Arrival

by William Dickey

  I spent the last few days in thought, going over everything I knew about this world and how I could get stronger. I formed a plan, using activity to replace anger as my primary blunt against the agonizing pain. Without such devices, the cold would have driven me mad. Eventually the clock ticked down.

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  ….

  ….

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  00: 00: 05…

  00: 00: 04…

  00: 00: 03…

  00: 00: 02…

  00: 00: 01…

  Chapter 8: Return

  You have resurrected in the nearest city. You have lost all items in your inventory and suffer a penalty of 1 level to both your character and skill masteries.

  “I’m back.”

  I shivered from the chilly air. It was nice finally to be able to do that. It was also nice not having the arrows in my chest, the week of lasting pain they brought was finally gone.

  I looked around. As expected, I was standing in the center of Mill Valley’s main square. It was evening, the sun had already dipped below the horizon but there was still enough light out for people to finish closing down their stores.

  I was surprised how much the town changed in only a week. The houses had a dusting of snow on their roofs and the surrounding mountains were pure white. It was exactly as Warren had planned and I had feared. There had been a storm and now my path to the rest of Xebrya was cut off.

  I noticed an old woman down the street carrying a large bag of groceries. ‘She’s staring at me. She must have been surprised at my sudden appearance. Yeah, that’s it. Now to my plan: Step 1…’

  “Hehe,” the old woman burst into a fit of girlish giggles, causing me to look around for a reason. She wasn’t my only observer. My eyes met those of half a dozen people, everyone on the street at this late hour, and they were all looking at me. All except for a little girl whose eyes were fiercely covered by her mother.

  ‘What is it? Why is everyone staring?’

  A cold breeze felt across the entire length of my body answered me.

  I looked down. I was stark naked. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized. When I died, I lost everything. Everything meant everything. Not every aspect of this world was like a game, where characters could only be stripped down to their underwear.

  “It’s not what you think,” I said to the giggling onlookers. “I’m not normally like this. I just arrived and it’s so cold out here. That’s all it is.” I hurried to the nearest merchant stall, took the cloth tarp hanging above it, and folded the heavy fabric around into a toga.

  I rushed to the Epochal Inn. Although I’d lost everything on me, I didn’t have all of my possessions with me when I died. I left my Earthly belongings and a few extra supplies in the inn. It wouldn’t be much but for a man with nothing it was a good start.

  The inn was dark and silent, a stark contrast to the lively bustling state it had always been in. I nervously knocked on the door, not sure what I’d do if it was closed down.

  A lethargic Rowley answered the door. Unlike the excessively groomed appearance of an accommodating host, Rowley was wearing loose fitting flannel pajamas and a wool cap. In one hand, he held a faint sputtering candle while the other shielded the precious light source from the breeze.

  “E-e-evening Rowley. C-c-can I c-c-come in? It’s awfully cold out here,” I said.

  “Oh, Mr. Isaac it’s you,” Rowley yawned. “I was wondering when I’d expect you. Come in. Come in.” Rowley ushered me in off the icy streets and into the dark lobby, solely lit by his candle.

  “So the others told you what happened?” I asked. “I assume they’ve already moved on?”

  “Yes, left the day after you didn’t come back. Mr. Warren said you died unexpectedly and that I should expect you either today or tomorrow,” said Rowley. “With the mountains cut off most of the tourists and tradesmen have left and the inn is mostly shut down till the snow melts. Of course you’re welcome to still stay here but without many guests we don’t have entertainment in the evenings and the kitchen is closed.”

  “So this place is going to be empty the next 6 months?” I asked.

  “We have one other guest. Miss Kamikira also has a room upstairs. She is a student from Crystalpeak Magic Academy.”

  “What’s a magic student doing way out here?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, something about ancient ruins in the mountains around here,” said Rowley. “Coming this far, this time of year, is a bit strange but those mages have always been the eccentric sort. You’ll have to ask her if you want to know more.”

  “My room is the same?” I asked.

  “If you want it,” said Rowley. “I left all your things where you left them. Oh, right. Your friends left something for you upstairs.”

  I said goodnight to Rowley and slogged upstairs to my room.

  ‘I guess it’s back to the beginning.’ I found my earth clothing and random school items where I’d left them, but pretty much all my Tautellusian gear was lost. In addition to my belongings, I found a letter and a sack on the bed. I opened the letter. It was from Abbey.

  The letter didn’t contain anything surprising, it just explained that they were sorry but they had to leave while they could and that they hoped I’d be able to follow a week behind them but if not that, they’d see me in Castlemere, the capital, once the snow melted. I didn’t know if I wanted to follow, but I had a number of months to think about it.

  I set the letter aside and looked in the sack. Inside there was a moderate sum of Xebrya currency and a set of clean clothes. The money wasn’t much but enough for a new spear and some armor.

  It was late so I snuffed out the candle and went to bed. I tried to sleep but the sandman wouldn’t have me so I just lied there. I was too anxious. I had already rested a week and was itching to get moving, but nothing could be done until morning.

