Tecnomagic Engineer

A few days had passed since my discoveries involving the Vothrial crystal, which I had affectionately started to call the Crystal of Infinite Possibilities. It allowed me to build things that would normally take years to complete, requiring machines whose simplest elements I didn't even know if they existed in Élaris, just as with the knowledge I had acquired. After all, many things could be different from what I knew.

Take, for example, the production of glass. It requires high-purity silica sand, usually with 95% or more SiO₂. This sand must be cleaned to remove impurities like clay, metals, or organic matter. However, in Élaris, the composition of the sand could be different, containing impurities that might not even exist in the knowledge I had. These differences would make the extraction process even more complicated, hindering the ability to produce the necessary materials to create glass. Therefore, many tests might be needed before I could reach the level I aimed for, combining what I knew with the magic present in Élaris. But if there was something I didn't lack, it was will and determination, as my excitement with the discoveries I made kept growing.

In the following days, I continued working on the construction of the furnace that would be used for the cremation of the decomposing bodies inside the cave. The smell in there remained terrible, but somehow, I seemed to be building a certain resistance to it. Before, each time I entered to work on the furnace or take care of the dragon eggs, I almost vomited, but now, I felt less bothered, although the odor was still putrid.

After three days of exhausting work carrying clay, shaping it with Vothrial, and constructing the piping that would function as a chimney extending outside the cave, I completed the furnace. It was enough to cremate the human bodies, which rotted much faster than a dragon's, which hadn't even started decomposing.

- "AAAAA! YES!! I FINALLY FINISHED THIS FURNACE! IT TOOK A WHILE, BUT I DID IT, HAHA!" I exclaimed, excited.

- "Honestly, I only managed thanks to you, Vothrial. Thank you very much." I thanked, holding the crystal.

At that moment, Estalyrion marked noon in the sky. So I decided to eat something before dealing with the corpses, and also to prepare a glove and a mask made of Thalvarýn threads, protections I would use to avoid possible diseases from the decomposing bodies.

First, I went to the lake, which was already a bit deeper due to the amount of clay I had removed, and cast the hook into the water. After some time, I got my lunch, ate, and then went to get the necessary Thalvarýn threads to produce a pair of gloves and a mask. Shortly after, I had enough to create the protections. Then, I returned to the cave and, using Vothrial, I imagined the pair of gloves and the mask, made of Thalvarýn. As soon as I opened my eyes, there they were, exactly as I had imagined.

I put on the mask and gloves, which were incredibly comfortable, and before heading into the cave, I went to gather firewood to light the furnace. Once it was working, I prepared to begin the heavier task: cremating the bodies, but I decided to first check how the clay piping I had made, which stretched along the ground to the entrance of the cave, would handle the smoke passing through it. After confirming it was working properly, I returned to the furnace to finally begin the final task. Since I couldn't carry the bodies whole, I had to dismember them into smaller parts to throw into the furnace.

...Sounds of limbs being cut...

- "Shit... killing is the only fun part... But cleaning up the mess is a pain..." I muttered, cutting off arms and legs before tossing them into the fire.

The work was long and disgusting, but necessary. I spent the entire night watching the furnace, feeding it with firewood and checking that everything was working correctly. The cremation process lasted until the following night, since the furnace temperature reached about 600 °C, while the ideal cremation of a human body occurs between 700 °C and 1,000 °C, so I had to wait until they were completely cremated.

While I waited, I began cleaning the inside of the cave. First, I made an improvised bucket with Thalbûren and some clay, and a cloth of Thalvarýn, materials that, even at the height of Élaris' magical teachings, no one could make with such perfection. Using these items, I cleaned every corner of the cave, removing blood and decomposing remains.

Then, after about a day and a half, the saga of the cremation was over — at least for the human bodies. The cave was spotless, with a fresh, pleasant air that I hadn't felt since before those damn people arrived.

- "Ugh... ha... Finally, it's done..." I said, stretching.

- "Look at this place... It's better than when I first arrived here... I wish you were here to see it... Elyndra, Ignarion..." I whispered, melancholic, as the longing for the two of them tightened in my chest.

- "...Well, but the place where you are is much cleaner... So, you won that one, hahaha..." I said, brushing away the sad feeling that began to take hold of me again.

From that point, there were only a few more things left to do before I could truly begin my journey here, to finally start my revenge. The first was to remove the remains of the cremation and bury them somewhere. Then, I would unfortunately have to destroy the furnace I had made for several reasons: first, Elyndra's body wouldn't fit there; second, even if it did fit, I wouldn't have the strength to carry it; and finally, I wouldn't dismember her as I did with the human bodies, since she was very special to me, and I couldn't bear to do that. So, it would be necessary to build a new furnace around Elyndra's body to cremate her. Fortunately, the clay I had used in the previous furnace could be reused along with the vothrial, making the task easier than before.

