Our commute today was noisier than usual, probably because of all of the miners skipping off their regular routes to join us on our ride down. For the first time I'd seen, the whole cargo lift was just people filling every available space without any crates. I acted as a sort of bulwark for Mibata to stand behind, as I was a bit heavier than him which made me less inclined to being shoved aside by the crowd. My floor came into view below us and instead of letting the lift grind to a halt we just skipped off of it as it slowed, using our tails and legs to make a three point landing so we could get going faster. Dad looked a little alarmed at our risky behavior, but he couldn't join us until the lift had delivered its kobold passengers to the mines so we just waved at him as he slid down and out of sight. All of this managed to get me in the door just in time to hear the first sounds of tools being revved up and the boilers roaring to life.

I carried my armful of stuff back to the lab and started to lay it all out on the table when I noticed that Mibata hadn't left my side yet. He wasn't looking at me, but was scanning the workers going around the floor above us. I elbowed him to get his attention, his reply only being a shushing sound. This is weird behavior man, what's going on? I wrote him a question that should get me some sort of answer.

“Shouldn't you be going to your job?”

He wrote a reply beneath my words rather than speak it, his eyes not leaving the ceiling for more than a few seconds.

“I'm doing my job.”

I thought you were supposed to be some kind of secret spy dude for the shady elder council or something. What does loitering around your sister's lab while staring up at the middle floor have to do with that? Ugh, I can't even tell who he's looking at right now through all the supports and floor panels above us. Whatever bro, you keep doing that while I get all my equipment ready. Here Mibata, you can have Tim by your side while you stare at the roof.

Alright, now that I've got these new metals I can try some really cool stuff. First off I needed some carbon so I could turn the few scraps of Iron left from yesterday and the new ore chunk into a hammer. Charcoal has a lot of carbon and I've got a big lump of it that has been used for sketching purposes by shaving off little pieces. Now that I've got a supplier like Rakyat I can probably get some more or better supplies for design drafting, and maybe even some bigger pots of ink instead.

Alright refining rune, I need this charcoal to be a pure carbon powder, not a shriveled up lump like the ores do, so can we maybe filter the impurities without compressing the target? That would make grinding it down much easier than having to break apart a diamond. Okay, let's just turn you up to 30% power and let you run and…oh, it's already done, and it hardly looks any different. This feels like I could crush it in the palm of my hand, so I guess that asking nicely does get you something. Could I ask you to make the iron ores I got into an iron sand for me, pretty please?

I guess that's a no. The ore was separated from the rock, but it looked as though the thin veins of iron were plucked from it intact rather than peeled away and crumpled into a ball. Fine, I'll toss in the leftover scraps and filings and you can crush them with your filter magic, just get it small enough to fit in a crucible. Alright, I've got carbon and iron, now I've got to make steel.

“Big sister Roo, why is Mibata here?”

Oh hi Vimna, let me write you a reply-

“I'm here on official business of the elders. I won't interrupt your work, so pay me no mind.”

Vimna did not seem to think of his staring at the ceiling as any kind of official work, and began circling him slowly. My brother did his best to remain composed as she orbited him, but once her foot accidentally stepped on his tail he made a slight chuffing sound and wrote a quick note on some kind of observation report. He looked down at her with a raised eyebrow, his perpetual scowl making her whimper and take a step back.

“Sorry, didn't mean to! Your tail long, and I…I…”

Mibata cut her off with a raised hand, his face trying to make a noticeable smile against the wishes of his perpetual angry eyes.

“It is alright, Vimna. You did not hurt me, and I should have been more conscious of where my tail was. Kayrux, I wish to remain in your laboratory for a time, is this permissible? I can assist you until my target resumes their activities.”

I wrote him a message on my slate and tossed it over to him, his hand snatching it from the air with practiced precision.

“Sure, but I have some conditions. Tell me about this mission you're on if you can, let Vimna know that you're actually a nice guy, and be ready to show me some transmutation magic.”

He shrugged and set the old crate lid aside, his attention first going to Vimna. She tilted her head under his gaze, to which he tried to smile again in a much more relaxed way.

