I looked at the stocky dwarf in front of me, with short, brown hair and a scraggly beard that went down to the top of his chest. He was well-built and as muscular as one would expect of a dwarven blacksmith, with a wide grin on his face. He wore a leather apron over a black shirt and thick, brown pants.

Diane leaned against the counter when he came out, nodding her head. “Armor, shield, bow. Up for it?” She asked, the man turning to look at me with a scrutinizing gaze.

“You brought me a level one, girl? This supposed to be some kind of joke?” He asked, and my entire body suddenly went stiff. He seemed to have some appraisal skill, likely Observe. “Just give him the stuff from the NPCs, and he’ll be fine.”

When the dwarf found out my level, he seemed to be entirely deflated. Diane glanced at me for a moment, before walking over and looking him straight in the eye. “His level is misleading.” She said in an entirely serious voice.

The dwarf let out a gruff scoff. “That so?” He asked, turning to look at me again. “You, come over here and punch me straight in the chest! Let me see just how misleading that level of yours can be.”

To say that I was surprised by this command was an understatement. “Are you… sure?” I asked. “You know violence isn’t allowed inside the city.” The dwarf rolled his eyes, focusing for a moment. As soon as he did so, a duel request appeared in front of me.

“There. Now, even if someone has a problem, it’s all perfectly fine.” He said, and I let out a sigh as I expected. It seemed like he would only agree to make equipment for me if I passed a test of strength to show that I could use it.

Because of that, I decided not to hold back. I activated my Power Attack skill, taking a stance in front of him and channeling the skill to build its effects, the muscles of my arm bulging. Soon, an ominous, red energy began to spread along the surface of my arm, and I took that as a sign to launch the attack. With a light shout, I threw my fist forward, towards his chest…

And through it. There was a dull crunch, and I felt wetness on my arm. Diane watched in amusement as my hand protruded from the dwarf’s back, causing my eyes to widen in shock. I hastily pulled my arm out, worrying that there would be a misunderstanding as a result of this incident. “Just give him a minute.” Diane said. “And don’t loot the body.”

A few minutes later, the door of the shop was thrown open, the dwarf running back inside. He was noticeably missing his shirt beneath his apron, which I assumed must have been the item dropped on his death. “Alright, you pass the test.” He said, albeit begrudgingly. “To kill me in one hit, your strength has to be at least a level thirty equivalent.”

Diane leaned back against the counter, arms crossed. “We just got back from selling the dungeon key of a new dungeon with a level fifty boss. That he defeated alone.” She explained, his eyes twitching slightly.

“You could have led with that, D!” He shouted, Diane’s eye twitching briefly. “I mean, Diane…”

“You two are familiar with each other?” I couldn’t help but ask, seeing their exchange. The dwarf simply shrugged at that as he walked over to his counter to look at materials.

“She’s been a customer of mine for about a week now. Practically every day she comes in and asks me either for a new dagger or to repair some gear. Helps that we met in another game where--” His voice was suddenly cut off as a dagger stabbed into the counter between his fingers, causing his body to stiffen.

Diane cast a cold glare at the dwarf, before turning to face me. “This is Hammer, short for Hammerhead. He’s what you’d call an omnicrafter. Picks up any crafting skill he can get his hands on, and only levels up if there is a level requirement for using certain materials. So, Hammer, can you do it?”

Hammerhead hesitated for a moment, turning to look at me again. “The girl’s typically short on words. Hearing her talk so much for someone… you must be something special. But, let me hear more about your requirements.”

I nodded my head, thinking it over. “I would like gear suitable for a player between level fifty and sixty. Medium armor would be the easiest to move around in, but it still needs to offer a certain level of defense. Additionally, I would like a medium-sized shield, a sword, and a bow. If you are able to give the equipment any innate effects, that would be excellent, but my main priority is the number of enhancement slots.”

Hammerhead listened to each of my requirements, stroking a hand through his beard. “I’m no Skill Master, so you’ll need to go to someone else to fill the slots. That fine with you?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Skill Master?” I asked in confusion, before it clicked. “There are players that spend all their time grinding skills to put them on equipment?”

“That’s right.” Hammerhead nodded, glancing at Diane. “Seems he’s not kept up with the forums.”

Diane glanced off to the side, clearly not wanting to reveal that I wasn’t really a player. “Something like that.”

I looked at Hammerhead with interest. “Is there a Skill Master that has healing skills?”

