from the shops had to be shipped in another way… So I had to make a planetary videoconference.
Select a contact on my Communications Tablet and click on the “CALL” icon… wait a few seconds, and then the face of my friend Moustapha appeared on the screen… He had a crooked turban and a face of few friends… at the bottom of the image I saw a cage with a totally crazy Atrox… Working at the Flora and Fauna Center in Toulan involves more dangerous animals than a simple TabTab.
-Salaam Aleikum, Dante, what a joy to see you again… As you can see, I’m a bit busy right now, but tell me, what is your life? – Moustapha always so polite even with a rogue Atrox roaring like a man possessed.
-Salaam, Moustapha… Well, you see, I need you to go to one of the stores in Nahar City and buy me some materials… then you put them up for auction and I’ll buy them myself… or you can send them to me by transport, as you see…
-Okay, it’s not a problem, but as you can see, now is not the time… send me the list of materials and the stores where they are… when I have them I will call you so I can put them up for auction and you can buy them… okay?
-Okay, Moustapha… I’ll send it to you later and… be careful that Atrox doesn’t bite your ass- I told him with a smile.
A couple of hours later I had seen the options… Yashib is available for a good price in AH, as well as Caldorite, but Maro and Sunburst will depend on Moustapha. I sent him the references of the two materials as well as the quantities by message to his communication Tablet, and I dedicated myself to waiting while I savored a bombardo liquor that the Haruspex distilled in Tanzanite View…
Half an hour later, a call from Moustapha: he had the materials… Now the dangerous moment: he would put the materials up for auction and at that moment he should buy them quickly, to prevent another buyer from doing it… Both looking at the AH… Item up for auction , now!!! Click, price, click, orders…… click, buy… Maro Ingot is mine!!! I repeated the operation with the Sunburst and I already had the materials in my possession!!!
I effusively thanked Moustapha while waiting for the materials to arrive… I took advantage of those minutes to do the math… I had 300 attempts, but… the expense had been excessive… if a new BP didn’t appear or I didn’t have HOFs, I could be ruined …
The Art of Craft - Part 3:
I spent a long time looking for a free crafting machine, but it was an almost impossible task: Half the population of Next Island was in the process… Soon there would be a large surplus of weapons in the Auction House.
So I headed to Shaterrock, my favorite place to craft… There in the desert I felt comfortable… The sand, the wind and the distant growls of the Desert Crawler…
Miraculously, my favorite machine was free… I entered my identification and the list of possible fabrications with the materials I had available came out… With everything I had in my Storage, the list was long… there it is!!! 300 Thaqafa Blade M1 (L) Blueprint attempts.
I connected my Tablet and made the list of globals and planetary HOFs visible, to see what the others were doing… Then, praying to the gods, I activated the “START” button with the green indicator…
CLACK!!! Tick tock, tick tock… a few eternal seconds and a yellowish light shone around me… Extra loot GLOBAL!!! And at first, wow, I’m in luck…
Those 300 peds received in waste were a help to be able to recover the money invested, but… that was not what worried me now…
Click a Clik, the machine advanced… the Blades were piling up in the Storage, along with the waste and some BP of minor weapons that had also come out, although they were fabrications that had already been discovered…
In total there were 3 GLOBAL Extra Loot and several Mini Loot… Armatrix BP, waste… 295, 296…
On attempt 297 something strange happened… the machine gave an Error, nothing manufactured, no residue, nothing came out, but… A double helix wrapped me while the “Discovery” indicator lit up.
What the hell!!! If there is an error it is impossible for anything to appear… In fact, the name did not appear but “UNKNOWN ITEM” in the list…
298… 299… 300… that’s it, the craft is over… He didn’t have any BP of new weapons, although between the Globals and the waste and weapons with the corresponding MU, he had managed to recover the expense made, although just barely…
I began to check the Storage looking for the so-called Discovery… nothing… it wasn’t material, or a weapon or anything… It could only be a BP, so I checked the corresponding section and…
I was there!!! It was something never seen… An authentic Discovery…
A BP (L) Boosted from a single attempt of a UL weapon… the list of materials was overwhelming, although they weren’t rare materials, only some of them were Rare, and others used high MU items… Anyway… it was time to put the BP in the machine and see what the result would be if you had the materials and could craft… Select the BP, go to the screen and…
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…
The Art of Craft - Part 4:
Incredible… the most efficient weapon ever known in the Entropy Quadrant… A UL pistol with 98.3% effi and damage up to 73… A brutal range for a pistol, of more than 60 meters, and a speed of 83 shots per minute, the DPS went up to a maximum of 101… a critical would surely go beyond 200… and an “Exceptional” Durability indicated a very low Decay… it was definitely not Marco’s weapon, but for normal people it was the ultimate weapon!!!
