Tecnomagic Engineer

Finally, my plan to turn ceramic back into clay had worked. Now, all that remained was to reshape, with Vothrial, the new furnace. However, I still needed to gather more clay. After all, Elyndra's body was much larger than a human's, and since I wasn't going to dismember her, I would need to make a clay extension to construct a bigger furnace. At that hour, the night was nearing midnight, something evident by the position of the moons in the sky. Since I was already tired and retrieving clay from the lake at that moment would be more laborious, I decided to rest and resume the work the next morning, with renewed energy.

The following morning, I woke up feeling reasonably rested. First, I ate something and then went to check on the dragon eggs. I carefully moistened them with a water container. With my morning routine complete, I prepared for work. I grabbed my sieve and bucket and headed to the lake to collect more clay. This process took up the entire morning, but by noon, the final furnace was complete. Before performing the last cremation, I had lunch and set out to gather fuel to feed the new furnace, which was significantly larger than the previous one.

I knew that this particular cremation would last several days, so I also knew I would need to replenish the fuel supply from time to time. For that reason, I chose not to carry too large a quantity at once. Thus began the final part of the cremation saga.

For about a week, I stayed in the cave, only going out to fetch water, catch fish in the lake, and eat quickly. Additionally, I constantly monitored the structure of the furnace and the clay piping I had built, ensuring that everything stayed under control.

By the end of that week, Elyndra's body had been completely cremated. Curiously, the end of the cremation coincided with the day I turned five years old. It's true that I was still very young, but I had already faced situations that perhaps many adults couldn't even dream of enduring.

As the fire began to die down, I remembered it was my birthday. However, instead of joy, I felt anger, remorse, and sadness. Perhaps, deep down, there was a glimmer of happiness, but at that moment, what prevailed was everything but joy.

...Sound of the furnace crackling…

- "…Sigh… So, yeah… I'm five years old now… Haha, it feels like just yesterday I saw you, Mom, hitting Dad, saying he couldn't do anything right… It feels like just yesterday, Dad, that I heard you telling me I should never give up on what I wanted to achieve, but that I should always remain a simple man at heart… It feels like just yesterday that everything was so good… But then, suddenly, everything became dark and colorless… Until I found something that brought color back into my life… But even that, I couldn't save… Ha… And the worst part is that today, my birthday present is watching that something burn to ashes inside this furnace… Haha…" I said, holding back tears.

- "…But you know what… If I've already lost almost everything I cared about, now, I don't care what it takes to protect what I have left… What still keeps me alive…" I said, looking at the dragon eggs and giving a determined smile.

- "…Tomorrow, a new era begins. And with it, I promise all of you watching me, wherever you are… I WILL AVENGE YOU ALL!" I said in a loud and firm tone, standing up to begin dismantling the last furnace, which by then had gone out.

During the time I spent keeping vigil near the furnace, I took the opportunity to create a very special item: an urn made of Vothrial crystals I had previously collected. The urn was incredibly beautiful, a jewel that anyone would pay a fortune to own, something unparalleled in Élaris.

On it, I inscribed Elyndra's name and the date of her death, along with various symbols and draconic designs that gave the urn a mystical aura. It was something unique, made for a unique being who had left too soon while protecting me. That urn was the least I could do for her.

After retrieving the urn, I began to open the furnace with a stone pickaxe I had previously made using Vothrial. With every strike against the furnace, the moments I had spent with Elyndra, though brief, came flooding back to my mind like a tsunami of emotions. When I finally opened it, I held back tears as I collected all of Elyndra's ashes and placed them in the urn. I decided that her offspring, when grown and able to understand what had happened, should decide what to do with it. I stored the urn in an extremely secure place, along with the necklaces Elyndra had asked me to craft. Before locking everything away for many years, I touched the urn one last time and thanked Elyndra and Ignarion for everything they had done for me as a tear rolled down my face.

- "…Elyndra, Ignarion… If you can see or hear me… Once again, thank you for everything…" I said, unable to hold back the tears.

