Chapter 31: Grandma's Advice
An awkward silence filled the room as two figures were looking at a bunch of blueprints on the table. Every now and then, the two would look at a sheet of metal nearby and take notes of whether it fits the designs on the blueprints or not.
Despite the recent unfriendliness the two showed each other, they were both focused on the task at hand and not letting any distracting thoughts disturb their minds.
"Okay I think that should be everything. Let's begin then." Siduo spoke.
Karni nodded as he took a seat next to a metal table, unlike the one with blueprints, this one was squeaky clean. There were two tools which Karni and Siduo focused on. It was time to do the manufacturing part of the process.
The first was a razor sharp knife the size of a scalpel and next to it were multiple different sizes of the blade. For precise parts, one could use the smaller ones, for shape forming it was preferred to use the bigger ones.
The second tool looked like a simple pen, yet when Siduo took it in her hands, it shined with a soft blue glow. It was for writing inscriptions and soul formations on the various metal objects which would hold them. This was how basic soul arrays were made. Higher level Mecha Engineers used their own means.
Karni took his place next to her and took the scalpel-like tool in his hand. He put off the small blade and attached a bigger one, before taking one of the Grey Copper pieces. He started cutting it apart.
Karni himself was, besides being a 3-star Designer, also a 2-star Mechanic. He could actively help Siduo while creating soul tools, but the finer details he designed on blueprints would be finished by her alone. At the end, the two would check if everything was made correctly together.
Siduo was currently leading this operation as she was a 3-star Manufacturer. She would be the one to do most of the work during this entire process. While she was also a 2-star Mechanic like Karni, and could help him, she didn't bother much with designing plans herself, but understanding them. She was capable of coming up with a design similar to Karni, though mainly through theory rather than actual design.
Currently, she left Karni to do the carving while she herself was holding the soul inscription pen in her right hand. Her left hand then revealed sharp claws and turned icy blue, even the claws turned icy blue. She was combining Mysterious Jade Hands with her martial soul. The combination was sharper than the blade Karni was holding and she began to carve a similar piece of Grey Copper with the claws on her hand.
Her right hand began to move alongside the left. Creating inscriptions alongside the carving, it was her own style that she alone could use thanks to her martial souls, White Tiger and Hell Cat. Both of these had sharp claws that would help her with the manufacturing process. The Mysterious Jade Hands were more like a boost in sturdiness.
After about 10 minutes of work, Karni finished with carving out his piece and tossed it to Siduo while he grabbed another. He couldn't help but admire Siduo's skill in carving. When he noticed that Siduo was actively switching between the two martial souls he was even more impressed.
Last time the two carved together, she was still mostly relying on her Hell Cat Martial Soul. Was this the result of the training he saw her do last night? How long has she been training that way?
He quickly threw away his thoughts before going back to work. He'll ask her about it after they finish making these sets of daggers. If she's been training both her martial souls at the same time while she's been injured this past month, he'll have to have a word with her… not that she would listen to him. They weren't on friendly terms either way, and he's trying to school her as well? What was he thinking? He should solve problems with her one at a time. The incident first.
He realised he was unfocused yet again and finally buried his thoughts completely. He started creating the next piece for the daggers.
In about 4 hours of work, there laid pieces big and small on the table. All made of Grey Copper, organised in a neat fashion.
Currently, Siduo has put away the inscription pen and had a magnifying glass in front of her eyes. She was fiddling with tiny metal pieces, occasionally sharpening them and straightening them out in the uneven places.
Karni was still holding his blade, though now it was the scalpel sized one. He didn't have a magnifying glass. Instead, his eyes were glowing in a soft purple light. He was using his Purple Demon Eyes. In this past month he has gotten quite efficient at using them, they no longer required him to use an immense amount of soul power.
Karni finished a bit sooner than Siduo did. These components were part of the Tang Sect Hidden Weapon Hundred Separation. While Karni was less skilled than Siduo at creating them, he understood them better, hence he was in charge of creating their main functions.
