3 days later, Draco quietly waited in his room with Zaine, Roma, and Riveting Night for a few hours. As for Hikari, she and Clarent had yet to come out from the Anomaly Realm, so Draco left them alone.
Soon, the Master Rank Midwives brought in 28 babies of different sizes and colors, some being dark while others were light. Some looked close enough to Draco while many others looked less like him.
However, there was one strange trait all the babies shared, which was the fact that they possessed bright green eyes. It was exactly the same hue as Draco's own, as well as Riveting Night's hair.
Naturally, these children were either bawling, reaching out for something, or just generally behaving as one would expect from babies. There was not a single coherent thought in their mind.
Draco performed the bloodline test on the babies after Loving Aunt had shown him how, and he discovered that they had bloodline purities ranging from 19% to 28%.
In other words, these 28 little chaps had more purity than 95% of the actual Lineage combined! Of course, this was utterly normal.
As the clone of Lucifer, Draco was a genuine first-generation, even though he was born by parents with lower concentrations. It was just like Lucifer himself coming and starting the Lineages all over again.
If it wasn't for his sub-human genes limiting everything, Rosella and co might have had 70% purity at birth, while these chaps might have 45% and below.
Seeing that they were good, Draco nodded. He decided to name them individually, yet he let Riveting Night, Zaine, and Roma name some too.
After this was complete, one of the Master Rank Midwives spoke up. "Lord Draco, as you have given birth to more than 10 children, you are entitled to create a clan. Please let us know the name of the clan so that we might append it on these children's birth certificates."
｢System to Player Announcement
You are eligible for clan mastering. Accept?
Y/N ｣
Draco smiled. He was naturally aware of being a clan master/mistress thanks to their previous life. Unlike the past him who had been too busy being an edge lord to raise a family, many players had over-indulged themselves.
As such, once one had crossed the threshold of ten children, they could create a clan. As for whether the clan would become something of note or crash by the wayside, that was not the concern of the system.
Draco chose yes and thought about the clan name. He and Riveting Night had discussed it many times in the past, and they had come to a conclusion that was made up of three choices.
Draco decided on one of them and answered the Master Rank Midwife.
"The clan name shall be Morningstar."
The Master Rank Midwife nodded and filed out of the room behind the others to handle the post-natal care. Unlike Roma or Zaine who had heaven-defying births, the women who were the mothers of these kids were pure humans.
As such, they required more care than his children birthed by a semi-Ultima Sunt and a Royal Devil. Speaking of them, Rosella and Loki were currently in their arms, and they inspected the other children that came by.
Rosella seemed very interested in all of them while Loki gave them a cursory look, his gaze remaining on those with higher purity. Even though these other babies who made them feel a strong resonance were much weaker than them, they were still quite powerful.
Draco picked up Rila, who was seated beside him in a very cute dress, rubbing his face on her cheeks. As always, Rila's expression became one of reluctant acceptance, practically screaming 'haaah... if not me, then who?'.
Zaine and Roma laughed while Riveting Night smiled. Eventually, everyone left to do their own things, leaving Draco with a tired Rila.
He hoisted her on his chest, then went down to the Anomaly Realm to check on Hikari and Clarent. Once inside, he found both of them whispering in hushed tones.
There was no longer any pain on their faces, as they had about 3 days to get through that stage. Now, it seemed like Clarent was discussing something with Hikari seriously.
Upon noticing Draco's presence, they stopped. Clarent lay down and drew circles in the dirt with a bored expression. Hikari smiled and lowered her snout to Draco's level before lovingly puffing on him.
Draco chuckled and rubbed Hikari's snout gently, and Rila raised her hand to do the same. Hikari enjoyed this feeling, and the three of them painted a nice image.
However, this was ruined by a fireball that came hurling towards Draco. The fellow spawned a water shield that tanked the attack with ease, before turning to Clarent who had a livid expression.
