I awaken with a start, cold sweat clinging to my body. 

I don’t remember what the nightmare was about but the terror still lingers in my mind. I sit up on my bed and talk a few calming breaths. I look out the window and notice that the sun is just beginning to rise above the horizon. It might be too early to get breakfast downstairs and I don’t want to sit around waiting. I pull on my shirt, then my boots, and finally my belt with my dagger attached to it. 

I made my way out of the inn as quietly as I could trying to not wake the other patrons. When I got outside I saw people setting up their market stalls for the day. One was an old man struggling to set up a produce stand. I went over to him and began to help him without saying a word. He gave me a grateful smile as I did so. When we were finished setting up the stall he offered me a small bag of produce.

“Here ya go son, thanks for the help” 

I made to refuse, I hadn’t helped him expecting anything in return.

“No it’s fine, I just wanted to help”

The old man scowled at me offering the produce more firmly.

“Son, I may have not asked for your help but I appreciate it and I won’t take help from others without compensating them for their time. I may be old but I’m not helpless.”

Great, if I don’t accept the produce I’ll be calling this nice old man weak and helpless. I accept the bag of produce and give him a soft smile. 

“Alright, thanks then. If you ever need help and see me around just ask. I have to be going now though.”

He gives me a polite nod as I walk away down the road toward Roan’s shop. When I get there I can see him taking his morning tea outside watching the sunrise. I simply give him a nod as I make my way around the back of his shop to his work area. He looks at me but doesn’t otherwise acknowledge me as he sips his tea.

When I get around back I can see that the forge is cool and hasn’t been started for the day yet. Normally Roan starts the forge first thing in the morning and lets it make a nice bed of coals while he takes his tea. This must be part of his test. I grab some kindling and pull out my flint before grabbing a piece of steel from Roan’s metal rack. 

“Skill: ‘Forge Knowledge’ activated.”

The optimal way to light Roan’s forge floods into my mind and I readjust my tinder pile to how it suggests. Once I get the pile into the optimal position and shape I light it with my flint. Once I get some coin I need to buy a fire starter spell. As my tinder pile goes up I slowly feed it larger pieces of wood until I get a good fire going. I add some coal from Roan’s supply and Forge Knowledge lets me know exactly how much I should add to the fire. I don’t remember Forge Knowledge working quite like this before but it’s welcome. It might be the one thing I like about this new update. I use the foot billows to blow just the right amount of air into the fire to get it to a forging temperature.

Once I get the forge up to temperature I grab several pieces of iron and pull out the tongs I had made yesterday. I put the metal into the forge watching it as it heats up watching for the color change. Right as I go to pull them out, I hear the system.

“Iron is now at the optimal temperature for forge welding.”

It’s nice that the system automatically knows what my plan is. I place the pieces of metal down on the anvil and sprinkle a handful of flux across them before I stack them into stacks of two. I then grab Roan’s hammer, it feels lighter than it did yesterday, that boost to my strength is already coming in handy. I strike the stacks in series making sure to make the most of their heat. I decided to try something I forgot to do yesterday. I activate two skills at once.

“Skill: ‘Work Metal’ activated.”

“Skill ‘Hammer Strike’ activated.”

I feel my stamina drain at a faster rate but I manage to get all the pieces of iron forged into one solid billet on the first heat. I sit down on the ground with my back against a workbench panting.

That was massively draining but I think this might speed up my work if I don’t let my stamina fully drain again. My stomach rumbles reminding me of the lack of food. I pull out the bag of produce and open it. There are some carrots, potatoes, and apples. I pull out an apple and wipe it down on my shirt before taking a bite. It’s so crisp yet juicy. It tastes better than any apple I’ve ever had before. I eat it slowly savoring each bite as I wait for my stamina to regenerate. I throw the core out into the field behind Roan’s workshop for the birds. 

I stand and wipe the juices from my face before going back to the forge. It had cooled slightly while I was waiting for my stamina to recover. I top up the coal and use the billows to get the temperature back up to what I need it to. I hear Roan talking with a customer while I’m waiting for the heat to return. I can’t quite make out what they’re saying though. 

Once the heat is back to its optimal temperature I put the iron billet back in the fire to get up to heat. I stand there watching the billet moving it around to ensure it gets an even heat. I pull it out when I think it’s ready expecting to hear the system confirm my assumption. I don’t hear anything so I manually activate Forge Knowledge just to check.

