HC: Pacifist | Ch. 240 - Contact! (Patreon)

The creature that the Lord of the Acorn saw through the eyes of the surviving West Squad members was brown and slender. Its long arching legs elevated its freakishly tall and narrow body high into the heavens, where a triangular head with large eyes fed on their dying comrade. 

The forelegs sporting large scythes were being used to cut into the keratin shell of the trapped worker. The Lord of the Acorn looked into its instinctual memory and compared its records with the monstrous creature hunting in their backyard. It was a praying mantis, a juvenile.

The Lord of the Acorn studied the fearsome predator through the eyes of the surviving three workers. Even though it packed a lot of delicious protein, more than nineteen workers might be needed to overwhelm this fearsome adversary. It was busy now killing and feeding on their comrade, so it was unlikely to cause trouble for the rest of the foraging party.

The creature had been immobile and ambushed one of the scouts of the west squad before she could ever see it coming. The loss of a worker was regretful, true. For a treeant’s life to be cut short this soon before she could contribute to the growth of the colony was a sad tale. But it was no time for mourning. She was but a small piece of their grand colony and she had bought precious time with her valiant death.

“Mark” was the last request the Lord gave the dying worker. She could at least leave a mark on this enemy so that the next squad that came along might have the chance to see it coming. The pheromone would eventually wear off, but that was the best that the Lord could do for now.

The foraging party was racing against the clock. The death of this worker had caused a deficit, which they would have to make up with more food for the colony. Praying mantises were voracious creatures, but they seldom chased after prey. It would probably leave them alone if they circumvented the monster’s hunting ground.

The Lord decisively commanded only one of the party’s members to stay behind and watch for the monster. The lord had to know in case it was still hungry enough to chase the rest of the workers back to the colony. In the worst-case scenario, the Lord would just offer one more worker as a sacrifice to keep the predator away from their castle.

The other resources were allocated and distributed. The workers rushed to find as much food as possible before the monster finished its meal. By the time the juvenile praying mantis was almost done eating, the rest of the foragers had secured 18 grass and four dandelion seeds. 

“Retreat,” came the final command from the Lord of the Acorn. Even as the praying mantis finished the last pieces of the deceased ant, its eyes were already locked on the one worker the Lord had ordered to remain behind. He had the scout go north, and once he was sure she wasn’t being followed, he had her retreat into the tunnel. As soon as she entered the castle, the other workers closed the gate.

They had taken a casualty today, but tomorrow was another day. They would have their revenge soon.

*

It was time to test whether the greaves made from layered leather were thick enough to hold a light trap. Roth activated the laser, draining his energy bar. The white beam of light burned the greave, digging inward. He kept the laser turned on until the point in the pattern shifted from red to yellow and paused. Feeling his mouth dry and his heart racing, he gulped and shot the laser in discrete bursts. He wanted to avoid perforating a hole in the material. As the laser pierced the second layer of leather and reached the third, the light became lime green. 

“Almost there,” he said through clenched teeth. He pushed the button a few more times until the light finished shifting to green. He took a deep breath. What a relief. He was able to get the needed depth. The laser had stopped before getting to the fourth layer. Only by gluing hides together and then stacking the pieces of leather one against the other was he able to create the depth he needed.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, he started working on the next spot. It was precise, tedious work that required a steady hand. By the time Roth reached the next vertice in the triangle, he realized that he still had a long way to go before he reached Master Bergelmir’s level. While Bergelmir had carved beautiful, elegant lines, Roth was essentially digging a wonky series of back-to-back holes. It almost looked like the holes in a flute! 

Some clumsiness and awkwardness were to be expected. After all, this was his first time working with a laser in this way. He would perfect his technique later. The important thing was to make the first trap and then work his way up from there. He already had some ideas on how to fix this. He continued on to the next line of the triangle. Overall, it took him just as much time to dig the rough triangle shape as it had taken him to craft the pair of greaves. 

Finally, Roth finished carving the shape in the greave. In an effort to smooth out the lines, Roth swept over the pattern with a brief pass of the laser. The lines became a little smoother, but not much. If he overdid it, he risked piercing the leather, so he stopped. 

Using this technique of only activating the laser over one point at a time made the shape clunky. He had to make the trap in one slow, fluid motion for it to look more like Bergelmir’s work. That would be the only way to make it have a more elegant sense of continuity. Now that he had dug the channels in the leather, it was time to position the mirrors. Roth reached for the glue gun. 

Roth worked with silicone and hot glue guns in the carpentry workshop in prison. It didn't take him long to figure out how to open the cartridge to fill it with sand. The sand was a plentiful resource, especially here in the Grand Canyon. It was a byproduct of work carried out by masons and miners. 

There were as many different kinds of sand as there were rocks, and the auction house had dozens of different types of sand for sale. Out of curiosity, when he last visited the auction house, he had looked for time sand, the same kind that Nakia had filled the wooden berlocks of his jewelry with. He hadn’t found even one listing on the auction house of Sapphira. It had to be extremely valuable. 

