Jude and Ellie split up.  Jude went off to the Allur Forest to Rank Up his numerous skills and Ellie went to the market for her own supplies.

Jude entered the forest and headed further to a more private area so that he could work on his Rank Ups in peace.  Along the way, he switched his Primary Class to Warrior and hit a few wolves until he got to level 1.  This unlocked < Weapon Proficiency> category and under that.

Weapon Proficiency (Sword)

Rank 0

The art of physical combat. This empowers your attacks with martial energy allowing you to overcome the limits of your race.

Unlocked:

·         Power Strike

Power Strike

Rank 0

Damage: 1.5x

Mana: 3

A powerful single target hit that does additional damage.

Jude laughed at himself.  Did he really need more skills to work on?  Then again, what he could do it a day would take others a year.  Besides, he was curious if the Warriors skills could be unlocked with his Modicuit.  After all, it was possible that Warrior skills were like his previous skill, requiring them to be Ranked Up the old fashioned way.

 He finally reached his destination.  A small clearing in the forest that had a shaft of light shining down on it.  Half of the grass that grew here was already cut down.

This was where Jude had first shown up in this world and where he had found the .

First, he mowed down the rest of the grass to give him a nice place to train.  Then he decided to work on first.  It had a lot higher base damage than his and also promised to be a lot more of a ranged attack than .  At the same time, he would also try out from his new class: Spell Analyst.

He viewed his Modicuit his normal way and found it much clearer than before.  It was like his base instinct for its structure had improved.  Jude guessed that it was from his new Heroic Title that increased his Rank Up speed.  Apparently, that part wasn’t useless after all.

When he activated things became completely different.  Before, looking at the Modicuit, it was like a dark space, lit up only by the activation of skills.  The light would run through the lines and the gates would shine even brighter.  Skills he used a lot would slowly start forming light lines, making it a clear path.  Basically the more he practiced something the more ingrained it became.

But brightened the entire Modicuit, making it no longer dark.  He could faintly see ALL the lines and gates and they seemed almost endless.  Before he would have to try different things to light up different paths, but now he could clearly see the paths!

It still took him a few minutes to figure out the mana inputs, but it didn’t take long after that to get up to Rank III.  This unlocked and in .  Those too quickly reached Rank III.  Getting past Rank III was still an issue that required some sort of insight that Jude wasn’t sure of for these skills.

Magic Missile

Rank III

Damage: 195% (up from 150%)

Mana: 10 per missile (up to 3)

Craft a missile of made of magic.  These missiles can be imbued with an element for additional damage.

Mana Barrier

Rank III

Absorb 30% damage.

Mana: Reduce mana by 10% for duration of barrier

Create a barrier to absorb all incoming damage and soften blows.

Beam

Rank III

Damage: 500%-1000%

Mana: 10 per second

Create a beam of pure energy that can penetrate to multiple foes.  Damage starts at the base and will reach its maximum after 10 seconds.  Multiple beams can converge into one.  Each beam added will increase the total damage, but will require more time to reach the maximum damage.

Jude quickly found out that both and could not be activated at the same time.  For now, he would stick to the as he now had an enormous mana pool compared to before.  Gaining those titles really helped that out.

Next, he tried to analyze the magic and found out that he could not find it in the Modicuit at all!  In fact, none of the skills could be found in the Modicuit.  He wasn’t sure if this was due to it being a Unique Class or perhaps it was because of his damaged Modicuit.  The last possibility was that was like his eyes and without a mirror, he wouldn’t be able to see them.

So and would have to be Ranked Up the old fashioned way.  It was a pity, now he wouldn’t be able to quickly unlock the other skills in Spell Analyst.  Because of this, he would need to set aside some time every day to practice his Spell Analyst skills.

Jude hadn’t tried out yet so he figured he would give it a go next.  Much like and , there was no need for complicated mana inputs, instead, it was more like flipping a switch.

And that was when the whole world changed.

Jude was expecting to see something like what he did on the Digital Plane combined with ’s Spectral Vision variant.  What he saw instead was the pure mana in the air.  It was so thick that he couldn’t see anything but the mana in the air.  Not even his hand in front of his face!

