Chapter 9: Silk Sheets and Aerodynamics
A week after the underground cavern was excavated, a merchant from the Capital arrived at the Valerius estate. He brought three heavy wooden crates, demanding an outrageous sum of silver.
Martha paid him from the estate’s treasury with a pained expression, then had the crates hauled directly to Ren’s bedroom.
Inside were bolts of raw Arachnid-Silk. The material was incredibly rare, harvested from the giant Weaver Spiders of the Eastern Canyons. It was prized for its high tensile strength, but in its raw form, it was stiff, yellowish, and notoriously difficult to tailor. Most nobles used it as an inner lining for heavy steel armor.
Ren locked his bedroom door. Elara and Kira sat on his large bed, watching him with intense curiosity.
"Master Ren, this feels like dried grass," Kira noted, poking a stiff, yellowish bolt of silk. Her fox ears drooped. "Are we really going to wear this for winter training?"
"Not like this," Ren smiled. He placed a hand flat on the top of the fabric.
The problem with raw spider-silk is the impurities in the protein matrix, Ren analyzed, his high Intelligence stat mapping the microscopic fibers. If I use a weak solvent to dissolve the sticky sericin coating, and then thermally align the fibroin proteins into a perfect crystalline structure...
He channeled his mana. To the girls, it looked as though a soft, white light washed over the fabric.
The stiff, yellow bolts of cloth began to change. The dull color faded into a brilliant, pearlescent white. The stiff fibers uncoiled and flattened, weaving themselves together under Ren's telekinetic manipulation.
He wasn't just cleaning the silk; he was forging it at the molecular level, creating a frictionless surface while maximizing its kinetic absorption properties.
A few minutes later, Ren lifted a finished garment. It was a customized training suit—a fitted, long-sleeved tunic and flexible trousers. It moved like liquid mercury, catching the firelight with a breathtaking sheen.
"Try them on," Ren said, tossing a set to Elara and another to Kira.
He politely turned his back while the girls changed. A moment later, a collective gasp echoed in the room.
"Ren..." Elara whispered, her voice trembling.
Ren turned around. Both girls were wearing the new suits. Elara, despite her rigorous maid training, was openly weeping tears of joy. She was rubbing the sleeves against her cheeks.
"It feels like... like wearing warm water," Elara breathed. "It's so soft. It doesn't weigh anything at all."
Kira was doing backflips on the rug, her tail wagging furiously. "I can move! Nothing pinches! Master Ren, it's like I'm not wearing anything at all!"
Ren chuckled, walking over to his desk and picking up a sharp steel hunting knife. Without warning, he turned and slashed the blade directly across Kira’s forearm.
Elara screamed. Kira froze, bracing for the pain.
But there was no pain. The razor-sharp steel glided across the pearlescent silk, completely unable to find purchase on the frictionless surface. The molecular bonds of the fabric absorbed the kinetic force, leaving Kira without a single scratch and the fabric entirely uncut.
This content has been unlawfully taken from NovelFire; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Supreme comfort, and Tier-4 defense," Ren stated proudly, putting the knife away. "I want you both wearing this under your maid uniforms at all times. It breathes perfectly, so you won't overheat, and it will keep you warm in the winter."
He reached out, adjusting the collar of Elara's tunic, his fingers brushing against her neck. "I told you, I will only give you the best."
Elara’s face turned bright red, her heart hammering against her ribs. Kira immediately crowded in, nuzzling her silver head against Ren's other hand to demand her share of the petting.
"Now," Ren said, his tone shifting back to the calculating professor. "Let's take these down to the cavern. Kira, it's time you learned how to truly run."
Down in the massive, obsidian-black training cavern beneath the manor, the air was warm from the adjacent hot spring.
Ren stood at one end of the hundred-yard stretch of smooth stone. Kira stood at the other end, stretching her legs.
"Kira, you are currently using your Agility stat to push off the ground harder," Ren called out, his voice echoing in the vast space. "But you are ignoring the air. The air is not empty space. It is a fluid. It is made of billions of tiny particles, and every time you run, you are smashing into them."
Kira tilted her head, her fox ears swiveling to catch his words. "Like swimming in the river?"
"Exactly like swimming!" Ren confirmed. "When you run, your body creates drag. The faster you go, the harder the air pushes back. This silk suit is completely frictionless, which eliminates surface drag. But you still have form drag. Your shoulders, your chest, even your fluffy tail are catching the air."
Elara sat on a stone bench, watching intently. She loved Ren's lectures, even if she only understood half the words.
"To move faster, you must become a wedge," Ren instructed. "Lean forward. Keep your arms tight. And use a tiny fraction of your mana to project a sharp, angled wind barrier right in front of your nose. Don't use the wind to push you from behind. Use it to slice the air in front of you."
Kira closed her eyes. She pictured Elara's angled stone barrier from the boar fight. A slope that redirects force.
She leaned forward, dropping into a sprinter's crouch. She channeled a tiny sliver of mana—not a massive, wasteful spell, just a razor-thin wedge of air hovering an inch past her nose.
"Go," Ren commanded.
Kira pushed off.
There was no sound of footsteps. The frictionless silk made zero noise as her legs pumped. But a split second later, a loud CRACK echoed through the cavern, followed by a violent rush of wind.
Kira didn't just run; she vanished.
She crossed the hundred-yard cavern in less than a second, her body a silver blur riding inside a pocket of displaced air. She panicked slightly at the insane speed, breaking her aerodynamic posture to slow down. The moment she stood upright, the air resistance hit her like a physical wall, sending her tumbling safely across the smooth obsidian floor in a tangle of limbs and tail.
She popped up, unharmed thanks to the silk armor, her amber eyes wide with absolute adrenaline.
"I flew!" Kira screamed in delight, her voice echoing off the walls. "Master Ren, I sliced the air!"
Ren grinned, clapping his hands. With that technique, a five-year-old beast-kin was now moving faster than a Royal Knight's warhorse.
"Perfect application of aerodynamics, Kira," Ren praised. "We will practice your stopping mechanics tomorrow. Now, into the hot spring. Both of you. The hydrostatic pressure will prevent your muscles from cramping."
As the girls eagerly ran toward the steaming, mineral-rich pool, Ren walked toward the heavy stone elevator platform that led back up to the cellar. He needed to fetch the electrolyte tea he had left upstairs.
He rode the platform up, the stone seamlessly merging with the old cellar floor.
He stepped off, humming a quiet tune.
He froze.
Standing in the shadows of the musty cellar, holding a flickering lantern, was Martha. The Head Maid's eyes were locked onto the seam in the floor where the solid stone had just inexplicably moved like a mechanical lift.
She looked at the eight-year-old boy. She had felt the rush of displaced air from the cellar floor. She had seen the impossible silk he had conjured upstairs.
Martha slowly lowered the lantern. Her stern, matronly face was pale, not with fear, but with a terrifying realization of exactly what her Young Master truly was.
"Young Master Ren," Martha whispered, the silence of the cellar pressing in around them. "Just... what are you preparing my daughter for?"