Carpentry

As soon as she thought of it, Miketsu immediately began to carefully examine the Spirit-Gathering Talisman in her hand. Because she had made it herself, she could clearly feel her connection to the talisman and sense the movement of spiritual power within it. Miketsu felt that the flow of spiritual power within the talisman was unusually fast, subtly carrying a hint of wildness, and the structure maintaining this surging spiritual power seemed very fragile. This was distinctly different from what was recorded in the ancient texts, which stated that a Spirit-Gathering Talisman should be in a very stable state.

Was it because her talisman drawing was not good enough, leading to a fragile structure? Or was it due to too much spiritual power injected at once, causing it to overflow? Or perhaps the spiritual power converted from divine power was different from ordinary spiritual power? Or all three?

Miketsu did not delve too deeply into the discrepancy between the Spirit-Gathering Talisman she drew and what was recorded in the book. After all, as a novice who didn't understand the theory of Onmyojutsu, no matter how much she pondered, she wouldn't figure it out.

Now, she had an experiment to conduct.

“Tsuruha, the soundproofing of this Secret Realm is quite good, isn't it?”

“You can rest assured, Lady Uka. A deity's Secret Realm can be used directly as a powerful barrier, so the isolation effect is definitely not a problem,” Tsuruha replied to Miketsu, while also feeling a hint of curiosity as to why her deity would ask such a question.

After receiving Tsuruha's answer, Miketsu walked out of the small building and headed towards the forest within the Secret Realm. She eventually found a sparsely wooded area in the forest. After surveying her surroundings, Miketsu nodded in satisfaction.

Miketsu wedged the Spirit-Gathering Talisman into the cracked bark of a small tree, then retreated to a distance, stopping where she could still faintly see the talisman on the tree.

About three hundred meters; any further and the connection with the talisman would be lost...

Miketsu concentrated, and at this maximum distance, she used her link to manipulate the rapidly flowing spiritual power on the Spirit-Gathering Talisman, guiding it to break through its fragile constraints.

“Boom!”

As the fragile structure of the talisman collapsed, the originally wild and surging spiritual power was instantly released from high pressure, erupting in a powerful white flash and a deafening roar.

The impact of the Spirit-Gathering Talisman's explosion swept through the surroundings, kicking up a cloud of dirt, and the ground trembled slightly.

“Nice.”

Seeing this scene, Miketsu nodded in satisfaction. The effect seemed to be much stronger than she had anticipated. After the dust settled, Miketsu quickly went forward to inspect.

The small tree that had the Spirit-Gathering Talisman wedged into it was gone, leaving only a rotten stump on the ground. The surrounding fallen leaves and dirt were blown away radially, and nearby small trees were snapped by the impact, while those a bit further away were bent.

The power was quite good. This effect seemed to be considerably stronger than the grenades in TV shows, Miketsu thought with satisfaction, even though she had never seen the actual destructive power of a real grenade explosion.

“Lady Uka... how did you do that? Isn't this a talisman for gathering spiritual energy...?” Tsuruha, who was accompanying her, said in disbelief upon seeing this. She had seen all the things Miketsu had copied and naturally knew what this item was originally used for.

Miketsu gently patted her divine messenger and said with a smile.

“No, Tsuruha, now this thing is called an Exploding Talisman...”

...

By a strange twist of fate, Miketsu completed the creation of the Exploding Talisman. This greatly improved her mood, which had been depressed by the failure of numerous deity-summoning spells. She went back and slept soundly.

The next day, Miketsu woke up early. Her task for today was to create as many Exploding Talismans as possible, for future contingencies.

So, Miketsu picked up her brush early in the morning and slowly drew talismans within the Spirit-Gathering Array.

Then, half an hour later, she had successfully drawn three Exploding Talismans and a pile of wasted paper...

Good heavens! What kind of efficiency is this!

Looking at the three talismans laid out before her, Miketsu immediately threw down her brush. This efficiency was simply unacceptable to her.

Calming herself, Miketsu seriously began to ponder the reasons for the low efficiency of drawing talismans. First, she was not accustomed to using a writing brush, making it easy to make mistakes. Second, the talisman itself was somewhat complex, so even if she became proficient with the brush, it wouldn't be much faster.

So... could there be other ways to improve efficiency? Miketsu pondered carefully, and a moment later, she had a flash of inspiration.

According to the ancient texts, in the Deity-Summoning Spirit-Gathering Talisman Tracing Art, the process of drawing talismans is actually a ritual to communicate with deities. One draws while sincerely praying, praying with the heart and communicating with the brush. The slower and more neatly and beautifully the talisman is drawn, the more it can move the deity. During this process, one should also set up an altar and light three incense sticks.

Since Miketsu was summoning herself, there was no need to impress anyone, so she unhesitatingly omitted the altar and incense. Now, she was wondering if she could further simplify this, by omitting the process of drawing the talisman itself.

So, how could she omit it? If the drawing process was omitted, wouldn't there be no talisman at all? Miketsu instantly had an idea about this.

Miketsu left the room and wandered around the Secret Realm and the shrine. She found the foxes who had previously gone down the mountain to find clothes and bandages for her, gave them a long list of instructions, and then returned to the small building to wait patiently.

After lunch, the items Miketsu had asked the foxes to bring were finally carried up the mountain and neatly arranged in front of her.

Axes, saws, planes, chisels, wooden rulers... a pile of carpentry tools. In addition, there was a box of cinnabar inkpad.

That's right, what Miketsu was going to do now was carve a stamp. Since the process of drawing talismans could also be omitted, she would just carve a stamp based on the talisman. In the future, to make a talisman, she would just stamp it, solving the problem once and for all.

What? You say that a stamped talisman would have no soul, no sincerity, no reverence, and deities wouldn't accept it? Others might worry about such issues, but Miketsu wouldn't. Why be so polite when summoning oneself?

As soon as she thought of it, Miketsu decisively got to work. She chose the talisman with the best effect among those she had drawn as a template and started tinkering. This tinkering lasted for an entire afternoon.

The once tranquil Inari Secret Realm was suddenly filled with creaking and clanging sounds. A group of foxes watched, embarrassed, as their deity stripped off her top, leaving only a chest wrap, and engaged in carpentry.

Chopping trees, sawing wood, planing, carving... because she wasn't an 'original maiden,' Miketsu's petite body handled these rough tasks with ease.

During this time, Tsuruha warned Miketsu to be mindful of a deity's image, but Miketsu brushed her off, saying no one was watching anyway.

Finally, after spending an entire afternoon and ruining countless prototypes, Miketsu successfully carved a stamp for the Exploding Talisman. For the final details, since she couldn't carve them well, she asked Tsuruha for help; her paws, though large, were surprisingly nimble.

Miketsu happily took the carved stamp, pressed it onto the cinnabar inkpad, then stamped it onto the white paper of the Spirit-Gathering Array. With the activation of spiritual power, one new Exploding Talisman after another was thus born.