Chương 68: Leather and Labor

Tom sat at the workbench working on his newest pair of leather gloves. His first few pairs did not turn out so well; he could not get his fingers into them. He was working now to improve the fit and figure out how to make various sizes. The leather caps, chest, legs, and boots were easier on him as they were less detailed. He had even thought maybe some fingerless gloves might be better at this point. He had already mastered the arm guards and shin guards and even made some neck guards.

He was now working to level his Leatherworker class he recently got. He brought up his class progression to check his progress.

[Leatherworker — Novice Rank] Rank Advancement Requirements: Craft 25 leather items (18 / 25) • Create 5 fitted armor pieces (3 / 5) • Successfully work uncommon materials (0 / 1) • Supply crafted goods through settlement trade • Improve material efficiency Potential Advancement: Apprentice Leatherworker He was making good progress on the first two requirements but needed to figure out the best way to accomplish more.

He had added a few of his leather items to their settlement shop, but to complete the supply crafted goods option, he had to actually sell some goods through the trade system. His problem was that the people that would need his goods were not yet doing tasks in Forest's Reach. So he decided he would take his goods up to the cave, show them off, and then see if he could get some of the guys at the cave interested in using the settlement trade and help him get this requirement checked off.

Tom went through the pile of items he had made in the past few weeks. Some were better than others, and most were made before he got his class, which was a game changer when it came to skill precision, and even the amount of wasted materials was less now. He finally settled on the idea that he would take the 3 best of each of the items he had made. Then he headed over to Cave Camp. On his way to the cave, he was impressed that the trail had been improved above the rough trail Mark had done the first time.

There were more markers, and the path had all the branches and shrubs trimmed back so they could pull a cart down it with no issues. As he walked, he went through ideas on how to sell or pitch his goods. He finally decided that he was going to make the system show these cave junkies how valuable trade was in the system. When Tom walked into camp, he walked over to the biggest group of people sitting by the fire and introduced himself.

He explained that his class was leatherworking and that he had made a ton of items that they might be interested in. He then pulled out a chest piece, leggings, boots, a belt, and gloves and let the people examine them. They were suitably impressed, and most had no serious gear and wanted his stuff. Several of them pulled out items and tried to outbid each other for the chest piece. After they tried haggling for a few minutes, he finally got them to stop.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. He explained to them about the system shop through the outposts. He explained there was one here at the cave, and Forest's Reach had one, and explained how to get there. All they wanted to know was the price and how to pay for it. So as a group, he went over to the outpost storage area, opened his interface, and added all of the leather items he brought to the system shop.

Someone mentioned they distrusted the system pricing, and Tom pointed out that the same system gave them experience and loot already, and if they trusted that, they could trust the system shop. He walked them through registering with the outpost and showed them how to bring up the goods that were up for trade, and they went through the costs.

Of course none of them had any system credits, so he walked them through how they could add items to the system shop, and if they were desired, it would take them and give credit. He then explained how they could also do tasks on the task list. And helped the outpost as a whole complete needed tasks. Then Tom opened up the system interface and filtered for leather and other materials he needed for making more goods and purchased as much as he could until he ran out of system credits.

The group watched him as he loaded up all the goods he just purchased, and then he waved and headed back to Forest's Edge. As he walked away, he heard one of the guys telling another one that he had just picked up two tasks that will take him roughly a day to do and give him enough to buy the boots he wanted and a bit towards his next item. The other guy responded back that he just bought a water flask and traded in some of the salt he gathered to get the credits he needed. Another said hauling logs pays that much.

I'm doing that and going to earn enough before the rest of you rockheads buy up that chest piece I want. About halfway back, he got a system message that let him know someone had purchased his chest piece and a pair of gloves and that his class requirement was now complete. He was glad for that and hoped that word would spread about his leather goods so that he could continue to make items and get new goods. One of the things Tom noticed is the difference in contribution points for each item.

The items he had most recently created that were better quality, better stitched, and from better materials were almost double the contribution value of the older, lower-quality items he had made. When Tom went back to camp, he was surprised at the changes going on. There was a group of men cutting down trees, making the ground space almost double for their camp. There were stakes placed out with strings stretched between them marking off borders.

There were a few guys digging out foundations on the new longhouse they were building and stones stacked up ready to be put in for footings. There was a pile of trees that were being split into board lengths and others that were being cut and trimmed to be main beams to hold up the roof beams for the longhouse, which was going in first. He even saw a pair of guys digging a well for fresh water so they would in the future not have to make so many trips to the stream.

It had been only yesterday when Mark had agreed to rebuild the camp in preparation for its growth with the incoming crowds that wanted to experience the cave. Tom finally went back to his crafting bench. As he looked at it and the people around him, he really looked forward to when the crafting workshop would be completed; more room and better tools were planned. Drying racks, scraping racks, and other tools specific to his crafting profession had been promised as part of the deal.

Just before he went back to work, he noticed one of the murder pigs was biting on Dale's foot, and he kept kicking it away. That thing loved him, and Dale kept saying how much he hated the murder pigs, but he never seemed to make Ava put it back in the pen; he just swished it out of his way and kept cooking.