Day 81 came and workers from Yttroz Industries arrived to rebuild my house. A very important dwarven figure had appeared.
Aren't you a bit too important to come all the way over to this village in the boonies?
“It’s important for the CEO to stretch his legs a bit.” I’m pretty sure Gittrian has enough parks…
“Aren't you happy to see me lad?” Barusu said while he was unloading equipment from his truck.
I would be happy if your presence wouldn't attract so much attention, I’m trying to live a normal life here…
“They would find out sooner or later, so I came here to make it sooner hahaha! I also haven't participated in construction myself and this is the perfect time to show off!” Well, this attracted enough attention by now so might as well go full out then.
“We want to devote our all here, no shortcuts! So, this will mean that we will be constructing for 2 days, I hope you don't mind.” I’m used to sleeping outside, 2 days is nothing, I think I will go into the mountains in the meantime and see what I can mine there.
“We will buy anything interesting you find!” I know, well have fun I guess, you seem to be excited, and I won’t disturb you building junkies.
I looked back as I headed for the mountains and saw Barusu and some of his workers extremely excited to turn this old house into something habitable. I had neatly placed the construction materials next to the house but I saw Barusu being sneaky and ordering more stuff. Please I just want a normal house… Stopping a dwarf from being a craftsman is impossible so I will just deal with the consequences later on. I had my mining equipment with me. They were of high quality so I wouldn't have to bother with using any earth-related skills.
I just realized that mining is a poor man's earth magic. I hopped up the cascades and breathed in the fresh mountain air. I had no clue where I should start mining.
Normally I would find a mine or have Greg locate interesting spots. I could look in the ground with my eyes but it just all looks like rocks and dirt to me. Unless it's really special, I don't see a difference between rock A and rock B. I could locate caves but… I’m here to mine not to get into trouble.
Things that bring me into trouble: sand, caves, being near Healerguy. Maybe sewers too. If I mine and create my own cave does that count too? It doesn’t, right?
I found a rock wall half a day later. 7 shadow clones got summoned and started mining and digging. I have no clue what I’m doing but if I blast holes in this wall, I might destroy precious materials. Nobody was here so I could get all my tails out and those of my clones and let each tail hold tools to dig faster. I love cheating with my race.
----------------------------------------
It has almost been a full day and I haven't found anything. I had made a cave that went 50 meters into the rock wall. This wasn't as easy as I had expected. Half my clones were mining at the side of the tunnel and the others were making it longer. Nilah was trying to help but in her current form, she was too small. I picked her up and rested while the rest of my clones were slaving away. It would be lame if I didn't find anything by tomorrow.
The moon was out but it was waning. No weird stuff going on. Probably only on full moons. I got reminded about that time in Boshi Town when I went 9t mode, the sky went through day and night cycles and stopped on the full moon. Greg told me that that’s not something that normally happens when a 9t goes 9t mode. I don't think it happened the last time but I couldn't tell because we were underground. Does this play into the fact that the moon said I'm not a 9t? One of my clones seemed to have found a small iron vein.
Another clone helped him to mine the iron, the rest kept searching. Wait a second, I didn't go into 9t mode like how I was supposed to do it in Boshi Town, I used that [Illusionary Dagger] and stabbed my tails. I completely forgot about that. That 9t mode also felt a bit different. Hmm, strange. The version in Boshi town seems super risky though and I don't know if it’s stronger. The moon did power me up but that’s it. Or was that an important detail? I decided that my break was over and went to help my clones in making this tunnel longer.
I kept mining for another 1 hour before I heard a strange sound. Is this the sound of trouble? I kept mining and suddenly my tails wrapped around me and I got hit by an explosion and got launched out of the cave. I got up.
Ugh, what now? Nilah was absorbing all the mana that got released during that explosion. Only one clone got blasted to bits the others were fine. I inspected the cave with my eyes. That explosion surely helped with digging. I noticed that a part of the rock wall that I was digging into had another color and was absorbing the mana and about to cause another explosion.
Oh, fuck I just had to find electronium! I ducked away and another explosion catapulted rocks out of the cave. Nilah ran in and started to suck up all the mana that got released from those explosions. I ran in too and connected to the air leyline current and covered the rock wall with water. Since leyline energy doesn't mix with mana it drives mana away.
