The carriage entered the heavily vegetated town with the telltale ticking that accompanied the clockwork construct.  Nymphs, avians and tribes people watched the carriage enter the town.  They pulled up by the warehouse and opened some panels to offload the supplies that they had brought from the farm.

 

Several burly men with cute accessories like hair clips or heart-shaped pens on their hides helped offload the carriage and take things to the warehouse-shaped tree that housed all the supplies for Mignoneville.

 

There were a few changes to the town.  Not much time had passed.  But all kinds of cute things here and there were popping up.  Luna charged the dormant dungeon under the adventurer’s guild so likely the loot there was themed to suit rewards a goddess of cuteness would provide.

 

Alex returned the carriage to card form after she got everything offloaded.  There still were some foodstuffs left from the farm that could be eaten as part of travel rations but they would eventually go bad.  Not having food when there isn’t a trip planned is better.  She could always stock up for the next trip when things were planned out.

 

Parting with the others, Alex headed to the shower that Merumeru built in the adventures guild to go wash off.  Alex undressed and turned the knob to let water spray over her.  The cold water woke her up.  The water pressure was much better than the carriage’s shower but the fact that it flowed from the river made it cold.

 

“I wish we could have a hot water heater.”  Small things from earth that she took for granted really brought a sense of longing at times like this.  Also, the body that Alex wore was very unfamiliar.  Alex felt like she’d be shrinking this whole time.  But going from a harpy that still had a resemblance to the old Alex to a twin of Tika felt really weird.  Tika had a much more mature looking body.  Nymph Alex, female Alex and Harpy Alex all looked somewhat child-like.

 

Fufi helped Alex get dressed in the crafting outfit with the corset.  “So, how does it feel to be back?”

 

“It is a little weird.  Nobody recognizes me.  Luckily people can put two and two together and seem to figure it out.  I’ve been thinking a bit about what you said and I’ve got to shore up my weaknesses quite a bit.  I’ve got that extra level in tailoring on our little adventure and I’m thinking spending some time making some new outfits would be wise as well.” Alex pulled up her skirt.

 

“You should plan to run the dungeon again as well. Those dancing lessons that the mannequins gave you really saved our butt when the ice demon attacked us.” Fufi used her beak to tighten the corset.

 

“Yeah, I probably should have been doing that all along.  Following randomly acquired treasure maps with little information into danger seems like a bad plan in hindsight.” Alex straightened her clothing, looking sheepish.

 

“I’m a helper but you have to make the decisions.” Fufi said.

 

“I know.  The dungeons have been really tough. But that first demon that we saw. There was no humanity there.  It seems the only goal it had was to take anything it wanted and keep anyone under the heel of his boot that wasn’t groveling on the ground.” Alex frowned and looked back at the pink bird.

 

“That sounds about right.  They’ll chew this world up and spit it out when there is nothing desirable left.” Fufi gestured around them with a wing.

 

“Well, first things first, let's see if Ki needs any help then we can find a space to work on some projects.” Alex got up and headed out of the bathroom.

 

Several vines with glowing flowers lined the ceiling of the main area of the adventurer’s guild.  They provided a dim orange light in the area.  The versatility of plant magic was really great.  At the stone tables people sat eating breakfast and a nymph in a cute waitress outfit served tables.  Another nymph sat behind the counter playing with her leaf hair.  The guild board with the requests that Merumeru and Fufi used for playing adventure was still there.  

 

Alex and Fufi checked the request list but the contents were really tame.  There were no slaying goblins or rescuing kidnapped people. There were not even any missing cat requests.  Most of the requests were for items from the dungeon.  The most common theme for the request was metal.  Ingots and ores were in high demand.

 

“Weird, though I guess it makes sense.  We showed them how to make pig iron in a bloomery but it is not like there is a mine around here.” Alex said.

 

The receptionist soured a bit at the mention of mining. “Mining is bad for the woods.  We don’t really like it when the grounds are disturbed that much.”

 

“I guess that makes sense.  Big mines have lots of tailings with toxic chemicals.  Even running a bloomery produces slag.” Alex scratched her head in contemplation.

 

“So what do we do?  The dungeon won’t run forever.  We don’t have any powerful wizards that know how to recharge it.” Fufi looked concerned.

“I don’t know where to find a wizard that can recharge the dungeon. Are there any nymphs that can do it?” Alex looked to the receptionist.

 

She shook her head. “None of my cousins have powers like that.  Ki might be able to or know someone.  Other than Sakura she’s the oldest of us.”

 

“Well, is she in the office?” Alex Asked.

 

The grass-haired woman nodded. “Yes, head right up.  She’s been using the big office you set up before leaving.”

 

The magical girl and flamingo headed up the stairs and knocked on the door to the main office.

 

“Come in,” Ki said.  The door opened with a creaking of wood.

 

Alex and Fufi entered. Ki was sitting behind the desk looking all regal.

 

“Well look at you.  A proper baroness of beauty.” Fufi praised the nymph.

 

Ki smiled. “Yeah, I am trying to look the part.  I’ve leveled up a bit. Making the barony cute is the key to advancing the class Luna gifted me.”

 

“I like the lighting in the common area.  I didn’t know flowers could glow like that.” Alex said.

 

“Oh, creative use of plant magic and plant breeding techniques sometimes makes for interesting results. One of my cousins who doesn't like to come down from the mountain bred that plant years ago.  Nymphs don’t really need light to function in the dark but humans do so we finally found a use for it.” Ki grinned proudly.

 

“Oh, speaking of uses.  I’m a little worried about metal production.  Is there any way we can find a wizard to charge the dungeon or a place to mine some iron ore?” Alex asked.

