Chapter 23 Leatherwork
Eisen grabbed the finished dress while the light shining through the few windows that are in the workshop illuminate it completely. The dark green reminded him of a forest, completely overgrown with beautiful pink flowers.
He held it over to Bree, and only then noticed her face. Her usually so bright and cheerful demeanor was gone and had been replaced by one that was nearly completely blank as she stared at the dress, tears slowly gathering in the corners of her eyes.
Eisen placed his hand on top of her hand and scruffed her hair up a little bit, causing her to snap out of it and wipe away her tears. Bree looked up at Eisen with a soft smile. "Thank you." She muttered out quietly and leaned in to give him a hug by trying to sling her arms around him, which failed miserably because of Eisen's build.
His lips immediately turned upward as he hugged her back before handing the dress to her. "Go on get changed, I'll clean up here and be right there."
Bree nodded and happily clutched the dress, taking it with her to the front of the store.
Immediately, Eisen began to clean up the table, disassembling his exacto knife and placing the blade with his needles into their respective boxes, then stashing them away in his bag, that is ever so slowly filling up, and put his Suit Jacket back on. Lastly, he grabbed the crate that Morrom gave to him and placed the leftover Magic fabrics, even the scraps since Eisen might be able to make some interesting smaller items with them, as well as the rolls of Magic Thread into it. Luckily he decided to bring his Zweihänder to Denmir for safekeeping when he had some spare time, otherwise, he really would not have been able to carry all his belongings at once.
He really needed to figure out a way to stash away all these items somewhere safe, especially once he would start traveling around. Maybe something like a carriage would be a good idea, although he would need to either figure out where he could buy one, or where he could build one. Maybe this town also had a Woodworker somewhere?
Eisen figured that there should be one around, and since he already had the Woodworking skill, it would be much easier to create a good carriage if he needed to. And then he would need to find something like a horse to pull the carriage as well. While walking around town the past few days, he's seen a number of different carriages, some drawn by horses, others by giant birds, and others by some kind of reptilian creatures.
It seemed like all of them had certain advantages and disadvantages, and Eisen would need to figure out which ones they were. He might also consider sending Jyuuk an E-Mail, as they briefly exchanged them in case they needed to talk to each other, and ask him about them. After all, he helped to carefully design and create every lifeform in World of Magic.
But before then, Eisen would get to learn Leatherworking, Alchemy, and Enchanting.
Since now he had his plans figured out a bit more, Eisen stepped to the front of the store and looked at Bree who was holding her work clothes, which she had worn every single day until now. She was now wearing the Dress Eisen made for her, which ended up fitting her truly perfectly.
While Bree was taking her time looking at her in a Mirror next to the Changing Room, Folmirra was kneeling next to her, closely inspecting every inch of the Magic Dress.
"Absolutely splendid!" She yelled out and looked over at Eisen with a huge grin on her face.
Eisen laughed and placed down the Crate on the counter for the duration that they would be talking, and nodded his head, "Yeah, I know. I'm guessing you can see the Item Description? The Absorption ability definitely seems quite handy!"
"Oh, definitely! I've only seen one or two Items with the Absorption ability before, and while they may not have been the most amazing item at the start, after a while they became quite strong. And the quality of the dress is already absolutely amazing, so I can't wait to see what this will turn into at some point!" Folmirra explained excitedly while Eisen was listening closely.
He really hoped that it would become stronger since he himself was also interested in an item that would continue growing after already being finished. Eisen also was a Craftsman, after all.
After exchanging his enthusiasm with Folmirra for a little bit longer, Eisen looked at Bree, and with a smile asked, "So, do you like it?"
Instantly, Bree snapped her head toward his and nodded furiously. "Yes! I love it! Thank you, thank you, thank yooouu~!" She yelled out and jumped at Eisen, dropping her work clothes in the progress, once more attempting to hug him.
Eisen placed his arms around her and pulled her closer, rubbing her back softly. "Of course! You deserve it, Bree."
Snuffling, Bree burrowed her face in Eisen's shirt and shook her head.
"Of course you do!" Eisen continued rubbing her back to comfort her, and Bree pulled her face away.
"Thank you, Eisen. Nobody… Nobody was ever this nice to me." She smiled, showing her pearly white teeth and stopped hugging Eisen.
"So, are you alright with us going straight to the next place to work? It's going to be leatherworking this time around. I won't be doing that much there, only the rest of the outfits and maybe some accessories or something." Eisen explained, and Bree nodded immediately.
"Alright~!" She exclaimed happily and quickly picked up her work clothes again, clutching them tightly, just before Eisen and Bree left the Shop together.
—
Only a few minutes after leaving Beautiful Clothes, the pair reached the next shop Eisen would work at, funnily enough, called Jekyll's Hides. Smiling at this superstitious sign, since the book Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde actually was one of Eisen's favorite books, Eisen stepped through the door thinking that this will be quite a nice place to work at.
"Hello there! My name is Eisen, and I would like to learn Leatherworking here." Eisen explained with a smile to the young man sitting at the counter.
The man in response simply clicked his tongue, stood up and walked to the workshop in the back, leaving both Eisen and Bree stunned.
Bree immediately began to frown and stomped her foot on the ground. "How rude!"
"Now, now, Bree. Maybe he's just not a people person. Although he's sitting in the front of a store and is the first person a customer sees…" Eisen muttered out to himself, quieting down at the end.
After a few minutes, the door swings open and a short man, similar in height and build as Morrom, walked out of the back. He had a few animalistic features, including a furry tail, as well as long hair covered ears like that of a dog, and light brown hair and eyes. He grimaced annoyedly as he crossed his arms, showing two long canine teeth.
