《Age of Gods - A VRMMO Story》Vol. 2 - The Grind - Chapter 1
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Thomas awoke in his bed inside of The Swans Nest and stretched. Even though he had logged out it felt as if his body had slept for the night. This made him wonder just what happened to his avatar when he logged out? Did it vanish? Did it just lay there unconscious? Did it phase out partially? He honestly didn't know yet. Laying back down on the bed to relax for a moment he opened his character sheet and was about to spend some experience to increase his stats, but stopped himself.
"Wait a moment. Last time I pushed Power and Endurance past ten I was wracked with pain and knocked out for hours. Will that happen again if I increase Agility and Magic past ten?"
Frowning to himself he looked at his character sheet and let out a long sigh, "Dammit. I should have increased my attributes before logging out! If I increase my attributes and pass out again I'll waste a huge portion of the day. I'm not as good at tailoring as other professions so I can't afford to waste a single moment."
Thomas sighs longingly as he looks at the 1,213 experience he has but was too afraid to spend. With that much experience, he could easily increase his attributes by a fair amount and make himself stronger. Well. Maybe it doesn't really matter for today. After all how strong do you need to be to push a needle through fabric anyways? It's just... it was a fundamental part of the gaming experience to grow stronger! It felt wrong to not be getting stronger with so much experience to spend!
Just thinking about it nonstop would just put himself into a bad mood, so Thomas got out of bed, got dressed for the day, and headed down to the dining room to enjoy a nice breakfast. As he was eating he double checked his remaining funds, 137 gold. Enough to stay at The Swans Nest for another five days. In that time he would need to earn a bit of extra money. Hopefully, he would get paid for his work at the tailor shop.
After his breakfast, Thomas headed out and found a guard to ask for directions to Zella's Fashions. With simple directions, it didn't take him long to find the building. It was on the same main street as Hekrin's shop and Rock's Armory so it wasn't too hard to find. It seemed like this really was the center of the artisan district and most of the shops were pretty close together. Zella's Fashions was actually right next door to the shop he'd bought his spare set of clothing at, he just hadn't noted it before.
After entering the shop, Thomas was greeted by an older woman with graying hair. Despite her age, it was easy to tell that she would have been a real beauty just a few decades ago. The woman smiled at Thomas, her bright blue eyes practically glittering, "Welcome to Zella's Fashions. Is there anything I can help you find?"
Thomas smiled at the woman and nodded, "Actually, I'm looking for madam Zella. I was hoping to learn the art of tailoring from her."
The woman's smile immediately vanished and was replaced with a frown, her eyes turned a bit frosty, and her warm tone turned a little colder, "I'm Zella." She looked Thomas up and down for a moment as her frown deepened, "If you're just another pretty boy muscle head coming here to gawk at the girls while pretending to want to learn from me, you can go ahead and leave now."
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Thomas raised his hands defensively and waved them back and forth, "No no. I swear I am only here to learn tailoring and improve it to rank 25. I have no ulterior motives for being here."
Zella studied Thomas for a bit longer before letting out a sigh, "We shall see. Follow me."
Zella turned to her right and entered a door into a side room, beckoning for Thomas to follow her. Once inside of the room Thomas understood her skepticism. There was a veritable bevy of beauties in the room working on various pieces of fabric. The only other man was slightly overweight and was very clearly gawking at the woman as he barely put effort into what he was doing. Seeing the man Zella yelled at him, "Drukker! I swear if you don't stop gawking at the girls I am going to kick you out onto the street and ban you from my shop. I've already warned the other seamstresses of your lechery so don't expect any of them to take you in either!"
The man, Drukker, jumped and immediately focused in on his work trying his best to not piss off Zella any further. For her part, Zella just huffed in displeasure and turned to one of the girls, "Daisy please watch the counter for a while. I've got another 'gentleman' to teach. If he turns out as bad as that other otherworlder, Drukker, I'm going to ban all otherworlder men from learning here in the future."
The woman, Daisy, nodded and headed out the way Zella and Thomas had entered. After she departed Zella lead Thomas over to the same table Drukker was working at and gestured for Thomas to sit down, "Let's get this over with."
Zella pulled out a small section of cloth, a paper pattern, a coal pencil, a needle, some thread, two leather thongs, and a pair of scissors, setting them all in front of Thomas, "I'm going to have you make a simple money purse. Just follow my instructions to the letter."
Zella pointed to the paper pattern. It was a shape reminiscent of an hourglass with a slightly thicker center, "Use the pencil to trace the pattern onto the cloth."
System Notice: Tailoring Tutorial. Follow the directions of Zella to unlock the Tailoring Skill.
