Chapter 4 - Jessie

[Tenth month, Thirtieth day, 4E 1894]

The next day, Rowan was gently smoothing out the last of the wood on the hatchet from the top part. It was pretty much finished.

After picking it up and holding it in his hand, he gave it a few swings. It felt comfortable in his hand, as if he was already familiar with it.

"Is this from the [Hatchet Mastery] skill? It feels nice." Rowan mumbled.

He stood up and got into a stance, giving the hatchet a few swings. He slowly got lost in focus as he familiarized himself with it, that he jerked up a little and had the hatchet slip from his grasp after someone knocked on the door.

He quickly smoothed out his shirt and picked the hatchet back up before moving back behind the counter. "Come in!" He called.

The door started to open, in walked a beautiful woman. She seemed to be in about her mid-thirties, and wore a long dress that seemed a little threadbare around the edges. Black hair and soft brown eyes. If she were to get completely cleaned up then she would look much more stunning.

Unfortunately, in this town, people didn't bother with looking perfect, and most were focused just on living from one day to the next.

"Hello, how can I help you?" Rowan asked while putting on a soft smile.

"Hello, I was told that you do wood working here?" She asked while seeming a bit hesitant, looking around at the empty shop.

"Yeah, I do. Sorry that there is nothing up for sale. I have been mainly focused on requests. So, if there is something you would like me to make, as long as it isn't too large, I can make something for you." Rowan said with a smile still on his face.

"That's great!" She said with a giddy smile. "I was wanting a necklace. Or more specifically, a wooden medallion with a hole in it so I can make it a necklace."

Rowan thought about it for a few moments. That would be something simple that he would easily be able to make. "Alright. What do you want on it?"

'This will be my first job! I am so excited, but I can't screw it up!' He thought to himself.

"I was wanting the symbol of the Goddess Nalarie!" She said with a bright smile still on her face.

But Rowans smile, became a little strained. "I believe I can. It would cost 1 silver." He said to the woman.

She seemed a little saddened at that. "I only have 80 coppers. Can that work?" She said with a small pitiful look.

"Sure, sure! 80 coppers work fine too!" Rowan said a little quickly.

"Great!" She said. She slipped a hand into a pouch on her waist and brought out 80 copper coins. Rowan quickly counted it up.

"It will take a couple hours if you want it very detailed. You can either come back later in the afternoon or tomorrow." Rowan said.

"Okay! Thank you! My name is Jessie by the way!" She said with a smile before walking out of the shop.

After she had walked away from the shop and the silence filled the room for a few seconds, Rowan let out a long sigh as he felt his body finally relax from its tensed-up state.

The reason for his reaction, was because of her request.

Old John had mentioned to Rowan in the past that there would be times when he would likely be commissioned to make items that have religious symbols, or even religious symbols themselves. He always told Rowan to be cautious with those requests and to do his utmost to fulfill them to the best of his ability.

Making a symbol of a god or goddess in a half-hearted manner is one of the easiest ways to get into deep trouble. It didn't help either that the Goddess Nalarie is considered a goddess with an Evil alignment.

Rowan reached into the counter and found a small scroll that he had kept there and hadn't needed to use before. He spread it out over the counter and looked at it.

The scroll had just a few things written on it, but it was important to him now.

There were symbols drawn in great detail, names, and domains written down under the names. It was a small list, mentioning the gods and goddesses that would be worshipped on this island, and it's quite few. The most troublesome one however, would definitely be Nalarie.

"Lets see here. The symbol is circular. It has waves on top, and down at the bottom resting on some sand, is the skeleton of a shark. A bit morbid." He muttered. "Oceans, Storms, Marine Life, and Savagery. That's a dangerous one." He quietly muttered.

The main reason why he was so worried, was that Nalarie was considered to be whimsical and uncaring most of the time. But just like all the other gods and goddesses, she had her own pride. If he completely botched the carving, or it didn't meet her standard, then he would be in a dangerous situation.

This is because when a god or goddesses name is spoken aloud, one of their titles is spoken aloud, or their symbol is drawn, carved, or depicted in some fashion, they will know of it.

It would be dangerous to carve out her symbol, since this would put him under his eyes. Thankfully, that usually only lasted for a second or two since there were likely to be hundreds, thousands, or more mortals mentioning or drawing their attention.

On the other hand, if he refused to make the necklace because of personal reasons, or even because Jessie didn't have the full 100 coppers, 1 silver, then she could still make a prayer to Nalarie that could put him in a dangerous situation.

