Chapter 13: Profession Arc 2

The cave in from the Mountain Sprite’s ‘Rock Fall’ spell took about an hour to clear away completely. While the initial progress had been fast, the branching tunnel didn’t move in a perfectly straight line and had many branching smaller passageways.. The experience earned during that time had been great. Not just for Tobi, but for Lorry as well. Lorry didn’t get any experience from mining low level iron ore, but he still got a fair amount of experience from the rock fall. It seemed that the higher the level miner a person was, the more experience they got for clearing the rocks away.

Knowing he could probably cause another Rock Fall if he spotted another Sprite, Tobi kept his eyes peeled and got to work on mining Tin. The work was slow and monotonous, but Tobi wanted to increase how long he could mine before his energy ran out. He was determined to reach at least level 10 in his Miner profession before they left.

After the 10th hour in Tunnel 17, Tobi had been unable to spot another Sprite at all. He eventually gave up and just focused solely on mining. It wasn’t long after that he received a prompt claiming that his pack was full. More than a little surprised, Tobi inspected the pack and saw almost two thirds of his empty slots had been crossed with a red X.

Pack Full.

Your Inventory has reached the maximum capacity.

* Unprocessed Copper Rock x 100

* Unprocessed Copper Rock x 100

* Unprocessed Copper Rock x 51

* Iron Ore x 100

* Iron Ore x 100

* Iron Ore x 100

* Iron Ore x 100

* Iron Ore x 93

* Tin Ore x 100

* Tin Ore x 29

* Wholemeal Bread x 41

* Waterskin Pouch of Fruit Juice x 22

* Meat Jerky x 18

...

Scrolling down the list to see what else was in his pack, Tobi saw the 42 junk items from the battle against the Goblins taking up 3 more slots, his Bone and Iron Pickaxes taking up a slot each—while the Bronze one was currently held in his hand—and 2 Iron Bars taking up the final slot. A total of 1,000 items contained in his pack altogether. The rest of his items, such as the Opal Geode, Merchant Map, Teleport Scroll and others were in the satchel at his waist.

“Your pack full?” Lorry asked, having just finished mining another chunk of iron out of the wall.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go cash in then and go get you started on your blacksmith training.”

Tobi shook his head and dropped the Tin he’d just mined down to the floor, “I’m almost level 10. I’ll finish this level first and then we’ll go.”

Lorry gave a silent agreement by dropping his iron to the floor and moving away to sit down. He didn’t get experience for mining iron anyway, he was only gathering it as something to do. It would also benefit Tobi later when he was working on his Blacksmithing, so it was ‘two birds with one stone’.

Just as Tobi got ready to continue mining, he suddenly stopped and emptied out the junk items from the Goblin battle. They were almost all worth between 3 and 5 Copper coins each, while a single Unprocessed Copper Rock was worth 5 Copper coins by itself. The Copper was more useful to Tobi’s growth though, so it made more sense to dump the junk rather than the ore.

By the time Tobi reached level 10, his pack was almost full again; except now his Tin was at 159 while his Iron, thanks to Lorry, had evened out at a perfect 500.

“Finished?” Lorry asked, noting how Tobi was half smiling at something only he could see. The natural guess being a notification that he’d reached level 10 Miner.

“Yes.” Tobi beamed happily.

“Good. Let’s head back.”

Exiting Tunnel 17 a few minutes later, Tobi was surprised to see that it was daylight. He knew how long he’d spent in the mines, but it didn’t fully register until he saw the sun peeking over a hill in the East. Between the training tunnel and Tunnel 17, he’d been at the mines for around 11 or 12 hours in total, so it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Getting no more than 10 feet from the tunnel entrance, or in this case the exit, Tobi was stopped by a man wearing a black armband with a silver pickaxe stitched into the side. It marked him as one of the Mine Guards and only almost equal in rank to the Foreman further down the hill.

“10% of the ore you have collected is to be delivered to the Foreman. Please don’t forget.”

