To Emma's chagrin, making a wax sculpture turned out to be significantly harder than she had expected. Whilst she had no issue heating and moulding the wax itself, nor with using the sculpting tool, thanks to her passive traits from the Chandler class, that was as far as the benefits went. For the most difficult aspects, namely, shaping the surface of the sculpture to make it aesthetically pleasing, she was very much on her own.
[10 EXP gained for pushing the boundaries of your skill.]
"Not again," Emma groaned, as she examined her latest attempt.
She'd gotten the shape right, this time, the body and head coming out to actually resemble the proportions of a sleeping cat. Even the four small paws added on after the fact were looking to be in decent shape. The main problem, and what really vexed her right now, was the face. Instead of precise lines carved in the shape of Saint's whiskers and tabby patterned coat, her best effort instead amounted to what looked like a crude cartoon drawing of a cat, fit for a particularly distorted episode of Tom and Jerry. This was the fourth time she'd gotten such a result as well, which didn't make Emma feel much better.
"Turns out, I'm not very artistic," Emma finally relented.
[To be fair, it's not that difficult where candles are concerned. Add some colouring to the wax, mix it up a bit, maybe stick some decorations inside, and you're done. Because of this simplicity, we never added any particular requirement for artistry to pick up the Class, but on the flip side, it also meant we never bothered to add that knowledge as a passive skill. So, uh, you may want to take art lessons, if you're gonna try that again.]
Emma was tempted to return to the grind, diving into a fifth attempt, but ultimately she recognised that she'd already put too much time into what was meant to be a simple present.
"Back to candles then," she agreed with a sigh, before tossing her deformed attempt at a cat into the bin, to join its predecessors.
Many of the reagents collected in Blenheim Palace had been consumed during the creation of Eternal Wind, but many did not mean all, so Emma still had a few things she wanted to try. To begin with, she used the free wax that came with the portable crafting table to make a batch of ordinary candles. There was nothing at all special with them, and Emma noted that they didn't even give XP anymore; with Chandler having been power levelled to 9 in the Dungeon, such basic crafting was simply too little to move the needle any more. That was fine however, because these were just the placeholders for what Emma really wanted.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
[Eternal Wind withdrawn.]
New Candle Attribute learned - Chaos: Emits a different negative effect each time it's lit.]
"Ew."
[Chaos Candle stored.
A Practical Guide to Entropy stored.]
Emma was happy for the discovery, but far less so the practical consequences; especially as she was in her homunculus while her armour was upstairs, making it impossible to deaden her sense of smell to prevent herself from gagging.
"Gods above, what is that?"
Saint was even less pleased to be woken up by a magical stink bomb, given her senses were far keener than that of a human or even a half-demon. She leapt up from the couch onto the coffee table, both her tails lashing wildly in the air as she glared at Emma.
"Behold my wrath, orange onslaught!"
A spectacular burst of orange light filled the room, followed by the strongest citrus Emma had ever smelled. It burned at her eyes, nostrils and throat, causing her to devolve into a hacking cough, even as she privately admitted that this was still preferable to what was there before it.
"Glad to see you're awake," Emma eventually spoke, after opening all the windows to air out the house. "Anything exciting happen while you were out?"
"You mean besides getting a massive buff to my poisons, and finding out that we've basically been gone for a month?"
"Wait, what?"