At the very back of the forest, the grassy landscape turned to a small mountainscape. The sky was low, perhaps a hundred feet in the air, and the mountains were more like clumps of rocks. Vivi sensed a lot of ambient ether inside the mountains, and in the spots where ether was most concentrated, the rocks were shiny and reflective.
tals. This was a natural respawn zone for nature’s resources, just like Shivenar’s levelstone mine. Ether concentrated within, and over the span of hundreds of years, tals ford.
“Are there ether roots?” Vivi asked. “Emberstones?”
“Inside the mountains, yes,” Drean said. “So show their faces through the stone. We pick those if we need them.”
They walked deeper. As Drean said, ether roots poked out from the stone here and there, like seeds planted into soil that never sprouted. Most of them were low tier roots. The sa stuff that Vivi saw on the surface: iron roots, white obsidian, and a single ensium root. The tals didn’t seem to be anything rare either. Vivi couldn’t exactly tell which shiny surface indicated which tal, but nothing looked particularly interesting. For the tenth level, the materials here were rather mundane.
“Do you have a forge?” Vivi asked.
“We used to,” Drean said. “It crumbled after a few thousand years of not being used.”
“What about a foundry?” Vivi asked.
“No,” Drean said. “Slting tals is tedious work. We don’t benefit from tals much either way.”
“Collecting so from here won’t be an issue,” Vivi said. “Turning ores into pure tal could take weeks, though. If we have emberstones, it might be possible, but it needs work. I have a few loose ingots with , but I doubt they’ll be enough.”
There were more problems as well. The main problem was that creating missiles for the slingshot launchers just took too much ti. The best missiles she had barely made a dent in levelstone. She couldn’t just haphazardly create a mass-produced missile.
The other problem was that Vivi only had seven replacent stretch ropes in spatial storage. That would have been utterly mundane outside, but down here, stretch ropes weren’t available in the slightest.
“Cael?” Vivi asked. “Do you know how stretch ropes are made?”
“Stretch ropes?” he asked. “They’re made with sli, from what I know. Combine that with so ether, enhanced by either mass or strength, and the sli gains elasticity.”
“So we probably can’t make them,” Vivi said.
“They’re made with machinery, yes.”
“We might need to reinvent a new launching chanism, then,” Vivi said.
She looked around herself to think. They didn’t have much. She had runesmithing equipnt, but no anvil or forge. Creating another missile would be difficult, and she didn’t have enough materials anyway. There was no telling how thick the layer of levelstone would be. Using the slingshot launcher probably wouldn’t work.
We’ll need to create a new weapon, Vivi thought. Or just any powerful projectile that does the job.
“Are you sure?” Lucius asked. “We had a full team of scientists making this one. Can you make a better one just on your own?”
The slingshot launcher wasn’t designed to break levelstone, Vivi thought. Its job is to shoot down monsters accurately. Our goal is to just damage the levelstone with as much force as we can, even if the projectile is completely unstable. We can shoot it close enough that we can't miss. I’m not sure how long it will take. We’ll probably have plenty of ti to channel ether.
“Let’s get to work, then,” Vivi said. “First, we’ll build a bloory with clay to slt ore. We can use emberstones for heat to replace charcoal. That should allow us to slt most ores.”
“Clay is too weak for anything above iron, is it not?” Cael asked. “The bloory itself will lt.”
“Clay conducts ether well enough,” Vivi said. “If we add mass or strength runes, a bloory can slt asmite. If we’re lucky, the clay here could have collected nature’s ether as well.”
“Right, you’re a runesmith,” Cael said.
“Then I’ll just need sothing to use as an anvil and a crucible.”
“I’m afraid Sannelia was never a blacksmith or a runesmith,” Drean said. “Her knowledge was lacking. All we know of the profession cos from our own use of logic. We can lead you to any natural resources you might need. There’s clay on the riverbank, I know as much.”
“I’ll figure sothing out…”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from ; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“How long do you think it’ll take to blow the wall open?” Alda asked.
“Probably more than a week,” Vivi said. “Depends on how thick the wall is. It could take months if we’re unlucky.” Hopefully not years.
“Ao and I should get to work on the farm,” Alda said. “There’s no chance we’ll be helpful anywhere near a forge. Cael might be more useful.”
“I volunteer to be an assistant,” Cael said. “I’ve worked with a forge a few tis, and I’ve built a bloory once.”
“I may work with clothes, and the annoying chores,” Lortel said. “And I will cook. You will not have to worry about accommodation or safety.”
“Thank you,” Vivi said. “Let’s get to work.”
***
Vivi and Cael imdiately got to work building a bloory. They started by collecting clay. Vivi didn’t need to tell Cael what to do. He was already collecting materials by the ti Vivi thought about everything they’d need. She was a runesmith and a blacksmith, but she wasn’t really a survivalist. Grandpa often rebuilt their furnace, and he’d shown her how to do it. She rembered how to do it, of course, but processing the clay and making sure it wouldn’t crack would be difficult, considering she had no equipnt whatsoever.
