13 The Art of Creation - Spear Shafts

Asura Ryuu was exploring the surroundings of the mansion to find a good and elastic branch of the tree to make a spear. To his surprise, most of the trees were flexible, but some of them were more flexible than other kinds. Due to his usual behaviour to pick out the best, as he was used to with technology on Earth, it took quite a while to find a good choice for himself.

Asura Tenka, Xun Meng and Xun Bao tagged along and found one for each of them which suited them the best then all of them returned in front of the mansion to process the wood and shape it into a spear.

That job fell on Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka, while Xun Bao and Xun Meng went to find hard and sharp rocks that would serve as the spear tip.

Everything they did was very primitive, but they didn't have a choice - the old man didn't want to give them anything even when they begged collectively. The only thing he gave them was broken knife that had a Spirit Core imbued with his energy and a button-like mechanism to activate the array inside it.

The knife was cracked along its body and that's why it was considered 'broken', but for basic needs, it was enough. It could even cut metal when the mechanism was activated, so it had plenty of uses for the four.

Asura Ryuu cut all the branches to a similar height - 50% higher than himself. If measured by the standards from 'hell', the branches were one and a half meter in length without the spear tip. After he finished cutting them to the equal size with a broken knife, he started processing each one separately. The first one he finished was for Xun Meng. The shaft was slender and had a rope coiled around it for a better grip. Even though it was slender, the material itself was very hard, but under the higher strain it was slightly elastic.

Asura Ryuu was actually quite surprised that Xun Meng chose that type of wood for her spear shaft. He thought she'd go for a more elastic one, but obviously he misjudged her character. Soon, he found out that Xun Bao, who was usually the epitome of laziness, chose the extremely hard wood for his spear shaft. It wasn't elastic, but it was very hard and wouldn't bend under strain.

They had no idea how any of the trees they chose were called, but they knew their properties.

Asura Tenka chose the same type of the tree as Asura Ryuu - the completely black type with white flowers. It had a peculiar aura which both of them found satisfying, hence both of them chose the same type.

That type of tree was heavy, and it seemed more like a rock than a tree, but it was highly flexible after a certain point. Until that point, the material was very hard. They didn't know that the reason for that behaviour was because that tree absorbed Spiritual Energy over the years.

Asura Ryuu: "Do you want more slender shaft for higher speed or a thicker one for power?".

He asked while flicking a sidelong glance to Asura Tenka.

Asura Tenka: "Hmm. I don't really know. What do you plan on making?"

Asura Ryuu: "I'll go for the thicker one because I can train my speed with a heavy weapon which will undoubtedly help before we start cultivating."

Asura Tenka: "I think I'll go with a slightly thinner one in order to maximize speed. We may run into a situation where the speed is more important than power."

Asura Ryuu: "Hmm, well that's true. How thinner do you want it to be?"

Asura Tenka: "I don't really know, make it 20% thinner for the start, then we'll adjust it if there's a need to."

At this moment, Xun Bao and Xun Meng came back, each with a basket woven out of small branches. It was their own work which Ryuu taught them how to do. Naturally, this was a skill he brough from Earth, or rather - from hell.

Their baskets were filled to the brim with stones. When Ryuu saw that, he had an urge to slap his forehead but refrained from doing it. The two were still five-year-olds, hence he didn't expect them to think that much. But he didn't expect both of them to bring full baskets regardless.

Asura Tenka naturally understood why Ryuu's face slightly changed and chuckled a little in response. Her eyes drifted to the two as she ran up to help.

As she picked up a wooden basket from Xun Bao, she also helped Xun Meng put the basket down.

Xun Meng: "Little sister, you aren't planning on carrying both of those yourself, right?"

Asura Tenka smiled and shook her head while pointing to the two baskets.

Asura Tenka: "You take one side of your basket, I'll take the other sides and we'll carry it like that."

Xun Meng and Xun Bao looked at each other with confusion, obviously not understanding what she meant. Asura Tenka chuckled and caught their hands, placing each of them where they should be, then she came between both baskets and caught each of them on their ends. As she did that, Xun Bao and Xun Meng understood what she meant. They carried their own baskets on one end while Asura Tenka took the other end and made it easier for both to carry it. Rocks were heavy, after all.

Asura Ryuu smiled when he saw that scene as he thought: "She's finally having her own life. I wonder how she feels now that she's free from all that suffering in loneliness."

As if feeling Asura Ryuu's thoughts, Asura Tenka's head rose up and her eyes full of joy met with his. It seemed as if she understood his thoughts because a kind of smile that she never had before appeared on her face.

The trio soon came with two baskets full of various kinds of rocks, and in the same moment, Ryuu finished with the shaft for his spear which was the last one.

The thickest shaft was Asura Ryuu's, then Xun Meng's, after that came Xun Bao's shaft, which was slightly thinner than Xun Meng's and Asura Tenka's in the end. Although the order was like that, if instead of thickness we took heaviness for comparison, Asura Ryuu was first, Asura Tenka second, Xun Meng third and Xun Bao fourth.