｢System to Player Announcement
You have increased your available Tradeskill slots by 1. Would you like to continue?
Y/N｣
As one could imagine, Draco was extremely hesitant. He knew that this wicked system had found a chance to milk him dry, and it would definitely not let go of that opportunity easily.
What was truly heart-wrenching was that this was a service he direly needed! It was like being thrown into a desert only to meet a passing vendor who sold water, but each bottle cost one of your fingers.
Even if you were pained by losing your fingers, you'd still have to buy the water. What use was having fingers if you were going to die from dehydration?
The system was also truly dastardly. The way things had been handled were - as usual - by the book and following all the directives without fail.
Just like the old adage said, those who are faced with stricter rules/upbringing always find the most efficient loopholes and means to bend the rules without ever breaking it.
Or the more down to earth version of the adage: 'The pastor's pious daughter is usually the most lascivious.'
Draco felt the aura of 20 top-grade crystals burn away. He could almost hear their cries as they asked why their father had betrayed them, while the evil system carried them off the be abused at will.
Unsurprisingly Draco had an incredibly gloomy expression. Still, he chose yes once again, wanting to see how wild the AI would continue to behave in this situation.
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player Tradeskill slots… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Tradeskills: 9
Used Slots: 9
Free Slots: 2
Upgradeable Slots: 19｣
｢System to Player Announcement
You will add one more available Tradeskill slot to your list. The second addition costs 25 top-grade Aether Crystals or 125,000 platinum. Would you like to do so?
Y/N ｣
Draco harrumphed coldly, a sneer adorning his face. It seemed like this unscrupulous AI still had some conscience left after all. Even though 25 top-grade crystals would make him bleed, it was a reasonable increment.
As long as the increments continued to rise by 5 top-grade crystals every round, Draco would be able to tank it. If it had been anything more, he would have likely gone to war with the AI on the spot.
Draco paid the cost and saw his space increase once again. Deciding to go all out, Draco directly continued increasing his slots one by one, displaying his tyrannical wealth of Aether Crystals.
The total price, when adding the first two slots, came to 1,350 top-grade Aether Crystals, which was a truly heart-rending amount. Who knew how many Epic and above skillbooks he could have converted if he had used it for his Scrivener Tradeskill? Who knew how many Epic and above designs he could have purchased if used on his Magical Engineering Tradeskill?
However, it had all been swallowed into the abyss of this dog altar. The amount of hatred in Draco's heart was not small, but he silently suppressed it. He would get revenge at a later date.
Luckily, he had more than enough of them on his person. Prior to entering the Refinement God's Treasury, Draco had acc.u.mulated no less than 2,500 top-grade Aether Crystals.
After spending 11 days in this environment where Worldly Energy was like trash and even Origin Energy was present, how could his manufactured crystals be anything below top-grade?
As such, he had made over 1,056 top-grade crystals, which almost covered this exorbitant cost. Still, Draco was tough enough to take it on the chin, because he was not done with this altar yet!
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player Tradeskill slots… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Tradeskills: 9
Used Slots: 9
Free Slots: 21
Upgradeable Slots: 0｣
Seeing this, he nodded his head. The price was steep, but the truth of the matter was eternal. Now, his prowess as a crafter had soared to untold heights, as he could now break the shackles of the AI's Tradeskill slot limitation.
When he considered all the Epic and Legendary Tradeskills he would encounter in the future and the fact that he could now learn them unscrupulously, Draco knew that he was just being edgy, as the benefit he had obtained was not anywhere near the price he had paid.
Draco then moved on to the next option, which was the removal of already learned Tradeskills. It might seem meaningless to remove them since his spaces had greatly increased, but all things had a reason.
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player Tradeskills… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Tradeskills: 9
1. Smithing: (level 60, 10%)
2. Alchemy: (level 60, 15%)
3. Enchanting: (level 100, 0%)
4. Cooking: (level 80, 99%)
5. Brewing: (level 80, 99%)
Advanced Tradeskills;
1. Taming: (level 1, 10%)
Epic Tradeskills:
1. Tactics: (level 1, 25%)
2. Magical Engineering: (level 14, 15%)
Legendary Tradeskills:
1. Scrivener: (level 5, 30%)｣
Draco observed his line up and nodded his head. Smithing and Alchemy were entry-level Master Rank Tradeskills, and he hadn't even had enough time to properly work with them yet.
Not long after he had become a Master Rank Alchemist, he had to deal with the birth of Rosella and Loki back to back. Soon after, he had managed to become a Master Rank Blacksmith as well, but right then, his focus had shifted to the First Player Auction.
And as there was no rest for the wicked, directly afterward followed a lengthy period of him grinding experience, then trying to Rank up and all the theatrics that came along with that. As such, he actually hadn't crafted anything since he had acquired the Master Craftsman Title in each of them.
If at the Expert Rank, Draco could make Semi-Legendary items for Smithing and easily make Epic items for Alchemy, could he break his limits and make Legendary stuff now?
It should be possible. After all, with the upgraded Pair Dadeni and Mjolnir to increase the grade of his materials, he would have all Legendary resources to experiment with.
With the two crafting tools also being Legendary Rank, they'd easily be able to handle work of the same grade. It would then come down to Draco's skill in either Smithing or Alchemy to decide whether he'd fail or succeed.
