by Shane Walker
My first problem with it was that it took almost twice as much heat to get into a workable condition. It also took way more pressure to push the molten glass into the shape of the mold. Each piece took easily twice as long to mold in comparison to normal glass.
As the pieces started to cool, I noticed faint streaks that looked like lightning appearing and disappearing as it cooled.. Once they had finished cooling, it was somehow perfectly clear. You wouldn’t notice the difference unless compared to regular glass, but when you did you could tell the new glass was so clear it was almost invisible.
I wasn’t prepared for the effects, though. The notification letting me know I was successful nearly caused me to drop a piece.
You have created a magical Alchemy Set!
Infusion Set
Any concoctions created using this set will either be a tier higher or will produce double the normal doses, with a 50/50 chance for either result.
“Harry! Carol! Come see this!” I shouted from across the compound, eager to present them with my new creation. I minimized my notifications for now so I could focus on the conversation at hand.
I saw the moment that both of them registered what exactly I’d just made. “Jack this is incredible! How much more money will this make for the company at current production?” Harry said enthusiastically. I had to stop and look at the numbers real quick.
The Medium Potions were all twice as valuable as their Minor counterparts, so each result would double the value of the product. This set just doubled our potion income! And with the greenhouse providing everything that they needed for these potions, it was pure profit! We needed to find the recipes for more potions and hire some more Alchemists. This called for another message for Rowan.
He was able to help me track down what I needed, but it was going to take some running around town. He could get me some of the supplies but the rest was sold elsewhere in town. He gave me a list of shops that would sell what I needed around town. I really didn’t want to leave the workshop, though.
Alfred, isn’t there some sort of way to higher an NPC runner or something like that? I asked.
“Actually there is, sir, but it will take a little time. It requires requesting one from a local hiring service and they will cost 100 gold per week. Unfortunately, we can’t just generate new NPCs from thin air.” he replied.
Oh hell yes. Get me two ASAP, please. Let me know when they’re ready. I’ve got some experimenting to do. Thanks, Alfred.
“Very good, sir.”
With some time to kill, I started working with the remaining sand. The elemental sand didn’t really appeal to me, but I found some in the selection Rowan sent that was used in special Divination magic. This had potential.
I knew I wanted some sort of eye wear made with it, but what? Monocle? Spectacles? Bifocals? None of that appealed to me so I went a little steampunk with it and started work on goggles. I activated my ability to make high end equipment and got to work. First, I had some komodo leather left over and used that for the band. Then I made some frames to attach the band to that would hold the lenses.
After that, I set to work making and shaping the Divination Glass into two identical lenses. It was honestly much harder than I expected. Since they were lenses, there was no room for error or imperfection. They had to be perfectly smooth and even. If not, it would impair my vision. I finally got it just right and set the lenses once they cooled. As soon as I put them in place I got a notification that I’d created a new item.
You have created magical goggles!
Third Eye Goggles
+10 Perception, +10 Appraisal, See Invisibility, Detect Hidden Objects, See fine details beyond normal human vision
Oh hell yes. I threw them on immediately and started looking over things in the workshop. The goggles let me see nuances in items and tools I’d never noticed- small imperfections in the way they were crafted or things appearing from wear and tear.
With the new ability to see such minute detail and a renewed desire to craft, I started forging tools to replace the worn ones we had. Every piece had to be perfect. With every single imperfection all but screaming at me with these goggles, I couldn’t accept anything less. I’d become obsessed with making the best tools possible.
The problem was trying to make perfect tools with my own imperfect set, so I had to make progressively better tools. Each set improved on the last and was used to craft the next. It was repetitive, grueling, and incredibly satisfying.
After hours worth of work, I’d finished three identical and perfect sets of smithing tools, one for me and two for Shot and Oak. I spent an hour looking over each and couldn’t find a single blemish. My two Smithies were, needless to say, beyond ecstatic with the results.
You have created new Smithing Tools
Masterwork Steel Smith’s Tools
Increases quality and value of all crafted armor and weapons by 15%
When Rowan heard about the effects, he was more than willing to increase our pay accordingly. He also suggested I make these for no one but people working for me.
At some point during my work, the hiring process completed and I got my three new NPC runners. They immediately got sent out grabbing supplies, including sand, potion recipes for higher tier potions, and seeds for some new ingredients.
Looking over our new capabilities, I went back through my applications and found more applicants that were still interested. I managed to find a Farmer (which I was incredibly shocked to find was an actual in-game Job) that could take over the greenhouse, two more Alchemists, two more Smithies, and a Leatherworker.
With everything settled, I finally went over all my notifications from the day.
Your Blacksmithing skill has increased to 29!
Your Glass Working skill has increased to 20!
