So, I guess I'll be just hoping that everything goes ok :p
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Dracha, sensing Blitukus' pain, spoke, "You can count on me to help if you need any, Blitukus." Blitukus smiled, "Thank you, Dracha. I offer the same." Dracha spoke, "I had my doubts but now those doubts are no more, you are the one in the prophecy! I was one of 15 to be entrusted with a converter artifact, the cats left them behind, and I was told to give it to the one in the prophecy should I ever meet him. It's the gift I mentioned earlier." Blitukus noticed the Amulet Dracha was wearing. Dracha took off the large amulet, and dropped it in front of Blitukus. Blitukus picked it up and looked at it. The amulet was rather light for being so large. In fact, it looked as if it weren't originally meant to be an amulet, rather a device of some sort that had been attached to a long string. The right side of the device was encased in a blue, light metal... this must be adamantine. It was a beautiful substance, lustrous beyond all of the other metals, its blue shine piercing through. Within the case was an assembly of fine crystals, so fine it almost looked like large grains of sand adhered to the surfaces. These crystals were suspended in a matrix of adamantine, a magical controller below, connected and complex beyond anything Blitukus had seen before. The crystals were all perfect, and all perfectly aligned, as if they were assembled particle by particle. the left side was equally encased but in a material that was dark and slick, a nonmetal and not shiny at all... but it seemed to have similar properties to the adamantine. Within were coils and capacitors using materials Blitukus had never seen before, suspended in a matrix of the dark substance, below it an electrical circuit of some sort, enormously complex and again seeming as if it had been assembled on the scale of fundamental particles. The control was connected to the electronics above by some kind of optical fiber, made of a similar material to the cover of the book "The Worlds Easiest Atom Smasher". In the middle of the device lay an interwoven mesh of adamantine and the dark substance, holding up a crystal that glew an electric yellow, surrounded by coils and wires. Blitukus curiously looked at the odd fusion of extreme magic and extreme technology, analyzing every part of it. Blitukus asked, "What does it do?" Dracha replied, "We've never had a use for the technological side but I guess you will if the prophecy is right. The cats said it allows for conversion between the forces of magic and the forces of technology... in theory, if someone had a large supply of technological power they could use that to wield magic regardless of the mana flux of the world."
A fusion of magic and technology... perhaps more than the sum of its parts.
Blitukus tied the string to make it suitable for him to wear, then put it on... it was rather large for him but still didn't weigh him down much. He felt a strange physical sensation in his chest when he did so, a minor sensation of astral energy draw. The crystal on the amulet glew very slightly, then Blitukus felt slightly electrically charged, until the sensations of astral energy and physical energy came to a balance. Blitukus laughed a bit, "Thanks... I don't know how to use magic but I guess I could learn eventually." Dracha said, "If you get enough power together then just experiment. Unlike what people tend to say it's pretty hard to hurt yourself unless you're doing something large scale." Blitukus nodded, then asked, "Have you received any messages?" Dracha replied, "Nutt'n yet, except static of course. Death's been doin' a great job of keeping the astral bands clean, well, except for those ruins which keep making a ton of random noise... the ruins down where Anthath Sizet used to be are quiet as solid rock though. The sounds those ruins made used to give me the shivers, but now nothin' but silence ever since 1050 on." Blitukus snickered and smiled... that was his mothers work, still standing a glorious truth. He spoke, "Thank you, my large, scaly comrade." Dracha smiled and struck a proud pose at her species being acknowledged in such a positive light.