Having already known about the fee, Tobi agreed to do just that and moved on. The moment he was out of earshot, he asked Lorry what would happen if he didn’t pay.

“You won’t be allowed back,” Lorry smiled, “When you reach level 5 and get Bribe you will be able to make a deal with him to reduce the price, but you will only save half the cost at most. Like, if your ore is worth 2 Gold, your fee would be equivalent to 2 Silver; but you can Bribe your way out for just 1.”

“How do they know what I mined though?”

“The foreman can check. If you own a mine, you can see the production it makes. You can also see who mined what and how much of it. We entered as a party, so we’re listed together. Gems and stuff are included in what the mine managed to produce, but you don’t get charged for them. It’s just considered your own good luck if you manage to get any.”

Frowning at the explanation, Tobi sighed and cleared his head of idle thoughts. Most of Aevitas had a rational explanation for how and why things worked a certain way. How much of those explanations he understood was a different matter. What did matter was that a reason existed. The more he tried to understand though, the more confusing it became. No doubt if he asked the Aevitians would give him some long-winded speech about Gods and stuff. Lorry would then turn around and explain things in much simpler terms and it would have a vastly conflicting view.

Figuring he might as well skip the non-player version, Tobi went straight ahead for Lorry’s version; “So why, and how, does the owner get to see what the mine produces?”

“From a player’s standpoint, it is a city-builder feature. Owning land can let you develop it however you want. Mines, hills, farmland, city layout and whatever else you want. It’s time-consuming and costs a lot but it’s pretty simple to use. For the Aevitians though, it’s called the ‘Royal Bestowal’. You don’t actually need to be Royalty though. Or even have land granted by Royalty. As long as you claim some land for your own, and it is recognized as yours by the residents or people outside your territory, then you can become its owner and develop it.”

“And…? How does that let me see what the Mines produce.”

“You can see anything that is produced in your territory and tax it. Any tax you generate in your territory will be shown. The costs of maintaining order, building roads and stuff like that will come out of the tax. Any extra can be taken for yourself or used to develop further. The mines are considered as one of your properties. Anything it produces is yours and belongs in your treasury. It is logged in your city builder and states what your workers managed to collect. Anyone entering the mine is considered a worker and it automatically logs what they get. Lord Brackley, and most landowners, don’t actually hire Miners to work for them. It’s cheaper to let people mine for themselves. They just use the city log to make sure they take a tax-cut. They also charge for access to the mines as an extra source of income. They do the same thing on the farms.”

“So, from their perspective, it is something the Gods blessed the nobles with. While for us, it is just a city builder feature?”

“That pretty much sums it up, yes.” Lorry agreed as they neared the foreman.

“Which one gave the blessing?” Tobi asked, slowing his walk a little.

“The Dev Team,” Lorry said, pulling away from Tobi with long strides and greeting the foreman happily.

‘Dumb question I guess,’ Tobi realized, catching up to Lorry and preparing to pay his fee.

Thanks to the odd numbers being rounded up, Tobi had to hand over slightly more than the agreed 10%. He had 251 Unprocessed Copper Rocks but had to hand over 26 of them instead of the expected 25. The foreman didn’t agree with Tobi’s argument that he should only round it up if the decimal place was 0.5 or over. The Tin wasn’t so bad, as the 10% would be 15.9, and so paying 16 didn’t feel as though he’d been cheated too much. The real kicker was that Tin Ore and Unprocessed Copper Rocks were both worth 5 Copper Coins each, so if added together, it perfectly balanced out at 25.1 + 15.9, meaning he should have only paid 41; not 42. The Foreman didn’t agree with that kind of logic either, claiming that different ores couldn’t be valued together even if they were worth the same.

Lorry had laughed at Tobi’s attempts to cheapen his tax fee. Nobles always prefered to charge as much tax as they could get away with so his attempts were doomed from the beginning.