 

Ki frowned.  “Please don’t build any mines in the forest.  It is best if the things deep underground stay there.  I hope you understand.  They are bad for plantlife.  As for wizards.  I don’t know, there might be some in the lands to the south but even if there are they might just be thralls for some succubus or incubus.”

 

“So no magic academies?” Alex tried.

“There used to be one in the capital for the kingdom but I can’t imagine that the demons did anything other than loot it and enslave or kill anyone that got in their way.  It has been a long time.  You’d have to talk to the nereids for more info.  The capitol is a port city so they can get information better than us tree nymphs can.” Ki crossed her arms over her chest.

 

“So, if we build a mine outside the forest would that be okay?” Alex wanted to make sure this wouldn’t be stepping on toes.

 

“Yes, some of the high places used to be the home to subterranean races.  The kingdom would trade with them from time to time.  Dwarves and gnomes had cities deep in the mountains but when the demons came they barricaded themselves away.” Ki pointed northwest.

 

Seeing that they had just come back from that area, any entrance to those races' homes was very well hidden or completely removed.

 

“I guess both options are not great.  I hope things don’t fall apart when the dungeon runs out of energy.” Alex voiced her worries.

 

“I hope so too.  Some humans from other tribes have trickled in.  Even that Handverk guy showed back up the other day,” Ki said.

 

“Ugh, he was annoying.” Fufi grumbled.

 

“Anyway, thank you for letting us know that stuff about the area.  I’m going to do some weaving and tailoring and see if I can create some better outfits.” Alex waved.

 

Fufi and Alex headed out.  They walked to the big warehouse that the nymphs had grown to store supplies and got some time with a spinning wheel, loom and collected some wool and treated flax to get started.

 

After around an hour, Alex had some spools of flax thread and wool thread but they were not putting a big dent in all the material stored in the warehouse.  Dancing about and using the three dolls helped keep a steady pace but Alex remembered the textile mills back on earth and thought that they could do better.

 

Alex hopped into the workbench on the carriage and drew up some plans for a big doll.

 

The drawing had a doll that looked a bit like a half-human half-spider.  She would be made mostly of wood with some cloth and leather parts because that is what they had to work with.  Her thorax would be hollow with spinning wheels in it.  Her tail would have several spinners that could create spools of thread.  With the gears right, she would be able to swap out full spools with empty ones.  Having an extra spring would be nice but Alex planned on controlling her with the dancing magic for now.  The way the board worked for the second dungeon seemed half magic and half mechanical so recreating it would be out of the question.

 

After consulting some books to look at examples and get the gearing right, Alex submitted it so Ki who assigned a nymph who got a team together to make the parts.  The arachne doll came out to be slightly shorter than a typical human.  

 

With some help from humans who had relevant crafting skills and the nymphs they had the doll assembled by the end of the day.

 

“So, she’s a bit scary but has a woodsy cuteness.  What’s her name?” Fufi asked.

 

Alex finished off a dark linnen blouse and put it over the human top half. “Hmm, the only spider I know of was named Charlotte.  Let's go with that.”

 

Alex glued some hair onto the new doll and used some precision tools to carve her face.  She painted the eyes in and added some red to the lips.  She couldn’t move her face at all but had a nice neutral expression.  

 

Using the dance skill, Alex got started and Charlotte started moving. 

 

When the spider-doll skittered up to the shelves of treated flax, everyone who was watching took a step back.  She sounded a bit like a mill with wooden gears spinning and wheels turning in her thorax.  

 

The doll worked quite quickly when she used her grasping wooden hands to pull the flax off the shelf and her lower legs to guide it into thread into the spinning wheel.  Her back legs guided the spun thread onto the spool to create a linen thread.

 

Seeing that the process was working well so far, Alex decided to step it up a notch.  She used an [empower doll] and the speed at which the spider gathered and spun the thread more than doubled.  The other wheels in the thorax started to spin as well.  Considering that she had two hands and eight legs she was able to handle several clumps of linen at the same time.  When the skill’s timer expired they had three big spools of linen thread and one rack of the shelf completely empty of Flax.

 

“Hey, that worked really well. You are a great doll maker Alex.” Fufi flapped her wings and pranced around.

 

“Hopefully it works well with wool too.” Alex stopped dancing and cleaned off the stray flax from the wheels in Charlotte's thorax.

 

After inspecting the mechanical parts to make sure there was no damage, Alex started dancing again.  

 

Charlotte skittered over to another place in the warehouse and started collecting cleaned and carded wool.  The process went the same but without the empower doll skill active it took around an hour to work though the whole shelf of wool.  However, they had a similar amount of wool thread as they did Linen thread.  

 

Making the doll and giving it a test run took all day.  Alex and Fufi were getting tired and hungry.

 

They packed up the carriage and turned it back into card form.  Charlotte was the biggest doll that Alex had made by far and wouldn’t fit into the carriage so they had to leave her behind in the warehouse.  After a short walk down the plant-heavy streets they made their way back to the adventurer’s guild and sat down to eat with the rest of the people who were eating in what had become more of a communal meal place than a rowdy adventure gathering place.

 

Fufi munched on a cooked fish from the plate in front of her.  “That went well.”

 

“Yeah, though I wonder if she can operate a loom as well as spin.” Alex considered the design of Charlotte in her head.

 

“I think so, she’s got full motion for her arms and legs.” Fufi had been watching the smooth movements of the arachne.

 

“Oh, mostly, a good deal of that is magic.  Some of the cogs could break off if she tried to extend a leg too high.  The moving parts are all leather cords and wood gearing so she’s not the most sturdy doll. It would be better with metal but I don't want to put out a request when there already seems to be a shortage.” Alex said.

 

“Does the name Charlotte have any significance?” Fufi asked with a beak full of fish.

“Oh, just a spider in a children’s story.” Alex drank some juice from a clay cup.