Your Alchemy skill has increased to 24!
Your Appraisal skill has increased to 30!
Before I could decide what to do next, I received a message from Rowan.
“Jack, I got word back from my contact. You’re meeting with them in two days. You need to make damn sure you’re ready lad. I’ve got a feeling their little problem is far worse than they thought.”
31-Company Meeting
“OK, we’re all here, Jack. You’ve never had us all get together like this before and you sounded stressed. What’s up?” Nik said after he made his way into the room and took a seat. He was right. I wasn’t exactly in the greatest mood after finding out I was probably dealing with a nasty monster problem. Why couldn’t they be ordering armor or daggers or something?
Harold and Carol the Alchemists, Oak and Shot the Smithies, my bodyguard Destreza, Haydon the Tailor, Syndey the Enchanter, and my friend and resident Artificer Nik were all there. Everyone was sitting down except Des, who had her usual “too cool for school” wall lean going. As the original group and highest level employees, I figured they’d be the most help.
The new crew was there as well. First was Jon the farmer. Today was his first day running the greenhouse and he was loving it. He’d already presented some ideas for extending it into an actual in-ground farm. I checked with Alfred and it was allowed as our property extended a fair distance beyond the current building to allow for plenty more expansion.
Next up was Ali and Pete my newest Alchemists. They weren’t an actual couple like my empty nesters, but they still worked well as a team. I’d tracked down some buffing concoctions that I had them working on. I decided to game the system a bit and tracked down some recipes for them that had no higher version. After some experimenting, we confirmed that this meant only the doubling effect from the new Alchemy sets could trigger.
After that were the new Smithies Ungardt and Oskar. They were also the only Dwarves in the company so far. Apparently they went into the game wanting to play Dwarven Smiths, but intentionally chose to start in the Human Realm in the hopes of having a leg up on the competition. Needless to say, they were pissed when they found out about the Human Iron shorta
ge. They sacrificed the chance to get training with Dwarven Master Smiths and ended up out of work until they saw my ads. After seeing Oak and Shot working they felt like they had something to prove.
Finally was Lily. She was our sole Leatherworker. Well, technically she was a Tailor. She picked up enough of the required skills to pick up the Job while working leather. I made a mental note to work on getting it myself. It just took Sewing and one or two other skills to unlock it. It boosted Leatherworking, too, so that would be helpful.
It was more people in a room than I’d expected. Counting me, the NPC runners, and Zen, there were seventeen of us all together in the meeting. I was getting a tad nervous about addressing everyone.
“Thanks for coming, folks. I’ve brought you here because I need your help.” I said, deciding to get right to the point. “I am meeting with the Thieves Guild on behalf of our business partner Rowan Vonn. He’s told me that it’s likely going to involve a monster and I have a feeling it will be something powerful.
“That’s why for the next forty-eight hours I’m shifting our production to preparing for this. Before anyone gets worried about lost income, I will pay out of pocket for everything so no one is losing out on income. We owe a lot of what we are now to Rowan and I don’t want to let him down. I’m going to need potions, elixirs, ammo, consumables like flash grenades, and anything else we can think of. It may sound like I’m going overboard, but if I’m being honest I suck at fighting and I’m going to do this alone, so I have to even the odds.”
I gave everyone a moment to process all I’d said before continuing. “Also, Zen and I need weapons. I need a better longsword and a new parrying dagger. Zen needs gear appropriate for combat in multiple Jobs. Plus, anything you guys can think of that will help.”
“What am I supposed to be making, boss?” Des asked rather sarcastically.
“You’re making me a real fighter. I want the crafting done today, but tomorrow you and I will train. I want to boost my combat Skills. Everyone following?”
I looked around and was greeted by nods of understanding. Everyone seemed to be on board except, surprisingly, Nik. He looked like he wanted to say something.
“Something on your mind, Nik?” I asked knowing he’d be too shy to bring it up, whatever it was.
“Yeah. Can we get some of those goggles, too?”
With Rowan’s help, we’d tracked down all the divination sand in the city and brought it in so I could make more goggles. By the time I was done, everyone in the company had a pair and it was already showing in their work. Blacksmiths were enjoying my recently experienced ability in eliminating even the tiniest imperfections. Alchemists were finding that previously used measurements of ingredients were slightly off and that correcting them could improve formulas and yields. Tailors cut perfect lines and sewed pieces exactly where they needed to.
The only one not benefiting directly in crafting was my Enchanter Syndey. Her boon was unexpected. Instead of making her better at enchanting items herself, she was able to better examine and understand existing enchantments. This new ability was to the point where she spent some of her own money buying new magical items and examining them in order to reverse engineer the enchantments and learn how to do them herself.
