Demon's Virtue
Chapter 89: Preparations

After placing the staff into the bath of Magically Created water, Eiro looked at the other pieces of wood and then slightly sighed. These also had to be treated for a couple of days after being finished, so it might be a good idea to get them done first before making his way to Town to get the Forest-Spider Silk from Tom to use as bowstring for Sammy's bow.

In the end, since they were training weapons, it was mostly important to get the shape right, and that wasn't that big a deal, really. They wouldn't be sharp enough to actually hurt anyone either, so they didn't need a sharp edge, but should simply have the rough shape.

So, Eiro first got started with the Swords for Arc. First came the longer version that seemed to have to be held with two hands, and then the shorter, one-handed version. Both of them would only have the blades made out of Ovoya, while the handles would be more regular wood that was better for handles.

They were both rather thin and long, and their back was slightly curved… Eiro could see how that would be good for Speed-Based combat.

Since the shapes of the blades were rather straightforward, it didn't take too long for Eiro to finish the Ovoya, the only annoying part was that he had to be careful with the shavings. It would be annoying if bits and pieces of it were left and one of the Kids ended up stepping into it. Eiro himself didn't mind the touch of the wood, even if now he did also feel some of the innate heat it gave off, but others might not react all that well to it, so Eiro wanted to be as careful as possible.

After the blades were both finished, Eiro hung them up onto a stick by the round part that the handle would be attached to later and then started placed the stick onto the edges of a tub that Eiro filled with the treatment solution he mixed together just for this.

They had roughly five different kinds of solutions they used regularly, and apparently this one was meant to go with the one that was supposed to give general strength to the blade. The blades would have to sit in there for 36 Hours and then spend another 12 Hours inside of direct flames to be finished. He should be able to get to town and back pretty easily within 36 hours, luckily, so he could spend the rest of the time finishing up Rudy's Shield and Sammy's bow.

He already had a pretty good base wood for the bow, but he couldn't properly make it without the bowstring, because he needed to test and adjust the bow's flexibility as he was going along, and he couldn't do that without the right bowstring.

And for now, he could make the parts for Rudy's Shield, but he couldn't fully assemble it yet, because the Kavin was still a little too flexible. He had to attach it to the strong, stiff base wood and then have the pieces take in another treatment solution as well before assembling it.

That was a little annoying, but it was fine. It wouldn't take too long to make all of the parts anyway, considering how the Shield was made up and mainly required straight planks for most areas.

It took Eiro a couple of hours to cut everything into the right shape, and then quickly glued the Kavin and Base planks together. The Glue would take a little while to dry… but he wanted to get going to town as early as quickly as he could to catch everyone while they were actually awake, so he might have to ask one of the kids to put it into the solution in a couple of hours.

In the end, Eiro was sure that it would work out. The only troublesome part was those three… Krog, Jess, and… James. Were they still in town? Eiro let them leave without killing them last time because Jura said he shouldn't, and he didn't want to defy him in his last moments. But if he saw them again, then he wouldn't be so kind to them. It seemed like the only reason they were there was to find the Prosthetist to make an Arm for James… Hopefully they understood what was going on and left again.

With such thoughts, Eiro left the hut and made his way to the House's front door, quickly turning toward Rudy, who the Demon heard to be in the far left corner of the room at the moment.

"Rudy?" Eiro asked with a loud and clear voice, and the boy stepped forward from behind the small curtain hanging there. "Yeah?" He asked, so Eiro quickly explained what he wanted Rudy's help for and then brought him to the adjacent room to just show it to him.

"So I just need to place those planks into that tub? That's all?" Rudy asked, so Eiro nodded his head in response. "Yes, that is all. I'll be off to town to get something, so make sure everyone is fed properly as well, okay?" The Demon asked, and Rudy nodded his head, still looking down at the wood.

"I will, don't worry. But do I, like, need to get it out of the solution as well? Or do I just put it in and that's it?" Rudy asked, so Eiro just lightly smiled in response. "Just put it in there once the glue is dry, and that's it. It needs to sit in there for more than a day, and I'm definitely going to be back by the time it needs to be taken out." Eiro reassured, so Rudy slowly nodded his head and then looked at the door as if he remembered something while the two of them were on their way outside.

"Oh, right!" Rudy exclaimed, and then quickly rushed over to the front door, getting back out a couple of minutes later with a closed wooden box, handing it to the Demon, who figured out what it was with just a single sniff.

