The Industrial District was Glossarai's favorite area to work, as much as the Residential District was Caldesans. She and Cald had already laid the groundwork for basic metal production. They had dropped a few pure nodes: iron, copper, coal, quartz, and also two pure oil nodes.
Glossarai was standing in the first processing plant, which was just a relatively small building in the open area of the still-under-construction Industrial District. With a few series of smelters in rows of 10, stacking upon one another, the building was now 50m tall and 60m wide, processing different ores into ingots. The smelter building currently looked like a large open square that only had a few wall lengths in-depth and an open face. The backside of the square had a line of conveyor windows going up one side where they were connected to the Mining Building.
This was the unofficial name for the building that butted up against the mountain to the East of the smelter building and covered where the original iron mine entrance was located. The building was large enough to cover the opening and had a single tower that dispensed the ore mined into the different conveyor windows of the Smelter building.
Due to a large amount of open space in the first large cavern in the mine, and given how level it was, they had dropped all of the Resource Nodes they would need right there. The tunnel exiting the mine was filled with water pipes from deeper into the mine where it was flooded and belts from the miners on all the nodes.
Gloss was thinking about production and potential usage rates for a town this size, as in how many ingots should she make per minute versus how many this town could ever need.
With a Pure Iron Node it was easy enough to have an MK3 miner hit 780 resources per minute to max out the fastest conveyor belt she could make. But honestly, it was easier to go for a 600 line, it broke up smoothly as the production went and she wasn't just making the maximum amount because she could, but rather a number that would be easier to work with. So the final number she went with was the 600 line for every kind of metal, and even put a Pure Quartz Node in with Constructors processing the raw quartz mined from the node into quartz crystals.
She set up a few steel foundries and made steel ingots as well, running in coal was simple enough to make a 600 line of steel ingots. Then the belting brings the ingots to the cluster of buildings that will make up the blacksmithing area.
It was about 2 hours after the Pioneers had gifted the amazing mansion to Earth Shrine Guardian Lorella when she and a few other people -including the FicSitine Representatives- all showed up where Glossarai was working. As the group walked up together towards the floating Glossarai, who was working in between a small area of buildings that she must have made while people were exploring the Residential District.
"What will our lovely Pioneers have for us now I wonder?" Marchen Al'Mare pondered on their walk to the district.
"Well, it will certainly cause some sort of amazing miracle. I fear that I no longer have the proper words to send to our leaders in hopes of describing this place." Pault Freeman, the usually quiet and stoic man said.
He had found a kinship in the well put together Representative of the Naga, who was sliding along with the rest of the reconvened group. "Hmmm, I am worried about how this is going to be accepted by our leaders as well, I have a feeling we will have to ask them to make cities like this in each territory or something along those lines," Gnolt said in his deep, drawling voice.
"I imagine they will push to make a city for all, of course, they don't know what happened...but I have a feeling they will try to push for something along those lines." Pault said. He was of course referring to the destroyed city of Atlantor, which was called the Stronghold. It was the spot with the heaviest loss of life during the recent war against the demon forces. No one has told the pioneers of anything that has happened, or really anything from the war dealing with that city. It was currently still being cleaned up, and they felt as though the Pioneers didn't need to know about it.
It turns out that there was plenty of corruption that enabled the demons to take the Stronghold down from within. It was only stopped after the entire city had been razed to the ground, and it is a sore subject for many since almost every race was affected by its loss.
"Well, either way, we should hold a summit here to show the world what these Pioneers are capable of," Marchen said.
"I have already taken steps to get that going, including contacting the Adventure and Crafting Societies, who already have people on the way. This town will once again be open to obtaining magical resources from Wilds to the East. I seem to remember Caldesan mentioning something about obtaining resources to make something called 'biomass' to fuel the greenhouses. So it will be great to have Adventurers bringing in resources to help with the early production of food for this place." Pault said.
Lorella had been listening in on their talk, "This summit you say, will that be something that we could potentially hold a festival with to celebrate this occasion?"
