A short while after, I change into my freshly crafted pair of Beginner's Bronze Boots, completing the set.

There's no special bonus for wearing all the pieces, but as a Bronze Tier equipment set, it's two tiers above that complimentary starter garbage they try to foist off on new players that doesn't even meet the Copper Tier standard. With the Beginner's Bronze Set, my Resilience is increased by a grand total of 5 points, and my Strength is increased by 2, compliments of the Beginner's Bronze Zweihander.

If I had to make a complaint, it would be that the Facemask restricts my field of view. If my base Resilience wasn't garbage I'd seriously consider just not wearing it at all or sliding it around the back of my head, but the current Equipment system functions more on a slot-based system than any sense of realism, so it's more or less fused in place.

"How's it feel?" A question from Henna, who's loitering in the doorway, catches me by surprise.

"What do you mean?" I'm not exactly clear on what she's asking.

"To wear equipment forged by your own hands. How's it feel?" She clarifies, looking a little...anxious?

Splaying my arms out, I take a look at myself all decked out in the first armour set I've made in this life. After some thought, the answer is obvious, "Feels right."

Nodding silently, Henna retreats back into the shop, closing the door behind her.

Odd.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, something to look into later. Sundown is in a couple hours, and although I'll be cutting it close, I think I can just about make it back to the City before the gates close. I do not want to have to log out in the wilderness at night.

It's just about a straight line down one of the busiest and most heavily patrolled roads to the gate, so I'm not too worried about an ambush, but for the sake of caution, I'll take off the Facemask so I can see properly without craning my neck side to side.

The gate is packed with players looking for party members, the majority looking for assistance with Ujax related quests. Unfortunately, my not-garbage equipment has a bit of an impact on the gathered masses, and before long I'm having to wade through what feels like a hundred players soliciting me for their groups or asking me where I got it from.

Pushing through takes longer than I can really afford to spend, but I console myself with the boost to my fame amongst the local playerbase. I wouldn't be surprised if a rumour about a Silva in full bronze chainmail starts spreading around the players in the city after that little fashion parade I gave.

I can't say I expected the reaction to the Beginner's Bronze set to be quite so extreme, even so.

It's...What's the word...serendipitous.

Pretty soon, they'll be able to put a name to the face, which will likewise connect to the World Announcements, creating a good foundation for a budding local legend.

Reputation is more valuable than money.

The Failed Mage's Ruined Laboratory, Unnamed Hill North of Meteo City

Managing my Stamina as best I can, I make good time alternating between a steady walk and brief periods of jogging and sprinting. All the same, I've travelled about three miles, and my body is definitely feeling the strain since Resilience and Strength don't really contribute to it - Stamina is mostly influenced by Agility, and mine is still at the initial 5.

Looking around, I don't see any sign of my rival outside, meaning they either realised they were wasting their time and gave up, or they're still beating their head against the Reminiscence's hard ceiling.

Either way, I should head inside.

The lab is, predictably smelly and dusty, only lessened by the door having been opened a few hours ago, allowing the cramped room to ventilate. Irikis must have gotten quite the olfactory punch in the face when he opened it - sealed ruins like this always stink to high heaven after playing home to rotting corpses. The thought tickles my funny bone.

Along the right wall is a long, complicated looking machine with a gaping hole in it, splaying metal and wire - like someone grabbed hold of an animal's ribcage and ripped it open. Slumped against the wall directly opposite is the crumpled skeletal remains of The Failed Mage. His robe has mostly rotted away by now, but the indentation left in the stonework paints a pretty easy to understand picture of what killed him.

To what end the machine was built is unclear, since amidst the chaos of the room, there exists no surviving documentation from the explosion. Playing through the reminiscence only gives you a couple of minutes of paused time prior to the accident to identify and fix the fault that caused the explosion, with the rest of the machine uninteractable and the scene ends the moment you're done with your proposed solution.

Nonetheless, people like to theorise that it might have something to do with item appraisal - the reason being that Reminiscence awards exclusively item appraisal-related paraphernalia.

Whatever the reason, the influence of The Failed Mage makes it impossible to mess with the lab any further, so even if someone were curious enough to try and reverse-engineer the real machine, it's simply not going to happen.

The Reminiscence floats ominously above his corpse, a dark purple gem giving off a modest glow which serves as the lab's only light source besides the blade of sunlight peeking over the stairs. After re-equipping my Facemask, touching it with a single finger is all that's necessary to begin the transference process.

Disoriented, I stagger in place, the world around me swims before resolving into a fuzzy image. The edges of objects in the no-longer destroyed lab are hazy, and the further away from the machine something is, the worse the distortion becomes, to the point where it can no longer be identified.

