Seeds of Discordia

Liam took his time as he went through the city. Using his Veil of Shadow while it was night time made it easier for him not to worry about being seen since his shadow-like form blended in with the darkness.

There was a nice breeze gently blowing over the city from the sea that felt good against his skin. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt the breeze since his body was currently made of shadows and was already cool thanks to them. He wasn’t going to question it though. At least, not right now. There was still so much in this world he didn’t know about or understand. He knew he needed to get the right books so he could study up, but he felt like he just didn’t have the time right now. Once things started calming down he planned on getting books to help him out on that.

After leisurely taking his time in the city, he found himself back in the forest where he and Naro was using as a camping ground. After entering inside far enough, Liam dropped his Veil of Shadows and made his way over to the camp site.

It didn’t take him long to find the spot. When he arrived, Naro had a fire already going as well as his camping equipment set out. He was sitting on a chair he had made the other day with a book in hand and a cup of tea resting on a small table close by him. The sight of this made Liam chuckle. If he had on a pair of glasses, the bear of a man would look like a cartoonish father that was too big for the things around him.

Naro heard the chuckle and closed the book while bringing his attention on him. A toothy smile formed on his face as he saw Liam. He leaned forward and rested one of his arms on his knee and asked, “I was wondering when you were going to show up. Didn’t get into too much trouble now did you?”

Liam smiled as he heard the question. No matter how much the man insisted on him calling him Uncle Naro, it was times like these he really felt like the man could be his real uncle. With a smile of his own he replied, “Only about as much trouble as I allowed myself to get into.”

Uncle Naro let out a loud belly rumbling laugh. “Good, good. Why don’t you set up your tent and tell me what you did today.”

Liam spent some time getting his tent area and the equipment all set up. As he did this he told Uncle Naro about his day. He left out the stuff about the Soul Crafting, and the Fiddler’s Web. Instead, he told him about his training inside the Yellow Dungeon. He told Uncle Naro about how he discovered that he could use Cleave to separate monster’s joints to help weaken them. He noticed the approving expression on his face after he said this and asked, “Did you already know this was possible?”

Uncle Naro nodded his head before informing, “A lot of the Crafter skills and abilities can be used in fights. However, since majority of the population in this world view crafters as non-combat, no help from the description of the actual class, they all forget the most important thing. The abilities and skills you gain from the Field, or the class are still abilities and skills. Just like combat abilities and skills, if you have the appropriate one for the situation you can use it in any situation it calls for. Cleave is an excellent example of what I’m talking about. Another would be Cleanse Material. Once you get it high enough you can use it as a substitute to cleanse poisons or venom from a person. That, however, depends on the level of poison. Judging from your reaction to discovering a beneficial use of Cleave, I take it you have used a crafting ability or skill in combat before?”

Liam was amazed that he was able to figure that out. He nodded and answered, “Yes, however, its reliant on if I have burnable oil or anything that can catch on fire.”

Uncle Naro raised a brow, curious what ability he was talking about. Liam didn’t need a prompt and told him how he came across discovering how useful Light and Burn was in a fight. Uncle Naro laughed at each situation Liam used the ability.

“That is a great use of the skill,” Uncle Naro beamed. “On our journey I plan on showing you other crafting abilities you can use in combat. I’ll even go over other ways you can use Light and Burn as well.”

Liam was excited to hear that. While he had his Spirit, Shadow, Lunar, Sin, Discord, Lightning, and Gravity Magics in his arsenal, a few of those he couldn’t really show to just anyone. After talking with Eri about on the way over here they both agreed that unless he was in a dungeon by himself or with those he trusted and knew about his abilities, he was not going to use his Shadow and Lunar Magic.

His Spirit and Shadow Magic would be used while he was doing Fiddler’s Spider Web stuff, if he became a member, but he was going to restrict himself to Gravity, Lightning, and Crafting. He would practice his Sin here and there to get a better understanding of it, but as it stood right now it was too much since it reacted to his emotions. His Discord Magic was also something of a situational type of magic. If he found himself in a position where he could use it without getting caught or questioned then he would.