Unphased by his failure to negotiate his tax fee, Tobi’s mood remained positive and bright. It felt good to be out in the sun again. The warm sun on his skin and sound of life in the air were things that didn’t exist in the mines. It felt a lot like finishing school on a Friday. The work was done, the weekend was open and the weather was great. What else gave such a free and liberating feeling?

The walk back to the city went smoothly and Tobi enjoyed the time immensely.. Being out of the city, out of the Tavern and not spending the night reading a book was a welcome change to his normal routine. When they finally saw the city come back into view, Tobi expected his mood to dampen. The place was like his prison, binding him to the area and restricting his movements. What he felt instead was a wave of relief. He was returning to the safety of what he knew and understood.

‘It feels like returning home,’ Tobi thought absently, watching the walls grow larger the closer he got.

Stepping through the city gates was like stepping from one realm into another. The quiet wilderness with a soft breeze, sunlight, birds chirping and fresh air faded into the background only to be replaced by the sounds and smells of a city. Smoking chimneys, cooked breakfasts, the sound of people filling the background and children playing somewhere—unseen but easily heard.

Taking a deep breath of the city air, which was actually a lot like the air he’d just been breathing on the other side of the city wall, Tobi smiled and directed his steps toward the Smithy.

Several turns later, Tobi saw the smithy up ahead and remembered the crowds that had been gathered outside last time he was there. The Cobbler family were behind on their deliveries at the time and Lord Brackley had screwed them out of a huge order. It was thanks to that whole mess that Tobi ended up joining the Goblin Subjugation mission. Seeing there no angry customers were outside the shop this time, Tobi made his way over with Lorry close behind.

“Anyone home?” Tobi shouted from the open doorway, peering into the gloomy room beyond. None of the three furnaces were lit and nobody seemed to be working.

“I’m in the back.” a voice replied which Tobi recognized as the youngest son, Luke.

“Hey Luke, how’s it goin’?”

“Tobi! Good! How are you?”

“I’m good, yeah. Is your dad around?”

Luke shook his head and glanced at the stack of papers on the table, “He’s taken Riley to make some overdue deliveries. The Warrior Guild is having a fit because they only received half the swords and shields they ordered, while the Assassins Guild is pissed because we haven’t made their daggers yet. The Artisans Guild is pissed too because we haven’t smelted the Bullion Bars they ordered. We did finish Lord Brackley’s order though, so we’re OK for now. Dad’s reputation took quite the hit though.”

Tobi nodded along in understanding. Gaining a bad reputation is never good. There is no point blaming other people either, because excuses just annoy people even more. The real surprise for Tobi was that Luke’s dad accepted so many orders in the first place.

“So what do you want dad for?” Luke asked.

Realizing he’d slipped away into his own thoughts, Tobi laughed self consciously and shook his head, “I was hoping he could teach me the Blacksmith Profession. I have my own ores, I just need to smelt them down and learn how to make stuff out of them.”

“Forget using your ores. Dad will be happy to teach you just to have help making the Bullion Bars for the Artisan Guild. I can teach you the smelting part if you want. I haven’t made anything complicated yet, but I can smelt up to steel with almost 100% purity.”

Giving his customary shrug, Tobi agreed easily.

“Great! Do you know anything about blacksmithing at all or are you a complete novice?”

“Novice.” Tobi answered flatly. He’d made Copper in the tutorial server, but he hadn’t done it with a furnace before. The copper he had this time was different too. It kind of made what he learned in the tutorial pointless.

“Give me a minute then and I will get the furnace started for you.”

“I can do that.” Lorry said, joining the conversation at last.

Luke sized Lorry up for a second before turning back to Tobi and asking if they were together. The way Luke said it seemed to imply more than friends though and Lorry’s face paled.

“No. Not together.” Tobi laughed, “Not like that anyway. He’s… Well, I guess you could call him my Guardian.”

“Oh.” Luke blushed, looking at Lorry again apologetically, “In that case, if you could set the furnace up for us that will be a great help.”

