The Online Craftsmaster 104 Reminiscing

John sat in the kitchen of his dungeon all of his friends already went offline leaving Johnny behind with his thoughts. He was reminiscing in the past thinking about his childhood...

He remembered when he was a six year old Lad, he and his brother just started school and before they even reached the school he already fell down twice scratching his brand new school bag and spreading all of his books and pencils on the floor. John started crying but his brother just grabbed his bag and started collecting everything after he gave his school bag to John.

At first John thanked his brother after he stopped crying, but when they started walking again they had to walk through the shopping district that was alive with crowds of people. The walked past a school supply store when suddenly a clerk came and stopped them, he saw the scratched bag on the back of his brother and said: " Wait boy, i saw you buying this school bag with parents some days ago, it must have been an oversight on our part and i am deeply sorry for not noticing that our product was this damaged. Here take this new model its the last one we have in stock as an apology."

John could just watch completely startled how his brother got a new premium backpack because John damaged his own and his brother took it. John now had a sour taste in his mouth when they walked the rest of the way and finally reached their school. They got to their classroom and the female teacher called their names one by one until only John was not called yet. Suddenly the teacher closed her notebook and wanted to start the class but John quickly stood up and said that his name wasn't called yet.

The teacher looked at him with a strange face and asked for his name and looked at the list again but couldn't find him. She seemed to get slightly annoyed because the time that got lost by this problem and maybe she thought that John wanted to make trouble by going to the wrong class. It seemed that the teacher had no intention of wasting anymore time with him so she just sent him to the principal to find a solution for this problem.

John was already expecting that something bad like that would happen so he just stood up took his stuff and wanted to leave the room while the teacher started her lesson. But as he was walking past his classmates one of them thought it would be funny to let John trip over a leg. John who wasn't expecting that started tumbling while moving forward uncontrollably, out of reflex he tried to stabilise himself by using something as a support as he was falling, unfortunately grabbing the big ruler for the blackboard that was laying on the desk of his teacher. But to Johns demise this ruler didn't stop his fall but instead would soar through the air hitting the teacher on the back of the head.

Now his teacher turned around looking really pissed, she grabbed John by his ear and pulled him to the principal. But the principal was not in his office so the teacher left him with the secretary telling her that he causes trouble by coming to the wrong class while also hitting her with a ruler after she send him to the principal.

The time went by and the school was nearly finished when the principal came back, she was a buttoned up lady with a stern face wearing a short skirt with a greyish brown vest. She heard everything from the secretary and pulled John into the office and harshly scolded him, but that wasn't all. She wanted to know in which class he was supposed to go so he told her that he was in the class he was supposed to, but now the principal became even more angry.

She looked on her computer and  searched for his name realizing that he wasn't assigned to any class but she didn't apologize but instead entered his name into the class for the troublemakers and misfits. John also got detention for assaulting a teacher and his parents were called so that would be coming to school.

Suddenly a knock could be heard from the door and John's brother entered the room he walked up to the principal greeted her politely and handed her a pair of glasses, the principal smiled at the kind young boy and complimented him even giving him a piece of chocolate while made a special mark on the file of his brother. John gave his brother a sign that everything was okay and that he should go back to class without him.

And just after his brother left the smile on the principals face vanished and John got another round of scolding  asking him why he couldn't be like this young gentleman that was here just now. The scolding went on for quite some time until his father came to school pulling out a flask and taking a sip whenever he felt like it. He walked to the Principal's office with a slight tumblr, he knocked went inside and got briefed by the principal on what happened today.

John knew what was happening now, he walked up to his father and he soon after felt the first slap on his face, the principal looked surprised but slightly happy she never expected that there would still be someone who was a real parent not one of those wishy washy parents. The principal thought that a well placed and deserved punishment were the best upbringing a child could have.

John´s father and the principal came along brilliantly as they were talking about the "appropriate" punishment for bad apples. But John could only hold his cheek that was burning like fire and hold back his tears, he knew that he had to take this punishment or his father would have hurt him more than he had with this slap.

The following years in school were no different than his first day, he got pushed around by his classmates, punished by the teachers and beaten up by his father but everytime his brother tried to help him John turned his back to him saying that he didn't need help not wanting to pull him into his problems. Naturally John didn't have any friends when he was in school that is why John was hurt after everything that just happened in the game.

Ullr was the first real best friend he had, he did consider Claire, Erika, Eva, Olaf and Vito as his friends too but it just felt like something different when he spent time with Ullr. But now Ullr hated him, he suddenly was behind them in the dungeon and asked why John had the Armband Ullr crafted until Ullr realized that John was Schmied. Ullr looked at him with disgust and had an hurt look in his eyes, as if something hurt him really deep inside.

What followed was Ullr yelling at John with tears in his eyes about his brother that got tortured because of John and that he had to take revenge on John. He kept on telling and asking John if it wasn't enough to just torture him with the dungeon but also pitying him by giving him Weapons, armor and even taking out a Boss out of a dungeon floor to make it easier for him.

John couldn't say anything as Ullr kept on yelling and after Ullr had to catch for breath he just added that he would go now letting John get away to pay up the debt for the weapons and armor but when he saw him again he would try to kill him.

And the last thing John could see from Ullr was a single tear flowing down Ullrs cheek dripping to the ground while Ullr turned around and left the dungeon. John felt empty and his friends looked at him in worry, the got back to the kitchen knowing that John wasn't in the condition to keep on raiding his own dungeon. Olaf was the first one to move he stood up patting John on the shoulder after which he grabbed Vito and pulled him into the direction of the workshop asking him about the different pieces of wood he could use for a sword handle.

Soon after Eva and Erika followed their lead and logged off, only Claire was left she stood up and hugged John from behind while a single tear was flowing down her cheek, she also logged off.

John felt empty and also left the game and grabbed his jacket from the coathanger and went outside into the rain. After just twenty meters he was already drenched and freezing but he kept walking until he reached a dark wooden door in a small alley with a pink flickering neon sign above it showing a bottle. John walked up to the counter and was given a towel by the barkeeper to dry himself of after he ordered a long island iced tea. The bar was small and the atmosphere was outdated so not many customers were around only a couple of heavy drinkers the drowned their sorrows with their last penny. John looked around and saw a seemingly rich guy entering the bar with a drenched suit planting himself down next to John ordering a drink...

Chapter end