He was tired, but just a few minutes ago, he’d reached Level 4 in Bard while crafting music boxes, unlocking a surprisingly useful skill:
Encore (Rare)
Your listeners just can't get enough of your performance.
Skill level: 1
Skill effects: Play the same song twice to boost its effect by 50%
It definitely gave him more tactical flexibility. In a tough battle, when the party needed a particular stat boosted, replaying a song for extra effect might be smarter than switching to a new one.
He thought back to their fight against the mastodon boss. They’d brought it down just before it breached the barricade, but if he’d been able to squeeze a little more damage out at the right moment, it could’ve ended faster. [Encore] might’ve made the difference.
And if the skill worked with the horn calls? That could be huge for the team.
He’d also hit Level 9 in Tinkering, unlocking a recipe for an item he hadn’t used since his adventure with Amari when they tackled the Pottery Shards quest: the [Durian Squirt Gun].
A smile tugged at his lips. He and Amari, using the smelly spray guns and dung bombs to drive off tiny dinosaurs while scavenging ceramic shards from their nest. Somehow it felt like both yesterday and years ago.
He could still remember the way the sight of a single compy had sent their hearts racing, spurring them to bolt through the jungle, terrified that the other compies might appear.
The multiple rewards and the productive day had put him in a good mood, so he whistled and worked.
Jack finished inserting the last tin peg into the pin barrel. With a final twist of the crank, he snapped the box shut and set it beside the others.
Congratulations! You’ve crafted [Music Box].
Crafting Grade: B-
+300 XP in Bard, Pottery, and Tinkering
+3,350 XP in Bard, Pottery, and Tinkering
At first, crafting each music box had been slow, painstaking work—especially programming the melody on the clay barrel and placing each tin peg just right. But after making over fifty of them, muscle memory was starting to take over. He didn’t even need to glance at his notes on where each tin peg went anymore.
Neat stacks of finished music boxes lined the table: March of the Embers, Dance of the Turtles, Sitting Wind, Clay Dome, Lilly’s Lullaby, and Morning of Spring. These songs had all clean, steady tempos, which worked best with the rigid constraints of the music box.
The two that sounded best were those marked by the system as Soothing—Lilly’s Lullaby and Sitting Wind. There was something about the gentle whir and click of the music box that just fit these calm ballads.
Tracks with more groove, like Into the Breach or Sonic Valley, just didn’t translate. He couldn’t make half-notes, bends, or off-beat notes work in the music box. A shame. But he had to work with what he had.
He reached for the next box—then paused. There was something wrong. The workshop had gone too quiet.
That meant the clay box wasn’t playing. And that meant the vases weren’t protected by Clay Dome. He couldn’t have the vases lose durability again. He’d already gotten distracted a couple of times, and if he weren’t careful, some of the XP vases would start breaking.
He reached for the only clay music box on the table and gave it another wind. Soft, echoing chimes filled the workshop again. He’d heard the tune so many times that it barely registered now.
The Clay Dome box, or as Jack liked to think of it, the Clay Clay Box, had taken the most work. Almost every part of it was made from clay. Only the gearbox and the comb were metal. But enough of the box was made of clay that the Clay Dome’s buff could be applied, shielding the entire music box from durability loss as long as it was playing.
Which meant it could preserve itself indefinitely. Not having to stop and play the ocarina every few minutes had noticeably boosted his output.
His XP bar had been soaring, too. The XP gains from the music boxes were great for leveling up. He checked his progress bars—Tinkering was a hair away from hitting level 10, and Bard was progressing steadily toward level 5. Even Pottery XP was building up nicely.
He finished another music box and wiped the sweat off his brow. He felt a little numb.
His eyes were dry and gritty. Clay dust clung to his skin. The click of gears, the crackle of the fire, the melody on loop—he’d tuned them all out hours ago. He didn’t even know how long he’d been stuffed in here, making music boxes. Had it been hours? Days?
Still, he pressed onward. He was looking forward to seeing what he’d unlock with Tinkering at level 10.
“Just a couple more,” he muttered, reaching for the next one.
The sound of tiny clicks joined the slow crackle of the fireplace as Jack kept going—tin pegs slipping into place, barrels turning smoothly.
One music box.
Two and—
Congratulations! You’ve reached level 10 in [Tinkering]!
You’ve reached the journeyman tier in the tinkering profession!
You’re now a journeyman tinker, level 1.
[Tinker’s Touch] has upgraded.
You’ve unlocked a new recipe: [Spring Boots].