“I can’t wait,” Liam said as he leaned back in his seat. “Speaking of journey. What exactly are you doing before we can leave?”

Uncle Naro waved a finger, “Nothing you have to worry about. Like I’ve told you before. Its something my leader has asked me to look into. So just keep doing what you’re doing and when I’m done we’ll head out. Your crafting will increase if you keep practicing it, even if it’s only a little bit.”

Liam noticed the slight look of concern on the man’s face as he looked away from Liam. He wondered what it was the man was looking into that caused him to make such a face. A few seconds after that he noticed the look changed into a grin as he looked back at Liam.

“Speaking of crafting,” Naro started back up as he reached into his inventory. He pulled out a small box and handed it to him.

Curious, Liam took the box, but before he tried to open it, he asked, “What’s this?”

“I ran into an old friend that you commissioned from a couple of days ago,” Naro replied.

Liam gave him a puzzled look as he looked back at the box and tried to think about who he was talking about and what he had commissioned to be made. It took him a couple of minutes before he remembered what it was.

Liam snapped his head to look at Naro and asked, “This box has my…”

Naro nodded as he gave Liam a proud smile. “Your brandings? Yes. Although I was a bit surprised you had got two. Normally you would only need one.”

Not wanting to explain why he asked for two, Liam decided to go with a small lie. “I was torn between two ideas. I figured I’d get both and see which I’d like…” He stopped as he thought about what Uncle Naro had said.

He knew there was two Brandings in the box. How or why would he know about that? Did he open the box and look inside? Did that crazy Squirrel-Folk tell him about it? What happened to privacy? Also why would she give him the box to give me? As he thought about these questions he remembered the small bit he said earlier. She was a friend of his.

Liam stared at the man with cautious eyes as he asked, “I didn’t know you were friends with Milly. However, how did she know you would give me this package if she handed it to you? Also, she told me she would have some examples for me to choose from. Are these the examples?”

Naro let out a hearty laugh. “That’s good that you’re questioning it. if a random person were to do it you should be wary of their motives. Milly and I go way back. I was visiting her at her home here on the island and mentioned that I was taking you on as an apprentice in a couple of crafts. She asked some questions about what you looked like, and she figured out it was you, so she asked me to take these to you.” Naro then gave him a mischievous smile as he added, “She might have said she’ll have some examples for you to choose, but she felt that you would go with these choices.”

This surprised Liam. Even though he was told this world was big, in this moment he felt it was small. What were the odds that Naro would know Milly? The odds weren’t as bad since they were both Beast-kins and he probably had to get his branding from her. He didn’t know how long the old squirrel had been doing this nor if she was only located here on this island, but it seemed like her business was important in the crafting world. So knowing who she was probably wasn’t as grandiose of a thing as he believed it to be. But the fact that they were friends was a different thing.

Liam looked at the man with an assessing look. Naro was a damn good crafter from what he had seen so far. It also happened to be his starting class, so he had to be good. How good was the question though. Was he famous crafter or one of those who could hold their own in the crafting world? He wanted to ask but felt that the bear of a man would only shrug it off. He would have to find out during their travels.

Liam’s brows then scrunched as he stared at him. Before he could say anything, Naro let out a laugh and stated, “This is one of her quirks. She’s been making these for many years and is at a high level in the craft as well. She has her moments where she gets these…” Naro circled his hand around trying to figure out the best word. “Hunches? We’ll go with hunches. Anyways, she gets these hunches that come to her that make her believe the client would choose what she designed. So that’s why she asked me to deliver these instead of some examples. Congratulations on taking the next step of being a Crafter.”

Liam placed his box away, which gave the bigger man a questioning look.

“Not going to open the box and check to make sure it meets your standards?” Naro inquired.

Liam shook his head. “Not right now. If she is a friend of yours and you trust her work then I’ll trust her judgement and that she did a fantastic job on them.” Naro slowly nodded as he understood what he said. “For now though…I’d like your advice on my Blacksmithing. There are some things I’d like to work on and get farther in.”

