I let out a sigh as I looked down at the Iron Leaf I had just made. I was excited to know I could manage to craft a stat-boosting item without using the system-provided skills, but I was still a bit sad that it was an Iron Leaf that I had found it out on. I wish it had been on something more, I don't know, more cool I guess. Still, having the ability to craft something that could boost stats, even without my skills was amazing to me.

I looked up from the Iron Leaf and noticed Roan was standing quietly on the edge of the workshop staring at me.

"Uh, how long have you been there?" I asked a bit afraid to hear the answer.

"I have been observing you for a few hours now."

I looked back down sullenly. I didn't even notice that he had come back out to watch what I was doing, I was sure I was alone.

"You did not notice me then I take it," Roan said with a bit of amusement in his voice.

"Nope, I guess I was too focused on what I was working on."

"And just what have you been working on so intently this whole time?"

I grabbed the Iron Leaf and stood up walking over to Roan. When I got to him I held my hand out and offered it to him. He took it from my hand and held it up with a look of amazement on his face.

"You crafted this without using those skills you spoke of?" He asked while watching the light refracting off of the intricate lines of the leaf.

"Yeah, kind of shocked myself, I wasn't expecting to get a stat bonus on an Iron Leaf."

"Stat bonus?" Roan said slowly as if he were tasting the words.

"What is a Stat bonus?"

"A stat bonus is when something you make gives a bonus to one of your base stats, in this case, that leaf gives you more health."

Roan looked at me with a confused look before going back to examining the leaf. After a few minutes of him looking it over and feeling the metal with his fingers, he set it down on the workbench. He then looked at me.

"So, this iron leaf that you made can make someone stronger then?"

"Well, not stronger but more healthy? It gives people more health, which in most games it means you can be hit more before you die."

"And how are you so sure that what you have made gives the wearer this ability?"

"Oh that, well with the use of this system I have, I can check the stats of stuff I make or equip."

"You use a lot of strange words when you explain the things you can do," Roan said.

I canted my head and thought for a moment. I guess the words I'm used to from gaming would sound strange to someone with no context for them. I might have to think more about what I say before I say it to help ease some of the confusion.

"Yeah, I guess I do, to me they're words most people on my world would know, It's going to take some getting used to having to explain things differently."

"Let me start by explaining what stats are. Stats is short for statistics. They are the number values given for all aspects of what makes up a person. In this situation, it's the health stat. In games, they use health as a way to signify how much damage someone can take before they die. For the game that resembled the world we are in currently, there are five main stats. They were strength, dexterity, intelligence, constitution, and insight. Each one of these stats affected a part of your character in the game. Sometimes, you could find gear, like that iron leaf, that would positively affect your stats, making you stronger than someone else that was similar to you."

Roan nodded as if he was starting to understand some of what he was hearing.

"I think I understand, at least a bit. There are stories of armor or trinkets that make a person stronger than they were before, though most of that is ancient history or folk tales. To have confirmation of it is quite surprising."

"Really? That belt that Chloe gave me had boosted stats on it though, and it looked fairly new. I'm sure some of the stuff in your shop even has bonus stats, you're a master smith after all"

Roan blinked at me as if what I had just said was preposterous. He then shook his head and let out a sigh.

"I want to argue with you but you seem to know more about this than I do. Even if that is true and some of the things I have crafted could make someone stronger, I would have no way to check, save having someone try each and everything I craft, but even then if it's not a noticeable increase then it could still be missed."

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I gave him a nod. It made sense that if you didn't have something like the system to help you see all the stats of things around you that you wouldn't know if what you made was boosted or not.

"That makes sense I guess, I can tell if something has bonus stats thanks to the system I have. I can examine items and check if they have bonus stats or not."

"For now how about we do not tell anyone else about that, or any of your other abilities for now. I am not sure how strong you are, but I know how strong some people out there are, and they would do horrible things to make use of your abilities."

I hadn't even thought of that. I should have expected that, though with how horrible people in positions of power were back on earth.

"Yeah, that makes sense. If someone had powers like these back on my world it would be much the same," I said solemnly.

I reached my arms up and stretched out my muscles. I didn't realize just how sore they were until I did this. The pain caused me to wince a bit and lower my arms back down. Roan let out a soft chuckle at my expense and I looked at him curiously. Since when does the stoic Roan laugh?

He patted me on my shoulder as his chucking died down.

"Your body is not used to the repetitive motions yet. Give it some time, and remember to take breaks, then your body won't hurt so much at the end of the day"

"I hope so, right now my whole upper body is very angry with me," I said as I rubbed my muscles gently trying to work out some of the knots.

