As I walk up to the Tailors I see Susan the Tailor measuring cloth out on the counter through the glass paneled door.

She greets me warmly. “Nice to see you again. Looks like you have been busy leveling. What can I do for you today?”

“I would like to buy some leather boots, pants, belt, shirt, and a cloak of concealment.”

She has a look of surprise on her face as she says. “I have the leather cloths, but a cloak of concealment?”

“Yes, they should be behind your counter.”

“How do you now that?” She yells. Wow, that is serious transformation from sweet mild mannered to irate.

“I am sorry, that is information from a quest and I can’t say any more than that. Now clothes?”

She takes a deep breath, goes over to the table with neat piles of folded clothes and gets a pair of pants, and shirt. She takes a belt from the rack. Over on a shelf she retrieves a pair of calf high boots and finally reaches behind the counter to get a cloak. She opens a trade window and says it will be two silvers for the cloak and fifty coppers each for the cloths which brings it to four silvers even. That is non-negotiable.

“Ok.” I say as I put four silvers in the trade window and select accept. “Do you have a changing room?”

She grins and says, “I am tempted to make you change under a blanket, but just look at the items in your inventory and think equip.”

As I do that the clothes suddenly appear on my body and I check out my clothes.

Equipment:

Uncommon Leather Shirt, Defense: 5, Durability: 25/25, A sturdy well-made leather shirt.

Uncommon Leather Pants, Defense: 5, Durability: 25/25, A sturdy well-made pair of leather pants.

Uncommon Leather Belt, Defense: 2, Durability: 10/10, A sturdy well-made leather belt.

Uncommon Leather Boots, Defense: 4, Durability: 20/20, A sturdy well-made pair of leather boots.

Uncommon Leather Cloak of Concealment, Durability 25/25, A sturdy well-made leather cloak. Three times per day can conceal the user from sight if the user does not move. Certain skills can pierce the concealment. Chance of concealment increased when the stealth skill is in use.

“Now I have a Defense of sixteen, what does that mean?”

“Right, when you are attacked your defense is subtracted from the damage. If that means the resulting damage is zero or less you take no damage. The remaining damage reduces the durability of your items by one tenth of the damage taken rounded down. For example, you have a sixteen for defense and someone hits you for twenty points of damage minus sixteen for defense, which means you take four points of damage. Also, your clothes take four divided by ten durability damage, but since this is zero when rounded down you take zero durability damage. You would have to take ten points of damage or more to reduce a point of durability.”

“Ok, thanks. I am off to the blacksmith. Have a great day.” I twirl my cloak and exit the shop.

As I enter the blacksmith’s shop a blast of hot air hits me and I see the smith hammering a red-hot piece of metal.

He then taps the anvil repeatedly. It is strangely soothing despite being so loud. After he puts the metal back in the fire I clear my throat politely. The smith jumps as he turns to look at me and says, “Sorry about that. I get very focused when forging.”

“No problem, I liked watching you work.”

“What can I get you today?”

“I am interested in a sword and dagger.”

“Well based on your stats I would suggest a short or medium length sword and a stabbing dagger unless you are interested in a throwing dagger?”

“Stabbing dagger is fine and a medium sword.”

“A dagger will run you forty to eighty coppers depending if you want bronze or steel. I would suggest bronze because this is a starter area and that will work fine for anything here. After you leave you will have access to a lot of options including enchanted gear.”

“Ok, then a bronze dagger and medium sword.”

“Right, the dagger will be forty coppers and two silvers for the sword. You don’t need to negotiate since I offer a fair price and I am the only blacksmith in the village.”

I open a trade window and add two silvers and forty coppers, while Howard puts a dagger and sword in his side of the window. I select accept and look at my new purchases.

Equipment:

Uncommon Bronze Dagger, Damage 12-18. Durability: 50/50.

Uncommon Bronze Sword, Damage 25-40. Durability: 75/75.

A big difference over the stone dagger I created. I am starting to feel I could kill an Alpha wolf with ease. Howard turns back to his forge after I accept the trade. I say good day and he just grunts as he pulls the metal back out of the forge to the anvil.

I head over to the barracks to get some practice. I see the captain is still drilling guards, who all glance at me hoping that my presence will distract the captain from yelling. He looks at me and says, “You already completed the quest?”

“Not yet.”

“Well what do you want then?”

“I would like to train on the dummies behind the barracks.”

“How do you know about that?” He asks sharply.

“It is part of a quest.”

He looks at me suspiciously but says, “Alright, but you better not miss the dummies and hit the building or wall.”

“Great, thanks.” I say as I quickly jog around to the back of the barracks. There are eight dummies setup made of canvas and straw. I pull the three new spells scrolls out and read them first. As they crumble to dust I learn the following.

Mend, Level 1

Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level)

This spell will repair the durability of an item. Mend can be casted once on each item. Repairs 5-15 points of durability plus two points per skill Tier level.

Range: Touch

Cost: 20 mana

Ignite, Level 1

Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level)

This spell creates a spot of intense heat, which will ignite any flammable material. If casted on a creature will cause 3 points of base damage plus one point per skill Tier level.

Range: 10 feet plus 5 feet per skill Tier level

Cost: 5 mana

Light, Level 1

Basic Level 1 (0% progression to next level)

This spell creates a ball of light, which illuminates everything in 20 feet.

Range: 10 feet plus 5 feet per skill Tier level.

Cost: 5 mana per minute

I rub my hands together and check out my character before starting.

George Peterson Age: 16 Level: 6 XP to next Level: 1580/2100 Class: None Race: Harrow Titles: Reborn Fame: 140 Str: 16 Melee Damage Modifier: +6 Agi: 13 Range Damage Modifier: +3 Dodge: 3% Con: 11 Health / Stamina: 55 / 55 Health / Stamina Regen: 11% per min End: 23 Pain Threshold: 13% Int: 31 (5) Mana Pool: 225 (70) Wis: 26 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 6.5 per min Cha: 10 Trade Modifier: 0% Per: 28 Favor: 0 Abilities: Night Vision, Shaper (Basic 1, 63%), Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%) Skills: Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 1, 50%), Herbalism (Basic 1, 0%), Inspect (Basic 7, 78%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 2, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Novice 6, 53%), Numbness, Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 2, 0%), Stealth (Basic 9, 30%), Trading (Basic 6, 75%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%) Spells: Fire Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Ice Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Ignite (Basic 1, 0%), Light (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Dart (Basic 1, 0%), Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Basic 1, 0%), Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 53%) Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward, Shield (Basic 1, 0%) Equipment: * Unallocated Status Points: 5

I think I will start with spells. With the necklace and rings my mana pool has seriously grown. I start casting Mana Dart at a dummy. A swirl of faint blue light forms into small glowing bullet of energy in my right hand, and then snaps from my hand into the dummy’s chest. A faint red minus five appears above the dummy. With that taking two seconds to cast, at ten mana a cast I will be down to half mana in under 26 seconds. I better sit down while I do this. I situate myself with my back to the barrack wall and start to cast as fast as I can. I get off twelve casts before I pass out.

As I come to, I find myself slouched against the barrack wall. I sit up and grab my head. This mana induces headache, sucks. Looking at my clock I see twenty minutes have gone by since I started casting. Ok, time for some serious grinding. It’s 9:25AM right now, so I will cast until noon and then get some food at the tavern and take a break before continuing. I stop at 12:05PM to get some lunch after passing out eight more times, which means I cast Mana Dart one hundred and eight times. My Mana Dart Level is now at Novice 4, 20%. The spell damage increases by two points and the mana cost goes down by a point.