Chapter 61: Seventh Multivein Leaf
While in bed, Luke closed his eyes and entered his soul space. A moment later, he was back in the Insect World.
Everything that had happened over the past few days made him rethink his progress. If he wanted to survive, he couldn’t afford to slow down. He had stayed away from the Insect World for too long, so it was time to see how his workshop was doing.
The scent of the workshop hit him first.
Luke watched from a distance instead of showing himself. He wanted to see how things ran while he was gone.
"Muahaha! Ten wins in a row! Who dares challenge the mighty Shell Lord? Come! I shall crush you too!"
"Ehh?? I told this turtle to watch the workshop and cultivate, and he’s playing chess instead." Luke palmed his face. "I feel bad for anyone sitting across from him. They don’t even know he’s using All-Seeing Eye to predict every move."
"Oh... no..." the loser mumbled, a housefly. He buzzed up from the seat and flew out from the shop with defeated shoulders.
Another insect took his place just to lose to the undisputed shell lord too.
About eight insects were hanging around the shop. Amigo had befriended them, bringing them over to play chess in the reception area just to pass the time.
Before the next game began, another insect entered the shop. This time, it was a customer—a female locust with her son.
To his credit, Amigo knew the difference between playtime and work. Once he realized they were customers, he left the chessboard and attended to them.
"Hello, Amigo," the locust greeted. "My son has always dreamed of becoming a warrior. He just came of age and wants his first set of armor. I know the Armorer hasn’t returned yet, but we’re willing to wait."
"Absolutely," Amigo replied. "What kind of gear are you looking for?"
"We’d like a collar, full body plates, and a wingcase," she said. "Just the essentials for now before we invest in full barding. Our pockets aren’t exactly deep right now, hehe."
Amigo nodded as he memorized the order, then turned and headed to the forge to write it down.
"Master!" the Astral Tortoiseling shrieked.
"Got you, you little—!" Luke started, grabbing Amigo by the tail. "Only the guilty run!"
"I didn’t do anything wrong, I swear!" Amigo squealed, thrashing around. "I was just startled by your unannounced return!"
Unbeknownst to them, they had already caused a scene. Every insect in the workshop was staring at them.
But to Luke’s surprise, the whole shop suddenly burst into cheers, applause, and loud whoops.
He tucked Amigo under his arm like a basketball as the insects crowded around him, showering him with praise.
"What’s going on?" Luke asked. There was no way they were this excited just because he had come back.
"Master, we won the war!" Amigo revealed. "The people are safe. You saved the clan!"
Luke couldn’t believe the war was over already. Although the Insect Princess had said it was close, he hadn’t expected it to end so soon. In fact, he had been looking forward to the battle. He had even been thinking of ways to help the army in person instead of staying behind and forging armor the whole time.
But the enemy had already been defeated.
"This is great news," Luke said with a smile.
He went around the workshop and hugged every insect in the room. When he was done, he looked at Amigo again.
"Alright, I’ll look the other way this time. You earned a victory lap.
But now it’s back to work. How many orders do we have backlog-ready?"
"Ninety-five," Amigo answered. "After we won the war, everyone started putting their trust in our armor. Orders are coming in from all around."
Luke couldn’t have been happier. Once he forged all ninety-five orders, his Reputation Points would skyrocket. He wanted to see what would happen when he reached the next threshold. Maybe the workshop would evolve, or he would unlock something new.
At Luke’s request, the insects left the shop and gave him some room to work. Once the workshop was empty, he activated Auto-Forge.
If he could forge 500 pieces in an hour, then 95 was not a challenge. But Luke still took his time to make every piece perfect.
Every finish reminded him of how many complex things go into just one armor, so the wearer could still move while remaining protected.
Meanwhile, Amigo helped him settle the workshop’s prices in the Insect World. After all, the currency here was different. Instead of scrips, they used Pollen Coins.