The battle... the heat... all night and into the day. Blitukus felt exhausted. He spoke, "I need sleep. Good luck, Dracha." Dracha replied, "Same to you! I think after this is all over I'll sleep too... I hope you're long lived, I don't like being woken up. Anyway, until then I'll be around. Goodbye!" They waved at eachother, then parted. Blitukus continued up to his room, let himself fall onto his bed, and nearly immediately fell asleep. That day he slept so deeply that despite indications that he had drempt, he remembered none of it. When he woke up, he sensed no presence other than his own. He was useless to Armok now... and that meant he didn't have Armok observing him. He got up, then walked to the river and took a drink. He noticed that the amulet hadn't drained his energy any more since he first put it on, and felt his energy had restored itself as he slept. He finished, then walked back down the tunnel to retrieve his pickaxe... but as he was about to grab it, there was a slight flash and a pop sound. He felt electrical energy jump from his fingers into the metal of the pick. He immediately jumped away, and felt the amulet siphoning his astral energies to replace the electrical charge. Blitukus took off the amulet, pocketed it, then proceeded to pick up his pickaxe again. He walked back to his room, and set the amulet down on the table. It was a beautiful device... but it hadn't a use... yet. He thought about the heat problem... as temperatures grew above 150... perhaps above 200, 250... he would need an air-tight suit to keep from cooking. But, normally such a suit would only provide a temporary cooling until it also became heated, slowly cooking its inhabitant to death. The problem was air temperature... air, its temperature could be manipulated by changing its pressure and density. As any gas expanded, it cooled, but as it contracted, it heated. If the air within the suit could be circulated, compacted by a device in the back, the heat radiating away, then expanded once again as it left... heat could be, in essence, pumped out of the suit. He knew that even in the most compact and efficient design, such a suit would be heavy and cumbersome, but it was either that or slowly fry. Bronze would be far too heavy for the task... steel was the only option, but it would take a lot of it in order to, counting in other mechanisms and the waste of being inexperienced, forge the suit. He had a stack of steel bars but 7 more would be needed... it was an unreasonable amount of weight to wear, but 'luckily' only a portion of it would end up in the actual suit, and Blitukus was extraordinarily strong, especially for a kobold. He walked back down the tunnels, and began digging out the requisite material. He stopped to eat after digging out the hematite, then afterwards continued back to dig out the coal. After digging out the hematite, coal, and limestone, he started the magma forge and began smelting the hematite into molten iron. He found again he had to pour it into bars before processing the coal... why he hadn't worked this inefficiency out first seemed without a valid explanation. He made a note to start with coal first next time. He stopped for a drink as he did this. After finishing the coke processing, he melted down the iron again and turned it into pig iron.
Spring has arrived!
It was the year 1084... for once, the date seemed irrelevant. It may be the anniversary of his mothers death, but at the same time it was a day that brought him closer to meeting her again. He brought more hematite back, and began smelting the hematite, pouring new iron into pig iron. He adjusted the steel not for strength but for heat resistance. After pouring the bars, he let them solidify, but while they were still hot, held them in the smoke of a fire produced by the rest of the coke. This infused an enormous amount of carbon into the very surface of the bars, meaning the surface could hardly be called steel, and was weak, but had regular steel under it and was more resilient to heat flow. He transfered some of the fire into the glass furnace, then quickly, before it went out, gathered a small bit of sand, and made a small glass panel... it wasn't large at all, but it would do. He began forging his suit, stopping for a drink just after the river gushed through, stepping through the passed flood waters. He had been the apprentice of a metalsmith who in turn had once been the apprentice of a dwarven smith. The skills he had gained allowed him to make a well-crafted suit, even though he never worked with steel in his apprenticeship. He made the suit hinge-jointed, weaving cave spider silk into an elastic that sealed the joints air tight. The helm he made had two openings, one for each eye, each opening sealed with green glass. On the back of the suit, he mounted a small steam generator, and a small piston, driving a small air pump that sucked air out from within the suit, compressed it, and pumped it through a series of small tubes on the back, the tubes opening up, allowing the air to expand as it entered the suit again. The air would heat up as it was compressed entering the tubes, the tubes would radiate away the heat, cooling the air, the air would cool further as it expanded to re-enter the suit. It was all very heavy, but it wasn't beyond what Blitukus could wear. For