Chapter 4 - Twisted Crafting

As I wake up the next morning, the room that I've spent most of my goblin life in feels empty. Of the 5 groups that set out yesterday, 3 goblins in each, only my group had no losses (though we would of had one loss if I hadn't picked Life affinity...).

One group did not return at all, and of the three remaining groups, one had lost two members and the two others had lost one each. We began as fifteen kid goblins, now we were eight.

The shaman entered the room, and once everyone was awake, led us to the main hall of the cave.

There are more goblins here, twenty-six in total, including the shaman. The adults divide up into groups, and one by one we're being directed towards one of the different groups. Seems yesterday was a test of sorts, and now those that passed are assigned roles within the tribe.

Brutus was assigned to the hunting group, it's made up of three goblin warriors and one goblin rogue. Blue is assigned to the gatherers, composed of normal goblins.

Lastly, the shaman stands before me. "Goblin choose role self. Shaman not interfere." He states, then turns and joins the hunter group.

There is also the scouts, who patrol the outer edge of our territory, they're normal goblins, but they seem to have a similar stat spread to the rogue. Finally there's the maintainers. They stay in or near the cave and make sure it is structurally sound, they also dabble in basic crafting, judging by their skills.

I do want to take some time to make some sort of makeshift weaponry with the dagger I got. So for now I guess I'll join the maintainers.

I walk over to the maintainer group, and are welcomed into the group. From what I understand, I'm free to switch groups as I please as long as I contribute properly to the group whilst I'm a member.

The others leave for their daily tasks, leaving me to my own devices. They had everything covered even without me it seems?

I make my way outside, and quickly spot some suitable saplings to experiment with. I retrieve the dagger and test it out on the smallest sapling.

It cut through the wood without effort, and I had to take care to not cut off too much in one go. I then cut down the other saplings as well. I then get to work with cutting off their branches. Carefully removing the bark, I then start sharpening the sticks.

*Crafting Skill Display Unlocked*

*Crafting Skill Obtained: Weapon Crafting (Novice)*

*You made 4 x Spears (Primitive) (+30 Atc. +0 M.Atc. can be thrown, fragile)*

Okay, so they should be usable if the Skill system recognizes them as weapons. Now for the next step of the experiment.

I store the spears and the dagger before I seek out the leader of the maintenance team. I inform him that I'll be leaving for a bit, but I'll be back very soon. He accepts this, as its not unusual for the others to leave to get specific things they're out of and need for their work that day.

I then head directly north to the Foolsbane bushes. I did want to test out the Hidden Space skill on the river, but that could wait until a later date.

Once I reach the clearing, I start picking berries with great care as to not get any juice on my hands. Once I'm satisfied with the amount, I turn to leave before pausing. It feels wrong to leave the body of the human laying under the bush. I decide to bury him, as well as test out the capabilities of the Skill I got from him.

I find a suitable spot for a grave nearby, and start digging. Well, I'm more or less just storing the earth into my Skill, moving my hand around until a hole of decent size and depth has been made. I return to the bush, and hold my breath as I reach under it towards the decaying remains.

Somehow the corpse counted as a whole item, even though it had a loose arm and a missing hand. Didn't I toss that around here somewhere... There it was! Not that it mattered, but I hate doing things in half measures.

I retrieve the corpse into the hole I made, seems bigger items can also be dropped from my palm instead of actually reaching in and pulling it out. That is good to know. I toss the hand into the hole as well, before I start dumping the soil I had excavated back into the hole to cover the body. Once all the earth was replaced, I stamp on the ground to pack the soil down before covering it with a layer of leaf litter to better obfuscate its presence. I nod in satisfaction, and head back towards the cave.

On the way I came across a plant with big thick leaves, a texture like leather. I inspect it.

*Waxleaf Stalk*

*Its hardy leaves are used as clothing in some regions. Inedible.*

I have an idea: I need something to protect myself against getting the poisonous berry juice on me whilst doing my experiment, these would be perfect! I pick around ten leaves and make a note of the location of the plant on my map. Now I'm all set for experimenting, how exiting!

The experiment I am going to conduct is: Can I learn Weapon Twisting? World Knowledge informed me of the various kinds of crafting that exist in this world. The ones I'm most interested in is of course weapon and armor crafting. But there is also a way to make bad weapons good through constant adding and modifying of materials. It is called Weapon Twisting, and is considered a "forbidden" crafting technique since what it has usually been used for in this worlds history is to add poison and other status effects to things to debilitate the opponent with a single blow.

Using them is dishonorable it seems. Not that I mind using them to survive.

