After walking for two hours straight, he reaches a city following the wooden signs stuck aside by the road. It was a small city named Taartini located on the outskirts of the royal capital of Neptina Kingdom.
It feels like I am in an early 'European Empire' with the whole city being in a medieval setting. Kaye wondered, adoring its beauty.
He had to face a little problem to enter the city, which is to let his belongings be checked. But guards never suspected him of being a spy, because Kaye could talk in common tongue. That could only be learned by being born in Neptina Kingdom, or some high-class wizard of Neptina teaches you the language using a magic spell.
Other than that, there was no problem entering the city. He just had to give them his reasons to the guards for entering the city. Telling them that he wanted to find a job for his basic needs made that easy.
The biggest of his problems had already been solved. He already knows the language of this world or this country, to say the least. Next, he was required to find a place where he could gather basic knowledge, or what common sense applied there.
Most of the people were wearing dull-colored dresses, only too few of them could be seen in colorful clothes. Though, their appearances' attributes didn't reflect on their faces. They all looked prosperous and satisfied with what they have.
The houses were built of wooden planks, stones, and having grass roofs on them, mostly with single floors. There were a few houses with multiple stories, having wooden ceilings.
As he was walking the inner parts of the city, the buildings gradually became more and more sturdier with their structure. Fully dipped in his thoughts, he was walking without paying attention to the surroundings.
"Thad..." a small child playing around bumped into him breaking his chain of thoughts.
"Are you okay?" He asked the boy.
"Yeah, I am. Sorry, I wasn't careful," the boy said merrily and left from there.
But, the event made Kaye aware of his surroundings. He noticed a few people were glaring at him due to his attire. So, he decided to traverse a more isolated part of the city so that fewer people may notice him.
As he headed towards the more outer part of the city, the buildings became more farther from each other, there he noticed a building in a secluded space. Its structure wasn't all that big.
An armory!, Kaye guessed, from the long chimney pumping smoke in the sky, and a brown metallic signboard which was hanging on the Armory's gate. On it, cursive like words were written with some black viscous substance. It might've been the chimney which notified the people that it was an armory, because there wasn't any signboard specifying that.
How am I able to read it...? The spell! Apparently, Kaye could read it. And he speculated it was the result of the girl teaching him the language using that spell.
The words on the board were "Vacancy for an Apprentice." Which hardened his guess to the conclusion, that it was an armory.
Maybe I can work here. In the hope to find some work, he approached the armory.
He entered the building from the front door, which was sharing the front wall with its only companion, the window with an iron frame and wooden stile. The door was also made from the same dark wood, with lots of big nails and metallic belts on it.
Upon entering, he saw the room was filled with numerous weapons, but most of them were swords. It was the shop-front of the armory.
"How may I help you, young man?" a dwarf said with a suspicious look in his eyes who was polishing a long sword with his clumsy-looking hand, and his pony beard definitely wasn't making that easy for him.
"Hello, my name is Kaye. Actually, I saw the job request at the front door, so I am here for the same." Kaye asked while traversing the weapons from his eyes, and he ended up looking at the dwarfs big green marble-like balls.
"Hmm... so you want to work as an apprentice here." The dwarf put aside the sword, and confirmed once again.
"Yes, I believe it is an assisting job, so no prior experience is required, am I right?" Kaye replied without any hesitation.
"Yes you are right, but I need to check your background and your belongings before that. And your salary would be 10 silver coins per month." The dwarf sat on the main counter and looked straight into Kaye's eye to check his reaction.
I wonder whether 10 silver coins would be enough for my living or not. The only option for me to have a good start, so I better be honest with this man. Kaye contemplated for a few seconds.
"About that, I don't need the salary in terms of money. However, I need a place to live and food to survive. As you can see from my attire, I am not from around here, and therefore, I don't have any idea of the economy here. So could you help me with that?" Kaye hesitantly asked his query. He was still wearing a black coat over a white shirt and black jeans.
"I figured that much from your clothes. At least I can do that much for you and your honesty. As for your basic needs, you can live here. I have an empty room above, but there is one condition. You have to run errands for me. Got that?" The dwarf asked, making a grin on his face.
