Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.529 Smithing on HomeBase

It was a few days later when we met up with the mining/refining/smithing crew of Smorog, but this time, it was on HomeBase. I’d sent Lawrence to taxi them, while I was cleaning up the Workshop with Wilma. 

It is really clean even normally, Wilma just wanted to clean it extra well because her teacher was visiting.

After our visitors arrived, a bit of a larger group than I expected, I welcomed them and began showing them around.

Other than the three from yesterday, we also had four students. One miner learning from Aron, two refiners under Maris and one smith under Claus.

All of them were more or less mind blown, because who would expect a floating citadel. It is just the normal reaction to visiting HomeBase for the first time.

Maris was especially interested in the floating magic circles, commenting on how they looked like the magic of the Sage’s tower. I told her that while I wasn’t trying to copy them, since I got the idea from Magical Citadel of Endymion which was used as the base for the HomeBase citadel, it did end up looking the same.

As I was showing them around, we naturally walked near the swordsmanship lesson going on for both the dhampir students, as well as the adventurers, so before they had the time to ask, I explained to the dwarves our goal of teaching people. 

I told them how it began with dhampirs, teaching them how to use the lost True Blood Magic so the blood curse could be handled in the future. But then we also taught them in other ways, mainly how to defend themselves and their villages.

Claus then asked if we teach smithing or any other part of the weapon making process. The answer to that is kind of, but not really. We do have Rahman, a dhampir from the very first set of students, who stayed on HomeBase to learn blacksmithing and how to make both blood iron and vampiric steel weapons. But he is currently the only one.

They asked why, to which I answered that I just don’t have a lot of monsters focused on smithing and weapons making, so I never prioritized it. Besides, I don’t advertise HomeBase as some sort of school. I probably will, eventually, but not currently. So I wouldn’t just pick up students from out of nowhere.

“But if you want to send a few students my way, I can accommodate them. I know the three of you can’t take on all the students that want to study under you.” I offered, to which the dwarves nodded. 

Though admittedly, HomeBase is more of a forge than a refinery. We don’t even have a mine, so no miners for us. Sure I can make raw ore with the True Core or we can purchase ore and refine it ourselves, but we can’t just make a mine. 

… Well, I suppose with the B.E.S. and Gradius ships, we could just find an ore rich location, and with the help of Gaia, making a mine wouldn’t take too long. But at the same time, I don’t even know if I have any monsters specialized in mining. Except maybe something like Drillroid and Jumbo Drill, but they are Machine-type, so I’m not sure if they can teach what the dwarves want to learn.

Spoiler

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Once we got to the workshop, the experienced dwarves began looking over our facilities, while the juniors just gawked at the amount of star titanium on our material shelf. And that is only like 10% of the stuff, since I keep the rest in Storage.

It was Aron who finally asked about it. “Where do you secure all this star titanium from? Even we can barely get it, but at these quantities.”

“I have a source. I can show you later.” I answered. I don’t mind showing them Quasar and his ability to turn titanium into star titanium.

And I don’t even have to tell that I make titanium with the True Core, as it is somewhat available on the market. Sure it isn’t as common as iron or copper or bronze, but it is just a bit more rare than high quality steel. But since steel is both heavier (more difficult to transport), and slightly harder when tempered, steel is actually a bit more expensive than titanium.

As for star titanium, thanks to Wilma’s title, we know that there is no artificially made star titanium. All of it is natural, dug up from the ground and refined. But the problem is, there is a tiny amount of it in regular titanium ore, something like 1 part per 1,000. And you need to separate that star titanium from the regular stuff, or the two will mix in the refining process.

And apparently the only country that knows how to do that well is the Empire, and because of that, the Empire has basically a monopoly on the stuff.

Well, they wouldn’t if I sold my stuff, but I don’t feel like selling my star titanium until the thief problem is dealt with. And besides, I don’t really want to crash the market and cause problems with the Empire. I don’t want to start a war or something. 

“I noticed you have some orichalcum. Where did you get it?” Maris asked.

“Oh, we have Athena make some for us from time to time. The ingredients aren’t that difficult to come by. Actually, Wilma can make some, but it comes out either poor or low quality, so the stuff Athena makes is preferred.”

“... I hate how you normalize the use of the superior spirits, but then again, I cannot complain if they don’t.”

“Well, if we use them too much, they will complain, but as long as there is a balance of fun and work, they are actually quite agreeable. You do realize that beings that live basically forever get bored. So entertain them and they will put in some work.”