the sake of safety he installed inside and outside temperature thermometers, made as small as he could manage, just under the eyepieces. Luckily, the faceplate of the helm was a bit distanced from his actual face at that point, giving the thermometers room to fit. He proceeded then to slip into his new suit... it was very difficult for him to get into it, as usually putting on such a suit would likely be done with the aid of a friend, but he managed, fitting himself into the leggings, slipping the boots on under it, and sealing the elastic together. He then wore the plating for his upper body, sealed it shut with the leggings, and then equipped the gauntlets to protect his hands. He then wore the helmet, sealed it, but left a vent on the mouth open... since it was otherwise air tight, he would have a limited amount of air supply when it was fully sealed. He found it difficult to move, his balance offset by the weight on his back, but he picked up his pickaxe and used the front of his pick in order to, at least to a small degree, balance out the weight. He slowly made his way down the tunnel, his metal boots thumping along the stone floors, and clanking over the steel bridge as he crossed the magma. He watched the outside temperature escalate... the inside temperature following slowly. When he neared the sealed pit, the external temperature read 125... it jumped to 135 just as he neared it. As he passed it it fell again to 125. Blitukus walked to the end of the tunnel, took his pickaxe up, and swung at the wall. He found the clumsy and heavy suit made his movements slow but at the same time gave his swing much more momentum. It balanced out, allowing him to dig at the same speed. After digging only one space of rock out, the temperature jumped from 128 to 138... he was near another pit. He felt the walls, and dug through the coolest one, traveling to the right. The temperature dropped... but soon after, it spiked again. He backed up a space, and then dug deeper into the mountain, avoiding what was likely a pit. As he dug down, the temperature gradually increased. Blitukus switched on his suits cooling system, and it clicked repeatedly and shook slightly. He felt air being sucked out from the suit, a blast of cool air replacing it. The temperature within the suit began to decrease. It worked... it would stave off the heat, for now. The temperature jumped from 134 to 144... another pit ahead. He dug to the right again... he didn't strike a pit, but it escalated further to 154. He was between two pits. He let out a nervous sigh and continued. He would've been made demon food 3 times over if it weren't for that thermometer... he thanked the universe that it didn't fail him. The temperature dropped... he felt the side facing towards the center of the mountain was the cool one. He turned and dug deeper into the mountain. The temperature dropped again... he was free from those pits. As he dug further, the temperature spiked again, the heat coming from deep and to the right. He dug to the left, then continued downward into the mountain. The temperature fell again... but the base temperature continued to rise steadily. 150... 170... 190... The internal temperature rose above 110 as the cooling system started to find itself overwhelmed. Just before the temperature outside of his suit reached the boiling point of water...
The Metal of Metals!
You have found it!
You have struck adamantine! Praise the miners!
Of course, there was only one miner... Blitukus looked right into it, the beautiful ore... it was every dwarfs fantasy, and he had found it... but was it just a puny pocket, or was it enough to provide him with the materials for his time machine? He dug along the sides of it, and couldn't help but find himself in awe of the ores beauty... it was no wonder the dwarves loved it so much. He dug, and dug... he found that the face of the adamantine vein was concave... there was likely miles of the stuff, enough for a time machine and a lifetimes worth extra. He walked back to the corner, and pressed himself against the wall. He took in all that his senses brought to him.
He looked deep into the adamantine... it was a marvelous but blatantly artificial construct. It was actually, in essence, silver, although magical bonds, placed at the level of fundamental particles, channeled all energies effortlessly and held the silver particles spaced in a perfect structure, holding them together and giving the entire structure immense strength. The mana contained within the bonds is what gave the metal its beautiful lustrousness and blue tint, but, it all was dependent on mana flux... if mana flux dropped too low, then the bonds would fail and it would all turn to silver. Silver wires were conductive but this was infinitely more so. Something was amiss though... he sensed a sinister aura, vileness oozing from behind the wall... whatever it was, he felt confident it would not keep him from reaching his mother... he disregarded the feeling. He took a break to let it sink in, and ate, returning as quick as possible afterwards. He took his pickaxe and dug into the adamantine. Soon though, the wall collapsed and tumbled downward into the distance, and he found himself peering into sheer darkness, evil radiating from within.
A miner has broken through to an expansive cave system.
