Dahlia’s heart raced every time she came here. Along one wall were shelves of crafting materials from the ordinary to the extraordinary. A large, sturdy workbench—a perfect place to run experiments—was surrounded by comfortable chairs. The aqua-blue marble flooring had been chiseled for grip. The windows had been crafted out of blue crystal to reduce glare, with two sets of curtains—one white, one black—to adjust for whatever light level the work called for. Messy or smelly experiments could be conducted in a smaller room adjoining the workshop, and the wall between the two had a glass window for observation. This workshop was nothing short of perfection; the one in the Green Tower couldn’t even compare.
Behind Jonas were Bernigi, Dahlia, Lucia, and Idaea. Marcella had also been summoned to help with heavy lifting; it was very much appreciated, as the large bottles of slime powders and various liquids were hefty, and he also replaced Ivano as Dahlia’s assistant and bodyguard. Marcella wanted to learn more about magic and magical tools too, and what better opportunity was there?
“Here we have the specification document and experiment results for the yellow slime fabric.” After the six of them sat around the oval desk, Dahlia took a stack of documents out of her bag. Powdered kingsnake shed, pennyroyal extract, and armored crab acid were the basis of the mixture, then yellow slime was added before enchanting. Only the top two grades could be used, and those made up only ten percent of total yellow slime powder production, meaning that it was rather precious. As a result of her experimentation, there was more room to improve on both the durability of the fabric format and the shock absorption of the cushion format. However, in this world, there was no real way to get concrete numbers on shock; all she had been able to write was that eggs didn’t crack after being dropped on it from a certain height, and that it was hard to penetrate with a blade.
“It says ‘hard to penetrate with a blade,’ meaning it is not impenetrable?”
“Lord Bernigi, the more of the material’s surface a blade comes in contact with, the more elastic and resistant to stabbing and slashing the material is. Something sharp like a pin should have no problem piercing through, however.”
“Can it be cut with scissors during production, then?”
Being a couturier, Lucia had the subject matter expertise to both answer the question and explain the facts to everyone. “It should be no problem when cutting it slowly; too fast, and it will stop the scissors. Incidentally, a blade can penetrate the material when inserted slowly.”
“Then it truly should be usable as protective equipment—it can guard against damage from monsters.” Being a former vice-captain of the Beast Hunters, Bernigi had the subject matter expertise to give his approval; Dahlia would have liked to test out some armor coated with the material right now.
“It says that yellow slime grade-C and below is not durable enough, but how does it actually differ?”
“Here, Master Jonas—it splits and cracks, then crumbles.” She laid a thick cloth down on the desk and poked at it, demonstrating exactly what she had found. “As you can tell by feeling it, it does not have much elasticity.”
“Yeah, this isn’t gonna last—oh, sorry! I mean, this isn’t going to last.” Lucia hurried to apologize to Bernigi and Jonas.
“Never you mind—talk how you normally do. Here in the workshop, shall we speak freely and candidly exchange our opinions?”
“It’s very kind of you to offer, but I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful to you, Lord D’Orazi.”
“Call me Bernigi, everyone. I am but a retired old man, and I am here not on behalf of the D’Orazi family but rather as a fresh hire of the Weapons Development Team. We all ought to address each other by our first names. If that is a concern, shall we have a scrivener draft us an agreement that we may speak freely without fear of censure afterward?”
“I am sure we can take your word for it, Lord Bernigi, and we gratefully accept the kind offer.” Jonas was the first to respond; he was likely the person most intimately familiar with noble affairs.
Dahlia and the others all exchanged glances before nodding. “Thank you very much, Lord Bernigi.”
“Please continue, Master Dahlia.”
His title for her came like a punch to the solar plexus, and she barely managed to keep herself from gasping out loud. She just needed to convince herself that she had improved as a chairwoman. “V-Very well. This fabric is the one I demonstrated earlier, the one with some elasticity. This version here is produced by applying a thick layer of the mixture, then blasting it with magic; enchanting it slowly will cause the liquid mixture to run off.” She brought out the yolk-yellow fabric and cushion onto the table, letting everyone have a feel for the texture, which was like that of a stiffened slime. One looked impressed, one looked befuddled, one looked suspicious, one looked grave, and one had a great smile.
“This one seems to have multiple layers.”
“Yes, the enchantment was done in three bouts.” When viewed from the side, it was obviously composed of thin layers; one could potentially jam one’s thumb in and try to split them apart.
“And it comes out as one layer if you enchant it in one go?”
“I believe so, yes. Unfortunately, this is the most I can do with my own magic.” This was the outcome even with grade-ten magic. To have it in one chunky layer, they would likely need to outsource it to mages with much more magic than her.
“We have the talent and the materials here, so let us give it a try. I know my way around enchantments too.”
“Have you made magical tools before, Lord Bernigi?”
“Nay, I know nothing about magical tools, but there have been times when I’ve had to do my own enchanting. See, when I was a young man, the squad did not even have the budget to harden our swords and spears, let alone a magical toolmaking advisor such as yourself, Master Dahlia.” Life had had even less grace to spare for the Beast Hunters of yore.
“Pardon me if my ignorance is showing, but would slime powder grade-C and below solidify into the right texture if a large and sudden flow of magic was applied to it? In metallurgy, softer metals can be alloyed with harder ones by applying a strong magical enchantment.”
“Oh, really? In that case, we should try it with lower-quality slime powder as well. If that doesn’t work, we can also try mixing it with high-quality powder.” Dahlia took out her notepad and quickly jotted down Jonas’s advice. Every lead should be tested if that was the price of getting closer to a better product.
With Marcella accompanying her as her assistant, Dahlia moved to the smaller testing chamber, where the two of them donned masks. She had forgotten to wear one the other day on account of intoxication, but yellow slime powder was extremely fine, and it irritated the throat without proper protection. Dahlia concocted a big batch of the base mixture, split it into five, then added to each a different grade of yellow slime powder. Spectators plastered themselves to the window, intently watching her work—it was a little disconcerting, but Dahlia powered through it, and when her preparations were complete, she and Marcella carried the mixtures back to the workshop.