After hearing the good news that the date turned out well, I decided to take advantage of the full night in game time and really sleep on the cot instead of logging out.

Waking at the first light I was able to enjoy the scents and sounds of the city in the early morning. Wood smoke hung on the air as fires for cooking and crafting were lit to start the day. Parents who looked like they could have used a cup of coffee were shooing their children off to what I believed was their school. They all had on similar grey smocks and grey pants so I assumed the kids were off to an institution of some sort. Adults wore whatever they wanted but for the most part the men wore leather or heavy cloth vests over their shirts, and women wore aprons as they went about their morning duties. This could have been due to the fact that it was the merchant district.

Seeing all of this through the window of the apothecary shop I decided that I might as well get started on my day. Making my way into the kitchen area of Victoria’s house, I was surprised to see that she hadn’t woken up yet. With a shrug I decided to start the stove fire for her. Having worked closely with her every morning for the past week on drudgery work in the apothecary shop and her house, I had become quite familiar with her routine. Going to her ice box, which I now knew that she kept cold with her magic after seeing her display of it last night, I pulled out some eggs, chicken, cheese, and potatoes. After finding a good kitchen knife I set to work preparing them into an omelet.

Despite my living on microwaved frozen food for the past couple of days whenever I returned to the Real world, I really did have a decent grasp on cooking. Too bad I wasn’t very familiar with the spices in this world yet. Having learned a few recipes from my mother and a few from the internet, I had made various changes to them to improve the taste and texture of the food I made at home. On the accidental occasion my end product would be so perfect that I had to force myself to stop eating it. Usually though, they just turned out anywhere from pretty good to passable.

Finally as I had just finished the first omelet, I saw Victoria come out to the kitchen with her hair disheveled and a dreamy look on her face. “Mmmmm . . . that smells good.” She said. “Maybe you should cook from now on.”

“I beg to differ, since your cooking is so much better than mine.” I said, with a depreciating chuckle. “But I would be interested in learning how to cook better in this world.” As she sat down at the kitchen table I handed her the plate with the finished omelet before going back to check on mine making sure it didn’t burn.

“As of today,” She said between mouthfuls, “you are officially my student, both as an apothecary and a cook.” With a raised eyebrow, I looked over at her from my spot over the stove. “I wasn’t your student before?”

With a shake of her head she took a few more bites before explaining. “I was planning on just teaching you the work of a normal apothecary, but your creativity, and luck,” she said with a laugh, “convinced me otherwise.” “My teacher had a very unique set of skills of which he passed onto me that gives me quite the edge over most apothecaries.” Finishing up her last bite she turned to fully face me as I brought my now finished omelet over to the table. “After you finish breakfast, your real training begins today.”

After cleaning up after breakfast, I met with Victoria in her shop. As a greeting she pulled out two very large books and handed them both to me. Opening the newer looking one first, all I saw were blank pages. There had to be close to 1000 in total. Then opening the other, I scanned through the first 10 or so pages seeing drawing after drawing of various plants with lines and arrows pointing to different parts describing what their alchemic properties were. At the bottom of each page was a written description of where they are generally found and need to know facts about harvesting them.

Looking back up at her she then handed me a writing utensil before speaking. “I’m going to go and gather some fresh plants from around the area. While I’m gone, I want you to start creating your own apothecary guide using mine as a point of reference.” Pulling various bags and spools of thick string from under the front counter of her work space, she then stuffed them into a much bigger bag. “It may take me all day and so if that happens, I’ll want you to spend most of the day copying what I have written. Remember that this is your own record and so the quality that you put into it is what you will get back out of it.” At the last word, she left me alone in her shop to work on my copying.

Making my way back to the loft in the back room so others wouldn’t think we were open for business, I opened both books to the first page and began to transcribe her writing. Not having a chance at reproducing the delicate art work that she had in her own book, I left space for drawings while focusing my efforts on copying each page word for word, doing my best to understand and remember each of the plants and their properties.

There were so many names and plant descriptions that seemed entirely alien to what I knew of back in real life. Quite a few though actually looked like hybrid versions of what I had seen before. One example was a much larger version of the Venus fly trap that was now big enough and fast enough to capture small birds. The information on the page said the acid that appeared in the mouth of the plant upon capture of its food was used for removing warts and moles. The sticky sap whose aroma was used to draw in birds and insects could be used in some healing potions to make them taste better while adding a little to the overall positive effect.

