Chapter 24: Abnormally Glowing Protectors of Phalanges

Chapter 24: Abnormally Glowing Protectors of Phalanges

“What do I do?” I asked, staring at the heap of clothes on the table.

Miss Spencer smiled. “For now you Observe. I am going to sew some basic enchantments into your clothes. One major difference between awakened and unawakened apparel is the lack of protection normal clothes have. I am going to remedy that for you right now.”

She took out a spool of tan thread and walked over to the large table with the sewing machine along with my pants. “For starters, we are going to bolster the durability. By sewing durathread into the seams you can make your clothing last almost as long as you do.”

“What about resistances?” I asked, wondering if she had some of that bulletproof webbing laying around. “Also, have you ever heard of sphinx feathers?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Those aren’t cheap. Did your skill say what they’re for? Also, how would I sew a feather into a shirt or pants?”

I shrugged. Analyze probably wouldn’t give me details like that until I was ready to use them. Miss Spencer smiled and continued the lesson. “You don’t want to craft too many enchantments at a time. Doing so increases the risk of catastrophic failure.”

I didn’t know what catastrophic failure was but Miss Spencer made sewing look effortless. She stopped every few minutes to go over what she did or to make sure I was following along properly. I did my best to keep up while largely ignoring advice from Analyze.

Info: Sewing an Arcane Circle inside of the crotch using durathread increases the effect by double.

Once she finished, she took the pants out of the machine and held them up. “Okay, Analyze the result. You specifically want to see the condition.

Hand-Me-Down Pants

Grade: F

Defense: 0

Condition: 398

Created by: Spencer

“It says three-hundred-ninety-eight,” I parroted the result, not very happy with the other information. “It’s still F Grade.”

She sighed wearily. “The quality grade of equipment isn’t very easy to raise. While it can happen, you’ve pretty much created a new item by that point. What we’re doing is increasing everything around that to make it function at a higher grade.”

“Are all unawakened clothes F rank?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Actually, a lot of the richer peasants buy designer clothes from awakened tailors without even knowing. While they don’t understand the magic that goes into them, they do appreciate the quality.”

She reached into a bag next to the table and pulled out a tuft of what looked like a miniature cloud. “This is cloud fiber. Most boys like it sewn into the front while girls tend to want it in the back.”

“Why is that?” I asked, watching her stuff it where Analyze wanted to put the Arcane Circle. “Oh, never mind.”

Adding cloud fiber was a little more complicated than using magic thread. Miss Spencer placed it on the table and took out a rolling pin. She then proceeded to flatten it like she was making pizza dough.

“Once you weave this in, it will blend with the fibers of your clothing,” she explained as she began smoothing it onto my inside-out pants. She used a different kind of thread to secure it in place.

Manabind

Grade: B

Condition: 100

Crafting Component

She also stuffed some of the cloud fiber in my shoes. “This will put a spring in your step.”

It turned out she did have more steel spider silk, which she applied to my pants as well before having me put them on.

Trait Obtained:Apprentice Tailor.

When I returned from the bathroom she pointed at the sewing machine. “Next, you’re going to practice what you learned. Sew both enchantments into your socks.”

I hesitated to approach the machine. It was the kind of thing people generally told me not to touch. Miss Spencer stood nearby and encouraged me with a nod.

Ever so slowly, I fed my socks under the long needle that looked like it would really hurt if I managed to run my finger under it.

Miss Spencer nodded and handed me another spool of durathread. “Go ahead and replace the old one. Thread it through the needle. Yes, like that.”

Once she was satisfied that I’d done it correctly, she directed me to the foot petal that controlled the device. I knew instinctively that was to free both of my hands up to feed the material under the rapidly bobbing needle.

I pressed my foot down and jumped as the machine hummed to life. Then, at Miss Spencer’s direction, I slowly fed the sock through the machine. My line was nowhere near as straight as the one she made on my pants but it was enough to give my socks their first enchantment.

Worn Socks

Grade: F

Defense: 0

Condition: 287

Created by: Evans

“I did it!” I whooped, holding the socks over my head.

Miss Spencer beamed at me. “So you did. Now for the next step.”

The damage resistance weaving was easier for me because it didn’t require me to use the machine. It also helped that I was able to turn clothing inside out to line them with enchantments.

Worn Socks

Grade: F

Defense: 7

Resistances: Blunt +5 Piercing +5 Slashing +5

Condition: 287

Created by: Evans

“Can I try another Arcane Circle?” I asked while smoothing out the socks in search of a good place to stitch them.

“What do you have in mind?” Miss Spencer asked, taking out her notepad.

Together, we worked to sketch another Arcane Circle. I felt it might feel weird on the inside and arouse suspicion if it was in plain sight, so we traced the circle on the outside near the front. That way the pattern would be safely hidden beneath my shoes.

“Let me do this part,” Miss Spencer said, taking the socks from me. “You’re not quite ready for hand stitching just yet. Be sure to watch how I do it though.”

