Chapter 2: Let Me Tell You About My Best Friend.

*A new quest has arrived*

*Quest: Smash the pebble*

*Reward: ???*

Gordan paused to look over the system message and think. "I've never seen a quest like this before…"

He took more time to look at the pebble in the light. Its yellow color was like that of a paint set like someone had painted a rock. Inside was a shadow in the shape of a diamond.

Gordan muttered, "Well... no time like the present."

He began looking around the shop for something to smash the pebble. His excitement was getting the better of him. Gordan couldn't help but imagine what kind of reward the system would give him for this. Thoughts flooded his mind. "Maybe it's a diamond! I could make a fortune!... Maybe it's just a rock though?"

Not finding anything to smash the pebble, he entered a door past the inventory shelves at the back of the shop. The room was filled with a variety of tools. All of these tools were used by his father to craft the array of items sold at the shop. Inside, there was ample space, with various workbenches, all for different crafting tasks. He stopped at a carpentry bench and picked up a hammer.

"This ought to be good!" he thought.

He sat the pebble down on the metallic workbench away from anything that could be damaged. Another thought came to mind. "If I break anything my dad's gonna beat my ass… I may be 16 but that's never stopped him before!"

He recalled countless times when he sold something at a lower value than he ought to have done or broken a tool. His father would chase him around their property, screaming, "You insolent fool! I taught you better! You get back here, boy!" Gordan shuttered.

Thinking about avoiding damaging the bench, he brought over a single plane of wood and set it underneath the pebble. "Alright! This is it!" Gordan smiled sly as if he were getting away with something.

He lifted the hammer and sent it downward toward the pebble as a curious teen would. Sloppily and without any grace. As the hammer struck the pebble, a light escaped the cracks, and an even brighter white light burst forth, breaking apart the yellow coating.

Gordon's eyes were locked in, and although the light was almost blinding, his curiosity got the better of him. All that was remaining was a white crystal-like object. The diamond-shaped crystal was about the size of his pinky finger.

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He picked up the strange crystal.

*Quest completion detected*

*Quest: Complete your daily work! – Completed*

*Quest: Smash the pebble – Completed*

*Reward: Daily wages (From Mom) 2g*

*Reward: Class crystal (Jack of all trades)

"Eh?" Gordan frowned, thinking, "Class crystal? I've only ever seen skill crystals before…"

*Integration is starting. Please wait.*

"What!? NO! This thing could be worth a fortune!"

A flash of light exploded forth as the crystal burst into dust. The light could be seen from the shop windows, akin to a flash bang or a rave.

*Integration complete*

*Skill added: Impart*

*Skill added: Skill up*

"What the hell… I've never seen those before." Gordan thought.

He took some time to review his skill page and check out what sort of skills he had just integrated.

*Skill: Gaming lvl 20*

*Skill: Shopkeep lvl 4*

*Skill: Bartering lvl 4*

*Skill: Crafting Lvl 1*

Scrolling past all of his miscellaneous skills, he got to the bottom. To his amazement, they were really there.

*Skill: Impart lvl 1*

*Skill: Skill up*

He selected them to reveal their descriptions.

*Skill: Impart*

*Impart a fraction of a skill you know to someone on your friend list. Fraction increases as your lvl increases.*

*Skill: Skill up*

*Learn any mundane skill through facing a challenge*

"Through facing a challenge?" He muttered.

"Well, I've come this far, I'll try it out." Gordan selected the skill and activated it through thought.

*Please select a skill to increase*

"Oh. I didn't realize this is how it worked. Maybe… Bartering? I could use that." He thought.

*Bartering selected. Please be prepared.*

Gordan was not prepared. Another flash of light blinded him. Once his sight was restored, he found himself in the desert. "Oh fuck, why does this shit happen to me?" His expression fell as he felt the sun beating down on him.

*A new quest has arrived*

*Quest: Find a weapon*

*Reward: Bonded Weapon*

Gordan immediately began looking around. All he could see were desert dunes for miles around. Nothing immediately jumped out to him. A passing thought occurred to him. "How did I even end up here? What the hell was really in that crystal. What a strange skill."

He decided walking in any direction was better than sitting around doing nothing with the sun beating down on him. Trekking through the dunes was a lot more difficult than he had imagined. He wore his typical daily attire: a white shirt, khaki pants, and nice-looking leather boots. The boots didn't allow sand in but made getting his footing on the sand much more difficult.

Some time passed, and Gordan was having none of this. It must have been at least an hour, and he was beginning to get thirsty. He opened his inventory screen to reveal the only item he had on him, a hammer.

"Just my luck. No water, no food and no place to go. I'm going to die out here."

*Quest completion detected*

*Quest: Find a weapon - Completed*

*Reward: Bonded Hammer*

Another flash of light entered his sight, blinding him yet again. When his vision cleared up, he was back at the shop. It seemed no time had passed. Or at least, it was still dark out. In his hand, he saw the hammer. A small system message above it shows the name "Gordan's trusty hammer".

*Skill up: Bartering has now reached lvl 5*

"Huh? Well, it worked. But how strange is this…"