"Fine… might as well get started." Rowan eventually muttered. He had studied Nalarie's symbol for long enough. He grabbed one of the shorter logs and used his saw to cut off a puck shaped piece of wood.

He first used his file to shave down the wood on both sides of the puck to get it smooth.

On one side he slowly began to trace the outline of the symbol, as well as marking where the hole would go for the necklace.

It was a couple hours of slow and meticulous carving, with small wood chips and dust slowly covering the countertop. It took a while for the symbol to be carved, especially around the skeleton of the shark. He rubbed his thumb over the top of it, feeling the indents and shapes of the carving.

After that was to clean the whole thing up by rasping around the edges to make it nice and smooth with rounded edges.

The final part for him was to slowly use the tip of his carving knife to make a small hole for a piece of thread or leather to go through.

"Finished… that took longer than I was expecting." He muttered.

Nothing bad had happened to him, so surely this was up to Nalarie's standards, right?

"[Wood Inspection]" He mumbled softly.

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[Necklace of Goddess Nalarie: A wooden necklace with the symbol of the Goddess of the Oceans, Nalarie, made by an amateur woodworker.

+4 Ocean Affinity

Material: Horned Aeleaf

Crafter: Rowan]

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He let out a soft sigh of relief when he knew it was completed. The additional affinity was something which he hadn't really been expecting. "I guess the saying is true here. Names have power. And apparently, so do symbols."

Just drawing the symbol on this was enough to grant it an affinity, when he only used ordinary wood to make it, with no special preparations or tools.

He lightly began dusting off the necklace before cleaning up his work area. While he was doing that, he checked his Status again, and something interesting had changed.

-----

[Wood Inspection Lv. 2]

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It seemed that his skill had gone up a level after looking at the item he had made. That gave him a bit of relief, but sadly his [Woodworking] skill hadn't leveled up at all, even though it was already level 2.

"Now what should I do?" He asked while glancing around the inside of the shop.

Then, his mind drifted back to the wood he had stored up. It wasn't much, and very little could be done with it. The original Rowan had been keeping it in case of a bad day, but since he was planning on leaving, he might as well use it.

But what to make, is the question.

He wanted to try making something of a higher difficulty than he had before.

He found a decently long and thick log, and slowly looked it over. "A carving, maybe?" He didn't have enough wood to even make a small chest or box, since that needed straight pieces of wood.

He slowly sawed off a bit of the wood to make it sit straight on the countertop. He got an idea, and started to get to work.

Time slowly slipped by as he worked with a single-minded focus. Wood shavings slowly gathering on the counter until there was a small pile forming. By the time it was already night, the general shape of the carving was done, but he had to stop since there wasn't enough light anymore.

"I guess she will be coming to pick it up tomorrow." He muttered while slowly cleaning up again and storing everything back under the counter.

He laid down on the pile of reeds that made up his bed and pulled a small ragged blanket over himself as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

---------------

The next morning, Rowan was up again and got breakfast for himself and Old John. He told Old John about the necklace he was paid to make, but the old man only gave him some warnings to be cautious.

Old John had likely made some stuff with religious symbols before, so he didn't seem worked up by it. It seemed that in this world, being a craftsman of any kind would make one eventually come across times where they were asked to make things with symbols of various religions. Of any alignment.

Rowan quickly headed back to his shack/shop and started to get to work on his carving again. With a night of sleep, his energy was back and he was ready to get to work. He carved until about noon, when there was a knock on the door.

Rowan stopped his work, and as he expected, it had been Jessie coming by to pick up the necklace. She seemed to like it, and after putting a strand of thread on it and tying it, she slipped it around her neck. A smile still covering her face.

Rowan wasn't sure what to make of her. That smile unnerved him a little, especially when he considered who she was a follower of.

After thanking him a couple times, she left the shop.

Rowan couldn't help but shake his head a little when he thought of her. 'Is that smile of hers real? She seems so kind, but from the rumors I heard of the followers of Nalarie growing up, I can't be sure.'

Whether she was just a nice woman or a sadistic killer, it didn't matter to him as long as she stayed away from him. He focused back on his carving, slowly adding more and more details to it. The closer it was to getting done, the slower he went so there wasn't any mistakes.

It wasn't until noon the following day, on the second of the eleventh month, that the carving was finished. He couldn't help but get a bit excited and have a proud feeling filling his chest before he quickly picked it up and hurried over to Old John's place.