She worked deftly, the tiny needle working in and out of my socks as she spun a tight design into my socks using manabind thread. It took significantly longer than any of the other steps as she kept snipping the thread when it didn’t look just right.

When she finished, she held them up to the diagram to triple-check. When that was done, she set it on the table and placed her hand over it.

“Wait!” I called out, placing my hand over hers.

“What is it?” She asked, a look of concern crossing her face. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” I replied. “I want to try my new skill out. You know. The one called Mana Link.”

“Oh,” she replied, moving her hand away from the sock. “You said that one works if we’re touching, right?”

“I want to help too!” Leslie said, popping her head into the room. It was obvious she’d been eavesdropping.

“Come hold my hand, Child,” Miss Spencer said, offering me her other hand. “Go ahead when you’re ready, Oliver.”

I placed my free hand where Miss Spencer’s had been over my sock. Like I’d done before, I tore a chunk of mana off my core and passed it into the Arcane Circle. The only difference was that more mana passed into me from Miss Spencer and joined mine in a steady flow.

The sock began to glow as more power than I’d ever felt flowed into it. By the time we finished, my socks had developed a light blue hue.

“Well, that’s interesting,” Miss Spencer said, holding my sock up to the light. “What did it do?”

Abnormally Glowing Protectors of Phalanges

Grade: D

Defense: 10

Resistances: Blunt +5 Piercing +5 Slashing +5 Magic +5

Condition: 287

Created by: Evans

You have gained 500 experience points.

“Magic resistance,” I said, my voice filled with wonder. “My toes are now immune to magic.”

Miss Spencer laughed. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say immune. Resistant maybe. Of course, the only way of telling how much would be to use magic on them.”

“Does plus five mean anything to you?” I asked, looking over the stats again.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Can you compare it to the other types of damage?”

I nodded. “They are all plus five.”

“Then it’s good enough for everyday use,” she explained. “The other enchantments are good for daily living but not good enough for war. Or serious adventuring for that matter.”

“Speaking of which, we need to get to the tower,” Leslie whined, looking anxiously out the window.

“Can we go now?” I asked.

Miss Spencer sighed. “Now so fast. We still need to do your shirt. Then I suppose you can go. Take it off real quick.”

As advertised, she was quick. When she wasn’t ’t slowing down to teach me, Miss Spencer worked with an efficiency that could only be learned through years of hard practice.

“There you go,” she chirped, throwing me the finished shirt. “I didn’t add your Arcane Circle but we can do that later. In the meantime, be sure to block all magic attacks with your foot.”

Leslie giggled while tugging my arm toward the door at the same time. “Come on, Oliver! If we don’t get there soon, they aren’t going to let us in!”

The two of us raced through town, weaving through traffic and pedestrians alike. The location Leslie dragged me to was right in the middle of downtown. The building called The Flatiron was a mysterious slim building that looked like it shouldn’t have been allowed. Built on an awkward parcel of land it was shaped like a slice of pizza to fit, looking awkward amidst the other more majestic buildings surrounding it.

“Don’t worry,” Leslie called over her shoulder as we approached the entrance. “It’s much bigger inside.”

A pair of guards crossed a pair of heavy-looking swords as we walked through the doors.

“Identification please,” the guard on the left said, his voice echoing in the auditorium.

Leslie took out her guild ID and prompted me to do the same. The guard held it up to a slit in his helmet and didn’t move for a very long time.

“Do the two of you have Monster Vision?” The guard asked.

“We do!” Leslie replied with an excited squeal in her voice.

“Very well,” the guard droned, not sounding thrilled that we had our buffs in order. “What will you be hunting today?”

“Just slimes,” Leslie announced.

The guard pulled his sword back, prompting the other to do the same. “Stick to the first floor. If you run into any difficulty, just train the monsters over to us and we’ll deal with them. Got it?”

“What does he mean?” I asked as Leslie nodded affirmation to the guard and dragged me deeper into the building.

“He means run to him if we get in trouble,” she explained. “The monsters will follow us and they will kill them.”

“Why don’t we do that anyway?” I asked. “If he’s offering to kill them and all.”

Leslie sighed, taking out her bow. “If we do that, we get kicked out and we don’t get credit for any of the kills. I want to complete this quest and I thought you wanted ooze to make hot sauce or something.”

“Oh,” I replied, realizing the guards weren’t an option.

Leslie went back into tour guide mode as we passed by a staircase. “The upper floors are training grounds for new adventurers. The dungeon is downstairs and only high-level adventurers go there. That’s where the dangerous monsters live.’

Past the stairs was a massive set of double doors at least three times my height. We pushed them open to reveal a room filled with tiny monsters. Rats, snakes, and spiders scampered all over the place. It made me miss the sewer where the only danger was overgrown rats and brown muck.

In the distance, I saw them. Shimmering blue blobs that were given a wide berth by the other creepy crawlies in the room. With Leslie leading the way, I waded through the sea of poisonous monsters to the pack of slimes.

“Okay, now,” Leslie began, nocking an arrow in her bow. “The way to kill a slime is…”

I stomped one…and it exploded.