Tools of the Trade

          I woke up to the delightful smell of brewed coffee. The richness of the scent almost made up for the lack of warmth at my side, but I just shook my head and checked the time. Yikes, it's an hour till sun-up. I guess this body needs more rest than I'm used to, as even with the 4 hours of sleep, I'm still quite tired. I let out a large yawn, and start to think about my future plans. First, I'll be spending my time in the forge, likely the whole day, and - if I'm lucky - I wont need to spend any time tomorrow in the workshop as well. Regardless of whether I finish tonight, I need to spend some time meditating as well. This time, I'll follow what Alyx said and try to compress the mana inside me when I do.

Thinking of it, I guess I should pay her a visit sometime soon to ask some questions. So, after I use the forge to make what I need, I'll spend the the rest of the day meditating on my nascent powers. After that, a good nights rest and then it'll be a day of hunting and getting my questions answered by the blushing scholar. My itinerary set, I left the bed, cleaned, and dressed myself - forgoing the robe for the loose configuration of my jumpsuit.

Then, I followed my nose to the nectar of the goddess that aroused me from my slumber. I found myself in a kitchen, looking on from behind as the sisters flirted with each other over their coffee. Well, they were far more intimate the night before, but this time I'm much too tired to join in on the fun. "Morning girls~." I say as I walk past them to a counter that's smaller than I'm used to, with a device that was vaguely reminiscent of a tall and thin pressure cooker sitting upon it. Hmm, my nose isn't lying to me, this is definitely the source of that divine smell, but my only hint is a spout, sans spigot, with a traditional coffee mug lined up - ready to receive.

I turned to face the laughing twins and Nadia spoke up to tease me, "What's wrong Xerin? Never seen gnome-works before~?" It seems Nadia acts far more naturally in the morning - or perhaps it was the vigorous exchange of fluids that brought her out of her shell around me. Just before I said something incredibly witty, Claudia beat me to the punch. "Could've fooled me. She knows how a Gnome works better than most." Nadia flushed brightly at the pun and I just groaned in mock agony.

Claudia, upon seeing the intended effect of such brave comedy, walked over and touched the spout. "You've just gotta pour a bit of mana in here. Most gnome-works are gonna need some amount of mana to work. Bit inconvenient for Naturals, though." She finished pouring me a cup and handed me the steaming mug. "If you want it sweet, sugar's in the pantry. Its better plain, though. it's much smoother than what your people make." I took her at her word and tried a sip, not that I added much to my coffee normally.

"Mmh~, that's a good brew..." Definitely a cold brew. There isn't a hint of the acidity that comes from hitting the grounds with hot water and it's extraordinarily smooth and strong.

As I sat down and began to sip on the bean water, Nadia's eyes tracked me the entire time. I felt her lingering gaze and thought she was working herself up to say something so I let her take her time. Claudia, though, saw her sister's lingering gaze and puzzled out what she was about to ask, apparently, and did it for her. "Uh... Xerin? Is that the fel'gar leather you bought yesterday?" At the incredulous tone I heard, I stopped short of another sip and my brain chugged along, trying to puzzle out what she meant. I looked up at her and saw her finger pointing at me; specifically, she was pointing at my clothes.

Ah! That's right, Nadia told me this stuff was difficult to work with... Oh well, not like I have a reason to lie or hide my capabilities I guess. I'll just tell the truth without the technobabble. "Mhm~, a novel magic technique lets me shape some materials at will, this leather just happened to be well suited for it." As I said so, I raised a hand and compressed the suit from my elbow to my wrist. Drawing a gasp from Nadia and an appreciative coo from Claudia.

Nadia began to excitedly ask me questions, her eyes sparkling as if she discovered a new treasure. "Is this really just fel'gar wing? Can you show me how you did it? Can you teach me how to do it?" I just chuckled at the starry eyed gnome, which knocked her out of her excited state and she blushed furiously; then she began muttering in embarrassment, covering her face with her hands. I put a hand on her head in an attempt to seal away the babbling and relax her a bit, before answering her questions in order, "Yes, maybe, and no - sorry." Drawn out from her internal suffering by my answers, she dropped her hands to her chest and began to fidget, "C-can you just show me then? If it's not too much trouble?"

Hmmm, I guess I could? She definitely won't be able to replicate it, and I told her as much. Yet she still insisted on me showing her the technique after I confirmed that I could do it quickly. So, with Nadia's paying me the utmost attention, she handed me a small strip of the leather she had fetched from her personal stash. I grabbed it and placed it on the table before pulling out a small diamond, roughly the size of a golf ball. She gasped loudly at this, and I looked over to see her eyes as wide as they could go, fixed on the elemental carbon in my hand and her jaw practically on the floor. Claudia was over by the stove cooking up a light breakfast and let out a long, low pitched whistle when she saw what had caused her sister to gasp so loudly.

'Hmm? It's just carbon. What's the big deal?' I thought. I was quite confused at their reactions. I mean, this stuff is everywhere right? They're acting like I've just pulled out a kilogram of tritium...

