Three Men stood in a room. They looked completely identical to each other, beside a single small detail. One of those men had rosy cheeks and grey eyes, while the other two were white as snow all the way through.
It was Eisen together with both of his Doubles made of his mana. At first, Eisen thought this would be a great opportunity. Once he started hunting or large constructions, two people that felt no pain and that Eisen didn't need to exchange plans with would be an amazing resource.
But then, when Eisen actually tried controlling both of them, he failed miserably. The only thing that was possible was to have them both act in synchronicity, but having them act out two tasks independently of each other was rather hard. Only when Eisen gave them commands of repeating actions was that possible.
Otherwise, it would basically be like Eisen had to perfectly multitask, which he obviously wasn't capable of. So until he ranked his skill up again and gained some kind of new function that would make the Doubles easier to control, Eisen decided to simply keep them around and have them continue doing menial tasks, or try and have them craft small items.
For now, Eisen would unsummon them and go to bed, so that he could start his day at Everything Magic.
---
The next morning, Eisen stepped down the stairs of the Inn, his two Doubles, one of them wearing the mana suit and the other the leather armor, behind him, and sat down at a Table in the Inn. Of course, everyone was staring at the triad of Eisens, but he simply ignored it and waited for Bree. She came out of the back and greeted Eisen, as well as the double Doubles. Eisen thought it was kind of cute, considering they just stared blankly in the empty void in front of them, but he simply laughed and greeted Bree back.
After making sure that Eisen wants to eat the same thing as every morning, she hurried back toward the kitchen, and a few minutes later came back out with her new Backpack on her back and wearing her Dress.
She set the Backpack down on the ground and began to eat the same time as Eisen did. There actually was something that Eisen meant to ask for a while, and he thought now might be a good opportunity.
"So, Bree. I was wondering, but does everyone know so much about different monsters or spells?" He asked while continuing to eat.
In response, Bree shook her head and began to explain. "Most of it is common knowledge, but I know more than most others~! When I first started as a Carrier and Supporter, I thought it might be a good idea to study up on different things. I learned about most common spells, even if I never managed to use them, about what Monsters are most common in what region, and how to detect traps. Because of that I also got my occupation! I'm actually a… well… Archivist… heh…"
"Archivist? So that means you can store knowledge or something like that?"
"Kind of… By becoming an Archivist, I got some new skills. For example, Scanner. It lets me literally scan my surroundings, and saves it into Databank, another skill of mine. That lets me look at all saved information at all times~. By using Scanner, it makes it easier to find things like traps as well, so that's good, right? And I can instantly see what items we might get from monsters, and how much experience each monster gives~. But… When I use it, I can only see the outlines of things… that's why I didn't recognize you yesterday and mistook your double for you… I made it a habit to use it a lot to get used to it, to make it easier to walk around with it active." Bree explained, and surprised Eisen in the process.
He didn't mean to be insulting, he did know that Bree was smarter than she let on, but he didn't expect her to literally have a class that needs her to know stuff. But that would only be more helpful to him. As he never knew much about videogames before starting to play World of Magic, besides making an outfit, armor or weapon from games every once in a while, he thought having a literal spring of knowledge about the world he was in would be an immense help to him.
Eisen also couldn't help but wonder if this was deliberately set up by the programmers of the game, or even by Ari personally, but he tried to ignore such thoughts for now.
He nodded while scratching his beard. "Interesting… Is that why you were so interested in what I was doing the past few days?"
Bree fidgeted a little bit and then lowly muttered out her response. "Well… Yeah? It was mostly because it was you, and you seemed so nice, but I also thought it might be a good way to learn about crafting! I… didn't really have the chance to do that in the past, so I'm really happy that I do now~!" She smiled happily and finished her breakfast at the same time as Eisen.
Bree stood up and brought the plates back to the kitchen, immediately returning to Eisen and his two Doubles. On their way out of the Inn, Eisen continues the conversation.
"I would have thought that someone like an Archivist would be pretty popular amongst adventurers or hunters, especially beginners. You could give them a lot of vital information, right?"
Bree's face turned red and she began to fidget with her hands, "Well… That's the thing… usually, yeah, but… I may know a lot of things through my skills, but I forget to tell others. Or I forget to scan things. Or I forget to actually check what I scanned. People call me an airhead a lot, hehe…" She laughed embarrassedly, and Eisen simply returned with a loud version of that.
"Haha, I get it. I tend to forget my surroundings as well a lot of the time, especially when I'm working."
"Oh, yeah! I noticed that~! When you were working, you just stared at the item, and barely even looked up~!" Bree exclaimed proudly that she noticed this, and placed her fists on her hips.
