Despite being exhausted from his intermittent sleep schedule the past few days, he was hit by a second wind and felt the urge to keep playing. Whether he liked it or not, Eli was feeling excitement towards the game now, and he rushed towards the Craftsman Guild Hall with a skip in his step. The amount of players in Orm had gone down slightly, but it was still much more crowded than it had been originally. Shopkeepers selling their beginner wares on the streets showed nods of appreciation towards Winter, offering a few basic gifts - he wasn’t sure if the friendliness was due to his relation with Makaroth, or their appreciation towards him for their influx of new customers.

More importantly to Winter was that it seemed he’d shaken off the interest of any livestreamers, none were tailing him any longer. A new level 1 player dying to a boar repeatedly didn’t bring in much viewers.

He entered the Guild Hall to see quite a few players working on their crafts already, at this time it was about afternoon within the game world. There were players hammering at the anvil, others weaving threads of cotton and some sewing together leather packs. A thick welcoming scent of soot and iron hit his nose as he entered.

After a brief chat with Hoggan and a few other NPCs around the hall, he managed to acquire all of the gathering skills available to him in Orm, then began working on the crafting skills.

Scattered throughout the various floors of the Craftsman Guildhall were NPCs that introduced him to the crafting and processing skills of the game. Each of them had him run through a sample quest to craft his first item through the profession, and Eli was surprised how involved the process was.

He was expecting to hit a few buttons on a menu to begin the process, but this game forced him to physically go through the process of each, and the simulation was detailed to the point where he could feel the heat of the furnace on his face as he forged his first copper blade. His stamina dipped incredibly after just a single crafting, but he’d made a ton of mistakes and had trouble shaping the blade mold properly.

When he’d finally finished, it looked questionable at best. Despite it having just been made, you’d have guessed it had been through hundreds of battles already from how dented and dinged up it looked. Still, the NPC accepted it as a quest completed and gave him blueprints for a set of copper armor pieces - most requiring leather and cloth as well to make.

Moving on to weaving and sewing, it went much better. He was forced to take a break midway through to eat up apples and replenish his stamina, but his practice in his surgeon simulations was paying off, and he found it much easier to sew and thread needles through cloth than it was to hammer copper on an anvil. He felt most comfortable though when he headed to the second floor to learn alchemy. Mixing the various herbs he had gathered and learning what they could be used for felt right at home for him.

The potion making system in the game was complex. The Alchemy trainer was willing to give him some common, basic recipes, but once he’d finished the beginner quest he was told that experimenting with various ingredients and understanding their properties would allow him to make more advanced, complex potions, even ones unknown to the Shattered World up until now. This got him excited about the profession more than the others. The idea of being the one to write textbooks instead of being the one reading them was always a goal of his after he’d become a doctor - yet here the opportunity was just sitting there, waiting for him, in an online game. Of course, he wouldn’t be brewing anything real, and he’d only be tending to fictitious wounds, but even knowing this, it bubbled up his excitement and he moved on to the last few crafting professions.

Making his way to the woodcutting, he felt right back at the bottom again, splintering his fingers and accidentally cutting himself multiple times. The pain threshold really got on his nerves by the time he’d finished. Despite the pain of splintering wood digging under his skin fading after a few seconds, it still hurt a lot for the moments it happened, to the point where even after he’d finished the quest and stopped working the wood, he swore he could still feel the splinters itching under his skin.

He fought off his exhaustion for a while, ending up staying in the Craftsman Guild Hall an entire day, nearly wiping out his supply of apples. He’d kept telling himself he’d stop after the next quest, or the next craft, but seeing the materials he’d gathered waiting his inventory, he couldn’t resist to try crafting something else.

“Eli? Are you alright in there?” He heard his mother’s voice break him out of his crafting trance, speaking through the Simbox microphone.

“Y-yeah mom, I’m alright. What time is it?” Winter replied to her through the icon that had appeared in front of his face.

“It’s 7:00am, Friday morning, you’ve got school in an hour. It’s your last day of Highschool before your final exams... Do you want me to call you in sick again?” She replied with a mischievous tone.

“N-no, I’m okay, I’ll be right out.” Moving his fingers around the menu to select logout, he paused to briefly glance over his character sheet.

Name: Winter

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Level: 1

Class: Priest

Health: 100/100

Mana: 50/50

Stamina: 56/56

Hunger: 100/100

Strength: 11

Agility: 10

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 10

Charisma: 10

Equipment

Chest: Beginner’s Shirt - Clothing

Legs: Beginner’s Pants - Clothing

Feet: Beginner’s Shoes - Clothing

Mainhand: Copper Short Sword

Offhand: Wooden Shield

Class Skills [Priest]

Minor Heal(Beginner): Level 1

Smite(Beginner): Level 1

Gentle Touch: Passive [Eirene]

Pacifism: Passive [Eirene]

Basic Skills

Shield Mastery(Beginner): Level 3

Sword Mastery(Beginner): Level 1

Crafting Skills

Mining (Beginner): Level 4

Woodcutting(Beginner): Level 2

Herbalism(Beginner): Level 2

Creature Harvesting(Beginner): Level 2

Weaving(Beginner): Level 1

Sewing(Beginner): Level 1

Refining(Beginner): Level 2

Blacksmithing(Beginner): Level 2

Woodworking(Beginner): Level 1

Alchemy(Beginner): Level 1

Tanning(Beginner): Level 1

Leatherworking(Beginner): Level 1

Seeing his sheet, he paused for a moment to look longingly at the signs around the Guildhall, seeing one directing to the Kitchen to learn cooking, another towards scribing, architecture and artistry. He’d missed out on a few. Resisting the urge to take his mother up on her offer, he sighed and began the logout process.

The game faded from his vision and the Simbox opened to reveal his mom standing in front of him with a plate of breakfast already prepared, steam rising off of the eggs and bacon.

“Glad to see you finally stopped dying to that boar. What were you trying to do anyway?” She asked curiously as he climbed out of the box.

“Thanks.” He said while taking the plate, rubbing his baggy dark eyes first. “I was trying to get this rare secret skill, finally got it.”

“Oooh, sounds interesting. You know, I’m getting pretty good at my horseback riding skill,” She spoke with pride as she turned to lead Eli out of the room. He followed with one hand holding the plate, another on a fork as he began digging in, eventually making his way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.