Guudnash and Abaud had stocks around their necks and chains connecting them to about ten other criminals.  They and their guards were making the slow trek towards Goenar, the capital city of the Riwa Kingdom.  The stocks and chains were enchanted to keep high-level people like Guudnash from escaping.  Plus, being stripped of his gear he was much weaker.

The chains and stocks never came off making eating and drinking hard but it was not as bad as when they needed to defecate.  After several days of hard travel and abhorrent conditions, both Guudnash and Abaud were in despair.   If the guards allowed talking, they would have argued non-stop.  Now they merely accepted their plight.

It was already a week of travel when they stopped in a clearing next to an old-growth forest.  They still had a month left of travel at the pace kept by the guards.  The prisoners immediately fell down in exhaustion.  The camp was quickly set up and the prisoners were tied off like a group of animals.

Night fell after the camp was setup.  The magic bindings made sure that no one could escape, so the guards were more alert to external attackers than the prisoners.  One of the prisoners was a well-known so it was possible that might attack to free their compatriot.  But this night no attack came.  Instead, something worse crept into the camp.

Only the watch was awake, but even if it was daytime it would have been hard to see the shadowy mass slip into the camp.  Not that the Shadow even needed to travel above ground.  It could travel below just as easily.  But it preferred to travel above ground, to be slightly visible made things more interesting.  It quietly sneaked past the guards and ignored all but two prisoners.

The power of this shadow was not something of this world.  So when it spoke, none could hear it but those it wanted to.  And those it wanted to hear would not need to speak.

“Wake up!” Said the Shadow.

Guudnash and Abaud were both startled awake and quickly found that they could not move their bodies at all.  This way, even if they made noise by surprise, the guards would not hear it.  The Shadow delighted in their agony and pain, he was pleased with the shock and confusion in their eyes.  But he reminded himself that this was not the time to enjoy such things.

“You were brought low due to a whelp and through your insecurity, you have brought death upon yourselves.” Said the Shadow. “Now you wallow in despair and anguish, powerless to seek the revenge that your hearts can not even hope for.”

The two listened intently, life was hard now and death was most certain.  The words of the Shadow melted their hearts as it continued to whisper sweet things into their ears.  Things about revenge, things about power, things about conquering all that opposed them!  So when the Shadow asked if they wanted to join its side, they were begging for it.

“You want revenge against Jude and I want Jude.  Death would be too simple for such a character.  But if you could give him to me, that would be like sending him to a living hell.” Said the Shadow.  “If you agree to serve me, I will arrange for you to be freed and I will teach you how to become powerful.”

They agreed.

***

Jude sat in the yard training his .  He had spent a considerable amount of time studying all his skills in the past and had a good idea what they would be like after he passed Rank III.  But getting past Rank III was the invisible part.  Right now, however, he was not focused on these things, but analyzing the damaged area of his Modicuit where he forcefully removed his skill. 

The damage seemed pretty bad, but at least it was contained to just the area of .  However, Jude wasn’t able to completely understand the damage that was done.  After all, the Modicuit was a mysterious thing in the first place.  He had no relation to it besides computers, yet it was part of him so how much of a computer could it be? 

Before he could continue this line of thought he was interrupted by an elf bursting into his home.

Do I really not lock that door?  I thought I did this time.

The elf was none other than Theodwin Kelren, Ellie’s blacksmith master.  He took a quick look around and immediately noticed Jude and went straight towards him.  Jude had yet to meet the man, as he was always away when he visited Ellie.

“You, are you the one called Jude?” Theodwin asked.

***

Earlier that morning at the Grass Blade Smithy.  Ellie was preparing the forge and waiting for her master.  Today was the day that she would receive tips and advice from the elf, but since she was now level 8, she hoped that he would start showing her how to craft some items.

Up until this point, she had done mostly refining.  She had also done some casting with molds.  Her skill from Craftsman did allow her to cast molds, those were mostly smaller items, but it did not have the zeal of actual forging with a hammer.

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“Are you ready?” Theodwin asked as he came in.

“Yes, master!” Ellie responded.

Theodwin first walked over to the forged and inspected it.  “This looks passable, but if you arrange the coal this way it will heat faster.  After the internal temperature reaches this color, spread it out like this.”

He continued to give advice on all the things she had done and she had yet to get a word in about her new level.  It wasn’t until he was done and about to leave that she was able to speak up.

“Actually, I’m level 8 now and I was wondering if we could go over some forging techniques.”

“Stop joking around.  I will be back mid-morning to inspect the ingots that you’ve made.”  Theodwin brushed her off.  Many apprentices would often want to know how to forge before they actually got the skill.  Some even attempted to do so and it always ends up as a large mess.

Theodwin left the shop without another word.

“Well, if you don’t believe me, then I’ll just have to forge something to prove myself right!” Ellie said to herself as she twirled her hammer.

Since joining the Grass Blade Smithy her repertoire and knowledge had grown from just swords to the many other weapons and she was also starting to learn about the armors as well.  However, swords were still her area of most expertise.

