[S/C] Dude, you gotta stop polishing those balls

[Elkeid]

While other Adventurers had their hands full with the Celestial Arms quest line, Elkeid was hard at work. She was alone in her cottage out in the Windsor Greatwood. The furry and child companion that had adopted her was also preoccupied with the quest line. She had some reservations about the Sages and their demands, but it gave Sorrel something to do. Better yet, it allowed her to relax and bask in peaceful silence.

Sorrel was still far too antsy, and was really grating on her nerves lately. The kid wanted to do everything and go everywhere, whereas Elk only wanted to get smashed and focus on her handicrafts. He almost threw a fit when she said she had no interest in the event. She would help some Adventurers if they needed their tablets restored, but not much else. People were getting some interesting equips by participating, which was good for them. It drove Sorrel wild how indifferent she could be to quest items.

The woman took out a small piece of burned wood from her dying fire, and despite the sweltering warmth it radiated, ripped a chunk off with her bare fingers. This was suitable enough to serve as charcoal, a simple general recipe for blacksmiths, woodcrafters, and alchemists. She twirled the piece of charcoal around in her long, slender fingers. It was somewhat crumbled around the edges, but those bits fell away with some light tapping.

Ta da, she had charcoal, and more of it from the fire place, should she so desire it. This stuff was actually rather useful, in that it could be used to light fires… provided you had lighter fluid, anyway. She collected more pieces similar to the one she had just fetched, and sorted the lot of them into a paper bag. One craft down, several more to go.

WC: 306

[Elkeid]

With the charcoal taken care of, Elkeid moved on to the next task: a fishing pole. The corner of her eye twitched as she eyed the recipe and description. It was… well, it was a fishing rod. There was not much else to say about the damn thing. All she needed was a bit of string, a hook, and a polished stick to stick them all to. These were all objects she could acquire with ease.

From her back porch, Elkeid plucked a switch from among a small group of young saplings. She then karate chopped the far end of the sapling with her hand, splitting the jagged roots clean off the main area. It was a little rough around the edges, but who gave a shit? It was meant to be a first time rod to help her get from point A to B. She would craft better models later, in the instance that someone actually requested it.

Inside the house, she took out a coil of string and took a long strand from it. The end of this was tied to the slender shaft of the rod, while the remainder of the string was left to hang free. This last part had a small hook affixed to the end. The simple craft completed, Elkeid lightly swung the fishing pole around in the air. It felt very lightweight, and was most definitely not suited for any serious fishing. Anyone who used this would either have to be Sorrel's size, or only interested in hunting minnows and the like. Hell, she might as well just keep it or give it to the little boy.

Regardless, the fishing pole was tossed into a corner, where Sorrel happened to keep a few of his play things. When he came home from his excursion, she would send him back out again to go fishing. If he got good at it, she might even make him a sturdier rod.

WC: 325

[Elkeid]

With two items down, her to do list was slowly lessening. Soon, she would be able to move on to bigger and better things. For now, she was stuck making a… Balsa-Wood Stick of Fish Smiting? Oh dear. A brief cursory of the recipe told her that it was only used for spearing fish in streams. So a simple harpoon, really. This would be excellent for turning her little werecat into a proud fisherman. They would have fish for days. All she needed was to find a Chef who could cook them all for them.

Elkeid was forced to go outside once more, though in reality she did not mind all too much. It was nice and cool outside, and the sun was starting to set. If she were in a relationship, it would be a perfect date night -- no kid, a secluded forest home, and a romantic view. It was a shame that she had no one to share it with. Blackcoat had gone AWOL, and there were no other eligible men or women for her to choose from. Too many of them were much too young for her, or simply lacked the kind of personality she gravitated towards.

With a long, dejected sigh, the woman kicked a young tree in half. Adult companionship was all she desired. It was easier to acquire in a world where everything made sense, and was not overrun with antisocial teens and adults. How many of them actually knew how to treat a woman? She yanked the tree free from the bits of root still clinging to it, almost staggering back from the force of her pull.

She glared down at the small tree in her arms. For some strange reason, it was making her frustrated. Not understanding why did nothing to help, but now she had something to occupy her mind and hands. She whacked the tree all over with a rapid succession of karate chops, knocking bits of debris and leaves away. The result was a half stripped tree.

The nearly naked tree was dragged inside and tossed onto her work table. It lay there, subtly trembling as the woman stalked the prone figure. She held a small carving knife in her hand, and malice radiated from her aura. Trees are living things, even if they lack coherent thought. This one lacked any natural defenses that would detour the woman. Internally, it shrank as a tall shadow fell upon it. If it cried, would she hear?