They had to calculate the exchange rate carefully so they wouldn’t overcharge or undercharge their customers. To keep things easy, they decided to use Flame Points as the middle value.
Luke had used 0.8 Flame Points to forge a Crossbreed Vine Bear Helmet, which sold on Earth for 300 scrips.
Meanwhile, one Size 1 Insect Metal cost 20 Pollen Coins in the market.
After comparing the values, they estimated the exchange rate to be about 1 Pollen Coin for 15 Scrips.
This meant.
One sale on Earth worth 1,500 to 2,000 scrips was equal to about 100 to 150 Pollen Coins.
If all 95 orders were completed, Luke would earn as much as 11,500 Pollen Coins.
That was almost 170,000 scrips, a huge amount of money!
Just as Luke finished the last order, the Insect Princess arrived. She had heard he was back and came over as quickly as she could.
The princess finally revealed her name as Cicadelle.
Luke had been careful never to ask, wanting to avoid raising any suspicion that he wasn’t the armorer she knew. Luckily, she mentioned it herself while making an armor request.
"In celebration of our victory, my mother has asked you to forge ceremonial armor for the royal family," the Insect Princess said with a bright smile. "One for my mother, Formica. One for my aunt, Silphine. And one for me, Cicadelle.
She also extends an invitation for you to join us for dinner whenever you are free."
"That’s awesome, Adelle," Luke said, bowing. "I would be honored to meet your mother."
Cicadelle smiled and hugged Luke as tightly as she could, holding back tears of gratitude. Without him, her uncle would have prevailed, and their clan would be no more.
Luke walked outside the shop and stood on the hill, watching the royal convoy escort her back down the road. Once they disappeared, he asked Amigo, "Don’t you think it’s strange how matriarchal the Insect World is? There’s a princess, a queen, and now an aunt. Let me guess. Is the aunt the Insect Duchess?"
"Don’t be so narrow-minded, Master," Amigo replied. "Their social structure is none of our business."
Luke shrugged and returned inside the shop, with the turtle following behind. All orders were now ready for the customers to collect. But before that, Luke focused on his own growth and his beast.
He started with his academy supplies.
While the other students used theirs every day, Luke had been saving his for the past week. And after taking Ryan Razael’s supplies, his stash had become twice as large as it should be.
"Master, where did you get all of these?" Amigo asked, staring at the beast food, crystals, and potions.
"I beat up a classmate and took his stuff, so now I have a double stack," Luke explained. "I was planning to save everything for the Dragonlord, but you’ve earned a cut."
Amigo started to celebrate.
Luke watched him for a while, then remembered how late it was getting. Another day was almost over.
"Amigo, did you take your Multivein Leaf today?" Luke asked.
"..."
Luke hardened his jaw as his beast became silent.
"Master... I kind of forgot..."
"That’s it, I’m gonna—!" Luke lunged at Amigo, but the tortoise jumped away at the last second. "You better eat that leaf before I catch you!"
Amigo snatched and ate the seventh and final leaf before Luke could pin him down.
"I’ve eaten it! I’ve eaten it!" the turtle yelled, terrified of Luke’s wrath.
Luke reluctantly dropped the spanking tool he had picked up.
He realized this was the final leaf needed to satisfy the condition: feed the beast a Multivein Leaf every day for a week.
But nothing happened after Amigo swallowed.
"Good job. But aren’t you supposed to, like... evolve or something?" Luke asked, inspecting the turtle from head to tail. "Wait. You didn’t skip a day and then eat two the next day to catch up, did you?"
"Nope. I’ve been perfectly diligent," Amigo pouted. "Maybe we have to wait until tomorrow to see the results."
Luke sighed and turned away. But that’s when it all began.
Amigo suddenly felt something whisk in his body. His cells began to split. The energy within them bubbled, surged, and ruptured as an unexplainable force coursed through every part of him, making his form tremble.
Luke quickly turned around as light burst from the Astral Tortiseling.
When the light faded, what was before him was beyond anything he could have imagined.