Spirit Taming

While camping in this safe area was nice, the others still looked a little worried. Brad and Reese insisted on keeping watch and patrolling the edge of the wood fairies’ trees. They also seemed to be followed by a few shadows, surely the wood fairies who were wondering why the humans were so odd. But that was just part of the deal.

"So what are we going to make?" Maria was certain that Clark had some good ideas, however, she wondered what he would be trying to make from some rocks, tougher sticks,n and vines. It was just kind of weird that he was so focused on these things now.

"Hatchets for wood cutting, small stone knives for basic needs, and then we should focus on having torches built so that we can bring them in to dungeons." Ralph’s sentence ended with a slight huff. He was sure that everyone should be able to figure things out.

"He’s correct, the usage of our weapons and our tools will degrade because they are not up to the standards needed for outer wilderness exploration. I have enough data gathered about what will and will not be present within a jungle." Ella spoke similarly to professor Wright’s teaching and lecturing tone. She might end up as a professor herself. Or at least that’s the impression Clark got.

" The violent jungle, is a jungle. Jungles are known to be humid due to their absorption of rain water in to the soil then their ability to heat up with the sun. This causes multiple corroding effects that will wear away at the metals of any tools. Then there is the fact that there are plants that carry sap which will degrade anything used on them as a tool. It would be ideal to have specially made tools and weapons for such an area."

"The cost to maintain armor and weapons would be high. We can not waste materials on maintaining tools, so the only solution is to create our own tools and control the usage of materials better. We will have better quality weapons and armor this way." There was a pride in knowing that this was going to help keep the group safer. Especially when they had to deals with the risk of fighting many beasts in a dangerous wilderness.

"So we are going to learn how to put it all together so that Ralph and I won’t be working on every single thing all the time and then running out of energy and materials before a beast breaks our stuff and we die? Great." Grace’s sudden blunt summing up of everything stopped the group from speaking.

They all rarely heard that Grace was being negative. But in a way, it was positive. However, the bluntness was not what anyone had expected whatsoever.

"Ummmmm, yeah. We are going to do that." Clark tripped up a little before he started to grab materials.

He glanced at Grace who was clearly more excited that this would be easier. They had all been working on certain skills. However, Grace had managed to figure out a lot while working with Ralph.

The finishing techniques for metal work were usually related to wood, leather, and other embellishments to assist in the way they were used. This was expected and Ralph had started to learn these things too. But Grace had started to take interest and didn’t want Ralph doing all the work since her frost finch could do most of the cooling work alone without Grace’s help.

"Take the vine and use it in an alternating braid. It will be stronger." Grace showed Clark as he was about to affix a stone to the end of a stick. The larger stone was definitely harder to attach and Grace had understood this with a single glance. "It needs the braided strengths to fully attach without letting it wiggle. If it wiggles, the braid will be cut and you will just be throwing a stone at yourself."

"Then what should we do about the stone knives?" Grace smiled a little as Ralph grabbed a stone and chipped it apart using another larger stone of a tougher rock.

"Have someone strong break it and use a piece that is better suited for the size. Then use the rock to dull one side, wrap it with any leathery leaves or vines, and done." It was a basic stone knife, but it was much better than what they had when it came to how Clark would have made it.

"And class, welcome to making tools first year. Professor Grace and assistant Ralph are here to teach you everything you need to know." Jerold casually threw a joke in.

"And student Jerold will be making ten weaved baskets by himself because of his outburst. Or would he prefer to be the one that has to bury the ashes from the fire later?" This shut Jerold up pretty quickly.

"You gathered some sap, right?" Grace looked at Clark who had begun to copy the way that they had made a rudimentary ax, but then Grace interrupted him as he was about to braid the vines around the stone ax head he would use.

"I have some dried pine sap, is that useful? I thought that it could just be used to start fires. I figured it might be good to use as a boost to the flames when we are stuck in a misty or a rainy place." Clark felt confused but then started to understand as he watched Grace.

She took a small stone and placed it on the fire. The heat from the flames warmed the stone quickly to a temperature that would normally burn someone without the proper resistance. As she pulled the stone back using a stick, it sputtered on the wet grass.

When she placed the pieces of dried pine sap on it, they began to melt from a white ish rock to a black goo. "Now use that on the vines before wrapping them. When it dries it will be like the elemental glues they use to make certain equipment and ornaments."

"Oh, we used that when we were in Terra. They do the very same thing but with better quality tree saps that were cleaned and dried to be used for certain weapons or metals." Ralph Was clearly impressed by the way that Grace had remembered and used this technique that was still newer to him as well.

When she started to make a faster movement as she helped Clark braid the vines, the black good that had been dried pine sap oozed out and on to the rock they used as an ax head. The faster that grace made Clark move, the more he understood that if they were too slow, that this would be a failed attempt.

Next, the two pulled the braid tighter and tighter as the sap dried again. The stick that they used though was clearly too smooth. The bark had dried and fallen off leaving a way too smooth place for hands to hold it. This little hatchet or small ax would be useless if someone lost their grip while cutting branches for firewood with it. That would just lead to injuries. A worse thing to happen in the wilderness.

"Now I use a little bit of fire to treat the handle. That will remove any chance that bugs, plant seeds, or molds try and latch on to it and make it their food." Ralph took over showing how to heat and burn the wood layer over every stick they used without causing any damage. It was a very new technique that Clark had never seen. But he vaguely remembered seeing some burnt handles on cheaper weapons.

"And we can finish it by wrapping around move vines and sap. But you want the handle to be flatter, right? So we will smash the vines flat before we wrap it. It would be better with leaves though. We might find something in the jungle." Ralph and Grace started to debate what they might find. It was clear that the two had gathered a lot of knowledge.

Ella hadn’t said much in the last few minutes. When Clark glanced over, he noticed that she had been taking notes. This was a subject that she had not touched on too much since it had not be related to the beasts she researched. Especially since it had not be at all in reference to beast growth plans lately.

However, she did have more survival training because she was ahead of them in the academy. But nothing to this in depth level of making ideal tools within the wilderness. "That is it, right?" Clark finished wrapping flattened vines around the burned handle after another twenty minutes. He smoothed them out and tied an anchor at the bottom like Ralph showed. Him. it was the first real tool he had made like this without much use of facilities meant for it.

"That’s right. Now you have a wood cutting small ax. It’s a little bigger than a hatchet so it’s technically an ax." Grace beamed with pride now that the group was listening to her and Ralph. Ralph just stood there with a slightly smug grin on his face.