I'm currently sitting a small distance from the cave, just out of sight of the others, gently squishing berries between two Waxleaves. Once I've got a decent amount of berry juice on the leaf I starts rubbing one of the spears in it whilst trying to create a flow of magic through it. Its hard work and I am unable to re-absorb most of the magic I send into the spear. This is gonna take a while, I fear.

Several hours later...

*Crafting Skill Obtained: Weapon Twisting (Novice)*

*This Skill affects future Evolution options*

*Weapon Twisted: Spear (Primitive) - updating stats*

*Spear (Primitive - Twisted) (+35 Atc. +5 M.atc. Can be thrown. Inflicts Toxic (Lesser) on hit)*

FINALLY! Oh my god that took FOREVER.

I ran out of MP like, twice. And then I had to eat wood shavings to get my SP back up. I really want a Skill that lets me regain MP without expending SP. But hopefully the next spear should take less time?

I'd have to go get more berries and leaves though. All that's left of the ones I gathered today is a dark purple mush. I'd wear the leaves out by my rubbing and the juice would start to seep into the leaf and make a mess. So I currently have around ten piles of biohazard-grade plant mush sitting in storage. As I have no access to fire, they'll be there for a while, I suspect.

It's getting late and I'm hungry. Although I can digest and gain SP from wood, it is just not the same as a proper meal. I head back to the cave for the night, making sure to store the dagger and spear before I arrive.

That evening, after a meal, I had World Knowledge explain some things. Namely the tiers of Crafting Skills.

*Crafting Skills come in five tiers. There are also no compound skills like with normal skills. They also do not become a stronger skill at the tier equivalent of Great. Every crafting skill is a self contained discipline.*

*The tiers are as follows:

- Novice - The first tier, awarded upon the first successful craft related to that skill. Provides no benefits except in the case of Weapon Twisting, where it reduces MP waste by 12.5%.

- Apprentice - It is now easier and faster to create items, and potential quality of created items rises from Primitive/Common to Uncommon.

- Adept - Another slight boost to speed and ease of crafting, as well as a slight reduction in needed materials. Weapon twisting now has 25% less MP waste.

- Expert - With mastery close at hand, further decreases material use. Potential max quality rises from Uncommon to Rare.

- Master - Enables the creation of Legendary quality items, at a fraction of the time and materials a novice is able to. MP waste from weapon twisting is now reduced by 75%.*

I see. So I only have the crafting skills I have because I actually made something. This makes me want to try to make lots of different things!

Lastly, right before I go to sleep, I check my stats.

Unnamed

Species: Goblin (Goblinoid) (Common)

Gender: Female

HP: 50/50

MP: 60/60

SP: 40/40

Attack: 15

Armor: 25

M.Attack: 25

M.Armor: 25

Speed: 15

STR: 15

CON: 15

INT: 25

WIL: 20

DEX: 13

Skills:

Language Comprehension: Goblin (Great)  -  Innate World Knowledge (True - Unique)

Power Osmosis (True - Fated - Unique)  -  Condition Resistance: Poison (Lesser)

Condition Resistance: Disease (Lesser)  -  Teamwork (Lesser)

Hardy Digestion (Lesser)  -  Cellulose Digestion (Great)

Strong Bite (Normal)  -  Elemental Affinity: Life (Lesser)

Hidden Space (True - Unique)

Crafting Skills:

Weapon Crafting (Novice)  -  Weapon Twisting (Novice)

Spells:

Heal (Normal)  -  Cure (Lesser)

Social Titles:

Compassionate  -  Makeshift Midwife

Runt Defender  -  Big Sister

Lifesaver

Wow, those are some stats, alright. I'm on par with Brutus in strength, but far beyond him in intelligence. And I'm fairly sure hes the strongest among our siblings. Really shows what an unfair advantage Power Osmosis gives me. Makes me sad I didn't think to check my stats before we headed out yesterday...

I stretch and get comfortable, tomorrow is another day of crafting. I'd like to make some more spears at least.

As they say, even the best laid plans or something like that. Today, I was planning on making more spears or even some tools. However, I was instead instructed to aid in excavating more of the cave. Space was getting limited, and as the ideal size of a goblin tribe is around 50 members, there was a desperate need for expansion.

The layout of the cave up until now had been fairly simple, a straight tunnel with more or less dents in them on the way into the main chamber. Ideally we should expand the indents into proper rooms, but wed need some way of reinforcing the ceiling for that.

