Chapter 318: Flooring (Patreon)

Chapter 318: Flooring

Mercury walked along the edge of the pond, looking at the forest and distant mountain. It was funny to him, that whenever he felt a little sad, he’d just walk into a forest in the middle of nowhere. Today, too, he’d walk up the mountain. Right now he was just scouting out his destination.

There were a handful of streams and lakes on the mountain, and in addition to using his eyes, Mercury’s <Worldsense> swept over it. He ended up slightly spooking a handful of qi-sensitive critters, but the scare he gave them was still relatively minor. 

A half-dozen squirrels abandoned their tree-perches and skittered across the ground for a few seconds. A single owl was woken up and flew off into the forest. Sacrifices that he was willing to make for the sake of repairing Daryel and Itsu’s house. The animals would be fine in a little while. They didn’t feel the full horror of glimpsing him, after all. Just his sense, brushing by them.

He did find what he was looking for, too. Far up in the mountain, there were lakes that grew reeds. Good! He’d need some, after all. They needed to be long, durable stalks that he could dry into straw to mimic the flooring that much of the house had.

If he was trying to truly do things properly, he’d be purposefully making a field of the plants that went into the mats, but Mercury didn’t particularly feel that was needed. There were enough stalks in the forest and around its lakes. All he needed to do was walk there and pick them up.

So, that’s what he did. He took a backpack with him, since it felt right for an adventure like this. Well, it was more like saddlebags, really, a vest-style thing he’d quickly woven from fabric, and draped over his back to distribute the load. He didn’t need it, of course. His Raiment and his inventory had dimensional storage abilities. But still. 

Sometimes, you just had to play the part. Mercury, with a smile, hiked into the forest. He followed thin, underused paths that were maintained mostly by wild animals using them to cut through the forest more swiftly. He stepped where roots grew, holding the earth stable. Mercury stepped lightly and quietly through the forest.

The fresh air was, as always, good for him. He loved these places. The sun, filtering through the leaves. The ground, covered in bits of deadfall and dropping greenery, as well as thick underbrush. The way that he could smell other animals, and avoid their territories so as to not scare them too badly.

More than once, Mercury wrapped his Raiment tight around him and camouflaged himself. Not because he needed to, but because he wanted to avoid scaring some kind of mouse or other small critter. One fox crossed his path, with pale-orange fur, but swiftly moved along after giving him just one hiss.

Halfway up the mountain, he felt a shift in the magic to his left, and then underneath him. Mercury smiled faintly. “Hey Juno.”

From his shadow, a two-dimensional wolf-shape split off. “You found me,” she hissed faintly. “I was hoping to sneak by you.”

“You got closer than I thought!” Mercury praised her. His senses were his strongest attribute, so it was already impressive for her to sneak that close, even when he was inattentive and keeping his <Worldsense> restrained. “What brings you here?” he asked.

Juno smiled, and with her shadow-projection it looked rather creepy. “I should ask you as much. I walk these woods for fun.”

“I’m hiking to the lake to gather some grass for the house-restoration.”

“Do you need me to guard you?” 

Mercury laughed a little. “I don’t need you to. But if you wanna walk with me, be my guest,” he said, inviting the wolf along. There was no reply from the shadows, but Juno also didn’t leave, so he took that to mean she was happy to tag along. 

Of course, the route he took was by no means straight. Every few dozen steps, his <Herbalism> would ping him, and Mercury would dart off into the middle of nowhere to pick some interesting herb or flower, preserving them as best he could. He wrapped them in his Raiment, making sure they had adequate moisture and temperature to maintain their medicinal properties.

Additionally, it meant he had a bunch of flowers in his cloak, so who was he to complain. He looked fricken fabulous. And he could make some nice teas once he got back home. Or, well, not home. Back to the place they were staying.

Mercury smiled faintly as he walked through the underbrush. He wasn’t particularly amazing at alchemy yet, but making teas was kind of the first step into it. And he knew how to make a few poultices. Worst case, he could always experiment on himself - he doubted there were many poisons that would take him out these days.