Out of simple curiosity and mild amusement, Tobi couldn’t help but ask; “What made you think we were…‘together’?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“—I don’t mind.” Tobi interrupted, waving a hand dismissively, “I’m just curious. Is that the impression we give?”

Still hesitant, Luke thought about it for a second before he replied, “So you’re not… You don’t favor men?”

“I’m not opposed to those that do, but I generally prefer women.” Tobi answered, smiling all the while and watching Luke’s reaction. If he wasn’t mistaken, Luke was perhaps more inclined towards a man’s persuasion.

“But if you’re not… Why do you stay at the Brackley Arms? You must have noticed that Borren tends to have a specific kind of customer. The same kind of customers that get invited to his private garden: a place, I was told, that you spend quite a bit of time.”

Tobi’s mind quickly searched through his memories. The people he’d seen eating dinner at the tavern were many. Couples and families were definitely among their number. As for people who rented a room for the night, Tobi quickly realized that all of them were men; and most of them were shared their room with another man. He’d also not seen a single woman in Borren’s private garden. Not even the female staff that he hired as waitresses. A couple of male friends popped by a few times, but Borren got rid of them quickly with quiet whispers near the back gate.

‘Ha. I didn’t even notice!’

Luke had been watching Tobi’s reaction the whole time. When Tobi finally came to understand the truth, Luke realized that he really hadn’t known anything.

“How can you stay there and not know?” Luke asked, sounding somewhere between shocked and bewildered at the same time.

Tobi shrugged carelessly, “Probably because it doesn’t matter to me what people prefer. Their personal life is their own business.”

“But aren’t you worried what people will think about you?”

“Why should I?” Tobi asked, his tone light but his expression serious.

Luke considered the question but didn’t reply. When he did open his mouth to say something in return, he quickly stopped himself again. Lorry was back and the furnace was already blazing away.

“Tobi, will you be alright here for a bit while I go check something?” Lorry asked, keeping his eyes strictly on Tobi and away from Luke.

“Sure, but where are you going?”

“Work.” Lorry answered, hinting at SkeaTech without actually saying it.

“No problem.” Tobi smiled, thinking Lorry planned to go complete a couple of Assassination Missions while Tobi learned his blacksmithing profession. It only seemed fair that Lorry would get to do something interesting too, seeing as he was stuck looking acting as a babysitter all the time. He also found it funny that Lorry dodged Luke’s gaze. ‘I wonder if Lorry swings that way too…’

“OK. Ready to show me what to do?” Tobi asked, turning back to Luke after Lorry left the room.

“Sure. Just let me finish this letter off.” Luke answered, dripping hot wax on an enveloped and pressing a seal onto it. Tobi thought that was something only a noble house did, but Aevitas didn’t exactly mirror reality, so he just made a mental note of it and put it to the back of his mind.

Three hours later, sweating, tired, mentally exhausted and ready to collapse, Tobi picked up the fruit of his labour with a heavy heart. For 3 hours he’d followed Luke’s step by step instructions. For 3 hours he’d worked through confusion and made no small effort to smelt his first copper bullion bar. Now that the job was complete, he really didn’t know what all the effort was for.

The bullion bar in Tobi’s hand was a 1kg Grade A ‘Copper Ingot’. Ten Unprocessed Copper Rocks had been used to make it, each worth 5 Copper coins each. The Ingot, on the other hand, was worth just 48 Copper coins. He’d actually made a near perfect ingot and lost money as a result. It simply didn’t make sense. To top it all off, he didn’t understand more than half of what he was told. Some of the words must have been alien for all the sense they made, even after their explanation. Pyrometallurgy? Hydrometallurgy? Was he really supposed to understand all this crap?!

There were comments about how Travellers had invented things to make the process better too, but Tobi hadn’t been able to understand why the methods brought in by Travellers were any better than the ones the Aevitians used previously. Completely lost on the explanations Luke gave him, he just continued to do whatever he was told and hoped for the best. Understanding ‘the why’ didn’t matter as long as he did exactly what Luke told him to do.

