Let's Make Something (1)
I got information on the beastman from the Saintess.
Name: Liyo. No family name.
Assigned to the Sacred Engineering Unit, rank of Sergeant.
An engineer, plain and simple — though a highly elite one.
"The Sacred Engineering Unit only takes those who've received the Goddess of Crafting's blessing, right?"
"That's right. And they say the beastman ratio runs high."
There's an old saying that always clings to beastmen.
"Beastmen mean crafting, and crafting means beastmen."
"And a fox beastgirl at that — her handiwork must be extraordinary."
Foxes are highly intelligent, with exceptional eyesight and hearing on top of it. Their eyes catch fabric defects at a glance; their ears can gauge carbon content from the sound of iron being forged alone.
This fox would be no different.
Knowing how to build things is a critically valuable skill for surviving in the wild. I still had my reservations about beastmen, but their animal instincts would be useful.
At the very least, I should deal with her without prejudice.
"Check this out."
The engineer pulled out a compact toolbox and held it up.
"You have any idea how hard it was swimming with this thing strapped on?"
Screwdrivers, wrenches, a compass, a small caliper — plenty of useful gear.
"Looks heavy."
"And she swam all that way hauling it."
"Must mean a lot to her. I've heard some beastmen revere their tools like idols of the goddess. Could be that."
"Idol worship, you mean. Does the Holy Spirit Church allow that?"
"Totemism is part of beastman indigenous culture — what are they going to do about it? As long as it doesn't go too far, the Church apparently looks the other way."
That wasn't all the beastman engineer had to show.
Axes.
Two of them, no less.
Not large ones — hand axes, just the right size for felling small trees.
She bounced over on light feet and jabbed the axe handle into my side.
"You try anything weird with Black Cat or the Saintess and I'll chop you with this. Got it?"
Hostile tone, just as expected.
I couldn't afford to let my guard down just because her rank was low. She wore a human face for now, but there was no telling when raw animal instinct might break through.
In other words, I needed to be careful whenever we were alone.
"Watch yourself."
I would.
"Aaaagh!"
My arm throbbed. It burned like fire.
"How dare you step on my tail?"
The engineer was seething.
Here was how it happened.
During our scouting, we came across a narrow footpath hemmed in by trees. Only one person could pass at a time, so the engineer took the lead with her axe.
I followed right behind her — and her tail was so long that I accidentally stepped on it.
The result: a bite wound on my left shoulder.
It hurt so badly my vision swam.
"You piece of dog sh—!"
"I'm not a dog? I'm a fox?"
What the hell had the Saintess been teaching her? Was that a macro response?
"How dare you step on a fox's most precious tail! You're not even going to be my husband — keep your hands off!"
"Who stepped on it on purpose?!"
I gradually eased the grip on my shoulder. A little blood was seeping out.
"Good lord. She bit down pretty hard."
"We're not going to catch rabies, are we?"
"Don't say unlucky things."
The engineer drew her hand axe and dropped into a defensive stance.
Ah, damn it. How was I supposed to talk my way out of this? Unlike the Saintess, this one wasn't exactly open to conversation.
Whether for better or worse, the standoff between me and the beastman didn't last long.
Rrrrumble.
The tree standing directly behind her tore free of its roots and rose to its full height.
"Huh?"
Something was wrong.
A mouth and nose jutted from the trunk. The branches were shaped unnervingly like human limbs. It was nothing like the surrounding trees.
A monster.
The tree-beast that had sprung its ambush out of nowhere lashed a vine like a whip.
"Whoa!"
The engineer dodged in a flash. Animal instincts never lie — even caught by surprise, she moved more nimbly than I did.
"Merfolk, ghosts, and now trees."
As always, I drew a Chamcheongseok.
The stones whistled through the air and called down beams of light. One into the trunk. One into a branch. Both clean hits.
But it wasn't enough.
Chamcheongseok was a magic stone specialized for penetration — excellent for piercing an animal's vital points, but plants were another matter entirely. A hit or two wasn't going to bring this thing down.
Rrrrumble-crack!
The tree monster didn't stop. It flung another vine. The sound of it cutting the air sent a chill down my spine.
"Yaaah! What is this?! How dare a piece of lumber attack us?!"
I thought as I dodged the vines.
Penetration-type magic stones weren't working. I had no idea where the weak point was. Setting it on fire was an option, but if that started a forest fire, the engineer and I would be the ones cut off.
That left one approach.
Neutralize its attacks, then chop through the base.
"Hey, beastman!"
Her ears pricked up.
"Axe!"
"What?"
"Give me an axe! The axe!"
The blank look on her face shifted to sudden understanding. She pulled out one of the hand axes, tossed it over, and sprang clear again.
I gauged the tree's diameter.
