“Again, what are we doing?” Morgan asked as Ford gathered up a random assortment of metals that she didn’t know much about; she just knew that some were copper, bronze, and iron.

Ford set down another box of metal and said, “Our horses died. So, we are making a new one.”

“Right, I got that part. But how will we make an animal out of metal scraps?”

“By not making an animal,” Ford answered, “We’re making a mechanized servant.”

Morgan looked like a light bulb just went off in his head, “Oh, I see. So, do you know how to make a mechanized servant?”

Ford froze and hesitantly said, “Nnnoooo. Though, I’m sure that the Grimoires know.”

“From what I’ve heard. They don’t. All they have is how to store the mech’s core, and that’s it,” Morgan stated.

“That’s why I have you helping me,” Ford said enthusiastically as she pulled out her Grimoire and began to read the instructions for how to store the core.

Morgan rubbed his eyes and sighed, “Fine. Fine. Do you have any idea how big this machine is going to be? Blueprints? Parts needed?”

Ford didn’t answer for a minute as she finished reading the instructions, “We need it big enough to pull a wagon full of people,” then she slammed the Grimoire shut with a loud smack. She poked her head out of the shadow portal and said, “Lilly! How much mana do you have stored in your bracelet?!”

Lilly looked up from the fire she made, then at her bracelet, “Umm, a few hundred thousand. Why?”

“We need more mana than what I have right now. So, keep storing up mana. Oh, and everyone help her with that!” Ford said, then went back through the portal. “Alright. If my mental math is correct, which might be wrong, we need a lot of mana to summon this guy. Morgan, can you make joints, like mechanical joints?”

Morgan nodded, “Certainly. How big are they supposed to be, what will they be doing, and how many?”

Ford bit her lip as she thought, “We need small ones for a spine and other joints, and need…one, two, four. Eight big ones. Start with those, make them for power and range of motion. They’ll be pulling us on the wagon for the most part and maybe even fighting.”

Morgan nodded, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Ford turned to the metal forge and anvil, clasped her hands together, and got to work. There were crystals inside the Forge and next to it on the right hung other blacksmith tools for metalworking. The only tools Ford could identify were the hammer, tongs, and a cup for smelting. She searched the Forge for any way to create heat but found nothing.

Ford almost gave up when the crystals inside the Forge lit up. She looked around for the source and saw Ee take her hand away from the metal of the Forge. “Just send mana into it, and the Forge will do the rest,” she said and walked away.

“Thanks!” Ford called out to her as Ee made her way to the portal.

“Don’t break my shit! It’s expensive!” Ee called back as she left the room.

Ford nodded and grabbed some chunks of iron and the smelting cup. She placed the chunks into the cup and used the tongs to put it all in the Forge. Then she waited for the metal to melt. While she waited, she pulled out one of her red diamonds and began making a crystal heart. When she finished with the heart, she put the crystal back into her void storage and checked on the metal. It burned white-hot, and she pulled it out and cast folding on it.

Folding the iron took several minutes, and the metal even cooled down before she could finish. She dumped the metal on the anvil and filled the cup with a few more chunks of iron to melt before returning her attention to the iron she already had. Casting heating, she began folding the metal again and again until she got a small, thin sheet of pure brittle iron. She tried to lift it, but the metal broke as she lifted it.

Ford gently set the iron back on the anvil and went to poke her head out of the portal, “Max!” She yelled. The suddenness of the yell made Max jump involuntarily, “Max! I need carbon! Bring some wood!!” then she went back into the Forge and began folding the next batch of iron and crushed the old batch into the cup.

Max soon arrived with wood and said, “What do you need me to do?”

“I need you to mix carbon monoxide with this iron in a face-centered cubic structure,” she explained, pointing at the iron in the cup. Max nodded and used her alchemist ring to separate the wood’s carbon and oxygen and combine it with the iron. The metal in the cup became a splotched brown color, and Ford put it back into the Forge with the other folded chunk of iron. “Go back outside and make more iron out of the granite you make and keep the silicon,” Ford said.

“Okay? Why do we need silicon?” Max asked as she walked away.

“Because reasons,” Ford responded unhelpfully. Then she went back to work adding iron, folding it, and refining it until she had a carbon steel ball the size of her torso. A process that took hours to make. She then took a minute to check on Morgan, who had been hunched over a workbench for hours working on something for a joint. “How’s it coming?” she asked as she approached.

Morgan glanced over his shoulder, then back to what he was doing, without acknowledging her. Then he placed a tool he had been working with down and hefted an hourglass-looking chunk of metal twenty centimeters tall and thirty centimeters wide, “Do you have something I can attach this to?”

“I do,” Ford said and led him over to the chunk of metal, “How do I attach it?”

Morgan set the metal hourglass on the anvil and pointed to a pair of holes in the center of the hourglass, “You need to make it fit in the holes here and here. You’ll also have to make sure it’s not touching the joint directly.”

Ford nodded and used the skill shape on the chunk of metal and fixed it to the joint through the designated holes and around the joint without the metal touching directly, making a metal tube. When she finished a few minutes later, Morgan placed a hand on the top of it, and the tube of metal began to move back and forth in a forty-five-degree arc. Ford couldn’t help but smile and clap with joy.

Morgan smiled and took his hand off it, “Now that that is done, I’m going to sleep a little,” he said with a yawn.

“Yeah, I should sleep too. We’ll pick this up later,” Ford agreed, and they both left the Forge to go to bed.

***