A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Chapter 279: Chapter 279 - Picking a material

"That was… interesting," mumbled an amused Elora through their bond, as Erik walked out of the living area and towards the crafting room.

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"Enjoyable as well," Erik answer with a subtle smirk.

"I'll bet it was!" Elora laughed loudly. "You won't let me sit on the sidelines forever with her, though, right? I mean I promised you I'd leave her alone, and I will, but not forever, right? I'm sure you can convince her to let me join at this point!"

Erik could hear the sadistic excitement in the fairy's voice. Clearly, she was itching to get her hands on poor Emily now that a crack in her independence had appeared.

He chuckled, "How about we wait until she finally agrees to marry me? That way, you'll at least be inhibited by the fact that she's family."

"Fine," Elora sighed. "But you're almost making me wish she doesn't marry you so I don't have to hold back!" she laughed loudly at her own joke.

Erik rolled his eyes at her behavior, but his next words were laced with a little concern, as he could hear the exhaustion in her voice. "Why don't you get some more rest, Elora? I'm sorry about all these distractions. I promise the new medium will be done in at most a week, so you can finally sleep for real."

"It's fine," Elora giggled. "I fully support your efforts with Astrid and Emily." Before she continued, she yawned, and her next words were said as if she was slowly falling asleep. "But I suppose I will get some more rest… Between helping you with the fusion and keeping an eye on Eira and her sigils this whole time, I'm starting to get worn out…"

By the end, Elora had slipped back into her hibernation mode, where she was subconsciously keeping an eye on their surroundings, but wasn't actually getting all the rest she required.

Luckily she was a third rank, but after a month of no real sleep and constant usage of omnisense, even her mind was starting to fray at the edges.

With Elora taking a rest, Erik moved on to the forge with his new technique in hand.

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Now in the runesmithing hall, Erik looked around. 'I should have a look at the available materials first,' he thought to himself. 'Luckily, there is someone I can ask for help…'

"Eira?" he said out loud while looking around, hoping the construct would show herself.

The construct almost immediately made her appearance. Surprisingly, she was pouting. "So, are you finally ready to get started? You've already been awake for hours!"

"Sorry, sorry," Erik chuckled at her attitude. "I had some… important matters to handle."

Eira narrowed her eyes at him. "You know I can see everything that goes on in this place, right?"

A small smile appeared on Erik's face. "Oh? And did you enjoy the show?"

It was no surprise she could see what he was getting up when he was having sex with his companions. In fact, he considered it a bonus.

As hoped, Eira's face quickly started heating up. "T— That's n— not… That doesn't… That's beside the point!"

"If you say so," Erik chuckled. "Just know that you're free to join in anytime, alright?"

Naturally, her face became even redder. "S— Shut up! J— Just tell me what you want already?!"

'Aah, she's fun to tease,' Erik thought while smiling at Eira. "Right. I want to start practicing the Frostvolt technique, but I'd like to use the same material as for the medium, so I can get familiar with their interactions. Can you show me the best alloys or metals that are stored here?"

"Sure!" Eira quickly nodded enthusiastically with a bright smile, any embarrassment from before quickly wiped out due Erik's clear intentions of getting started on the medium.

Eira immediately disappeared, and returned almost instantly with a single, light-brown ingot in her hands and that same bright smile still gracing her face. Although Erik couldn't help but notice a small, deceptive twinkle in her eyes.

As a third tier Runesmith, Erik had extensive knowledge on the truly enormous amount of different types of metal there were in the universe. And so, he quickly recognized this one as being the third-rank metal bogiron.

'That's bogiron…' he thought to himself. 'It's a fine metal, but not particularly rare or interesting. Worse, it's related to the mud affinity, which would severely hamper my ability to channel electricity through anything I create with it. There's no way I can use this…'

"Eira…" he began, with a raised eyebrow and a suspicious tone. "Are you really telling me that this is the only third tier metal you have available?"

"Y— Yeah…?" Eira mumbled, while continuing to hold out the metal towards Erik, but being unable to look directly at him.

"Eira… this is not how trust growths, you know?" Erik continued, now in a slightly more amused tone, as he realized why Eira was presenting him with only this metal.

His argument quickly caused Eira's expression to crumble as she pouted. "But the color is so pretty! It's the same as my hair and eyes. In fact, it's the same as Mistress's hair and eyes, too! Can't you just use this?" she pleaded at the end.

Unfortunately, Erik had to shake his head. "Sorry, Eira. You can absolutely help with the design, but the metal is actually very important."

As a demonstration, he took the bogiron from Eira's hands and charged his hand with thundersnow lightning before attempting to channel the lightning through the ingot. Unfortunately, it just sizzled on the surface and began to slowly freeze the ingot.

"See?" he asked the slightly despondent Eira. "If I can't channel my main affinity through this, there's no way I could use it in the future. You still wouldn't be able to travel with me."

"Okay…" the floating minotaur girl pouted sadly while poking her fingers together. She did understand, but she'd been hoping to be able to live in her favorite color in the future.

"That doesn't mean we can't use this color in the final design, however…" Erik grinned slightly. "But that's part of the design phase. We can discuss that later, alright?"

'There's no way I'm going to walk around with this thing colored completely light-brown, but I certainly wouldn't mind creating some decorations of this color,' he softly laughed inwardly. Although he didn't voice that part out loud for now.

"Really?!" Eira exclaimed happily while clapping her hands.

"Yeah," Erik chuckled and nodded. "But later. For now, can you please get all the third rank metals available, instead of just the ones you like?"

With his promise given, Eira enthusiastically nodded and disappeared again. This time, she took a little longer, but soon reappeared with a rainbow of several ingots floating around her.

'Now we're talking…' Erik thought to himself while his eyes shone with interest.