by Shane Walker
New Skill!
Daggers
Level 1
+1% Attack Speed/Damage per Level!
Your Dual-Wielding has increased to 9!
Your Parry has increased to 6!
Your Daggers has increased to 2!
Quest (Rogue 3) Complete!
Yes! As soon as I saw the first notification, I threw my hands up in surrender before bowing to El and thanking her for the training. I reviewed everything I’d just earned and went to my skill list to see where to spend my points. That’s when I realized I didn’t have enough available skill levels. I had to raise my Intellect! I immediately ran to Poppil with a plan. I had to make this week count.
A day, and a mind-numbing number of fetch quests and kill quests later, and I had gotten two levels off of these local quests. According to Alfred, starting areas like this were designed to be able to take a player up to level 10, but not quite how I did it. The average player did a bunch of quests and helped the village in small ways. We killed a small army of kobolds, an Orc Barbarian, and a goddamn dragon!
For both levels, I dumped all bonus points into Intellect. I hated losing out on a chance for increased survivability, but I really needed a good cushion for my skills levels. After accepting the changes to my stats and closing the screen, my notifications rapidly became inundated with the deferred skill gains the game has been telling me about for the last few days.
Your Daggers has increased to 5!
Your Tracking has increased to 4!
Your Dual-Wielding has increased to 10!
Your Stealth has increased to 9!
With those gains, I no longer needed to use my saved points for Daggers, so I decided to hold onto them for a bit longer. Now it was time for Phase II of the plan Poppil agreed to help with.
You see, a player could learn skills by just doing whatever task it was the skill assisted with, but it was better (and faster) to learn from someone. Just like in real life, you will eventually learn how to fix a dryer on your own, but there’s fewer structure fires if you just get some training.
That meant I needed professional trainers from around the village. Before I started questing outside the town, Poppil said they had plenty of craftsmen and such that could teach me any of the “standard” skills I wanted to learn. Thanks to my new status with the village, it was also pretty easy to convince him to have these trainers issue me quests during the training for using my skills and crafting certain things. This way, I could get some crafting experience and skills while they potentially got merchandise to sell.
Those quests became my life for the next several days. Thanks to the time dilation when crafting, I was able to pick up tons of skills quickly as well.
First, there was learning Glass Working. While I expected to learn only glassblowing, this skill covered all facets of production of glass items. That also included the ability to make arms and armor from glass! The trainer for these skills said there was magic involved in turning such things into effective tools for combat, but they made great decorations until one had access to that magic.
I’m not afraid to admit I nearly got myself killed during the glassblowing training. Apparently, having molten glass on one end of a big metal straw and then inhaling through it was considered to be a terrible idea. Something about burning your lungs with air the temperature of the aforementioned molten glass.
New Skill!
Glass Working
Level 1
Increases the chances of successfully crafting items from glass.
I struggled a bit with shaping anything complex. I could get simple enough shapes once I picked up the first rank in the skill, but I wasn’t exactly going to be making elaborate “tobacco water pipes” for any of my hippie friends.
The local Alchemist was requesting a large order of vials in order to make potions for the mine. Apparently the miners were a bit out of practice and had inflicted a few minor injuries upon themselves and each other. Also, some had pacing problems and had requested stamina potions. This was as good an opportunity for the Glass Workers as it was for the Alchemist. Well, I guess I’m on the list of beneficiaries for multiple reasons. I kept practicing until I got the requirement that the local Glass Worker told me to hit.
Your Glass Working has increased to 5!
Since I had gotten a high enough level in the skill to easily make simple vials, the shop offered me a quest to make them for the Alchemist. I wouldn’t get paid for it in gold, but I got experience and a basic set of equipment for working with glass so I could work on it on my own.
After working on the vials for a couple of dilated hours, I was soon moving on to the Alchemist with some crates of vials, a big chunk of XP, and another skill notification.
Your Glass Working has increased to 8!
The work of an Alchemist, it turned out, required several different skills. Alchemy and Herbalism were required for the basics, with some others needed for more complicated elixirs. Thankfully, the local Alchemist was more than willing to train me after receiving word from Poppil of what I’d done.
She quickly went over the basics of both Alchemy and Herbalism with some simple processes involving processing some common medicinal plants and combining them with solvents to turn them into a basic tincture for healing minor wounds. It wasn’t a full-blown potion, but it was enough to get me the skills.
New Skill!
Alchemy
Level 1
Allows you to craft any potion, elixir, etc. which you meet the minimum skill level for.
Learning Alchemy was a good lesson in “Not all crafting skills are created equal.” Whereas Glass Working was largely up to my creativity and control over movement, temperature, and other variables, Alchemy was a very exacting science. This also meant that you had to have the recipe for a particular potion. I don’t mean “You had to touch a piece of paper and suddenly know how to make stuff for forever.” I mean you had to have it on hand to follow exactly. Otherwise, you’d have a chance of failure that could sometimes be catastrophic.
