By next morning, I got permission to take advantage of the temporary quota adjustment. And as predicted, it took me the entire 2 days to smelt the [Iron Ingots]. Due to the detail instructions from Doran that I got, it did not take long for me to hit the quality score of around 5. Thus, I managed to net myself my first [Iron Ingot]. What’s that, you want me to smith you ASAP Mr. Iron Ingot? Guh! Stop tempting me!

Today marks the 14th day since I came to this town of Hallion. And my plan for today is to finally revisit the Adventurers Guild and earn some money.

When I came to the guild, I was notified that someone left a letter addressed to me. Which I found rather shocking…

I took a look at the letter and it seems to be from the trainer Zack.

Dear Shiro,

It is me Zack. You probably don’t exactly want to hear from me and all, but I wanted to apologize to you for what happened. Despite my warnings earlier and all, I still feel like I have failed you as a trainer. I seriously think you have tremendous talents, so much so that I almost got a level up in my trainer class just from you alone. Thus I did something stupid by trying to push you beyond your limits.

This short sightedness has blinded me, and I have failed as an instructor. I sincerely apologize and have decided to go on a journey to reevaluate myself. I originally wanted to speak to you in person prior to leaving, but you have not shown up in the guild since, and I did not know where you lived.

Attached with the letter is a 1 silver refund since I was not able to fulfill the entire lesson.

With deepest regrets,

Zack

“...”

...Okay...lets pretend I didn’t see any of it…

I mean why exactly would I hold a grudge against someone who gave me so much delicious skills? Sure being almost killed kind of stings just a little... But somehow, it is sad to say that I have been through worse…

Is it pathetic that I already think being almost killed is part of every day life these days?

* sigh *

If you are going to apologize for something, how about giving me more of those awesome skills? [Stealth] would be nice…

* sigh *

Yup, lets pretend it never happened! I put the silver coin in my [Item Box] and destroy the note, throwing it away as I head out of town to collect herbs.

I did double check just in case if there would be any replacement trainers or the like, but unfortunately got a negative for the time being...

The day went by rather quickly, and I managed to collect a total of 15 herbs, which was quite productive. Out of the herbs, 4 of them were [Dire Milkweed] which I stored in my [Item Box] for future potion making. I also kept a [Sleepy Jasmine] while cashing in the remaining herbs. Overall I managed to earn 45 iron coins with the reward, bringing my total savings up to 1 silver, 51 iron and 50 copper coins.

After dinner I retired for the day, and then went on to sleep.

...

Thus started yet another new week. I started my morning with my new usual routine of smelting 2 [Bronze Ingots]. After barely pulling myself away from smelting, I head to eat breakfast and headed out. My target? The Builders Guild monthly selections!

Frankly, I think I managed to nab most of the skills back then. But you never know what shows up, so might as well make the best of it.

The crowd this time around was again larger than the Blacksmithing Guild, but it was not as large as the Alchemy Guild. I’d say maybe 100 – 150 people? This time around, the composition was made up of mostly dwarves and beastkin. Though I barely noticed a small batch of a new race. To note, the small descriptor was literal! The new race I just noticed were a few gnomes.

The area the Builders Guild had was pretty large, so all of us were quickly taken to the courtyard.

“Welcome everyone! My name is Rob, and I will be overseein’ the examination. This exam is fairly liberal overall, ya all are free to build whatever ya want in a designated area, showing off ya’r talents. The resources are all shared, so not only will we evaluate ya’r performance as an individual, but also as a group. Building things, unlike many other production oriented jobs is a team effort! Which often times involves dealing with people ya get along with and ones ya don’t. All these factors shall be evaluated! Ya have 10 hours and are free to start whenever!” announced the dwarf.

Hmmm...what should I build? It probably should be something I plan on using in the future, like maybe some traps? But first order of business... I should observe people and see if I can pick up some new skills. I am a bit concerned about running out of limited supplies by the time I actually start building something. That said, skills take precedence.

I decide to look around using [Identify] to find the top 5% in terms of level, or anyone who seems to have a non-combat job related to a production skill. From then on, my glare-athon began!

Your skill [NP][Carpentry] has become Level 3

You have acquired a new skill [NP][Sculpting] Level 1

Your skill [NP][Sculpting] has become Level 2

You have acquired a new skill [CP][Body Builder: Physical Endurance] Level N/A

Due to a special action, a new special [END] stat has been unlocked

[CP][Body Builder: Physical Endurance] Level N/A

Decrease the base stamina consumption of skills by 5% + 0.1% for every level in your non-combat class + 0.05% for every point of [END]

Stamina consumption can not be reduced below 5%

That last one was pretty darn useful! But the most interesting thing as far as production skills go came from the gnomes.

Your skill [NP][Mechanical Engineering] has become Level 1

Your skill [NP][Mechanical Engineering] has become Level 2

Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills]

+25 PER has been attained

Class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills], has been reset.

I spent about 3 hours looking around and it seemed like that was the end as far as skill gains were concerned. So I decided to start up on my project at hand.

Maybe I should take advantage of both my blacksmithing and my new mechanical engineering skill and make something like a bear trap?

Looking around, there is a furnace I can use to blacksmith... There are no ores though, but there are copper metal scraps here and there. The quality is going to be abysmal, but its worth a shot for trial sake.

I start collecting the small pieces of copper lying around here and there, and then melt them down. With them, I managed to make about 5 [Copper Ingots]. Unfortunately, due to their quality being around 1.0314 – 1.1278, it wasn’t good enough for my class quest. Regardless, the fact that they were above the quality score of 1 in itself was a miracle.

Truth of the matter is, I don’t really know how to make a bear trap...but I should be able to reason it out with the help of my stats and skills to an extent.

How about something like this, I’ll make a spring and coil it around both ends of the trap. Then I will put a metal rod in the middle that will hold both sides from snapping together. Afterwards I will make a center platform with another spring. Which when stepped on would push the rod out of place, thus snapping the trap.

It isn’t much, but worth a try…

After 5 hours on working on the trap, with many trial and error, I finally managed to complete “something”.

Pathetic Excuse for a Copper Bear Trap

An abysmal attempt at making a bear trap out of copper. The chances of catching something is almost as good as injuring yourself setting it up. Assuming it even functions properly in the first place as there is a high chance of failure.

+12 ATK on activation

Mobility is reduced by 10%

60% chance of working

40% chance of activating when setting it up

Durability: 20/20

Quality 0.3412/10.000

“...”

Is it just me or does it feel like the system is going out of its way to insult me?

Maybe I should try something a little bit more simple…

Lets see… what trap can I make in 2 hours? Maybe something simple like a giant mouse trap? Though it would probably still take me more than 2 hours to make…

In the end, I could not think of anything that would be so quick to make without any guidance. So I just spent the time comprehending what others were doing, especially the gnomes who were building some odd contraptions.

I didn’t even bother waiting for my entry to be evaluated since it was too embarrassing… Of course I remembered to disarm it prior to leaving lest some poor soul accidentally losses a finger...wait...I did disarm it right? I think I did...Oh well...what’s the worst that can happen?

When I returned to the Blacksmithing Guild, there was still 2 hours left so I used that time to smelt 3 [Bronze Ingots], my speed is definitely improving! I actually could have made more but I was pretty tired from building that trap.

The top priority for this week is to improve my speed without hurting quality and start making new gear. Maybe if lucky, see what I can do about tailoring as well.

On that note, I went to sleep.