After spending nearly five hours on the design process, I had successfully designed a large-scale orichalcum forge. Rather than performing the standard, lengthy creation process, this forge would allow me to input materials and mana to produce as much orichalcum as I needed. It still had limitations, as its output was curtailed by how quickly materials could be fed into it and the finished product could be taken out, but my magical mass-production levels loved the design.
Unfortunately, while the finished product would essentially solve any supply issues before I even had a chance to encounter them, I had been wrong in my assumption that it would allow me to skip the lesser creation methods in their entirety. It was rather clear that, in order for a forge to create a reliable and steady source of orichalcum, I would need to include some of it in the forge, as it was the only metal with enough magical power to hold the enchantments, rituals, and other aspects needed to convert more. That meant creating a sizable amount the old-fashioned way.
The process of creating orichalcum started with a huge pile of gold and a smaller pile of copper. The ratio was about ten to one gold versus copper, and I would likely need well over a hundred pounds of gold. Luckily, I had prepared for this, and had gathered plenty of scrap metal for conversion. Making over ten pounds of copper was easy, but making over a hundred pounds of gold took significantly more resources, though I ultimately had plenty.
Once I had two piles of metal ingots, I ran them both through the metal infuser, sacrificing the extra metal from each batch to reach almost exactly a hundred pounds of gold and ten pounds of copper.
"That… Is a lot of gold," Olivia said, having woken up sometime while I was converting metals. "What's it for?"
"I have the plans to make a magical metal called orichalcum," I explained, stacking the gold neatly to the side. "It works incredibly well at holding powerful magic, but I have to create the first batch by hand. It's ten parts gold, one part copper, as well as a host of other processes."
"Yeah, but what do you need so much for?" She asked, watching as my golems started helping me stack the ingots of metal.
"I want to build a forge that will make it without the lengthy process," I explained, heading to the. "I unlocked something specifically geared towards building large-scale constructs, and some of the things I have in mind will need a lot of resources."
She nodded along, still watching the gold bars, before she shook her head and focused on me. "Guess that means you'll be busy today?"
"I'm likely going to be busy a lot in the coming… well, it's going to be a while," I said, looking back at her. "With any luck, I'll be working with the PRT and building up an army, then I have some large-scale projects I want to attempt around here."
"You say that like I won't be there with you," she said, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "You might bounce around the city by yourself, or with your golems, but if you're gonna be leaving and working with other people, I'm coming with you."
I couldn't help but smile, and after a moment, I reached out and gave her a hug.
"Thank you," I said, pulling back so I could look her in the eyes. "I would feel considerably better with you nearby. Between you and Alya, I'm sure I will be perfectly safe."
She rolled her eyes, but I could see the smile dancing on her lips as she nodded. As I continued to prepare, she headed off to have some breakfast. Not long after that, I teleported her to the city so she could spend time at the Docks community, and I could visit the hospital to do my thing. When I returned, I teleported to the California PRT before quickly flying away. Cali was Alexandria's domain, and I did not feel like answering the rather intense hero's questions at the moment.
After a long flight, I finally landed at my destination, a place called Furnace Creek, in Death Valley. This was the hottest place in America, and according to the weather reports, today specifically would be sunny with clear skies all day. Though when I arrived, it was still dark out because of the time difference between the East and West coasts. Still, I could see well enough, so I continued to fly around the area, eventually landing on a nearby mountain ridge.
After a few minutes walking around along the ridge, I found the perfect spot. I used magic to create a large plateau at one of the highest points, taking my time to build a structurally sound space to work in. I started with a ritual platform, before adding a place to drop things off, as well as a shaded area that I threw together. This was all built with stone, as my usual tree construction would not handle the coming magical work very well.
When I was done with general construction, I put a powerful cooling enchantment on the shaded area, which would keep the area cool even under blistering high temperatures. It was redesigned from a temperature management enchantment from druidcraft, beefed up, and given an anchor point that I could feed magic into. It would hopefully keep the area cool enough to be safe.
When I was done, I had a small shaded area to sit, a ritual platform, protected storage, and a few more places to work. Creating orichalcum was a multi-stage process, so I would need space to get it all done.
Once I was done creating the workspace, it was time to gather materials, starting with transporting the gold and copper. After that, I went on a shopping trip, had some breakfast, and returned to my newly created space, this time with Olivia with me. By then, the sun was rising and lighting up the area.
"Damn… this place looks like hell," She said, looking at the surrounding desert and salt flats. "And I mean that literally, this is what I imagine hell looks like. How hot does this place get?"
During the summer, it can reach above one ten," I said, going over my recent purchases. "It will likely be around seventy-five today since it's winter. I wish it were warmer, but what we need from here is more conceptual in nature, so we should be fine."
"And you need it hot because?"
"Orichalcum is a very sun-focused metal. One of the three steps requires direct, strong sunlight," I explained. "And another needs a place like this, where the sun beats down on the earth. Other places would have likely worked, but this place had the best combination and the clearest forecast."
Olivia nodded and sat back in one of the crudely formed chairs, sheltered from the sun and settled in to watch. Meanwhile, I looked around, making a mental list of what I needed to get done and in what order. The finishing process, the resonance tuning, a type of magic that was on the niche side and mainly dealt with wider elemental and nature concepts, needed to be performed at noon, so I was on a bit of a timer. Thankfully, I shouldn't need to rush too much, since I had already infused the metal ingots.
The first step I needed to complete was a simple ritual to treat one of the more expensive purchases I had ever made, a sack full of Oregon Sunstone, a special variety of sunstone that was most commonly found in Oregon, hence the name. It was an interesting gemstone, coming in a variety of colors, and was filled with tiny inclusions of copper, making them glitter under the light. I spent just under fifty thousand dollars on the largest pieces I could find, seven in total.
