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Energy Eater - Chapter 70 - Inside the Hut
🕑 Added 2024-12-23 07:45:00 +0000 UTC#### Author's note ####
This one was supossed to have come out in the morning. I messed up, sorry ><
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Since we were both inside the house, Astrid and I slept for the night. There was no need for anyone to be on the lookout for monsters or anything of the sort, especially since it was easy to barricade the entrances properly. It would be impossible for anyone to get inside without making a lot of noise.
We woke up close to sunrise, but it was too cold to start our travels again. The best idea would be to wait for a few hours until the sun could do its job and only then leave. That was not much of a problem. There was no pressing issue or anything pushing us to move fast. It was just like when I left Madison. This journey could be calm and relaxed.
That also meant a proper breakfast was on the table. There was still some of the bear meat in the bags, and with the fireplace in this house, it could be cooked. I took care of our meal while Astrid focused on finishing our cloaks. She had mentioned the embroidery before, but apparently, there was something else she had to do.
The edges of the hood were done. Inside it, there was a tiny trim of white fur she had already folded inwards and sewn in place. That way, the two different fabrics would not split during our travels. She had done the same to part of the cloak, but there were still some pieces near the shoulders that needed that final fold. The Frosted Lumberjack had all the materials she needed for that. Taking out thread and a needle from her bag, she started working on her own cloak.
The reason for that was simple: hers was in much worse shape than mine. She never said anything, and I never noticed, but it seemed like she focused on making a good piece of clothing for me, while hers was just a rough draft, so to speak.
Astrid worked very quickly. Even before I managed to get the fire going, she had already finished fixing her hood, which was only halfway done. Sure, I had to look for some wood to use for the fire, but I also had, quite literally, a skill to make fire, meaning the whole process took barely any time at all.
"Were you always that good at sewing?" I turned to my companion.
"Yes. And no. Was harder before."
"Before when?"
"System."
"Really? What changed?"
"Leather not hard. Finger doesn’t hurt."
"Huh, I guess that makes sense. I never really tried to sew anything, so I’m not entirely sure. Pops used to have a thing he put on his finger to help push the needle into the cloth without hurting."
Astrid nodded and stopped what she was doing. From her bag, she produced a small piece of metal shaped like a very tiny cup with numerous small circular indentations around it. "Thimble."
"Yeah, that’s it. Wouldn’t that be enough to make it easier?"
Astrid nodded. "Yes, but…" She placed the thimble over her thumb. The small metal piece was, well, too small. Instead of resting comfortably with her thumb inside it, only the edge of her thumb was covered.
"I see. And you never tried to fix that?"
"Never worked. Always big, or small."
"Well, I’m glad you don’t have to worry about that anymore," I said, turning back to the fire and starting to prepare our food. There wasn't much I could do, but it was at least better than what we had in the dungeon. The reason for that was simple: this time, we had brought some spices.
They were not as diverse as I would have hoped, but that made sense. They were not my spices. The people from Astrid’s village gave us a bit of salt and some ground herbs, basically. It seemed to be what they had available, which made sense considering the weather.
Still, the result was leagues away from the tasteless meat we had in the dungeon. It just took a bit longer to actually cook it. There were still some pieces of meat from the Ice Devil with us, but unlike the other meat, the ones taken from the giant creature were still cold to the touch. My assumption was that the ice properties of the creature were almost like a title. An evolution. Something that fundamentally changed the monster.
That explained why it could maintain a low temperature no matter where it was. The thing is, it was hard to tell how far that could go. Could it continue to be cold in a warmer area? Could it spoil even though it was frozen? There were too many questions surrounding that meat, and I wanted answers.
For now, all I could tell was that the Ice Devil meat was cold enough to cool off anything else we put in our bags. That was the reason cooking the other meat took so long. Almost an hour later, we were finally ready to eat.
By then, Astrid was finishing up the embroidery on the shoulder of her cloak. She had already fixed the edges on both, and now she was putting on the finishing touches.
I told her our food was ready, but she was so close to finishing that she decided not to start eating until she was done. I kept her meat by the fire—not close enough to continue cooking, but warm. But I wasn't going to wait to eat, though. It was early morning, and I was hungry.
While enjoying the meat, which was now properly prepared before cooking, I watched my companion work. The embroidery she was making was very similar to a coat of arms, but without the shield behind it. It was the image of a green pine tree in the background with a pair of axes crossed in front of it. One big and one small. Everything was almost done. All that was left was the final part of the grip of the larger axe.
"Is that you and your dad?" I asked after swallowing a piece of meat.
Astrid just nodded. She continued to work, and a few minutes later, the cloak was complete.
The moment she finished, there was a strange sensation coming from her work. It took me a moment to understand why that feeling was familiar. It was something close to what happened when I finished my new staff. But weaker, while at the same time being more intense.