Thomas nodded, and to Zella's surprise, placed the pattern down near the bottom right corner of the square of cloth. The cloth was deliberately made big enough to make four purses with, it was a test of sorts. Most people without tailoring experience would tend to place the pattern in the center of the cloth, thus wasting a lot of material. With Thomas putting the pattern at the bottom right corner he would be able to make the most out of the material.
After tracing the pattern, Zella nodded, "Very good. Now cut the traced pattern out."
Thomas would have preferred to use something like an X-acto knife to cut the thin material. Handling the material and the scissors was an annoyance since the material wasn't very stiff. He managed to cut the pattern out without any major issues though. Zella instructed further, "Fold it in half and align the flat edges at the top and bottom. Once it's folded thread the needle and try to sew the edges. Don't sew all the way to the top though. Keep an even space from the top that can be folded over later."
Seeing as how Zella didn't give him specific instructions on how to stitch the cloth together, Thomas decided to use a type of stitching method known as an overcast stitch. It was a very simple stitching method that would hold the edge together nicely. Thomas picked up the needle and quickly threaded it with thread that matched the color of the fabric. The matching colors would make the thread stand out much less. Once the needle was threaded and knotted at the end, Thomas began his careful work.
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He started by pushing the needle through the fabric from one side and pulling the thread completely through until the knot of the thread met the fabric. Once it had Thomas looped the thread over the edge of the fabric and pushed the needle through again from the same side. Zella watched Thomas as he slowly worked his way around the edge of the fabric using the overcast stitch. It was a simple and effective method and Thomas took care to do it properly. It only took Thomas about ten minutes to stitch the entire edge of the soon-to-be purse.
With the stitching done he clipped the thread with the scissors and tied it into another knot completing his work on the current step. Zella nodded in approval and was a little surprised at the decent work Thomas had done. In her opinion, Thomas was leagues above that scoundrel Drukker. Zella took the purse from Thomas and examined it, he'd used an adequate stitch that she was familiar with, though it probably had a different name to her. With her examination complete she handed the purse back to Thomas, "Now, reverse the purse so that the stitching is on the inside. Once that is done flip the lips at the top down and stitch their edges to the purse. You want to leave just enough space to feed the leather thongs through so they can act as the purses drawstring to seal it closed."
Thomas nodded and did as instructed after rethreading his needle, though this time he used a basic running stitch. He would push the needle through from one side, turn it around, and push it back through. The most basic of stitches, but a time-honored classic because it simply worked. After stitching both flaps to create the tunnels for the leather thongs to go through he didn't need any further instructions and fed a thong through from the right. He did so by bending the thong in half and pushing each end through each of the tunnels. After that was done he tied the ends into a knot and repeated the process in the opposite direction. This way when someone tugged at the two knotted ends it would collapse the purse closed. Once he tied the second thong into a knot he completed the purse.
System Notice: Tutorial Complete. You have unlocked the Tailoring skill. Tailoring // Rank 1 // 0/20 // Allows you to weave cloth, create patterns, and sew fabric items.
Zella picked up the finished purse and examined it before nodding, "Not bad, not excellent, but not bad." She set the purse down and looked Thomas over with a somewhat warmer and more appraising gaze, "You have experience as a tailor?"
Thomas nodded, "Some. It's not the thing I'm most proficient at though so I hope I can learn some new things here."
Zella nodded and looked him over again, "I honestly have to admit that despite your bulky build your fingers are still rather nimble. But if you seriously intend to pursue tailoring you're going to have to suck it up and invest more into your Agility attribute."
Thomas looked down at his rippling muscles and grimaced, "No need to tell me twice. This was an accident born of ignorance. I plan to up my Agility shortly so I should have slimmed down by tomorrow."
Zella nodded curtly in approval, "Good! Now, I want you to make me three more purses from that square of cloth. When you're done let me know and I will give you another task. Seeing as how quickly you made this one, I expect them to be done in less than three hours." He tone turned firm at the end of her statement, like a boss ordering an employee.
System Notice: New Quest! Zella has requested that you make three more purses for her.
Rewards: 100 Exp, 10 gold
Time Limit: 3 hours
Thomas smiled at the quest. The rewards weren't fantastic and there was no possibility of a bonus listed, but what else could he expect from a beginner quest for tailoring? Thomas nodded to Zella and immediately got to work. He repeated the previous process of tracing the pattern, only he traced out all three at once. Seeing Thomas getting into the work, Zella gave a look of approval and relieved Daisy of her duties behind the counter. As soon as Zella left, the fool Drukker, once again began to oggle the beautiful women working in the shop.
It wasn't that Thomas couldn't appreciate the women, or that he couldn't understand why Drukker would be so enamored with them. But as far as Thomas could tell they were all NPC's. He wasn't prejudiced, but this was a game. No matter how lifelike or realistic the women NPC's might be, at the end of the day if AoG was closed they would all vanish. Would it really be worth investing his emotions into them? Well... a couple of one night stands wouldn't be so terrible at least.
