Orlean began to work her magic, and we watched the process in which she creates.
She had a large industrial furnace, a step up from what her setup was before. The current furnace was enchanted to have a constant feed of electricity that keeps the fuel within fed. I could sense how the enchantments additionally increased, directed, and retained the heat. Perhaps not the prettiest, but it was undoubtedly strong, sturdy, and reliable.
I was quite suitably impressed, but she found it lacking. "A pre-Level 100 piece of shit," she had called it, and I wryly laughed. So Orlean endeavored to create a new one, with help from the old.
The innovation, the work ethic, and most of all, the eccentricity. It made me happy to see how little Orlean had changed, despite now looking like a particularly pretty goblin.
I laughed, and paid no heed to my companions' bemused looks.
Orlean strolled over to the basement, only to come out with various sheets of metal of differing materials. They all melted within her furnace, and the woman controlled the molten metal, forcing the structure to compress to the limit in order to create a stronger alloy. It was apparently a lot of trouble controlling metal in a more liquid state, for her power over it wanes, but if it was already in her control prior then it's easier to maintain that connection.
Soon, she had the ingots that she needed, plenty of bars made from the generous contributions of the society that has fallen. She shaped them into large rings that were very thick, and then she enchanted them all in tandem. Symbols drawn by flowing yet precise lines of circuitry, connected to each other seamlessly by the very same technique. What she ended up with was a cylinder made of several disconnected parts, and yet I could tell by the magic they exuded that they were all one whole object.
The rings floated, near each other but never quite touching. Orlean moved back to her basement, before coming back up to dump a shell in front of us. It looked barely like something that would come with a beetle and Orlean beamed.
"Yep! This is what I'm making your gear with. Normal metals are fine, and I can even refine them, but the parts of creatures that are somewhat metallic and therefore fall under my control?"
She grinned. "Those are the absolute best!"
Orlean got back to work right after saying that. I was amazed when I saw how her new furnace functioned. It was unlike anything else I've ever seen, in the world that came before. It truly was magical, in a way that was obvious.
A piece of what Orlean wished to smelt floated into the center of the rings. A few strands of electricity connected to the rough piece, before the lightning surged wildly and suddenly. It was so bright, I could hardly see what was happening. The metal was being heated to unreasonable degrees by the voltage, and then simultaneously shaped by the very powers of the woman at the center of it all.
Orlean showed us, what a blacksmith of the new world truly looked like. To shape metal into the desired shaped, using not the hammer and anvil, but by the very force that now permeates the land.
It was beautiful.
What she made with it… was less so.
"Here you go jackal! One metallic saddle!"
It made no fucking sense. It already came enchanted. A saddle wasn't supposed to be metal in the first place, it should be made of leather or something. It's meant to be flexible, not this!
And yet, the logical complaints in my mind quickly died down, as Orlean waved the accursed thing around. It was made of flowing pieces of metal, like one of those bracelets that looked like a centipede. The seat was like many layers of protective chainmail, with a clear space for a properly soft seat to be installed, should one wish for it.
The enchantments were very difficult to weave into such a disjointed piece of work, from what she said, and I hated that I was actually somewhat impressed. Flaze happily nodded along when Orlean explained the effects. From keeping the rider firmly on my back, almost as if stuck there, to even allowing them to stand on the contraption, and maintain their position better during a fight.
Flaze had absolutely no complaints, while I had them in droves.
No. I put my foot down, unwilling to be treated like a common steed, no matter how much it'd make sense from a purely rational perspective.
Flaze just laughed at my reaction, fully expecting it. Orlean on the other hand, came prepared.
She leaned close to me, and whispered into my ear.
"The functions of this saddle are controlled by you. One of them is to shock whoever rides atop your back."
I looked back at her, mouth agape. I saw Orlean's smug look, and I cursed to myself.
Godsdammit. She makes an excellent point!
Fine. I grumbled, to Flaze's surprise. I could already see the evil machinations forming in her tiny brain. But we shall see who laughs in the end!
What followed was more crafting, and even though I did give in for the saddle, I vehemently refused the harness and the reins, both made with chains and other similar builds. Orlean had already crafted them, and she tried to make googly eyes at me with her anime eyes, speaking in length about how much effort she'd put into it, but that was her own damn fault.
Also, it didn't take her nearly as long to create, and the end product didn't seem quite as powerful. The materials she used were also that of the more commonplace alloy, instead of requiring any of her valuable monster parts.
I'm pretty sure that she didn't really put in as much effort into the thing. Only enough to justify the joke. In which case, I applaud the hustle, but I will not be playing along.