‘All that effort for this. If Blacksmith is really that hard, I can’t imagine many people would choose this profession. Did Lorry really spend so much time on this to reach his level?’

“Are people really willing to do this all day just to raise their blacksmith level?” Tobi asked, looking at the ingot in his hand that was worth less than the ore he used to make it.

“Of course. Except the Travellers anyway. They prefer the quick method the gods granted us to keep up with the Dwarves.

“What method is that?”

Walking toward the furnace, Luke picked up one of the Unprocessed Copper Rocks and frowned to himself, “The other method was given to us by Tsjaad after the Dwarves invaded his territory and killed most of his people. It was supposed to give us the ability to compete with the Dwarven skill for creating weapons and armour at a fast pace. The quality wasn’t very good, but even poor quality armour is better than nothing when at war. The downside for Blacksmiths is that we don’t get as much experience and there’s a decrease in the quality of the bars. As an example, how much experience did you get for that Bullion Bar?”

Tobi did a quick check before announcing that he’d received 67 experience.

“Actually, it’s 67.5 experience.” Luke corrected, “Our furnaces are limited, but using this method you can create up to 10 Bullion Bars of superior quality at once. The total experience will be 675 experience for 3 hours of hard work. With the other method, you can create 10 bars every 20 minutes. The downside is that you only get 7.5 experience for each bar. An hour would be 30 bars for 225 experience. 3 hours would be 90 bars for 675 experience.”

Managing to follow along, Tobi considered the math and frowned. He didn’t understand why everyone didn’t use that method if it was so much easier; or why Luke would teach the complicated version instead of the easier one.

“I don’t recommend using the other method.” Luke said slowly, “At least, not until you are level 30 or higher with your blacksmith. By then the Copper will be worthless for your experience, so you can use whatever method you want. But until then, it is better to do the job properly. It will guarantee your copper purity and give you maximum experience.”

Tobi thought about it for a while before nodding his head, “I will still learn the other method. I will swap and change depending on my mood. How do I do it the other way?”

“It’s simple really. Now that you already have the blacksmith profession it’s even easier. You should have got two non-combat Blacksmith spells when you received the profession; Refine and Smelt. Did you?”

Tobi checked his spells and confirmed he had both. Luke then took him to the furnace and gave him one of the Unprocessed Copper Rocks from the nearby pile.

“You can do this at the mine too, but don’t forget to keep 10% of the ore in reserve for the foreman. He gets really pissy if you don’t pay the fee with actual ore. Anyway; take the blacksmith hammer and tap the rock while casting Refine over that sieve.”

Placing one of his copper rocks on a tripod device placed over a large sieve, Tobi tapped the rock and cast Refine. The rock crumbled into dust as it fell neatly into the sieve below.

“OK, now shake the sieve until all the rock sediment falls out of the bottom. When only blue dust remains, pour it into that stone bowl over there.”

Tobi once again followed Luke’s instruction and did as he was told. He then repeated the process until the stone bowl was filled to the brim. It took 20 rocks in total for the copper dust to fill the bowl.

“OK, now use those tongs to put the bowl of copper powder into the furnace and cast smelt on it. Once done, use those tongs to take the bowl out again and pour it straight into that mould.”

Following Luke’s quick and easy instructions, Tobi filled the specified mould with molten copper. He then cast smelt again but this time on the melted copper. According to Luke, smelt would activate the cooling process—the exact opposite of what it did while it was in the furnace.

The molten copper filled 2 moulds altogether and produced 2 copper bullion bars. One was Grade A and worth 48 Coppers while the other was Grade B and worth 42. Both weighed exactly 1kg.

“I’d earn more by selling the ores and buying the bars.” Tobi complained, holding the two bars in his hands.

“Yeah, but then you won’t get the experience. Besides, the base value for copper bullion fluctuates and has different values in different places. It’s not worth much here in Brackley because we have a copper mine nearby. Most Merchants take the ores and bars down to Cohol to sell. Grade A Copper Bars go for about 60 Coppers down there. ”

‘Ah. That makes sense. Does that mean the value of the bar will change if I appraise it in a different city?’

