There were a few things to consider when looking for a place for my infusion altar. It needed to be far enough away from civilization to not harm anyone in case something went wrong. Also to prevent people from stumbling upon it. I also needed to make sure it was a safe place where I could not be disturbed while crafting. That could be accomplished by hiding it properly or building some magical defences. I would do both.

I decided to look for a suitable spot north of Stormbringer’s path within the mountain range. That would hopefully prevent any orks, goblins or dwarves from finding it. My only concern would be animals and humans, the latter hopefully keeping to their plains.

I took off and flew for a day at max speed. It was somewhere halfway between Borsdown and the goblin village that I decided to turn north. The path of destruction was no longer visible, nature having healed itself fully. I flew until I reached the edge of the plains with the small stripe of forested hills between the human lands and the mountains. There was no village or building close. I still rose up for a bit to look around. Some buildings were to the east and west, close to the horizon with a larger set far to the north. Two villages and a city, I guessed. Nothing that would be a problem any time soon. Unless bandits were hiding somewhere, I was alone in the wilderness here.

I still decided to move a bit into the mountains, about half a day at normal speed or two hours at top speed. Then, I flew around the nearby peaks, looking for any signs of sapience as well as nodes and their potential guardians. There were a few of the latter and I decided to find a spot right in the middle of all of them. On the steep side of a mountain, I chose to dig in. There was a small edge of stone jutting out which I landed on to pull out my excavation focus. I filled it with vis and aimed the beam at the wall in front of me. I decided on a simple trick to avoid invaders. The entrance would be too small to get in. My [Eldritch Shift] would let me get there whenever I wanted.

I guided the beam to make a small hole, dirt and stone dropping off the edge. After a minute, I spun it slowly, widening the inside without expanding the entrance. I took regular breaks to feel the space with my shadows and after about two hours, I was confident to be able to shift inside. Just in case, I dug a little deeper. Then came the moment of truth. My tendril entered the opening and I activated my Skill. The next moment I found myself in a rough cone of dug up stone with a tiny hole letting in the last light of the day. The excavation focus had not shifted along with me since I was not actually touching it so I pulled it through the hole. It barely fit.

Then, it was time to make a room. I activated the focus to destroy half the material it dug up and piled up the rest behind me. Slowly, a small cave formed around. I needed around a five-metre diameter and a two-metre ceiling for the infusion altar. Even more for the rest of my workshop. It was a much more time-consuming project than I had expected. I considered for a moment to make a second focus to dig faster but decided to just take it slow. I did not need it to be ready in a week. At least it went faster than making the entrance since I did not have to make sure to keep the hole small. The green light from the beam let me see where I was going even at night.

I tried experimenting a little to make the task more interesting. At first, I found nothing interesting when adjusting the energy poured into the focus. It worked just as I had learned earlier. Then, I decided to shift my body. Maybe a different form would change how the magic flowed. First, I tried a from with destruction as aspect. I added void and darkness, hoping for some additional improvements. My body turned into a dark blob without any physical substance. I felt my shadowy talons sink into the ground until the natural essence of the stone stopped me from going further. Taking a step showed a fine imprint on the ground. My feet kept slowly sinking but it would take a day to get a centimetre deep. I also found lots of tiny flakes part from me and float around. They burned into the ground and walls where they touched.

For my mana flow, destruction did much better with earth getting worse. I further pushed the ratio and as I reached around 25 to 1 in destruction to earth mana, I ended up with about a third of the material being left after digging. I tried going further but the beam fizzled when I pushed even more destruction mana into it. At least the stone was also destroyed more quickly. Void and darkness seemed to have no effect on the focus.

After a while, maybe around half an hour, my boy had turned into a collection of slightly connected blobs. A little later, I dissipated and with an expenditure of more vis, my real form returned. That was a weird experience. It never felt like I was actually hurt nor had moving become any harder, my body just ceased to exist at some point.

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I had more than enough power to try a different form, maybe even two. The next I decided on was my standard metal, crystal and order. My thaumium body turned out to be very conductive for vis, who would have thought. It was almost as easy to power the focus as in the previous form with a little bit more flux forming in my body. The steel layer was a bit of a problem but I simply shifted it out of the way. Then, I tried to make it even easier and touched the excavation focus to the exposed thaumium on my chest. With a slurping and cracking sound, it was pulled inside my body before I could react. I blinked. Was that it? Did I have to go back to Borsdown or Serrington to find another emerald?

Then, my vision shifted to a light green tone. The dark cave was lit up slightly. I turned my head, looking for the source only to realize it was coming from my eye. I needed a mirror. Or not. I had a hunch of what happened and guided some destruction and earth vis to my right eye. The next instant, I could only see from my left and a green beam shot out of my right. It dug into the stone I was looking at. Somehow, the excavation focus had replaced my right eye. I tried to aim the beam but found I could not do so without turning my head. Of course. I was an owl, I could not suddenly move my eyes in their socket just because one of them had turned into a magical laser beam.

The process of powering it had at least stayed as easy as it was before and I no longer needed my shadows to hold the focus. Still, it was somewhat difficult to figure out how to properly dig like this. The ground should be even, and the walls and ceiling as well. Until I figured out that I had much closer control over the range. My will desired a flat ground at a certain height and looking over it made the beam reach just as far as necessary. I clicked my metallic tongue. This was not really what I had in mind but it worked for now. Then, I realized I was no longer dropping stone and dirt next to the focus. Where was it going?

I looked around and excavated the material I had deposited near the entrance, closely following the magic. Soon, I found it. The stone was going into my [Owl Stomach], the metaphysical storage version. It was almost full already and a minute later, the last part filled up. Suddenly, the Skill shifted on its own and turned into the devouring stomach version. The earth and stone I was digging up were quickly turned into vis. And flux. I cut the energy. This was good and bad at the same time. I would not run out of energy for digging but I had to keep an eye out for my flux level. And what was in my storage needed to be dropped off somewhere. I decided to simply put it in the corner of my new workshop. It would soon turn into thaumium. The pile was enough to make about ten ingots and after digging out the space I wanted, I would be able to make maybe thirty or forty. That was a little too much flux for my taste but I wanted to make the flux scrubber first thing anyway. Keeping my workshop clean of dangerous energies was my number one priority.

I spent another five days digging until I had a workable area. Not enough for the infusion altar but it would work for my crucible and the arcane furnace with a few alembics to distil essence.

I took off to visit Vivi once more and pick up my things. The ocelot was still struggling with the figure of me. The feathers simply did not want to stay in the wood. One of the wing bones she had carved had even broken from the weight. Since then, she had restarted with a different material. The colour was much darker than she wanted but Safrah told me she had gotten some paint to fix that. I spent another afternoon with them, telling my friends about the new workshop I was building. They complained about it being so far away but relented when I talked about the risks of flux and how much thaumaturgy I would likely do there.

When I returned, I kept digging for another week. The room took shape but I found it getting humid and the air turning stale. I would need some ventilation bigger than a hole of five centimetres. The time to get back to the goblins and talk about the further plans for their village was approaching soon so I stopped digging and set up my crucible first. I found another issue. I needed water to use it. That meant, every time I wanted to do some alchemy, I had to fly down and find a river. Maybe there was a thaumaturgic solution for that as well? Something to think about when I came back. Now, it was time to see if Roguk and the others had made a decision.