I stood in front of the daunting pile of logs, “I need to chop all this before the next morning”, It was easily 3 meters tall and 3 meters wide.

I picked up the axe

Simple woodworking axe Durability 150/200 Rarity-Common

I raised the axe above my head and brought it down as hard as possible.

I repeated this a few more times until I was out of breath

“I…barely…made a dent”, I can’t do this

Skill acquired: Woodcutting- Your blade naturally flows striking true most of the time

Woodcutting scales with crafting skill

Woodcutting lv1

“A new skill, I guess it’s technically a crafting skill, well these trees aren’t gonna cut themselves”, I went back to swinging

It actually is easier, each movement felt more efficient, no wasted energy.

I’m going to be at this all night. I looked over and saw grim chewing on some bone a few meters from me, “Hey Grimmel, how ya doing boy, I haven’t seen you much today”

“Arf”, the dire wolf barked playfully

“Sometimes I think you understand me”, I said as he went back to his bone

A few hours later

“I’m not even halfway done and it’s almost pitch black out”, I stood drenched in sweat, and muscles ached that I didn’t know even existed

Strength increased by 1

The axe became slightly lighter, this place still amazes me.

“Feck this, I shouldn’t have agreed to this”, I threw the axe and lied down in the grass

“Ahh, stop”, Grimmel came and licked my face, “thanks boy I needed some company”

“I don’t think this whole woodcutting thing is going to work out boy”, he stood there staring at me

“You know back home every time I tried something I quit, I did this over and over again, hell I even tried getting in shape, I said, I’ll show that bastard today will be the last day he threatens me. I never stuck to anything and here I am repeating the same thing, all I need to do is chop some wood, pathetic”, I pushed my head into my knees.

Grimmel came and placed his head in my lap. “Come on, boy.” It didn’t matter if it was here or back home; there was always some canine to help me if I was struggling.

“Say who’s gonna look after you if I leave here”, he stood there staring, his eyes saying something like “You, you idiot”

“Ah feck it!, I won’t give up just, after everything I’ve gone through, this is nothing, ya, nothing”, I stood and grabbed the axe and started swinging with a new energy

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Soon the sun rose,Vance awoke to the sound of someone screaming, walking outside his home he saw the kid screaming like a banshee.

He was about to yell at him for screaming but when he saw that he had chopped the whole the whole pile he couldn’t even find the words.

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Impossible, the axe shouldn’t even have enough durability to do that, he thought

He walked up to the idiot, “Good work go wash off and meet me in the kitchen for breakfast”

“Sure will”, the boy waved as he left

Vance picked up the axe

Simple woodworking axe Durability 0/200 Rarity-Common

Status: Broken

“It must have broken hours ago, maybe this kid might be worth my time”, Vance thought dismissing it immediately

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The cold water felt refreshing

“I don’t even know how I did that, after the 3rd or 4th hour my mind blanked out, and I just did it.

Woodworking lv3 reached

I was at it a long time wasn’t it

After washing up I walked into the house where Vance sat enjoying some eggs

“Here’s the little shite that woke me up so early today”, he said smiling

I really hate that smile of his

“Well I was chopping the whole night away, miracle you didn’t wake up through any of it”, I replied snarkily

“Hold it there, I thought you wanted me to teach you, why so angry? I know what it is, you haven’t eaten breakfast today”, he handed a plate of eggs to me

I reluctantly reached for them, “Thank you”, I couldn’t meet his eyes but I could he was on the verge of bursting with laughter.

As I was eating he got up and dropped a book in front of me, “can you read?”, he asked flipping to the first page, pointing at the title

“An idiot tinkerers guide to gears and cogs”, I read out loud

“So he’s not an idiot, good, after you finish today's work I want you to start studying this, I’ll test you up to page 20 tomorrow”

“I’ll be sure to study it”, I responded

“Good, now grab the bucket in the shed and go milk the cows, gather eggs from the chickens, and go clean up Grimmels shite on the front doorstep”

“Will do”

“Will do master”, he said correcting me

“Will do master”, he chuckled when I said that.

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I stood infront the daunting task in front of me, bucket in hand.

“How do I do this?”

The cow stared nonchalenlty at me while I stared in horror for what was to come.

I felt my left pocket to ensure that if things were to go wrong I had assurance that I would survive.

I placed the bucket down underneath, place my hand upon its udder and squeezed, as I did milk filled the bucket.

“Don’t think about, don’t think about it”, I said over and over again

Soon the task was done, he’s going to make me do this everyday is he not?

Next up eggs, that should be easy, I bagan waking to the chicken coop.

Twp headed chicken ran around freely doing whatever two headed chicken do.

“How in the feck does this make sense evolution, one head is enough!”, I entered the coup and gathered the eggs, avoiding nips from the little devils as I did.

Now for the last task of the day, Grimmels present

Back home I had gloves, a pooper scooper and disinfectant but here I had a stick and some hands, I don’t want to go into but it was fun….

I stared at Grimmel angrily, he just gave me that same blank stare as always.

Now the fun part, I cracked open the book

“The module of gears is defined as the quotient of the pitch diameter and the number of teeth, this can be further impacted by the….velcotiy ratio….inverse relationship is also applicable…feck me”, that was the first paragraph and it wasn’t even a quarter of the page, I need to know 20 pages of info by heart, can’t I just go back to chopping logs, I cried internally.

Intelligence increased by 1

Wait, even studying can increase my intelligence, not going to lie, this gives me a little motivation, maybe I can get through this book.

Back home I barely studied, I wasn’t dumb but I would say my talents limit in school was about 11th grade from there I had to study, I never did and that was failing but beside the point, this might sound crazy but I have no idea on how to study.

I swear could see smoke coming out of my brain as the gears were turning in there, ha, see what I did there

Eventually the only light out was the candle Vance gave me.