HC: Pacifist | Ch. 207 - Rib Stitch

Roth continued practicing changing between stitches on a simple piece of cloth. The motion was initially uncomfortable, but he felt he had improved somewhat when he finished crafting the item.

Congratulations! You've successfully crafted [Woolen Cloth].

Crafting Grade: E.

+125 ecotailor XP.

Woolen Cloth (Consumable)

Item description: The cloth can wipe armor and give it extra shine for a while.

Item effects:

+1.5% damage resistance to a piece of armor for 30 minutes.

+1% status resistance to a piece of armor for 30 minutes.

Congratulations! You’ve learned a new profession skill: [Rib Stitch].

+2000 ecotailor XP.

[Ecotailor Level Up!]

Rib Stitch (Profession)

Description: This technique produces a textured fabric with vertical columns of knit stitches alternating with purl stitches. It provides stretch and elasticity to fabric.

Effects:

Pieces of equipment crafted with this technique gain one bonus stat. Consumables gain half a grade.

Restrictions: Tailor, lvl. 10.

Roth blinked briefly, reading the new notification. No way! Had he just learned a new stitching technique? He studied the piece of cloth he’d just made. Truth be told, the stitches were a strangled mess; however, he could still see the vertical columns of knit stitches, as mentioned in the skill’s description.

It was delightfully simple, actually. If he alternated rows of stitches, he was using the stockinette stitch. He used the rib stitch if he alternated stitches inside the same row. Roth pulled out his ecotailor manual. Since he’d last handled it, its pages had become filled with more information, and he checked the section that described his professional skills. He wanted to compare the effects of [Rib Stitch] with those of [Stockinette Stitch].

Stockinette Stitch (Profession)

Description: By alternating between knit stitches and purl stitches, you make your fabric stronger and more durable.

Effects:

Pieces of equipment crafted with this technique gain one bonus stat. Consumables gain half a grade.

Restrictions: Tailor, lvl. 10.

The effects of the skill were the same. What did that mean? That it made no difference whether he used one stitch or the other? He scratched his chin in thought, trying to figure out how to use these techniques best. He looked at his own clothes that had been knitted by seasoned tailors. They had used more than one knitting stitch when making them. Did that mean he could stuff both techniques all in one item, thus stacking the bonuses?

He picked a few more skeins of yarn from the sheep wool he had left. Although he had stuffed most of his inventory with raw alpaca wool, he had also brought some sheep wool to practice with before he tried his new techniques on the more valuable material.

He started making a new cloth using the rib stitch. He moved the thread through the loop with the right needle, then switched gears and performed the same motions but in the opposite direction. He was getting the hang of it, and changing stitches didn’t feel as uncomfortable anymore. He kept crafting the cloth using the new stitch he had just learned until he finished the fifth row.

Once he got to the second half of the cloth, he stopped alternating stitches within the same row and made one full row of knit stitches. He switched techniques during the crafting process to determine if his suspicion was correct. His excitement made him miss more than a few stitches, but he was too excited about how it would turn out.

Finally, he cast off and admired the new [Woolen Cloth] he’d made.

Congratulations! You've successfully crafted [Woolen Cloth].

Crafting Grade: D-.

+130 ecotailor XP.

Woolen Cloth (Consumable)

Item description: The cloth can wipe armor and give it extra shine for a while.

Item effects:

+0.5% damage resistance to a piece of armor for 30 minutes;

+0.5% status resistance to a piece of armor for 30 minutes;

+1 strength.

Even though the crafting grade was subpar, his theory was confirmed! He had made this consumable grant not only damage resistance but also status resistance and even a stat! What a major difference! That wasn’t all. Even though his crafting grade was terrible, it was still clear to him that he was gaining more XP by utilizing different stitches during the crafting process.

An absolute beginner could make a simple woolen cloth that only granted damage resistance, but a more seasoned tailor could use the same materials to produce a much more powerful item. The better the tailor, the greater the difference they could make in the quality of the equipment.

