Learning to Analyze [Solo/Crafting]

[Jace]

It has been 2 days after the Catastrophe and ever since, Jace was settled in his temporary home in Reza Hope Bookstore, the same store that he helped out during that incident. Although his friends preferred staying in an inn for a while, the owners of the bookstore offered him to stay here for his bravery and his kindness to them. Another reason why was that he liked to read books, so he can't refuse on living in a bookstore for once. Right now, he helped the daughter of the owner on carrying the books to the shelves. But due to his lack of physique, he had a hard time on carrying a stack of books, which made her worried about his safety.

"Um... Jace? Are you sure you can leave those books to me? I think you might break your back and I don't want that happening to a kid like you." Jace noticed the girl's worry to him, which he smiled as he put down the books to ease her and his shoulders for a while. "Don't worry about me, Ellie. I just wanted to help you guys out for while. Although, my arms are starting to ache." As he sat down to rest, Ellie was impressed at his kindness. Despite they re-payed him by staying in their store for a while, he didn't stopped helping them out no matter what. She wondered if that was his habit or just a good person. As for Jace, he wanted to help more around the shop, however he changed his mind when he saw some writing tools on the owner's desk.

"Hey, Ellie. How many pens did your father bought? Judging by the number inside the pen holder, it must be a lot." He asked to the Lander, which she noticed the pens as well. "Oh, he has 6-8 quill pens, which he used them for bookkeeping, inventory, and stuff. But some of them are broken beyond repair." Jace was surprised at what Ellie said as he looked at the pens again. "Wow, he must have payed a lot of gold to replace some pens."

"Not exactly. My father made them by himself." That last line made him surprised as he never knew he made them by himself. "Really? All of them?" Ellie nodded yes as she carried another stack of books to another shelf. "Yes, my father is a Scribe. He used his skills to organize our stocks and to make sure we can't miss every purchases from our customers." He didn't knew about Landers can have same subclasses as Adventurers, but then again, this might a function retained from the game, so he can't complain about it. "Wow, what a coincidence. My subclass is also a Scribe as well."

"Really?" The Lander girl asked in shock, which Jace nodded in confirmation. "Wow, I never knew a young boy like you can be a Scribe as well." Jace blushed red at her compliment. He was still new in this game, so it wasn't a big deal. "Well, I'm still new at being a Scribe. So I wouldn't be called a Scribe prodigy yet." As she heard this, she suddenly realized something for him as she thought that he might be still lost. "Then how about you'll try your hand on making some items that a Scribe can do? There is a nearby shop from here and I can let you use a private room near the counter if you like." Jace couldn't believe what Ellie was offering. But yet again, she wanted to repay everything for what he and his friends did back then. As always, Jace couldn't refuse this.

----

Jace then spent a few hours buying some materials and as Ellie promised, he entered a private room so he can work quietly. After he settled in, he decided to make himself a Quill Pen. As Ellie said to him, her father made some Quill Pens by himself, so he should do the same as well. As he followed mental instructions she gave him, he pulled out a cup of sand he filled earlier and put it under two candles to heat it. "Okay, that should be enough. Looks like this process is similar on how people made Quill Pens back in Medieval times." He thought as he pulled out an old quill feather and knife and started shaving off the barbs and cut the end diagonally to prepare to temper it. "Yet, should this process supposed to be in a crafting window of the interface?"

But as he put the feather's end onto the heated sand, he then noticed Ellie who was currently in a conversation with her father. As he watched from the room's small window, he was somehow worried about her daughter carrying some stack of heavy books, which was the same reaction she gave to him earlier. It seemed that her father was very hardworking as her, but he was still retained his role as her father to worry her safety. This made Jace wondered about his parents. They didn't worry his safety as his maids are the only ones who was worried about him. He wondered if his parents only liked him as a model to his family rather as their son.

Regardless, he liked his new life in this world as he can able to help anybody, even if they are NPCs like Ellie and her father. But still haven't forgotten about the feather after a few minutes, he took it out from the sand and trimmed more of the end until he cut it to the shape of the nib. Then to test it out, he used some of the old ink to dip in and write his real name, "Kyle Winton" on a paper Ellie provided and when it write perfectly, Jace smiled at this as he wrote his in-game name as well.

CRAFTING PROGRESS: Level 1 Quill Pen (1/1)

WORDS: 982 (Solo Word Count Limit: 872+1203+1087+1266+519+370+982=6299)

GOALS: To make some items for Jace to start with as a Scribe.

