Denial is a great muse.

One by one the popups timed out and John stared blankly at the empty space they vacated.

He didn't really understand what had just happened. It wasn't supposed to, his instincts told him that much, but that was all he could grasp. A horrifying sense of wrongness and an intense dread of... something, everything. Nothing. The text of his last message echoed in his mind, as faint as a whisper. Somewhere deep inside he felt an excitement that made him want to vomit.

A heavy weight drew his eyes down to the thing that had caused his growing headache. John gripped the offending book so tightly his knuckles were pure white and glared at it sullenly. There was no response of any kind from the pages. It might have been easier had there been one. Slowly, as if the book would bite, John opened The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft. It was empty. Every page the same as his physics textbook had been, blank.

Shit.

Whatever madness he'd followed in using the damn thing as a skill book had faded away, and he could only question why. Why would he do that? A vague memory of a leather-bound journal stirred but didn't solidify into anything intelligible. John felt like he was grasping at mist, trying to hold onto a dream that wasn't real. He had to let it slip away, but couldn't dismiss the sense that he'd forgotten something important.

He set the heavy book down and pulled up his Character Sheet. His new spells and skills stood out against the rest and John sighed. There was no turning back now, whatever he'd gotten himself into with this... mistake, he'd have to see it through. He might as well make the most of it.

Starfall looked promising and John was genuinely grateful to have an AoE spell. Being limited to the space around him made it a bit risky, but the range was significant and it did double Rend's damage. On the other hand...

Call to Void was obviously a trap. John knew better than to use anything with a vague and sinister description, and just reading it sent a shiver down his spine. Yet... curiosity was a dangerous thing. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he wasn't sure he could actually cast it. The mana cost was completely obscured by question-marks, but it appeared to be in the triple digits.

The spells aside, his skills made absolutely no sense. Insight... he'd think about that another time, and Shroud of Stars hid his 'nature'? Did that mean that other people, like Erica or Mrs. Wentworth would think he was normal? More questions without answers, it was becoming a feature of the Game.

With a sigh, John threw the now useless tome onto his desk. He'd throw it out later and try to forget everything.

All the analysis of his new tricks reminded John that there was one he'd meant to try out. Between the busy class schedule and avoiding Frank and Erica, there hadn't been any time to experiment with Forge. Well, no time like the present. John stuck out a hand.

"Forge."

A few seconds passed and a window popped up.

Please select an item or materials.

This seemed promising. He looked around for something to try it on. The book on his table stared accusingly at him, and John picked it back up. Instantly his hands began to glow brighter and brighter, until the cover started melting under his fingers. One of the pages caught fire.

"Holy shit! Stop, stop!"

At his frantic urging the glow faded, and he was left with most of a melted book and a few white blocks in his other hand. They were slightly squishy. He turned over the almost unrecognizable mess, putting the cubes on the table. Despite channeling enough heat to melt leather a second ago, both John's fingers and the book seemed completely cool, as though nothing had happened. With no other leads, he tried Observe on the book and cubes.

The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft (60% deconstructed)
6 units of Paper

With another cast of Forge the rest of the book incinerated in his fingertips, and John was happy to see it go.

It was worth 14 units of paper, which he piled on his desk. John had no idea what to do with them... but it was cathartic to stack them while he thought about what to try next. It'd be worth deconstructing other items, and he had an idea where to start.

The old bike in the basement with the broken wheel yielded fifteen units of metal and three of rubber, as well as the satisfaction of watching metal melt under his fingers. Way more calming than stacking blocks of paper. In addition, John deconstructed a few of the old pieces of furniture they'd never gotten around to throwing out, earning a supply of wood and leather. His mother wouldn't miss them, and probably wouldn't notice since he'd propped the tarp they'd been under back up with a broom.

All in all, he'd managed to cover his desk in various materials, but they were just sitting there. He couldn't figure out what to do with them. There wasn't a menu of options for crafting armor or weapons or anything. He grabbed a couple of blocks of wood and tried to imagine a box made out of them. Nothing happened. He tried saying the word "box". Nothing happened. He tried hammering the stupid cubes together to make a damn box! Nothing happened. John threw the worthless junk back onto his desk, and a window appeared.

Craft Portable Storage Unit - 'Box'?
Yes / No

...is the Developer just fucking with me now?

John pressed 'yes'. Nothing happened.

"Well, fuck you too."

He started tossing the cubes into the inventory of his chest, watching as the window ate them one by one and almost missed it. Mixed in with the rest of the materials, underneath the wood, was a small, dark wooden box. Its lacquered surface gleamed when he picked it up, and John noticed metal filigree along the sides. An iron key stuck out of the lock, which turned with a perfect click, the latch and lid easing open silently. There was nothing inside. John used Observe on it.

