Threads of the Soul

Chapter 445 - 445: Important Work

Titus' workshop was currently empty, bar for one man working away silently. He sat beside a small, ancient oil lamp that looked like a genie was ready to spring out of it, as he was hunched over and focused on the work that was illuminated by the pale blue light the lamp's flame produced.Despite the flames existence, it made no noise almost as if it was just an illusion, while the man in question was completely silent himself from his concentration. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop from across the room. Well... almost a pin.

Ting ting Tiing!

"God dammit!" Seth cursed to himself as he tossed another sewing needle onto the floor, listening to its melodic tune as it bounced across the ground to join its brethren in his discard pile.

He plucked another from the 'still useful' pile, slipped the thread into the hole first time and immediately set back to his work. He was currently in the process of crafting his own forging gloves, so he could turn them into Requitals that would fix themselves as well as be able to be carried about with him.

The actual act of sewing was, surprisingly, not the difficult part. Strangely, it came completely naturally to him. He had never sewn or stitched before in his life, never held a needle and thread. Yet the process of it all just came into his mind as if he had been doing it for years.

He assumed, because it was the only rational explanation that he could think of, that it was some kind of left over trait from his mutation. Not big enough to be considered a secondary mutation, but definitely spawning from it.

It was similar, in his mind, to genetic instinct. The weaver bird, for example, did not need to be taught how to craft its nest. It could be raised in a lab, by a parent who had also been raised in a lab, with neither of them ever having crafted a nest in their entire lives.

Then, when it was sent out into the wild, it could make a nest just like those of its ancestors almost like the blueprints were carved into its soul.

The same happened for humans. A baby didn't need to be taught how to crawl or walk, they just needed to build the muscle to do it, and often have the right motivation. It is burned into humanities very existence, after countless generations of mutations and evolution.

With the system, Seth's body had skipped those generations. Or more accurately, he had thousands and millions of generations crammed into one. That was probably why it was so painful, and so random. Their 'mutation' was actually millions of tiny ones stacked on top of each other.

The ability to use their mutations was instinctive, so what other instincts had they skipped over?

That was his thoughts on the matter at least, and his own mental explanation of how he could weave and sow like a professional despite previously spending 2 years with holes in his underwear because he couldn't fix them.

The issue came that, much like a baby trying to walk, his body was not caught up to the instincts ingrained within him. He was still clumsy and lacking the muscle memory and flexibility. Which is why-

"Fucking shit. I almost finished too."

Which is why he kept jabbing himself in the hand. For most, it would result in a lot of bloodletting and tiny wounds. For someone like Seth, who was tough enough to be thrown through a building - which he had tested multiple times - it meant he kept bending the tips of the needles and ruining them.

Eventually, after re-threading another needle, Seth finally finished his forging gauntlets. Since he couldn't mix the soul shard in with the melted metal, considering there was none, instead he used a tough silk thread that was coated in the dust. Each stitch was imbued with that soul magic.

He just hoped they would bind as a pair.

One drop of blood later, and the [Forge-masters Fingers] were officially bound and complete. While it wasn't the best name, it was functional. Good names would have to wait for projects for other people.

They could have the 'Blade that Slices the Heavens' or a 'Skullbreaker' hammer, if they so desired. Stupid names were enough for their stupid creator.

Now all he had to do was test them. He had given them a very basic enchantment to help with his forging and control the strength of his hammer strikes, or at the very least make sure it didn't slip from his sweaty hands between strikes.

The forge roared to life as Seth spit his flames into it, something he sometimes forgot he could actually do until moments like this, before summoning the [Remmah] from where he left it.

He plucked a random block of metal from Titus' collection and put it into the tongs, before the door swung open. Like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Seth whipped his head towards the door and completely froze, the metal held just above the crackling flames of the forge.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Titus stood in the doorway, his face completely flushed with horror, as if it was a baby Seth was holding over the fire, while a woman with dark skin and large, loose curly hair. She raised her eyebrows, peeking over Titus' shoulder to see what all the fuss was about.

Staring down his own son, while he was using his equipment, Seth let out a nervous laugh and smiled awkwardly.

"Titus... you're home early... Don't you have a competition today?"

"It's tommorrow, actually. It got delayed because of the weather. Don't try to change the subject. What do you think you are doing in my forge and... what is that abomination?!"

Titus stormed over, snatching [Remmah] from Seth's hand and started to inspect it with a look of absolute disgust. He turned it over, muttering softly to himself about 'dreadful balancing', 'looks like it was made by a child' and other such issues that Seth really tried not to take to heart. Even if some of them were truly hurtful.

At one point, when looking at the head of the hammer, he muttered

"Did he hammer this part out with his head?"

That one... that one hurt. He put a lot of effort into [Remmah], but mostly Seth was just thankful Titus wasn't around to see his failures. He never would have heard the end of that.

Once his son was done embarassing him by scrutinising his work, Titus' head quickly shot up and glared at the metal Seth was still holding above the roaring forge.

"You were going to use this... thing, on that? Do you even know what kind of metal that is? How rare and expensive it is?!"

Seth winced slightly, "Um... I'm guessing very rare and very expensive..."

"No. It's basic trash. The fact you don't know that is why you shouldn't just be grabbing things at random, which is what I assume you did. Thank the Lord you didn't grab the expensive stuff."

Seth winced more at Titus chewing him out. Shouldn't this be the other way round? Shouldn't he be the one telling his son off as the father? Then again, it was possible mentioning that would just get him complained to even more.

Thankfully, the woman that had accompanied Titus saved him from the verbal assualt, as she strolled up behind Titus and took his precious [Remmah] from his hands. She looked over with with a kinder eye than Titus, and let out a few soft chuckles.

"Don't be so harsh on him, it's cute. For a beginner. You are a beginner, right?"

"Yeah, I am. Total forging noob."

Seth laughed and nodded, placing the 'worthless trash' metal down and summoning [Remmah] back into his hands in the process. That seemed to surprise the woman as it practically leapt from her hands.

"Wait... it's enchanted? You were able to make an enchanted item... by yourself, as a complete beginner? Titus... you didn't tell me you had such an impressive student. One you have yet to introduce me to, by the way."

The men shared a confused look, before Titus smiled at his companion warmly.

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry. Alisha, this is my F- my uh... friend, Seth. He is my newest student. Very very new. So new that he still hasn't learned not to touch things that don't belong to him. Seth, this is Alisha... who is also a friend."

Alisha smiled warmly at Seth, holding out her hand to him which he quickly took and shook politely. Her hands were ice cold. Literally. Small trails of frost were already starting to spread across his skin from where her fingers were pressed.

She seemed a little surprised that he was able to shake her hand without much discomfort. It seemed that was another point for him in her book.

Seth glanced between the two of them while he was shaking her hand, before a sly smile spread across his lips and a devious look entered his eyes.

"Your friend, is she? So what were you and your friend doing here, alone, huh? This wasn't a date, was it?"