The past few days had been… stressful, to say. It wasn't that there was a lot to do or anything like that, though I was keeping busy with some work. No, it was just the… familiarity of it. Waking up at dawn, working till noon, going out into the forge, and smithing some weapons that I'll never use and giving them to Avery, and then ending it with a night at the tavern. It was the kind of repetitive schedule that I used to have back at the village and combining that with the sudden awareness that I was walking around with the same face and genes as the bastard who led the charge against my home, well it didn't help take my mind off things.

Still, I was doing my best to power through. The monotonous activities were a godsend in that regard, as they let me get absorbed into the work and took my mind off of the whole thing. Still, those moments were brief.

The tavern was a good distraction, as I got to talk to Brynjar and the gang. Hell, I was even making headway into convincing Citrine to teach me some enchanting. And I had managed to get Evanora to warm up to me a bit, as we'd have an evening chat over some mead every day. It was nice.

And all that brought me to where I am right now, lying in bed unable to fall asleep no matter how much I try. It was annoying, but it was something I'd have to deal with. Maybe I'll go see if the forge is still open. Spend some time forging some swords and working up a sweat before bed. Yeah, sounds like a plan.

I rolled out of bed, equipping my jacket and boots as I left my room and pointedly ignored the moans and creaking beds coming from the other rooms. I had gotten really good and setting them aside as background noise after all these days.

The tavern was still fairly lively, though it was starting to die down as people got tired and left. I waved to a few people and left the tavern, the warm night air hitting my face as I sighed. The streets were empty as I walked through the town, the moonlight setting the scene for a perfect moonlit walk. My slight tiredness was still affecting me I guess, as my dramatic and poetic thoughts began to permeate my once calm mind. Permeate. Wonder how much that's worth in Scrabble?

As I approached the smithy, I saw the sign on the door had been changed to closed, and just as I was about to walk back to the tavern, a faint voice caught my attention. I couldn't make out any words, but I could hear a slight frustration in it. Normally that wouldn't be my problem, but it was strikingly familiar. Fuck it, curious it may have killed the cat, but unlike that cat, I had a sword.

I opened the door, taking note of its unlocked state. I couldn't hear the voice as clearly now, so that meant that they were out with the actual forge. Honestly, if what I was doing right now didn't count as illegal, then this society has failed. I made my way through the back room and toward the forge, the muffled exclamations of frustration were getting louder and louder as I walked forward, up until I opened the door and saw who it was inside.

"Well, well, well. What brings you to this part of town?"

Emery yelped as my sudden arrival startled her, and she dropped the piece of iron she had been working with on the floor. "D-Darius! What are you doing here?!"

She was flustered, and she adjusted her blacksmith's apron as she stared at me. Eventually, her brain must've realized what was going on, as her embarrassment soon faded into annoyance. "You shouldn't even be here! It's closed! You are trespassing on Avery's property!"

A fair point, but I'm sure with the power of bullshit, I can come up with some reason as for why I was here. I leaned against the doorframe and smirked at her slightly. "Well, I could hear your frustration, and I thought someone was robbing Avery. So… are you robbing her right now?"

Eh, I could've done better. Still, it seems to have done its job, as Emery quickly put her suspicion behind her and began to defend herself. "Of course not! I apprentice here every night. That's why we never see each other until the evening."

Huh. That might be true, but then again, I never really noticed. I wonder what that says about me? whatever, now I had something to do until I fell asleep. I walked over to her and picked up the piece of iron she had been working on. It might've been a sword, but it was bent and deformed. The metal itself was brittle, to the point where I was certain I could snap it without even using Reinforcement.

My disappointment with the metal must've been obvious, as Emery looked away from me and played with the end of her apron. Damn it, now she was all sad and stuff. Can't have that, now can we? I poked her head, drawing her attention as I began to question her. "Well, you clearly haven't been doing this very long, and you shouldn't even be alone in the forge if you're a novice. So why exactly are you apprenticing here? how did you even get this apprenticeship in the first place?"

Honestly, my bet was on nepotism or some other kind of family relation. However, that didn't explain why she was working as a barmaid if her family was influential enough to get her this apprenticeship. I mean, if I had a daughter, I wouldn't want her dressing up like some floozy and sleeping with some sad sack of meat with nothing good in his life.

Wait a minute.

I was brought out of my musings as Emery began to stammer out an explanation. "W-Well, my mom was pretty good with armor smithing and stuff. She was a tailor first, but she liked making armored clothing and stuff. Said that you could be protected and stylish at the same time, ya know?"

