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HC: Handyman | Ch. 55 - Pancake Day
🕑 Added 2024-06-14 10:38:20 +0000 UTCJack read through his new class's bonuses and perks, hoping they would be good enough to make up for the heavy restrictions.
Class bonuses:
+5 agility;
+20 stamina;
+20 hp
Class skills:
Minor Synergy (Class Skill)
Description: You can find connections and see links where others miss it.
Effects: Passive. You can unlock synergies between minors.
Unbound Knowledge (Class Skill)
Description: There’s so much out there you can learn, and you can’t wait to expand your knowledge and study different crafts and professions.
Effects: Passive. After gaining ten character levels, you unlock two minor slots;
You can’t unlearn any professions. Choose wisely.
Number of free minor slots currently available: 2
Jack blinked his eyes a few times and reread the class description. He sunk into his chair, trying to digest what he read. He glanced at Mister Kevin, who had taken off to tend to some of the plants growing between the machinery. The vine tree climbed the side of a cracked tube, keeping it in place. Jack sighed in relief, seeing how he wasn’t nearby to watch him freak out and that he was sitting down. Having to pretend he was a hunchback while making sense of this hidden class would have been far too much.
“So no majors, no damage. Instead, I can have many minors and unlock synergies between them,” he mumbled to himself. “Wait a moment? Didn’t I read that pottery and bushcraft were minors with no known synergies? So I’ll be the only one who knows about them! The only question is if those synergies are worth it.”
He checked one of the many recipes he’d unlocked once the [Minor Synergy] skill had kicked in.
Clay Smoke Bomb
Ingredients: 2x[Clay], 1x[Sugar], 1x[Bat Poop].
Recipe: Mold two small bowls of clay and set some clay aside. Fill one bowl with sugar and the other with bat droppings. Then, create a thin sheet of clay and bring the two bowls together. Let it dry, but don’t fire it.
Requirements:
Clay Molding, Lvl. 3
Handyman, lvl. 10.
He’d read about synergies, but this was his first time seeing how they worked inside the game.
Firstly, he allowed some time to gag. This recipe was disgusting! Did he have to put his hands into bat dung to make it work?
That aside, he had assumed that potters only made vases and containers. The most extraordinary thing crafted by a potter he’d heard of was statues or sculptures. But for a potter to be able to make smoke bombs? That was something! Now that he thought about it, a grenade or a bomb was an exploding container.
He recovered somewhat from his earlier disappointment once he read something interesting about his new class. He moved on to study the details of the other recipes.
Mud Hut
Ingredients: 50x[Clay], 50x[Dry Grass]; 5x[Torches]
Recipe: Temper the clay in a proportion of 3 clay to 1 dry grass. Throw them into a patty and form the walls of the house. Use a torch to let the layer dry before setting a new one. Use the remaining dry grass to make a thatch roof.
Requirements:
Clay Tempering;
Clay Molding, lvl. 3;
Camping;
Handyman, lvl. 10.
This recipe seemed to be a handyman’s unique take on camping. Knowing how expensive a tent frame and cloth could be, this alternative had a certain appeal. Clay and dry grass were dirt-cheap. Given how much more work was to build it, it probably came with significant bonuses. He just had to try making a hut later.
After reading the mud hut recipe, he could also infer what [Clay Tempering] was. It was mixing clay and grass. To confirm this, he went into detail about his new skill.
Clay Tempering
Description: You add non-plastic material to clay to prevent it from cracking when it dries, making it stronger and lighter.
Effects:
You can mix clay and dry grass.
Increases the durability of crafted items.
He let out a whistle. This was his favorite synergy so far. Any extra point to the durability of a piece of ceramic meant more money in his pocket. So far, he had to put a lot of effort into pursuing perfection when crafting the piece and using glazes. Now, all he had to do to make a vase more durable was add some dry grass to the clay!
Finally, there was a new title. It was surprisingly valuable!
Uniqueness (Legendary)
Description:
Effects:
+5 fame
Conditions to unlock [Legendary]:
Be the first player in the game to unlock a class, faction, or profession.
It was a legendary title! And according to the conditions to unlock it, he was the first player to get this class! That had to be good, right? 5 fame was also no joke, according to what Amari had told him earlier.
Remembering how he got into this situation by not reading things through, he slapped himself several times with both hands. With a reawakened mind, he reread everything: the class description, notifications, restrictions, recipes, and skills.
Glancing at Kevin, he found he had stopped gardening and was now tending to the pigs running around the cave. Was this going to be him from now on? A recluse in a cave full of barely functioning junk? “A handyman…” He laughed bitterly. Wasn’t that one of his father’s many jobs?
The rewards for this rare quest were very different from what he expected. He needed time to think. He had also been playing for too long. He probably had to use the bathroom and get something to eat. Jack logged out.
*
Jack grunted as he climbed down the stairs. His thighs protested with each step. The soreness caused by jogging yesterday made every movement painful. Worse than that, he felt feverish and sickly. It was as if his whole body had banded together to protest against the abuse he had put it through when he exercised. At least the hot shower helped him loosen up his muscles.
Jack entered the kitchen, and his jaw dropped. “Mom?! Dad?!”
His parents sat around the kitchen table eating pancakes while sipping coffee. Catching sight of him, his mother stood up and hugged him. His father kept his eyes glued to his pancakes, only raising the coffee mug to acknowledge his presence. Jack chuckled. His father took eating brunch seriously. If there were pancakes on the table, his father saw nothing else.
“Good morning, Jack. How are you doing?” his mother asked.
“A little sore.”
“Sore? Are you sick?” she asked, putting her hand against his forehead.
Jack gently pulled her hand away. “No, Mom. It’s because I went running in the park yesterday.”