"I don't have any problem with that, so then what would I call you? I guess 'Master'…" he asked.
"By the way, my name is Theo, and call me what you please." Theo rose up from his seat and opened the back door of the shop to show Kaye his room on the first floor.
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After one month Kaye becomes familiar with his job of assisting Theo in his weapon or tool making, and of course, running his errands. He finds that Theo is one of the smiths in the country who builds Magical Swords.
There were three types of tools, first the normal type which totally depends on the user skills and physical strength. The second category falls under magical tools which basically work on the magical energy of embedded mana stone in the tool itself, these types of tools are the top brass in the market and most expensive. The third category of tools doesn't have its own mana stone embedded in it, so the user of the tool has to supply his own magical energy to activate the enchantment of the tool. Even if he had learned about the tools his master makes, but he didn't bother learning about the world’s basic details. From his perspective, the world has just the same concepts of adventuring, disputes of kingdoms etc.
His chores included running household errands like shopping-vegetables, fetching ore from guild, etc. But lately, he had been sent for collecting ores from the guild and posting requests there.
For Kaye money is not important since he was trying to find a new life, so he dedicated himself to making normal swords. When he got adept at the sword forging basics, he wanted to try something from his knowledge of the previous world. One day he asked for the permission of Theo to forge one sword on his own. What he wanted to make was a Katana from scratch. So he purchased iron ore from the guild.
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It took him 15 days to complete smelting (-heating ore to extract metal) to get the jewel-steel from the iron ore, jewel-steel is typically used to make Katana after all. After extracting the jewel-steel, he classified it in low carbon to high carbon. He used the traditional way of forging it, by beating the low carbon steel, again and again, to make the core and high carbon steel to make the edge.
Theo occasionally watched him with gleaming eyes and wondered It is taking too long to make it, but his devotion is commendable. Despite that, he never paid attention to what exact step Kaye was using to make the sword. To him, the whole thing was like a child playing with the mud to make some sculpture. He completed the sword in one month overall.
When Kaye showed the sword made by him to Theo. Theo did his usual thing, i.e. to appraise it. At that moment his eye got widened.
"Thiscan'tbe!!! How did you make it! It is 10times stronger than any normal sword." He shouted in pure astonishment shooting up from his seat.
"I simply applied the knowledge used in my w… country!" Kaye replied.
Kaye applied the traditional method of making Katana to his best effort; naturally, that sword made by him became more durable since he applied his knowledge of alchemy (chemistry) from his previous world. The only reason it took me one month was because I hadn't had the basic knowledge of Forging i.e. my hands weren't used to these basic techniques and skills. Now I have some proficiency in it, I can apply my knowledge gained by watching YouTube in my spare time. He wondered.
"Can you show me? No can you teach me!" Theo asked desperately.
"I guess why not? But please can you tell me how you were able to tell that the strength has increased 20 times so precisely? Even if I made it I had no idea it would go that high." He asked with a puzzled look.
"Oh that is so simple I used my Appraisal skill, it is on rank Virtuoso, second to my Create skill," Theo replied.
Kaye eyes quaked for two seconds then he regains his calm. No it can't be, is it really what I think it is. To confirm his suspicion he asked one more thing.
"Can you tell me what the current stats of that sword are?" Kaye points at the sword made by him.
"No sweat, listen Durability: 200 galza, Attack: 300 niyak, and Defense: 100 baar! It might not seem like a big deal but for a sword to have this kind of stats without enchantment, it is just too much. Can you now teach me how did you do it?" Theo asked one more time, telling him the durability with some strange unit for its measurement.
"Yes, I will. It's just the way I prepared the steel and forged it. How about I show you tomorrow?" Kaye pointed towards the setting down sun and rushed towards his room.
He threw himself on the bed and started to contemplate. Is it for real now? It means I am in some kind of virtual reality system right now. No, it cannot be possible since I don't have such an interface like status window, skill, or anything like that. So why did the master act like it is the most obvious thing in the world? And all that units of measurement also proves that I am not on earth. He was in pure surprise right now. Since he just found out that the whole world he was living for the last three months has a game-like system. It would have been way easier for him to accept himself living in a virtual world if he had the same kind interface as Theo. But he didn't have one, which led him to his confusion.