Hammerhead grimaced when he heard that. “Not a legal one. Apparently, the church is doing their best to monopolize healing. There are some that get healing spells from nature magic, but any proper ‘healing magic’ skills are highly regulated. Some folks complained about it a few days ago, but they were just told that it was to prevent such skills from falling into the hands of thieves and bandits.”

Diane nodded her head, knowing why I needed such a skill. “There are black market healers, but they don’t have the chance to train their skill levels very high. If you want a healing skill, look for the Martial Arts trainer in town.”

Hammerhead pursed his lips in thought at that. “You mean the Dull Pain skill?” He asked, to which Diane nodded her head. “It’s true that that’s technically a healing skill, but I wouldn’t really say it’s good enough for someone of his level.”

“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask, looking at the two.

Hammerhead simply shrugged his shoulders. “It can slightly reduce the time for an injury to recover, but only external cuts or burns. It won’t help with internal injuries like ruptured organs or broken bones.”

My eyes went wide, and I looked at Diane for confirmation. When she nodded her head, I made the decision to visit this trainer soon. As long as I wore my equipment, I should be able to pass for a higher level fallen.

Seeing my determination, Hammerhead arched a brow. “As for your request… You’ll have to pay for any materials I use during the crafting process on failed attempts. Meaning that if I make something that doesn’t have as many slots as you want, you’ve got to reimburse me the materials I used to make it. After that, you can buy the completed goods at market price.”

I clenched my fists, immediately agreeing with his conditions. I didn’t know what his success rate would be like, but the total cost shouldn’t exceed more than a few gold. “Then, I’ll head off to get the materials from the market.” He said, closing his eyes. When he opened his eyes, the player brand on his forehead had dimmed, so I knew he had logged off. “Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon.” The chosen said in a gruff tone.

When I looked at Diane, she nodded her head. “There’s an offline market for players. Since you can’t sell items at full price to the NPCs, you go to the market to do so. It’s mostly used for materials you can’t get locally, because you have to pay the mailing fee, as well as the appraisal fee.”

I nodded my head, surprised that players had even come up with something like that already. “That reminds me…” I reached into my inventory, grabbing one of the Rings of Bonds that I had recently obtained. Diane arched a brow when she saw the ring, curious what I was up to.

Focusing, I closed my eyes, attempting to enchant one of my skills onto the ring. I could feel the item heating up through the leather of my gloves, before the heat subsided. Maybe these Valentine’s Day items had a higher success rate with enchantments, but it didn’t seem to fail this time, either.

Once I received the message that the enchantment had been completed successfully, I passed the ring to Diane. “I got a few of these on the way here, so I thought you might appreciate this.” I said with a smile. “Consider it a thanks for helping me out so far.”

Diane arched a brow, taking the ring. When she removed her gloves to put it on her finger, she blinked. “Magic up?” She asked, to which I nodded.

“Since you’ll be learning the Animate Shadow skill soon, I thought you might need a higher magic stat.” Diane ran a finger over the ring for a moment, before putting her gloves back on. She seemed briefly lost in thought.

“Thanks…” She said in a softer voice than usual, as if not used to receiving gifts. “I don’t have any skills that would be useful to give you.”

“That’s fine.” I shook my head. “The fact that you told me about the Dull Pain skill is more than enough.”

Diane nodded her head for a moment after she heard that, and Hammerhead’s brand suddenly lit up again. “Alright, got everything I need for the first batch. You get going, and I’ll have Diane let you know when they’re ready.”

That was fine with me. I still had three more rings that I wanted to send to Ella, Nuoda, and Ennolf. From what I knew, all of them could do with a magic stat upgrade. I also needed to visit the trainer that they had told me about, and see what it would take to learn the Dull Pain skill. Finally… after that was done, I should go to look at the skill shop in this city, to see if there is anything that I wanted here.

Rather, since this was the city carrying martial skills, it wasn’t a question of if there was something, but how much of it I would be able to get.

“I’ve got to return to the dungeon.” Diane said after we left Hammerhead’s shop. “I’ll send you a message when he lets me know that the equipment is done, Meet again when the quest is finished?”

When she asked that, I nodded my head in agreement. I was quite curious to see what someone like Diane would be able to do with the Animate Shadow skill. “Sure. I should be around for a while.”

Wordlessly, Diane nodded her head, turning and seeming to vanish into the shadows of the street. I could vaguely feel her presence departing, and marveled at how far she had taken the Stealth skill, now that she was no longer being hindered by her negative trait. Perhaps, she could really become a fantastic rogue.