“Let us try this again. Hello Vimna, it is good to see you again. I'm sorry for being so outwardly stern towards you, I was merely concentrating on keeping my eyes on a suspected thief. One of the middle floor workers by the name of Shnaak took some expensive things that were not hers, and now she is being watched by me and a few others. My job is to get those stolen things back without anyone getting hurt.”

Vimna began looking up at where he was observing, but once she realized that she didn't know where to look she returned her attention back to him.

“I hope you not have to hurt her, workers here are nice people. But is good see you again Mibata, I sorry again for tail stepping and being scared. I know you nice because you Roo's brother, just having mean face. Oop!”

She clamped her hands over her mouth after saying that. Lucky for her it seemed that this was amusing for Mibata since he let out a dry chuckle and took a seat on one of the spare chairs.

“I know, my face is intimidating to many who do not know me or make appearance based assumptions. I have numerous friends and associates that have mentioned this fact at length. Perhaps it is something that was passed down in our family.”

He pointed to me, and both of them giggled as they looked at my face. Ah, I guess I'm scowling again due to listening in on their conversation while trying to remember the percentage of carbon to iron to make steel. Laugh it up you two, but you're both my lab assistants right now and I mean to make myself a steel hammer head. I motioned for my slate to be returned so I could give them orders.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You two go open up the vault and get me the two boxes in the back. Once you have them I need some casting sand made, so I'll leave that to you Vimna. Mibata, I'm going to need some help putting this together.”

While they went and got the boxes I dug out the weird lead scale from its place on the storage shelf. I didn't think that anyone would want to steal a scale of all things, so it stayed right where it was. Measuring the hunk or raw iron was worth twenty of these lead weights that I still didn't know the system of. This isn't going to work unless I can accurately measure weight in thousandths, though maybe magic can help out somehow.

Using a handful of sensor runes to measure the volume of the iron told me that it was around 650 Otes, which was pretty good for a hammer head. A good balance should be .4% carbon, so doing the math gives me about 2.6 Otes of carbon I needed to add. That sounds doable, all I need to do is just measure that much out of the charcoal block and cut it right into the crucible to be powderized. With that measured and ready, all I need to do now is see how Vimna is doing with the sand.

I had given her the recipe for the kind of sand I wanted, and she certainly didn't disappoint. This feels like a great mixture, and it's just the right amount for this cast. Her congratulatory scratching under the horns made her smile, then she was off to get a blank sheet for note taking. I didn't even need to ask her anymore, she was ready to go at the drop of a hat.

Alright sensors, let's measure out a lump of clay just a bit bigger than what we need and make a mold for how we want this hammer head to look. A nice flat striking face with a round profile for the working face, and a gnarly quad pronged armor breaker for the battle face. I shouldn't forget to leave a hole for the handle, and why not give it some personal touches like a diamond shaped outcrop on the lateral sides for style. Perfect, this was a hammer that could find a home in the workshop and on the battlefield.

The mold was set, the crucible was ready, and Mibata was on standby with the tongs. I set my fingers in a ring shape around the crucible and started up the magnet runes to get the iron molten, and to get the carbon into it I just turned the magnet runes off and on a few times and smushed the iron into the bottom of the cup. We were quick about getting the iron into the mold, and shortly after it was quenched in water as Mibata was sent off for another part. An hour later I was sitting at the table looking at a polished steel hammer head, but I knew it wasn't ready yet, not without a proper heat treatment.

I tuned my magnet runes to a lower output and used them to heat up the hammer head to the point of glowing, then let it fall into the barrel of oil in the corner. I did contemplate using the tongs to fish it out, but the idea of just going high power on a regular magnet came to mind just before I went elbow deep into the barrel. The hammer head returned to me with a sudden slap of warm iron on my scales, accompanied by the pain of being hit at full speed by a brick of metal. If there's one thing to confirm from the stinging in my palm and wrist it's that I wouldn't want to be hit by any side of this hammer.

Now it's done, and just in time as Mibata has returned with a proper material for a handle. I had asked him to go to the market and find the sturdiest wood he could find and bring me a length about as long as my forearm, and he brought me a beautiful chunk of white wood that had a diagonal grain and a nice dense sound. I wish I had my lathe right about now, because whittling this wood down took a lot longer than it should have, but by the end of it I did have a handle that felt right in my hand. Joining the two together was tricky due to me leaving the wood oversized for the sake of durability, but with a few smacks from a copper bar and a modified mounting pin driven in the center it was all put together in such a way that I doubt it would come apart even if I wanted it to.

