HC: Pacifist | Ch. 208 - Assembly Line

Roth felt more confident in his technique after a few rounds of crafting using the rib stitch. From measly E’s and D’s, he was starting to get solid B’s and C’s. Although he understood why Juliette had chosen to teach him [Stockinette Stitch] first, [Rib Stitch] was much better to practice transitioning between purl and knit stitches. Whereas in the stockinette stitch, he only had to alternate the type of stitch whenever he got to a new row, with rib stitch, he was forced to transition between the two all the time.

After making a few wool clothes, Roth felt it was time to move on to other recipes. He could keep honing his skills while making more valuable items, so he would go back to knitting woolen pants.

However, before he could do so, he had to prepare the new crafting material he’d purchased from Juliette.

Alpaca Wool (Crafting Material)

Description: Wool sheared from alpacas.

Restrictions: Tailor, lvl. 10.

Raw alpaca wool looked as brown and dirty as sheep’s wool, although hued in a different tone of brown. He felt the fibers in his hand and found they felt lighter and softer than raw sheep wool. He was curious to see how that would affect the final product.

He started by skirting the wool, looking for any dirty bits, pieces of straw, or debris to remove. As he did, he noticed that the process took longer than it would have with a fleece of sheep’s wool. He kept finding new bits to remove, no matter how thorough he was. The progress bar increased at a good pace but significantly slower than what he was used to.

[Raw Alpaca Wool] has become [Skirted Alpaca Wool].

+30 ecotailor XP.

Despite taking longer, he received triple the amount of XP compared to skirting sheep's wool. It looked like all those bonuses he’d seen in some of the tools he’d purchased were valuable. He grabbed the new set of carding pads he’d gotten from Juliette.

Novice Carding Pads (Common)

Description: These carding pads are made of sturdier wood and can help you comb fibers a little quicker.

Item effects: Carding is 10% faster.

Restrictions: Tailor, lvl. 10.

Ten percent might not sound like a lot, but he guessed that the more one progressed in tailoring, the longer it took to process the materials. Having good tools would become even more important later on. He would have to go to the auction house and look for how expensive better tools were.

He patiently went through stack after stack of [Alpaca Wool]. As he immersed himself in the process, he lost track of time. All he was interested in was finding and amputating the bad pieces of the alpaca fleeces. Once he was finished, he checked his profession’s progress bar. Even though he hadn’t gained a level in his profession from doing this, he still had progressed significantly.

Now, it was time to wash the wool. He grabbed the two copper buckets he had purchased less than 24 hours earlier.

Copper Bucket (Common)

Description: These buckets can hold heat for a little longer, thus speeding up the washing process.

Item effects: It’s 10% faster to dry fibers.

Restrictions: Tailors, lvl. 10.

They looked better than the old tin ones he used to have. The speed bonus that they granted would also come in handy. He placed them on the ground and prepared to fill them. Unlike last time, he didn’t have access to a faucet, so he resorted to one of the consumables he had prepared.

Fresh Water (Consumable)

Description: Water is a treasure that isn’t readily available everywhere you travel. A seasoned traveler always keeps a few of these in his bag.

Effects:

+20 ep.

It was one of the most basic ways to replenish one’s energy bar, but that’s not what he would use it for. He opened the bottle of water and poured its contents into the bucket. Once the buckets were filled, he grabbed another consumable.

Hot Stone (Consumable)

Description: The stone of a water volcano that heats whenever it is in contact with water. Perfect for making tea or coffee when you’re in the great outdoors.

Effects:

Heats water.

It was another cheap consumable designed to help players with the chef profession who wanted to cook while traveling. He threw stones into both buckets and watched the water gently bubbling and steam emerging. He put his hand into the water and, satisfied with the temperature, soaked as many fleeces of alpaca wool as he could fit into the water.

More dirt and debris came to the surface. Roth kept waiting for the oily lanolin to separate from the water, but nothing happened. He frowned. Why wasn’t lanolin coming out? Was the water not hot enough? Had he done something wrong?

To ensure there wasn’t anything wrong with his tools, he grabbed one bit of raw sheep wool he had in his inventory, quickly skirted it, and put it in the bucket. The thicker substance immediately separated from the wool and came to the surface. He clicked his tongue. Juliette hadn’t mentioned that alpaca wool had no lanolin! Then why did he buy the [Lanolin Extractor]? Was that only good for the most basic wool?

His current equipment was made of lambswool, and he’d seen other types of sheep wool for sale in the auction house. He would probably keep returning to sheep wool throughout his career and use the lanolin extractor later on. He shrugged, stored the [Lanolin Extractor], and focused on washing the alpaca wool.

Since he didn’t need to wait for lanolin to come out, washing alpaca wool was significantly faster. He just put the fleeces in the water, moved them around, and they came out cleaner. All he needed now was a place to hang these to dry. He wetted his finger and waved it around, looking for the warmest spot possible. There were bursts of chilly wind and sprays of water splashing due to the skills used in battle.

“No, Roth. No battle. There isn’t any battle going on. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts,” he mumbled.

In addition to the chill and the moist, gusts of dry, hot air were coming his way now and then. It was BlueFire who was burning and throwing flames like a madman. Roth grabbed his buckets filled with alpaca wool and ran toward him.

