I put my spoon down and looked at Roan, noticing his serious expression. I nodded at him as I swallowed my last mouthful of food.

"I want to discuss where I see that you lack and address some of your habits before they become too ingrained into how you forge," said Roan.

"I can tell from how you forge that you are already accustomed to how those so-called skills aid you in your craft. You lack force in your swing, causing you to lose heat early and have more work to do overall. You seem to expect the tools and the metal to do the work for you instead of all the work being on you. Yes if you do it right the metal and the tools will help you, but you have to make it do so."

"The one thing that you excel at, where most apprentices find a great deal of trouble, is maintaining the forge and keeping the heat well."

"You either put too little effort or too great into your work. The first leaf you made was passable but only just, while the second was nearing the level of a seasoned smith. Your skill level lies somewhere between the two, and you must find your balance."

"I will attribute part of these failings to you getting used to your new body, but you must right these issues sooner rather than later."

I nodded at him while I thought over what he had said. It's true, I wasn't swinging the hammer as hard as I should have since I had gotten so used to using Hammer Strike to make my swing harder. I also had gotten used to how work metal made forging easier than it should be. I was used to using the skill while thinking of the shape I wanted and the metal just doing what I wanted. I would need to learn better forging techniques so that once I used my skills they would produce even greater results.

"I understand Master Roan, you're right that I wasn't swinging with my all and that I was expecting the metal to do what I wanted it to without the effort to make it do so. These skills are the only way I have ever crafted. My body knows the ways to forge a great many things with the aid of the system but without the use of my skills, I don't know how to produce them."

"You say these Skills as you call them help you and give you abilities beyond normal but what do they do exactly?" Roan asked questioningly.

"It depends on which one, I have seven at the current moment, and can gain more for a multitude of reasons if the system I have works as it did before"

"Are all of them blacksmithing related?"

"No, five of them are, well one of the others could technically help me with smithing but it is not inherently a blacksmithing skill."

Roan sat there looking at me as if he were waiting, Oh of course he was he wanted me to tell him what the skills were.

"Alright, the five skills that relate to blacksmithing are 'Forge Knowledge', 'Work Metal', 'Sense Metal', 'Resist Heat', and 'Hammer Strike'. The one that could help but isn't a blacksmithing skill is 'Second Wind'."

" 'Forge Knowledge' is the broadest of the skills I have that relate to blacksmithing, it covers everything that a blacksmith could or should know, from which tools to use to get the desired effects, to how long a piece of metal should be in the forge. When I use it I simply know everything I need to in order to finish what I am working on. The more I use it the more knowledge I retain when it's not in use."

"That..." Roan hesitated for a moment while he looked away in thought "That does sound very useful, so even if you did not seek me out as a master you would have still been able to learn all there is to know simply by using this skill"

"Yeah, I guess so I never even thought of that since I knew as soon as I chose to be a blacksmith that I would seek you out"

"What of your other skills before we get off topic."

"I guess I do have a habit of rambling off on tangents sometimes, alright, the second skill 'Work Metal' is pretty self-explanatory from the name it allows me to work metal more easily into shapes I want it to when used in conjunction with 'Forge Knowledge' I can just kind of make the metal do what I want it to with minimal effort."

"So that is where your tendency to underwork the metal comes from, not using this skill will be good for you in the long run."

"The rest are all pretty self-explanatory actually, 'Sense Metal' lets me know if there are metal objects or ore nearby, 'Resist Heat' lets me resist heat better, from the forge or otherwise, and finally 'Hammer Strike' lets me strike the hammer more forcibly than normal, it's meant to be a way to let blacksmiths fight monsters if they wanted or needed to. The skill 'Second Wind' just lets me recover my stamina which if used while forging will either let me forge for longer or use my skills more often since they deplete my stamina when used."

"That is a lot to take in, I shall think on these for the next few days while I observe you in your craftwork, for now, let us go to bed, think on the things I have told you. I expect you to make more than two leaves tomorrow."

When Roan finished speaking he got up from the table and placed his bowl in the sink before leaving the room. He hadn't said it but I got the feeling he was going to have me do most of the cleaning from now on. So I got up and carried my dishes to the sink before starting to wash them with a bit of water and some soap I found nearby. While washing the few dishes I had time to think about the events of that day.

I had nearly died, again. This time it wasn't even really my fault, and as a result of what happened, I was much stronger than before. I was only level two and had my base stats set to their maximum. Body reforging wasn't even something most crafting classes had access to without great amounts of money. Then there was learning that this wasn't even the game, I really was on a different world that resembled Erosia Online.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I finished the dishes and left them out on the counter to try overnight. I went up to my room and shut the door. It was a bit chilly since I had left the window open to let the dust clear out some. I walked over and shut the window before I noticed that Roan had left some things for me on the desk in my room. There was a pillow, blanket, and some clothes in a neat stack. I put the clothes away in the dresser carefully. I was thankful that he had found some clothes for me since I currently had a server lack of them. Next, I set about making my bed. It was quick work and after a minute or so I was able to lay down and relax a bit. The bed was nothing to write home about, about the same quality as what was afforded to you at the inn. I was looking forward to the time when I earned enough to afford a proper soft mattress. For now, though, I was simply happy to not be sleeping outside on the ground somewhere.

I lay there thinking about the life I left behind for a while. I would miss my family and the few friends I had at work. I wish I had gotten a chance to tell the few precious friends I had made online goodbye. They would probably never know what happened to me, and it hurt me to think that they might think that I simply stopped talking to them.