Once that feeling passed, Astrid had a strange expression on her face. After a long pause, she smiled. "Neat."
"What?" I asked.
"Here." She passed the cloak to me and pointed to the meat near the fire. "Mine?"
"All yours. We have more if you want." My eyes were glued to the cloak. More specifically, to what the System was telling me about it.
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Pelt of Frost - Rank 1 (Fledgling)
The fur of the Ice Devil has a unique property capable of controlling its temperature to a certain degree. Said property allows anyone wearing this pelt to be comfortable even in somewhat harsh conditions.
The Right Temperature
Passive - Uncharged
Charge Required: 1 Energy
Duration: 24 Hours
It does not matter if the temperature increases or decreases, the Pelt of Frost will always help to make those wearing it comfortable.
Created by Astrid Ek
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"Oh, damn. This is amazing!" I gasped.
Astrid had a huge smile on her face. "I know," she answered, her mouth full of barbecue.
"Honestly, I was a bit disappointed when you brought those cloaks. Don't get me wrong, they look great and feel amazing, but I mean, come on—this is made from the Ice Devil. It’s a very rare material. Not getting any thing special out of it felt like a waste," I said, taking another bite of my meat.
"Felt upset too," Astrid added.
"Maybe you didn’t see this before because the cloak wasn’t finished? Could that be it? System?" I looked to the side. There was no one there, of course, but it was a good way for Astrid to know I wasn’t talking to her.
[User's assumption is correct. Special skills present on an item that is being crafted will only appear after said item is complete.]
"That makes sense. It’s hard to tell what an item will be before the item is actually complete. But what if you want to improve something? Like if I want to make my staff better or stronger, will I only be able to know what happened to it after I try something?"
I was doing something Astrid, and I had already discussed. Every time we talked to the System and asked questions about something neither of us knew, we would say everything out loud. That way, her System could also answer the questions I was asking.
[Enhancements and other types of improvements to an item behave differently. If User is aware of the requirements for said enhancement, the enhancement will be displayed to User by itself. If User is unaware of the requirements or the result of a specific enhancement, System will update User when possible about the current possibilities. Keep in mind that unknown enhancements are experimental by nature. Their very essence includes a chance of failure or unforeseen results.]
"Good enough. But it’s not like I know what I want to do to upgrade my staff." Turning back to Astrid, I asked, "Do you think you can make my cloak work like that too?"
"Don’t know. I’ll try," Astrid replied.
"Do you mind if I put it on? Just to test how it works? I’ll probably end up giving it the Energy it needs for today too."
"Sure," Astrid said, continuing to eat. She wasn’t wolfing down the food like we did a few days ago, but she was still eating pretty fast.
Not wanting to comment on her table manners, I put on her cloak. The first thing I noticed was that it was way too big for me. Even the hood was larger. Maybe I had a small head, or she had a big one. I didn’t know. Either way, there were a good 20 centimeters [7.8in] or so being dragged on the ground behind me. The pelt also felt heavy. Not that mine was much different, but the weight was a noticeable change.
I felt one of my points of Energy leave my body and rush into the cloak before vanishing from my senses completely. The particles related to it were no longer a part of me. It wasn’t like using a skill, where I could still sense the particles as they worked. It was closer to giving the System to someone else.
There was a pause where nothing happened, and then a gradual change began. My back started warming up while my front, facing the fire, grew colder. I approached the flames, and surprisingly, the cloak became colder still. It was clear there was some limitation, as even before I started to worry about letting the fur catch fire, I could already feel the intense heat coming from the fireplace. But if I put my arm out of the cloak, the sensation increased several times.
Walking away from the fire had a much better result. Even at the other edge of the house, where the heat could barely reach, I felt warm. It was still cold. There was no doubt about it. The air rushing into my lungs with every breath tried to freeze me from the inside. But the cloak was working, making sure I wouldn’t feel the weather with such intensity.
Walking back to Astrid, I took off her cloak and put mine back on. It didn’t have the same skill, so it wasn’t as comfortable, but it was only fair.
It didn’t take long for Astrid to finish her breakfast, but instead of heading out, she asked if she could try finishing my cloak. I accepted, of course, excited about the prospects of having something that worked like hers.
In about half an hour, she was done. This time, the coat of arms was a fist holding a staff vertically with a mountain in the background. Honestly, it was as good as anything else. I had never thought about a symbol to represent me, but the way she made it felt personal.
When she gave me the cloak, though, my focus went somewhere else. The notification window in front of me, and it was an exact copy of the notification I had seen for Astrid’s cloak.
With a smile on my face and the best all-weather piece of clothing I had ever owned covering me and my bag, we left the house and continued heading west, toward the closest city.
