thomasdarkrose
patreon
Vol. 6 - Captivity - Chapter 26
🕑 Added 2019-12-10 20:49:11 +0000 UTCAfter fully recovering to peak condition using Serenity, Thomas climbed to his feet and stepped back out of the safe room. He went through twelve rooms at random and killed another twenty-one trolls. The experience gained would be spent later on, he didn't need to do it right that moment and was, instead, finding a 'secret' location to do his work in. Doing it inside of the saferoom would be... well safer but the pirates could also come in at any moment. He would be better off working in a cleared out hostile room and just killing the Trolls when they respawned. There was also the added bonus of being able to hear the pirates fighting against trolls on their way to his location. That would give him a warning and time to hide his work and make his escape to another room.
Once the room was cleared, he sat down and starting pouring out hundreds of mana crystals all collected from the Trolls. He was going to need a lot of them for what he was planning. He grabbed the first one and immediately used Transmutation to purify it. The process took a total of fifteen seconds and shrank the crystal to about half of its previous size. He didn't care since he had plenty of them to work with. The purified mana crystal was stored and then the next one was grabbed. Again he was doing borning and monotonous work by repeating the same thing over and over. He hated doing things this way but it was the only way. It took him over an hour and almost all of his mana to purify just three hundred mana crystals.
Since he stored the purified ones in his inventory to keep them separate from the unpurified ones, he had to dump them all out once again. A pile of glittering crystals similar to diamonds sat in front of him. If any leaders in any of the kingdoms inside of AoG saw this pile they would immediately and without regret go to war to get their hands on them. Each purified crystal was practically priceless to the locals. To Thomas, they were a disposable means to an end. If any king learned of his plans they would vomit blood in anger and frustration. What he did next would probably lead them to death by anger and frustration as he started to mercilessly grind every single one of the crystals into a fine powder.
He didn't bother using his mortar and pestle to grind the crystals, that would take far too long. Instead, he made a box using Metal magic and lined the interior of the box with all kinds of angled grinding heads. He dumped large armfuls of mana crystals into the box and had the sides rotate and spin to grind the crystals violently into powder. Grinding the crystals in this fashion was far faster and more efficient than doing it by hand. It only took a couple of minutes before the makeshift grinding box turned all three hundred mana crystals into a fine dust. The grinding edges were retracted and the box slowly shrank to compress all of the powder into one giant cube that Thomas perfectly fused together using the Mixing option of his Transmutation.
It took more mana than expected but not more than he had, to turn the powder into one single giant amalgamated mana crystal. The giant milky white crystal measured at least a meter on each side and was, without a doubt, the biggest mana crystal to have ever existed. Not that Thomas was aware of his feat. Thomas looked at the large mana crystal and smiled to himself, "Step one complete."
He left the mana crystal alone and started to pull piles of iron ingots from his inventory. The entire first phase of his crafting spree was simply purifying all of the items he planned to work with. He was going to make godly gear and even try to push past the threshold of Uncommon gear and break into the next tier. Everything he planned to make to find, rescue, and escape with Snowlily needed to be the best of the best. Iron ingots were quickly purified leaving behind only glittering silvery hunks of metal. He purified two dozen of them and left them to the side for the moment. Out of his inventory came a couple of dozen chunks of coal that he'd collected. They too were purified into pure carbon. Then the two were combined to crate Origin Steel. More than he'd ever made at a single time before.
Thomas sat down to take a breath, drink some water, and eat a snack. His mana was nearly depleted from all of the work he'd done so far and he needed to recover it. Up next he intended to perform an experiment that was a part of his purification spree. Once he finished eating and drinking he used Serenity to recover his mana at a faster rate. He'd been noticing that the higher the rank of Serenity the faster he recovered. He would need to dedicate some time to just blowing his mana and using Serenity to recover it to rank the skill up faster. The faster he could recover, the faster he could work, in the future.
Once his mana was topped up he pulled a box out of his inventory and set it down. When the lid flipped open it revealed an orange item, Firestone. This was one of the few things that Thomas was actually afraid to purify. The second being the newly discovered Mana-Touched True Silver. If he purified that silver it would probably be even more dangerous for him to be near it. The Firestone was dangerous in another way. Just a simple spark would set off the entire chunk in the box and cause an explosion of unknown size. He'd used the normal stuff enough to have a healthy respect for it. Now, he was planning to turn it into who knew what. It could be unstable and it would more than likely be far more powerful as an explosive. He had little choice though.
He carefully removed a very small portion of the Firestone and retrieved the box back into his inventory. He didn't want any accidental chain reactions. With the small piece sitting in the palm of his hand, he began to channel his mana. He worked extremely slowly as he used his Transmutation to purify the small chunk of orange. As the ability went to work the earthy matte orange color slowly transformed. Little wisps of black smoke leaked from his hand as the matte orange shifted to become more crystalline and clear. When the process was completed he held a small clear orange gem in the palm of his hand.
He studied the small orange Firestone gem very carefully, even activating his 'All Seeing Eyes' to get a different view of it. When he did he sucked in a sharp breath. The orange gem was packed to the brim with Fire mana particles. The embryos he'd pounded into metal had nothing on the sheer amount stored inside of this small piece. It practically glowed a solid red with a core of scary-looking white at the center. Dangerous. Deadly. Fucking scary. Those were the thoughts going through his mind as he looked at the gem. He quickly stopped using his eyes and gingerly carried the small scrap of Firestone into one of the hallways leading out of the room.
