B4 Chapter 16 - Clay (Patreon)

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.

Metals. 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, metals formed.

“Are there ether roots?” Vivi asked. “Emberstones?”

“Inside the mountains, yes,” Drean said. “Some 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 same stuff that Vivi saw on the surface: iron roots, white obsidian, and a single ensium root. The metals didn’t seem to be anything rare either. Vivi couldn’t exactly tell which shiny surface indicated which metal, 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. “Smelting metals is tedious work. We don’t benefit from metals much either way.”

“Collecting some from here won’t be an issue,” Vivi said. “Turning ores into pure metal could take weeks, though. If we have emberstones, it might be possible, but it needs work. I have a few loose ingots with me, 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 time. 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 replacement 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 slime, from what I know. Combine that with some ether, enhanced by either mass or strength, and the slime 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 mechanism, then,” Vivi said.

She looked around herself to think. They didn’t have much. She had runesmithing equipment, 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 time to channel ether.

“Let’s get to work, then,” Vivi said. “First, we’ll build a bloomery with clay to smelt ore. We can use emberstones for heat to replace charcoal. That should allow us to smelt most ores.”

“Clay is too weak for anything above iron, is it not?” Cael asked. “The bloomery itself will melt.”

“Clay conducts ether well enough,” Vivi said. “If we add mass or strength runes, a bloomery can smelt 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 something 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 comes 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 something out…”

“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 times, and I’ve built a bloomery 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 immediately got to work building a bloomery. They started by collecting clay. Vivi didn’t need to tell Cael what to do. He was already collecting materials by the time 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 remembered how to do it, of course, but processing the clay and making sure it wouldn’t crack would be difficult, considering she had no equipment whatsoever.

“We should mix the clay with sand,” Cael said. “It prevents cracks. I did it once with good results.”

“You’ve built a bloomery 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 me on a surge job instead.” He grinned, recalling the memory.

“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 immediate surge job. That continued until I was sixteen and sold a surge hazard for ten thousand ether for the first time. He hasn’t forced me 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 assumed. 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 remembered 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 mentioned.”

“Yep,” Cael said. “If a sub-sovereign nudges him to assassinate me, no amount of art will save me. 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 me any time 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 some 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 me 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 immediately?” 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 me 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 someone’s favour. I create what I create because that’s what I love doing. The Darkwinds are free to call me a pest all they want. That has never stopped me 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 awesome, 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 mean?”

“I mean that word-by-word,” Cael said. “No hidden messages. I’m glad I was banished with good company.”

And what does that mean! Vivi thought.

“I think it means 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 some of the nicest hunters I’ve met in a while. I like the way your heads perceive things.”

“That’s the weirdest compliment I’ve ever received,” Vivi said.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll come up with something weirder,” Cael said.

Vivi sighed, and they continued building the bloomery, 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 some of the rumors regarding her name, 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.