Shaking my head at their nonsensical reactions to elemental carbon, I continued the process after making sure Nadia was still paying attention. When she saw the diamond dissolve into a fine grey mist, she let out a small noise of regret. Upon seeing that mist fall onto the small sheet of leather, she sucked in a harsh breath and began to inspect it frantically. She looked up at me after twisting and stretching it, even attempting to cut or tear into it with scissors, but none of it worked. I was pretty smug about the astonished look in her eyes and began to brag ju~st a little bit. "Hehe, amazing right? Go on, you can praise me. It's pretty co-" But alas, Nadia cut me off with the frostiest tone I'd heard from her. "Are you an idiot?"

""Eh?""

Claudia was on her way to the table with the food she had whipped up, but had stopped halfway at her sisters icy voice. She looked over at me, but I was gobsmacked and staring at Nadia with wide eyes. Claudia, wary of the angry tone she so rarely used, approached the table and cautiously set down the steaming food. "Uh, everything alright?" She said as she looked at the piece of leather in her sister's hand and at my silently working mouth that was trying to piece together a reply. "She - She used that diamond... Dissolved it completely somehow and bound it to this..." Nadia said with a small shake in her voice, setting down the piece of leather onto the table. This time it was Claudia's turn to gasp as she turned to me and eyed the suit I was wearing.

I was still reeling from the genuine anger Nadia had sent my way and had failed to notice the two eying the suit I was wearing. But Claudia's quiet question towards me finally shook me from my stupor, "Hey, Xerin... You... you did that to all of the leather you bought?" She asked as she held up the small piece I had just done. "Huh? Uh, yeah? It vastly improves it's strength, flexibility, and slashing resistance. The only thing it doesn't increase astronomically is force dispersion, but that's what the metal armor'll be for... It's not like it's rare or something, right? I mean, I have literal metric tons of the stuff."

They simply stared at me their eyes flicking between the scrap of leather between them and the similarly colored material covering my body. Finally, Nadia spoke again in a very clipped tone, "I will admit. The affect on this is remarkable. But Xerin. You realize you've spent the yearly budget of several kingdoms on a suit of armor that won't even stop you from getting a bruise?" I scoffed at that, there was no way that carbon of all things would be that valuable, and I told them as much as I pulled out a piece that was a few kilograms and set it on the table. "This isn't even a hundredth of what I have, it's ludicrously cheap and easy to make. What are you two on about?" At this point, it really felt like they were trying to pick on me or something. Then, Claudia spoke up, eyeing the large gemstone with a pale face, and what she said sent a lightning bolt through me.

"I don't know about wherever you come from, but here the vast majority of people go there entire lives without even knowing about diamond, much less seeing it. Hell, even Kings probably only have a few pieces, if at all, and I don't think they get anywhere close to the size of that first one... I would uh, not tell many people about this. Even selling any might be a bad idea." Nadia nodded vigorously at her sisters suggestion and shoved the leather into my hands, they were apparently done with this conversation and had started eating silently, ignoring the country toppling wealth piled on the table.

I willed the new piece to bond with my suit and couldn't help but berate myself, "Uurgh, I'm an idiot. I can't believe I actually forgot..." Both sisters looked over and saw me dragging my hands across my face, trying to scrub away the stupid that had apparently settled in while I wasn't paying attention. "I'm uh, not from around here, as you can probably tell. Where I'm from it genuinely is very easy to make, cheap, and very useful for a bunch of different things... So, thanks for setting me straight on that." Cursing my stupidity, I stored the diamond and started to eat the delicious food Claudia had made. Just as done with myself as they were.

***

After that... enlightening breakfast, me and Claudia descended into her section of the workshop - both of us ready and raring to hit a bunch of hot metal. She lead me over to a corner, where she had a human sized forge with a simple anvil and all the tools I'd need to start making something. Not that I needed any, as I had my own tools. Tools that I promptly summoned and laid out on the large anvil, causing Claudia to raise a brow and inspect them, growing more fervent with every piece she handled. "These... Did you make these, Xerin?" She had a sparkle in her eye that I recognized from her sister, and was staring at me while clutching a smaller hammer as if it were a treasure.

"Nope," I said with a shake of my head, voice tinged with nostalgia. "These were my fathers. I don't know if he made them, and I could probably make something better now, but these do the job well enough so I won't be replacing them any time soon." A look of understanding crossed her face, and she gingerly set the tool down to join the others. "If you say you can make better than some of the cleanest metalwork I've seen, then I'm very interested in what you'll do. A shame I can't stick around to watch." She shook her head, genuinely upset that she couldn't watch me work. "Well, I won't be doing anything fancy today. Just a blade and some basic protection for now. Maybe I'll let you watch when we have a bit more time~." She grinned at that, before giving me a cheeky pat and leaving to her own forge.

Honestly, I was glad she wouldn't be here and hopeful that she won't be too insistent on watching in the future, as there were probably a few things I'd have to explain if she did and I did not want to rehash what happened over breakfast. So, with a sigh of relief, I started planning out what I was going to make and getting everything ready. The forge was already lit so, beyond maintaining the airflow, I didn't have much to do in that regard. Thus, I began thinking more deeply about what I needed right now. A pretty easy question to answer: offense and defense. Something simple and quick to make, while keeping in mind that I'll be going through significant size changes in the near future.

