Anyway, continuing on...
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Blitukus stopped his laughter, and let a sigh out of his nose. He thought about it... such action would send waves through the fabric of time... he didn't know what this would cause, but he could always try... still... He had soon before fought without regard to self-preservation, and now self-preservation became of an utmost importance, not for the sake of himself, but for the sake of his mother. He sighed and mumbled, "I am so sorry mother... if you can hear me, please forgive my mistakes..." He sat, motionless, allowing a moment of silence to pass.
I shall redeem myself... nobody dare threaten my mother... the demon will not prevail.
He had all that he needed to summon the powers of technology, and possibly the powers of magic. It was time to make it so. He stood, and picked up his helm. Then, he cleared the broken glass from the eyepiece. He used the glass furnace to make a replacement from some sand, then replaced it. He then put the helm back on, and continued refining the adamantine into wafers. It was a very long task... and as he carried the adamantine, a metal perfect in every way, the most beautiful and valuable as well as the most useful, he found that with each lump of raw adamantine he hauled, his guilt and regret was renewed. As the night wore on, stacks of adamantine were created. Blitukus thought... the ancients... if he somehow couldn't save his mother by traveling back to her death and preventing it... maybe the ancients would have a solution. Maybe the solution would lay at those coordinates he had received from the heavens above? He stopped for a drink, then continued. These were only to be resorted to if he couldn't save his mother... He continued further, stopping to eat... more mushrooms had grown elsewhere. He looked out the front door... the door was impeding the growth of the tower cap under it, but a large tower cap had grown to block the entrance to the tunnel. He would take care of it when he was finished. He continued, finding himself getting swifter and swifter at refining the adamantine until finally his workshops begun to become cluttered with the metal. A workshop cluttered with adamantine... every dwarven metalsmiths dream, but a grim reminder of mistakes and duty to Blitukus. He had spent all night and into the morning, and finally, he had enough adamantine for whatever he would possibly need... luckily, each individual device wouldn't need much. A single thread was as good as any wire for carrying current. He set down his tools, took the suit off, then went back to bed, his heart still heavy from the 'deal' he had made... He allowed himself to fall asleep after sketching designs in his books and reviewing what he knew. That day he had an odd dream. He found himself standing in a pitch black space, yet he was fully lit. He was standing upon a glass-like transparent surface, that seemed to extend infinitely in all directions. Slowly, a dark sphere descended from the sky... it was half his size. It landed before him, and rested. It was of a similar construct to the amulet, although obviously different in function... it was ancient cat make. Blitukus rolled the dark sphere around, looking at the crystals embedded within its machine-made surface. There was a gap in the structure, and Blitukus peered inside. Within, he saw the fabric of space... being processed. Blitukus didn't understand what the device was doing with the fabric of space... but it revealed something at the scale of fundamental particles that he had not observed at first... it was what the gods sought from the universe. It was pure energy... so enormously dense that even the smallest spaces could yield enough to power the most vast civilizations for millenia... it was the treasure that the dragon of the universe guarded... so much energy, it was unspeakably large, a number that extended with countless digits into the realms of the most enormous scales. This device... it somehow worked with such unspeakable forces. Blitukus felt curious about its function. He summoned powers from within himself, channeling it into the device... it began to glow. It soon began to radiate out energy, light shining through the cracks with blinding intensity. The crystals glowed with similar intensity, until, all of a sudden, it stopped, the entire device darkening. For a moment, Blitukus felt disappointed, then suddenly... all seemed to shatter. The pitch black around him all at once turned a blinding white, a roar of an explosion not coming from the sphere, but surrounding him. It was as if the energy had all been released, resulting in an explosion that permeated every point in space throughout every point in time. All faded to white, then Blitukus woke up. He was unsure of what the dream meant... was it an actual device... or was it symbolic of something? Was it something he would cause or something he was meant to prevent?
Blitukus got up, and felt as if he were standing within a charged space... he realized the true scale of what the gods were fighting over. Within this one universe lay so much energy.... the god that controlled it might very well become the only god throughout all universes... Blitukus sighed. Was this energy a natural phenomena, or was it meant for something else? He walked over to the river, and drank. Such things were the subject of powers beyond his grasp... but there was one power that lay within his future grasp, and soon would be under his control.
2 gigawatts... a lightning bolt unleashed within a room. Exciting... yet intimidating. For the sake of my mothers soul I must proceed with the utmost care.
He had adamantine to carry the final burst, but in order to generate and store the energy, he needed bronze, magnetite, and silver... lots of silver. First, he needed to clear some excess flora. He had steel left over from making his suit. He carved a stone axe, then forged the remaining steel into the tip of the blade. He then took the axe, and used it to fell the tower cap blocking the tunnel, then proceeded to fell a nearby tower cap that had sprung up on the shore of the cave river. Blitukus had produced his own wood at the very top of the ice cap, where none would expect any lumber to arise.
It would become the pearlash that would be used to create crystal glass. Blitukus felt his guilt dwindle... his deal, it wasn't a mistake. It was his only choice. And now, he was better off because of it.
Beforehand, I had a chance of meeting my mother... now I will contact my mother again, for I must, for her sake as well as mine... chance no longer has anything to do with that.