I quickly drew out the ritual lines with my electrum chalk, leaving seven focusing circles and seven material slots. The ritual itself was rather complicated, invoking the sun and the connection it had with the stones. Then, after placing the seven gems in their proper places, I grabbed seven of my specially created enhanced storage vials. I had created them in bulk when I first started using rituals, and they had served me well since then, containing all sorts of things that normally could not be contained, like the darkness of a moonless night or the light of a high sun beaming down on us.
After a moment of preparation, I flew upwards with the vials and carefully stored the unfiltered essence of sunshine, before carefully landing back at my temporary setup.
"Are those what light up the base?" Olivia asked as I carefully placed each of the vials down in the materials slots.
"Kind of?" I responded, double-checking my work and stepping out of the ritual circle. "The vials, as specially created for ritual work, they can contain essences and similar things, stuff like sunlight and darkness. Then I can use them in rituals like these."
I gestured to the ritual as I kneeled down beside it, placing my hands along the outline and infusing my mana into it, watching as it spread out through every line and symbol.
"The light bottles at home are further ritualized to create light," I continued, carefully modulating my mana output. "Part sunlight, a bit of candle flame, and a few other ingredients mashed together to enhance their brightness."
"Huh…"
It took about thirty minutes for me to finish the ritual, which ended in a familiar flash of light. I crossed the now spent ritual and gathered the stones. Each of them now glowed with an internal light and felt warm to the touch. I showed one to Olivia, and she looked surprised, bringing one of the gems to her eye.
"You could probably make a pretty penny making jewelry," she said, tuning the glove on her hand. "Plenty of rich people would pay for a diamond necklace that glows like the moon, or a ruby with a flame flickering inside."
"Hmm, not a bad idea if I needed any more money," I said, accepting the gem back. "Fortunately, I'm not that short on cash anymore."
"Yeah… that's something that will take a while to get used to…"
I chuckled, not denying her statement. I would have been a lot more shocked about my own steady, quite large income if magic hadn't changed my priorities so much. Money was just a means to an end at this point, but if I didn't have money, I would still get there eventually. Food, shelter, hell, even entertainment were all at my fingertips whenever I needed them, regardless of my tax bracket.
With the gems done, they needed to be added to the gold bars. This was technically the second half of the first step, and after drawing out a second ritual, this time with the gold ingots sitting in the middle, I ritualistically fused the metal and the gems. The result was a stack of gold bars that were warm to the touch and seemed to glow, though they didn't actually emit any light. They shimmered and glinted as you turned them as well, matching the general facets of the gemstones.
"Did I say a pretty penny?" Olivia commented, turning the gold bar over in her hand. "More like a whole mint. This gold is beautiful."
"I'll make you something with it someday," I comment offhandedly, mostly focused on the task at hand.
The second part of the process required a large iron pot. I made it myself from a thick metal blank on board one of the larger boats, specifically a panel that had spent ages in the sun. This wasn't really a requirement, but it was better to work with harmonious concepts, especially for the last step. I formed the iron pot at the forest compound, but finished it as the second step by covering it in several enchantments. The iron was a poor conductor of magic, but once infused, it was passable enough. What we really needed was its durability and high melting point, which iron had in spades.
The enchanting process took about an hour, and ate up several large chunks of silver. When it was done, I could already feel the metal starting to warm up under the sun, absorbing the resonating concepts from around it. I quickly placed it at the center of the ritual platform, before getting to work on the final aspect, carving into the stone.
When I was finally done carving the tuning runes around the enchanted cauldron, we only had about twenty minutes to wait before it was noon. The sun was high above us, and Olivia and I both sat back to wait.
When the moment finally arrived, we could instantly tell. Suddenly, a dull thrum echoed over the area, rolling down the hills and mountains around us. The entire area started to get brighter and brighter, like a glare from a mirror being turned to face us.
"Here, put this on," I said, passing Olivia a welding mask from the supplies I bought, before putting on my own when she took it. "And don't step outside the shaded area."
The rising brightness was much easier to handle with the mask, but soon the brightness continued ratcheting higher and higher, heat waves beginning to rise from everything not being cooled. I reached over and put my hand on the anchor point for the cooling enchantment, feeding it a steady stream of energy to keep it stable.
Even as the light and heat rose, the thumping continued, pulsing up and down the mountains, and in the air itself. It almost seemed to be getting pulled into the iron cauldron. It felt like it was coming from the very area around us, mostly because it was. Resonant tuning drew on concepts and the essence from the area around the tuning field, which is why it was mostly concerned with elemental aspects.
After about ten minutes, the iron pot was glowing cherry red, and the second stage of the process kicked in. Several spots around the iron pot disintegrated, and from within poured the newly created liquid orichalcum, draining from the pot into fifteen ingot molds carved into the platform. The metal flowed like water, quickly filling each mold to the brim with glowing, molten, sizzling metal.
As much as I would have loved to rush out and claim my prize immediately, not only were the ingots still liquid, but the resonance tuning had left the entire area scorching hot. I was likely durable enough to tank it, but I wasn't willing to gamble on it, lose, and get torched like an ant under a magnifying glass.
Instead, I teleported my staff to my hand and used a minor spell to conjure a stream of water, spraying down the area. About ten minutes and a lot of steam later, I could finally inspect my prize, stepping out into the still surprisingly hot area.
I carefully pulled one of the still incredibly hot ingots from the ground, turning it over in my hand. The gold and copper had combined into a reddish gold, an almost fiery combination. It was glowing with its own inner light, strong enough to be seen under the bright sun above us. I knew from my levels in alchemy that the shine would slowly fade over time, but the metal would never really cool completely.
"Well... I suppose that's step one," I said, tossing the brick into the air and catching it. "Now we build a forge."