Chương 14: Apparently, Crafters Print Money

It was just past 9: 30 AM. Matt sat at the fold-down table inside Trailer C-87 with a completely plain Iron Longsword resting across his knees. No glowing modifiers. No bonus damage. No useful Resistance. Just a sword. Beside his chair sat the plastic storage bin he had optimistically labeled: CRAFTING — FIGURE OUT LATER The box was full of shards, Orbs, tokens, and other pieces of magical Currency the Orchard Keeper had dropped that morning.

On his laptop, the search results for BEGINNER EQUIPMENT CRAFTING GUIDE numbered in the millions. Matt rested one hand on the mouse.

"Let's ruin some perfectly good equipment." He clicked the top video. The creator was someone he hadn't seen before. @WhiteBase Unlike Rook's carefully edited instructional videos or the highly produced Dungeon channels Matt had been watching, WhiteBase appeared to be filming on a webcam in a dim garage. Metal shelving filled the wall behind him. Plastic tubs of equipment parts covered the floor, and half a dozen Normal weapons leaned against a cabinet.

The man himself looked somewhere in his mid-thirties and wore a grease-stained T-shirt. He had the general demeanor of a mechanic who had spent years explaining why diesel did not go in a gasoline engine. The thumbnail featured a plain white sword, a stack of burning money, and one enormous word. STOP Matt nodded.

"…Promising." He hit play. WhiteBase leaned toward the camera.

"You want to craft?" He waited.

"Do you have a Crafting Unique Skill?" Another pause.

"No?" His expression remained completely flat.

"Then don't." Matt blinked.

"…Oh."

"Sell your Currency. Take the money. Open the market. Buy the equipment you actually need." WhiteBase pointed directly at the camera.

"Congratulations. I just saved you a massive amount of money." He sat back.

"You're welcome." Matt checked the progress bar. Fifteen seconds.

"This is the beginner crafting guide?" He laughed. For a moment, Matt considered clicking something else. Then he looked at the box beside him. No. Even if the advice was don't do it, he still needed to understand why. He resumed the video.

"Yes," WhiteBase continued.

"Anyone can craft. You do not mechanically need a Unique Skill to use Crafting Currency. You can take an appropriate Currency item, apply it to compatible equipment, and the System will happily let you spend your money." He picked up a plain sword from his workbench.

"But anyone can pull a slot-machine lever too." Matt slowly nodded.

"Ah." A graphic appeared beside WhiteBase. Desired Modifier: Physical Damage Then possible alternatives populated beneath it. Mana. Resistance. Attribute. Utility.

"Maybe you get what you wanted. Maybe you don't. You spent the Currency either way." WhiteBase dropped the Orb onto the table.

"You got an item nobody wanted. Congratulations. You successfully converted fifty dollars into disappointment." Matt looked at his Crafting bin. That sounded dangerously plausible. WhiteBase's expression sharpened.

"We don't gamble." He gestured toward the equipment stacked behind him.

"We manufacture." That got Matt's attention.

"Now let's add a Crafter." A glowing human silhouette appeared on screen.

"Crafting Unique Skills come in all kinds of forms. Some are narrow. Some are weird. Some only work on specific equipment. Some affect particular modifier families." WhiteBase raised one hand.

"And before somebody asks: Unique does not mean only one human being on Earth can possess the Skill. It's the System category for a personal ability. Lower-rank Unique Skills can and do repeat across different people." Matt paused the video for half a second. Good to know. WhiteBase continued.

"The Crafting Skills that become economically ridiculous around C-rank?" He grinned.

"Guarantee Skills." Matt's hand stopped halfway to his coffee.

"C-rank?" His current COPY limit was C. Exactly C.

"… Interesting." A card appeared. VITAL IMPRINT — C Unique Skill Crafting / Active Effect When the user applies compatible Crafting Currency to equipment, up to 10 times per day, the resulting added modifier can be guaranteed to belong to the Maximum Life modifier family. The exact value remains subject to the item's eligible modifier range. Flavor Text A blade may break. Armor may fail. The body only needs enough strength to survive once more. Matt read the Effect twice. Ten uses per day.