"Hmm, some food for the trip?" Eiro asked, so the boy nodded his head in response. "Yeah, I figured you'd be hungry… And I want you to take care of yourself, you're the only one we have left now…" Rudy pointed out as he turned his face away, so Eiro just smiled at him. "Thank you, I'll eat it when I get hungry."

"Good! Then come in and say bye to the others before leaving, alright?" Rudy asked, and Eiro then did just that before coming back outside and calling Lugo to ride him to town.

And just a little while after they left, Eiro turned over toward the side, where he saw Nelli floating in the inbetween-space.

"You said you were 300 years old?" The Demon asked, and surprised, the Spirit looked at him with a nod. "Yeah, what are you on about?" She inquired suspiciously, and Eiro replied with a clear voice, "Well, that means you must have met a lot of people. And a lot of different people as well." Eiro added, so Nelli once more nodded her head.

"Mhm, I have. I'm a 'Contract-Dweller', as other Spirits would call me… I prefer being around others and traveling instead of being stuck in place, so I've had a lot of contracts. The one with Jura was the longest so far, though." She explained, so Eiro looked up at her with a slight frown.

"I have read a little about it before, but I haven't read one specificially speaking about all sorts of species… But…" Eiro said quietly, unsure of how he should word this properly. "Alright, so… Since I got the card and my sense of smell increased, I started noticing a very specific type of smell in the kids. For Arc, Clementine, Sammy and Avalin it's the same, even if there are minor differences… But for both Rudy and Leon, that smell is very different. It might be something their Unique Skills do, but it doesn't feel that way… I'm still trying to figure out the whole 'Magic Smell' thing that Jura's been going on about, but I'm sure that this definitely isn't that. It's more raw, like it's the smell of what they are. Do you get that?" Eiro asked Nelli, and the Naiad slowly closed her eyes in thought.

"Well, Jura didn't use his smell for that so often, because he could figure out what a person looked like with his ears, but I'm sure that he could figure out things like a person's race through their scent? Maybe Rudy and Leon aren't fully human?" Nelli suggested, so Eiro just nodded his head in response.

"Alright… I was thinking something similar… I wanted to figure out if maybe Rudy and Leon were completely different races, and if you had an idea what they could be, but that could also be the case." Eiro figured, and the Naiad floating next to him just shrugged. "We're about to enter a town filled with people that are partially monsters, so I'm sure you should be able to figure something out then." Nelli pointed out, before thinking about that again, "By the way, do you think you're going to be alright? What if you're too overwhelmed in town?"

Slowly, Eiro shook his head in response to that question. "I already thought about that. In a year, we'll have to start travelling, and we can't always avoid towns then. There will be a lot of different new things to perceive around us in general. So a town that I already know might be good practice for that. And I can't just not go there for a year, so I'll have to face that sooner or later anyway."

"Fair enough…" Nelli replied quietly, while Eiro took out a small book out of his treasury, and Nelli looked down at it curiously. "What are you reading?" She asked, so Eiro just quickly closed it for a moment to show her the cover.

"One of the few books about Geography we have. I want to be prepared properly, so I want to know the best paths, areas to avoid, and areas that might be useful to us. There isn't much information in here, because Geography isn't the main topic, but it's better than nothing."

"You didn't read anything about Geography yet?" Nelli asked surprised, and Eiro just shook his head. "It just wasn't really that important, since I didn't leave this forest for six years except to go to town. And even that technically is still in the same forest."

"Gotcha…" The Naiad sighed, before Eiro just smirked and flipped the book open again, and then quickly continued to read.

The rest of the trip to town continued relatively silently, with Eiro just stopping to read a few times when he ended up noticing something unusual, although it usually just ended up being a bird, rabbit, or squirrel. Although soon enough, he did also hear the town in the distance, despite it still being a fair distance away.

"How bothersome…" Eiro muttered quietly as he pushed the book back into the invisible shelf he kept his books in his treasury in, causing the leatherbound-book to disappear into thin air.

"What is?" Nelli asked surprised, and Eiro just pointed forward. "I can already hear the town… You might be right, it could take a lot out of me to handle all that." The Imp explained, but Nelli just smirked at him and shook her head.

"Don't worry, I'll be there to cover your ears and nose again if it's too much. Your eyes are basically fine now, after all."

"Thank you, I appreciate it. Let's still try to get in and out quickly, alright?" Eiro suggested, before Nelli slowly nodded her head in response.

"Sounds good to me." The Spirit said, and Eiro nodded his head and braced himself for what was about to come.