As long as electronium doesn't get in contact with the ambient mana it won’t explode. This is the reason electronium mining is so dangerous. You can’t mine it with earth magic because then this explosion would have been 20 times worse. It’s a truly pain in the ass metal and somehow society decided to power off this. The only thing that would make electronium mining worse if they did mining with lightning magic.
The whole reason they made alloys out of this stuff is to make it less dangerous. It will still release mana when hit with magic but it will be the most receptive to lightning magic and unfortunately, that’s where the lightning spirits come in. Electronium is the number 1 cause of mine-related deaths, this stuff is no joke. I covered the whole cave in water created by leyline energy and started to mine the electronium. I have no clue how electronium gets mined exactly but this works for me. It does get stored in some sort of oil when transported. I have some but not enough to put this chunk in. I freed up 70 kg of Electronium. It looked like a big rock but it was deceptively heavy for its size so I froze a thick shell of ice around it and put it in my dimensional box. When something bad happens it will blow up whatever is in there and not what’s in my dimensional pocket. I checked for more electronium but it seems most of it had exploded and spilt into lighter elements.
For some reason, it likes to split into neodymium, potassium, and zirconium after it explodes. The potassium was reacting with the water but it wasn't enough to cause any issues for me. I guess this is why they use oil for storage. I carefully collected the neodymium, I will sell these to Barusu later, he might need them for whatever project he needs magnets for. I left the zirconium behind because I bet, they have more than enough of that stuff. I went through my archives to find a book Greg once let me read about electronium.
He said something like: read this so that you don't blow yourself up trying to find electronium one day. I seem to have remembered these things correctly. I guess this will do for today. I don't want to run into another electronium vein. Nilah was still absorbing the mana that got released. It seemed quite a lot. I dispelled my clones and decided to take a nap until the next day was over.
I returned back home and dreaded what kind of highly noticeable building they put down. I surfed down the cascades and arrived at the village. It seems I was wrong, it looked like a normal house. A bit too normal.
Barusu and the workers were drinking some beer and having fun. “Oh, there you are! We finished it on time just as we said, we did carried away though!” Yes, that’s what's worrying me, you say that and it looks quite normal, what did you do?
“Well, we were debating about space management and we concluded that the current dimension wouldn't be sufficient for the volume we were aiming for.” Aha, and now in Kaledonian?
“We gave your basements 5 floors and an elevator to compensate.” Of course, you did… anything else?
“That's all, I worked together with some dwarves not too long ago to make better and more efficient forges, we’ve installed one of those.” Thanks, it’s not harder to use, is it?
“Oh no anyone could use this but knowing how a normal forge works will certainly help, we also ensured that everything is fireproof so your house burning down because you got reckless won't be an issue hahaha!” Uhh, thanks, I guess. The workers were making a commotion. Nilah was cooling their beers and they were appreciative.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Anyways we will be drinking here until tomorrow and then head back. I hope you like your new house. But first a commemorative photograph!” Barusu had Nilah and me line up with his colleagues and himself and had a villager take a picture. He surely loves these photographs.
He also got his beer chilled by Nilah. I beckoned Nilah and we went to check out our new house. It smelled new, everything seemed extremely well made, and they even furnished the house. Everything was ready to live in it. They installed some modern appliances. Electronium batteries, eh? I don't need those I can perfectly power everything here with lightning Dragonvein but I will store these in case of emergency.
It had a living room a large kitchen, a toilet and a small empty room on the main floor, the entrance to the workshop was in the kitchen, it was large and spacious it even had electromagic machinery I don’t recognize but they all seemed to have instruction manuals. So modern. The first floor had 3 bedrooms and a shower on the first floor, it also had a balcony.
The attic was big and empty. I went back to the main floor and took the elevator down. The b5f. Just for storage, it reminded me of a small version of that seed vault. It had shelves for everything. I appreciate this but I have my dimensional pocket, I will repurpose this one day if I'm not lazy. B4f was the same but for food and more perishable items. How much do these guys think I eat? B3f was interesting. It was a bit like that simulation room in the time capsule I could practice all I wanted here; the walls were reinforced so were the floor and ceiling. I messed around and I realized this was a bit like how they can change arenas in the Adventurers Association. I tested the strength of these walls and connected to the underground leyline currents and sent a fire [Dragon] at the wall. The room shook but it looked like it held up well. It was a bit damaged but it seemed to repair itself. I can see why Yttroz Industries is stinking rich.
