CHAPTER 72: The glade room
Grenfell’s keen eyes never missed a thing. He was onto us long before we even realised there was a problem. I suspect he already knew the day would come when we needed a break. It happened one afternoon when we worked in the Dryad.
“Hey Hana, come here, I want to ask you something. From what I hear you’re something of a skilled archer?”
“My primary weapon is the bow, although I am also skilled with blades and hand to hand combat.”
Once again, I reminded myself what a windfall befell me when I purchased Hana as a slave. Come to think of it, no one ever complained about me buying her as a slave? Caffeine
“Shane, why don’t you make Hana an improved bow?”
I always wanted to make a better bow for Hana. Her current bow named Compel was already a decent quality bow, it being the one she selected in Shimmerstal’s palace royal storerooms. However, the versatility of a compound bow would benefit her more, especially since I wasn’t restricted on the arrow type or number of hollow metal arrows. On traditional bows, wooden arrows flexed around the bow handle when fired, otherwise they didn’t fire straight. Modern bow design compensated for this to some degree, but a compound bow fired true to the arrow’s flight path which meant I could make stiffer arrows. Crossbows took that design to its natural conclusion by utilising solid bolts. I salivated at the future possibilities and couldn’t wait.
“Okay. Come with me Hana, tell me which colour you would like?”
I showed her a colour selection on the core. She selected a bluish-grey colour that I thought suited her well.
“Hana, I am going to make this bow for you. But before I can do this, I need you to trust me.”
“You’re not going to do anything funny are you? Because if you do, I will smack you across the room.”
There was the violent Hana again. Whatever turned her into this was invariably the same reason I was able to buy her for such a cheap price.
“No. For me to fit this bow for you, I need to understand you better. I only need you to touch my elbow.”
It was better than me asking to touch her hand which at this stage would have been looking to ‘get smacked’ across the room to put it in her words. She looked funny at me.
“And what would that achieve?”
“It will allow me to read your status.”
“What status?”
“It is a list of what your attributes are and what skills you have. That way I can make something better fitting your abilities.”
“You are not reading my thoughts?”
That was so funny I couldn’t help but laugh. I could understand her fears.
“Only some of the naughty thoughts.”
I could see the cogs turning in her brain. She was cute when she was thinking things over. I decided to relieve her from the stress.
“I’m only kidding. No, I can’t read any your thoughts, I was just pulling your leg.”
She turned around so that I couldn’t see her face, she seemed to be trembling and making a strange noise. Was she angry at me? The next thing her fist was coming at me. I only had a fraction of a second to turn my head away as her arm shaved my face. I could feel the skin from her arm touching my cheek it was that close. When I turned my head straight again, her face was two inches from me.
“Luckily, I held back there.”
I had no doubt that she was telling me the truth.
“Anyway, I am happy to touch your elbow.”
“Ah, that won’t be necessary anymore. I just got your stats off you.”
I could see a new level of respect on her face as she understood that from the brief contact with her arm on my face, I was able to get what I needed. Touché.
Name: Hana Kei.
Race: Katkin.
Occupation: Slave.
HP: 63/63.
SP: 95/95.
EE: 0/100.
Skills: Speed Boost, Archery, Fencing, Martial Arts.
Her stats were what I was expecting, but it was her EE that got me excited.
“Well stop sitting there looking into space, tell me what you got.”
I smiled as I wrote down the stats on a blackboard that the old man kept in the workshop. She took a long look at the blackboard.
“What do some of these letters mean?”
“The HP means health points and they indicate how much damage you have taken. The SP is how much stamina you have left, and EE is how much ethereal energy you have stored to exercise the skill.”
“Why is my EE empty now?”
“I’m not sure, but everyone but me seems to be empty. For now, let’s first see if we can do something for your bow?”
She looked dubious.
“Appraise.”
Class: Compound Bow.
Material: Greythril 80%, Orichalcum 10%, Mustite 10%.
EE: 100/100.
