I was quite tired. I had to do a lot of things I normally don’t do. It is a good thing I have some slimes left because they are needed for the muscles too. I hope I have enough. I petted Nilah and cleaned up all the water in my living room. I sat down and unfroze the elders.
“What?”
“What is the deal with that fox?!”
Well, you were trespassing and she defended her home, so what do you want?
“We wanted to check on your progress… what happened here?”
Stealing research, eh? Well not that I mind. I just finished making the skin so since you’re already here go get some stuff for me.
I threw a list at them.
“Huh, are you going to bake?”
It seems so, I’m just not using flour, now chop chop!
The elders left to get these strange ingredients. Did Rignef make a mistake? Did he mix up his cooking recipe with how to create spirit muscles?
I wanted to rest but I got dizzy again. I was sitting on the couch so this wasn’t an issue. I can’t afford to take any longer on this spirit vessel. Everything should go well until I get to the bones and Ichor Pneuma.
There are 3 big obstacles. Ichor Pneuma, the magic circuits and bringing everything together with alchemy. I am only confident in the magic circuits. My dizziness subsided.
How long do you think this all is going to take Nilah?
Nilah didn’t answer as always.
----------------------------------------
“Hey wake up! We’re back!” I got up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. It seemed the errand boys had returned.
“So, what are you going to bake?”
I already told you that I’m going to make spirit muscles and there is no baking. Just mixing and a lot of kneading. Just dump everything in that large pot over there and chuck those slimes in.
The errand boys did what I told them and I walked over to the pot which had something that looked like it was some sort of orange dough.
Yup this is perfect, thank you. I have to let this sit for a bit I need to deviate a bit from the protocol to be more efficient.
So, this dough only needs 1 ingredient to differentiate into red or white muscle. For white muscles it needs aluminum powder and for red muscle it needs iron oxide.
So, I want to combine these and just have all-purpose pink muscle it’s just that this mixture makes thermite, a quite dangerous substance. But it can be explosive and burn for a long time it is exactly what these ‘pink’ muscles need.
I went outside and took the two metal powders out of my dimensional pocket. I have played with this so many times as a blacksmith apprentice. I know the perfect mixture but this might not be the perfect mixture for the muscles.
Raishin appeared as expected. He often appears whenever Greg or I do things that are sensitive to mistakes. His intuition is probably to blame here and he more than often messes things up for us.
Yoo. What are you doing?
I am about to possibly burn this tree down, want to watch?
Of course!
Raishin sat down and watched as I mixed the powders.
Wait is this that thermite thing you used to blow up ice blocks?
Yup.
Raishin moved further back.
So, do the elders know about this?
Of course not! They wouldn’t let me do this otherwise! Oh let’s see if it can still blow up this ice block.
I ran over to Raishin and the thermite went off but nothing happened. It just melted the ice block.
Did you go for the safe version?
No, it doesn’t always work, but the temperature seems right. It also burned for long enough.
I did 2 more experiments when the elders ran out of my house. “What in Bellia’s name are you doing?! Are you trying to burn the forest down?”
Calm down, Agnis is very good at controlling fire.
“You do realize that he burnt us and his house down not too long ago, right?” A banana stealing elder pointed at his bandages.
Accidents happen it’s not cool to keep reminding people of those!
Yeah! How is your search for a new girlfriend going by the way?
I gave up I don’t think there’s anyone for me here. They are a bit too sheltered.
Ah I see, let’s move a bit further back I ignited this with foxfire, let's see what it does.
“Hey! Are you even listening?!”
Nope.
Ooh it’s so colorful! It looks like firework! Oh, it burnt through the floor.
Uhh.
I jumped down to catch the fire. Getting banned right now might hinder my research. The elders lost it.
“That’s it I’ve had enough! We are going to assign 2 permanent bodyguards to you!”
I thought you 2 were his bodyguards.
Yeah, I thought so too!
“We can’t continue keeping an eye on you!”
You guys surely were acting different when eating all my bananas!
“They were just bananas!”
They were my bananas!
What is going on here?
“Agnis almost burnt the tree down!”
The elders ate all my bananas!
Greg sighed. When will you learn that this is how life is going to be with a nine tailed spirit fox? I’m sure you know rumors or stories about them. If you don’t go with their flow, you will lead a very stressful life.
Haha I’m surprised that even after almost 2 months they still don’t know this!
And! I’m not randomly burning things down!
That foxfire was cool!
Ok I might have been randomly burning things down by using that foxfire. But! I needed to test this thermite for my next component!
Thermite? In an elven village? You know what? I should have expected this… Let’s make some protective barriers to put around his house Elliana.
“Sure!” Greg and Elliana walked off.
