บท 33: Common Grade Rune Stone

Angela is neither a competent smith nor a competent mage and so she is left with the third option: enchanting. She switches to the enchanting section of the book and starts reading about the different materials she could make. Most require constructs or supplementary compounds to create but she eventually finds one that is within her immediate ability.

"Rune Stone: common grade material.

Most commonly used in the construction of defensive fortifications, rune stone possesses density and toughness far higher than its non-magical counterpart.

Requirements: at least 1m³ stone (maximum of 3m³)

Products: 1/3 of input size rune stone

Process: a combination of the runes pressure (crēs) and power (strøn) must be inscribed at set intervals of 20cm around the entire surface of the stone. Once all the runes have been inscribed, a control rune consisting of ævig, flow (hryngâ) and time (ørâ) must be inscribed at the focal point of the stone.

The activation of the control rune will cause a large amount of force to be exerted on the stone which will increase its density as well as eternalise the runes. The process will take a long time, ranging from three days to a week depending on the size of the stone but does not need any interference once it has begun."

The runes are simple and the stone is easily obtainable (coming from her creation ability) which allows for the easy production of large amounts of this stone; it seems the perfect place to start.

She decides on the largest size possible: 3m³ and starts working on the surface runes, measuring with a ruler she made using the blueprints function. The initial runes go fine, quickly covering the sides and top of the stone. Once five of the sides are covered, Angela discovers a problem: she has to inscribe on the face resting on the ground.

After a long period of thinking Angela sets into motion, a plan etched out in her mind. To achieve a strong enough force to turn the massive stone cube onto its side she would need a lever and some more manpower, which she can get from Lenara.

With regards to the lever, Angela decides that several long wooden planks, combined with ropes are the best option for right now (though she wishes that she could make the specialised mechanical levers used in construction). Rope wasn't something she currently had available but Angela had seen a documentary about how primitive tribes used vines wound together instead; something she is eager to try.

Venturing into the island to search for some vines, Angela picks a couple before heading back to start her attempts at creating ropes. The first couple attempts go horribly as she fumbles frequently and is left with a frayed mess. The third attempt as well as the fourth go much better, though the resulting rope is still far too weak to be used; it is only by the sixth that the vines start to take the desired shape.

Angela finally gets into the rhythm of the process and soon she is braiding rope as easily as she would her own hair, creating rope after rope until the vines she had gathered were depleted.

She had gathered a fairly large bundle of vines so, despite the failed attempts, she has created a sizable amount of ropes; more than she would need.

With the ropes ready all that is left is the manpower and so Angela heads over to the mountain, where Lenara is working on expanding her hive. Lenara is all too happy to provide help; though she is shyly blushing the entire time. With the warriors in tow, Angela heads back and equips them with poles and ropes. One side pushes the poles while the other side pulls with ropes. The cube slowly starts to tip over before it reaches the tipping point and comes down with an ear-shattering crash.

Angela sees the warriors off before continuing the work on the final face, inscribing each rune quickly but with precision. She makes short work of the runes and moves on to the control rune, something she would have to take extra care with. Any mistake at this point will ruin the entire days work so far; the rune's location is on the focal point of all other runes, if it is wrong it affects the entire network.

Each stroke Angela makes is slow and measured, sweat drips down her forehead, creased in concentration. The last few strokes are made and she lets out a tremendous sigh of relief; she is done. All that is left is to activate the rune and wait. The rune glows and the cube starts to rumble and shudders while loud grinding noises that are like nails on a chalkboard sound out.

Covering her ears and grimacing, Angela flies off away from the cube; she hadn't expected the noise. Evidently, she will have to spend a while away from her main area and, given the results of her training, she might as well give smithing another attempt.