'Box'
Elegant storage for the gamer's items. Can fit small objects such as jewelry, trading cards or coins.
(Mundane - Enchantable)

It wasn't magical, but it looked nice. John put a couple of cubes of paper into his new storage box. They were a bit too big and the lid wouldn't close but hey, he was using it. Counting what he had left, the box had cost him three units of wood and one unit of metal. Not too expensive.

As an experiment, John tried making another box. This time he set the requisite parts together and was rewarded with a prompt. Clearly, the reason his attempts had failed earlier was a lack of metal, which implied that there were recipes for items. He selected 'yes' and was rewarded with a new box. This one was slightly different, with bronze instead of iron and a lighter, pale wood. John chalked the differences up to random generation; it wouldn't be surprising for common items to have a few different appearances.

Momentarily comparing it with the first, he melted the new box back into blocks, refunding the entire construction cost and producing two popups.

Achievement Unlocked! - "Unacceptable!"
Deconstruct an object you crafted. At least you can try again.
+5 units of wood
+5 units of metal
+5 units of leather

Blocks popped into existence behind the text, raining onto the piles he already had. It was the first time John had ever received an item physically, instead of to his inventory, and he had to admit that the Developer had saved him a step.

Skill Rank Increased - Forge 1 -> 2
Crafting Menu unlocked, mundane equipment may now be reinforced or repaired.

John picked up a unit of metal and tried Forge.

A window appeared, detailing the properties of the cube he held, but it was just a distraction from the much bigger one that floated behind it. The Crafting Menu resembled his inventory, except it was full of colorful and grey icons of various random items. A box, a chair, a book with a quill, a cage of indeterminate size... The whole page was full, and as he scrolled down, it kept being full. At the top of the window there were half a dozen tabs. Armor, Weapons, Consumables, Gear, Jewelry, Miscellaneous. He was currently on the last screen.

He tried switching to Armor. A new wall of icons filled his view, thankfully with sub-tabs bearing the labels of the various slots listed on his Character Sheet. He decided to start with chest armor and switched to the relevant tab. Almost everything on the screen was greyed out, but he recognized several of the items from roleplaying games. Halfway down the page was an icon for a metal breastplate. John tapped on it to see what would happen.

Above his desk, a wireframe of the breastplate he'd selected formed, and the screen changed. It now listed the required materials: twelve units of metal and six units of leather, as well as a separate list of possible additions and statistics. There was a strength (15) and endurance (15) requirement, a displayed penalty to agility scores above fourteen and an armor value of six.

John tapped on the Reinforcement option and was presented with another list of possible materials. Selecting 'metal', the formula changed to require two more units of metal and offered an additional point of armor.

Piling the relevant materials at the base of the wireframe, John pressed create.

The cubes of metal liquefied, floating up to fill in the surface of the breastplate, while the cubes of leather unwound into strips that secured themselves along the sides. It only took a minute for the armor to complete itself, but he savored every second of engineering porn. The completed product looked simple, a polished breastplate with no adornments or engravings. He tried equipping it.

John instantly regretted it. The weight was unbearable, biting into his shoulders even as the straps distributed it across his chest. He remembered the required parameters, five points above his current scores and tried taking a step. John could barely move. Even though the armor itself only took up the chest space on his sheet, he felt like he was walking through molasses or tar. After a couple more exploratory steps, John unequipped the breastplate and managed a gasping breath. There was no way he was going to be wearing that again.

Fortunately, he could melt the useless gear back down into the requisite materials and used them to put together something more comfortable.

Studded Leather Armor Set [Incomplete]
+12 Armor
Reinforced (Metal): +4 Armor
[Enchantable]
Missing: Belt
Set Bonus: +1 Agility

The armor set consisted of a tunic, leggings, bracers and a hood. It reminded him of a bland and generic version of the starting rogue gear from a dozen or so games: dark brown leather with streaks of metal that connected the hardened studs protruding from the thicker portions of the armor. It wasn't pretty, intended more for purpose and form over appeal, but was rather comfortable. The material flexed easy when he bent his knees and elbows and barely limited his range of motion.

John looked at his Character Sheet, according to which he still had space left over for four rings, a cloak, belt and necklace. Checking the Forge window, most belts conveyed bonuses to inventory capacity rather than armor and he was running too low on leather to make one. His mom would probably notice if he shredded his only pair of nice shoes for materials, so for the time being he'd do without one. John checked for the last few items in his menu.

To his surprise, Forge seemed to have only two options for cloaks. One required silk and the other linen, but since neither seemed to give any sort of bonus John skipped over them. More irritatingly, he couldn't even open the Jewelry tab. Considering that jewelry usually was magic in games, it wasn't entirely surprising. He'd have to keep an eye out for magic rings.