Working The Flame!

After being dragged further into the house, it finally started to look more and more like a smithy from the jrpg-style isekai Jaxx had always read. There were bone weapons hung up on the walls, piles of fire wood planks along the ground, a few tables with many bone tools spread out on top and a wooden forge that was stained black.

"Mm!"

The small blue-haired girl pointed towards the white coloured wood that laid on the ground, then to the flame that burned dimly in the forge.

"That flame has been burning for about 11 years straight! Sir Zeph treasures it a lot, so don't go playing around when it comes to it okay?"

Lily said this with a bright smile but a serious face. She seemed very excited to talk about it but wanted to make sure Camellia understood the situation clearly.

For the next hour or so The blue haired Junjun excitedly ran around showing Camellia around while Lily explained everything in detail. They made a few small flames and showed her the basics, then brought her to the living area, the bathroom and finally where she would be sleeping.

It was an attic like room with one large bed and a few blankets sprawled about. There were blankets on the floor that acted as a rug, with some clothes thrown here and there, some hung up but most just laying around covered in soot and dirt.

Normally someone would probably turn their nose at this or feel somewhat grossed out at the thought of children's rooms looking like this... but not to Jaxx! The pink loli simply walked forwards and sat on the bed to rest for a moment!

He had not only grown up as an orphan, but he was also a total Neet, staying inside reading isekai as often as possible, even skipping school most of the time until he got kicked out for being a nuisance. His father had died at a very young age from alcoholism and bad lungs from years of smoking, while his mother was a gambling addict who just up and left one day to avoid loan sharks, leaving her kid behind without even telling him.

It took about a week until his teacher noticed something was up, which ultimately got him sent to an orphanage. Although normally people would be traumatized by such a backstory, it didn't matter much to Jaxx.

Why?

Because that's when he discovered isekai of course! He felt he owed his life to orphanages around the world for teaching him of such amazing content!

'Mm, I'll invest in an orphanage at some point.'

<Aww~ such wholesome goals~! Ok ok, just for the sincerity of your words I will teach you a bit about the world seeing as those adorable kids didn't explain much~.>

'Goddess-sama~~~~!!'

**

Yo! Instructor Jaxx finally back once again!

Pop quiz~

Did you notice anything wrong with the description of the place by the way?

Well, if you hadn't of noticed it last chapter when the smithy was described I sure as hell hope you did this time! Everything is made of wood and bones!

The only thing she'd seen was hide, pelt, fabric, bone tools/weapons and that thick ass wood. Even now, the fire wood was the first different kind of wood she had seen other than the oversized wood from the forest's trees.

Now that you've read the pre-question info, the real quiz begins!

Question 1.

Why don't you think they have any stone or metal?

[Oh, this answer is quite easy!]

Oh yea Great Mage? What would that answer be then I wonder~

[It is most likely due to how dense the forest is! If the forest is as dense as it is, it means that both the humidity and depth of the dirt are at a max! The more room there is for the roots, the further they will burrow! Making it almost impossible to mine down to get any stone or minerals!]

Bing Bing~! 1/2 points!

[Only half?! What do you mean it's only half?!]

{Trade.}

Bing Bing~!

Good job respectable Beast lord-nim! With the dense forest and few trails, trade is quite rough to come by. Making it hard to get outside sources of the materials they lack!

I bet that even the fire wood that the girls used earlier to demonstrate fire-making was quite expensive! Either purchased from the exotic trade, from a daring and brave merchant, or maybe it's grown in a special vin-yard type of thing... They could be growing it themselves too I guess? Beats me, don't care if I'm not the one paying.

[Very 'elegant' wording...]

{Beautiful.}

[Don't encourage him!!]

**

'Hmm... so stone and metal is super rare then? Aren't there any golems or something nearby to harvest some from? Maybe a lake? No... golems are usually formed from natural minerals, and if there's a lake big enough for stone or metal to show then no way in hell would it not be filled with sea serpents and monster fish.'

She shivered.

"OOOOOOOOOYYYYYY!!!"

The whole house shivered.(...trembled? I don't know, I just wanted to repeat the line again)

The two girls quickly grabbed Camellia's hands and pulled her up from the bed only to start running down the stairs. At the bottom they were greeted by Zeph wearing a worn looking apron and a belt full of tools with large black gloves with a hammer on the table beside him.

"Time to work."

"Right!" "MM!"

Two girls quickly put on a pair of gloves that were hung on the railing and quickly started running about getting ready for work.

"Jj, get 20, 2's."

"MM!"

She quickly grabbed a bone axe and ran out a back door that was hidden on the other side of the kitchen.

'OY! is it really ok for a little girl like that to run around with an axe?! I mean she looks 10 years old at most!'

"Lily, we will do number 4 west style for today."

"Right!"

She then quickly walked towards a small table near the furnace and opened a hatch that was on the ground only to come back up with an assortment of bones and a bit of leather.

'WHAT THE HECK IS THAT DUNGEON?! You sent some 14 year old girl down there just to bring up some butchered monster corpse pieces?! And what's up with all those strangely specific instructions?! Do those even have a meaning? I bet he's making them up!'

