After hearing Altaïr's reminder, Isis suddenly felt too afraid to visit the wyverian artisan.
It was one thing when she was away on missions, but now she had been back on leave for almost a week and still hadn't picked up her order. To put it bluntly, it showed a lack of respect.
This was especially true for master artisans with exceptional skills who took great pride in their work, it wouldn't be surprising if they took offense and severed ties over such neglect.
"Wh-wh-wh-what should I do?" Isis stammered.
The artisan was also an elder who was close with her parents. If her father found out, he'd probably knock her on the head a couple of times.
Altaïr fell silent for a moment. "By the way, have you seen him since returning? If not, our original plan was to travel back on foot, but we took an airship instead. You could pretend you just returned a few days late..."
"That won't work! I ran into Smithy at Chef Meow's place a couple of days ago, and he even treated me to dessert," Isis said with a distressed expression.
Altaïr was stumped. "Well, there's no explaining that away then... Hm? Wait, didn't he mention the new armor to you at the time?"
"No!" Isis replied firmly. "If he had, I would've gone to pick it up right after eating."
"Then it's fine. Just explain that you never heard him mention it and assumed it wasn't ready yet, so you came by specifically to check on the progress," Altaïr suggested.
"Boss, you're shifting the blame, meow."
Altaïr and Isis both looked down to see Sajji, who was dragging two large boxes, standing beside them unnoticed. He was side-eyeing Altaïr.
Altaïr was taken aback. "You're back? Is your precious project finished?"
"All done, meow." Sajji lifted one of the boxes. "Next hunt, we'll get to see the power of the 'prototype,' meow!"
"So what exactly is this?"
Before Altaïr finished speaking, the other large box behind Sajji suddenly shook with a "clatter-clatter" sound.
This startled both Altaïr and Isis. "What's in that box? Is it alive?"
"I was going to ask you, meow!" Sajji put the box down, huffing angrily. "This box was mailed to Teacher Naziya's house, meow. It came with her parents' things from Dundorma, meow, and it was an expensive airmail package, meow.
It has your name on it, Boss, meow. Seems like it was sent by that Professor, meow. Teacher Naziya asked me to drag it back, meow.
It's so heavy, meow!"
Altaïr immediately realized the box contained the "extra reward" the Professor had mentioned.
He hadn't expected it to arrive so quickly. He thought it would take at least two months coming slowly with a trade caravan from Dundorma, but it had been shipped directly by airship.
"The old man certainly has style," Altaïr couldn't help but remark.
"Quick, open it and see what's inside!" Isis crowded closer, her curiosity running wild. The matter of picking up her new equipment was once again pushed to the back of her mind.
"Here's the letter that came with the box, meow. You should read it first, Boss, meow." Sajji pulled out an envelope and handed it to Altaïr.
A glance at the handwriting on the envelope told Altaïr the letter was actually written by Erik, the Professor's penmanship was nothing like this.
He opened the envelope. The contents were brief, just a couple of lines without even a formal salutation.
[I never expected the Professor to send you these! The Royal Academy just received a new batch, they nearly stung me when we extracted them from the cages! Heh! I specifically picked the largest and most venomous ones for you. You'd better thank me properly!]
This opening line left Altaïr utterly bewildered. What in the world was inside this crate?!
[The Vespoid Queen materials have been packed in the crate along with the blueprint. Remember to find a skilled smith, ordinary craftsmen won't know how to handle these things.]
The message ended there. Altaïr even flipped the letter over, but found no additional content.
Altaïr twitched his lips. The Professor and others still hadn't explicitly stated what exactly they had sent, but from Erik's letter, he could roughly understand it should be some kind of equipment materials?
Living materials?
"Shall we open it and see?" Isis urged from beside him.
"Yeah, let's check it in my room. We can't keep crowding the hallway." Altaïr lifted the still-shaking crate and entered his room, with Isis and Sajji quickly following behind.
Back in his room, Altaïr placed the crate on the floor before closing both the door and windows.
With the letter mentioning both "stinging" and "deadly venom," he feared that if they opened the crate and whatever was inside escaped, someone might get hurt.
The two humans and one cat crouched around the large crate as Altaïr carefully opened it.
A stinger dripping with purple-black venom suddenly thrust toward him. Altaïr instinctively pulled back his hand before realizing the stinger was blocked by the dense mesh of the cage, completely unable to penetrate.
Two-thirds of the large crate's space was neatly arranged with five metal cages, each containing a blue-black armored creature.
These creatures were about a foot long, with thick carapaces, eight legs, and a flexible stinger tail, looking somewhat like a cross between a spider and a scorpion.
Altaïr stared in stunned silence. The remaining third of the crate's space contained stacked, processed Vespoid Queen materials along with a rolled-up blueprint.
Altaïr unrolled the blueprint and glanced at it. The top was labeled "Skalda S Armor," and scanning down the material list, he spotted "Toxic Kumori" listed.
He had never even heard of this creature, let alone seen one. Altaïr looked toward Isis and asked, "Do you know what this thing is?"
Isis shook her head rapidly.
Altaïr read through the complete material list and discovered that besides the Toxic Kumori, it required numerous high-quality Vespoid materials.
It specifically noted that ordinary Vespoid materials wouldn't suffice, only the finest, highest-quality Vespoid materials, or beetle materials of equivalent grade, Bnahabra materials (material requirements vary by installment).
No wonder the Professor had "settled accounts" with extra Vespoid Queen materials. As creatures mutated from ordinary Vespoids, while Vespoid Queen materials couldn't compare to Flying Wyvern materials, they far surpassed regular Vespoid materials.
"Do you think if I give these to Smithy, he'd agree to craft this equipment set for me?" Altaïr tentatively asked Isis.
Isis thought for a moment, then nodded firmly. "He probably would. Smithy always looks stern-faced, but he's actually quite approachable and helpful."
"More importantly, this blueprint set appears to be quite rare. If Smithy hasn't crafted this equipment set before, he'd likely be interested."
"Then shall we go ask together?" Altaïr scratched his chin. "With you as an acquaintance, Smithy might be more willing to agree for your sake."
"You can also use this as a pretext to ask about the progress of your Barroth Armor. If he says it's been ready long ago, act surprised and apologize for not coming earlier."
"I see, that's possible." Isis kept nodding.
Sajji jumped up and kicked Altaïr's knee. "Don't teach her bad habits, meow! Lying is wrong, meow!"
"But I didn't actually lie?"
Sajji opened his mouth and thought about it, realizing Altaïr hadn't technically lied, he'd just changed the way of speaking.
"Come on, let's practice. Say 'Excuse me, is my Barroth Armor almost ready?'" Altaïr looked at Isis with a smile.
"Ex-excuse me, is m-my B-Barroth Armor, r-ready yet soon?" Isis stammered through the repetition.
Altaïr remained silent for a few seconds. "Now show me your surprised expression?"
Isis widened her eyes, opened her mouth wide, covered it with her hand, and leaned backward.
Altaïr covered his face with both hands and rubbed vigorously. "Forget it. Maybe you should just apologize directly when you visit. Tell the truth, say you've been busy eating everywhere these past few days and forgot. Sorry."
"Show me an apology."
"I'm sorry!" Isis bowed deeply.
"Indeed, this suits you better."