A sense of gloom seemed to erupt within... Blitukus did his best to shrug it off and continued, mining out the adamantine. He dug out quite a bit... then decided to retire to sleep, laughing a bit on the way back. He shut off his suit and took it off, letting himself immediately get to sleep on his bed. That day, he had a nightmare. In essence, his nightmare depicted his being mercilessly torn apart then eaten by a demon that would crawl from those dark caves. He was startled and a bit shaken by the nightmare, but he shrugged it off, put his suit back on, and got back to work. He dug, and dug, and dug, laughing occasionally as he did so. He stopped for a drink, thanks to the heat, then continued. He dug until he was was out of breath, the scorching air stinging at his mouth and lungs. He looked around... dozens of lumps of raw adamantine lay on the ground. It was time to go to work extracting it. He had read that adamantine, when unraveled, turned to fiber that could be woven into clothes or wafers, which could in turn be used to assemble basically anything. He eagerly picked up a lump of raw adamantine and hauled it back to his workshops. He set it down, and slowly began to pick the adamantine out of the rock, the centuries-old strands unraveling themselves. It was very slow but he found himself unaffected by the tedium. He then brought the strands over to the smelter, and gradually smelted the strands together, forming a stack of solid wafers. As Blitukus stepped away to get more adamantine, he slowed... there was a deep laugh, and a flash of magical energy from down the tunnel... a sense of dread slowly crept into him. He peeked out into the tunnels, and saw nothing. He sensed a great avatar of evil... right behind him. He felt his fur stand on end. Something tapped his shoulder. He jumped and turned around, and found himself looking right into the eyes of a female kobold, fur blood red, eyes glowing as hot as the surface of the sun, heart as dark as coal-covered obsidian. He backed away, but before he could move much at all, she punched him in the face, breaking an eyepiece on his suit and knocking him to the floor. She seemed without pain despite having hit a steel surface. Blitukus grunted in pain... luckily the neck joint of his suit saved him from a neck injury. He tried to sit up, but before he could do so, she ripped his helm off, grabbed him by the neck, pulled him up, then pinned him against the wall. There was nothing he could do to break free.
The demoness spoke, "I just love it when they squirm!... Hi." Blitukus gagged, "Hello....." Despite the fact that she was likely about to mercilessly devour him... he couldn't help but notice that despite her demonhood, her looks were very appealing. She licked her lips, forced him to the ground, then started to slowly undo his leggings, "I'm gunna have fun eating your soul!" Blitukus stopped her, then replied, somewhat defiantly, "You are beautiful, but you are not my type, demon." She tilted her head slightly, got up, grabbed a nearby metal bar, then returned. She let the metal bar fall to the palm of her other hand repeatedly, then smiled sadistically, "We can do it that way too, I just get to have a different kind of fun, that's all." She drew back to hit him in the knee with it, but he interrupted, "Halt! I, erm, I have an offer to make." She let the metal bar drop to the ground, then grinned wickedly, "Go ahead then, talk!" Blitukus spoke, "You know my rich, flavorful soul will not fall easily..." She replied, "Hmmhmmmhmm, pure hearts are tasty..." Blitukus continued, "I declare that you may consume my soul and the soul of any other of your choice upon my death, if you spare me now and allow me to mine the adamantine." She spoke, "Tasty... and more tasty... in exchange for the walls of my prison..." A scroll seemed to materialize, and she held it in front of Blitukus, only showing the line to sign on, the rest rolled up. Blitukus reached out to grab it, but she pulled it away, speaking, "Sign first!" Blitukus spoke, "I have nothing with which to sign it, so I must take it and-" She swiped at his hand, gashing it, causing it to bleed. She spoke, "There you go! Sign." Blitukus grunted, mumbled a bit in protest, but complied, signing his name in his own blood at the bottom of the scorched scroll. The scroll disappeared. She grabbed Blitukus' head, and pressed her face against his, speaking, "Congratulations, you get to live and you get to mine the damn stuff, but when you die, I get to eat your soul, and about the other soul of my choice, I choose your mothers soul." In that moment, Blitukus' heart sank to the depths of regret and sadness. She continued, "I'll eat hers first just so I can make you watch, and then I'll eat yours." She threw him against the wall, and then stepped back, spreading her wings. She winked at him, grinning, "It was a pleasure doing business with you." She then walked out, running up the tunnels and taking flight into the world, free after a millennium of imprisonment. Blitukus sensed the voice of Armok in the distance, "What? Another one broke loose?... Send one of my more adventurous slaves to do away with her... no, you fool, the one with the <<adamantine>>!" Blitukus sat against the wall, feeling the deepest depths of regret... now he had doomed himself and his mother... He felt himself begin to cry, but that very moment, another thought entered his head. He felt the regret vanish. He smiled, grinned, then laughed. Indeed, it was the demon who was swindled, for Blitukus' quest, in stopping his mothers death, would stop his journey to the arctic, and stop his entire quest from starting in the first place. By giving him rights to the adamantine, the demon gave him the power to render the contract null and void by eliminating it from the continuum of time, forcing it from existence. All he had to do was stop that one event... and all would be well. The gods and demons would have nothing on him. He just had to make sure he didn't die before then... or else.
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I'm going to run a test tomorrow to see if my adamantine hacking strategy is working or not. If not, no major damage, I just need to find out what works.
Author
Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76143 times)