Book 2: Chapter 9: Induction to Steamforging and Familiar Quest

Book 2: Chapter 9: Induction to Steamforging and Familiar Quest

Lone jolted awake in a cold sweat and frantically looked around before sighing deeply. "Just another nightmare..."The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

He took a moment to collect himself and calm his breathing. He looked over to his side and was happy to see he had neither woken Soph nor Kyuubi. 'Haha, one may be a Russian immortal and the other may be a fox, but they're both equally as attached to sleep, huh?'

He leaned back into his pillow then chuckled at himself self-deprecatingly when he thought on his recent nightmare. "I never once saw his face under that armour of his but he still haunts me even in my sleep along with those... unfortunate kids..."

He pulled himself together again. This wasn't the first time he'd woken up like this and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He had to be stronger than this to defeat his internal demons. It was no choice but a requirement in his mind.

Lone rested his eyes for a while, trying to get back to bed but ended up failing. Before long he decided to get out of bed, gently woke up Soph and then have a morning bath with her.

Once cleaned and clothed, they both collected Breena. Of course, the girl had been awake for hours already despite the steamforged artificial sun of Krieg Moor and its many street lights only having been turned on for less than 30-minutes at this point.

Regardless of the Crimson Foxkin's worrying sleeping hours, the trio had breakfast together then went their separate ways for work.

Wilbur nodded at Lone when he arrived. "Mornin'."

"Good morning, Gramps," Lone replied as he made for the backroom. "More mining gloves today?"

"Nah. Ye've made enough of them over the past few weeks. Today's the day ah try to teach ye how to steamforge, so ah need ye at your sharpest, got it?" the old man said, surprising Lone.

He'd been working here for three weeks now and had renewed the guild quest once already since it was just a temporary gig.

During that time he'd just been doing repairs, simple requests and selling the wares on busy days. Most of the time he was forging simple pickaxes and ordinary mining gear like helmets and gloves.

Excitement immediately filled Lone's expression upon hearing his teacher's words. "Really? You think I'm ready?"

"Feck no. Ah wanted to wait a few more months but demand for steamforged weapons is shooting up since more mysterious things are happening in the krieg as each day passes," Wilbur said with a shake of his head as he entered the store backroom with Lone following him.

The pair then moved to the building's steamforgery and the dwarf asked, "What're the levels of yer smithing related skills now?"

"Give me a second to check," Lone requested.

Over the past three weeks Lone had tried his best to avoid paying too much attention to his skill level-ups beyond dismissing the system notifications when they appeared. He was trying to learn how to properly perform the craft, after all, and not rely on said skills too much.

He was far too much of a skill addict to not incessantly think over any rank-ups so Lone felt it was wiser to just cut that out of his life entirely during his apprenticeship. However, if Wilbur needed this information then he'd happily oblige.

He called upon the system to show him his Blacksmithing, Woodworking and Steamforged Tool Mastery skills.

Passive Skill: Blacksmithing A skill that allows the host to craft with metal 30%faster and 30% more skillfully. Cost:N/A Mastery:Advanced Level 4 [+3 levels]

Passive Skill: Woodworking A skill that allows the host to craft with wood 15% [+10%] faster and 15% [+10%] more skillfully. Cost:N/A Mastery:Intermediate Level 7 [+8 levels]

Passive Skill: Steamforged Tool Mastery

A skill that allows the host to use steamforged artefacts 15% [+10%] more skillfully.

Gives the host a 2% [+1%] chance to immediately understand the method to use a steamforged artefact the first time the host holds it.

Cost:N/A Mastery:Intermediate Level 6 [+14 levels]

Lone nodded to himself then said, "Blacksmithing, Advanced Level 4. Woodworking, Intermediate Level 7. Steamforged Tool Mastery, Intermediate Level 6."

Wilbur froze. "What? How in the name of the Stone did ye feckin' manage to get so many levels so fast? Ye ain't yankin' my beard, are ya?"

Lone smiled wryly and scratched his cheek. "I'm a very quick learner. I did tell you that when I started here, didn't I?"

Wilbur crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. "There's fast then there's whatever the feck ye're doing. Ye must be a natural-born smith, boy."

"... What are you doing here, Lone?" Sophie asked him.

He shrugged. "I'm done with work for today. I kind of wanted to go to the guild and pick out a dangerous quest for us to do on our next set of days off. Stretch the bones and whatnot."