With that in mind, Mercury also picked up a few flowers that Keiko had never pointed out to him, but that he thought looked interesting. It was a fun exercise, playing at being a botanist. Mercury really did find he could enjoy anything he threw himself into.

There was just something to be liked about most crafts. The pure act of making something. Maybe he’d get into sewing sometime, too. Weaving the floor mats in the house could be his gateway to making some fabric… He let that thought hang around as he walked further.

As he ascended the mountain, trees slowly got slightly more sparse. There was more sunlight shining through, especially as it approached midday. That was right around when Mercury crested the forest and made it to the pond.

There was greenery all the way to the edge of the water, and even cresting into it. A bit of gravel coated some of the shores, and faint waves stirred the surface of the water. It was beautiful. Long stalks of green sprouted from the other grasses, some of the bushels ending in small, pale-yellow flowers. 

The mopaaw happily walked up to the lakeshore, moving to cut some of the bushels with his claws and ghost-hands, when the water stirred. A gigantic, crocodilian head poked out of the placid water, followed by a long, snake-like body. The head was as big as Mercury by itself.

“I am Murakiyo, guardian spirit of this lake. You dare harvest the sacred plant?”

Mercury looked up at the dragon, watching its long whiskers droop into the water. Its horns were more similar to antlers than true horns. A lake-guardian dragon, then? He smiled. “Hi, yeah, I’m gonna repair a house.”

“Do you bring tribute?”

“Not yet. I can bring you some cake next visit?” 

The dragon shook its head disapprovingly. “If you bring no offering, there will be no next visit.”

It was a calm threat of extinction. Mercury’s eye twitched. He wasn’t in the martial world. He was on a remote fucking mountain. And still, and still, for the smallest, dumbest sleight, he was threatened with death. 

His <Veil> lifted. <Astral Advent> triggered. The entire conceptual weight of Mercury slammed down on the lakeshore. The faint breeze stopped. Birdsong went silent. In one moment to another, the world held its breath with anticipation.

“Go back underwater, snake,” Mercury growled.

The proud dragon opened its mouth, but only blood poured out. It had bitten its own tongue from fear. Its eyes shook, bleeding faintly as it tried to look upon Mercury. Passive pulses of qi, its <Worldsense>, brushed over his existence and curled up like a snail touching on salt. Mercury became noxious to behold.

“Yes, sir,” Murakiyo said demurely, and within ten seconds, the dragon of the lake disappeared back into its depths. 

Mercury swiftly reapplied his <Veil> and stopped his <Astral Advent>, stuffing his enormous conceptual mass back where it didn’t bother anyone. He hummed to himself as the birds sang again, and he went about harvesting the sacred reeds. 

[<Herbalism> has levelled up! <Herbalism lv. 1 -> 2>]

[<Force of the Hecatoncheires> has levelled up! <Force of the Hecatoncheires lv. 3 -> 4>]

Seeing that second notification surprised him a little. Mercury used his ghost hands rather liberally, and they were quite slow to level at all, especially since he had forced a special evolution for them. He’d never really driven the Skill to its limits - especially given his current mental faculties.

But, apparently, even without that he’d slowly accumulated enough mastery to push it up another level, placing those limits even higher. One of these days he’d just embrace it and start using more than a half-dozen hands at once. Just use a couple hundred. What could go wrong, after all?

Snickering softly, he stuffed his lil bags full of reeds, then stuffed many more of them into his inventory and various dimensional storages. It was nice, being out in the sun, doing simple harvesting work, and he felt the way that <Herbalism> delighted in it. It was all about making plants useful, after all.

When he was well and truly loaded up, Mercury adjusted the weight on his back with a roll of his shoulder, and began the trip back down the mountain. Of course, he picked a different path this time, grabbing a few more herbs and flowers along the way.

- - -

“You’re a walking bouquet, love,” Zyl helpfully informed him. 

“Well, how else were you gonna get adequate colours for painting, hm? I even found some minerals at the lakeshore. I could start a mine and get you some lapis-lazuli blue, but-”

Zyl instantly brightened. “The flowers look lovely, Mercury.”

