Chapter 85 - Branch

"One... Two! THREE!" Eiro yelled as loud as he could, alone in the quiet, separated bas.e.m.e.nt-room. For the past few days, he's been trying his best to continuosly overwhelm his senses to get used to the feeling of that happening, and in the process, finally managed to properly live with his new senses.

It was still a bit uncomfortable, but it seemed like his body had properly adapted to this new feeling. Just now, he was simply trying to make sure he was really fine when it came to his hearing, and as he was fine, he swiftly made his way out of the bas.e.m.e.nt. Because today, he would finally get started on his work, beginning with a rather important project.

Over the past few days, Eiro had noticed more and more how he simply had to replace his right hand. It was the reason why Eiro was supposed to even grow the tree at the start of the apprenticeship, after all. And for that, he would make his way through the forest while practicing his sensory control, something that he figured would be a good idea. He always relied on his sight, so he figured it would be a good idea to at least get rid of that sense for now, and bound some cloth around his eyes, as thick as he could so that he could finally just see the pitch-black that he usually did when closing his eyes.

"Lugo, come here." Eiro said quietly as he raised his hand to the right, and soon heard the Stag approach him quietly, and the Imp tried to concentrate on Lugo's figure as much as possible. He knew how he usually moved pretty well, so maybe he could use that as a reference to figure out how exactly he was moving right now.

"Your head is low... because you... you have some of the cows' feed in your mouth? Again?" Eiro asked annoyedly with a sigh, and could then hear Lugo quickly continue chewing to swallow what he was eating, "You have your own food... But nevermind... Your breathing is quick, but that's because I just caught you... and... you need a bath..." The Demon sighed, before slowly turning away toward where he remembered the path down being.

"Just keep walking behind me, and help me out in case I'm about to walk into something, or in case I fall down..." Eiro told his Familiar and then just slowly started walking forward, hearing the blades of grass be pressed down underneath his step.

There was something running around in the distance to his right... A Rabbit, maybe. Some bugs were crawling inside basically every single tree, creating an awkward, uncomfortable sound as they were at it.

But especially those were a fair help to figure out where the trees were, even though he already somewhat knew through their smell itself. Eiro specifically was trying not to 'remember' the path, because if he did, he could navigate this forest pretty well without any senses at all.

Instead, he was trying to visualize the area around him in his mind. First came the smells, represented through thin, colored mist in the color that Eiro somehow instinctively connected each scent to without any order. Then there were the sounds, which were like ripples on a water surface, just spreading outward everywhere around him.

Eiro wasn't breathing through his mouth, so taste wasn't really used right now, but his touch was. He could feel the soft air currents all around him, and they were simply white lines all around him, moving into the directions the wind was moving.

It was really, really hard to properly concentrate on everything, but all of these senses just somehow mixed together so intensely, so sometimes the ripples were in the color of different scents, and the scents weren't mist but instead the lines that he usually connected to wind.

It was hard to concentrate on all of these things at once... But at least it helped level up exactly that skill a little more, even if his concentration did waver a few times when he nearly tripped over random things laying on the ground.

It was surprisingly tough to navigate through here while blind... And Jura did it just so seamlessly, as if he could see every single detail around him. How long would it take for Eiro to get to that point?

Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, or maybe never... He really didn't know, but he knew that he had to just go ahead and try his best until he did know.

"The river... That way..." Eiro whispered quietly as he tried to properly identify the direction that the sound of flowing water came from, and then slowly made his way over there, although it seemed like his concentration really did waver far too much just then and he stepped right into a small rabbit hole at the side of the path he was walking on, although Lugo quickly caught his fall and prompted Eiro back up.

"Thanks." The Demon said as he slowly ran his fingers over Lugo's snout, starting to feel a slight tingling sensation, as if there was something moving. Slowly, he ran his fingers through the Stag's fur to follow that tingling, it more and more just following something like a 'beat', before he reached the side of Lugo's torso.

"Ah... That was your... blood?" Eiro asked quietly, while he felt Lugo's body just slightly shift around while the Stag probably tilted his head to the side confused. "Nevermind, let's just... keep going." Eiro suggested and lifted his hand from Lugo's torso, turning back around to where he could hear the river before, and then he soon stood right in front of the cold water. Now, Eiro just had to walk along the river bank until he was at the small river bank his Tree was occupying.

In the past five years, it really grew a lot, far more than a tree usually should in that time, and it looked as if it was already a few decades old at this point. It was really incredible, and every single time that Eiro looked at it, he felt astonished at what he had created. And so, Eiro slowly removed the cloth from his eyes to feel exactly that way again, although it was a bit... different this time.

