章 22: Home invasion?!
'So that's how it is…'
To say that this was my most productive crafting session thus far would be a gross understatement. An understatement of a level where it had so little left to do with the truth, it was no different than an outright lie.
And all of that… while I only had some scraps of materials left and no greater idea what to craft with them!
'Maybe that's why it feels so… natural?' I suddenly got a thought, momentarily losing the focus on the process of crafting itself. 'Because rather than adhering to the strict rules and recipes, I'm just doing whatever I feel like doing?'
This feeling was truly… magical.
To just grab whatever I could get my hands on and turn it into something else. To pick scrap and create something actually useful… even if I couldn't really tell its purpose yet.
But it wasn't just that. It wasn't even the fact that crafting, the process I currently had little to no control over, felt better than ever before.
The best advantage that this session of crafting offered was the fact that, for as long as I kept my focus, I could somehow peer into both the intent of my meditative state and the means through which said intent was taking form.
[Arrange the functions and stack them in sequences.]
My hands moved the small pieces of cardboard filled with tiny runes to the brim. First, organizing them into three different groups and then lining them up one by one.
[Establish the argument escalation process.]
Next, I've brought out a total of seven different materials, all with different conductivity for Qi.
[Secure the escalation by varying the resistance]
I moved the crystals I'd bought during my first visit to Claire's shop, placing a different one at the end of each of the seven materials I'd prepared before.
Step by step, I could somewhat peer into the general idea of what I was doing, before deducting its actual purpose from the actions of my hands.
Sure, I had yet to regain proper control of my body or proper control of my thoughts… But my current situation was infinitely better than just going to sleep whenever I entered a meditative state only to wake up with some weird effigy that I couldn't get the first clue about!
Step by step, the huge mess of different materials, half-products, and crystals started to take shape.
'Well, it's still merely the first part of the process,' I thought, relaxing my mind for a moment I stared down at the current result of what could very well be ten minutes as well as it could be five hours of work.
By now, I did nothing more but arrange all the materials into different groups, each with a different purpose and goal behind them. But no matter how much or how hard I tried to argue for the meaning behind it… I still did nothing more but just blueprint the shit out of the idea that my meditating self had, an idea that I continued to fail my attempts at grasping.
It looked nothing like a finished product, the example of which still sat on my desk and continued to thicken up the Qi in the air of my room. That was a finished piece, occupying all three dimensions. What I had before my eyes, however, was merely an assortment of pieces laid down in two dimensions.
'It is by collapsing the blueprint into a higher dimension that I give it shape and layer different purposes of those materials together…' I suddenly got a thought that sounded extremely fancy. Sadly, it was too fancy for me to actually understand its meaning.
This moment of enlightenment was nothing better than an idiot misreading some words and somehow ending up producing a deep, highly intelligent observation.
Still, even if I couldn't really grasp the meaning of what I just thought of… I could still try to figure it out.
'If crafting is all about turning a schematic into a product by expanding a plan of two dimensions into a reality of three dimensions… couldn't I involve a fourth dimension as well?'
This thought… felt extremely intelligent again. But no matter how much I tried to peer into its meaning… I just couldn't grasp it.
'I wonder if I'm just thinking random stuff and attributing its greatness, or if I'm actually onto something?'
Ultimately, I ended up giving up on all those thoughts, too scared that focusing on it would cost me all the things I could learn by observing the process of my body crafting all on its own.
Thankfully, it was finally time for my hands to move to the more interesting part of actually taking various groups of materials and half-products and then piecing them together.
My hands grabbed the cardboard filled with the runic marks before covering its edges with resin-like jelly. Next, I grabbed the strange substances that my unconscious self somehow decided to be the conductors for Qi before squeezing them so hard, that the veins of my hands started to pop out.
But that wasn't the end of it!
After quite some time spent doing nothing but just squeezing what looked like a lump of cheese so old it grew no softer than stone, I placed it down on the floor before getting on all fours… and pressing it down with all the weight of my upper body as I started to roll it back and forth.
This process continued for some time as the lump slowly grew thinner and longer, all the way to the point where it was the size of the standard-issue USB cable that I saw whenever I plugged my phone into the charger.
'I wonder what's that tape for,' I thought when I finally moved on and grabbed a simple insulating tape… Only to then watch how I carefully wrapped a considerable amount of it around the material I still failed to consciously recognize.
Thump.
Bit by bit, I continued to roll the tape around the cable-like piece, covering every inch of it with no less than four layers of isolation.
Thump, thump.
'Is it my heart beating? Did I grow so tired already?'
Despite those thoughts suddenly causing my mind to explode with worry for my actual, physical health… I continued.
Thump, thump, thump!
'No, this is too loud to be my heart…'
Finally, right as the whole piece of this damn-expensive tape started to near its end, I completed the task and turned the thin strand of hardened-cheese-like material into a relatively thick cord…
Only to then reach out for the sculpting knife from the runesmithing set and notch the cord in a total of four, evenly spaced-out places on the cord, before using all my considerable strength to bend the sturdy cord all the way to the point where its two ends met, turning it from a straight line into a simple circle.
'Just what the hell am I doing now?' I thought, only to watch how my hands moved the cord down to the resin-covered cardboard before pressing it down and…
"FUCK!"
A sudden shout reached my ears, right as the lock of my doors exploded only for said doors to heavily swing in, opening the way for the home invader to step right in.
'What the…'
The shock of the sudden robbery or something was so great, that I night instantly broke free from my meditation…
As, fucking, if.
"What the hell?!" the robber spoke out again, completely unbothered by seeing me inside the apartment they just broke into. And as if this wasn't enough… Save for the very edge of the door, in my position, I couldn't even see who it was!
The sounds of steps followed as my insides revolved, images of all kinds of harm that would soon befall me flaring up in my mind as I slowly but surely started to break free from the chains of my meditation. I just… wasn't there yet!
"Please, don't tell me…"
As the robber came closer and closer, they finally the edge of my field of view, pretty much right as I finally regained control over my head, swinging into the side to see the likely coming attack and hopefully have enough time to dodge it…
"… that you've kept going throughout the entire damn night?"
Freed from the chains of my meditation, I was finally ready to defend myself…
Only for all of my adrenaline to go to waste since the invader was no one else… But Claire!
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