Mature Content Warning: Not much really.

Author's Note: Here we go. This is the first update for chapter 5. I might be able to update one more time later, but I need to do the Friday update for Origin and Galataea first, so that those chapters can be finished out.

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Chapter 5.1: Grassland Armorer

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The little plastic cup that once held the pathway to dreams now lay empty upon the counter. Scott had downed his night time cold medicine and was ready to return to the dream world. It would be about a half hour before it kicked in full-force, so he opted to check the Internet a bit more.

Since he had returned home he had studied his new instruction manual with great interest. He was almost certain that he had memorized several of the steps that it mentioned, but he knew that he would need to study its contents further to truly have any chance of learning magic in the proper way.

Of course, the book read more like a game guide than an ancient mystical tome. He appreciated that, however. It made the learning experience feel more immersive, and it helped to forget the crap he had dealt with at work. His constant attempts to maintain a cheerful and happy demeanor were draining. The book had restored his strength and will to power.

He checked through his favorite sites and found that no one had been to his region, yet. He was sure that someone in the world was in the area, but they did not seem to frequent any of the sites that he enjoyed.

Very little new information had been posted, though the online bestiary had grown a little. There were no entries for the Screaming Onion or Rat Fiend, but there were a few similar creatures listed. “Dancing Jalapeno... A spicy monster that gives you heartburn while forcing you to dance?”

Scott shook his head. He’d had enough interaction with evil vegetables and dinner accessories for one life. He knew that he would have to deal with more of them, however. Ridiculous monsters were quite common in the dream world from what he could see.

One other thing that caught his attention on his favorite site was a new project to unify the world map. People had pooled their knowledge and a digital artist had rendered the information into a more coherent map. However, the scale of it was quite exciting for the man.

“Well, the world is huge. Good to know.” said Scott.

He thought about the situation for a moment. When he awoke in the dream world it would probably be early morning due to the difference in the way time worked. People online and on the news had stated that scientists believed the time difference was due to REM sleep or other things, but to Scott it was obvious that such things had little to do with the situation.

The time difference was steady and the same for everyone. Time spent in that world ran four times faster than Earth. When you went to sleep in one world, you awoke in the other. It was a hard thing for many people to accept, but it was obvious for anyone who had consumed copious amounts of fantasy and science fiction content.

Scott delved into the depths of the Internet then just before he was about to shut down he had an idea. He used to make simple jewelry as a child. It kept his hands busy and made his sister happy. It used to make his mother happy too, but he tried not to think about her. His relationship with her was complicated. On the one hand, she was the woman who gave his life and he wanted the best for her. On the other hand, she refused to believe the truth about her husband and remained with a man who had caused the death of her daughter.

He searched out simple jewelry making tips for crafting wire jewelry. Actually, he searched out one thing specifically. He had learned to make chain bracelets as a child because the way the rings interlinked reminded him of medieval armor. He had tried to make a shirt of chainmail once when he was a child, but it ended up being more of an oddly shaped blanket.

Scott wondered what sort of tools existed in that world when it came to jewelry crafting, and how much they would cost. He would need a mandrel and wire shaping tools at the least. Actually, there were many simple types of jewelry that he could make if that world made and sold wire. Otherwise he would have to learn to craft his own.

He looked through a few tutorials then nodded. There was no point in trying any of those things in dream world until he had regained the general knowledge in this world. He could easily purchase the materials in the waking world, but until he had a set of tools and materials in the dream world, jewelry making would involve weaving grass. He should be able to grind out a few more levels that way, anyway.

“Maybe I should learn to do other things as well.” There were no fencing classes in town, but he might be able to take up boxing at the local gym. It seemed like that would be more useful than any of the watered down martial arts taught in town and it would probably be more useful anyway. Keep it simple and you could easily master an art.

Unlike stories and popular entertainment, the people who usually won tournaments and fights did not master every possible still and learn dozens of skills. They often focused on a small few core skills and became absolute masters of using those abilities. At least, that was what he was led to believe whenever he had watched mixed martial arts on television.

Most people learned to sweep, throw, grapple, and choke. There were occasional people who used flashier arts such as a tight aerial cartwheel, but those people studied arts that emphasized agile movements and distraction. Their attacks came from odd directions but even they seemed to favor specific attack skills from their combat discipline over time.

Scott thought about what little he knew about real combat then decided that he would look into any mixed martial arts trainers in the area. Swordsmanship was off the table for now, but even if he did not have an actual skill in the dream world, his knowledge would go with him.

He suspected that it would be a lot easier to stab someone with a sword if he were to knock them off their feet first. Besides that, it would give him a reason to exercise. His greatest problem was motivation when it came to maintaining his body. If he could convince himself that he was training to be better in the dream, he could grind in real life as well.

His eyelids started to droop and he smiled in a tired way. It was time to head to bed. Around two full days would have passed in the dream world. He needed to get moving and train.

Scott went to the bathroom to make certain that he had taken care of that sort of business. He did not want to be disturbed during his nocturnal adventure.

After crawling into bed, it did not take long to fall asleep and then awaken in his room at the inn. Blackthorne looked around the room then nodded. He had a lot to do, but he needed to verify what time of day it was before he did anything.