“We should mix the clay with sand,” Cael said. “It prevents cracks. I did it once with good results.”
“You’ve built a bloory in a survival situation?” Vivi asked.
“No, it was just for a project to replicate historical inventions without outside assistance,” Cael said. “I got all the way to inventing brass tongs, until the Darkwinds found out I was essentially wasting resources, and they sent
on a surge job instead.” He grinned, recalling the mory.
“I thought you weren’t a fighter,” Vivi said.
“Nope, I’m not,” Cael said. “That was just my father’s way of punishing my artistic side. If I got caught skipping channeling to craft or create, that was an imdiate surge job. That continued until I was sixteen and sold a surge hazard for ten thousand ether for the first ti. He hasn’t forced
on surge jobs after that.”
“How old are you now?” Vivi asked.
“Nineteen. And I would argue I’m one of the better artists currently alive.”
Vivi observed him and his technique as he began mixing clay with sand by hand. He’d taken off his jacket, now working only with his shirt. His muscles were smaller than what Vivi would have assud. He was taller than her, but she was probably as buff as he was thanks to all of her years as a blacksmith.
She still rembered when Tara Fellwater herself had said, “Ew” when she first saw Vivi’s arms. Apparently, girls that had any visible muscles at all were off-putting. Tara Fellwater would have definitely died if she was banished, though. “I’ll help,” Vivi said and began mixing clay and sand with Cael.
They worked in silence for a bit, until Vivi said, “It sounds like your father is upset again. From what Helegar ntioned.”
“Yep,” Cael said. “If a sub-sovereign nudges him to assassinate , no amount of art will save . The wyvern could have very well been my breakthrough job. Turns out, our leaders are far more idiotic than I could have hoped.”
“So what will you do?” Vivi asked.
He wore an amused smile. “Well, considering the sub-sovereign is right here with us, in the bottom of the world, it doesn’t look like my father’s assassins are going to attack
any ti soon.”
“But you can’t go back to the surface,” she said. “You’ll be killed. We already pissed Helegar off.”
“I can probably spark so sort of deal with Helegar,” Cael said. “Or I could make a life for myself as a human artist in demon lands. I’ve always wanted to see what the fourth level and below are truly like. Translation magic will let
communicate as well. If demons are anything like Lortel, I believe I can start building a life.”
“I could help you, you know,” Vivi said. “I have my own hunting company. Runeblessed. You and Alda could both join.”
“That’s a very good offer,” Cael said. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“But you’re not accepting imdiately?” Vivi asked. “You’ll have access to my runeswords.”
“More than anything, I’d like to create a runesword like that,” Cael said. “I don’t like creating weapons, but your swords are inspiring. They’re artistic just as much as they’re destructive.”
Vivi glanced at him. “If we get out, you could watch
create one. If you learn how to make even single-runed runeswords, you’ll be valuable enough that nobody will try to assassinate you.”
“I’d love to study your craft, definitely,” Cael said. “But I don’t create art to gain soone’s favour. I create what I create because that’s what I love doing. The Darkwinds are free to call
a pest all they want. That has never stopped
from pursuing what I want to pursue.”
She raised her eyebrows. “So you’d study runesmithing just because you think it would be interesting?”
“Your runeswords are aweso, at least,” Cael said. “You shape the… veins with ether roots, right? Are they called veins?”
Vivi blinked at him, before hastily turning back to the clay she was supposed to be working with. “Well, yeah. Runeswords are cool.”
“If the process is as interesting, I would love to study from you,” Cael said. “If you’re offering a lesson, I’ll take it.”
“Well, if you do a good job as my assistant, I might consider it,” Vivi said.
He just grinned wide at his piece of clay and continued working.
“What?” Vivi asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “I’m just happy to be talking with you like this.”
She gave him a look. “What’s that supposed to an?”
“I an that word-by-word,” Cael said. “No hidden ssages. I’m glad I was banished with good company.”
And what does that an! Vivi thought.
“I think it ans he likes you,” Lucius said.
Surely not. Vivi eyed him from the side of her eye. He just continued mixing clay with a smile. Nothing more than that.
“And I did not expect to say I’m in good company,” Cael said with a laugh, “considering we’re here with Helegar. But you and Lortel are so of the nicest hunters I’ve t in a while. I like the way your heads perceive things.”
“That’s the weirdest complint I’ve ever received,” Vivi said.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll co up with sothing weirder,” Cael said.
Vivi sighed, and they continued building the bloory, chatting about odd topics here and there. Vivi asked him what made him think recreating historical inventions was an interesting idea for a project, and he gave a lengthy answer of why he thought history was cool. He genuinely looked happy as he recalled the project from when he was fourteen. Afterward, he asked her about so of the rumors regarding her na, like her curse. Vivi answered honestly, saying she was just born with debt, and everyone decided she was evil because of that.
Cael laughed and said, “Yep, that does sound like the hunters.”
From there, they began shaping the clay around a ring of stones. That took a few hours, and Vivi carved strength and mass runes all around the clay, filling it up. They left it to dry for the night, constantly adding ether to the runes, until it was ready to be tested the next morning.
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