Aedrith's Aether - Chapter 14

Yuki's team is disbanded after exiting the cafe.
In the cafe, they held discussions on how to prepare for the qualification test.
The team members agreed to meet up tomorrow after finding some information about a good practice site.

Yuki headed back into the dormitory in a mentally beat up state.
As a rather asocial person, being elected as the team leader makes him flusters a bit.
His mind told him to never mind the election but the thought of being the team leader comes up occasionally.

As Yuki about to reach for his room's door, he noticed a white in the door's gap.
Yuki picked up the paper and reads the content.

[Yuki, come to my shop tomorrow. Your blade is finished]
[Regards, Kendall]
[P.S How did it go with the expedition? The beacon belt was handy eh?]

"The beacon belt, I forgot to use it at all..."

Yuki entered his room and went to rest after taking a bath.
The next morning he felt refreshed when he wakes up.
Yuki quickly dresses up and do his morning routine of sketching engine design.

After finishing his morning routine, Yuki exited the dormitory and headed to the shopping district.
Yuki quickly passes through the rest of the stores, heading to a worn out shop he patronize.
Arriving in Grindelwald, Yuki pushed the door and walked inside.

The interior of the shop is slightly cleaned.
It seems the owner of the shop starts trying to open his shop for real.
However, the interior is still filled with worn down furniture.

Perhaps its a privilege of the shop's only customer, Yuki went directly behind the counter.
He opened a door leading to a lounge, actually it's the owner's living room.
The shop's owner Kendall and his long time friend Henri is currently having a tea.

Yuki certainly did not expect any changes from Kendall's appearance.
The lanky shop owners still uses his customary clothes, a tunic and an apron.
Henri in the meantime, wears a robe that only extends to his mid-thigh and a thigh-high socks that covers the rest of her feet.

Kendall took the initiative of greeting Yuki while he's in daze of Henri's appearance.

"Yuki, we were expecting you, would you like a cup of tea?"

"Yeah, sure."

Yuki quickly replied using a normal tone,

"You have met henriette before right? Her appearance is different from her usual attire when tending her shops,
but I do not think that it worth such reaction."

"Henri...ette?"

"Yes, what? I never told you my full name?"

"Oh, I see. Henriette has a habit of referring herself as Henri. Coupled with her shop's uniform and her attitude several people assumed her as a boy.
Apparently they assumed the name is spelled as Henry instead of Henri, hence the mistake."

"Ah, I see. Both name are quite fit for her though."

Yuki lets out a quip while listening to the explanation.

"That being said, although we are expecting you, your ordered blade is not here yet."

"I thought it was finished."

"It has already been finished, however at a blacksmith that I know of, and I trust.
He promised to bring it, but, I guess he's just as tardy as always.
Why don't we chat about your yesterday's expeditions."

"Ah, about that expedition, we harvested a sizeable amount on gemstones in the subterranean cavern.
After the slime subjugation, the jellies seems going to take over, so we also eliminated some of them, particularly ones that chase after my team"

"Oh ho, jellies. Those are funny creatures. Even compared to huge lizard and dragons, monster jelly sounds more fantasy-ish."

"Indeed, they are rather weird, but I simply think they are lichen like creature that originated from animal instead of algae."

"You are not wrong on that, but seeing jelly always makes me curious about their insides, you know.
Despite being a semi-liquid substance, it actually works as a organism."

"I'm not into biology, so please spare me the details."

"How about kobold then? do you know about them?"

"Not so much, only the information from my instructor and some articles in books."

"I will give you a special hint, when you fight a pack of kobold, you should try to find the Alpha male among them.
The alpha male is usually big and sits in the middle of the formation, sometimes a bit to the back.
The older the alpha male the easier to spot, because he would have more injuries from challenges by other males."

"Should I go for the alpha male when I spotted one?"

"Hell no, it can issue order to protect itself, then you will become the focus of the whole pack.
When fighting in pack, Kobolds would tire their preys, then the alpha male will designate the target for a focused attack."

"They can hunt that well?"

"Sites with Kobolds are not classified as a Depth 4 for no reason. The alpha make has a distinctive way when tagging targets.
It would bark three times  to the person they are going to assault, They are intelligent enough to select the most isolated one."

