The next morning both men are determined to help me find someone to craft me a new staff. We ask around, and one of the NPCs at the forges tells us that I need to find a player with the ability to do woodworking, or a merchant willing to sell one to someone of my level. We thank the smith and decide to head to another town to see if we can find more players who would be willing to give us their help.

The ride costs us 30 silver coins each, but that is not a major price to pay for a horse. It can become quite expensive to travel a long distance via horseback which is why most players purchase mounts of their own that will appear when called upon. The only issue is that skill to have a horse is gone till we reach Rohan. I will have to see about purchasing permanent rides for us so we do not have to return the horses after each ride once we make it that far. Another option would be to locate a hunter class player who has earned the teleports to the areas we wish, but they charge extravagant prices for their services based on the cooldown of their port to where you want to go. It is much faster, but not worth it for the short distances we tend to travel.

The horses take us to another town of about the same size that doesn't have any current players in it. We continue on, heading south which seems to be in the direction of Rohan lands. At the fourth town, we locate a group of players sitting near a fountain next to the stables. They look weary from fighting but are quick to offer us a place among their ranks.

"We can always use more help." A dwarf minstrel says.

"Thanks, but we are actually looking for someone who could make me a new staff. I'm a Lore Master and my staff broke in combat." I reply.

"You need a woodworker craftsman." Says a female hobbit burglar.

"Do you know of one?" Baronlief asks politely.

"Yeah, Juardin is one." She says as she indicates a dwarf standing off to the side with a few elven hunters.

We approach the dwarf and I almost laugh aloud at the sight of him. His armor is of a vibrant lime green and he sports what looks like a jester's hat instead of a helm. I hope some of it is cosmetic wear as that would make for useless armor in a fight. That and he would stick out like a sore thumb on a battlefield.

"Are you Juardin?" Erothar asks the dwarf.

"Depends on who's asking." The dwarf replies in a deep gravelly voice. "And on what ya want."

I step forwards and offer my hand to him.

"I am Taurieth." I say courteously, "And I am in need of someone to make me a new staff."

"And who told you I could make ya one?" he says and spits on the ground next to my feet.

"The burglar hobbit over by the fountain." I say, pointing to the player who had directed us to Juardin.

"Ah, Rosalita. She's a good fighter, killer with a dagger."

"So can you make me a staff?"

"That depends."

"On?" Erothar asks, starting to get impatient with the dwarf.

"On if I can get the correct materials together to craft it." Juardin gruffly replies.

"What will you need?" I ask quickly.

"That depends on what level you want the staff to be. For your level now I would need thin ash boards, a sapphire shard, and some hardy twine. The twine I have, but the other two would have to be gathered from other areas. You would also out level that staff quickly." He replies.

"So what would you need no make a staff that she could use for a long while yet?" Baronlief asks.

"For that kind of staff I need strong ilex boards, and emerald shard, and a journal of expert woodworking." Juardin retorts back.

"Those things are very hard to find." Erothar replies.

"Well I can't fix that. I will say this. I'm going to go to Rivendale to stay until this blasted game is over. I see no reason to traipse around killing things and being possibly sent back to level one if I don't have to. If you do gather the things I need, send them to the guesthouse there and I will make the staff for you. How does that work for you?" Juardin asks me.

"That would be great." I say happily. "Thank you so much for your kind offer to help me. I will do my utmost best to send you the materials you need to craft the staff for me."

Juardin just nods at this and walks away towards the stables. I look at Erothar and Baronlief, so glad for their help.

"Well." I say satisfied, "We now have a few items to find."

"That we do." Erothar replies, contemplating out current situation.

"Where should we start?" Baronlief asks. "Most of those things we need are way above our levels."

"How about an auction hall." I reply confidently. "Someone is bound to have placed the stuff we need there for sale. All we have to do is go buy it."

"Yes, but are you sure we will have enough money?" Baronlief replies.

"I have a good amount, besides, how much could someone possibly want for those kinds of things." I call out over my shoulder as I walk to the stables.

I inquire about where the closest auction hall is and am astounded by the stableman's response that it was several days hard riding away at Caras Galadhon in Lothlorien,, it would take a long time to get there even with horses.

"Well, do we want to try it, or do we want to do some quests and leveling around the area while we try and work our way there?" Erothar asks me.

"I can't level since I have no weapon genius." I snap at him.

"Then we can either ride horses there or we can do some crafting." He replies with a grin.

"I don't have stuff to do the crafting." I say after checking my bags for materials.

"I know you must have some in your personal vault that you can use. The crafting will help you to level up as will it increase your proficiency. We could all do with some leveling in that area I think." Baronlief adds.

"Plus we can help each other with some of the materials." Erothar inputs. "Especially if we run back towards that original town and kill things along the way. Who knows, we may find the stuff we need." Erothar adds.

"Again, I can't fight." I retort.

"We never said you had to." Erothar responds.

"You can be item storage." Baronlief says with a slap on my shoulder. "That way we aren't filled up so quickly with stuff."

I growl under my breath as the frustration mounts but I accept their proposal to fight our way back. It is nearing evening, so we decide to camp outside the city for the night before heading out in the morning.

