CH.408 Getting more Platinum

CH.408 Getting more Platinum

With the Blade of Space and Time made and an orichalcum ingot weighing just shy of 3 kg secured, Wilma went back to the drawing board on the final design of my sword. Now that she could work with orichalcum, there was no reason to use aluminum for the guard and pommel.

And honestly speaking, Athena was 100% correct. Wilma’s original design of my sword, which used the aluminum guard and pommel, would not hold up to the Blade of Space and Time at all. Simply put, when Wilma designed the original sword, she couldn’t have accounted for the power boost it would get because it was made in collaboration with so many superior spirits.

And because of said boost in power, the aluminum just wouldn’t hold up to the power of the sword when mana was put into it. It would just shatter into pieces as soon as any significant amount would be placed into the sword.

At least the world treant handle was doing just fine, so we didn’t have to alter that part of the design.

In other news, Karl woke up from his evolution. It only took him just over 30 hours to evolve, which is on the faster side, but nothing overly abnormal.

Here is his status after he evolved.

SpoilerName: KarlRace: Blacksmith (Dwarf) [evolved]Level: 50 [+4]HP: 1516 [+266]Mana: 852 [+82]Strength: 1593 [+233]Defense: 1084 [+139]Magic: 456 [+66] Skills:Metal Magic LV.1 (racial) [new] Mining LV.5Blacksmithing LV.7 [+2]Crafting LV.2Hammer Technique LV.3 [+1]Pickaxe Technique LV.3Strength Boost LV.5Defense Boost LV.3Mana Control LV.3Fire Magic LV.1Earth Magic LV.2Fire Resistance LV.2Earth Resistance LV.2 Legendary Bladesmith [new]

MinerBlacksmith[collapse]

He evolved into a blacksmith, which was somewhat expected. He got Metal Magic as a racial, as Wilma said was possible, and he also got the Legendary Bladesmith title. I’m glad that he got it, as he did the work with Wilma, so glad to see the System gave the title to both of them.

Sadly Karl didn’t get Athena’s blessing, but that is up to the spirit to decide. Hopefully Athena will still help him with learning his new magic.

And if she doesn’t, Wilma will have to learn under Athena and then teach all of that to Karl.

... Or I guess Karl could just ignore the skill, but I feel like it might be useful to have, all things considered.

One of the things to consider with Metal Magic is the fact that it is likely an important part in making orichalcum. I of course learned the estimated recipe of how you cook some up, but when we were Factory testing the mixture of metals, we never ended up with the correct result.

So I theorized that instead of the mix of base metals being wrong, it is likely the method that is wrong. And considering that the superior spirit of metal was the one that made our ingot, the answer being Metal Magic just seems like the obvious answer.

So I asked my best magic expert, Quintet Magician, if he could do something about it. He actually barely knew Metal Magic, but was able to do something somewhat close to it.

Spoiler

[collapse]

With it, by breaking the metals down to very tiny pieces, then alloying the metals, then letting the tiny pieces of the metal alloy absorb ludicrous amounts of mana, he managed to make a small amount of low quality orichalcum.

So yeah. We can now make orichalcum. Sadly the low quality means that it is nearly useless, as anything made with it would have low durability and would likely break with use, but at least we have something we can work towards.

And there is a bigger than 0% chance that we can talk Athena into making more orichalcum for us. We just need to get some more palladium and platinum. And maybe even some gold so that I don’t have to deface currency.

The gold wasn’t too difficult, I mean they just traded gold for me for nearly pound per pound to gold coins. I had to give about 5% extra, but that is still less gold than I would get if I smelted the coins.

I asked them about it and they told us that it is because the Heroic gold coins were accepted in all of the countries in the north, whereas the coins each small country makes might not be.

It wasn’t an issue to me, so I just let it be for now.

I then asked if they had any of the palladium/platinum alloy, or the two metals separate, and for that I got the answer of it not being sold. I quickly asked if they would trade for it, and to that I got the answer of depending on the trade.

I of course offered the two vampiric steel tools I had, as well as some monster materials like different B-rank treant woods, griffon feathers and talons, even some gems that originate from A-rank crystal golems that rarely appear on HomeBase’s 45th floor.

For all of that, I got a bit under 2 kilos of platinum, just over 1 of palladium and about 2 kilos of the alloy. And since orichalcum needs about 3% of those two metals, with five kilos in total, I should be able to make 150 kilos of orichalcum with all this platinum and palladium.

So I would call that an excellent trade.

As we were about to leave, one of the store's appraisers came up to me and asked about the people that made the war hammer and the pickaxe. I naturally told her that I have two dwarves working for me and that they are the ones that made them.

The appraiser then told me about a competition that would be coming up in a bit over a month, where the best weapon makers would show off their weapons, and the winner would get a special prize. Usually in the form of an orichalcum ingot.

When I heard that, I was a bit blown away. I knew there were places where you could get orichalcum from, but I didn’t know this country was one of them. Of course I just learned how to make the stuff, so I was a bit less interested than I would have been about a week ago, but it is still amazing that they can get their hands on that stuff. I wonder if they make it with Metal Magic or do they have a dungeon that produces orichalcum?

I did ask for all the information about the competition. It would cost 2 smorags to enter, and yes, that is the local equivalent to a gold coin. And with the exchange rate between the heroic currency and the local stuff, that is about 1 gold and 2 small silver. Or about 110 copper coins.

So because there was no problem with the entrance cost or them taking part, I promised to tell my workers about the competition. And if they wanted to take part, I’d give them the time they need to make something wonderful for the competition.

And I mean, Wilma and Karl already have one hell of a blade ready. They just need to finish it, and then it could be shown off. No way a literal legendary sword would lose in some competition.

The only problem I have is that I’m afraid it will be stolen. And no, you don’t have to give the weapon you make to the event organizers. There is an auction afterwards, but you don’t have to put your weapon up for sale.

With our business finished, we were about to leave the store, but as we were, someone I recognized walked in. But it was a person I had never met in the real world, I had only met someone who looked almost exactly like him.

Well, the real life version is a bit older, I’d say. His hair is not snow white like the System Support that looks like him. It has more gray in it.

I didn’t say anything to Claus, as we don’t know each other, but I’ll be sure to tell Wilma that her old teacher seems to be doing well.