Seraphine looked like she was about to cry. "You're telling me that you've had harmonic resonance crystals just sitting in your trash this whole time?"
Greg said, "I guess so. Can you get them, Mira?"
"Done already!" Mira held out a small box with a few smooth, crystal-like stones in it. When she moved them, they made a soft humming sound.
Greg took the box and began to gather other things, starting from thin copper for the diaphragms, soft deerskin leather that Lylia had been using for kitchen mitts, flexible wire, and some wooden pieces for the frame. He put everything on his workbench and looked over the blueprint one more time.
He told her, "This will be weird."
Marina said, "Everything you make is strange because that's what makes it interesting."
Greg started working, and like always, he started to hum. He was able to concentrate better on shaping the copper into thin circles because he was used to the rhythm. He used techniques that had nothing to do with hammering and everything to do with patient filing and cold-working.
Felix was genuinely interested. "You're not using any heat at all?"
Greg said while working, "Hammering and heating are traditional, but not necessary."
"Sometimes the best way to shape something is to take your time and be careful."
He put the singing stones into the copper diaphragms using a method that was half guesswork and half luck. The stones started to vibrate with the metal, making a soft, harmonic hum. Next, he made the ear pads out of deerskin leather and stuffed them with wool to make them more comfortable and block out sound.
It was harder to make the headband. He needed it to be strong enough to hold the earpieces in place and flexible enough to fit. He played around with the flexible wire and wooden pieces until he came up with a sliding mechanism that let him change the size.
His system started sending him notifications that he didn't pay attention to while he worked. No matter what this thing turned into, it would be what it was. He was done trying to control the craziness of what he made.
He finally held up the finished headset after two hours of careful work. It looked like a mix of medieval craftsmanship and futuristic design. The frames were made of polished wood, the earpieces were covered in leather, and there were soft glowing lines where the singing stones were embedded.
[NEW ITEM MADE: Harmonic Peace Headphones]
[Rank: SSS]
[Properties: completely blocks out outside noises, plays calming music based on the user's mood, is never uncomfortable to wear, and has a small stress-relieving effect]
[Note: You made noise-canceling headphones that help with therapy. In a fantasy world from the Middle Ages.
[The gods are writing things down about your future work]
"Of course it's SSS-Rank," Greg said tiredly as he gave Bork the headset. "Put it on."
Bork shook his hands as he took the headphones and carefully put them over his ears. His eyes got big right away.
His voice was a little too loud because he couldn't hear himself well. "I can't hear anything from outside," he said. "But there's music inside, a great one, actually.
"It's like a whole orchestra playing just for me. It's the most peaceful thing I've ever heard."
"Can you still feel sick if you can't hear the hammering?" Greg wanted to know.
Bork said, "Let's find out." While Greg picked up a hammer and hit a piece of metal on the anvil, he kept the headphones on. The sound echoed through the workshop, making everyone wince except Bork, who just stood there with a calm smile on his face.
"I felt nothing," Bork said in amazement. "No headache, no nausea, nothing except the music."
He looked at Greg with tears in his eyes. "I can really be a blacksmith now. A blacksmith for real!"
Felix was so excited that he was jumping up and down. "It worked! My luck system really did help me!"
Seraphine said, "Your system gave us a plan, and Greg turned it into something useful."
"Details!" Felix waved his hand in a way that said "no." "The point is that we solved Bork's problem by working together and having good luck!"
Lylia said, "We should test it more."
"Bork, try actually making something while wearing those."
Bork nodded eagerly and walked over to the anvil. Greg gave him a hammer and a piece of metal. Bork raised the hammer and brought it down while the headphones were firmly in place.
CLANG.
He didn't flinch, turn green, or even think about it. He hit again and again, and with each hit, he got more sure of himself. As he worked, a big smile spread across his face. The music in his headphones seemed to give him a steady beat to work to.
"This is amazing!" Bork laughed and kept hammering. "I can finally do what I was meant to do!"
"You're making a lot of noise, though," Marina said. "Everyone else can still hear it."
Greg said, "Small price to pay," as he watched Bork work with pride. The dwarf was awkward and didn't know what he was doing, but he looked so happy.
Felix fell dramatically onto a stool that was close by. "Wow, that really wore me out. It appears that calling up blueprints is exhausting."
"According to my luck system, I can only do it once every few days."
"Then use it wisely," Seraphine told them. "That's a very useful skill when used correctly."
"Does this mean I'm officially useful to the Brotherhood of Peace?" Felix asked with hope.
Elwen said, "You were always useful. Just in ways that are crazy and difficult to predict."
Greg looked at the headphones, Bork happily hammering away, Felix recovering from his summoning, and the group of misfits who had somehow worked together and used strange magic to solve a problem. The Brotherhood of Peace was beginning to act like a real team, even if that team was based on chaos and chance.
Greg simply said, "Good work today."
"Does this mean we're getting better as a party in game?" Felix asked with excitement.
Greg said, "We're not a game."
"Everything is a game if you look at it that way!" Felix was adamant.
Marina laughed. "He's right."
Greg thought that maybe the Brotherhood of Peace was precisely what they all needed as Bork kept making his first real piece and the sound of hammering changed from a curse to a celebration. A place where people could use their creativity to solve problems, where everyone's unique skills were useful, and where even a dwarf who was allergic to his heritage could find a way to move forward.
"Oh wow, for the first time in forever, I didn't feel a headache."
"...maybe I start to get used to all of this."