My teacher in this endeavor was very patient and informative with regards to both my Alchemy and Herbalism skills. She went through everything from proper measuring and pouring techniques to how to identify plants in the wild. Under her guidance, it was easy to earn rapid increases to my skills.
Your Alchemy has increased to 5!
Your Chemistry has increased to 5!
Getting the two basic skills to five were enough for me to earn my first Job along with a mini-barrage of notifications.
New Job!
Alchemist (Crafting)
Requirement: Alchemy 5, Herbalism 5, Intellect 20
Bonuses: +4 Intellect/+2 Willpower per level, +1 effective Alchemy and Herbalism levels per level, 1% chance per level to craft extra doses or portions per craft attempt
Jobs: Jobs serve as a means to specialize and enhance the power of your base Class. Each Job can gain Experience and Levels, but only when Active. When a Combat Job is active, your Base Class will not gain experience. If you do not have a Job Activated, Experience earned will go to your base Class.
When Leveling a Job and earning bonus Attribute Points, those points are added to your Class Attributes, but only when that Job is active. You receive all bonuses from those Attributes with the exception of increased Skill Levels from Intellect.
Don’t forget, you can have as many Jobs as you meet the requirements for and can change them at any time!
Minor Trait obtained!
Novice Artisan
Requirement: Gain a purely Crafting Job
Effect: Learn and increase crafting skills at a higher rate!
Note: This Trait works even when you do not have a Crafter Job Active
Achievement Earned!
I’m Like an Onion: Gain 3 or more traits AFTER character creation
Reward: Free Level!(World First Bonus: Double normal reward!)
Achievement Earned!
A Certain Set of Skills: Gain your f
irst Job
Reward: 5 Free Skill Points!
Two free fucking levels! And five skill points? Everything’s coming up Alltrades!
I threw all ten points into Intellect without thinking twice. If I’m about to start learning faster, then I will need all the room for growth I can get. And on top of all this, it scaled my XP up, which meant I’m around 50% towards the next level even though my level just went up twice. I decided to hold onto the skill points for now to see where I’m at when all the training is done.
Thankfully, the Alchemist was more than willing to let me continue helping her so I could pick up more skill levels and recipes. Since I’d hit Skill level five, she was able to give me the recipe for Minor Health Potions, which were in almost as high demand as Minor Stamina Potions. The stamina variety was arguably more in demand, but it sold for very little when the miners bought it due to how cheap and easy it was to craft. The only way for the Alchemist to make a noticeable amount of money off of them was to mass produce them. She kept that task to herself while I worked on the Minor Health Potions. Something about my abysmal brewing speed. I couldn’t help being a noob!
I did start to learn a lot about the finer points of the craft, such as when to add what ingredients, exactly when to add or remove heat, some warning signs of an impending Alchemy failure, and how to quickly record new formulas in some sort of special shorthand.
Once the quest was complete, she gave me a small journal and another chunk of experience, which managed to level me again! Apparently this was still worth half a level of experience. Maybe these quests are guaranteed to grant half of a level worth of experience. Either way, this time the points went into Strength since I had a feeling it would come in handy during my next stop.
The next stop for training is the Smithy. I already knew what I wanted to learn to do, but it blew my mind that they made it three separate skills. Either way, by the of the day, I’d be able to make armor and weapons and all sorts of other weird shit!
Of course, before I could do that, the smithy made me learn to purify ore. Something about “shitty smiths use shitty materials to make shitty product...and I’ll not have you shittifying my anvil” Definitely a real people person, this guy.
New Skill!
Smelting
Level 1
Allows you to smelt ores up to your skill level.
And now I have Smelting eating up skill cap. This better be worth it. Although, this made me wonder why tanning wasn’t its own skill. It was probably an oversight early on that no one could be bothered to change because it would upset the balance of things.
I spent a solid four hours smelting before he was satisfied with my progress. My reward was even fewer available skill levels and his permission to learn to be a smith.
We started with basic anvil work: heating, shaping, reheating, shaping, on and on. It wasn’t a glamorous or exciting endeavor. In fact, it was one of the most boring things I’d ever done at first.
Forty-five minutes into hammering on this metal in an attempt to get it flat and smooth, I was starting to think I might just skip all of it. I mean, I’m not wearing metal armor and I can buy swords somewhere, right? Just then, I managed to catch the last warped section at just the right angle and with just the right pressure and I’m rewarded with the Blacksmithing Skill. Thank you, baby Jesus!
New Skill!
Blacksmithing
Level 1
Allows you to forge metal objects other than weapons and armor based on skill level.
Oh. Right. Two more skills to learn here, and they’re more complicated than this one.
