1st of Alm, 118 years since megados eruption
The earthquake was rather unimpactful, all things considered. (I nearly got crushed!) Sure, part of a unused room collapsed and the entrance's ceiling is cracked, but otherwise no damage. However, when I went to the epicenter, I found something strange. A small mana spire was sprouting out of a crack in sandstone. The sand around it was trying to fill the crack, but the mana spire just spit it out. Strange that a mana spire can exist here; the mana roots should've been ruined by megados, and growth stunted by the wastes.
Odds are, it wouldn't survive if left alone, so I uprooted it and planted it in the entrance chamber of my den. I'm not a manologist, so I don't know if this will improve its survival chances, but I do know how to take care of cave sprouts. I don't think mana spires need water though (I'll feed it just in case).
In other news, I tried to install a poison alarm in my den. I say try because it triggered as soon as I turned it on (sounded like birds). Apparently there's tarilite, a poisonous metal that prevents a living creature from using mana. Not really a concern for me or for Aesmo, so it's rather low on my priority list. It's probably in some of the rocks I mined.
I guess it's about time I actually look through what I mined out. Maybe I'll find something valuable.
17th of Alm, 118 years since megados eruption
Here is a complete list of notable things I mined up (1 piece = 6m wide sphere);
- 23 pieces of copper ore
- 14 pieces of orichalcum (titanium) ore
- 7 pieces of titanium ore
- 11 pieces of tarilite
- 6 pieces of iron ore
- 10 pieces of tin ore
- 2 pieces of zinc ore
- 3 pieces of aluminum ore
- a rock with trace amounts of gold
- 1 piece of orichalcum (mythril) ore
- A decently large pile of quartz gems. At least I think it's quartz
- A small pile of gems that aren't quartz
To be honest I don't know what to do with all these ores. I don't exactly have the skills to process them, and they're taking up so much space. Maybe eat them? Aluminum tastes bitter, zinc spicy, gold has a savory taste but there's not that much of it, and copper is sour. (iron tastes best for me!) But even then I only eat once a week or more, and I'll still be mining up more ores.
I guess I can at least melt them down to more easily storable shapes. One clump is more compact than a bunch of pieces. And since I'll be doing that a lot over time, I guess I should dedicate a room for that. A compacting room? Not quite a forge. (how about melting room?) I think I have a book on basic metalworking somewhere in my pouch. Let me read up on it real quick.
28th of Alm, 118 years since megados eruption
I cleared up the collapsed room (melting room), which gave me enough space to make a melting furnace. Problem #1; I need to build the furnace. The book had a couple of designs I can use, but most required fireclay which I don't have right now. The others required normal clay, which I also don't have. The only one I can do right now would be using mud, but it's a 'low productivity' design. It's easy to make, use, and repair, but breaks easily. Honestly, I'll try it once or twice before deciding whether or not to invest in fireclay.
Problem #2; all of the designs require charcoal. Which requires trees. Which the desert doesn't really have. Or the grasslands. I think the closest trees are an hour away. This is a bit of a problem. They did mention using coal, but I don't have that either, and a volcano isn't exactly where you'd expect coal. So either I give up, get some trees, or find an alternative. Decision pending. (What kind of alternative?) [Anything that burns into Coaxcide] (how about oil?) [Thanks for reminding me]
Problem #3; ventilation. All of the furnaces requires air to be forced in, and toxic fumes comes out. I can try and build a chimney or something so the fumes can exit. I tried doing some math, and I'm fairly certain I can supply the air needed by blowing into the furnace through a tube. (it's meant for an air pump.) I have an idea for a design that can solve this non-issue, but the design is fairly permanent.
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Problem #4; it's slow. No matter what furnace I'll use, it'll take me days to consolidate all of the ores. Not that that's a problem for me, to be honest. We have a year's worth of food, and Aesmo doesn't seem capable of boredom. (why should I?) It'll be a good test of my patience though.
I guess the only real problem is #1, in that I don't have any clay. Leaving that for later, I'll try making a mud furnace and use dragon fat oil as fuel [it tastes bad anyways]. I hope it works out.