"If that's true then setting them into an ambush is possible."

"Kobolds are highly obedient to the alpha male's orders, once it designate the target, they will attack with a reckless charge.
anything else will be ignored and only the prey will be attacked."

"I see, this is a very good information, Thank you for you help."

"Just be careful not to get pounced by a kobold as the rest of the pack would instantly joins the fray immediately."

"I will remember that, also I would like to order something from your shop."

"Tell me, and I will find it for you."

"Firstly I need something highly flammable, preferably in powder form"

As Yuki place his request, Kendall tries to find something suitable in his mind.
However before he could do so, Henri answered.

"That would be Ember Porcupine's spike, Ember Porcupine would hurl its spike at you, spike would burn so badly if it lit by fire.
I have a lot of those in my shop, almost nobody uses it as it's too volatile. Some would use it to make a quick campfire but that's it.
it can do nothing except being lit up and burn."

"I can I buy those? and I need them grounded into fine powder."

"I have too much of them so I'll give you a discount. You need it in a processed form so I'll charge you extra."

"Gee, thank you anyway."

Kendal can only smiles at the exchange going on between Yuki and Henri.

"Is there anything else you need?"

"Actually there are lot more, but I hope none of these are rare."

Yuki fished out a small note from his pocket and laid it down on the table.
Kendall takes it and reads it.

[Flammable powder (As many as possible)]
[Steel pipe with small diameter (preferably 1.5 centimetre)]
[Balls of lead with matching diameter with the pipe (as many as possible)]
[A Firestone]
[Steel nails]
[Steel spring]
[A small block of hardwood]

"These are...."

Kendall stared at the piece of paper with an intense expression and uncanny silence.
Yuki is confused and carefully watched Kendall's expression.
After a short moment, he continued.

"What are these for? I tried to think of something but nothing comes up in my mind"

The tension that momentarily built inside Yuki dissipated like an ice cube in summer.

"(So that's his 'deep-in-thought' face expression.)
Those are the material I need to create an tool from my world."

"What does it do?"

"I will tell you once it's done."

"Hmn, I need to process some of these materials, If I rush I can gather these by evening."

"I'm deeply indebted to you."

"Don't say that, how about if we make two of this tool, I would like to own one for my collection."

"I think that's fine."

"I'm going to need your help to assess the material though, Will you accompany me?"

"Sure, I'm need to get my sketches first."

Just after everything is planned, the shops door opened and a rather old man enters the shop.
Without waiting for Kendall, he shouted with a loud, but husky voice.

"Kendall, I brought you your good!, This thing is a masterpiece!"

"Sir Armond, please do not shout. Your throat is already bad as it is."

The old man called Armond is wearing an originally white robe, however soot had accumulated almost in every inch of the clothes, turning it black.
He carries a rectangular package which he handed over to Kendall.
Kendall removed the package cover, inside is a box 70 cm long.

Kendal puts down the box and opened the lid, Inside the box lays a black coloured short sword.
The short sword is 60 cm long and has only one blade.
Unlike a common sword, the sword is about 3 millimetre at the tapered edge, and goes thinner towards the blade.

"This is...."

"A sword made from hardened gelatin, the dark green hue of the hardened gelatin is reduced to black when I smith it.
The sword has very low durability, however it will slice things very neatly. As long you do not clash it with a rock, metal, or steel based object it will cuts fine.
Oh, it can cuts wooden board, however a tree trunk is impossible so please do not try it or it impact will stress the material and break."

"So this sword is like an obsidian blade."

"What's an obsidian blade?" Kendall immediately interfered.

"A blade made from a black coloured stone that has a very thin edge resulting in a very sharp but brittle weapon."

"That perfectly describe this weapon, I'll name it [Gelatinous Obsidian Sword] then."

"Oi don't name my weapon like that!?"

"So this is masterpiece is for that brat?" *pfft*

"Okay, okay. Both of you, please stop. Sir Armond, actually we have several more request about metalworking."

Kendall calmed the two and explained about the materials Yuki is trying to gather.
After Yuki retrieved his design sheet, the three of them went to Armond's workshop.
Meanwhile Henri went back to her workshop and grinds Fire Porcupine's spikes.