Apprentice Smith.

Another chore before the end of this week. His dad had also insisted on this one and he was the one that arranged for him to study here.

The workshop!

According to him a man should know how to build or fix things. And know how a car worked or maintain it. John never found any interest in this and was bored to ****, playing on his phone when the teacher explained how to screw on shelves or change a spark plug.

Today it was different. With his new craft skill he wanted to know as much as he could. Hoping that it would allow him to create better, more complex things.

The problem with this class was that it was pretty much a sausage fest, the only female in the room was Miss Brooks and she was more masculine than some students. Taylor Brooks, 42 years old, tall muscular, buzzer hair cut and blue coveralls over a sleeveless flannel shirt, spoke with the ruffled voice of a heavy smoker. One could easily confuse her for a man because of her name and appearance.

She was passionate about her work and tried her best to teach the class how to do things, but she was a better mechanic/craftswoman than teacher.

John checked and, as expected, she was wearing boxers under her coveralls, he wouldn't even try to take them. The quest said female underwear, would it work with male underwear worn by a woman?

No, he would use the hour for something else. The idea of learning in shop class was strange, but it would be a lot more useful now than most of his other classes.

"Miss Brooks, I know I didn't really give my best before, in fact I only have this class because my dad wanted me to do it. But lately I really gained interest in this. Do you have some text you'd advise for beginners who want to tinker at home and what tools might be needed?" he said to his teacher after most of the boys went to work on the various projects assigned to them. John was supposed to be working on building a metal mailbox for a few months and all he had was a mess of jagged metal and bad welding.

"Oh it's you? Are you serious? I always saw you play on your phone and honestly you're terrible at most of this. I don't know if it is because it doesn't interest you or because you don't have the skills," she replied.

"I think it was mostly rebellion. My dad **** me to take this class and I thought I didn't need it. Now that I understand that it would be useful, I want to give my best. Can you help me?" he explained.

She looked at him and, once convinced that he was telling the truth, she was facing a dilemma. John was one of her worst students, but according to other teachers he was really smart. It was an occasion for her to teach to a student who wasn't already passionate and knowledgeable about her subject.

With her discipline being sometimes dirty and somewhat dangerous (and breaching numerous topics) there was no unique book for the class but a bunch of mass copied leaflets given to students as they needed them.

She was glad to see John grab one of each and put them in his bag for future reading and picking another one of those he needed for today.

"Ok first I'll show you a bit on how to salvage the mess you made and then I will show you how it should be done correctly from the start," she started.

"Thanks a lot for taking the time to show me again and sorry for disrespecting your work. I should have studied seriously, even if I didn't choose the class," he apologized.

Taylor was finally recognizing the student her colleagues had described. He was smart and once something captured his interest he gave all he had. For the whole hour she showed him how to use a belt grinder, an angle grinder, a circular saw, hammer, screwdriver, welder, and press to bend the metal. He even asked a lot of questions about advanced metal work and how a forge worked.

"You know, I worked for a blacksmith for a time before going into mechanics and then teaching. You like fantasy and all that stuff right? I think I could do something here to show you the basics of blacksmithing, would it interest you?" she proposed, hoping that using his other domains of interest would help retain his attention. She also missed the simple work of the hammer and anvil, it would make an original project.

"Really? That's something I always dreamed of trying. It sure would be better than building a mailbox. It would be awesome! When can we begin?" asked John who thought things couldn't be better. Even before getting his powers he would have liked to try using a forge. The red glow of the hot metal and shaping an item from a lump of molten ore with just a hammer had always fascinated him.

"We can start on our next class Friday. Do you know what you'd like to do?" she asked him. There was a small machine that could be used to heat metal, presses, and an hydraulic hammer in the workshop. She would just have to bring an Anvil from home and a few special hammers.

"Well I'd really like to do something nice. And the most traditional things to do with a forge is a blade. I wouldn't want to do something big like a sword of course. Do you think the school would allow me to do a knife if you keep it until it is finished and I don't bring it to school afterwards?" he asked.

"You really want to learn this? You'll have to take the class for your three years, but you could get a certification at the end. Is that ok?" she proposed.

"Sure, if it is possible. I don't know if I would make it my job, but even as a hobby it looks fascinating. I'll do it." he promised.

"Well, I'll take you as an apprentice. The board will allow you to make things if I vouch for it. You have a clean record, never arrested, no discipline issues, there shouldn't be a problem," she reassured him. "You'll need these, they're for you."

John took the books she gave him, this time real books. There were pop ups but the class was nearly finished and he wanted to look at those calmly tonight with the other leaflets. One pop up, though, was not from the books.

New profession: Apprentice Smith.
Learn the arts of the forge from your Master Smith, until you become journeyman.
Current Master: Taylor Brooks
Your rank: 1/12

He could see under the name of his teacher that she was now recognized as a Master Smith and after seeing a pane of glass he saw that he was now designated as an Apprentice Smith rather than Student in addition to his Gamer title.

This was a very unexpectedly constructive class he just had and the rest of the afternoon was pretty good too.