Gear first, skills later

John was led to the edge of the camp bordering on the forest; from there two roads led to either an area full of dummies, targets and a few floating orbs or a small semi petting zoo formed by bushes and branches. Arnold pointed at the zoo as Cynthia’s head popped up from behind some of the branches. “That is where we keep the younger animals bestowed upon us by the lady. Once every so often when we give her an offering, she will send us a young animal with her divine grace.” Arnold waved at her before he guided John towards the training area.

“So, think you can create skills that might prove useful for your own survival?” he asked John as he patted his shoulder, the strong hand pressing John down slightly.

John gave a soft 'oof' and nodded. “I think I can, I got a skill for trying not to be noticed on the bus; strangely though, I didn’t get a skill for killing the boar.”

“Well, in all fairness, a backpack is not what you would call a class of weapon. So maybe you need to use an appropriate tool for skills to be formed? Speaking of which, you don’t have any weapons do you?”

John shook his head. “I have… The clothes on my back, and that’s about it. Oh, and a horn, some leather, a tusk and a pork chop.” He gave a small nod as he recounted his loot.

“Hmmm, well, we are not a non profit organisation, so if you want some of our gear, you will need to pay for it. How about we visit good old Fred first,” Arnold one sidedly decided as he walked into the forest behind the training area, expecting John to follow. About a hundred meters down a small dirt path, there was a clearing with a soot covered building in the middle. The nearby trees all had a hint of black smudges on their leaves as the smithy kept billowing black smoke into the air.

“Old Fred demanded that we would give him a place away from the rest to not dirty the camp with the ash and stink of molten metal,” Arnold explained as he opened the door to the building. Inside, a short, stout man was hammering away at a piece of metal, slamming the hammer down onto it as he looked at the door.

“Arny! What brings you to my little shop?” the dwarf cried out as he offhandedly tossed the glowing arrowhead into a bucket of water, dropping the hammer onto the forge as steam started rising into the air with a hiss.

“I have brought our newest recruit to get some weapons. Though he has the problem most new recruits share… He lacks money,” Arnold said as he bent down to bearhug the dwarf.

John extended his hand at the dwarf who gratefully took it. “Ah, a new one… A young one as well! Interesting! Let old Fred get a good look at you!” the small man said joyfully, raising what seemed to be a pair of glasses from within his smith’s apron. John took this time to cast Observe on him as well.

“I’m John, John Newman, pleasure to meet you,” John said genuinely; the dwarf seemed nice, and according to the screen, he had a better relation with him than with most of his classmates, and he just met the guy!

“Pleasure’s all mine. Now, come with me to the storage room. Let’s see what we can come up with so that you can go and hunt whatever needs hunting and old Fred can keep drinking, how about that?” Fred dragged John towards a larger part of the smithy, racks of weapons lining the walls; most of them were small edged weapons or bigger ranged weapons.

John started to realize one thing by now. People loved to drag him around. It had been a long day already, and he got dragged from one place to the next. After this training, he really wanted to just go home and play a game, get a bit of rest, time to order his thoughts.

He got woken up from his thoughts a few moments later as Fredrick appeared behind a counter off to the side. “So, what do you have as a deposit? I promise you that I won’t pawn it, but I do need a guarantee that I will at some point see some form of value for the things I will provide you. Nothing in the world is free, my boy,” the dwarf explained.

John nodded as he thought about what he could give Fred. The books in his bag were not really valuable, and he would need them for school, so without having much else to give, he pulled the loot the boar had netted him and the horn. Laying them out on the counter in front of Fred.

“Hmmm, nicely skinned leather, you got a talent boy! But sadly it's simple boar, I got a warehouse full of the stuff. The tusk is okay, can be made into a nice necklace or accessory… Not really valuable either. If I were you, I’d offer it to your Goddess, she loves hunting trophies,” Fred said with a wink.

“That is his way of telling you that tusks, claws and the like are supposed to be offered to Artemis, and he doesn’t know what to do with them anyway,” Arnold said over his shoulder as he browsed the goods in the shop.

“Well, that leaves us with a nice and juicy pork chop and a warhorn. Know what, I will take the horn as a deposit: it looks nicely made, and who knows, I can always study the engravings on it. Promise I won’t break it. And if you give me the pork chop as a gift, I will gift you a set of ammo to go with your ranged weapon.”

John did not have to think about that one very hard, as he had no idea what he was going to do with a pork chop. As for the horn, it had played its part as far as he knew. In the future he would have weapons, and skills hopefully, so he would be able to defend himself. ”You have a deal, Fred,” John spoke out, offering his hand before the dirty dwarf shook it happily.

“Great! Then now the fun part!”