Strength: 150/150.
Attribute: None.
Cost: 3 Small Gold.
I could see the layout of the compound bow on a molecular level. I sensed the natural stress points of the metal and where Ara added the correct sized honeycomb hollows just in the right places. There was also a bit of Mustite added in case I wanted to add attributes. Overall, the frame of the bow was not only far lighter, but also stronger.
Ara transferred a copy my memories. It did feel a little tiring, like after finishing a long exam. Once the bow returned from the core, I added my Karosaki standard to the bow above the handle. I would call this class of bow, the Karosaki Compound Bow. I made it in a beautiful blue-grey iridescent sheen and supplied my front standard in gold finishing.
“What the…”
A voice behind me reminded me that Hana had just witnessed the process. She must have seen some interesting things while I was busy, but I think the bow impressed her most.
“What type of bow is that?”
I handed it to her to inspect, after all I made it for her.
“It is a compound bow, far more powerful and lighter for anything else its size.”
“It’s light. It feels like air in my hands.”
She pulled the string a few times and let go. She held the bow for a while, as if uncertain about it.
“It is a good bow, and I will adapt to it.”
“I’ll make some arrows for you.”
I made ten arrows for Hana. Five arrows made from different metal combinations, and the other five were only plain arrows but with differing front-of-centre weight distributions for testing purposes. Each group had a different pattern on the flexible metal guide feathers for reference. One of the arrows had a honeycomb centre that allowed me to use iron as reinforcement and which was a commonly available metal and less expensive. The tips were iron, but I resisted the urge to make their points sharp to the molecular level because there was still a lot of experimentation waiting before we designed arrows that suited her better.
“How about we show this bow to Grenfell?”
Grenfell chuckled for quite a long time while inspecting the bow and arrows in detail.
“Ho-ho.”
“Well Shane, you have outdone yourself on this one. I am not the best weaponsmith when it comes to bows but I am up there with the better ones. I can tell you that what I am holding in my hands is a kingdom or even world class item.”
“Seriously?”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“I’m good enough to know that you made this bow for Hana, heck even the grip fits her hand perfectly.”
He chuckled at Hana while her face turned red. I did not recall doing that for her, Ara must have taken that into consideration.
“I have to say that I’m intrigued by the bow’s technology, but before we bore Hana to death, why don’t we put up a place for her to test it out while we chat about it?”
The old man went into the store and with my help we hauled out an old overused wooden target on tripod legs. Some things don’t change regardless of the world. But instead of heading where I was expecting, outside the front door, the old man headed for that weird forest-door. When he opened the door, he stepped out into a sunny, grassy glade surrounded by a forest.
“Come on, come on. Stop gawking and give me a hand with this will you? Besides I thought you had enough time to check this place out for yourself?”
Yes, and I decided to leave it dead alone. If it wasn’t bad enough he expected me to explore the place, he even wanted to have an old-style English picnic in it. After we were all out, the old man shut the door and it simply disappeared without a sound. I started quietly praying that the old man knew how to open it again otherwise we might have been in a bit of a pickle. We dragged the target into the middle of the glade.
“Ah, Grenfell?”
“Yes Shane.”
“I am assuming it is safe to be here, with all the hooting animals and all?”
“Yes, you are correct, they are noisy. SHUUUUUT UUUUP!”
Grenfell shouted at the top of his voice. Instant silence. The forest was suddenly dead quiet. How was that any better? I bet we just sent a lunch invitation to every monster in that forest that humans just appeared on the lunch menu.
“Ah, that’s better. Let’s carry on.”
The old man said while ignoring my comment.
“There you go. Hana let’s step some distance away, I would like to see how you hold the bow?”
We walked a few paces to the one side of the glade. I was keeping a careful watch on the tree line. The old man might be carefree, but I didn’t share his optimism. Hana notched an arrow in the bow and fired an arrow at the target, missing the bull by a finger breadth.
“Good shot.”