After an hour or so of this, everyone had gained the actual Perception skill. Turns out none had it until the goggles pushed them to take in all these details. As the Skill grew for them, they were able to push their craft even further. It was incredible.
Suddenly All Trades, Inc. not only had the highest production capacity for these goods of any single group, but we also made higher quality products than what anyone else was selling. A few ideas had occurred to me at this point, but I decided to pursue them later.
With the renewed passion for their respective crafts, my crew got to work on my requests. Alchemists made healing potions and elixirs, while the Smithies and Tailors started working on Zen’s gear. After some internal debate, I let the Smithies know I’d handle my own weapons. I needed an excuse to fire up the forge. After notifying them of my plans, I switched to my Blacksmith Job and headed to my area.
First, I drew up some plans for what I wanted based on my experiences and some research online about historical weapons. After looking around, I had two things I wanted to make: a better balanced longsword more suited to my style of fighting and a parrying dagger that incorporated some gnomish know-how.
The long sword, well technically an arming sword, was easy enough. I made the whole thing with high grade steel we’d normally use for the big orders for Rowan. First change was to not include a ricasso, which is apparently the term for the unsharpened portion of the blade. I would never grab the blade and thrust two-handed so that was a useless feature for me. It’s hard to grab the blade in your offhand when it’s already holding a dagger.
The length of the weapon was slightly shorter than what I’d been using before, but not so short that it was considered a short sword. Simply shortening the blade did much to improve balance, but I added a little weight to the pommel to allow for more fluid movement once the blade was balanced. I also slightly extended the cruciform hilt of the weapon so that it was more effective in trapping weapons or protecting my hand if I blocked with the sword.
Once it was finished being shaped, cooled, and polished, I removed the scales from a strip of black dragon hide and used it to wrap the handle. The scabbard was wood with another black dragon leather wrap and steel accents at the tip of the scabbard and where it met the hilt. It all perfectly exemplified beauty in simplicity.
Syndey, however, wanted to disrupt that simplicity slightly. She had some ideas for enchanting it and wanted me to drop it off when I was done. It was fine with me because I needed to let Nik know I was ready for us to make my parrying dagger.
The design I’d come up with was basically a triple dagger. Historically, the triple dagger almost always appeared as a single blade parrying dagger, but a switch hidden by the hand guard that ran from hilt to pommel activated a spring mechanism which opened up the middle blade and deployed additional blades out to either side of the main. They could easily catch weapons this way.
“Here’s the pieces I need you to forge.” Nik said as I entered his workshop. “Once that’s done, bring them back and we will piece them together.” he finished before shooing me out of his shop once more. Any other time and he was incredibly shy and a classic “Type-B” personality, but once he was in that shop he became a whole other person. Seeing the confidence and need to be in control of the environment made me feel a little proud of him.
I looked over the plans and saw he’d laid out the design of the spring release, second and third blades, and the trigger and reset mechanism, but left the design of the main blade, handle, and hand guard to me.
I decided to take care of the stuff Nik needed first, which took a surprisingly long couple of hours. It would have been exponentially easier if these could have been machined into shape, but instead I was having to cut by hand over and over until I got it perfectly to his specifications.
Once the pieces were finished, I insisted that Nik come out to work on it in the forge with me, so he grabbed some tools and reluctantly followed. From the expression on his face, his figurative shell I’d been wanting him to get out of turned into a literal shell in the form of a locked workshop.
When we got to the forge and I showed him all the pieces laid out and compared to his specs, he looked them over and said “Not bad, Jack. These goggles make a huge difference, don’t they?”
“They do.” I replied. “Once this Thieves Guild business is finished, I’d like for us all to get together and come up with more ideas for ways to improve our crafting abilities like this.”
“Wait. You want us to work on it as a group?” he said. He was obviously shaken up by this idea and I could see his hands shaking slightly. His breathing was starting to speed up some, too.
Oh no. I thought. He’s about to have a panic attack.
“
Nik, it’s OK. Take a second to breathe, buddy.” I said as I knelt down to get at eye level with his Gnomish frame. I was trying to be comforting but worried it’d come across as demeaning. “If you would prefer, we can set it up so you don’t have to talk to anyone directly. Or I can assign you a team of NPCs. You seem to do better with them. Is that ok?”
He was staring at the ground off to the side like it was miles away and he couldn’t quite focus on it. He nodded and wiped the beginnings of a tear from one eye and said “That would be way better. Thanks, Jack.”
“No problem.” I said. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to respond if it’s too personal or I cross a line. It’s severe social anxiety isn’t it?”
A look of shame flashed across his face before he nodded again and said “Very severe. I can’t talk to more than one or two people at a time or else it’s like my brain catches on fire and starts trying to put itself out by screaming at the flames.