Chapter 31 - Let’s get dirty

After a good ten minutes of sobs, Vi was now a bit calmer. Ophelia had joined the group hug at some point, even covering everyone with Shi to form somewhat of an actual cocoon, while Elody just waited for it to pass, acknowledging its need without committing emotionally to it.

“I think I now understand what happened, and why. And it’s entirely my and Ophelia’s fault. For that, I deeply apologise.” Elody bent to Vivianne, nearly putting her head on the ground, Ophelia quickly following her lead, as if her leader was apologising, she should too.

“I’ll explain. An Echo Chamber is a place made to cultivate your Shi. It optimises, uh, makes this process better in multiple ways. First, the place is sealed as good as we can, so only the Wild Shi in there can interact with you. Two, it’s a mirror that serves to reflect and increase your harmony with Shi. The thing is, it also increases the emotions the user has in them. In fringe cases, one emotion crushes all the others, and balance is lost. This creates a feedback loop…” She frowned a bit. “...a bad circle that reinforces the emotion too much. Whatever the emotion, be it a good or a bad one, this is dangerous, as it could lead to you having only one emotion for a long time, because it would have destroyed all the others.”

She caught her breath before going on. “We should have known that your grief and your will to use Shi would lead to this. It was our fault to not see your emotions lucidly. The problems now…” Her mouth distorted a bit. “...are to the number of two. First, we don’t know what impact all the emotions you swallowed will have on you. As they were Deep-Blue, I think you may feel a bit sadder from now on, and for some time. Be sure to always be with someone you love, understood?”

She nodded slowly, and her twin and her best friend leaned against her to show their support. I, myself, rubbed my head on her stomach for a bit.

“The second problem is that, as long as you are entangled with those emotions, you can’t use the Echo Chamber, or you would trigger another incident. I am sorry, but you can’t cultivate your Shi…”

Now would be a good time. Said Psaï as the silence was stretching in the room.

Indeed.

Idea.

“Oh?”

“What is she telling?”

All eyes turned toward me.

“She says she has an idea.”

May help for cultivation. Focus, positive emotions for Vivianne.

Elody translated for everyone.

“Really? really really?” Exclaimed Vi, with as much hope as despair in her voice.

Maybe. I, craftsman.

“You were a craftsman?”

Too. Yes. I need wood, dense wood, and metal, good metal. Steel.

I did not ask for another, more exotic metal, as I haven’t seen the shadow of one since I was born, nor had Lebaclas.

“What will you do with it?”

Surprise? I also need a place to work. Quiet. Spacious. Ventilated.

“O-kay?” Elody seemed to not understand what I wanted to do, but I did not blame her.

Also. Need time. More than a day.

“How much time then?”

Unsure. A week, maybe. Proposition: Ophelia train Noa and Crisnée. I take Vi with me, she helps me craft.

“You want to take Vi with you while we take the two other with us?”

Yes.

“This… could work, if we find you a workshop, and the raw materials you asked for…”

“I must say…” intervened Ophelia. “...I never, ever would have thought I would, one day, talk to a four-month-old reincarnated holy craftswoman asking for a workshop and the help of a Shi-wielding Yiburis girl.” She said, matter-of-factly.

“Me neither, but the world is a strange place, and here we are.” Elody smiled again, in bewilderment this time.

***

The place was spacious, quiet and ventilated, as I had asked. It was one of the state warehouses of the city, used to store food, yet empty as we were deep into winter.

“Here. You can do anything here, I even asked for a guard to keep the entrance for you, so no one should disturb you. Just try to not burn it down, okay?” Ophelia said before nodding at us and exiting the place, letting us alone.

Most of the on-ground space was taken by high shelves devoid of anything, and the air was quite cold, as it wasn’t a living space.

The whole thing was a good 12 metres by 30, with a 6 by 6 free space in front of the double-door made to let carts come in for unloading.

It was somewhat clean and, when you looked toward the ceiling, the roof was exposed in between the wooden support beams, each a medium tree on its own right.

I was bundled up on two heavy blankets, to keep me from the biting cold, resting in Vivianne’s warm embrace, my sister sporting equally-warm clothes for the same reason.

A table had been set up in the free space, with tiny heaps of the materials I had asked for.

I tugged on Vi’s sleeve, pointing at the table, and she silently walked there, looking at me with a curious gaze.

The table was low to the ground, 80 cm from it, a good height for both of us.

They’ve been quite considerate of us haven’t they?

Indeed. They’re good people.

Yes. I like them.

Me too. It’s strange, eh? We seem to like a lot more people since our rebirth than we did before.

There’s a lot of reasons for that, no? Both logical and emotional.

Yes. But… it’s not that bad, right?

It’s not that bad. I’m just a bit afraid.

Me too. People in need of protection are starting to pile up quite a lot.

I’m not sure we’ll be able to protect everyone.

