“That should be perfectly adequate,” said Haruka. “We’d also appreciate it if you could install a function that would allow us to split the grains of rice into smaller pieces—ideally about a quarter of their original size.”
“A-A quarter, huh?”
It was a tall order, but I understood Haruka-san’s reasoning. The grains of rice they had brought me were simply too big by Japanese standards. They’d told me that the rice had tasted fairly good when they’d tried it, but if they were going to be cooking it on a daily basis, they wanted something that was about the same size as the rice we were familiar with from back home. A smaller size would help with the soaking time and the texture too.
I nodded at Haruka’s request. As an artisan, I couldn’t compromise or cut corners. “It probably won’t be easy, but I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
Haruka smiled. “Thank you, Tomi. I have high hopes.”
Yeah, she’s the picture of a lovely elf maiden. Looks can deceive, though—she can be merciless when she wants.
“Next, let’s move on to the rock climbing equipment,” said Natsuki. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about such things, however.”
“It should be fine—three heads are better than one, after all,” said Yuki. “Besides, we have Tomi here with us, so we can just call ourselves something like the Four-Headed Geniuses featuring Tomi, ha ha!”
“Don’t come up with some weird group name for us,” said Haruka. “Well, in any case, let’s pool our knowledge and see what we can come up with.”
Haruka took the lead in our brainstorming. None of us were particularly knowledgeable, so I was a bit uneasy with the whole thing at first, but after we discussed all sorts of different ideas, our combined knowledge prevailed, and we were able to come up with a working plan.
“Just sifting through our memories, we’ve come up with five whole tools,” said Yuki.
We’d been able to remember carabiners instantly, since they were also used for things other than rock climbing. There were a few different kinds that were distinguished by the size of the shackle and the method used to secure the opening, but none of them would be super hard to make. I didn’t even need a detailed description, since I’d handled one myself.
Next, we discussed three types of hooks and anchors for securing rope to rock walls. The first one was a bundle of wire looped around a square spindle, the second had an expanding tip, and the third was a spike that you could insert into a hole you’d made in a wall.
Then there was the question of what tool to use while descending a rope. None of us had any idea about its name, shape, or structure. It was just like, Isn’t there something like that? But we quickly dropped that idea because none of us knew how it worked. Ultimately, we decided that it would be better to solve that issue by putting a rope through a carabiner and relying on pure strength. According to the girls, everyone in their party was strong enough that a single rope would be enough to descend safely, so the mystery tool wasn’t important.
“Gantz-san told me that most people in this world wedge metal spikes into rock walls,” I said. “He’s capable of making those himself, but apparently the most important things you need are tools to bore holes manually and a resin that you have to pour into the hole before inserting the spike.”
According to Gantz-san, there had been demand for equipment like that in the past, but it had long since died out, so there was nothing in stock here, and he hadn’t made any spikes in a long time. He did know how to make them, though, and he had taught me in detail. The drills used to bore holes needed to be sturdy and durable enough to drill through hard rock but light enough that you could use them while climbing a cliff. The materials required were pretty unique too, so the spikes weren’t easy to make. The resin, meanwhile, was a type of adhesive made by alchemists. Gantz-san had told me that Haruka-san’s party could probably make some themselves.
“We’ve never made it, but I’m sure that we can manage after a little research,” said Haruka. “Rather than drills, we’ll rely on magic to bore holes.”
“Oh yeah, I guess nobody in your party needs to use a physical drill,” I said.
Magic was way more convenient than a hand drill or even an electric drill. Boring holes required fine precision, so apparently it was impossible for most mages in this world, but if Haruka said it was no problem for her and her friends, I knew I could take her at her word.
“Can you start by making some prototypes, Tomi?” Yuki asked. “Then we’ll test ’em out and decide which ones are fit for use.”
“Sure, of course,” I replied. “I just need a little bit of time to work.”
Thanks to this brainstorming session, I’d come up with some designs and a concrete plan. The next step was the fabrication. I spent the next few days working on some prototypes and then handed them over to Yuki-san. She took them and went with Nao-kun somewhere they could practice.
★★★★★★★★★
Yuki showed up at Gantz-san’s store again a few days later. For some reason, she looked a bit down.
“What’s wrong, Yuki-san?” I asked, feeling nervous deep down. “Did the tools work okay?”
Just like last time, Haruka-san and Natsuki-san had accompanied her.
She nodded. “Yep. One of them broke, though.”
The rest of us all gasped at that frank, straightforward answer.
“W-Were you okay?” I asked.
“Nao fell,” Yuki replied.
“But he didn’t get injured, correct?” Natsuki put in.
“Yeah, I would have opened with that if he had,” Yuki replied. “The place where we tested out the gear wasn’t that high at all, and I was supporting him, so everything turned out okay. He got a little bruised, but that’s the kind of injury he can heal himself.”
“I see. I’m glad to hear that,” said Haruka.
She let out a very relieved-sounding sigh, and so did I.
“Yeah, same here,” I said. “I would have felt horrible if he’d gotten injured because of something I made. Which tool broke?”
“This one,” said Yuki. She took out the tool with the expanding tip. “My takeaway here is that complex tools aren’t easy to use.”
It was true that that was the tool I’d struggled the most to make, but...
“It looks like the pin broke,” I said. “I thought it was sturdy enough, but obviously I was wrong.”
“I think it broke because the amount of force applied to it isn’t always consistent,” said Yuki.
I inspected the pieces of the pin that Yuki-san had retrieved. Her explanation made sense to me. Another factor might have been the quality of the materials. I had tried to work carefully, but it was possible that some fragile sections of the final product had eluded my eye. There were also other potential issues, like the hardness and resilience of the metal and the way I’d quenched it.
“Should I try to make it sturdier?” I asked. “It’ll probably end up heavier if I do...”
“Um, I feel kinda bad given how hard you’ve been working on this, Tomi,” said Yuki, “but I don’t think we really need this one. The simpler tools will be easier to make and also a lot more trustworthy...”
“Oh, it’s okay—I don’t mind,” I said. “I just want to make sure you guys are safe.”
It was easier to maintain quality control with simpler tools, and they tended to break less too. Metal spikes were a good example of that principle. If that was what Yuki wanted, I had no reason to object.
“Thanks, Tomi,” said Yuki. “Also, I only thought of this after watching somebody rock climb myself, but pitons are another tool you can stick into a gap in a rock wall, right? The kind I specifically have in mind are shaped like this...”
What Yuki-san went on to describe was a spike made from sheet metal with a hole to pass a rope through. If you used softer, more malleable steel, it would deform to fit the shape of the gap, so even if you pulled on it from below, it wouldn’t be dislodged easily.
“Wedging a spike made from sheet metal into a gap, huh? I would never have come up with something like that on my own,” I said.
All of my designs had involved wedging or drilling hard metal spikes into rock walls. The idea of using softer metal was a new one to me. You would have thought it would slip out easily, but after Yuki-san explained how it worked, I was able to get it. It looked easy to make too, so there was no reason not to use this if lots of people had done so back on Earth.