Orlean did eventually make something I actually like, however, in the form of some enchanted horseshoes. Their effect was to let me take a step in the air by doing something to the atmospheric pressure using the lightning magic afforded by the enchantments. They take time to charge, even if I feed it my own mana, which it still has to process before it becomes usable, so it wasn't something that could be used to fly, but it remains immensely useful. And so very cool.
The next things she crafted were for Flaze. Her armors couldn't be enchanted by Orlean, they already had great effects of their own. The craftswoman expressed a desire to be able to make that at some point, and she expressed a reasonable level of certainty that working with certain materials should allow for it.
"Every part of a corpse is technically usable anyway. I mean, it's not like they disappear right? Sure, you can't just farm a regenerator as a lot of their power is tied to their main body and only when they truly die would it persist within, but by that same token as long as they die then the remains should all be usable in most cases. Oh and by the way, the rarities you get with an Identify are not absolute. I'm convinced that they were just a general guide afforded to us to get us started, same with how the System or magic itself taught me runes. If a material feels strong, then it is! The general guide has been somewhat frequently wrong in its assessments, in my experience. So just follow your gut. Take whatever you can, or whatever makes most sense, if you don't have the storage to just take it all."
Storage. The word gave me an idea, and I wrote out a message in fire. It was very hard to read as always.
Orlean laughed. "No, I cannot make a bag of holding, nor a dimensional storage. I think I have witnessed space magic from some bird above at one point, so it might be possible, but to reverse engineer space magic when my abilities mainly lie in lightning and metal, with my enchantments more heavily aligned to the former… Definitely someday! But certainly not today."
"Anyway!" She clapped her hands twice, to bring us back on topic. "I was talking about Flaze's gear. Yes, I cannot alter them directly, but they also manifest with the accessories attached, yes? So I'll make you some accessories!"
The woman set out to do just that, after testing it with stuff she'd made prior, to make sure that her hypothesis was correct. Once that was over and confirmed, Orlean ended up making something for each of Flaze's forms.
The Knight Form got an anklet that allowed her to root herself in place to nearly any solid surface using magnetism and other such magics. The Samurai form also got anklets, but in the opposite direction, allowing Flaze to repel herself against any surface for a stronger charge. The third and final form, the Squire, got some charms, a hilt, and a scabbard for her wooden sword because it did not have one prior. The charms and the hilt increased the power of her shockwave attack, even adding in a lightning component. Meanwhile the scabbard would allow the wooden sword a degree of sharpness so long as she keeps the weapon there for a time, before drawing it in a swift and fast slash.
In all, it was a week or so well spent, and while we delayed a little, the opportunity to just hang out and unwind was one I found to be sorely needed. The three of us just chatted about a lot of worthless stuff while Orlean worked, and the hum of her crafting eventually became a soothing background noise that aided me in my sleep.
We also did other things during that time, Orlean didn't just work constantly. No need to violate any regulations, and if burning yourself out due to overwork was not disallowed, then I shall be the one to enforce it, no matter that all the nations of the world had long collapsed. Probably.
Flaze laughed and it made me so happy to see her forget her worries for a time. We managed to goof around just like old times, as if the apocalypse never happened.
We went to the top floor of the house, holding Orlean's big compound battery. Its static was so strong, you could feel the shock in the air vividly, and we danced to the tune of pain.
We had a little concert, for Orlean had made an electric guitar that was far more amazing, and even more dangerous than any instrument constructed prior to the apocalypse. She knew how to play it, albeit not at the level of a professional, but still enough to make goosebumps rise from every hair on our body. Though that might have just been the static. Or perhaps the genuine lightning that the device vomited out from time to time, when Orlean was truly on a role with her playing.
It was most definitely nothing short of the most enchanting performance I have ever seen.
We even held a mini performance on the second floor, where the bedrooms used to be. Orlean cleared some space and made a stage, and while the crucial audience was missing, the addition of magic truly made the story come to life. I had such fun painting the floor with my Trailblazer, cackling the irony of using my fireball as an angelic sun. Flaze played the role of many characters, able to switch between them so seamlessly, only for it to be revealed in the end that they were the same person all along! And Orlean, she flew like a majestic beast of metal, with props that could only be dreamed of before. From wings that moved so fluidly, to a beak that chirped and spoke in the haunting tune of a Demon Lord. She made those, just for that single performance, that was seen by no one but the three of us.
Life was good.
One of the most fun to write. And perhaps the only truly happy scene in the series so far, as all the other ones have been rather morbid despite all the laughs and giggles. Uknow, what with the uhh... corpse fights where they throw pieces of corpses at each other...?
God I'm fucked up. No wonder my patreon was first flagged for 18+ and I had to appeal.
Anyway! Tell me your thoughts! Let me consume them! Also curious to hear your thoughts on Orlean's way crafting. I found it to be very cool. Cheers!