So much information was in that book that by the time I had set both books aside for a break, it had already turned to early afternoon in this world. As Victoria had yet to return from her plant gathering, I made a quick meal for myself in this world then logged out for a quick meal in the real world. I didn’t want to have to spare time later on for eating when there were other learning opportunities to be had.

* * *

Logging back in I decided it was time to check in on the blacksmith to see if my weapon was finished. Arriving at the forge I saw the familiar muscle bound hulk of a man with the scraggly beard putting up his hammer after having just quenched what he had been working on. Looking up and seeing me, his mouth split into a smile. “Jade! It’s good to see you. I have your order all finished and ready to be taken away. Come on into the store and I’ll get it out for you.” Entering the store through the side entrance from the forge I stepped into a section I hadn’t seen before.

Just like the front room, swords, daggers, and a plethora or other weapons decorated the shelves and walls of this part of his shop. The only difference was that these gave off a feel of being somehow more in every way. “Sir, these weapons seem a lot nicer than the ones in the front of the shop. Why are these back here?” I enquired. “Hahaha” he laughed at my perplexity. “Well you see, I have a couple apprentices, and if everyone saw what I made, then I’d never get all the things those two have made off my hands. So I keep my work in this room in the back, while the front of the shop is to show case their own work.”

Leading me to a corner of the room, my eyes took in the sight of the weapon he had made for me. It was beautiful! Glossy black steel and a flawless spiraling hand grip that ran the length of the staff had my mouth hanging open. The blade at the end looked to be carved from the darkest of night as it darkly reflected back the light in the room. Picking up the weapon like it was nothing, the smith proceeded to spin it about even in the close quarters of the room, while I quickly backed off. With a snap of his wrist to bring it flush with his arm and to a stop, he then proceeded to balance the middle of the weapon on two of his finger to explain that it was proportionately weighted. “Sir, if I may ask, this seems quite a bit higher quality then what I was expecting. Why do this for me?”

Scratching at the back of his head he got a little red in the face. “Well, to be honest, it was going to just be a decent piece of work, but my wife Gertrude, said that what you were doing for Monroe and Victoria in planning such a perfect date took so much work that I shouldn’t let that go unrewarded.” Handing me the shorter than normal Naginata he waited till I had a good grip before relinquishing it. “OH my goodness! This thing is hefty!” I exclaimed as I almost staggered under the sudden weight. Guessing it to be a little over 50 lbs. I knew that it would take a while to become proficient at using it, in addition to becoming strong enough just to wield it. I had to bet that when used in fighting, that this would become a very efficient weapon in the hands of someone that had full control of it.

Thanking him profusely while promising to come back for any future weapon needs, I then returned back to the Apothecaries shop to see that Victoria had returned. Without a glance at me as I carried my new Naginata to a corner of the back room, I returned to the front of the store. Sitting on one of the two benches behind the front counter, Victoria was looking over what I had written in my own book. Beside her lay the bags that she had taken with her, except now they were full to the brim with plants. “I see you didn’t try to copy any of the drawings?” She enquired as I came to stand beside her.

“I haven’t tried drawing in a while and I wouldn’t want to make a mistake on what will be my new apothecary guide.” I simply replied. “Hmm, you could hire an artist to draw the pictures for you, though they do charge a bit. But it’s up to you.” Closing both books, she set them aside, donned a pair of gloves and began pulling out a few plants from each bag, setting them across the front counter. Soon enough the entire surface was covered in a myriad of different specimens.

After removing her gloves and washing her hands from the remains of the plants, she handed me her book. “I want you to be able to identify every single one of these plants on here comparing them with the drawings and descriptions in the book.” Without any further instruction she began taking down the plants hanging from the ceiling in her shop watching as me as I followed her instructions.

Back in Real life I had created a method for memorizing piano music at a younger age. It was painstaking and time consuming, but it helped to inspire perfection in the process. Though I no longer actively played piano (which I regret), the lesson remained. Starting from the beginning I would first find the page with the right drawing and description of the plant. Then I’d read the name and the key uses for which it was known. Closing my eyes I would then create a picture of the plant in my mind while going over what I had just learned. Once I could completely recall the full details I would open my eyes verify that I got the information correct and start on the next plant repeating the process. Every single time that I made a mistake, I would look at where I made the mistake and then start over from the beginning with the very first plant. I found this to greatly increase my focus as I did not want to keep repeating from the start.