How is anyone going to compete against this? Nilah sent some frost attacks at the wall. This place seems strong enough but it seems anything as strong as [Dragon] or stronger will mess this place up, I will have to remember that. B2f was… am I outside?
It looked like a resort with a huge pool. I looked up and it seemed like sunlight but it obviously wasn't. I have no idea how they did this. It looked completely different but it reminded me a bit of my home in the jungle. I think this alone makes this house the best ever. B1f had various different things. It had a terminal that allows me to keep track of what missions are available. It seems to be somehow connected to the Adventurers Association. There was also a small station. I approached. There was a note. It says it’s a healing kit. From Healerguy.
I looked at this station, he calls this a healer kit? I just have to send a Teleroad and he will come over to study me? What the fuck? I looked to the side and saw a Teleroad station. The rest was relatively empty. I was probably supposed to fix up this floor. I am too lazy for that I will probably only use B2f and B3f. I took the elevator back to the main floor and went outside to thank Barusu.
Ah right before I forget, I found this in the mountains, and almost got myself killed. I took out the electronium which was still frozen and the neodymium.
“Jerry and Rubert weren't wrong, you do keep getting into problems, I’m glad you made it out alive, not many miners are as lucky as you when it comes to random electronium veins. Let me take that.” He pulled out a small barrel out of his dimensional box and opened it. It was filled with oil. “You can lower it into this barrel. The neodymium too, I don't want it to get any more oxidized.” He closed the barrel and wrote something on it and put it back into his dimensional box. “Do you mind if we add this to your personal funds?” Sure, I don't need any more gold on me.
“How are you…” I showed him my own dimensional box. “Aah, that is indeed very smart yes. We will greet the people who promised to take us in for the night, we will leave tomorrow early so we might not be able to say goodbye so I will do so now.” He reached out his hand. I shook his hand. “Was good to do business and get my hands moving, now back to the boring office… Well, cya!”
Barusu walked off and mingled with some villagers. I went back to my new house. I went to B1f. I had an idea; this heal station could be useful. I dropped my [Dimensional Anchor] here. I have 3 locations where I can dimensional teleport easily to now., it's not impossible to do without a [Dimensional Anchor] but it might spit me out with fewer lives than I started out with. I still remember how the last one damaged Io. I don’t know what this would've done if I did this with a human.
I went back up and went to my new workshop. I decided to start light and create daggers of similar or better quality than I did 4 years ago. As usual, I created a lot of ‘Low Quality’ daggers. And knives. As in they were perfect and maybe too good for everyday use but not good enough to bet your life on. At the end of the day, I had 3 normal to high-quality ones and the rest was low-quality. I hope the villagers need knives and daggers. I know what I might repurpose the 2 lowest basement floors to! I can store whatever is low quality that I can sell. I assume that I can't sell everything here so I will eventually have to bring them to Gittrian. The hours passed as I was trying to re-familiarize myself with the techniques and made myself familiar with the new stuff. Nilah started to pull on my pants at one point.
What's up Nilah? She was trying to tell me something. I noticed someone was at my door. I opened up. it was Village Gregory.
“I never got to thank you for returning my boats and the cargo back!” Oh, no problem, can I do anything for you? I saw some people behind him.
“Well, we were a bit worried, you haven't stepped outside ever since your house got completed 5 days ago.” Wait 5 days ago? It was only yester… oh… I might have been carried away creating knives, any of you need any knives or daggers? A woman needed new kitchen knives and a hunter needed a knife set. How big do you need your knife set?
“Uhh, doesn't matter, make it as big as you want.” Hehe, wrong answer mister, now I can dump a large amount of knives on you. Right, there is a door that leads to my workshop over there, I will leave it open so if you don't see me, try the workshop. I will try to notify someone when I go out to gather materials or something. I went through the house and met the villagers in the workshop. They seemed to be shocked to see the mountain of daggers and knives I created.
