I strolled on my way to the alchemy huts for the morning. Should I be calling them labs instead? It's more or less what it is, just a bit primitive. That's basically what they are, just lacking the glasswork and the sterility is all I guess. Speaking of, really need to make alcohol and glass for these lizards. Would certainly be a step in the right direction.
Todone had gone off to spar with the lizardmen this morning. Though they're still a bit more leery of him, they at least give him respect and credit where it's due as a fellow warrior. I've even seen some of the more brazen and open-minded lizardmen cracking jokes with him. Thankfully, it seems they've helped bring him out of his shell, something I've overheard they were doing because of me. Benefit of the doubt is a funny thing once you teach the concept.
With him occupied, Yulg has decided to tail me around for the day. The poor guy is still trying to find himself, now that he's not more or less a barbarian at this point. From what few words I've been able to poke out of him, I've been able to gather that he's trying to find out what he wants to do now that there's options available. As such, he wanted to follow me around for the day, seeing as I'm making a few visits to different places in the village today.
"Now, remember what I taught you, Yulg, albinism is not some sort of curse or bad omen. It's just another aspect of life, alright? So please don't act out of sorts when we visit them," I asked the goblin, getting a quick nod out of him.
Honestly, I want to teach these lizardmen about the Punnett Square so bad, it's not even funny. There's only so much I can do though, and god forbid that I delve into microbiology. I wouldn't even know how to make a microscope… outside of maybe magic I guess? Physics, chemistry, engineering… my knowledge is patchy admittedly, but I'm only human. I only remember the bare bones basics of stuff, hopefully the others have enough brain to take off from there.
Speaking of, I can see a billowing black cloak in the distance that looks just like the one I gave Crusch. I wave to her form and… is she running? No, that's a little faster than-
"Pbfoof?!" I let out in shock, the wind leaving my body as she tackles me square in my stomach.
I fall flat on my back, with her atop me buried into my chest. Though it's a jumbled mess, I hear various jumbled 'thank you's on rapid fire from her mouth. I tap her head, catching my breath from the blow, and attempt to get her off. Unfortunately, when she readjusted to get off of me, her knee landed on my jingle bells, eliciting a high-pitched gasp.
She seemed to realize she had done something and quickly got off, gently touching my shoulder. "I-I'm so sorry, Nolan! Are you alright?!"
"My berries…" I weeped softly, clutching my prized jewels.
"Your… what?" She asked confusedly, not seeming to get the grievous pain she had just inflicted.
"Male humans… have… external genitalia…" I muttered through the tears welling in my eyes.
Her eyes became pinpricks at that, realizing exactly where she put her knee. The blush on her face changed from a subtle pink to an outright red, her scales making her look like she was never albino to begin with. She was a stuttering mess, before shaking her head and hovering a hand over me.
"{Middle Cure Wounds}!" She spoke, her hands waving over my groin.
I groaned softly in relief, pressure waving off of me at the sudden lack of pain. I get up into a sitting position, and see Yulg clutching his own in sympathy. Despite the situation, I can't help but chuckle.
"Now why on God's green earth did ya do that, kid?" I couldn't help but ask after a wheezy laugh.
She sputtered again, poking her claws against eachother in a strangely familiar action. "I-I-well I uh- that is to say I… saw your note and… wanted to thank you…"
She hid herself deep inside her new cloak, muttering and mumbling incoherently as she tugs it around her face like you could with a hoodie. I laugh weakly again, standing back up. There's still a phantom pang, but I'll manage. Dusting myself off, I tap her shoulder.
"S'no problem Lulu, now c'mon. We got work to do".
That seemed to shake her out of her own internal distraction, even if she was still lost under her hood.
"God motherfucking damn," I cursed out with a whistle, looking at the stockpile the albinos had been building up as of late. It was by no means capable of arming the entire village, but it was enough that we'd be able to forge a few more primitive tools, provided I remember my uncle's comments about steel-forging correctly. Far more than I was expecting. "Pardon my French and all, but I'm surprised you guys managed to punch all this out"
"Well, we… experimented with your technique, and noticed it worked with more than just animal blood. Fish, and even some bugs produced this, though there's other materials we've managed to gather thanks to the methods you taught us"
"For starters, I'm glad that you've actually been pushing the envelope, so much so that you've been trying new things. That is a marvelous quality for any aspiring scientist to have. Secondly, what second material?"
"Well, we tried this 'extraction' process on some sap, and…" She trailed off, lifting a bowl of what I prayed to god was what I thought it was. "We're not sure what it is, but-"
She couldn't finish her sentence as I did the dumb thing you normally didn't do with unknown chemicals, but considering what it was drawn from I was fairly confident I knew what it was, I scooped some of the brownish crystals up and put it in my mouth, getting a very satisfying taste.