"EVIL BASTARD, HOW DARE YOU SOIL MY SISTER?!" Clarent roared.
Initially, Draco was about to berate the fellow for playing around while Rila was in his arms, but he felt his tongue tie itself when Clarent roared at him.
Every guy could relate to Draco. No matter how proper or legit the circ.u.mstances, 'soiling' your homies' sister was a taboo. Even though Clarent was his Combat Pet, their relationship was similar to the one Draco shared with Qiong Qi.
"Well, the thing is…" Draco began but paused midway.
Hikari also seemed troubled. "Big Brother, this isn't his fault. If it wasn't for him, I would never have had this chance to meet you or carry forward our race."
Hearing this Clarent faltered. How could he not know this? He understood the logic of the situation and that his reaction was simply illogical, but he couldn't help it.
Draco thickened his skin and walked towards Clarent. "Hahaha, Brother Clarent is truly too handsome. A fellow like you should not worry about such minor things. Do you want to get a hernia? You have to be open-minded in such matters!"
Clarent didn't even bother to answer, instead he sent a fireball as well as a flamepillar at Draco. A water shield easily tanked both attacks, making Clarent feel stifled deep down.
Although he didn't want to hurt the fellow, although only because Rila was an innocent bystander, seeing his attacks dealt with this easily still hurt his pride.
"Sigh, actually I had something worthwhile for Brother Clarent, something to give you as a token of our kinship. However, it seems like it might not be needed." Draco let out an especially deep sigh.
Suddenly, Draco felt a weight on his shoulder as Clarent had perched himself there. "Harrumph, let me see such a thing. If it is good enough, I might just consider letting this matter rest!"
Seeing as he had hooked the fellow, Draco took out the State of Being Upgrade Potion he acquired from Shuro's Shop back then.
｢State of Being Upgrade Potion – Consumable
Rank: Legendary (100% effectiveness)
Effect: Permanently upgrade one's racial State of Being to one Rank higher.｣
When Clarent saw it, he immediately swiped it and drank it all down in one gulp before Draco might have a change of mind. Soon, a golden cocoon surrounded him as his form was shielded from sight.
In a matter of minutes, Clarent came out of his cocoon much bigger than before. He went from the size of Draco's foot to the height of his knee, which was a noticeable change.
Checking himself out, Clarent nodded with appreciation and then looked at Draco. "Since your gift was barely satisfactory, I shall let things slide. However, you must never harm my sister, or else!"
Finding it amusing that Clarent would think he could do him any harm, Draco assented and checked the Red Dragon's status.
｢Name: Clarent - Rank 1 Dragonling
MON Str: 50
MON Dex: 50
MON End: 50
MON Int: 50
MON Spr: 50
MON Cha: 50
MON Lck: 50
Abilities: Fireball, Flamepillar, Immolation.
Traits: Divine Origin, Fire Immunity, Dragon's Fire.｣
｢Immolation – Active Skill
Effect: Set a target within 5 yards aflame from the inside out. This deals 75% fire damage.
Duration: 3 seconds
Cooldown: 10 minutes｣
｢Dragon's Fire – Trait
Effect: 100% to all fire damage.｣
What surprised Draco was the fact that both Hikari and Clarent were Rank 1 Dragonlings, yet Hikari was much bigger than Clarent. Could it be that Rank was removed from the State of Being for Dragons?
After all, Hikari was a Supreme-Rank White Dragon despite being Rank 1. Clarent was now a Medium-Rank Red Dragon and was also Rank 1, while also still being much smaller.
If that was the case, a Dragon could theoretically naturally advance in the racial State of Being rankings through aging, but in order to advance their general Rank, they would have to either gather experience through combat or whatever other means there was.
It did make sense that this potion would advance Clarent though. When Riveting Night had drunk the Dragon's Blessing back when they slaughtered the outpost, she had also entered a golden cocoon.