I fear so. Let’s focus on what we have right in front of us. It will help already.

Yes!

From the four piles, two were wood and the other two metal.

The wood from the first pile sported a green so deep I feared it would pierce reality itself if it was any stronger. A big log was on one side, a mass of tiny ones leaning on it. It had been debarked, and you could see gorgeous iridescent veins running over the darker body.

All in all, it was beautiful, and completely new to me.

Let’s test its property.

Ay ay captain. Psaï's mood was very good. From the two of us, she was the most enthralled by crafting and design, and she clearly showed it when the subject came in the spotlight.

It was one of the most beautiful materials I had ever seen, and clearly surpassed any wood from my time, and now we were going to gauge some base property needed for us to work with it.

A tiny log started floating.

Moisture content is 13.3%, parameter nominal.

Density is… 920.

Wow, this thing is heavy.

Yup. Thermal Conductivity is 0.15 and Ignition temperature is…

Nothing happened for two or three seconds, then smoke appeared just before being suddenly extinguished.

819 to 824 Kelvin

You’re sure?

As surprising as it is, yes.

This was nearly 200 kelvin more than normal wood.

Electrical Conductivity is… well, it’s an insulator.

Unsurprising.

Hardness is…

“POCK” The sound echoed through the room as something pierced the tiny log.

...insane. 37 KN-Ja

...No?

Yes.

...Okay. Let’s just not think about the fact that this wood is nearly two times harder than the hardest wood ever recorded, okay?

You did not need to say all that you know?

I needed it for my sanity.

Fair game.

Well, all things considered, this wood is pretty amazing. It’s quite light for its hardness.

Agree. Next…

Psaï put down the log she had used and took another tiny one, then bent it a bit.

Yield strength is around 740 Re and ultimate tensile strength is 840 Re

Okay no, this shit ain’t wood, that’s metal right?

I’m afraid the analysis shows that it is, indeed, wood.

Holy shit, what happened to the trees?

A good question we’ll answer in time. But let’s focus, please.

Okay, okay. We’ve everything, right?

Yes. It won’t be the most difficult to manufacture but not the easiest either.

But the properties are incredible.

Yes. I looked at the next heap of wood, lilac in colour. Now I’m quite hopeful for this one.

If the first one had iridescent veins, this one had dark purple stripes spiralling around the log.

Psaï quickly started making the same test that we had done on the first one.

Moisture content is 11.7%

Density… 1340.

That's a bit high.

Yes. Thermal Conductivity is 0.07 and Ignition temperature is 1047 Kelvin.

Some metal melt at this temperature.

I know. Hardness is, ah, 103 KN-Ja.

Ah. Ahahah okay this world is insane. Next.

Yield strength Is around 320 Re and ultimate tensile strength is 2300 Re

Well, at least your hopes have been met, right?

...Yes, it’s pretty exciting to see those kinds of materials, to be honest. But… I looked at the two metals, one heap way bigger than the other.

Yes. Those seem like shit. Too much impurity.

We quickly tested them and it turned out that our first impression was right. Both had too much impurity, the first one was soft iron of poor quality and the second was cast iron with a carbon content so massive and so badly distributed it was basically useless."

That is…

Annoying.

I was going to be a bit cruder but that works too I guess.

We’ll need to create a blast furnace to rework the soft iron.

But we need steel to create a mana reactor to create the blast furnace. It’s a snake biting its own tail.

Not necessary. We can use part of the soft iron to create a scrap reactor, process one batch of iron into unalloyed steel, then use it to create the final reactor for the blast furnace.

Oh. Right. You’re right, of course.

If I was on the top of my game, we wouldn’t even need a mana reactor to process the iron, but I was a bit on the short end of power for now, and my soul really needed some rest after yesterday’s stunt. Working in precision wasn’t the problem, working in intensity was.

***

There was another problem we would end up facing during this production process, and that we needed to take care of. Namely, the mana density.

Mana reactors were composed of multiple parts, one of them being the Mana Void. The Mana Void was the part that absorbed mana. Just like artificial air void, Mana Void differed in quality, and its efficiency was based on how good the void could be made.

That was also the reason why a low Mana Density was problematic, as a Mana Void worked by the difference of density between the void and the exterior.

We would need to compensate for the low density with a bigger, better void, and that cost resources, be it materials or space.

The Mana Reactor destined for the blast furnace wasn’t the problem here, it was the reactor for our current… project… that would suffer from it.

The Mana Reactor we were going to use for both the furnace and the project were classified as Bug-type, and should be around 1 cm of diameter.

After adjustment to the current mana density, this became nearly 20 cm, not very smaller than the Sparrow-type reactor, a military-grade reactor used in large calibre weapons or small power armours.

Since what we wanted to create for Vivianne was a portable device, a 20cm large tor, more than 1kg heavy, wasn’t the best, but we needed to deal with it nonetheless.

But first.

“Abu Abu!” Mealtime!