Tabitha and Joseph got to work. The goal? Create a cauldron. The material? A slime and iron alloy, apparently.

While Joseph might not have had a mold for a cauldron, he did have molds for more common tools and to make ingots. Including one extra-large mold for an extra-large ingot. Even lifting the mold up took the combined efforts of both him and Tabitha.

“Geez… what’d ya get this thing for?” Tabitha asked him.

“My favorite trader from the city told me that the smiths there would rather the iron come in bigger ingots. Don’t know why, didn’t care to ask. All that matters is that they were willing to send me a mold for a discount on some iron.”

“They made ya change your way of doin’ things and demanded a discount for it?”

“It was a one-time discount to cover the cost of the mold. And the end result is they buy even more of my iron.”

“I guess that works out then. Do the folk from the city really like the iron from out here or somethin’?”

“It’s not the highest quality iron, but it’s still good iron. It’s our biggest export. It’s also why everybody comes asking me for coin whenever they need some or want to visit the city.”

“Oh yeah?” Tabitha nudged Joseph’s arm with her shoulder. “Sounds like ya got a lot of money there. How about we redistribute the wealth a bit? Eh? Eh?”

“You’re lucky I’ve got your humor figured out or else I’d be throwing you out of here.”

“Heh. Keep your coin, old man. I’ll get even richer than you.”

“We’ll see. Now, you’re already aware of what happens to slime when it’s heated.”

“It becomes hardslime.”

“Right. Now, hardslime is a great material to use on its own. You could easily make a cauldron out of it alone if you got enough slime, but you won’t be able to get enough for that unless you hunt every single slime in the area down. What we’re going to do is mix it with melted iron to make an alloy of sorts. Iron slime.”

“Got it.” Tabitha watched as the iron began to reach its melting point. It was going to take a while for them to melt enough of it to fill the large mold they pulled out. “Can I do that with any material? Let’s say, spider legs? Could I melt spider legs into it and get the same result?”

“No. If you add something like a spider leg or most other materials directly to molten iron, all you’re going to do is destroy the item you’re throwing in there. You might get some sort of reaction depending on what you add, but you’re going to destroy any tags the material you’re throwing in has. Unless it can handle the heat or is something else meant to melt down in the first place, like other metals.”

“Got it, got it. So, if I throw in somethin’ like a spider leg or pinecone or somethin’, it’s just gonna burn up and get destroyed.”

Joseph nodded.

“If I throw in other ore or somethin’ meant to melt, or somethin’ that benefits from heat, like slime, it’ll keep the tags and fuse together.”

“You’ve got it.”

“Is there such a thing as too hot for slime? Is there a heat that will destroy it instead of just harden it?”

“I’ve never heard of it if there is. All the heat will do is draw the water out of it until it eventually becomes a small, dense chunk of slime.”

“So, once I get hardslime, I could keep on heatin’ it until it gets smaller and harder while losin’ all its moisture?”

“Right. Even something like that bowl you made has got a bunch of water in it still. Heat it up at a high enough temperature for an extended time and it’s going to shrink and get even harder. On the other hand, if you keep on exposing it to water, it’s eventually going to expand and get diluted to the point where it loses its consistency.”

“I guess that explains why I didn’t really notice anything when I used it to hold water and boiled it. Was canceling each other out.”

“Or there just wasn’t enough water or a hot enough fire to see an effect.”

“Yeah, true. So, back to the point. Slime and iron.”

“Iron slime isn’t as durable as iron and not as malleable as hardslime, but it’s got a good combination of them both. As long as you’re only planning on using it as a cauldron for alchemy, there shouldn’t be any issues. The main problem will be shaping it while it’s hot. Every second spent hot is going to be another second where the slime is losing its water and getting harder.”

“Won’t it cause a problem if I’m brewin’ liquids in there? Won’t it absorb some of the water?”

“That’s why we’re going to seal it.” Joseph walked over to the back wall of his workshop and rummaged around before going, “Aha!” and picking up a large, glass jar full of what looked like yellow nuggets in them. “Tree resin. Heat it up to melt it down, mix some crushed charcoal into it, and you’ve got yourself a nice adhesive that can be used to seal something like a cauldron.”

“Ooh… I think I see what we’re going to do with this. Make a sealant with that and apply it to the inside of the cauldron to keep any liquids from leaking through it and affecting the iron slime?”

Joseph reached forward and ruffled up Tabitha’s hair. “You’re a fast learner.”

“This feels nice and all, but I’m gonna bite your hand off if ya don’t get it off my head,” Tabitha warned.

Joseph rolled his eyes which caused Tabitha to dramatically roll her own right back at him. “Now, the cauldron first. I’m interested in seeing how this turns out, so I’ll let you use my good hammer again.”