"A fantastic idea, Shrine Guardian Lorella," Marchen said with a smile.
"Of course, it is, First Chosen Marchen. This could be a premier adventuring town once again, with what the Pioneers have done for this place it has become something more. We could even make this a place to have an Adventurer Academy. I, too, have been in contact with the Adventure Society and have requested a representative to come here so we may open up talks of bringing more resources here. They should be here within a few weeks." Lorella said.
The group nodded and looked up to where Glossarai was floating in the courtyard mumbling to herself. After Glossarai made the Smelter building, she had the ingots go underground to the Basement of the town and she ran them to what she was dubbing 'The Iron Square' since she had covered all of the buildings in silver paint making it look more like the Silver Square then an iron one, but she could change the name whenever.
Gloss had built a series of conveyor belts and splitters that ran 6 lines to each of the 6 smith buildings from underground in the Basement. When she was finished with that, it was as easy as connecting the belts to the storage containers that act as buffers in the Smelter Building. The silver-painted set of buildings was placed on the very western wall of the Industrial district so the supply belts had been put underground and split up, with 600 resources per minute-per line, it was easy to send to each building with slower MK2 belts.
Gloss had made it so not only would Copper, Iron, and Steel Ingots have a 50-per-minute delivery belt to each building, but put another 3 lines ready to go in case they find any other metals that they could replicate and put into ingot production. She knew for a fact there are metals here that aren't covered in Satisfactory, like gold, silver, and platinum.
Gloss knew that she could always drop a Molecular Analysis Machine and start analyzing different metals to see if they could be added to the Resource Node placing Mod that allows them to place pure nodes. Looking back, she thanked whatever God there is for Caldesan slipping all those extra mods into the game. She figured if she could get enough of one of those metals, perhaps even a fantasy metal like mithril, she could create a new node to properly mine it at a Satisfactory rate.
Knowing this, the next thought to cross Gloss's mind was that the research trees would be different, she knew that the game had everything planned out already. But how would it go for a new metal? Gloss knows different uses for each of those metals from her first world but how would that translate to a mod program for the game?
Then a light bulb, or perhaps an explosion went off in her head. Why was Caterium so similar looking to gold? Then she remembered reading that the CEO of 'FICSIT Inc.' was called Caterina Parks and that is where the name Caterium came from. The powerful and intimidating CEO of the company was the discrepancy here, she had changed the name of gold, and renamed it after her.
In conclusion, Gloss knew that the fake universe where she(he) became Glossarai, the "company" they 'work' for had a different name for gold. This means that they have an extremely rare metal that is worth a lot in the world they were currently in...as in they just now had a way to create a currency that would make this city a little too rich...
She would have to seriously consider the production rate for a Caterium mine, dropping a pure node could be bad for a city. Either way she put in a Caterium node, Normal not Pure, and hooked it up to a row of Smelters all while in deep thought. She had Caterium Ingots running on an MK4 Conveyor belt that had a capacity of 480 resources per minute. She had 8 overclocked smelters to perfectly hit that 480 per minute maximum of the belt. It fed into a double container which acts as a buffer for any future processing.
Glossarai did not send the Caterium belt to the smithing square, instead, she just left it there, for now, wondering about jewelers and stuff like that.
The group of onlookers had been watching her move her hands as if she was playing a tiny invisible piano in the air. Then Gloss would zoom off a way and build like a mad person. Belts would connect to structures as they would all land on the ground with a thud. When she flew back towards the old iron mine, the group followed her and entered the giant square-ish building.
Walking into the building they looked up to see floor after floor of machines that pumped ingots into what looked like waterfalls of ingots that fed into storage containers before going down below into the basement. There were railings and pathways to get around the first floor and the giant hole that flowed into the basement. The group stood back at this view of unexpected machinery going to work. They finally looked to what would be the top floor where a floating Glossarai had connected machines and then had a vertical conveyor where ingots of solid gold began to flow.