Using that method I had only gotten through about 10 of the 153 plants or so that she had laid out for me to learn about by the time she had finished pulling down and storing the dried plants from the ceiling. “How is your memorization going?” She enquired. Somewhat dejectedly I pointed to the small section that I had memorized. “I’ve only learned about these first 10 I replied.”

With a small frown she came over to me and took the book from my hand. Then pointing randomly to each of the plants I had said I had learned about, she would ask various questions. (Her) “What’s the name of this one?” (Me) “That is Hokon insidious.” (Her) “What are its roots used for?” (Me) ”The roots have no use, but the leaves have miniscule fibers that when carefully scraped off and applied to any body part will instantly form a rash and shortly after begin to bleed.” I had thankfully not touched any of the plants since she had kept her gloves.

With a nod of her head she continued on through each of the 10 plants that I had covered. I knew I had gotten them all right and her smile at the end said that she was pleased as well. “You learn slowly but accurately, so I’ll give you a pass.” She finally said. “Now keep working on them till you’ve memorized 40 of them and then you can have dinner.” Saying that, she began pulling out various plants from her satchels to hang them from the now empty wires strung about the ceiling. By the time she was done and heading into the back room to access her house I had gotten to about 17 plants. ‘This was going to take a long time’ I thought to myself.

By the time I started smelling her wonderful cooking I had reached 34 plants having to start over too many times to count. It had reached late evening in Game Time where the sun had just dipped below the horizon making it harder to see the different plants and words on the pages just as I reached number 40. The smells of dinner had begun to noticeably fade and I feared that it had grown cold. Rushing through the backroom door that led into her kitchen area I looked at the table to see a metal pan covering a large plate. With a sigh of relief I sat down to eat.

* * *

Waking up in Real Life I completed my routine which included me going an additional 2 more laps in the hour that I allotted myself to swim, a quick meal, and a shower. Once again I didn’t bother to check up on my e-mails or the internet in order to save time and just re-entered the game.

* * *

Opening my eyes to see the morning light again I was happy to see that I had again woken up before her. Wasting no more time, I returned to the task of memorizing the plants. Gazing at them in the morning light, I could see that their pristine leaves had curled a little bit from their exposure to the elements. Only taking breaks to eat and relieve myself, I was able to get through another 57 plants bringing me to a total of 97 out of the 153 before night had once again fallen. Throughout the day, I felt kind of bad that I was using up her main work space as various customers came in to browse her wares, but neither she nor they seemed to be put off by my presence. Though a few times, she did invite them to the back room to talk in whispered voices. I’m guessing their visit and concern was of a sensitive nature so I didn’t enquire further.

Repeating this process, I was finally able to complete the task of memorizing all of them by the time the sun had reached its zenith. 3 days of game time had been spent in that shop with little time spent for breaks. I couldn’t believe it! I had memorized 153 new plants in 24 hours Real Time! At that point my head begun to truly hurt with all the effort I forced it to make. I had to admit that I was surprised that I hadn’t gotten any new skills yet. Photographic memory or memorization would have been a welcome skill, but so far, nothing.

After testing me on Every Single Plant, even going so far as to repeating several of them with different questions was Victoria satisfied with my progress. “Congratulations, what I had thought would take you much longer ended up taking less time in fact. I would suggest that even though you have memorized these, that you keep going over them in your head.” I had already thought to do that myself, but I figured I shouldn’t tell her, so I just nodded and thanked her for the advice. “Well now, since part one is done, I need to hang these old plants and get some new ones. While I’m gone, you can go do whatever you want as long as you are back in time for dinner.”

I was thrilled to finally have some time to myself. Heading off to explore the city I decided to check out more of the trader’s district. Walking along the worn but clean stone pathways I looked at the various shops with their many wares open to viewing. One shop in particular caught my attention. Wind chimes with sparkling crystals danced in the gentle breeze of the day. Clear tones that made me smile seemed to go hand in hand with the refracting light which came in many different hues. Pushing open the door I heard a bell chime. Looking up from the counter, a sturdily built woman with a light blue apron on gave me a broad smile. “Well if it isn’t Jade!” She exclaimed. “Um, have we met?” I asked her.

