Was this brave willing to believe in him? Was he seriously trusting him with such valuable material? He wouldn’t let him down. He would do all that he could to succeed.

He would prove to them all and himself that he was a worthy and proud blacksmith!…

The others stared in awe. How was he so detached? He was willing to gamble with such a rare material! What kind of mental fortitude did such calmness take? After all, there was only one such beak in the entire New Leaf village! How crazy was that?!

Jack wasn’t too worried. The NPC’s current mental state would definitely boost his success rate by a lot. Perhaps the initial 10% would reach around 30% or close.

Was 30% low? Not really. This was only for true success. He would pretty much have a 90% chance that the final result would be at least better than it would have been without the beak. That was all he needed.

“Oh my god! The suspense is killing me.”

“Hopefully, the result will be a good one.”

They all watched while crossing their fingers. The relatively normal-looking process now felt entirely different with the higher stakes. Only Jack was utterly relaxed. Whatever happened there, he’d get a shield. That’s all he needed.

The process took longer than the other two daggers combined. Every hit of the hammer exhausted the blacksmith more and more. He began sweating like crazy, water at first, then blood. Jack nodded in appreciation.

At this rate, this NPC would level up.

Then finally came the last hammer hit. The room turned silent, the air stilled, and the atmosphere felt heavy. The result looked…really bad.

The shield part looked great. The beak that resided in it also looked nice. As for the final product? It would have made Frankenstein’s monster look like a hot model! Yeah, it was bad, horrendous even.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t do it. I’m so sorry, I—” The blacksmith fell to his knees, not finding the words to apologize appropriately.

“No need to be. You did a good job. You’re a blacksmith, not an exorcist.” Jack offhandedly remarked.

The others couldn’t help but look at each other in confusion. What did that even mean? They stared in rapt attention as he slowly approached the shield and began slowly caressing it before uttering:

“If you don’t submit, I’ll murder a million chickens every day. While they Cluck in anguish, I’ll pluck their feathers, plunge them into boiling oil, devour their flesh and feed their remains to the young chicks to fatten them…Then I’ll **ing do it again and—”

No one could understand what was going on. But suddenly, there came a shrill Cluck! A bright red glow enveloped the shield, one that was the same color as the red of the Chicken Overlord’s eyes or its cleave attack. It seemed like a spirit was dissipating…

“There we go. It’s all good now.” Jack happily nodded.

They couldn’t help but stare in disbelief at the black shield that now had short spikes on it and red glowing veins. It looked utterly demonic in nature!

“Wait….was this residual resentment?!” The NPC cried out.

“Yep, the monster’s spirit was affecting it and reducing its quality. Your forging was on point.” Jack praised as he put the shield away.

“That was amazing! There’s just one—” CPR dude began only for the door to be kicked open.

— Slam!—

The mayor appeared with fury in his eyes, and his face twisted in anger:

“You’re freaking forging again! How dare you! Didn’t I tell you?! Your shoddy equipment isn’t good enough for the braves. It’s not worthy of them!” He then turned to the players, inspecting them. “Which one of you did he try to scam?!”

“Not to worry, mayor. He hasn’t asked any payment from us,” Jack reassured.

“That’s not it! What if he gave you failed equipment? What if it causes your demise during an important fight? How could he possibly atone for such grave sin?!… Actually, let me inspect what he crafted you, and I’ll make sure it’s sturdy enough.” He offered.

“Don’t worry about it. There’s no need for—”

“No, I insist! Not letting me do my job is something I cannot accept. So, who was it?”

Bubblegum clearly realized how amazing her teacher’s new shield was. She prepared to summon one of her daggers as a sacrifice, but Jack subtly gestured her to refrain.

“He made me this shield. How is it?” Jack handed the item over. The village chief’s eyes bulged for a second before he recomposed himself.

He had come there to make sure the old blacksmith wouldn’t work. After all, there was no way he’d be able to make so much gold off the braves if this generous asshole was in the picture.

Still, how the ** had he crafted this?! This was way beyond what he himself could buy. What the hell?! Not only had he already spoken, but he really couldn’t allow the blacksmith’s fame to rise.

