NOVEL NEXT Chapter 122: Paalchite
The next month passed in a blur. Wulf had so many activities to keep track of, but he juggled it all.
The first order of business was finishing the first round of arena fights: both Kalee and Irmond's. Kalee won with ease. Despite the posted odds, she'd advanced much faster than her opponent, and had more Marks than the arrangers had accounted for.
Irmond as well defeated his opponent. He moved quickly, and his aim had improved, and though his opponent had gained a tier as well since the rankings had been confirmed, Irmond had gained a lot more Marks—and simply, he was getting better at using his bow.
Vae Kella reluctantly distributed their winnings, which were quite heavy, then assured them that no one would underestimate them again.
After all, they'd be moving to the High Bracket. They might not have another fight until the next semester, after the rankings shook out, and there would still be confusion on how to rank them. It'd surely mean that they'd be underestimated yet again, but that just meant a greater cut of the winnings when they did prevail.
At least, when the three of them prevailed. Seith dropped out of the tournament, much to everyone's confusion—everyone except her team.
In the evenings, Wulf had three projects: he trained with his scissors, practicing separating the blades and reattaching them, until it became second nature. He ran through the scenarios in the weavers' manual, using their suggestions and matching the style as best he could in his mind.
After reading reaching the end of the book, he received a new Mark:
[Mark unlocked: Warrior's Retention]
[Warrior's Retention] You were never the best student, but you tried your best. Your memory and ability to recall information you have read has increased.
At that, Wulf narrowed his eyes. "Mantri, I know you're watching. Did you make the Field say that?"
There was no response. He didn't know if Mantri could make the Field do that, and he didn't really want to find out. However, it felt like something Mantri would do.
But though he might have learnt the theory of using the scissors, he hadn't delved deep into the actual practical components. He'd won in the arena because of his prior fighting knowledge and experience, but he needed to spar with an actual opponent. Nothing could beat practical experience.
In the mornings, they made it a habit to spar for a half-hour after their run, switching up opponents and practicing their weapons.
Using alchemy, he transmuted wood chips into malleable clay, then back into a pale arcane wood that had the most order possible before it began getting petrified and turning to stone—dura-wood, the elven transmutation tables called it. It was almost the same giantwood used for Oronith weapons and hulk-ships, but less flexible and more suited to smaller scale operations.
He shaped them each a weapon for sparring. Wrist blades for Seith, a staff for Kalee, and a wooden replica of his scissors. That way, they wouldn't have to worry about breaking their weapons or hurting each other.
And then there was Irmond. He got to use his bow, though he wasn't allowed to shoot them with his real arrows. The Academy did, however, provide arrows with a blunted and cloth-wrapped tip. Provided Irmond didn't charge them with a Skill, he wouldn't do any lethal damage when they hit their target.
In Wulf's breaks throughout the day, when he wasn't on prince-watching duty (Athllas had returned to the Academy after a few days of recovery), he worked on his own golem. He modified the jade panels, using a sketch and schematic of Silent Wraith. Instead of just winging it, he modified his golem's outer panels to be the exact same as those on Silent Wraith. Not the same shape or colour, no—but covering roughly the same surface area.
His strategy was the same: first, he formed them out of clay, then moulded them into the shape he wanted, then transmuted them. Being in a similar orientation to Wraith's panels, they'd now align better in the dream-link.
Speaking of the dream-link: once he was finished with his golem modifications, he adjusted his dream-socket himself. It was a little trickier than making it had initially been, but with the help of the dormitory washroom's mirrors, and angling them exactly right, he was able to see what he was doing.
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The best dream-sockets matched the stone of your Oronith. Deepstone came in many variants, and though you couldn't transmute it, you could transmute something close to it. Marble deepstone, for example, responded best to marble.
Wraith was made of a stone called Paalchite. It was a faint gray, now, but with a smooth texture and small crystal structures. It was technically arcane, though its only arcane property was in its lighter form. It just wasn't as heavy as other rock, which definitely aided the Wraith's maneuverability.
If he wanted to leverage that completely, he'd need to alter his dream socket to match. The link would improve. He'd feel the lightness, like it was part of him. Or, the Field would help him feel it.
Plus, he would align better with the mountain spirit. The spirit itself was made of paalchite, and the link would bring him just a little closer.