"Sugar. You've made raw, unprocessed sugar. Lulu, I can't say this enough, you are the most brilliant woman I've had the pleasure of working with"
She thumped her tail, meekly squeaking at the praise. She did manage to stutter a question out, though it almost came out muttered. "U-um, w-what is this s-sugar useful f-for?"
"Culinary uses, mostly," I began. "Sugar can be used for preservation, food sweetening, and this raw sugar can even be worked with to produce molasses. That we can use to brew booze, rum to be precise. Can't say I've ever made anything other than moonshine with my gramps, but the process should still more or less be the same"
"Moonshine?" She asked.
"Powerful stuff, shit could be used as engine fuel if you wanted. At least, Gramp's special brew could. Hehe, he actually drank himself into blindness because of it… I don't think it was the moonshine itself that did the job though, he normally brewed the shit out of an old tractor radiator. Wouldn't recommend that"
"Should we not brew that then?" She asked with worry.
"Nah, even if I know the stuff ain't good for drinking, we could still use it for other things. Disinfectant, fuel should we ever make engines, pipe cleaner, floor cleaner, rat poison… er, probably not helping my case with that one. Point being, even if the stuff is absolutely toxic and you positively shouldn't drink it unless heavily diluted in my opinion, it still has its uses outside of drinking. We're definitely not making moonshine however, I've got my eyes settled on rum. Different types of booze, different proofs. Though some of the more powerful rums can go toe to toe with moonshine, we can get away with something lighter. Would taste sweeter too"
She eyed the sugar bowl in my hands curiously. "And… what is 'sweetness'?"
Yulg's eyes bulged at that, staring at the lizardgirl with surprise. I was feeling pretty shocked myself, but I guess as a primarily meat-eating species sugar usually isn't on the menu
"... Ah hell nah, nope. Moment we get this stuff out of the way, first thing we're doing is making candy"
She eyed me oddly, but nodded. "O… kay? Anyways, the other materials we've extracted…"
She brought me another bowl of granules, but this one looked different. It was a bluish green sand, smelling metallic. If I had to guess… copper? I put my fingers in the bowl, making a motion mocking inspection, as if I was trying to understand what it was. Meanwhile, I let {Insight Check} silently do its work for me.
{Cupric Dust: A copper compound, easily refined and utilizable for various purposes. This material was extracted from 'Silt'}
"... tell me, where did you extract this from exactly?" I couldn't help but ask. "The components you extracted from it, I mean"
"That's just it, it was regular river silt. For some reason, it's only silt from the river leading up into the mountains that produces it"
"Lulu… this stuff right here is one of the three necessary keys to making a lab. Not only is it useful for its antimicrobial properties, it's a great electrical conductor as well. And that's not even mentioning the uses that metals alloyed with this have. Plumbing, electricity, medical equipment, musical instruments, jewellry, and the best part is once something breaks or lives past its intended use, you can melt it down and reuse it all over again. You've found copper"
Thankfully, because my uncle at least let me work with copper in his shop, that also meant that I got lessons beat into my brain about its uses. Lulu, meanwhile, seemed to beam at my words. Her tail wagged like I've grown accustomed to, and I couldn't help but chuckle. Yulg was more or less doing his quiet thing and staring with awe.
"Honestly, I'm not sure whether we should drop this early and run down to the artisan huts to start up forging already. If it weren't for the fact that I was excited to see what else you guys have extracted, I'd say we should do just that right now"
I handed her the bowl of copper back, and she handed me a third bowl. This one was filled with a white powdery sand. I did the same thing with this, gently rubbing it as I did before.
{Silicon Sand: Usually extracted from various common minerals, this substance can be processed for many uses. This material was extracted from 'Unnamed Grass Species'}
I… what? That's an actual thing? Like, I get this is a fantasy world and all, but silicon in actual plants? What the fuck? I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and all, but I really hope I can slam the teachings of evolution in this world so we can figure how the fuck that happened.
"Um… where did you get this?" I couldn't help but ask.
"It was simply from some tall grasses growing in the water. We noticed it was different from the 'sugar' that came from the trees though," She explained.
"I see… did you happen to get any seeds by chance?"
"Well, there are some bundles that were seeding… why?"
"This… might be our key to glassblowing. I don't know the whole process behind it sadly, so I'll need to do some data gathering for this and experimentation. I know that there's a lot more to glass than 'melt and shape', but it's nice to know that we have at least a source for it for when we can. Was there anything else?"
