With our new dragon rings JT didn't want to stop there. Knowing the material from the dragon we had brought back wouldn't last forever I agreed. I struggled to track along with JT though as I looked over the drawings still left on his work bench to build a storage locker. Instead of putting said materials to use in weapons or magical items, we would be building a storage locker?
"Are we really building this storage locker while we have all this material? Will it really all go to waste in our delay to use it?" I ask holding his designs up to look closer.
"No." JT's short response as he picks up a different parchment with designs for a new forge furnace, "We build this first."
Still looking over his designs I ask, "what's wrong with our current locker?" To which JT measly pointed to the material list in the bottom corner. An amused laugh left my mouth as I cross examined the Wolfram on the cart with it listed on the page.
"How do you expect to melt this down?" I began to ask while JT pointed to the malevolent purple fire sack we had just brought back on the workbench not far from the Wolfram. Like a bolt of lightning my understanding struck. I looked down at the dragon ring embellishing my middle finger. Well here we go delving into madness yet again it seems.
A dragon's fire sack color is representative of its fire type, and while I have seen a few Yellow and even a White fire breathing dragon, I had only heard stories of Blues. They were the things of legends and fables from long ago, things told to children before bed for entertainment. Purple on the other hand, well I could never have imagined what was sitting on that bench. I only knew that JT believed we could use it to forge Wolfram. The only time I have ever seen Wolfram used is when it's mixed into precious metals like gold and silver and even then only the smallest amounts are usable. It's unyielding, unpredictable, and unmeltable. It's the hardest natural metal known to man.
As I donned my blacksmithing leather and grabbed my tools, JT suddenly handled me a very strange billow. As I began examining it, JT collected the remainder of our materials and placed them on the cart with the Wolfram and began to exit our forge.
Hearing "Dario!" my attention snapped back in time to chase after JT and in the confusion realized we were exiting the forge. I followed JT to the abandoned quarry when I finally asked, "Why are we down here? Did we not just leave a perfectly good forge some 2 hours ago? Why would we come down here where there is nothing!?"
"To keep it that way..." was JT's response and he began to set up a very primitive forge space. I began to use the natural granite and other stone available to build a makeshift furnace as I struggled to understand JT's meaning. I began building the pit for the charcoal, it was important to make sure it was waist high to not bend over too low while heating the metal and just deep enough to hold the right amount of fuel. We would neither waste nor come up short for heat while leaving room for the billows to blow in from the bottom. As I sat down to enjoy a drink of water and finally rest a moment JT began sealing the cracks in the furnace to further reduce losing heat while forging.
I gathered myself and prepared to begin working again noticing we hadn't brought the charcoal with us. This wasn't uncommon, we could always fell a few trees and make our own, but we didn't have an ax with us either. Surely JT wouldn't have forgotten both let a lot even just one of those things, he is too meticulous a planner where I am more the free spirit willing to take things in stride. As if reading my mind JT placed a hand on my shoulder and simply said "we won't need any, we have all that we need here," as he handed me the same strange billow from earlier that day. "That is all we need."
Madness. I swear it is all too difficult to believe, and had it come from anyone else I wouldn't have. Looking over the billow I had noticed a strange clamp and cut out earlier and as JT brought the dragon's fire sack closer I could see a different set of clamps attached to its open tubing, similar but smaller in size than the one on billow. Both had strange grooves etched in them that JT connected together sealing them tightly. I had never seen anything like it.
"How did you come up with this...locking...clamp...system? I don't even know what to call it." Scratching my head I was struggling to come to terms with what was happening before me.
"I didn't, it's ancient technology. Found this in masters library." JT handed me a scroll that mentioned these conjoining clamps and their use in, "dragon forging?" I blurted out. JT simply nodded as I kept reading. There wasn't much there but a simple diagram and the materials used. I inspected the clamps again and realized they had been made of dragon bone, specifically some of its vertebrae. Cross referencing the scroll and billow again I noticed it was also made from dragon bones and wing leather.
We were about to try dragon forging for the first time, based on a scroll written in the language we now call dwarvish, believed to be spoken by dwarves. That don't even exist! Or at least they don't anymore...
Handing the scroll back, "that still doesn't explain why there isn't fuel though. And all you brought is the Wolfram, that stuff is impossible to melt in a crucible! Speaking of, where is the crucible?"
