Forging Ahead

Lenara already knew about the elemental's rampage through the drones however she had lost contact with Angela after the drones had been killed and as such was very worried. Seeing that she was alright is a massive relief for Lenara who rushes forwards to give a hug but stops awkwardly with an embarrassed expression.

After her recent conflict in the tunnel Angela had realised that she had been extremely cold to Lenara, someone who had shown her care and concern, simply because she was not human. Her worldview was naive and arrogant, like a frog in a well; now is a good time to start changing that.

Stepping forward, Angela stands on her tip-toes and embraces Lenara, whispering in her ear "Thank you for worrying, and I'm sorry that I've been so cold."

Lenera's expression melts, a blooming smile replacing the awkward embarrassment. "Thank you miss Angela, you have made me very happy already."

This time it is Angela's turn to look embarrassed; she was not used to having a close friend other than her siblings. "Please, just call me Angela." She had always hated the way the maids and the butler had distanced themselves from her by using that title.

Suddenly Angela realises how close they are and steps back a little hastily, her cheeks flushing a deep crimson. Lenara seems fine as she orders the drones to start barricading the passageway to the elemental but Angela thinks she sees a hint of colour, though it soon disappears leaving Angela wondering if she was seeing things.

The plan Lenara has is to collapse the tunnel by weakening the integrity of the roof. While she was carrying that plan out Angela turns in the quest, obtaining the 'nine forging strikes' manual which goes straight into her library, as well as another heavy roll of schematics that appear in her hands.

Though the quest reward was only for the schematics for a furnace what she received was actually for an entire blacksmith's forge. Finally she would have a way to work metal. The metal core had allowed her to create metals but the form in which they came was a standard 9" X 10.5" X 54" ingot; not exactly the best size to work with.

The furnace was relatively easy, apart from creating the fire to keep it going, it only needed Fired clay bricks which could be obtained using a kiln... now a kiln was a bit more complicated. Kilns are like ovens that are used to create bricks, Angela currently didn't have a material suitable for creating a kiln and so she would have to ask Lenara for some space, as well as some help, to hollow one out from the island itself. This gave Angela a goal for the short term so she decided to leave the following steps for later.

Lenara is all too happy to lend some drones for as long as Angela needs them, both for the forging as well as the odd mixing machine Angela had made. Lenara seems very pleased to be helping. "As long as I have enough food I can create as many drones as is needed." This statement takes Angela back for two reasons. First she had forgotten that the drones also needed to eat and made her wonder where they got their food from. Second was that she had never actually seen a drone being created and wondered how it worked. She asked Lenara about both topics but after seeing her embarrassed expression when she asks the second realises that it was a little insensitive and just sticks to the first one.

"It would be easier to show you." Lenara gestures to one of the side tunnels and heads down it, Angela in tow. They come to a cavern and Angela gasps. Honeycomb-like structures made of the same substance as the walls fill the area and worker drones (as Angela has dubbed the firefly drone with the agile arms) flit about, gathering small green clumps of moss that are growing all over the structures.

"This is amazing" shock still evident on Angela's face.

"You should see the mother hives, they can span whole planets with caverns dozens of times the size of this one, its not an efficient food source as it has a low nutrition value but its ability to grow without light or water is extremely convenient." Lenara has a wistful expression as she talks about the mother hive which makes Angela wonder what her past was like but she didn't feel close enough to be able to pry into such a sensitive matter.

Angela takes a small clump of the moss and puts it into the record and gets a pleasant surprise.

"Rank one rampant moss: though it doesn't have the high individual value of other rank one plants, the rampant moss is still classified with these other plants due to the incredibly fast rate at which it grows and spreads; giving it its name. If not controlled by an external force, the rampant moss will continuously spread without end. It has no restrictions of resource competition like most species as the moss feeds off of the infinite anima that exists in the surroundings.

With the recording of this plant, Angela only needed one more to complete her quest and obtain the 'herbalists bench' though she didn't know what it did. This put her into an even better mood than before as she returned to where the drones were constructing the kiln to her specifications.