Charbend
patreon
Chapter 16: The Crafting Crew
🕑 Added 2024-04-18 21:02:07 +0000 UTCFrank lay in bed, watching light filter through the few beams of sunlight peeking in through the blinds. He’d remembered to turn off the alarm on his phone, so he’d managed to wake up peacefully for the first time in… quite a while. Even on weekends, I had stuff I needed to do.
He lay there, listening to the low sounds starting to pick up out on the street, people waking up and starting their day. Whatever that means anymore. Looting? Killing monsters and reclaiming the city? What are people even going to do anymore?
He sat up groaning. “Come on, man. You just got over hurting that guy yesterday, let’s not start worrying about the future of work, of all things.”
Yesterday had been a bit rough, after the meeting. He thought he’d become some ultra-hardened survivor of the apocalypse after killing that deer on his own, but the reality was a bit different. Apparently pushing through fear in a life and death situation didn’t help you deal with guilt from hurting someone in ways you didn’t realize you could.
Apples and oranges, I guess. Seeing him after had helped. He’d gotten an earful from the medic, Sasha, but the guy himself was quick to forgive. He’d been healed back up, and he’d asked for it.
Still, I won’t be using that Skill on a living thing for a while. And definitely not without a lot of careful consideration.
Speaking of consideration, what am I doing today?
He glanced around the room, looking at the somewhat eclectic collection of things the previous inhabitant had, alongside his own few additions. He didn’t find much inspiration in them, but he already knew the rather short list of objectives he could tackle right now.
He wanted to figure out more of what he could do with [Enchanting]. Especially after yesterday, knowing where the limits were was key. He also needed to figure out how he could get stronger. Ultimately, he wanted to be able to check on his family, and that would require travel. From the stories he’d heard, the deer he’d fought was not the top of the new magically enhanced food chain, and he’d need to be able to fight if he wanted a chance at getting out to where they were. They might have been teleported away, but without checking on them he’d never have peace of mind.
Those were some of his objectives, but he also had at least one obligation he’d signed up for. At some point, and probably sooner rather than later, the city government was going to call on him to help outfit this ‘Vanguard’ of theirs.
“Well, no use waiting around for them. Might as well make the best of the day. Maybe I’ll go find an empty building to test my Skills in.” Goal set for the day, he shifted out of bed and started getting ready for the day. He took his backpack, still loaded down with a variety of office supplies, and a little bit of deer blood that he still had. It was dried and crusty now, but he could just add water.
He nodded to his roommates as he passed the living room, and opened the door to the apartment. As he did, a sheet of paper taped to the door caught his attention. He sighed as he read it.
Attention! This is an official notice from the city of Vandenilis. Frank Vila is to report to the following location for his volunteer duties. It had a small map of the surrounding area on it, with a star on a building a few blocks away.
“Guess they were waiting for me,” he muttered, pulling the note from the door. “Well, they’ll have to wait a bit longer. I need to grab some breakfast first.”
<O/%%%%%/O/%%%%%/O>
Pretty soon he found himself walking along recently cleared streets, toward the frontier of what had been reclaimed. He waved at the people he saw working in the streets, those fortifying and those… Are they looting?
He stopped and stared a moment. Farther down the street there were teams using cars to make barricades, but closer to him there was a group going into buildings and coming out with a variety of items which they were then loading into vans on the street. One member of this group stood beside the van with a clipboard, taking down notes as the looters came back. Keeping inventory, or a list of things they couldn’t grab, I’m sure.
A thought struck him as he continued on. I guess they’re part of the Vanguard now. Are they? He glanced back. How am I supposed to tell who is Vanguard versus who just works for the city? Is it the same thing?
He has no way to tell at the moment. Maybe they’ll get someone to make uniforms.
A voice called out, breaking him out of his thoughts.
“Hey Frank!”
He glanced up, surprised to see Kevin here waving at him. He was standing in what appeared to be a loading bay door, the big garage doors for semis or delivery vans. Behind him, Frank could see what looked like a small warehouse floor, teeming with folks moving items and clearing space. He glanced at his map, and confirmed that this was where he was headed to.
“Hey Kevin. What are you doing here?”
“I’m doing some work with Victor. We’re trying to figure out if there are any limits on how many Skills people can have, so I’m helping to set up the Crafting Crew for the Vanguard. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up one or two crafting Skills while I’m here.”
Frank chuckled, walking into the warehouse. “What, just like that?”
The teen put a hand to his chest, and threw Frank an indignant expression. “You doubt me, Frank? And here I thought we were friends.”
He side-eyed the kid, walking up the few steps from the loading bay onto the warehouse floor. “I’m just wondering; are all Skills that easy to get? I got mine without too much hassle, but I feel like something like… [Tailoring] or [Smithing] or whatever the city wants might be a bit harder to pick up.”
Kevin nodded seriously, dropping the levity. “Honestly, you’re probably right. We don’t have too much to go on yet, but we suspect that there are different conditions to get Skills. Some, which we’re calling ‘basic’ Skills, can just be acquired by doing the thing the Skill is for, like [Running], for example. Others are like basic Skills, but seem to have a higher threshold for what counts as ‘doing the thing’. A lot of Skills people picked up on the first day of Integration, for example, fall in that category. Skills picked up in the heat of battle, Skills gained when surpassing your limits, and those kinds of things.”
“Other Skills,” he said, gesturing for Frank to follow him, “we think need you to have certain Skills to get. And then there are the ones from books, which probably follow basic Skill rules.”
Frank nodded, pushing into a small office at the end of the warehouse. “Like [Enchanting]. I got that by just reading a Skill book.”
A familiar gruff voice interrupted him. “Is that true?”
He glanced up in surprise. At the end of the room, Anthony Atrescu stood there staring at him. He was in the middle of an eclectic mix of people, from obvious civilians to probable Vanguard members. The other crafters, Frank assumed.
Frank nodded. “Yeah. I meant to tell you yesterday, but… Well, I didn’t get the chance.”
Anthony grunted, expression souring a bit. “Mm, that mess at the meeting? Shouldn’t ever have happened. Ian shouldn’t have pushed like that.” He shook his head. “But it doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done. What book did you read to get [Enchanting]? We’ve tried several fantasy books, but we haven’t had any luck so far.”
Frank chuckled at the idea of gruff, no nonsense Anthony shoving fantasy books on people, and shook his head. “It was actually a programming book.”
Kevin turned to him, sounding doubtful. “Really? You got a magic Skill from programming?”
He tilted his head, thinking back on it. “Kind of? I think… I think it tried to give me [Programming] first, but couldn’t?” He shrugged. “Feels like a close-ish substitute.”
Anthony stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. Well, you won’t be working on [Enchanting] duties alone for too long, then. For now, let me introduce you to the team. We’ll be putting you to work while we have you.”
“The Crafting Crew, right?” Frank nodded at them. “It’s nice to meet you all.”
Anthony frowned. “‘Crafting Crew’? No, this is the Vandenilis Fabrication Team.”
Frank blushed a bit while Kevin chuckled quietly behind him.
