CH123 Armoring up a doll and skeleton
“Do you think it is a good idea to treat that skeleton like a doll?” Fufi walked amongst the water-logged plumbing loot the slime girl produced from seemingly nowhere.
Alex eyed the cursed hero doll and then the skeleton. “You are probably right. I’m fairly confident in making clothes to dress up mister skinny but making armor. I don’t know if that would work well without a skill unless it is doll armor.”
“Maybe do what you did with the air boat?” Fufi suggested. “The blacksmiths from Yven’s barony are in town. We’ve been neglecting to check on some of the people that remained there.”
Alex nodded. “You think they would want to help? I’m a little worried that bringing a skeleton with a glowing red orb in his eye sockets might spark a panic.”
“You could ask if they wanted to relocate.” Ariel presented an idea. “Many of Yvne’s former citizens are afraid of living with the tribal people. They have a hard time not thinking the combat classers are not a threat to them.”
“I suppose that is an option.” Alex didn’t sound convinced though. “I’m just a little worried that my land will end up being where all the people that once served Yvne go to. It would be a shame if the two groups of people couldn’t figure out how to work together. Didn’t the kingdom say that humans can’t be trusted with combat classes because they’ll abuse the power, using it to oppress those that don’t?”
“Perhaps,” Ariel smiled. “But we work with what we have. Besides, this is about armor, not fixing human society.”
“Yeah,” Alex agreed. “Can you pack up, Merumeru? We’ll go through the portal pipe and keep our guest hidden for now.”
Alex again apologized. They placed the skeleton next to the doll in the carriage's crafting station, then transformed it back into a card. They packed up, changed into their plumbers' outfits, and took the swamp pipe back to Bob and Martha's farm. From there, they hopped into the pipe that led back to town. After cleaning the area, they finally returned to the adventurers' guild.
“Okay, let's not draw any attention.” Alex walked up the stairs to the main lobby, stepping softly, acting suspicious.
“Good day magical girl Alex.” The receptionist greeted. This time a human girl worked the counter. The nymphs must have been busy.
“Good day to you as well.” Alex glanced about furtively. “I’ll be right back. I have to step outside to do something.”
“Haha,” Ariel tried to cover for Alex. “She’s just being silly.”
The slime girl, sea elf, and flamingos trailed behind.
Alex used the card to summon the carriage, quickly covered the skeleton in a blanket alongside the hero doll and headed for Ki’s office.
The people in the building gave them a questioning look but decided not to say anything about the cringe acting.
After going up to the second floor and entering Ki’s office, Alex looked around. “Let's see where there is a good place to hide a skeleton.”
“How about the closet?” Ariel pointed at Ki’s wardrobe.
“Sounds like a plan.” Alex unwrapped the skeleton, dusted him off with her feather duster, and posed him nicely behind some items of clothing with the doll on his lap.
“I like that pose, though he’d look cuter with an outfit.” Fufi admired the placement.
“Meru!” Merumeru hopped up and down.
Alex pulled out some measuring tape to get the skeleton’s measurements. “Hmm, a bit on the thin side but I think we can work with it.”
The group proceeded to the warehouse, passing Charlotte, who was rooted and asleep in the courtyard. Looking guilty, Alex began sorting through swatches of cloth and bits of leather.
“Do you need help with anything?” Ariel asked.
“Eventually I’ll need to get help from smiths to scale up the toy armor I’m going to make.” Alex looked to Merumeru. “Do you have the pipes? I don’t need all of them, just enough to make a suit for a doll and a man.”
Merumeru pulled out some of the tarnished green pipes and placed them on the floor. When the pile was big enough Alex motioned for her to stop.
“Meru!” Merumer clapped her little hands together.
Alex blinked a bit then looked at Ariel, realizing she’s been being rude. “I mean… I normally work on toy stuff alone. Sometimes it takes a while.”
“No, that's fine.” Ariel didn’t seem phased. “I’ll pass the word along and head back to the island. Also, someone should let the nymphs know that the kingdom agreed to build the ship. So I’ll pass the word along.”
“Thank you Ariel.” Alex turned from the bolts of fabric and flashed the sea elf a smile.
They said their farewells, Ariel and Funi headed out the door and Alex got to snipping and sewing.
Alex worked into the night, with Fufi and Merumeru helping out. Eventually, she got a set of brigandine armor with thick leather squares sewn all about. It was made extra thick because of mister skeleton’s rather thin frame. Hopefully the outfit would fill him out a bit so he’d look a bit less skin-and-bones, minus the skin. Sadly, there was no footwear.
“What do you think?” Alex showed the finished product to Fufi and Merumeru.
“It looks very formable.” Fufi inspected the outfit on a mannequin from several angles with her long neck. “Are you going to make a second one?”
Alex remembered that the nymphs were big on sharing if someone took something. “Yeah, I’ll make a second one in the morning. Then we can get started on making some less flammable armor for Hiroshi and mister skeleton.”
After spending the night in the carriage, close to Charlotte, they met with the smiths the next morning. The craftsmen readily agreed to help, eager for any opportunity to practice their trade given that metal for working was a scarce resource.
Alex presented the broken plow and inquired about the possibility of crafting a monstrously huge two-handed weapon. It turned out that weapons larger than their wielders were not uncommon. Utilizing some of Merumeru’s stored pipes, they amassed enough brass for the smiths to begin work. When questioned about the weapon's intended recipient, Alex vaguely replied it was for a "new friend."
