How to Raise Your Skeletons

[Username: White Swine]

[Upvote: 2,750,000]

[Title: Production Skill Tier List!]

> ‘Sup? Nice to meet you. I’m a hunter who commands numerous production hunters like blacksmiths, jewelers, tailors, and so on.

> Production hunters, listen up. I see people arguing about who has top-tier or 2nd-tier skills on the forums. So let me clear this up for you, so y’all can shut up.

> First off, there are countless production skills. Blacksmithing, jewelry crafting, tailoring, item crafting, mining, metallurgy, cooking, smelting, woodworking, potion brewing, tanning, leather crafting, weaving, enchanting, mechanical engineering, herb gathering, blueprint designing, alchemy, etc.

> Yikes, it’s exhausting just to list them all, huh? You can look up what each skill does on your own time.

> The important thing here is that all skills have their own value.

> The goal of the production class is to create something, right? And of course you want to make the best items possible, right?

> To do that, you need all the skills listed above. Nothing is unimportant. The higher the performance of an item, the more diverse and rare materials you need. Therefore, all those skills listed above are at least 2nd-tier by default.

> Since they’re all 2nd-tier, there’s no need to argue. Arguing about your skills is like asking, “Who is stronger, the navy or the air force?” Their purpose may be different, but the fact that we need both does not change.

> But actually, there are 1st-tier skills among those. Just two.

> Why, you may ask? Because you can perform other skills just by learning these two skills.

> The 1st-tier skills I’m talking about are ‘Item Crafting’ and ‘Alchemy.’

> Item Crafting consolidates skills like blacksmithing, jewelry crafting, tailoring, and potion brewing.

> Alchemy isn’t just about making gold; it’s about combining leftover materials to extract other materials. Therefore, Alchemy makes obtaining high-value metals, ores, blueprints, jewels, herbs, and so on easier.

> So if any of you kids turning 20 have either of those skills, you should jump for joy.

> In conclusion. Item Crafting and Alchemy are 1st-tier. The rest are 2nd-tier.

> If you disagree, your argument is valid. If you’re still upset, come find me at White Swine.

> Cheers.

“Hmm.”

Inside the rented room, I summoned Boney 6.

—Creak?

The short skeleton tilted its head, holding a tiny, cute bone hammer.

I sent it to the makeshift magic furnace.

—Sizzle!

The fuel boiled and burned red-hot, fascinating to watch.

[Skill: Intermediate Smelting]

[Level: 1]

[Description: Extracts metal from ores.]

[Effect 1: Can smelt iron ore.]

[Effect 2: Can smelt copper ore.]

[Effect 3: Can smelt silver ore.]

“Hm.”

First, I went out to buy some piles of iron ore nearby.

“Alright, give it a try.”

Of course, I had no idea how to smelt. But Boney 6 was a blacksmith, so it would know, right? Just like Boney 1 could naturally swing a sword.

—Creak!

It nodded and carried the iron ore piles to the furnace, slowly pouring them in.

[Using skill ‘Intermediate Smelting’ (Lv.1).]

[Crafted 1 ‘Iron Ingot.’]

[Crafted 1 ‘Iron Ingot.’]

[Crafted ‘Waste Pile.’]

[Proficiency increased by 1.]

[Tip: When proficiency exceeds a certain value, the level increases.]

“Woah.”

Iron ingots piled up at the base of the furnace as time passed. These were the basic materials needed to craft items.

[Skill: Intermediate Weaving]

[Level: 1]

[Description: Spins thread and weaves cloth.]

[Effect 1: Spins ‘Intermediate Thread.’]

[Effect 2: Weaves ‘Intermediate Cloth.’]

The weaving skill was similar by buying materials like spider silk, cocoons, wool, goat hair, and flax and spinning them on the loom.

[Using skill ‘Intermediate Weaving.’]

[Spun ‘Intermediate Thread.’]

[Spun ‘Intermediate Thread.’]

[Crafted ‘Waste Pile.’]

[Proficiency increased by 1.]

Various colors of threads bloomed splendidly.

“Wow.”

I was impressed.

In short, Smelting and Weaving were skills to extract materials. And it was as simple as a game with no need to overthink it. I just had to put it in and presto! It was made.

“Boney 6.”

—Creak?

It looked at me after setting the loom.

“Shall we try alchemy now?”

I made up my mind to use all the skills it had today.

The alchemy stand wasn’t in the rented room. There was only one public stand in the farthest back room of the shop.

It makes sense since alchemy is a rare skill.

The shop owner didn’t seem to stock many.

—Clomp, clomp.

Moving to the room with Boney 6, I saw a man in a hood. He was smoking heavily, focused on something. He seemed to be a customer using the shop.

Though I have Boney 6, so.

I decided not to mind it. I was an uncommon necromancer, but that person also must possess an uncommon alchemist profession.

I stood there, observing what the man was doing. After about 30 seconds, he reacted.

“Are you a beginner?”

“Pardon?”

“The alchemy stand can be shared, but you were just standing there.”

“Ah, I see.” I nodded, a sign of affirmation.

“If you’re a beginner, I can show you. Come over here.”

The man was kind. As if recalling his early days, he offered his help.

It’s fortunate for me.