While he was tempted to try it out immediately, he had other concerns at the moment. Draco then marked down Tradeskills he no longer needed and wanted to switch out.
The first was Tactics. This had already been touched upon, but Draco didn't see the need to keep this with Deployed Soldier being a Great Commander. Leading an army from the back wasn't exactly Draco's style. He preferred to be in the thick of it.
Using Tactics while fighting was pretty impossible, so that was why he had to stay back during the First Guild War. It was also why he didn't use it during the Emergency Quest to lead everyone else into battle, rather fighting side-by-side with Eva while leaving the rest to guide themselves.
Not to mention that the Tradeskill was hard to level. Why should he carry such baggage?
The second was Taming. This was something that had selective utility, and that was only for monitoring combat pets. While it could be used to monitor his eggs with Hikari, Draco doubted that one specifically needed the Taming Tradeskill to check the stability of their child among oviparous races.
The AI would never be that short-sighted. Taming had no more use to him since Clarent had hatched and was smart enough that he didn't need any input from Draco, so it was time to bid it farewell.
It wasn't an Epic or above Tradeskill, so if Draco ever needed to re-learn it, he could easily acquire the book for it in the Umbra Mall.
The third were - surprisingly - Cooking and Brewing!
Wait, why was Draco trying to get rid of these two? They were on the cusp of Grandmaster Rank! Not to mention that both had great utilities! With enough time, who knew what lucky opportunity he might have to bring them to Grandmaster?
It could even happen while he was in this Treasury!
Well, Draco was trying to be pragmatic at the moment. Even though his last two brain cells were usually on vacation, they would occasionally return to clear up some piled-up paperwork before going back out.
It couldn't be helped, as the living conditions in his brain was too poor. Which brain cell of the current era would like to live in that dump?
Cooking and Brewing had many uses, yes. However, to him, they were very little. Firstly, he simply did not have the pure interest in taking them far. He only got them to become more self-sufficient, but that was no longer necessary.
Secondly, he simply did not have enough of a foundation in either of them. Thirdly, he did not have something like Pair Dadeni or Mjolnir that negated costs for him.
When he made Master Rank dishes, he had to use Epic materials. The same was true for Brewing. It was that or he had to waste Aether Crystals, which was totally unnecessary at this point.
Not bothering to deliberate further, Draco selected his choices and waited to see what the system would charge him.
｢System to Player Announcement
Convert the following into Tradeskill experience and skillbooks?
1. Cooking(level 80, 99%) - Cost: 80.99 low-grade Aether Crystals or 80.18 platinum
2. Brewing(level 80, 99%) - Cost: 80.99 low-grade Aether Crystals or 80.18 platinum
3. Taming(level 1, 10%) - Cost: 1.10 medium-grade Aether Crystals or 55 platinum
4. Tactics(level 1, 25%) - Cost: 1.25 high-grade Aether Crystals or 375 platinum
Y/N｣
His lips couldn't help but twitch. It seemed like he still would have to cough up some more crystals since he didn't even have 1 platinum on his person.
Thankfully, the price here wasn't steep at all, but mostly proportionate to the old era standard. As such, he directly took out one top-grade crystal to pay for everything.
After that, Draco felt his knowledge of the four Tradeskills bleed away slowly, slowly being sucked in by the altar. After mulling for a bit there, another display came up.
｢System to Player Announcement
What would you like to do?
1. Extract Tradeskills as skillbooks
2. Extract Tradeskills as skillbooks and sell experience
3. Extract Tradeskills as skillbooks and convert Tradeskill experience
4. Extract Tradeskills as skillbooks and convert to raw experience ｣
Draco rubbed his chin. From what he understood based on Vishad's words back then, the first option allowed Draco to gain the skillbooks and whoever he would choose to give it to would immediately be on the same level as he had been beforehand.
Basically, an old master could easily gift his apprentice with all his experiences on his deathbed. This would certainly explain why there were so many goddamn Grandmasters running around, and why every cat and dog in there seemed to be at least at the Master Rank.
The second option allowed him to sell the Tradeskill, experience, and book, to the altar for an alternate reward. What this reward was though, Vishad had not informed Draco, and he was unaware of for now.
The third option allowed him to do what he had planned to do in the first place, which was to separate the Tradeskill experience and the skillbook, extracting both. So, on one hand, he'd have the total Tradeskill exp, ready to allocate at will, while on the other hand, he'd have the original skillbook for it at level 1, 0% which he could re-learn or sell to someone else.
The fourth and final option allowed him to separate Tradeskills and experience once again while selling the Tradeskill exp to the altar for whatever compensation it gave out, allowing Draco to take the raw skillbooks away.
Well, each choice had its pros and cons. In fact, the wealth of options alone was more than Draco had expected to see. He was only prepared for the third option, but he had underestimated the utility of this altar of crafting.
Draco's blood pumped when he had the evil thought about what would happen if he could snatch all the altars in the villages and bring them outside. Umbra might as well create a Tradeskill empire that even the Diad family would pay tributes to every year in respect.
For now though, Draco made the wise choice while his two brain cells were still in the office. He directly called Hoover to explain to him the details of the altar as well as this so-called compensation.