Seeing a river of gold join the other ingots on their way to the storage containers the group began to look around at each other.
"Okay, we should stop her now. GLOSSARAI?!?!" Nalah called, she was able to tell them apart now, just because of the way she builds and acts....as if she is so deep in thought that the world doesn't exist around her. Nalah thought it was beautiful to see a Grand Master Builder, if that was a thing, at work, like watching a grand scale artist. But it was time to speak with her about the obscene amount of gold she just made.
Glossarai flinched, "Oh!! I am so sorry, I was just in the 'zone' as Cald says it."
Everyone sort of smiled and shook their heads, and it was at this point that Glossarai realized that everyone had been watching her for a while as she created gold from nothing. She gulped.
__________________________________________
The Earth Shrine-Guardian Lorella, the local smiths, and the FicSitine Delegation all were looking at Glossarai with varying levels of confusion, amusement, and in one case outright hostility. The angry person was a massive dwarf, she said 'Dwarf' but it was because his body structure just seemed different than a human's, wider, stockier, and just plain thick. He would have to be on steroids for many, many years to be as wide and burly as him if he was just plain human. He looked like he could rip metal as easily as tissue paper. Gloss was intimidated and she looked away from him to see the rest of the new faces.
There was a surprisingly buff Elven man with dark goggles on the top of his head. He had dark brown hair and looked like he just put his apron back on as if he was excited to start hammering something judging by the tools on his belt. His long ears had some piercings and a glowing runic tattoo on his right hand that went up to his elbow. He was in turn inspecting the Pioneer with a small amount of amusement as she had just jumped in fright. He seemed to be looking at her tools to assess what they could be.
A Wolf Beastkin couple was wearing matching leather aprons with different tools on their belts and aprons. The female's apron was full of larger blacksmithing tools, with a series of hammers on the right side and pliers on the left hip. The males' leather apron was covered with pen-sized holsters filled with small engraving pens, chisels, and other interesting unidentifiable tools that look to be handmade, including a crazy gyroscope. Both seemed to have stern faces but their wolf ears were pointed at her as if ready to catch any word she might have said. They had open curiosity and they stood proud and strong next to one another.
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Before she could continue to look at the other few people Lorella spoke up, "No problem at all Glossarai, but may I ask...is that gold?" Pointing to the conveyor belt that was continuously sending gold bars into a large double storage bin.
"We call it Caterium, but it is the same molecularly speaking." Gloss replied simply.
"She means yes!" Caldesan said. While Glossarai was working on the ingot production, Caldesan was getting rubber, plastic, and polyester fabric, set-ups going in another large building just North of the Smelter Building.
Using 2 Pure Oil Nodes she placed in the old iron mine, Caldesan was able to make 2 full MK2 pipes that held 600 per minute of crude oil. One pipe was dedicated entirely to making Polymer Resin and the other to plastic and rubber. While producing items with crude oil it must be done with refineries and there is always a leftover in the form of Heavy Oil Residue.
Luckily, the process of turning 600 crude oil per minute into plastic, rubber, or polymer resin is that all three will have less than 250 Heavy Oil Residues per 600 pipes of crude oil per minute. In other words, the waste from the entire project is extremely manageable and can just be fed into a Magical Resource Sink.
There are a few uses for the pink substance called heavy oil residue, but since the Pioneers weren't creating an entire factory and only some base resources for the crafting in town, they would turn some of it into petroleum coke and destroy the rest. On the off chance that any blacksmith could use the stuff, they could always increase the production later and create a buffer system for it.
The magical resource sink that Caldesan had added to their playthrough of Satisfactory, could accept both liquids and solids. Unlike the AWESOME Sink, which can only take specific solids, the Magic Resource Sink Mod had no trouble even disposing of nuclear waste, which was a cheat, since you could not dispose of it through the in-game Awesome Sink. Since they weren't worried about creating a perfectly efficient build, as they would in a game, they could build a new world that is almost perfectly waste-free.