Holy shit. This girl really needs some friends or something, because she's basically just spilling out her entire backstory right now to some guy that slept with her a few days ago. Sure, we talk every now and then, but she's always working so it's not for a long time anyway. looks like it falls to me then. "Yeah, I get that. You know, I'm a pretty good smith myself. I don't mind lending you a hand if you want."

She beamed up at me, and I'll be damned if it wasn't the cutest thing I had ever seen. "Really!? I mean, I wouldn't want to keep you up too late, but if you're offering, I'd love the help!"

She's a precious girl, this one. I let her lead me over to the workbench, where there was an abundance of cloth and little sketches everywhere. Unlike her work with the iron, these designs were far more expertly done. I picked one of the sketches up, a sense of familiarity hitting me as I looked at it. It kind of looked like an edited version of my jacket. I put the sketch back down and focused on Emery, who had started rambling. "I'm good at the tailor thing, my mom taught me how to do it when I was young. Unfortunately, she died before she could teach me any armor smithing, so I've been doing my best to learn from Avery when she's awake, and I practice when she's asleep."

Dead, huh? I guess Avery must've been a family friend or something, since there's no way she would have taken in Emery without that connection. As she rambled, she began to grab some more iron ingots and heat them up, doing her best to ignore the heat coming from the forge. She was doing fine until she began to pull the iron out a bit too early. I grabbed her arm and stopped her, forcing her to put the iron back in. "Don't pull out too early, else the iron won't be hot enough and all your effort will be wasted."

Her face went a bit red, and she looked the other way. "Sorry. Its just, the forge gets really hot sometimes. Besides, what would happen if you never pulled out, hm?"

Huh. That last bit was kind of accusatory. I mean, the question itself was kind of an obvious one, so I have no idea why she needed me to answer it for her. "Well, it'd obviously melt and get all up in the- oh. I see what you did there. Well first off Emery, the odds of you getting pregnant are low as is, so I wouldn't worry about it."

I could tell that she wanted to elbow me, but my grip on her arm stopped her from doing so. Instead, she settled for pouting angrily at me and puffing her cheeks. Ha! She definitely didn't expect me to answer her like that. Ah, that's a point for me on the board.

Finally, I let go of her arm and let her pull the iron out of the forge, the metal a bright orange color. I stood back and let her do her thing, watching as she placed the metal on an anvil and began to hammer away at it with… less than satisfactory results. She had the accuracy part down, but she didn't have the endurance necessary to properly strike the metal, as she began to pant fairly quickly.

She had probably been busy all day, working at the tavern before coming here to work the forge for hours at a time. So, as she hammered into the metal, her strikes became weaker. While strength isn't really a necessity for smithing, you still needed to hit the metal hard enough to shape it. "Why don't you take a break Emery. You look half asleep."

She paused, turning her head to me. She looked ready to protest, but her eyes were starting to droop a little. Walking forward, I gently took the hammer from her hands and led her to the chair over to the workbench. From there, I continued her work on the blade, hammering into it with accuracy and power.

By the time I had gotten ready to quench it, I could hear her snores coming from the corner. They weren't very loud but considering the only other sound here had been the slam of my hammer into the iron, they were fairly noticeable.

I placed the half-finished blade on the workbench, careful not to disturb Emery or knock anything down. I went to the storefront and rummaged the front counter for a key, finding it in one of the drawers and using it to lock up for the night. Stifling a yawn, I put the key back and made my way to the forge. Emery was leaning against the back of the chair, her head hanging off the back of it as she slept.

Taking off my jacket and folding it up, I placed it on the floor. Then I gently lifted Emery out of the chair, before placing her on the ground and letting her head rest on the jacket. I summoned my barely used cloak from my inventory and placed it over her, watching as she wrapped herself up like a burrito with it. Unfortunately, her jostling around had moved her head on the edge of my jacket, and it was only a timely save by me that stopped her face from hitting the ground.

I moved the chair to face her, sliding down it until my head rested on the edge of the chair. Finally, I let my tiredness win as I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

…

The tavern was busy as usual, people drinking and celebrating… whatever it is they celebrated. Honestly, why are there so many people drinking? It's like three in the afternoon for fucks sake!

I fidgeted in my seat as I scanned the crowd for Citrine. Emery had still been asleep when I had woken up, and since I needed to go and use my highly sought after and incredibly overpowered skills to make more low-rate bullshit, I decided to let her keep it for now. So, I was stuck in my white cotton shirt until she gave it back. And as for the reason I was looking for Citrine, well today was the day that I was going to push my luck and turn up the charm in order to convince her to teach me all she knew about enchanting.

Let's see. Random nobody, random nobody, either a really hot chick or a trap with balloons in his shirt, another random nobody, and bingo. Target acquired.