While Tobi was lost in his own thoughts, Brion and Riley returned in high spirits. Half of their deliveries were now made and they were eager to finish the orders they had left. Both stopped in place once they seen Tobi though, their eyes flicking between Tobi and Luke and frowns creasing their brows.

“Mr Donlan.” Brion said somewhat cautiously, moving into the Smithy with slow, deliberate steps. “What brings you here?”

“He just came to learn the profession.” Luke answered quickly, sounding as though he’d just been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

Brion shot another look toward Tobi doubtfully, “Is that true?”

Sensing that Brion wasn’t keen on his son’s preference toward men, Tobi didn’t bother answering and simply held out the two bars in his hand for inspection. Brion took them both and inspected them with a keen eye.

“You used the quick method on this one?”

“I used the quick method on them both. I used the proper method on that one over there. Luke said you were behind on your deliveries to the Artisan Guild though, so I planned to use the proper method on the rest. Unless you’d prefer it if I leave?”

“No. It’s fine.” Brion said, subtly moving between Tobi and Luke, “You helped us when we were in need. It’s only right that we return the favor. Was it our ore you were using to train with?”

“Only to help us fill the order.” Luke said, still sounding worried.

“Yes. He already said that.” Brion answered curtly, shooting an angry look toward his son and ushering him towards the back room; “Did you finish the tax sheets for Lord Brackley?”

“Yes. I sealed the last one before teaching Tobi.” Luke replied before stepping into the back room and closing the door.

Turning back toward Tobi, Brion smoothed out his expression and considered him for a moment, “If you want to help with our order in exchange for the training I don’t mind. You will have to use the proper method for all of it though. The order is for 50 Grade A Copper Bars. Any that you fail to get Grade A on will have to replaced with Copper Ore so Riley can do it properly. If that is fine with you, we can get started.”

“Sure.” Tobi shrugged, his opinion of Brion and Riley declining sharply. He didn’t like getting involved with another family’s problems, but he could see how Luke was being treated; and he didn’t like it.

“Why don’t you show me what Luke taught you then and I will correct any mistakes he made.”

Determined to do Luke’s teaching justice and produce another Grade A Bullion Bar, Tobi got back to work without saying a word. He followed the exact same method he used the first time as best he could remember, catching himself twice when he almost made a mistake. In particular was remembering whether he was supposed to take the Matte or the Slag during the conversion stage. It was only by chance that he rightfully took the matte from the bottom layer and discarded the impure slag from the top.

When the process was finally complete, Tobi poured the molten copper into a blanket mould and filled all ten sections evenly. Casting smelt to initiate the cooling process—which he hadn’t done the first time during Luke’s teaching—Tobi held his breath and awaited the final result.

The copper was just about ready when Brion took a bar in hand, beating Tobi to the punch and appraising it carefully. The Copper was definitely Grade A, but whether that would be true for all ten bars, Tobi wasn’t sure.

“Good. It seems Luke taught you well enough. You can continue refining for the practice and experience if you like. This is Riley’s furnace though, so you should use the one over there if you really do intend to continue.”

“I don’t mind either way.” Tobi shrugged. Brion’s attitude was really starting to get on his nerves. The fact that Luke had been relegated to the back room wasn’t missed either.

“Well it’s up to you.” Brion answered just as nonchalantly as Tobi, “If you want to sit in the corner and watch that’s fine. If you want to assist with our order, then our smithy is open to you. However, we have a priority order to finish so Riley will still need this furnace.”

Caught between his desire to train his Blacksmith and wanting to flip Brion the bird and walk out, Tobi considered his options carefully. As a Merchant, he should probably choose the more profitable option and just ignore the family drama. At the same time though, he didn’t like seeing someone mistreated while he just stood around and did nothing.

‘No. It would be better if I stay and help out. At least then I can keep an eye on Luke and make sure he’s OK.’

