I woke up the next morning in a really good mood, despite not exactly being a morning person. There are a few reasons why I am in such a mood which is independent from the training. Because at night while having trouble sleeping, I came up with an idea to get past my sluggishness in improving my [Smelting] efficiency.

The first thing I did was the usual smelting in the morning, and again I was stuck at 3.99 quality. But that was fine, because my true plan comes later.

I went to eat breakfast and headed out of the Blacksmithing Guild. I have until 12, or a bit more than 4 hours of free time. And I plan to use that time efficiently.

My goal? It is simple, if I think about it, production classes are tied down by a stat called [PER]. If I raise my [PER], I should be able to make better use of my skills and find my flaws even without help from others. While it might be hard to do with actually smithing things, smelting in comparison is much simpler.

And the best way to raise [PER] outside of leveling is completing the class based quests. I am right now 3/5 into my [Creationist: Improve your production skills] quest. So I need 2 more skill levels to get +25 [PER].

Since I can’t access the Intermediate Disciple areas, my goal is to see if I can nab some skills by visiting the Alchemists Guild, Builder Guild along side other shops that do not have guilds and pick up skills such as Tailoring, Leatherworking and etc.

I do not have much time so I put together the most efficient route to get things done. The closest place is the store specialized in leather goods. I also came up with the perfect way to approach things as well.

It takes me about 2 minutes to reach the shop and I enter it.

“Hello! How can I help ya?” spoke a dwarf at the counter.

“Uhm, yes. I am a discipline at the Blacksmithing Guild, and I was planning to make a belt with a leather belt as the base. Is it possible to view the creation of the belt so that I can take into account its creation process in my design?” I inquire.

“Aren’t ya a hard workin’ missy” complemented the dwarf “But unfortunately I can’t really help ya. Most of the shops products are sent by the Hunters Guild in the next town. While I can make a belt with my skills, my primary job is sellin’ and reparin’ the goods” he added.

“Is that so…I understand, thank you for your time” I say in a dejected voice and leave the shop.

“Sorry I couldn’t be of help missy. If ya ever need some leather, feel free to stop by any time!” said the dwarf as I went out the door.

The next order of business is the Builders Guild, which is located more to the side. From my understanding, the Builders Guild has the widest range of production skills due to their overall wide range of expertise. It takes me about 10 minutes to reach the guild.

I walk in front of the elf receptionist at the counter.

“Hello, I am interested in joining the Builders Guild in the future. Though, I want to become a bit more familiar with the job flow first. Is there any place I can view things like constructions or other projects and the like? It can be from a distance if access is an issue” I plead in my best impression of a pleading kitten possible.

“A beastkin huh...” muttered the receptionist at the counter in a rather pitying voice.

“Please…” I beg.

I feel a bit ashamed, but gotta do what I gotta do.

“* sigh * I would like to help you but the Builders is off access to non-members. You can visit during the monthly selections a bit over a week from now, there will be plenty of things on display then… Hmmm… If it is only about viewing the job flow, there is a construction going on by the western wall. You can get some familiarity there, but make sure to keep a distance and not to do anything to disrupt the construction work, ok?” Relents the receptionist.

“Thank you very much!” I say, and head out of the guild.

Taking note of the construction location, I leave the eastern commercial district and head west. While my goal is the construction, there is one other place I need to stop by on the west side.

While the north and east are mostly lower class areas, the west is more of an upper class area. And only a few stores are allowed to be here. Before stopping by the construction, I head towards one of the few stores in the area. That would be the tailoring shop.

After finding the shop, I open the door. Sitting there was a human woman at the counter, and off to the side was another one spinning some thread.

“Hello, how can I hel-” said the woman sitting at the counter, but suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

She took a look at my attire and frowned.

“If you are looking for clothing, I suggest going to the used clothing store in the east district, now get out of my shop!” she implicated with a rather stern voice.

I was feeling rather embarrassed and uncomfortable for multiple reasons. But at same time I was in a dilemma. The reason was pretty simple.

You have acquired a new skill [NP][Thread Weaving] Level 1

The dilemma was obviously, “do I try to stall 5 minutes to see if I get another level or not”.

Though by the looks of it, for every second I remained in the shop, the more ticked off the woman seemed.

Despite being so close to completing the quest, I could not tolerate the glare and quickly left. It is not a total loss, and I have an idea to make up for it.

So with no further ado, I head for the western wall to view the construction.

When I come near the wall, I notice a large area sealed off via wooden barricades. I come as close as I can to those barricades and activate [Eagle Eyes], scanning the surroundings.

You have acquired a new skill [NP][Carpentry] Level 1

Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills]

+25 PER has been attained

Class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills], has been reset.

