Ryan Bennett's only real source of pride was his mining and metallurgy skill levels. At present, aside from Ryan Bennett's grandmaster-level mining, there were only two high-level miners on the entire server. Reaching grandmaster miner status would still take quite some time.

There were even fewer metallurgists—only three had reached intermediate level, and only Ryan Bennett had reached high level.

If anyone could hole up in the beginner mine outside Bracada, mining nonstop for a month, working over thirteen hours a day, and be as lucky as Ryan Bennett, digging up three pieces of purple gold in a row, maybe they too could become a grandmaster miner.

If someone dared to risk failure and throw all three pieces of purple gold ore into the smelting furnace without hesitation, and successfully smelt them into purple gold ingots, maybe they too could become a high-level metallurgist.

But no one was that lucky, and no one dared to try.

With the professional certification provided by the system, Ryan Bennett could easily land a good position in any major guild and earn an enviable salary, but Ryan Bennett's ambitions lay elsewhere. His goal was to become the number one player in the game—not just the top in production professions, but number one in level and strength.

If not for his grandmaster mining and high-level metallurgy, Ryan Bennett would probably have deleted his character and started over long ago, instead of being stuck in this awkward position.

Ryan Bennett stroked the smooth surface of the purple gold ingot as if caressing a lover. The dazzling brilliance of the smelted purple gold was Ryan Bennett's hope.

Purple Gold: Tier 3 rare ore, can be used for metallurgy, forging, and engineering.

It was said that in Bracada's auction house, a single unrefined piece of purple gold ore once sold for a high price of two thousand gold coins, and only one had ever appeared. Ryan Bennett couldn't help but marvel at his own luck. That day, he was mining away in the beginner mine when he discovered a pale purple ore. After three swings of his pickaxe, a series of system notifications left Ryan Bennett stunned—his miner level jumped straight from high to grandmaster, and the three pieces of purple ore in his inventory made Ryan Bennett incredibly excited.

After all, this was rare ore.

Ores are divided into three grades: common, rare, and treasure, with each grade further split into five tiers. Common ores are relatively easy to find, rare ores are quite scarce, and tier 3 rare ores are even rarer. Ryan Bennett had never seen a rare ore above tier 3, let alone a treasure-grade one.

What would happen if the purple gold ingots were used to craft a mechanical golem?

Three purple gold ingots were enough to make one mechanical golem.

But trouble came with it. Only after reaching intermediate engineering could one craft the most basic golem—mechanical imp. Ryan Bennett estimated that advancing to intermediate engineering would require investing another three thousand gold coins, and after that, he would still need to buy the blueprint for making a mechanical golem. A blueprint for a tier 2 mechanical imp sold for two thousand gold coins on the market.

In other words, if Ryan Bennett wanted to make a mechanical imp, he would need at least five thousand gold coins.

That's five thousand gold coins! Ryan Bennett's eyes rolled back. After mining for over a month, not counting the value of the three pieces of purple gold, he had only earned about three thousand gold coins—and that was with exceptionally good luck. Even a grandmaster miner could sometimes earn just over ten gold coins a day, since mining depended heavily on luck.

An average intermediate miner could earn about twenty gold coins a day, a high-level miner could make fifty, but as for grandmaster miners, no one had ever kept track. Ryan Bennett figured that earning over a hundred gold coins a day himself shouldn't be a problem.

Ryan Bennett would have to spend another month or more just to forge a mechanical imp. By then, most players would probably have already reached level fifty or higher.

Ryan Bennett glanced at the human world rankings. The highest level was a barbarian warrior named Logan Carter, already at level forty-nine, leaving everyone else far behind. Second place was a priest named Grace Miller, only at level forty-seven, but for a female priest to reach second place on the leaderboard was no small feat. Ryan Bennett guessed she must be a shadow priest; otherwise, there was no way she could level up so quickly.

Compared to them, Ryan Bennett felt a bit ashamed. He had tried going out to fight monsters, but he couldn't even handle the weakest skeletons in the Skeleton Forest outside Viking Town, let alone level up. Besides, Ryan Bennett was used to being alone, had no friends, and had no interest in being an experience leech. Because of his profession and weak combat ability, no one wanted to team up with him.

A mechanical alchemist without a mechanical golem is just trash! Ryan Bennett finally accepted this fact. So, no matter what it took, he had to get a mechanical golem!

Volume One: The Legendary Debut

Chapter Two: Alchemy Runes

Ryan Bennett had considered buying a mechanical golem, but the price of a tier 2 mechanical imp was as high as eight thousand gold coins, which made Ryan Bennett give up on the idea. It would be better to spend the money making one himself. For some reason, Ryan Bennett had never seen anyone selling a tier 1 mechanical imp.

He also wondered what kind of power a mechanical imp made from purple gold would have. The quality of the materials definitely affected the mechanical golem; better materials gave a significant boost to its attributes.

Ryan Bennett could only satisfy his desire for blood-pumping monster battles in his imagination. Making that dream a reality still seemed a long way off.