"Whah, they nailed it with sightseeing, these folks..." Lawrence muttered as he observed the astonishing starting scenario in the other side of the window.
The dryads' starting village was supposedly located in the Alamo Forest, the greatest forest in the continent, and also the only one still inhabited by treants. In the middle of it there was not one, but two giant trees that grew, twisting and leaning in the trunk of the other. The sight was amazing, and easily as one could've come up with the idea, to implement it in such detailed way without compromising the fantastic feeling of the game with heavy graphics... Even someone as Lawrence, who wasn't well versed in these matters, could admire Backdoor Software after gifting him with this awesome game.
Cinematic over, The screen focused on Allen, his character, as he worked as the town blacksmith's official apprentice.
He was surprised to see he was the only one in the room. Supposedly, Forge Craft Online was, as the name stated, an online game. That usually meant overcrowded starting locations. Curious about this he paused the game and made a little bit of research. As it was, Backdoor Software had taken in consideration the usual problems with starting overcrowding, and fixed it by spawning a new village replica each time a player logs in the game, and deleting it when the player leaves the village. After that, returning to the Alamo Forest village would take you to the public version, where all players roamed around and making a mess out of things. Efficiency-wise, there were best ways of dealing with that, but he liked the general idea.
He returned to the game, now filled with excitement as he clicked the unpause button.
The herculean body of Brandall, the blacksmith, greeted Allen as he came inside the smithy. The guy looked like Hercules, if hercules had messy black hair and a beard. The blacksmith apron looked so tiny in comparation to his enormous chest and prominent abs, that Lawrence asked himself why they bothered to even put it on him.
A dialogue screen popped up as Brandall stopped hammering the anvil and stared at Allen.
"You here already beansprout? Early bird ain'tcha?"
Lawrence's brow twitched heavily at the word 'beansprout'. It reminded him of Laurent's catchphrase about him. "Beansprouts are small, but the grow fast" he used to say.
A set of different answers appeared before him. Instead of displaying the answer dialogue, you could choose between the 'cocky', 'friendly', 'sleepy' and other options. Lawrence selected the 'smart answer' option and Allen leaned on the wall as he talked back to Brandall.
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"You know what they say/ Early birds get the worms."
Brandall snickered, and instead of answering he laid a jumbo-sized hand on Allen's head, ruffling his hair.
"So, today's your last day. To tell you the truth, I'm going to miss you a bit. You're not my only apprentice, but you are one of the best" the dialogue window would have make Lawrence feel sentimental if he didn't know 'one of best' meant 'you along witht he other two hundred thousands of players who started at this village'.
Once again, a new set of answers. And once again, Lawrence chose the 'smart' option.
"Yah, well, birds have to leave their nest at some point" was Allen's answer as he put on his own apron. Lawrence smiled at his answer.
"Well, let's run a routine procedure and then get to the complicated parts." Aha, so there was the tutorial. Lawrence would learn the basics of forgecrafting here, hm?
"First things first, choose the item you're gonna forge. Since I'm the one giving you instructions, let's make a standard sword. You have total freedom to make whatever changes you see fit, as long as it ends like a one-handed sword."
Allen nodded, and Lawrence behind him. The purpose of the game was forging blades, although you had a myriad other models you could create. Tools, armors, even decorations. As Brandall said, total freedom. It was one of the reasons why Lawrence decided to try out the game.
"First, pick the materials you're going to forge with. Since you're making a sword, you need a sturdy metal for the back, a malleable one for the edge, and a rod to make out as the core. Each metal has its own properties, so make sure you know them when you use them." Brandall opened a big sideboard, and a giant list of items appeared before him.
The items were divided in three different categories, like Brandall said. There were the rods, the strong materials and the soft ones. You had to pick one of each before you got to make the sword.
Each material had their own trick. For example, this thing called Thermostite, one of the malleable metals, could store a certain amount of heat, and unleash it in a burning attack similar to fire magic (Yes, there was attack magic in the game, albeit not as developed as the other RPGs). Bird Iron was incredibly slight, and allowed to craft much bigger swords with the same weight cap. Things like that. Little details, but then again the best things on life were just that: an accumulation of nice little details.
After thorough consideration, Lawrence chose his own materials. As a core, aurentum rod. A semi-malleable material that allowed to shape the blade exotically, and made them lighter than the average. The metals were a combination of sylphstone, wind-affinity sturdy metal, and helgum, a material very easy to work with but impossible to chip when cooled down. This wasn't the original idea Lawrence had for his own blade, but as he picked up some materials, others became impossible to use. Of course, you can't hope that everything you put in your item will blend correctly. Some things are like oil and water, and others you needed a higher forging skill to combine.
Lawrence paused the game again. He was feeling a little numb. It was time to make a small pause. Walk around drink something light (not coffee, not today) and the like.
He'd resume the game later, he decided.