First, she created an ingot the size that she needed.  Fusing the skill with the traditional technique she was able to create the ingot incredibly quick.  She heated the ingot up again using the basic knowledge she attained when she gained the skill.  The knowledge from the skill was by no means all encompassing.  Rather it was a basic understanding of what was.  A teacher was still required to truly utilize the skill.

Once the ingot was heated appropriately, she took it out and began working it on the anvil.  She didn’t have a recipe for smithing a sword, so she could only use her skill at its minimum and had to rely on technique which she had yet to develop.  Still, it was much better than if she didn’t have the skill at all.  What she did have allowed her to get the basic form of the blade and tang.

Once she completed this she began grinding the blade and working on its edge.  That was when Theodwin returned.

***

Theodwin had spent many years researching the world magic.  Not the magic of Wizards or even the magic items that even he could make, but the magic that controlled the world.  Magic like the town stone and the newbie respawn area known as Allur Forest.

His work was not very popular but well known in the elven community so he had ventured forth into one of the human kingdoms to secretly uncover these secrets.  Gaining access to the Town Stone was impossible but the newbie area with its respawning system was an easy to get to. 

Finding the control nodes of the newbie area was not easy.  To date, he had only found one and he suspected that there were much, much more.

He was on his way back to check on Ellie’s progress.  It was something he rarely did, but he had told her he would.  He also wanted to make sure she didn’t go off trying to forge something before she got the skill.

However, as he neared, he heard the distinct sound of the grinding stone.  He entered the shop a little annoyed, but as he approached her from behind he noticed a quality of work that would only come from the skill.  In fact, he doubted anyone’s first attempt at making a weapon with would be so good.  Not that he would tell her that, he didn’t want her to become prideful.  Pride could lead her to reject his teaching and leading her down the wrong path.

Grinding a sword was quite noisy so she didn’t hear him enter.  But when he slammed the door, it was so loud that Ellie nearly jumped out of her skin.

Theodwin looked at Ellie with stern eyes, but he then realized that he didn’t know what to say.  Clearly, she was not lying about being level 8, but how in the world did she level so fast?!

Ellie looked guilty as she had done something she wasn’t supposed to.   This melted Theodwin's heart, even though his face didn’t show it.

“I haven't finished the ingots yet.” Ellie managed to say.

“How did you do that?” He pointed to the sword.

“Because I’m level 8.”

“How?”

Ellie couldn’t just say she leveled with Jude the day before, it wouldn’t make sense.  So she started with the story of them getting trapped in the Grimwar Caves.  Theodwin was patient and asked many questions.  He probed into the story far deeper than anyone else had when Jude had told the story before.

This was how he found out about Jude tampering with the dungeon core and how he found out about Jude’s unique class Spell Analyst!

Theodwin couldn’t wait any longer.  Jude could be the key that he had been searching for all these years!  He had Ellie show him to Jude’s place.  In his excitement, he ‘may’ have knocked a door off its hinges when he entered the locked door.  As a blacksmith, he had naturally high strength, even if he didn’t look like it.

He spotted the boy meditating and asked if he was Jude.

“I am Jude.  Who are you?”  Jude asked.

“Don’t be rude boy, I’m Theodwin Kelren, the Weapons Smith and Armor Smith!”  Rarely did Theodwin use his two Elite Classes to shock and awe people.  In fact, no one here in Longdale knew that he was a Weapon Smith and Armor Smith.  Everyone thought he was just a normal Blacksmith.  But this time he wanted to show Jude how great he was to curry favor with him so that they could help each other.

Jude ignored the fact that Theodwin was the actual rude one here.  He was Ellie’s master so Jude would show him a least a little respect. “Oh, you are Ellie’s, Master.  It’s good to finally meet you.”

At this moment Ellie also entered.  Then Krinn and Wen came out from the building.

Theodwin was rather impressed that Jude took no notice of his Elite Classes.  This was something he himself often did.  He found the nature of people to fawn over the powerful and skilled to be annoying.

Jude’s irritation quickly dissipated as Theodwin told him why he was here and his mission to uncovering the world's secrets.  It was fascinating to hear all the theories and conjectures.  It was almost like being with Murl once again as the elf was enthusiastic about a topic that was considered impossible by most.

Jude rather liked the elf.  And since Theodwin was so forthcoming with him, Jude shared what he knew as well.  He told him about his unique class and the Modicuit and he told him about the dungeon core and its circuitry.  Granted, he didn’t describe it as circuitry as there was no reference of that here. 

Theodwin was shocked and they continued to discuss these topics for the whole day.

What he didn’t mention was the Digital Plane.  The more time he spent here in the Physical Plane, the more he wondered if what he experienced was actually true.  Did he really exist in the Digital Plane?  Only his Modicuit gave him any assurance that it actually had happened.  But as time grew on, the memory of the Digital Plane grew fainter, like a dream passing away.