I spent the next few days immersing myself in iron-powered creativity. I made a massive pot for cooking soups and stews. While I was at it, I also made a range of different-sized frying pans and a variety of saucepans. Before long, the kitchen shelves were lined with an excessive number of pots and pans. Just looking at them made me happy.
I made spoons and forks, as well as a large ladle and other cooking utensils, wrapping the handles in a shield of the silvery metal to protect against burns. Last but not least came a giant grill for the barbecue, as well as a thick iron plate to use as a flattop grill. Upon spotting the new barbecue equipment, the keen-eyed antlets and baby spiders got so excited it almost caused a full-blown riot.
You guys scare me.
After putting it off for a while, I finally went back and excavated some of the red and blue crystals that Fluffy had gotten so worked up over. In my workshop on the second basement level, I put the ores through their paces, using magic to knead them, reshape them, and fill them with a stockpile of mana. The results: inconclusive. To me, they just seemed like bog-standard (albeit pretty) crystals. I didn’t understand why Fluffy had been so excited to find them.
Sorry, Fluffs.
The only thing my magical tinkering seemed to accomplish was making the crystals a lot less sparkly, which I wasn’t particularly worried about. Since they were somewhat transparent, I decided to transform all the crystals I’d excavated into bottles and jars. I then used the silvery ore to make lids, and before long, I was the proud owner of a full range of food-storage solutions. The variously sized containers would be perfect for seasonings. The crystals hadn’t lost their color when I transformed them, which made distinguishing the contents a little difficult, but I’d hopefully stumble across some clear crystals in the future.
The animals seemed a little wary of my new collection of containers. Fluffy, in particular, seemed downright shocked.
Maybe I shouldn’t have turned them into kitchenware... Oh well. They’re really handy, so I’m sorry Fluffy!
I spent the next few days visiting (and revisiting) the other caves and hollows around the area, gathering any ores and minerals I found, then lining them up by type on the bench in my workshop. I couldn’t actually distinguish which of the two each rock was, so I just chose to assume that the plainer-looking ones were ores and the prettier ones were minerals. I hadn’t ever needed to classify geologic resources back in Japan, so understandably, my knowledge was a little lacking.
What I did do, though, was decide on names for the more useful materials, largely for my own convenience. For simplicity’s sake, the green-and-black metal I’d used to make my frying pan would be known as iron (even though I was fairly certain that iron wasn’t usually green). The stone the cave was made of—which I’d also used to make the clay dolls, the barbecue coals, and half of my other possessions—became “all-purpose stone.” The other two metals I regularly used—the golden and silvery ones—were simplified to just “gold” and “silver,” and the two crystalline minerals would be referred to as blue crystal and red crystal, respectively.
No point in overthinking it!
I’d also come across two new types of ore during my search—a jagged rock containing metallic blue streaks and a smooth black rock with dark red swirls and something otherworldly about it. I couldn’t think of any use for either at the moment, so I decided to put them aside for later.
However... I should probably put them somewhere obvious, or else I’ll just forget I even found them.
Adventure!
The very thought made my heart race. It was time to once again attempt to conquer the labyrinthine cave I’d discovered during my hunt for iron.
Koa and Chai led the way back to the cave. Above our heads, two of the baby spiders kept pace, swinging from tree to tree—
Wait, swinging?! That’s new...
Neither Spider Boss nor the baby spiders—as far as I could tell—were able to produce webs. Neither had really seemed to need to either; Spider Boss was as fast in the trees as Koa was on the ground. I’d just assumed that their species had evolved to have really strong legs.
They’d scared the crap out of me more than once. I’d be out exploring, totally oblivious to their presence, when I’d suddenly see giant spiders chasing after me like I was lunch. Each time, I’d close my eyes, whisper a desperate prayer, and wait for death until eventually remembering that the spiders were friendly.
I’d always thought that all species of spiders could make webs, so it had confused me that Spider Boss and its protégés weren’t able to. Now I was surprised because some of them apparently could.
Maybe these ones have evolved? Or maybe it’s a random trait that only a few of them have? Hmm... I shrugged. Not like I can find out either way.
As well potentially undergoing a rapid evolution, the baby spiders were still in the midst of their growth spurt too. The two spiders hanging overhead had grown so large, their bodies now spanned wider than my outstretched arms. I had to suppress a scream each time they swung into sight, terrified that their webs would snap and send them crashing into me.
How come you’ve got so big, and yet your webs are still so thin?! If you’re gonna evolve anyway, evolve to have thicker webs!
Thankfully, the webs were stronger than they looked, and we didn’t have any unfortunate incidents on the way to the maze cave.
Compared with the other caves I’d explored since arriving, the maze cave felt different: The air was thick and stagnant. A short descent from the cave opening led to the entrance to the labyrinth. The thought of wandering around the maze and getting lost would have usually been enough to stop me from attempting it, but the maze had a fairly significant defect—the walls only spanned about half as high as the cave ceiling. The whole thing was visible from above, whether via magic or simply climbing the walls. As far as mazes went, this one was pretty pointless.
Koa, Chai, and I made our way through the maze, following the directions of the swinging spiders. Having them guide us made the whole “adventure” a lot more relaxed—that is, until we started encountering booby traps. It was pretty standard stuff: spears shooting out of hidden crevices, walls closing in, pitfalls suddenly opening in the floor, and so on. The spiders lassoed the spears with their handy webs. Koa smashed the walls to rubble. The pitfalls were easily overcome with a bit of wind magic. A little levitation and a touch of forward motion, and we could walk through the air as easily as on solid ground.
The airwalk strategy hadn’t been one of my ideas but Chai’s, which had confused me immensely—I hadn’t realized he could use magic at all, let alone wind magic. He’d made it look so easy too. I, on the other hand, stood there stalling until Chai’s anxious face made me feel bad enough to finally take the so-called leap of faith.
Thanks to my spider guides and magic-wielding canine escorts, my journey through the deadly maze involved no real danger. Apart from keeping up with the others, I had absolutely no role to play. At one point, I looked behind to discover that Shion and Sami had also joined us, as well as one of the squirrels, who’d climbed onto my shoulder without me even realizing. I trotted along in the middle of my pack of bodyguards, feeling entirely redundant.
Adventure...feels a bit less exciting than I expected.