After arriving at Hyde's Hides the next morning, Thomas greeted the stoic and adorable Teena at the store's sales counter before heading into the back room to get to work. Hyde gave Thomas the pattern for the backpack and pointed him to a pile of leather he could use for their construction, along with other miscellaneous materials, such as a thick thread for sewing.

Thomas wasn't sure how long it would take him to make a single backpack so mass producing them was out, for the moment. Instead, he swiftly went to work to create the first backpack. The pattern was traced and cut out then sewn and glued where appropriate to make a sturdy backpack that could hold a fair amount of materials and supplies for anyone heading out of the city. Without an inventory to keep things inside of, a backpack was a necessity. It really was no surprise that Hyde was selling them like hotcakes to the other players.

System Notice: You have created a Normal backpack. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 135 Leatherworking experience.

After checking the time, Thomas noted that it had only taken him less than two hours to make the backpack. He should be able to make another five before the end of the day. Nodding to himself he grabbed five sheets of leather and began to trace out the pattern repeatedly. The backpacks were rather simple in their design and construction. Basically a bag with shoulder straps and a flap on the top. There were a few ways the backpacks could be improved, such as making the shoulder straps adjustable, though Thomas felt like doing so would take more effort than it would likely be worth. For now, his only focus was gaining as much experience as possible to get his quest over with.

Thomas worked swiftly over the next nine hours, his work speed improving as he worked on several backpacks at once. He worked as swiftly as he could while still maintaining the best quality of work he could manage. If he didn't care about the quality and aimed for just average he could probably work even faster, but he had his own pride to live up to and wouldn't compromise on the quality in the least. His efforts paid off as he started to finish the backpacks one after another gaining himself 135 experience for the first backpack and 136 experience for the remaining four.

Noting the increase of a single experience point for the last four, even though all six he had made today were excellent quality, Thomas checked his sheet and noticed that 'Quick Learner' had ranked up to sixteen. Thomas was now relatively certain that 'Quick Learner' gave him bonus experience for his professions. He just couldn't figure out how much bonus experience yet. He really needed to find another person to compare notes with to figure it out in detail. He really wished the innate abilities came with better descriptions!

With his work for the day done he called Hyde over to check the backpacks and complete the quest. Hyde took his sweet time examining each bag to make sure they wouldn't fall apart once there was some weight added to them. Satisfied with the results, Hyde went over to his lockbox and fetched 60 gold to hand over to Thomas.

System Notice: Quest Complete! Hyde has requested that you make him as many backpacks as you are able.

Rewards: 50 Exp and 10 gold per backpack

Time Limit: 1 day System Notice: You have gained 300 experience.

After a relaxing night, with a bit of grinding, at The Swans Nest, Thomas returned to Hyde's Hides the following day to put in some more work. Yesterday he had managed to level his Leatherworking up to rank fifteen and, with a bit of luck, he was hoping to get it up to rank twenty today.

After greeting the ever-present Teena, Thomas made his way into the back room to greet Hyde, "Good morning Hyde. What's on the agenda for today?"

Hyde looked up from the exquisite suit of armor he'd been working on for the last few days and gave Thomas a smile, "Well I could always use more backpacks."

System Notice: Repeat Quest! Hyde has requested that you make him as many backpacks as you are able.

Rewards: 50 Exp and 10 gold per backpack

Time Limit: 1 day

Thomas grimaced and let out a sigh. Making the backpacks was extremely boring, but they did net him a fair amount of Leatherworking experience and his only goal right now was to get to rank 25. So, in the end, it didn't really matter what he made, none of it was for his personal use or for his friends. Remembering his friends Thomas resolved himself to send messages to a few of them and see where they were in AoG, if they had started to play it that is.

Gathering the same supplies he used yesterday, Thomas began the mindless task of creating more bags. While he was working on them he started to plan out his future course of action. While he liked to focus on his crafting skills and making items, just doing that alone was far too boring. The best thing was to hunt down the supplies himself to make amazing equipment and to do that he needed strength. Right now he only had two combat abilities so that was something he was going to have to change in the near future. He had no idea how many more steps were left to get to Magitech Engineering, but he was certain there couldn't be too many more. He expected it to take two or three more weeks tops.

