Chapter 111: Boasting About Not Getting Teeth Cleanings
Nara spent some more time in her recovery phase experimenting with her shiny new toy, the nebula flask. Nara didn’t need to upgrade the flask to iron rank; it started there. Zariel said that the flask was too large of a luxury for the people of his world, and she soon saw why.
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Material Requirements (Bronze):
5000 [Bronze Rank Spirit Coins]
500 [Dimension Quintessence (Bronze)]
500 [Magic Quintessence (Bronze)]
500 [Star Quintessence (Bronze)]
500 [Cloud Quintessence (Bronze)]
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The material requirements alone for bronze rank was insane, and it didn’t include the miscellaneous iron rank quintessence she was shoving into the flask. According to the manual, the flask could use different forms of quintessence to adapt more functions and furniture.
Nara dumped everything she had in there she hadn’t sold or was saving for her familiars: glass for windows and dishware, water for new water features, plant and earth for sustaining plant life, wind for wind barriers and temperature control along with heat and cold quintessence. With each addition, the flask gained complexity from its originally barren state.
In its own way, magic had its own adaptable artificial intelligence functions. She was repeatedly impressed with what intuitive nature of magic that non-magic technology struggled to reach. Artificial intelligence was a great goal of her world, while here it was, baked into many magical functions.
She went on a shopping spree—she purchased every plant and plant seed she could get her hand out. Chrome selected a few fruit bearing varieties he wanted to grow. Unfortunately, the manual only detailed the flora from Elderster-jos that it could sustain. Most magic plants could be grown, but most ordinary plants could not.
Nara could use her door domain as a residence for her team, but the nebula flask was more practical in many ways. For one, it held greater defensive properties. The cloud flasks of Erras were known for their anti-detection, camouflage, monster-repellant, anti-inspection, and self-defense weapon systems; the nebula flask shared these properties, although only at iron rank. However, the camouflage and monster-repellent properties were even effective against bronze rank monsters, which served as a far better adventure base. The door domain additionally had the disadvantage of cutting off perception from the world around them, except directly out the door. A monster or enemy could be hiding on the ‘other side’, and they’d be no wiser until they stepped out.
Moreover, the nebula house would remain manifested for as long as Nara left it there. According to the manual, it passively consumed mana from the atmosphere to maintain its functions. Regular replenishment of spirit coins was also needed depending on consumption, such as utilizing defenses. If the nebula cloud material was destroyed, she’d need to input more star and cloud quintessence. If Nara didn’t have a loot ability, maintenance would be ludicrous for an iron ranker. With two looting abilities on the team, it was oddly affordable.
At bronze rank, the nebula flask could construct vehicular forms. While Nara could astral jump everywhere, her team could not. So far, they utilized transportation options such as rental skimmers, river ships, and airships.
After a discussion with the team, the team moved into their port lot. There were a few advantages; the nebula flask functioned as permanent storage. As the team moved their living implements into the flask, it would keep their items for them later. Almost everyone on the team, except for Sen, had a personal dimensional storage space of some kind, but storage size varied. Encio’s was on the larger size although also the most inconvenient, since he had to conjure a tear in reality and remove objects from it. Eufemia’s was the smallest as it was combined with an armor conjuration ability. It was enough for ritual materials and other tools, but its small size capped her ability to keep a large amount of personal belongings, such as the various artifacts that she bought for stage performances and her other hobbies.
Lawrence temporarily moved in with the group, ever dedicated to his assigned task of copying the books in Nara’s archive. Nara greatly appreciated Lawrence now; his mundane task and accumulated knowledge directly led to her rescue. Without him, she may not have been rescued at all.
“What’s this?” Lawrence said. He looked at a strange object—two glass lenses, connected by a thin metal frame to place them onto the face, like goggles.
“I had a craftsmen custom make them. They’re called ‘glasses’ in my world. Those that read a lot of books end up nearsighted. Here you can just heal away the problem, but this is something we developed to deal with that non-magically. This doesn’t have the properties that would make it useful for that purpose. I had my crafter friend Henri enchant it with something else instead. Eufemia helped me design it; I don’t have a sense for fashion. Try it on, and I'll explain.”