“Oh forgive my rudeness, I’m Gertrude, Kane’s wife.” With my continued puzzled expression she laughed. “The Smith’s wife?” She prodded me with that information. “Oh!” I exclaimed. “Then I have you to thank for the amazing job he did on my new weapon. Thank you very much for that.”

“Pish tosh, it was nothing. He was the one who did the work. Though I must say, it was a very unique piece that I’ve never seen before. What inspired you to commission such a design?” I thought for a moment realizing that I really had just planned it at the spur of the moment, but since then I really had thought through the benefits of such a weapon. “Well, I wanted something that could be used like a staff, offering great maneuverability and defensive capabilities, but I also wanted something that could pierce through a tough hide or stab between armored scales if need be. In addition to those things, considering the weight of it, I seemed to have gotten a weapon that could do a decent bit of blunt damage as well.”

Nodding her head in agreement at my musings, she reached her hand beneath the counter and pulled out a necklace. All I could see as she walked over to me was a thick silver chain dangling from her closed hand. “I want you to have this. I was going to give it to you once you officially graduated from being Victoria’s apprentice, but seeing as you found my shop without knowing who I was, then maybe you should have this right now.”

Opening my hands to receive her gift, she let the silver chain coil down into my palms before setting what felt like a polished stone onto the shining pile. Looking down at the stone my eyes lit up at the exquisite beauty of the carved piece. It was a perfectly shaped dolphin made of deep green jade. “Thank you so much!” I exclaimed. “This is amazingly beautiful. Is it safe to wear?” I asked.

“Oh dear, of course. I placed a reinforcement enchantment upon it. I wouldn’t let go of such a fragile piece without doing that to protect it first.” She replied. I stared at her in amazement. “This is the first time that I have heard of enchanting here. Is it easy to do?” I enquired. “Oh no.” She replied. “Being able to enchant something first requires becoming very familiar with the material that you want to enchant.” Waving her hands to encompass the entirety of her shop she continued. “Familiarizing myself with all of these various stones has taken me decades to do. So in answer to your question no it is not easy to do, unless you want to limit yourself to just a few materials. In truth though, since everything seems to be made up of a bunch of other things, then you never really do become fully familiar with an item, meaning the more things you are familiar with then the more powerfully you can enchant them.”

“Wow, okay then. I guess I will not be trying to learn how to do enchanting.” I conceded. “Not many do try and even fewer succeed,” she replied with a confident smile. “However, do feel free to come by and look at my wares anytime. I also do enjoy hearing any juicy details about what’s going on around the city.” She declared. “So if you hear anything interesting come by and say hello.”

Taking that as permission to leave, I thanked her once again and headed for the door of her shop. “Just a thought,” she called out. “You might want to go and talk to Monroe sometime. Right now, he’s likely at the falls for his daily walk. I wish you the best of luck.” With a wink at me she turned around to go about what she was doing before I entered her shop.

Stepping out into the early afternoon sunlight I carefully placed the necklace around my neck before heading off in the direction of the falls. She was right that I needed to talk to Monroe. I still had to find out whether or not I succeeded in making Victoria tired enough to not bother him at his home after the date. I dared not to ask her.

Once at the falls I saw the familiar figure of Monroe staring out over the railing. I totally understood why he kept coming here. “Monroe!” I called out to him from a distance. Turning to look at me I saw he was wearing the same red and black vestures that he had worn before when we had first met. Happiness seemed to be warring with frustration on his face as I got close enough to see his expression.

“Is everything alright?” I asked. “How did the date go?” With a sigh he leaned against the hand rails to face me directly. “The date went very well,” he explained. “That’s part of the problem though.” I raised an eyebrow at that declaration. I waited for him to further explain his reasoning. “I haven’t thought this way about anyone since my first wife died over 90 years ago and yet among being worried about betraying her memory, I’m still not sure that I want to give up my comfortable lifestyle in order to marry Victoria.”

