Balin looks him up and down. “Hmm, maybe. Boy, what do ye seek? Power, fame, riches? All that and more can be obtained by mastering a craft.

“It takes true passion to advance in a craft. Ye need hard work, dedication, and the ability to try again after every failure. Any idiot can swing a sword, or copy a picture from a book. A crafter is creating something new every single time, seeking constant improvement.

“You will never create the same thing twice, always making mistakes and learning from them, improving every time. Learning new combinations and techniques.

“I can teach ye how to embark on the path of a crafter, and give you the tools you will need, or I can just teach ye the basics of a craft.”

“For now, I would like to learn a basic skill to figure out whether I want to be a crafter or mage.”

Balin taps his head. “That’s smart o’ ya, but ultimately unnecessary. Just because you pick one, doesn’t mean ye can’t do the other, or even all three.

“Choosing a class here is only to help you get started on a path, not determine your whole life. It’s fine to pick whichever one you like most, then later focus on something else.

“Still want the basic lesson, or would ye like to choose crafting to start your journey?”

Kilian hesitated for a second, but decided to wait. It would probably be best to get some advice from one of his friends first, though they will probably tell him to pick mage. “Just the basic lesson for now.”

“Very well, which would you like to learn; how to make a dagger, a healing salve, or a meal?”

“What sort of meal?”

“Fish or rabbit, and no, it doesn’t have extra affects, other than filling a stomach and restoring some stamina.”

“Can I learn all of them?”

Balin crosses his arms and laughs. “It is good to try things, to find what you are good at before making a dedication.

“Yes, ye can take all three lessons, but I won’t pass you until all three are cleared. Still want to take on all three?”

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“Of course!”

“Very well, then first up is smithing. To make a dagger, what you will need is an ingot, a furnace, an anvil, tongs, a hammer, and a grindstone.”

As he spoke, the various tools he listed appeared around the clearing. Oddly, the furnace was small, looking more like an oven.

“The first step is to heat up the ingot in the forge. In this case we are using iron, so it is hot enough when the ingot turns white. This is a mana forge, using mana as fuel.

“Once the ingot has turned white, use the tongs to place it on the anvil. You hammer out the shape, without letting the temperature drop below orange, reheating when needed. Reheating the metal too often will make the dagger brittle, so the faster the better.

“The less time it takes to craft the item, and the better the material used, the better the rank. From worst to best, the ranks are: poor, common, fine, superior, exquisite, flawless, epic, and legendary.

“After the shape is made you let it cool, then sharpen it on the grindstone, and you have yourself a dagger. If you can make a common ranked dagger, you will pass the smithing tutorial.”

Of course, Balin did not just explain this process to Kilian, but was also demonstrating it, and moving and talking so relaxed it was like he wasn’t doing anything but standing there.

Kilian tried to do as he saw Balin do, and as the hologram was also doing, but when he tried to take the ingot out of the forge, the heat forced him back, causing the ingot to melt. His second attempt made him drop the ingot. His third attempt, and he got it to the anvil.

With the hammer in his hand, Kilian attempted to pound the iron into shape. Like with the dummies, colored shapes appeared on the ingot, showing where to hit and with how much force. There were only squares though, appearing one at a time, and the color changed, requiring harder hits, as the metal cooled.

Balin interrupted him when the iron cooled to yellow. “Don’t let the metal cool too much before reheating, it takes more time to heat it back up, making the dagger brittle faster. If it cools down completely, you might as well scrap the ingot and try again.”

“Thanks for the tip.” You could have told me sooner though.

Kilian put the ingot, which was only slightly thinner than it was originally, back into the furnace.

Kilian repeated this process he didn’t know how many times. Eventually he found a rhythm in the pounding of metal, and soon after finished the dagger.

Of course, it was a failure. The squares were hard to hit precisely, and he rarely used the right amount of force. He also had to constantly reheat the dagger, and it broke as he sharpened it against the grindstone.

Kilian then discovered that he was covered in sweat, and that he had been playing way longer than he had realized.

Seeing Kilian’s dazed look, Balin laughed.

“I’m impressed boy. You didn’t succeed, but you were obviously very focused. With just a bit more practice you will definitely be able to successfully forge a dagger.

“I’ll have you know, it took me a whole day to make the progress you did. You seem to have a knack for smithing, how about learning the smith trade from me? You’ll get a complete set of equipment to begin smithing with.”

The offer was tempting, but if he had picked the first tempting offer he found, he would have been a mage and not tried smithing. He told Balin as much, who sighed.

“Very well, then keep practicing. You were very close last time, as long as you can reduce the amount of times you need to reheat the iron you should succeed.”

Kilian didn’t start crafting again though, he had been playing longer than he realized.

He had heard the tutorial could take a while, but it had been a couple of hours already. His sister had said she would wait for him to complete the tutorial, and his friends would also help him quickly catch up, but it would probably be best to give them a bit of an update, and ask their opinion on what he should choose.

Plus, a bit of a break might be good, he hadn’t expected so much excitement. If this is what the rest of the game is like, it’s no wonder so many people are going crazy about it.

“Log out!”