When she came out, she had almost jumped from Rank 0 to Rank 1, thereby acquiring her Shadow Assassin Class. It seemed as if these potions also granted some form of experience?
Could it have something to with that golden cocoon? Despite being two different potions, both had induced a similar state in the consumers, and the cocoon had been the exact same in terms of color and aura.
Draco decided to research more on this later.
He passed over the Aether Production passive skill to Clarent, who was formally inducted into Draco's elaborate scheme to farm Aether Crystals.
Putting the fellow's troubles aside, Draco knuckled down and got to work. After all, he had spent more than three weeks doing nothing that would further his progress, not that he regretted it.
If he ignored such matters, he would be doing himself and his loved ones injustice. However, he had about 15 days left until the first Player Auction, and he had to focus on his crafting.
As such, Draco focused on his Smithing. Even though it meant he would waste Aether Crystals, he wasn't too bothered. He made 4 every hour while Hikari also made 1.
They had resided in the Aether rich Aether Hall for the past 21+ days, so their output quality had been higher. Hikari had strictly made top-grade Aether Crystals while Draco had alternated between high-grade and top-grade.
As such, he had more than a few to spare. In fact, he could even cause havoc in the next Divine Auction if he were to put them on sale again.
They had missed the third Divine Auction due to the various events occurring, but it wasn't important at this time. Even though they might have missed on some great items, Draco and Eva felt they had a lot on their plate without the need to try and take on more.
Draco crafted many items in this time. They ranged from swords to shields, to hammers, spears, halberds, chestplates, pauldrons, and greaves.
He cycled between each type so as to alleviate the tediousness of repetitivity. After all, his secret to success in Blacksmithing and Alchemy was his creativity.
If he were to do the same thing over and over, his creativity would be stifled to death. This was the reason Draco told himself in his mind... pretending not to see the rewards from the system for his new recipes.
In truth, if Draco were to gather all his crafting recipes and sell them to players, he would be sold out before the first hour passed. Not only for their quality, but for the boons. With a default 10% extra rate, if a player could scrounge 10-15 sets of materials, at least 1 of them would succeed!
Even though it would cost an arm and a leg since they wouldn't have Pair Dadeni, the profits in terms of Tradeskill experience they would get, as well as the selling value of the item, would be able to recoup most of it!
Of course, Draco had no intention of selling even one of them. Putting aside whether the players could even afford it, could they even gather the materials?
One should not forget, the key ingredient was Aether Crystals! No one in the world knew that he could produce them naturally except those in his inner circle, and no one knew how these items were made.
If he sold the recipes for them, it was natural that the method of using Aether Crystals would be shared. How could he be so foolish as to make such a mistake?
Draco soon reached a threshold once again. Around level 59, 40% Draco felt his Three Pound Origin show signs of breaking through to the next level.
It had been at level 4 for a while now, and it had only increased back when Draco was shaping the High Iron that would soon become the Void Blade.
The stress of working on an Epic ingot while being at the Elite Rank had really pushed him to his limits, inducing him to make a breakthrough. Now, the increase of his 'base stats' pushed him for another.
The fellow was currently working on a sword. This one was meant to be for Slim Fatty, who was a Sword Saintess. Her class boasted insane blade control and damage, which made it much better than the Avenger class.
She also had the Saintess' Skill passive skill, which allowed her to equip any sword without mastery requirements or penalties, and even the ability to seize the swords of others for herself.
As such, Draco wanted to abuse this passive skill.
He made the sword extremely dense, packing more and more High Iron into the fold. Its size remained relatively the same, but its weight rose drastically.
To wield this blade effectively, one would need to have the strength of a Rank 4 Fighter, or either Draco/Local Lord's bloodline enhanced strength.
After that, he made sure to make it sharp. Otherwise with its current density, it was likely that it would become blunt.
A heavy sword had many advantages, which was a higher force, more slicing damage, and high durability. Naturally, people hardly ever forged swords like this because their disadvantages were hard to curb.
