Chapter 20

It's cold.

I feel drenched.

What happened? Is the roof leaking? Did it rain last night?

I don't want to get up yet. The pillow feels so cozy. I don't want to get up.

I don't… but it's wet…

So gathering all the will I can muster, I rubbed my eyes and open them.

Only to see a little fairy, sleeping with the most blissful expression on her face, carefreely drooling on my chest...

This little fairy…

I believe that sleep is a very important activity that every deserves to enjoy. You should not wake somebody up without good reason. To do so, I would consider a great crime. So I wouldn't usually wake someone up in this situation.

But this…

This crosses a line.

Now it's an eye for an eye.

Squinting my eyes, I grab her by the wings and lift her up to eye level.

"Huh.. hu.. hmm? Huh, huh?" She wakes up in a slight panic and starts looking around.

Eventually her eyes fall on the wet spot on my chest, and as if she knew exactly what she did, "Eh hehe. The night was cold. And the inside of your blanket is so warm. You can't expect me not to go in there."

I want to give her a lecture, but I'm too tired for this right now, so I'll let her go this time. "Sigh... it's morning, go wash your face and let's go."

I wait till she flies out of the room before using magic water to wash my own face.

Rubbing my hands on my face, warm water is produced and it dries as it flows flows down to the blanket.

At first the feeling of being drenched on the bed is a bit uncomfortable, but I got used to it in time.

The water doesn't evaporate, it simply just fades out of existence, so it doesn't make me feel cold.

I also use this water to clean the drool off myself.

Ahhh... magic, where have you been all my life.

After washing off the drool onto a towel, my head falls back on the pillow for a '5 more minutes'. But then, just as I was about to go back to dreamland, the window swings open... "Ether... draw water for me."

"Oh, right. I forgot." I drew water for her before taking my '5 more minutes'.

After we finished out morning routines, Piccy turned invisible again and we headed off.

First stop, Mr. Kolo...

*Ring ring*

"Hello, welcome back." Sharry greets us from the desk as we walk in.

Well, only me. She can't see Piccy right now.

"Good morning to you too Sharry. You're up early today. Is mister Kolo here? I'd like him to make something for me."

"Sharry's a big girl now, so she has to get up early to help out papa." She says while still looking a bit sleepy. "Papa is at the back, I'll go call him." She says before waddling over.

"Alright, thank you Sharry."

(Wow, what is this place?) She ask as she flies around the shop.

(This is a blacksmith, guess you've never seen one before huh?)

(Blacksmith? What's that?)

(Blacksmiths are people who make tools, weapons, armor and lots of other stuff using metal and some other materials. I'm here today to ask him to make me some arrow using these tusks here.) I gesture at the boar tusks on my back.

(Hmm... makes tools, weapons and armor... Oh! So they're like Wood Shapers.)

(Wood Shapers?)

(Yeah! They're really amazing. They can use magic to turn wood into anything. Clothes, weapons, furniture, houses, anything. They're really amazing. With just a few waves of their fingers, wood bends to their will, forming whatever they desire.)

(Wow. That really does sound amazing. I'd like to meet them someday too if I can.)

Mr. Kolo walks out from the back. "Morning there kid. Those two aren't with you today?"

"No, they're currently escorting a client to another town."

"Huhuhuh..." he leans in the desk, "Hay. Between you and me kid. Those two are real good friends. From what I can tell, they're like sisters. They do everything together snd they're real effective together. But I've never seen them with anyone else into their party. They're strong, so it's ok for now, but eventually they're going to need to learn how to work with others. And you're the only one I've seen them let into their party. So I guess what I'm askin is... keep an eye on them for me, k?"

He puts a hand on Sharry, "Those two have helped me out a lot. And I want to return the favor."

I nod, "Will do."

"Alright then!" With that phrase, he changed the atmosphere drastically. "Well, you came to me. What can I do for ya?"

With that, I pull the tusks from my back and put them on the desk. "I got these yesterday, and I was wondering what you could make with these."