“The secret is run today again!” His father shouted from the side. “It will hurt at first, but then the pain goes away.”
“Come and sit down, honey. I’ll make some pancakes for you.”
“Thanks.” Jack slowly approached the table and sat on the opposite side of the table from his father. Although his dad hadn’t confronted him since the day of the ultimatum, Jack was terrified he would bring up his job situation. Hopefully, he would keep focused on the pancakes on his plate and ignore Jack.
Jack studied his mother, wearing an apron, and his father, who was in his PJs at home. It all amounted to one conclusion: it was the weekend! He’d been so caught up in playing New Earth that he’d forgotten what day of the week it was.
His father finished eating the last pancake on his plate. Jack’s heart raced, seeing that his mother hadn’t finished making more. Without food on his plate, his father’s gaze finally lifted, and he honed in on Jack.
Here we go.
“Son, how was your week?”
“It was fine, dad. Thanks. Yours?”
“Good. Good.” His father sipped in the steamy coffee, keeping his eyes on Jack.
Jack could practically hear his father’s mind working. He was calculating whether he should ask about his job situation, considering whether it was worth asking how many CVs he’d sent and what steps he was taking to ensure he could contribute around the house. He took his time thinking it through while Jack nervously tapped his foot under the table. His father had the unique talent to use silence as a method of torture. It was his superpower. If the police knew someone with this ability existed, his father would have long left the gardening business and joined the force.
“Any news?” his father finally asked. Jack caught the shift in his mother’s body language. She was still tending to the pancakes but making herself look smaller.
“I’ve found a job!” Jack heard himself say. What? Jack?! What are you doing?
There was the sound of a spoon falling. “Sorry,” his mother apologized while his father studied him with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s great, Jack!” his father said. “What job?”
Jack gulped drily. “Handyman.”
“A sério? Um faz-tudo? I-I mean. Really? A handyman?” His father was so surprised that the sentence came out half in Portuguese and half in English. His face seemed to be stuck somewhere between shock and pride.
His mother had walked over to the table, looking like a crashed computer that needed a reboot. The kitchen was beginning to smell a little burned.
Seeing his parents’ ridiculous reactions to his lie, Jack’s nostrils flared! What in the world is wrong with you two? You are my parents! Have some faith in your child! Why would my finding a job as a handyman be something so unbelievable? Jack screamed his frustrations to himself while unloading his frustrations on the pancakes in his mouth.
“Handymen need to know a little of everything. A little bit of plumbing, carpentry, electricity. How will you do the job? You have no experience.”
Jack stuffed his mouth with pancakes to give himself some more time to think. “They provide the training.” The more Jack spoke, the more he realized how deep of a hole he was digging for himself.
“Well done, son! It’s good for you to learn a little of everything.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“When do you start?” his mother asked.
“Monday. But I’ve already been studying online.”
His father nodded approvingly, and a thin smile sprang on his lips. “Good! See Maria? What I told you? This is good for him! He needed a little pressure to get out there and find an opportunity. Please! More pancakes for the boy! He’s going to need his strength! Ha! And please! Some more for me! Today, I celebrate.”
“I’m so happy for you, dear. Well done,” his mother said, hugging him.
Now that his indignation passed, his face reddened. While his mother made a new batch of pancakes, his father stood up and moved his plate over so that he could face Jack. “I still do some work as a handyman at the hotel. You can come with me and practice if you want. I’m willing to help.”
“T-thanks, Dad.”
As his father went on spouting hints and stories of his work as a handyman, Jack kept scarfing down the pancakes. They tasted like paper. He couldn’t taste the sweetness of the maple syrup, no matter how much he poured on his plate.
His parents were so proud when he told him he had a menial job. It had been a long time since he’d seen them this happy. What was wrong with him? Why was he lying to his parents? Seeing his father’s proud smile and his mother singing, he felt something in his heart break. Was he the reason why they weren’t this happy more often? Was he so much of a failure that such a small feat would make them this proud? He had often complained about his parents, but maybe there was much more about him they could complain about. He had thought he didn’t deserve his father’s ultimatum. Maybe he didn’t deserve such lovely parents.
Even though he was overtaken with a profound gloom, outwardly, Jack maintained a smile and kept nodding as his father recounted a funny story of how he had used bubble gum to fix a boiler.
His heart was pounding on his chest. Should he tell them he had just lied to them? They looked too darn happy! He took a deep breath. What he had told his parents wasn’t technically a lie. He had become, indeed, a handyman, albeit in a game. He was also receiving training for it by watching game tutorials. “Well, everyone, I have to go,” Jack said, standing up.
“Where are you going?” his mother asked curiously.
“Off to meet Rob,” Jack declared.
“Alright! I’ll make some pancakes for him. Get dressed. When you come back down, they’ll be ready.”
As soon as he turned around the corner, his smile crumpled into panic. He wouldn’t disappoint them. He couldn’t disappoint them.
**************
Maybe the end of book 1? What do you think? Is it a good place to end it?
What did you think of the class? Any suggestions? Any tweaks necessary?
Ch. 56 - A Blessing or a Curse?
Comments
Cássio Ferreira
Thank you for that feedback!
Blacklynx39
Unbound knowledge appears broken. The Effect reads 2 Minor slots for every Minor skill reaching level 10. Open slots are 2. Jack should have a total of 6 Minor skill slots based on the description (Pottery, 2 open slots, Bushcraft, 2 Open slots). If you were to change the effect to read 1 new minor slot after maxing out a minor slot it would be correct.
Cássio Ferreira
Not in the next few chapters, that's for sure. He's just unlocked his class. Now it will be all about him learning how to use it, and only later will he able to get a cash out.
Daniel Everest
I'm not sure if now is the best time to end it, his goal is to earn money playing the game, how long in-story until he gets his first cash out?
