"Okay, maybe I deserved that one," Ryan couldn't help but laugh as he loaded back into his lobby. He was in the game for less than five minutes.

However, Ryan felt he gained a lot from the short time he was in. The Titan believed, just maybe, he might have found a path forward. The creator of the game told Ryan to use everything.

Ryan would take that lesson to heart. He found a hint but had only scented his direction.

As noted by the helpful timer that appeared each time Ryan died, the giant decided to study with five hours to kill.

Maybe it was the game's way of giving me a time-out. It's time I started to take this more seriously.

Ryan crossed to his desk and opened the interface to access his school documents. At his clearance level, there was little scientific information Ryan didn't have access to.

What he wanted to study was buried deep in the archives, but Ryan had special access to the Materials section due to his work on the Dyson-Sphere project.

The Titan settled in as he pulled up documents and videos related to early forging techniques and special steel alloys. Ryan recalled the scenery from his fall into Grotto as best he could.

He planned to align his choice of material and technique with the resources available. As the files and videos began to unfold before his eyes, Ryan counted his blessings for starting in a river basin.

It's funny. Dying might have been the fastest way back to town.

Five hours passed quickly as Ryan hungrily studied everything he found. Even if it was unrelated, the Titan piled high a list of personal homework for in-game.

Once the portal to Frontier Online appeared, Ryan actually ignored it for another two hours. The giant's focus was absolute.

I have plenty of raw material, as far as ore, but I need several ingredients, a smelter, and multiple crucibles. Even getting lucky, a lot of these things I will have to make from scratch...

Ryan saved a list of the ingredients and their early production methods to look at it in-game.

Once Ryan finished his preparations, the giant walked up to the misty doors and pushed through them.

*****

A pillar of light briefly illuminated Grotto's graveyard as Rydr loaded into the game. The giant expected to be alone and was surprised to find several divers milling around the graveyard.

As Rydr stood there, another flash of light appeared beside him. A black-haired gentleman in half a set of leather armor began to walk toward the other divers.

"The Southside of the forest is a bust too. The Vines dragged me down before I could get to the weakened zone," The half-dressed diver began to detail the path he took to the other divers, although several of them groaned and walked away before he finished.

As the gathered divers started to disperse, Rydr walked up to the black-haired man.

Rydr coughed to announce his presence, "Hi, I've been unable to log on for a while. What's going on in Grotto?" The giant hoped the man was feeling talkative after the others stormed off.

The man turned around and looked up, meeting Rydr's eyes, "You wouldn't happen to be the Titan Shining Star is looking for, would you?"

Even as the man asked the question, Rydr noticed his hands making small gestures, navigating his menu.

Rydr shook his head, "Can't be. As I said, I haven't been logged in for nearly a day." Smooth as silk, Rydr put on a mask to hide his concern.

Did Shining Star put a bounty on me after Little John sent me that message? No, what am I saying? They're one of the Super Guilds. Of course, they have the funds to put a bounty on my head.

The other diver continued to stare at Rydr as he made small gestures in the air. Rydr was unaware that Shining Star put out a description for a Titan wearing a wolf's pelt.

"You know what? Never mind, I'll ask someone else," Rydr quickly backed away from the man and left the graveyard.

As Rydr walked through town, there was hardly a soul in sight. The plants which the divers helped fend off grew in every corner and began to claim the street.

They weren't kidding. Everyone is gone. The giant numbly walked to the town square, where he quickly ducked inside the blacksmith's shop.

Once inside, Rydr quickly shut the wooden door behind him and ducked under a row of weapons to step deeper into the shop.

Lynn, the elven blacksmith, looked up from the counter. When he realized who it was, the elf turned red in the face and stormed around the shop's counter.

"You! It was you who broke my springs!" Lynn marched toward Rydr with his finger stabbed at him, punctuating every word. When the elf finally reached Rydr, he seemed to run out of steam.

The height difference made Lynn feel absurd when he was trying to reprimand the giant.

"If it helps, I didn't mean to. I thought the Strength Test would be harder." Rydr was hard-pressed to feel apologetic. He truly believed the test was too easy. If his memory served, the Titan broke the test when he had a strength score of only twenty-five.

Lynn sagged a little more before he sighed, "Yeah, me too. Shane underestimated you Travelers and calibrated the test too low." The elve's ears twitched as he shook himself and stood up straight again.

"So, did you complete the task I gave you?" Lynn looked expectantly up at Rydr, uncowed by his height.