I looked at him with shining eyes and expressed my gratitude. “Thank you.”

“Hmm, being here means you must have the Alchemy skill. But what’s with that skeleton? Are you a necromancer?”

“Ah, actually. I don’t have Alchemy, but this guy does.”

“…What? Really?” The alchemist licked his lips. “Life sure brings strange experiences. I never thought I’d see a skeleton that can use Alchemy.”

“Honestly, it’s fascinating to me too.”

“…Well, do you have any junk items?”

“Junk items?”

I checked my portable bag. I had collected a few things while exploring C-rank dungeons recently.

—Rustle…

I shook the bag, and about two dozen junk items fell out. They were ‘itemized’ materials like poison glands, tail hairs, and bone fragments.

“Oh?” Watching the scene, the alchemist’s pupils dilated. “These are all useful materials above C-rank. They must have been difficult to get.”

“I just got lucky.”

“I see.”

The alchemist glanced down to check the white nameplate at my waist. It seemed like he was gauging my skills. White meant E-rank, so he’d likely think I was a wealthy hunter.

“…Well, alchemy is actually quite simple. Just put ‘waste piles’ or material-type ‘junk items’ into the stand and use the skill.”

“It really does sound simple.”

I followed the man’s instructions and had Boney 6 pour all the junk items in. And then I waited.

[Using skill ‘Intermediate Weaving.’]

—Thump! Thump! Thump!

[What item will be created?]

With various effects, messages popped up.

Wow, this felt like a lottery.

After some time, messages appeared one after another.

—Ring!

[You obtained ‘Mandrake.’]

[You obtained the blueprint for ‘Sturdy Steel Sword.’]

[You obtained ‘Silver Ingot.’]

[You obtained ‘Intermediate Cloth.’]

[You obtained ‘Intermediate Thread.’]

[You obtained ‘Lowest-Level Sapphire.’]

[Proficiency increased by 2.]

—Rustle!

Items poured out from under the stand.

This…

It felt familiar. You know the feeling? Like when you were a kid playing with a gacha machine by putting in a few coins.

This is a fun skill.

Just as the combat skills of swinging swords and fighting monsters were enjoyable, these production-type skills also had their own charm.

After praising Boney 6 internally, I was about to gather the items when it happened.

“Huh?” The alchemist watching us had wide eyes. “What is this? You used Alchemy but got blueprints, herbs, and even jewels?”

“…What’s the matter?” I tilted my head.

Isn’t that what Alchemy does?

[Skill: Intermediate Alchemy]

[Level: 1]

[Description: Synthesizes materials to create new random materials.]

[Effect 1: Can obtain basic materials.]

[Effect 2: Can obtain intermediate materials.]

That’s what the skill description says.

“No way. Mandrakes or sapphires only come from intermediate and above.”

“Is that surprising?”

The alchemist looked astonished.

Why? What was the problem?

“Wait, are you an intermediate alchemist? How can an E-rank do that? Is this a trick? Are you a magician or something?”

“I’m not a magician. Hm, is an intermediate alchemist rare?”

“…Okay, this is nuts. I need to take a puff. Judging from what you’re saying, you’re clearly a beginner.” The alchemist sighed heavily and exhaled smoke. Then he continued, “Fuu. Of course, they’re rare. Do you know how hard it is to raise the proficiency of Basic Alchemy? It takes thousands, millions of materials to reach Intermediate Alchemy.”

“Ugh.” I was shocked to hear that.

What? But Boney 6 started as an intermediate alchemist.

“On your own, raising the skill level to intermediate is almost impossible. You’d need some guild-level support.”

“…”

“…It’s crazy to see a beginner with Intermediate Alchemy. Even in White Swine, there are only about five intermediate alchemists… This is unbelievable.”

“Then what about advanced alchemists?”

“There aren’t any yet in this world. Even though it’s been over ten years.”

“…”

Now I understood why production professions were underrated despite being fun and why they couldn’t become as famous as combat jobs.

Because this skill can’t be developed at an individual level.

The difficulty was immense.

It would take tens and hundreds of millions of won.

My bank balance was less than ten million won.

Hm.

However, it was strange. After hearing this, I should have felt despair.

But why do I want to raise Boney 6 more?

Instead, I felt it was the right choice because it was better to raise a rare profession than something that just anyone could raise.

I just need to work hard.

‘Hard work’ was my biggest weapon. Besides, I didn’t have to do it myself as I could just summon Boney 6 and have it work. In the meantime, I just needed to keep bringing materials from dungeons without needing to stand in front of a hot furnace myself.

Alright.

I felt passionate.

It might cost a lot of money, but I didn’t care. This guy was practically stock that would surely rise exponentially in the future, so it was worth the investment.

“Thanks for the advice. Here, take this.”

I handed him the mandrake as a token of appreciation.

“What? No, you shouldn’t have! This is a valuable intermediate herb.”

“It’s fine. We’ll be seeing each other often. I’d appreciate the occasional advice.” I smiled brightly.

Then I looked at my lovely Boney 6.

Boney 6, I’ll keep gathering materials so you can grow without trouble. So in return, you have to make great items for me, alright? Gehehe.

I chuckled sinisterly to myself.