Chapter One-Hundred and Thirty-Five: The Butterfly Story.

"Ok, that sucked…." Drake sighed, shaking his hands from the monotonous work.

For the past week, Drake had been going back and forth from the Outpost to catch up and help manage it with Shigure. The teen had put a few more people into the jobs Drake had given the pink slip to.

The back and forth had only been one of the interruptions he had been having since trying to complete the Crafting quest.

The other interruption had been Sherry and Claire. They had both come in to hassle him regularly for food. Drake understood Sherry was driven only by one thing. But he knew Claire had just wanted to spend more time with him. Their relationship or more like situation-ship had taken a very middle-school turn.

Drake was too busy to do much of anything. Especially at this point in the tutorial. He couldn't allow himself to be distracted by anything if he could manage. Food had been one of the distractions he allowed because he also needed to eat. As well as satiate the never-ending black hole that took up home in his head.

So his time had been limited already. Which led to Claire trying to take up his time whenever she could and for whatever reason.

Drake didn't blame the girl, she was very fond of Drake and he could tell. But her idea of dating apparently was for marriage.

What he hadn't known was that she came from a very traditional background and from what she told him in their passing conversations since she had been kidnapped was that she hadn't had a boyfriend.

The first is always the clingiest…. Drake thought, looking at the item in front of him.

It was not as if Drake hated the attention. In fact, he was practically touch-starved at this point, save his beating the shit out of people and monsters every so often. But that wasn't the point. He had a duty to the people he held in his circle. To keep them safe, and to keep getting stronger and moving forward. So right now he simply didn't have the time to delegate to her, even if he admittedly wanted to.

Claire's background had started to become a bit more clear to Drake as she began being a little more loose-lipped about her past. Although she wouldn't speak about what had happened to her brother still. She had just gotten out of college a few months prior to the tutorial. She was from a small town in Colorado, where her family helped run a church.

Drake had laughed and thought she was joking, but she had insisted it was the truth. She herself was not very religious but the old-school traditions held steadfast in their home and under her father's roof.

Which led to the awkwardness of moving their situation-ship forward.

Everything had been new for Claire, and every step made her blush and squeal with the ferocity of a high school girl in her first relationship because it was. Drake remembered those girls from his days in high school. The only difference here was that there was no gaggle of them to gossip with her about him after.

So Drake had pushed it all to the back of his mind and limited his time with her because it was ultimately a distraction at the moment.

Drake's hand went for the necklace he had just completed that lay on the table.

[Roughly Made Metal Chain [F Grade]

A necklace of Metal made by a novice crafter.

The necklace was the hardest thing Drake had made so far. It was meticulously slow to link the chains together one by one. And he had failed for an entire day on making a completed one until this one.

It wasn't good enough to give stat bonuses it seemed, but it did count towards his Quest all the same.

"I should have just learned to pick flowers like Bear…" Drake sighed, rubbing his hands together trying to get feeling back in them, "This shit better be worth it. I could have just picked up a cooking profession… Wait, shouldn't I have already gotten one by now?" Drake suddenly thought as he spoke.

"You are too good at cooking already. The system probably did not want to give you something so easy," Natto conjectured with a laugh.

Drake frowned but honestly wouldn't put it past the sadistic system.

"Well, only a few hundred more to go…." Drake huffed, bending back over the work table.

The rest of the day went by much like the others. At lunch and dinner, he was pulled away reluctantly by Claire and Sherry. When night fell and everyone slept, Drake remained in the work tent with Lamar pounding away rhythmically on his anvil.

He did leave periodically to check the surroundings but lately, no one would dare come to the camp unwanted. And surprisingly many of the monsters had either gone into hiding waiting for the increase in tutorial difficulty or they were amassing some sort of army again far off in the forest.

Drake was honestly hoping monsters would wander in, he had been building up frustration in a number of ways lately and needed to beat the crap out of something.

But he digressed on most nights, returning to the workbench and slaving away to complete the quest.

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

"Finally!!!!!" Drake cried, holding up the last necklace in the morning sun.

It was the second consecutive week of being in the work tent and Drake had hammered down on completing the quest.

[Profession Quest Completed! Create Simple Metal Bands and Simple Chain Necklaces.]

[Accept Rewards?]

"Yes, dios ko!!!! Please give me my shit already!" Drake howled.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Jeweler Profession]

[You have learned system skill, Delicate Craftsman]

[You have been awarded Profession Experience]

[You have increased to a Proficiency 2 Jeweler]

[You have increased Delicate Craftsman to Proficiency 2]

Drake reveled in the new notifications passing by his screen, shouting as loudly as he could.