  I got up at dawn. It was time to get back to fight monsters and grind up levels, the dullest part of any game but an important one. I needed to resupply after losing almost everything. The Earth items I had left at the inn wouldn’t help me here. I grabbed the best armor and spear I could afford and went to the woods.

  Hunting was more difficult than I remembered. I went over all the hunting spots that had plenty of game a week before, but found only a few squirrels and rats. The area seemed devoid of larger animals that had enough experience to be worth killing. I gave up early in the afternoon having essentially nothing to show for several hours of work.

  ‘Maybe today’s just not my day,’ I tried to reassure myself. I didn’t want to admit that Warren’s tracking might have been why hunting had been so easy before and after a quick lunch I moved on to something else.

  In my week in purgatory, I discovered a flaw in my strategy. I had spent so much time fighting I’d forgotten the power that comes with knowledge. Such knowledge had moved Earth from caves to skyscrapers, had made innumerable technological advances, had cured diseases, and attained power over both the microscopic and the macroscopic.

  As far as I had seen the laws of nature were the same here as Earth. The only difference was magic and while magic was powerful, it was inaccessible to the masses. Magical talent was rare so only a few could make real use of it.

  I planned to find simple inventions that I could bring into this world. Backed by nature, the device could be used by anyone. This meant countless potential customers that could grow a vast mercantile empire. That would be my path to greatness.

  I was still unsure of the best invention to start with, but I had time, there were other problems I needed to deal with first. I needed to understand what this world was currently capable of.

  I ended up back in the Beaten Hammer. The heat and ash ridden air of the forge only half as uncomfortable as the temperament of the old man who ran the weapon shop, but I was desperate and Kanis was the only man I knew capable of providing what I needed.

  “Afternoon Kanis,” I said. “I don’t know if you remember me but…”


  “What do you want,” the grumpy old man answered.

  “Well I’ve been here a couple times before…”

  “Of course I remember you,” he answered. “You’re the one who bought all the shitty spears. What do you think that I’m some senile old man who can’t even remember his own customers?”

  “Of course not, I just-”

  “Then you can leave,” Kanis finished pointing me to the exit.

  “I want you to teach me blacksmithing,” I said. Since most of Earth’s technology relied on electricity, almost any device I could choose to introduce required me to learn metallurgy, i.e. Blacksmithing.

  “Ha ha ha,” the blacksmith guffawed in a deep voice that I’m sure hadn’t made that noise in years. “You, you want to be a blacksmith.”

  “Yes,” I answered. “I’m interested in-.”

  “Why waste precious resources teaching you?” asked Kanis.

  “If you’re worried about the time,” I started.

  “Not just the time, it’s also about the materials. Metal doesn’t grow on trees. Teaching you will take loads of it,” said Kanis.

  “How about this, just let me stay and watch. I’ll learn by mimicking what you do. That way you don’t have to ‘waste’ time on me. I’ll even get my own ore. All I need is for you to let me borrow the forge when you aren’t using it,” I said.

  “Hmm… Alright,” said Kanis. “It’s almost worth it to see you floundering about.”

  “What...?” The blacksmith’s sudden change in attitude surprised me.

  “I said alright. Now go away,” said Kanis. “Come back when you are ready.”

  You have acquired a new class quest: †Way of the Blacksmith†

  Kanis the blacksmith has agreed to let you watch him work and use his forge, but you’ll have to find your own raw materials.

  Difficulty: ***

  Reward: †Blacksmith† Class

  Mill Valley was somewhat famous for its metal exports. The mines, only a few miles west of town, employed a full third of the populace and were the only reason it existed in the first place. I went to the mines first thing in the morning and managed to work out a deal with the mine’s overseer. I was allowed to work in the mine in exchange for half of whatever I managed to dig up.

  For the next few days, I spent the mornings hunting and the afternoons mining. Like my first morning back, I continued having trouble finding game so nearly all of my progress was in mining.

  Mining was dull and labor intensive. Each day my entire body ached to a degree that not even a full night’s sleep seemed to relieve. Nevertheless, after a week of suffering, I finally had enough raw materials to start.

  I returned to the Beaten Hammer. As always, Kanis was diligently wailing on his latest masterpiece.

  “Hello. I got some iron ore so I can start making stuff.” I waited for some response, but it didn’t come.

  “Hi, you remember me right…. Isaac… You said you would let me practice in the forge… Remember? Yes? No?” I said.

  “Of course I remember,” Kanis said. “It was only a week ago. As I recall, I offered to let you observe so observe.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Observe,” Kanis repeated, his voice somehow growing even sterner.

  I shut my mouth. I didn’t want to lose this opportunity. Kanis took a few more swings on a half-finished sword before he set it aside in a pool of water. The pool hissed as the glowing steel flash boiled some of the water and the blacksmith started something new.

  He picked up a couple rocks that I could now recognize as raw iron ore and tossed them into an oven. Kanis kept the fire stoked as he fed the oven periodically with more ore and coal. Over the next hour, I patiently watched as the clumps of ore turned red and melted. The molten metal, pulled by gravity dripped through the rack of burning coals into a stone basin set at the oven’s bottom.

