HC: Handyman | Ch. 14 - Consistent Quality (Patreon)

Even though, in theory, all Jack had dumped on the market was worth 26 silver, he didn’t already have the money in his hand. Putting an item for sale didn't necessarily mean someone would buy it. At the same time, the game was bustling, with many players still joining. The market was hot, and items sold quickly.

Jack already had sold four silvers worth of his supplies, and now and then, a few coppers trickled in as, somewhere out in New Earth, some aspiring gardener purchased one of his pots or an aspiring chef or chemist bought one of his bowls.

It was time to plan his next moves. He still had a long way to go before reaching level 10 in pottery and bushcraft and finishing this dreadful quest. He just wanted to get this over with. 

As he thought of how he would need to level bushcraft a few more times, Jack checked the price for his newest bushcraft recipe out of curiosity. [Survival Stew] sold for eighty coppers, as much as a rudimentary tinder box. 

However, crafting it was challenging. It required not only three ingredients but also water and a pot. He also needed to set up a fire and feed it for a while. Eighty coppers was more than fair for the stew. According to the guides he’d read online, each survival stew offered a generous amount of profession XP, but he was leaning toward keeping on crafting ropes to gain the next level. It sounded simpler. He knew how to make it, and the ingredients were easily available everywhere. 

Jack proceeded to look for items to help him get through this quest quickly. Not only did he need to buy a new tinderbox, but he also desperately needed a pair of mittens. He had almost died from crafting ten pots, but if he crafted twenty or thirty, he would surely die. He wrote ‘mittens’ on the marketplace, and many listings appeared. 

Sackcloth Mittens (Common)

A recycled pair of mittens crafted from the remains of sackcloth. It offers little protection against fire, but it's better than nothing.

Durability: 9. 

Fire resistance: 1 

Special effects: 

[Hot! Hot!] - Prevents burn effect from low-temperature fires. 

Several such mittens were for sale. A pair of mittens with 10 durability went for 60 coppers. From his earlier experience with a tinderbox, these things were practically disposable. He bought three pairs. They were barely passable and offered little fire resistance, but at least they presented the [Hot! Hot!] effect. It would prevent him from gaining the burn effect, drastically increasing his survivability.

He also looked for tinderboxes. He bought three for a silver piece each, hoping this would prove enough for three or four fires. It wasn’t much, but the card he had played earlier at Jenny’s would only buy him one hour at a time, and that wouldn’t be enough to get him to pottery level 10.

Finally, Jack purchased a bush knife for one silver and 50 coppers and three brushes to help him glaze his ceramics for 50 coppers each. This should help him advance to the next level in both professions.

Bush Knife (Common)

A sharp, short blade that can be used for various tasks. A bush crafter’s best friend.

Durability: 14

Damage: 7

Weasel Brush (Common)

A stick with some weasel hair at the end. It can hardly be called a brush.

Durability: 9

After using a tinderbox, Jack had a clearer idea of how little ten durability was. He could understand why players down the road would invest in buying better-quality items that would last them longer. Sadly, he wasn't quite there yet. 

Just like that, he had spent all the money he’d earned. He would have to wait for the other items to sell before buying more. This was one reason he disliked working. He had worked so hard and gotten so little in return. All those hours of effort and strain only got him some pocket money that entered and left his inventory within the hour.

He wished he had earned more. He was really looking forward to buying some nicer equipment. With better stats, he would have more stamina and health and finish this quest earlier too.

Jack decided to return to the hill. He would stay there making grass ropes until he reached level 4 in bushcraft. After leaving the market, Jack stopped by the fountain and refilled his bottles. He had used most of the water making slip and crafting rope and pots and would need more. He then ran the short distance to the hill he’d been using for crafting.

As he started yanking grass around what he pretentiously thought of as his hill, he faced a setback. There was no sunlight.  He studied the progress bars over the drying grass. They had gone up to 10 minutes. 