"I'll miss you guys," I whispered aloud to myself.

I was sad about the things I left unsaid, but I chose to not dwell on them for fear of falling into a depression. I was sad sure, but now I'm living out something close to a dream come true. I was in the world of the game I loved most. Sure, I didn't know what I was here or how I even got here, but that doesn't matter right now. I am here, on Erosia, with the game system no less. I never really got to explore much of the world before due to having to work all the time, but now I could see this world and enjoy all it had to offer. I had met Roan, the NPC I had cherished the most from my time playing EO, and he had accepted me as his apprentice, not my character in the game, but the real me.

I had met an energetic girl, who for some unknown reason was really into helping me. I would have to figure out Why Chloe was so adamant about helping me someday. For now, though, I'll just accept her generosity and do what I can to help her. She's already done so much for me, including saving my life.

Holy heck, I really almost died three times already since I've been here. That first time with the slime was really just dumb on my part. I mean sure I thought it was still a game, but I should have known not to try and cut a slime core with a sword I didn't know how to use. I mean I didn't even beat the slime with a sword when I played EO, I just threw rocks I found at it until it died, I don't know what I was thinking.

I shook my head and let out a sigh at that thought. That was it I wasn't thinking, even back then I knew I had died but I was trying to not think about it. I had deluded myself into thinking that some random robber somehow had access to black market tech and was using it to save my life cause he felt bad. There's no way a dude robbing a convenience store in the bad part of town would have the money to use a black market pod like that.

I still hope something bad happens to him though. The dude couldn't even hold his gun properly. I placed a hand on my chest and felt the spot where I had been shot. I could still feel the pain when I thought back on it. Though, now that wasn't even the worst pain I had felt. That pain was now dwarfed by the pain of my body being reforged. I hope I never feel a pain that can top that. Thankfully I only felt it for the briefest of moments before Brigit pulled my soul away.

Now that was an interesting sensation, to have my soul separated from my body. I could still feel things, in a sense. I could feel the warmth radiating off of her body, but not the heat. It was more just the warmth of her emotions. I knew she wanted to help me, even if not for her own benefit but my own. The body the system had put me in or given to me, was weak and dumb. Maybe it was meant to balance out the things I could do by imposing physical and mental limitations, but if Brigit hadn't reforged my body, I would have died sooner rather than later.

I don't know what drove me to make some of those dumb decisions I had made, like going to the lost mine. I knew it would be more dangerous than I could handle yet I went. My goal was only to make some coin, I could have easily done that by helping out on a farm or doing some menial task in the village. Yet I thought it would be best to go into the forest, where I had almost died to a slime and a young wolf, to a mine that I knew was a popular monster hunting spot, in order to possibly mine some ore to craft into something to sell. Heck, I could have just sold off my dagger since I really didn't need it after I got my blacksmith's hammer.

I lay there just thinking about all the dumb stuff I had done since I arrived on Erosia before slowly drifting off to sleep. As I drifted off and sleep took me I felt a familiar sensation.

The next thing I knew I was standing before Brigit. She was in her more modest seven or eight-foot-tall form it was hard to tell size really since I couldn't even tell how tall I was. Everything was different and weird when I was just a soul like this. I didn't have the typical senses that you have when in your physical body. Even my sense of time and space was a bit off. She was sitting on what appeared to be a lounge chair and made a motion for me to come closer.

Walking as a soul was weird, I could tell I was moving but I didn't feel any part of me making any movements. When I got to her she smiled down at me. Her smile warmed me and felt like happiness on a warm summer day. It brought to my mind images of the birthday parties we had for my brother during the summer.

"So, little smith, how are you finding your new body? Are you enjoying the gifts I gave you?" Said the Goddes.

"Well, I'm still getting used to the height and size difference, also I didn't have any clothes when the reforging was done so that was kind of interesting."

She let out a laugh that was so rich and pure it made me laugh as well.

"I forget sometimes that you mortals require clothes," she said with a sly smile on her face.

"But you're wearing clothes too"

"Yes, yes I am, though I can manifest my clothes with a mere thought, and can change or remove them just as easily."

She demonstrated this by simply sitting there while her clothes changed to various different styles, before settling on a simple summer dress with yellow flowers on it.

"This is one from your world correct? It's a shame it's not known here, it is quite comfortable."

"So you can read my mind then?"

She smirked and gave me a small nod.

"I am a goddess, yes I can read your mind, though I choose not to. If I read everyone's mind I would go crazy like that god of knowledge, but yes when you chose the path of the blacksmith I looked into your mind and that's when I saw all those amazing creations from your world. I want you to bring them here, though I do ask you to keep your world's weapons of war hidden for as long as you can. This world has enough problems with magic, we don't need magic and guns, or me forbid magical nukes."

I let out a soft chuckle at how she said god forbid, and nodded.

"That was one of the worst parts of my world. I would like to only bring the good."

"I do look forward to that, and these chats. Now that you have my mark I will be calling on you from time to time to check in on my little otherworlder. If you do something I like I may even teach you a thing or two about how a god blacksmiths."

I smiled at her, or at least I think I did. I wasn't even sure if I had a face or not.

"Though, what I should teach you first is how to control your soul body," she said while shaking her head.

I guess I didn't smile then, or it looked really bad at least.

"Our time is up for now however, you need to return to your body so your mind can rest."

When she finished speaking I could feel my soul being pulled back to my body and once again, the darkness of sleep took me.