Yummy! Of course I am not done just yet!

You have acquired a new skill [NP][Stonemasonry] Level 1

I greedily walked around the barricades while using [Eagle Eyes] to get as much skills as I could manage. In the end, I managed to get [Carpentry] to level 2 and [Stonemasonry] to level 3. Unfortunately, by that point I ran out of time.

I was hoping on stopping by the Alchemist Guild as well, but got too distracted trying to gobble up skills here. Overall though it has been a good haul! It is not like this is the last day or anything, so there will be plenty of opportunity.

Of course there is one thing I wanted to do on the way back to the Adventurers Guild. I stop by again next to the tailoring shop and walk in.

“Uhm... excuse me... I left in a hurry but can you tell me where the second hand clothing shop is?” I inquired.

The woman at the counter stared at me for a few seconds blankly then after a while came to.

“You again! I told you to get out of my shop! You are scaring away the customers! Do you want me to call the guards?!?!” she bellowed.

“...” My eyes opened up wide in shock.

Then I came to and quickly made my way out of the shop.

My surprise was of course not due to how that human acted. I kind of expected that really. My shock was more due to the blue box I got and what happened after.

Your skill [NP][Thread Weaving] has become Level 2

Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills]

+25 PER has been attained

Class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills], has been reset.

Your [PER] stat has exceeded 100. The quality of the [PER] stat has improved.

The moment that appeared, the whole world seems to have changed as I began to notice things that I have never noticed before. My eyes became sharper and keener to even the slightest of details.

Though, while I would love to explore the full implications, I was running out of time so I quickly head for the Adventurers Guild.

I just barely managed to make it to the guild on time and was guided by the receptionist to the training grounds located in the basement.

When I got there, I saw a wolfkin standing there, who according to [Identify] was 34 years old with classes of [Trainer] and [Rogue], along side stood 3 human boys of varying ages, none of which had a combat class though.

At first, I was a bit skeptical on why a Rank C adventurer would bother training 5 people for 6 hours for a measly 10 silver coins. Considering even a Rank D quest would net over double that amount, not to mention a Rank C quest can get them up to 10X that. That is just from the reward, excluding monster materials. I also somehow doubted the Adventurers Guild would make up the difference either.

Only after my visit to the library did my question get answered. The peculiarities lie in the [Trainer] non-combat class. It is one of the few classes which give combat stats for a non-combat class. The way to level the [Trainer] class is by training others. Thus there is an incentive to take up others and training them. This also kind of explained why that middle aged man held on to all the slaves, while his companions had none. It also explained why he used that weird tone like he was a drill sergent rather than a master. I guess these peculiarities matter?

Though what makes this whole thing even more lucrative for me is the [Trainer] class has the unlock-able stat of [POW]. Which is exactly the stat I was looking for! Well kind of. [POW] is similar to [STR], but unlike [STR] which also increases your stamina and endurance, [POW] is more like raw strength.

That said, it is a bit of an odd choice for a Rogue. Unless maybe they specialize in one shot penetration maybe?

While I was contemplating these things, the wolfkin rogue noticed me and called out.

“So everyone is here I see? All right then, my name is Zack. I will be your trainer for today! The first order of business is I need to figure out your abilities. The guild has provided me with information about your levels, but I am looking for things deeper than just levels. I am looking for your skills, your tendencies and habits. Then I will see how they can be improved. If there are no questions, then one of you come up and face me. You can use the training weapons provided by the guild. The rest of you, sit in the corner somewhere”

Not wanting to be the first one up, I move myself to the corner away from the others. The reason is that I don’t feel very comfortable around humans. I know this place makes non-criminal slavery illegal. But still, I always subconsciously feel discomfort whenever I approach humans.

The oldest of the three humans who had a total level of 24 scoffed and picked up a training spear.

“Lets see what you got beastkin” said the human. Then suddenly thrust the spear forward.

Zack seemed to pay it little mind and easily deflected it with his training dagger.

“Is that all you got?” asked Zack.

Your skill [NP][Dagger Mastery] has become Level 2

Ooh! Profit already! The human continued attacking non-stop, but all his attacks proved to be completely useless. After about 10 minutes of dueling, Zack changed from defensive to offensive, deflected the spear and then held his dagger to the human boy’s throat.

“That will be all, next!” Zack announced.

“Shit!” spat the boy as he made his way back towards the others.

This time, the second oldest boy went up to fight, his level was 15 and he used a sword. Unfortunately, it seemed like he really lacked any decent skill as I did not get anything from the entire 10 minute exchange.

“Next!” Zack yelled.