Since Roth was still experimenting he decided to buy cheap sand to begin with. 

Canyon Sand (Common)

Description: As the wind and rain carved out the canyon, the hard rock was eroded into thin sand. 

It was sand the same color as the rock in which Sapphira was dug. He carefully loaded the cartridge of the glass gun with the sand and locked it. Bergelmir’s glass gun was similar to glue guns he had used with one difference. There was a dial and a small protruding screen.

Roth turned on the gun, and the screen came to life. It displayed a semicircle. Roth tried rotating the dial, which caused the shape on the screen to also rotate. He also heard a mechanical noise coming from the gun whenever he touched the dial. Looking at the gun's nozzle, he saw a shape like that on the screen. It was turning together with the dial. 

“If my guess is right, the straight surface is the mirror. If I make the curve face the light, the light will bounce at weird angles.” Roth carefully positioned the glass gun over the greave and turned the dial. Once he was sure that the vertices of the triangle met the line at the right angle, he pulled the trigger on the gun and waited

The gun began glowing bright red and heating up considerably. Roth could see his energy bar decrease quickly as his internal energy was channeled toward the gun and used to melt the sand. Whereas a regular gun immediately shot a bullet when one pulled the trigger, here, he had to keep his hand motionless while he waited for the gun to shoot out the little bead of reflective glass. 

The machine finished just as his energy bar was about to run dry. Lifting it, he found the first semicircular bead of glass positioned at the right spot in the triangle. His energy bar was recovering at a sluggish rate. He could tell that a big part of light trapping would be waiting for it to fill. It was probably time to get the right form for the job. 

Badger Form!

Instantly, his energy bar shot up, and his energy recovery rate sped up considerably. With this, he didn't have to wait anymore. It's a good thing that he had the flexibility to switch between zoomorph forms. This helped him adapt quickly to any unforeseen situation. 

Maybe as a side effect of his intelligence and massive energy bar, Roth could see that the glass gun heated up and shot the bead of glass out quicker. On the other hand, because of the lower dexterity, it felt slightly harder to keep a steady hand. 

Roth held his wrist with his other hand and placed both elbows on the table to ensure he kept his hands steady. He entered the rotation of the dial and carefully placed the last bead of glass. 

He admired his work. There were three black, scorched, rough lines in the leather, adorned with three shiny beads of glass in each corner. All that was left was to seal the trap and light it up. It was time to use the vacuum maker machine. 

Vacuum maker (Common)

This machine applies an adhesive over an engraving and sucks the air out of it, creating a vacuum. This machine is broken and needs to be fixed to regain some of its functionality.

Effects:

Can seal light traps level 10 or lower.

It's too bad he was so far from Hilsford and Mario. The alligator cyborg would have probably been able to fix this for him. He had to figure out how he would repair this thing soon. He would leave it for after he reached level 10 in the profession. The vacuum maker had a long tripod, which could be adjusted and fixed. He carefully set it over the greave so the machine could be right over the pattern. Then, he found the button and turned it on.

He instantly lost 50 energy points, and the machine came to life. There was the sound of a pump and hissing air.

Time until seal completes: 30 minutes. 

Roth didn’t know how the machine worked, but he was glad the system would do it for him. The 30-minute interval left Roth in a sour mood. Once he tried to streamline the process, every time limitation would limit him. 

Roth worked on the other greave while the machine finished making the seal. This time, since he knew that the thickness of the leather was enough, he used the laser more confidently. The capability to make a fluid motion was still beyond him, though. Even so, the shape looked less perforated than the first one. 

He loaded the cartridge with another stack of canyon sand and carefully placed the beads. Although it wasn't difficult work, it was easy to mess up. As the traps became more complex, he was sure that the seemingly simple processes would become increasingly difficult. 

When he finished carving the second light trap, the vacuum maker still had 15 minutes to go. He decided to go talk to Keith about the supplies in his workstation. He found the tailor still busy around the mannequins. In the short time he had started working in his private space, a few more of them were fully dressed. 

“Nature's weaver, how can I help you?”

“Listen, I used this jar of glue that was in the supplies,” he said, holding up the jar with pine glue. 

“Feel free to use anything you want. The consumables do have a restocking fee.”

“How much is it?” 

“One silver per consumable”, he explained matter-of-factly. “Plus one silver for each piece of equipment you use while you’re in there.”

Roth wasn’t short on cash right now. He would keep using the available supplies until he had to make a run to the auction house. He was too curious to see what happened once he activated the light trap. He wanted to be here for when the machine stopped working. 

“I’ll go back to work. See you later, Keith.”

Roth ran back to this workstation and grabbed a few more jars of pine glue from the cabinet. He started prepping more of the lizard hide, to craft with later. By the time he was done prepping, there were five stretched lizard hides smeared with glue, and logs were being used as weights on them scattered throughout the room. 

Ding!

The sealing was complete. Now all that was left was to shoot the laser and activate the light trap. 

Ch. 239 - Smells like Prison

INDEX

Ch. 241 - Light Trap