Crafting, dwarf, boobs? No, not boobs.

The next day after school, John was waiting for Cynthia to pick him up, opening his most recent daily quest once more.

Daily quest!
Now that you’ve managed not to die right away, it’s time for you to learn to be useful in other ways as well!
Learn a crafting skill 0/1
Use said skill to craft 0/1

Reward: $200
2 crafting materials

John once more got picked up by Cynthia, the girl pouting as she explained to him that today she was going to have to go with Arnold and Miranda to the Wild Hunt's camp to discuss their findings on the cabalist that attacked John. Knowing Gus, that conversation would take a long time. Which in turn would leave John free to spend time with Old Fred.

They drove up to the camp again, Cynthia changing out of her normal teenager clothes the moment she got out of the car, the girl pulling her shirt over her head as she made a beeline for a nearby tent. John could just spot a hint of a bra when a loud purring sound made itself known on his shoulder.

“Afternoon, Jack,” John mumbled to his little feline companion, scratching him beneath his chin. Jack grabbed with his paws onto John’s finger, nibbling on it softly as he mewed every so often.

Cynthia appeared outside of the tent a few moments later, winking at John as she brushed up to him. “When I get back later on, you are going to repay me that orgasm,” she stated curtly, kissing him on the cheek fleetingly, scratching Jack between the ears for a moment, and then dashing off into the direction of a small congregation of hunters in the middle of the camp.

The group set off the moment Cynthia arrived, silently disappearing from the camp in an orderly fashion, a few animals moving towards their masters, merging into their bodies as they stepped through the wall of the barrier.

John put Jack on the ground as he started the short walk to Old Fred’s place, the old dwarf once again sitting outside of his smithy, a magnifying glass in one hand and the horn John pawned to him in the other, carefully studying the smooth edges, his concentration only broken when the gamer walked up to him and politely coughed.

“Lad! Good ta see you, I was wondering when you were gonna show up,” the dwarf said with a smile. Fred put his hand into his beard for a moment, then pulled a small piece of meat out of it and tossed it to Jack. The little feline happily mewed, jumping up to catch the meat, then rolling into a ball to nibble at it. “I saw your little critter yesterday. Thought I’d prefer a little snack for him.”

John smiled, nodding politely as he asked, “You put meat in your beard?” his eyes drifting to the neatly combed brown beard, wondering what else he kept in there.

“Minor storage pouch, sewn into my beard for convenience sake. If I get home drunk one night, there is a good chance I don’t have my coat with me, but my beard, my beard is always with me!” the dwarf laughed loudly, slapping his thigh as if he had just told the best joke of all time.

When Fred was done laughing, he waved at John to enter the smithy with him. Jack, knowing that Fred was nice because he fed him, followed eagerly as well, darting left and right, starting to explore the smithy on his own.

Inside, Fred started to lay out a few materials and tools on the forge:an iron ingot, a hammer, tongs and a few other bits and pieces. “I heard from a little bird that you can learn new skills by practicing seemingly random things. I hope you don’t mind if I want to see what you can do lad.” Fred turned surprisingly serious, an enthusiastic glint in his eyes. “I will show you how to work the forge, then I want you to do what comes natural, hit it, heat it, whatever you want. If that does nothing, then I will just teach you a bit of the basics today, so you won’t feel like I am taking full advantage of you,” the dwarf explained.

“Sure? Why not!” John enthusiastically responded. That morning, he had gotten his third daily quest, this one requiring him to learn a crafting skill. So, knowing Gaia was watching his every move because, one, she told him and, two, she was clearly giving him quests related to things he was going to be doing anyway, which in itself was helpful, this little experiment would help him test out how he got abilities, and hopefully give him one related to crafting in the process.

Old Fred showed John how to work the bellows, making sure the fire was good and hot as he pointed at where he kept the wood. “A good thing about being in this barrier: you never run out of firewood; cut down one tree, and the next day there are two new ones in its place,” the dwarf chortled, tossing a leather blacksmith’s apron at John before walking to a nearby chair, sitting back to watch John fumble with the tools.

John grabbed hold of the tong, clamping it down around the iron ingot and then held it into the fire, his muscles straining slightly, but the recent increase in his Strength stat was helping out nicely here. While the iron was heavy, it was nothing he could not hold onto for a while. John waited a few moments, pulling the iron out every so often to see if it was glowing, something he had seen people do on TV a few times. When the iron was good and hot, John pulled it out fully and placed it on the anvil, switched the tongs to his left hand, and raised the blacksmith's hammer with his right hand, giving a tentative tap onto the metal. When that did almost nothing, he raised the hammer higher, bringing it down with a bit more ****, the iron denting in a little. John repeated the action a few times, sweat starting to run down his face.

Half an hour later, John was slowly losing faith about actually being able to learn anything like this; by now he had flattened the iron ingot to half the height it was, his arms were getting weary, and his face was starting to get covered in soot. He grumbled, ready to throw in the towel, when a pop up finally appeared in front of him

Learn blacksmithing?
You can only learn two crafting professions, but unlike in that game you love so much, these are permanent, no resetting and forgetting.
Yes/No

John pondered for a moment. The fact that he could only learn two professions was a down side, but on the other hand, if he was going to be an archer he would need to be self sufficient in making arrows and maintaining his weapons. So after a few more moments of thinking about the pros and cons, he decided to just hit yes.

A new screen appeared in front of him immediately. It showed two categories: components and finished products. Right now, the only two things that were not grayed out were the components small blade and arrowhead. John did not need to think long; he ticked arrowhead, then hit craft max, which was, apparently, one. Nothing happened for five seconds; John was tempted to hit the button again. When he wanted to raise his hand, he found out he no longer had control over his body except for his head. “Ehm, Fred…. Help?” John asked in a slightly panicked voice.

To Fred it looked a bit weird: the boy was just hammering the iron without any skill, just pummeling it into a flat shape. Then after half an hour, he suddenly stopped, wiggled his finger around in front of him and then froze. When the boy asked for help, Fred got up, only to see the most amazing thing he ever saw.

John’s body started to move on its own, his right hand once more raising the hammer, skillfully bringing it down onto the iron, a crisp sound filling the smithy. John looked over his shoulder to see Fred looking in amazement. “Fred… I am not doing this. I well, I got a skill, blacksmithing, I hit craft and, well, I can’t control my body!”

Fred looked at John’s panicked face, then at his body moving and hitting the iron; the corners of his mouth jerked upwards until he let out a thundering laugh, his hands grabbing his stomach at the hilarity of it. “Okay, this is even better than what they promised me.”

John felt his head flush once again, not to be seen under the sooth covering his face, luckily. When he took a look at his hands, he saw to his surprise how slowly but steadily the shape of an arrowhead appeared in the metal. His hands working like they had done it for ages.

After one more heating, hammering and finally quenching the arrowhead was done. John regained control of his body, his arms aching from the intensive workout.

Old Fred walked up to the forge, pulling his glasses out of his beard, putting them on as he looked at the arrowhead. “Fine craftsmanship, laddy! It’s like you have done this before, but your fumbling before did not show any of that. Aye, the stories were true.”

As John hit accept on his reward and got his cash and one unit of each ‘Enchanted Wood’ and ‘Quartz Crystal’, Old Fred spoke with a grin: