Instead of winging it, Jack decided to call on a higher power. “Internet access.”

The world of New Earth and the sight of Kevin’s old shack grayed out, and a floating window with an internet browser appeared. All VRX helmets came with a standard operating system that enabled players to check their emails, make phone calls, and run normal programs.

He typed ‘Pottery New Earth,’ and several results popped up. The first entry led him to one of the most popular websites with information about the game. He found different entries on the sidebar with terms he was more familiar with now. ‘Classes,’ ‘Majors,’ ‘Minors,’ ‘The Wall’, etc. The link had dropped directly onto a page within the minor section dedicated to pottery.

Pottery

This one-tier profession is easy to learn and allows you to craft pots and vases. Chefs, chemists, gardeners, and other professions require items crafted by potters. Even though ceramics won’t sell for much money, clay is cheap and easy to find. You’ll turn in a profit with every item you craft.

Pottery is considered a lone minor. It doesn’t synergize with any of the currently known majors. That doesn’t mean that won’t change in the future, though. This profession only ranks up to novice, so it might interest someone looking to fill the minor slot at the start of the game while waiting for the right minor down the road.

To learn the pottery profession, just find a local potter NPC or buy clay and try to mold it. After a few tries, you’ll unlock the pottery profession.

Pros:

- Easy to learn

- Constant market demand

- Fairly profitable

- Inexpensive ingredients

Cons:

- No synergies with majors

- Dead-end minor (Only has one tier)

- While profitable, there are far more lucrative professions.

Rank: D

Jack made himself read through the guide twice. Rubbing his eyes, he tried to make sense of the information. Some terms were new to him. What did it mean that the profession had only one tier? What did it mean that it ranked up to novice? And why did having just one tier make it good for him if he wanted to change professions later? He saved this page in his favorites and returned to the search engine. After reading through a couple of basic guides on crafting, he found one that explained it clearly.

Introduction to Crafting in New Earth

New Earth has a player-based economy. That means that players can craft everything in the game. New Earth also introduces the concept of crafting majors and minors.

The guide went on to explain what Ezekiel had already told him. Then, it got more interesting.

There is a maximum of four tiers in professions: novice, journeyman, expert, and master. Once craftsmen level their profession to level 10, they climb tiers. If I level [Novice Smithing] to level 10, I unlock level 1 [Journeyman Smithing].

All major professions have four tiers, meaning they can go to master grade. As for minors, they only go up to three tiers, meaning you can become, at most, an expert in them. The higher tier you are, the better items you can make. That’s why majors are so important to craftsmen. Masters produce the more valuable items in the game.

Pottery being one tier meant it only went up to level 10 of the novice tier. That’s why the guide said that pottery was a dead-end minor. He also found an interesting paragraph about synergies.

Majors and minors have countless synergies. For example, if you major in [Cooking] and minor in [Fishing], you can craft sushi. You can craft mining equipment if you major in [Smithing] and minor in [Mining]. The game has dozens of minor professions and hundreds of possible combinations with majors, and new synergies are discovered every week.

He hadn’t realized that synergies were so meaningful. That’s why the guide mentioned that [Pottery] had no synergies. It didn’t unlock any unique crafting skill tree. Finally, he wrote his last question in the search bar: “Can I change professions after learning them?”

The answer appeared promptly. He could, but all the progress in the forgotten profession would be lost. If he ever wanted to change back to the abandoned profession, he would have to learn everything from scratch.

It all made more sense now. The more one progressed in the profession, the harder it would be to go further. “That’s why [Pottery] is good if I'm not sure what minor to take,” he reasoned aloud. “If I ever change minors, I won’t lose much progress.”

Enlightened about the game mechanics, Jack set out to become a potter. He asked the nearest players for information: “Hey, guys! Sorry to bother you. Do you know if there’s any potter in town?”

“No, man. Sorry. Just started the game, like, two hours ago.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“That’s OK. Thanks.”

He approached a pretty girl his age, who replied similarly. He wouldn’t get much out of players who were as noob as he was. He started asking players who had some pieces of equipment other than the grays they had all spawned with.

He finally lucked out when he approached a player with a leather helmet and gloves. “Excuse me, do you know if there’s a potter in this town?”

“Sure. I think I saw one. She lives over there if I’m not mistaken!” he pointed. It was on the same road as the smith.

“Thank you!” Jack said politely and followed the directions. The potter's house was smaller than the workshops he’d visited when trying different majors. Given the number of vases and plant pots that covered every available inch of the window ledge and lined the house wall, he would have mistaken it for a place to learn gardening.

He knocked, and a lady answered the door. She had an apron, brown smears on her face, and muddy hands. The name tag above her read ‘Jenny Potter.’

“Yes?” she greeted him. “Can I help you?”

“I’ve heard that you teach the [Pottery] profession. I was wondering if I could learn it?” Jack tried.

“Of course. This town takes pride in its hospitality. We help the adventurers passing by in whatever way we can. Here, step right in.”

Inside Jenny's house, there were many decorative vases, earthenware pots, and jars scattered. Jenny had a cozy fire in the kitchen's hearth with a cauldron placed over it. The lid trembled and shook as steam from a delicious stew fought to break out. This was the best-smelling workshop yet.

