The sweet sounds of chirping birds sounded in my ears. I pried my eyes open and looked over at the open window, the curtains billowing slightly in the light breeze that filtered in from the outside. I moved over to the window and looked out at the foliage beyond the frame. There was a beautiful little bird sitting out on a branch in the tree outside the window. It was a vibrant red with blue streaks across its folded wings. Black lines covered its eyes and it sang as though it was performing at a grand opera house. I sat and watched it for a few minutes as it sang its sweet melody. It sang high notes that flowed down into lower notes and back again in a melodic range that would have made most singers on earth jealous.

Just as the beautiful little bird was getting to the crescendo of its song, a large hawk swooped out of the sky and struck the little bird, plucking it right off of the branch and flying away with its meal. I stood there wide-eyed as I had been admiring the song.

"Not a fan of the arts I see," I said as I turned and sat back down on the bed.

It really was a dog-eat-dog world as Sandra had said. It was being drilled into me now that I couldn't just take advantage of the power I had been given. I needed to be as strong as possible because the strong took what they wanted and not everyone would be as benevolent as I had been with their powers.

Walking downstairs after getting ready, I found Sandra already in the inn having breakfast. She was eating another of Patsy's chicken sandwiches and talking with a couple of dwarves at a table not too far from the front door. She noticed me descending the stairs and motioned for me to join them.

"I see you enjoyed the chicken sandwich," I said, smiling slightly, knowing how good they were.

"These are amazing! And the chips are great to take with me as I need to be in many places throughout the day. Since you are here, I needed to introduce you to a couple of people," She said, turning slightly to the dwarves sitting with her. "This is Orthos and Nuros. They are brothers and the heads of weapons and armor smithing within Jewelston. I think they can help you with your ideas."

We shook hands and the brothers seemed very enthusiastic to work with me on the project.

"So you guys can make me a special weapon that will fit my needs? And armor to go with it for Aeolith?"

"Aye laddie, we can make anything you need. All we need is to know what ye be looking for." Orthos said.

"Well, I have some interesting ideas. I hope you can be ready for this. I need to have something that I can use in any situation and still just use one weapon. Something that can be used from the back of Aeolith in case of aerial combat, then also be used in hand-to-hand combat. And I will be expecting something pretty amazing. I'm not trying to sound picky, but this is the sword I have been using so far."

I took out my sword and laid it on the table for the dwarf brothers to inspect. Orthos picked up the blade and inspected it. His eyes bulged slightly as he read over the information about the sword. He passed it to Nuros who also blanched slightly at seeing the weapon's information.

"This might be slightly more difficult than we had originally expected, Dragonrider. I had no idea ye already had a weapon like this. And a scalable weapon at that." Orthos said, looking at me with a tiny bit of concern.

"Is this something you can do for me?"

"Oh aye, laddie. We can do it. It'll just take us some time. We need to include some enchanters as well." Orthos said.

"And the armor?" Nuros asked.

"I need something protective, yet functional. Something that will cover her, but allow for flight, while also adding something like metal claws for additional damage." I replied.

"That seems more straightforward than the weapon. That shouldn't be too much trouble. We can even have it enchanted as well to be sure she be protected as well. And with the way magical armor can resize we shouldn't need to resize it to fit the lass." Nuros said.

"Thanks, guys. I'm glad we can get to work on this. Any enchantments that you can add that have a light-based style to them will go a long way toward helping me in the fights with the Shadow Beasts."

Orthos and Nuros nodded, stood, and excused themselves to go begin working on the items I requested.

"Oh, before you both go, could I come by to maybe learn a few things about crafting items? I'm a complete novice and would love to learn more about the trade," I called after them as they headed to the door.

"Absolutely! We would love for ye to stop by the forge m'lord. It would be our honor to show ye around and give ye some tips." Orthos replied, bowing slightly.

With that, they took their leave and headed out into the streets.

"Taking an interest in crafting now?" Sandra questioned, one eyebrow raised as she took a sip of her drink.

"I've been meaning to learn about it for a while, I've just been on the go so much I haven't had a moment to sit and try. This should be a good opportunity for me. I should have some time to try my hand at crafting while I also work on leveling some more. Provided nothing blows up in my face in the meantime that is."

"What could possibly blow up in your face?" Sandra said, a slight chuckle escaping her as she asked the question.