If it took any longer than that he would likely have to give up on the quest and do other things. Even without Magitech Engineering he could make himself into an excellent blacksmith and use the weapons and armor he created to make himself stronger. After that, he could challenge tough monsters and gain more experience points. He had no proof, but he was entirely convinced that he was far behind the other players that started on launch day as he had. As long as he learned Magitech Engineering within the next three weeks he would be able to catch up and make items relevant to players to sell. As he was pondering what path to take in the future...

System Notice: Congratulations to in the country of Boskaria for discovering the first Inheritance! Honor and glory to ! has gained the title First Inheritor!

Thomas stopped his work for a moment and frowned. What the hell was an inheritance? Obviously, he knew what the word itself meant, but not what it meant in game terms. The only thing he could really glean from the notice was that whatever an inheritance was, it was special. He also saw a country name he didn't recognize. In fact, the only one he knew was the one he was currently residing in, Reykhoten. Thomas glanced over to Hyde and asked in as nonchalant a tone as he could muster, "Hey Hyde, do you know what an inheritance is?"

Hyde looked up from his work and glanced at Thomas, then he shrugged, "An inheritance is usually just the knowledge or techniques granted by a master to an apprentice. With the intention that the apprentice takes the masters work and improve upon it before passing it down to a new apprentice in the future. Pretty much everything has an inheritance of some sort. Warriors and Knights might have sword inheritances, blacksmiths might have a special technique, and so on, for just about everything. There are some really special and powerful Inheritances throughout the world, but getting the acknowledgment of the wielders of those inheritances is extremely difficult."

Hyde smiles playfully at Thomas, "Don't get your hopes up though. No master with an inheritance exists within Ulvstad so you won't be finding one here. If any place had one it would be the capital."

Thomas nodded and went back to work. The idea of an inheritance was interesting, but only if he could find one related to crafting items. If he got something like a combat inheritance he would be exceedingly disappointed with it no matter how interesting or powerful it might be. Then again, one related to magic would be pretty interesting!

Since there was no chance of him getting his own inheritance anytime soon, maybe never at all, Thomas returned to his work on the backpacks and before long the day came to an end with seven completed backpacks awaiting Hyde's inspection. Overall Thomas earned 956 Leatherworking experience, bringing his rank up to nineteen. Satisfied with Thomas's work, Hyde fetched 70 gold and passed it over to Thomas.

System Notice: Repeat Quest Complete! Hyde has requested that you make him as many backpacks as you are able.

Rewards: 50 Exp and 10 gold per backpack

Time Limit: 1 day System Notice: You have gained 350 Experience.

After collecting the money and experience, Thomas left Hyde's Hides and made his way back to The Swans Nest to get some rest. He wasn't physically exhausted but was more mentally exhausted from two days of performing the same repetitive task over and over again. Tomorrow he definitely had to do something very different or he would go completely crazy.

After a nice dinner and a wipe down with a warm wet towel, Thomas lay in his bed at stared at his character sheet. With his arms crossed over his bare chest, Thomas contemplated if he should spend his experience to increase his stats. If he did should he continue to increase them all evenly, or push some higher than others? He currently used three of his four attributes constantly. The exception being the Magic attribute. However, he knew that if he wanted to be able to use 'Transmutation' and 'All Seeing Eyes' in the future, that he would need to continue to increase his Magic attribute to have enough mana.

All of his attributes had a purpose to him. Power let him use more strength when needed. Agility gave his fingers dexterity to work on small things and speed to work on things faster. Endurance gave him the energy he needed to work hard all day long. And Magic would become increasingly more important later on. He could ignore the Magic attribute for now and just crank it up when he was earning higher amounts of experience but he had a suspicion that mana would be important sooner, rather than later. He was certain that at least one of the quests Hekrin would send him on would be learning Alchemy and Alchemy would likely require the use of mana when making potions, as it had in previous games.