I really need to know what's going on. What should I do? Wait a minute that girl when she used magic it was greatly emphasized as the changes of electrical charges. Maybe if I can use magical spells as scripts to interact with the system. But how do I use magic? No point hanging on it right now. I should ask about this from the Master. Thoughts were rushing in his mind with an incredible speed. Eventually, the thoughts became heavy and he was asleep.
Next day Kaye wakes up and finds Theo in the courtyards making the portable furnace ready for work. Unusually Theo was awake too soon and Kaye woke up due to his curiosity towards the skill Theo talked about.
Both eventually got to their work, Kaye finally started explaining to Theo how to smelt jewel-steel from iron ore. Throughout the process, Theo thoroughly focused on every action and words explained by Kaye. He noticed as much as Kaye whole heartily taught the process, but he found out Kaye has some kind of trouble. Theo lived 150 years and was easily able to read a person's mood by his/her complexion. To me, he always looks somewhat dejected towards life itself, but today he is more tense. What's with him? doesn't he want to teach me this technique? he wondered but soon wipes that thought out.
In the last three months, both of their relationships became like a father and son. They both cared for each other and always consoled each other whenever needed.
"Is there something which is bothering you?" Theo asked him directly.
"Guess there's nothing which hides from you. I am stuck at something in my mind, and it almost seems impossible to Me." he replied with a smile and wondered. How can something like 'skills' exist and is it really possible for me to use magic.
"You brat how can you insult our god like that," Theo yelled in anger. He dropped his hammer.
"To think your Will is not enough to achieve what you want. The Will God gave you, the power to achieve anything." He said looking straight in the eyes of Kaye.
Kaye was speechless, as to why Theo is making such a big deal on saying something is impossible.
The reason was the worlds they both lived in were different up until a few months ago. According to Kaye, almost everything is impossible if "cause and effect" does not allow it to happen (i.e. science cannot explain things like teleportation from one place to another). But for Theo everything is possible.
"Master you say, God! Do you believe in God?" he asked reluctantly This is my chance to find out if there is a god or at least what or where this world is? he thought.
"You don't believe in god." Theo's face became pale as he said.
"What proof is there that God exists," Kaye asked nonchalantly.
"Haven't you seen Alienation of a baby's soul?" Kaye looked blankly to Theo's face having no idea what he was talking about.
"What is Alienation Master?" Kaye asked stupidly without even considering the precarious condition he was in. Because what he thought of asking Theo yesterday, he was nowhere close to that topic.
"What world are you from?" Theo's face became serious. Is he an idiot? he wondered.
How in the hell Master came to the conclusion, I am not from this world? Kaye's mind was rushing. His face became pale. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. I am gonna get kicked out of here. Worse they will execute me for blasphemy. He thought.
"Ok then! Tomorrow we will go to the east temple of Taartini, to see the alienation of newborn babies, then only you will believe in God." Theo replied.
What? he was retorting about other worlds. Kaye's expression completely changed into a stupefied look. I heard about the east temple. It is like a maternity hospital but Alienation, What's with this world?
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The next day Kaye and Theo both headed towards the east temple of Taartini city. Soon they reached the City center. From there both took the east road after walking for ten minutes, they reached the east temple of Taartini. It was a large building with lots of room, and men's entry wasn't allowed in there. To the right of the building, there was a large courtyard connected to the building. The common people were allowed in there. Within the courtyard, there was rectangular fencing of white cloth, like a gallery and a little gate in it. Outside the fence, there were lots of people watching the event happening in there.
"Let's go," Theo said.
Both of them walked to the fence and Kaye left bewitched seeing what was going on within the fence.
From the east temple which was connected to the courtyard, girls in robes looked like priestesses coming out momentarily with the newborn babies in their hand. To Kaye's surprise, not a single baby was crying as if they all were dead. Soon the priestess put a newborn baby in the cradle and wrote its parents' name there.
After she left, there appeared a white rune circle of one-meter diameter, 3 feet above the baby's cradle and it illuminated the baby with white, sparkling light. The rune disappeared in a few seconds and the baby started crying.
"This is the Alienation: The sacred soul bestowing of god to the living," Theo said with gleaming eyes.