Citrine was with Brynjar, though Evanora seemed to be mysteriously absent. Citrine whispered something in Brynjar's ear and gave him a kiss, sending him on his way as he went to the table with the most people and began to socialize. Right, this was the moment I had been waiting for, don't fuck up.

She had chosen a booth a bit in the back, strangely tucked away in the corner. Then, she looked me in the eye and waved cheekily. Damn, her ability to figure out totally obvious and not well thought out plans is astounding.

I sat down across from her, leaning on my arms, and interlocking my fingers together in my best impression of a businessman. I looked her in the eyes and made my pitch. "May you- "

"Yes, I'll teach you how to use enchanting."

Oh. Well, way to take the wind out of my sails there Citrine. Seriously, I had a whole speech and everything prepared, and she just throws all that work out the window. Sure, I got what I wanted, but it felt kind of anticlimactic. Putting my thoughts and complaints to the side, I leaned back in my seat, giving Citrine a small smile. "Right. So, where do we start? Since you knew what I was coming here for, I figure you have something prepared."

Presumptuous? Maybe, but as she pulled out a giant textbook half as thick as my dick from the satchel at her side, I felt justified in thinking so. She pushed the book to me, rotating it as she did so. Huh, I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that this book is called "Enchanting for Dumbshits". Like, how did that joke even get to this place?

"You will be using this to study from when I'm not able to be here to teach you personally. Um, you can read, right?"

What kind of question is that? Of course I can read, what am I? A medieval peasant? Wait a minute, never mind. I'm just dumb. This is the medieval ages basically, so of course reading and writing are going to be rare skills. Damn me and my modern ideals. "Yeah, I can read. So, not to get too sidetracked, but how is that mission of yours going?"

What? It's common courtesy.

She sighed slightly at my question, rubbing her forehead with her hand. "We've been scouting the area for the past few days. Going to the other towns nearby in order to get some more insight into what's going on. We're planning to start exploring it soon, so Evanora has been searching for ingredients for her potions. You probably won't see too much of her."

Clearing her throat, she clapped her hands together. The exhaustion and worry that dominated her features previously seemed to fade slightly, as she began to tell me the lore of enchanting. "First, you need to understand the background of why we enchant. You see, back during the time of the Old Builders, magic was present in everyone and everything, and we could wield it without the need for lapis to fuel it. Hell, some individuals could cast what we now refer to as "spells" without having to enchant it onto something."

Well, thanks for the lore Vaati. Still, this did confirm what I had assumed earlier. Magic was mostly a relic of the past, and only those who literally inject magic rocks into themselves could wield it, and considering what I've seen, it's probably no where near the same level.

"However, some kind of infighting broke out, and some of the Old Builders began taking sides. We don't know what the fight was about, but we do know that the resulting war left the world in ruins. Thankfully, the survivors managed to slowly repopulate our world, but for some reason, the ability to use magic had been lost to us. No one knows why, but some say it was the wrath of the Gods who saw the destruction that they had brought and cursed us to never wield magic again."

To be honest, I didn't really see the need for all this exposition. However, seeing the excited look on Citrine's face as she regaled me with the tale made me keep my mouth shut. She must've really liked this story.

"For a while, magic seemed to be lost to us forever. But then, a little over two hundred years ago, a great evil began to plague our lands, raping and destroying our lands, and our people. All seemed lost, when suddenly, a great king stepped up and gave us the power to imbue our weapons and armor with magic, thus beginning the Era of Enchantment. This brings us to the modern day, where enchanting is always growing and becoming better, and our technology has been growing with it, as we find new ways to advance as a people."

Huh. That whole story tickled the back of my brain, but for the life of me I don't remember what it was that was triggering this feeling. Maybe it was a World of Warcraft expansion? I mean, WoW is certainly evil enough for it. "That's an… interesting story Citrine. Anyway, what about modern day enchanting and all that?"

She wagged her finger at me disapprovingly, clearly not appreciating my impatience. "I was getting to that young man. Now, as I was saying, modern day enchanting can be divided into three tiers. First, you have Tier One enchantments that can be sustained with the magic in the air around us. These enchants usually aren't very complicated, and focus on improving the attributes of something, or are so weak that they just don't take much power. Things like protection, color change, and sharpness fall into this category."

I was familiar with protection and sharpness since those were just basic ass Minecraft enchantments. But color change was a new one. What, did these assholes just decide that actually dying things was just too much work for them, so they instead spent possibly their whole lives researching an enchantment to bypass that? Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

"Next you have Tier Two enchantments, which are more draining than Tier One. However, they still don't need to be recharged that often. In fact, a well-made Tier Two enchantment could last for months without being recharged. Honestly, this tier is the hardest to pin down, as it has the broadest requirements. So, you have spells like mending, which can last for months without needing to recharge, being in the same tier as spells like infinity or spectral arrow, which needs to be recharged every few weeks."