“That’s what I thought,” the mopaaw said with a grin. “I also brought, well, this.”

Unceremoniously, Mercury dropped roughly two tons of stalks and reeds onto the ground in front of Zyl. It flooded out of his Raiment without pause, multiple bundles leaving his inventory in bursts of heavy plantmatter. They were soaked and still supremely wet, so by the time they were dried, they’d weigh less than half that. Still, it was funny seeing the dragon’s expression.

“Oh, wonderful,” Zyl said. “I haven’t had something nice to lift in ages. Where do you want them?” He smiled brightly, dusting off his hands and quickly approaching the massive bundle. Mercury wrapped all the reeds together with a quick application of <Carve>. It was odd, but the cutting Skill did contain <Thread>, so it was perfectly capable of spooling some magical material.

Pointing to his workstation, Mercury politely requested Zyl place it there. With a swift step and a small “hup” of effort, the dragon lifted the bundle of straw. It was three times as tall as him and far wider, too, but he didn’t even bend under the strain, instead easily carrying it in his hands.

When all the grass was deposited in the right spot, Mercury sorted it into smaller bushels with his hands, and spread them out flat on the floor. Higher surface area meant faster drying, after all, so spreading it out was the most efficient way to get them to dry out naturally. 

Of course, Mercury helped the drying out along with <Magic>. With the Storm’s Raiment’s ability of absorbing water, and his reality manipulation, he was able to vastly speed it up - but he still maintained it at a somewhat reasonable pace, drying them over the course of a few hours rather than a few minutes.

Drying them too quickly would make the stalks brittle, after all. And he needed them just wet enough to be flexible, so he could weave them. Then, he’d need to weave some thinner fabric to cover the mats, and even something thicker to stitch the edges.

Thinking of all the ways he could do it was fun. While he was drying out the stalks, he also set about sorting his medicinal herbs. He looked upon all of them, trying to first identify their qualities by smell and sight, then tasting bits and pieces of them, before reading up on them in herbalism books.

Piercing deeper with his special senses came last. Only after exhausting more mundane means did he delve into the leaves and flowers with his <Worldsense>, or check their auras thoroughly. Eventually, he even trigger <Unravel> and <Seeker of Secrets> - both passively boosted by his unmanifested crown - to catch more glimpses of the herbs’ properties.

And, for the singular root where that wasn’t enough, he attempted a first partial manifestation of his crown - and promptly blew his head apart. Calling upon only a part of the unruly Skill was difficult, and he had a long way to go, but Mercury had a tough mind. After blowing himself up, he did still get the information about the herb. It just sucked, though.

Still, he understood its properties. The root was more complex since it had a blend of elemental affinities, and could be prepared in many ways to highlight those. Each preparation would jumpstart one element, which would then feed into a cycle. For example, firing the root in a crucible would heighten its fire affinity.

This would then cycle through the elements - enhancing its earth energy a step by siphoning the fire, then metal by siphoning earth. Metal then fed water and water fed wood - ultimately, firing the root in a crucible would bring out its wood-elemental properties much more strongly.

Which was a little hard to spot at first, since the qi-formations inside it were rather complex. Mercury smiled, as his snout reformed. It was a fun sort of herb, one that could be brewed into very element-specific cultivation enhancements. Those weren’t necessarily the kind he had the most use for, since his techniques were largely unaspected, but it was rather fun.

And, hey, Ruvah would probably love a water-focused treatment. For that, he’d need to highlight the root’s wood affinity, first. Probably by soaking it in herbal paste prepared from other plants with strong wood-affinities. He put that on the backburner, and focused on the now-dried straw.

[<Herbalism> has levelled up! <Herbalism lv. 2 -> 3>]

Amusingly, the Skill that helped him bundle, weave, and manipulate the straw was <Carve>. That’s where his <Thread> Skill had gone, after all, and it was one of the expressions of his rather high weaving-affinity these days. Of course, there was a significant portion that could be attributed to <Dreamweave>, too.

