Chapter 27: The Mushrooms Crafts

“Ellena, what in the name of all the Gods is that?”

A loud thud echoed throughout the forest as Ellena finally dropped the beast she had been carrying for the past multiple hours. If she could sweat like a mortal, she would have been drenched. Instead, she simply collapsed to the ground next to her quarry.

“Don’t tell me that’s the Mollit boss Ellie?”

Without moving her face from the dirt, the Mushman attempted to nod her head. She did not have the energy to move from that spot. “It waws tha bewst optun,” she replied, with a muffled dirt filled mouth.

“Ellena dear, I’m sure there must have been a better one.”

It took that long for the ex-human to notice the fact that she heard Ellephwens voices, outside of the home. Finally Ellena looked up to see the still ailing Dryad drenched in a cozy looking robe, her expression of concern caught their targets eyes.

“You had been gone so long that Samora and I decided to come and look for you. Besides, it was about time I took a walk outside, staying cooped up won't improve the healing process.”

Ellena moved her body around, sitting up. “Maybe we can use the Mollits fur. It’s been getting colder recently,” she replied leaning over to the body behind her. The beast's fur was definitely soft, and she had no need for it. She’d only messed with leather so far, but fur couldn’t be much more difficult, right?

“Uh. Ellie. If you want that, how about you leave that part to the tailor in my village? He’s worked with beast fur for decades.”

There was no reason to refuse that offer, Ellena had enough to master tanning and leatherworking, any other help was more than appreciated. Besides, come winter she would need something to keep her warmer especially as she evolved. Mushmen didn’t exactly hibernate for the winter, but they did become extremely inactive. She did not have time to be extremely inactive.

Though that brought up a question. Something the ex-Human had not thought about before. What time of year was it exactly? She had been around a few months and it had stayed decently warm throughout each one. So it must have been spring or summer.

“It’s coming to the end of summer, Ellena. And if you must travel, I would recommend you at least wait until next spring before travelling, winter is not a good time to start.”

It had been a while since Ellephwen had read her mind, so she had almost forgotten that the Dryad could do so. “You don’t need to do that anymowe Ellephwen. I was about to ask.”

Ellephwen looked a little guilty. “Right. I apologize. I’ll try not to in the future,” she looked away with flushed cheeks and scrunched brows.

Obviously Samora and Ellena proceeded to tease the Dryad a little, but the Mushman wanted to get one with preparing the massive task before her. Dusk was already starting to settle in, so she hadn’t given herself much time.

With the few hours she had left, the Mushman began her work, slowly carving the fur and skin off the massive beast before her. She had been offered help, but such a large hide would give her at least a level or two in skinning, surely.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the day was out and she was still not even done with the Mollits hide. This was definitely going to be a few day jobs to get finished. Possibly more than a week. Which meant delaying the second floor for a little while. Ellena sighed and resigned herself.

***

Days flew by and the Mushman improved every passing hour. Skinning and tanning at first then eventually leather working. The first week turned into the second and she continued on with her task.

Obviously she was still not particularly skilled at that part, so the actual usable strips of leather were about a third of the beast's total hide, which was still decent. Enough for Samora’s gloves and then some.

The Elf had kept her promise. After a week and a half she returned with the prepared fur, a few coats including one that would fit on a Mushman. It was more of a cloak though and had no sleeves even though she had the arms to go through them now. Samora said it was so she could use it even if she evolved to be armless or a completely different shape.

As the leatherworking process began, Ellena began another pursuit when she grew tired from the workbench. She began looking over current maps. She had promised to go on a journey, so she had to plan one out.

Starting with the Kingdom of Ashes. The ex-Human wanted to see this kingdom that mostly welcomed monsters. Ellena had told her that in general tolerance of monsters had grown in the general public, but allowing intelligent monsters into their cities is a different situation entirely. She couldn’t help but be curious.