So, at that very moment, I took a deep breath and started working again. First, I destroyed the furnace I had built, which gave me better access to its interior. Then, I gathered all the ashes from there, placing them in a small bag made of Thalvarýn and tying it up. I then headed to a small hill near the cave, a place where it would still be close to the entrance and would provide an excellent view of the area. Both moons, at that moment, shone in the background along with several stars, providing a cinematic view, as they were fully visible and at their closest points to the planet of Élaris. Then, there, on that hill, I dug a small hole and placed the bag there. Finally, I wished they were enduring the worst pain that hell could inflict upon them and covered the hole, letting those remains fall into eternal oblivion.

...Sounds of wind...

- "...You bastards... You made me go through, once again, unimaginable pain... a pain that, I hope, is being repaid a thousand times worse where you are, in hell..." I said, while placing the bag into the hole and beginning to cover it.

After that, I turned and walked, calmly, while returning to the cave. There, I gathered the remains of wood I had used as fuel and placed them in a separate corner, as I would use them again in the next furnace I would make. Then, I began collecting the pieces of clay from the old furnace, keeping the piping intact, as no modifications were needed, and started preparing the clay for the new furnace.

It is a fact that, while unburned, clay can return to a state where it can be reshaped, as its molecular structure has not been altered. However, after being burned, clay can no longer be reshaped, as it becomes ceramic, with a molecular structure different from what it had before the firing, and that was something I knew from the knowledge I had acquired. However, contrary to what that knowledge told me, here, in Élaris, my case was different, since with the vothrial crystal, I could make the ceramic return to clay.

During the tests I had conducted with the Vothrial, and during the time I used it to build the first furnace, I discovered a property that could be extremely important one day, and little did I know that day was much closer than I thought. When an object made with vothrial stone is no longer needed, it is possible to reverse the process and obtain again the components that formed the object, although this process is much more costly mentally and energetically. I had learned this one day, when, by accident, I had made more clay pots than I actually needed. At that moment, the question arose whether it was possible to reverse the process and obtain the clay again in its natural form, without having to soak it in water to soften it. To my surprise, it was possible, though the mental and energy cost was much greater, leading to exhaustion more quickly. This knowledge would, then, be useful to return the clay, which had already become ceramic, back to its original form. However, the practice turned out to be a little different than I imagined.

- "…Alright, here we go… I've already organized the wood scraps I used as fuel in the old furnace, and now all that's left is to use the vothrial on this pile of ceramic to turn it back into clay…" I said, looking around to make sure everything was in order.

- "…Ha… okay, let's go!" I said, pointing the vothrial crystal at the pile of ceramic I had gathered.

…A few minutes passed…

- "…Okay, it should be ready now." I said before opening my eyes.

- "…What? Why didn't it work?" I asked, curious.

- "Could it be the crystal? … No, it's fine…" I said.

- "…Well, let's try again…" I said, pointing the vothrial crystal at the pile of ceramic once more.

After that, I spent a few more minutes trying to make it work, but nothing seemed to go right. It got to a point where I was starting to get frustrated, because I knew it was possible to return objects to their basic parts. However, for some reason, it wasn't working at that moment. So, I sat down and began reflecting on what could be wrong, until I found a possible answer…

- "…ARGGHH… WHY ISN'T IT WORKING NOW? COME ON, VOTHRIAL, HELP ME OUT HERE, PLEASE…" I said, already irritated.

- "…Sigh… honestly… I did everything right, just like I did with that pot… but why isn't it working now?" I asked myself.

- "Think, Dravyn… What's different now from before?" I began to reflect.

- "…The only difference is the molecular formula… Once the clay is fired and turns into ceramic, its molecular formula changes too… Is that it?" I wondered.

- "…Come to think of it, with that pot of clay, it hadn't yet gone through the firing process, so it was still clay, which means it was much easier to return to its moldable form…" I concluded.

- "But still… Just thinking about the ceramic returning to clay should be enough… What do I need to change so it's possible to turn the ceramic back into clay? If that's even possible…" I said.

After that, I spent some time thinking, until I finally found a possible way, though more complicated than I had imagined.

- "…Hmm… If I can't do the reverse process just by imagining the ceramic turning into clay, maybe I can achieve something by first imagining the return of the structural and molecular formula of the ceramic to clay, adding some elements here and there…" I said, while thinking and rearranging the formula from ceramic to clay.

Although there are various types of clay, and therefore various structural formulas for each, a good way to know at least the basics of the clay I was working with was by its color, which gave me great hints about its molecular content. So, even though just the color wasn't enough to get an exact idea of what kind of clay it was, I decided to trust my instincts and use the general molecular formula for red clay, since I didn't know exactly what elements and in what quantities were present in the clay I was using.

So, after that, I made the necessary changes to the possible molecular formula that the ceramic produced by the furnace should have, transforming it back into the general molecular formula for red clay that I had obtained earlier. Along with that, I also imagined how their structural formulas would be and the differences that would occur between them when transitioning from one to the other. Finally, I also visualized the visible transformation, from ceramic to clay, and then, slowly opened my eyes, anxious about the final result.

This time, the ceramic had finally returned to its initial clay state, and that made me let out a huge scream of happiness, knowing that I wouldn't have to spend so much time carrying bucket after bucket of clay inside the cave.

- "…YES, DAMN IT… IT WORKED… ARGHH… YEAH HAHAHA!" I cheered.