With the rubber, plastic, and polymer resin production finished, Caldesan set them up to be dumped into an item warehouse for Lorella to organize with the rest of the townsfolk, and later distribute from. The Polymer Resin could be refined further into a very well-known fabric called Polyester Fabric. This was something that both Pioneers had been excited about, they could offer the means to clothe people in what could be very comfortable fabric if processed correctly.
Once Cald was finished she made her way over to the Smelter room where Glossarai was and heard the last bit of conversation. Glossarai looked at her and nodded.
"Well, yes, I mean....yes, it is gold. I was just stating that this whole time I thought Caterium was not gold for some reason. But either way, the CEO of our company changed the name. But yes we have gold. Wait, Cald, how long have you known it was gold?" Glossarai said.
"Well, I always called it gold in my head anyways." Caldesan shrugged and they looked over to the group when Apprentice Shaman Nalah cleared her throat.
"Good afternoon everyone! I have made a rubber, plastic, and fabric production center and we are almost finished with the town!" Caldesan said with her usual excited tone.
"Already?" Marchen asked before also exchanging greetings with the Pioneers.
"Well...I didn't decorate anything, I figured I would let you guys decorate your Administration, Market, and Industrial Districts as you saw fit. That way it feels like you are a part of this too! But I wanted to decorate the Residential District 'cause I love doing that." Cald said, and it was obvious she was smiling ear to ear under her helmet.
The large Dwarf snorted, "Yeah right, so we can be a part of this. It's like ye pulled this city outta yer arse and you say you want us to help? BAH, you are crazy lass, both of ya."
Cald exchanged a nervous glance with Gloss as they were surprised by the intensity of the voice and statement. Gloss flew forward a little to speak, "Are you not happy that we have rebuilt this town?"
"It's not that, it's just how can ye be doing this for nothin'. I work hard every day of my life, all day and I make maybe a few items a day, on top of some hard work. Not including masterwork or better items but you both just made a town with wonders beyond compare, beyond anythin' in this world. And you do it for free? I canno' believe it." The dwarf went on, his booming voice echoing throughout the building. He stopped and seemed to want a response.
Caldesan exhaled loudly through her nose in amusement to draw attention, "Well, don't you see? This IS who we are. This is what we do. We want to make a new world for everyone. This is just the start." She looked at Gloss who nodded.
"We will make a world where scarcity is no longer a thing, people will be able to make food, items, and other needs with no problem at all, everyone will be able to have everything they need and you can focus on learning, culture, peace, and even strength!"
Everyone else in the group seemed satisfied with that answer, but the Dwarf, who had an amazing beard, a bald head, a sleeveless leather vest, and goggles that hung down from a strap around his neck, stepped forward and looked hard at the two Pioneers. He had a single glove on his left hand made of some dark and strange scaled material with blue glowing runes etched in small circles and lines that covered every inch of it. As he spoke he gestured with his left hand and the Pioneers followed the glowing runes with their eyes.
"Can I look into your eyes as I say my part, for all that's left? Then I will accept that you are doin' this for free." He asked sternly but also earnestly. The way that he spoke seemed as though it was a common phrase here, they picked up through context that meant that he was gonna say all that he needed to say and that would be the end of it, or 'for all that's left'.
"Let's go outside first where we might not have to hear the constant machine noise as much." Shrine Guardian Lorella interrupted.
Then Gloss just shrugged, took her helmet off, and went outside. Cald landed outside next to Gloss and also took her helmet off.
They met the dwarfs' eyes. Glossarai's eyes were a glowing amethyst purple, the rings of power could only be 10th Tier, and they stared back into his with a modest curiosity. He turned to look at Caldesan, he could see that they are magical twins and for humans, they seemed pretty attractive, but it was the eyes that showed their souls. Caldesans eyes were as blue as Magefire, and they burned with a slight challenge and also surprise, maybe excitement.
