Year 1566, autumn.
“You know, you need to learn to speak to others. And by others I mean people not from Earth, people who live in this world. Otherwise, you’re just a creep with an urge for power.” Iria said.
She and Luca were walking together to go to the crafter’s district to convince some high-level crafters to work with them.
“Don’t look at me like that without saying anything. I’m not trying to be mean, I’m just reminding you of some facts. I know it’s not easy to adapt to this world, heck I even got all religious to adapt. And yes, you’re coping somewhat well with all your planning and reading, and learning and scheming, and so on. But all this, it will only have value if you value people. If you go meet them.”
“Did you rehearse your speech?” Luca asked balefully.
“A bit. My goddess told me you needed to be reminded about love. And Hetia is great about relationships! But anyways, I really mean it. You might not realize but we trust you, we’re investing a lot in your plans because we believe you have what it takes to make it happen, but for that, you need to work on a more profound level with people.”
Luca didn’t know what to say so he was relieved to see they had arrived. “We’re there. You’re ready?”
“Yeah, watch and learn.”
They had chosen to first poach a woodcarver and went to the second best in the city, Enrik. Neither one of them ever met him but he had a good reputation and, most importantly, he still yearned to progress. His shop was a five-story wooden building that had on display a great number of works ranging from common to epic quality, though those were rare and far in between. Behind the building was the workshop proper where Enrik and a team of about twenty masters and apprentices worked. Once they identified themselves as heroes to the receptionist, he immediately led them to where Enrik was working.
Enrik was a man that appeared to be in his fifties, which in this world meant nothing as stats allowed you to far outlive your appearance, with brown hair, brown beard, brown eyes, brown skin, well brown everything. As if the wood he had worked on all of his life had infused him with his colors and his life. As they arrived, he stopped what he was working on and gave them both a strong handshake with a rugged hand.
“Welcome, welcome to my humble shop. To what do I owe the honor of having the fabled heroes come see me? Perhaps I could make something for you?”
“I’d love you to buy some of your crafts, everything we’ve seen this we entered has been a delight for our eyes” Iria promptly answered with a smile.
“So what would it be? A shield? Parts of a spear? Maybe a chest?”
“But sadly we’re not here primarily to buy” Iria continued. “Could we perhaps have a meeting in a more private place?”
Enrik looked a bit sad at that but he agreed and led them to his office, which was a very small room in which he evidently spent as little time as possible.
“So what is it you want to talk to me about?”
“What if we told you we could help you break your bottleneck and eventually create a legendary grade masterpiece?”
Enrik darkened at that. Every crafter dreamed of creating as high-ranking and as perfect as possible works. But all eventually reached a bottleneck, a point where they didn’t know how to progress. They could pray to Techna as much as they wanted, they could spend sleepless nights working again and again, they could travel to see new things, very very few found a way to break through. For Enrik, he had once already broken through, succeeding in creating epic grade woodworks, and though he would still progress he would likely never make any legendary work. Even the first woodworker in the city couldn’t do any. So that wasn’t a light subject to breach.
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“Do you come to tease me, heroes? I might not have the bonuses of a legendary class but I have my honor and what you speak of is no light subject.”
“We would not make fun of you on such a subject. We have a way for you to break through and create things never seen before.” Iria answered with the utmost seriousness. “But to tell you more, we need you to take an oath of secrecy, an oath before the gods.”
Enrik’s brows furrowed as he evaluated his options. An oath before the gods was no small thing, but it was pretty common still. He didn’t have much to lose by taking the oath but he had no special reason to trust them. And Iria knew that as well as he did, as a paladin of Hetia she had a high charisma relative to her levels and rapidly understood people, she knew she needed something more to convince him. So she used all her eloquence to push through.
“I know we haven’t yet proven we’re worth your trust or that we can achieve anything. But you know that Luca here, the hero Dawnheart has received has had yet to go on any adventure. And he was chosen by Techna herself. We can’t tell you his abilities now, as they must be kept under the strictest secret. Heck even telling you he has abilities is telling too much. But think about it, this is the way your goddess has chosen to answer your prayers. Luca wasn’t sent here to be a hero warrior, he is to be your hero, the hero of the crafters and the workers, the hero of the goddess of arts and industry! So please, trust us, swear not to say a word of what you’ll learn here and I promise you on the name of the deity I serve, Hetia goddess of family and love, that you will not regret it.” As she finished her speech she looked at Enrik squarely, unflinching and full of trust.
“You speak well little lady. Fine, I’ll take the oath. But don’t make me regret it.” He breathed and recited the words. “I, Enrik Woodspent, hereby swear not to talk to anyone about what I will learn and bear witness to today. May Techna, goddess of arts and industry bear witness to my pledge and strike me down with her might if I betray my words or intention.”
“May Techna bear witness to your oath” answered Iria.
“So what now?”
Iria turned to Luca, it was his turn to speak.
“Out of my five legendary skills, I have four that can help you. But for them to be useful I’ll need you to help me in return. Basically what my class allows me to do is to better understand things and then share that understanding with others to help them improve their skills. As in legendary levels of improvement. The other thing I can do is draw blueprints of very high quality and at some, I’m pretty much guaranteed to be able to draft legendary levels blueprints. But in order for that to work I need to understand the craft I work with deeply.”
“Sounds like you can’t do much for me now then.”
“No wait, that’s the explanation but let me show you the actual skills !” And with a thought Luca projected his [Profound Teacher], [Virtual Modelization], [Genius Theorist], and [Polyalent Blueprint] skills outside so that Iria and Enrik could read their description. Both had the [Reading] skills and were done in less than a minute.
Enrik whistled at that. “Guess the king and the nobles won’t be happy with them skills. But man, your lady friend was right, if you can make your class work you will be our hero, the heroes of the crafters.”
Enrik was hooked, now what was left was to negotiate the details of the agreements. The discussion took about thirty minutes and eventually, Enrik agreed to leave with them once they would go to Lalcqia, if their agreement had proven useful to him before that. But he refused to leave his business and follow them to the coast. For now, Luca could come and visit him to discuss his works, observe and make suggestions. They would both share their knowledge so that Luca could level his skills and deepen his understanding of woodwork while Enrik would benefit from the [Profound Teacher] and eventually from high-ranking blueprints.
Enrik had also agreed to introduce him to other high-level crafters and vouch for him. So in the following weeks, Luca was busy getting to know smiths, tailors, alchemists, architects, and crafters of all trades. Most of them took the same deal as Enrik but a few refused while others agreed to directly move into the town that would be built on the coast in preparation for the expedition.
During that time, Luca also worked his skills on the other heroes and once it seemed they wouldn’t progress any further through talking and teaching alone everyone went their way. It was agreed they would adventure for one year while laying the stones for their big project, recruiting orphans or would-be settlers, and finding a location to install their camp.