Heat control is something to keep in mind when you’re making sheet metal or nails or something equally mundane since it can affect the integrity of the thing you’re trying to make, but swords and armor are an exercise in, well, being really anal about the whole damn process.
At one point, I made the mistake of asking why we had to hammer the swords into shape instead of just pouring the metal into a mold. The Village Smith laughed for five minutes. The worst part is he never answered the fucking question.
Three hours of crafting later and I’ve got Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing.
New Skill!
Armorsmithing
Level 1
Allows you to forge metal armor based on your skill level. Quality of items crafted improves based on skill level as well.
New Skill!
Weaponsmithing
Level 1
Allows you to forge metal weapons based on your skill level. Quality of items crafted improves based on skill level as well.
Another six hours later and I’ve finished my quests for the Smith and gotten all my smithing skills a bit higher. I was rather pleased with the results.
Your Blacksmithing has increased to 5!
Your Armorsmithing has increased to 6!
Your Weaponsmithing has increased to 8!
Finishing quests for all three skills gets me an entire level this time and the points all go into Vitality to bring my health up to a respectable amount. I also get a new Job. And another shotgun blast of notifications to work through. This was really starting to become a habit for me.
New Job!
Smithy (Crafting)
Requirement: Two Smithing skills at level 5 or higher, STR 20
Bonuses: +3 STR/+3 END per level, +1 to all known Smithing skills per level, +1% additional Quality Bonus to crafted items per level
Achievement Earned:
Two Certain Sets of Skills?: Gain your second Job
Reward: 10 Free Skill Points (World First Bonus: Double Reward!)
Minor Trait obtained!
Man of Crafts
Requirement: Learn 10 or more Crafting Skills
Effect: Once per day, you may designate a particular crafting task to have an increased chance of being Exceptional!
Note: Exceptional Crafted Items have double normal quality, are more receptive to enchantment, and have a rare chance of being created with a Natural Enchantment
Note #2: Natural Enchantments are enchantments caused by bringing out the innate magic of a material. They differ from Enchantments placed on an item by an Enchanter in that they are restricted based on the materials and are much rarer.
A second Job? Looks like I’m crafting my ass off when we get to the capital. Speaking of, I need to remember to get alchemy equipment whenever we finally get set up in our new home. I think to myself. And I really can’t wait to try my luck at the whole Natural Enchantment thing.
I reviewed all of my skills to figure out where to spend the extra points now that I’d gotten another big chunk of them. I was sitting on thirty-four unspent bonus skill points, so it was time to use them up. Unfortunately, once I used them, I’d only have twenty-one points of available skill levels with my current intellect. That seemed like a lot at first, but it could fill surprisingly quickly.
Forcing myself to make a decision, I immediately put ten into Management. It gave me a 10% increase in the Management Point accrual rate and would help me build up the mine much more quickly. It also gave me a second supervisor slot, which doubled my base production rate and led to a lot more profit off of gems and silver, plus a whole lot more Iron to take to sell to the human kingdom.
Next ten went into Haggle. I’d been waiting on selling the loot because I figured I could come up with a way to increase the profits and one fell into my lap!
I decided to put ten into Dodge. I knew it wouldn’t always be sunshine and capitalism, and I was really falling in love with my “don’t get hit” philosophy in combat. I didn’t think I’d ever be as good as a full -blown Dodge Tank, but I could dream right?
That left me with four points to dump somewhere. Not really sure what else to do with them, I put two each into Alchemy and Herbalism.
The very last crafting task to be done was to make myself some armor! El was as excited as I was to see how it would turn out. I really never expected it, but she loved making leather armor.
She always struck me as a “thrill of the fight” type, but it seemed like this was her real passion.
“Honestly, I’m a little nervous about trying this.” she said to me while digging out some sketches and patterns.
“And why is that?” I asked, curious as to why she of all people would be nervous.
“Normally, you’d want to make certain pieces out of leather but make the main material of the armor itself metal. With this dragon skin, though, we can harden it like one would for making a sturdy case or storage chest covered with leather, except we’re making armor. I think we can actually make something more akin to metal armor.” she finished as she pulled a certain design out.
It was essentially a cuirass with smaller, independent pieces on the extremities to protect them. It was clear from the sketches that it was intended to be metal.
Hopefully El is right about it being doable with this dragon hide.
Before getting started, I activated my new Man of Crafts ability to make sure I had of chance of making something really badass with this leather. I supposed the skill was just going to be for big ticket items like this from then on.
Even with time dilation from crafting, it took the better part of a day in real-time to get it cut, softened enough to shape, then hardened back up. When we did finally get it shaped and hardened, it felt like steel! We got the cuirass done first since it was the biggest piece and therefore the most material to work. Apparently the boiling done to soften it didn’t affect the dragon skin for as long as it tended to with other leathers. This meant we had to work as fast as possible to shape it before it was immovable.