CH 152

Akagane’s Workshop

November 9, 2021

Before chopping wood, first, I’ll have to learn how to do it.  

Maruishi said that, and I came to a workshop where the woodworker of the moonlight tree was.  

“Excuse me.”  

“Oh, what is it!”  

When I called out at the entrance, there was a loud reply. It was a very husky voice.  

There was a cleaning sound, and then a huge, burly, macho man over two meters tall appeared.  

“Huge!”  

“Hahaha! That quite unique greeting, isn’t it?”  

I felt that his voice was somehow higher than I expected; I took a second look and found out that he turned out to be a she.  

It’s not often you see a woman bigger than Touka-chan, much less one this muscular.  

She was wearing a twisted headband and a tank top. Her horns, hair, and eyes were a beautiful copper color.  

She laughed at my rude comment and looked at me as if she were assessing me.  

“I guess you’re Sukuna. You’ve got a nasty curse. I’ve never seen anyone with a full-body curse like this before.”  

“Ahaha…”  

It’s like my information has spread throughout the village.  

Well, it doesn’t matter, though.  

“Well, whatever. So, what do you want?”  

“I received a quest to chop wood, and Maruishi asked me to come here to learn how to do it.”  

The woman looked over my entire body again, then stared at [Yoiyami] I was carrying and nodded.  

“Hmm…. that nice weapon you have, alright’ I will bring that out… Oh right! my name is Akagane, no need for honorifics because I get annoyed when people talk to me like that. I’m looking forward to working with you.”  

I grabbed the hand she offered me and felt her squeeze it as hard as she could. I’m not sure why she’s doing that, but it’s not like I’m that eager to do a contest of strength, so I’ll need some excuse to get out of this.  

And above all… I had trauma with hand squeezing.  

“……Girl, You look like an eel.”  

“No, not really.”  

Akagane looked a little unsatisfied but quickly walked toward the workshop’s backdoor.  

“Follow me! You can’t swing an axe inside a workshop.”  

“Okay.”  

In the backyard of the workshop I was brought to, there were a lot of logs lying around.  

Some were big, some were small, some were thick, and some were thin. They were really many sizes, but there seem at least three different kinds of wood.  

“If you’re on a wood-chopping quest, you at least know that moonlight trees are deadly hard, right?”  

“I was informed.”  

“The moonlight tree is a magical tree that grows by absorbing the moon’s magic power. You can use it to make furniture that will last for a hundred years, and it’s also a versatile material that can be used for armor. In addition, the wood from this tree burns much longer than other trees. It’s the ideal wood.”  

“But it’s hard and difficult to process.”  

“That’s the first point. First of all, it’s difficult to make tools for processing it. You need overheavy metal.”  

A familiar name came up unexpectedly.  

Overheavy metal. It was the name of the heavy metal that formed the [Yoiyami] I was carrying.  

“There are only a few blacksmiths who can refine over-heavy metal, so it’s very expensive. A single tool can cost close to a million dollars. But it’s also true that you can’t process Moonlight tree unless the metal is as tough as that.”  

“Isn’t the Moonlight tree too tough?”  

“It’s said to be the strongest after the World Tree. It’s seriously the first-class material. Remember the bow you used for the yabusame the day before yesterday? I made it by carving moonlight wood.”  

“I see. That’s certainly a nice bow.”  

I see. Akagane was the one who made the bow I used for yabusame.  

It was a very sincere bow with no weird quirks.  

Though it’s possible that all bows are made without any quirks because we are in the game, but at least that bow was easy to use. That much is true.  

“Now, look at this one.”  

When Akagane came to the backyard, she rolled a large log onto a stump as a firewood chopping block.  

It must have been about two meters long. It didn’t look like your usual log used for chopping wood. It was almost ebony in color.  

“This is the log of the moonlight tree. The more magic power it contains, the darker its color becomes. The closer to black it is, the harder it is. This one is about 100 years old.”  

“Hee… so the one you used for the bow is a wood with less magic in it?”  

I asked her about the color of the bow I used that time. Akagane nod and confirm it.  

“The more magic, the sturdier it is, it also becomes more resistant to fire, but that would be too hard for a bow. Now, do your best to hit this one.”  

“Can I?”  

“Yeah, I don’t mind. Just give it your best shot.”  

As Akagane crossed her arms behind her, I pulled out my Yoiyami and set my eyes on the log.  

The curse is blocking me from activating my skills, so the only thing I can do now is hit it as hard as possible.  

–BANG–  

At the moment of impact, there is a heavy sound like a bell being struck with all its might.  

Interestingly, the impact does not come back to my hand. It was a strange feeling, as if I had been sucked into the ground through a log. {vibranium??}  

“Interesting, isn’t it? This thing disperses the impact it receives. That’s why it’s so hard to cut.”  

“It looks like it will make a good armor.”  

“Oh, it is used to make a light and sturdy armor.”  

As I enjoyed the strange feeling that still lingered in my hands, Akagane suddenly threw something at me.  

The jet-black axe was thrown so that it fell right in front of me instead of where I could catch it.  

It was not a battle axe, but a standard axe that lumberjacks often carry.  

At first glance, I realized the axe was made of overheavy metal, just like the Kagenui and Yoiyami I had been using.  

It seems that everything from the blade to the handle is made of overheavy metal. No wonder it’s so heavy.  

The name of that one is [Togireuta – Broken Song]. The people who can wield it in this village could be counted by your fingers at most.  

“Maruishi also told me the same thing… this thing is heavy, isn’t it? it probably weighs the same as my Yoiyami.”  

“That’s right, Well… since you can wield kanabou and fight with it. I’m sure you can use it rather normally.”  

