Crank, Click, Cronk, Crank

“What's going on out there”, I stood up, still groggy

I swung open the barn door to see Vance working on somemechanical-lookingg device, “What’s that?”

“Look you finally decided to wake up, here I wasthinkingk it was only going to be me and the little one”

“Woof”, Grimmel barked seeing me.

“Anyways,it's a water pump I made, hopefully I’ll be able to fix it today but I can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong with it”, he said grinding one of the gears

“Like it automatically pumps water, what powers It?”, I can’t believe technology exists here.

“Magical crystals, they ain’t cheap but for something like this I'll only need to replace it once every few months”, He said pointing to a small compartment holding a tiny pink crystal inside of i.t

Eye of a craftsmen Used

As he he continued tinkering I saw one of the gears had a red hue covering it, “I think the problem is over there”, I pointed towards

“Mmmm, You’re right, I used the wrong sized gear here”, he reached into his sack on his side and grabbed another gear that was slightly smaller and replaced it

“Let's see if this works”, he reached out his hand and said Synergizee”, it glowed bright and the machine came to life like an old tractor that hadn’t worked in years.

“That’s damn brilliant kid, it would’ve taken me days to figure that out, say how’d you know that?”, he said patting my back.

I flinched at him when he did, I hated physical contact with people I barely knew, “umm, I sort’ve just knew, I looked at it and there it was”

“Let me see your stats kid, I know that's a personal question but if you wouldn’t mind”

Vance requests to see your states Y or N

I selected “Y”

“What in tarnation is a craftsman? I’ve never heard of that, what's your specialization?”

“I don't even know what that it”, I stared at him confused

“Of course, you don’t forgive my ignorance, you're not of this world. A specialization I the choice of which branch of the crafting tree you choose, with emphasis on the word tree, I chose tinkerer”, he stroked his chin

“Wait a second, in your world did you ever train with daggers or fighting, wait your stats are too low for that, how did you learn all those skills”, now Vance usually had a poker face so seeing him this shocked was kind of jarring

“This otherworlder trait doesn’t just increase the speed you increase your skills level but how quickly you learn new skills, my boy, do not tell anyone about this you hear me, ever. If someone powerful found out about this they’d make you learn some…lets say unsavoury skills or best case they put you in a breeding program to replicate it, though I suppose if they thought you were too strong they’d just outright kill you”, he said grabbing my shoulders

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“Okay good to know”, my guard was raised now

“Again with you thinking I’m going to harm to you, I would’ve done that to you already I wanted to and trust me there is not a thing you could do about it with those stats of yours it’s miracle you haven’t dropped dead yet after everything you’ve went through”, he said with smile that was all too serious.

“Now, follow me I need your help around the farm”, Vance stood up and I followed

“You mentioned you're a tinkerer, what's that?”,I asked him

“It’s my class, we tinkerers look at the world through gears and cogs, we create machines to help others and improve their lives, at least that's what we should be doing in theory but most us just work for the kingdom serving nobles and creating weapons for their armies”, there was venom is his words

“But you kid, you just have a craftsmen class, I’ve never seen that before, so I want to try something”, he said opening the door to the main house where he led me into the basement

The whole wall was covered in tools and when I say the whole wall I meant it, the only open spaces were filled with parts like gears and screws, right in the middle of it all was huge cannon looking thing.

“What is that”, I pointed to it

“Not important”, he said motioning me to come closer, “ this is a handsaw, It’s used in woodworking, now I want you to saw off a piece like this and attach it to this piece like this”, he said demonstrating it.

“Okay?”, I picked up the handsaw, it felt foreign, like a shouldn’t be holding it.

I began sawing away

Woodworking attempted…failed

I look up at Vance

“Try again”, he said

Woodworking attempted…failed

“Again”

Woodworking attempted…failed

“One more time”

Woodworking attempted…succeded

Woodworking skill acquired lv1

Woodworking: The way of the wood calls you, you can now craft items made of wood, with the right tools of course

Woodworking Scales with Crafting

“By the gears!”, he grabbed my shoulders

“Normally it would take hundreds of attempts if you weren’t a woodworker to acquire that skill but you…you just learnt it in three, your interesting case indeed”, He stared at me

“So what now, are you going to train me?”,I may have just found a mentor

“Gods no, I don’t teach kid, I’ll let you stay for the next few days until I head to town, then your on your own”, he responded swiftly

“Hold on, you can’t just not teach me, after just saying all that!”I yelled at him as he led me out of his workshop.

“This isn’t some grand story of a hero finding his mentor that will guide him to save the world, we’re nobody's kid. Look your abilities great but most people your age have already reached level 7 or higher, that’s years of work that you are already behind”, He refuted

“Okay how about his you need help around here right, I can be your servant or whatever, you know someone that helps with the odds and ends, then if you have time I can work on crafting”, I needed him to agree, the last time I was on my own in this world I was sold into slavery.

“Mmmm”, He stroked his chin, “Okay kid but don’t complain about any of the work I give you, first word and your out, I’ll make my final decision when I head to town by the end of the week”, He said relentlessly

“Thank you, you won’t regret this”

“I’m sure I won’t, okay first job, you see that pile of logs over there?, chop them up for firewood and move them to the back of the house by tomorrow”, He said pointing to the huge stack of logs that was about as tall as me

“Goodluck”, he said as he left