As I stood there rubbing my muscles my stomach began to growl. Whoops, I had forgotten to take breaks to eat while I was working today. Roan looked at me when he heard my stomach.

"Did you take breaks to stay hydrated and eat food at all today?" He asked in an almost fatherly tone.

"I did not," I admitted to him.

He shook his head at me and walked into his shop.

"Come on let us get you something to eat and drink."

I nodded and followed him into his shop. He guided me back to the small kitchen we had met in earlier. He motioned for me to sit down at the table so I sat and watched him as he worked.

"I do not have much, since I usually only need to feed myself. I have not made the proper preparations as I was not expecting to take on an apprentice. I will sort things out within the next few days now that you have proven to be able to run the forge adequately on your own."

"I'm grateful for this Roan, truly I am, if there is anything I can do to help please just let me know."

"All you need to worry about currently is learning the proper way to blacksmith without the use of your special abilities,"

I nodded softly and watched as Roan pulled out various vegetables from a dry storage he had in the kitchen. With quick efficiency, he chopped and diced them up before throwing them into a pot of water. Looks like it's going to be a vegetable stew for dinner. He lit the fire of his stove before adding some herbs to the pot. While the pot was starting to come up to heat he placed the kettle down onto the stovetop.

"Dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes, and tea will take about ten. While we wait how about I show you to the room you will be using while you are my apprentice?"

I nodded at him before standing up. He opened the door to the kitchen and lead me out a secondary door in the kitchen, this one led to a little storage room with a flight of stairs leading up to the second floor. Roan lead me up the stairs before pointing out a room off to the left of the hallway.

"This will be your room, do not go into the other rooms unless I tell you to do so."

I nodded and he opened the door to the room that would be mine.

Inside was a single dusty bed with no sheets or pillow. Next to it was a small desk with a chair under a large window that overlooked the street below. Lastly, there was a small dresser off to the side. Everything had a thick layer of dust over it from disuse.

"I will find you a blanket and a pillow to use, but first while I finish dinner clean this room."

He quickly walked away before returning with a broom and some dry rags. He handed them to me and I looked at the room and let out a soft sigh. This was going to be a chore, but it was a free room to stay in. I first began to wipe the dust from the desk and dresser with the rags. It wasn't all that effective and mostly just caused the dust to fly into the air. It led me to have a coughing fit every few minutes. Before long I decided to open the window in hopes that the dust would vent out through it. This proved to be a wise choice as the dust cloud I had made started to lessen noticeably. I then started to use the broom to smack the bed causing the dust on it to fly off into another cloud of dust. This time I was prepared for it. I grabbed one of the rags and began to frantically wave it at the window trying to guide the dust out of the room. Before long the room was looking a bit better. I would still need to get in here and do a proper cleaning, with better tools, or at least some water.

As I finished sweeping up the floor Roan walked in.

"Dinner is done, the room looks a bit better," He said almost sounding shocked, as if he had given me this task just to keep me out of his hair while he was cooking.

"Though, you look as if you fought a dust dervish."

I looked down at my arms and chest, I was covered in dust.

"Yeah, that room was quite dusty. I still need to clean it some more is it alright if I finish that tomorrow?"

He nodded at me as he turned and started to walk down the stairs. I followed him after shutting the door to my room. It was a good feeling that I had a room that I didn't need to worry about paying for every day.

We arrived at the kitchen and he had already put out two portions of the soup with a chunk of bread and a glass of tea. He took a set and I sat down across from him. I was eager to eat but I didn't want to intrude on any custom that he may have before the meal so I sat there waiting. When he took his first bite of food I followed suit and began to eat. My body wanted me to inhale the food as quickly as I possibly could but I made sure to eat slowly. This let me both savor the food and gave my body time to adjust to the food I was taking in. I knew that it could be dangerous to eat a large amount of food after not eating for a good while.

The strew, not soup I now realized, was delicious. I couldn't place some of the flavors but the ones I knew were carrots and potatoes. How had he managed to get such a deep flavor and rich thickness in such a short time? Hopefully, he will let me watch him cook one of these days. The tea was the delicious one we had this afternoon and I sipped on it slowly enjoying its floral and earthy notes. The bread was relatively good but made better by dipping it into the vegetable stew.

When I finished my food and looked up from my bowl I saw that Roan had finished his food as well.

"Now that you are finished let us talk about your first day as my apprentice."