He moved the 'wood' into his halls to prevent it from being washed away. He then exchanged the axe for the pickaxe. Each dynamo would take 3 stacks of silver bars to assemble, he needed 5 dynamos. Each sheet for the capacitor would need 2 stacks of silver bars... he needed 4 sheets. 2 stacks of silver bars could be used to form all of the wire that would be needed to string it all together. The total was 25 stacks of silver bars... a greedy merchants fantasy, but Blitukus held no consideration to monetary value. He dug out 25 lumps of galena, burrowing quite a distance into the vein. He then took the galena back, and started smelting it down, pouring the lead and the silver bars. He thought about it... what use would he have for all of the lead? Then, it occurred to him... the lead was vital to his life. The charged particle cannon would cast off many particles that had yet to be named, particles with extreme energy that would wreak havoc with Blitukus' fundamental structure as these projectile particles flew through him. Lead was known to absorb such damaging rays, and could be used as a shield to keep the most hazardously radiant portions of the device contained. He had made over 20 stacks of bars, but decided to tend to his hunger and thirst.
It is now summer.
When he was done eating and drinking, he continued, smelting down the rest of the galena. The smelter was very cluttered, the most cluttered it had ever been when he had finished. That being done, he now needed a magma forge... a magma forge the scale of which hadn't been attempted before. Luckily, this one needn't be complex at all since it was only intended to produce one thing. Blitukus thought about how he would go about it for a while... he would need a flat surface for the silver to settle upon, and it would have to have a rim, otherwise the silver would simply spill out into the magma. There could be small ducts dug through the floor beneath to allow magma to fill it... yes, that would be how he would make it. He picked a spot further down, and proceeded to dig out what he had in mind. He found his skill in mining made this a much easier task. While digging it out, he happened upon a cluster of aquamarines, and proceeded to dig it out. He then dug the channels surrounding his intended platform, then smoothed the middle, leaving a rim around the edge.
Then, he dug the small ducts into the side of the channel that would allow magma deeper in order to heat the stone 'floor'. After that, he moved the gems and rocks out of the construction area, and shut off all magma and water flow. When the magma tunnels had emptied, Blitukus breached the wall of it across from the inlet to his new magma forge. He then salvaged parts from his old experimental magma loop in order to build the inlet. As he was taking apart the inlet to the old magma loop experiment... he slipped. The floodgate holding the magma back wasn't safely removed, instead it came crashing down nearly onto Blitukus, ripping the pulleys out of the walls. This wasn't the worst of it. Since the magma hadn't been properly stopped up, the floodgate having crashed down... it spilled through the broken inlet, then spilled OUT of the broken inlet, spilling into the damaged experimental loop, flooding it... and slowly spilling out into the walkway. The magma hissed and bubbled. Blitukus stepped back as the flood expanded, and finally stood, realizing the magnitude of that one slip-up, put his hands on his head and yelled in sheer frustration and regret. There was a glooping sound. He looked... parts that had never been designed to hold back a magma flood were holding it back... for now.
It was now time to properly decommission the magma loop, and plug the inlets... accidents do happen, but that was much too close. He dug around the damaged structure, and walked to the end of the tunnel, shutting off the entire magma feed. The magma slowly cleared, and it was safe to continue. Blitukus tore down all that he needed in order to manage his new construct, and placed it, digging the inlet to his new, larger 'forge'. He uprooted an old lever, and reinstalled it to function as the new control for the new inlet. Then, he tore down the floodgates at the heart of the loop, and used them to plug the now broken old inlet. After finishing, he walked back down the tunnel and opened the magma intake once more. The magma flowed, and was stopped at the now-plugged inlet, flooding out no more. He looked at what remained of his old experiment, and sighed through his nose.
The days when that experiment was just being performed for the first time, even though those days were relatively recent, seem like a simpler and happier time. Much progress has been made, and there is still hope... but what lies within the future?
He raised his head. There was still hope, at least in his heart. He opened the water inlet and allowed the tunnel to fill with water, then opened his new inlet. He stopped for a drink himself as it filled. Then, he shut off the water, and used the muddiness of the channel and blocks remaining from the old magma loop experiment to bridge over the inlet channel. Then, he disassembled the other old bridge, and used the blocks to bridge over one segment of the channel, allowing him to cross should the channel be filled with water. He got rid of the excess debris, then opened up the magma inlet for the boiler. Steam shot out as magma chased water down the channel. He then opened the inlet to his new 'forge'... magma fried the water from the muddy channels, and seeped into the ducts, slowly making the smooth stone surface glow red with heat.
It was likely the worlds largest magma forge... and also the worlds simplest. It would get the job done, a large tool for a large undertaking. He looked into the churning magma, the force that had nearly killed him now obediently powering his machines once again. The old might decay and wither as time passed, but time also brought the arrival of the new. Progress would continue to be made. Blitukus shut off the magma inlet and allowed the magma to drain. Finally, construction was beginning... and such a large project would take a proportionally large amount of time to complete. Luckily, Blitukus had all the time in the world.
[ November 25, 2007: Message edited by: AlanL ]
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Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76147 times)