Chapter 96: Workshop
Hector and Tyler stood in the backyard of the shop, several feet clear of the building itself, far enough that the worst of the workshop's heat couldn't quite reach them, though even at this distance, warmth still pressed outward from the walls in slow, steady waves, brushing against any bare skin left to catch it.
Hector folded his thick arms across his chest. "So, what is it you wanted to tell me?" Hector said.
Tyler's stomach drew tight, and his hands found each other behind his back, fingers lacing together and slipping loose again without settling into stillness. He didn't know how to start. After all, this whole time he'd been hiding the truth from him, about the system, about the skill, about the ores. "Hector," Tyler started. "Remember what I told you about my skill and what happens when I craft?"
"Yeah," Hector said, nodding. "What about it?"
"Well, the truth is," Tyler said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I... Lied."
"Huh?" Hector said, frowning. "Well, you gotta understand, there's something that I have that I really can't trust anyone with."
"What are you talking about?" Hector asked, his brow furrowing deeper. "And what do you mean by you lying to me?"
"Well, James is the only one who knows about it. I trusted him enough to tell him," Tyler lied. He knew that when he'd first arrived in this world, even without trusting James yet, he'd told him everything anyway, his mind too tangled up in the unfamiliar, nothing around him making enough sense to hold anything back. He hadn't understood how any of it worked yet.
"But, I think I trust you enough to tell you about it." Hector paused, his eyes fixed steadily on Tyler's face, and he noticed the way Tyler's gaze kept dropping away, unable to hold the eye contact.
"What makes you say that?" Hector asked.
Tyler made himself look up and meet his eyes again. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. But something tells me I can trust you. James trusted you to help me out as well when I first got here. So..."
" So you're saying you trust me because James did?"
"Yeah."
"All right then, what is it? What's the secret to your skill?"
Tyler let out a breath he hadn't quite realized he'd been holding, some of the tightness easing out of his shoulders. He'd braced for a different reaction than this. "Okay, so I have this thing called a system."
"System?" Hector said, raising one eyebrow.
"Yeah. It's some sort of mechanism that allows me to level up differently from other people. It's one of the reasons why I'm leveling up faster than some hunters."
"Huh. Well, you do level up fast, but... It's not that impressive. I mean—"
"I'm C-rank," Tyler interrupted.
"What?" Hector said, his hands falling to his sides. "You're C-rank already?"
"Yes, a level 58 to be precise."
"Wow, kid. That is fast. Weren't you just an E-rank weeks ago?"
"I was. And that's what I'm trying to tell you. This system, it allows me to do a lot of things. It gave me all the skills I have right now, even the crafting skill."
"What do you mean gave you all the skills? I don't understand," Hector said, putting his hands on his waist.
*Okay, how do I say this,* Tyler thought.
"The thing is, I'm not like everybody else. For example, my class is different from yours. I'm not just a craftsman. This is one of the reasons why I've been leveling up so much. I actually stopped depending on James to help me hunt a long time ago. I started hunting on my own."
"I realized that," Hector muttered. "It got me thinking that you were stupid, trying to become a hunter while you're a craftsman. Our type of skills aren't meant for hunting at all."
"But that's just the thing though. My skills aren't just for crafting. I have a variety of different skills in different classes."
"That doesn't make any—"
"I know," Tyler cut him off, "but I just got to prove it to you." Tyler held out his hand, and an iron ingot materialized on his open palm its weight settling there all at once. Hector's eyebrows shot upward, and he took an involuntary half-step back, his palm coming up on reflex as though to ward off whatever had just happened in front of him.
"Woah, wait a minute, how did you do that?"
"It's an ability that I have. It's not even a skill, it just came with the system. It allows me to store anything in a digital space called the inventory."
"Inventory," Hector said, the word dragging out.
He remembered the times he'd watched Tyler make things disappear while crafting.
"So it's like a spatial skill? Is that what you've been using that time?"
"Yeah. It's part of how I craft. I just get the ingredients needed for the item and store them in the inventory. I then make the system craft the items. And once it's done, I can take them out. Just like I did all those times."
"Huh," Hector said, rubbing his chin, his eyes dropping to Tyler's boots.
"I'm sorry I lied to you, but I hope you understand. I wasn't sure I could trust you back then."
"Well, I felt something was off about your skill. It didn't make any sense, but this, this is actually much worse," Hector said. A small chuckle escaped him, more breath than laugh.
"Yeah," Tyler said, a small smile breaking through the tension that had settled over his features.
"But that's not all."
"There's more?" Hector asked, dropping his hand.
Tyler kept going from there, walking Hector through how the rest of his skills worked, one after another, going as far as to explain that he could produce ingots directly through the system. He told him that was exactly how people were able to buy ingots at the ore shop in the first place, that he'd been the one helping supply them the whole time.
Through the whole explanation, something kept shifting across Hector's face, his eyebrows lifting high more than once, his mouth parting slightly at whatever came next, before easing gradually into the loose, settled look of a man following the logic all the way through.
He nodded along as he listened. Eventually, Tyler told him about one of his combat skills, Rush, which increased all of his physical abilities by 75%.
"I get it now," Hector said, nodding.
He put his hands on his waist, and after a moment, he said, "You told me all these things, but to be honest, I don't understand half of what you just said."