Elkeid squinted down at the heavy wood resting in her hands. For a moment there, she could have sworn that she heard a whimper coming from it… but that was just silly. She pushed the absurd thought from her mind, and continued to carve and shape the tree until it was smooth and fit easily in her hands. This was a nice, heavy weight. The harpoon was too large for someone like Sorrel to wield, however. She considered splitting it in half, but then rethought it. The two of them could go fishing together. That was a good way to bound and get some work out of the way at the same time.

She dusted her hands off and set the completed harpoon down, near the small fishing pool. Tonight may turn out to be a good one, after all.

WC: 556

[Elkeid]

Perhaps her oddest craft for tonight was the Mount Whistle. It was supposedly easy and quick to produce, though it required one to have a level of twenty one and above. To be fair, that was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Mounts should not be so easily accessible by the masses. Every low player would be running around on dragons and other oddities, if that were allowed. Elkeid was somewhat interested in the prospect of having a mount, but she also preferred less filthy means of transport. But her client had a few domesticated monsters, and desired to have a quick means of summoning one as a mount.

Elkeid sat down at her empty table, a small block of wood seated in front of her. This particular client, Capsule, wanted a whistle in the shape of a tiny reindeer. The Monk thought that was a foolish idea; it would (though this was a video game, so anything was possible) sound like crap, all for the sake of looking cute. As an interior designer, she was used to having more of a say in how things were to be designed. In some cases, she even went as far to disregard customer choices to settle for something that she favored. There were a few disagreements, but the end reactions were usually favorable ones. One thing Elk could do, however, was compromise.

The base design for the whistle was a very simple one; it was your standard pea whistle. Elkeid turned it around in her fingers, searching for any signs of imperfections. Once pleased with her findings, she made a small ball, the pea, to stuff inside the whistle. She tested the whistle after inserting the ball. The sound was sharp and clear; not too shrill, but not too soft, either. It was perfect, though far from complete. Along one side, she carefully etched in the silhouette for a reindeer's head and antlers. As disappointed as Capsule may be, she could not deny that the small drawing was stylish.

WC: 337

[Elkeid]

The next item on her agenda tonight was a simple flute. Renai sure had a thing for musical instruments. Elkeid was not so interested. She only intended to make something simple so she could easily speedcraft it later. While she was not so musically inclined (auditory agnosia made appreciating the art quite difficult), there were others who were. She might even be able to make a decent sum of money from this venture. It all depended on how much people valued their musical instruments. Hiro was an Idol now; he may get a kick out of this.

When it came to actually stating on the flute, however, Elkeid paused. The rod of wood she had needed to have a hole drilled from one end to the other. The only problem with that was that technology had yet to catch up, so no drills for her. She restlessly drummed her fingers on the table top. There was no punching her way out of this one. Her shoulders sagged as she emitted a soft sigh of defeat.

With a smaller and slimmer carving tool, Elkeid painstakingly began to carve out the interior of the rod. It was not so bad once she got started, really. It was almost akin to carving clay, albeit firmer. The real issue was making an opening wide enough for her to get deeper and deeper. Eventually, she made it clean through the other side, though she was far from done. The interior needed to be smoothed, as well as the exits. And then she needed to poke in the holes…

The tip of her tongue curled against her lower lip as she worked on the finer details. It was her first flute, so she wanted it to be perfect -- or as perfect as she could get it, anyway. She had no intention of giving it to Sorrel, that was for certain. The last thing she needed was that kid blasting more noise at random intervals. That did raise a question: were werecats sensitive to higher frequencies? Would a dog whistle be worth looking into?

She blew some excess dust out of the hollowed out log, sending a small, dark cloud over her table. Not much in the way of sound was produced, something that was easily fixed. With a fat handled tool with a wider tip, Elkeid dug in the holes she needed. She used the smaller tool to smooth out the holes, and blew through the main hole to clear out the rest of the dust. For the last step, Elk just smoothed the whole thing down with sandpaper. Unsure of how to follow that up, she just set the instrument to the side for now. If she needed to make last minute adjustments, she could do so later.

WC: 464

[Elkeid]

Her biggest project of the night was relevant to the aforementioned customer, the recipient of the Mount Whistle. Said craft was actually an Artisan craft, a nice change in pace to her earlier crafts of the night. The only concern was on how to go about making the item. A Combat Crystal Ball was an entirely unfamiliar concept to her. Her knowledge of crystal balls did not extend beyond fortune tellers and the like, and she knew even less about cutting gems.

The task was rather daunting, indeed, but the woman had to persevere. It may not be a conventionally paid job, but her efforts would pay off soon enough. There were still many Adventurers that preferred bartering to monetary payments, and the high leveled folks in particular could always use crafters. Elkeid aspired to be the best Artisan she could be. If that meant doing a lot of grunt work or not receiving monetary compensation, then so be it. Most people had to work hard to make a name for themselves; not everyone could have everything handed to them.