His decision made, Tobi quietly moved toward the empty furnace and stopped. It was only now that he realized that part of his training had been skipped; ‘Shit, how do I turn this thing on?’

Biting the bullet, Tobi turned back toward Brion and coughed lightly, “Um, Mr Cobbler. When Luke set the furnace, I wasn’t paying much attention. How do I start it up?”

“Riley. Go set the furnace for him.” Brion answered without turning around.

~~~

Maybe it was because they wanted to get rid of him sooner, or maybe it was what they intended to do all along, but for the next six hours, Brion, Riley and Tobi all worked on creating the Copper Bullion Bars at the same time. They all followed the same, long, complicated process to guarantee the best quality bars and they all finished at roughly the same time. With three sets of hands making ten bars at a time, the Unprocessed Copper Rocks were soon used up. Upon realizing, the group finally stopped. The number produced was above and beyond the number required for the order and enough was left over for Brion and Riley to start to making the daggers for the Assassin’s guild.

Having originally expected to be the only one to be making the bars, Tobi didn’t get the 30+ thousand experience he wanted and could only accept the loss of experience sourly. Now that the job was finished, he really had nothing else left to do—except maybe start on his own ores; assuming that Brion wouldn’t mind.

‘Or I could ask them to teach me how to make whatever they’re doing for their next order.’ Tobi mused, looking over as both men began gathering iron and steel bars and stacking them next to the anvil nearest the forge. Once the two men were finished preparing, Tobi walked over to ask if they wanted some more help.

“Well. Thanks for your help today, Mr Donlan.” Brion said tiredly, “We probably wouldn’t have finished it today without your help. Either that or it would have been a late night for both of us. If you want to stop by to use our forge in the future, feel free.”

Surprised by the sudden change of attitude, Tobi hesitated. It made sense that they would be tired and would call it a day. Unlike himself, they didn’t have the benefit of never having to sleep. What he didn’t understand was the sudden invitation to return whenever he wanted.

“Ah. Uh. I will come again, but could you teach me how to make Tin next time? And maybe how to make weapons and armour?”

“No problem.” Brion smiled, “And sorry about earlier. Riley told me we had the wrong idea. We thought you were like those others.”

“Others?”

“You know... Those that stay at Borren’s place.”

“And how does Riley know that I’m not?”

Brion smiled at that and looked toward his son, “I was worried Luke might have done something shameful while we weren’t here. I had Riley go and make sure.”

‘In other words, Luke had to defend himself for being alone with me.’ Tobi guessed, trying not to scowl and taking a calming breath, “I see. Well, I don’t mind coming back to help out if you’re gonna teach me what I need to know, but I’d like to make some stuff for myself too. Using my own materials, of course.”

“Of course. Not a problem. We have three orders left to complete. If you help us finish them you can use that furnace anytime you want.”

Tobi nodded his head in silent agreement, still annoyed by how they treated Luke but trying not to show it. If it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted to come back occasionally to make sure Luke was doing alright, he’d probably just tell Brion to stick it up his arse and leave.

“You’re done?”

Turning and seeing Lorry standing in the doorway, Tobi smiled and answered happily, “Yeah. I got to level 5 and need about 188 experience to get to level 6. They’re tired and calling it a night though, so I have to stop for now.”

Lorry glanced at Brion and Riley and came to understand quickly. With all the sitting around involved while waiting for the metal to melt and the bars to cool down, Tobi would have had plenty of time to eat and drink to keep his energy up. In the meantime, the two blacksmiths only had their natural resistances to heat from their Blacksmith class. It was obvious how tired they were just by looking at them.

“I will bring you back another time. Did you at least clear enough of your pack away to do some hunting tomorrow?”

“Uh. Actually. I didn’t use any of my materials at all.” Tobi answered sheepishly. His pack was still bulging, sitting by the door where he’d left it when Luke offered to teach him.

