The first thing Joe did was to cast Straighten Wood on all five branches, as none of them were completely straight. He gained 2 levels from it, the first gain on the first branch. That led him to believe that the quality of the target wood had an effect on the leveling of the spell, much like his Harvest spell gained a couple of levels when he used it on the frost dragon. Next Joe sketched out his plans for a new mining pick, complete with diagrams of the patterns needed to improve the Mining, Endurance, and Stamina Growth skills for the user. He would, of course, also include a Strengthen enchantment into the pick to keep it from breaking.
The dimensions of the picks would be no different than the dimensions of the ones he normally used. The one Leta handed to Karon was the same size, it seemed, and even Lester uses the same size pick as Sally and Jack. He grabbed some steel ingots, cast Imbue Metallic Object and Imbue Wooden Object and got to work. Transmute Material allowed him to turn a steelwood branch into a softer wood to allow him to carve it down to the correct dimensions with his normal tools.
Then came smithing the steel into the proper shape for a mining pick head. After it was done and cooled he Transmuted it into soft wood and used Miniaturization to carve the patterns he'd need into it. The metal head only contained patterns for the Mining skill. The Endurance and Stamina Growth patterns went into the handle, again after transmutation. He filled the patterns in with empowered copper wires, the patterns being the exact width of the wires. Finally he combined the pieces together and the matrix completed to give the whole tool a Strengthen enchantment.
Inspecting the new pick showed it to be precisely what he wanted. He spent the rest of the day and part of the following day making 4 more, gaining several levels among his skills and spells. He gained a new level in 3 of his spells: Imbue Metallic Object, Imbue Wooden Object, and Transmute Material. The new level in Transmute Material allowed him to transmute things into fabrics. His skills to increase were Smithing, Meditation, and Energy Conversion, each by 1 point. He also ranked up his Advanced Imbuing, although this rank didn't give him any new functionality, but it did make his Imbue spells more efficient, providing stronger enchantments for the mana invested.
For his next project Joe made 2 Arcane Furnaces, both with empowered copper rather than with Magisteel. He had made so many of these by now that it was rather easy and he completed them well before the end of the day. Carving the patterns into wood rather than metal really helps to speed up the process. He also worked a little faster by turning an ingot of empowered copper into wool, then pulling it into thread using a spindle he borrowed from Tess. It was so much faster than pulling wire directly from the copper, and even gave him thinner wire, so he got more length of wire per ingot. To go along with the furnaces was a Recycler box that was set to only make coal from wood.
The final thing he wanted to make for the people of Petrosia was something he had never made before, but he was reasonably sure he could do it. He got several planks of oak from Gymmie at the wood mill and started making a large chest. He carved the patterns for both Extra Storage as well as Preservation into the chest, and had both enchantments in mind when he cast Imbue Wooden Object, as well. His armor and rayguns had multiple enchantments on them based on the patterns he had put in them, so he figured it would work for this, as well.
Joe's attempt worked and he had a chest that had both Extra Storage and Preservation, so it should be able to hold a lot of food and keep it fresh for the people of Petrosia. Joe ordered several dozen loaves of bread from Slivka, as they had a nice surplus of flour thanks to the wheat he had been growing. While she was making that, Joe went and hunted a couple of giant boars and a giant hawk, to add to the chest's supply of food Karon couldn't grow in Petrosia.
When everything was ready to go, Joe asked Otto to Appraise the value of everything he had prepared for them. He created an itemized list of everything including its appraised value. After another good night of rest and an early morning of farming and reading, Joe put the furnaces, 4 of the picks, and the recycler in a larger Extra Storage container, and loaded that as well as the food storage chest into his old steelwood handcart and Backtracked to Petrosia.
Joe entered the mining office to greet Leta in the early morning. “You're back already, Joe? I'm sorry, but we haven't had a visit from a merchant yet, so we haven't had a chance to get any new tools.”
“Not to worry, Leta, I brought tools and more,” Joe said as he brings in the two chests.
Joe first unloaded the 4 new picks he had made. He saw there were still 3 picks on the wall behind her, so it looked like it was early enough in the day that the miners hadn't started their work.
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Joe offered one of the picks to Leta and she inspected it before Inspecting it. “I don't understand why these are covered in copper inlays, but the craftsmanship looks decent. Is that steelwood for the handle? What do they do?”
Leta was able to answer her own question as she finally used her Inspect ability on it. “In all my years of managing this town and mine, I've never heard of such a tool. Can it really do what it says?”