The next morning we form up a fellowship with Baronlief as the leader. The road leading out of town is the quickest route and we set off at a moderate run. Erothar takes point with Baronlief and I running behind him to his left and right. Whenever something pops up and attacks, I retreat a short distance and let the two men fight against whatever it is that appears. I continually check my pending loot so I will not lose any of the materials dropped. We stop after every dozen or so kills to rest and allow the men to check their loot and take anything of value as well. They give me all of the crafting items they take and I stack them with the loot I already have.

"How are we doing?" Erothar asks after he finishes handing over some tailor materials.

"We have almost a full stack of sturdy hides, several tailor fibers, some scholar dye materials, a few reputation items, and one ruby shard." I reply as I check my bags.

"Pity that we don't need a ruby shard for the staff instead of an emerald shard." Baronlief says.

"Aye." I agree as we press on.

It seems the only creeps in the area are animals, my stacks of hides quickly max out and create second or third stacks. Someone will be glad to have those hides for crafting armor once we are able to reach a city with crafting benches. I wish we were able to find more humanoid creeps to fight as more reputation items would be useful. The trade rate for those can be expensive and they are an easy way to make some quick cash if needed. If I had more space I'd save the task items we earn as those can give up to 300 silver for a stack, but only 50 will make a stack and that takes up twice to ten times the room of other items. I spread out some of the full stacks of materials to the boys inventory so as to keep mine open as much as possible.

We make it back to Anduin and continue through the trees until we arrive in Emyn Lum and visit the vault keeper. After withdrawing all of my crafting supplies, my bags are bursting with items. We congregate in the crafting area and trade out materials based on what each of us can use. Both of them had mined all of the ore deposits we came across on our journey and had amassed a large amount of ore pieces to smelt into ingots. Erothar gets all of the fibers and other tailor items while the jewels go to Baronlief to make into jewelry. I take all of the wood and hides to process into usable boards and leather for use in recipes for armor and weapons the boys can use.

I make several stacks of brushed leather and thin boards before handing the basic materials off to the men to craft with. I clear master level before I run out of materials. Erothar gives Baronlief all of the precious metal ingots he has forged. Baronlief creates jewelry for each of us to boost our morale and power as well as give us boosts to our other abilities. I locate a weaponsmith player who had set up shop in the city and trade out our heavy metal ingots for crafted weapons and a set of heavy armor for Baronlief. They had killed enough animals to find just enough hides to create light armor for me to wear and medium armor for Erothar as well. Everyone exchanges items around so we have the gear created special for each of us.

After we have exhausted our available materials, we place the remains of the crafting materials into our vaults once more. I was able to go up three levels with an XP boost I had received before Starting Day, as everyone was calling the day the game went crazy, making me level 31. Baronlief had received several levels of XP with the slaying, and manages four more levels to reach level 28. Erothar finishes just behind me at level 30 once he completes his rounds of crafting.

"I think we did fairly well with the crafting." Baronlief says as he admires his new swords that I had been able to acquire.

"That we did." Erothar says as he clasps his new bracelets around his wrists before hiding their presence in his character panel.

I change into my new armor for level 30 and change out all of my jewelry for the stuff Baronlief created for me. I hide it all with my cosmetic clothing so I maintain my previous appearance. We locate a provisioner and sell all of our old gear for money.

"Now that we have reached higher levels, we should be able to make it to the auction hall easily enough." I say. "We also have the money to pay for it easily from all of that gear we sold out."

Erothar and Baronlief agree with me and we decide to take horses from the stables to the next town. I stop by the mailbox and request that the postmaster forward any mail addressed to me to the mailbox in Caras Galadhon. I meet up with the two men and we purchase rides to our next destination.

We follow the stable masters' direction as to what town we should go to next on the route to the town with the auction hall. They are easy enough to follow and we make good time to the small outpost wher we can change out horses for the next leg of our journey. It takes us several days and almost a dozen rides before we are finally able to reach Caras Galadhon. We are met by an elven guard which allows us entrance based on our reputation levels with their faction, a result of our slaying along the way as we could take leave from the trail to do so. They direct us towards the auction hall on our request and we are allowed to pass under the boughs of the mallon trees in full bloom even though the summer was beginning to come to a close. Baronlief leads the way inside and we gather around the first auctioneer we can find.

"What is it you are searching for?" she asks, her voice having a lilt to it as does everyone else around us.

"I would like to know if there are any sapphire shards up for auction." I reply, crossing my fingers behind my back.

"Sapphire shard," she responds, "Those are rare and difficult to come by. Yet, there is one for sale in this auction hall."

"How much?" Baronlief asks as hope rises in my chest.

"40 gold." The auctioneer replies.

I gasp at the price. I had been playing for almost a full year now in total and had only amassed 26 gold plus some spare silver and copper in that amount of time. It would take me at least several weeks if not months to have enough money to buy the shard I need and by that time I would possibly be above the level of the staff the shard would make me. I quickly turn around and leave the hall, hearing Erothar calling out my name behind me. Once I'm out of the doors I run through the streets until I am near the edge of the city. I slow and turn down a side street to continue in the safety of the city walls. I keep going until I can't run any longer and am forced to slow to a brisk walk as I try to work through what I am going to do now.