They are getting along quite well.
Yeah. I hope it goes somewhere.
“I have an idea; I will put Inna and Jyno in charge of keeping an eye on you. Having them as bodyguards might be more effective.” A banana-stealing elder said. The banana stealing elders look quite similar so I have difficulty distinguishing them. but they are not important!
Uhh good luck with that.
One elder went to Inna’s house and another was probably going to find Jyno. I had 3 thermite mixtures that I wanted to use.
I have to get back to work!
Good luck! Don’t burn the village down!
I will try!
I went back inside and decided to sleep. It could be a full moon tonight but I was just too tired.
The next morning arrived and the muscle dough had ballooned in size but it wasn’t big enough. I created an illusion to make the room bigger and its pot also bigger. It would probably be big enough tomorrow. I could already use it right now but there are no disadvantages of waiting longer. I will just have more stuff.
The protocol I’m following will have me make enough to create 4 or 5 spirit vessels. This excludes the bones and Ichor Pneuma of course. But having more muscle dough might bump that up to 6. The muscles will make up most of the spirit vessel’s volume so more is better.
I played with Nilah for the rest of the day and gave her snacks. The next day came and was time to test the thermite. I took 3 small samples from the dough and spent 5 days kneading it with my tails.
This is easy to make but it takes a lot of time. An average of 5-7 days of kneading the dough. Rignef also kneaded this with his tails. Inna and Jyno appeared on day 2 of kneading. Inna wanted to give a shot at the kneading but her arms had gotten tired after 20 minutes.
I feel sorry for them because I won’t be doing much now, just kneading. The dough balls had a nice pink color. Jyno was lying on my couch and reading a book.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“So, what is after this kneading of yours?”
Testing which dough ball reacts the best and longest to spirit magic and then apply the matching thermite to the big blob there.
Inna and Jyno looked at a gigantic blob of muscle dough. “It is not going to burn or explode after you do, right?”
Dunno. Probably not?
Jyno raised an eyebrow. “Probably?”
Don’t worry I have a high heat resistance.
“And what about us?”
I will save you, how is it going with your girlfriend Jyno?
“Oh great! We have a great connection. That adventure where you saved us really brought us together!” Inna looked at me because she knew what I did.
Good to hear. Keep it like that and tell the other elves how it is to have a connection with a woman!
“Yeah, I’ve tried but they just don’t get it. I can see what the women are going through now…”
Keep trying, you will get there eventually…
He looked at me and then at Inna. “So, what about you? Are you and Inna?”
“Oh no! I’m just his neighbor!”
And now my watchdog.
Jyno narrowed his eyes. “I keep hearing that you seem to not be interested in women.”
Ehh who said that? I’m just not interested in a relationship. I have 1001 things to do and I don’t even have time for the things I should be doing.
“I see. That makes sense. You seem to always be busy, even though I’ve heard of the stories that you guys normally pull a lot of pranks and are quite relaxed.”
Don’t worry I will go back to that if I finish this. I don’t know how long the guardian spirit has.
I tossed one of the muscle dough balls to Nilah so she could knead too.
“Your fox is quite smart. What type of fox is she?”
“Jyno… Nilah is a magic skill…”
Jyno got up. He looked surprised. “What? A magic skill?” He walked over to Nilah and inspected her.
You can pet her but she will steal your mana.
Jyno petted Nilah and as per normal got his mana stolen. “How?”
No clue, I inherited this from my grandfather, he probably made it but I have no clue what he did because the magic circle uses a lot of exotic mana runes.
“Exotic mana runes?”
Never mind, she is very complicated let’s leave it at that.
“I see…” He kept inspecting Nilah.
We loafed around for 2 more days while I was kneading the muscle dough.
First flammability test!
Jyno and Inna dove behind Nilah.
Just kidding but that is also a good idea.
I tried to ignite it but it wouldn’t catch fire. That’s good. I sloppily poured spirit energy in it and had the dough contract. I made the relax and contract repeatedly.
Jyno peeked from behind Nilah. “So, for how long are you going to do this?”
Till the last muscle dough gives up.
All three were doing explosive bursts very well but endurance was something I had to find out so I had 6 tails doing this constantly. While I was eating, sleeping, talking to Inna and Jyno. We even played some card and board games. They were unfamiliar with it so I could easily kick their asses until Inna started to get used to it and completely destroyed Jyno and me.
The last muscle dough got fatigued on day 3.
Inna poked the dough. “Just a question. Normal muscles don’t last this long, do they?”
Correct.
Jyno looked at his arms and then at the muscle dough. “So, what kind of monstrous vessel are you making that shows the first sign of fatigue after 3 days?”
