I could not wait to make thaumium. It was the last material I should have easy access to out of those that could upgrade my body. There might have been some legendary metals like mithril or similar but I had heard nothing about them until now. Before I could get to it, we had to finish the heating plate. While the original agreement had me making it with the knowledge I gained while working here, Riggard was so excited he could not help but make most of it himself. I had to slow him down to see what he was doing exactly. If it ever broke I did not want to have to find an artificer to fix it up for me.

In the end, it took the whole day to get it done. By the time we wanted to get started on thaumium, Riggard’s wife chased us out of the workshop. That was probably for the best because Vivi reminded me of something. A minute later I found myself once again walking through the barracks to meet up with the captain.

“Back so soon? Are you done with your device already?”, he asked instead of a greeting. He looked to be exhausted so I ignored it.

“Good evening to you as well. Not yet, no. I have something else I wanted to run by you.”

“Shoot”, he urged me to go on.

“I’m going to make thaumium. A good amount of it. It’s needed for the device we are making. The prototype looks promising. Riggard wants to watch the process.”

“Urghh”, the groan rattled the stack of papers in front of the dwarf, “Well, that’s a thaumaturge’s domain. If he’s fine with leaving town, there’s no problem with it.”

I bobbed my head.

“Right. I should tell you about the details of warp. At least some basics.”

He nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Warp is… an infliction upon someone’s soul. Certain knowledge about the deeper secrets of the world is… dangerous. Not because of the warp. Because it could be used to do serious damage. The basics of thaumaturgy barely hold any of those secrets. The same basics, that include how to make thaumium. I am confident there will be no harm coming to this town from teaching the process of how to make thaumium.”

“So. What knowledge is dangerous? And how much do you have? Should I banish you right this instant? You were confident you wouldn’t endanger the town but you don’t make a good point for yourself here.”

The dwarf looked at me through narrowed eyes, a hand holding up his forehead.

I chuckled.

“There is no danger from me. Nothing that I couldn’t control at least. I have a Beast Core. It is filled with vis, similar to a node. There is a constant connection to the Empty. More importantly, the vis in my Core is the very same that forms and denotes dangerous knowledge. I said I’m not a Guardian and that is correct. I am a keeper of secrets that are beyond this world. I can’t tell you anymore. I fear it might give you warp. Just know that my warp is not drawing enemies, but friends.”

The dwarf sat still. His eyes had closed. I sharpened my senses and immediately noticed the mana in his soul churning. The connection allowed me to see what he was doing a little. He was going through my words in every which way. Nothing would escape him. And then he would tug on the connection and it would confirm. He was using a Skill, he had to be. This was most likely what he used to discern truth from lies. And it was beautiful. It was just about as refined as my control over shadows. With his Attributes much more focused on the physical, he had to have an even higher Skill level than my shadows. Which made me wonder where the next Breakpoint was and if he had passed it already. Was I stuck at it and could not progress because of that? Maybe it was time to experiment further and try to push my shadows onwards.

After what felt like hours but could not have been more than a few minutes, the captain finally rightened up. His fingers massaged his temples and I could feel through our connection how flooded his body was with flux. It was no overcharge quite yet but he had pushed almost to the limit.

His eyes opened as his hand sunk back to the table. He looked at me. There was stress, undoubtedly from the exertion just now but also a hint of relief. His mouth drew into a small smile.

“I can’t find any lie. You truly believe what you say. I can’t find anyone to confirm it either, since contacting dwarven thaumaturges would take months to get an answer. I choose to believe you. I hope I will not regret it.”

I nodded. That was fair.

“When we have succeeded in our hunt, are you planning to stay in this town?”

His tone had taken a strange cadence. He was sounding me out, still worried my confidence was unfounded. Though, did I really know how dangerous warp was? How dangerous I was? Maybe I should meet one of those dwarven thaumaturges. They might be more reasonable than orks.

“I am not sure. I want to travel at some point but I don’t know when that will be. Maybe… you could contact a thaumaturge of your people and ask him if we can meet? I am interested in learning more about the discipline.”

The dwarf nodded.

“That is very reasonable. Thank you. Yes, I’ll send word. They are eccentric but I’m sure I can set something up. I think… yes. It would be good if you can meet the other town representatives sometime soon. Maybe right after the hunt. What do you say?”

I bobbed my head.

“That sounds reasonable. Let’s go with that. What about teaching Riggard how to make thaumium?”

“Tell him, he may learn but as soon as he poses a danger to the town he’ll be exiled.”

“Fair. Then, have a good evening.”

I pushed a bunch of shadow tendrils to the dwarf’s hand. He nearly flinched back but the calm trust I sent over the connection made him hold his movement. It took a moment for me to get a feel for his mana and, more importantly, his flux. Then I pulled and the magical waste shot into my body, a good amount immediately being absorbed and sent into the Empty by my Core. The dwarf let out a sigh of contentment. When I was done, I waved goodbye with a wing and turned to leave. The captain gave me a “Thank you” for the road and I returned to Safrah’s home to rest.