And the name of the weapon… Fenix Fury… I remembered other times and other places when my good friend JoseGaltor called me Fenix… Sometimes I fondly remember those times that will never come back… I’m getting old…
For a second I thought about going to buy the materials and make the only attempt… I could go out or not, but I had to try… However, the rational part of me told me not to do it.
Let’s see, since the Mindark Corporation discovered the Entropy Quadrant, the Consortium had sold concessions for the exploitation of the different planets… The concessionaires, called Planet Partners, had signed contracts with Mindark according to which they had certain limitations, especially at the weapons level.
The war… That was the fear of the Mindark Corporation… that one of the Planets Partners would get a tactical advantage in weaponry over the others and, considering that war and conquest are in the human DNA, would want to conquer other planets by force . That could jeopardize the investments that Mindark Corporation had made in the Quadrant, especially in the Calypso Mother Planet…
That is why the Mindark Corporation monitored the production of weapons and armor, to prevent one planet from prevailing over another and the balance from being broken… and now suddenly I have the possibility of manufacturing an ultimate, powerful weapon…
Okay, it’s just an attempt, but… using Reverse Engineering it could be duplicated in case the only craft succeeds… So suddenly, I’m the possessor of a secret that could destabilize the Entropy Quadrant…
And the worst thing is that it is probably unique… The craft machine gave “ERROR”, and yet the BP appeared… That error might never happen again, so…
I am the sole repository of a secret… and that could be very dangerous…
The Art of Craft - Part 5:
I talked about it with Katalina, and we both came to the same conclusion: That BP was dangerous if they found out in the Central Government of Calypso… It was also dangerous if the weapon was developed and fell into the wrong hands, so it would be best to keep it in a safe place.
Katalina and I had an apartment in FOMA, in Alpha West 11D… that was a tribute to hunting, mining, craft… the decoration was based on things obtained throughout the Entropy Quadrant… Pure collecting.
So in a few days we will go there and I will place the BP on one of the shelves, as an ornament… Deep down I refuse to destroy it or leave it hidden…
The sale of the obtained materials and the developed BP, as well as the weapons, made me recover the money invested and earn something… Not much, but at least we did not go bankrupt and we will not have to give my father-in-law another displeasure in the form of debt flight , like the other times in Arkadia, or Calypso, or…
That afternoon I was going to relax with a liquor while Katalina went shopping in Crystal Bay… I put a program on Holovision, sat down with my glass of liquor and…
Knock, Knock…
Someone knocked on the door… hell, they won’t leave me alone… Probably another business.
I opened the door and looked surprised at those two individuals.
The one who knocked on the door was short, stocky, wearing armor that he had seen better days and had a huge scar that crossed his face… Without a doubt he did not use a quality healer and that “memory” was left on his face.
The other guy was a Turrelion…
Those silent beings, covered with masks and hoods… Their eyes were invisible under the lenses that protected them… two weapons hung from their belt… The Turrelion of Cyrene are sometimes hired as mercenaries or bodyguards… I tensed.
-Yes? – Ask suspiciously.
-Good afternoon, Dante… - A cracked but strong voice came from that guy with the scar.
-How is that…?
-…Do we know who you are? – Scar said – Your fame precedes you, Dante… You are a great crafter and we are here to talk about business…
Crafter… The BP… I went on alert…
-Em… um… okay then… say what you have to say – My hands brushed the deployment button of the armor.
Scar looked at me… his eyes smiled slightly… He knew that I knew.
-Okay… Dante, we know you’ve discovered something… and something big… we saw it…
It is done!!! I don’t know how, but they knew… Maximum tension.
-No, it hasn’t been something interesting… it seems to be an error of the craft machine that… - I couldn’t finish the sentence.
-We know Dante… but it was “something interesting”… without a doubt the weapon that Soul said at the conference… What I don’t understand is why you haven’t publicized the issue… -Scar looked at me with an air of knowing everything…
-Listen friend, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if it’s not business, go out the door and leave… okay? – My fingers went to touch the armor deployment button.
I did not have time.
The Turrelion suddenly advanced towards me with a Mace FEN in his hand… I don’t know where he got it from, I kept looking at his two weapons in their holsters… they were undoubtedly a decoy… Traitor….
Everything suddenly went black, and my head seemed to explode…
When I opened my eyes, Katalina hadn’t arrived yet… I had been unconscious for a while… I looked around.
The house was all messy… open drawers, clothes on the floor…
I trudged to one of the drawers, which had a concealed double bottom…it was open, and the hiding place was empty…
They had stolen the BP…