“Thanks. Wouldn’t want to mess this up either. So, I’m going to wait until this mold is how full again?”

“About half.”

“Then add in the slime and mix it up?”

“Right. You’ll have to be quick. We’ll let it cool once you’ve got it stirred in, and then we’ll pour it out and start working it with our hands. You’ll want my spare pair of gloves hanging up over there for that part.”

“What do ya mean our hands?”

“You won’t shape it in time on your own. It’s going to require a lot of hammering, stretching, and forming.”

“I’ve got this. It won’t be the same if I let ya help me any more than ya already have. The actual craftin’ part will be all me.”

“And if you screw up?”

“Then I guess I’ll be addin’ onto that tab of mine until I get it right. And I guess I’ll be doin’ some slime huntin’.”

“Suit yourself.”

“But uh, I will say I’d like a bit of help gettin’ the iron into the mold.”

“I figured as much.”

With the iron fully melted, the two worked together to lift the larger crucible up with a pair of tongs each, carefully moving it over to the mold before tipping it over and pouring the iron in. They made sure to keep the mold as close to the furnace as they could to minimize the distance they would have to move the crucible, and they were both thankful for it as they could barely move it the distance they did.

Next was mixing in the slime.

The slime that Runa gathered was stored in a glass jar, and now that slime was poured into the molten iron. Tabitha accomplished that by sticking her tongs into it and stirring it as if it was a mixing spoon. Considering that even something like that triggered the sort of automatic feeling she’d get when crafting, she figured she must have been doing something right.

While waiting for the iron slime to cool, Tabitha got to work on making the sealant. Admittedly, that was a far easier task. All she had to do was combine the tree sap and crushed charcoal in the crucible and heat them up.

Though, she first used Analyze on them both just to see what might get carried over to the cauldron.

Item Information

Name

Crushed Charcoal

Charcoal that has been crushed into a powder.

Rarity

E

Quality

9

Element

Earth

Item Information

Name

White Cedar Resin

Resin from a White Cedar Tree.

Rarity

D

Quality

28

Element

Nature

Bonus Tag

[Sticky I]

Of course, she made sure to check on the sticky tag, too.

System Menu

Sticky I

Slightly increases adhesiveness.

Though, right before actually putting them over the fire together, Tabitha asked Joseph, “Couldn’t we just use some more of that eyesap paste?”

“That’s even more potent,” Joseph answered. “It’s not needed. Also, it’s more valuable and overkill for what you need to do.”

“Fair enough!”

With that, Tabitha put the crucible over the fire and allowed it to melt down the resin into an incredibly sticky, viscous material. After pulling it out, she stuck a metal rod into the crucible to mix the liquid together and got something that looked like black, liquid concrete almost.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t analyze it since she would rather not get a burning, sticky substance on her skin in order to touch it so that she could use Analyze.

“How am I supposed to check the stats of stuff like this?” Tabitha asked.

“You either wait until it cools or, even better, you use Analyze on every single thing you ever see until you’ve maxed out its rank. Then you’ll be able to get Distance Analyze, so you can check out whatever you want. Even the clothes other people are wearing.”

“Not sure I like that. Feels… invasive. At the same time, useful. Especially if ya ever get in a fight with somebody and want to see what their armor and weapon are like.”

“It’s a required skill for a lot of important roles. The royal guard are all required to have it for the reason you said, and most adventurers will go for it as well once they have the main paths they wanted.”

“Makes sense.”

Seeing as how the iron slime still needed cooling down by the time that the sealant was cool enough to touch, Tabitha got to use Analyze on it in the end after all.

Item Information

Name

Resin Paste

An adhesive made from combining a tree’s resin with crushed charcoal.

Rarity

D

Quality

18

Element

Nature

Bonus Tag

[Sticky I]

“Straightforward enough,” Tabitha said. “It just ain’t satisfyin’ to make somethin’ unless I get to use Analyze on it afterward.”

“I know the feeling,” Joseph said. “Now, the iron slime is cool enough to touch and start working with.”

Tabitha knew she had to be quick, but she didn’t want to pass up using Analyze on what should have counted as a new material, either. Also, she needed to start analyzing anything and everything if she wanted to rank it up to get that Distance Analyze skill.

Item Information

Name

Iron Slime Ingot

A fusion of iron and slime that has resulted in an exceptionally malleable metal in the form of an ingot.

Rarity

D

Quality

41

Element

Earth

Bonus Tag

[Durable]

“Aww, it lost the Sugary tag durin’ that,” Tabitha said. “And here I wanted my bar of metal to taste nice and sweet.”

Joseph laughed and smacked the back of Tabitha’s shoulder. “You’ll have to use a tag crystal if you want to force a tag onto something that makes no sense to have it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, time to get to shapin’ this beauty into a cauldron!”