She shook her head at that. "No, most other experiments failed to yield any fruit. I think I'm starting to grasp things better however, but until I have more experience with this art of 'Extraction' as you call it, I believe this is all we can do"
I grinned. "Honestly, this is way more than I was expecting to be able to work with. The craftsmen will definitely have their hands full. So now that we've got our main bases covered, would you mind giving me a hand with some of the copper?"
She blinked at that. "Um, I suppose… why?"
I picked up one of the bowls and poured it into a spare empty jar, clasping it shut. "I showed the craftsmen how to make a forge, this would prove a great opportunity to show them the basics of metalworking. With copper, at the very least"
Sweat beaded down from my body as I picked the crucible up with bone tongs, a wet cloth wrapped around my face to both keep me cool and let me work around the metal fumes without as much danger. I poured it into the clay molds carefully, something we'd prepared in advance. One of the molds was of a simple bar, the others were smaller bars in various shapes and sizes for different production ideas, but were more or less basically the same. It was surprisingly difficult considering my hands were wrapped in thick hide and cloth, as well as the smock hanging from my front.
"Now the fancy thing about copper is that its low melting point when compared to other metals makes it pretty neat to work with if you don't have access to say, a dedicated bellowed furnace. Thankfully, you lot made a perfect furnace, even if it takes some work with getting air fed into it"
One of the crafting lizardmen working the bellows gave me a thumbs up and a grin, simply glad to help.
The big muscled lizardwoman whose name I still haven't managed to get nodded, before opening her mouth with a question. "This copper, it's one of the weaker metals though, correct?"
I nod at that. "It's fairly malleable and loses its edge easily, but its more primitive uses still make it a tool that's a rise above bone and stone regardless. Easily recycled, easily forged, easily found. Mostly only useful for lower end tools admittedly, it's still great if you wanted to make nails for construction or even jewelry"
"Then why not just forge the iron instead?" Another lizard in the crowd asked.
"Because I've never worked with iron before. I only ever did this stuff as a bonding experience with my uncle back home. The main purpose behind this is to start you guys off and show you how metalworking works in its base principle, and what I do know is that copper is one of the easiest metals to work with"
I placed the tongs and crucible down and rolled my wrists to fight the stiff pain they were feeling from lugging that thing over with precision. I sigh, pulling the mask from my face.
"Now, normally these would take a few hours at minimum to cool down enough that we could reheat and rework the metal, but I'm going to go ahead and speed the process up. If any of you don't wanna feel chilly, I'd step back"
Aside from Muscles, they did just that. I nodded, waving my hand over the metal.
"{Frostbite}," I casted, hearing a high pitched metallic squeal as the copper rapidly cooled in their molds.
Some of the molds cracked under the rapid temperature change, but at this point the bars had already formed solid shapes as they clattered against the flat stone we were about to use as an anvil. I readjusted my protective equipment and grabbed the tongs again, using them to adjust the bars and rods. I waved to the others, indicating the coast was clear. God I love magic, letting me metalwork at breakneck pace. Huh, now that I look at it, the copper looks a lot shinier than I'd expect it to. Feeling curious, I use my {Insight Check} to get a rough grasp and make sure.
{Copper Bar (Blast Chilled): A basic, common metal, usually used in cheap tools and materials or jewelry. You would be better off using iron for most weapons if available. This Copper Bar has been infused with residual ice magic in its forging process, increasing the hardness and melting point of this material}
The hardness? Alright, not gonna lie, I'm incredibly fascinated by this now. I wonder why no one's ever used magic to forge weapons though if I get results like this? Would that affect iron, steel, or God forbid mythril and the like? I sure as hell won't be spec'ing my points into smithing, but I'll definitely be making a trip to the dwarves to share notes. They can use magic or something right?
"Good news is, what I described was basic copper, not alloys or magically enhanced copper," I began to bullshit, hoping to explain away my accidental discovery as something I already knew for longer than five seconds. "When exposed to magical manipulation, like my use of the {Frostbite} spell for example, one can alter copper to become substantially stronger and harder. This method can apply to all metals, not just copper"
Using the tongs, I pick up a bar and begin to heat its end, intent on at least seeing this project through. I nod to my bellowman, and he begins the process of heating the copper up. As he does this, I hear Muscles shuffle behind me. I look up from my heating the copper to see her staring intently at me.
"Does one need to cast a spell to infuse it with magic?" She asked, looking between myself and the forge with intent.
"Err, I'll admit I've never tried raw infusion before. I've only ever just used my ice magic and settled for that. I could… try I guess?"
She nodded at that, and… now I had to try and figure out how to do just that. Uh, is it similar to the transmutation process…?
