A few days earlier

Amalia left her inn room within the Meek Moat Inn, a place where “hunters” would come and go as they pleased. While it was a mainstay location for them, she had only seen a half dozen faces pass by. Men and women who apprehended criminals or did work that was mostly for or against people.

So many choices lay at Amalia’s feet. Be a hunter like Logan? Work as an adventurer to hunt down monsters? Help the townsfolk with villager quests?

Sitting at the counter, Amalia contemplated what her next course of action would be. Yetveka, the gashriek who worked the counter, sparked a conversation as she placed a bowl of stew in front of the lady, “Got any plans for today?”

Amalia sipped the tankard that came with her breakfast before replying, “Exploring the city. Wanna see what I can get stuck into.”

“Knights often find great success as party leaders, you’ve got some strong allies already.”

“I don’t really like the leader role. Too much to keep track of, and I hate having to make decisions for other people, ‘specially if it is between life and death.”

Yetveka sighed, “Understandable. Tis not for all.”

“How long do I have that room for by the way?”

“Few months.”

Amalia went wide-eyed, “That long?”

“Logan and Marcus are very efficient at being hunters. Logan’s divination abilities are renowned amongst hunters.”

“I heard there aren’t many caster hunters”, Amalia spoke before taking another spoon of her stew.

“Just like in adventurer parties too. Less than 10% of people can even cast spells.”

Amalia opened her hand as if to emulate casting from her fingers, “Plenty have those spell rings though, right?”

“That they do. Many more recently to boot.”

“I might work towards getting me a full set of those”, Amalia mentioned wishfully.

“Oh? You’ve arrived at the right time then. The city’s seen a boon in sales for those kinda things”, Yetveka restated, “They have a lot of uses, but, are you wanting them for something specific?”

“I just like the idea of casting magic.”

“Born the wrong class then, hey?”

“I suppose you could say that. I’m probably—” Amalia began but cut herself off, “Never mind. Thank you for breakfast”, she ended as she downed what was left in her tankard.

“Hope you have a grand day”, Yetveka wished with a toothy smile.

Walking the city streets, Amalia had yet to get used to the sights and sounds of a fantasy world. Eyeing up the gear of others, there was so much upward momentum to what she could equip herself with. Items that made your trinkets invisible, ones that let you float, and others that kept grime from your boots.

“I was probably made a Knight because I’m used to protecting others. So many drunkards going after others at the doors”, Amalia thought to herself as she sighed, “I was given a class based on what I did, not what I wanted.”

Viewing the market stalls, Amalia attempted something that Logan informed her about, “Identify”, she commanded in her head.

A window appeared showing the details of the item, alongside another telling her she unlocked a new skill.

“He said you just had to do the action to learn Skills of Life, just so.”

“Are you interested in this? Your stare is quite intense”, the merchant asked as they bent down to meet Amalia’s gaze.

Jumping out of her concentration, Amalia looked at the man, “Oh, sorry. Just browsing.”

Hopping from one stall to another, Amalia took in all the things she could own, especially with the gold weighing down her pocket for her objectives. She didn’t need to keep it all, she just had to have “earned” it for the objective to count it.

Eventually, she stumbled across two large barn-style doors open wide to the interior of a smithy. A man with muscles bulging through brown leather was hammering away at a bright-red sword. With each swing, Amalia saw the thin lines of blue and purple sway with the hammer and into the sword.

Taking a few steps into the forge area, Amalia was stopped by a wave from the man to motion her to wait. An extra three hits slammed the sword as the red hue faded, and the man placed the blade to the side.

Raising the mask from his face, the man spoke, “Sorry, lady, we’re busy working on an order right now. Can’t be taking on more at the moment.”

“No, I’m not here for that.”

The man looked at Amalia for a second before taking a seat in a chair, “I got a few minutes while the metal brews. What’re you needing?”

Pointing at the sword, Amalia asked, “Was that magic you were using?”

“Magic? No, nothing so fancy. Twas just weaving spellforce into the blade… You new around here? Come from the sticks?”

“I’ve come from afar. Never seen a smith at work.”

“‘Sall common stuff”, he started as he stood, waving a hand over the metal with thin blue mist before placing it into the forge, “If you’re wanting entertainment, just be quiet while I focus.”

“You said you got a big order. Need any help?”

The man raised an eyebrow, “Looking to become a guild’s smith? You’re a Knight, aren’t you?” he asked as he looked at Amalia’s shield.

Amalia shook her head slowly, “No, nothing like that. The craft just interests me.”

Checking on the glowing blade, the man replied, “Ain’t got time for teaching. Any help you can give would be moving ore and melting stuff for me.”

“I can watch and learn.”

“Fine, grab that bag”, he spoke as he pointed to a sack of coal, “You can call me Duncan.”

“Amalia.”

Hours passed as Amalia moved fuel, pulled on fans, and aided with callipers. Duncan, who revealed he was 33, had been working as a smith for around eighteen years. He was born classless but got the knack for forging weapons, armour, and shields. Since he was classless, however, he couldn’t make items of too high a rank.

With each task assigned to Amalia, she saw a progress bar start to fill up as she learnt the ins and outs of Weapon Craft and Armoursmithing. Eventually, she gained both skills and was able to start crafting by herself. Duncan didn’t have to give orders a couple of hours in, smiling at the fast hands at his side.

Amalia was allowed to make some of the weaker and smaller armaments as there was space in the forge to use in conjunction with what Duncan was working on. Since she was at a higher level, Amalia could make the weaker stuff quite quickly, as most of the work had been preprepared by Duncan anyway.

Their use of spellforce certainly sped up the process, but it was longer than what Logan had done in the past. While he shaped rings and slotted components into pre-existing materials, or used magic to speed up the processing of leather, Amalia couldn’t do as much with melting and cooling metal.

