Learning to Craft

Two hours passed very swiftly, during which Levi quenched his hunger and did whatever he felt was good enough to pass the time. 

He shut his eyes as the log-in countdown came to its final digits, and he was transported back to the fantasy land of Aetheria, arriving right outside the Branwen Craftshop, 

"Another day to get to work," he voiced unenthusiastically, sulking under the early sunrise of Aetheria.

"After spending all that time researching different marketing techniques I still couldn't come up with any way to convince these warriors," Levi sobbed.

[There's no need to beat yourself up about it, a wise man once said failure is only permanent when you die]

"Yeah, I'm sure everything will work itself out eventually," he sighed, entering into the Craftshop.

"Who's there?" Sir Owain asked from the back room.

"It's me, Sir," Levi replied, joining him in the workshop.

Sir Owain's face brightened as Levi entered.

"Warrior you're back," he said with a big smile before he continued loading the coal into the furnace.

"Yes, I am," Levi replied.

'He is just about to start crafting an item, that means I caught him at the right time' Levi smiled mischievously at the thought.

"This is a chance for me to pursue my dream of becoming a Craftsman," he grinned.

[You're still going on about that? I already told you it's not possible]

"Who says it's a crime to try?" Levi smirked.

"Aren't you heading out today?" Sir Owain asked with a light tone.

"No, not today," Levi replied "Since I don't have anything to do, why don't I help you out, maybe you can teach me a thing or two?"

"Warrior I never knew you were interested in crafting," Sir Owain said with a mixture of awe and admiration.

"I'm not just interested, it has always been a lifelong dream of mine to be a craftsman and I'll be honored to learn under a master like you," Levi replied wholeheartedly.

[A lifelong dream you discovered only a few hours ago?](–_–)

Sir Owain was beaming with excitement, "Then you have nothing to worry about, I'll teach you everything I know," he laughed proudly.

"Thank you, sir, making money… I mean making items is everything to me," Levi said sheepishly.

The two were breathing heavily, fueled by a sudden boost in energy and excitement.

"Let's get to work immediately!!!" 

....

As Levi regained consciousness he found himself standing before an Ethereal sphere of interwoven glowing threads. It was exactly as he left it, with the threads moving slowly.

"Huh?!" Levi yelled, dumbfounded.

"I fell asleep again, and this time I couldn't even make it past ten minutes," he sighed heavily as he facepalmed himself, in disappointment 

He stared at the sphere for a few seconds, before looking around. He once again contemplated what exactly this world was, further creating more questions than answers.

'Does this world have the same time speed as Aetheria' he wondered, 

'because the last time I was here it felt like a lot of time had passed but when I returned only a few hours had passed'

'if time moved slowly then how slowly does it move and where exactly is this place' he wondered. 

"This could be a problem" he shrugged.

'I can't leave Father like that, ever since I met Tolan, I have had a feeling that the Kalzhir merchant group might be planning something, I have to find a way to get back as soon as possible… Maybe slapping myself awake would work'

Levi hit himself a few times, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't feel anything. He tried hitting the ground a few times, first with his hand and when it showed no effect he resulted in using his head but still there was no pain.

"That means I can't feel any pain in this world no matter how hard I try, then how do I wake myself up?" He pondered 

"For now it seems like I have no way out," he concluded.

Levi shifted his focus to the moving threads of the sphere, "It's exactly how I left it, I was almost done with this layer the last time".

"I should make good use of my time here and see how far I can go, I'm probably just being paranoid, I know NPCs are nothing like humans, I'm sure Tolan wouldn't do anything like that," he voiced, with little hesitation.

Using his eyes he followed the moving threads until he found the moving end, and then he detangled a few weaves before the layer disappeared.

{Assimilation rate: 6%}

The next layer had more loose ends he first had to detangle before he could see the moving threads, with multiple loose ends. The knots were more complex and tied way tighter to increase the difficulty of this layer.

The tight corners of the interwoven threads needed to be held with a strong grip before he could get to loosing but with the threads still moving he couldn't hold on to the knots for long making it difficult at first until he took a few seconds to analyze the movement pattern and predict when would be the best time to grab a knot.

After a few minutes of loosing he had loosed all the tight corners and then went on to complete the full layer. 

{Assimilation rate: 7%}

"Whoa!" Levi exclaimed as he wiped the imaginary sweat from his face.

"This would have been easier if I used my observation skill," he chuckled. "Wait, what if I can use skills in the dream world?"

He immediately attempted testing out the theory, "SPRITE BUFF"

His voice echoed into the dark parts of the dream world. The skill confirmation window didn't pop up, signifying the failure of the skill.

Levi anxiously waited but nothing happened, "STATUS WINDOW!!! " he tried again.

Once again nothing happened, causing a slightly nervous smile to tug at the side of his lips, "That means I can't access any of the game features while I'm here, including the system interface" he surmised

"There's only one thing left to do… EMERGENCY LOG-OUT,"

This was what a warrior was supposed to say in case the system interface ever stopped working for any reason possible or if the warrior had been tied down and is unable to move parts of their body. It would forcefully sign out the player no matter what situation they were in,"