Working on my table templates. I have taken web dev classes in the past so besides the fact it is tables I can grock it. Wish I had more control of the column widths. Besides that we had a nice snowstorm here. Mostly stayed in my dorm unless I went for food. Nice all you can eat thing where I stayed for a good few hours and snacked while listening to some podcasts. *rawr*

Huh, my level got set to 1. Anyway I think I will hold onto that free point. No reason to spend it.

“Well, I have all I expected though a couple of skills are there I wasn’t expecting or at a higher level”

Mechanic ~ “Yeah, that'll happen if a you find a good teacher. This is the upside of me teaching you for the past month. The downside is that by teaching you personally unless you find a hidden class or something of the like your next class is set to what I chose. Helps if your teacher has a hidden class or something similar. This skips you needing to unlock it. Also doesn’t hurt you if they have the class you are getting.”

“I was expecting something of the sort when I saw the extra skills. Though with that what am I getting? You sort of avoided mentioning it.”

Mechanic ~ “That my boy, will stay a mystery till you get there. What I taught you has is interesting side. Anyway, after working on your gear you should head to the forest. By my guess the bastards in the capital should get near here soon. Oh, and make a giant wrench. Good weapon for someone starting out like you when you can’t have a laser pistol. I will leave for now as any suggestions I make could limit your progress.”

--- Crafting/Tinkering Time ---

Giant wrench he says. Am I going to be steampunk? Anyway, let's work on my gear with Tinker. First up is my belt.

Rookie Leather BeltSlotWaistMaterialLeatherDefense1Durability10/10DescriptionA decent belt made by a beginner without the skill

Okay, not the best and I must admit the need to pick up leather working if I want to continue making my gear. Anyway what does Tinker say about it.

TinkeringRookie Leather BeltAdd Metal Plates to increase defense and change material to Metal/LeatherAdd Leather Pouches to allow storage of items

The first option looks good as it would let me use Metalsmithing with it. Apparently if you have the skill to make an item you can repair it better, go figure. I will go with the storage option. Now just choose the option and. Ah it provides a ghostly overlay of what it wants me to do. Scrounge!

*Scrap leather in the corner glows*

Ah that is where I put the leftover leather from making the belt. Good thing I kept it as the pouches will match.

Leather Pouch BeltSlotWaistMaterialLeatherDefense2Durability12/12DescriptionA decent belt made by a beginner without the skill and further upgrade with pouches to hold small items.

Hmm, the defense still went up along with the durability. Seems the Tinker skill only tells you the major effects of the upgrades.

--- Time passes and Tinkering happens ---

That took a while. Anyway here are the results.

Iron Toed BootsSlotFeetMaterialMetal/LeatherDefense6Durability20/20DescriptionStarter boots upgraded with well made iron plates for armor.

Agile Leather PantsSlotLegsMaterialLeatherDefense2Durability12/12Agility Bonus1DescriptionStarter pants changed to allow for easier movement which boosts one’s agility.

Padded Leather Shirt with Iron PlatesSlotChestMaterialMetal/LeatherDefense10Durability24/24DescriptionStarter shirt which has had padding and metal plates added to increase defense without losing agility.

Fingerless Leather GlovesSlotHandsMaterialLeatherDefense1Durability8/8DescriptionDecently made gloves with the fingers removed to remove penalty to fine movements.

Hat with GogglesSlotHeadMaterialMetal/LeatherDefense4Durability15/15DescriptionDecently made hat with some Goggles attached and metal support.

Most options where in the same vein of my belt. Add metal or add a feature. It is probably affected by the low level Tinker skill and having a limited number of crafting skills. The hat option was weird as it let me add my pre-existing goggles to it. Anyway still have to craft my wrench weapon. Thar said I can use Tinker with a crafting skill to have a slight boost to the usual results as you can do much more when starting from scratch.

TinkeringLarge WrenchChoose 2Extra Large, Make it bigger and reduce it’s ability to be used while increasing the damage.Add some spikes to increase damage but mostly just makes the damage piercingCraft it by folding the metal over and over like those famous swords though this will mostly just up the durabilityQi circuit, Your knowledge of Qi and modern electronics has allowed you to potentially combine the two. Until tested you will not know if this works.

Huh, I was expecting being able to choose 2 but that Qi option was unexpected. Using it as a circuit is weird. though I guess it is just another type of energy. What material to use for the circuits is the biggest question. Worth the chance of a dud to see what it says. Besides that spikes are a good option. The wrench is already big enough at about the size of a sword and less durable means the quicker I can make a new one. Tinker only works once and from what I observed unless you level up your skills enough or realize something you are stuck with what you choose for an item.

*Ding*

You have chosen an experimental Tinker option. The material you use and how you use it will affect the resulting product

Wasn’t expecting this though I guess it is a good thing Thar left. Time to test out the metals I have to see if I can shove Qi in them.

IronNo input and no capacityCopperPoor input and able to hold QiTinWorst input and no capacityBronzeSecond worst input and able to hold QiSilverBest input and no capacityShibuichiGood input and able to hold Qi

Don’t know why there is a Japanese alloy name but the 1 part silver and 3 parts copper alloy works the best for what I want. What form the circuit takes should be simple. Just going to design it so the Qi flows to the spikes. I am assuming my low quantity of Qi limits my ability to research materials for now. Good thing I researched instead of using iron though. Now let’s see what this creates.

Spiked Large Qi WrenchSlotSingle HandMaterialMetalDamage2d4+3Durability50/50Armor Piercing3???May have special abilityDescriptionA decently made Large wrench with spikes to pierce things. There are silvery sigils added to it in hope of adding a special ability. Testing will show if this worked.

*Ding*

Tinker level Increased to 5 from 3Blacksmithing level Increased to 6 from 5Scrounge level Increased to 4 from 3Craft level increased to 6 from 5Gained Silversmithing Beginner 1

Nice, Tinker leveled up twice from this. Though I suspect it was close to leveling up before but a full level is still nothing to sneeze at. Just getting most of my skills to level would be worth it even without gaining one. The circuit turned out better than I was expecting as I could guide the alloy with my Talent. That does mean I am all sweaty now as I can’t just use it to clean myself but whatever. Now to test it.

*Slowly my Qi flows into the wrench and the tips of the spikes get a hazy look around them*

Okay that may mean it worked or at least it didn’t explode in my face. Seems to look like a poor attempt at a Qi infused punch so hopefully it isn’t a healing effect or something stupid like that. Guess what’s left is to head towards the forest.

As I told someone in the comments on the last chapter but he has been avoiding any use of his Qi because it is just too rare. On the internet in his real life they believe no player has Qi. Once he is in the forest and certain no one is observing him he will cut loose and see what he can do with it. Both on his weapon and with his fists. Also I didn’t get a good place to mention it but the italicized text in the item description don’t show up for most people who identify it. The only reason he can see it himself is he crafted it and even then he can’t see the potential ability. I should really see about getting him an identify skill of some sort.