Not thin by any means. Still, if we hacked at it from both sides, it was thick enough to fell.
The engineer had to know that too.
Fortunately, three months spent among the Valkyries had given me a working grasp of Holy Kingdom military hand signals. Ordinary conversation might be rough, but in combat we could coordinate well enough.
I signaled her immediately. She gripped her hand axe and sprinted to the opposite side.
Thwack!
One cut landed in an instant. The monster's attention swung toward the beastman. While it attacked her, I charged in and struck the other side.
Crack!
The blade bit in sharp and clean.
Looking closer, I realized Sephiron was worked into it.
"Dealing more physical damage than the swing force alone would suggest. Excellent."
"If it holds Sephiron, that means it can be converted with Mana too. Erihi, aren't you the expert on this theory? Give it a try."
I was going to do that even without the backseat coaching, Senior Kalon.
I poured magic power into the axe blade.
"The speaker is channeling Mana into a Sephiron-bearing object to trigger a Mana-Sephiron neutralization reaction."
"That'll produce Ekirel — usable by both mages and Holy Spirit faithful."
"Empty out the Ekirel and fill it with pure Mana, and you get a combat axe capable of casting magic. The Magic Kingdom calls things like that military artifacts."
"The most famous Magic Kingdom military artifacts include the Seven Blades' 'Quelling Blade' — every one of them devastatingly powerful."
"Question: select the choice that does not fit the current topic."
"Both of you, shut up for a second! Ugh!"
I barely blocked a vine and landed another blow. This time properly — with Whieon attached.
"Swing."
⟨ Whieon ⟩
Crack!
The tree, already reeling from several axe blows, toppled completely. Because I'd infused it with Mana, the destructive force resonated through the entire trunk — from roots to leaves.
Boom!
The tree finally went down.
"Haha! Be a good little pile of firewood!"
The engineer hopped up and planted her feet on the fallen trunk.
If this had been an ordinary fight against a monster and a clean win, I would have left it at that.
The problem was that our clothes had all gotten soaked, so both the fox engineer and I were covering only the essentials with hastily improvised grass skirts.
"Eh."
The moment I saw her skirt start to slip free, I turned my back.
Beast ears and a tail or not, her body itself was essentially human. Basic courtesy.
Rustling sounds came from behind me — then another presence made itself felt.
"What an interesting mage."
A woman's voice.
I spun around at once.
"Huh?"
The engineer, having pulled her skirt back up, was tilting her head.
What was that just now? A hallucination?
"I had my doubts, but the Saintess was right — there really are monsters here. This is definitely no ordinary island. Screw up and we're done for."
The hostility from the stepped-on tail seemed to have faded.
Or she'd simply forgotten. The latter looked more likely.
The engineer and I finished scouting and gathered fruit and insects. The Saintess would sort out which fruit was edible once we brought it back; the insects were for fishing bait, or emergency rations if it came to that.
Beyond that, we collected a bit of firewood and some stones usable as magic stones. The soil composition here differed from the previous island — igneous rock was common.
Igneous rock.
The general term for stone formed from cooled magma.
After extensive research, mages had discovered a method of reversing the age of igneous rock, advancing far enough to command not only fire but lava itself.
If I combined these materials well, I might be able to craft something that would keep the Valkyrie warm without a campfire. Or find a way to neutralize tree monsters without setting anything ablaze.
Plenty to work on.
Before the sun went down, the beastman and I returned to base.
We ate a meager dinner and set the watch rotation. Since the Valkyrie said she wasn't feeling right, only the engineer, the Saintess, and I would take turns standing guard through the night.
A full moon hung in the ceiling of the sky.
"Awoooo—!"
Give me a break.
Reservations about beastmen aside, my eyes kept drifting to the engineer. She'd been building something nonstop since early evening.
"Let's make something~ Let's make something!"
She combined wood and leaves this way and that, and in no time at all she'd finished a hammock.
She climbed into it and rocked her body.
In the dark, her ears and tail swayed gently. Her irises caught the moonlight and glittered like pearls.
"I'll sleep here. Saintess, Black Cat — you two take the life raft and rest easy."
She'd set up her own bed in less than half a day.
Remarkable.
I'd figured a beastman would just curl up on the ground.
She hopped down and stuck her face right in mine.
"So, mage — what were you making?"
The sudden lack of personal space caught me off guard.
No — the distance was still there. Plenty of it. It was just that her curiosity hit hard enough to cancel it out and then some.
"Fox beastmen are as fickle as they are cunning. One moment they feel distant, the next they're sidling up like old friends. Happens more often than you'd think."
So what — body of a dog, mind of a cat?
"Mage? I asked what you were making."
Her eyes sparkled. She really wanted to know.
Well, everyone knew beastmen were obsessed with crafting.
I answered flatly.
"A stone bed."