“Of course they can. They're a new invention, they haven't made the rounds through the kingdom yet.”
Leta looked excited for a moment before her expression fell, “Joe, I'm sorry but we can't afford-”
The door opened and Karon along with two other gnomes entered, a man and a woman.
“What do we have here?” asked Karon.
Joe handed him one of the new picks. “I have here a pick that even you can't break. It's made from stronger material, steelwood, and it's been enchanted as well. Not only that, but it makes you better at mining, too.”
“Joe, I already said we can't,” Leta tried to say before Joe cut her off again, addressing the other two miners.
“I want you to try these as well, today,” he said, handing each of them another of the picks. “As I was telling Leta these are a new invention, and I'd like you to test them for me and provide feedback, if you please.”
All three of the miners are excited about their new tools and are off to use them before Leta can think of a good objection.
“Why did you do that? I told you we can't afford those.”
“First, I'm not asking you to buy them. Second, I've seen too much of the lingering problems caused by the Imperial War. I don't care for it. If I can provide an investment into this town, why shouldn't I? It's not like I don't benefit from the copper mines remaining open.” Joe gestured to the copper inlays on the remaining pick Leta still held.
“The copper is the key to this and other inventions of mine. I run it through a special process and then it's able to handle the flow of magic in unique ways. It's not as good as magisteel, of course, but then, what is?”
Her curiosity getting the better of her, Leta asks, “Other inventions?”
Joe smiles as he takes the Recycler out of the chest. “Do you have any spare firewood? I'll need it for a demonstration.”
Leta points to a pile near the building's fireplace. Joe grabs a few pieces, as well as small kindling, and loads it into the Recycler. He gestures Leta to come over and directs her to place her hand on the metal plate on the front.
“Now, try to direct the stamina from your body into that plate. It may take a little practice to get it.”
Leta didn't have a problem doing it and a green bead lit up next to the metal plate.
“Wow, that was a good chunk of stamina. What did I just do?”
“The green light here means it's done, so let's open this side panel here,” Joe said as he did so. Charcoal came out the side.
Leta didn't look amazed by the transformation that just took place. “Uh, I guess that's nice. What's it for?”
Joe took the first of the furnaces out of the chest. “The charcoal is to power your very own smelting furnaces.”
“We have a furnace in another building, Joe. I just don't have time to devote to this job and smelting.”
“That's what makes these new furnaces special. They are safe, easy to use, and they don't require a lot of attention. You have room for them over there,” Joe said as he pointed to an empty area near the back of the office.
Leta had that look of curiosity again. “Are these going to require stamina to power as well?”
“No, they run purely on the charcoal. And the furnace is pretty good at containing the heat, so they won't make the office too hot, nothing that someone without a basic Toughness couldn't handle.” Basic was the term for attributes in the range of someone who had not yet unlocked their Guidebook, or perhaps not have raised that attribute from their starting point.
“Okay, Joe, consider me interested. Before we go rearranging my office, though, can we test it outside?”
“Certainly. Even if things here were made out of wood, this wouldn't threaten them, so outside is perfectly fine.”
After Joe set up the first furnace and walked Leta through how to operate it, she made her first batch of copper ingots in quite a long time. Shortly before lunch she was working on her second batch when all three miners came back to the office.
“Leta! These picks are amazing. We've already mined twice our quotas for today, and it's not even midday!”
Leta looked to Joe, suddenly suspicious. “Okay, all of these new equipment sounds too good to be true. You said this is an investment. How much will you charge us for these?”
Joe took out the sheet detailing a breakdown of costs, with a total at the bottom. “This much, plus 100 gold. Due in ten years. The appraised values are from a merchant with the Appraisal ability, of course. If you'd like to wait until your next merchant visit to have him or her vouch for the values, that's perfectly understandable.”
“Well, the merchant should be here tomorrow, so that sounds simple enough. If everything checks out, we'd be fools to pass up this opportunity. What's this food storage chest and this line about meats and breads?”
“I know how hard it is to get certain foods when your citizens' skills are spread thin, so I wanted to help with that, too. Use it sparingly and it should last a while. And the chest is reusable with its own Preservation enchantment, so you just put food in there and it stays fresh so long as the enchantment isn't broken. It has a lot more room than its dimensions would suggest, making it very convenient for its job.”
Karon spoke up, “You mean we can get meat more than just the twice a year we save up for it?”
Things were looking up for Petrosia.