There was the restriction. One Crafter could not sit at a workbench and produce unlimited guaranteed-Life equipment. WhiteBase tapped the Effect text.

"Read carefully. Life family. Not maximum Life roll." A high-Level example appeared. ELIGIBLE MAXIMUM LIFE RANGE +115 — +129 Maximum Life Several possible results cycled beneath it. +116. +124. +129.

"The Skill guarantees Life. The number still rolls." Matt nodded. Guaranteeing the modifier family was already enormously valuable. Guaranteeing the exact maximum value on top of that would have been something else entirely. WhiteBase dismissed the high-Level example.

"But forget endgame gear for now. Most of you watching this are not buying hundred-Level armor." The screen changed. BEGINNER MARKET EXAMPLE Normal Base: $10 Compatible Crafting Orb: $50 Material Cost: $60 WhiteBase placed a pair of plain gloves beside an Orb.

"If you are the Crafter and you source the Base and Currency yourself, that's sixty dollars in materials." The Vital Imprint card appeared again.

"One daily use." The graphic changed. RESULT Maximum Life modifier guaranteed Estimated Market Value: ≈ $400"You now have low-Level equipment with exactly the modifier family a large percentage of beginner Delvers are shopping for." Matt paused the video. Ten-dollar Base. Fifty-dollar Currency. Sixty dollars of materials. Four-hundred-dollar item.

"…That's stupid." He immediately opened another tab. WhiteBase might be entertaining. That did not mean Matt intended to accept internet economics without checking. National Equipment Market. Low-Level armor. Maximum Life. Listings loaded. $347. $375. $389. $410. $438. Some higher. Some lower depending on the Base and actual Life roll. Matt changed the filter to Life plus a useful Resistance. The prices jumped. $694. $735. $799. $825. One especially strong result sat above nine hundred. Matt returned to the video.

"He's not making it up." WhiteBase pointed at the beginner example.

"Ten uses per day. If you source and sell the items yourself, you can turn a limited number of guaranteed outcomes into a very healthy margin." He brought up a deliberately simplified calculation. 10 Finished Items × $400 = $4, 000 Gross Revenue Material Cost: $600"Before fees, unsold inventory, bad numerical rolls, taxes, and everything else that makes real businesses annoying." WhiteBase sighed.

"Yes, person currently yelling that's revenue, not profit at the screen. I know." Matt froze. Then laughed.

"Good." The exact annualized number didn't matter. Too many assumptions. The daily economics were already obvious. A useful C-rank Crafting Skill could support an extremely good living. WhiteBase leaned toward the camera.

"Now somebody's going to ask the obvious question. Why does anybody pay four hundred dollars for sixty dollars of materials?" One word filled the background. SCARCITY"Because Currency isn't the scarce part of that transaction. The guaranteed outcome is." Vital Imprint remained on screen. 10 / DAY"There are a lot more Delvers shopping for useful equipment than there are specialists with limited guaranteed Crafting capacity." Matt understood.

A country-sized Dungeon economy was difficult to saturate ten guaranteed crafts at a time. WhiteBase changed slides.

"And one good modifier is usually just the beginning." BEGINNER ARMOR Maximum Life Estimated Value: ≈ $400 Then a second Skill card appeared. ELEMENTAL WARD — C Unique Skill Crafting / Active Effect When applying compatible Crafting Currency, up to 10 times per day, guarantees that the added modifier belongs to an eligible Elemental Resistance family selected by the user. The exact value remains subject to the item's eligible modifier range. Flavor Text Flame, frost, and storm ask the same question.

How much of you remains when they are done? Matt laughed quietly.

"Oh no." WhiteBase brought the Life item back onto the screen.