[Bard] and [Tinkering] synergize. You’ve learned a new skill: [Metal Whirlpool].
[Pottery], [Bushcraft], and [Tinkering] synergize. You’ve learned new recipes: [Capacitor], [Capacitor Sensor].
Jack hastily put the finished music box with the others and flipped one of the vases upside down without a second thought, plopping down on it like a stool. The vase didn’t so much as crack—Clay Dome made sure of that.
It was time to inspect the new, juicy rewards.
First, there was the leveled-up version of [Tinker’s Touch].
Tinker’s Touch (Common)
Skill level: 2
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Skill description: You intuitively sense how components align, connect, and function together.
Skill effects:
-
You can assemble small gadgets.
-
You can make accessories and tweak pieces of equipment.
[Tinker’s Touch] had been the very first skill he’d learned in Tinkering. It used only to let him make small gadgets—nothing more. But now, the description had been updated. He could make equipment too.
The first piece of equipment he could craft made him chuckle.
Recipe for: [Spring Boots]
Ingredients:
-
Duct tape
-
Springs
-
A pair of boots
Instructions:
-
Tape the springs to the base of the boots.
Requirements:
-
Journeyman Tinkering, Level 1
“Man. This is such an odd profession,” Jack said.
It looked like a way to increase jump height by duct-taping springs to the soles of your shoes. It sounded like something straight out of a cartoon.
Still, that was just a warm-up. There was a second tinkering-related melody.
Metal Whirlpool (Melody)
Difficulty: Intermediate
A song of circles and loops. A tune that sends the mind spinning.
Melody Type: Dissonant
“Another dissonant melody,” he muttered, thoughtfully.
He still didn’t even know what the first tinkering-related melody, [Plushy Cacophony], did, and now he already had a second melody waiting in his repertoire. The pile of unknowns was growing, and that bothered him more than he liked to admit. He didn’t like holding tools he didn’t understand. It made him feel unprepared.
He really needed to figure out what both of them did, especially if they could shift the tide of a battle or unlock something his team needed.
But he didn’t have time to do everything. He moved on to what really mattered to him.
Recipe for: [Capacitor]
Materials:
-
[Clay]
-
[Tin Foil]
-
[Graphite]
-
[Resin]
-
[Paper]
Instructions:
-
Make several thin clay disks.
-
Stack them, sandwiched between a layer of tin foil and one of graphite-soaked paper.
-
Cover the whole thing with resin.
Requirements:
-
Pottery, Level 5
-
Bushcraft, Level 10
-
Journeyman Tinkering, Level 1
“Uh? What’s a capacitor?” he asked himself. He’d heard his father mention them in passing before. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was some kind of electronic component.
“Electronics… but I don’t have anything related to electricity. How am I supposed to use this?”
He would just ask Holly about it.
Holly… I wonder how she’s doing. She’s probably in class now.
At the thought of Holly, he smiled, but shaking his head, he continued on to the recipe that came with capacitors.
Recipe for: [Capacitor Sensor]
Materials:
-
[Capacitor]
-
[Copper Wire]
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[Iron Rod]
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[Spring]
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[Latch]
Instructions:
-
Mount a metal plate to a piece of wood, and connect it to the lead of a capacitor.
-
Wrap copper wire around an iron rod.
-
Connect the iron rod to the other lead on the capacitor.
-
Next to the output, position a lightweight metal latch or lever above the coil. Add a return spring to reset it after activation.
Requirements:
-
[Capacitor]
-
Journeyman Tinkering, Level 1
Yet another thing he didn’t quite understand. Still, he liked the sound of the word sensor. That probably meant another upgrade he could add to his pot bots.
Having reached his goal, he brushed the clay dust off his hands and stretched his back.
“I guess it’s enough crafting for now. What time is it anyway?”
He glanced at the clock, and his eyes widened. “No. It can’t be.”
It was already nighttime in the real world. Sure enough, even though outside it was dark, streaks of orange were already peeling across the sky.
Just how long did I spend crafting here?
He’d thought it would still be earlier, considering time ran twice as fast inside the Time Field. But clearly, he’d underestimated how long he’d been at it.
Making that clay music box took longer than I thought.
He pulled up the notifications and saw that he’d missed several messages.
Marie had managed to ask the Professor and some other friends for more data on the Sand Sea. There were several documents and videos available for perusal on their team chat.
Horace had already gotten started on a shared document listing the supplies they needed. He’d also sent him several private messages asking for more information about the music boxes. The last one made Jack freeze.
