Now that we have the bare minimum of defensive structures in place I can review my personal skills and get started on forging these new minerals we have discovered. I can't wait to finally feel the heat of a forge on my skin.
"Skills!"
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Racial Skills:
Ether Manipulation - Fire: S Rank
Ether Manipulation - Earth: S Rank
Mineral understanding: S Rank
Dark vision: A Rank
Miner's Instinct: A Rank
Smith's Instinct: S Rank
Dignity of the High Dwarf: S Rank
Alcohol Tolerance: S Rank
Job Skills:
Dungeon Interface System: S Rank
Dungeon Teleport: A Rank
Create Dungeon: S Rank
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Okay, wow, I see a lot of S ranks here. I feel like between my stats and these skills I might actually be 'overpowered' by the standards of this world. We will have to see after we meet humanity, they should have books or information on the races I can compare myself against. So, time to break down the skills I don't understand at first glance. First up, I'll tap on Dignity of the High Dwarf, I'll just shorten this to Dignity from now on.
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Dignity of the High Dwarf: All dwarves, no matter their status, will obey the High Dwarf without question. Other races with a lower Charm constitution will be overawed by the Dignity of the High Dwarf, making them more likely to do as the High Dwarf says.
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Okay, seems a little bit much, I will have to be careful with how I phrase things around other races. Maybe I should just have a steward speak for me like the Kings in stories do? And it seems to be a passive effect, I hope I can turn it off for drinking parties. Next up, Dungeon Teleport.
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Dungeon Teleport: Allows the registered Master of a dungeon to teleport freely within its territory as long as the destination is free of objects and the Master has the Ether necessary for casting. Ether cost varies by straight line distance between the current and target location.
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Another useful skill. I will have to do some testing to get a grasp on how much Ether it costs per kilometer, given that this mountain is massive I suspect I will have to make this a daily use skill eventually just to avoid walking an entire day to get around. And finally, Create Dungeon, I have my suspicions on what this skill does but better to make sure instead of assuming on something like this. The rest I can safely assume do exactly what their name implies, but this one has wiggle room.
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Create Dungeon: Allows for the creation of new dungeons anywhere in the world that does not already contain a dungeon within 50 square kilometers, the Ether cost for use varies by terrain and race chosen for the dungeon.
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So, I can indeed make more dungeons. It might be hard given this dungeon has 35,000 Ether, I could only make a dungeon with 5,000 Ether. And that is assuming all of the Ether I spend goes to the core and not to modifying nature, I suspect some will be lost to give the dungeon its starting territory as well. I might not be able to test this as much as I would like, but I might be able to use it to bargain with the other races, or even as a trump card. Be nice and I will give you a dungeon with infinite re-spawning resources, be rude and I will use the dungeon to attack your towns and villages with endless waves of golems. Hopefully, I can make more than just dwarves with Spawn Life, a dungeon with no monsters to hunt sounds rather boring.
"Sire, we have completed the forge you ordered us to build near the volcano's caldera. It awaits your use!"
I was roused from my thoughts by this report from one of the builder golems I had summoned recently. Not that long ago I finally managed to increase my territory enough to discover the volcano's caldera. I ordered the miners to dig straight there so the builders could begin building the massive forges that dwarves will be known for in this world along the 5-kilometer circumference of this lake of lava. It looks like the first forge is done, time to go test my dwarven metal! Haha, I wonder if I should also make dwarves known for using metal puns?
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I can see the heat waves all around me, but it feels like a warm breeze on a summer day. Even though I am standing not 3 feet from a boiling lake of lava I do not feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. In fact, this may be the most comfortable I have felt since arriving in this world! Before me lays a massive lake of molten rock and noxious gases, in the distance I can make out my mining crew slowly digging out the earth around the lake. Eventually, we shall have a massive stretch of land 1/2 a kilometer deep all around the outside of this lake, and it will be filled entirely with metal refineries and forges fueled by the intense heat of the lava that we will extract from the lake.
Hopefully, we can also extract some rare minerals from the cooled lava after we have used its heat in our furnaces. I plan to dump the lava and slag from the refineries back into the lake to once again become liquid rock. That way we don't have to store it and we don't have to worry about accidentally draining the entire lake over decades. I have seen enough examples of over-extraction on earth to know that taking without 'replanting' is dangerous and reckless. Anyway, enough with my thoughts, it is time to smith the first dwarven item and I know exactly what I shall make.