"Alright, so I am a Grand Master Blacksmith, be dooinnit for nigh' on 2 cent'ries." (that's 2 centuries in his accent) "And I know one thing, I love me craft and me art. I work hard every damn day for the burnin' desire to make my craft better. SO, I see that same fire in ye' both. You made something here that is easily of that level, you are both Grand Master Builders or whatever the term may be. So, there is only one thing I can allow, is that you let me make something for both of ye, once me smithy is going, and we get some leather workers back in business. That is the only way that I will accept that you are not here for some other purpose." The dwarf was nothing if not a straightforward person.
"REALLY, LIKE A SWORD? OH MY GOD, A SWORD!? ARE YOU SERIOUS??!?" Caldesan nearly exploded with excitement, in her last life she loved looking at those weird shops that seemed to have fantastical crystal balls, fantasy weapons, odd magic games, and sometimes cigar rooms, but she had always wanted an actual sword.
"Cald wait, sorry sir, what is your name? We haven't actually met." Gloss said with more respect and all of the tact that Cald didn't seem to possess.
"Hmph, I am part of the Ironbender Clan, from these very mountains, about 500 hunner'd leagues southa here. Names Bale Ironbender, been here with me wife and me little daughter fer many years, ever since Lorella here took up the mantel."
Cald flew forward, "Well nice ta meetcha Bale! I am Caldesan, but you can Cald me Cald." She said with a smile as if she hadn't just put her name in that sentence 3 times.
Gloss sighed and resigned to shaking her head at Cald's antics. "I am Glossarai, It is an honor to meet you, sir."
Cald flew right up to him and poked him in the arm, "Whoaahhh, Gloss check this out."
Bale turned pink in the cheeks at the sight and smell of the beautiful Pioneer right in his face and didn't know what to do but act angry and scowl like he normally does.
"He is like made of metal!" Cald was then feeling his arm like it was a fascinating substance she needed to learn more about.
All the while the group behind the dwarf was now smiling at each other after the tense aura of his power had subsided. They exchanged knowing smiles as the two Pioneers and their charming personalities immediately stopped the stubborn dwarf man.
"Cald stop that!" Gloss said as she flew right up to Cald and tried to bat her hand away instead Caldesan caught her hand and shoved it against the stunned Bale's chest which felt like it too was made of the strongest steel known to man. "Cald no, oh....whoah." Gloss immediately was rubbing his chest trying to figure out how it was this strong.
At this point, Bale looked over his shoulder at the group of onlookers like he didn't know what to do, "Uh, Lorella....any chance you could help out here?"
The Shrine-Guardians' tinkling laughter fell across the courtyard like a crystal chandelier moving in a small breeze. "What would you have me do Bale, it seems as though you have made some friends."
"Okay, okay ladies, let's get back to business here!" Bale said while trying to stop Caldesan from trying to fit both her hands around his bicep.
"But it's almost not real? Like a cyborg or something, like even bodybuilders can't do that!" Caldesan said as she was pulled away by Gloss finally.
"Well Cald, that is because Bale here is of the 8th tier, so his natural strength and vitality are much higher than a human's would be. It is also that he, like most Dwarves, grows larger and larger the more powerful he gets. It is the same for many different races here in our world." Lorella said.
"Oh wow. Wait aren't you of the 6th tier?" Cald asked, then continued, "Wait I don't understand the tier system, can you explain it?"
"Of course, unless you would like to Marchen, I know the tiers are one of your favorite study subjects. I am sure you would enjoy describing it to our lovely Pioneers." Lorella said with a knowing smile, Marchen did take great pleasure in teaching people about the tiers and how they correlate to domains of power, focus, and longevity.
"It would be a great pleasure, Lorella, my thanks. Well, ladies, the difference in tiers is almost entirely based on ability, capacity, and effective range. Three parts to a tier. To be officially welcomed to a higher tier you must pass the margin in 2 of the three Categories in your specialized domain.
For instance, Lorella here is a 7th tier in capacity, but only 5th tier in effective range, and 6th tier in ability which translates to 6th Tier Magic user of the Earth Domain overall."