After a brief pause, the youngest of the three got up. Despite being only 14 years old, he carried himself in a proud manner. Though to be fair, he had a rather high total level of 18. Interestingly enough, he did not go for any sort of weapon per say. He put on a pair of gloves and leg guards and took up a stance just like that.

In the next instance, he quickly threw a fist at Zack. And for the first time, Zack showed a rather surprised face, but regardless he easily deflected it.

You have acquired a new skill [NP][Close-Combat Mastery] Level 1

In this way the fight turned into a melee as the young boy continued to dish out punches and kicks left and right. Still, it was not enough to make Zack lose his cool, but you can clearly see that he was rather impressed. After 5 minutes into the fight I got a slight hint of why that was.

Your skill [NP][Close-Combat Mastery] has become Level 2

After the 10 minutes passed, just like the previous two he easily dispatched him.

“Very impressive talent you got there, if you keep this up, you’ll have a very bright future” Zack commented to the boy.

Then he turned his face and looked at me.

“You coming or what?” he questioned.

“Uhm… Yes!” I replied and got up.

I normally would prefer a spear due to my higher mastery and more experience using it. But looking at the training weapons, the spears are way to big for me…

So instead I ended up taking two daggers and went in position to face him.

The question is, how much strength should I use? I really don’t want to stand out too much, nor do I want to show my abilities to others, but at same time if I don’t push him to use some skills, I can’t attain them. I also am kind of curious at how well I would do against a Rank C adventurer. So how about I give it some skill, but not show everything?

Alright then lets start, I imbue one of my daggers with both the normal and racial [Throw] skill. This time I focus the racial skill on power as accuracy means little at this range, and like that I [Throw] one of my daggers at him.

Not surprisingly, he deflects the dagger though makes a rather confused expression. I use this fraction of a second opening and activate my [Charge] skill while imbuing the dagger with [Thrust].

Zack’s eyes open widely, but his astonishment only lasts for fraction of a second, as suddenly his dagger makes a weird motion and blocks my attack.

I was hoping to get him with that, but as expected of a Rank C adventurer, something like this isn’t going to cut it. Maybe if I did a [Meteor Rush] that may work, but even then I don’t know. Regardless, things were still proceeding to plan.

Now using my newly acquired [Close-Combat Mastery], my [Jump] skill and my forward momentum, I jump over him while upside down in mid air to get him by surpri-

“Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah!”

You have taken 25 damage. You have been stunned for 0.5 seconds.

“Ouch!” I yell as I land on my back to the floor.

Okay... maybe that wasn’t such a good idea… Things don’t exactly work out like they do in the movies now do they it seems…

I thought that maybe I could perform that move where I jump over the opponent like a ninja, and then attack from behind would be possible with my skills, but not only did I mess up on the [Jump] skill jumping too far, the fear of falling and getting dizzy seems to be in full effect! How in the world do those heroes in literature and movies suddenly become capable of these scary things?!?!

The bright side is that [Toughness] and stats in general help a lot, if I did this back on Earth, I’d probably be in the hospital for months.

After coming to, I took a glance at Zack and he seemed to be looking at me strangely… suddenly...

“Hahahahahaha!”

“Did you see that beastkin? Talk about total failure, what an idiot! Hahaha”

“Pathetic”

It seems the peanut gallery is getting a kick out of my misfortune…

As I was feeling embarrassed and dejected from my epic failure of a performance. Zack suddenly changed his glare at the boys, and bloodthirst came out! Instantly silencing them. He then turned back to face me.

“That is all I need to see, lets move on” Zack said.

Feeling a bit left out, I opened my mouth.

“But...I...”

“If you are worried about not facing me for 10 minutes like the rest, fret not. I only needed to see where you stand. There was nothing wrong with your overall performance and I got to see what I needed to” Zack interjected.

Having nothing more to say, I get up and go back to the corner. I guess I’ll have to take solace with the blue box I got during the fight.

Your skill [NP][Dagger Mastery] has become Level 3

This also confirms one of my earlier suspicions. If someone uses a skill at a lower skill level, I can’t get that skill until they actually use it at same level or higher. Which complicates things quite a bit, especially since the skills have to be used in actual combat.

That said, there is another thing I have to consider. I need to intercept a [Trainer] skill in order to unlock the [POW] stat, and due to the limitations, that might prove rather difficult.

According to the book I read, the [Trainer] skill improves strength based techniques in similar way to how [Runner] improves speed based techniques. The issue is that a Rank C adventurer’s strength even without skills is already overkill, especially when they have a [Trainer] class which enhances just that.

And my mission during the next 5 and a half hours is to have him use such, and not on blank air or a test dummy but on a valid target! Even worse, there is a possibility that I pick up some other skill instead!

* sigh *

Now I am feeling even more dejected...