Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!

"You said what now?" Leaning forward and scanning over the list of passives in the hologram, Tristian soon leaned back and squinted in confusion. Stay connected with My Virtual Library Empire

"It's not a big deal. The fact that he already has the Blacksmithing passive is proof enough that his Attribute will still apply to something like our Tradeskills; I assume the only reason he hasn't earned any other smithing passives is due in part to the lack of tools. Am I correct?" Poking his head to the side of the hologram and making eye contact with Aoni, Tristian asked.

"Yes, Sir, even I was surprised to earn a Blacksmithing Passive, considering all I had to use was a campfire and some crude molds." Nodding his head and following the prompts as usual, Aoni could feel a bit of sweat forming on his forehead.

"And what was it you made, if you don't mind me asking?" This time, it was Mark butting in.

"Some crude nails, hinges, things for daily convenience. I haven't really gotten my hands on a real amount of metal, so I wasn't ever able to craft anything along the lines of metal weapons."

"Un, un, understandable, even if you were to get your hands on something akin to a forge or press, I doubt you'd have much chance of learning it all on your own. Still, I must say, the amount of passives you've earned in such a short time is quite impressive." Sharing a look of understanding with Maevis, Tristin's bald head bounced up and down, reflecting the light of the hologram in a manner that threatened to blind Aoni if he stared too long.

"Very well then…"

CLICK

With a button press, the hologram projector vanished into the floor, and the bright lights kicked back on, causing Aoni to flinch for a second as his eyes adjusted to the sudden shift in brightness.

"Seeing as your passive seems to only work with items you've personally gathered, we will be using the resources brought back from your Territory." Shifting uncomfortably in her chair, Maevis took control of the conversation and steered the examination back on track.

"Unlike with normal Examinations, you will have to go through three different tests in the Attribute phase, one pertaining to each of us so that we may judge the viability, quality, productivity, and most importantly, utility of your Attribute." Turning to her left, *Aoni's Right*, Maevis nodded for Mark to begin.

"Alright, young man, based on the fact that you not only crafted this backpack, and from what I gather, your clothing as well, I will keep things simple; I want you to craft a pair of gloves…"

From that statement, Mark began detailing what he was looking for. He even brought out a few low-grade tools that Aoni could utilize when cutting and working with the allotted materials.

What it boiled down to was just a simple pair of work gloves, like what a gardener would use. Since time wasn't unlimited, Mark opted for something he knew was possible within 30 minutes and even gave Aoni that window as a reference.

CLICK brrrrrr.

Then, with another click of a button, a workbench rose up from the floor, the materials were allocated to it, and Aoni went to work.

In all honesty, the Examiners weren't looking to be impressed; if anything, they just wanted a show of use for his Attribute, and if something good came out of that, so be it.

Think of the exam as a means of understanding and proving a Traveler's Attribute worked as said; after all, there were many ways to interpret the description listed on a Traveler's display, and as such, testing was mandatory, especially in cases like Aoni, where he had been brought up under the guise of Government Subsidy.

Sifting through everything available to him, the Lad quickly picked out some hide that had already been tanned, three pieces to be exact, one for each glove and one to create sutures, and got to work.

Using his hand for reference, Aoni traced out a blueprint, cut it out of the hide, and set the four hands off to the side before getting to work, shearing extremely thin slivers of hide. After that, it was just a matter of cobbling everything together; however, it was also the part he stopped.

While it may seem as if this was something he'd done time and time again, and in a sense, was textbook craftsmanship right out of the Academy Curriculum, actually, he was going step by step provided by the floating ethereal chat window.

| The User requires 2 Energia Crystals |

'Fuck, right, forgot for a second where I was,' he thought while calmly placing his tools down and stepping back from the table before looking up at the three Examiners.

"Excuse me, sirs, madam; I require two of the Energia Crystals I brought back with me to…"

| Activate my passive and strengthen the items. This is the step I have to infuse the materials with Energia before finishing up the crafting process; only then will my Attribute take effect. Although I can utilize my own Energia, since I don't have much, I need to draw from a secondary source |

'the heck, it's so…convoluted,'

| It is what it is; this is the normal means of activation for many crafting professions |

Parroting word for word what his AN was writing, Aoni looked at Maevis, in particular, to try and judge her reaction, then, to his amazement, with a flick of her wrist, two Energia crystals vanished from the pile in front of her and appeared on the workbench in front of Aoni.

"Continue," she said dismissively; however, on the inside, she was quite pleased with how polite this newbie traveler was acting and that he even explained why he needed the crystals instead of demanding things the way several people who'd been in for their examination earlier today had.

With the crystals in hand and his play-by-play instructions floating in his line of sight, Aoni took one of them in his right hand while working with his left to begin stitching together two of the four cut-out leather hands.

Once the first one was complete, and the crystal was half drained of Energia, he picked up the second crystal, mirrored his work from the first, and then wrapped both finished gloves around the two half-drained crystals and made a show of "ACTIVATING" his Attribute.