CH.528 Date with Wilma
Today I was going out with Wilma. She had been officially accepted into the harem by the girls, and they also gave her a day to do whatever she wanted with .
With the exception of working on so weapons all day. Because for so reason, we have to make that clear with Wilma.
I decided to add a stipulation that we need to go outside of HoBase for our date.
Sadly, I realized a bit too late that Wilma absolutely gad the System.
For our date, we headed to Smorog. I didn’t question why Wilma wanted to take to her ho city, just went along with it.
We headed for a mine near the center of the city, and there, we t up with Claus. I wasn’t expecting him, but after so greetings, Wilma told what she had planned.
A mine tour. And we were even given so mining tools so we could try our hands at mining. Sadly Claus wouldn’t be guiding us, since the mine shafts were too small for his huge body, but instead by the great miner Aron. Yes, the sa one that was one of the judges for the weapons competition.
I suppose it makes sense. Claus would have a contact with him, and since Wilma’s shield won the competition, I’m sure Aron was a bit more willing to give us a tour.
Also, since I was out with Wilma, I was a dwarf currently. While she didn’t mind my beard when I was a human, she did say she preferred the much longer one I had as a dwarf.
The mine tour itself was already quite interesting. I really liked seeing the magic devices the dwarves used in the mines. I’ll go over a few of the big ones.
First were the Wind Magic devices that circulate the air inside the mines. They made sure the miners had fresh air to breathe.
But it wasn’t the only thing for that. All miners also carried personal back-up air devices. Basically gas masks that made their own air for a short while.
Then there were all the Earth Magic tools used for not only mining, but also reinforcing the tunnels. That way, there is no risk of the mines collapsing, even if a natural disaster like an earthquake happened.
They also had ore detectors. They were a mix of Earth and tal Magic, and showed the best places to mine. … But they were apparently extrely expensive, so only the most experienced miners are allowed to use them.
Aron did have one, but he personally believed that having to use sothing like that was a crutch and that a real miner relies on their experience instead. He still showcased it to us at my request, but we didn’t use it any more than that.
Aron eventually brought us to a place where we could test out mining for ourselves, so he opened his Item Box and brought out a couple of pickaxes, wedges and hamrs.
He showed us how to mine and we mimicked him. Wilma was a lot better than I was, mainly because I used a bit too much force and ended up breaking the handle on my pickaxe.
I then asked if mining with magic was allowed, and Aron said it was. So naturally, I cheated in the best way possible, summoned Gaia and did a spirit union with her. Yes I could have used a lesser earth spirit, but I have Gaia’s number, so why not call her.
Gaia and I then perford a spell that might have been a bit too powerful, and we cleared out a massive cavern of all the dirt, stone, rock and all of that other stuff, leaving only the ores in the room. It was actually quite comical seeing them in the air for the split second before gravity began pulling them to the ground.
The ores we found were strange. Normally, or at least as far as I know, one mine gives one kind of ore. At least in an area.
Like in this area you find iron ore, but in another, you might find copper ore. But here, the ores were located with no rhy or reason. You might find copper next to mithril and iron next to uranium. Because yes, we did actually uncover a bit of uranium ore.
I collected all of the ores into Storage and used Material Quality Increase on them. I then apologized to Aron for going overboard, but he told not to worry.
He then picked up a pickaxe, struck one of the walls of the cavern I just made. His strike reverberated through the stone, and soon enough, the wall he struck crumbled.
He then used Earth Magic to clear away a lot of the broken stones, revealing another cavern. And while it wasn’t nearly as large as the one Gaia and I made, it was still impressive. Especially since he broke all the rock in it with a single pickaxe strike.
Maybe he used so sort of Advanced Mining skill that cos from having the Miner class race?
He then used both the magic device, and his own spells, to reinforce the new cavern he cleared, before he asked to carry the ore he revealed.
I just took everything in, and again used Material Quality Increase on it. No reason not to, right?
