章節 150: Maintenance
The journey proceeded smoothly, and despite the nice and long conversation we had with Ember, we still managed to reach Dawnleaf somewhere in the middle of the afternoon. The place was still mostly deserted, and Kantasia's surprise when we stopped in front of the guild hall was evident. Yet, she was extremely happy when she saw us, and came running outside with glee written across her face.
"That was extremely quick. Can't believe you're back already."
"Yep," Velariah said triumphantly. "Delivery completed." She tossed the coin purse to the Lore Keeper who reacted with shock and barely managed to catch it, to Velariah's amusement. "And we got our hands on ten crates of blessed iron ore, of which we have two reserved for Dworag. Let us know when the demand arises so we can discuss its price."
"Will do," Kantasia said, nodding. "Let me open the door."
The white-haired elf nodded as we made our way around and inside the building, where the others unloaded the cargo and I removed the reins.
The last few crates which held our own belongings were carried by Velariah, Seralyn Draco, and even Nira, leaving me empty-handed.
"You've done enough," Velariah said as I was looking around to see if we were accidentally forgetting anything. "We'll handle this last bit."
I nodded and followed the others back home, where we only had a brief moment of reunion with Gray and Elly before we were outside once again, this time with the last two crates destined for Dworag.
We found the dwarf in question seated on the anvil, prodding in the coals that fueled his forge. Apparently, he was lost in thought as he didn't seem to notice us until Draco placed the two heavy crates of ore onto the ground with a thud.
"Ah," He said after turning his head. "That was quick. Betcha got a bonus for that, didn't ya?"
"As a matter of fact we did," Velariah said. "And we have your ore, as promised."
"Then I shall get the payment, as promised. How much was it?"
"We don't know yet. We don't know the guild's price yet. You can have it and we'll tell you as soon as we know… Unless you were planning on running away unannounced."
"Hah!" He chuckled loudly. "And leave my favorite redhead? No way."
Seralyn felt the need to grin at his comment. Or perhaps it was because of my deep, deep sigh in reaction to it.
"I'm gonna guess you're all curious to see that new device I've been working on. Well, I'm happy to announce it's finished. As far as I can tell at least. I even tested it for ya by blowing in water with a bellow, and I can confirm it doesn't leak and that the revolving thingy stays in place properly."
"That's amazing," The knight said with genuine surprise and amazement.
Or she was extremely good at faking. She could be, considering Dworag had just tested something for which it will never be used. Still, he bought the story and his testing did mean that it was suitable for our needs.
"Let me bring it out," He said excitedly as he hopped off of his anvil and darted into his shop.
He walked out with the instrument covered by cloth wrappings and when he unfolded them, I couldn't believe my eyes.
It was as if I was looking at a proper revolver. Dworag even demonstrated the ability for the cylinder to revolve and when the barrels aligned, it would keep in place thanks to a spring mechanism at each side until sufficient force was applied, The only thing the weapon missed was the stock.
And we had to hope that there was someone left at the lumber processing plant for that.
Actually, scrap that. There HAD to be people there. After all, they still had to process lumber before transporting it to the dungeon grounds.
The armorsmith looked around and finally handed it to me, my eyes never leaving the item. I rotated the cylinder and each time the tubes aligned, I heard a satisfying click.
"It looks more than fit to do the job," I said calmly. "Great work, truly."
"You're welcome. Feel free to contact me if you need any further materials for the general's experimentation."
"Will do. Thanks a bunch!"
He managed to sneak in a wink directed at me as we left, the weapon wrapped in cloth once more. I was still shaking my head when we left the alley as Velariah took the lead and headed towards our next destination.
"Hope you're okay with doing some more woodworking," I said to the harpy once we reached the building and Velariah had headed inside.
"I don't mind it. I actually like doing it, and it seems it's helping us a lot."
"No kidding. These things can turn even the most helpless peasant into a deadly force. Having something like this in a skilled archer's hand is nothing short of insane. I'm wondering if we should make a few small ones for ourselves, but the firing mechanism is a huge bother to me."
"Maybe we will find a solution somewhere down the line," Draco replied optimistically.
"Maybe. We just can't have Dworag install it, so we'd have to come up with something on our own. Using my combustion silk is just unsafe in all aspects."
"It's easy," Seralyn said. "We just don't get into trouble and there won't be a need for everyone to have this."
"Easy to say," The lizardman responded. "Harder to execute."
The door to the building opened and Velariah stepped outside. Her happiness had taken a hit and within seconds she explained why.