His voice grew louder as the tools and a leather-bound book dropped in front of him on the table.

[Low-Grade Crafting Manual]

Contains basic instructions for crafting beneficial jewelry in F-Grade

Drake also looked over the handful of Mana-Infused tools that were laid out on the table, his eyes sparkling with thanks for the wondrous bounty.

"Thank fuck for these tools," Drake said holding them up and looking over the descriptions briefly, "All of these are going to cut down the time to make things by so much!"

"Don't let the tools fool you. They're only as good as the craftsman using them, you idiot," Lamar said from the side, hammering away on the claymore he was working on.

"Damned party pooper…" Drake grumbled, stowing away the tools.

His deflated excitement rekindled when Drake took hold of the Crafting Manual. His fingers flew across the pages looking for a particular piece he was hoping to find.

"No, no, no, no. Nope, that's not it either… No, no, no…. Ah! Yes, that's what I've been waiting for baby! Woooo!" he shouted with excitement, plopping the book down as he frantically pulled material from his inventory.

"Little bit of this, little of that, need one of these…. Ok! All set!" Drake mused.

His eyes scanned the page once more going over the instructions and materials needed, not wanting to miss a thing.

He nodded to himself, double-checking everything to a T.

"Alright, I have enough material for an almost endless amount so that's good.. The problem is I don't know how to make prongs for the gem… Well, those are just little thingies holding the gem, shouldn't be too hard, but making a halo with the other gems is going to be tough…" Drake said thinking aloud.

"Just going to have to muddle through it like always. Good thing we cleared out that mine before we came. Good job past Drake!" Drake said, patting himself on the back.

"Bet you have not heard that often…." Natto snickered.

"Is everyone cranky today?" Drake scoffed, pulling the Mana Ore from the pile of stuff he brought out.

"I do crave violence on a daily basis. But no. I have not had the opportunity to talk for quite some time. You have been so focused on crafting I did not want to interrupt," Natto conceded.

Why, that is very nice of you… Drake thought, a little suspiciously.

"That is why I have filled my time with your most embarrassing moments from your memories! And after two weeks, I still have not even cracked the surface! It truly astounds me that you can have such dark history! The thing with the aquarium, and the butterfly? How did you manage to get your leg stuck?" Natto cackled.

Drake's face turned red.

Ok, that's not so nice of you… Please forget about that, I was a kid! I just wanted to keep the fucking bug in a big cozy place! Drake retorted.

"That does not explain why you had to use your foot," Natto stated.

I had my hands full with holding the fucking thing, and my brother wouldn't help get the sand out of the aquarium!

Drake had moved over to the forge to melt the ore down to workable metal, his face turned into a scowl.

"What's your problem?" Lamar asked.

"Don't fucking worry about it!" Drake shouted, staring at the ore melting, the usable metal sinking to the bottom, and the impurities rising to the top.

"And the face on your friend when he walked in on you holding your bloody leg! Is there anything more funny?! He even said 'Oh bad time?' before he left!" Natto laughed.

I get it, haha…. That car ride was not fun… Not that I remember most of it, I was so drugged up. At least it was better than the time I broke my hand on the floor…

"No, no! Do not spoil that one, I just got to it!" Natto pleaded.

Drake pulled the cooled ore from the holder, and placed it on his own new fancy anvil, heating it up again enough for a red glow, then hammered away to flatten it as well as remove the unusable gunk that rose to the top.

It wasn't anything funny… My brother and I had a fight. He wanted to smoke pot with his friends and I tried to stop him, being the big brother and all. But I was the one who got yelled at in the end, and he went anyway. His friends were worthless trash that only got into trouble. Drake reminisced his face frowning again.

I got frustrated and beat the shit out of the floorboard. The floorboard won. It was a really awkward conversation to have with my mother when she had to leave work to come to get me in the ER. Drake thought, giving a wry grin.

"That does not sound fun, but your guild master for your game chewing you out for being dumb was quite hilarious. I have never heard someone so upset that someone broke their hand because they could not play from the injury. The man actually asked if you broke it on your brother's jaw at the very least! What a savage ape! I must meet that man!" Natto cheered.

Oh, I totally forgot about that… Yeah, Grumps was very crude but a great guy. Honestly, I hope we don't meet him. I don't want to get hit in the face for ruining that server 1st…. Drake thought trailing off.

"Alright…" Drake said, just about done with his preparation for the necklace, "Let's get failing, so I can get to the good part of succeeding. I needed this equipment like a month ago."