Hunched over his knees, The Failed Mage, a middle-aged Firm man in a faded green robe, squats a foot away from an open panel in his machine, paused in the middle of rummaging for a tool in a wooden basket. Poor bastard doesn't realise what's about to happen to him, but what's past is past. I'm here to for the sake of his lingering will's wish fulfilment and the promise of reward.

Mindful of the rapidly depleting time, I inspect the innards of the machine.

There are three rows of interlocking cogs, made from different materials. Let's call them A, B and C.

A is made of some kind of wood, with three large cogwheels. Quickly removing each one and flipping them around, I don't see any obvious damage, and start moving through the shiny little cogwheels of B. After the fifth cog, I once again come up short, leaving C as the problematic row.

Staring intently at the cogs on C, I find not one, but two cogs are damaged - a tooth on each cog that was in contact with each other has started to snap off due to an excess of strain on the material. Going by the time, I just barely have enough to fix them both, and with barely three seconds left on the clock, I replace snap the cogs back onto their spokes and get removed from the Reminiscence.

Mid-transfer, the evaluation screen pops up.

My joy is cut short when I'm ejected bodily into a heap on the floor.

"-uck!"

Followed by a second person sent tumbling out after me.

Quickly getting to my feet, I draw my sword and level it at the shoddily dressed Firm nursing his backside, "Irikis Falk, I presume?"

The young vagabond curses a few more times under his breath, "Yeah, who wants to know? ..Wait you're that Silver Nose guy! Motherfucker, that was my big break you just stole!"

I roll my eyes, "It's Nosster. And right back at you. How the hell did you find out about this? Talk."

Irikis gives me a shit-eating grin, "Oooh I'm so scawed of the big mean knight wannabe! Psh, I ain't telling you Jack. Shit."

Grunting, I stab for his legs, only to miss as he rolls fluidly out the way and hops to his feet, "Too slow!"

Bringing my sword around, I step forward and cut towards him in a sweeping arc, only to miss once again as he ducks under at the last second with a cocky grin and unsheathe a dagger from the starting equipment.

Scout. Jacked his Agility and Dexterity. At least double my Agility.

Not to be caught off guard, I respond to his aggression by pivoting to my backfoot and launching a solid kick to his abdomen. He grunts, but sways back with the blow to cushion it, falling into a backward tumble to put distance between the two of us. Understanding flashes across his face, and he turns to run, evidently deciding that fighting me in a direct confrontation isn't in his favour.

Unfortunately, I'm not quick enough to chase him down and I don't possess any skills that can help compensate for the difference in our stats. By the time I scale the staircase, he's already gone, leveraging the Scout's innate stealthiness to make his escape the moment he broke line of sight with me.

Nonetheless, I don't let my guard down. Experienced Assassin-types will exploit the relaxation felt at the end of combat after escaping to finish what they couldn't the first time. If I had a free hand, I'd swap my Facemask to the Failed Mage's Monocle sitting in my inventory to take advantage of the large Perception boost.

A few minutes go by, when an arrogant voice calls out from above the entrance to the lab, "Wow, you really are just gonna stand there until I leave, aren't you?"

Turning to face him, sword still ready, I grunt affirmation, "I've got plenty of experience dealing with sneaky cunts who think they're hot shit."

Irikis sniggers, "You mean plenty of experience getting stabbed? God, you talk like an old man. Are you? It's always so hard to tell with these games."

The scout tosses his knife from hand to hand, "You realise I can't just let this go, though, right? I mean, you did kind of steal my prize."

"I didn't steal anything, I earned it," I deny flatly, "But you still haven't answered my question. This Reminiscence wasn't supposed to be revealed for another Real month."

"Isn't it?" Irikis tilts his head quizzically, "Neat, I guess. Anyway, if you don't want a knife in the eye, you'd best give up that monocle."

I shake my head, "Even if I could, I wouldn't. It's bound to me permanently."

Irikis frowns, "You can't be serious. Damn it! Ugh. Fine, fine - but I'm not joking about the knife in the eye thing. I'm still pissed and it's more the principle of the thing, y'know? Can't be having some rando swooping in and profiting off my hard work, it sets a bad example."

He sheathes his dagger, glancing at the sun, now starting to make it's descent below the horizon, "Not now though. Later, wannabe!"

So-saying, he runs up the hill and vanishes over the peak. After a minute, I feel confident that he's not leering at me and preparing for a double bluff ambush, and sheath my sword. It's getting late now, and I need to be in a safe place before I log out.

As a precaution, I swap the Beginner's Bronze Facemask with my prize to take advantage of the stat boost on the off-chance Irikis tries following me.

IdleFancy

I didn't feel like it was necessary to write and include the stat block for 6 pieces of decidedly uninteresting basic-bitch equipment at once in case you were curious. Efficiency, ho!

Getting Irikis to sound the right amount of douchiness was interesting, though.