Haven Online

Chapter 22: Melvin*

Xinya walked into the toy shop and, for a moment, paused in wonder, the place looked like something out of a little kid's fantasy. The place was brightly colored with toys of all kinds scattered around the place. There were toy soldiers, dolls, teddy bears, trains, etc. Although Xinya knew they were handcrafted, the quality of the toys looked like they had been machine-made.

Forgetting his purpose, he trailed his fingers over the toys musingly. These toys reminded him of his lost childhood and depressing thoughts started to invade him. Picking up a teddy bear, he stared at it. It reminded him of the one his mother gave him when he was younger. How he missed her.

Someone cleared their throat, startling him from his reverie. Masking his feelings, he suppressed those thoughts and put them back in the little box, at the back of this mind where they came from. Xinya put the teddy bear back and turned around to face a man that was clearly in his late 30's.

The man had a jubilant smile on his face, his dark brown hair was tied back with a ribbon, he was wearing comfortable slacks, a white button-down shirt, and a vest. After fixing his glasses, the man stared at Xinya with a particular expression on his face.

"You seem to be a little old for my toys but that's alright. As long as you're young at heart." The man said, smiling gently.

Shaking his head, Xinya said, "No, that's not why I am here. I want to learn to be an artisan, just like you."

The man's expression changed to something more serious, he looked at Xinya with new eyes. He looked him up and down, as if searching for something, after a couple of tense filled moments, the man smiled once more. It looked like he had found what he was looking for.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Melvin Manford, the master of all crafts," Melvin said, giving a dramatic bow.

"Nice to meet you, I am Drifting Cloud."

"So you want to be an Artisan," Melvin replied. "What crafts have you already learned?"

"Cooking and potion making," said Xinya.

"The two most difficult ones," Melvin said with an excited glint in his eye. "I will let you become an Artisan if you pass a small test. Are you up for it?"

Quest has been created: Melvin the master crafter is excited to gain a disciple, but he needs to know if you are worthy. Melvin wants you to create 20 potions and cook him a 2-star dish. Time Limit: Two days.

Reward: Class Change & 50 skill points

"Yes, I'm up for it," Xinya said confidently.

Melvin smiled at him and explained exactly what he wanted Xinya to do, then he gave him two recipes, one for a stamina potion and the other for Bellyborg stew. The stamina potion would let you automatically get 50 points back to a player's stamina, while the Bellyborg stew would give a buff of +75 Mp and +75 Stamina to the player.

Xinya saw a correlation in the recipes that Melvin gave him when crafting an object the player stamina or mana will decrease depending on the item the player was crafting. So, by making him craft the potion and the food, Melvin was secretly helping him. Every class instructor does something like this in some form, but it still gave Xinya a warm feeling because he knew Melvin was rooting for him to succeed.

Leaving the shop, Xinya thought about what he should do first, he already had everything he needed to make the stamina potion, so that would be easy to do. The Bellyborg stew would take longer since the main ingredient he needed was the meat of the Bellyborg monster.

It is a bizarre but extremely common creature, It's about the size of an ostrich, has two huge and two smaller wings, two thin, long legs, and a huge, wide tail. It has thick, but delicate skin, covered in small, thin feathers which are usually either silver, light orange or yellow, or a combination of these colors. They are extremely fast, making them very hard to kill.

Knowing that trying to get the meat would take him the longest, he decided to make the potions first and get that over with. Walking through town, he found the apothecary, he needed to rent a potion lab. He was still too new to be able to make potions outdoors, only after he leveled up the skill three more times would he be able to do that.

Since he has to waste some money for renting a room, he decided to make the most of it and do just that. Xinya gave the woman at the desk 2 silver and 3 bronze coins and made his way into the room. It would lock automatically until he decides to leave. The room was bare besides the equipment for making potions. Taking out the items he needed, he prepared himself to make potions for the next few hours.

Name: Drifting Cloud Title: Not-applied

HP: 180/180 Level: 10

MP: 170/170 EXP: 10000

Stamina: 150/150 Skill points: 10

Str: 4 (+3) Dex: 6(+3)

Int: 6 (+3) Luck: 5 (+4)

Coins: 9 gold 993 silver 591 bronze

Stat Points 6