[Short Story] Jeremy's Steadfast Creation (Patreon)

Jeremy opened his eyes as a hint of light streams in through the window. A much more pleasant experience compared to an alarm clock, a feature they thankfully left out of this particular HappyAfter VR Digizen realm. Though he would occasionally feel the loss of some of the more convenient system features most other places allowed.

He stands up and stretches, allowing any of his scales that managed to get out of whack overnight to realign themselves. An important part of a kobold staying healthy. Humans might complain of ingrown nails but they have nothing on an ingrown scale in some out of reach place. While this little bit did keep him attached to his original life, living alone meant such a thing could send him to respawn. An infected wound on your back is not conducive to living out in the wild.

Once breakfast is finished, Jeremy heads toward the nearby mountain. The first part of the trip is easy enough. A simple stroll through the forest. There are a few monsters around but the scent neutralizer he had whipped up for the trip was doing its job. Even the carnivorous squirrels ignored him.

About halfway there, the trail peters out, and Jeremy sets down his backpack. He had gone for capacity and so it lacked most handy haversack features. Not being combat specced meant that he didn’t really feel the loss, though the ability to think of what he wanted and have it snap to his hand would be nice. The lack of combat, however, meant it didn’t particularly matter that he had to rummage around in the thing to find all the tools he needed.

Now armed with an axe Jeremy chopped down the next couple trees in the way of his path. They weren’t too big and so he managed to process both of them just in time to have a midday lunch. Once the meal was finished, he packed away all the wood into his backpack and carefully removed a small glass vial from a side pocket.

Both stumps get a single drop of a swirling brown liquid that immediately is absorbed. With a smile Jeremy continues on his journey knowing that by the time he comes back the above ground portion of the stumps would be completely eaten away, leaving only the living roots that were connected to other trees in the area. The only downside was he couldn’t risk keeping it in the main pack area in case any got out. It would quickly ruin all of the wood in there so his only choice is to keep it in a non-magical side pocket.

The journey continues peacefully enough, with Jeremy stopping occasionally to pick a herb or two, making sure to only take one in three. Even if he didn’t think anyone else was in the area, it is only polite to leave enough for the herbs to regrow. If anything, it would mean more for him in the long run. Plus, the area was wild enough there might be a genius loci of some sort kicking about. He hadn’t seen any evidence of one, but he also hadn’t given any reason that would cause one to bring itself to his attention either.

It takes reaching the treeline on the mountain for the first bit of trouble to crop up. A handful of goblins had set up camp. Jeremy had known a goblin or two in his time and so it always hit him hard to see their cursed brethren. Wild goblins had mostly gone extinct on his original home planet as they were seen as one of the more pitiful cursedkin. At least the other various ones had a mind to save, the wild goblins had that stripped away from them while still in the womb.

Though this did make the extermination of them a lot easier. No morally grey areas when the thing you’re killing is less than an animal. Still, Jeremy wasn’t one for getting his hands dirty with combat and while it might be cliche, he had gotten heavily into trap crafting even before he ran out of time.

After scoping out the camp, Jeremy shakes his head, always the same set up. Like robots or golems that had been told at some point how to set up a camp, forever repeating that example. At least this camp looked complete. Wild goblins don’t always take the terrain into account and will end up trying to build through a tree or boulder.

Still, this makes taking care of them easier. In the forest, Jeremy easily sets up five snares. He doesn’t even bother to hide them, not that he needed to. A quick shout at the goblins has the trio running straight at him. They don’t even pause as one by one they are yanked into the air. Heavy lead weights attached to the snare line do more than their fair share as the enchantments placed on them raise their weight by a magnitude.

With the goblins trapped and dangling in the air Jeremy makes short work of them and a quick activation of his mage sight proves them a complete waste of time. None of them even have the wisp of a monster core. Jeremy knew that was to be expected after he had done such a good job of culling the population. Still, it was nice to receive a reward sometimes.

In this case, though, the only reward is that the camp should have just been built so none of the normal filth was present as he chiseled out a couple trap runes. The runes wouldn’t last more than a week and anyone with half a brain could tell what they were. As luck would have it, other goblins had much less than half a brain so he could only hope they would catch any stragglers that might have been out and about.