"Now another specialist adds a Resistance modifier." The graphic updated. Maximum Life Elemental Resistance Estimated Market Value: ≈ $800"If you're using a public service, that second Crafter charges for their limited capacity. If you're a Crafter buying partially finished stock yourself, that labor premium becomes part of your input cost." Then a flow chart appeared. CRAFTER SUPPLY CHAIN Base Supplier ↓ Life Crafter ↓ Resistance Crafter ↓ Specialist Crafter ↓ Final Delver Matt stopped seeing magic.

"…It's a supply chain." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Of course it was. A manufacturing process. The machines just happened to be people. Normal equipment entered one side. Different specialists added value. Finished equipment left the other. WhiteBase changed the graphic again. Bases moving between states. Currency moving toward Crafting hubs. Partially finished equipment routed from one specialist to another.

"Crafters are part of the manufacturing sector of the Dungeon economy," WhiteBase said.

"You do not need an S-rank miracle to make an excellent living." Vital Imprint appeared once more.

"If your Unique says, ten times a day, put Life where Life belongs?" He pointed at the camera.

"Congratulations." A pause.

"You're rich." Matt stared.

"…Wow."

"And you don't even have to run the business yourself." The video cut to a modern Crafting facility. Rows of workstations. Equipment scanners. Workers processing items and recording results on tablets.

"Major Dungeon firms employ Crafters. Equipment companies employ Crafters. Specialist Crafting companies employ Crafters. If you don't want to buy Bases, list items, or answer customer messages, clock in, use your daily capacity, fill out the paperwork, and go home." Matt thought about his old office.

"That is absolutely a job." Possibly an extremely good one. WhiteBase wasn't finished.

"And if you don't want to buy finished gear at retail, most decent Camps have another option." The screen changed to a public Crafting bench.

"Bring the Base. Bring compatible Currency. Pay the service fee. Watch the Crafter do it in front of you." Matt stopped moving. The rest of the sentence washed past him. He rewound. WhiteBase repeated it.

"You pay the service fee, and you watch them craft it in front of you." Pause. The trailer became very quiet. Matt stared at the frozen video. Watch them craft it. His eyes shifted toward COPY. Another person had to activate their Unique Skill. Matt had to directly witness the activation. The Skill had to fall within his current C-rank limit. Then he had to choose to copy it. He looked at Vital Imprint. C-rank. Elemental Ward. C-rank.

"…Oh." Matt slowly sat back.

"I don't have a Crafting Unique Skill." True. His Archive contained movement, physical enhancement, utility, and combat abilities. No Crafting. Matt smiled.

"Yet." The tutorial had changed categories. For Matt, it wasn't a tutorial anymore. It was a shopping list. ◆ WhiteBase returned to the high-Level Life example. MAXIMUM LIFE Eligible Roll: +115 — +129 Several results appeared. +115. +121. +127. Then: +129 WhiteBase pointed at the final number.

"And this is where the market gets weird." Matt frowned.

"There are high-rank Delvers who will happily buy plus one-twenty-eight." Pause.

"And others who will tell you not to contact them until you roll one-twenty-nine." Matt stared.

"…One Life?"

"Yes." WhiteBase looked directly into the camera.

"One." The video cut briefly to a heavily armored Delver being interviewed outside a high-rank Dungeon facility.

"If the maximum is one-twenty-nine, why would I buy one-twenty-eight?" He sounded genuinely confused. Matt almost laughed. WhiteBase returned.

"Mock them if you want. Then remember what the stat is called." The screen filled. MAXIMUM LIFE"Their Life." His tone became quieter.

"Literally." Matt stopped smiling.

"At zero, you lose the System protection keeping ordinary flesh from becoming ordinary flesh inside a Dungeon. Zero does not instantly kill you, but your day becomes considerably worse." Understatement.

"High-rank Delvers spend enormous amounts optimizing tiny margins because tiny margins stack. One more Life here. One more Resistance there. If surviving the wrong hit is the difference between staying protected and not?" WhiteBase pointed at +129.

