In the end, it took quite a while for Rex and Ash to prepare our gifts. The Chieftain made it clear that he had already found the token from the Lumerin Queen. Yet, he was holding off on giving it to us because something was telling him that the moment we got it, we would leave. To be fair, that was something that had crossed my mind.
At least staying in the village wasn't a boring vacation. I spent a long time talking with the various cooks and chefs who were perfecting their cooking abilities. At the same time, everybody found something to do while we waited.
Astrid and Michael were working with the crafters to improve their abilities to make weapons and armor. Riley was always talking with people who focused on spells in order to improve. Not to mention the healer Trix who had an entire garden outside of the village. The Silken Witch ended up spending quite a lot of time with her, helping the healer find ways to make specific types of plants grow.
All the while, we stayed at Rex's house and would always have dinner together. Some nights I even cooked for everybody in order to increase my skills and hopefully get some new ones or maybe have my own leveling up.
While I wasn't able to get anything new, there were two specific dishes that proved I was on the right track. First was a consistent way of creating rations that could increase anyone's Body or Mind for a few minutes. The reason for calling this a success was not just because of the food itself, but because I managed to replicate it with several different ingredients. It was more about how I prepared the meal than about the ingredients themselves.
Meaning that I should be able to recreate this even out in the wild. As long as I had some variation of the right type of ingredient.
The second surprise was something that the System once told me could happen. I just didn't expect to uncover it so quickly. By using a couple of the plants that Riley brought me, specifically some spicy herbs, together with the meat of a Sun Basker. A desert lizard that spent its days basking in the sun and absorbing that warm Energy to breathe fire. By combining those ingredients, I was able to create a very special dish.
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Steak Of The Flame-Touched
A dish created by using various fire-aligned ingredients. The combination is able to bring forth the innate energy of each ingredient, resulting in a more balanced increase in fire properties. By consuming this dish in its entirety, whoever eats it can acquire the following skill:
Fire Resistance - Passive - Aspirant
Those who walk the path of flames receive its warmth with open arms.
Reduces the damage taken from fire.
Reserved cost: 1 Energy
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Sure, it was just {Fire Resistance}, not becoming immune to fire, but I had created a dish that gave a skill. It was an actual skill, not just a temporary buff or anything of the sort. Even the Rodenti were surprised.
None of them ever managed to do something like this. I could somewhat understand why. Despite being able to make delicious meals, the Rodenti didn't really understand some of the basic aspects of cooking. Sure, they understood that they should peel a potato or cut pieces of meat into smaller parts, but the idea of dicing vegetables or using herbs to improve their aroma was something that apparently never crossed their minds.
The fact was that this was still a relatively young civilization. Technically speaking, their culture was less than 80 years old from what I gathered. There were many aspects of development that they were still missing, and rightfully so. It would be very strange if the Rodenti or any other species was able to suddenly create computers in less time than a century after becoming sapient, even if some of that knowledge still existed somewhere.
Yet, when I showed them some of the insights I had about cooking and showed the results, they acted like it was the most revolutionary thing they had ever seen. It probably was, at least for the Rodenti.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one blowing the minds of the people who lived here. Michael and Astrid were showing them how to make better weapons and armor. The Huskcarver explained how to make chain mail and half-plates, using large, sturdy blocks sturdy materials to protect the more sensitive areas while keeping the more malleable leather covering the joints and places that required a wider range of motion.
Michael showed them how to reinforce one material using another. They didn't have many minerals here, like iron, copper, or silver, at least not enough to make weapons. But they had a lot of monster parts.
Using those, they created most of the weapons that the entire village used so far. It wasn't as if the idea of mixing different parts together was completely alien to them. However, they would generally do a more rudimentary creation. The Rodenti would tie a sharp spike to the very tip of a more robust stick, usually either a piece of wood that was sturdier than anyone would expect or the legs of an insect-like monster. Now they could even use the legs of the Eaters that somehow still existed and didn't rot away during the fight.
Michael showed them how to temper the materials in a way. He explained that metal becomes more malleable when heated up and that the Rodenti could attempt different things with the materials. From simple changes in temperature to submerging them in water, which made some of the wood the Rodenti used become almost unbreakable.
That really shouldn't be the case, but since it came from a tree that existed in the desert, maybe it had something to do with the lack of water in the area. The tree could have some sort of skill or particles that reacted really well with water, resulting in this stronger version of the wood.
He also showed them how to take small pieces of monsters and fashion them together into one larger weapon, much like my now broken staff, where he put some pieces of metal in the end to increase its power. As long as they were able to discover how to make the materials easier to work with, they could essentially melt pieces together to make a more powerful weapon. Michael himself made the spear that he intended to gift to Carl. He couldn't make something as good as what Ash had, so instead he focused his efforts on creating something good enough for the Chieftain's brother.
Speaking of Carl, he was doing much better now that a few days had passed. Since Ash gave {Body Regeneration} to him, the wounded Rodenti quickly became able to move around again. He was using a prosthetic leg and arm made by Rex. However, he wasn't upset.