"Oh. Okay. We do not mind. We assume you came to ask us of our opinion?" Sophie suggested.

Lone nodded before reaching over and directly storing Sophie's helmet. He then leaned down and kissed her lightly. "Well, and to tease my lovely girlfriend."

"Oh my," a feminine yet distinctly male voice called out. "How daring."

Mister Fits'war stepped out of his store and smiled at Sophie and Lone. "Sophie, dear, you never told me you had a man... and not one so handsome either..."

"Our p-private life and our work life are two different things, Mister Fits'war," Sophie stuttered. Rare was it that she got caught off guard, now was one such time it would seem.

"I am quite good-looking, aren't I?" Lone said with a charming smile. "Then again, you elves continue to amaze me with how damned well you lot rolled with the genetics dice. Should I be worried about my lovely little Sophie getting swept away by a dashing elven tailor?"

"Oh my, a smooth-talker too. And here I thought envy had limits... May I ask why you're visiting my lovely little shop, young man?" Mister Fits'war asked with a coy grin on his lips.

"I just came by to ask something from Sophie. Maybe I'll pop in another day as a customer but for now I'm sorry to have to disappoint you. I have business at The Adventurer's Guild, you see," Lone said with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, no. Please, don't let me hold you up. That would be... unethical," Mister Fits'war teased. "Besides, who doesn't love to see a man hard at work, hmm?"

Lone didn't seem bothered by the flirtatious man as he nodded, smiled, then kissed Sophie again and said, "See you tonight."

After getting her helmet back from Lone and seeing him off, Sophie glanced at Mister Fits'war only for the elf to mutter, "For a straight man to play along with my antics... Oh, bother. I need to control myself better. I've had centuries of experience but here I am getting flustered by a D-ranker..."

He sighed longingly then reentered his store.

'See! He's dangerous! Rivals around every corner, I swear it!' Soph yelled internally at her other self.

Sophie pursed her lips a bit. "No. Lone is loyal to us but he enjoys flustering us far too much... Lone can be such an idiot at the best of times..."

Lone frowned as he stared at one of the guild's many quest boards. "There really isn't much to choose from that isn't 'explore this newly discovered area in the Farwinds', 'help the efforts to clear this collapsed main Farwinds tunnels,' or a bunch of requests to help guard top-sider traders. There's also a handful of quests to investigate the strange going-ons around the krieg."

He had no real interest in any of these requests.

The exploration ones had many issues. To name a few, it could be either extremely dangerous or so safe it wouldn't be worth the time spent on it. Things could go wrong, leading to a long stay in the Farwinds.

His worst worry, however, would be Soph getting discriminated against since all of those quests were expedition types and humans were the least liked of the non-locals amongst the dwarves.

The assisting quests in regards to reopening closed pathways in the Farwinds were one of the ones the receptionist had warned Lone not to take a few weeks ago since it was very construction and mining-based, meaning it was something the mining caste of the dwarves usually handled on their own.

Doing an escort mission above ground wasn't a horrible idea but Lone didn't want to spend weeks, maybe months, away from his new teacher if possible.

"Huh. This quest is still here," Lone mumbled to himself upon spotting a familiar notice.

'Quest details: I'm returning my old buddy Olim's corpse to the stone near where he was born. The place is in the Farwinds and it's a bit blocked up by monsters. More details upon acceptance of the quest.

Quest issuer: Four-twelve.

Requirements: Non-dwarves only. At minimum a D-ranker. The monsters ain't too tough but there's a lot of them, so a weak-kneed grass-huffer ain't what I'm looking for. The trip'll take about 4 days there and back, so I need someone who's fine camping out in the Farwinds.

Reward: 2 gold coins total regardless of if you're solo or come as a group. I'll tell you old war stories too if that interests you.'

"I guess finding non-dwarf adventures is a bit tough in a krieg... four days is totally doable. Soph and I will have to ask for more days off than a normal weekend affords, yeah, but it's not much of an ask," Lone said to himself as he scratched his chin in thought.

"We're both D-rankers so that box is ticked, although Breena's inclusion may need some negotiations for that to happen. The quest-giver seems to know where he's going and there's the promise of monsters... Yeah, this can work," Lone thought as he grabbed the notice then took it to a reception counter.