He gave the piece to Siduo, but she didn't react. She simply continued on carving her own piece. After about a minute, she finally reached for Karni's piece. Putting it under the magnifying glass and she started sharpening out the rough edges.
She was in charge of making what Karni created fit for use. The two have truly developed a style which relied on both of them. While this is very useful for the two of them, should they ever get separated, they could end up in trouble.
Karni took away the piece Siduo had finished before and brought it next to all the other pieces. He started to assemble the first dagger.
The blade was made of two parts all together. The outer part and the inner part. The inner had a lot of mechanisations and a single smaller blade attached to it as well.
After Karni put all of the parts for the inner blade together he covered it with the outer part. The outer blade was simple. It was just a dagger sized blade, with a small hollow section into which the inner part went, and a hole at the tip of the blade.
Karni poured some soul power into a tiny hole of the inner part and the blade suddenly extended another blade out of the original blade, becoming more like a thin shortsword.
"Here the final piece is finished."
"Good." Karni smiled back to Siduo as he took the piece she offered off her hands.
He attached the piece in between the blade and the handle, it was a perfect fit.
Some more mechanisations were inside the handle and when the blade was put together, Karni poured in some soul power.
The dagger extended a second blade from inside of itself. Alongside it, a sharp energy of soul power enveloped the blade of the dagger and its extension. Karni kept on pouring in soul power while pressing a tiny button with his fingers. The extended blade immediately retracted, while the sharp energy around the blade remained.
"Thank god. It works."
"Duh. You designed it."
"But imagine if it didn't, all this work for nothing."
"But it does."
Karni looked Siduo in the eyes. "You just don't get it."
Siduo rolled her eyes before she sat back down and took another metal from a neighbouring table. "And I'm saying it's you who designed it, it's natural that it would work. It's stupid to worry about it."
"You know? How do you manage to both hurt my feelings and praise me at the same time?"
Siduo ignored his comment. "C'mon, we have a whole different dagger to complete, and this one already took us 4 hours, despite the previous preparation."
"Yes, yes."
… … …
Tie Tiao fell onto the ground. "Ouch. Siduo, I really didn't miss having you as a sparring partner. Karni is much more lenient."
Siduo raised an eyebrow. "Well I had to let loose, since I haven't fought in so long… and besides." Siduo looked at Karni. "He won't be nice to you either this week."
Tie Tiao looked at Karni as if begging him to please deny her statement, but Karni only shrugged.
"I have a special course for you this week." Siduo gave Tie Tiao a mischievous smile which ran shivers down his spine.
"You are about half way done with your agility training, and, well," She paused. "I want to fasten it up."
"It will hurt. But if you meet our expectations by the end of the week, we'll give you a reward. How does that sound?"
"What kind of reward?" Tie Tiao asked.
"It's a surprise."
"I refuse."
"Eh?" Siduo's eyes went wide, while Karni barely held his laughter in.
"I'd rather have normal training and no reward."
"You can only have no training or harsh training, there's no 'normal training'."
Tie Tiao glanced at Karni again who just awkwardly turned away his head. Before he might have jumped to his help a little bit, cooled Siduo down, so she wouldn't throw around such threats, but the two barely speak recently, he was enjoying this. There was no way Karni was going to speak out during training.
"Kiki- ... Karni, you can go, I got this for today." Siduo said a bit awkwardly, the soul tool making session they had yesterday made her feel similar to how they were before, especially the geeking out over soul tools after they finished. Karni wasn't much different.
They weren't sure if their soul tool would be considered 3-stars, since the metal used wasn't thousand refined, but the complexity was definitely leaning towards 3-stars.
Soul Tool rankings were independent of Blacksmith ranking, which required thousand refinements to be considered a rank 3 blacksmith, but the two didn't know that. The assignments of rank 3 they were assigned by their teacher, Mo Qing, were all those which utilised thousand-refined metals. Even if they were only of the lowest quality at times. This was the only way Mo Qing let them progress to 4-stars in their respective professions.
It was to make their foundations stronger. They didn't have the luxury of figuring out the complexities of 3-stars, they had to figure that out alongside the thousand-refined metals.