“Skill ‘Forge Knowledge’ activated.”

“The ‘Iron Billet’ is at the optimal temperature.”

I feel a wave of mental exhaustion as the skill deactivates. I notice that half my mana is gone from that single skill usage. Weird, why does it activate passively sometimes and others it doesn’t? I’ll have to figure this out eventually but for now, I can’t waste this heat. I activate Work Metal and Hammer strike to shape the billet before I drive the punch through the middle making a nice hole. I check my stamina to make sure I’m not using too much with my skill usage.

“Current stamina 12 out of a maximum of 31.” 

I now roughed out the blacksmith's hammerhead back into the forge to come back up to heat while I rest. I’m glad I caught my stamina before It bottomed out again. I feed the forge and use the billows, maintaining the necessary heat while my stamina recovers. Once I get the heat where I want it I lean against the workbench watching the billet.

I hear the door from the shop coming out to the work area open and see Roan approach. He says nothing when he gets there. I pull the billet out with my tongs and carry it over to the anvil where I start to hammer it into shape using Work Metal and Hammer strike again. I get the hammerhead into the shape I want so I plunge it into the quench and move it around to make sure it cools evenly. Once I feel It has cooled enough I pull it out to check for cracks and see none. I found a handle that would fit the head nicely and I hammer it into the hole I had made. When I get it fitted to the head I hammer in a wedge to secure the head to the handle.

I test how it feels in my hand before I grab a file and make some adjustments to the grip. Once I get it feeling nice in my hand I grab some oil and give the whole hammer a nice coating. 

“You have successfully crafted the item ‘Well Made Blacksmith’s Hammer.’ ”

“You gain 40 EXP for crafting the item ‘Well Made Blacksmith’s Hammer.’ ”

“You gain an additional 30 EXP for crafting a ‘Well Made’ item.”

“EXP needed until next level up 782.”

I smile as I hold the new hammer that I made with my own hands. There’s something deeply satisfying about making something with my own two hands. Roan turns and walks back into his shop still without saying a word. I grab a carrot from the produce bag and eat it slowly as I let my stamina refill from skill usage. At least the food in EO tastes better than the food back in the real world. As I eat my carrot I put a single piece of iron into the forge to come up to heat. I pump the billows to get the forge heat back up to what I think the right temperature is.

“Skill: ‘Forge Knowledge’ activated.”

“Forge is currently at the optimal temperature to forge iron, and will lose heat in 1 hour 48 minutes.”

I look and see that my mana and stamina hadn’t dropped from the skill activation. This was strange. It doesn’t really matter though. So long as the skill is working and is helping me then I’ll try and figure it out some other time. The next thing I needed to craft was a metal punch. It would be simple enough. I pull the white-hot iron out of the forge and place it on the anvil. I pull up my hammer as I activate Work Metal. I won’t be needing to use Hammer Strike for this. I strike the iron barely a handful of times before the punch is done.

“You have successfully crafted the item, ‘Iron Punch’. ”

“You have gained 10 EXP.”

“EXP needed until next level up 842.”

“Skill ‘Work Metal’ has advanced from basic to novice.”

Nice! That’ll be useful with the next project. I quickly quench the punch and set it aside to cool.

Now then. There’s only one more item I need to craft before I can finish working on the axe.

I need to make the anvil.

I let out an exasperated sigh. This will be the hardest thing I could do right now. I’ve done it before. I know how to do it, but I’ve never done it by myself. I sit there thinking about how I could do this. Anvils are massive chunks of metal, and making one by myself even with my skills might take me the whole week to finish. I pulled out an apple from the back and began eating it while I was pondering what to do. I was looking over the fence behind Roan’s property when it hit me. There’s more than one type of anvil. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Why was I so deadset on making the classic massive anvil? Well, because it looks cool that’s why. I shake my head and smile. I give the billows a few pumps as I throw in three iron ingots, that’s all I’ll need for what I have planned. 