"Things have been blowing up in my face since the moment I got to this world. I used to live a nice, peaceful, mundane life before I was brought here. I worked a construction job and just went to work, got off with some time to indulge in hobbies, and then rested at home. Life was so much simpler. Now I have to worry about getting attacked, or called to save someone every moment of the day."

"What was it that brought you here? I never got that story."

"Oh, man. That is a doozy of a question."

"Doozy?"

"It means it's a really large and complicated question to answer. I still am not totally sure what brought me here, but from what I can gather so far, I was brought here because some higher power feels like I was the best person for the job, and I was chosen to be a Dragonrider because something is happening in this world that has taken the balance of power out of it and put it in favor of the Shadow Beasts. So I am the countermeasure to their sudden rise in power or influence."

"Wow. So, no pressure right?" Sandra said, sardonically.

"Right?! I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to respond to that. I don't feel like I'm the right person for the job."

"In my experience, the people who don't feel worthy, are the ones who end up being the best for the job."

"I've heard that before. And while I feel grateful to have been chosen, I feel almost like I don't want the pressure, you know? As if this is all too much and I would rather just go off and live a peaceful life. If it weren't for the fact that I was sure the fight would find me eventually anyways, and that I can't stand to see innocent people suffer, I probably would have gone off already."

"That is very noble of you."

"Yeah. Damn my positive upbringing."

We both chuckled at this and took a few long draws of the drinks Patsy had brought out for us.

Talking on for about another hour about various different topics, such as some of the city upgrades, trade that was happening with other surrounding villages and cities, and what the market was looking like with all the new influx of refugees, I barely noticed when Randal walked in. He came over to sit down with us when I did finally see him and waved him over.

"Randal! I haven't really seen you very much. How have you been?" I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "How's Zephyr?"

"We are both well, thanks for asking. We have been pretty busy as Sandra here has put me to work helping with the apothecaries around the city. With demands for medicines so high now, the shop owners haven't had time to restock their herbs properly. So Zephyr and I have been running to the forests to gather as many as we can to bring back to help make medicines. I have also used my skill in alchemy to help make some of the medicines and a few potions." Randal said, looking more tired than even I felt recently.

"That's right, you were an apothecary before. You'll have to help teach me some of those alchemy skills when we have time. I'm working on adding those skills to my repertoire along with other crafting skills so that I can be more well-rounded."

"I'm sure I can help with that. Though I'm not sure what a repertoire is."

"Oh, it's just a fancy word where I'm from for a list or a collection. Sorry, I always forget about using strange words here."

"It's fine, Callan. I understand that all of this must be strange and new for you. I can feel some of that living in Jewelston now and meeting a Dragonrider. It feels strange and new, not like my life in the little village. In fact, here. Let me show you just a small something that you can do with alchemy while we are sitting here. You can do many things on the go with just a few basic supplies. This will get you going for now."

He reached into a pouch and pulled out a dry herb that looked a little bit like rosemary, five green stems that had leaves in pairs of three, some small black berries, a glass vial, a mortar and pestle, and a glass bowl.

"First thing I want you to do is inspect each of the herbs. The path to alchemy includes the skill herbalism. You will need to know what herbs are good and which are harmful."

I picked up the first herb which was the dried one that looked like rosemary. I used inspect on it.

Dried Altimer Sprig

This herb can be found in most regions of the continent and have a variety of uses. When dried it can be used for the following purposes:

1) Healing

2) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

3) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

4) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

Skill Gained

Herbalism

Herbalism is the skill used to determine the properties of various plants in the world. You can use this skill to find plants that can make anything from delicious meals and healing potions to poisons and deadly traps. As you level this skill you will be able to find more uses for plants.

"I just got the herbalism skill. And it looks like this Altimer sprig has four uses, but I can only see one."

"That is true. Different plants will have different possibilities. Not all of them will have four uses. Some have more and some have less. Sometimes as few as a single use. As you level the skill by identifying, picking, and preparing herbs those other possibilities will be revealed." Randal explained. "Here, try these as well."

I didn't pick up the green leaves but instead inspected them on the table.

Bosimer Leaves

This herb grows mainly in the shade of large trees in forests and is notable for its three-leaf formations and its bright smooth texture. Bosimer leaves can be used in the following ways:

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

1) Nausea relief

2) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

3) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

I then inspected the berries.