It was a bummer. Drying time more than tripled at night. Cursing his luck, Jack pulled up more grass. He kept uprooting stalks until the very first bits had dried. After ten minutes of work, the green hill had become a brown, bald mound of dirt. There were rising bars of different tones of red and yellow everywhere around him, slowly shifting to green. In a weird way, it was as if he was seeing spring shift into summer.

As he collected the dry grass and gathered it into a pile, he considered what he was doing. Here he was… essentially, doing gardening, one of his father’s many jobs. He had always sternly refused to stoop as low as this and do this kind of menial work, but God had played a cruel prank on him. 

At least here, his back didn’t ache, and he took comfort in knowing that, in reality, he was comfortably lying down in bed. Most importantly, his father couldn't see him doing this job. After their argument last night, he didn’t want to let his father see him do this kind of work. That would be too humiliating. 

On the other hand, he enjoyed some aspects of this tedious work more than he cared to admit. While he worked, the sting of his recent breakup wasn’t as painful. Furthermore, no boss ordered him around telling him what to do. He was his own man and could work as he saw fit. 

There was another reason he preferred this work in the game over outside. In real life, this was a dead-end job. People like his father did these dull tasks day in, day out, every day, with no hope of getting a promotion or improving their lot in life. In the game, however, there was always the prospect of a new level, skill, or a new recipe or technique around the corner. Furthermore, if he got tired of bush crafting, he could shake things up by changing to pottery.

Finally, the grass dried. Jack sat next to the pile and, wetting the fibers, began weaving cords. After tying the ends, he used the bush knife instead of biting the grass with his teeth. Grinding had just become a little less bitter.

Congratulations! You’ve crafted [Weak Cord].

+5xp in [Bushcraft]

Congratulations! You’ve crafted [Weak Cord].

+15xp in [Bushcraft]

Jack steadily crafted cord after cord. Thanks to the techniques he had learned online, he got a string of successful As and Bs. Wetting the fibers added cohesion, and wrapping them around his wrist and elbow as he braided allowed him to keep tension on the cord. Finally, using a bush knife to cut the loose ends made the cuts cleaner. All of this added to the crafting grade.

Good thing, too. If he got anything worse than a B when crafting cords, he no longer got any experience. 

After a few minutes Jack started feeling bored. He tried reviewing why working hard in the game was better than working hard outside. Still, the peace and satisfaction he felt earlier were buried under the tiredness of doing the same thing over and over and over again. But what would he do if he stopped? Pine over Lydia? Ruminate on his father’s sermon? At least when doing this, he got some relief from his anxious thoughts. He would choose the lesser of two evils and keep crafting.

After an hour of grinding, his resolve waned, and his appreciation for menial work plummeted. Even the prospect of moping started to look nicer than crafting. He was feeling tempted to leave the game and grab lunch or something. However, just as he was about to give up, by the time he was crafting his 45th cord, he got a system notification that was a breath of fresh air.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked a new title: [Consistent Quality].

Consistent Quality (Common)

Description: You take pride in giving your best when crafting.

Effects:

S grade unlocked.

+5 stamina.

Requirements to unlock [Consistent Quality].

Craft 10 A-grade items in a row.

“Aha! Here it is!” Jack celebrated. He had read about this title online and hoped to unlock it. Thankfully, he had just succeeded.

In New Earth, there was another way for a player to become stronger besides equipment and levels: titles. These were given as rewards for completing special quests, dungeons, or unlocking hidden achievements.

[Consistent Quality], in particular, was one of the easiest to obtain and common knowledge by now. Other rarer titles, not so much. When he browsed the auction website, he found that, in addition to equipment, players also sold information about titles. Some of them were sold for a pretty penny. Divulging them willy-nilly would kill their commercial value, so information about better titles was kept secret.

The increase in stamina granted by [Consistent Quality] was negligible but still better than nothing. The most special thing about it was that he could now obtain an ‘S’ crafting grade.