He spent a good bit of time trying to grasp a better use of the skill, but it was fruitless.  The old fashion way was going to take a while.  Especially with no one there to show him the ropes.  But Jude was undaunted, he liked experimenting.  He was up to the challenge.

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***

While Jude was out training, Ellie was meeting with various merchants and crafters.  She sold off all the crafting materials that they didn’t need.   She knew a skilled Tailor and she had left some of the materials they got off the with that person to craft Jude a new robe.  Later she would try her new skill on it.

Next, she tried to find a Blacksmith who could train her.  Why a Blacksmith when she was already a Divine Smith?  Because each crafting class requires the prerequisite class’s skills.  For example, a Blacksmith doesn’t get the skill.  But every Blacksmith can repair because it is the first skill in the Craftsman class.  This is also why every Merchant can use because they too must start off as a Craftsman.

Right now, the Divine Smith class at level 10 gave her the following skills: , and .  was something she could do now, but the other two would need specific materials or objects that needed to be purified.  To even make an item with Blacksmith you needed to be level 3 to gain .  But the true mark of a Blacksmith was level 10 when they got .

Levels for crafters were obviously different than those of the combat classes.  For example, a level 10 Blacksmith would typically be a level 15 Human (level 5 crafter is required to become a Blacksmith).  But this blacksmith could be making weapons for another level 50 Human who had a combat class.  It was harder to get levels as a crafter but their range was much broader too.

Finding a Blacksmith that could train was another problem altogether.  Most were part of an Organization and for a fee, could theoretically unlock the class.  But most wouldn’t as they were either loyal to their organization or required not too.  Non-affiliated blacksmiths would take on apprentices, but not many.  They would usually not unlock the class for others without an apprenticeship as it would be viewed that as a degradation of their craft.

Ellie honestly wanted an apprenticeship, she wanted more than just having the class unlocked.  She didn’t need the apprenticeship for the EXP points like most, rather she wanted the experience of the work itself.  Recipes and knowledge were things she really did need if she wanted to succeed as a Blacksmith or Divine Smith.

Knowledge is key to crafting.

After asking around the market for a while, she finally found an old blacksmith of an unusual nature.  Apparently, he was very eccentric and no one knew exactly why he was in this town.  Ellie didn’t ask much, she instead went to find this reclusive smith and ask him to apprentice her personally!

The directions were odd and she found herself in a maze of tightly packed alleyways.  She was beginning to think that she was lost when she heard the distinct sounds of a hammer and anvil.

She rounded the last corner and was confronted with the storefront that she was looking for.  The Grass Blade Smithy was the shop's name.  It was odd, but she was constantly told that the owner was eccentric, so how odd could that name really be?

She entered the two-story stone structure.  The insides were cramped as armor and weapons were packed tightly together.  A series of bells rang as she entered the shop and the sounds of anvil and hammer stopped.

“One moment!” A voice sounded from the back.

She was surprised when she first heard the voice, it didn’t have the typical gruff sound of a blacksmith who worked the fire.  Instead, it was more high pitched, though not as high as a typical girl, it did have a song-like quality to it.

Ellie waited at the counter as she listened to a few more bangs of the hammer.  She wondered how the smith was able to keep his wears from being stolen.  Though the rack of dangling daggers above the door, followed by a string tied to them, made her wonder if that was one of the anti-theft devices.

It wasn’t long before the owner of the Grass Blade Smith shop showed himself.  Again Ellie was surprised!  Typically, you would think of a big brawny man being a blacksmith or even one of the stout dwarven race, who were known as the best blacksmiths.  But this fellow was an Elf!  It was already rare to see one of the other races in a newbie town, but for him to also be a blacksmith really shocked her.

The elf could clearly see what was going on in her head, after all, he had seen it many times before.

“Many people think it strange that an elf is a blacksmith,” he said.  “But we elves are some of best blacksmiths there are.  Were the dwarves the first to work Mithril?  It is true that the dwarves were the first to find it, but it was us elves that actually developed the first methods to refine and use it!”

Ellie was a girl who desired to become a blacksmith, so rejecting the norm was already common for her.

“Please don’t misunderstand my shock as an insult,” she said with a polite bow.  “Rather I think I might have more in common with you than others in this town.”