This is possible with training tough.
Jyno pointed at the dough my tails were holding. “You are not going to convince me that that dough had training!”
Fair point but nothing I can do about it. Just be glad that your guardian spirit is going to be freakishly strong.
He shook his head. “Would the spirit be able to control its strength with that overpowered muscle dough?”
Hmm, good question, just don’t ask her to hug you and it should be fine.
Inna cocked her head. “Her?”
Oh yeah, your spirit guardian is female. You guys should know this though… you live here…
“I never thought about it… what is she like?” Inna suddenly became interested in the guardian spirit.
You will find out after I finish this vessel. It seems I will be using batch 2!
I threw the second thermite batch into the big blob of dough and started to knead it with my tails.
“And how long is it going to take to knead this monstrosity?” It seems that Jyno has something against this muscle dough. Is he possibly jealous of my muscles?
No clue, I can’t knead everything because of its size so it might take 2 weeks even more. You guys can do something else you know.
“Ugh, it’s fine, I just miss my girlfriend a bit.”
“Why don’t you bring her here so we can chat?”
Hey! My house isn’t a social meeting place!
“I will bring her over tomorrow then.”
Hey are you guys listening?”
“No!”
“Nope.”
Jyno’s whole elven group came over the next day and used my house as a socializing spot.
100+ gold elven chick asked. I forgot her name or how much I paid to free her but it was the one that felt guilty the most. “Hey, can we help kneading?”
Sure, let’s see who can keep this up the longest.
They continued their social meeting while kneading. Most gave up quite fast. Jyno lasted 42 minutes. He seemed to be quite proud of it and he got a lot of cheers.
“Hey, why are we cheering for Jyno while Agnis has been kneading this for days without no rest?”
Thank you, Inna!
Jyno crossed his arms. “He is cheating with his tails!”
Hey how rude! My tails get tired too!
“Hey how do you get them to be so fluffy?” Another elven chick asked.
A lot of brushing, please stay away from them unless you want to get kneaded into this muscle dough!
That seemed to work. Greg and Elliana also visited. They had finished a barrier. Not to protect my house but to protect the village from me.
Don’t go overboard, this barrier isn’t omnipotent.
How is learning elvish magic going?
I think I have got the basics down. I should be proficient enough to use it in combat.
Oh, that is good. So ehh what are you teaching Elliana?
About the outside world.
Hmm doesn’t seem like a fair trade, how about teaching her some shadow magic or something?
“I can’t use dark magic Agnis…”
Hmm, oh didn’t you had a lightning affinity? Quite rare under elves.
I am not proficient in lightning magic… and I assume you are too busy to teach her.
Well, it’s a good thing that we have another friend that can use lightning magic.
You want Raishin to teach her? Greg seemed doubtful and I understand why but who knows what Raishin will do in his boredom.
Sure, why not? He will have to get there somewhere, as long as you make sure he doesn’t do anything strange then he can help Elliana learn lightning magic.
Can’t you have a shadow clone teach her?
They will be quite occupied with other stuff the moment all the easy steps are done.
Greg sighed. What do you think Elliana?
“That sounds lovely! I’m always willing to learn new things!”
Well, there you have it. I also think Raishin needs something to do.
He seems to be doing fine but I agree. Do you know yet when you need alchemy and what?
Nope, sorry. I will get all the easy parts done first.
Ok, just let me know when it’s time.
Greg, Elliana, and the elves stayed till late and then left. Nilah had retreated because the petting became too much for her. She had also grown considerably from stealing mana.
I spent 2 weeks in total kneading the muscle dough. It was time to test it. But Jyno was being annoying.
“Agnis, it has been almost 3 weeks since you last slept. Go sleep!”
I don’t know where you get these stats from Jyno but I slept 2 weeks ago.
“You can’t fool me! You pretended to be asleep!”
Fine! Can you then test this muscle dough with spirit energy?
“You can’t expect us to go at it for 3 days like you did last time…”
Well then let me do that and I will sleep afterwards!
“Or, you’re going to sleep now and start when you wake up.”
Jeez, fine. I guess you will become a great father hehe, so when are you going to make a kid.
“Hey that’s unrelated! But I guess babysitting you is good practice!”
Wow rude! You don’t have the weight of an elven village on your shoulders! Any time wasted can have terrible consequences!
“You are right, we appreciate it but just go sleep please?” I put the muscle dough in a large container and walked to the stairs.
Very well, I will sleep for several days so you two can do whatever you want.
I went to my bedroom. Nilah was sleeping curled up in the basket Inna made for her. I curled up in my tails. I will only have to test the muscle dough after I wake up. It is already finished in its current state.