Akagane then urges me to pick up the axe. I then put the Yoiyami on my back and tried to lift up [Togireuta] that was stuck in front of me, but I couldn’t lift it at all.  

I wondered why, but I remembered this feeling, and it was the same as the first time I held the Meteor Impact Zero.  

“I’m sorry. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m still equipping Yooyami or because I don’t have enough muscle strength.”  

“That’s right.”  

Does that mean that there is a limit of strength value you need to pick up something regardless of whether it is in your hand or not? I don’t know, but I’ll assume that’s probably what it is.  

Having stowed the Yoiyami in my inventory, I lifted my axe once more.  

It was a little heavier than the Yoiyami, but my strength level could handle it without any problem.  

“E… this child has an odd center of balance?”  

“Oh, you can tell?”  

“Yeah, it feels like a hammer at this point.”  

The whole thing is definitely made of over-heavy metal, and the shape is not that different from a common axe for lumberjacks, not a battle axe.  

But the weight of the axe was unusually tilted towards the small-looking blade, giving me the strange feeling that I was holding a hammer.  

“By the way, you don’t need to equip it to use it.”  

If you don’t equip a weapon as your property in this game, it won’t have any real effect.  

The visual will still register, but don’t expect any attack will be effective if you’re not equipping it.  

Even if it’s a legendary holy sword, if it’s not your equipment, its performance will be no better than a beginner’s sword.  

“Because It falls into the tool category. It may look like an axe, but it’s not a weapon. Unlike weapons, tools can be used by anyone as an item.”  

“I’ve never heard of that.”  

Haruru said that a blacksmith’s hammer can be used to attack.  

I’m not sure if Akagane understood what I was thinking, but she smiled.  

“Items in the tools category can be used as items by anyone, but they can also be used as weapons only when held by a specific profession. For example, a blacksmith’s hammer, a lumberjack’s hatchet, a seamstress’ needle, and so on.”  

“Ohh…”  

I see, since Haruru is a blacksmith, she can use a hammer, which supposedly belongs to the tool category, as a weapon.  

If so, I wonder if there are items that can be used as weapons only for Douji.  

It’s probably a special case limited to production jobs. Still, I was a little curious.  

“Give it to me for a second.”  

“Here you go.”  

“I’m going to show you how to chop wood, but it’s a little unusual, so watch carefully.”  

Returning to the topic that had been sidetracked, Akagane said and placed the log back on the stump.  

No matter how I view it, it’s a big log. The normal log is usually about 30 cm at most.  

When I wondered how she was going to split the log, which was taller than her if we include the height of the stump, Akagane bent her knees and jumped up.  

“ORAAAAAAAA!”  

Boom! It sounds as if it were metal striking metal, and the axe blade swung down splits the log cleanly in half.  

The log of the moonlight tree was neatly cut in half by Akagane’s hands.  

“Fufu, you’ll repeat this until it’s quartered. It’s quite big for firewood, but don’t worry, I’ll dry it afterward and then cut it into pieces. If you do that, even ordinary oni will be able to split it.”  

“I see.”  

I understand how to do it.  

The strength difference between Akagane and me is probably irrelevant.  

I’m sure the weight of the Togireuta itself is probably enough to cut it.  

“Okay, just try it. It’s hard for anyone to get used to it at first.”  

I held the axe straight in front of me and exhaled gently in front of the bisected log.  

First of all, let’s try to split it as Akagane did.  

There is no need to leap as high as you can and just jump as high as you need to deliver most of its power at the moment of impact.  

“FUU!”  

The axe I swung down with a light leap makes a crisp sound. It made a small sound and split the log.  

“Like this?”  

“Ooh, there’s no wasted power! You’ve got a talent for this!”  

“I don’t think I need that.”  

Akagane said it with a rather serious expression as she watched me chopping wood.  

However, thanks to this, I was able to see the nature of the moonlight tree.  

If I could combine this information with my current sense of movement, I could make the wood chopping activity much more efficient.  

The problem was that splitting the wood consumed a lot of SP. At the moment of impact, about 10% of my SP is taken away.  

Well, the SP itself recovers in a few seconds, but it doesn’t recover while you’re chopping wood.  

And considering that my SP is always halved, a normal person would lose more than 20% of their SP every time they chop wood.  

That means they can only break it about four times in a row.  

But if you have to take a short break every time you chop, still your progress will be slow. This may be one of the reasons why chopping wood is not popular.  

But there is a definite advantage. This is because every time I chop wood, I get a small amount of experience.  

It’s a little less than the amount I get from killing monsters in Fias, but I think I can level up by doing this about a thousand times.  

It might be more efficient to hunt monsters to raise your level, but if you can earn experience by chopping wood while searching for monsters, chopping wood might not be so bad.  

“I believe I could leave it to you to chop wood all over the village. This village resident should own at least one of these, but you can take it with you because some might have lost it. but give it back to me later, okay?”  

“Yes, I understand. I’ll make a contract with you to make sure I don’t run away with it.”  

“Oh, is that so?”  

After signing the contract I suggested, Akagane quickly went back to the workshop.  

“I’ve got some work to do too. I need to report back to the gathering place. For now, if you need anything, come there.”  

“Yes, ma’am. I’m off.”  

Hearing my words, Akagane waved her hand and went back inside.  

I also left Akagane’s workshop, aiming for the quest destination that Maruishi had marked for me.  

===.  

A note:  

In the river of the Lost Forest, there is an eel called Tsukiunagi (Moon Eel), which is about level 100.  

And Akagane is a married. {…tsk} 

TL note: 

What an over honest girl.