When I woke up, I saw Mary lying next to me. F*ck. Luckily, she hasn’t woken up yet. I got up and realised that I had spoken too soon. Mary turned around and rubbed her eyes, and asked me why I was in her room. I apologised before making a run for it.

Downstairs, at breakfast, Edward smacked my back. ‘You should at least tell me before making a move on Mary! I could’ve prepared some protection for you!’

‘Go to hell you perverted old man! Are you even sure that she would want to be with me?’ I shot back.

‘Uhmm, I don’t mind if it’s with you…’ Mary said, her face so red that I thought that she looked similar to red paint (TN: sounds weird in english, but in chinese it doesn’t sound so bad).

Unfair attack! My heart proverbially skipped a beat as I physically felt myself redden. ‘I’m done, I’m going to work,’ I shouted before slamming the door open and dashing to work.

At work, I clocked in using the employee book and started working at the register. I worked for half a day, doing what I did yesterday. I was halfway through ranking an adventurer up when my boss walked past.

‘Chen! Why the hell are you even here?’

‘Isn’t it obvious? Working.’

‘But today isn’t your shift. Today’s Saturday, you know?’

Huh.

I guess I was in too much of a rush to escape the situation at home to realise which day of the week it was. I work on weekdays, while I get the weekends off. I apologised, but the boss thanked me, giving me half a day’s worth of salary to compensate the extra work that I did. I had nothing to do, so I clocked out, and went to the town centre to look around and see which job I should take.

First, I went to the tailors’. It was a two-storey shop with a large amount of racks packed full of clothes. At the back of the store, there were also large rolls of fabric, having diverse amounts of colours and patterns. I entered the store, and almost immediately, an assistant came up to me.

‘I would like to see how being a tailor is like, if possible.’

‘Ok, at a low cost of $4 an hour, you can watch how our tailor makes clothes.’

Dammit capitalism.

‘Five hours will be enough.’

Reluctantly, I handed over the cash. They brought me upstairs, telling a thin old man to let me observe his actions. The man sat down on a at a weave, and started weaving some cloth.

I observed all of his motions carefully, making sure not to miss even a single detail. After five metres of cloth and four hours passed, a window popped up.

‘/weave (Proficiency: 0.00%) [Toggle: Active/Inactive]

-Allows player to weave cloth. (Requirements: Material, Equipment) Success rate and complexity depends on user’s DEX stat.’

Oh, so skills are gained in this way. After the cloth was done, the man took it, and measured it. He cut the cloth precisely and sew it quickly yet carefully. When the clothes were done, two new windows popped up.

‘/sew (Proficiency: 0.00%) [Toggle: Active/Inactive]

-Allows player to sew using thread and needles. (Requirements: Thread, Equipment) Success rate and complexity depends on player’s DEX stat.’

‘/cutting.Precision (Proficiency: 0.00%) [Toggle: Active/Inactive]

-Allows player to make precise cuts. (Requirements: Using ItemType ‘Scissors’) Accuracy and precision depends on player’s DEX stat.’

After I watched the man finish the shirt, I thanked him and left the tailors’. Ah, shit, it took four hours, and now the day is almost over. At least its almost over, so I could go to the blacksmiths’ shop. I entered the shabby looking house and asked the strong-looking man if I could see him work on something. The man was muscly and he held a big blacksmiths’ hammer in his right hand.

‘Hey, what so you need? We’re closing in two hours, and I have things to do, so make it quick.’

‘I would like to observe the creation of something.’

‘Eh, do whatever you want.’

I watched as the man picked up a large iron rod and lit up the furnace. He used the bellows to increase the temperature and thrust the rod into the fire using the pair of tongs. When the iron glowed red hot, he took it out of the fire, placing it on the anvil. Immediately, he hit the rod with his hammer, causing sparks to fly all around. The iron flattened after each hit, until only the handle remained untouched, and cooled it in a tub of oil.

Afterwards, he heated it up again, but at an angle so that the blade became a sharp edge. He dipped it in oil, taking it to a grindstone. Sparks started flying again along with the shrill screech of metal against steel. He lit up a kiln and sculpted a handle, guard and pommel using a chisel and a block of wood.

Another window popped up.

‘/sculpt (Proficiency: 0.00%) [Toggle: Active/Inactive]

-Allows player to sculpt materials into items. (Requirements: Using ItemType ‘Chisel’) success rate, intricacy and quality depends on player’s DEX stat.’

Once the kiln was ready, he picked up the blade, placing it into the kiln, baking it for an hour. Why is he baking the blade? After all, it’s a blade, not a ceramic of any kind.

‘Uhhh, why are you baking the blade? Isn’t it made of metal, not a ceramic?’

‘Umm, you see, baking the blade helps toughen it, I dunno how it really works. It like sort of becomes more durable, or something.’

‘Mmn. Then why do you use oil to cool the blade, not water?’

‘It cools the blade in a way that it won’t crack. I’m not sure on the specifics…’

This sounds like something to do with heat expansion and contraction. I heard something on a youku (chinese SNS similar to youtube) video about how oil can cool things more uniformly. I guess that is how the oil prevents cracking.

‘Get out already if you’re not going to buy anything! You’re in the way,’ The blacksmith shouted while pushing me out of the shop.

I wanted to ask him why the oil doesn’t catch fire, but he kicked me out before I could. Whatever, it doesn’t really matter. As I walked back to the Winston household, something struck me as odd. Why didn’t I get a skill?