“Well you won’t need the copper anymore if you are already level 5. Just sell it to the Merchant Guild or something.”

“I’d rather sell it in Cohol.” Tobi answered, quickly remembering that it was worth more in territories that lacked the corresponding mines.

“I’m not taking you to Cohol. It’s miles away. Even by cart it will take a few days.”

“I’ll buy it.” Brion offered, believing he was being helpful.

“For the same price I’d get in Cohol?” Tobi asked doubtfully; trying to point out that he’d get a better price if he sold it elsewhere. He also didn’t want to do the man any favours. He might like Luke, but the rest of the family could go suck a lemon.

“Ah. Erm. We’re talking about Unprocessed Copper, right?”

“Yes.”

“I get it from the Merchant Guild for 7 Coppers each if I am desperate; or the Foreman for 6 Coppers each the rest of the time. I’ll give you the same deal I give the foreman.”

Knowing his Profit passive could help him bargain a better price and sell for at least 7 Coppers each, Tobi considered the offer and the lack of space in his backpack. He knew it would be better to just sell now and worry about making money later, but part of him really didn’t want to sell the ore at all. He wanted to use it himself.

“Hell with it. Fine. I will sell to you for 6 Coppers each. But only because Luke is a good teacher.”

“Sure. Sure.” Brion nodded happily, gesturing for Riley to go and get the money. When Tobi pulled out 251 rocks of Unprocessed Copper, Brion cocked an eyebrow in surprise.

Riley returned a few seconds after Tobi finished taking it all out of his pack. A quick count of the rocks and Riley tried to add together the price. After failing and starting over twice, Brion snatched the money pouch and took over. The 15 Silver and 6 Copper was handed over straight away with a quick apology.

The moment Tobi took the money, he knew straight away that he’d failed as a Merchant. His Profit passive clearly explained that Bulk Sales could be negotiated for far better prices than individual sale prices. The Stone of Wealth Value for the copper ore was 5 Copper Coins each, which meant he could sell to the Merchant Guild for 4 each. For a bulk sale of 250 though, he could easily get 12 Silver or more, instead of the 10 Silver-or-so that he would get for them individually.

Selling to non-merchants meant he could sell at above the standard value rate. While selling to someone who would actually use the materials, like the Blacksmith, Tobi’s sale of 6 Copper per rock was almost literally the worst price he could have gotten. No Merchant in their right mind would have sold a bulk of more than 200 for the basic rate.

“I feel like I just got cheated.” Tobi said, looking down at the silver in his hand.

“You did.” Lorry said with amusement, “Serves you right. Take it as a lesson for next time. If you want to make it as a Merchant, you need to be ruthless. You’re just too soft.”

‘Meh. Oh well. Not like I really care about in game money anyway.’ Tobi sighed, reminding himself yet again that he’s only in Aevitas to learn skills for real life. It would be nice if he could pay his dad back some of the gold he was given though.

Resolving to do better as a Merchant in the future, Tobi thought about the ore that was still in his backpack. What he really needed was a safe or something to store it in. That way he could just take it whenever he needed it; or when he had a good opportunity to go to Cohol and sell it.

‘Or I could hire an escort and go to Cohol when Lorry isn’t here…’ Tobi mused, wondering how dangerous it could really be if he joined a Merchants Trading Caravan and went to a different city. Merchants must do it all the time. And he doubted player Merchants really hired an escort every time.

Lost in his own thoughts, Tobi followed Lorry back out of the Smithy and toward the Brackley Arms. He remained silent during the whole way, only partially taking in the sights around him. When he finally reached the Tavern doors, Tobi yawned rubbed at his eyes.

“I knew it.” Lorry said, watching Tobi carefully, “You haven’t slept at all since you got here have you?”

“No. I didn’t need to. I haven’t felt tired at all.”

“Just because you don’t feel tired, doesn’t mean you don’t need to sleep. Your real body might be sleeping, but your mind has been running for more than 4 days without rest. How exhausted do you think it is? Go up and see if you can get some sleep.”

Too tired to talk about it further, Tobi silently agreed and obediently went up to his room.

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