His plan was simple, hit the purified Firestone with a little fire. Just from waaaaaaaaaaaay the fuck over on the other side of the room as far away as he could possibly get. Thomas crouched down and made himself as small as possible. From where he was he couldn't actually see the small Firestone gem, but he knew where it was and that's what mattered. He lifted both of his hands and took a deep breath. From his left mana flowed and sent out a ball of fire toward the Firestone. As soon as he launched it he switched to the metal element and conjured up a thick metal shield with both hands to protect himself. Better safe than waking up in a graveyard.
The fireball landed in the general vicinity of the Firestone gem. The heat from the flames more than enough to ignite the flame-packed item. As soon as it did there was a deafening explosion that seemed to shake the whole dungeon. Small stones and dust rained down from the ceiling while flames bloomed where the Firestone gem had been. The blast was short but powerful and left his ears ringing. Where the Firestone gem had been there was now a smoking crater at least two meters wide and fifty centimeters deep. Given the toughness of the dungeon walls, that was one hell of an explosion. Thomas estimated that the tiny piece he'd used had been more powerful than half a dozen grenades going off at once.
As the smoke cleared he dismissed the Metal magic shield and nodded in approval. One test done. On to the next one. He pulled the firestone out again, got another piece about the same size as the first and purified it after putting away the main container. He looked at the new Firestone gem and took a deep breath. This test was about the stability of the purified Firestone. It was going to be a bit crude, but he was in a literal dungeon with nothing sophisticated and only himself and his abilities. So... he set up another shield of Metal magic and threw the Firestone gem into the hallway he'd just blown up with all the force he could muster.
The Firestone gem whipped through the air with a shriek and slammed into the wall with enough force to shatter itself and some of the stone. However, nothing else happened. The Firestone gem just disintegrated on impact and became sprinkles of powder on the ground. Thomas let out a deep sigh. Crude as it was, the test showed that the purified Firestone was still stable enough to not be set off by an impact. That was his greatest fear. If it was as unstable as something like Nitro Glycerin it would become practically useless to him. Now that he knew otherwise he had many plans for it.
His biggest concern out of the way, he threw caution to the wind and pulled the box of Firestone out once more. This time he purified the entire piece all at once. An impact was not going to set it off, he just needed to keep it far away from any heat, sparks, or fire and everything would be good. Once the Firestone was purified he stared at the large clear-orange gem sitting in the box. Frankly, it was rather beautiful. The way the patterns on a venomous snake were beautiful. If this box were to be hit with flames he knew the explosion would be devastating. He didn't know exactly how devastating but he was certain it would be very very bad for anyone anywhere near it.
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his current supplies. A giant Alamgamated Mana Crystal, two dozen ingots of Origin Steel, and a giant chunk of Firestone Gem. That's what he was going to call it, Firestone Gem. He still had more to do though. Next, he retrieved the few ingots of Icebound Platinum he had and began the purification process on them.
In the middle of purifying the first ingot, a black mist began to seep into the room and collect into two clumps. The Trolls were respawning. Thomas set down the ingot and retrieved his Spell Cannon. He calmly and efficiently executed the two Trolls immediately after they spawned and collected the mana crystals they dropped. It was merely a brief intermission and he was back to purifying the Icebound Platinum. Thankfully, interrupting the purification process on items like the ingots wouldn't cause any issues like it would with a potion.
As the ingot was purified it slowly changed from the standard silvery color of platinum and shifted to become pristine white. A white very similar to what the rapier had become, only even purer. It even gave off a literal bone-chilling cold that permeated the area around it that caused Thomas to shiver, even with his much higher Endurance attribute. He couldn't help grinning to himself. This material truly was perfect for his little pup and he couldn't wait to make some stuff for her with it.
When he finished purifying all the smelted Icebound Platinum, he retrieved the Sunshine Gold and went through the same process. While he had no intention of making a holy or 'anti-evil' weapon, the Sunshine Gold had amazingly fast and fluid mana transmission properties so he felt he could use it in other applications. When the Sunshine Gold was fully purified it turned from looking like plain unpolished gold into brightly polished gold that literally glowed with actual sunlight. Hell, it could probably be used as a grow light! Wouldn't that just piss off all the holy folks out there?
The Mana-Touched True Silver stayed where it was. Even without being purified that material could hurt him. If he purified it, it might even be able to flat-out kill him with a touch. He couldn't risk that and with the Sunshine Gold, he didn't need to even consider it for its mana transmission properties. He also left the raw black ore alone. He had no idea what it was and didn't have the necessary tools to smelt it down to find out. He couldn't risk any unknown factors in this.
He pulled out more regular materials from his inventory such as wood and leather that would be used for making the completed items with the purified materials as the basis. With everything set out in front of him in various piles, he clapped his hands together and rubbed them against each other, "Now I can get started on phase two."
Comments
Lorraine V
Then the two were combined to crate Origin Steel -> Then the two were combined to create Origin Steel
Deathburn
Thanks