Lawrence fitted them over his face. They suited him like strawberries to cream. He looked like a young skinny Nordic elf professor; the glasses lent him the academic air that accentuated his features nicely. Like most iron rankers he was average; after a few ranks up, Nara felt like Lawrence might look like a glasses-wearing Legolas with his blond hair and elegant features.
“Odd question: Have you ever thought of using a bow?”
“What? No. I don’t want to fight at all. And my goddess says elves are not immortal in this world. Your world has immortal elves?”
“No, we don’t have elves,” Nara denied. “Just humans.”
“What? What happened to all the other races?”
“Anyway, moving away from attractive humans playing elves in costume—”
“What—”
“Those glasses will let you see in just about any conditions; bright light, darkness, smoke, and water. Not quite as good as any singular ability, but good enough. There’re some added functions of increasing maximum perception distance and generating a shield for the eye if someone tries to stab them. The last one is my personal touch,” Nara said with an accompanying hand flourish.
“You say that like you’ve been stabbed in the eyes often,” Lawrence said nervously, an odd expression on his face. “Is there really a need for that? I do not fight.”
“A monster stabbed me in the eye once. Another time, I had a beetle inserted through my eye, and the third time I stabbed someone else in the eye, twice—once per eye—so I’d say it happens surprisingly often. It’s not exactly made for combat, but it should be sturdy enough take hits, and it won’t fall off your face.”
“You said the crafter’s name was Henri?” Lawrence said, looking at his reflection in a hand mirror which Nara handed to him. It was strange to him; almost no one on Erras wore anything on their face. Helmets, goggles, hoods, blindfolds, and veils were occasionally seen around, but not common everyday eyewear.
“Yeah.”
“I think I will commission a bronze rank version later. It’s practical if not for your…inclinations. My goddess wishes to inform you that she does not appreciate you dressing up her priests to satisfy your ‘glasses kink’.”
“I don’t have a glasses—” Nara began to reflexively deny, before pausing to stare at Lawrence with an amused expression. She had dressed up Chrome as a professor before. “I might have a glasses kink. It’s a shame everyone here doesn’t need them. I should try to start a fashion-glasses trend. I also got you some tea. I’m making it my special-tea gift.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Please don’t start.”
“I’ve barley even gotten started.”
He paused, then stared into the sky with mild sadness like he learnt of a rather disappointing side to a person he greatly admired, “My goddess, you did not have to explain it to me,” he lamented, having been told what barley was. He should not question his goddess, but why did she want him to suffer this knowledge? Knowledge was truly a burden.
“Oo-long and farewell, Lawrence.”
“Stop.” He clutched his head and moaned in despair. “I don’t want to have to learn this worthless information.”
*****
Lawrence’s gift of glasses, tea puns, and a headache sorted, Nara now wanted to tackle her gifts to Amara and Redell. She wondered if a gift to Redell would feel too transactional, given that he had used his resurrection ability to save Aliyah.
…Meh. She wouldn’t worry about it.
Lawrence’s gift had been easy; Nara was stumped for what to give to her two gold rank friends. What could the two possibly need? Her worst nightmare was a pitying smile and false coos over ‘how well done’ her middle school craft was.
Erras didn’t have pianos; Nara wanted to give Redell the blueprint of the instrument, but her Guide ability did not provide schematics nor images. Nara didn’t know the workings of a piano beyond the basics: metal wires hit by hammers to produce a tone. Mozart would roll in his grave over the affront to all things classical she’d produce; she resolved to let the old man lie still. When she went to Earth, she would bring a piano back for him.
