Chapter Four-Hundred Fifty-Two (Patreon)

Everyone seems pretty eager to get started, so I leave them to it and head back to normal reality.  I think it’s time to shift to full wartime production.

I’m tempted to abandon most of the projects and just start upgrading my spawners, but I think that’d be a big mistake.  Just having more dragons, constructs, and dinos running around won’t really do much.  In fact, without space for them to roam, it’ll interfere with my mana production.  I wonder how many dungeons upgrade too far as a reaction and end up starving?

So, if I need a place to put new spawns, I need to double down on the floating spheres.  New area means new place for denizens, means new challenges for delvers, means even more mana to be able to really kick things into high gear once we know what’s up.

I might need to upgrade the dragon spawner into a lair, but I don’t even want to think about how much that’ll cost.  With the ally pool, I could probably do it right now, but that’s the same problem as upgrading too far, just in a different direction.  Once the spheres are online, I’ll have the mana to upgrade, I hope.

I also need to finalize the design for the composite armor.  We need to get it standardized and mass-produced asap.  I can’t have it still in the prototype phase by the time we track down the Betrayer.  Thing’s going to be sad he can’t get the floating runes in the resin to work, but we’re out of time for chasing perfection.

I nudge Teemo as I turn my attention to Thing’s lab, and am surprised to see not only my enchanter scion, but one of Violet’s, too.  Her putrid ooze scion is there with Thing, and despite her type, she’s (I think she’s a she?) very clean.  I get a bit of an obsessive maid vibe from her.  She’s watching Thing as he goes over a few basic enchanting things, and Teemo soon pops in to explain.

“Violet wanted to help, and with the sewers basically clean now, Slimy has the spare time to learn enchanting.  Violet said she was hoping her affinity might help somehow.”

I watch Slimy and Thing as I consider that.  Decay is an interesting affinity, to be sure.  It’s easy to think of fetid swamps and deadly diseases, but it’s also how things get cleaned up.  The new mayor of Silvervein even has the affinity, and he uses it to make cheese!

For armor, decay seems best suited to ablative protection, the sort of things that are designed to break so whatever they’re protecting stays safe.  They have the problem of needing to be repaired, but with the new repair runes, that might not be as big a deal.

I mentally feel a loose string, and decide to pull it, letting my mind wander down the path of production, instead of only the magical concept.  Decay manufacturing?  Lots of parts are made by milling away what’s not needed, but I don’t think I’d call that decay.

I pause as I think of a process that I would call linked to decay: etching.  I don’t mean the kind used to put a name somewhere, or to really bring out the detail of a damascus pattern in a blade.  No, I mean the sort that makes circuit boards.

The theory is simple: get a really thin sheet of copper, or whatever you want to use for the circuit, and then draw out the whole complex board on it with something that won’t easily erode.  Then dunk it in acid to get rid of what you don’t need, and after, clean off what you used to draw the circuit.  It saves a ton of time, because you can basically just print the board on the sheet, instead of trying to run every tiny little wire and connection.

And if you get really fancy, you can start layering the etched pieces for even more circuit density.  Or in our case: more rune density.

Teemo!

My Voice winces as the idea is translated, and whistles as he understands what I want.  “Will that even work, Boss?”

Ask Thing, but I don’t see why not.  The big working runes will probably need to be done the classic way, but I think a lot of the runes he uses can be etched instead of carved.  And we’ll need Slimy’s help to test.

Thing and Slimy both look at Teemo, wondering what we’re talking about, so he explains.  “Boss thinks he just solved the rune density problem, but he needs you two to test it.  And probably Jello.  Thing, take a few good types of metal for runes down to Jello, and get her to make sheets as thin as possible.  Queen or Poppy should have some adhesive, maybe the resin, so we can stick it to something that won’t interfere with the runes.”

Thing manages to look confused and starts signing.

“I know, but trust me.  Slimy, are you able to dissolve metals?”

She gives a tentative burble.

“It doesn’t need to be fast, that’s fine.  And hopefully it’ll be thin enough that it won’t take you long anyway.”

I watch as they get to work, with Thing grabbing some mythril, copper, and gold.  After a moment, he grabs a bit of orichalcum to float along in his telekinetic grip as well, then everyone heads through a shortcut to Jello’s forge, where she burbles happily.

Thing explains what he needs, and I watch Jello get to work, the metals easily deforming within her mass as she sets her metal affinity to the job.  It looks like Thing wants orichalcum to be the base on which the runes will be etched.  It makes sense, it’s hard to enchant properly, so it should be a nice insulator.

I should try to introduce electroplating later.  I’m not sure if that’d be too thin for what we need, but it could definitely be a way to get a thin coating on something.  Anyway, it doesn’t take Jello long to produce three plates of orichalcum with three different metals attached.  I can tell she wants to know what we’re up to, so I tell Teemo it’s fine if she wants to come see what we’re doing.

We get back to the lab, and I don’t know why I’m surprised to see Honey, Queen, Coda, and Poppy all waiting and looking expectant.  Teemo, of course, laughs at me.

“Of course they’d come see what crazy thing you’re having Thing do, Boss!  The last time you asked for weird things was when you first explained the composite armor.  Or maybe the compound bows.”  Coda squeaks, making Teemo laugh again.

“Ah, right!  The explosives!  Anyway, they all know when you’re getting ready to Change things for good.”

I try really hard to manifest some eyes to roll at him, but it doesn’t work.  So instead, I explain what Thing and Slimy should do.

“Ok, Thing.  Draw out the runes for something.  I dunno… a durability enchant?  Make them as small as you can and just use ink for now.  Slimy’s smart enough to be able to follow along.  Once it dries, Slimy, you decay away the metal that’s not under the ink.  And not the orichalcum backing, either,” he adds with a smile.  Slimy still looks confused, but I can feel Thing’s excitement as he starts inking in the runes atop the copper first.

Once the ink dries, Slimy sits atop the plate as we all watch as the copper fizzles away beneath her, soon leaving just the ink with the copper directly underneath it.  “Clean the ink off too now, please,” adds Teemo, and it only takes Slimy a moment more to do that, and then ooze her way off the plate with the new runes on it.

“Give it a try, Thing.”  My enchanter touches the runes to activate them, and one sparks up about halfway down the line.  Slimy looks disappointed, but Thing is frozen to the spot.

Teemo grins wide.  “That one does some heavy lifting yeah?  Heavier runes can be added in, either carved in properly, or set into something else and set in the line.  And they don’t even need to be in lines like this, either.  Boss says these can be layered if they need to be.  Imagine stacking your runes up like parchment, branching out to heavier runes next to the stack as needed.  What will that do for the enchantment density, Thing?”

Thing sits back on his wrist with as heavy a thump as he can, but Teemo isn’t done yet.

“Now imagine how much faster it will be to enchant like that.  Once you get the runes set out, you can stamp the design and have slimes etch them.  The limit will be materials, not enchanters.  Boss calls it mass production.  Instead of taking days per piece, it’d take minutes, maybe an hour.  The enchanting is the biggest bottleneck for the armor right now, too.  With that solved, how much safer will the delvers and dwellers be?”

Glances are exchanged all around, and I can feel their resolve through the bond.  They want to keep my friends as safe as I do.  After all, they’re their friends, too.