Rydr grinned evilly and asked if there was a back room. Lynn took the giant behind the counter, where Rydr weaved under hanging pieces of metal before they arrived in a relatively spacious forging room.

Against the back wall stood a smelter, the firing forge, and several workstations for different steps of metal-working.

Rydr admired the clean setup for a moment before Lynn cleared his throat. The Titan turned to the blond elf and opened his inventory.

As Rydr began to take out huge, dark boulders one by one, the smith started to chuckle. At first, quietly, Lynn soon held his stomach as he desperately tried to hold in giggles.

"What's all this supposed to be? Did you pick up random rocks on the way and hope they were ore?" Lynn wiped a tear out of his eye as he walked up to one of the boulders and set his hand on it.

A moment later, the elf's face paled visibly. Wordlessly, Lynn crossed to one boulder after another, placing his hand on them in succession.

Rydr paused his unloading to watch the elf.

After Lynn touched a few more boulders, the room nearly full of them now, he turned to face Rydr.

"These are almost pure Magi-Steel ore. How did you get so much?" When faced with the truth, Lynn gave in to his curiosity and quizzed the giant.

Rydr shrugged, "Broke a giant ball of death into pieces. This isn't even half of it, just what I could carry out." The Titan shrugged again, disappointed that he couldn't take all of it when he had the chance.

"Is this everything?" Now that Lynn was looking at the young giant properly, he saw that Rydr was much larger than when they first met. The giant's new mass began to approach the miller Shane's.

Rydr reached up to scratch the back of his head awkwardly, "Ah, no. I have around ten times what you see here still in my inventory."

Lynn spun in a quick circle before his face paled again.

"Have I qualified to be your apprentice?"

Lynn jumped, startled out of his thoughts, "Yeah, yeah, this is more than ten pieces of iron ore..." the smith looked around the room again. "Stay here. It's not much, but there is an extra reward..."

With that said, the elf quickly left the room, a strange look on his face.

Once Lynn left the room, a small chime sounded in Rydr's head.

*Quest Completed*

Common Quest! Earn Your Lessons

You have exceeded Lynn’s expectations! Going above and beyond, you have provided something the elven smith desires most dearly. Rewards modified.

Rydr read at the quest update, excited for Lynn to come back.

Is it Magi-Steel ore? He seemed most affected by it.

Rydr wondered why he received a quest-completed notice but hadn't gotten any experience points as he waited.

Within a couple of minutes, Lynn returned to find the room cleaned up. Rydr sat in the center of the workshop on top of a single, enormous piece of ore.

Even with the wolf's head flipped down, Rydr looked more like a monster than a prospective apprentice.

Unbothered by Rydr's appearance, Lynn walked toward him, holding a book in his hands. The cover of the book flowed with a faint red and blue script.

To Rydr's eyes, the book seemed to blur every time he looked at it. Every time the giant tried to watch the moving script, a piercing headache formed behind his eyes.

"What is that?" Rydr couldn't help but voice the question.

Lynn walked up to Rydr, waving at him to stay seated since it was easier to talk to him that way.

"This is an opportunity if you can grasp it," Lynn lifted the book and stroked its spine, "I found this Legacy in a ruin many years ago. Unlike most Legacy's, the creator of this one bound his spirit to the book until he found a suitable successor."

Lynn looked up to meet Rydr's eyes, "This is the Living Legacy of the [Aether Smith]. Like the original creator chose me, no one can read the book until I deem them, my successor. Should I die before that ever happened, my spirit would bind itself to the book until I found someone."

The elf shrugged and offered the book to Rydr, "Since I don't want to spend eons as a glorified lich, I thought it might be time to pass it on."

Rydr began to reach for the book before he pulled his hand back.

"Will this prevent me from picking up a combat class?" Rydr almost felt ashamed asking the question after Lynn talked up the Legacy.

The elf laughed, "I forgot for a moment that you're new to this world. The [Aether Smith] is a crafting profession. Unless otherwise blessed by the gods, each person can specialize and therefore use the innate abilities of one crafting profession, unrelated to their main class."

After his impromptu lesson, Lynn once again offered the book to Rydr.

This time Rydr waited only a moment before he accepted the ancient tome. A pulse seemed to pass through the room as Lynn passed the book to the giant.

As Rydr went to open the book, a notification forced itself onto his HUD.

System Notice!

The diver somehow currently has too many pending notifications. Would you please deal with your current notices before the system allows you to accept more?