I apologize, I don’t have anything to give you the knives in so I will just wrap them up. Be careful, they’re sharp. I threw a piece of wood in the air and swung a random knife at it and the block got cleanly cut in half.
That’s how sharp, don't tell me I didn't warn you. I wrapped 5 knives for the woman who needed kitchen knives. The daggers and knives for the hunter also got wrapped up I kept wrapping and wrapping.
“Uhh, that’s enough, I can't pay for all those.” Oh, don't worry taking these off me is already more than enough payment. Here, a 142-piece dagger set. Have fun hunting. The man accepted a mountain of wrapped-up knives and slowly walked home carrying the heavy load.
Right, anyone else needs knives? The others decided to help out and took at least 1 knife with them.
“Hey, I know you’re our new blacksmith but you don't need to overdo it, you should also rest. 5 days of non-stop crafting is a bit much…” Thank you for your concern, I will consider it. I guess I need to sleep. I took all the daggers into the storage in the basement and went to bed.
----------------------------------------
I kept doing this until day 98, I could make high-quality daggers whenever I wanted, but it wasn't up to luck anymore. I also had started on swords. 60% ended up as ‘Low Quality’ as I managed to consistently beat out the impurities on a wide range of wavelengths. In the meantime, I had gotten some requests to create some tools, nails, or repair weapons. Nilah was of great help cooling the metal off in a highly controlled manner.
I had created a new routine where I would work for 5 days and sleep for 2 days. The villagers seemed to be confused about this but this made me more productive and energetic than sleeping every night. I got my first commission from Yttroz Industries. I needed to make a sword that had multiple segments in its blade that could stretch and turn it into some kind of whip. Going for the hard requests it seems. It wasn't supposed to be a magical weapon so it should either respond to basic mana inputs or be mechanical. I don't have much knowledge or experience with mechanicals so mana it will be. It felt like an obnoxious puzzle. I made the separate parts and the hilt of many conductive materials. The only thing I needed was to somehow connect these.
Nowhere was the affinity of the user mentioned. I decided to use series of strong magnets that would repel and attract each other and add some kind of barrier that keeps the pieces from going too far from each other. I have no clue how this is normally done but I can make barriers and seals so I will just use those. The only thing the user has to do is send mana to trigger the barrier and release the sword pieces by making them repel each other, when the mana flow stops the magnets will flip and attract each other strongly and make a sword. I strengthened the barrier a bit to make sure that they would act as a normal sword in those circumstances.
I spent 3 days making the pieces and 4 days making the barrier to make all this work. It took 9 days total to make because I had to sleep for 2 days in between. I went to the training floor in my basement and tried it out. It could stretch to 10 meters. The gaps between the metal pieces seemed to look as if there was nothing in between. Anything that didn't interact with barriers or magnetism would pass through the gaps. I guess I should add this to the properties. The distance between the metal pieces depended on the mana fed to the sword. The whole sword couldn't go over 10 meters because the barriers wouldn't allow for longer. The magnets would be unable to piece the sword back together when the mana flow stopped if I went for a longer sword. I stopped feeding it mana and it snapped back to normal. It made quite a sound. I guess I need to add a noise-cancelling barrier.
I tested it out and it seemed quite flexible and easy to use, that is if you’re proficient with swords. I played around with it a bit too much. I started to miss wielding swords. Since I won't have to add more barriers, I decided to lock them in and make them a bit more complicated so they can't be disabled or dispelled easily. I put in some traps and small puzzles to give whoever tries to disable these hell. It was Boshi town barrier tier difficult.
Only someone like Greg, Azu, or me would be able to disable this in a reasonable timeframe. I had a clone make the sheathe for it and decorate it and wrapped it up in cloth. It is my first official commission so I want to personally bring it and possibly see the face of the person who is going to use this weapon. I did learn from crafting this weapon that I might need some strange magic techniques to solve problems I don't have the means to. I’m sure another blacksmith would have an easy time making this sword by going the mechanical route. I don't know for how long I can milk the idea of using barriers to solve a problem. I headed over to Gregory and notified him that I would be bringing 5 boats to Gittrian. This was the second time I would be taking a boat to Gittrian.