As Eiro's eyes that were able to now see the tiniest detail in anything relayed the visuals to his brain and those visual mixed with the fake imagery he created in his mind to visualize the scents, sounds, and the wind around him, this tree looked even more amazing than he could have ever really expected, and he thought it was amazing all along anyway.

With a slight smile, Eiro just made his way over there and quickly froze a small 'path' between this side of the river and the bank in the center of it, and just swiftly stepped over there with a smile on his face, slowly placing his hand on the bark.

It felt rough and cold, nearly freezing, but it was an object full of life that was deeply connected to Eiro  himself. "Alright then… Let's get the material I need, huh?" The Demon muttered quietly as he took a look around the tree to see if there was any place that he could use as a good footing, and soon found a small split in the bark that he was sure he could wedge his foot inbetween of, so he did just that and climbed up this tree onto one of the nearby branches, swiftly taking a look around, before Eiro somehow immediately found the perfect branch to use as a base, and then quickly took his saw out of his Treasury, swiftly pushing and pulling it across the top of that branch, before the connected part became too thin and weak to hold it up anymore and the branch just cracked away.

Eiro tried to keep holding it up a little so that he could get a good, clean cut, but there was still a little bit too much that splintered off. It was annoying, but there was nothing Eiro could really do about it anymore.

Once he made sure that the branch was laying on the ground safely, the Demon climbed back down and then proceeded to cut off whatever small twigs were still on it, and then just nodded his head in satisfaction. It really seemed like a really good piece of wood, and so Eiro just carried it back to the side of the river that Lugo was waiting on, and then tied the branch onto the Stag's back. It wasn't that it was heavy, it was just pretty long and unhandy, and since Eiro was going to walk back home with his eyes tied again, he wanted to make sure he could do that without any unnecessary obstruction.

And luckily, Eiro managed to make his way back perfectly, this time not even requiring Lugo's help because he stepped somewhere wrong and nearly fell down.

At the house, the Demon removed his blindfold and got the branch off of Lugo's back, before he was accompanied into the hut by the Stag, who quite swiftly sat down on the floor right next to Eiro's workbench.

Usually, Eiro would work outside, but in here, everything was a little more controlled and shut off, so he felt more comfortable. Now taking the chance, Eiro quickly started stripping the branch properly and cut off any part that seemed like it really wasn't useable, although he placed it to the side just in case.

The sound was just so intense to him, and the small vibrations that moved through his body as he was removing the bark from the branch was just so… fulfilling, It was moving through his whole body, and in the end, he could just smile as he waved his hand to the side to make the scraps of bark gather together in one spot so that he could dispose of them more easier lately. Wind Magic was pretty handy for that.

Although, it somehow felt pretty… Weird to cast magic with his new senses. It felt like something was literally seeping out through his skin whenever he did… The fact that he could feel his own blood flowing through his body was awkward enough already.

Either way, now that this first step was done, Eiro first got rid of his cloak and hung it up next to the door and took off his shoes, and let his tail unwrap from around his hip, before sitting back down on his chair and pulling his left foot onto the chair inbetween his legs while he pressed the tips of his toes against the floor underneath his chair. It might look like a bit of an awkward position, but to Eiro himself, it was weirdly comfortable, even now.

Slowly, the Demon reached his hand out and flipped the box he already sat down onto the table beforehand open, and then used his new tools to cut the wood up into differently sized pieces that he would each carve into another part of his soon-to-be replacement hand.

The process of carving itself was really completely the same for now, with the one exception of the mana that Eiro was currently pushing out of his hand into the wood through his fingertips.

Just like that, Eiro got started, and once he had each of the differently sized cuboids, he started cutting them up into different simple parts of his hand, taking his current left hand as a reference for that. From fingertip to palm, soon, Eiro had all of the parts that he needed finished, and then spent a little while simply reworking some bits and pieces to make it more life-like.

The wood itself had a rather pale blue color right now, although the bark before was relatively dark, and surprisingly enough the color of the wood fit well with the color of Eiro's blue limbs. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it was close enough!

And with each piece of wood that dropped onto the ground, to Eiro sounding as if someone just smashed a rock into glass with full power, the Demon simply calmed down and more and more got used to these new senses. It was weird, he was trying to get there really strongly over the past few days and never really managed to do so completley, but the moment he started to work with some of this wood, he was completely fine.