Once the iron was hot enough I pulled all three out and sprinkled some flux on them before staking them on top of each other. I held them firmly in place as I brought up my hammer. As I began my downswing I activated both ‘Work Metal’ and ‘Hammer Strike,’ I wanted this to go smoothly. I swung with my full force, not caring about my stamina. I needed to get this right the first time.  I could feel the sweat dripping down my face, and I wiped it with my shirt. My breath became ragged as I continued to swing my hammer. I put the now forge-welded iron billet into the fire and sat down. It took me a few minutes to get my breath back from exhausting my stamina completely. I stood up and walked around to the side of Roan’s shop where he kept his barrel of water. It was slightly stale, but I didn’t care. I drank a few long deep gulps of that water before splashing some on my face.  Dang this felt good.

After I had drank my fill and felt refreshed, I made my way back to the workshop. Once there I grabbed the now heated piece of iron, taking it to the forge. I set it down and began to hammer it using both my skills to draw out the metal into a longer piece of iron, rather than just a big chunk. When it was the length that I wanted I began to taper the edges down. I picked it up and looked at what would be my anvil. It was coming along nicely. I set it back into the forge to come back up to heat.

Roan had appeared sometime during my forging and was giving me an inquisitive stare. I simply gave him a tired smile. I wonder if he knew what I was up to. He probably did but wasn’t saying anything. Though, it would be fun to surprise that old elf. I turned to look away from Roan and back to my piece of iron. I gave the billows a few pumps before removing my soon-to-be anvil from the forge. I carefully carried the piece of iron to the anvil and began to hammer it into shape. I made use of both of my skills to make the job go much faster. Within minutes my anvil was now done. As I quenched my anvil I heard the system chime out.

“You have successfully crafted a never before seen item, please name it”

Wait what?

“You have named the new item “Wait What?”

“No!” I shout out. That’s not what that is called. It’s called a stake anvil! 

“You have gained 300 EXP for having crafted a never before seen item”

“EXP needed until next level up 542.”

“Skill ‘Hammer Strike’ has advanced from basic to novice.”

I sit down and groan at my mistake. I was just so surprised at having made something that should have been in the game already. I see Roan swing the door open and look at me with a concerned look.

“What happened, did you break something?”

I shake my head while looking down at the ground. I don’t even know how to explain what just happened.

He notices the new anvil laying on top of his own and he picks it up giving it an inquisitive look.

“What is this thing?” 

“It’s a stake anvil,” I saw glumly knowing that if anyone were to inspect it that it would read as the ‘Wait What?’

He looks at me with curiosity blazing in his eyes.

“What exactly is a” he stresses the next words as if they are foreign to him “Wait What? That is a strange name” Roan said shaking his head 

Oh for the love of, did the system translate stake anvil as Wait What to him?

I let out an exasperated sigh as I stood up and grabbed the ‘Wait What?’ from Roan’s hands.

“It’s a type of anvil that you stake into a log or something else sturdy.” 

“Why not call it a stake anvil then?” Roan says as he blinks his eyes with the most confused expression I think I have ever seen on a person before.

I sigh in defeat and shake my head

“Yeah, that’s a better name why didn’t I think of that?”

I look up and see that the day has started to slip away so I decide to check the time.

“It is currently 4:37 p.m.”

“I’m going to have dinner,” I announce to Roan.

He doesn’t respond to me, instead, he grabs the new anvil. I leave the ‘Wait What?’ in the workshop so Roan can look it over more and leave to go have dinner at the Oakstump. As I walk my way back up to the inn I wave at the old man politely. He gives a little wave back with a soft smile before getting to his next customer. It’s good to see him busy. When I get inside I find an empty table and sit down. A few other people are eating already. They were most likely farmers who had come to town to sell their goods and wanted to have an early dinner before heading home for the night. I gave a wave to the waitress to get her attention and she gave me a polite smile. When she came over to me I saw her scrunch up her nose. I wonder what I did to offend her. Then the scent hit me, I stunk. I smelled like sweat and smoke, which made sense. I needed to have a bath soon not just the wash basin they provided. It would have to wait though, since I still haven’t managed to earn any coin yet. 

“You want something to eat?” The girl asks snidely. 

“I’d like the meal that comes with the room,” I said placatingly. 

She turns and walks away in a huff. I don’t think that girl likes me. I shake my head as I sit there and wait for my food. I smile at one of the patrons as our eyes meet and he gives me a polite nod before turning back to his food.

I hear the doors of the inn open and look on instinct curious who had come in. I see that it’s Chloe and our eyes meet. She gives me a bright smile before coming over to my table.

“Hey there! How are ya feeling?”