Instead, we started excavating from the main hall, making a tunnel further into the earth. Goblins aren't exactly known for their tool-making, so the most we had to work with was sticks that we'd stab into the earth to break it up loose enough for us to dig out by hand. Then there was the trip to the outside with an armful of dirt, making a mess along the way.

It was simply too ineffective, so I started using the Hidden Space skill to vacuum up the loose earth, leaving the others to work on the tunnel.

They were, of course, shocked and awed at my Skill. We kept going at an increased pace until we hit a problem.

That problem being: We hit stone.

Hard, solid stone that laughed at our pitiful digging tools. So, with nothing else to do, we stopped for the day. Well, the others did.

I went to my spot outside the cave, and started sifting through all the soil I had picked up.

Soil isn't just soil, there are other things there too, like small rocks and maybe even minerals. Separating everything from my one big pile of soil, I got pure soil, good for planting?

Rocks in various shapes and sizes, and an assortment of crap. Things that got buried for whatever reason and didn't decay.

I dump out the soil into a heap and toss the crap on top. Left with only the rocks, I start taking them out one by one, sorting through the ones I want to use. I also go to cut down some bigger saplings than the ones I made spears out of. The experiment of the day is: Can I use Weapon Twisting to make pickaxes out of stone?

Or any tool really, an axe would be ideal, as we could then make supports for the cave.

I prepare what is to become the handles of the tools. I also retrieve the spears I made yesterday. I'm planning on reinforcing them with rocks on the tip to remove the fragile trait. Seems just twisting the weapon makes it harder to break? I guess it's the magic.

I want to keep the Foolsbane spear for myself, so I quickly make another to bring the total up to five. Hopefully this wont take as long as the first one.

Starting with the spears, as the modifying I'm planning on doing is minor compared to the tools. I pick out five ideally sized rocks for the project. Placing one on the tip of a spear, I cycle magic through the spear whilst imagining the form I want the twisted spear to take. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the rock starts to melt onto the end of the spear, seemingly stretching to fit the shape of the tip. Once the stone was fully affixed to the spear, it refined its form, its edges becoming sharp and its form that of a pyramid.

*Weapon twisted, updating stats*

*Spear (Primitive - Twisted) (+40 Atc. +0 M.Atc. can be thrown)*

One spear took about an hour to do. By the time I am done with all four spears, the sun has begun to set. Seems like I'll have to wait until tomorrow with more crafting.

Once the hunting group returns, I present them with the four spears, one for each of the three warriors, and one for Brutus. They seem delighted to get better weapons, and I'm looking forward to the increased catches they'll bring in because they can hunt more things, quicker.

The next day is spent making tools. Axes are really cumbersome though. Wouldn't a saw be better? I also raised my weapon Twisting Skill, and got a new Crafting Skill: Magic Tool Crafting. Seems it follows the same procedure as Weapon Twisting, you just end up with a tool instead of a weapon.

I made a few axes, and well. Some sort of saw? Its uh. It's a thing alright. A thin sheet of stretched stone affixed to a wooden handle. One edge is jagged, like a saw should be.

*Please assign purpose to the new tool*

Uh, felling trees?

*Purpose accepted. New tool added to World*

Wait. This world didn't have saws before? Or is it just the first stone saw ever made? Anyway, I spent the day making tools, tomorrow I'm going to test them out.

The maintenance leader came along, he seemed very curious as to my plan. Of course, I'm not even sure it would work properly, as it requires me to uh, bend the use of the Hidden Space Skill. The plan is to make pillars and crossbeams, and then to just, plop 'em into place. Hopefully I can combine retrieving and storing to make a hole custom fit for the supports. First I need to actually get logs for pillars and crossbeams.

We arrive at the edge of the river. It should be easier to prepare the logs here as opposed inside the woods. I take out the stone saw and get to work.

The leader just, looks bewildered. I would too if someone took a saw made out of stone out of thin air.

The saw works very well. I was afraid it would be too stiff or brittle or just not sharp enough to cut the tree, but it cuts through it like butter. Before long, the tree falls. The leader still looks like a question mark. I explain my plan. He seems to get it and instructs me to keep working whilst he gathers the others to help out.

A few hours later, the moment of truth is upon us. Holding both my hands up, I envision the procedure taking place. The logs appearing in their place, and the soil they would intersect with is added to the Hidden Space.

Nothing happens.

I focus harder.

Something in my head gives.

And the ready assembled support is placed in the designated spot.

*Abstract placement is unlocked. Lets the Hidden Space user envision the future position of items to be retrieved from storage. Auto equip is also enabled.*

Hohoha! I did it!

Though my head hurts.

The others cheer. Now we can make a proper goblin nest!