Danza looked at me.

  "Ah, you're going for the PvP event, aren't you?"

  "Good guess. And I'm going to win it." I said. "I want a full set. All armor pieces, a bow, new arrows. I need it focused on mobility and attack speed."

  I realized the last time I was almost killed by Lorrando's group, that I grossly underestimated movement speed. The last five points I had gotten I instantly put on Agility, but I was still way too slow.

  Danzaburou was already sketching circles on a scroll, measuring hide pieces against armor templates.

  "Use the Warg hide for the entire armor set," he muttered. "Light but strong. The broodspider carapace can reinforce the shoulder frames and greaves, giving it an extra bite."

  Kev chimed in without looking up.

  "Digwurm fragments for the breastplate trim. Sandsting wings for the arrows, maybe? We could make a new quiver as well, but that would be mostly aesthetic. What about the bow?" he looked up at me.

  "I have some Shademere wood, but if you have anything better, I'd pay for it. And also you can maybe use the spider stuff for it, giving it poison or something?" I added.

  "Perfect." Danzaburou nodded. "We'll get you some real quality stuff for the bow, and integrate that with the warg fangs for the riser spine, and the silk for the string. High draw force, low recoil. I know you mentioned attack speed, but at this point crafted Shortbows are overwhelmingly worse compared to Longbows, so we'd rather do that."

  I nodded.

  The two went quiet for a moment, running math in their heads. Kev scribbled rough cost estimates on a side scroll, double-checked their inventory and tapped his pencil against the edge of the bench.

  "... Seventeen gold coins." he finally said before looking up at me. "I know it's a lot, more than twice what the level 10 stuff cost, but fifteen is a huge milestone regarding items as well. This is also the lowest we can go."

  I pondered, but just for a moment.

  "I'll give you twenty. But I'm going to need time to get the gold."

  Twenty gold coins was not something I could easily gather. I had a bit more than six right now, but five of it I needed for the tournament.

  "Can I also pay with mats?" I asked.

  "Show us what you've got." Danza smiled.

  I laid out the rest of my inventory to them. Hides, fangs and teeth of Shademere Wolves, Duskhounds and Duskboars, materials from the spiders, wasps and scorpions I had fought and a lot of other things, by the hundreds.

  "Okay, this is good stuff." he did some quick math. "We can do six gold for all of this."

  "Great. So six gold up front, and the remaining fourteen after I win the tournament." I said and they froze for a moment.

  "Look, Orion, you are one of our VIP buyers at this point, and we'd be more than happy to craft all of this for you. It's also fine if you can only pay later, we will pool our gold together to make it happen. But what happens if you don't win?"

  It was a legit question, but I already had my answers.

  "It's a 64 man tournament, with a prize pool of 320 gold. I'm sure the organizers will take some of it, but if the top 8 is rewarded, even 8th place should get enough to pay you the rest. Do you think I'm not capable of getting 8th place with your items?"

  "I think no such thing." Danzaburou held up his hands. "I just asked a hypothetical question. I know you are strong, Orion. We have seen the Woe raid on the forums. But other players are also catching up. We have made good gear for others as well. And the other three villages have some impressive powerhouses too. Especially Oakenlight, after the Briar raid."

  "Fine. If I don't win I will pay you double. 40 gold, as soon as I get it. You have my word." I said.

  Silence.

  "You know most crafters would laugh in your face for even suggesting that." Kev said.

  "I know you're not most crafters." I retaliated. "And I'm not most adventurers either."

  Danzaburou leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "No, you definitely aren't," he laughed. "Deal. I really hope I'm not going to regret this, Orion."

  "You won't, don't worry."

  I handed over every single piece of material I had earned in the last forty eight hours. Kev scribbled out the finalized blueprints and pointed to the bench.

  "Come back in four hours. If these come out right you'll walk into Oakenlight looking like a problem."

  I nodded.

  "That's the goal."

  I stepped away from the station as the four of them immediately went to work, dusting off tools and pulling out bundled furs and steel ingots. The Spring Festival pulsed just beyond the corner, voices and color wrapping around the central plaza.

  But my thoughts were elsewhere.

  I had four hours to kill and the world still had stories to tell.

  I started wandering around the village. Just slow steps through the cobblestone streets that I wanted to get to know more.

  I made small talk with the blacksmith's wife and three kids, then shared roasted corn with a retired soldier watching the archery stand.

  I watched a boy try to impress a girl by carrying a sack of flour twice his size. He fell, they laughed and I couldn't help but smile, too.

  I passed by the old chapel, tucked into the northern slope of the village. It wasn't a place most players stopped at. Unless they got revived there, of course.

  Suddenly the doors burst open.

  "Please, adventurers, help me!"

  A woman in white robes came sprinting into the street. Mid forties, weather-worn, panic in her voice. She wore the silver looped pendant of a sept, a ranking priestess of the local temple.

  Players turned to her. There weren't many of us, but a nice sense of camaraderie washed over me as all of us moved to help in unison.