Orkin Berries

This herb is a sweet berry that can be eaten for sustenance or mixed into recipes for various uses. Orkin berries can be used in the following ways:

1) Healing

2) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

3) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

4) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

5) Unknown (unlocks at higher herbalism skill)

"Now, take these dried altimer clippings and pull the tines off of the stem into the mortar."

I stripped the tines off of the stem by putting my fingers on the stem and pulling it through my pinched fingers like I had seen some chefs do on cooking shows with rosemary.

"That was a good technique. Where did you learn that? Most new alchemists spend time picking each tine off."

"There is an herb similar to this in my world called rosemary, but it's used for cooking. It's prepared the same way and I've seen chefs do this."

"Very interesting. Well, either way, take these bosimer leaves and pull them off the stem, and put them in the mortar as well."

"Now also where I come from leaves in pairs of three like this are not good. This won't make me itch if I touch it will it?"

"No, of course not. These leaves have healing properties to them. If you were to just chew them they would settle an upset stomach and relieve nausea. Three leaves are itchy in your world?"

"Some do. It's called poison ivy."

"That sounds like something I could weaponize."

"Well, that's just horrifying and a cool idea all at the same time," I said looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and horror coming from that time I went camping as a child and fell into a patch of poison ivy and crying for most of the trip from how itchy I was.

"In any case, take these berries. They are called orkin berries and you can put them in the mortar as well. Now that we have all three ingredients, we will mash them together for about five minutes until we get a thick paste," Randal said, making a round grinding motion with his hands to indicate how I should grind the ingredients. "It will turn a purplish brown color from the items mixing."

I put the berries in and began to grind them all together. The berries popped when I crushed them, the juices inside mixing with the dried and green ingredients to help break them down, and a faint sweet smell wafted to my nose as I ground the mixture together. It reminded me of the smell of grape cough syrup a little bit.

After about five minutes of grinding Randal stopped me with the next step.

"Now we are going to add some water like this," He said pouring a small bit of water into the mortar from a waterskin. "Mix it around a bit to get all the pieces to stop sticking to the bottom, then pour it into this glass bowl and we will heat it up."

He poured the now purplish brown mixture into the glass bowl and lit the candle set on the table, normally used for lighting the room at night, and held it over the candle. It heated up but didn't boil and he removed the glass bowl from the candle.

"Since I can't hold this while it boils, I need to use one of these," He said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a pair of tongs.

He then took the tongs and grabbed the side of the bowl with them and held it back over the fire. It began to heat up again and then came to a boil shortly after. He took a spoon and stirred the mixture around until most of the ingredients dissolved into the mixture.

"Not the most important step is to make sure you don't burn the tincture. If you do then it's ruined and you have to start over. But if it's not hot enough the ingredients won't break down and you'll just end up with a sludge that won't do anyone any good."

He set the bowl down on the table and stirred it just a bit more before it began to turn red.

"Why does it turn red like that?" I asked looking at what was a bowl full of non-red ingredients now turned a bright red color.

"It's the chemical reaction of the berries. When heated they turn a bright red color that is only slightly tainted by the other ingredients. Since they have more fluids their color is more pronounced."

He took the bowl and poured its contents into the vial he had ready as well and handed it to me.

Healing Tincture

This low-level healing potion is mostly used to relieve symptoms of illness, as it does not offer many other benefits that more powerful potions contain, but does offer a small bit of health regeneration as well.

Heals 10 points of health over 30 seconds.

I pulled one of the other healing potions from my bag that I got from the Isle of Carthar to compare the stats.

Potion of Greater Healing

This strong potion has the ability to heal the consumer for a large amount of health, revitalizing their body, and mending most wounds.

Heals 250 points of damage over 60 seconds.

That was a pretty significant difference. Clearly, I needed to get this skill to a much higher level to be able to make such potions, and had to guess the ingredients were harder to find. I also got another notification as I held the potions.

Skill Gained

Alchemy

Alchemy is the process of taking ingredients to make potions and poisons. Learning this skill can be the difference between life and death in battle, so be sure to make the most of your potions and poisons!

"I just got the skill for alchemy," I said looking up at Randal.

"Good, that means you learn quickly. I can teach you a few more recipes later on, but for now, focus on herbalism and gathering supplies so you can experiment and make your own potions. All potions and poisons were created by someone experimenting with ingredients. Who knows. Maybe you can make your own special concoction."

I was suddenly filled with all sorts of ideas of sitting around and coming up with recipes for special potions or maybe even something to fight the Shadow Beasts with.

