Wilona sat cross-legged in front of a fire. The stew cooking in front of her was mainly vegetables boiled in pork broth and with added fish. The smell was nice, and the lingering sweetness in the air made Wilona lick her lips. There's no better way to add spiciness to a meal than straight-up poison—actually, she remembers that chili peppers are poisonous to deer and stuff since it increases heart rate and causes a pain response.

  Doomscrolling has taught her that for an animal that doesn't have sweat glands to relieve heat, a constant source of stress is essentially a death sentence waiting to happen. Humans got off lucky, really.

  "So like, deer panting while their tongues are burning means that it fucking hurts. You know?" Mossheart nodded, and Fuzz shortly followed. "Like, I don't know if you've eaten chili peppers before, but like, breathing in while you're feeling spicy? Shit hurts. It's like, irritating your tongue."

  "If it irritates the tongue, how come people are so fond of it?" Fuzz looked up from her reading—does she even need to look at it to read? Weird.—and turned to her. "I've never eaten spices before beyond salt, but isn't it strange for people to want stronger spices if it hurts them?"

  "It's for flavor." Wilona defended with a tight expression and arms across her chest. "Like, you wouldn't get it because you've never eaten regular food before, but adding spices to something like a vegetable stew makes a LOT of difference." She emphasized, "Trust me, when the food you're eating is stale when you're chewing it, you're gonna welcome a bit of spiciness to mix into it."

  "I see, so it's because vegetables are tasteless?"

  "Pretty much!" Wilona gave the mushroom a thumbs-up. "That weird, soggy taste turns pretty good when paired with a bit of hot sauce, and like, it becomes super good."

  "I wish I could have tried that," Fuzz murmured, one hand reaching up to touch the part of her face where her mouth would have been if she had one. "It sounds nice."

  "I'm sure you'll be able to grow a tongue one day. Like, you said that you can taste things through your mycelium, right?" Fuzz nodded without excitement. "Then there you have it, you can taste things in the future. Maybe. Don't hold your hopes up... Or maybe you should? Is that like, an appropriate thing to say? I don't wanna be wrong and just lead you on..."

  Fuzz giggled. "Where did that come from? You were being shockingly considerate just now."

  Wilona huffed. Who does Fuzz think she is? Some kind of heartless monster who doesn't feel bad for other people's unfortunate circumstances? "Of course I was being considerate! Like, I felt bad for you, why wouldn't I? Are you saying that it's better if I just cast fireball and chucked it at you after you talked about your lack of taste buds?"

  "I didn't mean that..." Fuzz's giggling died down. She shook her head. "Still, that's a rather extreme reaction, don't you think?"

  "Fair. It totally was," Wilona nodded. Maybe she shouldn't throw fireballs immediately and start with like, a tiny flamethrower or something? When she noticed that the conversation was coming to a lull, Wilona moved to open the pot and peered inside. "It's almost done, anyway. Like, can you tell me what we need to do to make a better magical staff?"

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  "Okay," Fuzz closed her book and focused on the topic at hand. "I've worked with ironwood before and know firsthand that you need to submerge it in mana until the liquid seeps into everything before burning it so that the gathered mana accumulates into the purified charcoal."

  "Charcoal?" Wilona tilted her head. "I thought we were making some kind of purified wood?"

  "And that is exactly what we are making: Bihu, or Silver Wood. It's charcoal essentially. I like to call it that since the methodology to make it is the same as that of charcoal."

  "Okay? That's kind of neat, but like, how are we making Silver Wood? Do we just burn the ironwood and then wait for it to become that?" Wilona was genuinely curious how the hell they were going to do this, because like, she never thought she'd ever burn metal to make charcoal.

  "We wait for it to purify, to be exact," Fuzz corrected, like there was any difference. "And yes, there's a difference." She added like she knew what Wilona was thinking. "Moving past that, the general theory for why this works is because it is believed that ironwood is iron first, wood second."

  "Yeah, no shit?" Wilona scratched the side of her head. So much for cryptic voodoo bullshit.

  "No, not just the name, but the structure of the material as well."

  Wilona snapped her fingers. "Wait, I know this!" She jogged her memory for what the cause is and remembered a passage from the alchemy book. "It's said that ironwood is actually raw iron ore being given the properties of a seed, right? That's why it's like that? It's not some kind of seed that's given the properties of iron but the opposite? Is that what you mean?"

  "Correct." Fuzz nodded. "If what you said is not the case, then an acorn given the properties of iron would not be able to grow, but if iron is given the same properties as that of an acorn, then it will grow into a tree."

  "Yeah, that makes sense." Wilona nodded. "How did they do it anyway?"

  "Who knows?" Fuzz shrugged helplessly. "The methodology has been lost to time, and no one knows for sure what kind of alchemy was used to make ironwood possible. Theory has it that it is a mix of both magic and alchemy, but no one knows for sure."

  "Okay, so like, guess that's what we need to do with the ironwood. Do you have any idea on where we can find the gemstones we need for the planetary alignment?" Wilona tilted her head. She didn't just want to half-ass the making of her magical staff, but the materials needed to make it were pretty fucking rare. She's kinda tempted to just do the planetary alignment using the stones Garry is giving her, honestly.

  "I have no clue where you can realistically get such precious gemstones around here. Perhaps you can visit Phocles tomorrow and ask him about it? A noble, even if his status is low, should know where to find them," Fuzz suggested, and it made sense. It's better than the two of them looking for it themselves at least.

  "I'll go to the town first thing in the morning and do that, yeah." Wilona agreed. She opened the lid and poured herself a serving of dinner. "I'll need to eat a lot of this for myself. Do you think Garry eats vegetables?"

  "He does," Fuzz nodded. "I'm confident he can eat anything that's edible."

  "So like, he has some kind of natural ring of resistance?"

  "Yes, yes he does. He has a strong gut and an even stronger body."

  "Huh, neat." Wilona did not know the little alligator gar she's taking care of is that powerful.

  Come morning, after preparing her appearance and making herself presentable, she set off for the town and flew in the crisp morning air. She's always enjoyed the atmosphere of the late dawn. It's peaceful and yet not so hot out that it hurts to be under the sun. The birds are asleep too, so almost no sound can be heard.

  She went past the guards and headed to Phocles' house immediately, which had considerably improved since the last time she saw it. Apparently, the old man has been putting in some work. Neat.

  That's the first thing Wilona said when she arrived, "Nice house, dude. I didn't know that you were fixing this place." She looked around; it had newly painted walls too. "By the way, do you know where I can get a few magical gemstones? The higher quality the better. I don't wanna go to Raha since he's a bit of a creep, so like, do you?"

  "I'm afraid I don't," Phocles pulled on his head. "Maybe my sons do when they get back? You can ask them then."

  "Your sons are coming back?" Wilona tilted her head. Everything suddenly clicked. "Is that why your house is newly repaired and stuff? Hell, even the garden looks nice. You're really putting in effort for this, huh?"

  "I do my best," Phocles laughed. Then he turned serious. "I also advise you to be careful, however, as the three other people coming here to supervise the new dungeon won't be friendly—especially the two nobles from the capital. The Archon from Nythfyr is one thing, but the Dorrics are possibly going to ally with Raha and his group as they are both merchants with the same interests."

  "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Wilona held back a sigh. Why is she being dragged into politics? Seriously. She needed to go before any of this got worse. "I'll uh, take my leave. It was nice talking to you, goodbye!"

  In the end, she got her gemstones from Rottie, who gave her a part of the loot he collected from the bandits' camps around the area.