  Once the stone basin was full, Kanis put out the fire and let the basin cool. What remained was a chalky lump of iron that he took and cut it into more manageable rectangular ingots. He set it on a stack with others he had already prepared and returned to the sword he’d been working on when I’d first entered.

  ‘I guess it’s my turn.’ I tried to follow what Kanis did. I built up a coal fire and threw on the iron ore. The work was painfully slow and sweaty. Perhaps a symptom of the fast-paced modern world I left, I was used to instant gratification.

  Eventually the molten fluid stopped dripping and the metal in the basin cooled and darkened so I took out the purified slab and brought it to the station to cut into ingots. Kanis turned his attention to me for a moment as I cut into the iron.

  “Ahhhh.” A few hot dribbles of liquid seeped out from the cut burning my fingers. I was impatient and cut into the metal too soon. Kanis stopped watching and returned to his work.

  ‘Damn bastard. He could have warned me.’ The semifluid blocks quickly deformed under the force of gravity. With this batch ruined, I had to start all over, re-melting it down in the coal oven. This time I was patient and the ingots came out okay so I repeated the process several times, turning all the ore I’d collected into clean, plain metal slabs.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow,” I told Kanis as the sun dipped below the horizon.

  A quick nod was his only reply.

  With nothing else to do, I returned to the Epochal Inn for the first time in several days. While I was busy mining, I’d stayed in the camp with the other miners. It saved me an hour everyday walking between town and the mine.

  “Hey Rowley,” I said.

  “Lo Isaac,” Rowley replied. “It’s been a while. What have you been up to?”

  “Just been out mining and hunting,” I said. “Nothing interesting to report.”

  “Been going well?” asked Rowley.

  “Mining is going well, but I haven’t had much luck with hunting.” I avoided mentioning the cause. It was too embarrassing.

  “That’s not too surprising,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “What do you mean? You think I can’t handle it by myself?” I said.

  “No. No. I’m sure it’s not you. It’s just… what do you expect. There isn’t an infinite supply of creatures.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You and your kind have been slaughtering everything in sight. Between all the dead and what you scared off, there aren’t many animals left,” Rowley explained.

  I know I should have felt relieved but instead I just felt stupid. I never thought about running out of enemies. It was wrong of me to think of this world like a video game, with an infinite number of respawning enemies. In every visible way, this world operated just like a real one would. I was the only thing out of place, the only thing that worked like a videogame.

  “What will people do with no animals?” I said. “People won’t starve, will they?”

  Rowley laughed at that, “Don’t worry the numbers will bounce back. More will migrate here from the deeper parts of the forest and replace what was lost. Don’t think you could eradicate a species in only a few weeks.”

  I spent the next weeks constantly working. Because of Rowley’s statements, I replaced the morning hunting with additional mining, selling whatever I couldn’t use.

  In the afternoon, I studied Kanis. Each day upon my arrival, he would demonstrate some small part of the forging process and then make room for me to try to replicate it.

  After I finished refining raw ore into spongy air filled metal bricks, Kanis showed me to remove the air by reheating the bricks and pounding them out with the hammer. After that, he started showing me how to make different shapes: first, a variety of plain forms created using molds then a series of shapes made by directly bending hot steel.

  After two months at the forge, Kanis turned to me and for the first time since I had started observing him, addressed me directly. “Well, that’s it.”

  “What do you mean, that’s it?” I asked.

  “I mean you know enough about blacks
mithing. That’s all I have to teach. Now you just need practice,” he said, gruffly.

  “Brrring.”

  You have completed the quest: †Way of the Blacksmith†

  A master smith says you have learned enough to strike out on your own. You can now change your class to a blacksmith.

  †Class Change†

  None -> †Blacksmith†

  Since you currently don’t have a class, class is automatically changed to †Blacksmith†.

  Please be advised, with a production class, combat oriented skills cannot exceed level 10 and production skills outside your class cannot exceed level 15.

  †Class: Blacksmith†

  A crafter devoted to the way of metal. Can turn useless rocks into tough metal. Shapes the strongest substances into powerful weapons and armor.

  Can use †Blacksmithing† skill

  Can use †Repair† skill

  †Blacksmithing Lvl.1 (0.0%)†

  Allows forging of metal objects

  Knowledge of weapons reduces weapon requirements by 1%

  Knowledge of armor reduces armor requirements by 1%

  †Repair Lvl.1 (0.0%)†

  Can repair durability of damaged weapons and armor, but maximum durability of the equipment is reduced by 50%

  As †Repair† level rises, the maximum durability lost is reduced.

  After reading the stream of messages, I turned back to Kanis. “Thanks for everything. But I was wondering if you could help me with one more thing,” I said. “I am still trapped in town for a few more months and I know there’s no reason to help another blacksmith in town but, do you mind if I continue working here until the snow melts?”

  “Sure,” Kanis replied, his eyes had already returned to his work.

  Having finished learning the basics of blacksmithing, I needed to choose what to reinvent. I needed something simple enough that I, with my rudimentary blacksmith skills, could produce, yet not so simple that it already existed. It also needed to be something useful that could be used by anyone to maximize the number of potential customers.