They did, in fact, create a very good soul tool which was definitely at the third rank. Not only that, but it was quite high quality. The only way to make it better would be if they used better material, but at that moment it could only be called the very peak of third rank. It still wouldn't be considered a 4-star soul tool.
It could, however, equal the power of 4-star soul tools. If the thousand-refinements would be good, perhaps even an average 5-star soul tool couldn't stand a chance. This was the power of good metal and also why it was separate from Mecha Engineering ranks.
These were the kinds of things Karni and Siduo were discussing yesterday, after finishing. Karni let his thoughts slip out loud as well back then: "I missed talking to you like this." The room entered into an awkward silence, but Karni could feel it was a bit better. As did Siduo. They could feel it now, at the training grounds.
After Siduo sent Karni away, Tie Tiao looked at Siduo.
"You two still aren't talking? It almost felt like the two of you made up a bit."
"You're getting extra hard training today." Siduo smiled cheerfully, while Tie Tiao regretted he even asked the question.
… … …
Karni was yet again in front of the Holy Tiger Hospital. On the way here all he could think about was Siduo. The two were similar in that regard, both missed talking to each other. Even worse for Karni, since he didn't have that many friends here. This meant boredom.
As much as he wanted to talk to her casually again, he was stubborn at heart; and so was she. Despite their friendship, their views on the incident a month ago are vastly different.
And despite the fact he doesn't want to admit it. He knows that she is right. In some ways at least. And so was he. But the two are also both wrong in some ways. These weren't some scientific questions after all, but moral ones, and moral questions, and therefore views, changed from person to person. Based on their experiences, their nature, how they were raised. All of it could affect one's worldview.
This is where the two of them were vastly different. She was raised in a world full of Soul Masters. And the true value of this world was power and influence, despite the world being peaceful in many other ways, much like the country Karni came from.
While there were many active conflicts on Earth, power wasn't the value most people would turn to. Perhaps only radical leaders and terrorists would value power above all else.
While power always had influence over people, on Earth, empathy, human rights were much more integrated in the western culture, from where Karni came from. Perhaps Money would be the equivalent of Power in this world.
Power was something only parts of Earth would consider important. And those areas were usually stricken with poverty or had radical leadership. Meanwhile on Douluo Planet and Douluo Continent. The opposite would be true. Power was the first and foremost, and only some places would consider other values as equally important, those were only especially peaceful places, or ones with long lasting establishment. Shrek and Tang Sect came to mind.
It was with such questions in his mind that Karni arrived before Grandma Ying's hospital room.
As soon as he did, Grandma Ying immediately noticed Karni's weird state of mind. Despite not being a soul master, age does give one wisdom others might not possess.
"Tell me Karni, what is bothering you?" She gave the boy a kind smile.
Karni immediately made an awkward expression, but he welcomed this. Of course she'd notice.
"It's just… me and a friend of mine got into a bit of a fight. The one I mentioned before."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
Karni felt a bit helpless. What is he supposed to tell her? 'Oh, you know how I accidentally permanently put your son into a vegetative state? Riiight, I haven't told you yet? Well you see, me and my friend don't agree on if it was okay or not at alllllll.'
Karni sighed.
"If it's hard to tell, you don't have to Karni." Grandma Ying jumped in. She could tell her question made Karni a bit uncomfortable.
Karni sighed again, now he made Grandma Ying feel bad as well. He tried to collect himself, before he considered how he should go about this.
"I did something bad. I feel guilty about it, and she tells me I did everything right, but I just don't agree. It's a really long story and I don't want to go too much into it but…" Karni went silent. He really didn't have anything to say after that 'but'.
"You know, it's often the most compassionate people who blame themselves the most, even for smaller things. And Karni, if I've learned something about you this past month it is that you are a greatly compassionate person."
"Were you a psychiatrist Grandma Ying?" Karni asked in a half joke, not really wanting to acknowledge her words.
"I was, actually." She chuckled to herself.
Karni's eyes went wide, and Grandma Ying couldn't help but laugh at herself more when she saw this.
