Kain looked at the small rabbit, chewing on a chunk of meat, and felt like it was the strangest thing he had seen. [This is so strange… How are you even chewing the meat? You have entirely flat teeth.] He muttered.
Luna was too focused on her food to pay attention to what Kain had to say, only unconsciously muttering, [So tasty…].
He chuckled, digging into his food as well. Despite it being nothing but boiled meat and potatoes, it tasted better than most meals he had eaten before. The potatoes tasted like the meat due to them boiling in the same pot, and they went well with one another. Despite the fact that Luna had brought back a whole 7-foot long headless deer, the two ate all of the meat down to the bone; all that was left was the skeleton and some inedible organs, which were both promptly disposed of. Sighing in contentment after eating his large fill, he suddenly had a thought, [Do you know how we ate so much despite the fact that we are relatively smaller than the deer?]
Luna closed her eyes after shrugging her shoulders, [I don’t know. Though, now that I think about it, I do remember eating more than I should have reasonably been able to after coming to this place.] She said, referring to the space where the floating island hung. [Honestly, I have never thought too hard about it. But what’re we going to do now? We finished exploring the tower and failed at going to Earth, so what’s next?]
Kain looked up at the ceiling of the dark cave, illuminated by the small fire. He thought about the tower, and their failure in creating the passage to go to earth. He realized that there was one problem: lack of energy. [The problem we had was lack of energy. If we had an infinite amount of it, something like this would be child's play. I think we need a way to store energy for later use. Perhaps even a way to accumulate energy from the air around us would be helpful. I have figured out how to imbue concepts into the energy in items, after all. This may be easier than I thought.] He started to plan some experiments in his head. If he could learn from them and refine the ideas he had, then he could find a way to not only make the energy storage device, but also a few new weapons to defend themselves. They may be strong now, but he knew he could not become complacent, as something like the one-eyed monster could appear again.
Luna pouted, [Then I can’t help… Is there anything for me to do?] She expectantly asked.
[I think the best thing you can do is assist me when I start some of the experiments. For now, though, I’m planning on opening some of the stuff from the tower and making some clothes. I did say I would teach you some basic sewing.]
Luna became excited, [Ohh, I want to do that! When do we start?] She asked excitedly.
[We can start after we open that cold casket. That was the only mystery. Well, that and the red and green gem.] He responded. He took out the casket from his amulet.
Before he could examine it more thoroughly, Luna said, [I think we should wait a while. If we open it, and it’s some dangerous weapon, then we might get killed. If you are going to experiment with imbuing energy, then I think another goal should be something that lets us see whatever’s inside that thing without being affected.] She suggested. The earlier talk about viruses and superweapons had put her on edge with the thing.
Kain hummed in agreement, [Hmm. That is probably for the best. I just thought that we had to open it now or never open it. A protective barrier would be nice if we’re going to open Pandora’s Box.] He muttered.
Luna tilted her head a bit, [What’s Pandora’s Box?]
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Kain gave a warm smile. [I’ll tell you while I teach you how to sew. Sounds good?] He asked. Luna gave a small nod, excitement about sewing showing in her eyes he chuckled at her excitement, [I don’t see why it is such a riveting topic for you, but I won’t judge.] She only pouted in response.
Kain was nothing more than mediocre at sewing, but he was able to teach Luna well enough. He taught her so well, in fact, that she was much more accurate and precise than he was. She pulled up a small cloak she made for herself, which was a piece of cloth just big enough for her body sewn together at the top point.She called out to Kain, [Look! I did it!].
Kain pulled up his cloak. It was a draping length of cloth with nothing other than sleeves and a hood. He looked at her cloak, then at his. [You haven’t even been doing this for an hour and you’re already better than me.] He sighed. His mouth lifted into a smile, [Good job though. If you ever get too hot with it on, you can take it off, Okay?] He stroked her head and scratched behind her ears.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the head rub for a while. Eventually, she said, [Are we going to wear this now?]
Kain shook his head. [No, not yet. I want to see if I can make these cloaks into something more protective.] He said. Looking down at his cloak, he analyzed the energy in the fabric. It was just as radiant and unrestrained as it was in the black metal of his axe. He began to draw energy into one area of the cloak and thought about how he could make the cloak better for protection. He had many things to think about in terms of potential damage, especially now that he knew about how creatures manipulated energy. He had to deal with piercing attacks, slashing attacks, blunt force, fire, ice, sharp objects, lightning, acid, and a whole host of other potential things that could kill them. Unless he wanted to imbue concepts that could protect against every type of attack there was, and even balance contradictory concepts, he had to imbue the cloak with something that was very different than just changing the properties of the fabric. He put a great deal of thought into it when he suddenly thought of the elevator in the Dragonoid tower. The walls of the elevator were made up of some kind of forcefield, which was both weightless and could be activated or deactivated at will. Thinking about it, he finally thought to himself, ‘That could actually work.’
Now that he had a goal, he needed a way to get there. He had no experience in creating things as complicated as force fields with energy, so he needed to do some more experiments. He decided to simply try his best for his first attempt. He grabbed a rock nearby and began working. He imbued many concepts like ‘repulsion’, ‘projection’, ‘barrier’, and many more into the rock. After an hour, however, there was no more innate energy in the rock. He examined the rock, watching as the simple patterns he created hummed with energy. The lines looked like they stuck together, not spilling their energy outward like energy usually did. Beyond the energy lines and shapes, the area was empty. Soon, however, he noticed that energy slowly seeped into the rock from the atmosphere around him. Seeing that gave him an idea.
He recalled the pure energy mist he had made before his exploration of the tower not two days before. It was pure, concentrated energy that was denser than the ambient energy around him. He could also control it to move around, expand or condense. If he could control it, then did that not mean that he could infuse it into the rock he was modifying? Thinking this, he gave it a try.
He pulled his energy from his body and condensed it into mist. It hung in the air, trying to spread but being held by Kain’s will. He pushed the energy into the rock, trying to supplement the energy that had been condensed into the various shapes and patterns. The mist seeped into the rock, filling the empty space within. Kain finally noticed the incongruity of an item being empty of energy, but also completely solid. He looked closer and realized that the energy was like heat: a hollow object could have plenty of heat, and a solid object could have no heat or vice versa. The same applied to the energy that he was manipulating. At that point, though, something struck his mind like a freight train: if an object has enough heat energy, could it not melt? He turned his attention back to reality just as the rock shattered, sending small stone shards flying at high speeds.
Kain used pure energy to create a barrier while Luna used her shield to block the shards. Luckily, neither were hurt, but the rock was beyond saving. Kain looked at the rock he had spent over an hour crafting and sighed. [Well, back to square one then…] He muttered.
[Is there anything I can help with?] Luna asked.
[Yeah. Can you get me a pile of rocks to use? This is going to take a while]