Chapter 32
Lex’s Workshop
Carrying the load of junk Lexton had bought proved to be a bit of a task for Erin and her group. Mostly due to the fact that the kobold lived a good distance outside the city. Not only that, but he refused to hire any kind of transport to help them in their task, as he saw it as a “waste of money.”
While Erin and Arkay might not have liked the idea, they were still willing to go through with it, as they were more focused on the overall goal. Both were willing to go through troubles now in order to achieve what they wanted. However, a certain blonde was not in agreement with her two friends at all.
“This is some complete bullshit!” Ryle complained loudly as she followed her friends and Lexton. “I’m supposed to be a badass bounty hunter! Not some damn pack mule! How the hell did I get into this!?”
“Look, Ryle, I get that you don’t like this. I don’t really enjoy this any more than you do,” Erin said with a small sigh, hoping to get through to the blonde. “But the fact is that we can’t go and accomplish our objective here, unless we get help from someone like him. So far, he has shown to be willing to offer us a helping hand, so we shouldn’t push it away. Just bear with it for now and I’m sure it will be worth it.”
“That’s easy for you to say, seeing as you have a far lighter load than I do,” Ryle said while carrying a large bag of junk on both her hands, along with a larger one on her back. Meanwhile, the redhead only had one bag slung over her shoulder. “Mind telling me what that is about, huh?”
“W-Well, it can’t be helped, can it!? You’re the strongest one of us all here!” Erin quickly said with an embarrassed blush on her face. “The rest of us are carrying as much as we can over here!”
“As much as you can, my ass…”
“R-Ryle? If you’d like, I could try carrying one of those bags for you,” Arkay suddenly suggested, hoping to help out the blonde. “I think if I try really hard, I should be able to do it. Besides, if I get left behind, you guys can go ahead without me.”
“...Thanks for the offer, Arnie. You’re a real sweetheart and all, but I don’t think that would work out,” Ryle said with a small smile. “I mean, you’re barely able to hold yourself up as it is. If you were to take any of this load off my back, your body would probably get crushed under the weight.”
“Oh… I understand,” the cat boy said in a saddened tone. “I’m sorry that I can’t be more of a help.”
“No need to worry about it! Your consideration is more than enough!” the blonde said happily, hoping to cheer up her young companion. Then an idea came to her mind. “Although, if you do wish to help me out, you could give me a ki-”
Ryle’s request was stopped by a rock hitting her on the side of her head. The blonde had a furious look on her face as she stared at the person that had thrown it, Erin.
“What the hell was that all about!?” Ryle asked angrily.
“I could ask the same from you,” Erin said with a frustrated sigh. “Could you not do things like that for at least until we reach Lex’s place? Besides, I don’t want you corrupting Arnie.”
“I’ll show you corruption as soon as I get my hands on you…”
“Would you guys mind and stop with the comedy antics for a moment? We’re here,” Lexton said as he came to a stop and motioned towards a place ahead of them. “Welcome to my workshop, ladies and gentlemen. And whatever Ryle can be defined as.”
“HEY!” came the yell from a certain blonde, who was not too happy by the last comment the kobold made.
Meanwhile, Erin and Arkay were looking over the so called workshop. While they had expected it to be a small hut in the outskirts of the city, it was actually a RV. An old one, but still in a good enough condition. The redhead guessed that since Lexton’s “business” most likely didn’t leave behind many happy customers that he most likely had to stay mobile. This is why even his workshop was such that it could be moved around. All in all, it seemed like a smart decision.
However, upon getting closer to it, Erin realized something troubling.
“Ummm… Lex? I think there might be a bit of an issue with your workshop,” the redhead said.
“What do you mean? It can hold all the tools and materials I need, and I can just pack up and leave right away when things get too hot for me to handle,” the kobold said. “I don’t see any problems with it.”
“I get that, but I was kind of referring to us,” Erin said as she placed her body next to the door, showing that she would have to bend down in order to fit in. “I think it’s a bit too small for us.”
“Well, it’s pretty large for me and I’m the one who owns it, right? I don’t see why I have to worry about your freaking comfort,” Lexton said with a shrug as he walked up to the door. “Besides, I’m just showing this place to you. I’m not expecting you to live here. Just leave the stuff outside, while I go and prepare to do my work.”
“Alright, but do you need help with anything else?” the redhead asked as she put the bag she was carrying on the ground. “I mean, I know I don’t know anything about making runes or even weapons themselves, but if we can offer any assistance, I’m sure we would all be willing to do so.”
“Thanks for the offer, but no,” the kobold said without any hesitation. “This type of work is very delicate and requires a lot of skill, so I’d appreciate it if you stayed away from it. I don’t want this to get messed up.”