This came in the form of an insane strength requirement, high stamina drain, and the awkward handling due to the weight.
The first two could be curbed somewhat with training and naturally high strength. However, the third one would always exist unless one found a special technique for maneuvering such a sword, or unless they could change the laws of physics.
In the real world? Not so much. In Boundless? Very possible.
That was why Draco was betting that her passive skill would negate ALL penalties when she equipped this sword. He could make the most powerful but useless sword, and use her passive skill to remove the 'useless' aspect.
Even if it didn't work out, there was no loss to him. He could find someone else to wield it or buy it despite its flaws, as he would be attaching the 'Eternal Growth' runes to it as usual.
After folding the sword many times, he sharpened it thoroughly and cooled it. When it was done, he began drawing up the runes for it.
The first was naturally Reva Rowa - Eternal Growth.
The second was Reva Truino - Eternal Handling.
The third was Kuro Shiva - Dark Slice.
As was normal with items containing the 'Reva' runes, he had to splurge almost 16 Medium-Grade Aether Crystals in order to fill them up. This made him feel pain in his heart, but he kept quiet.
After placing the enchantment onto the sword, Draco folded his arms behind his back as a phenomenon occurred. This time, something extremely interesting transpired.
When the mist filled the room and the strange motif of the enchantment came to life, Vitae suddenly appeared and gazed at it with interest.
When the enchantment saw Vitae, it froze and dove into the sword fearfully, not even daring to give Draco a hateful glare like most of his created weapons did.
Draco rubbed his chin as he saw this. The mystery of the phenomena that occurred whenever he enchanted an item using Aether Crystals had been a thorn in his side.
For what reason did such a thing occur? Why did the entities or energy lifeforms that formed the 'spirits' of the weapons hate him? After all, he was the one who gave them life.
To glare at him hatefully because of that was just…
It seemed that Vitae was a being that was higher on the food chain, so these spirits had to flee fearfully lest they end up being harmed in some way.
However, that was only a thing that passed through his mind on the side. The first thing he did was relish the feeling of his Three Pound Origin entering a new level.
With this, he wouldn't take as long as usual when smithing an object. Even his shortest craft time was 2 hours, and most of the time it was slightly more.
Now, an hour should be enough. He might be able to push for less once he was in the Master Rank of Blacksmithing.
First, Draco inspected his creation.
｢Unnamed – One-handed sword
Rank: Semi-Legendary
Durability: 750,000/750,000
Effects:
Passive 1 – Eternal Growth: The user can sacrifice experience points to grow this item's rating.
Passive 2 – Eternal Handling: The user's attack speed is boosted by 100%, techniques cost no stamina or focus to use and there is no delay when equipping this sword from the sheath.
Active 1 – Dark Slice: Send out a dark sword wave that deals 600% sword damage over an area of 50 miles. Cooldown: 1 day.
Further abilities can be unlocked by sacrificing experience points. 0% of 15,000% needed to upgrade to Legendary Rank｣
This weapon was pretty good. The Eternal Handling passive skill would mesh well with Slim Fatty's class, making her a reaver of the battlefield.
Heck, if she used only techniques when fighting, she could literally fight for eternity. It would then come down to her mental stamina and how long she could last before losing her will to fight.
Draco was about to name it when he saw another pop up appear before him.
｢Boundless System-wide Announcement
Player Draco has become the first player to become a Master Rank Blacksmith! Player Draco already possesses the Master Craftsman Title! Strive to acquire this accolade as well! ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
You have reached Master Rank ahead of all other players, and have been awarded an upgraded title called the Master Craftsman (2). Congratulations!｣.
｢Master Craftsman (2) – Special Rank
Prices for all Alchemical and Blacksmithing reagents below Legendary Rank is reduced by 70%. The success rate in Alchemy and Blacksmithing is increased by 20%.｣