Hour Empty Child

Vol. 2 Ch. 21 Mana Affinity and Rabacite Gear

After they have collected a fair amount of ores to create ingots, Kudo heated his station, creating as many ingots as he possibly could to make his visionary armor.

Kudo calculated that he would make at least one armor after his last failure, and continued to work to create the ingots.

He was wrong.

It took a while, but he finally managed to create enough ingots to create at least one armor. However, the item he was working on, called the 【Rabacite Ingot】, exuded powerful mana that shifts in waves, disabling him on making proper control over his station which requires extreme concentration.

Needless to say, it caused him quite a bit of grief—

"Why can't I get this right?!"

—well, a lot of grief.

Just an hour ago, he was dead set on creating a set of powerful Rabacite armor to replace his old one, and was looking forward to creating Hinota's set of armor as well.

However, what he was seeing in front of him was the pile of scrap, not worthy of putting on someone's person. It was to the point where if you wear it, you would most likely be hurt by it instead of being protected by it.

Kudo gritted his teeth, and clenched his hands into tight fists—enough to make a sharp cut on his palm and let a small trail of blood come down from it.

Making such equipment... no, making such mistakes aggravated him. Perhaps it was Crafter's pride? Kudo would never accept that, after all the armor he was creating so far, he can't even make armor of the next level.

After a while, Kudo has finally calmed himself down. The reason why he was so frustrated was the day he had to waste finding all the ores that turned into the mess he sees right now. What would he say to Hinota when morning comes?

He certainly won't show this mess to her. Kudo put them all into the station, and burned them all with a glorious flame coming from the high-temperature station.

"Nobody will know of these failures..."

Kudo's eyes glinted as a devilish small smirk arose from his lips. His disastrous work of his first time crafting Rabacite will never be known to the world...

●

The morning sun arises.

Hinota began to wake up in her bed.

She has always been a morning girl, so she gets up just fine, unlike Kudo.

Beginning her procedure, she made a quick stretch that woke up her ample, toned body, and adorned her armor onto her person. Her long, flowing red hair was tied up with a special hairband, very personal to Hinota, which remains hidden between the hair.

Once she took a good look at the mirror, making sure that there was nothing wrong—which there wasn't, of course—she stepped outside her room and headed towards Kudo's room.

Once she stood next to the door, Hinota slightly knocked, "Kudo, you're in there?"

She called out. Then, the door slowly opens, revealing the person behind the door which made Hinota nearly jolt out of her skin.

"K-Kudo! You look terrible!"

Hinota almost yelped as she saw the hideous creature standing in front of her. Kudo's eyes were baggy and bloodshot—resembling a terrifying ghost that came back from the grave to haunt people. His cheeks looked like they were sunk in, and his hair was roughed up countless times.