*

ColdHand took stock of the resources he had left. After two hours of fighting, they were down to thirty players, and they still couldn’t get Loki’s health bar to the red zone. It was an unfair fight. Whenever Loki got a lucky shot or landed a critical hit, one of them died. However, no matter how many mistakes the hive king made or how brilliant their moves they couldn’t make a sizable dent in him. The alliance danced on the blade's edge while Loki leisurely picked them off individually.

He glanced over in the direction of their hunting party’s resident looney bin. He was now washing wool in buckets. The gall that this man had. How could someone craft so leisurely while the rest of them were here giving it their all in battle?

Ticket Boy jolted upright, put his finger in his mouth, and then waved it around as if trying to determine the direction of the wind. What was he doing now? His crazy eyes landed on the opposite side of the battlefield. ColdHand tried to determine what had piqued Ticket Boy’s interest and followed his gaze toward BlueFire. What was he trying to do?

Roth picked up both buckets filled with water and soaked wool and ran across the battlefield. Jaw-Long flailed his hands around.

“Get back here! I can’t protect you if you run around!”

Roth acted as if he hadn’t heard him. Seeing his prey running to his arms, Loki grinned excitedly.

Psionic Push!

Loki used his knockback skill to get the warriors off his neck and shot a beam of red energy toward Ticket Boy.

Reality Bend!

Jaw-Long’s eyes shone white, and he twisted the fabric of reality, deflecting Loki’s attacks, but Loki was already lunging toward him. With a gap of almost fifty levels, the slightest graze would instantly kill him.

Mel’s hawk shone in a brilliant red and crashed into Loki, shifting his attack’s direction and causing him to miss Roth, who kept running toward BlueFire, followed by Jaw-Long, mumbling and complaining throughout the whole chase. “And here I thought that I’d seen everything. A man works hard, reaches the top, and still can’t help getting caught in these annoying little errands.” That was the longest sentence ColdHand had ever heard the old man say.

The espers were divided into three squads. ColdHand had organized things this way to make it more difficult for Loki to target them simultaneously. Incidentally, he was in the same squad as BlueFire. Loki had mostly ignored them until now, but now that Roth was running toward them, he was bringing the big bad wolf in tow.

“What are you doing?” ColdHand calmly asked him as Roth passed right by his side. The young man’s eyes were empty as if he were in a separate dimension or a trance. He really had lost it.

BlueFire wasn’t so calm. “You moron! What are you doing? Are you crazy? Why are you bringing Loki here?!” ColdHand had never seen his rival so flustered. “Is this how you thank me? Come on, man! We saved you and your family! I even accepted your ludicrous prices for the Antioch guide! What more do you want?”

While completely ignoring BlueFire’s protests, Roth approached the wall behind the squad, removing the dripping fleeces of washed wool from the buckets and hanging them all around the pyrokinetic.

Death Wave!

Spectral Spear!

Abyssal Bolt!

Loki had arrived in fire and fury and spat skills everywhere.

Ice Wall!

Crystal Dome!

Fire Barrier!

The squad of espers used shields of different elements layering them to protect them from Loki’s attacks, but Loki just pierced through them all as if they were made of paper. Jaw-Long had to use a [Meteor Punch] to keep him at bay long enough for Manny, Ogre, and MountainTop to arrive and keep Loki away from them.

ColdHand bit his lip. Even if he died, they couldn’t afford to lose BlueFire. He had to get him out of harm’s way.

“All esper squads. Rotate 30 degrees clockwise,” he messaged in the party chat. The whole formation shifted like a herd of buffalos running away from a lion. Everyone ran while sending attacks to Loki, thus reorganizing the battlefield so that the DPS teams could be as far away from Loki as possible with a line of melee fighters in between to prevent Loki from getting to them.

Seeing that BlueFire had run off, Ticket Boy just picked up all the fleeces of wool he’d hung earlier, put them in the bucket again, and chased after him.

“What are you doing? What do you want?!” BlueFire’s voice had become hoarse and whiny. The shrill voice coming from the usually calm general was unsightly.

Seeing Ticket Boy running away with his buckets, Loki also tried following. Cyclops charged him, and Manny summoned trees and vines to hold him, but they barely managed to keep him in place.

This couldn’t continue. Ticket Boy was turning the battlefield upside down. What had gotten into him? Why this fixation with BlueFire all of a sudden?

“Get off me! What are you doing, boy? Are you crazy?!”

Despite BlueFire’s protests, Ticket Boy again hung the wool around him and even tried to put some soaking wool on top of him. As the wet wool made contact with his hot body, it sizzled, and steam came off it abundantly. Seeing this, ColdHand’s brows shot up.

“He’s just trying to use BlueFire as a radiator to dry his wool. Formation. Shift again. Jaw-Long, please guard BlueFire and Crazy.”

The professional gamers' faces were filled with disbelief and contempt. This was the most critical battle in the game right now, and they all had to accommodate this crazy guy who kept knitting, dancing, and using their firepower to dry his clothes. Still, no one dared question ColdHand’s commands, and the formation shifted again.

ColdHand was sure that if BlueFire hadn’t believed they needed to keep Ticket Boy alive because of his quest, he would have already blown him to smithereens. The fleeces of wet wool were all letting off steam as BlueFire kept throwing pyrokinetic skills one after the other at Loki. ColdHand didn’t know if anger made a pyrokinetic’s flames hotter, but it certainly felt that way.

Ch. 207 - Rib Stitch

INDEX

Ch. 209 - Gecko Feet