A few minutes later, I wiped my face, lifted my head, and, with my eyes focused on the future, moved forward. This wasn't a final goodbye but a "see you later." It was my way of freeing myself from the feelings that were consuming me, so I could move forward with the plans I had in mind: to avenge them and ensure they could finally rest in peace.

The New Era Has Begun

Time passed. In the days following the end of the cremation saga, I focused on my physical training routine and the constructions using Vothrial. I woke up very early, starting with a full-body warm-up, followed by a run around the lake near the cave. After that, I began my upper body workouts: push-ups, pull-ups, abdominal exercises with and without weights, back exercises, and much more.

When I finished the upper body exercises, I moved on to the lower body, which was the most challenging, thanks to the equipment I created with Vothrial, such as leg weights and weighted backpacks. These tools, based on knowledge I had acquired, allowed me to perform much more comprehensive and demanding workouts. Unilateral and bilateral squats with weights, Bulgarian lunges, calf training, and other exercises made up my routine.

At the end of each session, I was completely exhausted, but I couldn't afford to stop. After a quick bath in the lake, I returned to the cave and began my work with Vothrial.

The first construction I made after the furnaces was a trap system. I remembered the words of the noble I had tortured until he died: "More will come when they feel our absence." So, I designed traps that would alert me to any approach, or capture intruders. In addition, I built tall fences made of Thalbûren and Thalvarýn, serving as a last line of defense.

Next, I started thinking about the cave's lighting. Although the crystals there created a mystical atmosphere, their light was not enough, so, after thinking for a while, I opted for something more practical and durable: oil lamps. The access to fish in the area was easy, which allowed me to obtain enough oil until I could create electric lamps and develop a generator.

To produce the lamps, I created a small external furnace, used exclusively for working with materials. I first molded the lamps with clay, burning them in the furnace to turn them into ceramic. Then, using the Vothrial crystal, I extracted oil from the fish to use in them.

The process of oil extraction, which I had devised, was simple:

Cooking: The fish were boiled or steamed, separating the oil from the other parts (meat, bones, and skin).

Pressing: After cooking, the fish were pressed to squeeze out the remaining liquid, a mixture of oil and water.

Separation: The liquid was left to rest so that the oil would rise to the surface, where it was removed.

I was able to extract oil after a few attempts, following the rules I had already discovered for working with Vothrial. No part of the fish was wasted: the meat served as food, while the bones and skins were processed into flour to feed other fish, creating an efficient cycle of utilization.

For several days, I repeated this process, using the caught fish as lunch to avoid waste. Some fish produced more oil than others, making the work take longer than I had expected. However, after filling the bucket with enough fish oil, I remembered an unpleasant detail: the smell. As soon as I opened the bucket, the pungent odor made me understand why this type of lamp was so hated.

- "Okay, now I have enough oil to make these lamps... Even if they're pretty rustic, it's what I can do for now..." I murmured, opening the bucket of fish oil.

...sound of the lid opening...

- "Alright, let's see how much oil we have he—... Uuurrghh... D-damn... I forgot why this oil is hated because of this... stench... C-calm down, Dravyn, no vomiting... Let's finish this... Once I put it in the lamps... Urgh... the smell gets... better..." I said while fighting the nausea and the urge to vomit.

Quickly, I closed the bucket lid and went to the lamps I had already molded and fired. I placed small wicks made of Thalvarýn threads in them, which, when combined with Vothrial, gained a minimal thickness and impressive porosity, similar to the cotton wicks I knew. This porosity allowed the fish oil to travel up the wick through capillary action, a physical process where the interaction between the liquid's molecules and the wick's molecules lets the oil move along the material's surface.

After adjusting the wicks, I carefully filled the lamps with the fish oil. I worked quickly to prevent the smell from further permeating the environment. Once I finished, I installed the lamps in strategic points inside the cave and along the path leading to the entrance.

The smell that emanated was by no means pleasant, but for that moment, it would suffice until I could develop something more technological and efficient.

- "Done... It's not perfect, but functional... That's enough for now."

I sighed, observing the lighting that finally broke the cave's darkness. Now, that environment was beginning to feel more like home.