From there, Jeremy was able to make it up to the first few floating rocks. They weren’t technically floating of course, that would have taken too much mana to pull off in this area. No, they just happened to have a large presence of a special iron ore. It wasn’t attuned to gravity, earth, or air mana. This particular ore was soaked in a concept, that of immovability. One of the main ingredients of the lowest tier immovable rods.

Not that Jeremy planned to make any more of those. He had a nice stockpile of them as they made convenient tools for impromptu work surfaces and camping gadgets. Which brings us to the fact that the sunlight would soon be gone so he would have to set up his own camp for the night.

A set of six rods to set up the tent. One for each corner to hold the fabric down and the remaining two hold the peaks up to make the classic triangle tent. Then a seventh rod suspended over the campfire is more than enough to hold his small stew pot in place. After that dinner was a simple matter of using creation magic to fill the pot with water, a packet of dehydrated stew essentials, and a selection of the fresh herbs he had picked on the way.

Though he didn’t just sit around the campfire, waiting for the stew to be ready. This was the correct location and he could easily spot previous work he had done with mining the area. While the bits of stone suspended in the air were out of reach, there was more than enough still in the mountain to last well past the time Jeremy was going to be in the area.

Over the next two weeks, Jeremy fell into an easy pattern. A day to clear a few trees and get to the mining area. Another day spent mining up the steadfast iron ore and then a day to return to his house, more work on the path, and dropping off all the gathered materials.

At the end of those two weeks, Jeremy stands on the mountain and looks down as he wipes the sweat from his brow. It is a little hard to see but his path is clear to anyone that knows what to look for and the progress has been wonderful. Sure, it would have been easier to build his house closer to the mountain. On the other hand, he can’t help but admit to himself that he much prefers living in a field. The forest and mountain are nice, but the open skies and waving grass just gets to him.

He shakes his head and refocuses on the forest. Jeremy had another reason for taking his time sight seeing and that involved looking for a certain tree. Not a tall tree or one with a special color. Rather, a tree that should look mostly similar to all the other oak except only two-thirds as tall.

This task could be a bit tedious but at least the tree should be by itself. After all, a section of the forest being shorter could just be a matter of the soil quality, a fire, or a tree simply coming down. Even with all of that, it takes another three days to spot what he was looking for.

Not that this was the first time he had found a tree matching the description. In fact, this was the fifth time. As he approached this tree, though, he knew he had found the right one. The characteristic grey of the bark instantly sets the tree apart. Infused with just a tad too much metal mana this tree is a fine example of a classic ironwood oak.

Jeremy pats the bark and sighs. While useful for crafting, a tree like this will never be as healthy as its fellow oaks. Sure, there are metal attuned trees out there and they do fine. This, however, is a normal oak with a tad too much metal in it. Him cutting it down is almost a mercy.

Still, that task would require a lot more work than his mining had. The ore might have been obstinate about moving, but this tree had combined the concepts of metal and stress growth. After all, without the wind, a tree would be weak and having what amounts to a slow poison spread throughout the trunk is more than enough to make normal means of chopping it down meaningless.

So it’s a good thing that Jeremy had come prepared. From his pack he pulls a sparkly length of twine, thrice as long as he is tall with grips on both ends.The twine had cost him a silly amount of money, even after the weaver added on a friends discount. Not that he would have seriously considered going through a proper haggling session over it.

After all, very few people in the known world have the skill to spin the silk from a diasilkworm. Not only is each individual thread much larger but it requires a special process so that the diamond infused thread doesn’t shatter. Jeremy shakes his head as he thinks about it. Far as he is concerned, it is a real shame that you can’t use the thread itself as the spun twine is a little thick for his taste. A tad thinner and this would be a lot easier.

With a sigh, Jeremy passes the twine around the trunk and grabs both handles. Almost ready, he takes a few steps back for the line is tight and begins to saw away at the tree. Overhead, the sun sinks as he focuses on pulling the twine back and forth.

Though before he expects it dusk creeps up on him and forces Jeremy to stop, having only gotten a third of the way through the trunk. As the next morning dawns, Jeremy can’t help but regret stopping. Sure, night time is when the more dangerous monsters come out and if he isn’t in his enchanted tent, they would likely take too much of an interest in him.

