Metal Seed

Just as the crusading armies suspected, Astur has already begun to send her construction teams over to Dawn. Leading the team is the Forest Guardian, Woody the Beaver, and following him are the other psychic Oulvgar, namely the other beavers and otters, as well as a legion of forest monkeys as additional helping hands.

From the Warband, the Oulvgar are learning the skills necessary for processing metals and other materials into proper objects for construction. They have also been learning how to better their architecture, specifically the designing and planning aspects as the Oulvgar are far superior to any of the Warband in the actual construction process.

As the days went by, Asterion's plans for Dawn have started to truly show. Several layers of high walls now surround both Dawn and its surrounding farmlands. Such a feat would be nearly impossible for the Humans and Beastfolk of Vopal, even the Demons wouldn't be able to achieve such a feat in such a short time. But the Oulvgar have managed to accomplish this.

Before the Oulvgar appeared, between all the intelligent life that populate Vopal, only the Demons had innate superpowers and extraordinary abilities, but their numbers were too low and too spread out. Transcendents, people who are either born with extraordinary ability or have an especially strong conductive sense for psionic or magic energies, as well as those who can channel their inner energy to enhance their physical body. These people exist throughout every non Spirit and Celestial race, but their numbers are far in few between. The total population of Vopal is only around 2.3 billion people, of these only around 200,000 or so are Transcendents and this includes a rough estimate of unconfirmed Transcendents. Numerically, the Trancedents outnumber the Oulvgar, but not everyone has the skills needed for being civil engineers and the ones with the abilities suited for construction is even less. The Oulvgar don't suffer from the same limitations as the entirety of the Oulvgar population is capable of assisting in construction and the large number of psychics are the key to their quick construction process.

Compared to the fortress constructed around Hadrow, Dawn's is far more efficient. While it is sturdy and even fireproof due to the special properties of the Great Tree, the constructions around Hadrow were haphazardly put together. It looks a little intimidating due to its strange shape and odd protrusions, the Fortress of Hadrow fulfils its purpose. The newly built Fortress of Dawn has a more sleek design and is built with precision using modular design, having been planned out in advance. The materials used in its construction are also far superior to Hadrow as well. Asterion had consulted both Astur and Zrathno on the matter of materials, or rather, the lack of, and after a few hours of discussion Astur and Zrathno had come up with a better idea. Rather than either securing ready-made materials or unprocessed metals, they would just make their own using the ore from Hadrow's mines. Using the steelmaking process as a base they created a new alloy by adding titanium and an organic compound from the Great Tree, giving it increased resistance to heat and more durability.

Even though the new alloy uses fewer materials overall compared to normal steel, there still isn't enough to completely finish the construction of the entire fortress, only completing the outer walls. Moreover, to speed up construction, the quality of the different modules for the walls were made differently. After coming up with the concept and producing the first batch of modules for the wall, Astur seemed to think of something and stopped to work on a different project. Thus it was left to the Warband and the 3rd Monkey Legion to create the alloy. Zrathno also assisted in the beginning, but like Astur, he too got sidetracked by something else, leaving another gap in the quality of the modules. It didn't take long until the Monkeys of the 3rd Monkey Legion and the metallurgist of the Warband began teaching the players metallurgy, giving them a new opportunity to learn a Subclass. On the other hand, the players who obtained the Alchemist Main Class from Astur also took on Quests to create the alloy for Dawn's construction. But there was one who didn't, Blaze. Blaze had been dragged off early by Astur to serve as her assistant.

There were two reasons why Astur had stopped creating the alloy for Dawn. The first was that she got bored. The second was that she came up with an idea. Her thought process was to create something entirely new. Perhaps not new to the universe at large, but something that definitely doesn't exist on Vopal or even the nearby part of the galaxy, a true organic metal. While there are some instances where metal is produced in small amounts by plants and some that feed off of metals, the substance produces is still a true metal. Astur aims to create a metal that acts like a living cell, capable of self-repair and replication, and even adaptation. And even though the product isn't exactly what she had hoped for, Astur has succeeded.

"Ugh, it's finally over… I never thought I could get so tired from playing a game…" Blaze mutters as she slouches into a nearby chair.

Astur is looking over the handful of shiny seeds in her hand and one eye turns to Blaze, "That's not a sound a fine lady should make."

"You are the last person I want to hear that from," Blaze says as smile forms on her face, seeing the various forms of congratulations from her chat after having streamed for two days straight in the real world. "But we finally did it. A living metal. Hehehehehe… I got a lot of experience from this."

"Indeed this should prove to be a good experience for you," Astur says, deliberately misinterpreting Blaze's words to act as a proper NPC.

"Yeah, I learned a lot from this. So what properties does the metal carry?" Blaze asks.

"As a metal should be capable of self-repairing any damage done to it and has higher durability than most steels, but it should still be a bit short compared to tungsten. Its tree form, the metal is the tree bark and unlike other trees, it should supposedly be capable of regrowing it, but I won't know for certain until it's tested. It doesn't have sentience or sapience though, but that's fine. I was thinking of handing some seeds over to the Great Tree and to connect them to its hivemind. If things go as planned, we'll have a near unlimited supply of this alloy to use for nearly anything."

*Knock*Knock*

"Astur, I hast want to speak with thou."

"Asterion is it, come in," Astur says, prompting the giant Demon to enter.

"The workshop is bigger than ere," Asterion says.

"I made some modifications and adjusted the place to be able to accommodate someone of your size. So what's up?" Astur asks.

Without saying anything, Asterion looks over towards Blaze.

Astur hands half of the seeds over to Blaze and generates a Quest for her, "Take these over to the Prime Tree of the Great Tree and tell it to plant and assimilate the seeds. You're free from assistant duties for a while once you're done, you did a good job and deserve some rest."

As soon as Blaze leaves the workshop, Astur locks the doors and closes the blinds over the windows.

"I hast to speak with thou about the coming future and mine final crave."