Orlean began to work her magic, and we watched the process in which she creates.
She had a large industrial furnace, a step up from what her setup was before. The current furnace was enchanted to have a constant feed of electricity that keeps the fuel within fed. I could sense how the enchantments additionally increased, directed, and retained the heat. Perhaps not the prettiest, but it was undoubtedly strong, sturdy, and reliable.
I was quite suitably impressed, but she found it lacking. "A pre-Level 100 piece of shit," she had called it, and I wryly laughed. So Orlean endeavored to create a new one, with help from the old.
The innovation, the work ethic, and most of all, the eccentricity. It made me happy to see how little Orlean had changed, despite now looking like a particularly pretty goblin.
I laughed, and paid no heed to my companions' bemused looks.
Orlean strolled over to the basement, only to come out with various sheets of metal of differing materials. They all melted within her furnace, and the woman controlled the molten metal, forcing the structure to compress to the limit in order to create a stronger alloy. It was apparently a lot of trouble controlling metal in a more liquid state, for her power over it wanes, but if it was already in her control prior then it's easier to maintain that connection.
Soon, she had the ingots that she needed, plenty of bars made from the generous contributions of the society that has fallen. She shaped them into large rings that were very thick, and then she enchanted them all in tandem. Symbols drawn by flowing yet precise lines of circuitry, connected to each other seamlessly by the very same technique. What she ended up with was a cylinder made of several disconnected parts, and yet I could tell by the magic they exuded that they were all one whole object.
The rings floated, near each other but never quite touching. Orlean moved back to her basement, before coming back up to dump a shell in front of us. It looked barely like something that would come with a beetle and Orlean beamed.
"Yep! This is what I'm making your gear with. Normal metals are fine, and I can even refine them, but the parts of creatures that are somewhat metallic and therefore fall under my control?"
She grinned. "Those are the absolute best!"
Orlean got back to work right after saying that. I was amazed when I saw how her new furnace functioned. It was unlike anything else I've ever seen, in the world that came before. It truly was magical, in a way that was obvious.
A piece of what Orlean wished to smelt floated into the center of the rings. A few strands of electricity connected to the rough piece, before the lightning surged wildly and suddenly. It was so bright, I could hardly see what was happening. The metal was being heated to unreasonable degrees by the voltage, and then simultaneously shaped by the very powers of the woman at the center of it all.
Orlean showed us, what a blacksmith of the new world truly looked like. To shape metal into the desired shaped, using not the hammer and anvil, but by the very force that now permeates the land.
It was beautiful.
What she made with it… was less so.
"Here you go jackal! One metallic saddle!"
It made no fucking sense. It already came enchanted. A saddle wasn't supposed to be metal in the first place, it should be made of leather or something. It's meant to be flexible, not this!
And yet, the logical complaints in my mind quickly died down, as Orlean waved the accursed thing around. It was made of flowing pieces of metal, like one of those bracelets that looked like a centipede. The seat was like many layers of protective chainmail, with a clear space for a properly soft seat to be installed, should one wish for it.
The enchantments were very difficult to weave into such a disjointed piece of work, from what she said, and I hated that I was actually somewhat impressed. Flaze happily nodded along when Orlean explained the effects. From keeping the rider firmly on my back, almost as if stuck there, to even allowing them to stand on the contraption, and maintain their position better during a fight.
Flaze had absolutely no complaints, while I had them in droves.
No. I put my foot down, unwilling to be treated like a common steed, no matter how much it'd make sense from a purely rational perspective.
Flaze just laughed at my reaction, fully expecting it. Orlean on the other hand, came prepared.
She leaned close to me, and whispered into my ear.
"The functions of this saddle are controlled by you. One of them is to shock whoever rides atop your back."
I looked back at her, mouth agape. I saw Orlean's smug look, and I cursed to myself.
Godsdammit. She makes an excellent point!
Fine. I grumbled, to Flaze's surprise. I could already see the evil machinations forming in her tiny brain. But we shall see who laughs in the end!
What followed was more crafting, and even though I did give in for the saddle, I vehemently refused the harness and the reins, both made with chains and other similar builds. Orlean had already crafted them, and she tried to make googly eyes at me with her anime eyes, speaking in length about how much effort she'd put into it, but that was her own damn fault.
Also, it didn't take her nearly as long to create, and the end product didn't seem quite as powerful. The materials she used were also that of the more commonplace alloy, instead of requiring any of her valuable monster parts.
I'm pretty sure that she didn't really put in as much effort into the thing. Only enough to justify the joke. In which case, I applaud the hustle, but I will not be playing along.