Sure, his arms would have been just as sore after finishing but at least he would have needed to do more sawing. Jeremy sighed as he got back to work. It is especially hard as he knows that where he left off last night wasn’t because he had only done a third of the work. The heartwood of the tree is extra tough as it is where the metal energy has had a chance to settle down and crystalize.

Throughout the day, Jeremy pulls the twine back and forth until finally the twine pulls through. Now mama didn’t raise a dumb kobold, so the second the line went slack he lets the handles go and dashes off to the side. A good thing he did as the tree promptly decided to accept gravity’s invitation and lie down right where he had just been standing.

Jeremy moves back to the tree and proceeds with the tedious process of trimming it down. After, of course, he pulls the twine out from under the tree. He hadn’t exactly paid attention to the line when making a dash for his life.

The twine is retrieved and the clean up of the tree proceeds at a decent clip. Back at home he has enchantments and rituals set up to help process everything so all he needs to do is strip the limbs so it can fit into his pack. A simple is tedious affair that involves starting with the twine at the top of the tree and then sawing through all the branches on the way to the other end.

Once that is finished, Jeremy has the simple problem of now getting the log into his bag. So after a brief prayer of thanks to whoever figured out the magic equivalent of spandex, stretches the open end over the bottom of the log and begins to pull it. Before long, the log has completely vanished and he is ready to head back to the house.

After another night of camping, that is. Even though the cleanup didn’t take too much time, the sun was much too low for anything else. Of course, this means waking up the following day with arms so sore it makes the previous day wake up seem like a vacation. This doesn’t stop him from heading back to his house. Though once there, he decides to take time off until his body has recovered.

And so four days later, Jeremy is ready to start crafting. First up was to further process the ironwood as a couple logs, he had already cut off the upper section just below where the first limb grew, is not the most usable form factor. Nevermind the fact that most of the tree is going to be used as simple planks as only the heartwood is of a high enough quality to fulfill his friend’s request.

Jeremy starts with removal of the bark and because it is spring, he intends to do it in one piece. First, he uses a knife to cut a seam down the length of both logs. A little tough but his adamantium carving knife makes the process so much easier than it has any right to be. Then from there it is a simple matter of slowly prying up the bark with a bark spud. A tool that is basically a chisel of sorts attached to a long handle and since it doesn’t need to actually cut the log, he only needs to use an iron tool head.

Of course, the bark from the upper log has more than a few holes because of limbs but Jeremy is sure he will find a use for both pieces. In fact, as he stores the bark he also rolls that upper log into the shed. While still quality wood, he doesn’t know how deep the knots go so for now sets it aside to use in a future project.

Back with the cleanest log Jeremy carefully examines the ends, judging the hardwood’s location. Then, after using a char stick to mark some lines, he settles down to use the diasilk twine. Soon the first cut is done and he can’t help but sigh.

He didn’t have any abilities to allow him to see inside the log and so missed that the heartwood shrunk faster than he expected. Jeremy can only shake his head and readjust his next cut. Side after side fall off the center until all that is left is a square beam, the edges though are mostly regular wood.

Now able to see the full picture he easily makes four more cuts, reducing the square beam down once again until all that is left is the heartwood. Once again, he puts away the excess wood before pulling out an actual measurement tool. Half calipers, half magical laser balance, it allows him to see just how straight his cuts were and the dimensions of the beam.

There is a little wobble but Jeremy can only admit to himself that is inevitable without a proper saw. A good thing he can fix it with a fun little tool he had whipped up recently. From one of the drawers in his bench, Jeremy pulls out a wooden housing. If he was honest with himself, it is really just a wood plane designed to fit his adamantium knife, but he felt it was clever.

Either way, it allowed him to fix the little bit of wobble leaving him with a perfect piece of square heartwood. It is almost a shame that he has to cut it down even further. That Jeremy can’t help but feel a little foolish upon remembering he would have to use the plane on the rest of the cuts. Though at least at this point the wood has been reduced in size enough to fit his tools, a small magically powered table saw.

The blade on it isn’t quite up to the task of cutting ironwood so he has to cheat a little bit. Of course, he can’t just enchant the blade or else it could affect the wood he is cutting, but there are ways around that. Though his only option at the moment involves using an expensive goo, he sourced from an alchemist nearby.

