Upgrades

Today marks one month since the first player had arrived at Tunir's smithy. In this time he has serviced thousands of different players and has had a drastic shift of what he believed heroes would act like. As per the usual, Tunir was hammering away at an object at the forge. The clinking noise of metal on metal could be heard reverberating throughout the building.

"And… Done! One iron longsword ready to go!" Tunir declared. He gave a large smile as he held the iron longsword in front of a player that was patiently waiting behind the counter.

"..." The player simply gave a thousand yard stare as she said nothing. Tunir was trying to hand the sword to the player, but they didn't move a muscle and thus Tunir could not relinquish the item to them. He is quite disturbed by what this player is doing. Could they be having a stroke or something? Does he need to call a doctor?

Before Tunir could begin to panic and fret about what to do about this situation, another player walked into the smithy.

"Hello Mr. Smith! Today I would ask of you to upgrade my armor to the next tier." The player proclaimed.

"H-Huh? Do you not notice this person that's just sitting here?" Tunir asked as he pointed at the player that was standing stock still.

"Don't worry about them. I need my armor upgraded." The player persisted.

Tunir stayed silent for a moment, but eventually decided to go along with what the player was asking of him. The player that is standing still hasn't started to foam at the mouth… yet, so Tunir thinks he still has some time.

"Well… Alright. Come sit down at the forge then." Tunir slapped the tabletop and declared.

The player disappeared from in front of the counter and reappeared at the forge and began to hammer at the nondescript red hot item that many other players had worked on in the past. Tunir has yet to be able to find out what this object is, but he's decided to not worry about it.

"Okay! Go over to your iron chestplate and click on the plus button!" Tunir could hear himself say. He isn't sure why a plus button would do anything, but he's decided to roll with whatever he automatically says now.

The familiar brown screen appeared in front of the player and a multitude of screens shifted before a plus icon was highlighted.

"Alright, now you need select the material you wish to upgrade your item with! Certain items will imbue certain effects into the object that you're upgrading! Try many different combinations to make an optimal build! I will give you some danorite which applies a slashing damage resistance! It was a gift from my wife, but I don't need it so I want you to have it." Tunir announced while he pulled a small chunk of a reddish metal from his back pocket. He has no idea where he got danorite from since it's a very expensive material, nor does he know how he would get such an item as a gift from his wife considering he is unmarried, but he decided to not fret.

"So I just click the upgrade icon here?" The player asked.

"Yes! Upgrading your item will take 5 minutes. You can skip this time by purchasing a speed pass from the shop! Would you like to open the shop?"

"Ugh, micro-transactions… No thank you. I'll wait." The player stated.

"Okay. Your chestplate will be ready in five minutes!" Tunir declared.

The player stood up from the forge and stood next to the female player that was staring into space. It seemed like this was some odd behavioral pattern as the other player also began to stare at the wall and stand perfectly still.

"Are you okay?" Tunir asked, but neither of the players replied. He decided to whistle a little bit to fill the silence.

Tunir went back over to the forge to inspect anything that was cooking inside of it. Despite the fact that an iron chestplate was allegedly being forged right now, there was no sign of any iron chestplate behind the counter at all.

Tunir sat down and wiped his brow. The heat of the forge all day and the constant work is exhausting, so having a moment of respite in these otherwise hectic times is a nice change of pace.

Tunir waited in his seat until 5 minutes had passed. As soon as the five minutes had passed, the male player appeared to have woken back up and spoke to Tunir. This made him jump out of his seat in fright.

"Okay. I'll take the chestplate now!" The player stated.

Tunir saw a now red iron chestplate appear on the counter. The player grabbed it and it appeared on his body without him having to slide it on.

"Sweet. Thanks Mr. Blacksmith!" The player shouted before running out of the smithy.

Tunir waved the player away and let out a small sigh. Though the player had left, there was still the matter with this player that was staring off into space. Tunir isn't sure exactly why players are such an odd people. Perhaps it's because they come from a different dimension and the customs there are different, or perhaps it's the fault of the great deity. No matter what the issue is, players seem to constantly have these strange difficulties with dealing with even the most mundane of tasks.

The day went on as normal and before he knew it, the sun had begun to set. Many people had come and gone in the time that had passed, but this player was still standing in his smithy, unblinking and unmoving.

"Um… Excuse me ma'am, but don't you want your sword?" Tunir lightly asked.

"..." Silence again. It seems like this player might have just fallen asleep on their feet.

"Hmm… If only there was some way I could notify this player of what had happened…" Tunir muttered to himself.

At his statement, the player suddenly came back to life and looked at the counter.

"Oh man! I'm sorry I totally left the game on in the background! You had like, a 30 minute timer so I went AFK!" She said before grabbing the sword.

AFK? Game on in the background? What do these things mean?

Before Tunir could ask these things, the player disappeared from his shop like a bubble that had been popped.

"Haah… It seems like that problem settled itself." Tunir muttered into the empty smithy.