Still, she wanted to give him a present for the here and now. There was one musical instrument Nara may be able to replicate on Erras—the versatile and mighty Boomwhackers, bringers of joy and implements of 30-minute school music lessons. They were just colored plastic tubes where the length determined their tone. Entirely impractical as a musical instrument, but it was the best Nara could manage (maybe a Marimba, she could manage that…except Erras had something like that. Smack flat material wasn’t revolutionary). Creating uniform diameter tubes of a chosen material was easy for an essence user crafter of Erras.
The crafter she had found to work on Lawrence’s glasses, Henri Braun, was a smoulder crafter who went coco-for-Coco-Puffs for oddball, impractical projects. Nara’s request for a pair of glasses in a world where glasses did not exist had set off his crafter’s fervor. Now, she came to him with a new request; smack-able, enduring tubes of varying lengths used to play music.
“It’s not a very ingenious concept for an instrument. Primitive, even. Infantile.”
“Hey. I’ll have you know the Boomwhacker is a respectable instrument used in enrichment for children, the elderly, and therapy.”
He contemplated it, uncaring of her espouses of uses in therapeutic and educational purposes. “But I like it! Let’s get smashing!”
They tested various materials. The clear crystal mined during the stone forest expedition resounded with a beautiful resonant tone. There was a flexible wood material, like bamboo, called weedwood that produced a hollower but quaint sound after some stiffening treatments. Various metals could also work well. Normal metals on Erras were almost worthless in comparison to their magical counterparts. Normal gold versus magic gold were incomparable in price.
“Y’all have no idea what you’re throwing away,” Nara said, overturning a chunk of gold in her hand. Earth would be more than happy to purchase all of Erras’ unwanted raw material, although Erras would not accept Earth’s currency. Spirit coins had intrinsic value as an energy source. The governments of Erras would probably turn their nose up at Earth’s complicated financial systems.
While the spirit coin value of food, housing, and other goods fluctuated based on location, the consumption of spirit coins to power arrays, vehicles, and artifacts was fixed. Higher levels of ambient magic reduced spirit coin consumption, which made higher magic zones of around silver rank more practical for large cities. However, spirit coins were necessary no matter what. Spirit coins were the oil of Erras, and looters were portable oil fields.
No wonder Zariel and his people literally traveled to other worlds to harvest magic. It was oil. (Don’t let America know.)
“Ordinary gold? It’s fun for some passion projects but otherwise worthless,” Henri noted absentmindedly. “I once made a curtain of gold.”
Nara looked towards the thin gold strings that covered an archway like a bead curtain. She always thought it was sort of tacky, but he was an odd person.
“That’s what that is? You made that?”
“I thought thin gold string might be useful for something. Decorations, at least. Or I could sell it as fun jewelry for kids. Or hm, they have that metal weave for adventurer armor, so I thought I could make it into gold silk, you know? I couldn’t quite get the threads thin enough, and I’m terrible at making fabrics—need to practice. Or outsource. Another thought, a cool new weapon—razor wire.”
“That’s…not a new weapon. People use that already.”
“But what if it was gold?”
“You know if you used copper instead of gold—”
“Nara,” a soft voice spoke throughout the workshop, “If you would avoid jumpstarting the inception of electronics when this world has not reached that level of technology yet, I would be appreciative.”
Henri and Nara paused.
“Is that the goddess of Knowledge?” Henri stage whispered.
“You’re asking me? I’m the outworlder.”
“Well, I haven’t gone to a temple in over 8 years!”
“Why are you acting proud? Is that something to be proud of? Or is it like boasting about not going to the dentist when you really should’ve been getting teeth cleanings?”
“Why would you need to clean your teeth?”
“Man, I forget how gross y’all are sometimes. Cleansing magic and purgation magic really do be carrying y’all though decent civilization.”
Nara looked at empty space but saw nothing.
“It could’ve been a hallucination,” she admitted. Her hands did not tremble.
“Why would you say that? You’re freaking me out. I thought I heard her too, but now I’m second guessing myself.”