"I had to pay double this time around. I understand why, but still. Oh well, it's peanuts for us anyway."
That was to be expected with the current demand for lumber. Her saltiness seemed to be only temporary though, as she quickly smiled again, simply shrugging it off as she led the way back to the mansion.
"It's time to relax at home, well, as much as we can, and plan our next moves," She called out.
"And ask about that gem melding business," I added.
"And that."
"As for planning, I doubt there's much we can do besides the usual. Make money, kill dungeon creatures, get stronger."
"And there's a certain orange gem we have," Velariah said. "It could be worth adding that to one of our weapons."
"You think so? I mean, you heard the Lore Keeper. They are only used in certain scenarios. Maybe… that one part in the new dungeon? Seems like it could be useful there"
"I will admit that I was joking, but you just gave me an idea."
"And what would that be?" I said with a sly smile.
"We could have secondary weapons with different enchantments. Maybe not now, but it's something we may want to consider for the future."
"For the future, sure, but I do fear the price of weapons might increase drastically soon. Well, I suppose we could try to arrange something."
"Eh," She replied in the tone of 'it's no big deal'. "It's gonna be fine. We need to do our research on these gems anyway. We've already known for a while that the number of enchantments that are available here is quite limited, and now we know who we need to talk to to learn more."
"Your father?" I said as a joke.
"Well, no, but also yes. I meant a gem melder, but we can ask him as well."
"If we can find him. I don't believe he was home earlier."
"How much do you want to bet he's at the dungeon?"
I looked around and saw a bunch of smirks. We all knew exactly where he was.
"Exactly," Velariah said with the largest smile of all as we reached the mansion.
Just in time too. Elly was about to take Gray on a walk.
The wolf was excited to see me again and had a hard time containing it. His caretaker allowed it as she was locked in conversation with Velariah about dinner tonight. The white-haired elf assured the maid that there was no need to rush things as there were plenty of things to take care of and we weren't hungry in the slightest. Besides, we still had some food from the journey that we preferred to finish first.
Such as fish. I couldn't remember how long it had been since I had anything like this.
But first things first. Nira took it upon herself to immediately start working on the gun's stock, while Draco and Seralyn took some crates upstairs and Velariah took the remaining ones to the kitchen.
"You know," I said to Nira as I took my place at the table. "Now I do want to know if we can make that other type of coffee. I just hate that I can't try it. Wait, I suppose I can as long as I spit it out."
She giggled softly as she worked on the groove in the block where the barrel would sit.
"If you want to explore that idea, then I don't see why not. What did you call that kind of coffee again?"
"Espresso, but I suppose it would be fitting to choose a different name."
Her comment had me thinking, and I did feel like I was onto something here.
"If we manage to get that, and I don't see why we shouldn't be able to as it's not that hard to experiment here, besides, we don't need the most complicated tools, but if we continue down that path, we could even name it after that supposed adventurer that discovered it. You know, to have people asking: 'Oh, what an interesting name. Where did it come from?' only to have it answered by: 'That's the name of the person that invented it.'" I chuckled at the thought. "We just need to have Valtheril come up with a name or something."
"That… sounds like a nice idea," She admitted. "You also named coffee after places right? I seem to recall something like that."
"Well, we do in certain cases, there's Irish coffee for example, which is named after Ireland, a country in my old world. It's coffee mixed with Irish whisky and… hold on a second. Isn't Duskleaf a producer of alcohol?"
"I believe that is the case."
"Then a Duskleaf Coffee consisting of the beverage with a specialized type of alcohol doesn't seem like a far-fetched idea. I'll make sure to let Valtheril know these few ideas. I have a feeling he'll like them."
"Someone's totally in her element."
I was spooked by Velariah's words with an involuntary spasm of my legs. I'd never heard or seen her coming out of the kitchen.
"Yep, too much in her element to even notice me. I heard what you were talking about and I do like the idea. Might just help with both cover stories."
"I know, right?" I said after I had recomposed myself.
"Anway, as for my father, he's not home, and I can't be bothered to go look for him, so what do you feel like doing?"
"I'm okay with whatever. I'll just check on Minia first. You can come up with something in the meantime."
She smiled as I made my way to our bedroom to find my favorite little spider.
I had never thought I'd ever think that.
I entered the room and found her little nest, now finished, on the wall, and as soon as I came close, two pairs of eyes peeked out, followed by pedipalps waving.
"Hey there. Have you been well? Is Elly taking good care of you?"
She nodded and felt happy, probably because she saw me again.