Eisen, Bree, and the Doubles now slowly walked through town, getting weird looks from passers-by every once in a while. Taking their time, they soon enough arrived at their destination, Morrom's shop, Everything Magic.
When they stepped through the door, they saw Morrom pick up a few books from the shelf, deep in thought.
"Good morning, Morrom!" Eisen yelled out, immediately startling the Elf-Dwarf Halfling and causing him to drop the books he just grabbed.
Morrom turned around and looked at the four people standing there. Then he rubbed his tired eyes and looked back at the two people and two Mana Constructs standing there. "Ah, sorry! Good Morning, Eisen! And Bree, as well! Also, I see you already got your Mana Double skill to Rank 2? Good, that means your Mana Manipulation skill should be at least Rank 1 as well?" He asked and walked closer, carefully looking at the two Doubles with deep interest.
"Pretty detailed. So I guess you figured out the easiest way to make them? With Mana Copy?" Morrom wondered, grabbing forward and touching the suit of one of the Doubles to test its density.
Eisen smiled and nodded. He was surprised at first, but after thinking about it, it was more than obvious that Morrom would know about this kind of thing. After all, he ran a shop for which he had to be quite versatile in any type of magic, and thus needed to know about such basic things that Eisen managed to figure out so easily. "Exactly. I was looking for things to make out of Mana, and then copied things off of my body. So then I got the Mana Hands Skill, and then later turned it into the Mana Double Skill."
Once Eisen explained his simple process, he heard a slap directly next to him. He turned his head to the right and saw Bree who just facepalmed herself. "Sorry… I just noticed how obvious that was…" She muttered out with a red face.
"Haha, Bree, don't worry about it! You have a different understanding of magic than others, right? Obviously, you can more easily learn some things, while others are completely incomprehensible to you."
"I guess~!" Bree smiled and placed her hands behind her head, strolling across the room curiously.
Taking that moment, Eisen turned to Morrom. "So, she's an Archivist? Doesn't really fit Bree, right?"
Morrom laughed lowly and nodded, as he completely understood what Eisen meant. "Yeah, I thought the same when I heard that the first time. Usually, Archivists are highly focused researchers or scholars. Bree on the other hand, well… She's a lovely girl, but let's be honest, she's not the… smartest? I feel horrible saying that… But well, she isn't a fast thinker, but she's got great long term memory."
"That makes sense, I guess. I just really didn't expect it. But as long as she's happy with her Occupation, everything is fine, right?" Eisen laughed, and Morrom simply nodded in response.
"Exactly. Well, either way, shall we get to work for the day? I think starting with Alchemy would be the best choice for now. For the beginner stages at least, all you need is to be able to push mana out of your body. More complicated stuff starts at Rank 2 or 3." Morrom explained and waved Eisen to the back of the shop, also making sure that Bree noticed they were going to the next room.
"Ah! Wait a second, that reminds me! Bree, your dress!" Morrom yelled out, and immediately squatted down, looking closely at Bree's dress. Of course, it startled her at the start, but she figured there was a reason for Morrom's behavior, so she let him do as he wanted.
After a few seconds of closely looking at the fabrics, Morrom nodded in satisfaction. "A truly amazing work! Great job on that, Eisen! And I'm glad that the Absorption seems to have been carried over. If you two don't mind, I would like to see its change when it levels up? I've got more than enough spare mana crystals for that."
Eisen looked over to Bree, and she simply shrugged, indicating that she doesn't mind. After all, why would she mind her Dress becoming stronger?
Eisen scratched his beard and nodded, "Yeah, of course. It would be nice to see how that works anyway. For now, though, how do I get the Alchemy skill?"
"Right, right. The basics of alchemy are to use materials and transform them into something else, something more useful to our goal. One way, one of the simplest and most basic ones, has a lot to do with Herbalism. You take different plants and herbs with natural effects, and pull those effects out of them, mix them together with others, and create a potion. Health Potions, Mana Potions, Strength Potions, basically everything that can be increased through magic, can be found in the form of a potion. Some high-grade potions also need different, non-herbalistic materials, but that's stuff for a higher rank."
Morrom explained while setting up the tools that they would need soon. "And that's what you'll be doing today. I suggest just repeatedly making and refining simple potions. Let's start with a fairly simple one first, a health potion."
[New Quest - Alchemy Tutorial]
[Description] You asked Morrom Marson to teach you Alchemy, and he told you to create a simple health potion to start off with. Follow his instructions to the best of your ability.
[Reward] Alchemy Skill; Experience; Increased Reputation with Morrom
[Failure] You will have to try again
[Time Limit - None]