"Thanks, Randal! I really appreciate you showing me this. I'll be sure to find some time to practice it."

We talked for a couple more minutes, then I needed to excuse myself to go check on the crafters. Sandra told me where to find their buildings in the city and I left the inn to find them. Wandering through the streets, I found Orthos' shop first, the Deepshield Forge. The sound of metal ringing as hammers fell on anvils rang out from inside and the voices of dwarves yelling back and forth could be heard from outside. I pulled open the large wooden door and walked inside.

I was immediately hit by a wave of heat coming from the huge forge on the far right side of the room. About a dozen dwarves were running this way and that or standing over anvils hammering out some metal into various items. They all wore leather aprons and had beards tied neatly into braids to keep them out of the way. the dwarves began to look up to see who had disturbed their work and when they noticed it was me, their faces went from scowls to those of smiles.

"Dragonrider!" Called Orthos from the far left side of the building.

I walked over to him and we shook hands.

"I'm so glad ye made it to our humble forge. We are excited to have such an honored guest."

"Don't think of me as special. Think of me more as an anxious learner."

"HA! That be good because we are ready to teach you some of the basics. How about we start with gettin' ye to make us a knife? Do ye know anything of the process of forging lad?"

"I used to watch some shows on TV about the process and know something about the metals used in forging. Take the metals, heat them up, hammer them out into rough shapes, heat them back up, dip them in oil to quench them for hardness, then grind them down to the final shape, and then polish and sharpen them." I replied, thinking back to the steps I had seen on a forging competition show I used to love watching with Brutus on earth.

"That be most of the steps, but there be a finer set of aspects to it that ye will see as we go through it. Let's take this iron bar and begin heating it up." Orthos said, handing me a single iron bar.

We walked over to the forge and Orthos handed me a large set of tongs to hold the iron with so I didn't get burned. I was also given a thick leather apron, some thick gloves, and a hammer to use as well. There was a loop in the apron I was able to hang the hammer from, and Orthos told me to hold the tongs with one hand so that I could keep the metal further from my body while in the fire and because I would need to use the hammer while holding the tongs to keep the metal in place.

A dwarf opened the forge door and I had to take a step back from the heat that blasted out of the furnace. Some of the dwarves chucked slightly when I stepped back, but I stopped and moved forward to put the metal into the hot coals. Another dwarf was on the side of the forge pumping the bellows at regular intervals to keep the forge hot.

"Place the metal down in the coals to get it as hot as possible and make sure it heats evenly," Orthos guided me. "We don't want to let it get cool too fast, so we will have to hurry to an anvil to begin the shaping process."

I shoved the metal into the coals on one side of the open door and let it sit in the coals for a bit to heat up. After a few minutes, the iron began to glow red then glowed brighter as it heated up more.

"Grab it now lad, can't wait too long or she'll turn to slag."

I reached in with the tongs and grabbed the metal bad out and we ran over to an anvil. I took the hammer from the loop on my belt and managed to drop it only two times before I could begin swinging. More laughter from the dwarves came at my clumsiness, but once I began to swing the hammer down on the blade they stopped and began to watch as I forged the shape. Orthos gave me some tips about striking it at an angle and letting the hammer almost slide off the side to form the slopes of the sides after hammering it flatter.

The iron would cool and we would go to the forge to heat it back up. We had to do this a number of times during the shaping process and when I had finished with the hammering I held up the now flat, wide, slightly pointed piece of metal and looked at it.

"Well, that be a real piece of crap, but it's not terrible for yer first try at it."

"It's crap?" I questioned, slightly heartbroken at not making a good dagger.

"Lad, most of us in here have been working with metals for at least as long as ye've been alive. Ye really think we just put out the highest quality work with just a few swings of the hammer?"

"Well, no. But I just was hoping to make something semi-decent."

"Don't ye be worrying about what ye made the first time. Trellis over there, snapped his knife in half the first time he was hammering."

"Screw you Orthos." Came a call from a dwarf across the room.

Laughter erupted from the dwarves at this jab.

"Yers look like it would actually hold up if we quenched it and tried to sharpen it. But I not be letting ye get away with that. We will do another."