"Somebody buys the one-twenty-nine." Matt nodded slowly. It still looked ridiculous. Now it looked rationally ridiculous.

"And remember: ten guaranteed Life crafts do not mean ten perfect Life crafts. Maybe none are perfect. Maybe one is. Perfect rolls create another layer of scarcity." He leaned back.

"That's Crafter money." The video ended. Matt opened his notebook. Vital Imprint — C — 10/day Elemental Ward — C — 10/day A normal specialist could build a career around one good Crafting Unique. Matt had something different. COPY Unlimited stored Skills. Two active copies. He tapped the pen against the table.

"Only two." In combat, that was a serious limitation. Every active choice excluded something else. But Crafting did not happen while a Boss was trying to remove his head. Right now, two active slots were enough to equip both Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward at the same time. If Matt collected a third Crafting specialization, then a fourth, then a tenth? A safe workbench gave him time to swap between them. He looked again at WhiteBase's supply chain. Different specialists normally performed different stages.

COPY might let Matt carry several of those specializations himself.

"Vertical integration." Matt closed his eyes. That sounded horrifyingly corporate. Of course the former logistics coordinator had acquired an SSS Skill and immediately started thinking about vertically integrating human miracles. There were still several unknowns. Did copied Crafting Skills keep their own daily counters? Could two active Crafting Skills affect the same Currency application? Would switching Skills reset anything? He wrote one word beneath the theory. HYPOTHESIS That mattered.

Matt had not actually copied a Crafter yet. He reopened the Camp directory. Search: CRAFTING One result appeared immediately. ASHFIELD CRAFTER COOPERATIVE Walk-In Service Equipment Crafting Customer-Supplied Bases Accepted Customer-Supplied Currency Accepted Service Fees Vary by Crafter and Modifier Matt stared. Walking time from C-87: 5 minutes"… You're kidding." He opened the Cooperative page.

TODAY'S CRAFTING SERVICES Maximum Life Elemental Resistance Physical Weapon Affixes Defensive Utility Additional Specialists — Limited Availability Then the FAQ. Q: Can I observe my equipment being crafted? A: Yes. Customer-provided items are normally processed at public benches unless private service is requested. Matt smiled.

"… Perfect." For half a second he considered bringing one of his Bases and a random piece of Currency immediately. Then stopped. He still barely understood Item Level. He didn't know which Currency in his container was common and which one would make an experienced Crafter tackle him before he destroyed several hundred dollars. Research first still applied. So Matt stood. No armor. No sword. Just wallet, phone, keys— and COPY.

◆ The Ashfield Crafter Cooperative sat behind the Gear Shop in a long modular building Matt had previously mistaken for storage. A sign over the entrance showed a stylized white anvil inside a circle. The parking area was surprisingly full. Matt slowed.

"So much for niche profession." He entered. The interior looked less like a fantasy forge than an electronics repair center crossed with a FedEx counter and a small bank: waiting chairs, digital queue numbers, service desks, workbenches behind transparent partitions, equipment scanners, storage trays, Mana containment fields, and a vending machine. The most magical manufacturing sector in America apparently still required bad coffee. Several Delvers waited near reception. One carried a helmet. Another held boots.

A third had a shield inside a padded case. Above the main desk: ASHFIELD CRAFTER COOPERATIVE TODAY'S AVAILABILITY Maximum Life — 7 Daily Crafts Remaining Fire Resistance — 4 Remaining Cold Resistance — SOLD OUT Lightning Resistance — 6 Remaining Defensive Utility — 5 Remaining Physical Weapon Specialist — LIMITED / APPOINTMENT Matt stopped.

"…Sold out?" A woman at reception looked up.

"Cold?"

"No. Just looking."

"Cold sold out at seven forty." Matt glanced at the clock.

"Seven forty."