Naro stood up and nodded. “Alright. Set up your Mobile Crafter Blacksmithing Station while I make us something to drink. I’ll add some inspiration buffs to the drink because I feel like you’re going to need it for what you might want.”

Liam nodded as he did as he was told. This was going to be a long night he felt, and the buffs would be great. Not only that, but he was growing to like the drinks Uncle Naro made. The taste they had reminded him of the drinks his grandmother used to make. Nostalgia of good memories was always welcomed, especially after what had happened earlier.

 

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Liam went long into the night working on his Blacksmithing craft with Naro guiding him on things he didn’t think about. He wanted to work on his Armor Craft and Repair sections of the craft. He had an issue with trying to work on the Repair section at first, but it was solved when Naro suggested damaging the armor he had made so he could practice on them.

It was a clever idea since the armor he could currently produce wasn’t that great. He would make the armor and Naro would cause certain amounts of damage to it so he could practice repairing them. Thanks to this, he was able to get a couple of levels in both sections of the Blacksmithing craft.

 

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“Congratulations! Armor Craft has reached level 4! Progression to level 5: 100%!”

“Congratulations! Armor Craft has reached level 5! Progression to level 6: 78%!”

“Congratulations! Repair has reached level 10! Progression to level 11: 97%!”

“Congratulations! You have received the Crafter’s ability Spot Frailty! Description: Allows user to spot small cracks, dents, hairline fractures, and other small damages on armor and weapons!”

“Congratulations! Main Class ability - Mobile Crafter has reached level 9! Progression to level 10: 34%!”

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This new ability was useful when he was working on repairs. When inspected the damage on the armor he worked on repairing, a small dim glow would outline the area on the armor that needed repair. While this was helpful in spotting the areas he had to strain to find before, he still needed to focus and find them since the glow wasn’t as prominent as he thought it would be.

Naro explained that it would be like at during the lower levels. As he leveled the skill every ten levels, the glow would become more apparent, and he would be able to determine what the cause was for the damage. Like if it was rusted, dented due to a blunt weapon, acid, and more.

Liam thought that was a great ability to have for repairing. His assessment of the ability grew even more when Naro mentioned that it could also be useful while fighting armored foes. He explained that by using the ability he would be able to spot weaknesses in the enemies armor and weapons and by determining what caused the damages he or whoever he was with would be able to strike there and either destroy the armor or weapon or use it as a way to pierce through and cause some real damage.

He added this ability to his must level up as much as he could list. This would be a great support ability for his arsenal, and he didn’t want to waste its potential. This also made him excited to see what other crafting abilities he could get from leveling up certain crafts and what types of usage he could use them in battles.

He was able to level this ability up to level five quickly because he found out it was useful while crafting armor. While crafting he was able to see were certain areas were weaker or if any issues arose after he finished due to being too fast in certain areas during the process phase of the armor craft creation.

The more he worked on his Blacksmithing craft while under Naro’s guidance the more he started to notice things he hadn’t been able to before. It was subtle things like areas he needed to focus on more while shaping the armor out or how much of the materials he used in certain areas. It made him think about why these were things he needed to focus on.

His working theory so far was it was to help know where he needed to strengthen the armor or areas he could make add-ons like bone materials or other metal ingots. He had asked Naro about it, but he said he would need to ask Fia, his Blacksmithing Mentor, more about it. It was her job to inform him about these things. He made a mental note that he would need to seek her out in the future, but only when he reached level twenty in a few of his sections.

After some practice and guidance, Naro made them a delicious dinner. He ate it greedily since it tasted so good. After dinner he did some stretches and decided to call it a night. He slept like a log throughout the night. Even though his body had recovered from the fatigue of the strain of all that had happened, he still felt exhausted.