“What?!?” I exclaimed. “How did a single good date turn into considering marrying someone?” “Hahaha, Yeah I guess it might look that way to you seeing as you came in the midst of our courtship.” Pausing a moment as if to gather his thoughts he continued. “I’ve been considering it for a while now, but each time it seems the disadvantages had outweighed the advantages, till now. What do you think?” He asked me.

I thought for a moment, knowing that I couldn’t understand the full situation with the little I knew of them both, but I did have some advice I could give him that worked for me once before. “Back in my world, a good friend of mine once gave me some really good advice in regards to getting married. He said. ‘For one brief moment, being completely and totally selfish, thinking only of yourself, ask yourself this. Do I want to spend the rest of my life with this person?’ Whatever the answer to that question is should tell you a lot about what you should do.”

Monroe’s thoughtful frown seemed to slowly be replaced with enlightened understanding. Finally, with a light in his eyes that shone with a recalled memory he seemed to reach a conclusion with a happy resolve. “Yes.” He replied. Then in a show of gratitude he surprised me with a warm embrace. “Uh, you’re welcome?” I said awkwardly.

“Now, I must be off and tell her immediately!” He said with a smile after stepping away from the hug. Not saying another word he took off at a run up the trail.

“Wait!” I cried out before he could get too far away. What I said next was purely out of selfishness in wanting to finish up my training before it go interrupted by a wedding but it had the benefit of making sense to him. “Don’t you want to wait for the right moment, you know, a romantic setting, a nice ring, and time to maybe move your many ‘treasures’ to a safer location?” I enquired.

Thankfully that brought him to a stop. “Hmm you do seem to have a good point. And I seem to keep on acting like the younger one around you while you have the good ideas and a cooler head. So how about I make you a deal?” He offered. How about while I get her ring made and plan out the perfect setting to propose to her, you can find a safe place for me to put my mementoes from my travels. As long as you have them all safely hidden away by the wedding (he seemed to know that she wouldn’t refuse) then I shall teach you my style of fighting. What do you say?”

*Ting*

A Quest!

Find and/or create a safe location to store Monroe’s treasured mementoes.Rank FTerms of Failure:Unable to find/create a suitable place to store Monroe’s treasures before the wedding.Consequences:Decreased familiarity with Monroe and Victoria.Rewards for Success:Learn directly from Monroe.

“I’ll do it!” I exclaimed. In all the days that I had been there, I hadn’t seen any kind of formal training grounds. Maybe they had them in some secluded spot, but that also denoted that they probably weren’t open to the general public. I would need to have some proper training before going out into the world.

With a look of glee, Monroe took off running up the pathway again and I soon followed at a more leisurely pace. Making it back to the apothecary shop before dinner time, I entered to see a slew of bottled liquids sitting on the counter. As I got closer to them I noticed that they all had a different number on them and that no two bottles had the exact same amount or color of liquid in them. Without touching a single one of them, I went searching for Victoria.

Finding her just as I entered the kitchen she was putting a large pan into her oven. “Oh good, you are back. I was hoping you wouldn’t be too late to get an early start on tomorrow’s lessons.” Leading me back through to the shop she stood in front of the many bottles laying out. “Each of these bottles has a liquid that has been distilled from a single plant.” Holding up one of the bottles she uncorked the top and took a careful sniff of the contents. “I want you to smell every single one of these bottles and find at least one single discerning characteristic in the scent alone that makes it different from all the other scents.” Laying that bottle down, she gave one last bit of advice before leaving. “There are many different versions of sweet, sour, bitter, rotten, and other smells. Even if you can’t explain it in words what the difference is, you only need to know how to tell the difference in your own mind.”

Alone with the bottles, I decided to start with number one. As I went through each of them, the majority had a simple bitter smell that you would scent if you were to just grab a green branch from a random plant in real life, but after alternately smelling two different bitter bottles I was able to smell a difference. Spending a lot of time doing this it had long since grown dark before I had been able to discern at least a small difference in each bottle. After that, my head was swimming from the odors I had taken in. Sadly, I had a difficult time smelling dinner that night.

* * *

Game Time night of the 10th day. Currently at 20% pain level. Real Life May 21st.

* * *

Alright, after one more chapter (even if I have to make it a super long one to get everything), I will begin Jade’s training with his Special ability, so the wait is almost over. Feel free to start reviewing and I am always happy with constructive criticism and detailed suggestions as to how to make my story better. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy.

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