I had spent quite a while ordering my formal wear, but the sun was still high in the sky. I decided to make Tigger’s Weapons and Armor Shop my next stop.
"Hello!" I called out as I entered.
"Ryoma, eh? The stuff you ordered is done," the owner, Dalson, replied before heading into the back of the shop.
After a short wait, he returned carrying a relatively large wooden box.
"Here’s the finished product."
Inside were two sets of light green shirts, trousers, and cloaks. At first glance, they looked like perfectly ordinary clothes.
"Just as you requested, they’re made of cloth woven from that incredibly strong thread you brought in. I commissioned an armor craftsman I’m close with to handle the tailoring, but I’ve double-checked the quality myself. Even though these are prototypes, I can hand them over with absolute confidence."
Dalson pulled a scrap of cloth and a knife from the box.
"Watch this."
He took the knife to the fabric, but no matter how many times he slashed or stabbed at it, the blade merely left faint scuffs on the surface. The cloth refused to tear or even fray.
"This is made by layering two sheets of the cloth woven from your thread. Every inch of those clothes is lined with this material, so you can expect them to be highly effective against blades. They look and feel like normal outfits, but in practice, they’re closer to chainmail. For an under-armor layer, the defensive power is exceptional."
"What about the production costs and efficiency?" I asked.
"Well... since the material is so strong, the processing—especially the cutting—took quite a bit of time. However, since you provided the raw materials, it ends up being much cheaper than protective gear made from similar stuff. It’s a solid deal."
"What do you mean by 'similar stuff'?"
"The silk from a monster called the Metal Spider. That thread is weak to heat; if you toast it lightly, it softens right up and becomes easy to cut. In terms of ease of processing, that’s definitely superior. But of course, that very ease of processing is also its weakness. To compensate, they usually take materials compatible with enchantment magic, weave them together, and then enchant the piece to resist fire and heat. Metal Spider silk is already expensive on its own, and the enchantment costs push the price even higher. It’s a real luxury item."
So, while my version took more time to cut, the cost-performance seemed excellent.
I picked up one of the garments. The fabric on the inside felt different from the outside; it was smooth and pleasant against my fingertips.
"Is the interior lined with silk?"
"Yeah. That thread of yours has absolutely no water or moisture absorption. The resulting cloth was the same. To fix that, the craftsman used silk for the lining."
"I see. Thank you. With this, I won't have to worry about getting scratched up even in the thickest brush."
"Forget brush; this will handle the fangs of local wolves or your average blade without an issue. It won't do much against blunt force trauma, though."
"And the price?"
"Five Small Gold Coins."
For a custom-made order, that was remarkably cheap.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked.
"The materials were provided, and while weaving and cutting the cloth was a hassle, it didn't require any special magical processing. The armor craftsman was actually excited to work with such a rare material. Even including the extra labor for the time it took, five Small Gold Coins is plenty."
"I see. Thank you very much."
If it was this affordable, perhaps I should distribute some to everyone at the shop. At the very least, I could give them to the security staff. I wondered if I should offer some to the Jamil family. They certainly had their own guards, but if the end-of-year season was dangerous enough that people carried antidotes as a matter of course, it might be worth discussing.
"I imagine nobles have their own countermeasures already prepared, but giving it as a gift shouldn't be considered rude," Dalson noted. "As for me, as long as you provide the materials and the money, I don't mind making more. If you're going to give it as a gift, you should take another sample in a standard adult size. You can have them take measurements there and then deliver the sized-to-fit items later. You’re also welcome to bring your employees here. Either way, if you order in bulk, I’ll give you a bit of a discount."
With that, I placed an additional order for a sample outfit.
"I’ll have the thread ready by tomorrow," I promised.
"Got it. I'll get in touch with the craftsman."
Candidate number one for the year-end gifts was officially decided. However, if I was going to produce them in quantity, I would need a massive amount of thread.
I suppose it’s time to set up those spooling machines for the Sticky Slimes. I decided to stop by Serge's shop on my way home.
"That should do it."
I released the slimes from my Dimension Home and began checking the tunnels with the Rimul Birds.