Screams and sounds of fighting around him finally reached him, and he was brought to reality. Loki sent an AoE skill that finished off two warriors, but the espers unleashed a powerful attack as a response, shaving off some of Loki’s hp. His muscles tensed, and he clenched his teeth, but he stopped himself. He made himself look away. He forced himself to think about something else.

The discovery. The stitches. Yes. This discovery was huge. He had to move. He had to do something. He would celebrate. He started dancing. All this nervous energy had to go somewhere. He had to let out some steam; all he wanted to do was dance.

The bursts of light and temperature variations around him as the battle progressed tried to shake him off his funk, but he just tried to imagine that the lights were a disco ball and the explosions a beat to give him rhythm. A little voice in his head told him to join the battle around him, but he just drowned it out with music.

“Stitch, stitch, stitch.

I’m in stitches.

I’m in stitches.

Stitch, stitch, stitch,

I’m in stitches.

I’m in stitches.”

Roth slightly twisted the lyrics of a song he liked, making it more suitable for the occasion he was celebrating. He didn’t usually sing, but thankfully, he had always been a talented singer and could make it work. Roth danced vigorously with everything he had. It was too bad he wasn’t filming this; he was feeling inspired. He kept dancing and moving until he was panting. He hadn’t danced like this since he had gotten his relationship with the snakes to adored status.

It felt good to pump some oxygen into his brain. Some of the tension had ebbed away, and he felt at peace again. He had danced his way back to another world where no fighting was going on. Satisfied with his performance, he sat back down and picked up the cloth he’d just made.

Roth fought the urge to discover more different patterns. Juliette was right. He had to focus on one thing at a time and build his tailoring from the ground up. He returned to crafting cloths using [Rib Stitch], hoping to perfect his transitions between stitches.

*

Ninety-eight of the ninety-nine players of the hunting party had used the teleportation gate, but very few from the entourage survived long. Loki had already wiped out fifty players, and the battle was brutal. ColdHand had to sacrifice more than ten players to Loki’s renewed assault after he drank the [Cleansing Potion] before they could stack enough debuffs on him again to slow him down. On the other hand, they had finally managed to shatter the barrier, and it didn’t look like Loki could reuse that skill again soon.

Loki combined a high-level boss's overwhelming strength with a player's cunning and smarts. He kept alternating targets, making it exceedingly difficult to manage the battlefield. He would send a barrage of skills toward Ticket Boy, only to then target the medics and the espers. They kept chasing after him, trying to pin him down, but even so, it was like trying to control a hurricane. ColdHand wasn’t sure they’d be able to finish the monster off.

Ice Shards!

ColdHand saw an opening and threw a series of icicles toward Loki.

-12

-13

-11

The damage wasn’t too impressive, but thankfully, other team members were doing better.

Double Slash!

-69

-45

Ogre brandished his two swords in a cross-slash pattern, and two big numbers came up. The longer the guild leader of the Ogres fought, the more damage he dealt. After twenty minutes of fighting, the bonus was becoming increasingly visible. His bear also kept shooting sunbeams at Loki, significantly damaging him. He was in the lead regarding DPS and fighting for the first place with BlueFire.

Simmering Heat!

-10

-10

-10

-10

Many of BlueFire’s skills dealt damage per second, and the burn damage kept stacking. The duo was formidable. ColdHand had fought the Ogres many times and knew how much havoc this duo could wreak. MountainTop and Griffin also stabilized the hunt, soaking much of the damage and taking some of the pressure off Ogre.

The only player left to teleport in was Cerberus.

“Can I go in or what?” he asked ColdHand in a message.

“Please hold. Keep charging.” He had already asked several times in the chat when he should come in, but ColdHand wanted to save him as a last resort to execute Loki once they got him low enough. Even though Cerberus wasn’t here yet, his guild’s players were fighting valiantly.