Erin frowned, not all too happy about the tone Lexton had just used. It was clear to her that he was looking down on them.
“Well, I’m not just going to go back to the city after carrying all that heavy junk!” the redhead stated in a tone that told everyone listening that she wasn’t going to change her mind no matter what. “I’m at least going to take a look at the inside of your workshop!”
“Wha-? Hang on a second! You can’t just come inside the home of somebody else without permission!” the kobold said, having not expected any of the three to actually come inside his workshop. “Don’t you guys have any manners or something!?”
“If it’s permissions that we need, that can be easily solved,” Erin said as she walked up to the entrance of the RV and stared down at Lexton. “All you need to do is give us a permission to enter and that should resolve that issue.”
“Yeah, except the issue is that I don’t want any of you into my home!” the kobold argued back. “Why are you suddenly so interested in what goes on inside my place anyways!?”
“Shouldn’t I be interested? After all, you are working on equipment that my friends and I will be using,” the redhead argued. “I’d say that’s more than good enough of a reason of wanting to see what’s going on inside.”
Lexton was going to try and keep arguing, but Arkay and Ryle stepped up to support their friend.
“A-Actually, I’d like to see the work you do up close,” Arkay stated. “The golems you make are simply amazing, so I wish to see how you do work like that.”
“Yeah! I’d like to see it myself as well!” Ryle said with a grin. “I mean, you’ve been telling us how great it is and all, so why would you need to hide it from us? It’s not like we can steal anything from you!”
Judging by the look on the blonde’s face, Lexton was fairly certain that she was only joining the other two in their demands just to spite him. However, that didn’t make much of a difference, as Erin was obviously headstrong in her desire to get in and Arkay seemed to be genuinely interested. Because of this, the kobold could do nothing else but relent.
“Alright, since you all want it so bad, come on in,” Lexton said with a frustrated sigh. “But don’t touch anything inside! I’m serious about this. Some of the things in my workshop are quite valuable, so I would like it if you didn’t break them.”
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Having reached an agreement with the kobold, Erin and the others went inside the RV, even if it was a bit difficult for them. Due to the place not being designed for regular humans, the redhead was forced to bend down slightly in order to get through the door. The ceiling was luckily far enough that she didn’t have to continue doing so, but if she did something like jumping her head would immediately hit the ceiling.
Arkay was luckily small enough that he could fit without any issues. The same couldn’t be said about Ryle, though, as she was the tallest member in the group. Not only was she forced to crouch down in order to get through the door, but had to keep bending forward on the inside so that she could fit. The blonde was obviously very displeased over this, as she was grumbling in an upset manner.
The inside of the RV was kind of spacious in a way. Had Erin and her friends been dwarfs or some other shorter race, they could move around quite nicely. In fact, she could almost imagine the four of them living in this place rather comfortably in such a case. Unfortunately, since none of them belonged to any of such shorter races, the situation was quite different, as was evident by Ryle’s struggles to fit in. The blonde kept hitting things with every little motion, which of course didn’t brighten her already sour mood all that much.
There was also another issue when it came to the inside of the RV. A lot of space was taken up by what Erin guessed were Lexton’s tools and materials. Any possible surface was almost completely covered in bottles and boxes of different sizes, holding all sorts of exotic looking objects. There were numerous minerals, ranging from ones that looked like regular rocks to shiny metals and even some jewels. Plants could also be spotted here and there, as either simply dried up leaves hanging from walls or healthily growing from small pots. Some moss could also be spotted in jars, along with more leaves of different sizes and colors. Even pieces of wild animals and beasts seemed to be here and there, although nowhere near as many. Fangs, claws and scales were littered around the place. Lastly, jars of what seemed to be chemicals were neatly stacked on the end of one of the tables as well, but Erin couldn’t tell what they were at all. With no other place to go, a lot of the walls were covered in papers that had blueprints for weapons and armors drawn on them, as well as guides for making different potions and other chemical concoctions. One could only imagine how full all the cabinets were, seeing as how full everything else was.
But while all of this was very impressive, all these different ingredients brought a rather unpleasant side effect that Erin and her friends quickly discovered. They left behind a very nasty smell.
“Goddamn, this place stinks!” Ryle complained while holding her nose in disgust. “I’ve been to all sorts of shitholes in my life, but this one takes the cake in the stench contest! Have you ever thought about cleaning this dump!?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who insisted on you three coming inside! I would have been just happy leaving you all outside!” Lexton yelled back at the blonde. “Besides, the smell comes from my materials, so it’s just something you have to get used to. I’m not getting rid of them.”
