John stepped into town, walking with a purpose. The first thing he needed to do was see if there was a tailor, or perhaps seamstress in town. He quickly perused the signs on the street, they weren’t many. There were signs for a bakery, a forge, Phillip’s woodworking shop, Theodore’s store, and the inn with adjacent tavern. Most of the other buildings seemed to be actual homes. Sighing he walked toward Ellie’s stall.

The woman saw him coming and gave a smile and a wave. “Hey hon, how’s it going? I heard you had some bad visitors over the other day. You doin okay?” Her smile segued into a concerned look.

“Yeah, I’m okay, thanks for asking. Just got some… interesting news about the tree today, and now I’ve got to send someone a gift over it,” he explained.

“A gift, huh? Must be some important news. I take it you don’t need fruits then?” she asked.

“No, well, I mean, I haven’t actually eaten anything but meal cakes in a while, so maybe something different couldn’t hurt,” he said, eyeing her selection.

“I suggest the apples, they came out particularly well this time around.” She gestured to several large, inviting apples. Their skin was shiny and had a lovely shade of pink.

“Sure, I’ll take one, how much?” John asked.

“A copper a pair hon,” Ellie informed him.

John picked out two apples and handed her a coin.

“Now, how about you tell me what you’re really looking for?” Ellie said as she made the copper disappear.

“Well, I need a stone carver and weaver. Do you know anyone in town with those skills?” he asked as he put one of the apples in his inventory.

“Hmmm stone carving is Frank, along with some masonry. Weaving, that’s a bit harder; Samantha used to be a seamstress by trade, and even made her own cloth, but we’ve got no thread or yarn production aside from a few sheep we shear once a year,” Ellie explained.

John gave her a funny look. “What do you mean we don’t have any thread? We’ve got a whole dungeon floor full of thread.”

Ellie gave him a quizzical look. “Not sure what you mean hon.”

“The spiders? They’ve got to have spider silk, I imagine it’d make great thread and yarn,” he explained.

The woman looked at him like he was mad. “How are you going to get silk from the spiders?”

“Well, I imagine they leave a good portion of it laying around, we could start with that, and I think there’s a technique for getting silk out of living spiders? I know it was tried before synthetic spider silk became a thing,” John said.

“Syn-what-now?” Ellie asked, looking lost and confused.

John paused, remembering where he was and who he was talking to. “Right, different world. Okay, so basically spider thread is a type of silk, and there are ways to extract it from living spiders. But with how big these spiders are we might be able to just use threads they’ve already created, if they’re not sticky… Or maybe if they are? I bet there’s some kind of alchemical treatment we could use to make them not sticky,” he mused half to himself.

Ellie just shook her head. “If you say so hon. I guess if you can get some… Silk? Did you say? Then I could introduce you to Sam, see if she’s interested.”

“Thanks Ellie! I’ll get back to you soon!” he said and hurried away as Ellie watched with a bemused smile.

John bit into his apple as he headed toward the general store. He came to a dead stop and looked down at what he was holding. Yep, that was an apple, and it tasted amazing. It was better than any apple he’d ever had. The smell was fragrant, the flesh crisp, the juice a perfect blend of sweet and tart. For a moment he wondered if the taste of food had been made purposefully better than life to entice people, but then decided he didn’t care and continued to devour the fruit. Apple finished; John continued on his journey to the store while silently mourning the loss of his ignorance. There was no way he’d be able to forget that while eating meal bars.

Entering the store, John walked up to the counter. “Hey mister Theodore, how’s it going?”

The ursakin grunted and gave John and appraising look.

John nodded as if he’d received a response. “I need paper and charcoal for the board,” he said, placing a copper on the counter. Theodore produced the requested items and John spent a moment writing out what he was looking for.

Purchasing: Spider Silk (non-sticky)

Unit Size: 1 Yard

Pay: 10 coppers per yard

Deliver To: John’s Farm (at the end of the road)

“Thanks mister Theodore,” John said putting the charcoal back on the counter. The bear man just went back to manning his store with another grunt.

John walked outside and tacked up the request, he then turned and headed for Frank’s stall. The older man watched him come with a speculative eye. “What are you up to son?” he asked in his no-nonsense manner. “Ellie says you’ve got some crazy idea about spider webs being silk and that you need a weaver and a mason.”

“It’s not crazy! Spiders produce silk! I don’t understand how you guys can have such large spiders and not have figured out their strands are good for thread,” John said defensively.

One of Frank’s eyebrows went up. “Son, you do realize that giant spiders are horrifically dangerous right? Something that size has no problem preying on regular folk. Spider colonies are burned out wherever they’re found. Keeping them around and trying to make a product out of them is sheer lunacy!”

John scratched his head, considering what the man was saying, then nodded. “Was lunacy,” he said finally. “Now you’ve got a bunch of crazy immortals willing to do the work for you.”

Frank snorted. “Crazy is right!” With a shake of his head he let the topic go and asked his next question. “What do you need a stone carver for? Ellie said something about a gift?”

“I need a box made of Nebula Marble,” John said as he took one of the slabs out of his inventory, showing it to Frank.

The old man gave a low whistle. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen a stone quite like that,” he muttered. “And you want a box you say? How big? And where’s it going?” he asked John.

“About the size of this slab, including lid, I have a second slab if you need more material. As for where it’s going… It’s headed to the capital,” he admitted after some hesitation.