“Speaking from experience.” Wilma said teasingly.

“Yeah. Janina and the Factory. Name a more iconic pair.”

“You and cheating?” Wilma answered.

“Brian.” Claus said, his voice raising as if he was trying to control his anger. “Didn’t I talk about this!?”

“Not the kind of cheating you are thinking of!” Wilma quickly corrected.

“Yeah. Besides, if I was cheating, it would be on Lua. She was my first, so she would have priority if I was trying to ‘not cheat’.” I pointed out.

“Okay, but where do you make the orichalcum? I don’t see a refining forge, let alone a foundry.” Maris asked.

“I can show you in a bit. But we don’t use a foundry, as we don’t do it during the refining process. We do it separately with proper metals. Don’t know which is easier, but our way does seem to work.”

“Bet with that Improvement skill it is better your way. You can use it every step of the way, right?” Aron confirmed.

“Yeah, pretty much. As long as the item is sufficiently different, I can use it again. But it can't be used on finished items, only things Storage considers 'materials'.” 

After the inspection of the Workshop itself finished, we quickly visited the showcase room, since it had some cool weapons that were a bit too powerful for me to feel comfortable selling.

It had some pieces the dwarves recognized, like the flaming sword I bought after the weapons competition, but a lot of the stuff were prototypes or other experimental weapons Wilma and Karl had made.

The dwarves were especially interested in the few weapons that had skills. I quickly told them how they were made, to which they were horrified to hear that I summoned demons. I then explained to them that I learned how to manipulate miasma, and since miasma is what the demons want, I could condense it into magic stones and use them to barter with the demons.

They still seemed a bit on guard, but I promised them I was acting safely. 

We then moved to the mana spring. It was still our go-to way of making orichalcum. I told them how I originally designed it to act as a tool for improving your mana circuits, which is required for Advanced Mana Control.

I then told them about how Athena revealed to us not only how to make orichalcum, but also the mix of materials needed for it. 

Which naturally brought up the blade of Space and Time, or as it is known nowadays, Errelitea. 

Claus already knew of the sword, but the other two didn’t and asked to see it, so I showed them the weapon. 

As I explained everything it can do, their eyes got wider and wider to the point it became comical. And that is despite the fact that I didn’t tell them about Errelitea’s ability to cut open dimensional barriers.

I mean, just absolute penetration is amazing. The strength boosts are super specific, but for someone who has both Space and Time Magic, they are amazing. And the ability to cast spells through a sword, while not unheard of, is not a common trait either.

We then headed outside, where I summoned Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon to turn some titanium into star titanium.

Yes. Any of the four LV.12 Quasar variants can do it, I just use whichever I like. The one I use most often is Cosmic Quasar Dragon, because I can summon him without having to Synchro summon him. He is the only one of the Quasar variants with the summoning condition being ‘Must first be Synchro Summoned with the above materials’, instead of something like ‘Must be Synchro Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways’. So he is just most convenient for general use.

The dwarves weren’t quite sure how to take the fact that I just summoned a star dragon, a star dragon that can turn titanium into star titanium at that, but they didn’t comment on it.

Maybe they were just blown away and lacked the words to comment?

After the show, we had a break for lunch. Then we headed back to the workshop. We still had a vampiric steel ingot we wanted to turn into a weapon.

And in the few days since we made the ingot, I decided what weapon we’d make. Well, Wilma and Claus will make it, I’ll be assisting with True Blood Magic.

We were making a whip. Because I don’t have a metal whip, other than my Dark Chains, and vampiric steel will be perfect for a whip.

I told them as much, and while Claus wasn’t sure it would work, Wilma was all ready to get to it.

With two skilled smiths working at it, making a whip didn’t take long at all. And it came out so nice. 

I honestly was a bit afraid it would come out stiff and rigid, but we managed to make something that actually controlled like a whip made of leather, despite the fact that it was steel. Just vampiric steel at work, I suppose.

It then came back for the dwarves to head back to Smorog, and this time, Wilma was taking them. So I said goodbye before heading to my office. I needed to check up on my management work, mainly if there was any.

Then I’ll head to one of the practice rooms and train with my new whip for a bit. Always good to have different weapon options, especially since a whip is a lot less lethal than a sword.

Though admittedly, if I whip someone with full power, I’ll probably still kill them because of my stats. Where is the ‘false swipe’ skill when you need one?