(Harlow)

I was now a mentor. How about that? Contrary to popular belief, I intended to take this seriously. Jaxson was a good kid. He was a Diamond in the rough. I knew his type. A blue-collar kid spent his life in conformity and now with a second life, he goes wild. It’s very common. But eventually, he’ll lose steam and fall into depression. Sometimes that depression leads to euthanasia.

Not that I’m going to let that happen to Jaxson. After I accepted his offer yesterday, I instructed him to come in today. I had a few secrets that will interest him. And I’d get some free labor out of it.

The knock at the door let me know Jaxson arrived. I let him in and showed him to the workshop.

“I got a big order today. Also, I got a few tricks I think you’ll find interesting.” I said while grabbing the materials I needed.

“Sweet. What are we making?” Jaxson asked.

“A set of daggers for an Assassin I know.”

Jaxson clapped his hands together. “How are we going to do this?”

“Love the enthusiasm. First things first. Tell me about Realism settings.”

He looked at me with furrowed brows but answered me. “The Realism setting is the adjustable system that players can control.”

I motioned for him to continue.

“The system measured Realism from 0% to 100%, o% percent being no bleeding or pain in-game, and at 100% you’ll need to treat wounds with antiseptic or get gangrene and have to amputate.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “Good. As you know, Citizens can’t change our realism setting. We’re set at 100% realism and can’t change our bodies setting.”

“It’s bullshit if you ask me. Like I want to know what it feels like to burn alive.” Jaxson shuddered. I nodded my agreement.

“Because of that, most citizens choose to adventure or work that requires minimal manual labor. Why spend your second life toiling away. And here’s where the trick comes in.” I tapped the side of my nose. “We can’t change our personal settings, but we can change the settings of our work environments.”

Jaxson blinked at me a few times. “Bullshit.”

I laughed at him. “Tell me, how often do you check the settings of houses or buildings you enter? Have you ever fiddled with your houses setting past the décor settings?”

He opened his mouth to argue with me, then seemed to think about it. Then he shut his mouth and listened. I nodded in approval and opened my shop's settings and showed them to him.

Workshop Settings

Owner: Harlow

Building Style: Baroque

Building addons: Forge, smelter, Anvil, Grindstone

Realism Setting: 80%

Exterior Colors: Auburn, Cobalt blue, Gold

Interior Temperature: 70°F

“From the settings, you can change the Realism percentage. If not, forging would take me much longer and it would be much harder. This is a simple trick you can try if you decide to stop adventuring and settle down.”

He nodded his head, seeming to be lost in thought. I snapped my fingers in front of him. “Focus boy. You can ponder the secrets of the universe later. Pay attention.” I held up a twelve-inch bar of Steel. “Usually, I prefer Mold forging. But for these daggers, I’m using these bars.” I turned on my forge and showed Jaxson how to work the bellows. “When the bars are hot enough, I’ll hammer six inches of them into a blade. Because I keep the Realism setting at 80, I don’t have to worry about the metal-air cooling or oxygenation. Thank the realism setting I can skip several steps in forging my weapons. Not having to worry about warping is amazing.”

I took out my tongs and took out a bar of steel and hammered one end of it with my hammer until it was thinner. I then turned it on its side and hammered the end into a point. I quenched the blade in the trough and sharped the blade, then showed Jaxson how to polish it. An hour later, I held up the gleaming dagger to the light. I wrapped the hilt in black leather. I placed the dagger on my workbench and took out a second bar and repeated the process.

Subclasses could be changed but most didn’t do it since perks and abilities would be disabled. If the skills are related, then perks and abilities could be carried over. Since he was going to be helping me Jaxson changed his subclass to Apprentice. The Apprentice subclass would allow him to learn the Smithing skill up to level 20.

It took me an hour to finish each dagger. IRL it would have taken me two days to complete just one. Six hours and thirty minutes later the daggers were done, and I engraved each with runes. One would allow the knives to return to their owner, another enchanted them with lightning power, and the third rune was a self-sharpening function. I developed that magic myself. All magic and spells in BO were lines of code. It wasn’t easy to write the code and get it to work, but if you managed it Bo’s governing AI would classify it as a unique spell.

If it wasn’t clear, making new spells is a pain in the ass. Hence why I only have a few to give my work that special touch.

When I etched the final rune on the last dagger, I leaned back against the chair and stretched my arms, groaning. Seven hours to complete half a dozen daggers. IRL it would have taken me a full week at the earliest to finish. I took out a velvet-lined box and placed the six daggers into the box and secured the blades in place. I closed and secured the lid. I looked over to my right where Jaxson was lying on the ground, his arm over his eyes.

“You said it was harder IRL?” He groaned.

“Yup. A week at the earliest. The forge itself would be much more stifling. It would take hours to hammer the metal into shape, then there are so many tedious tasks after that to get the desired shape and sharpness of the blades. Thankfully, the client didn’t want wooden hilts.”

Jaxson groaned again. I laughed and helped him off the floor. “Go on, get a shower and I’ll deal with the client. She should be here soon.”

He nodded his head and shuffled off. I chuckled and shook my head at the poor boy. Adventuring wasn’t an easy job. But there was nothing harder than manual labor or anything as gratifying. I opened the lid of the box one more time to look at my work. There was nothing like looking down at something you made with your own hands. And nothing quite as sad when you eventually must give it up.

I suppose in some ways it was like parenting. I knock at the door had me sighing. Time to say goodbye to my beauties. I secured the lid again and walked to the door. Standing in the doorway was a figure in a dark robe with the hood pulled up. She wore a copper gas mask with a dark visor and a pair of circular filters on the mask.

She never took off her mask, if not for the fact she wore a corset and a leather body-hugging suit. She talked little, either. But I always got the sense of comradery when she visited. I handed over the box. She lifted the lid, peered inside, then nodded at me. She gave me a thumbs up, then paid me and gave me a little wave before she vanished. Few words and never lingered. In my younger days, I would have called her cool. I suppose she was. In her own way.

I looked back at the house and decided the next lesson would be on a quest. A reward for Jaxson’s hard work.