"What?" Tyler said, his mouth falling open, whatever he'd been about to say dying somewhere behind his teeth.
"I mean, I did hear what you said, even that you can get skills from monsters, but I still don't understand how all of this is possible. They sound possible with how you're explaining them, but they shouldn't be."
"Oh," Tyler said, "so that's what you meant. But it is entirely possible with the system. I'll show you once we start crafting."
"It's not that I'm doubting you, it's just that this is all just... a lot."
It didn't fully land until Hector said it out loud. Only then did Tyler realize just how much he'd actually told him, nearly everything, when he thought back over it. The recipes, the assimilation, the mana engrams, all of it, nearly without exception. Even the skill liquid thing he'd discovered on his own.
"Yeah, it really is a lot," he said.
"All right, let's get back inside. I understand everything now, so you don't have to hide it from me."
"Thank you," Tyler said. Before they could go, Hector said, "Wait." He glanced toward the pit where a heap of discarded metal scraps sat piled up, then looked back at Tyler. "You said you can even make ingots from these metal scraps, right? How about you make a few for me before you leave?"
"Alright," Tyler said.
The two of them made their way to the back door of the workshop together and stepped inside.
Tyler pulled the door shut behind him, the latch settling into place with a small give under his palm. Across the room, Hector went straight for the sword he'd been hammering earlier, closing his fingers around the hilt and lifting it to eye level. He turned it slowly, studying the flat of the blade.
"It's not there yet," he muttered to himself, low enough that it might have been meant only for his own ears. Tyler heard it anyway.
Hector carried the blade to the furnace and fed it into the heat, the metal catching an orange glow along its edge as it sank into the coals. Near the closed door, Tyler's eyes landed on a bench. He crossed to it and dropped down onto the wood, letting his shoulders settle against the wall behind him.
Hector's gaze cut over to him. "Aren't you going to craft?"
"I am." A system panel unfolded in the air in front of Tyler, its edges sharp against the dim of the workshop.
"Oh." Hector reached for another sword lying nearby, then picked up a whetstone, turning it once in his fingers before pressing it to the blade's edge.
He drew the stone down the length of the metal in long, even strokes, each pass leaving a faint silver line where the light caught it. Tyler let his attention drop into his inventory, eyes narrowing slightly as he scrolled. *What do I have here?* He moved through the list of recipes, searching for the ones he hadn't touched yet.
"Damnit." Hector's voice cracked sharp through the quiet. The panel in front of Tyler blinked out, and Hector came back into focus, jaw tight, blade held out at arm's length like it had personally wronged him.
"What's wrong?" Tyler asked, sitting forward.
"Sorry, it's just—" Hector flipped the sword over in his grip, eyes tracking down the flat of it. "I forgot to put the engravings that customer asked for. Pretty sure he wanted his name near the blunt side of the blade." He blew out a breath through his nose. "He's gonna come back for it later."
"You do that for people?"
"Yeah." Hector lowered the sword to his lap, thumb running once along the spine of it. "Some customers need their items to look a certain way. Some of them even hand me a blueprint. A drawing of what they want the sword to look like. If the weapon doesn't match it, they won't pay a damn thing."
"A blueprint." The word left Tyler's mouth on a sharp breath. He was on his feet before he'd finished saying it, the bench creaking behind him.
His eyes went wide, bright, and he struck his open palm with his fist hard enough that the sound carried across the room. "I got an idea."
"What?" Hector asked, sword still balanced across his knees.
"Hold on." Tyler was already moving, boots striking the floor in quick, uneven steps toward the shop.
He shoved the iron door open, the metal cold and rough under his palm, and it swung wide enough to knock a draft loose into the room. Kai spun around at the sound, spine straightening.
"Kai." The name came out fast, almost breathless, before Tyler had fully crossed the threshold.
"Yes... si— Tyler?" Kai's eyes widened a fraction, hands going still at his sides.
"I need your help with something." Tyler closed the distance between them in a few strides.
"Okay, what is it?"
"You know how to draw, right?"
Kai's mouth opened, closed, then opened again. He hesitated a beat too long before nodding. "Yeah. Did you want me to draw something?"
"Yes. I want you to help me draw an armor design for me."
Kai's eyes stretched wide, his head drawing back slightly like the words had physical weight. "What? You want me to draw armor? But I'm not sure I can do that."
"Come on." Tyler closed his hand around Kai's shoulder, giving it a light shake. "I saw the drawing you made of that hunter. It was perfect. A set of gear won't be too hard for you."
"I guess." Kai's shoulders drew inward, his gaze dropping to the floor between them.
"Don't worry. I'll tell you what I want it to look like. I'll give you a detailed description to go on."
Kai lifted his eyes back to Tyler's face, holding there for a moment before he nodded, hard and sudden, like he'd made up his mind all at once. "Okay, I'll do my best."
Tyler's eyes swept the shop, scanning the shelves and the counter. "Good. But where do we get paper and a pen?"
"Oh, I'll go ask Hector." Kai was already turning, feet carrying him quickly back toward the workshop, leaving Tyler standing alone in the middle of the shop.
*This is great.* Tyler's own thought settled into the quiet Kai left behind. *With his help, I can actually design the items myself, instead of the system automatically doing it for me.*