Her mind made up, Elkeid read over the recipe once more. Despite the poor elaboration it provided, she understood the gist of it all. This would pretty much involve a lot of shaping and polishing on her part. All she required was a large, uncut gem, like the one resting on the table, and the tools of the trade. She picked up the gem, a large hunk of sapphire. It was an odd choice (in her professional opinion) for a crystal ball, but would add some much needed flair to her client. Enchanters struck her as the really drab sort.

Elkeid placed the rough cut gem back onto the table, and reached for a heavy hammer. Not even this Monk would dare to strike the raw gem with her fist. It had to be at a level around her own, else it would do her (or her client) no good. So smashing it with her bare fists would obviously hurt, and using her oversized gauntlets would be overkill. The sapphire would be damaged in the process, and then she would have to go out and acquire another one. Finding the first was problematic enough; the dwarf she bought it from wanted a high price for it, until she talked him down. And by talk down, she means threatened and hung several meters out the window. Was she proud of bullying some poor sack? No. Did she get a good deal? Hells yes.

She brought the hammer down with as much force as she could feasibly allow. A loud crack sounded as the hammer struck true. A chunk and several small fragments of sapphire went every which way upon the table. Elkeid brought the hammer down one, two, three more times, until most of the edges and imperfections had been sheared clean off. Good. This was starting to shape up nicely.

Her next few strokes were gentle, more akin to taps, really. Being careless and really gung-ho was all right in the beginning, but this stage required a certain level of finesse. Around the rough, a great deal of fragments lied. More was left as she moved on to smaller tools: a lighter hammer and chisel. These were used to drill off the excess parts that refused to fall off with prior persuasion or of their own accord. Slowly, but surely, an uneven orb was formed from the rough.

WC: 578

[Elkeid]

The roughhewn orb was taken into her hands with care. Perhaps she thought it so fragile that it would shatter upon contact with the floor; or maybe she was just proud. Whatever the case, Elkeid had achieved one step. The ball was now ready to be really worked with. This was essentially the hardest step, and probably the most tedious thing she has done all night.

Lightly bouncing the gem in her hands, Elkeid moved to one of her ill-used tools: the grinder and wheel. It was for shaping gems and the like, though she had never had much use for it, until now. She sat down on the small stool, and propped the orb of sapphire against the wheel. It was a rather primitive method, one that proved itself to be reliable, but primitive all the same. In a world where technology was advanced, a machine could cut and shape this gem into a working product in less than ten minutes. Or so she guessed. Surely there was a way to render human jewelry makers largely inefficient.

Elkeid rolled the ball this way and that, watching as small, broken chips eroded away from the ball. It was very much like carving wood or clay, though obviously the sapphire was much harder. It refused to bend immediately to her will, and in her impatience, Elkeid caused it to become somewhat uneven. With a soft curse, the woman fought to spare the gem and worked on shaping it for another twenty minutes, until she was satisfied with the shape. Those smaller imperfections were stubborn, ne?

The feel, on the other hand… The feel of the ball was still a little rough around the edges. There was only so much shaping could do on its own. She would have to polish it now, but that fact was already anticipated.


WC: 307

[Elkeid]

This last step took place over the small sink in her simple kitchen. Nestled neatly in the drain was the crystal ball. In one hand, Elk held a bottle of olive oil. As strange as it seemed, the recipe listed olive oil as a great lubricant and means to detect more of the smaller imperfections. Elkeid carefully poured the oil onto the ball below, until it was thoroughly coated in the stuff. She then proceeded to pick it up, and rolled the slippery orb around in her hands until the bottom was coated as well as the top. There was something almost vulgar about this entire affair.

As expected, there were a few imperfections hiding beneath the oil. Elkeid got rid of these by running the orb through an even finer wheel. A second test had favorable results. She placed the orb back in the sink as she washed her hands, allowing the back wash to gentle douse it. A little water could not hurt, and she needed to wash off the oil, anyway. Once that was completed, she moved onto completing the crystal ball.

With some fine, moisture sandpaper, Elkeid rubbed the crystal ball down. If there were more imperfections, she found them and rubbed them out. Pretty soon, the blue of the sapphire was no longer dull in color; it was a perfect hue of deep blue, and promised to shine bright under light or after a good cleaning. It was darker near the center, but the edges gave the appearance of white smoke.

After removing the sandpaper, the woman cradled the newly fashioned Combat Crystal Ball in her hands. She closed her eyes as she envisioned mana being released from her cache. A steady stream of mana and magical energy entered the ball, causing the smoky white edges to stir. The more her mana depleted, the greater the speed of the smoke. Elkeid could feel the ball slowly charge up, until it was humming and vibrating with power in her hands. And then, it rose up and drifted half a meter above her head. The loss in mana was tiring, but by gum, she had done it.

WC: 360