“Oh really, and what would that be?”

“I wish to become a blacksmith!”

Usually, the elf would instantly reject any potential apprentices.  Not that many wanted to apprentice with an elf here in a human newbie town.

So he asked, “And what qualifies you to be a blacksmith?”

“Because I’m already a level 10 Divine Smith, so if I don’t learn blacksmithing it would be a waste.  Besides that, I have a passion for creating things with my hands and repairing things in a way that does not cost money.”

The elf completely ignored the level, Divine Smith, and passion that most others would want to hear about.  Instead, what peaked his interest was her comment about repairing.

“Oh really?  Then show me what you can do with this Axe.”  He said as he picked up a batter axe from behind the counter.

Ellie was a little embarrassed, “I can only do it with swords at the moment.”

“A pity,” he frowned.  “Still, show me what you can do.”

This time he took out a sword.

Ellie took out her leather toolkit and unrolled it on the counter.  Bavary had already taken the place of her old hammer so she took it out and began working on the sword.

When she had attained the Flesh Smith title she had used both and in combination.  This had allowed her to see into Jude at the time.  But since then, she had not had the chance to a sword.  So when she started repairing this one, she instinctively used both and .  For the first time, she was able to view inside the metal of the sword and see its essence on a level that she had never done before.

Her skill was now put to its uppermost ability and she quickly fixed all the chips and cracks.   When she was almost done, she then noticed that the core of the sword was also damaged.  Without her new combination of skills, she would have never noticed it.

She began to lightly tap the exterior of the sword over were the damaged core was.  She was now using her skill to its uppermost.  was now draining her mana fast as the core started to warm up to a glowing temperature.  If she hadn’t already gotten so many levels she wouldn’t have had the mana to sustain the drain of !  What she didn’t know was that the way she was repairing the sword was best done with a forge as well.

When she finally finished the saw that the elf was smiling at her.  “Well done, most will not even know that the core is broken.  Yet you even fixed that as well.  I do not have an apprentice right now, so I suppose I could take one.  But do not expect me to hold your hand, I will teach you something once and then you will have to learn it yourself.  Besides teaching, I will only give you a few pointers once a week.  The rest of the time, you must wake up early, keep the fires going and fulfill all the orders that I give you.  I also won’t always be around the shop much, so you must man it while I’m gone.”

“That’s great!  When can I start?”  She asked.

“Don’t take this too lightly,” he warned.  “Being a Blacksmith is no easy job.  You will be worked hard and experience long hours of work.  Are you ready for that?”

“Yes!” Ellie replied.

“One last thing,” he continued. “I won’t be in this town forever.  Once I conclude my business here I will be off to another city or town.  Perhaps even back to my homeland.  Because of this, I won’t be able to take a Peasant with me.”

“Do not worry about that sir, I’m a Freeman,”  Ellie replied though she was a little worried to be separated from Jude.  She would just have to cross that bridge when she got there.

“Very good!   You are now my apprentice!”

***

Jude was a little disappointed when it came to working on the Warrior skills.  Overall they were the same as other skills and quickly leveling them wasn’t a problem.  He got to Rank III unlocking and from .  It wasn’t until he got all of them to Rank II that he noticed the true difference between the Warrior skill and his Wizard class spells.

Power Strike

Rank III

Damage: 3x

Mana: 3

A powerful single target hit that does additional damage.

Sweeping Strike

Rank III

Damage: 1.5x

Mana: 3

Extends your damage and range across multiple targets.

Charge

Rank III

Damage: 2x

Mana: 1

Charge a target from a distance and deliver a heavy blow.

The skill categories all had an area in the Modicuit, but most of them didn’t seem that interesting.  , on the other hand, had strange objects in them that Jude could only relate to being memory chips.

When it was at Rank 0 they were incredibly hard to do anything with them.  It was like they were locked.  But once he got to Rank III he tried again.  Accessing the very first one was now incredibly easy!

Every bit of mana he flowed into the memory chip flowed out of his Modicuit and into his mind relaying information.  It quickly became addictive as he inputted more and more mana until all of his 677 mana was emptied out.  But it was worth it!  He had now downloaded the experience of being a true swordsman!

He couldn’t help himself as he said, “I know kung fu!”