Hana took all ten arrows and fired them off. One or two hit the bull and the rest were all over the place. She pulled out the arrows from the target.
“I will use these three arrows.”
The rest she passed back to me and she continued to work with those three. Varying her distance and angle. While she was shooting and retrieving, I discussed with the old man the details of the arrow construction. For about an hour Hana practiced, and then just as suddenly she said,
“I’m done.”
She decided on two arrows. One was the lighter reinforced arrow, she said they would be lighter to carry which meant she could carry more. The other arrow was a plain arrow weighted in the way she preferred.
“Can I come to practice here again?”
She asked the old man.
“Yes, you can come and go as often as you like. We can even leave the target right there. It will be perfectly fine.”
“Is it safe to be here by ourselves?”
I asked.
“Mm, difficult to say. I’ve been here many times before and not once was I attacked or felt in danger. If you decide to step into the forest, I’m not sure what will happen because I’ve never been there myself.”
Well, that settled that then. When the old man walked towards the spot where the door used to be the outline of the door appeared. Somehow the door knew when we wanted to leave. Back in the shop, only half an hour had elapsed from when we first left. We could easily have been over one hour out there. When I mentioned it to the old man he just laughed,
“Oh, did I forget to tell you that no matter how long you are gone through that door, time will not progress, even if you’re there an entire day or more on that side.”
Time and space just didn’t seem to make sense in that place, but I reserved my questions for a more opportune time. I made fifty arrows for Hana of the ones she preferred, but I would keep making variations for her to try out. She could let me know what arrows she liked.
While I was busy, the old man came in from the store with an orichalcum buckler. The small buckler about the size of my head fitted perfectly on my left arm and was perfect for keeping me mobile but protected.
He had earlier asked for Hana’s armour and he had made some modifications to it.
“I have a little something I would like to give Hana.”
He had added some light armour to hers, it somehow seemed lighter but harder somehow. There was an inner arm guard attached to the outer arm guard to protect her from the bow string. A small white daisy, made from enamel was fastened on her left top breastplate, the rivet holding it in place made for the yellow centre of the flower, it was without a doubt an armour made for Hana.
I didn’t know it at that time, but the daisy reminded her of the daisies that grew up in the fields around Hana’s village. Those memories and the feelings associated with them, suddenly flooded her heart. What beautiful silent tears came from Hana’s eyes as she looked at the items we had freely given her. I even noticed tears from the old man’s eyes, I truly battled not to cry myself.
“Now Hana, now you are fully ready for the dungeon. Karato will take care of the rest.”
When I had a moment alone with the old man I smiled and said,
“I’ll have to keep an eye on you, old man.”
“Ha, ha, ha, there’s a few moves in me yet.”
One morning as we were having lunch, we were interrupted by the pleasant noise of many carts trundling through the centre of town. Karato arrived as promised. What was immediately different was that the carts came in from the southern end of town and not from the east. Hana and I raced to the adventurer’s guild where the carts parked like a wagon train, one behind the other. Karato sat on the leading cart, there must have been six other carts with him, two of those carts held important people.
“It’s good to see you again Karato.”
Greeted Hana as I walked up to Karato and shook his hands.
“Hi Hana. It’s good to see you both. We have a lot to catch up on, but there are a few arrangements I need to make first. After I’ve freshened up, I’ll meet you later at the Dryad where we can talk.
“Mr. Karosaki!”
Called a voice I recognised all too well. It came from a well-built man with a handlebar moustache sitting shotgun next to the driver.
“Mr. Papadopoulos. It’s good to see you again. Thank you for coming all the way to Obon, I know you had to endure more than usual for some work.”
He laughed as he waved his hand in the air, as if dismissing a minor issue. His team of men on the carts behind him were also in good spirits.
“It’s nothing. We might seem fragile, but we’re tougher than we look! Bwahahaha.”
Judging by the chorus of laughter behind him, his men thought so too.
“When do you want to start?”
