CLA.S.S NEUTRAL: Stranger Is Coming

Kraft. Skills from the real life. Reflections.

"Rikt Belvenor," I said to the old man.

"I'm listening," he perked up without dropping his work. It was obvious he liked the addressing.

"Do you have some graphite?"

"What is this?"

"Something like coal, only much more fragile," I explained.

"This one?" the old man handed me a small cylinder of graphite.

"Exactly."

"A stranger found it and decided to give it to me, but I still don't understand why. Maybe you can explain?"

"No problem, but I also need a piece of wood, some glue, and a knife. I'll try to do one thing that will greatly simplify the creation of your maps."

Having received the necessary items, I started making a pencil. I worked hard, broke a couple of the wood pieces, slightly spoilt the graphite and smudged my hands with the glue, but I finally succeeded.

You created the new device 'The Stranger's Pencil'.

Description: Taking ingredients familiar to you from another world, you were able to combine them and create the item you needed. Having put a lot of work and patience in, you have achieved what you wanted.

Class: unique

Effects:

+ 10% to the speed of creating a new map

+ 10% to the peed of creating a picture

+ 5 to the skill 'Cartography'

+10 to the skill 'Painting'

+5 to the Intelligence

+5 to the Stamina

+5 to the Patience

Note: It is a little clumsy, but still it is better than nothing.

"Wow!" An ordinary pencil, instead of the awful one that I had made, materialized in my hands. The system was right, and perhaps it regretted me by giving a better item. I was grateful to it. "Appreciate it, Rikt Belvenor."

"Just a second." The old man put on his glasses and took the pencil in his hand. "Not bad, not bad. It doesn't make any spots. As far as I understand, this is a device from another world?"

"You're right. Now, I'll show you how an expert can draw." I took the pencil and sat down at the table. Despite the fact that I hadn't drawn anything for a long time, I created a rather good map of the Earth. Before my eyes, I saw the following:

You created the Map of the Earth.

Description: A rather good image of strangers' home world, made by a skilled artist. However, the map shows only the contours of the continents and largest landscape elements (mountains, rivers, large lakes). It isn't scalable or dynamic.

Class: unique

You learned the skill 'Cartography'.

Description: Thanks to the master-cartographer's help, and your talent for drawing and geography, you were able to create your first high-quality map. Work hard and master this skill, and you will become smarter, more resilient, and more focused.

Class: unusual

Level: 10

You learned the skill 'Painting'.

Description: You've always drawn. Even at school, your drawings were the best. Over time, your skills improved: you could draw more elaborate images. For many years you have been drawing tirelessly in your free time, reproducing on paper what you saw in your dreams.

Your skills weren't lost in Rainea. Continue to improve further because no one knows how strong a masterpiece's creator could be.

Class: very rare

Level: 42

Wow! I didn't expect the skill to be pumped up so greatly. Stop! How did the developers know about it? To be more precise, how did they implement it in the game? Maybe during the consciousness transference, the brain was scanned thoroughly and the developers were able to create a decoder, or rather a signal converter from neural pulses into standard formats? It meant that they now have the data of fifty-odd million people.

Damn! This is a violation of international law. Hmm… I think I wasn't the first to suspect them of such a breach, so there must be something else. Maybe this data is used by the game itself, not allowing developers to use it?

I need to think it over. On the other hand, though, it allows gifted people to be cool here, regardless of their level. Screw them! Now I don't care about that world—same as about the developers.

I made a dozen more pencils, pumping my skill 'Inventor' up to the fifth level. Then it dawned on me: I needed an eraser. What could I make it from?

"I have one more idea, but I don't know how to implement it. I need something soft and at the same time hard, moreover, this material must have sufficient elasticity." I didn't know how to explain to the cartographer what rubber was. And I didn't know how to make it myself either.

"Hmm… maybe rubber?"

"Whaaaat?" His words astonished me greatly. "That would be nice."

He disappeared somewhere behind the cabines and appeared only five minutes later. Belvenor put a black rubber brick on the table and explained, "I took this material from the technocrats for research, but I couldn't think of an application for it. However, I discovered its many interesting properties."

"Let's try to do this first." I took a knife and cut off a small piece from the rubber and started erasing. A couple of seconds later, the black rubber square turned into white one. Then a message popped up:

You created the new device 'The Stranger's Eraser'.

Description: Suddenly finding an unusual ingredient in this world, without thinking twice, you used the simplest manipulations to replenish the cartographer and artist set.

Class: unique

Effects:

+ 10% to the erase speed

+5 to the skill 'Cartography'

+5 to the skill 'Painting'

+5 to the Intelligence

+5 to the Strength

+5 to the Patience

+5 to the Concentration.

Note 1: Having spent a tremendous amount of effort and using many ingredients, you came up with a very original thing. I hope you understand this is irony.

Note 2: The eraser is unique not because no one else has made one before, but because no one has made it this way. That's why the device has acquired the class 'unique'. The pencil's class is the same, so don't flatter yourself.

The simplest of manipulations had worked. I didn't know what I would have done if this trick had failed. Although, why hadn't the technocrats made such simple things as a pencil and an eraser? Or perhaps they had made them, but using some other recipes, judging by the notes I received. I didn't like reading such messages, but I understood that I wasn't the smartest and coolest person here.

The technocrats surely made drawings of their inventions before doing anything. Or maybe they were so cool that it was unnecessary? Hmm… if I remembered correctly, in the game you could implement almost any item or device from the real world, after which the developers concluded contracts with you. Why couldn't they make items themselves? Most likely, because of some rights and patents, or maybe they just wanted to give players more opportunities to stand out.

I made five more erasers and pencils, which then lost their class 'unique'. I wasn't upset as I'd fulfilled my main goal. I didn't need to stay here any longer. Having taken some of the erasers and pencils, I said goodbye to the contented cartographer and left.