Sworded Affair

Chapter 197 : The Beginning of the End

To Emma's chagrin, making a wax sculpture turned out to be significantly harder than she had expected. Whilst she had no issue heating and moulding the wax itself, nor with using the sculpting tool, thanks to her passive traits from the Chandler class, that was as far as the benefits went. For the most difficult aspects, namely, shaping the surface of the sculpture to make it aesthetically pleasing, she was very much on her own.

[10 EXP gained for pushing the boundaries of your skill.]

"Not again," Emma groaned, as she examined her latest attempt.

She'd gotten the shape right, this time, the body and head coming out to actually resemble the proportions of a sleeping cat. Even the four small paws added on after the fact were looking to be in decent shape. The main problem, and what really vexed her right now, was the face. Instead of precise lines carved in the shape of Saint's whiskers and tabby patterned coat, her best effort instead amounted to what looked like a crude cartoon drawing of a cat, fit for a particularly distorted episode of Tom and Jerry. This was the fourth time she'd gotten such a result as well, which didn't make Emma feel much better.

"Turns out, I'm not very artistic," Emma finally relented.

[To be fair, it's not that difficult where candles are concerned. Add some colouring to the wax, mix it up a bit, maybe stick some decorations inside, and you're done. Because of this simplicity, we never added any particular requirement for artistry to pick up the Class, but on the flip side, it also meant we never bothered to add that knowledge as a passive skill. So, uh, you may want to take art lessons, if you're gonna try that again.]

Emma was tempted to return to the grind, diving into a fifth attempt, but ultimately she recognised that she'd already put too much time into what was meant to be a simple present.

"Back to candles then," she agreed with a sigh, before tossing her deformed attempt at a cat into the bin, to join its predecessors.

Many of the reagents collected in Blenheim Palace had been consumed during the creation of Eternal Wind, but many did not mean all, so Emma still had a few things she wanted to try. To begin with, she used the free wax that came with the portable crafting table to make a batch of ordinary candles. There was nothing at all special with them, and Emma noted that they didn't even give XP anymore; with Chandler having been power levelled to 9 in the Dungeon, such basic crafting was simply too little to move the needle any more. That was fine however, because these were just the placeholders for what Emma really wanted.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

[Eternal Wind withdrawn.]

Pulling Eternal Wind out of her inventory, Emma fed it a few drops of mana, just a little, just long enough until the first notification appeared.

[Mana: 99/100]

This was nowhere near enough to summon anybody, but it did cause Eternal Wind's wick to light and burn, ever so slightly. Then, Emma held Eternal Wind up against one of her regular candles, and tried to transfer the flame over. The regular candle spontaneously combusted, spraying Emma, her crafting table, and the living room floor with burning wax.

[50 EXP gained for creative thinking.]

"Not bad," Emma remarked, even as she hurriedly patted herself down, smothering the flames before they could eat away at her space suit, before doing the same for the table and floor.

[It wasn't a bad idea, though it would never have worked here due to the sheer mismatch between the two candles. Combinations are a fun path to pursue though, so don't let that discourage you.]

"Noted."

[Eternal Wind stored.

A Practical Guide to Entropy withdrawn.]

Moving on to her next experiment, Emma flicked open the book she'd gotten from the second half of the recent Dungeon, and began to read. This wasn't actually part of the experiment, but she wanted to see if there was any valuable information inside the tome, before she fed it to the flames. Alas, all she found was a rambling monologue from someone who didn't know what a paragraph was, proclaiming the end of all things and the virtue of bringing forth the apocalypse. Nothing particularly actionable, nor was it something she wanted to read. Accordingly, Emma had no regrets with tearing out a page and using it as wrapping paper for another candle. The candle gave no reaction, until Emma finally lit it, at which point its flame turned a deep purple, and began to emit an indescribably foul stench.

[50 EXP gained!

Chaos Candle created.

New Candle Attribute learned - Chaos: Emits a different negative effect each time it's lit.]

"Ew."

[Chaos Candle stored.

A Practical Guide to Entropy stored.]

Emma was happy for the discovery, but far less so the practical consequences; especially as she was in her homunculus while her armour was upstairs, making it impossible to deaden her sense of smell to prevent herself from gagging.

"Gods above, what is that?"

Saint was even less pleased to be woken up by a magical stink bomb, given her senses were far keener than that of a human or even a half-demon. She leapt up from the couch onto the coffee table, both her tails lashing wildly in the air as she glared at Emma.

"Behold my wrath, orange onslaught!"

A spectacular burst of orange light filled the room, followed by the strongest citrus Emma had ever smelled. It burned at her eyes, nostrils and throat, causing her to devolve into a hacking cough, even as she privately admitted that this was still preferable to what was there before it.

"Glad to see you're awake," Emma eventually spoke, after opening all the windows to air out the house. "Anything exciting happen while you were out?"

"You mean besides getting a massive buff to my poisons, and finding out that we've basically been gone for a month?"

"Wait, what?"