“Yo, Jackie. Came to see you when you didn’t reply to my texts, but you were in the zone, and I didn’t want to interrupt. Let me know when you’re done in there.”
Jack gulped. He’d really gone down the tinkering rabbit hole, hadn’t he?
How long had Horace been standing there, watching him craft like a man possessed? He didn’t remember anyone entering at all.
Rob and Amari had made it to the Sand Sea and were closing in on the Dune Hills. So far, they’d been able to stay out of trouble.
Then there were two missed calls.
One was from his dad. Jack frowned. “Strange. It’s always Mom who calls.” Did that mean something had happened?
The other made his stomach tighten. Holly. She’d tried to call him hours ago and had also sent two messages. One had been sent earlier in the day, close to noon.
“Hi, Jack! This Hydraulics class is so boring… What are you up to? Any update on the bots?”
The other one was recent.
“Hi. Are we still getting together in the game tonight? Is everything OK?”
A mix of joy, guilt, and panic twisted in his chest. Joy, because she’d called and texted. Guilt, because he’d been so caught up in crafting that he hadn’t replied. Finally, he panicked because he was afraid she was upset with him or that she thought he didn’t really care about him.
Part of him wanted to call Holly right away, but the miscall from Dad was too out of character with his father to ignore.
He stepped out of the Time Field, just in case the system couldn’t handle real-world calls with the time difference still active, and called his dad back.
“Hi, Jack.”
“Dad? I just saw your call. Is everything OK?”
“Everything is fine.”
There was a pause. Not heavy, but definitely awkward.
“Do you need anything?” Jack asked.
“Yes. I mean… no. I—” His father took a breath. “I went back to the bank today.”
Jack stood up straighter. “So?”
“They’re willing to lend us 150.000 credits. That’s it.”
“OK… That’s something,” Jack said, thoughtful. It wasn’t even a third of what they needed, but it helped. At least now, he didn’t need the full half a million. If he could come up with the rest, it might just be enough.
“There’s something else.” His dad hesitated again. “Listen, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. I can understand you now.”
“Uh? Understand what?”
“The game. The work you’ve been doing. At first, I didn’t think it was a real job. Even after we talked to Rob, or when you came to help me that day at work, I wasn’t 100% convinced. But I did some… research. It takes real effort. More than I thought.”
“T-thanks, Dad,” he said, caught off guard. “And thanks for supporting me from the start, with the helmet and the capsule.”
“Of course, son.”
There was another awkward pause.
Jack finally spoke to break the silence. “By the way, I talked to my friends. We’ve got a plan. I’m confident we’ll come up with the money for your treatment. Don’t worry, OK?”
“OK. Thank you, son.” A beat passed. “I’m proud of you.”
Jack blinked hard. His throat tightened. When was the last time he’d heard that from his father?
He coughed lightly and shifted the topic before the emotion could catch up to his voice. “And… uh… what about the helmet? Were you able to return it?”
“No.”
“No? How come? I barely used it for a month. There’s not even a scratch in it. They should refund it—every credit will count from now on.”
“That’s not it, son. I actually tried it yesterday,” his dad said, almost sheepishly.
“…What did you say?”
“I tried the helmet.”
“Wait. Does that mean you tried the game?”
“Yes,” his father admitted, like he was confessing to something mildly illegal.
Suddenly, everything clicked—the research, the understanding, the sudden shift in tone. His dad had seen the game for himself.
“What did you think of it?”
“Things are a little easier than in real life, but it still teaches a lot. I can see why you’ve been learning.”
Jack pinched his arm, just to check. This wasn’t a dream. His father had tried New Earth, and hadn’t hated it.
“I talked to your mother,” his dad added. “Given how hard you’re working in there. I just wanted to say, if there’s anything you need… I’m willing to help.”
“In the game?” Jack asked slowly, not quite believing it.
“In the game,” his dad confirmed.
“Uh… sure! I… well…” Jack didn’t know what to say. His dad wanted to help. In the game. Like… actually be there. Run errands? Haul materials? Hunt monsters?
He imagined it—his dad making market runs while he cranked out clay pots in a workshop. Or him, brandishing a sword as he fought alongside Horace. It was surreal.
“Sure. Let me think about the best way you can help. Can I call you back later?”
“Of course! Just let me know. I’ll be online so you can reach me. Your mother’s working tonight, so I’m free.”
“T-thanks, Dad.”
The call ended.
Jack stared at the wall for a moment.
“…Did that really just happen?”