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The weather is nice, so we do a furnace run with the pulverized turquoise ore. This ore is mostly from a small opening but deep cave that becomes bigger, that Kima found as she explored her cliff while oath bound there, and she liked the pretty green rocks that taste strange. Knowing how Kima's kind lives, it's obvious she would go exploring any cave she found and go deep into the dark without issue or fear of the dark. Kima have kept a few really nicely patterned green crystals, and they are very pretty. We might go back just to get more of them as pretty things do have a value. Getting large quantities of ore from what have been named 'Kima's Cliff' will be a hassle since there is a rapid to pass and the journey is not without danger from dinosaurs. The last journey proved that, but we could use Kima venom on arrows and bolts. Hunting large dinosaurs or making traps for them have become much more feasible, and I could probably take out a pack with my crossbow if I camp in a safe spot. Xuela really doesn't like those predators and want to take the occasional fly-by potshot when she gets the opportunity. That might be an effective way to wipe them out, but a future thing when we have a good supply of venom. Xuela have admitted that she is likely to take potshots with normal arrows. A wounded predator might become slower and die from infected wounds, or just be slow enough that it can't hunt well and die from starvation.
The ore is turquoise even pulverized, so it should be very good copper ore. Unless it is jade or something else. I simply don't know what kinds of ore there are, but I know there are more stuff that is green-blue than just copper ore. Then again, most copper ore is likely not green-blue and might be just a couple of percentages of copper combined with other stuff. I worry that might be the case here as arsenic, lead and shit like that isn't good for our healths. But this burn is to see if I can get copper, and I also hope it will give us another blue Star Fall. The irony - hehe 'iron'y - is that I won't actually have much use for copper. If we can find tin or zinc to make bronze or brass it might be more useful for tools, weapons and armour, but if we can get more iron, that won't be worth the effort. Copper is just too soft, and it is heavy.
Reiley and Bokyli absolutely understand what we are doing as this is not the first pulverized stuff burn, and I explain it to the rest of our company and the design. The furnace and charcoal mound have seen plenty of use so far. We're still collecting iron mud from that stream, but we have gotten so many good Star Fall weapons and tools that the need isn't urgent. Still, iron is iron and I want all I can get, and we do have quite a lot of iron mud stored. There is just so much that can be done with iron, and it is not limited to the whims of the damn alien bastards. I don't think I can make an axe with a copper head and just the edge in steel.
Shit, that healing ointment was probably a bad idea. The numbing effect have past and now it is starting to itch like crazy. It might be it doing it's thing, or I might have a reaction to the ointment. I'm kind of relieved that Seyrla have someone to give her blood and seed, as it will really suck if I have to cut myself to give Seyrla blood, and then wait for the wound to naturally heal, since Seyrla would need another dose before it is healed. So I would have several wounds in different stages of healing. All the freaking time. Lovely. I should probably expect that her 'donor' will die in one way or other, so I have to test if we can store alcohol diluted blood or something. If there is something that detect blood and reset a timer when it detect the same DNA in semen, that might work. I'm glad I haven't said any of this out loud, since I don't want the damn alien bastards to do a firmware update to Seyrla's detector. If that is how it works. Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.
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The melting goes well, and as usual we tip it out in a bowl of water and start to go through it as we smash the slag. The copper beads and large clumps are easy to see! Success! There is even more copper than expected so very very good ore, and another trip will happen. I've already made a generator, and an electromagnetic bell isn't hard, so with much more copper, I could make a short range telegraph slash alarm system from the lookout to the hut and so on. Beside being useful, it might mean another blue Star Fall. Doing a long distance telegraph to connect camps would be useful, but unbelievably hard, and I don't just mean making all that copper wire. It's likely that dinosaurs will fuck up the poles and using trees won't work everywhere. Even those that can read and write, have different written languages that does not translate, so morse code won't work, but we've already solved that problem by using glyphs where each have a code. We should be able to have smoke signal messages with Kima's Cliff from here, if the weather is clear.
