Abel took out a bottle of ‘soul potion’ and poured it into his mouth. His brain quickly began to operate like a supercomputer. His power of the will sensed that complicated network of pattern, and it had turned into 3D in his mind. Afterward, he ruthlessly examined every corner of the network of patterns.
His power of the will had found where the network of pattern starts. Then, he began to trace the lines and etched out the structure of this pattern.
As the lines began to change, Abel seemed to feel a strange power. After the entire network of patterns had been replicated, and the original one faded away.
At that moment, the shadow of a man emerged from Abel’s mind. There was a full line up of Blacksmith equipment including, furnace, hammer, and metal spoke in front of the shadow. There was also a big sword in the shadow’s hand. The shadow had the same experience as Abel. As it began to open up a socket on the sword, it kept turning the sword round and round between the furnace and the metal spoke. Soon, a socket was opened up.
Afterward, the blacksmith equipment disappeared, and Abel’s familiar workbench, a rune pen, and a bottle of rune ink emerged in front of the shadow.
It began to etch a network of patterns into the socket. It began to draw out that complicated network of patterns perfectly and effortlessly. However, the moment the socket was filled, it began to explode. It had failed.
The shadow of a man in Abel’s mind kept trying and trying. It kept adjusting the size of the socket. Although the socket he had made was basically the exact same shape and size as the ones from the Fallen Shaman, he still kept failing
Normally, the guy would have gotten frustrated by its failures. However, this shadow was not real. It only existed in Abel’s mind. After the socket had been perfected, he began to change up his rune ink. He tried out all the different attributes of rune ink, even the ones he had not collected yet. Luckily, this was only happening on Abel’s mind, so he only needed to know what the ink’s ingredients and attributes to test it out. It still kept trying and trying, changing to another rune ink after every failure.
At last, he found it. After emphasizing some ingredients in an attribute-less rune ink, the socket didn’t explode. Instead, it began to glow in white light, it was just like the ones from the Fallen shamans.
Abel slowly woke up, seeing the 4 empty bottles of ‘soul potion’ on the floor. He let out a bitter laugh. At first, he thought 20 bottles of ‘soul potion’ was a lot, but the skills he had to learn now was too complicated. In a blink of an eye, he only had 2 bottles of ‘soul potion’ left.
Despite that, Abel was still very excited. Opening up sockets was a very impressive ability for a Blacksmith in the dark world.
Abel returned to his Blacksmith guild and began to forge Knight’s sword. He first forged a 130 skills iron base, then mowed it into the shape of a sword. Afterward, he opened up a socket between the body of the sword. Abel was definitely deserving of the Blacksmith title; he did not make a single mistake during this process. The socket was exactly the same as the shadow he saw in his mind.
Afterward, he needed to make a special attribute-less rune ink. Since Abel had now learned alchemy, making rune ink was like a walk in a park. He combined through the Horadric Cube, and a special attribute-less rune ink was completed.
Abel used the ‘Akara rune pen’ for etching so he wouldn’t make a single mistake, as the ‘Akara rune pen’ would remind him. After the last stroke of the rune was complete, a white light flashed, and a socket was opened up perfectly.
Success! Abel took out a timeless blue gem from his Kong Kong spirit portal bag and put it in the socket. The socket seemed like it was alive. It swallowed the gem into the sword without a single dent on its surface.
Abel shoved the Knight sword into the Horadric cube to examine it,
Big sword (common) (1)
Single hand damage: 3-7
Durability: 24/24
+3-5 ice damage
Have socket (1)
Abel’s heart was filled with pride as he saw the Horadric cube recognized a hole he personally opened up. If he opened up a socket on every one of his equipment, he too could have 3 chances in the dark world. After the excitement had died down, Abel was unsatisfied again. He then threw the big in the furnace for the second time. After it was burned red, he placed it on the metal bench again. He wanted to open up another socket.
The process went very smoothly, without any challenges since he had experience. The ‘Akara rune pen’ had helped Abel to draw the rune out perfectly yet again, but just when he thought success was coming his way, the sword began to crack. His commander’s intuition began to alert. After making countless exploding big swords, Abel no longer needed to think as he quickly shoved the sword in the Horadric Cube.
He failed. A perfectly fine big sword with a socket had turned into an exploding big sword. Abel exited the Rogue encampment and opened the portal door after a while. The second before the portal door disappeared, he ran towards it and threw out the exploding big sword in his Horadric cube.
He was back in the Rogue encampment. A huge bang set off from afar as his heart filled with irritation. What could possibly go wrong, he was sure that he had done everything correctly.
Looking at the last 2 bottles of ‘soul potion’, Abel had an itch in his heart. Afterward, he picked another bottle and poured it in his mouth. That virtual shadow of a man appeared again, but this time it’s magic sword already had a socket. The shadow began to open up another hole, but the sword had exploded and disappeared just before it finished.
There were countless experiments by applying countless attributes. Just when about was ready to reach for another bottle of the ‘soul potion,’ he realized they were all gone.
It didn’t help a single bit even after 2 bottles of ‘soul potion’. He didn’t want to take Black Wind and White Cloud’s resources, even if they were unaware of it. He didn’t want to hurt his partners no matter what.
His mind had kept experimenting when the 2 bottles of ‘soul potion’ was in effect but still got no result. It seemed like there could only be possibility left. He had never seen double socket equipment before, so the second socket might be completely different from the first one.
He was certain of this idea in his heart, but it was already too late. He had dwelled in the Rogue encampment for 10 days, so it should almost be morning back in the Holy Continent. It was time to go back.
He thought to himself. He might have a chance to come across double socket equipment in the future as he ignited the tome of town portal. He retreated the skeleton summon spell, and arrived back at the mansion in Lambe Road, Linate City with Black Wind.
After he gave Black Wind and his blood-stained body a good clean, he put away the 2 barrier circle.
“Master, it’s time for breakfast!” Said steward Brewer with a bow. He had already been waiting for Abel outside of his door early in the morning.
“Thanks, Brewer!” Abel smiled and tipped his head.
Steward Brewer couldn’t help but feel like his owner was a little odd today as he led the way. It seemed like there was a scary impose coming from his owner’s body. He had almost screamed the moment his owner opened the door, but he didn’t since he was a well-trained steward. Still, it was like a scary monster was about to come out.