The Runesmith Chapter 137 Smelting

“Hm, that should do it.”

Roland and Bernir were standing in a sowhat enlarged underground workshop. Due to the need of creating a new slter they had to dig up so more space.

This was not such an easy task as the more they dug up, the shakier the foundation above beca. Everything required support columns and beams. Without Roland wanting others to get involved he was stuck doing this himself with his assistant.

Luckily Bernir was quite proficient at this. The material they used was special fla-resistant wood that was easy to co by. The dungeon here in the lower area had ash-like trees that could be carried outside. They were very resistant, not much worse than rock but it was still wood which was lighter.

It took them two weeks to expand the workshop to accommodate the building of the new slter. Roland was also thinking about future endeavors thus he made it a bit larger than he really needed it.

“Finally we can start, let’s bring it over.”

This would not be a regular slter. Normally a slter was used to extract tals from ores. This was not an easy process and most regular slters would only produce tals with lots of impurities.

The smithing equipnt in this world went in a different direction than in his original world. There, techniques implenting chemical reducing agents to decompose the ore were used to drive off other elents as gases or slag. Only then was the tal base left behind.

Here on the other hand, instead of more scientific solutions, magic ones were implented. Anyone that had a class had a little bit of mana in them. A person didn’t need to be a mage to run equipnt like this as the lack of it could be counteracted by Elokin’s Fluid.

This slter that they would be setting up here was the sa. In the schematics, there was even a little side section for the fluid tank. This would be sothing that Roland intended to modify. If it was just sitting in his workshop he could implent his wind turbines that didn’t require him to spend more money.

The slter was cylindrical in shape with the top part being wider than the bottom part. On the top, there would be a bowl-shaped center with six smaller areas around it. The middle part was reserved for the tals.

This type of slter would require Roland to already have a ready ingot to be placed there. It could not slt ores or purify them. The six spots around the main one were for the mana stones, there they would be lted into a liquid state, and then through small passages, they would flow into the middle.

All of this would be done by specific runes that he would need to runecraft into this thick slab. Under the middle part, there would be an opening that would be closed at first. With a crank on the side, it would be opened by the blacksmith and the concoction would flow into the middle part of the slter.

Inside the bonding process of the tal and mana stone would take place. After going through so of the recipes that he received this process could take up to several days.

This thing would burn through mana, the heat needed to be constant, and the magical runes needed to change the structure of the mana stones and tals they bonded to.

When it was done the smoldering magical tal could be removed from the bottom. Under the slter, he could place so kind of mold. This could take the shape of a regular ingot or sothing else. Thanks to this he could even use one of the older bronze weapon forging techniques.

Most of the ti he would go with the ingot route as he had to deliver these tals to the other blacksmiths in the city. They would be the ones forging the weapons and then returning them to him for the finishing touches. He would of course save so for his own crafting sessions but he wanted to focus his talents on other things.

Crafting old-styled armor and weapons was not the only way to go for a runesmith. There were far too many magical devices that he could create. One of those were the golems that he had an itch to create.

The runic books that Lucille had lent him were gone now but he had morized all the parts that were important. With their help, he was finally able to move forward with his golem program. Now the only thing was to build a basic body for his golem and start working the bugs out.

‘I need to get that crystal ball and contact Lucille soon...’

While he and Bernir were assembling the new slter together he thought back to the promise that he made with Robert. He was required to stay in contact, his brother would probably show up or go back on his vow if he ignored this request.

“There...”

Bernir wiped so sweat from his brow after hamring the last rivet into place. The prototype slter was now in place and it only needed the runes to go with it. Due to it being made from separate parts it was better to leave the runecrafting for later.

The slter was made from very thick specialized magical steel. It also cost Roland a small fortune to buy the resources. The all-around shape wasn’t hard to make but it would take so ti till he got his money back.

“This sure is a strange-looking slter...”

“Well, it doesn’t require any exhaust vents, the runes take care of everything.”

Bernir just chuckled as he had already given up on ever understanding how magic and runes worked. Soon he headed outside and Roland was left here alone. Soon the slow process of runesmithing was started which he needed a whole week to finish.

The slter was extrely thick and the rune traces needed to be deeply ingrained into the tallic structure. If they were too thin, the slter would not be able to function for too long. It would require so maintenance later on but with this, it would be able to last for a few good years.

Roland took a step back to behold his newest creation. The whole thing looked like a boiler on four legs with a very thick bowl on the top. Two circular cranks one closer to the bowl part and one below the middle part were also there.

Everything was made from dark-looking thick tal that was not very shiny. In the back, there was one thick black cable that was attached to the bottom of this slter. Roland was inspired by his old-world electrical sockets which he now used with all of his runic tools.

After connecting everything he could see the runic structures lighting up. Now it was ti to test this thing out.

‘Let’s try half load for now...’

He placed three tier 1 mana stones on one side of the upper bowl area. In the middle, he placed so scrap deep steel that could be lted down into the new magical ingots.

Just as previously stated the slter lit up, there were several runes on the side that started glowing brightly as the process was started. The mana stones started lting and the deep steel in the middle as well.

Then the first problem arose as the mana stones were liquefying at a faster pace than the tal in the middle. At first, he thought that this was fine but as the tal continued to lt he could see it.

With the help of his mana sense and his Runesmithing eyes, he could see the mana dissipating into the surroundings.

‘If the mana stones lt before the tal, there will be a big loss to the quality...’

Roland stopped the process as he could tell that if he continued he would only receive a lower product. His mistake was using cheap lesser mana stones along with higher graded deep steel which had a higher lting point.