Loki tried to use an execution skill on Griffin.

Coup de Grâce!

Manny stepped in, stomping the ground.

Tangling Roots!

A series of vines emerged from under Loki and pulled at his arms, interrupting the channeling. Manny punched and kicked Loki, making flowers sprout from wherever he hit him, which shortly after exploded, dealing generous damage.

-13

-23

-13

-24

Manny had a weird mixed class that combined plants and melee fighting. Many of his skills had short stuns, and if ColdHand had seen him fight before, he would have had him join the fight much sooner. He’d already saved Ogre twice, and counting this instance, Griffin three times.

ColdHand glanced in the direction of Roth Taylor. Ticket Boy was in a world of his own. Now he knew that Ticket Boy hadn’t taunted Loki on purpose. The young man wasn’t a genius. He was just not right in the head. They had tried to message and call him, but he kept his eyes glued to his needles, whistling happily as he knitted pants. He reminded ColdHand of his grandfather, who’d gone senile toward the end of his life.

Considering what he knew about him, he wasn’t surprised. If the account was true, Ticket Boy had spent years in jail, only to be trapped in the game and tortured and chased by Loki. He could see how that kind of pressure could traumatize a man. Even so, for him to have accomplished so much in the game so far was tremendous, and if this was how he coped, so be it. At least he wasn’t getting in the way.

Suddenly, Ticket Boy stood up and started performing bizarre movements. His body twisted at weird angles in a disturbing sequence of jerking movements. ColdHand was startled at the abrupt shift in behavior.

“BlueFire, Ogre. I think Ticket Boy is having a stroke!” ColdHand messaged.

BlueFire and Ogre turned toward Roth, and they weren’t the only ones. Everyone had stopped fighting again to watch what Roth was doing. Even Loki's head bobbed to one side, trying to make sense of it.

“How can he be having a stroke? The pod would have logged him out by now,” replied Ogre. “Oh. Never mind. His pod is bugged.”

“I already sent some people to check his pod. We’ll call an ambulance if needed,” added BlueFire.

Just as things couldn’t get any weirder, Roth opened his mouth and let out a series of screams. They were shrill sounds that brought shivers up his spine. It really was a heart attack. What a tragedy for someone so young to have a stroke like this. The pressure really had been too much, and his heart couldn’t take it anymore.

After a few moments, ColdHand started making sense of the words being shouted. Something about stitches, and I’m in stitches. ColdHand squinted and kept watching Roth’s movements. His jaw dropped. He noticed how the shouting had a certain sequence to it, and Roth was jerking at the same time he shouted. Could it be?

“Guys, I think he’s just singing and dancing,” said ColdHand.

“No way. How can that be singing and dancing?” protested Mel.

ColdHand stood speechless for a few moments. It was the second time today that this guy managed to defy all reason and do something completely unexpected like this. Once people realized he was dancing and singing, a roar of laughter went through the group. They pointed at him and laughed. Mel and Cyclops, especially, laughed hysterically. The only two people who weren’t laughing were Loki and ColdHand.

“Why are you provoking me like this, Slayer?! Haven’t you done enough? I swear I will kill you until you’re level zero!” shouted Loki.

Roth just kept dancing as if he hadn’t heard Loki’s threats. Loki’s anger returned in full, and he charged Ticket Boy like a bull again, but Jaw-Long used his [Galaxy Shield] and absorbed the hit.

ColdHand had to review his conclusions. Was Ticket Boy really crazy? Or was it all just an act? On the one hand, dancing like this had taunted Loki again. On the other hand, what sane person would sing and dance so poorly?

It didn’t matter. This man was a puzzle he didn’t need to solve. All that mattered was the window of opportunity he had created.

“Rogues, get ready to attack on my signal. Manny, Kraken, get your stuns ready.”

Ch. 206 - Rusty Mist

INDEX

Ch. 208 - Assembly Line