The weight, the balance, the grip and the haft were all just right going both forwards and backwards. I set one of the abused copper plates from other tests across the gap between my tables to give a mighty slam with the flat side, leaving the plate defeated on the ground with a noticeable dent. I set it back up facing the other way to test my armor breaking side, and just as I had envisioned it the fangs had pierced the copper and torn their way in with a jagged cross pattern. I set up a new plate and handed the hammer to Vimna so she could give it a whirl, and against my expectations she snapped the plate in half with the flat side and bounced the hammer off of the floor. Mibata didn't want to give it a try after her and I can't blame him, even I felt intimidated by Vimna’s raw strength.

Lunch time came, and it was then that this Shnaak character made a play by attempting to move her stolen goods in the crowd. Mibata wished us a good day as he covertly followed his prey alongside two similarly motivated kobolds I hadn't noticed until now. I guess if I want to keep in the good graces of the kobold secret police I should never break their rules. There go all my nonexistent heist plans.

Since we were already out to lunch I thought that Vimna and I might as well hit the bazaar afterwards in search of a belt for me to hang my hammer from. I didn't want to pull a Vynrashu and just carry my hammer around everywhere I went like a circus strongman, and having it on a loop at my waist would make it much less conspicuous alongside my bag. As expected on a weekday in the market, it’s pretty empty and the surveillance drone eyeball things are sparse, which means they’re probably not going to try and act tough around me. Good, go keep an eye out for shoplifters and scam artists you damn camera eyed…actually, why don’t one of you drift on by for a little scan? I’m not going to actively hunt one of you little buggers down, but just get within ten feet of me and I’ll know all I could ever want about your inner workings.

While the hovering eyeballs played their little game of spot-the-crook around a group of well dressed kobolds on the far side of the stalls, Vimna and I were trying on different accessories that were stylish and practical. My choice was a dark bandolier looking strap that was just the right length and color to replace my satchel bag’s strap, while Vimna was nervously debating what color of hip pouch she wanted for herself. While she decided between white or tan, I got an extra pouch sewn into my bag in addition to having the strap swapped out. So many pockets and loops, this was like a super toolbelt that went all around me!

The indecisiveness finally passed and she got herself a white bag with shiny brass buckles that really stood out against her shiny red scales. A pair of gloves and a pair of goggles would sell her look as a lab assistant, and it was in our favor that we were already at the tailors and giving them some good business when we saw that they had gloves too. Twenty Draks later and both Vimna and I had gloves and bags to put in them as we made our way back to the workshop. I’ll have to look into eyewear designing sooner rather than later now that my brain was stressing over the fact that I could have blinded myself with the molten iron.

We got back and began working on a new project that would see the use of my new hammer: creating a mounting plate for the pulley wheels of the lathe. I’d already worked out how to make a functioning belt for the whole assembly once Rakyat had the wheels done, but until I checked in with him I wouldn’t be able to get the measurements for the belt. I’d already thought ahead and written down the configuration and spacing for the wheels on a spare page, and using a combination of hammering in some of those mounting pins and spot welding them in place with lightning runes we were able to get the whole setup ready for assembly. Vimna got the chance to really impress me by hammering together a cylinder made from two silver plates from the repair shop, essentially giving me a motor casing for the whole setup.

Since there was only an hour left of work and we’d already gotten everything ready for the next week I decided we should just clean up and hang out with Tim, who had grown bored of snacking in the corner and demanded some playtime. Vimna was having fun just rolling him into a ball and sending him skidding across the lab, only for him to pop open and skitter over for another shot at being a bowling ball. You’re one odd bug Tim, and I think that you’re amazing the way you are.

Vimna seemed to be bothered by something, and eventually it was me rolling the isopod around. She grew despondent, which bothered me too much for me to do nothing. I reached for her hand to see if she would take it, and out of nowhere she asked me a question that made my blood run like ice.

“Can you watch me tomorrow at the dragon ritual?”