"Busy this week." She returned to her terminal. WhiteBase's explanation suddenly felt much less theoretical. A Crafter had limited guaranteed outcomes. Customers had arrived early enough to buy all of them. A pricing board hung beside the waiting chairs. LOW-LEVEL WALK-IN SERVICES Life Guarantee — $50 Service Fee Elemental Resistance Guarantee — $50 Basic Defensive Modifier Service — Starting at $60 Physical Weapon Specialist — Market Rate Base and compatible Currency supplied by customer.

Modifier family guaranteed where applicable. Numerical roll not guaranteed. Matt focused on the final listing.

"Market rate." No price. A man seated nearby noticed what he was reading.

"Weapon bench?"

"Just curious." The man snorted.

"Bring money." Matt looked toward the longest line in the building. Fair enough. A chime sounded. One of the Life customers stood. Matt turned toward the public workbenches. Time to answer the important question. ◆ A woman in a heavy canvas apron stood behind the Life bench. Late twenties. Brown hair tied back. No robes. No legendary blacksmith aesthetic. Her badge read: DANA BROOKS The customer placed a pair of Normal leather gloves inside the work area and set a small Crafting Orb beside them.

Dana scanned the gloves.

"Item Level checked?"

"Yes."

"You know the modifier family is guaranteed, not the roll?"

"Yes." She checked the Orb.

"Compatible." The exchange sounded automatic. Something she had said thousands of times. The customer nodded.

"Life, please." Dana placed one hand over the equipment. Matt watched closely. He expected something dramatic. There wasn't. A faint pulse of light appeared around Dana's fingers. That was all. Matt's interface reacted instantly. UNIQUE SKILL OBSERVED Vital Imprint — C Eligible for Copy Copy? [YES] / [NO] Matt stared. It worked. No theory. No maybe. Dana pressed the Orb against the gloves. The Currency dissolved. Light ran across the leather. A modifier appeared.

"Maximum Life," Dana said. The customer leaned forward.

"Roll?"

"Middle." His shoulders dropped slightly.

"Fine." Not delighted. Not disappointed enough to complain. Fine. He paid the service fee. Dana glanced toward a small display beside her station. DAILY GUARANTEED CRAFTS REMAINING: 6 Matt selected YES. COPY COMPLETE Vital Imprint — C Stored Unique Skills: 7 Matt kept his face neutral. Or attempted to. A second customer approached Dana carrying a helmet. The same process followed. Item Level. Currency compatibility. Roll warning. Activation. No second COPY prompt. Already stored. The Craft completed.

Dana checked the result. Her eyebrows rose.

"Oh." The customer immediately leaned forward.

"What?"

"High."

"How high?" Dana turned the display toward him. The man's face lit up.

"Yes." Someone nearby muttered:"Nice." Matt watched the customer leave. Same Crafter. Same guarantee. Different numerical result. WhiteBase's explanation compressed into two customers. No additional lecture required. Matt turned toward the availability board. The Life number had fallen again. The market was real. ◆ The Fire Resistance bench sat two stations over. Matt repositioned without trying to look like somebody conducting industrial espionage. A woman in lightweight armor placed a helmet on the bench.

"Fire," she said. The Crafter nodded, scanned the equipment and Currency, then activated her Unique. Matt's interface flashed. UNIQUE SKILL OBSERVED Elemental Ward — C Eligible for Copy Copy? [YES] / [NO] Matt selected YES. COPY COMPLETE Elemental Ward — C Stored Unique Skills: 8"Oh no," Matt whispered. The woman ahead of him glanced back. Matt immediately looked at his phone. Nothing suspicious here. Definitely not a man quietly duplicating somebody's profession. The Craft completed. Fire Resistance.

The customer paid and left. Matt touched Pure Element unconsciously. So that was how the training wheels eventually came off. Better individual Resistance rolls could replace some of the work the Beginner Set was currently doing. Interesting. Matt had come here to answer one question. Could COPY acquire Crafting Unique Skills? Answer: Yes. He should probably leave. He did not. There were other workbenches. ◆ The Cooperative became much more interesting once Matt knew what he was looking at.