"Don't need it. Just a sand mold," JT replied as he stepped to the side pointing at the furnace. I walked back over to see what he was talking about and noticed he had sealed every hole in the furnace I had made except for the 2 pour spouts he had fashioned, one on each side. He had turned my furnace into a crucible. Why do I even bother asking questions anymore, save the fact it's the only way I'll figure anything out. JT has it all mapped out just the need for sand molds. I looked again at the designs for this storage locker and began to lay out boards 3 meters in length, 1.5 meters in height, and 1.5 meters in width with no top or bottom.
I'm not completely stupid on my own you see, I know we didn't bring any sand so we would be making our own. Without needing to ask I began using magic to shatter chunks of the granite against each other that lay scattered around. It took very little effort to create the granite sand but about 2 hours of concentration and effort to manipulate the grains of sand into the mold. At this point I was feeling the mental strain that came with doing magic for prolonged amounts of time. JT could handle prolonged use of magic better than I could, it didn't affect him the same way, but his amount of mana was much lower than mine.
I don't really understand how that all works but JT had explained it like this to me once:
"There is a well of mana inside everyone, that learning to use it is like picking the right size of bucket and right length of rope. It also takes different amounts of strain to pull the bucket of water back to the surface where it's usable. The next thing to note is that after you've pulled the mana from the well how long it takes to refill with mana."
He explained to me that his mana lay very deep in his well but surprisingly enough anytime he dropped the bucket down to collect more it was always there. His regeneration of mana was insanely fast, almost too fast. Nothing he ever tried allowed him to grow more mana or fill his well any more than it already was. Me on the other hand, well he said my well is so full he doesn't know how it doesn't overflow. Almost as if my supply was limitless and that nothing could truly drain my mana from me. No matter how much I drew from the well it would just stay nearly full. I knew that to be only partly true.
I could freely use my mana with ease if it was a quick burst or even if it required very little concentration. My bucket was quick to find my mana and quick to draw it up, but it was slow to refill or regenerate. The longer I drew from it the more exhausted I would become and the longer I would need to recover. My body would give out long before I could ever reach the bottom of my well though, it was truly bottomless. The toll it took on my mind was too much to fathom making a dent in its depths.
With the granite sand filling the molds the sun was beginning to set, we would rest for the evening and begin again in the morning. JT had started a fire as dusk set in and the sun was being tucked into the folds of light on the edge of the earth. It was the perfect setting to eat the last of our dragon jerky and drink mulberry mead.
"You know I still don't think it will be possible to melt down that Wolfram," I noted. With a chuckle JT quibbled, "Get some sleep, busy day ahead." With that he opened one of his books and settled into his role for the evening. I on the other hand knew there was a stream nearby I could wash in as long as the sun held out a bit longer before falling asleep. Freshly washed just as the sun extinguished itself, I had to use magic again to make my way back to the quarry. JT was still reading but sprawling equations in the corner of the book he was reading using another scroll for reference. With 1 last glance in his direction I found a place to lay down, sending prayers to Lady Valnurana and soon set sail for the land of dreams to the peaceful sound of hummingbirds in the breeze.
Waking with the Sun, we set about the last of our preparations. We packed the sand tightly into the mold but left just enough wiggle room. We stepped back and using magic I compressed the sand further as I created a mold in the sand to the specifications JT read off to me from the designs. It was hard but having JT giving clear directions and guidance allowed me to focus more relaxed and envision easier and with greater precision. I made sure to carve our mark in reverse to what would be the back as a show of our craftsmanship and ownership. The finishing touch was a funnel into the sand right below the pour spout. Everything was set. Then I proceeded to build a much thinner mold on the other end of the forge for the door of the storage locker. This was also 3 meters in length and 1.5 meters in width but only half a meter in height. It was simple in design knowing I would add gold ornaments if we found success.
"Don't forget your ring," JT mumbled as he turned to fetch the dragon billow. Rings equipped, we were ready to get to work. JT handed me the billow and instructed me how to use it.
"It's just like blacksmithing. Calm yourself, focus on what you're doing, know what you are intending to do, and be determined to do it as you infuse your mana into it."
"But what am I intending to do with it?" I shot back.