By the end of the day, Amalia had crafted a dagger and a shortsword, neither of which anyone would write home about. They were both shoddy, but good enough for newcomers to the trade that would most likely buy a better variant after a quest or two were notched into their signets. Duncan had finished what he was working on and set it aside, starting the process of his next pieces for the day to come.

Saying her farewells, Amalia returned to the inn with a few tomes in hand, on loan by Duncan for her aid and word she’d return tomorrow to give a full day’s assistance.

Hastily preparing for what was ahead, Amalia jogged from the inn to the smithy. Duncan had set aside a table of tools and materials for the Guardian to work on. With the tomes of last night in her mind, Amalia set to work prepping handles and guards.

With every movement of her hands, the alien woman weaved blue and purple lines into the armaments she created. A tingling sensation in her fingertips and the tips of her brain stem as endorphins surged through her as she worked with magic.

A wide smile reflected in the tools’ metal, and again when she held a larger sword for Duncan to hammer into shape.

Sliding a sharpening stone across a sword’s length, polishing a shield that was being heat treated.

While she was getting some hands-on experience, Amalia didn’t ask for any payment. Duncan was giving her a sort of apprenticeship, as well as full use of his tools and materials. Her quick study would mean she wouldn’t need his tutorship for long.

Another day passed as Amalia crafted and helped to craft arms and armour with Duncan at her side. The smith referred to her as a savant when it came to the forge. She had picked up on everything so quickly, but it wasn’t unheard of amongst the commoners. Every so often someone like her would come along with an eye for the fire.

Aiding the smith allowed him to keep a better pace with his recent orders, and some spare space was given to Amalia to work on making a dagger or two for herself. Time flew by, and before she knew it, night had arrived.

This day began with Logan buying Amalia’s small wares for two gold, granting her the last objective for her seven-day starter quest. They weren’t that good and would probably break in a few swings from the giant of strength that Logan was, but it didn’t matter that much, it was a purchase with a purpose, and so it counted.

Amalia checked her quest to see all her objectives had been cleared, the thought of legendary armaments coming her way did give her some sort of excitement. As did the following day of crafting by the side of Duncan at the forge and anvil.

Windows appearing over in-progress items created a weird dissonance in the immersion of Avanar for Amalia. While everything felt so real and fantastical, this game-like overlay tore what semblance of reality she found here.

It was handy though.

She could tell what heat she needed, where to hit, and timers for almost everything she was doing. It probably would have taken a lot of notepads and pens to make these sorts of notes or a dedicated mind for crafting. If only Duncan had this kind of edge.

With each passing day, Amalia caught up with someone who had spent years on the craft. It seemed the boost to experience even affected skill mastery and acquisition. An evening spent reading progressed that even further.

Amalia was within the last day of her timer, she was well into all the objectives needed, so at the end of the day she would gain a full reward. As far as Logan knew, this was the only quest that had four objectives to complete. All others since the introduction had three.

If Amalia was to have the life of a crafter, legendary gear at level 5 would keep her safe for a long time to come if the quests were based on level. Even if that were not the case, Logan could assist with ones far beyond her grasp, or she could ignore them completely.

The day progressed just like the ones before it. Stocking the fires and hammering metal into shape, bevelling and sharpening. Duncan even offered Amalia a job at his smithy, since she proved a great helping hand.

It was a lovely offer, but with the ever-watchful eye of Duncan at her back, Amalia couldn’t make use of her PC prowess when it came to crafting. She knew she could speed things up further, and if she were to get an inventory like Logan she’d want privacy to access it.

They both agreed that Amalia would continue working until Duncan was all caught up, but she’d probably go her own way after that. Who knows, with the money she had there was always the option of opening her own smithy.

Resting until the next morning, Amalia was greeted by a window congratulating her on completing her first quest, with all objectives met.

Checking the buff she was granted, as it clued her into who her patron was, Amalia saw she benefited from “Tinkom’s Hardy Barrier”. That was a deity from above, at least from the list that Logan spoke of before. It granted her a higher resistance against damage the lower her health got. It didn’t get put into action due to her party’s aid but would have been useful without them.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Amalia moved on to checking her rewards.

“The reward for your quest completion is as follows:

Guardian’s Aegis*5 Guardian’s Ward*5 1 gold coin Respecialization Pellet

As you had the aid of another PC, your reward has been lessened.”

“That’s a shame”, Amalia thought to herself with the final line on the window. Though she had still gained legendary gear, it was most likely lessening the gold and pellet rewards. She didn’t need much of either anyway.

In the safety of her room, Amalia summoned up the rewards as she accepted them, making a solid thud on her bed as they laid out.

This "full armour" was complete with side-facing pauldrons with layered sheets of metal, vambraces, sabatons, the whole lot. Mostly steel coloured, it had trims of white. It also came with a sort of battle dress that was planted on the outside upper legs, draping a dark-purple tabard lower half down to the ankles.

A metal headband was the most perplexing, but when picking it up the headband expanded in Amalia's hand, showing a full helm with ridged designs on the temples going around the back of the headpiece.

The shield had some semblance of the bouche style that Amalia had before, a cut on the right side to slide a spear through or in her case a sword, but it was closer to the shape of something between a kite and coffin shield.

A set of lines connected each corner towards the top-middle portion of the shield that had a gem set within it, glowing slightly, letting the dark-purple and grey colours of the shield shine.

It was all so fantastical looking and dashing to boot. But she didn’t need to carry it around at all times, for one it was going to be heavy. She decided to set it up on a mannequin she borrowed from Yetveka. If she were to go out on a quest, it’d be there ready and waiting for her return.

“Thank… Whoever is up there that I didn’t have to be put against Logan.”

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