{Notice: Insufficient levels in 'Arcane Blacksmith'! Copper bar already infused!}
Huh. So I can't exactly do that then. Shoot.
"Maybe with another copper batch though, this one's already been infused. I can't really do something that's already been done without being able to see if there'd be any similar results, y'know?"
"That is fair," She said with a nod.
I go through the process of heating the copper back up, and it reaches the point of glowing. I pull it back out, and lift my stone mallet out, working the metal.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
It's… significantly harder to mold than I'm familiar with, but not impossible. I can still work with it, it just needs a little extra force than usual. Gotta strike while the iron's hot though. Er, copper.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I reheat, and begin the process again. Eventually, I get the rough shape I've been meaning to make, and I grab a different mallet to refine its edge. After all, I'm making a copper knife. Never thought I'd actually do that, but if it's harder than regular copper then this should be good. Actually, come to think of it, if this copper is supposed to be better than regular copper… maybe we can arm the lizardmen. Use iron primarily for tools and home stuff, and the copper could be used to make armor and spearheads, depending on just how good it is. After all, the iron is dependant upon animal blood, but copper? That's entirely dependant on how much silt we can dig up, and that's far more surefire.
Having reheated and hammered it, it was now in a shape deemed 'acceptable', and perfect for sharpening now. I cast {Frostbite} on a bucket of seed oil that was prepared for quenching, and dip my knifehead in the now frosty slush with a burbling hiss. I give it a moment to settle down, before pulling the knife out. Interestingly, the blade came out green, almost teal as if it had oxidized, yet it shimmered like polished metal.
{Prerequisites met! Class 'Arcane Blacksmith' unlocked!}
I was almost too mesmerized by the blades green sheen to notice, but I shook it off. I'll have to investigate that class when I'm not teaching, or I'll get lost in thought.
"All that's left now is to sharpen the blade, and rivet it into a carved handle. Hardwood will work fine, but I find that a bone handle gives it a longer lasting and vicious look in my opinion. Purely up to the smith of course, especially considering whatever materials are on hand"
The crowd of craftsmen looked on in amazement at the knifehead, Muscles herself acknowledging it with childlike wonder. Man, I've really gotta learn her name.
"So," I began, waving over to the other cooled bars. "Who wants to help me try out new techniques?"
Nolan Potts, Human (Karma: 60 [Neutral]) [18/21 Spell slots used]
Classes: Brawler (5), Ranger (3), Druid (4), Clothier (3), Translucer (1). Total Level (16).
Spells (Druid): Frostbite, Entangle, Create or Destroy Water, Guidance, Jump, Cure Wounds, Dust Devil, Protect from Poison, Hold Person, Spike Growth, Lesser Restoration, Water Breathing, Darkvision, Sleetstorm
Spells (Ranger): Animal Friendship, Speak to Animals, Ensnaring Strike, Conjure Animals
Gear: Canvas Clothes (Sturdy, Weathered), Oak-Handled Brush-hook, Canvas Coyote Pack of Holding, Bundles of Herbs (Medicinal), Bundles of Smoked Bug Meat, Bone toolkit
Items of Note: {Humble Beginnings}
Party Members are as follows…
Member One: Todone, Son of Kodrotti, Toadman (Karma: -15 [Neutral])
Classes: Toadman Warrior (9), Brawler (8), Total Level (17).
Member Two: Crusch Lulu of the Red Eyes (Karma: 50 [Neutral])
Classes: Awakened Elder Blood Lizardman (1), Druid (6), Spirit Shaman (3), Summoner (1), Scientist (1), Total Level (12)
Member Three: Yulg (Karma: 30 [Neutral])
Classes: Goblin Marauder (1), Brawler (8), Warrior (2)
AN: Another day, another chapter. Honestly, this story's gonna be a slow burner for sure. Call it a hunch, more than anything. Sooo... sorry if you expected meeting Ainz in the next hundred chapters or something, lol.
Accountless Fan: Urp, not quite. Pulling up the 'flavor text' from chapter one just to confirm I didn't goof, and... I kinda did. But I mean, I'm not gonna go back and edit it when so many others have read up to this point so... I'm just gonna work with it and try to weave it into things as best as I can. That was my whoopsie daisy, I'd meant to say equal to half of the wielder's level, so eight data crystals for example as Nolan is at sixteen.
Dran: Yeah, as you've probably figured, I'm a lot more easy going when it comes to writing stuff out and pathing things. If I make a goof up early on (Like the data crystals, for example), then I've got no problems with wiggling things around. After all, I'm only doing this stuff for fun.
Etsize: In terms of chapters, yeah it's probably not gonna be soon. In terms of in-story timeline... eh, like six or seven years out? I'll cross that bridge when I get there