Undying Warlord

Old Jeff could clearly understand why Dilan wanted everyone to advance to Tier-1 as quickly as possible.

While it seemed like a small difference from Tierless Level 10 to Tier-1 Level 0, in truth the difference between being Tierless and having advanced to Tier-1 was simply too huge.

This only increased the stronger an occupation one chose as an Ancient Path of Advancement!

Dilan, who understood this quite well, could only smile at the sight of Old Jeff's realization.

"How is it? Did your overall stats increase? What benefits are you receiving from your occupation?"

He might be frowned upon because he was asking Old Jeff to reveal the secrets of his occupation.

This could be deemed rude as it meant unveiling the abilities and advantages that could allow him to escape dangerous situations if kept as a secret.

Unfortunately, Dilan couldn't care less about others' privacy right now. He wanted to know the difference between a [Rare++] occupation and his [Divine] ranked occupation.

He would ask Kathrine and Williams to provide him with more information later. After all, he had to be able to roughly estimate how important it was to prioritize creating an Elite group filled with rare combat occupations.

The second option would be to let everyone choose a Common path simply because it was not worth nurturing a small number of high quality warriors.

Of course, Dilan wanted to know what he had to pay attention to while facing other Tier-1 Ascenders. He couldn't simply assume that his strength would be greater than everyone else just because he had a high-ranked occupation.

That was not how fighting worked. A single mistake could cost his life and Dilan wanted to prevent this by all means.

As such, being prepared beforehand was the most important!

To Dilan's misfortune, Old Jeff was not even listening to him.

Instead, his eyes shone brightly and his smile continued to grow wide the longer he focused on a particular spot in front of him.

Dilan may not be able to see Old Jeff's system screen right now but it was not difficult to tell that he was looking at his occupation's abilities and the other advantages he had gained.

Because Old Jeff was too focused on the holographic screen in front of him, he didn't even notice that a reeking stench wafted off him.

Small areas of Old Jeff's body were covered with a black reeking mass. When Dilan noticed it first, he immediately recalled the intense reeking mass of impurities he had expelled when he had advanced to Tier-1.

'So it means that everyone releases impurities while advancing. The body gets purified during the advancement procedure and the higher the level of chosen occupation the stronger the purification?'

The more Dilan tried to make sense of this the more intrigued he became.

He was making mental notes about everything he had sensed which made his expression turn serious.

There were a few things he noticed about his body that had changed after the Tier-1 advancement procedure.

His body was able to move much smoother than before, he required less energy to fight, and his need for sleep had decreased rapidly.

All of this was exceptionally helpful for combat purposes, which was why Dilan wanted to find out the reason for this.

Thus, Dilan kept observing Old Jeff. However, the moment he heard Old Jeff's disappointed voice, which resounded in his ears, Dilan's eyes went wide.

"My blacksmithing mastery and material inspection have disappeared from my status. Both of them merged with my occupational abilities and strengthened them even further!"

Old Jeff didn't even realize that he was speaking out loud. He was simply too shocked about the changes that had occurred within his body.

Not only did his Material Inspection turn into [Blacksmith's Appraisal] Tier-1 ★★ but his Basic Blacksmithing mastery turned into [Wise man's Blacksmithing mastery] Tier-0 ★★★★★

Furthermore, he had gained two more active abilities and two additional passive abilities. All of them focused on improving the forging process and allowing Old Jeff to create better weapons.

Knowledge, talent, and practice were required to become a good blacksmith. For the best blacksmiths, it was possible to turn even bad ingredients into a proper weapon.

It may be a disgrace for them to wield trash materials but they would be able to unleash the materials' full potential using their skills and knowledge.

On the other hand, while using high-quality materials the true value of master blacksmiths would be unveiled.

And that was something Dilan wanted to witness soon.

The more he heard Old Jeff mumble, the greater was his curiosity about Old Jeff's gains.

However, he also knew that it was not good to be too straightforward.

"I shouldn't go overboard, calm down, idiot!" Dilan scolded himself before turning quiet once again.

Old Jeff was still speaking to himself while assessing the enhancements, unaware of Dilan's presence, or so it seemed.

"I even got a new stat? Dexterity was added to the Log of the Ancient, and I can allocate my status points to it? That's great!"

'Dexterity?' The moment Dilan heard this, he frowned. Before, he had already been sure that some hidden stats must exist.

One of his titles enhanced his Charisma. Thus Dilan had simply presumed that Charisma was a hidden stat.

However, hearing that Dexterity was directly added to Old Jeff's Log of the Ancient astonished Dilan a little bit.

It was certainly not bad, but Dilan began to wonder whether he would be able to gain an additional stat as well.

Dexterity was not only great for forging purposes, but for wielding specific weapons as well.

For example, the Serpentine Blade would required quite a bit of talent to be wielded. If he were to have the dexterity stat, it would help him quite a bit.

After all, improving one's fluidity while using a weapon and one's sense would certainly bear great results!

At that moment, Dilan didn't notice that Old Jeff had already regained his senses. He had finally been able to overcome from the shock he got after advancing to Tier-1.

He thought about something for a moment while looking at Dilan. His gaze slowly moved to the Orb of Pyromancy.

However, it was just a moment later that Old Jeff turned to the table beside him.

The blueprint for the Serpentine Blade was lying on the table and Old Jeff took another glance at it.

Numerous pieces of information had yet to be digested by Old Jeff but he wanted to figure out something.

His eyes began to gleam brightly, and mana was subconsciously released from his body that engulfed the blueprint. Several minutes passed without a single sound being issued.

Dilan had been a little bit astonished about Old Jeff's sudden move but he was curious to find out what was about to happen.

"Alright, I know what to do now! I only need the necessary ingredients and I can start!"

It took Old Jeff merely a few minutes to understand every single component of the Serpentine Blade. This even included the parts and the working mechanism he hadn't understood before.

This was beyond shocking and truly unexpected.

Dilan had expected Old Jeff to require an hour or longer to understand some things he was clueless about before.

However, the confidence with which Old Jeff said that he only required the materials to start forging the Serpentine Blade made Dilan aware of the thunderous noise of his thundering heartbeat.

"Does that mean you can add the Orb of Pyromancy as well, or will you have to forge the Serpentine Blade a few times before you can tell whether or not they're compatible with each other?"

Old Jeff had expected this question, which was why he could only chuckle lightly.

"Dilan…you should understand that an occupation is solely supporting one's already existing capabilities. They're just a means of support, though an extremely powerful one.

Even though I feel confident in forging the Serpentine Blade thanks to the enhancements and upgrades I received by advancing to Tier-1, I'm not omnipotent, you know!"

By saying this, Old Jeff clearly told Dilan that he had no idea whether the Orb of Pyromancy would be compatible with the Serpentine Blade or not.

However, that was perfectly fine with Dilan. After all, Old Jeff would have to start forging first in order to regain his proficiency, and improve it further with the help of his blacksmithing mastery ability.

Afterward, he could start experimenting a little bit before he even started considering merging materials he had little knowledge about.

But even if all of this was the case, Old Jeff didn't seem too worried. Rather, he was confident and with a smile he opened his hand wide as a blazing flame emerged in his palm.

A bright smile appeared on Old Jeff's face as only now did he accept that everything was real and not just a beautiful dream.

"Let me introduce you to the Wise Blacksmith's personal flame, the Source Flame of the Dawn!"

**

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