By the next morning, the excess flux was fully dissolved. My capacity had to be at least three or four times the captain’s. The magical nature of my body could get rid of something like that without any issues. Vivi decided to stay with Safrah after I told her about my discussion with the captain. She did not want to risk being thrown out of town. I honestly believed as a [Node Guardian] she would not be thrown out for that but she wanted to play it safe.

Riggard was excited and even my warning could not stop him. His wife looked more concerned but she did not say anything. She just gave me a meaningful nod which I answered in turn. This was for him. I really hoped I could do it.

We started by filling the crucible with water. It was a great medium to temporarily hold essence with the enchantments on the metal. I thought they were enchantments, at least. Maybe I should read up on how to make one of these? Activating the heating plate was easy. I stopped Riggard from using a crystal and pushed my own mana into the device instead. It was accepted without an issue thanks to the built-in ignis crystal converter. While the water was heating up, I pulled out some things from my storage. There was a pile of dirt for earth essence, two iron ingots and five mana crystals. At the sight of the crystals, Riggard blanched. They were the large ones going for five gold a pop. I have collected some more last night just for this experiment. They were attributed with water mana which should dissolve in the water afterwards. Mostly.

“You really need that many? Now I know why thaumium is so expensive.”

I nodded.

“They could sell it for cheaper but I imagine the transportation fees for people living away from everyone else are pretty high as well.”

The water was finally bubbling, the magic of the crucible helping to spread the heat.

“What now?”, Riggard asked.

“Just throw ‘em in there”, I chuckled.

And promptly proceeded to do just that. It felt weird to just chuck materials into boiling water and hoping they would do what I expected but that was the instruction in the Thaumonomicon. First, the dirt. I had the measurements down from reading through it last night. There had to be five times as much dirt as iron, going by volume. That made for a good pile but it dissolved so quickly in the boiling water, I could not even see what the magic was doing. I did notice, however, that the earth mana was bound loosely in the water. That was the big issue with this method of crafting. If one was too slow, the excess essence in the crucible would start to dissolve into flux and spread into the surrounding area. Another reason why thaumaturges could not make too much thaumium. The leftover flux needed time to dissolve or it could create some serious problems.

I proceeded to throw in the mana crystals. They dissolved just as quickly. Now came the weird step. Just throwing in the iron should, by all reasons of rationality, dissolve it into its essence as well. But with the crucible already holding the needed supply, it was supposed to automatically turn into thaumium. I hesitated for a moment before just chucking the metal in. Yes, it was a bit of money I was throwing ‘away’ but I had only paid for the iron. The crystals were pretty much free if one could fly to search for nodes.

As the iron touched the water I saw the essence shoot into the material. The magic of the crucible dissolved the metal just like I had expected but in the same instant, it was reformed, holding magic and earth essence as well. In but a moment, a purple ingot the same size as the iron I had thrown in was catapulted out of the still boiling water, taking some of the liquid with it. With a few clangs, the thaumium landed on the workshop’s floor. Riggard stared at it with the same incredulity I felt. That just happened, huh? I noticed the water that was dragged out of the cauldron did not make up for all that was missing from it. The next ingot went in, this time my senses going into overdrive. The metal dissolved, earth and magic essence shooting into it before it reformed. Some of the water had already dissipated before the ingot was shot out. Was the crucible using the boiling water as a baseline to turn material into essence? That had to be it. I barely noticed the second clang of thaumium against stone ground.

The crucible was about half full, still. It was a good thing I had some more materials with me. I threw in another set of dirt and crystals and made two more thaumium ingots. Sadly, no new insights presented themselves. With the crucible empty and my storage only holding more crystals but no dirt, I turned off the heating plate and let the metal cool off. Riggard stood behind me and held one thaumium bar in his hand. Slowly and gently his fingers traced the metal. His wonder was clear in his eyes.

“This is… I’m speechless.”

I drew the dwarf’s attention with a hoot.

“Now you know how to make it. There’s a few things to pay attention to. First, there is some remaining essence in the crucible which will turn into flux. Don’t ever make too much or you might create a void rift or a tainted node in the middle of your workshop. Second, about the material. If you can find vis crystals with earth mana, you only need half as much dirt. You can also replace the dirt with stone if you want. Five crystals, two iron ingots and five times the ingots’ volume in dirt or stone make two thaumium ingots. Now, the only thing you are missing is a crucible of your own but that’s something we should do after the hunt. This much thaumium should be enough to make a bunch of our new scrubber design to help in the fight. I’ll get some more dirt later to make thaumium for my metal form, but that’s gonna be it for now. Let’s get to work!”

The grin on Riggard’s face could not have been wider.

“Yes, let’s”, he said.