[Jace]

As he then pulled out some old papers that he found from the bookstore's storage from his bag, Ellie came in and curious at Jace's progress, approached him and tried to take a closer look. However, Jace managed to notice her presence by the sound of the door opening and turned around to see her, much to her surprise. "Oh, I thought I..." He just only nodded his head as he saw Ellie's flustered state and said, "The doors can make a sound, you know. You're curious, right?" Realized what he thought, Ellie sheepishly nodded yes as she was secretly surprised at his perception. "Yes. I can't believe you're more focused at this than my father." As he heard another compliment from her, Jace blushed once more while he wondered if he deserved it or not. "Well, after hearing more about the Scribe stuff your father, I really wanted to make some to not only for organized my inventory and schedules, but also to my advantage to battles."

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused at what he just said. But wanted to work on his next item while talking to Ellie, Jace poured clear water onto a rectangular basic and put old pieces of papers in it before he used a weight to help them merge together. "After you told me about those items a Scribe can make, I realized they have many uses. Maps to navigate through caves, dungeons, and large cities, grimores for magic users like myself, and contracts that might be converted to magical items." As he waited a few minutes to complete the process, Ellie was surprised at his knowledge about them. "Yes. In fact ever since you and the others arrived, the Adventurers made some recipes and recorded them into recipe books for their discovery."

"Yeah. Maybe if I get the chance to get them, I might make my own item as well." He was a little confident, but he was also curious as well. This was the first time he played a game like this and now, it has converted into his new reality along with his friends. He didn't want to take an advantage of it, but he wondered if he might able to bring peace to the city and figure out how to bring the players, the Adventurers back to his old world. "I never knew you were able to figure this stuff out and yet, you're still a kid."

"I'm a special child, though I wished I wanted to be more than a genius. I wanted to be a normal kid, but my parents didn't want me to go down that path. They said it might lower my intelligence. They were wrong once I met my friends." Ellie then guessed it was the ones who helped him took down some unruly Adventurers before, which she asked about it to him. "Yes. They always stick with me no matter what I decide or will face in my endeavors. Because of them, I was able to live as a normal, everyday boy. Well, until this happens." The Lander girl became guilty about Jace's life. She didn't understand completely, but his urge of living a normal life made her a little useless on helping him do that.

However, Jace noticed her expression again and said, "Don't feel bad about it, Ellie. I already got used to it. But I have my friends now, although I wanted them to go home since I don't want them to suffered being trapped." But after he saw the time, he knew it was time to pull out the paper from the bath. But after she saw him struggled with the weight made of stone, Ellie helped him out. "What about you? You don't want to go home with them?" As he dried off the paper with a dry towel, Jace sighed in dismay. He wanted to stay, but his other conscience wanted him to be with his friends. "It depends on how long I stay here. Whether they wanted to go home or not is their decision, but I'm not the type to abandon them because of this."

As the Parchment Paper was done, Ellie smiled at his loyalty to his friends and wanted to focused on them first and staying in this new world second, which confirmed her theory of him being a selfless person. Back to Jace, he already decided on his next item as he left the room and the bookstore before he said, "I need to buy more materials. I'll be right back." As Jace left, Ellie only stared at him in admiration.

CRAFTING PROGRESS: Level 1 Parchment Paper (1/1)

WORDS: 770 (Solo Word Count Limit: 872+1203+1087+1266+519+370+982+770=7069)

GOALS: To make some items for Jace to start with as a Scribe.

[Jace]

As he shopped for new materials, he came across an Alchemist's shop that was selling Mana Fragments. According to Ellie, they are crystals made from the mana from the living things and as he heard from his friends, only that the Alchemists can make them. However, although Allen or Allard was an Alchemist, he was unavailable today since he was busy gaining experience by fighting some monsters outside the city, which meant that he was lucky he found this shop as he bought some from it. Then as he came back to the bookstore, Ellie waved him hello as she cleaned up the counter and said, "Oh, welcome back, Jace. What did you bought there?"

"Mana Fragments from an Alchemist's shop. Thought might be useful of some sort." When he mentioned what he bought, she remembered something as she went behind the counter and tried to find something. "Really? Well, you might need this." As he saw her took out some kind of book, the young Sorcerer became curious as he accepted it and opened to see it contents. "An Adventurer stopped by our shop and gave it to us before he left. It's somehow a recipe book for Scribes, I think." He was suspicious about the man who visited the shop during his absence, but she was right about the book as he saw not only recipes for the ones he previously made, but also recipes he never saw before. However, he did saw one particular recipe, one that used a Mana Fragment as a material, which was a coincidence as he bought some for his Scribe crafting. He was still suspicious, but he can't say no to this. "Can I borrow this for a while, Ellie? I'll bring it back when I'm done."

"Okay. I'll let you know when the owner comes back." With that, he went back to his private room and pulled out the materials he bought recently. There, he then read through the book that Ellie found as he slowly tried to memorize the contents of the book and hopefully the recipe that has the Mana Fragment as its ingredient.

CRAFTING PROGRESS: Level 1 Magic Ink (1/2)

WORDS: 355 (Solo Word Count Limit: 355)

GOALS: To make some items for Jace to start with as a Scribe.