"Good to hear. I love the little home you made. It looks super comfy."
She became filled with pride at my words and I gently patted her as I asked if she was hungry, to which she replied with a no.
"We really don't have to eat often, do we? It's so strange to get used to. Although, I suppose I can eat whenever I want if I feel like it… which is what I'm mostly doing anyway. Oh well."
I grinned when I saw Minia look at me with a wave of confusion coming from her.
"Well, I'll be off to see what Vel has come up with. I'll see you tonight. Take care, Minia."
With a few more pats, I was off to the dining area, where the elf's plans had already started to become clear. She'd collected all the weapons we owned and laid them on the table, and with them, several whetstones and oils.
In addition, there was the gun, on which the elf immediately commented.
"I don't know the maintenance needed for that thing. Do you?" She asked, pointing at the rifle.
"Somewhat. We need to clean the inside. There's always some residue from the powder left behind that eventually becomes a problem. I think I may have an idea about how to clean it… if you can help me."
I pointed at my rear with my thumb, and she took a moment before I saw her get my idea.
Seralyn and Draco walked down the stairs at the exact time I had my silk extracted and the brunette smiled but didn't say a word.
"Steelthread?" Velariah asked, to which I nodded.
"And some normal silk to finish."
"I see."
She handed me the first batch, which I wrapped around the end of the ramrod.
"Smart thinking," Draco commented when he saw what I did.
"This was the only thing I could think of," I said as I started cleaning the inside of the barrel. I was happy to see it having some effect when I noticed the silk had started turning black when I pulled it out.
In the meantime, Velariah finished and eagerly looked at my 'handiwork.'
Honestly, they were all far too interested in this.
"How about y'all start working on your own weapons? Show me how it's done."
Draco grinned and started work on his own axes while I switched the steelthread of the normal silk for the finishing touches.
"Well, I suppose that leaves me with nothing to do," Seralyn commented. "Have fun struggling."
She leaned back in her chair and put on a large smile.
Unbelievable.
"Fortunately," Draco said. "They are hardly damaged. This steel really keeps its edge. Technically, we could go quite a while longer without maintenance."
"Well, it's better than doing nothing," The knight replied.
"That is true."
I watched both of them sharpen their weapons before oiling them, keeping close track of what they were doing. Then, when it was my turn to do the same, with three weapons even, they did the same to me.
"Glad you're having fun," I said midway through, in a mostly joking manner. "By the way, didn't your inherity take care of things like this?"
"It does," Velariah replied. "But it doesn't make it all shiny like this oil does. And doing this has become too much of a habit to skip it completely. Besides, I actually like doing it. My father does it as well, despite not needing to either."
"Interesting."
We heard the front door open and I quickly covered the rifle with a cloth before hastily taking it to our bedroom. We were expecting Elly, but to all our surprise, it was Valtheril who entered, with a bucket in one hand.
"Maintenance, huh?" He said when he saw what we were doing. "Good. Very important to take care of your weapons. I brought you this. I reckon it's enough for now."
He placed the bucket on the table and when I peeked inside, I couldn't believe my eyes.
I was staring at thousands upon thousands of bullets. The thing was entirely filled to the brim and must weigh a ton. How the general was able to carry it so easily was a mystery to me.
"Welcome back, by the way. I heard from Kantasia that your journey was successful, and that you even sacrificed a bunch of your own money to supply the guild with blessed iron. Smart thinking. You're bound to get great returns on that."
"It was her idea," Velariah said. "But yeah, you're right. How is it going with the dungeon?"
"Fast," Her father replied with a chuckle. "But you already knew that. Construction is proceeding nicely and I've done a second exploration run with Vymar. Some new monsters popped up that weren't there earlier, but the rest was the same. It is as you said, it seems the dungeon is recovering strength and expanding, or rather, completing its arsenal as it does so. We'll probably do another few runs to make sure everything is mapped and then allow entry to adventurers."
"Sounds like you're having a great time," The white-haired elf said happily. "Oh, by the way, we ran into some people surveying the land for that canal as well. How many things are you doing at once?"
"Yes," The general replied with a grin. It told us everything we needed to know.
"This is more than enough," I managed to squeak in as soon as there was a moment of silence, referring to the metal balls. "Thank you very much."
"Not a problem. You kids have fun. I'll be upstairs if you need me."
He nodded and left the room while I was left staring at the bucket.
That was going to need a lot of gunpowder to process.
I then whispered words as soon as they entered my mind.
"I better start eating…"
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