Tabitha figured that shaping the malleable iron slime into a cauldron shape would be similar to shaping clay. In retrospect, that was incredibly wishful thinking as it was nowhere near that easy. What she needed to do was use the hammer to make dents in it and then practically knead it to smooth it out.

Joseph helped out after all, but only by moving and holding the pseudo cauldron in position as she worked it.

Hollowing out the inside came first. By hollowing the inside of the ingot out, that helped to thin the iron slime and spread it out so that she could shape up the cauldron’s walls. She wanted it to look like a proper cauldron, too, which only made matters more difficult. Turning it into a giant bowl would have been far easier. Instead, she wanted that classical, cauldron curvature to it with a set of legs for it to stand up on.

Unfortunately, the legs were going to be too hard if not impossible to get shaped. It was going to have to be a cauldron that sat on a flat bottom instead of a cauldron that sat atop four legs. While that was slightly disappointing, it wasn’t too big of a deal and definitely not enough to ruin Tabitha’s mood.

But maybe that was because of how tired she already was. It was hard to get upset about not having legs for her cauldron when she was already getting annoyed from trying to work with the iron slime.

I’m never workin’ with this again, Tabitha thought while groaning as her arms felt like they were going to fall off at any moment.

“Want some help yet?” Joseph asked.

“Nope!” Tabitha snapped back instantly. “I’m fine!”

“You don’t look fine.”

“Don’t ya have a pipe to smoke or somethin’? Go do whatever it is ya old men do when you’re all old and whatnot.”

“I have orders to work on. I can’t until you’re done.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be done when I’m done!”

Joseph grumbled and walked over to the wall where he kept his pipe and everything else needed to smoke it. “I’ll be right outside. Holler if you need me.”

“I won’t!”

He shook his head and left the stubborn Tabitha to work on her own.

A few moments later and Tabitha had an idea to make her work easier. At least, in theory.

Joseph wanted her to work the iron slime while it was hot. That required the use of heavy gloves to insulate her hands which made shaping it all the more awkward, and it also meant that the cauldron was continually losing moisture due to the heat which was making it harden over time, causing it to get even harder to shape.

Water, on the other hand, would slowly dilute the iron slime, causing it to expand and lose shape… but also get easier to work with, in theory.

Maybe it was the blacksmith in Joseph that made him think all work needed to be done with heated metal in his workshop, but Tabitha had a better idea.

Unfortunately, she did need Joseph’s help for it as she felt like she was going to break her back if she lifted the cauldron on her own. “I’m sorry for bein’ a brat! Come help me real quick!”

Joseph peeked his head back into the workshop and said, “I just lit my pipe.”

“Yeah, well, you could always relight it later.”

With a sigh, Joseph put out his pipe and came inside. “What do you need?”

“We’re takin’ this baby into the river.”

“We’re… what?”

“Ya got a river right outside. Help me carry this over to it.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Can I just tell ya to trust me on this, or do I really gotta explain myself?”

“You have to explain yourself if you want my help.”

“Well, darn. I was hopin’ I’d get to just say ‘trust me.’”

While Joseph might have jumped to the conclusion of shaping the iron slime while it was hot being the best idea, he had to admit that Tabitha’s idea sounded better and agreed to help her take the cauldron over to the river. The two lifted it together, though Joseph could have handled it by himself, and walked it out and set it down right next to the water.

As for Tabitha, she took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her pants, and stepped into the water before pulling the cauldron the rest of the way into the river.

“You’ll have to be quick,” Joseph warned. “A single storm is enough to ruin hardslime usually. Iron slime might be more durable, but you’ve got it in a river.”

“A single storm, huh?” Tabitha replied while already at work on the cauldron. “Leave some out by accident once or somethin’ to figure that out?”

“No. Back when they first discovered how useful hardslime is, there was an initiative to make roofs out of it. Slabs of hardslime overlapping with each other, promised to keep rain out better than anything else.”

“Oof. I don’t like where this is going.”

“The first storm to come by, according to the stories, diluted the slabs to the point where they and the rain ended up pouring into the houses. Even worse, they broke through the roofs underneath them. The hardslime slabs got heavier and heavier while absorbing water from the rain, broke through the roofs, and splashed everywhere.”

“Well, that’s science for ya. Trial and error.”

Joseph shrugged and relit his pipe.

Meanwhile, Tabitha was already having a far easier time with shaping the cauldron. It grew malleable to the point where she was even able to pinch and pull on some of the material along the underside of the cauldron to create four legs for it to stand on.

She really wanted her cauldron to have legs.

That aside, it became obvious fairly quickly that she wouldn’t be able to keep the cauldron in the river for too long. It was beginning to stretch a bit more than she wanted it to, but that was alright since she could always heat it up again to shrink it back down and to harden it. She just couldn’t let it get too diluted.

And once she was happy with the overall shape, she carefully lifted it up out of the water, leaving handprints on the cauldron’s underside, and pushed it onto dry ground.

“I think I’ve pulled some more muscles,” Tabitha groaned. “We’re not gettin’ this back inside like this. Even if we do, it won’t fit in the furnace.”

“Then we’ll build a pyre for it right here to heat it,” Joseph said.

“Good… good idea. I know I’ve been stubborn about doin’ it all on my own and whatnot… but would ya mind settin’ that up for me? I think I’m gonna go ahead and sit in the water for a bit here. My arms need the support.”

“It’s one thing after another with you, isn’t it?”

“Heh, sorry. And thanks.”

Joseph took his time gathering enough things to burn to heat the cauldron up to give Tabitha some extra time to rest in the water, which she definitely needed seeing as how she looked like she was about to fall asleep when Joseph called out to her. “It’s ready.”

Tabitha held a thumbs-up to him over her shoulder before forcing herself to get up and out of the river.

Plenty of sticks and tinder were gathered for the cauldron’s pyre. They were all underneath it as well as around it. It wouldn’t do as good of a job at heating it up as the indoor furnace, but it would help get it hard enough again by burning up that excess moisture absorbed into the iron slime.

Then, right before Joseph lit the tinder, Tabitha spoke up to stop him. “Hang on. What if we apply the paste first? Coat the inside with the paste while it’s softer like this. Might help it stick better? Or get a bit absorbed into it? Ya know what I’m tryin’ to say?”

“I do,” Joseph answered. “And you’re right. If we apply it now, it’ll sink into the walls a bit instead of just sticking to them. Good thinking.”

It was impossible for Tabitha not to smile when getting complimented by somebody who reminded her of her grandpa. “Thanks, old man.”

Joseph nodded and went back inside to get the resin paste.

Returning outside with it and a brush, Tabitha took both and used the brush to apply the paste all over the inside of the cauldron. She made sure not to leave a single spot uncovered so that the alchemy liquid wouldn’t have a chance to dilute the cauldron at all.

Once that was done, all that was left was to light up the pyre, which Joseph let Tabitha do, and sit back and watch.

The fire helped to dry Tabitha, too.