One Crafter specialized in defensive modifier families Matt did not yet understand. Another handled Attributes. A third appeared to work almost exclusively on boots. Not every Skill activated while Matt watched. Some customers discussed options and left. Some lacked compatible Currency. One brought an item whose Item Level was too low for the modifier he wanted. The Crafter scanned it, then handed it back.

"Item Level's too low." The customer groaned.

"I bought it yesterday."

"Return it if you can." Matt entered a note into his phone. Base first. Craft second. Good. A chime sounded near the Life bench. Dana completed another item. The availability display had nearly emptied. A waiting customer stood. Another looked toward reception.

"Wait. I thought I was next." The receptionist checked.

"You're first tomorrow unless another Life Crafter picks up an afternoon shift." The man frowned.

"Seriously?"

"Sorry."

"What about the other Camp?"

"They've got a two-hour wait." Matt watched the exchange. There was the scarcity WhiteBase had described. Not abstract. A specialized human ability had limited daily throughput. Dana took her final customer. Boots. Orb. Warning. Activation. Craft. The board changed. Maximum Life — SOLD OUT Matt checked the time. 10: 56 AM.

"…It's not even eleven." The receptionist overheard him.

"Boss-Rush crowd came through early."

"Life always sells out?"

"Most days. Sometimes before breakfast." WhiteBase had not been exaggerating. Near the exit, a corkboard displayed public buy requests. BUYING — LEVEL 40+ GLOVES MAXIMUM LIFE TOP ROLL ONLY PREMIUM OFFER Another: WANTED HIGH LIFE / FIRE RES NO LOW ROLLS And another. LOOKING FOR +129 LIFE DO NOT MESSAGE WITH +128 Matt stared.

"… They're serious." WhiteBase's interview had not been a joke. Somebody genuinely considered a single point of Life worth specifying on a public buy order. Matt imagined reaching zero inside a high-rank Dungeon. Supernatural protection gone. Ordinary flesh underneath. He stopped finding the sign funny. ◆ The Physical Weapon line remained long. Matt eventually moved closer.

A separate service board displayed: PHYSICAL WEAPON SPECIALIST Service Fee: $300+ Appointment Priority Walk-In Subject to Daily Capacity Six times the beginner Life service. Matt wanted to know why. A man ahead of him carried an expensive-looking two-handed axe. The Crafter examined it.

"Same modifier family?"

"Physical."

"Understood." Currency. Activation. Matt watched. His interface flashed amber. UNIQUE SKILL OBSERVED TEMPERED EDGE — B COPY FAILED Reason: Target Unique Skill exceeds current Maximum Copy Rank. Current Maximum Copy Rank: C Matt stared.

"… Right." There it was. The wall. SSS did not mean unrestricted. Not now. B-rank remained outside his reach. The Craft completed. The customer looked extremely pleased. Matt glanced from the result to the service fee. Scarcer specialist. Higher rank. High demand. That explained enough. His brief frustration faded almost immediately. Not yet. That was different from never. He was Level Eight. COPY still had room to grow. Goals were useful.

Matt stayed long enough to understand the general shape of the place, but stopped treating every workbench as something he needed to collect. Not every C-rank Skill interested him. Not every activation happened while he was watching. Life and Resistance were foundational enough. Two new Skills were plenty for one morning. Before leaving, he returned to reception.

"Question." The receptionist looked up.

"How many Crafters are working here today?" She checked the schedule.

"Nine on site. Two more appointment-only later." Matt looked toward the workbenches.

"Normal?"

"For Ashfield? Pretty normal." Matt nodded. Nine specialists in one relatively modest F-rank Camp. A mining-heavy location would probably attract different Crafters. A major hub would have far more. He thanked her and stepped outside. The Ohio sun felt bright after the fluorescent interior. Matt took out his phone and followed @WhiteBase. His information feed now had somebody useful for nearly every part of the job. He considered messaging Ethan and Chloe. Then imagined the response. YOU COPIED WHAT No.