"Breath fire, but make sure only in the direction of the Wolfram, try not getting the flames on anything else." Responded JT as he moved behind me. So I did my best to imagine breathing fire and the billow roared to life and I worked air in and out and purple flames had shot forth into the side of the quarry scorching the granite appearing almost melted and I cut the channel of mana from shock.
JT chuckled "good but focus." This was the hottest flame I had ever handled let alone seen. It was very evident in the way our rings ignited and shielded us in the brightest blue I'd ever seen, giving us the appearance of glowing like a wraith. Now I was invested! Maybe we could melt this Wolfram after all. I doubled down my intent and focus with plenty of determination to spare and let the flames fly free again towards the Wolfram. What I was lacking was a calm mind, I was too excited! The flames were huge engulfing the entire furnace! JT grabbed my shoulder, "Calm Dario."
I stilled my heart and calmed my mind, and as I did the flames came under more control. They were more focused to a central point on the Wolfram and as it began to glow bright red in its misshapen rock-like form it started melting. Just as it had mostly melted I stopped the dragon billow and allowed myself a break. The remainder of it melted on its own and JT began to scrape off the impurities from the surface as the melted Wolfram began pouring into the molds. The entire forge had turned onto hot obsidian glass and so did the sand molds. It was all a shimmering mess of volcanic glass. I could not believe that the Wolfram had actually melted let alone the state at which it left the forge in. None of this would be usable again, including the quarry itself. I could only hope and pray to Ebisu the god of luck that we might not find failure at the end of this trial.
JT ran some equations as he studied the progress and let me know it would take at least 1 day to cool. I still needed to rest so it was a welcomed delay. When I had recovered and the time had finally come, we took hammers and chisels to the now obsidian tombs encasing what we hoped would be used for our new storage locker. The obsidian wasn't too hard to crack and break away but its shards were sharp and left our hands bloodied in the process. Eventually freed from its resting place and surrounded by a mosaic of broken volcanic glass, rested most of a storage locker and door that needed to be assembled. I also noticed that JT had added a few extra things to the mold I created in the sand. At the top of the locker it had a small box with a slot while the sides were fashioned into smaller clamps similar to those on the dragon billow. We strained ourselves to load the box and its lid onto the cart. The Wolfram chunk had been some 78 kilograms and what we had left over was about 60 kilograms of metal. It had a similar look to steal but was much darker gray but not as dark as Iron. But it weighed significantly more than either one.
After we made it back to our forge which I was now glad we hadn't attempted to melt the material in, we began to set the pins in the door and I went to work crafting an embellished ornament to hang on it. Using copper and silver I created an outline of a dragon with our crest on it. I attached it by heading the back of the ornament just enough to be malleable and clamped it down to seal them together while the metal cooled.
JT had been creating long tubes of dragon wing leather stitched and sealed like a wine skin so as to not let liquid or air pass through it. They had iron clamps on the end to match up with the ones on the locker. He had also attached small clips to hold it in place along the inside of the locker connecting to the strange slotted box on top of the locker with shelves at various heights inside. As we finished putting it all together JT mounted 3 small blue magical stones to the inlays of the box. I was not ready for what came next. He took the remnant piece of our late master's magical sword that had been broken and slid the remaining section of its blade into the slot of the box. It was a perfect fit. The magic stones began to power the hilt of the sword and consuming ice activated. Ice began to flow through the dragon leather tubes emitting a cooling effect to the entire storage locker.
The only trouble was even with the door of the locker closed it leaked cold air. I suddenly remembered using rubber gum sap to patch holes in a boat 1 summer as boys at the lake. I ran off to grab some and when I came back JT's face lit up with what I assume was the same memory.
"Brilliant" he muttered as we began to cut it down and mold it into long strips adhering it with horse glue to the storage locker. This prevented any more air from leaking out sealing the locker shut. Pride worn with evidence on my face I smiled at my friend, "Can't leave all the ingenuity up to you now can I?" To which he could only laugh.
"Now we can store all the things we don't want to go to waste before they expire," he informed me. "The cold will prevent the decay rate of living material we harvest from monsters and things alike." This was going to be revolutionary to our forging. No more need to rush to bring back material in a rush against time to use them. We were one step closer to realizing our dream. If only we could solve the issue of money things could move much quicker.