He left his room then headed down stairs. The tavern was fairly lively, but the scent of bacon and eggs filled the air. They still served breakfast. That was good to know.

Blackthorne crept back up to his room then immediately began to combine his bracelets into rings. He worked quickly and struggled through the pain of losing so much of his vitality at such a rapid speed. Once he had reached a critically low state of vitality, he packed up his items then headed down stairs to get his breakfast. He planned to eat heartily, and it would have been a waste not to expend his vitality beforehand.

The dark mage sat down at a table by himself and began to gorge on his plate of food. He went back for seconds, and soon his vitality had been restored. Cooked food restored health by a much larger amount than the raw version.

Jackie poked her head out of the kitchen to tell Scraggles something then spied Blackthorne. She waved at him then gestured at his breasts. Blackthorne laughed at her a little while shaking his head.

The slave chef pouted at him then made a chopping gesture with her kitchen knife. Did he want to reconsider now?

He shook his head again then smiled. The curvaceous chef stomped her foot at him then wandered back into the kitchen.

The mage turned his head to see if anyone had taken notice of their little exchange. If they had, they did not act as though they had. Blackthorne assumed that the overly endowed woman acted that way with any traveler who came to town.

After breakfast he checked the time then sighed. The shops would not be open for another hour or so. They were late starters in this town.

Since the shops were not open, yet, he decided to go back upstairs and work his synergy skill until he had run out of food or run out of bracelets. He still had a few dozen of them left after working on them the other day, and just before breakfast.

Time passed while he worked. He opted to work on his skills until around lunch time so that he could check the shops in the afternoon. He planned to hunt throughout the night, so grinding his other skills now would be a good way to keep busy.

Eventually, he ran out of bracelets, so he started to combine the rings. When he was too full to work, he stopped for a while. Unfortunately, that left him time with nothing to do.

Several minutes passed then he sighed. He hated downtime like this. He needed to use vitality for most of his useful skills.

His stomach rumbled and he winced. He had over-eaten once more. In this world, he felt as though he digested food a lot faster than on Earth. That was good since it helped maintain his energy. However, it came with a terrible price.

Blackthorne rose to his feet then went to take care of his natural concerns. Sadly, he did not gain a level when he finished using the facilities.

“What now? Lunch will be ready soon...” He had little else that he could do without leaving the room, so he went back to combining his rings.

After he reached a critically low state of vitality he stopped working and waited until he felt like he could eat again. He had run out of sandwiches, and his apple supply had dwindled rapidly due to his recent training. He only had around eighty of them left, if he had to guess.

He flopped down on the bed and continued to wait. He hated waiting. It felt like he wasted his time. That was the one thing that was out of his control. He did not dictate how much time he was allowed in this world, beyond forcing himself to remain asleep on Earth.

It would be pointless to eat again before lunch, but he was tempted. In order to fight temptation he decided to look over his grass rings for a moment. None of them were particularly good items. After a few minutes he became bored so he experimented with taking a few of them apart.

He took two dozen of them apart then his eyebrow lifted. A thought occurred to him and he decided to act upon it. He grabbed another handful of grass rings then began to experimentally tie them together. A few failures at doing anything useful led to his realization that he might be able to do something else. The chain bracelets he had looked up online and had made when he was younger led to innovation.

Blackthorne tied the rings in a chainmail pattern. He chose a simple double ring pattern for the bracelet. He placed four rings together then looked a single untied ring through them and tied it off. His first attempt looked pathetic, so he experimented with the concept a little more. Eventually he found a good, similar, pattern to work with.

Over two hours passed while he worked on chaining his grass rings together into what he liked to think of as, grassmail bracelets. The pattern was simple, but it was effective. After over a dozen attempts, he made a grassmail bracelet that seemed stronger and more attractive that the rest.

He focused on it for a moment then smiled when he saw the result.

<<< Item >>>

Accessory: Grassmaile Bracelet

A simple maile bracelet made of interlinking grass rings. It is a low quality item made by an unknown armorer.

Quality: 1

Durability: 14

Defense: + 3

Value: 3

>>

“Seriously? That’s not bad... and it has an actual value score?” Blackthorne stared at his new creation for a moment. Would anyone buy the thing? If so, he had just found an incredibly cheap way to make a small amount of extra money during his down time!

He did marvel at how simple blades of grass could be made into accessory type armor with defense stats that were about one-fourth of the stats possessed by his iron cuirass. If he wore two of them he would increase his raw defense score by fifty percent. He suspected that his jewelry crafting skill level played a large part in the increased status, but only speaking with an armorer would allow him to know for certain.

It was lunchtime now, so he would put his monetary ambitions aside for the moment. He needed to regain his lost vitality then head out to visit the shops. After cleaning up and walking out the door he blinked. He looked down at his new bracelet then raised his eyebrow. “The thing claimed it was made by an armorer...”

Certainly, accessories could be considered a type of armor. He intended to make such in the future, but he could not help but wonder just how far he could stretch his jewelry making skills. After he checked the shops he needed to collect a lot of grass and find out. He planned to hunt that night, but there would be several hours left in the day before it came to that.

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