Orlean did eventually make something I actually like, however, in the form of some enchanted horseshoes. Their effect was to let me take a step in the air by doing something to the atmospheric pressure using the lightning magic afforded by the enchantments. They take time to charge, even if I feed it my own mana, which it still has to process before it becomes usable, so it wasn't something that could be used to fly, but it remains immensely useful. And so very cool.
The next things she crafted were for Flaze. Her armors couldn't be enchanted by Orlean, they already had great effects of their own. The craftswoman expressed a desire to be able to make that at some point, and she expressed a reasonable level of certainty that working with certain materials should allow for it.
"Every part of a corpse is technically usable anyway. I mean, it's not like they disappear right? Sure, you can't just farm a regenerator as a lot of their power is tied to their main body and only when they truly die would it persist within, but by that same token as long as they die then the remains should all be usable in most cases. Oh and by the way, the rarities you get with an Identify are not absolute. I'm convinced that they were just a general guide afforded to us to get us started, same with how the System or magic itself taught me runes. If a material feels strong, then it is! The general guide has been somewhat frequently wrong in its assessments, in my experience. So just follow your gut. Take whatever you can, or whatever makes most sense, if you don't have the storage to just take it all."
Storage. The word gave me an idea, and I wrote out a message in fire. It was very hard to read as always.
Orlean laughed. "No, I cannot make a bag of holding, nor a dimensional storage. I think I have witnessed space magic from some bird above at one point, so it might be possible, but to reverse engineer space magic when my abilities mainly lie in lightning and metal, with my enchantments more heavily aligned to the former… Definitely someday! But certainly not today."
"Anyway!" She clapped her hands twice, to bring us back on topic. "I was talking about Flaze's gear. Yes, I cannot alter them directly, but they also manifest with the accessories attached, yes? So I'll make you some accessories!"
The woman set out to do just that, after testing it with stuff she'd made prior, to make sure that her hypothesis was correct. Once that was over and confirmed, Orlean ended up making something for each of Flaze's forms.
The Knight Form got an anklet that allowed her to root herself in place to nearly any solid surface using magnetism and other such magics. The Samurai form also got anklets, but in the opposite direction, allowing Flaze to repel herself against any surface for a stronger charge. The third and final form, the Squire, got some charms, a hilt, and a scabbard for her wooden sword because it did not have one prior. The charms and the hilt increased the power of her shockwave attack, even adding in a lightning component. Meanwhile the scabbard would allow the wooden sword a degree of sharpness so long as she keeps the weapon there for a time, before drawing it in a swift and fast slash.
In all, it was a week or so well spent, and while we delayed a little, the opportunity to just hang out and unwind was one I found to be sorely needed. The three of us just chatted about a lot of worthless stuff while Orlean worked, and the hum of her crafting eventually became a soothing background noise that aided me in my sleep.
We also did other things during that time, Orlean didn't just work constantly. No need to violate any regulations, and if burning yourself out due to overwork was not disallowed, then I shall be the one to enforce it, no matter that all the nations of the world had long collapsed. Probably.
Flaze laughed and it made me so happy to see her forget her worries for a time. We managed to goof around just like old times, as if the apocalypse never happened.
We went to the top floor of the house, holding Orlean's big compound battery. Its static was so strong, you could feel the shock in the air vividly, and we danced to the tune of pain.
We had a little concert, for Orlean had made an electric guitar that was far more amazing, and even more dangerous than any instrument constructed prior to the apocalypse. She knew how to play it, albeit not at the level of a professional, but still enough to make goosebumps rise from every hair on our body. Though that might have just been the static. Or perhaps the genuine lightning that the device vomited out from time to time, when Orlean was truly on a role with her playing.
It was most definitely nothing short of the most enchanting performance I have ever seen.
We even held a mini performance on the second floor, where the bedrooms used to be. Orlean cleared some space and made a stage, and while the crucial audience was missing, the addition of magic truly made the story come to life. I had such fun painting the floor with my Trailblazer, cackling the irony of using my fireball as an angelic sun. Flaze played the role of many characters, able to switch between them so seamlessly, only for it to be revealed in the end that they were the same person all along! And Orlean, she flew like a majestic beast of metal, with props that could only be dreamed of before. From wings that moved so fluidly, to a beak that chirped and spoke in the haunting tune of a Demon Lord. She made those, just for that single performance, that was seen by no one but the three of us.
Life was good.
One of the most fun to write. And perhaps the only truly happy scene in the series so far, as all the other ones have been rather morbid despite all the laughs and giggles. Uknow, what with the uhh... corpse fights where they throw pieces of corpses at each other...?
God I'm fucked up. No wonder my patreon was first flagged for 18+ and I had to appeal.
Anyway! Tell me your thoughts! Let me consume them! Also curious to hear your thoughts on Orlean's way crafting. I found it to be very cool. Cheers!