  "The lower sanctum wall collapsed," she said, barely containing her tears. "Father Bernard is trapped underneath the rubble. We don't have time, please help him!"

  I didn't hesitate, and neither did the three other adventurers who were there; a guardian in iron armor, a brawler who was still in his beginner clothes and a cleric with a fine, blue silk robe hurried after the sept.

  We sprinted up the cobbled path behind the chapel, through a side entrance the sept held open with trembling hands. The interior smelled like old incense and cut stone.

  The stairwell to the basement sanctum was narrow, clearly not built for crowds. The second we descended we saw the damage.

  A whole segment of the outer wall had caved in, collapsed from behind where time and erosion had done their work. Debris blanketed the chamber. A priest was pinned under a slab of heavy brick, unmoving but breathing.

  "He's alive," the Cleric said. "But we have to move that stone carefully."

  The Guardian tried to lift the stone, and he made it move but just not enough.

  "You and me," I said. "Together. Take it slow."

  The two of us positioned ourselves on either side of the fallen masonry. The brawler helped wedge a long iron bar beneath it to give us leverage.

  The stone lifted slowly, agonizingly, until the priest could be pulled free. I thanked my past self for raising my strength because that might have just saved a man's life.

  His leg was twisted badly, and he groaned in pain as we laid him down beside the stairs.

  "I've got him," the Cleric said, casting a low level healing spell.

  After the process the other priests carried Father Bernard away to have some rest.

  "Thank you," the sept said, voice calmer now. "I'm not sure how long he would have lasted if you hadn't come."

  The other three adventurers nodded, and suddenly the system informed us that we had cleared the “Sudden Quest: The Fallen Wall” quest, gaining 1,000 exp points and 20 silver coins. It wasn't much, but we didn't do it for the reward anyway.

  I started to turn to follow the others when something caught my eye.

  One of the loose bricks near the edge of the collapse had a symbol on it. Something craved by hand. A spiral of flame, encased in a stylized eye. Weather worn, almost erased by time.

  I crouched and brushed the dust off it.

  "Do you know what this is?" I asked the sept, turning the brick toward her.

  Her brow furrowed. "No... but it is old."

  "Anyone in Carpa who might know?"

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Not here," she said. "You'd need to ask a High Priest for something like this. The only one in the county is in Tidemark's temple."

  "Then I'll hold onto it for now."

  She nodded slowly, and I wrapped the strange brick in cloth before slipping it into my inventory.

  The rest of the day was rather uneventful. I completed an Association quest to fix some of the fences, and I chatted with the locals wherever I went, but I didn't get personal quests from any of them.

  It was to be expected; most players had the idea much sooner than I did, and personal quests were usually one of a kind adventures. I was sure once Tidemark opened, the race for them will be unforgiving, but then again, I already had a questline with Castiel and the count's men, so by the time I can fully explore Tidemark, I might get left behind regarding these once again.

  The four hours flew by and when I returned to the Carpa crafter group's workstation, Kev waved.

  "Perfect timing!" he said.

  Danzaburou stood behind a covered rack, arms folded and smirking wide.

  "You ready to look like an actual badass?" he didn't even wait for my response before laying out my new equipment. He reached forward and whipped the tarp off the rack.

  "Behold," he took a theatrical pause. "The Black Warg set."

  For a moment, I forgot to blink. The gear was beautiful, for lack of a better word.

  Not in the polished, noble way you would expect from a knight's armor. No, this was a predator's leather, formed into a defensive unit, stitched from the hides of beasts I had fought myself.

  The cowl was sleek, lined with dark fur, its front sloping into a lowprofile brow guard.

  The armor and the chausess bore interwoven segments of hide and dull-finished plates. The spider carapace Kev had integrated into the shoulder guard gave a ridged, almost scale-like texture, subtle but primal.

  The boots were reinforced with Broodspider silk around the joints, designed to dampen impact and make running smoother.

  The gloves had miniature finger guards threaded over the knuckles and the cloak was a made of a layered pelt of thin, midnight colored warg hide. The underside was lined with woven translucent sandsting wings that shimmered slightly in motion, much like a mirage in the desert.

  And the set's aesthetics were definitely just the bonus. The defense value and the additional bonuses already elevated me to a different level compared to before, but the icing on the cake was definitely the set effects. 20 Status points and 20 HP for wearing the whole set. That alone was like four levels worth of improvement.

  "This is incredible," I said and I truly meant it. The only drawback was me having to unequip my leg armor that gave me Catapult Legs, but I wasn't too worried about that. Swapping gear was a second long motion for experienced players in the game, and when push came to shove, all I had to do was switch back to my old gear to be able to use it. I could even manage to do it in PvP if I was fast enough.

  "It is definitely a masterpiece," Kev agreed. "Unfortunately, no Epics this time around, but I feel like the stats make up for that. And if they don't, maybe this will." he said as he pulled out a magnificent, midnight black longbow from under the table.