The large rodenti was quite happy to be alive and grateful for the skill that I gave Ash. Currently, Carl was getting close to Tier 3, meaning that he wouldn't be stuck without his limb for much longer. The fight against the Nest helped him level up a couple of times. Now he was just a handful of levels away from reaching the cap, which Ash confirmed to be Level 40. The System had already told me that, but it was nice to hear it from someone like the Chieftain.
Unlike the rest of us, Riley wasn't able to contribute as much to the Rodenti development. Everything they knew about botany was helpful but not a complete surprise. Still, they weren't upset, even though it was clear there was a hint of envy in their eyes when we were discussing the things that the Rodenti started to create thanks to our input.
Eventually, Rex was able to give us the gift he wanted. It took a while to prepare. It was a set of accessories for each of us. Black stone bangles that we could keep either on our wrists or our ankles. They were exquisite, almost as if they were made of obsidian, even if Rex insisted that wasn't the case. Instead, it was a type of rock that he found near the village and molded to form this pattern.
Each bangle had several flat sides that combined together, almost as if we were looking at various flat, small plates connected together. On each of the bangles, there was also one specific part that should be pointed directly up, which had our initials carved in the stone with a blue gem. According to the small Rodenti, he ground some sapphires and used the dust to make the engravings before adding a very thin layer of the stone, so thin that it was transparent.
The beauty of those accessories was not the only reason for the delay. Rex also spent some time working with some crafters in the village to imbue skills into the bangles. Unfortunately for our little Rodenti companion, he wasn't able to put on the skills himself as his subclass didn't help when creating things on such a small scale.
So, instead, what he did was create a small house that had the skill in question, and then the crafters took out the pieces of stone for the bangles from that house. I had no idea how hard was to add actual skills to an object, but if it was anything on the level of making a meal that could give you a skill, it was nothing short of impressive.
This was something that Michael and Astrid confirmed. Adding a skill, especially an active one as Rex had added, was extremely difficult. Neither of them had ever been able to even get close to something like that. At most, they could add some passive abilities that, generally, simply increased the power of the material being used. The skill itself essentially told us everything we needed to know about Rex. If there were any doubts.
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Stone Shard Barrier
The earth protects.
A barrier that can be deployed when significant damage is about to be inflicted.
Reserved cost 3 Energy
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Rex's gift wasn't something to just show how much he cared about us, but something made to protect. It clearly showed that his priority was our safety. The fact that it cost three Energy proved that it was very powerful. Skills that had a cost that high generally could do incredible things.
It was a shame that I couldn't have Proxy showing it to me, but we would have enough time to test things out in the future. The thing about 'significant damage' was something that would be in the care of the System. This meant that we wouldn't have to worry about when to activating it. We would always have something prepared to deploy the barrier once we were in danger.
"Thanks, little man. This is incredible," Michael said with a big smile.
"It really is, Rex. And I hope you made one for yourself too," Riley turned to the Rodenti, who quickly nodded and showed off the bangle on his arm.
"Yes, yes. Now we all match."
I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. There was one more thing I wanted to see if he could do. "Actually, can I ask for a small change, or is it too late to do that?"
Rex looked in my direction with a serious expression. "Depends on change. What Cassandra didn't like?"
Everybody stared at me as if I were kicking a puppy. However, I was sure they would quickly change their minds once I finished my request. "Any chance you can add a couple of letters to the back of it? I think it should have the name of who gave this gift to me."
Rex's eyes went wide and he froze for a few seconds before saying, "Friend wants Rex's name on bangle?"
"I do. Very much. You are the one who gave me such a wonderful gift."
Hearing my words, Michael, Astrid, and Riley stopped giving me ugly stares and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I want that too," the Archer quickly replied.
"Same here," Riley added.
Astrid smiled, "Me too."
Rex looked at us as if he was about to cry, but quickly nodded, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "Rex can make something work," he said with a confident tone.
We all gave our bangles back to him. It took another day for him to return them. However, he didn't just put his name on the bangles. Instead, in a place where only if you were to take the accessory off would you be able to see there were all of our initials: C, A, M, R, and Rx.
People might complain that the Rodenti added two letters to his name, but not a single one of us felt the need to do that. While it was nice to have everybody's initials, we were all more interested in getting Rex's name there.
This visual difference wasn't the only addition. The bangles had one new skill. They would essentially connect to each other and let the wearers know if the other bangles were being worn. As long as you put some Energy into it, the letters gave off a slight glow. If they didn't glow, then it meant that the bangle was either not on the person or the person was no longer alive.
There was a particular range for that to happen. It wouldn't function if someone were on the other side of the world. But the Rodenti were never able to figure out what the limit was. When they used that kind of enchantment, they never went far enough away to the point where the items couldn't communicate with each other no matter how far they were.
Apparently, Rex had another item that he shared with his father, and he could use it even when we first met, meaning there were a few hundred kilometers [hundreds of miles] of range on that one simple enchantment.
With this gift done, all we had to do now was wait for Ash to finally give whatever he wanted to give us and for us to get the token of the Lumerin Queen. Then we could head out in search of a Nest again, so we could hopefully discover why the Jellyfish was predicting that the world was going to end.