As Ryle was grumbling about the smell, Erin watched the kobold getting ready to work. After hastily clearing enough room on a table, he went to one of the bags of junk he had brought and dug through it. He soon found what he was looking for, which appeared to be a large old knife. The blade was chipped in multiple places and it had rust on some places, yet Lexton looked at the blade with a satisfied smile, like he was holding a prized artifact.
“Lex, can I ask you something?” Erin called out to the kobold, who simply gave a small grunt as a sign that he had heard her. “What are you going to do with a knife like that? It doesn’t look like it can be used for much.”
“You see, that’s where you’re wrong,” Lexton replied without stopping in his work for even a second, as he now had set up all sorts of tools on the table to start his work. “While all materials have their inherent qualities, it’s not often a case of picking the right material, but rather a case of utilizing it correctly. Even something that most would regard as trash can be of great use with enough work and skill.”
“Excuse me for saying this, but I call bullshit,” Ryle said in a mocking tone. “Judging by just the rust, I doubt you could use that thing to dig up rocks from dirt, let alone for defending yourself.”
Before Erin could scold the blonde for her rude behavior, Lexton stopped in his work for a moment to look at Ryle with a knowing smirk.
“Oh really? You think so?” the kobold said with a small chuckle. “I would ask how much you’re willing to bet on that, but since I know you guys don’t have anything left, I’ll just be enjoying the look on your face when I prove you wrong.”
Erin and her two companions watched as Lexton began to work. First he took out a plastic bottle that had a clear liquid in it. By carefully dropping just a couple of drops of it on spots that had rust, it began to sizzle and smoke. The onlookers’ eyes went wide as the rust seemed to just melt off the blade, before falling harmlessly as small grains on the table. Lexton repeated this process a few times, until all of the rust was gone.
Next, the kobold took out a stone that was black in color, but seemed to have a strange blue glittering on its surface. With all of his strength, he dragged the stone over the blade, causing sparks to fly. He did this a few times until the blade was no longer chipped. Instead, it was now glistening with a sharp edge, like it was brand new.
The handle was the next thing Lexton decided to work on. The handle basically just had some leather wrappings over a metal core that was part of the blade itself. The wrappings were now dirty, loose and worn, which made the handle very uncomfortable and difficult to hold properly. To fix this, Lexton took off the old leather wrappings and went to one of the cabinets. From the inside, he pulled out what seemed to be a large roll of leather from some kind of an animal. With special scissors that were in the cabinet as well, he cut a few strips of it and then put some type of adhesive on them, before he tied them tightly around the handle of the knife.
Erin thought that his work was already done by now, but instead it still continued. Lexton went to look for something and soon came back with a large circular object that looked like a tablet of some kind. He laced the tablet on the table, allowing the people watching to see a bunch of symbols drawn on its surface, surrounding what seemed to be a clear gem of some type.
“What is that, Lex?” Erin asked, looking at the tablet in curiosity.
“This? This is my enchantment tablet,” the kobold answered. “By applying the right catalysts and the right amount of magic on an object, I can create enchanted objects with magical properties that pretty much anyone can use.”
“How does that work?” the redhead asked, wondering how such objects could be made.
“Just observe,” Lexton said with a smirk. “You’ll see.”
Erin watched as the kobold placed the knife in the middle of the tablet and then took out some new tools. One of these looked like a long and thin needle that seemed to be heated at the end, which he used to make small carvings on the side of the blade. Once this was done, he grabbed some other objects. One of these was a plastic jar full of dark gray liquid that he then poured over the knife, completely covering it. The other one seemed to be a small blue gem. The gem was placed on a hole that was made on the side of the blade, where it fit perfectly. Once this was done, Lexton placed his hands on the tablet and it soon began to glow in a bright blue light. The symbols and the gem in the middle of the tablet all had a bright blue glow that was almost blinding, forcing the onlookers to cover their eyes. The glow soon disappeared, leaving behind a knife that had blue carvings on it and a gem attached to it.
Lexton grabbed the knife, looked it over quickly and nodded in a satisfied manner. It seemed like his work was finally done.
“Here you go, Arnie,” the kobold said as he handed the knife to the cat boy. “A brand new enchanted knife just for you.”
“Woah… This looks amazing! Thank you so much!” Arkay said happily as he looked over his new weapon. “But… may I ask what these symbols and the gem are?”
“These symbols, my friend, are runes,” Lexton began to explain. “By using them, one can bring forth magical properties into objects. The ones I gave your knife aren’t really anything special, though. Besides a basic thunder rune, they are there to simply improve the durability of the knife, so it won’t break as easily as a normal knife would.”
“No, that is incredible! You’re really talented!” the cat boy praised the kobold with sparkling eyes. “You said something about a thunder rune, though. What does that do? Does it give the knife electric powers?”