The exact mechanics of COPY were not something he needed to broadcast casually because he'd had an interesting morning. It wasn't about distrusting them. It was about not discussing an SSS-rank Unique Skill in a group chat. Matt pocketed the phone.

"This can stay mine." ◆ Back in Trailer C-87, Matt locked the door. Then opened COPY. Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward now sat in the Archive. He checked the counters. VITAL IMPRINT Daily Uses Remaining: 10 / 10 ELEMENTAL WARD Daily Uses Remaining: 10 / 10 Separate counters. Promising. But only promising. Matt had spent the morning repeatedly telling himself not to mistake a hypothesis for a rule. So he was going to test it. Today.

He spent the next hour going through beginner Crafting guides, Item Level references, Currency descriptions, and National Market listings. The pile in his plastic bin gradually stopped looking like undifferentiated magical junk. Some Currency was common enough for experimentation. Some very clearly was not. Matt physically moved anything he did not understand into one corner of the box and added a label. DO NOT TOUCH YET"Excellent." That felt responsible.

He selected two disposable Normal Bases from the Orchard Keeper haul. Nothing whose Base Type or Item Level appeared especially desirable. Nothing he would be angry about damaging. Then he chose common compatible Currency appropriate for the experiment. Matt looked at COPY. His current combat loadout was Anchored Step and Quick Frame. He was inside a locked trailer. Nobody was trying to kill him. Both combat Skills came out. Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward went in.

ACTIVE COPY SLOTS Vital Imprint — C Elemental Ward — C Two slots. Two Crafting Skills. No need to swap yet. Matt placed the first Base on the table and prepared the Currency. Then a System prompt appeared. MULTIPLE COMPATIBLE CRAFTING UNIQUE SKILLS ACTIVE Select Crafting Guidance for this Currency application: Vital Imprint Elemental Ward No Unique Skill Guidance A smaller line appeared beneath it. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, only one Crafting Unique Skill may guide a single Crafting Currency application.

Matt stopped.

"There's that answer." Good. No stacking Life and Resistance guarantees onto one Orb just because he happened to have both abilities equipped. The strength of COPY was going to be sequential specialization. Not combining every miracle into one click. Matt selected: Vital Imprint He applied the Currency. There was no spectacular forge effect. The Currency dissolved against the equipment and the System resolved the modification. A new line appeared. Maximum Life Matt immediately checked COPY.

VITAL IMPRINT Daily Uses Remaining: 9 / 10 ELEMENTAL WARD Daily Uses Remaining: 10 / 10 He stared. Using one had not touched the other. Separate Skill. Separate daily state. Good. Matt moved to the second disposable Base. Both Crafting Skills were still active. The same Guidance prompt appeared when he prepared the Currency. This time he selected: Elemental Ward He chose an eligible Elemental Resistance family and applied the Currency. The item changed. A Resistance modifier appeared.

Matt checked the counters again. VITAL IMPRINT Daily Uses Remaining: 9 / 10 ELEMENTAL WARD Daily Uses Remaining: 9 / 10 Matt leaned slowly back in his chair.

"Confirmed." Each copied Crafting Unique retained its own daily-use pool. Using one did not consume the other's capacity. Equipping them together worked. One Currency application could only receive one guarantee. He wrote it down. CRAFTING TEST Vital Imprint: 10/10 → 9/10 Elemental Ward: 10/10 → 9/10 Counters independent: CONFIRMED Multiple Crafting Skills may be equipped simultaneously One Crafting Unique may guide each Currency application Then Matt added one more line. THIS IS ABSURD He underlined it.

◆ Neither test item was spectacular. That wasn't the point. They existed. That morning, Matt had watched Dana Brooks use a C-rank professional specialization. Now the same capability existed in his Archive. He had watched another Crafter guarantee Elemental Resistance. Now he could do that too. The original Crafters had lost nothing. COPY had duplicated the scarce part of the transaction. The specialization itself. Materials still mattered. A Boss-drop Base was not free merely because Matt hadn't paid cash for it.