There was a soft, disappointed sigh. A figure manifested in the cluttered and dusty workshop, a woman once with an appearance like the locals. She had long black hair with the dark blue robes worn by Knowledge priests. Her brilliance was like a diamond in a pile of coals with the cramped clatter. A goddess in a place like this was probably a blasphemous offense. Henri should really clean up.
Nara felt the aura of divinity she recognized. Henri rapidly scooted way back, as far into his workshop as it allowed him to gain distance from the goddess.
“You’re acting like she’s a cockroach or something.”
“I did not say that!” He added on with a hiss: “I didn’t think that!”
“Where’s your sense of reverence for the divine?”
“Where’s yours?”
“I’m not from this world!”
“You can’t use that as an excuse for everything!”
“Nara, I have been intending to have a discussion about your tendencies to reveal aspects of not only the natural world but the development of technology.”
“…Is there a problem with that? Aren’t you the goddess of knowledge?”
“I am the goddess of Knowledge, not the goddess of information.”
“Ah, this is one of those ‘there’s nuance’ things.”
Knowledge’s eyes glittered with something between amusement and exasperation. “While at times my role is to verify the veracity of information I act in other purposes.”
“Like the regulation of new developments and information?”
“In your own world, improper information has caused unwarranted destruction. Regulation may slow technological progress, but it also preserves lives. Moreover, knowledge should be earned, not freely and recklessly given.”
Well, Nara didn’t know if she agreed with that entirely, but she supposed the only thing between Earth and Mutually Assured Destruction was the good sense of politicians.
“Shouldn’t you be doing more about this Advent threat then?”
Knowledge gave her a flat look, “Are we not doing more? You didn’t appreciate it.”
“You know what? I forgot I’m still mad about that. Thanks for Lawrence, though. He saved my life.”
Knowledge smile seemed to imply ‘I told you so’. Nara didn’t quite like how smug it was, but she supposed she was a goddess.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know he applied his skills and knowledge. Your point is made. I still think that they don’t know gravity is ridiculous. These abilities do everything but outright say it.”
“I have no issue with your own experimentation with technology and magic Nara, as long as you keep it contained.”
“Keep it contained how?”
“If relevant, I will send a priest to assist, and the technology or magic may be restricted. However, you neither understand electronics nor how to make them, so I ask you avoid speaking to others which you do not understand. Not just for this topic, but all others.”
“So don’t talk about electronics, copper wires, gold wires, and electricity with the unhinged oddball crafter.”
“Yes, Nara,” she confirmed, long-suffering. “Do not talk about electronics with the unhinged oddball crafter.”
She vanished as she appeared, space emptied as if she was never there, the dust at her feet undisturbed.
“Did the goddess of knowledge just call me unhinged?” Henri said, peeking from behind a workshop table covered in baubles and junk.
“Unhinged and oddball.”
“I’m not unhinged,” he said defensively. “Just… indiscriminately curious.”
“Uh-huh,” Nara said, doubt plain on her face. “How do you spend all of your money?”
“Buying artifacts and raw materials to take apart and put back together in new and novel ways!”
“And destroying both in the process, sometimes explosively,” Nara noted, staring at the black stains on the ground and ceiling, “You should really clean up. Hardly fit for human habitation, let alone a goddess.”
“I have a purity priest come by every so often to cleanse the place. He says he hates it here and charges a little more every time. What’s so bad about explosive residue?”
“What sort of workshop needs dedicated cleansing by a priest?! Here, catch. At least it doesn’t stink in here.”
There was the usual smell of dust, iron, rust, and wood. She was relieved Henri didn’t try his hand with biological ingredients, although he may yet make Erra’s first wide area chemical weapon. Accidentally. Maybe when trying to concoct an industrial-strength cleaner, should he ever be that self-aware.
Nara had tossed Henri two gold coins. It was more than enough to run his workshop for a few months. Two gold was a lot, but their whole team was far richer than the average iron ranker, praise be looting abilities.
“See you later, Henri.”
“Remember to come back and give me money so I don’t starve!” He yelled at her back, completely and utterly shameless.
“I’m not your mother, damn it! Feed yourself!”