I wish we had another big dugout that we could just leave above the rapids. Just taking ore baskets past the rapids and load up the catamaran or another dugout would save time and a lot of effort than carrying the dugout past the rapids too, and the canoe can't take too much with two people. Still very useful amounts since it is so good ore. Frankly, the part of the ridge that ends in Kima's Cliff seems to be a safe spot from dinosaurs, and the river does a S turn through a gorge with a a short section of steep rapids. The upstream riverbank have plenty of forest with loads of wood, and upstream logging can be done. The rapids makes water wheels possible, and a simple sawmill, ore crusher or blower for the furnace could be made. Kima's Cliff could be made into a mining camp, that beside copper tools could make copper stuff like wire, nails and water containers, and the camp could also work as a safe resting spot and night camp for travel along the river. Plus there is that issue of camp expansion and needing to make other camps. Kima explored that cliff thoroughly, but she didn't consider fortification or water transportation while doing it. Fortunately, Koru took a better look, and it shouldn't be hard to make it very defensible as the river have cut very steep sides and some even overhang. There is only one good spot to take up the dugouts upstream of the cliff, where branches and logs have also wash up, and that is in the first U bend. A watercraft then have to be carried through a wide crevice in the ridge to the other side where it is easy to access the river as there is a small beach. The U shaped cliff between the crevice and the river is very defensible. The crevice might be the rivers old path way back, and something blocked it. Or it happened the other way around, and then the current path cleared up again. Erosion can form seriously impressive nature if given time.
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If King and his closest can be eliminated, King's Camp and the people there can be subjugated and made friendly. There can be peace and trade. They want and need salt, and probably want other stuff too. Who knows what might be accomplished if we work together instead of making war? They have huge trees to make dugouts out off, and dugouts would help immensely in trade and means making more sea going catamarans, and bigger catamarans since they didn't use the biggest trees for the two big dugouts we have. But King and his closest needs to be eliminated first. Maybe Koru could be placed as their new commander? She is known and respected by most of them, not stupid, and a brave warrior. Plus oath bound to me which can be kept secret. Eliminate King and his closest, and make Koru return as the victorious leader, having secured salt, trade and alliances. I won't like loosing Koru's help or defence, and the catamaran trip might have gone horrible without her brave action. But it might have to happen.
We need to talk that over, and make a plan. It should mean I will have conquered another camp, and should get another yellow Star Fall. I wonder how many yellow it would take to leave this world. Probably a lot. Especially if I want to bring someone or someone's along. Making that mining camp on Kima's Cliff might also count for a separate yellow reward if there is enough people, but I don't think 3 yellow will be enough. We might be able to form a council, where the leaders of camps work together and vote, but with me secretly controlling it. Or less secretly eventually. I have to figure the oaths will become known sooner or later, but that doesn't really change my eventual power negatively. If it's know that Seyrla is bound to me, then Shore Cliff camp might be willing to be 'ruled' by me. If the Boon by Seyrla's stronghold is very important, that would also lead to more trade and a stronger alliance and higher technology for everyone that joins, and make Seyrla's group more important.
Spread out camps will also grow stronger as more people finds them or are lead there by Xuela and Seyrla. Assholes, psychopaths or other dangerous people will always be a problem that just have to be dealt with. It might not be a nice solution, but giving them the option to oath bound themselves instead of being killed or left to the dinosaurs, is a possibility. A cautious test with Kima have proven that I can give a valid order over Spirit Message, and Kima swore her oath before she met me, so Xuela can convince someone to swear to serve her groups leader Arne Svensson, and as soon as I get the notification, I can order them from afar. Including to stay in a certain spot or follow someone's order or a chain of command. Unfortunately, it would be a quick way to have Xuela fly around and trick unwary to become my oath bound, and if I have figured that out, I must assume that others have. King would absolutely do it if he could, and likely Seyrla too, and she is a flyer. I wonder if they damn alien bastards have understood how bad that is for everyone else.
The bad news is that this seems to work, especially since it is unlikely that I am the first in this world to figure this out. And I'm at least 7 weeks behind the first awoken. So that leaves three possibilities; If the DAB's understand, and it is deliberate, just calling them damn alien bastards is not strong enough. If the DAB's haven't understood it but now know, it might be that they can't do a damn remote firmware update, so the DAB's are God playing stupid fuck ups, and we're stuck with this oath bounding arms race. Or there is that small chance they have overlooked this, and don't know, and yet again are God playing stupid fuck ups. Which leaves the question if I should say it out loud and explain it so they can fix it, or be an utter bastard and use it before they realise. The fact that I am still thinking about it is sadly another indication of how rotten I actually am.
Still, nothing I want to deal with today. That test with Kima also verified another assumption I had, and that is that the DAB's stuff in our ears for translation and messages can be overheard by others if it is quiet and it is a message without external sound being muted-translated. Standing beside me Reiley could faintly hear Kima's Spirit message to me, and even more so when she pressed her ear against mine, but of course the translation didn't activate. I was way too pleased about that, and Reiley was pleased I assumed it would, and was right. The whole Seyrla deal and yellow Star Fall means we have already planned to have a proper celebration tonight, and copper is just the icing on the cake. We also hope that the copper will earn us another blue Star Fall. It will probably be during the night, especially if it rains.
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