“You catch on quick,” Lexton said with a smile. “Yes, what I put on that knife allows you to add electrical properties into the blade by channeling just a tiny bit of magic into it. If you want to, you can give it a try.”
Following the kobold’s instructions, Arkay held the knife in his hands and took a deep breath, before he began to concentrate. He then began to channel his magical energies into the weapon and soon after that electricity began to surround the blade, sending small sparks of light to the surroundings. The sudden appearance of such an effect surprised the cat boy quite a bit, causing him to break concentration and stop giving magical energy to the weapon. The knife quickly returned normal after that.
“Pretty neat, huh?” Lexton asked with a small grin as he saw the wide-eyed looks on the faces of his guests. “It’s nothing special, though. At best, the rune allows you to bring forth enough electricity to be on the same level as a taser.”
“It’s still a very impressive piece of work. Especially considering how easily you were able to make it,” Erin said with a smile. “Mind if I ask about the blue gem that you added into the blade? What is it exactly?”
“That is a small mana stone. One specifically imbued with the powers of thunder,” the kobold explained. “Like I said, the thunder rune that I carved into the blade was a basic one. Such a rune doesn’t give you much in terms of power. At best you can use them to basically make tasers or clothing that can resist electrical shocks. However, that’s where the mana stone comes into play. By channeling your power through it, you can create much larger electrical attacks. I placed it there just in case Arkay ever got into a situation that would require a bit more firepower.”
Arkay stared at the blue gem in the knife with awe, amazed by the object he had received. Upon looking at the gem closer, he could lightning sparkle inside it. This made him wonder just what he could possibly do with it.
“However, I do have to tell you to be cautious when using it,” Lexton suddenly said in a serious tone. “Even if that stone can bring great power, it has it’s limits. You should never try to force it beyond those limits. If you do that, you might overload the gem and cause it to shatter in a violent explosion. So keep that in mind, okay?”
“Y-Yes, of course!” Arkay quickly answered.
“Hang on, you mean to tell me that thing can blow up!?” Ryle asked in a worried tone. “I’m not sure if we should put such dangerous stuff in his hands. I mean, I obviously trust Arnie and everything, but I don’t want to put him at any risk here.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Ryle,” Erin said in a calming tone as she gently ruffled the cat boy’s hair. “The way I see it, he’s smart enough not to do anything stupid with the knife anyways, so what’s the harm of letting him have it? Besides, he needs to be able to defend himself.”
“I get that he should be able to fight back, but does he need something so dangerous for that?” the blonde asked, still worried over her young companion. “I could see the logic in him having something like that if he was on his own, but he has us protecting him now. Can’t he just leave the fighting to us?”
“I doubt he likes that idea, you know? Also, we are a pretty small group going up against a large enemy. It’s very likely that we won’t be able to look after him at certain points and he is going to have to fend for himself,” the redhead explained. “When that time comes, it’s best for him to be able to actually fight back, don’t you think?”
“Also, I’d hate to waste my time on a weapon that doesn’t get used,” Lexton added, before Ryle could say anything. “From what I’ve seen, the only one that can really use this knife is Arnie, so it’s best to give it to him.”
“Hey, I’m pretty sure I could use it!” Ryle argued. “At least when it comes to stabbing and slashing…”
“Well, any idiot with a working hand can do that, but I’m talking about the magical aspects here,” the kobold argued back. “I know just by looking at you that you wouldn’t be able to get a tiny spark out of that knife, let alone use it effectively in a fight.”
“Bullshit! I’m sure I could use it just fine!” the blonde yelled angrily.
“Then how about you give it a try?” Lexton asked with a smirk. “If you’re so sure of yourself, you should just show us all, don’t you think?”
Ryle looked at Arkay as if to ask for a permission to which the cat boy nodded. He handed the knife to the blonde woman who held it in her hand and stared at it intensely. However, nothing seemed to be happening, no matter how hard she was concentrating. Ryle’s face even turned as red as a tomato, as she tried her best to make even a bit of electricity appear, yet it was all for nothing.
image [https://i.ibb.co/HnCMHcm/Ch-32-Pic-1.jpg]
“I gotta say, I am impressed by how much effort you are putting into this, despite how futile it is,” Lexton said as he chuckled at Ryle’s desperate attempts. “But I think it’s about time you gave up and gave the knife back to Arnie, okay?”
The blonde handed the weapon back its owner with a disappointed and embarrassed look on her face. Arkay tried to offer words of comfort to her, but it didn’t seem to do much. However, this attempt by Ryle had raised a question in Erin’s mind.
“How did you know that she wouldn’t be able to use the knife?” the redhead asked.
“That’s simple. She is not a magic type individual,” Lexton answered.