According to the guides, S-grade equipment sold for much more money than lower grades. The ratio of crafting quality and pricing was exponential. The better the grade, the more astounding the profit a craftsman could make. At the same time, getting an ‘S’ was tough. Only hardcore craftsmen managed it, and only sometimes.

He reread the title description: You take pride in giving your best when crafting. “Do I?” he asked himself. “And am I giving my best?” He supposed he was. He was doing his best to get As and Bs and level faster. 

After rereading the title’s description, Jack felt strange. His heart was beating faster, and he had goosebumps. He was happier than he imagined he would be from obtaining this run-of-the-mill title. This reward was just what he needed. It renewed his motivation to carry on and finish this quest. Jack kept crafting.

By the time he was done with the pile of dry grass and had crafted all the fibers into cords and then all the cords into ropes, he finally unlocked a new level in bush crafting!

Congratulations! You’ve crafted [Weak Rope].

+20xp in [Bushcraft]

You’ve reached level 4 in [Bushcraft]!

You can learn a new skill: [First Aid].

First Aid, Lvl. 1

You can use medicinal herbs you forage to cure some lesser ailments and sicknesses. An essential survival skill.

Skill effects:

You can craft wound dressings.

Requirements:

Bushcraft, lvl. 4 {complete}

Character lvl. 5

Jack paused. “What?” He was first struck with the difference in wording from when he had leveled up a profession previously. The system notification didn’t say, ‘You’ve learned a new skill: [First Aid].’ It said, ‘You can learn a new skill: [First Aid].’ 

Once he read the description of the new skill, he realized what was wrong. This skill required not only a profession level but also a character level! He was only level 1! He’d been focusing so much on crafting that he’d completely overlooked his avatar’s level. Crafting XP only contributed to progress in a profession; it didn’t fill his character’s XP bar. Those were entirely separate progress systems!

Just as he gained momentum from unlocking a title, he bumped into another obstacle.

“Don’t panic, Jack. This is level 5. It should be fairly easy to level up your character this early on,” he told himself. This revelation changed things. It was the first time he was learning about this. He needed to adjust his plans accordingly. He could use a break after this grinding session anyway. He also had to eat something and probably use the bathroom.

He picked up all his supplies and ran to the marketplace. While he was crafting, most of the items in the marketplace had finished selling. He put all the ropes he’d crafted for sale. Once he returned online, they would probably be sold too, and he could use the funds for whatever was needed. Jack opened the menu and logged out. 

*

When Jack came to, he was hit with several sensations: a rumbling stomach, a bursting bladder, and a sore back. He removed the helmet and tried to get out of bed to run to the bathroom. His sore legs failed him, and he almost stumbled and fell. He waddled out the door, his joints and muscles warming up with each step, and finally reached the bathroom.

He then walked down to the kitchen and grabbed the first thing he could find: a banana. A colorful pomegranate and persimmon called for his attention from the fruit basket, but he wasn’t about to go through the trouble of skinning and preparing them. Bananas were much easier to eat.

As he wolfed down the banana, he browsed his phone. He first checked how much New Earth silver translated into real-world currency. Some websites allowed players to sell game currency in exchange for in-real-life money. Wealthy people in real life couldn’t be bothered to grind for coins in the game and were willing to pay money for it. 

This was a viable business in popular games, and Jack quickly found a website that did the conversion for him. Plenty of spiky charts showed the value of in-game currency compared to real-world currency. Seeing how much one day of work in the game was worth, he grimaced. One gold wasn’t worth even one credit. He had been half-expecting it, but it was still a disappointing discovery.

As he was about to search for quick, easy ways to level up in the game, Jack noticed the clock and decided there might be an easier way to find answers to his questions. His cousin had likely left work by now. Feeling his sore legs and back, he decided he could use the walk, too.

He made a cheese and ham sandwich, grabbed a jacket, and headed to Roberto’s house.

Ch. 13 - Glazing

INDEX

Ch. 15 - Coach