"Well, I didn't ever work as one, but I did study psychiatry, I could've gone to work as one. It was just that life led me in… other waters." She smiled. More than a psychiatrist, Karni felt like he was simply talking to a wise old lady. Which she also was.
"Well… The thing I did, made me worried about so much more. What if it happened to me? How would I react? I would also say: I shouldn't react in the way I did, so what does that make me? And then what if it happens to her? If she is hurt in some way because of me. It scares me. I know this probably doesn't make a lot of sense."
"You're right, it doesn't. In fact I'm completely lost about what you're talking about without any context. But since you don't wish to tell me I can tell you one thing." She laughed a bit before looking at Karni softly.
"Child, you ask many questions. You have many worries. Have you shared them all with your friend? Have you listened to all of her worries? I can see that your friend is precious to you, just talk it out, trust me, sometimes, simply speaking does wonders for people."
Karni was silent for a few seconds. "I guess I haven't talked to her about everything." He sighed.
"Well, sometimes, it might also ruin a relationship completely, finding out that you simply aren't compatible at all."
Karni went quiet.
The grandma laughed. "For some reason, I don't think this would be the case. Friends are allowed to disagree with one another, you know?"
Karni felt a bit stupid listening to her. It felt so obvious, but also hard to do.
"And besides. This is a girl right?" Grandma Ying gave Karni a raised eyebrow.
"It's not like that, besides we're too young for that."
"Mhmm, we'll see how you tell that story in the future." She laughed out loud to herself just to make Karni feel embarrassed.
"I don't need to be a psychiatrist to notice such things, you know? This is another reason I'd say it will go well if you talk to her." She laughed again.
"We're not like that, we're just friends! Still, I hope." Karni said.
Grandma Ying didn't tease him anymore. "You know, I think you found a really good friend Karni. The two of you still hang around each other, yes?"
"Yes, just yesterday… It almost felt like we were back to how it was… Until we weren't."
Grandma Ying chuckled to herself softly. "I wish my boy would have found such precious friends, ones you worry about, out of love and care." She spaced out a little.
"But you can't blame yourself for this-" Karni wanted to continue but was interrupted.
"Oh but I can, Karni. As a mother, I failed. I couldn't get him out of a bad crowd, a dangerous crowd. He might not have ended up… If I just talked to him better. For how much I could read other people and their relationships, I failed my own."
Karni was silent for a moment, he didn't really know what to say.
"... If it was a dangerous crowd that made him… that… way? Why would you be to blame?"
"... perhaps, Karni. It is hard to contend against the words of his soul master 'friends'. I just feel that as a mother, if I had raised him right, he might have listened to me more. If not me, to listen to his own thoughts better."
The day ended on a bit of an awkward note. Grandma Ying apologised that she was talking about such stuff with a child, and not to mind her, but it kept lingering in Karni's mind.
He could somehow understand her feelings through his own lens and recent experience. If he had just done things differently then…
Though I guess his actions were his own, he was influenced by fear, fear of losing Siduo, while Grandma Ying's son, Shi Qiang, was influenced by his soul master friends.
Soul Master friends? He had a railgun. A 4-star railgun, based on its power and looks. A normal human? Just who were these Soul Master friends of his. Why would they give him a railgun if they're soul masters themselves?
Karni realised that the events of that day may not have been as simple as he remembered them. What if this wasn't just a desperate man? Why would he rob a restaurant if he needed money for his hospitalised mother? The police mentioned that he might've done this involuntarily as well. These Soul Master friends felt like the missing piece.
He had to talk to Siduo about this.
As soon as he thought of that, he paused in his tracks and sighed. That's not as simple to do as it was before.
He looked in front of him as he thought about his conversation with Grandma Ying. "Sometimes talking can do wonders huh…"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AzKoPo
AzKoPo We'll go back to normal schedule like before. Monday and Friday. The next week I'll be at the pools, so I won't necesarily uploud both chapters, but knowing myself I'll likely be writing and uplouding just the way I usually do, since I'll definetely have the time.
Enjoy!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone