Ember of Invention

Lindle cut out two more strips of scale from the roll of zmey hide. He kept the finished Frostgreed Scale in front of him as a potential point of reference as he examined both strips side by side under his Ethos sense.

As far as he could tell, the smaller pieces were identical in aspects, simply with less Ethos that also had slightly less energy than the roll he had cut them from, so there should be no issues when it came to using the same ingredients.

Lindle triggered [Artifice Crafting] and harvested the Pelos from the scales, reducing them to black dust as he rolled the black material into a ball. He still felt the same aspects he had last time, so he felt confident he could make another pair of brooches for Humphrey and… Thalia.

Lindle furrowed his brows as it occurred to him that a brooch might not work for her. He remembered how she couldn’t use the Petalshade ring comfortably while wildshaped, so he assumed this item would have the same issue. He had thought about how it might be possible to create an item that could function in her beast forms stashed away like her clothes, but he still had no idea how to make that happen, and it certainly wouldn’t work for this. She would have the option of simply not using it while transformed, but while in a wildshape up close is exactly when she would appreciate some extra armor, it couldn’t be pleasant to take claw swipes or bites on bare skin, even through fur.

The only option then would be something she could wear both as a beastman and transformed, for most of her wildshape forms at least. A brooch that pins to clothing wouldn’t work. It would still have to be something exposed too. Maybe an earring? No, he wasn’t sure how a piercing would work between forms, and while her raccoon ears were more exposed than human ears would be beneath her hair, they were much more sensitive too. A ring wouldn’t fit when her hands changed shape, plus the amount of Pelos he was working with was too large for a ring, anything that wrapped around a body part that wasn’t flexible in general wouldn’t work.

Perhaps a necklace? No, an amulet. Zmey hide was tough and flexible, he could make a strap to hold the main part of the scale that needed to be exposed, so it could stretch to fit whatever shape she transformed into. Lindle’s hands worked to give his idea form, first shaping the majority of the Pelos into a ball shape and creating a long thin flat loop of black clay. Into the main chunk, he tried to imbue the exact same intent as he did the brooch, matching the three aspects of cold, draconids, and protection, with the exception to the strap when it came to the structure, instructing the draconid aspect to not form out of scales, but out of the hide underneath, and to be tough but flexible.

Lindle finished after several minutes, activating the completion part of his Skill and watching as it transformed into a amulet, almost identical to the brooch, but instead of a small needle on the back to act as a pin, a black leather strap of zmey hide contrasted with the white scales. Lindle gave it a tug, and nodded as it flexed. Perfect. Next he brought up the status and grinned when the exact same effect description and title looked back at him, Frostgreed Scale. He wondered how the names themselves were made, he wasn’t really thinking of them when he was crafting, the system seemed to just pick one that fit with the item. If he tried to make a ring with the word ring in the title, like the Heartroot or Petalshade rings, and then he tried to make a copy of its effect in something like a necklace, would the title be different then?

He showed Dorothea and Nothing for their thoughts before quickly getting back to the last strip of Zmey scales so he could make Humphrey his item. Both items were fairly powerful compared to everything else he had made so far, and activating his sense, he could see the Ethos strain starting to build up, but even after just 2 levels it seemed to be noticeably slower. He could make Humphrey his item and be nowhere close to his limit.

Humphrey didn’t really have any issues using a brooch like Thalia, so he supposed he could just make one too, but now that Lindle was in the headspace to consider the item's physical shape aside from its magical effect, he had an idea for Humphrey that would fit him much better. A wristguard. One for archery.

A wristguard made of dragon scale would certainly be a lot tougher than the normal ones. Even if the item's main purpose would be its magical effect, it was a simple bit of utility he liked the thought of. It fit the ranger a lot more than an eye-catching brooch or amulet. Lindle quickly got to work, repeating the same process. He wasn’t sure at this point if it was getting easier or not to create the magical effect, but at the very least he was a lot more certain that he did it correctly when all three aspects were in line.

He cheated a little when it came to making the wristguard’s shape, wrapping his own hand in Pelos since he wasn’t sure he could create it freehand. His hands were slightly bigger than Humphreys, but his rings fit both him and Thalia, and the difference in their fingers were a lot bigger than the difference between him and Humphrey, so he figured it would be fine.

He finished his Skill, and held in his hand a wristguard made of molded white zmey scale and black hide, the main central scale shared with both previous iterations of Frostgreed on the back.

He turned around to see Dorothea engaged in conversation with Nothing, who responded in writing. On their paper next to their letters was a crude stick person drawing with large triangles on either side of the circle for a head.

“Interesting… They sound a lot more similar to humans in look than expected, except for the ears of course.” The mage said, noticing Lindle was done. “Ah, I was just asking Nothing a bit about elves, we don’t have a lot of records about what they looked like. Apparently they all had extended ears, like some beastmen, but where human ears would be, unlike beastmen, and without any animal counterparts.”

Lindle blinked. He had honestly forgotten that Dorothea’s primary reason in coming to the Reach in the first place was researching ancient elven civilization. He had mostly gotten caught up in preparations for his class and learning about Ethos that he hadn’t really bothered to ask Nothing much about them. He was curious of course, but Lindle supposed they had been just overshadowed in his focus.

“Huh, that is interesting, I guess I didn’t really realize it, but Nothing might be the last firsthand account of what they were like. You are free to come over and to ask Nothing more about them” He looked at the homunculus and added. “If you’re fine with that.”

They nodded.

It is fine, I am happy to share what little I know. All I know of elves are things I know about the ones that I met personally, I didn’t exactly leave the workshop much while being created. It is quite saddening to hear confirmation that elves seem to be extinct today. I have no idea what must have happened for such a thing to occur.

They emanated a somber, confused, feeling through their link to Lindle. He wondered, not for the first time, how long had Nothing been down in that dungeon. It wasn’t as obvious since Nothing seemed to have lived a very narrow life as an unfinished construct in a workshop prior to hibernating. They didn’t even recall ever having gone outside before Lindle left the dungeon, but Lindle figured it still had to be an unimaginable feeling to know the world they knew, as small a part of it as it was, had passed them by for as long as it had.

The feeling from their link passed after a few seconds, Nothing seeming to shake it off.

Still, if it helps any research about them, I would like to tell her about the details I remember.

Lindle nodded and looked back at Dorothea. “Yeah, they say they would like to answer whatever you’d want to ask.”

“That’s wonderful.” Dorothea smiled at Nothing. “Really, thank you.” They looked at the trio of items on Lindle's work table. “So, those are for your friends? Everyone in an adventuring party geared up in artifacts, I can’t say I’m not jealous.” The mage giggled.

Lindle glanced at the rest of the scales he still had on his desk, “I could try-” but Dorothea stopped him before he finished speaking.

“It’s fine Lindle. I won’t say we probably won’t take up an offer for useful items, but we’re tough enough we can afford to wait for you to build up your skills and levels. And we can afford to pay you for it too. You’d be best served focusing on yourself and your friends for now.”

Lindle hesitated, but eventually he shrugged and accepted her words. They were experienced enough adventurers and it was her decision. “If you say so. I was thinking I could get these to my friends, and then we could see about forming our party, officially? I know there’s an outpost of some kind for the adventurer’s guild in the village, but I’ve only really dropped by once or twice.”

“Well I know where it is, I still have time to kill. Your Skill doesn’t take as much time to craft something as I thought it would, I’d be happy to help you and your friends get started.”

“That sounds great, let me just clean everything up, there’s black dust everywhere.” Lindle started swiping where the black dust built up on his work table into the waste bin. He frowned as he saw it was now almost completely full.

I told you that you’re going to need to find a way to dispose of it.

Lindle looked away from the waste bin, shrugging. “We have things to do, I can take care of it later.”

Nothing sighed and sent him exasperation over their link, to which Lindle ignored. It was just one bin, it would be fine.