HC: Handyman | Ch. 214 - Dozing Off

After checking on his hives, Jack jogged back to the courtyard, where Esther was just tying off the brim of a grass hat.

“Esther, change of plans. Can I have you switch over to brewing mead instead?”

“Of course, sir. What about the hats and sandals?”

“Don’t worry about those. Here.” Jack dumped as many pots of honey into her inventory as it would allow.

Esther blinked. “This is... an impressive quantity of honey.”

Jack grinned. “And there’s more. Come to me once you’ve used all of it.”

She nodded and headed toward the spring to get water.

Jack pivoted toward Riku. He’d abandoned his pebble mounds and was now throwing them into a burned-down house.

“Hey, Riku. How are you holding up?”

He shrugged without looking. “Fine, I guess.” Another pebble bounced off the stone.

Jack chuckled. “Well, I’ve got something for you, if you’re free.”

Riku perked up. “Sure. I’m bored anyway. What do you want me to do, sir?”

Jack gestured for him to follow and led him back to Esther’s old crafting spot. “We’ve got ropes and cords here. I want you to help make some gear—grass hats and sandals.”

“Cool!”

Jack assigned Bushcraft to Riku. It didn’t take long for him to receive a message.

“Jack! I just got a notification that I got back my trapping minor. Don’t you dare steal my disciple!” came the message from Horace.

“Oh, please, the boy is doing nothing.”

“Even so… At the very least, you should have consulted with his master.”

“A thousand apologies, oh Grandmaster Horace,” Jack typed.

“That’s better.”

Riku was still waiting for instructions, looking up, curious.

“Sorry about zoning out. So, here’s how it works,” Jack said, crouching beside the materials. He demonstrated the rope spiral and how to loop the cords through to hold it in place. “You’ll want a tight weave, like this. Make sure there are enough cords to hold the shape together.”

“Seems easy!” Riku said, already reaching for the coils.

Jack stepped back and watched for a moment. Esther was already mixing mead, while Riku used his small, fast hands to mimic the spiral Jack had shown him. It would have been easier just to have Riku handle the brewing, but it felt wrong to have a young boy mix alcohol.

For the first time he could remember, both NPCs were busy following his orders. Jack let himself savor it. He could definitely get used to this.

This frees me up to get some practice in.

Smiling to himself, Jack settled near the fire, the warmth brushing against his legs as he took out his ocarina and cradled it in his hands.

Two new melodies waited in his repertoire: Lilly’s Lullaby and Into the Breach.

He queued up the example of the first one and listened closely. It was a lullaby—gentle, wistful, and slow. Each transition melted into the next, unhurried. The notes lingered, drawing out long exhales, full of melancholy and warmth.

It made him think of a meadow swaying in the evening breeze.

“Yeah... I get why it’s called Lilly’s Lullaby,” Jack murmured. “Seems simple enough. I wonder why it’s listed as an intermediate song. Let’s check the next one.”

He queued up the melody that had dropped from the Shagrat boss.

The track started at full speed, as if the ocarinist was using the instrument as a machine gun. The notes came flying from the instrument fast and suddenly enough that he nearly toppled off his rock.

“Oh my goodness!”

The melody kept going at a blistering, almost frantic tempo. How was the ocarinist even breathing? He just kept shooting out notes.

“Is the whole song like this?” he gasped.

To his relief, there were slower portions of the song. Still, the overall energy was relentless, like the soundtrack of a desperate battle.

If he wanted to play it properly, he’d need serious practice.

“Okay... I don’t feel quite ready for this one yet,” he muttered. “Let’s start with the easier one first.”

He queued Lilly’s Lullaby, listening to it one more time. Then he brought the ocarina to his lips and began to play.

The note sequence wasn’t difficult. He didn’t take long before he was able to play the whole thing. But that didn’t mean that he was done learning the song. There was something strange about its rhythm.

I might have been hasty in labeling this song as ‘easy.’

To match the lullaby’s sleepy tone, he had to intentionally lag behind the beat—each note arriving a heartbeat late, just enough to make it sound lazy.

It was more complicated than he had thought. There was a fine line between making a note sound dreamy instead of sloppy. The difference was in the tenths of a second. On his first attempts, instead of giving the song a dreamy quality, he ended up just making the whole thing out of tempo.

After about an hour of quiet persistence, something clicked. He finally managed to get the song’s beat down, and the system acknowledged his effort.

You’ve played [Lilly’s Lullaby].

Performance grade: E

+350 XP in Bard

There are no enemies nearby.

Jack grinned, breath still steady. “Nice.”

His only regret was not being able to see the lullaby’s effect in action. Not yet, anyway.

Oh well. Let’s get better at it. With higher grades, the melody’s impact would become even more spectacular. He got back to playing.

After hours of crafting and grinding, just kicking back to play music felt like heaven. It didn’t feel like work at all.

Slowly but surely, the system responded to his growing mastery. The Es turned into Ds, then Cs, and as his performance improved, a new element joined the quiet courtyard symphony.

Yawn!

Jack blinked and looked up. Riku paused in his rope weaving, jaw cracking in a wide, sleepy yawn. Christoff, nearby, was dozing off.

“Uh-oh,” Jack whispered. “I thought this melody only affected enemies!”

Apparently not. Lilly’s Lullaby didn’t send allies into sleep outright, but it definitely made them drowsy. It was as if the melody carried some invisible weight, gently tugging everyone toward their dreams.

He scratched his head. The only song that gave his listeners some rest from Lilly’s Lullaby was Sitting Wind, which he played to recover his stamina. It wasn’t exactly an upbeat sequence of songs. “Well, guess that means I can’t just loop these two forever…”

If he weren’t careful, the NPCs would drift off. He’d have to rotate in something upbeat to counter the lullaby. Luckily, the other song he had to practice was the right fit for it.