He could have sold it. Currency had market value too. Opportunity cost remained real. But the limited human guarantee—the part people waited in line and paid service fees for—was now something Matt could provide for himself. That was the ridiculous part. A normal equipment firm solved a multi-stage Crafting process by coordinating several specialists. Matt could potentially collect several of those specializations into one Archive. Two active COPY slots still mattered.

Today they happened to fit Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward simultaneously. If he eventually collected five useful Crafting Skills, he wouldn't be able to hold all five at once. But at a workbench, that limitation was far less painful than it was in combat. Finish one stage. Swap safely. Continue. Matt smiled. The B-rank failure at the Cooperative still mattered. He could not collect everything. Not now. Tempered Edge had proven that. But two C-rank Crafting specializations were enough to prove the principle.

Matt looked at the clean equipment scattered around the trailer. Then at the Currency box. Then at COPY.

"Oh, that's bad." He paused.

"For economics." Not national economics. He was one person. He was not going to erase scarcity across a country-sized equipment market. But for Matt Hayes personally? This was ridiculous. He could reduce his dependence on outside Crafters. He could build equipment specifically for himself. Potentially prepare partially finished items for later specialists. Maybe sell useful output eventually.

And because he was already traveling from Camp to Camp, he would naturally keep encountering new Delvers with new professions. The road trip had just acquired another layer. ◆ Matt returned to WhiteBase's channel. Now that he had actually crafted two items, every beginner video looked different. Base Type mattered. Item Level mattered. Modifier slots mattered. Currency choice mattered. What could be added. What could be changed. What should absolutely not be touched until Matt knew what it was worth.

He glanced toward the plastic bin. The label: CRAFTING — FIGURE OUT LATER felt outdated already. Matt took the marker and added: FIGURING OUT Better. He opened another guide. The thumbnail showed a Normal item beside a Magic one. Huge text: STOP VENDORING WHITE BASES Matt clicked.

"Fine." The rabbit hole had officially begun. ◆ By the time Matt looked at the clock again, it was approaching noon. The Boss clear and Mana Stone payout had somehow become the less interesting half of his morning. He looked toward COPY. Vital Imprint. Elemental Ward. Both C-rank. Both acquired by standing inside a public Crafting Cooperative and watching people do their jobs. Until today, Matt had thought of COPY primarily as a combat Skill. Watch somebody fight. Copy their miracle. Become stronger.

That interpretation had been much too narrow. A Crafter's miracle counted. A worker's miracle counted. An economic miracle counted. COPY did not care whether the impossible thing Matt witnessed killed a monster or guaranteed Maximum Life on a pair of gloves. He looked at the two test crafts on the table. One now carried Life. The other Resistance. He had done that after watching each specialization once. Matt opened his notebook.

CURRENT CRAFTING COPIES Vital Imprint — C — 9/10 remaining Elemental Ward — C — 9/10 remaining PRIORITY: SELF-GEAR FIRST Money could come later. Matt already had enough money to travel, buy equipment, and survive a few bad decisions. What he did not have was optimized Gear. If COPY could help him manufacture equipment specifically for his own build, that was more interesting than selling ten beginner helmets.

"Let's start with not dying." Good priority. Then, if the equipment happened to become profitable— Matt glanced at the National Market tab. Well. He wasn't opposed. The B-rank wall meant he could not collect every profession. Not yet. But C-rank alone had already given him two entire Crafting specializations. And there were other Camps. Other Crafters. Other states. Matt's eyes settled on the SSS mark beside COPY.

Yesterday, he had thought the Skill was cheating because it let him collect answers to combat problems. Today, he had discovered that it could collect pieces of an industry. Matt looked at Vital Imprint. Then Elemental Ward. Then at the two successfully crafted pieces of equipment on the table. Finally, he looked at the browser filled with Crafting guides.

"My Unique Skill is completely bullshit."