Frustrated with being unable to decide on a proper course of action, Thomas closed his character sheet and instead focused on grinding 'All Seeing Eyes' a little more. He decided to let his experience accumulate for a while so he could spend it on what was needed when it was needed in the future. With his course planned he used 'Serenity' to send himself off to sleep.

The following morning, Thomas made his way downstairs to enjoy his breakfast but spotted Rock already at a table eating his own meal. Assuming that Rock was here for him, Thomas made his way to Rock's table to order his own breakfast. Rock smiled at Thomas and the two ate in silence until their meals were done. After they finished Rock leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face. Curious as to why Rock had come, Thomas asked him, "What brings you here this morning?"

Rock smirks and pulls out a rather large and heavy looking bag before dropping it on the counter with a loud CLANG, "It's a little early, but I didn't feel comfortable having so much money just sitting around at my place. So I dropped by to give you your share a bit early." Rock slides the heavy sack of gold coins over to Thomas, "There is exactly..." Rock stops talking and looks around the mostly empty dining room before leaning closer to Thomas to finish in a whisper, "9,375 gold in that bag."

Hearing the absurd amount of gold coins contained in the bag, Thomas grabs it and immediately held it close while looking around cautiously, "How the hell did so much gear get made and sold?"

Rock laughs before explaining, "Together the four of us made over a hundred pieces of gear throughout the week. Every last piece sold. Though there were obviously different prices between the different pieces, we still made a killing. The minimum price we sold any one piece for was 200 gold. Since we didn't make anything too valuable, like armor, due to time constraints it was only this much. Right now I have two of the other blacksmiths working exclusively on armor while the last blacksmith and myself work on weapons and special orders. I expect your payment next week will exceed the amount for this week."

Rock laughed boisterously and shook his head, "Right now it's like we're printing money! If your prediction holds true and we can keep selling items nonstop like this for the next few months, I'll have enough to retire and take Belle on the honeymoon she deserved!"

Thomas blanked for a moment from shock before leaning forward and exclaiming loudly, "Belle is your WIFE?!"

Thomas was flabbergasted, he'd thought Belle was either just an employee or a relative like a niece or maybe even Rocks daughter! But for her to be his wife... Thomas shook his head, when it came to love anything was possible. Or maybe Belle was older than she looked? Seeing the confusion on Thomas's face Rock laughed even harder while slapping the table with his hand. Martha sent Rock a dirty look and called out, "If you break that table you're buying me a new one Rock!"

Rock nodded in acknowledgment and turned to look at Thomas. His countenance became a little more serious, "I came to bring you the money and take you to the bank this morning kid. It's not safe to have that kind of cash with you at all times, it could very easily be robbed."

Thomas hadn't heard of, or even thought to look for, a bank so hearing about one from Rock took a load of worries off of his mind. Nodding to Rock the two left The Swans Nest and headed for the heart of Ulvstad towards the local bank branch.

Spoiler: Character Sheet Name: Thomas Darkrose Experience Gained: 8,873 Experience Spent: 7,990 Experience Remaining: 883 Power: 20 (+) 210 Exp Endurance: 20 (+) 210 Exp Agility: 20 (+) 210 Exp Magic: 20 (+) 210 Exp Innate Abilities: Transmutation ( A ) // Rank 1 // 0/20 Exp Quick Learner ( C ) // Rank 17 // 124/170 Exp All Seeing Eyes ( S ) // Rank 9 // 67/100 Exp Skills: Serenity // Rank 8 // 17/90 Exp Blacksmithing // Rank 25 // 93/260 Exp Tailoring // Rank 25 // 258/260 Exp Skinning // Rank 4 // 8/50 Exp Tanning // Rank 5 // 10/60 Exp Leatherworking // Rank 19 // 180/200 Exp Abilities: Weapon Mastery (Small Blades) // Rank 4 // 27/50 Exp Weapon Mastery (Body) // Rank 1 // 0/20 Exp Titles: Magical Blacksmith Guild Card Name: Thomas Darkrose

Rank: 2 // 0/30 Pts.

Power: 20 Endurance: 20 Agility: 20 Magic: 20 Quests: Gather 5 White Tullin and 10 Orange Bloom Flowers // 3/5, 6/10