Regardless of where it came from, Mercury was able to use his hundred ghost hands and split mind to rather quickly split some of the reeds to make twine, then tie them together into bundles and pack those. For the surface of the mats, he could have used something thinner or softer, but instead split the strands in half and then wove the wider, flatter piece into a surface.

Only for the corners did he need to use fabric, really. The straw didn’t like to bend that strongly, so it might have cracked or somesuch had he tried to make those from it, too. Now, he didn’t have fabric, exactly, so he needed another alternative. Which landed him right back at mana.

<Thread> had let him spin his mana into something a little like silk. By now, that part of the Skill was a little vestigial - it worked, still, and it even still grew, but it was no longer its main focus. Which was a bit of a shame, now that Mercury really did need to produce it.

But that was nothing his <Shop> couldn’t solve. A long-neglected Skill, that one, but Mercury had plenty of money stocked up. So, he took a quick gander, then decided to delegate. “Appy, does the shop have a guidebook on mana-based threadspooling?”

[Affirmative. Price: 5000 Gold.]

That was rather expensive, but he did also have money to burn, so he just shrugged. “Buy it for me, please.”

[Affirmative.]

A moment later, the booklet dropped down on the floor in front of him. It was a lot bigger than the last little guide on runes he’d bought, and also thicker. The cover was still blank, and the spine was made from… mana. Huh. Seems that the author put their own words in practice.

It only took half a minute for Mercury to notice that the entire book was made from mana. The paper, the letters and ink, the spine, the threads binding the pages to the spine. All of them were made predominantly from mana.

Just investigating the book itself was an interesting experience in understanding the strange, magical substance’s properties. Mana was great at making and holding shapes, apparently. Stamina  was far better at inducing motion, generally, unless it was aspected mana. And vitality often didn’t last long for crafting, but did a better job at rejuvenating living things.

Healing could be vitality-based, for example. The resources could also be converted into each other.

All that was part of just the first chapter. “The basics of the active-resource trio and their applications.” Smiling softly, Mercury flipped further ahead, where the booklet listed dozens of possible evolutions of simpler mana-regeneration Skills. Apparently, his <Crystallization> was reasonably rare, but there were others, too.

The single most interesting evolution the author had ever seen was labelled <Manifestation>, and allowed instant conversion of mana from an individual’s core into whatever distinct shapes were envisioned. This also allowed for perfectly smooth control over the phase of the mana, and imbued it with whatever properties the user imagined.

Of course, that freedom came with slight limitations in depth, but nothing that a handful extra levels in the Skill couldn’t fix. The issue was the mental toll - its user was limited to rather small-scale manifestations, since anything too big proved too demanding.

Mercury, of course, didn’t need to make a castle from mana. What he really needed was just to spool a whole lot of thread. So, after a bit of browsing, that is the chapter he headed to, and began to read.

His own <Thread> was a solid start, but it was impermanent. In fact, anything constructed from mana would eventually fade, as the environment would wear away at its imprint. Of course, all materials suffered from entropy, so there was a tipping point where a mana-alternative decayed slower than a regular one.

It was funny to think about that. Manifested mana was a synthetic material, not unlike plastic. Except that it generally decayed faster. Its best attribute was the ease with which its degradation could be sped up. Breaking mana down manually, when it was a simple object, was easy.

Had Mercury wanted to break the book, he could have torn the mana apart into particles within seconds. But without that sort of mental interaction, it was a physically rather sturdy material. Smiling softly, Mercury absorbed the information.

To make string from mana, he had to make an elastic, interlocking lattice. Ideally, it would be something like a mana-polymer. Essentially, creating tiny, rigid things that could attach to each other in a way that was hard to undo.

Ropes were really just chains, except that the chainlinks were molecules or atoms, after all. So, if he could make his mana-links small enough, they’d essentially go from rigid to flexible. How fun. He also needed to make sure they stayed attached to each other, though, and didn’t untangle easily.

With a bright smile on his face, Mercury set to work.