The Online Craftsmaster

John rushed through the city, he knew that Constantine needed him if the Barkeeper took the liberty to call him for help. It was normal for them to be completely drunk when they visited that bar but usually the barkeeper would just lay them in a seperate room to get sober but now it seems that Constantine wasn't there to party and needed help from a friend. And John wanted to be that friend, he kept running through the city pushing aside people that were in his way.

John reached the bar and when he entered it he saw the sad figure of Constantine, he was laying on the bartable in his own puke dozens of glasses and glass shards were laying around him and several empty bottles of booze were there too. John knew that something really bad must have happened to Constantine if he ended up in such a state. John went up to Constantine and grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him up and looked him in the face.

Constantine did not react to that movement and a horrid smell wafted into John´s nose, Constantine smelled like he fell into a barrel full of alcohol. Luckily John developed a fair amount of muscles since started training in Olafs forge, so it was easier for him to throw Constantine over his shoulders and carry him out of the bar after he thanked the Barkeeper for his call and started walking home. John was slower than usual when he walked through the city and many people looked at him with disgust and he had to lay down Constantine several times on the way as he was pretty heavy.

Suddenly he was called out by a female voice, he turned around with Constantine on his back, he was breathing heavily. Sweat was flowing down his head and back and when he looked up he saw Erika´s smiling face. She laughed at the sight of John slaving away under the weight of Constantine, actually she wanted to buy some more thread and needles for her tailoring but now she saw John carrying a rich guy around the city clearly exhausted.

John greeted her but before he could say anything else Erika lifted Constantine from his shoulders and threw him over her shoulders. John wanted to protest but Erika laughed it just off and started walking towards John house. Soon they reached John´s house and John carried Constantine into the bathroom and stripped him down to his underwear. He filled his bathtub with hot water and put Constantine inside and started washing him. When he was finished he carried him into his bed to let him sleep.

He walked back into his kitchen and saw Erika happily eating after she plundered his refrigerator. He too grabbed a slice of bread added butter to it and some slices of Black Forest Ham. After Erika and him were nibbling a while on their sandwiches Erica asked him: " Hey John, who was the hot guy that clearly drank too much alcohol?" John was slightly startled when he heard Erika call him hot but he told her how he met him.

He explained her how he was walking through the city after they met up with Ullr and how they ended their friendship. He told her that his wandering through the city led him to a small bar and that Constantine entered the same bar after him and that they had a good time together and became friends. He then told her about how he was called by the Barkeeper and that he carried him until they met up with her.

Erika laughed several times when John told the story especially when she imagined John singing karaoke. they spent several hours talking while also checking on constantine from time to time. Erika left John´s house in the evening and John prepared his couch to sleep on, when he woke up in the morning he made some coffee and soon after a totally hungover Constantine was walking out of the bedroom and sat down beside John.

When Constantine woke he didn't know where he was he got out of the bed he was in and held his head, he saw that he was only in his underwear but found some clothes beside the bed. They weren't the fancy and expensive clothes he was used to but they had to be enough. He left the room he was in and saw John sitting at a kitchen table drinking coffee. He sat down beside him and a mug full of coffee was put in front of him, he nodded to John and started drinking. The were sitting in silence and were sipping coffee, John knew that he had to wait for Constantine to start talking.

But even though Constantine started talking he didn't talk about what was bothering him, he just thanked John and asked him if he could sleep another night here and John told him that it was OK. He showed Constantine his house and when they reached the living room Constantine saw the big gaming capsule that stood there in the corner. He was surprised that John was playing King's Reign too and John noticed that his friend seemed to recognize the capsule and asked him if he was playing too.

Constantine answered with a nod even though a weird look could been seen on his face. John didn't see the strange look and happily asked him if he wanted to play together some time. Even though Constantine wasn't so happy about the thought of playing King's Reign but he felt that John´s company made him feel good and if they could do something together it might help him out of the hole he fell into.

Constantine asked John if he would mind if there was another capsule in this room and John looked at him with a strange face but answered that he lived he alone and didn't need this room for anything else and that he didn't mind. Constantine then took his phone out of his soiled clothes and call one of his butlers. The butler was happy when he heard something from the young master because they lost him after he ditched his car, Constantine ordered him to bring another capsule to John´s house, and just ten minutes later a group of twenty men were coming to Johns house in a truck and started installing the new capsule and to John´s surprise another group of people starting digging into the street in front of his house and pulled a completely new glass fiber cable through pipes into his house and installed it.

Also a man wearing a fancy butler uniform came up to Constantine with a new pile of clothes and a chequebook. Constantine signed two cheques one for the workers outside and he handed the other to John. John didn't want to take it but Constantine insisted on it as he wanted to thank John for his help when he had passed out from drinking. After several minutes of discussion John accepted Constantines money and after another hour of waiting the new capsule was installed and John had faster internet now.  Constantine asked John where they would meet up and he was relieved when he heard that John was in the Kingdom of Bronze Hell as he didn't want to be in his brothers kingdom for the time being.

Constantine reluctantly agreed to meet up in the village that was the nearest to Chrome´s dungeon. They entered the game and when Constantine reached the village he looked out for the agreed sign, a wooden board with held up high with the name of the bar they met at. But Constantine thought his life played another game with him but now he accepted it, if fated wanted him this much to be Chromes friend then he should take as he didn't have enough strength anymore to fight against it.

He walked up to the Big silver guy that was holding up a wooden sign while smiling and said in a sad but also happy voice: "Hey John, life plays some ridiculous games with us doesn't it?" John looked at Ullr and was startled as he tried to think about the reason Ullr knew his real name until he asked with an unbelieving face: "Constantine, is that you?" Constantine nodded with a strange smile and was suddenly drawn into a hug by John as John knew that they finally could be friends without any bad feelings between them.

John took Constantine to his dungeon and brought him through it into his workshop, Constantine was startled by everything he saw, he knew that John was good at crafting but what he now saw completely was out of his mind. It seemed like the more he saw of John´s work the better it got.

But what was startled him most was when they walked through a workshop where hundreds of smithing bots where creating an army of robot Soldiers. Constantine asked John about it and John explained him about the Human kingdom and how they wanted a war and that he had to stop them as they were torturing innocent people. Constantine understood what John wanted to tell him and when he heard that they had a way to help those players that showed signs of mental breakdown he made a decision, there was an old saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" and he told John that he wanted to help him stop this mad King...