He continued, "To clarify, Capacity means the amount of magical power reaches the scales in the 7th tier, which is just a designation of how much one person can use. This is well above average, as she is a Shrine Guardian. Most Beastkin only make it to about the 4th tier where I am in my domain by the way. The 4th tier is considered a great accomplishment, and it most certainly means you have trained very hard for it. That should tell you the difference in my power versus hers."
"The Ability of Lorella is in the 6th tier which directly correlates to precision and efficiency with the power of her domain. So, you notice how intricate the designs are in the Shrine Temple building. That is a direct result of her precision and how much power she could use more effectively in that realm as well." Marchen was holding everyone's attention with this explanation and it truly was captivating to learn so much at once.
"However her effective range with the Earth Magic she can wield has yet to pass into the 6th tier and it is noticeable to those who pay attention to auras, however, you must be of a close enough tier to sense it, I being entirely in the 4th tier for my Speed Domain, am only able to sense her effective range.
Once it passes into the 6th tier it will be beyond my senses unless I too pass mostly into the next tier. Does all of that make sense?" Marchen left the floor open for questions.
"Hmm, so that is the auras we see around you all? And that is why Bale's is so alluring 'cause he is the highest here?" Glossarai asked.
"ALLURING?!?! I will not be called alluring, what is this nonsense!" Bales' outrage was tempered only by the fierce blush on his cheeks.
"Yeah, it's odd, before we met Bale it was Shrine Earth Lorella's aura that was the most interesting followed by Nalahs, could that be because of our auras too?" Then with saucer-wide eyes and an exaggerated intake of breath, "WAIT, what tier are Gloss and I then?" Caldesan nearly screamed out.
Everyone looked at each other and back to the Pioneers with the glowing eyes of power..."Well, I would say that you are both of the 10th tier, with abilities able to affect things on a grand scale, the capacity for never-ending flight and power usage, and the ability to create the most intricate designs, even on a macro scale. But since Bale is in the 10th tier for his Ability score he should be able to read your auras to confirm." Lorella said.
"Mhm, it's clear to me senses, I too hide my eyes tho." Bale said, not saying how he did it, but his eye indeed did not glow, they were just coal black.
From the back of the group, the beautiful Charine also said, that also has to do with your glowing eyes and flawless complections, which is part of passing the 8th tier, longevity, beauty, power, and glowing eyes all become more pronounced. It scales exponentially just as the tiers do." At that point, Charine pulled the hair tie that had been pulling her hair back into a beautiful yet severe ponytail and braided down to the lower part of her back.
When she pulled the hair tie, her braid unraveled and her hair flowed down around her as if it was perfectly silken. It almost looked liquid as it became more vibrant the second her hair tie was out of it. Then her eyes began to glow. It surprised the Pioneers because she became more beautiful and her elven features refined themselves further if that was possible. Even her body changed as if her very charisma score just went up by 100, she became lither and stood with more grace and poise. It was hard to say exactly what changed, but it was clear that she had been hiding a lot form evey
"Whoah, you are also of the 10th tier?" Caldesan asked while looking into her eyes.
Charine laughed and shook her head, "I have the capacity and effective range in the 9th tier and ability in the 6th. My eyes glow within a lower threshold of 9th-tier power, while yours both outshine mine with no problem. It will take many years to reach the 10th tier, as all of your powers have to cross into the 9th before you can reach the 10th. My hair tie is just an enchanted item that lets me show my traits from my lowest tier of power."
These revelations seemed to stop the Pioneer's minds for a bit as they both stared at Charine in shock. If Caldesan didn't have a crush on her before, she did now. She just because the most beautiful person in the town according to her. Many were surprised, but it was still no comparison to the 10th tier pioneers whose eyes were emitting light, beauty, and power.
After a minute or two of the Pioneers' silent contemplation, Bale cleared his throat with the force of thunder bouncing around the square, "So, uh, about me smithy, where can I make that?"