This problem could be easily alleviated by either placing the mana stones in later or adding a little runic program. Thanks to his current knowledge, injecting a tir into the slter’s structure was not a problem. He was actually planning on doing this after going through so tests.

His biggest advantage against other runesmiths was his high degree of customization. While others stuck to the premade runes to a fault he always looked into them and tried to make them more efficient.

The problem here was that the slter was really large and thick. It would take too much mana to change the runic program each ti he found another magical tal.

That’s why he ca up with another solution, plates or cartridges. These would look like cards with runes on them. Each one would have a pre-programd tir for every tal that he tests.

Roland didn’t know much about other runesmiths and their techniques but he had a theory with this slter. Probably the runesmith or their assistant would need to place the mana stones at the right places and at the right ti.

This would an that either he or Bernir would need to watch over this process and lose hours of their ti if he did it the old way. With these cards, his assistant could just slide it in and go on his rry way. The cards would be small and easy to alter as well.

‘First I’ll need to test out these recipes that I have.’

The recipes that he was given gave him the timing of when he needed to place the mana stones on the slter. The ti that was required for the tal to stay inside the middle part was also included. So of them required him to get other magical ingredients to sprinkle before the first crank was turned.

‘This will take a while to figure out...’

Roland brought out a notebook to take so notes. It was ti to test the limitations of this slter. Later in the day Roland finally turned the lower crank and looked at the hot red tal in liquid form pouring down into his ingot tray.

“Hm...”

There it was, his first creation. Every tal that went through this process had the ‘Aether’ prefix. It seed that the process was successful but how well this compared to an item imbued with mana stones the old-fashioned way only ti would tell.

His analyzing skill was not yet fully matured. If it was he could tell at a glance how high the mana saturation of this tal was. The only thing he could go off was the ‘lesser’ part.

“I guess this will be enough...”

It was ti for a test and for that he called Bernir over. It was not required for them to make nice-looking weapons like a dagger from this, a paddle would do.

Reminiscent of his old days, he had Bernir hamr a similar deep steel ingot into a paddle wand shape. He did the sa to the new aetheric ingot. After making sure that the two were of the sa weight and shape he began the runecrafting process.

When it was finished he was left with almost two identical wands with the wind arrow spell on them. The only difference was that one of the wants had a spot for a mana stone on it while the other didn’t.

Back on the outside, it was ti to give these two a test. First would be the mana usage which would be easily tested.

Roland took aim into the sky and fired off a couple of wind arrows. The birds were spooked by the green bolts of energy and quickly scattered to the sides.

Soon he discovered that the mana usage was around the sa. Surprisingly the paddle with the mana stone lost out by about 10%.

‘The aether wand is probably better saturated, if I placed another mana stone on the other one it would equal out.’

Roland was sure that the reason for this was the mana stone in question. If he added another one or a tier 2 one then the mana stone wand would probably edge the aether one out.

It seed that even with this technological improvent there was still use for the old models. While the Aether tals could be further improved and didn’t suffer from the exposed gems that could be destroyed. The mana stone variant could be customized a lot more.

The ingot that was made also took on the qualities of the mana stones. If he combined mana stones from fire-based monsters it would gain bonuses towards that elent. It was locked to this bonus and would actually work worse on opposite elents like ice.

This was not really much of a drawback as most weapons stuck to one the. There weren’t that many crazy people like him that infused their weapons with multiple elental spells.

The armor that he had made would mostly be considered a failed item as no one besides him could use it. He was soone who lacked any elental affinities but made up for it with a large pool of mana.

Thus he didn’t really care if the mana stones contradicted with each other too much. There was always a base quality to each tier of mana stone which should be the sa with these aether tals.

‘Great, now cos the boring part...’

With the first test being successful it was ti to go through it again. He would need to start mixing tals, mana stones, and everything else to create the best ratios. He already felt bad about selling a lesser aether item but not like he had enough knowledge and resources to get a higher tier just yet.

Starting off with lesser mana stones and slowly building up to the common ones. On these, he would probably remain for quite so ti. This slter was a tier 2 item, it was only made from common runes and he would need to study it.

Then in ti, he hoped to achieve a breakthrough. When he was younger he managed to create common grade runes even when he only had a tier 1 class. This gave him hopes for doing the sa here.

The ti continued to pass and Roland continued experinting with the new slter and his favorite alloy, deep steel. With ti he was managing to improve on the lesser type of aether deep steel.

This would also be his main experintation resource. With a lot of scrap tal in his workshop, this slter was the perfect tool to produce recycled parts.

While the young Runesmith was working hard on improving himself other forces were working in the background. At a certain place, a group of short bearded n was discussing so business.

“So, how bad do ye think it be?”

“Ah am nae sure, this human Runesmith is not known to n’ this ...”

There was a large wooden table next to these four dwarves. On it there were a couple of bladed weapons, so looked to have mana stone attachnts.

“Bamur, you’re th’ magic expert ‘ere, whit do ye think?”

“Ah am an Enchantsmith not a Runesmith, Dunan. How should ah know!”

“Just look at it, you old fart!”

The two dwarves started fighting and finally, the one nad Bamur picked up a longsword. It was a runic item with a characteristic blue mana stone attached to the bottom of the hilt.

“Th’ craftsmanship is amateur at best, mah apprentice could mak’ a better sword than this.”

“We know that, how aboot th’ runes?”

“Th’ runes on th’ other hand, th’ mana flow... it’s a very unfitting combination. Whit kind of idiot would put such pristine runecraft on a failed product lik’ this?”

The old man shook his head while placing the weapon on the side. It was clear that this group of dwarves was discussing the new competition that ca to the city.

“Aye, that’s what ah feared, we might have to ask for so help from th’ union but for now we shall wait.”