Even though I’d only been away for five days, Cave Mantises had already started moving in. I exterminated them immediately, but I began to think I should reinforce the entrance more thoroughly. In my case, I could turn the mantises into food without wasting a single part, so hunting them was a gain in its own way.
"Next up..."
I chose a tunnel with moderate depth and a bit of dampness, then prepared some simple shelves with Earth Magic. I intended to move the culture beds I’d made the other day from my Dimension Home.
"Wait, what?"
Something was strange. Slender, enoki-like mushrooms were already sprouting from the culture beds I’d created with Alchemy. I hadn't used magic to accelerate their growth, and I didn't think they should have grown this fast. Could they be a different species? Regardless, the fact that they were growing meant the mushroom cultivation was likely a success. I decided to keep an eye on them for a while.
I moved the beds into the tunnel and installed a door to keep out external enemies.
"Now for the next task."
It was an additional chore, but one I could handle easily enough. I gathered the Sticky Slimes in the tunnel I usually used for making waterproof cloth and lined up the spooling machines I’d bought from Serge. Due to stock issues, I’d only been able to get five, but that would suffice for now.
The structure of the spooling machine was very simple, looking somewhat like a tabletop sewing machine. Turning a handle on the side caused a spool, supported by pillars on the base, to rotate. By pre-attaching the end of a thread to an empty spool, the machine would wind it up.
First, I had one slime spit out thread while I turned the handle to teach it the process. I made sure the slime spitting the thread was careful not to let the winding become uneven. Next, I swapped places with a different Sticky Slime and let it take over the handle-turning.
The task didn't require much strength, so there were no issues. The pair of slimes was winding the thread perfectly. I assigned slimes to the remaining four machines and left them to practice.
In the meantime, I had one more job to do.
Accompanied by the rattling sound of the spinning wheels, I prepared some charcoal and drew an Alchemy circle on the ground. I was about to create a gemstone—a diamond made from carbon.
"I'm actually getting a little nervous. I want it to be reasonably large, after all..."
A navy blue suit with no decorations was perfectly fine as formal wear in my old world, but by the standards of this world, it was considered far too plain for a noble setting. If the clothing was too simple, you looked shabby, which could reflect poorly on the person who invited you.
The clerk at the tailor shop had explained this to me. I suspected it was about eighty percent fact and twenty percent sales pitch, but I had ultimately decided to go with the principle of "focusing on one luxury"—spending money on a high-end accessory instead of the clothes themselves.
Even the "plain" suit I’d ordered cost 500,000 Suut—the equivalent of fifty Small Gold Coins. That was already a fortune, but other outfits were double or triple that price. I’d heard that the garments worn by high-ranking nobles, including accessories, were sometimes paid for in Platinum Coins.
Talk about hyper-inflation! Noble society was in a league of its own. I suppose that was one way money circulated through the world, but as a commoner, I needed to match the other party’s status as best I could.
I didn't normally wear jewelry, and the idea of wearing a bunch of different gems just to look rich felt like bad taste to me. That led me to the conclusion that I should simply make a single gemstone that was large and incredibly valuable. High-end gems were difficult to obtain anyway, so I’d just make one myself and claim it was a family heirloom from my grandmother.
"First, I’ll perform a Separation of the carbon to remove impurities... then, Combination!"
A diamond is an allotrope of carbon, just like graphite. It is essentially a mass of pure carbon; the only difference is the way the atoms are bonded. That bonding is what gives it its extreme hardness, transparency, thermal conductivity, and electrical insulation.
I ruminated on these facts as I focused on the glowing magic circle. The prepared carbon powder slowly transformed into a single, transparent mass.
The light faded from the magic circle, leaving behind an irregularly shaped, transparent stone.
"Appraisal."
Plume Diamond: A special diamond containing no impurities. Color: Colorless. Weight: 218.34 grams (1091.7 carats).
"Plume?"
It had successfully become a diamond, but I wasn't sure what the "Plume" part meant. The description called it "special," which piqued my interest. I should probably ask someone I trust about this later.
Moreover, the size was clearly absurd. If I remembered correctly, a carat was 0.2 grams, and the world's largest diamond in my previous life was around five or six hundred carats. This one was over a thousand.
"I put in way too much material..."
I decided I would have to divide it up and adjust the size and shape.