"Finally, it's done…"
As I sighed out, it felt as if all of my tension, all of my exhaustion… and all of my focus left my body along with the air I exhaled.
At last, the weave was completed.
And I've managed to finish it pretty much right as Claire ca up like so sort of a proud mother after half of a day of baking, with quite literal baking gloves on her hands as she carried a red-hot tal sh with the finished cast in it.
"The base was ready, so I thought I would bring it over…" she spoke softly, as if worried about disturbing , only to raise her voice to its normal levels when she saw slouched down on my chair. Still, seeing like that, she leaned her head over her shoulder and asked, "Sothing happened?"
"Hmm, yes and no?" For the mont, I struggled to even figure out the correct answer to that. "Nothing bad happened, so no. But yes, because I've finally managed to finish this hellish part."
I shook my head before pulling myself up on the chair, grabbing so nearby piece of cloth, and then reaching out for the mold from the tray Claire brought over.
Then, as if I wanted to let off so steam, I fixed my grip over the object… only to then smash it into the side of my workstation.
"Woah!"
Unprepared for such a sight, Claire jumped back a step, her eyes widening in surprise while her gloved hands gripped the tal sh tighter, not to let it randomly slip out of her hands and potentially fall down on either of us.
Even though the tal was losing its temperature quite fast, she had brought it out of the oven rather recently, so it still held enough heat to scald anyone who ca into direct contact with it.
"Don't worry, that cast was used-up already," I quickly ca up with an explanation, while moving the actual piece of interest up to my workspace, ready to move on to the next step. "Also, since you are here already, would you mind heating so zinc up? The hard part is already over, so I would like to get it finished as soon as possible."
"Sure thing, dear," Claire smiled, "but why zinc in particular?" she asked, only to lean her head over her other shoulder while allowing her hair to slide over to the other side of her head and then cascade down her shoulder.
"Because it's easy to lt down, and what I'm crafting right now is a tool more than it is a weapon," I replied with a smile.
From then on, I finally moved on to the second-to-last step of the crafting process for this weird, ring-slash-wand. A process as simple as clearing out all the solidified clay and its dust from the cast before carefully moving over my weave and then slowly attaching the starting loop of every pathway to each of the small bumps left on the outer side of the inner part of the ring.
Obviously, I still had to use so hot glue to keep those in place, but after just a few minutes of tinkering, I've managed to connect the sh to the magic-conducting base, only to then quickly grab it before carefully moving it all the way back to the oven.
"Just a little bit more," standing by the huge block of the industrial machine, Claire reached out with her hand, gesturing for to stop, while keeping her eyes locked on the small crucible she placed inside.
"What for?" Curious, I asked after taking a quick look at the control panel of the device.
Judging from the numbers on it, the oven had long since reached the desired temperature of just above four hundred and thirty degrees Celsius, and then held this temperature for well over five minutes.
In other words, by every right, the small zinc ingots placed within the crucible should've long since lted!
Claire only stole a quick glance at my face before putting a small smirk on hers.
"You are not accounting for the crucible," she pointed out as her eyes moved back to the reinforced glass of the oven. "Even if the air is hot enough, the crucible itself wasn't," she pointed out, only to then lean back before taking a step back. "It still needs a minute or two." Find adventures on My Virtual Library Empire
"Sure thing," I shrugged my shoulders.
We weren't all that pressed for ti to worry about a single minute or two idly passing by.
And so, a re mont later, Claire sported her baking gloves again before opening up the oven and sending a wave of hot air to rush out of it, striking the two of us straight in the face.
Normally, that would be enough for any mortal to stumble to the back while scrambling to cover their face with their hands to protect it…
But with our cultivation long since pushing our bodies beyond the limits of normal mortals, for us, this sudden wave of heat was, at most, but a slight inconvenience.
"I'm pulling it out," Claire announced as she reached inside the oven with her oversized prongs and fished out the crucible before settling it down on a special, heat-resistant stand attached to the side of the device. "Now, how do you plan to coat it?" she asked as she ditched her gloves and turned her face to . "You want to pour it down on the ring? Use another cast?"
I smiled before shaking my head in response.
"I have no plans or desire to make it look good. As long as it stays together, it's fine with ," I shook my head before picking up a tungsten ladle that I've prepared in advance, gently placing the half-done ring inside of it before lowering the tool into the crucible.
For a mont, I allowed the molten tal to freely interact with the device. Then, I shook the ladle a few tis, making sure the points where the unfinished ring rested down on it would change, allowing the tal to cover the entirety of the item.
And then, as if I was trying to pour out the water from boiled potatoes, I leaned the ladle over the crucible, pouring the molten tal back to where it ca from while carefully making sure the ring wouldn't follow the sa path.
"But…" Claire squinted her eyes. "How are you going to undo the coating on the inside of the ring now?" she asked, her face extrely puzzled. "I an, didn't you use Ruband oil for its insides? What's the use of doing so if you can't access its conductivity by covering it with an isolator?"
This was a valid issue… but one that I've already thought about in advance.
"Oh, that's simple," I smiled before using one of the smaller prongs attached to the oven's side to finally fish out the ring out of the ladle's bowl before placing it back on the heat-resistant stand to let it fully cool down. "Any chance you've spotted a grinder?"
"Wait, you can't an to…" Claire opened up her eyes wide, taken aback by the implication behind my suggestion.
"When solidified, Ruband oil will stick to the tal as well as any oil mixes with water," I explained with a shrug of my shoulder, recalling one of the important details that made pick this material in the first place. "In other words, all I need is to create a cut running all around the ring's circumference, and the coating shall fall off on its own."
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