With that, we took another bar and heated it up, and hammered it out. Then another. And another. When we were done it had been about ten hours and I had gone through six metal bars trying to refine the way I hammered out the metal. Some were too thin, others too thick, one had warped, and another looked like something you'd spread icing with. But finally, I had something that Orthos looked at with almost no disgust and very vaguely resembled a dagger shape. I also got a prompt as I held up the piece of metal.

Skill Gained

Smithing

The greatest smiths can forge magnificent pieces of weaponry and armor to keep warriors safe in battle. They can also create functional pieces of metal to be used in everyday objects like wagons, barrels, and gates. This skill can be refined to help someone form almost anything out of metal. Level up this skill to improve your ability to work with metals.

I did a fist pump in the air and let out a loud WOOT at getting the skill.

"I'd guess ye got the smithing skill with that kind of enthusiasm?" Orthos asked, a smile cracking on his face.

"I did! Thank you for teaching me thus far. I will work hard to learn more."

"Well we not be done yet, we need to finish up this blade."

We spent the next two hours grinding out the imperfections and the final shape of the knife. It took this long because, as I had forgotten, there were no electric grinders. We had to use a stone wheel with a foot peddle that powered it. And being as coordinated as I was, I would forget to keep pressing the peddle. Once we had finished, my calf and shin muscles ached, but I had a knife that just needed a handle.

Orthos brought me over to Nuros who took to showing me several different ways of getting a handle attached to the knife. We ended up using two pieces of hardwood which were connected with some sort of epoxy-like substance. Once it had set, which only took a couple of minutes amazingly, we ground the handle down into a grip that fit my hand well, then we wrapped it with leather.

We went back to the grinding stone one more time and put an edge on the blade, because, as Othors said, "Ye wouldna want to cut yerself tryin' to put a handle on it would ya?" Which I would not want. Last, we went to a table and took some smaller whetstones and sharpened the blade until it could cut a falling hair. I inspected the blade when we finished.

Item:

Iron Dagger

Item Type: Weapon

Durability: 50/50

Attack: 3-5 damage

Item Quality: Average

Item Rarity: Common

"Average quality on my first go? I was expecting it to be poor quality."

"It would have been, had I not had ye remake it all those times. But you can do better when being taught because you get a bonus to production value when someone with a much higher level is teaching ye how to make something. If ye'd just been flailing around trying to make a blade on yer own, ye'd have come out with a poor quality if ye'd have made a dagger at all. Which is a possibility. If what ye have is so bad that it's not even up to poor quality, then ye'd not even get a dagger, it would just be a pile of metal with an edge."

"You mean I could have made something that wasn't even a weapon?"

"Well, it might be considered an improvised weapon if ye tried to hurt someone with it, but the damage it dealt would have been almost nothing, and it might break."

I took a moment to ponder that. I hadn't expected that I could actually fail to make a weapon. On earth when you failed to make something nice, it was still a knife. I really crappy knife that you might not want to cut bread with, but it would kill someone. I guessed that was similar though, in that people could be killed with a rock in the same manner as a mace.

"That makes sense to me, now that I think about it. So what we are going for here is quality, so that it is essentially more efficient at dealing damage?"

"Exactly. The higher the quality, the sturdier it is, the more damage it does because essentially it is just better at dealing damage."

"Can I keep this?"

"Of course, lad. Ye made it yerself. I wouldna want to keep it from ye."

"How are the designs going on the new weapon?" I said, slipping the dagger into my bag.

"Pretty well, considering the mountain of requests ye had for us."

"Sorry about that, but it needs to be the best considering who I'm fighting."

"I get it lad. So we decided the best weapon for ye would likely be a spear. What materials it's made out of and what we can do to make it meet yer needs is still a bit up in the air, but give us a week and we should be able to have something for ye. We will work with the very best to make sure it does ye proud."

"Thank you Orthos. And let me know what it will cost. I do want to fairly compensate you for yer work."

"Oh, don't worry lad. We dwarves never just give away weapons as special as the one we be makin' for ye." Orthos said, rubbing his hands together in a greedy way that made me nervous.

I bid Orthos farewell, and when I emerged from his forge, it was night. I decided to not worry about learning to make armor just yet, as I had spent so much time on just the single dagger I made. I was also extremely sore. I didn't understand how those dwarves could swing a hammer for so long and not get worn out. Walking back to the inn, I was rubbing my shoulder to try to work out the tension that had built up there. When I retuned I got a quick bite to eat, waved off offers for drinks with people in the inn, and went to wash up before I crashed out for the night.