Pouring out all the order he'd accumulated in his scissors was barely enough to transmute the outer ring of quiversteel of his dream-socket. It slowly turned into stone, and when Wulf examined it, it was the proper texture.
There was a reason a paalchite Oronith started at Silver Tier, then.
When he wasn't working on his golem and dream-link, he worked on his garden. First, he created a long pot near the edge for all his grass, then transferred them to a single planter. Then he filled the others with plants from the king's garden. True to his word, the man had granted Wulf an assortment of clippings from his garden.
The plants ranged anywhere from Low-Iron to High-Silver, but they were the best ingredients Wulf had so far. And, with his [Warrior's Retention] Mark, he sped through a gardening book from the king's library, which helped him pick the right plants to put in the storage pendant.
With how often the pendant would be in dark spaces, he chose plants that thrived in shade. Spider-plants, smoke lilies, westwart, and borichasprouts. He arranged a wall of pots along the back of his storage pendant, taking great care to keep them in order and feed his academy-provided mana-water supplements to the plants themselves.
When it came to the time altering properties of the storage pendant, he'd initially been wary about keeping the storm-core attached to it constantly, but it didn't seem to be depleting in…anything. The description stayed the same, and everything functioned as intended. The storm inside was still as vigorous as usual.
But when it came to growing his garden, he wanted the choice of whether he 'sped up' the growth or not. Working with Seith and Kalee, they devised a construct much like the central lock of his scissors that allowed him to separate or attach the blades, except this time, for the channel that carried the storm's power through the arcane metal.
Admittedly, the idea had come from Mantri during one of the little messenger's visits. But it was a sound plan.
Wulf's job was to make more materials (which was simple enough—a little transmutation here or there), and to create a stone frame to support the device. It was too large and heavy to carry around his neck anymore, but it fit in the front pocket of his haversack cleanly, so that was what he designed his frame around.
First, he shaped it out of clay, then transmuted it to wood, then pumped it full of enough order to turn it into a vibration-resistant brick of strainite with two holes in the center to hold his construct and storm-spirit core, along with a channel through the center to connect the two together.
Finally, he made a lid for the frame, turning it into a small chest. It had holes in its top to let in light, so when he placed it on his windowsill, the plants would still thrive, then personally smuggled some hinges from the Artificers' Labs to seal it up.
In the evenings, Varl usually met them to check in, and about once a week, he gave them a reema distribution task. Most of the time, it was just a drop—they had to put it in a set place, where someone else would pick it up, then retrieve the payment later. Only once did Wulf get close to being caught. Terrence trailed him, but he dipped into a side hallway before the dorm supervisor could catch up to him.
The most important part of their days was working on the Wraith. It was usually late in the evening, and only three of them could work at a time (the other kept an eye on Athllas), but they managed.
They kept their loot from the dungeon in the same holding bay as the Wraith itself, and managing it was a little tricky, but Dr. Blyke let them borrow a crane if they first spent a half-hour helping with the other less fun repairs first. Cleaning up the crystal debris, strengthening and repairing the joints, and sealing off the missing left hand.
But the real fun was with the loot. First, they worked on the beast's swords. They had two workable blades of viridian, and even if they were each many paces long, the three of them worked to sharpen them. Seith took the lead, devising a curve that mirrored the slight curve of Wulf's scissors and lightened the shards, while giving them an excellent taper. It kept them light at the tip, and stopped them from snapping when swung too quickly.
The second means of stopping the viridian from snapping was a simple set of runes along the fuller, repeated over and over. When the Wraith held the blades, the runes would activate, transmitting a strengthening mantra through the stone, and preventing it from cracking on impact.
(In theory, they'd done the same with the old blades that Wraith had held, but those runes had long since worn off and eroded, leaving what might have been a Silver-Tier weapon around Wood-Tier.)
It took nearly a month to finish the blades and carve out a proper tang, but they'd need some wood for the handles, and that was where Wulf came in. First, they'd need some giantwood, but that was a terrible mana conductor—he'd have to transmute it.
And they'd also need to get some giantwood in the first place.
It was a good thing they were heading to the Titan's Forest next month, both to study the natural golems there, and to give the students a chance to fell their first giantwood tree.