After waking up, he felt refreshed and ready to take on the day. He found food in a container inside of his tent at the opening with a note from Naro saying he had already left for the day. He still took a peek outside to make sure no one was around. After determining he was alone, he went back inside his tent, grabbed the food, and sat down. He used Devour to start the process of replenishing his Spirit Pool. He then pulled out the box he received from Naro last night and sat it next to him.

He opened the box and looked inside. There were two small wooden structures that looked like a big pawn unit from a chess game. One was made from a white wooden material while the other was made from a black wooden material. On the bottom of both was a cover that could be taken off. Each of these objects sat on a couple stacks of small thin square sheets of paper. He assessed both to see they had the same name.

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“Branding Stamp. Item Type – Branding (Visual Crafting). Item Rarity – Uncommon. Item Quality – Average. Description – A Branding Stamp for a crafter to mark the fully completed crafting item as their own. Once the Branding Mark has been stamped on the object no other crafter can place a mark on it. Has the magical effect Anti-Forgery, Branding, Stamp Obscurity, and Unlimited Ink.”

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He went to see what each effect did, but as he tried pulling them up nothing appeared.

“Hm, interesting,” Liam muttered before he pulled out the white wooden Branding Stamp. “I didn’t know magical effects like that were a thing. I’ll have to ask Naro about what each of these effects really do and why I can’t see what they do.”

He pulled out the white wooden Branding Stamp and took the cover off of the bottom. The first thing he noticed was the bottom was almost the size of his palm. The other thing was the bottom had a red rubbery area. He tried to determine which of the two this one was, but he wasn’t able to figure it out.

He then grabbed one of the papers within and pressed the rubbery area on it. The size of the paper was big enough to have the stamp almost fill it entirely. After pressing it down, Liam pulled it back and stared at the design.

This one had the outline of a cat’s paw, but instead of the whole paw it was just the toe beans with claws not fully touching the toes beans, but a little farther away. Within each toe bean was a symbol of a craft. One had a hammer and anvil for Blacksmithing, a vial with smoke coming out from the top for Alchemy, a needle and thread for Tailoring, and a wand with smoke lines swirling around it for Enchanting.

While it wasn’t the overly complicated design he had in mind, he actually like it. It was simple and easy to recognize. This was the one he was going to use for his everyday crafting items he would make and sell. Which meant the darker wooden Branding Stamp was the one he was going to use for when he was a member of the Fiddler’s Spider Web.

Excited to see that one, Liam placed the white wooden Branding Stamp away and pulled out the dark wooden one. After he pressed the stamp down and pulled away from it he stared at what was on the sheet of paper.

Like the last design it had the outlines of a cat’s toe beans. However, instead of crafting symbols the toe bean that was underneath the others was a circle with eight lines and arrows that shot out and went through each of the four top toe beans. Each toe bean had two arrows each that went through and stopped a bit past the top. The arrows curved in a claw like fashion giving the impression the cat had two claws per toe bean. Adding to the effect, everything in the designs had a hazy smoky like look to it.

Again, Liam liked the design. This one he wanted to give a flare to it with a symbol that represented Eri. The symbol he went with was the eight arrows. While normally they would point in different directions, he didn’t want to make it too obvious that he was using a symbol that represented Chaos.

Now that he had his Branding Marks, he needed to produce a name. He figured he’d use the Web Name he was given once he fully joined the Fiddler’s Spider Web for the darken wooden Branding Stamp. As long as it wasn’t something stupid like Little Kitten. As for the other one. He had a couple he was playing around with. He like one in particular, but he figured he’d ask Uncle Naro for advice on it later.

Not that that was settled he needed to figure out what he wanted to do for the rest of the day. While he had to be back at the Fiddler’s Spider Web later for briefing on the field mission test he was given later on, he really didn’t have much to do. After some debating, he figured he would go over to the Fiddler’s Spider Web early and work on some Alchemy. He needed to replenish some of his Chemicalized Creation items he had used yesterday.

After coming to that decision he waited a bit to finish refilling his Spirit Pool and finish his breakfast. After that he did some stretches, packed up his camping supplies, and took off.