"Cami, put this on and get the fire going."

He handed her a smaller apron that looked newer, but was obviously made to fit Lily, along with some black beat up gloves that were basically just fabric wrist bands.

'Nice gloves... Wait, did he just call me Cami? What the hell kinda... Nono, actually I kinda like that nickname...'

She then walked over towards the forge and started putting in 3 pieces of wood into the fire, just as the girls had advised her before hand, making it start to look full of life... but something felt off?

'Why... does it feel like it's not enough?'

*CHOP CHOP CRASH!*

She quickly turned around towards the alarming sound, only to see a small blue haired girl lugging around a massive pile of wood on her shoulders as if she was a professional body builder trying to show off.

'WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!'

"What's with the light load? Are you tired today Jj?"

He casually said this to the still faced girl as if it was normal. Only for her to shrug her shoulders.

'...'

<Even I'm confused here...>

'Right?'

~h...gr..y~

"Ok, everything is ready Sir!"

"Right, this should be enough wood as well, right Jj?"

"Mm!"

"Is the fire warmed up?"

"Uh.. y- yes? I think it needs more wood though... sir?"

"Nonsense, looks perfectly normal to me."

"Oh.. ok, sorry."

<Such a pushover, jeez.>

'I'm bad at being social ok! What kinda out of character comment is that anyways?!'

*CRASH*

Suddenly the man started chipping away at some bone using what looked like a smaller rock with a fierce and focused gaze.

'Is that rock... a piece of that turtle armor that guard was wearing before?'

<Good eyes my dear~! Although, it seems to have been molded down and compressed more than that armor, so it's probably much stronger.>

"I see..."

"Camellia, he's gonna heat up the bone soon, can you heat the furnace a bit more?"

"Sure!"

The pink figure quickly ducked down and picked up another small brick of wood. Each piece was probably only about 60cm long and maybe 15 wide, so they were quite easy to throw about even for someone her size.

'I think she said 1 piece to heat it before?'

Right as she tossed the piece in, the fire began to jump and crackle, growing slightly in size, only to quickly go back to its original, puny campfire size.

Right as it was shrinking back down, a sharp chipped bone quickly stabbed into the fire. It was a large bone that looked like it came from a troll. The man was holding the bone in place, slowly spinning it and occasionally hitting it with his wooden hammer. It seemed the wood from the forest did not burn, but as the bones did, it was more efficient to use this hammer while working over the flames.

~hu...n...ry...~

He looked very concentrated and repeated his movements for more than a minute before Camellia added another block of wood, as she was instructed earlier. This time, as the flame grew, Zeph suddenly started to violently swing his hammer while spinning the bone with precision, forming it much faster than before! Only to go back to slowly doing it like before as the flame died down...

'So inefficient! He made so much progress when the flame was stronger and now he's back to a snail's pace!'

For some reason Camellia could tell that the bone wouldn't break from that heat or the repeated beatings. After watching him for so long mixed with her Isekai god's instinct she could tell that;

'He's either being dumb or lazy.'

Looking back at the fire, she could start to hear the desperate plead of the red flame. Lost in the mesmerizing flame, it was as if she was hypnotized trying to figure out what was wrong. Until finally it clicked.

~HUNGRY!!!~

"Hungry!"

She quickly ran to pull a table close to the furnace, only to start stacking up a pile of wood blocks on top.

"Camellia, that's a bit too close to the flame. There's no need to have that much wood there either, 1 per minute is more than enough to craft-"

"Hey Orc-elf pervert, the fire's hungry and wont shut up, so I'm gonna stuff it full kay'?!"

"What!?"

Breaking his concentration for the first time since he began crafting, he glanced up and the crude words of the pink lizard loli only to see her holding handfuls of wood with a leg open, manly stance.

'Eat this and shut up already you stupid fire!'

She quickly threw a piece of wood into the fire, shocking the old man, but he quickly got back his concentration showing off his true mastery of his craft. Hitting the bone, quickly forming it with precise hits of his hammer just as before... but this time it was different! Right before it could calm down, Camellia chucked another piece of wood into the fire making it rampage once again!

~HUNGRY!!~

"Yea yea, shut up and eat already!"

The two girls were full of worry, walking towards the pink girl who was standing on the table of wood, chucking in piece after piece to try and stop her. However, they were suddenly assaulted by a wave of heat coming from the fire as it engulfed the roof of the room near the forge, turning into a indoor bonfire. The red flames seemed to engulf everything around the forge, making the blacksmith turn into a silhouette that repeatedly swung his hand up and down, grabbing piece after piece of different sized bones that sat next to him only to add them into the forge.

He then suddenly swung his weight to his left dipping the silhouette of a sword into the water barrel for a few moments, filling the room with steam only for him to turn back to the flame which had an annoyed pink loli standing almost inside of the furnace pit, screaming while throwing in more wood.

"OOORRYAAAA!!"

He chuckled lightly only to quickly continue hammering away.