Right, so basically this entire system is so open and improperly defined that fucking J.K. Rowling would be disappointed. Still, at least it was simple. The more expensive an enchantment is, the bigger the rank. Which means that Tier Three must be fucking insane.

"And finally, we have Tier Three. These spells are the most expensive to use but are also the most powerful. These enchantments can bend the elements to your will, and even summon spectral creatures to aid you in battle. However, these enchantments are incredibly expensive, ranging from a few hours before needing to be recharged, to having to recharge them after every use."

Hmm, so these Tier Three enchants are what resemble conventional magic the most. The main drawback of having to recharge them so often is almost enough for me to disregard it for now though. Sure, I have a supply of magic that can regenerate, but at the same time, I'm not exactly confident that I could waste so much magic on such enchantments. I mean, sure they're strong, but I don't want to have a weapon I can only use like twice, and then have to disregard anything else that might use magic in the middle of a fight. That could be suicidal.

Still, I did have other questions. I leaned forward a bit and tilted my head to the side. "What about those people who inject lapis into them? They have magic, so why doesn't everyone else do it?"

Sure, there was lapis poisoning, but surely someone could've come up with a cure by now, right?

"Ah, them. We call them the Lapis Cursed, and for good reason. Our bodies just aren't able to handle magic that well anymore, so suddenly having it in our system doesn't end well for us. Over time, those affected by the lapis will begin to degrade physically and mentally, eventually becoming beasts. Even if you somehow manage to keep your mind, your lifespan would be cut down severely, lowering it by up to forty years. There also the case of addiction, as they can't regenerate their magic without putting more lapis in their system."

Holy fuck. I mean, I knew it was bad, fuck, I've seen some of them firsthand, but I didn't know it was that bad. Hell, this is the medieval era basically, and those fuckers would be lucky to even hit forty. Then again, with enchantments and alchemy in the mix here, the people in this world probably have longer lifespans than typical medieval people. So maybe it's closer to sixty or seventy here. Still, that's a lot of time to lose. You'd be hitting middle aged at like fifteen!

Shaking off the shock from that realization, I focused on my next question. "Isn't buying all that lapis expensive? And what would happen if we ran out of it?"

Technically it's two questions, but who was going to get on my case for it?

"Right. Well, you'd be right on the expensive part, mostly. See, lapis can be charged fairly easily. All you need is a Redstone Monolith and you're fine. However, that doesn't change the fact that having enough lapis to properly use Tier Three enchantments in a fight can be challenging. Only the rich or the nobility are able to buy the amount they'd need. The rest of us have to supplement it with actual fighting prowess. That's why I use a bo staff with my enchantments, so that I could defend myself while I recharged my enchants or, failing that, can hold my own without my enchantments."

Ah, the nobility. May you always be the rich bastards who hoard all the cool stuff. Still, the fact that a noble class exists means that I'lol probably have to deal with politics in the future, since there is no way I'm not going to become the coolest and most famous bastard out there. What? If you've got it, flaunt it.

Right, time for my most important question. "So how do we actually enchant something? Do you just point at something and say bibbidi bobbidi boo, or is there a special ritual?"

It might've been a bad idea to use a Cinderella reference on someone who's never seen the movie or even heard of the story. In my defense however, I found it hilarious. Citrine on the other hand just blinked confusedly at me before just nodding to herself and continuing. "Well, normally we'd use an enchanting table. I mean, technically it's possible to enchant without one, but that's something that even I can't figure out. It's a good thing I always bring a backup, or you'd be out of luck."

She reached into her satchel and pulled out an entire fucking enchanting table out of it. Though, to be fair, it was a lot smaller than in game. It looked like someone had cut off the top of an enchanting table and just used that, meaning it could comfortably fit on the table between us.

Citrine clapped her hands together excitedly and began to explain the process. "You want to use the boom to help guide your enchantments to your gear. At first, it'll be hard to pick one in specific, so you'll get a lot of random enchantments. However, the more you practice, the better you'll get at it, until you're able to hand pick which enchant you want without even batting an eye. Normally I'd ask you to give it a try, but considering we're in a busy tavern, you might want to hold off for now. It can be kind of flashy."

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. Joking aside, Citrine had a good point. Besides, considering the fact that I was going to cheat my way to victory, I should probably keep my studying on the downlow. I mean, as soon as she said that it's possible to enchant without a table, my plans for the afternoon were pretty much sealed.