After our mining trip, I realized how well Wilma had actually played . Because I soon found myself in the familiar temple dedicated to spirits, stripping myself naked, before walking through a waterfall.
This ti, Claus and Aron both were with us. Apparently, we were about to get a lesson on how dwarves refine their ore into actual tal.
Waiting for us in the forge itself was one more dwarf, this ti a female one. She introduced herself as Maris, and she was an alchemist. Though I think she is closer to a refinery worker, as her skillset was specialized in turning raw ore into high quality tal.
Not that I really know all that much about alchemy. I still haven’t bothered finding a dedicated alchemist for HoBase, because in my world view, alchemists make potions. And we have that covered.
But if they instead turn raw ore into tal, maybe I should look into getting one or two. I might ask Maris later if she knows any who would be willing to take up the post.
I an, what slting I’ve needed done has been done by my monsters, but still, maybe having dedicated staff for it wouldn’t be bad. Not like I’ll run out of money just because I hire a few more people.
Maris showed us how she set up the refining furnace by guiding the eternal fla to heat it up, before she asked to bring out so of the ore we mined. Only one type of ore at a ti. I decided to start with iron and filled the hopper above the furnace with the ore.
“This is nice. You dug up so high quality ore. Did the earth spirit help with that?” Maris asked as she inspected the ore.
“Seed pretty normal to .” Aron comnted.
“This is normal?” Maris asked, as she tossed a clump at Aron. It hit him on the forehead, but the man didn’t seem to care, simply catching the piece and inspecting it.
“... True. Does seem high quality. Is it all like this?”
“What do you think, hard head? Of course it is.”
“Didn’t think it was this fine.” Aron admitted.
“You are going senile. You need to cut down on the liqueur.”
“Been drinking since I was fifteen and not planning on stopping.”
The two continued to bicker while the furnace heated up.
Eventually, it was ready to go and Maris opened the bottom of the ore hopper, and let all the ore flow into the furnace itself. She then chanted an earth magic spell, and began to concentrate, so Claus took over the explaining role.
He told about the spell that had been taught by the spirits to the dwarf that made the sacred forge. It agitated the lting ore, lifting the impurities to the top of the soon to be lted tal, and then removing the impurities from the furnace.
With that revelation, I made sure Tahlia had the spell chant recorded, and I began watching the furnace with Mana Vision. Sure I can always ask Athena and Gaia about the spell later, but seeing it in action should also help.
As the impurities were let out from the furnace, I asked Claus what they do with it, and he told they simply dispose of it. So I quickly took it into Storage, because that way, they wouldn’t have to clean it up. I can just toss it sowhere. Or I can give it to Alice for Erasure Magic targets. It can probably also be used as a practice target for the Earth Magic spell Earth Control, but any earth will do for that.
Eventually, Maris changed from Earth Magic to tal Magic. She then ordered Aron to add so refined coal into the furnace, so she could refine the iron into steel.
That mix didn’t take nearly as long as the first refining part, so soon after that, Maris seed happy with the results and ordered Aron to open the bottom of the furnace.
Aron did as ordered and the molten tal flowed out from the furnace, into so hihi'irokane molds. Maris seed to guide the molten tal with tal Magic, because it flowed perfectly, and soon began to harden in the molds.
After the ingots were cooled, which happened way faster than I expected, so probably so magic in play, Maris picked up one of them and inspected it. She seed happy with the results.
“Wannabe dwarf boy. Take one for yourself and move the rest of these to the storage room.” Maris said. “Aron, help clean up the furnace.”
I did as asked, lifting the ingots from the molds with Telekinesis, placing all of them into Storage. Claus then opened the storage room for us, which had so new security asures after the … you know. He showed where to place the steel ingots and I did so.
After we made sure they were set up as asked, we headed back out to the forge and Claus took us to a different station, one designed for forging, not refining.