He takes one of the tusks and inspects it, "I'm assuming you mean combat gear."

I nod.

"Well, I could turn these into some arrows, a bow, or maybe a shaft for a short spear, they look long enough."

"I've heard good things about arrows made from these tusks."

"Yeah.. they can go real far real fast. So you want arrows?" He says while checking the straightness of the tusks.

"Yep, I'd like some arrows please."

"What do you want it tipped with? Best I have for you is normal iron."

Hu hu hu. I'm glad I prepared for this.

The usual block of metal back in the game is, I think about 15 by 15 by 75 centimeters.

But in anticipation of this event, when Piccy wasn't looking, I used water magic to cut a block of steel into 3 equal chunks.

I reach into my bag and take one of those chunks out of my inventory, hoping he doesn't notice that it's too big for my bag, and put it on the desk.

"Could you make something form this?"

He picks up the chunk of steel and inspects it. "This is... steel. And it's extremely high quality too. I can't see any I'm purities in it at all. Where did you even get this?"

"Uhhhh... I came across some during my travels." I feel like that's going to be my excuse for everything from now on.

"This is amazing stuff. I'm sure I can make some great arrow tips with this, but I'd also like some to work myself. If you have anymore I'd gladly buy it from you."

"I do have some more, but... if I give you the steel, can I ask you to make something for those two as well? I do owe the for saving me and showing me around town."

If we're talking about steel than I have tons left, and if I'm remembering the density of iron correctly, then literally tons.

"Oh hoho. If I have steel this good, then I could probably make that little rascal a spear that doesn't break no matter what she swings it at."

"I wouldn't count on it." I pull out the other two blocks and hope he doesn't notice. Thankfully his attention seems to be focused on the steel block in front of him.

At the thud of me placing the other two blocks on the table, his eyes light up.

Hehe, he's speechless. He looks really happy to have these. Is steel really such a good material here that it's worth gawking over?

Aren't there there other, better materials. Like the Mythiral Silvia mention yesterday?

If that's the case, while I was cutting the steel I also cut some Damascus steel and Mithiral.

He seems really engrossed in the steel, I should be fine to pull out another block... maybe...

I reach into my bag and pull out a block of Damascus the same size as the steel blocks and put it on the desk.

A block of steel with waves of brilliant colors running diagonally through it like wavy rainbows.

"Hmm?" He finally takes his eyes off the steel and looks at what I put on the desk.

His jaws drop and his eyes widens as he grabs the block of Damascus and starts inspecting it.

"Is this?! Is this... Damascus steel?! The color is beautiful, and the pattern is so clear. Not only that, but just like the previous steel the quality is amazing. Where in the world did you even get this? I've never seen anything like this before."

"Huh hu hu. Pretty nice stuff right? I'm sure you could make something amazing out of it."

"How much do you want for them." He looks at me with a serious face. However, I don't bring it out this time with intention to sell them. I'm not short on money right now.

"Make my arrows and some stuff for Alice and Gravel and all the left over metal is yours. I'm sure it won't take all the metal here but if the left overs aren't enough, I'll of course pay you for your services."

"Oh hoho. There'll be no need for that. There's enough here to make all of your stuff and plenty more."

"That's great, I'm glad you like the steel."

"Ho ho, kid you have no idea. Materials like these are a blacksmiths dream, I don't think I've ever seen steel this good before. If you have anymore let me know, I'd be glad to buy them from you for a proper price." He give me a little wink.

"He he, I'll keep that in mind. By the way, how long do you think it will take to finish my arrows?"

"Hmm.. three days? Maybe 4 at most if I get started right now. It's not exactly that easy to carve these tusks."

"Ok, I'll come check again in 4 days then."

"Right, I'll get to work then. Take care."

"Goodbye Sharry."

"Bye bye." Auhh... the little angle is waving me goodbye.

That's our first stop of the day done. Next on today's agenda is to head to the guild. I've completed 5 beginner commissions, so I want to take the test for copper as soon as I can.

Hopefully it won't take too long.