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From a hole in the mountain came a column of smoke. Below the smoke, in the mountain, there was a mud bloomery. Beside it sat a dragon, who spoke while drawing a circle.
"Alright, we should be good to go. Are you sure you can manage the fat and ore inputs?"
A large centipede nods its head, holding onto several pieces of ore and fat. The dragon nodded back, and activated the magic circle. It reached for what little ambient mana there was, then glowed dark blue. The fire inside the bloomery dulled to a green, ever hotter than before. The centipede deposited ore and fat in layers of equal size, while the dragon blew into the fire a burning hot breath.
From a hole below, molten metal started dripping out. A mix of pure metal and slag, it wasn't meant to be used. Instead, while still blowing, the dragon folded the cooling mix like dough, until it was a singular, dense blob. Then more metal dripped onto it. The blob grew in size, until it could no longer fit beneath the bloomery. It was placed away to cool, as a new blob started getting made.
Eventually though, the bloomery couldn't take it anymore. The mud crumbled, burned away to dust. The dragon and centipede stopped and looked at each other for a second, before nodding in silent agreement. Then the dragon left the mountain, carrying what little jewels it had with it, in search of greater treasures.
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11th of An, 118 years since megados eruption
The test was a success! We successfully smelted down 3 pieces of ore into 2 clumps, each about half the size of a piece of ore (3m wide). Nearly a 60% reduction! Unfortunately the furnace we were using couldn't withstand the heat and broke apart (disintegrated). Which is why I went ahead and bought some fireclay! Surprisingly cheap; only costed a ruby ring. I also got myself a hydra tree for charcoal. Specifically an olive-bred hydra tree; resilient enough to survive in the wastes. It's currently growing in the plains less than a minute from the mountain (an hour for me).
The permanent (for now) design we have is a type of blast furnace. Ore and charcoal is put in through a trapdoor at the top, air is pumped in near the bottom, molten metal collects at the bottom where we can then drain and collect. An extra hole was added for slag removal. The top is a chimney which leads out of the mountain. It's heated by a magic circle that, despite low ambient mana, still gets hot enough for what we need.
Now we just need to build it. Which is hard considering neither of us have worked with clay before. To be honest, I fully expect us to fail a couple times before we succeed. (I don't. have confidence!)
Also, the clumps we made are going to be crushed down into dust for easier storage. Actually, I should practice for the furnace by first making some containers for the metal dust. (I want to try!) [Then let's have a competition.] (give me dragon meat if I win)
7th of Aos, 118 years since megados eruption
I lost to a centipede. Aesmo's are smaller, but the containers were always stronger and she even made lids. Mine were subpar at best and broke easily at worst. (uneven and unbalanced. inelegant) I concede this victory to her. Which also meant that she got the privilege to make the furnace (aka a job) [paid in blood].
We got the furnace set up, and the hydra tree has been doing just fine. I got some charcoal now, just waiting on Aesmo's signal to start the campaign. I expect it to last until we run out of charcoal. Though Aesmo said that she had a surprise.
For the order of smelting, we'll start with ores we don't have much of, like zinc, then work our way to the more numerous ores, and end it with copper. The only ores we won't work on is the gold and mythril orichalcum, since there isn't that much of it.
On an unrelated note, the mana spire has been shrinking. I'm guessing it'll die in a month from now at this rate. Which is longer than if I hadn't done anything, but I feel sad that it still dies in the end. Damn sympathy.
14th of Aos, 118 years since megados eruption
Fun fact, some species of centipedes can reproduce asexually, laying valid eggs that are genetic clones of themselves. Aesmo is one of those species. There are now half a dozen centipedes in every room. I made it clear that my blood is off limits, but the pool of blood in the food room is all theirs.
I guess this does count as a surprise, but I don't know how to feel about it. On one wing, cute babies. On the other, more mouths to feed. On another wing, they can work help out. Worst case, emergency food. (i'm not a cannibal!) [I am] (You're not a centipede)
Anyways, Aesmo says we can start today, so I won't be writing anything for a while. If something comes up, I trust Aesmo to write it down until I have time. ('Writing practice' apparently. Dumb excuse.)