Then after that the journey seemed simple. South, down to the coast then to her old home. If the maps were accurate then it seemed likely that her village was at least whole. The area that it lay was still land on the new maps, albeit a broken and scattered landmass, but it would at least be recognisable. Well, as recognisable as a two hundred year old village could be.

She had no idea what she would find there, if anything, but she felt compelled to try, especially since she had been given free reign to travel as she pleased. She likely would find no allies there let alone old acquaintances, but still, she felt compelled.

As for after that, that was a question she could not yet answer. She admitted curiosity for the Demon Continent, but that was a realm of power and strength. She may have been strong for the first two floors of a young dungeon, but demons were a different story. It would very much rely on her power at the time and the opinions of whatever allies she may have. If she managed to get any at all.

That was all of course a secondary issue. Her main task was finishing this pair of gloves. After multiple trials and errors, Ellena had managed to craft a working pair of gloves. Modelled and sized to fit the Elf, if she had taken said measurements correctly.

It took her two weeks to finish the gloves. A whole half a week longer than she had intended to work on this project, but when she was done, she actually felt proud. They were far better than the pair she made for herself. Smoother, tidier and generally cleaner. She had also inlaid some polished light blue stones that Ellephwen had given her. Samora seemed surprised when she saw them. Aqua Stones they were called, enhanced her water based magic, just a little. Ellena had no idea such a stone existed.

On one hand, she wanted to take a break, purely to jump back into the dungeon. On the other she had decided to take Ellephwens advice and wait until winter was over, so she had no reason to rush the dungeon. Even if that decision was going to annoy Gedill the Mushman had decided to stick with it. In fact that may have been a contributing factor.

All in all, Ellena had a lot of leather and more free time that she thought she would have. So, with the remaining leather she wanted to make something both for Ellephwen and for herself. Ellephwen had no desire for armour; instead she desired simply a leather bag. She could store everything she needed in that strange void space of hers, it was almost more of a fashion thing. The Dryad could probably acquire a far better and far more fashionable bag herself though, so Ellena wasn’t sure why she requested it from her.

After the bag was done, Ellena wanted to make something for herself. It was yet the case that she could wear proper armour, so what she wanted was also something different. Ellena desired to make herself a blank book. In her past life she had kept a diary and this life looked to be far more interesting. Now that she had hands, she had the ability to start writing. A daily diary of a mushroom monster. That had to interest someone out there. Of course she would need paper, but that could be found, perhaps also at Samoras village.

The next week passed by as Ellena once again created two new leather items through trial and error. She put a design into the bag which took her a few attempts even after putting together a working prototype. It was the same with the book in which she wanted to put her own name and a nicely designed border.

By the time she was done, she was left with less than half of the remaining leather. It would be useful for something, but she was done with leatherworking for now. In fact she had achieved a good few level ups. Her Skinning had increased to [Skinning lvl 2] her tanning to [Tanning lvl 3] and her leatherworking was also at [Leatherworking lvl 3].

Still, the Mushman was proud of what she had created. The bag actually looked like something that would sell in shops with appealing diamond patterns beat into the surface. As for the book, she had personalised it until she was happy. A crude yet cute picture of a Mushman lay in the middle, based on her first evolution. It had intricate yet slightly scruffy decoration around its border and it had her name on the bottom beat into it. She looked forward to getting her hands on paper to actually start it. Then maybe in the future, if she survived Levias she could sell it. Not that she particularly needed funds as a nature based monster.

That was it for the time being. The rest of the Mollit’s leather would have to wait. It was tough, tough enough to serve as decent armour. So Ellena wanted to save it. Save it until she had the body that could utilise such armour. For now though, she had spent enough time away from the dungeon. For now, she could not deny her body screaming for the second floor.

As the Mushman lay down her tools and breathed a sigh of satisfaction, a wicked grin spread across her lips. She was excited to find out just what else the Lair of the Lonely Wolf had in store.