So, while keeping these things in mind I started to draw out what I needed. Firstly, I need a weapon, I'm thinking something that takes advantage of my increasing strength but also the added edge I can gain from 'modern' materials and practices. I had tested the heft a few of the blades that were laying around and found that the common longswords and broadswords were too light for the current me. Which means I could afford to go with something larger and heavier, and still be able to swing it with a good speed.

So, Zweihänder it is. Heavy enough that I can put some real power behind it but sharp enough to cleave a beast in twain, this is definitely the answer for making full use of my circumstances. The only problem right now is relative size. If I were already at my full height, I'd need to make something too big to even resemble a great-sword. Like, Ultra-Great-Sword huge. Obviously too big for my current self. For now, I'll just make something simple out of some steel I have on hand and leave the monstrosity of a weapon for later, when I can swing my forging hammer with enough oomph to mold my starship-grade tungsten alloys, maybe.

Secondly, I need some armor. I was already thinking of splint mail when I bought the leather for my suit and, thankfully, I already have some strips of processed steel. I'll just need to cut them into the necessary lengths and punch some holes. I only need enough to cover my chest, my arms and my thighs I'll make some sort of skirt with that large belt as a base as well. The rest can come later. With this, I should be able to easily resize it if I don't make the attachments too sturdy, but it'll take some experimentation to really work out how best to do it. Eventually, I'd like to make myself some proper full-plate armor with modern alloys and such. If I can wear a suit of the tungsten alloy I whipped up a while ago with a sword to match, I don't think much will get past me. Or that I'll have trouble getting past anything either.

For the sword, as I said, I'll be using a single long piece high carbon steel that I had 'collecting dust' in my inventory. I'm not doing anything fancy with it, just heating it up and beating it into shape like god intended; though my techniques and such were probably millennia beyond anything here, if Claudia's work was anything to go off. Thanks to my improved strength and stamina, as well as some extra utility from the use of magic, it only took me a few hours to beat out the basic shape.

The blade itself was roughly 130 cm tall, taller than the gnome sisters, with another 30 cm of tang to attach a handle to - so just about as tall as the current me. Just how I wanted it for a bit of future proofing. It was 30 cm wide, with a slight taper directly to the tip. It looked like a very upscaled and stretched broadsword with a handle that was far too short. Definitely big for a normal person, but only large enough that I was actually feeling the weight of it. Luckily, I wont need to sheathe this anywhere or carry it around with me and exhaust myself, as I can have it in-hand at a moments notice thanks to my soul-pocket.

To make the splints for the armor, I just bent the pieces into shape cold and punched the holes cold as well. It's not ideal, but it was easy enough to do quick, in-between the heated bouts with my sword steel. I'll be able to heat treat them at a later date, if I even stick with this armor style. Eventually, I ended up with all the splints shaped up and ready to sew to some leather. Fortunately for my dwindling coin purse, I had the materials on hand to do all the finish work.

I was also able to make a small short sword from some scrap I had left over from the splint. It won't be heat treated nearly as much as the big one and it's not the best stock for swords, so I won't be parrying anything big with it, but it'll be good to cut or stab at something unarmored at least. It'll also look pretty fetching attached to that belt I bought earlier, though I did need to make a scabbard for it I guess. All that's left is to temper the swords, give them an edge and slap a basic handle on it and I should be good to go. Thankfully I wasn't too big on decorations and believed that an unadorned blade is a battle-ready blade. 

Thus, I spent the my entire day in that hot room, the forging and subsequent heat-treating of the sword steel the most time consuming process. I did stop for a pre-cooked meal and an ice cold tankard of water at one point, but ultimately, I crafted for 12 hours straight. Thankfully, Claudia and Noelle left me to my devices and I was able to get everything done before the day ended. At the end of the process, I was absolutely exhausted. I gave myself a quick once-over with the cleaning magic and I left the forge after settling everything down and getting it cleaned and made my way upstairs to bid the sisters a good night before I left for my room at the inn. 

Thankfully, they weren't yet sleeping, though it seems I may have interrupted something rather... intimate. Nadia was on the lone bed in their shared room and hiding herself completely when Claudia answered my short knock clad in nothing but a sheer negligee. "Finally done, then? Awe and you've already bathed. We could've helped ya'know~?" I could only shake my head while chuckling at the forwardness of the gnome. "Hmm, a shame indeed~. Maybe next time I get hot and sweaty we can all help each other out~?" I said as I wrapped her in my arms and gave her a kiss as energetically as I could.

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'd survive a round with you two at the moment. And I've plans to go hunting in the morning anyway." I let her go, though she stayed close and pulled me into another kiss - hotter and heavier than the one I gave. "Mh. You'll have to come back again, show me what you've made and all that anyway." As she said so, she let me go and stalked back to her sister's side like a beast on the prowl. Nadia spoke up as I waved goodbye to the both of them. "G-Goodnight, Xerin!" I gave her a small smile in response and wished her the same, then left to go and grab some much needed shut-eye before my trip into the forest tomorrow.