"What're ya here for? I'm workin'." He asked with a sharp gaze, looking at the fabrics in the crate that Eisen was holding before sighing loudly. "Wrong shop, old man. The Tailor is a few minutes further up the slope. Cya."
Before the man, Jekyll as Eisen guessed, managed to turn around, Eisen interrupted him and began to talk. "Sorry, my name is Eisen! I actually just was at the Tailor shop. I'm kind of hopping around shops to learn different crafting skills. I was hoping you could teach me Leatherworking."
Jekyll looked Eisen up and down and narrowed his eyes, "So ya are Eisen, huh? Those other guys mentioned you… Although you're much much older than I thought… Ya really think your old body can take it?" Jekyll asked, obviously trying to rile Eisen up to prove some kind of the point, but Eisen simply kept smiling and scratched his beard after placing the crate on the ground.
"Oh? Young man, I can assure you that I know what I'm doing." Eisen laughed out, crossing his arms with a smirk.
"Do ya? Well, then let's see what ya can do. Ever made a bracer before? Eh, doesn't matter, you'll learn it if you're good enough."
[New Quest – Leatherwork Tutorial]
[Description]After requesting Jekyll Jackson to teach you Leatherworking, he told you to create a Leather Bracer.
[Reward] Leatherworking Skill; Experience; Increased Reputation with Jekyll]
[Failure] Jekyll will refuse to teach you
[Time Limit – None]
Jekyll waved his hand at Eisen, and both he and Bree followed him to the workshop. He brought Eisen over to an empty table, and threw some simple thin, hardened leather on it together with leather strings, as well as a design and finished templates.
"Folmirra told me ya've got yer own knife, so go ahead and start workin'." Jekyll grinned and sat down on the other side of the table, prepared to watch Eisen work.
Eisen grinned and opened his backpack, grabbing the small box filled with blades and their handle. Quickly, he assembled the exacto knife and activated Tool Connection and A Dwarf's Hands. Sure, maybe a bit overkill for a simple Bracer.
He placed the long trapeze shaped template with rounded ends onto the leather and carefully cut into it. Shortly afterward, the simple shape was cut out and Eisen added a few small cuts along each long side, and simply traced the leather string through like one would put a shoelace onto a shoe.
After only about five minutes, Eisen finished the Bracer and showed it to Jekyll. "Here you go, young man."
Jekyll narrowed his eyes and closely inspected the Bracer. "Well, it's definitely pretty good, considering how simple it is, but more importantly… ya finished really quickly… And it's a Perfect Quality one as well… Fine… ya really are good."
[Quest Successful – Leatherwork Tutorial]
[Description]After requesting Jekyll Jackson to teach you Leatherworking, he told you to create a Leather Bracer.
[Reward] Leatherworking Skill; Experience; Increased Reputation with Jekyll
[Failure] Jekyll will refuse to teach you
[Time Limit – None]
[Bonus]Significant rise in Reputation with Jekyll Jackson; Unlimited access to Jekyll's Hides' Workshop; Bonus Experience;
[You have earned 500 Experience]
[Leatherworking Skill Learned]
[You are now Level 8]
Satisfied, Eisen nodded and instantly put two of his newly earned stat points into INT and WIS each, and the last into STR.
"Ye can keep the Bracer, there's not much I can do with a Rank 0 item anyway. Ya better try and level your skill for now, so that you can work with actual materials. Ah, that reminds me, I'll explain the basics what the Leatherworking skill allows ya to do." Jekyll leaned back in his chair, his tail slightly wagging left and right, while his arms were crossed and he continued to explain.
"First off, Monsters have ranks too. Zero to ten, like anythin' else. Rank 0 monsters are simple animals, like birds, cows, horses, etc, but from Rank 1 on they are monsters. Most rank 1 monsters are simply rank 0 ones that have been affected by ambient mana too much though. Basically, if ya tried hard enough, you could try using a Dragon's leather already, but you won't be able to make a great item out of it. Ya can only pull the most out of an item if your skill rank is the same or higher than the monster's rank we got the leather from. Got it?"
Eisen scratched his beard and closed his eyes, nodding in response to Jekyll's explanation. "Got it! So, if you're alright with it, I'd start working on a few more items. Need my help with anything? Since you can't really re-use leather, I don't want to waste anything just to level my skill a bit."
Jekyll thought for a bit and then nodded. "Yeah, there actually is somethin'. It won't give ya much proficiency, but should be enough to push you to Rank 1." He explained and stood up, waving at Eisen to follow him to another room, further in the back.
With a smile, he stood up and followed behind.
———-
[Eisen]
[Race – Giant-Dwarf Halfling][Occupation – None][Level – 8]
[HP – 360][MP – 280][STR – 23][END – 28][AGI – 36][INT – 20][WIS – 20][CHA – 10]
[Titles]
-[Original of the Mechanical Arts]
-[Limitbreaker II]
[Skills]
-[A Dwarf's Hands][Rank – 1][Level – 31]
-[A Giant's Strength][Rank – 0][Level – 1]
-[Appraisal][Rank – 1][Level – 2 ]
-[Blacksmithing][Rank – 1][Level – 58]
-[Drawing][Rank – 0][Level – 87]
-[Leatherworking][Rank – 0][Level – 1]
-[Mana Copy][Rank – 0][Level – 23]
-[Mana Hands][Rank – 1][Level – 48]
-[Mana Manipulation][Rank – 1][Level – 23]
-[Tailoring][Rank – 2][Level – 6]
-[Tool Connection][Rank – 1][Level – 2]
-[Woodworking][Rank – 0][Level – 49]