Turning to Into the Breach, he queued the first sequence and listened closely. It was almost impossible to register the jumbled notes.

Hmmm… Let’s see if there’s an option for slowing it down. Here it is.

He had the song played for him in half-speed. It was quite telling that even at half-speed, the melody sounded fast, but at least it was a manageable speed for him to pick up on.

He rewound and listened to the first section of the song a few times. The riff was only five or six seconds long, but was made up of 23 notes, in triple time.

He tapped his foot to mark the beat at a much slower tempo and then played each note slowly. It matched. Roughly. He’d gotten most of the notes right. He ran through the phrase a few more times, steadily gaining confidence.

“Alright! I’ve got it down. Now I just have to get faster at it.”

Learning this song transported him back to his early days playing guitar. Back then, watching videos of guitarists with lightning-fast fingers used to leave him in awe. It looked impossible for a normal human to shred such quick solos.

But he’d gotten there. Anyone could with a bit of patience and time. The secret was simple: slow it down. Get it precise. And once the muscle memory locked in—then, and only then—speed it up.

He’d play this song too. He’d done his homework. He’d spent hours on the ocarina grinding scales and arpeggios, and that experience hadn’t abandoned him. It was a solid foundation that came in handy precisely with songs like this.

His fingers found the rhythm naturally—instinct taking over, speed creeping in with each round.

Finally, he had the first part of the song down.

Jack leaned back and exhaled. “Man,” he muttered, still catching his breath. “All that work for only five seconds of the song! These melodies really are something else.”

That seemed to be the case with every tune pulled from boss-dropped sheet music. Sonic Valley had been just as brutal to learn. Its twisting progressions and sharp dissonance sounded wrong until it didn’t. Even now, it was hard to pull it off in the heat of a battle.

Just as he reached for his ocarina again, the air shifted around him. At the gate, soldiers were gathering into a loose formation. Christoff joined them, bow slung over one shoulder.

Another wave was coming.

Jack stood, brushing dust from his trousers as he approached.

“Hey, hold up a sec.”

“Something wrong, sir?” one of the soldiers asked.

“You know there’s no need for you guys to go for these waves, right?”

Edric looked at the older soldiers and shook his head. “Sir, it’s our duty to defend the fortress. We want to go.”

Jack chuckled. They were taking their responsibility seriously. Good for them. “OK. OK. Go then. I just want to do something that will help you with the cold.”

Fat Coating! Fat Coating!

He moved through their ranks, hands glowing as he spammed the skill. A faint sheen wrapped around each soldier, clinging to their skin in a glossy layer.

“Thanks, sir! Anything else?” Edric asked, gripping his club tightly.

Jack shook his head. “Nah, you’re good. You’ve got this.”

With a final nod, the squad jogged off, keeping to the narrow safe path that threaded through the minefield.

Jack lingered, watching them shrink in the distance. For a moment, he considered tagging along—just to make sure they’d be OK—but dismissed it. With the Tramontane upgrade, they would be safe. At this point, all they would do was watch the show rather than participate in the battle.

He was better off staying behind and making the most of the quiet.

He returned to his perch by the fire, lifted the ocarina, and started playing again. But halfway through a rising sequence of Into the Breach, his fingers locked mid-note.

Your hands are exhausted. You ran out of stamina.

You’ve been hit with a new debuff: [Cramped Hands].

Jack groaned. “Argh. Forgot to pay attention to my stamina bar again.”

He dug into his inventory, fished out a pickle, and popped it into his mouth. The briny crunch brought a bit of life back into him. Enough for him to play Sitting Wind. The gentle song gradually replenished his stamina, and the tension in his hands began to dissipate.

“Hmmm. I have no active meal buffs right now. I’d better make some food. The NPCs are probably hungry too,” he muttered, already thinking a few steps ahead.

Wave 36 is cleared.

+1 Breach point.

Sure enough, the soldiers arrived and sat around the fire, waiting to be awarded a meal, even though Jack was quite sure they hadn’t done anything during the battle. He served them some stew, went to gather the spoils on the battlefield, and returned.

Time passed. He kept playing—practicing in chunks, refining the tempo. Bit by bit, Into the Breach began to come together. It was still far from perfect, but the melody started to feel like his own.

That wasn’t the only sign of progress in the fortress. After two more waves came and went, all the soldiers were now wearing grass hats.

Nearby, Esther was still hard at work, mixing mead. A soft chime pinged in his peripheral vision.

Congratulations! You’ve reached level 9 in [Brewing].

[Brew] has been upgraded.

Brew (Common)

Skill level: 2

Skill description: After adventuring through the wild, vestiges of yeast remain on your hands. When you mix drinks, you transfer these yeast traces, which ferment sugars into alcohol, enhancing the flavor.

Skill effects: 

Passive. You can brew drinks.

+5% aging speed.

[Brewing] synergizes with [Bushcraft].

You’ve learned a new recipe: [Wild Yeast].

You’ve learned a new recipe: [Melomel].

“Ah! The feeling of leveling up from passive XP.” There was nothing quite like it. He waved a thanks at Esther, but she didn’t notice—her focus locked on the vat of water and honey she was stirring.

It had been a while since he had leveled up in the Brewing profession. The leveled-up version of the basic [Brew] skill was a little too lackluster. It only slightly boosted aging speed. It was a welcome bonus, but nothing groundbreaking.

“OK! Let’s see what kind of synergies I’ve got.”

Ch. 213 - Windfall

INDEX

Ch. 215 - Incoming Call