“Whoa now there for a moment. I appreciate your eagerness but we’re going to first get everything set-up. We’ll camp near the adventurer guild here and take it easy after all that travelling. You and I can catch up later today after you’ve spoken with Karato over there.”
I thanked him and left them to get sorted. Karato seemed already busy preparing camping placements for them. I met him later at the Dryad where he gave me a rundown of events that I needed to be aware of. Two scrolls lay on the counter in front of us.
“This scroll’s your permission from the palace and His Majesty to harvest as much timber as you see fit, in any part of the Obon territory. You now have permission to set up base wherever and whenever you want, and you only need pay one silver at the adventurer guild to ratify this document. In addition, the palace included a lumber contract to purchase at market rates as much processed lumber as you can supply within five summer seasons.”
“That’s a very good agreement.”
Certainly, we would be able to make a good deal of profit from that. If that wasn’t enough we had carte blanche access to the forest. I wondered what the other scroll was. As if reading my mind, he added.
“You may by wondering what that other scroll is right? Do you remember your request to the king to receive the mining rights to a certain claim in the Hull estate? Here it is. You have ten summer seasons’ mining rights with easement access, provided you maintain the easement access road. There’s no need to pay any mineral taxes, King Leopold took care of that. You’ll also need to pay one silver at the adventurer guild to ratify the mining rights.”
“I’d totally forgot about that. Oh wow, this is also something very special to me.”
That was the mesa area where I accidently picked up the rocks. Those same rocks Orilay and his men had recently sorted for me. The old man who had been sitting quietly watching the scene unfold asked me a good question.
“What’s so special about that area that you want to mine it? I don’t imagine Lady Hull giving away something that would make her more money.”
“Here, let me show you.”
Out of my pocket dimension I took out a few samples of the processed rocks I’d collected.
“It’s a rock.”
“You asked the king to mine some rocks?”
I laughed at their insensitivity to what they were looking at.
“Yes, as my father always told me, beauty is in the eye of those who know what they’re looking at. Or something like that.”
“Is there any value in these?”
Asked Grenfell pointing to the rocks.
“Not unless you’re looking to build a road, and a very particular one at that.”
Grenfell picked up the rock, his keen blacksmith eye starting to identify its characteristics. Turning it in his hands and he started looking at it in more detail.
“Okay…it seems this is a particularly durable rock so it would make good paving. It has a beautiful translucent quality to it and there seems to be silverish veins running through it, is that a type of metal?”
Trust the old man’s eyes to pick up the small detail.
“What would you say if I told you that was Mustite.”
“Mustite?”
“Mustite?”
I forgot I had used my terminology.
“Marsh iron, or at least it’s pure active ethereal component.”
Judging by the looks of surprise on everyone’s faces, I think they were starting to understand. But only starting because I bet they were thinking about mining the metal out.
“But that’s not where I find the value in that rock.”
“Huh, not?”
“Here…have a look.”
I found a dusty blanket someone kept in a wagon, pulled everyone into a close circle and threw the blanket over our heads. The blanket smelled like oil, metal, and dust. With everyone standing there it felt like some weird fellowship of the geology club. I placed some EE into each rock I held in my hands and slowly, the rocks started to glow and pulsate a beautiful soft electric blue interspersed with hues of darker blues.
“Oh wow!”
Came Hana’s soft shout. Everyone started laughing because they could identify with her enthusiasm. When we eventually escaped pleasant hypnotic vision the blanket there was a moment of silence.
“Can you imagine whole roads paved with this. Ha, ha, ha.”
Karato suddenly started laughing and slapped me hard on the back that I staggered. Bloody hell that hurt.
“What’s so funny?”
“Trust you to find something amazing like this. I bet the His Majesty is going to be jealous when he hears about it. But that pales into insignificance as compared to what I would pay to be a fly on the wall watching Lady Hull’s reaction when she hears about it! I hear she has a penchant for extraordinarily rare things.”