Over the next few days, Alex crafted improved armor for the hero doll. This armor featured a layer of brigandine covered with brass plates. Alex initially attempted to hammer broken pipe pieces into the correct shape, but despite her skill, it proved to be a losing battle. Eventually, one of the smiths took pity and allowed Alex to use a forge that had been restored from the ruins. Fortunately, brass does not require extensive heating to soften, so charcoal was sufficient. While some of the doll-sized plate pieces were challenging, Alex persevered with the aid of their [toy making] skill and a tiny hammer. Of course, a second set was made and stored in the warehouse, in case anyone in town desired to use it as a reference for their own doll armor.
“Do you think you could make a suit like this that fits on top of the brigandine?” Alex asked the smith.
“Sure, it’ll take about a month to do though.” The man said. “None of the metal workers around here are very high level.”
Alex grumbled. “I guess it can’t be helped.”
“Sorry, usually the only thing we would get requests for were helmets or breastplates.” The man eyed the doll armor. “I think the sword could be made quicker though. It is going to be really heavy though. I hope your friend has a high strength stat.”
Alex had brought the broken plow that the skeleton was using as a greatsword to the smith. “Thanks. I’m sure he does.” Rather than answer any more questions about her new friend, Alex quickly exited.
She was stopped in the lobby by an evergreen-haired nymph. “Alex, can you spare some time to help with making some candles?”
“Sure.” Alex smiled at the nymph. “Lead the way.”
Alex spent some time decorating tallow candles. They even launched a few balloons after that. The balloons had wicker baskets that were filled with what looked like sunflower seeds.
“We are sending them up for the winds to take so that when the spring comes they’ll find ground to grow that other plants can’t handle.” The nymph explained.
“Meru!” Merumeru sounded excited about the idea.
“That is a good idea.” Fufi added. “The times I’ve flown up around here the prevailing winds go out towards the wasteland. That area could use some greenery.”
“Ki found some good seeds in the dungeon.” The nymph explained. “We’ve been trying to spread them around as much as possible.”
After more formal chatter, Alex noticed the nervous glances from the people eating in the lobby. Were they afraid of the nymph? Weird, Alex thought that other than with Kaide, she never had any bad interactions with the nymphs. Sure, some people got turned into shrubs, but it was their own fault.
“I should go check in with Aqua and everyone else. I got a doll to armor and then I’ll be heading out.” Alex headed upstairs, brandishing the tiny brass armor plates to outfit the doll with.
After strapping the doll in with the new armor, it appeared that something was missing.
“You know.” Alex furrowed her brow. “The repeating crossbow wasn’t with Hiroshi when we picked him back up. I wonder what happened to it.”
“Ru ru me.” The slime girl lamented.
“It was mostly wood. It likely got burnt.” Fufi speculated. “Those two must have really kicked the hornets' nest. I bet they took out a whole lot of demons though.”
“Is that how battles with demons tend to go?” Alex considered the scenario where they had constant fighting for several days. She had fished him out of the river, given him a friend and they went right back to non-stop fighting.
Fufi nodded her beak. “It is how demons won the war. They keep relentlessly throwing waves at a serious threat. The problem is that they don’t unite well together. After the hero fell they have been their own worst enemies.”
“I wonder if that is something we can use.” Alex considered the possibility. But she hadn’t had much luck being sneaky.
“Demons are masters of deception.” Fufi warned. “It is best not to try to play that game with them, at least the higher tiered ones.”
“I still have no idea how we are going to get the demon queen.” Alex started removing the wooden parts of the doll’s armor and replacing the plates with brass ones.
“I don’t think anyone is going to be able to be a credible threat to her until they can get above level 20.” Fufi lowered her beaked-head.
“I’d like to do something that matters though.” Alex tightened some tiny straps on the doll.
“What you are doing does matter though.” Fufi pointed out. “There are lots of humans that are free because of you.”
“I’m worried that might just be temporary.” Alex placed the helmet over the hero doll’s plush head. “Like you said, if the demons really focus on us we might not be able to push them back. They’ll keep coming.”
“With your new friend taking the blame for the recent defeat of who-knows-how-many demons I don’t see that happening right away.” Fufi tried to hope for the best.
“I hope so too.” Alex put the Hiroshi doll back in the now-brigandine-armor-wearing Skeleton and closed the closet. The armorers could finish creating the plate that would go on top of the cloth.
“I wonder when mister skeleton is going to wake up.” Alex eyed the door. “We know he can talk. He was calling out skills when fighting.”
“Sometimes dead things stay in torpor.” Fufi didn’t sound quite sure of herself. “You know how Hiroshi tends to stay still unless someone pulls his string? Maybe your new friend functions in a similar way. We do know that he is most active when demons are around. So if nothing else that means that there are not any nearby.”
“I suppose that might be how he works.” Alex dusted the things off in Ki’s office with her feather duster. “Though if his grudge is against demons that means if he does wake up then something bad is about to happen.”
After finishing cleaning up, the trio packed up and headed back through the portal pipe. With the armor and weapon taking a while to make, checking back in at the floating island would fit in their schedule nicely. Besides, there were actual masons working on Merumeru’s castle right now. Hopefully they had some good progress to show.