But, what could he do?! He couldn’t risk anyone else appraising it, or the truth would come to light. He had to make this impressive shield disappear somehow. Wait, what if he wrecked it entirely? Even the scraps would be worth something!

That’s when he took a dignified air:

“Alright, let’s do this simply. I will test the resistance of this shield. As long as it proves sturdy, I will naturally give it back and even reward everyone involved in its creation. Is that fine with all of you?”

“Yes, I’m confident in this item. It’s the best I’ve ever made!” The blacksmith shouted powerfully.

“Go ahead.” Jack amicably gave the green light too.

The mayor took a deep breath. A second later, his entire upper clothing exploded violently as his muscles inflated and bulged so damn much! What the heck was happening to the guy?!

It was as if he had activated a secret technique. He gave a mighty shout as an axe appeared in his hand. Then he violently smashed it toward the shield, making the entire forge tremble and the air disappear in his immediate surroundings.

As for the shield….well, it was gone, completely. Only a few pieces were remaining, so small that even the tiny dextrous hands of a sweat-shop child wouldn’t be able to pick them up.

At that moment, both Jack and the blacksmith fell on their knees in despair. One had just lost his brand new OP shield, while the other had seen the culmination of his craft disappear.

“It seems it wasn’t strong enough. You should be ashamed of yourself, Baldur. Entrusting braves with such **ty a product, how dare you! Hmph— I can’t even stand to look at you right now. This won’t be the end of it!”

He left quickly, his clothes in tatters, leaving a mess behind and hiding the blood he had coughed.

Jack’s followers turned toward him to comfort him, only to freeze. The two despairing individuals were now standing up, their back straight as they laughed heartily.

“Wow, he sure was motivated. He even used a forbidden technique!”

“I know, this is crazy! He even threw up blood, can you believe it?!”

“Well, he had to. Your weapons are leagues above the ones that he’s scamming players to trade for.”

“Oh! So that’s why! I always wondered why he was so motivated about the braves.”

“Oh yeah. He’s selling at twice his cost while claiming to do a good deed. So much for being a generous village chief and all.”

“I wonder how long he will be stuck at home enduring pain just for this moment.”

“Not sure, but not long enough for sure. Screw that guy!

CPR dude felt that something was very wrong.

“What about the shield?!” He asked, perplexed.

“They obviously used the same trick as when he was showing us prototypes. It seems he paid a huge price to destroy a fake.”

“Yep!” Jack gave a bright smile and a victory sign.

That’s when a small wolf raised its head and cutely howled in triumph.

“What?! How long has it been there?!”

“What do you mean? All along, obviously. Anyway, it was nice seeing you all. I got some more gear to collect. Talk later” Jack waved before hurriedly leaving.

They watched the wolf and human duo leave, still stunned…

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

As he left the forge, Jack began chuckling madly and noisily.

“Muhahahahahaha!” It resounded across the entire village, even reaching the plain.

It wasn’t about successfully tricking the village chief. It wasn’t about the funny faces his allies had made. It wasn’t even about the child-like happiness the blacksmith had shown.

Nope, he had simply looked at the stats of his new item. He couldn’t help but laugh as he pictured everything that he would accomplish with it.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Rare Clucking Aegis 🐔

Rank F

Level 10

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Attack 1-1

Speed Slow

Range Melee

Durability Cluckindestructable

Passive Vengeful Mark of the Chicken

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There was the goddamn 🐔 symbol! How crazy was that?!

Only epic items usually had icons like this, but there was an exception. It was something that rarely happened, something called resonance. His rare shield and epic weapon were now acting as if part of the same item set! Holy **ing **!

Could this day get any better?

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A

/N Here we **ing go! Oh yeah, we’re premium now. Thanks to everyone supporting the novel, love you guys! ^_^v

Creator’s Thought

Even past the glaring set resonance, there is something else that is noteworthy. A shield with a damage value is kinda **ing huge. It means that it’s possible for the enemies to get damaged every time they hit the wielder. Yep, OP AF!