The set up the pipes to pull fire from the eternal fla, before he told us what he wanted to make.
“I want to see how you make vampiric steel. I know you can, so show .” He asked, or maybe demanded.
I had no reason not to show him, so I quickly confird that I have enough dragon blood in Storage. But luckily, I do stockpile materials like that, so I had enough for … well, a lot of ingots.
“I’ll have to change my race.” I warned Claus. “Using Blood Magic is difficult if I’m not a dhampir.”
Only after I admitted that did I realize that the dwarves wouldn’t know about my unique-racial skill. Well, in a way they did. They did see going from a human to a dwarf, but they probably don’t know all the races I can just turn into.
But Claus didn’t ask, so I just swapped races.
I had a bit of difficulty with my white robe that I was wearing. Since my dwarf form is shorter than my dhampir form, but at the sa ti, my dwarf form was more stout, I had to adjust the robe to make it fit my current body.
I then told Claus the basic process of making vampiric steel. Which he seed to know, which is to be expected, as it is the sa as blood iron, just with True Blood Magic and using higher quality blood.
So Claus simply tossed the ingot into the fire to heat up, as he got out two happers. A smaller, one handed hamr for himself, and a two handed sledge for Wilma. Though admittedly, because of Claus’ massive size, his hamr honestly would be a two-handed hamr for a regular dwarf.
Soon enough the ingot was up to temperature, and the two dwarves began hamring it. It took them no ti at all to flatten the piece to the point where we could fold it, so I added in the blood, and watched them close the fold.
We then repeated the process another 15 tis, before Wilma told Claus that the ingot was vampiric steel. She probably used Appraisal on it after each fold or sothing.
We then did two more blood filled folds to increase the quality of the ingot, before we let it cool down.
While it did, I filled Claus in on the few important facts about vampiric steel he might not know. Like the setting of the final form with the blood coating.
Again, Claus knew of it because of blood iron, but was still thankful for the reminder.
After the ingot was cooled, I quickly took it into Storage, saying I wanted to ‘appraise’ it. Naturally I don’t have Appraisal, but Storage can appraise things, so it wasn’t a lie. But I actually just wanted to run another Material Quality Increase on the tal.
Because yes, as long as the material has changed enough, I can run that ‘cheat’ on it again. For this, I’ve done it now three tis. One ti when it was ore, another ti when it was a steel ingot, and now the third ti while it is a vampiric steel ingot. Perhaps because of all of those tis, the quality of the raw ore that had been good, made us a flawless ingot of vampiric steel.
Sadly, we wouldn’t have the ti to turn the ingot into a weapon today, because between the mining, the refining and then the smithing, it was evening and we’d soon head to HoBase.
For safety reasons, I decided to keep the vampiric steel ingot in my Storage, even if it isn’t nearly as valuable as the stuff that was already stolen.
And next ti, we won’t be coming here. I’ll be bringing the people to HoBase, so they can get a good comparison on how we do things.
“I knew it.” Aron said as we were walking away from the sacred forge. “You freaking kid. You have so crazy skill, don’t you? Did the tal Spirit help you or sothing? How can you just magically improve an already made tal?”
“Storage.” I admitted. “Material Quality Increase is a funny thing.”
“... you … you…” Aron seemingly didn’t know what to say.
“He wants to say ‘thank you’, but can’t.” Maris translated for us. “... the forge really hasn’t been the sa since … you know. So we are thankful for this.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Can’t not worry.” Aron said.
“I didn’t an that part. Just … you need help, I’ll co help.” I told them. “Besides, there are still secrets I want to learn from you.”
“Using us until we drop, huh?” Aron joked. “You sound like mine wife.”
“Don’t talk about like that, hard head.” Maris reprimanded.
“See? Make sure wives of yours treat you better.”
“I am perfect!” Maris declared.
“Agreed.” Wilma said. “A wife has to know where to draw the line.”
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