Shaking his head, Thomas focused on his work. For now, finishing the quest chain was his driving focus. The more Hekrin denied him the chance to learn something new, the more determined Thomas was to learn it! For the next three hours, Thomas meticulously worked on the purses. He wasn't sure what rating the first purse got exactly, but Zella had said it wasn't 'excellent' so he assumed it was either average or above average. Since he got more crafting experience for making higher quality goods he focused on the quality of each purse. He made his stitches closer and tighter while working at a slightly faster pace to keep up with the deadline.
After each purse was sewn he fed the leather thongs through and finished each purse within a minute of each other.
System Notice: You have created a Normal cloth purse. Quality: Above Average. You gained 23 Tailoring experience. System Notice: You have created a Normal cloth purse. Quality: Above Average. You gained 23 Tailoring experience. System Notice: You have created a Normal cloth purse. Quality: Above Average. You gained 23 Tailoring experience.
With that done, Thomas picked up the purses and headed out of the back room to turn them over to Zella. Zella carefully examined each purse and nodded before digging out ten gold coins and passing them over to Thomas.
System Notice: Quest Complete! Zella has requested that you make three more purses for her.
Rewards: 100 Exp, 10 gold
Time Limit: 3 hours System Notice: You have gained 100 experience.
Thomas smiled as he accepted the money from Zella, "What would you like me to do next?"
Spoiler: Character Sheet Name: Thomas Darkrose Experience Gained: 3,323 Experience Spent: 2,010 Experience Remaining: 1,313 Power: 11 (+) 120 Exp Endurance: 11 (+) 120 Exp Agility: 10 (+) 110 Exp Magic: 10 (+) 110 Exp Innate Abilities: Transmutation ( A ) // Rank 1 // 0/20 Exp Quick Learner ( C ) // Rank 9 // 65/100 Exp All Seeing Eyes ( S ) // Rank 5 // 2/60 Exp Skills: Serenity // Rank 7 // 35/80 Exp Blacksmithing // Rank 25 // 93/260 Exp Tailoring // Rank 3 // 19/40 Exp Abilities: None Titles: Magical Blacksmith
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Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
8 153Legend of the Void Lord
Caleb Lacuna is a twenty four year old with the power off the void at his fingertips and the ambition to use it. Follow along on his trips to new worlds and old ones. Read along as he picks up chicks and kills dumb bitches who try and put their hand on his women. Come along as he seeks out his familys old enemies and repays blood for blood and reclaim their old land and conquer new land as he becomes a void lord.
8 131Count of Frozen End
Moloch. The lowest ranked vampires, lowly slaves unworthy of even drinking human blood, living to serve their masters until their deaths. In a anger-driven attempt to change his fate, the newly born moloch Tony Lite “Everdeen”, follows a seemingly suicidal path with little to no chances of success. Eons latter, at the edge of the world where only the forsaken dare to venture, an ageless being awakens only to discover that, somehow, his situation has become even more complicated than before. Now, stuck between primordial dragons fighting for hegemony and ancient monsters lurking in the shadows, Tony will have to forge a place called “home” for himself, here, in the endless northern desolate. ….…………………………… This is the first book that I’ll actually try to make… Passable. English is my second language so expect quite a few mistakes. Side note: this is mostly the raw-ish version. I just hope it will be a 2/2.5 in terms of grammar. If you find any mistakes, add a comment and I’ll correct them as fast as possible. PS: Stock cover image for the win. Thank you and enjoy! participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge
8 154Swords and Roses
Rose was pretty sure the only thing out of the ordinary about her best friend, Kaz, is that he has an uncanny ability to annoy her. She was wrong. Actually, she was wrong about a lot of things. As it turns out, Kaz is not bad with a sword. In fact, "not bad" is probably an understatement. Apparently, there is a whole second world out there, one run by wielders of the blade. Will Rose be able to survive? Maybe, just maybe, she will find out that she is even stronger than she imagined. Or maybe she'll die. That could happen too. Arguably more likely. With that wonderful thought, let the sword fighting begin!
8 76Underground
Ava, an innocent small-town girl, gets sucked into the world of underground fighting when she catches the eye of Shawn Michaels, the irresistibly hot reigning champion. *****Ava McAdams isn't sure what to expect when she moves to Boston for college. Her sheltered upbringing leaves her exposed to a harsher world, and one complicated male in particular -- Shawn Michaels, the tattooed and intimidating underground fighter who is nothing like anyone she has ever met before. But is falling for him worth the risk of knowing she might lose him every time he enters the ring?[word count: 100,000 - 150,000 words]Cover designed by Ren T
8 81The Slump God (Stokeley Imagines)
Imagine that...
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