Frank blinked. “Of the kingdom?”

John shook his head.

Frank frowned deeply. “The empire? What are you doing sending things to the capital of the empire?”

“I… I’m not sure I should talk about that?” John said.

Frank snorted and shook his head. “Alright then, get out the second slab and let’s talk designs and payment.”

John happily obliged, handing the older man the first slab and then taking out the second, passing it over as well. “I… don’t actually really have any request beyond that it look nice,” John confessed.

Frank gave him a derisive look. “Son, Phillip might have a field day if you give him a blank canvas and tell him to have at it. For the rest of us, we need to work in a direction. But given that you’re reluctant to talk about it, I’m going to guess it’s something to do with the Gateway and that Prismatic Sapling you grew. Just keep looking straight at me and gape your mouth slightly if I’m right.”

John most carefully did not gape at Frank, and instead gave him a very clear eye roll. The old man chuckled at the antics, then continued. “I can see this going one of a few ways, I could carve the chest with symbols associated with Ledos, Ira, and Thuana. Or I could do a depiction of the gateway itself. Finally, I could do something really simple, like a tree.”

John considered for a moment. He hadn’t really thought of what the box should look like, just that it look nice. The first two options didn’t feel right, but the third…. “Simple is best I think, a tree will do fine.”

Frank nodded. “Now for payment, I’m guessing you want this done fast, but also done well?”

John nodded in the affirmative.

“Then it’s going to cost you twenty silvers,” Frank said.

John pursed his lips. Twenty silver was more than he was paying for his new barn doors, with the fancy work Phillip was doing included.

“Son, you want this done fast, you want it done right, those two are not incompatible, but they are force multipliers for coin. For twenty silver I can have a box for you by tomorrow,” Frank explained.

Reluctantly John nodded. “Alright then, it’s a deal.”

Frank nodded in turn and disappeared both slabs of marble. “Alright, then, if you’ll excuse me, I’d best get packed up and go get started.”

John stepped away as the older man started bagging up his produce. He then turned back to the square and the steadily increasing number of people who were wandering around. Not seeing any of the people he was looking for, John took a seat around the Runic Rock and pulled up the web browser. He quickly pulled up information on spider silk, how it was produced, and what it was used for. It was no surprise to him that it had a variety of applications in every day use, even if he personally didn’t own any synth-silk items.

After twenty minutes of skimming the surface, John dug deeper, looking for what people had done before silk could be grown and harvested in a lab. The answer turned out to be not much, aside from a few people who gushed about making their own spider silk thread from cobwebs they collected in their garden. The images were of lumpy, ugly threads that left John dissatisfied. It wasn’t until some thirty minutes later that he finally found what he was looking for.

On a whim he’d searched for the oldest existing piece of spider silk cloth. The result was almost instant, and left him looking at a stunningly beautiful golden cape. The article that came with it was fascinating, about a man who’d set out to make a garment entirely out of spider silk, and how 70 people had spent 4 years extracting silk from spiders to make it possible. The garment was even still on display at the American Museum of Natural History. More importantly, this also led to the discovery of a video on how the extraction process worked. It was disgusting, and pretty much exactly what he needed.

“Spider silk? Really?” came Ex’s voice from his right.

Looking up John saw the annoyed looking elf glaring at him. “What?” he asked defensively.

“He’s just mad he didn’t think of it first!” Sally said with a grin as she stepped up beside her companion.

“Yeah, well, apparently neither did anyone else. They kill all the giant spiders they come across, so spider silk isn’t really a thing,” John said.

“Yet,” Ex groused.

“You know, you could learn weaving and become a dedicated creator of spider silk cloth,” John informed the salty elf.

Ex gave a grumpy harrumph.

“I know what’ll cheer you up!” John said with a grin.

“Is it money? Money always makes him happier!” Sally exclaimed even as Ex swatted at her ineffectually.

“Yes, actually! I was just thinking I needed someone to take me through the dungeon to collect spider silk directly. I’d still be paying per yard of silk, but if it works like the video suggests each spider we ‘milk’ should net us between thirty and eighty yards,” John explained.

Ex immediately looked more friendly and accommodating. “John, my good friend John, why would you ever need to wonder who might take you through the dungeon! You know your good friends Ex and Sally are always available to help you at any time!” he said with shameless enthusiasm.

John snorted, and Sally laughed out loud.

“In all seriousness,” Sally said through a giggle, “We’d be happy to take you, we’ve actually got a time slot coming up in about twenty minutes here, though we’d been planning to tackle the Rat King again.”

“Still haven’t beat it?” John asked and his two friends shook their heads in unison.

“Well if you guys want to tackle the Rat King I won’t stop you,” John began, only to be cut off by Sally.

“Nah, the rat king is boring, we’ve tried and failed to kill it for a while now. Maybe spider wrestling is just the change of pace we need!”

Ex shuddered. “Spider wrestling?!”

“Well yeah, you didn’t think they were just going to stand around and let John hoover silk out of their butts, did you? Someone’s got to hold the suckers down!” Sally retorted with a grin.

“Ugh, fine, but you do the holding,” Ex said, jabbing a finger at Sally.

“Gladly!” exclaimed the silver draconid even as she reached out and pulled John to his feet. “Come on! We’d better get going unless we want to miss our slot!