She gestured invitingly toward the table, where there was a half-finished pot. “You can sit over there. Let me get you some clay so we can get started.”

She walked over to a box in the corner of the kitchen and groaned as she pulled the heavy lid aside. She removed a wet, muddy cloth and reached into the box with both hands, pushing, pulling, and finally taking a blob of wet brown clay from it. “Here, you’ll be working with this.”

She covered the clay in the box with the damp cloth and closed the lid.

“Why do you do that?” asked Jack.

“What?”

“Put a cloth in? Close the lid?”

“If the clay is too dry, you can’t mold it. This keeps the clay fresh and moist,” she answered with a smile, happy to see Jack taking an interest.

She approached the table and sat facing him. “Let’s start with your lesson then. We’ll start by working with this clay, alright?”

Jack touched the wet blob. He had expected it to feel like plasticine, but it was surprisingly cool and slimy.

“Dig your hands in it; feel how it’s soft and moldable?” Jenny said encouragingly.

Jack wrinkled his nose. Despite the gentle touch, his hands were already dirty, and he had a strong urge to wash them. His initial discomfort made him almost want to back out, but he remembered Lydia's voice in his head: “You’re not trying.” His father’s reprimanding tone followed: “Why are you lazy, son? Why don’t you want to work?” Finally, Ezekiel’s voice urged, “Try. Please try it.”

Jack took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and plunged his hands into the clay. As he squeezed and kneaded, some clay crept under his nails, making his hands feel sticky and grimy. He grimaced but kept going, pushing through his discomfort.

“Good. That’s it,” commended his teacher.

Jack mustered the courage, finally opened his eyes, and looked down at his soiled hands and the lump of clay. “I’m doing it!” he exclaimed, half disgusted, half excited.

“Good job. That’s it. Try to shape it into a ball.”

You’ve become a potter-in-training.

You’ve temporarily learned [Clay Molding].

Clay Molding, Lvl. 1

Skill description: You can craft simple objects using clay.

Skill effects:

You can shape earthenware clay;

You can make pinch-pots.

It looked like his training was already on the way.

Jenny’s request was fairly easy, and he rolled the lump, imitating her motions to give it a spherical shape. As he worked the clay, Jenny observed patiently while imparting some knowledge about the craft. “This type of clay is called [Earthenware Clay]. It can be found in clay deposits near rivers or hills.”

Hearing that, Jack thought of the many hills where beginners spawned. Could there be clay deposits there? He’d investigate later.

Jenny continued. “We mostly use earthenware to make decorative pieces. You can also use it to make containers to store dry foods for a short time or outdoor plant pots. Got it?”

Jack nodded.

“Let’s now discuss some essential clay stages. There are slip, plastic, leather-dry, bone-dry, bisque ware, and glaze ware.”

Hearing all the names in quick succession, Jack was transported back to his school days. He felt the veins in his head throbbing with the effort of holding on to each of the words his teacher was saying. Was pottery really this complicated? He was starting to second-guess which was easier—working on New Earth, or the real world.

“That lump of clay I just gave you is in the plastic or wet stage. See how soft it is and how easily you can mold it? This is the perfect stage to create the shape you want. Now, what you want to do is pinch it.”

Jenny proceeded to show what she meant. She shaped the blob into a sphere and then pushed its center with her thumb, creating a crater in the middle and elevating the rest. She then pinched the elevated edges, thinning them further, and kept pinching, slowly turning it into the shape of a pot.

“You try it.”

Jack pressed both thumbs through the lump but pushed too hard and perforated it. He kneaded it back into a ball and tried to push slower. He then looked at Jenny’s pot and pinched it carefully, trying to even out the clay and make the edges of the pot. Even after several tries, his pot looked wonky and crooked.

“Is that good enough?”

“Wow! How… artistic,” Jenny said, giggling.

You’ve molded a [Gardening Earthenware Pot].

+5 XP in [Pottery].

“Now what?”

“Now you let it dry.”

You’ve temporarily learned [Clay Drying].

Clay Drying, lvl. 1

Skill description: Pots you make dry easily.

Skill effects:

You can dry pots in your inventory;

Pots go from the wet stage to the bone-dry stage.

[Gardening Earthenware Pot] has been added to your inventory.

“Where did it go?” Jack asked as the pot mysteriously disappeared. He reread the notifications and looked for the option to open his inventory. He sighed, realizing that he should have just done the whole tutorial with Ezekiel. He didn’t even know how to open his inventory. Eventually, he thought of calling out ‘open menu,’ and a window with different options appeared.

There were several entries: ‘attributes,’ ‘skills,’ ‘quests,’ and finally, he spotted ‘inventory.’ He focused on the last one, and the inventory window opened. He found he hadn’t started the game completely destitute and had 50 coppers. That was probably not worth much, but he had to start somewhere.

Other than indicating how much money he had, the inventory consisted of a gridded window of 5x5 squares, 25 in total. At the top left corner, he found the pot he had molded earlier. There was a countdown timer over it. He inspected it to figure out what was happening.