I take up the compressed stone hammer that the builders prepared for me, it is rather heavy even for a dwarf like myself, probably about 50 pounds? I suspect I would have struggled to even lift this with one hand if this was my original body. Strangely, once the hammer is in my hand I am overcome with the feeling that this hammer has been part my hand for my whole life. Must be my Smith's Instinct, this should allow me to wield the hammer to forge even the most careful of details in any item!
Finally done getting acquainted with my new hammer, I walk to the smallest pile of metal ore we have. This is the rarest mineral we have mined yet and I suspect it is the rarest in the whole mountain. My Mineral Understanding and Smith's Instinct skills have told me this is the best metal for what I will be forging. I toss roughly 10 pounds of the material into the refinery furnace and call forth my Ether to lift a sphere of boiling lava into the heating tank. With all the materials in place, I use my Ether to float the minerals in the middle of the furnace and operate the bellows to push the heated air from the lava chamber into the furnace.
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After several hours of work and a few breaks to replace the lava within the tank I have finally completed 2 ingots, 4 pounds each, of this metal. With a perfect ratio of impurities to increase its strength and a golden pink hue that shimmers across the smooth ingot surface. I shall now give this metal its name, one that carries our dwarven pride as only our race of fire and earth could possibly smith this extraordinary metal. Orichalcum, the godly metal, shall be the name of this metal. Forged by the strongest and most adept of the dwarven people.
Even after hours of refining this metal I still feel as fit as a horse, perhaps High Dwarves are unable to feel fatigued? I can sleep, but no amount of physical activity brings out the feeling that I should sleep or rest. Once I have spawned some normal dwarves we will see if it's me or the dwarven race that can escape fatigue. Anyway, time to craft this metal into the first set of dwarven items, since I got more metal out of the original 10 pounds of ore than I expected I will be able to craft both items I have been wanting.
I pick up the first ingot and using my Ether once again to retrieve some lava I set to work heating and pounding the metal into shape. Slowly but surely half of the ingot begins to flatten and then curve into a flat ring. After several hours of hammering I have completed the basic shape for a circlet with half of the first ingot, next I shall add the details. I take a small amount of leftover metal from this ingot and work on producing a set of metal chisels, with Smith's Instinct I can tell exactly how to use the chisels on the same material without bending or breaking them.
Several hours later, I hold the completed circlet crown in my hands. It is comprised of a wide and thick band of metal to rest against the skull. Complete with intricate carvings of right-angle shapes, similar to what would be found in Celtic cultures on earth. And upon the forehead of the crown, a majestic rising sun sits predominantly above the circlet band. The only thing missing is a gem to rest within the recess I prepared in the sun carving. I shall prepare the gems I will need after I forge the final piece.
Even more time has passed forging this item than it took to craft my crown. The hunter teams have returned with several bodies of forest game, I shall handle that next. But right now I must put the finishing touches on this item, a sword fit for the king of the craftsmen people. I slowly work down the single fuller running the majority of the blade's two-foot length, carving the same pattern that rests along the crown's band. I have already completed the same carvings on the pommel, cross and rain guards. I even left room for gems in the center of both sides of the pommel and the rain guard. I already ordered one of my scouts to skin the most powerful of the creatures they hunted and begin tanning its hide to make a sheath. Turns out the strongest thing they hunted was a bear with 6 limbs, odd.
Finally, a crown and sword fit for a king! The final step is to make the sheath and the gems, fortunately, my Smith's Instinct can help me form the gems I need. I navigate to the area of the lava lake that looks the most promising and extract a large amount of lava into the air above, slowly the impurities that would render a crystal muddy are released to drop back into the lake below as the rest are kept for coloring the resulting gem and then separated and compressed. In a matter of minutes I have applied the amount of pressure that takes place over decades to form several amber and bright red colored diamonds.
Using my control over fire and minerals, I flash melt the rear of each gem along with the metal I am pressing them into in order to fuse them together. The results are breathtaking, several amber colored gems now dot the band of my crown with a single amber and blood-red gem affixed within the sun rising above the rest. The sword is just as beautiful, but several times more lethal, than the crown. With amber gems fitted into both sides of the pommel and a row of three bright amber and red gems placed along both sides of the cross and rain guards.
I place the crown upon my head, the inside now lined with bug-bear leather. And strap the completed sword to my left hip, now held in a carved bug-bear sheath and the grip wrapped with boar leather. It is time to honor these animals by absorbing their bodies into the dungeon and using them to bring my first dwarven companions to life!