I thanked her, grabbing the table, and putting it on the seat to my right. Citrine looked ready to go off on another tangent, and I decided to sit back and relax as she began to explain to me the differences between protection and durability.

It was a surprisingly fun conversation.

…

Merritt was a smart girl. At least, that was what her papa said. She wasn't too sure, but if her papa said so then it must be true. That was why she decided to use her smartness to find someone to help her find her papa. It's been three days, and he hasn't come back yet.

"Just a little further Merritt. We'll find your papa real soon."

Using her smartness, Merritt had been able to find a detective guy to help find her papa. He was a bit scary looking, but he said that he was friends with papa, and papa wouldn't have mean friends.

The dark forest scared her, the shadows stopping her from seeing in front of her. It was so dark that she didn't know where home was anymore, but the Detective Guy said he'd remember the way, so she was safe. "Hey um, Mr. Detective Guy? Are we close to papa yet? It's scary here."

Merritt was a brave girl too. One time, she was able to climb a tree all by herself, even though she was super afraid of heights. Papa had been scared, but that was okay. She was brave enough for the both of them.

A warg howled in the distance, and Merritt jumped in fright. It wasn't that she was afraid! She just didn't expect it, that's all!

"Hey Merritt, if you're afraid, you can hold onto me if you want. I'll make sure to hold onto you real tight."

The Detective Guy was really nice, even if he looked a bit scary. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight, and she could feel the Detective Guy wrap an arm around her. Then his hand began to travel lower. "U-Um, Mr. Detective Guy? Papa said that people shouldn't touch there."

She tried to pull away, but the Detective Guy was really strong. His other hand began to reach towards his belt, and-

"Well, what do we have here?"

The Scary Detective Guy let her go, and she fell to the ground. He started to look around crazily, and he looked really scared too. "W-Who said that?! Show yourself!"

"Oh? Well, if you insist."

Something shot out from the darkness, grabbing the Scary Detective Guy and dragging him into the forest. He screamed and tried to hold onto the ground, but it didn't work. Merritt got up and ran away, tears starting to leak from here eyes. "I-I'm a brave girl! I'm a brave girl!"

She cried as she spoke, her little legs feeling tired and her breath feeling short. Merritt wasn't a very good runner. Papa always said to never run away from your problems, so she never ran away before. But as she tripped and hit the dirt, she felt regret. Maybe this was why papa said to never run away? Maybe running away means you'd fall down and that the big scary monster would get you?

Papa would be proud of her for learning that. Papa wouldn't be so proud of her crying though.

"Oh dear, what brings you out here all alone?"

It was a nice voice, and it made her feel safe. Merritt rubbed her eyes and looked towards it, finding a really pretty woman. She focused on the woman's eyes, a really cool blue color, but it was really dark. Like, really, really, dark. "W-Who are you?"

She tried to be a brave girl, she really did. But the scariness of the Scary Detective Guy and the big monster made her feel scared. A brave girl didn't get scared. A brave girl would laugh in the face of scariness and punch it away.

Maybe Merritt wasn't a brave girl after all.

The woman kneeled next to her and pulled Merritt in for a hug, stroking her hair as she cried. "Shh, don't worry Merritt. You're a super brave girl, like, the bravest girl ever! It's okay to cry sweetie, just don't give up hope, okay?"

Merritt didn't say anything, instead she wrapped her arms around the woman and began to cry even harder. "I-I wanna f-find my papa! B-But I can't! He's g-gone, a-and I can't find him!"

The Nice Lady whispered in her ear, telling her it was alright. "It's okay sweetie. I'll take care of you until we find your papa. You can call me Mama Daria, okay? Does that sound good?"

Mama Daria? Well, that was okay. She was really nice, and she was going to help find papa too! Merritt nodded into Mama Daria's shoulder, doing her best not to get her tears on the woman's dress. Mama Daria stood up, holding Merritt's hand in her own as they walked. "Come now child. I'm staying at the wonderful little mansion overlooking the kingdom. You can stay there until we find your papa."

Merritt wiped the tears from her eyes and gave Mama Daria a big smile. Papa always said that little girls should be nice to people who help them.

And Merritt was the nicest girl ever.

…

Ah, what a way to end a chapter. Darius is going to pick up some enchanting and a cute barmaid girl (again) and we know what's going down with the mansion. Five points to whoever can guess the inspiration for this arc. No, those points don't mean anything, shut up.

Our review of the week goes to Remzal Von Enili, who gave the following:

"You could say that ass… was magical."

If that's a joke, I have no idea what the punchline is, but I find it funny all the same.

This has be A Decent Hoonter, and yes, my therapist is expensive.