Materials for the Core
There wasn’t much you could do against a dark wraith . That being said, this was a state of emergency .
And it was decided that each chief would return to deal with their own mansion .
I also made a report to Eric, Goran and the water dragon settlement .
It would be hard to deal with the dark wraiths if you didn’t even know they were there .
When that was finished, Kathe, Mors, Luchila and I all returned to the workroom .
Here, we would prepare to make barriers for the other mansions .
Lord Gerberga and Grulf watched us with serious eyes .
Perhaps they were interested in how barriers were made .
And then Mors said,
“I think we should make the barriers come from magic tools called cores . But the materials…”
“I have magic stones…would you need those?”
“I have some mithril and orichalcum too . ”
“Thank you . I think we can manage with that . ”
And then the three of us started to design it . But it was much more difficult than we expected .
We had to not only detect dark ones, but had to stop them from entering .
So it was similar to the divine barrier or the barrier surrounding the water dragon settlement .
That would not be easy .
“Like this, we can have the features we need…”
I suggested . Kathe frowned .
“Hmm . But this would be very weak…”
It could detect and prevent others from entering . But the barrier itself could be broken .
“That’s true… If only we had a Philosopher’s Stone…”
“A Philosopher’s Stone, huh? Perhaps we could ask Philly to give us one…”
But Philosopher’s Stones were very expensive . And Philly could not make a lot of them .
As we talked about this, Luchila said,
“In that case, maybe you could use Lord Gerberga’s feathers?”
“Cluck-cluck?”
Lord Gerberga flinched in surprise .
He looked at me with a worried expression .
“Lord Gerberga . Please don’t worry . I won’t pluck you by force . ”
“Yes . We won’t do anything you wouldn’t like . ”
“Cluck . ”
Our words seemed to soothe Lord Gerberga a little .
And then Mors and Kathe approached Lord Gerberga .
“Lord Gerberga . May I?”
“We aren’t going to start plucking you . I just want to take a look . ”
“Cluck-cluck . ”
Lord Gerberga cooed weakly and then flew towards me .
He calmed down once I was holding him .
“Cluck-cluck . ”
“He says it’s fine if you are only going to look . ”
“Lord Gerberga . Thank you . ”
And so Kathe and Mors started to inspect Lord Gerberga’s feathers .
It was almost like they were grooming him .
“Cluck . ”
Lord Gerberga seemed like he was enjoying it .
“Indeed, considering the magic energy and other things, using Lord Gerberga’s feathers as cores might just work…”
“I agree…”
“Cluck-cluck-cluck!”
Lord Gerberga sounded very scared again, and so I petted him gently .
“Don’t worry . We won’t pull them out by force . ”
“Groof…?”
Grulf looked worried as he moved towards Lord Gerberga and licked him .
I patted Grulf on the head . And then I had an idea .
“What about Grulf’s fur? No, what if his nails could be turned into a core…”
“Indeed! Grulf is a spirit beast after all!”
Grulf’s nails were not normal nails . His nails could catch a dark wraith .
“Yes, that’s true!”
“Groof?”
Grulf barked in surprise . Then he lay down like a cat and hid his front paws under him .
“Don’t worry . We’re not going to pull them out by the roots . We just want to clip them a little . ”
“Grrrr…”
“It won’t hurt . There won’t even be any blood . ”
“…Grrr…”
Grulf hesitatingly presented his front paws .
Kathe and Mors inspected them . His claws were not very long .
“They are quite short . ”
“Maybe they’ve been worn down from all the running he does…”
“If we took all the nails we’d need…”
His paws would probably bleed . Of course, Mors did not say it out loud, as it would scare Grulf .
“Groof!”
However, it seemed like Grulf had sensed what Mors had left unsaid .
He lay down and covered his front paws once again .
“Don’t worry . We won’t do anything that will hurt . ”
I patted Grulf of the head to comfort him .
Even if it was necessary, I didn’t want to do anything to hurt Grulf .
“I’ll call Philly and ask if she can give us a little bit of her Philosopher’s Stones . ”
“Yes, that is the only thing to do . ”
“Cluck-cluck!”
Lord Gerberga suddenly clucked in my arms .
“Lord Gerberga? What is it?”
“Cluck!”
Lord Gerberga turned his head around and plucked a single feather from his back .
He held it in his beak and then clucked again with a nod .
“Lord Gerberga, are you going to give that to us?”
“Cluck . ”
“Thank you . Did that hurt?”
“Cluck-cluck . ”
“Lord Gerberga molts too . So it was probably a feather that was going to fall out anyway . ”
“I see . ”
“Cluck-cluck . ”
And so Lord Gerberga gave us 5 of his feathers .
“Lord Gerberga! You saved us!”
“Thank you, Lord Gerberga . ”
“Cluck-cluck . ”
Lord Gerberga looked quite happy by Kathe and Mors’s gratitude .