Well, Jeremy thinks of the alchemist as being nearby. Most people consider needing a full month’s worth of travel over rough terrain to be a little outside of the range of nearby. It only counts as such to him because there isn’t really anyone closer at the moment. Either way, the alchemical supplement was designed not to leave any magical residue and so finishing up the planks was a breeze.

Which leaves processing the ore. Sure, there are a few other materials that would be used in the product but Jeremy will never claim to be a tanner, alchemist, or what have you. His focus has always been on wood and metal. So much is made from the pairing of the two that normally he wouldn’t bother making anything combat related. Still, a friend’s request every once in a while helps remind the other crafters why he sits on top of the pile.

Though speaking of reminding them of his skill, the steadfast iron ore alone would be enough to proclaim himself as one of the best. Of course, the most common method of handling the stuff isn’t hard. Otherwise his favorite item, the immovable rod, wouldn’t be so cheap all things considered.

Jeremy doesn’t consider that method to be a true method, though. Grinding the steadfast iron ore up and adding it into an iron bar is a shortcut. The other not being able to figure out how to smelt the stuff without losing the mana alignment just shows they still have room to grow.

Done snarking on the other crafters, Jeremy focuses on his smelter. Obviously, mana focused on not moving would be ruined if you turned it into a liquid without preparation. Just moving the ore is resisted so of course the atomic structure would resist such a change from a basic level and in the end he had found there wasn’t a simple way to get around this.

In the end, Jeremy had to fall back on some pretty obscure information and went back to a number of strange liquid yet solid materials. Specifically, he had looked into pitch and how while seemingly solid could form a drop after years. The important part was that despite moving it tended to react to magic as a solid, exactly what was needed to process the steadfast iron.

Not that he wanted to waste years, even if he wasn’t exactly aging anymore. After all, what good was magic if it didn’t let you cheat with stuff like this. So with a good dose of time magic, something the system made much easier if you aren’t involving any living entities, he figured out a process.

Jeremy had to get the ore barely over the line between solid and liquid then keep it there for about 20 years. A tough task when you yourself can’t be managing it in real time. Well, he could but see the previous thing about not wanting to waste time. So instead he put in place a formation to up the speed by about 520 times normal or in other worse, turning a week into a decade.

This does not make it easy. Jeremy still needs to go two full weeks without sleep, all the while constantly fine tuning his mana output. He can’t even reverse the time ratio for a break because of the nature of the ore. The second he does the ore will resist any speed up to the point of burning itself out.

So there Jeremy sits in front of his forge as the fire flickers so fast it would require a seizure warning. He had tried a heat formation but he couldn’t attune the heat properly. Instead, he used ironwood charcoal, which is why it took so long to find the previous tree. The area had been lousy with the things when he first moved in. Now? Not so much.

Anyway, the two weeks have soon passed. Which is a colossal lie. There is nothing “soon” about it for Jeremy. The process is basically watching paint dry but requiring constant interaction. Still, the process does end with a large basin full of what are basically the worst ball bearings in existence. Perfect little spheres that even if he turned the basin over wouldn’t roll out.

Just what he was looking for. In fact, he does turn the basin over only to find a few of the balls fall out. Jeremy can’t help but shake his head, even with all the effort he has put into perfecting the process a good five percent of the resulting iron has failed to keep the attunement.

There isn’t anything he can do about it either without more time and for now, he has enough. Just barely, but his process isn’t exactly the most efficient with the ore either. About the biggest upside is that the process is so slow that the purification array can easily take care of any nonsense. Though with the most tedious part of the way, he can get on to the hardest part.

After all, trying to change the shape of a metal that is based around the concept of not changing isn’t going to be easy. Though at this point the difficulty is fully a physical matter and mostly involves hitting the iron with a big hammer. So with nothing else to it, Jeremy begins smacking the iron around, forming it into straps, rivets, and sections of what will be the rim.

Iron pieces ready, Jeremy goes back to his ironwood planks and lays them out on an angled workbench. Later on he would be connecting the pieces with the steadfast iron, but first he had to put in his special touch. See, the way most people make immovable rods is through a brute force method. They use an enchantment to overpower the metal’s natural effect.

Jeremy figured out a better way. By using the natural connection between the steadfast iron and ironwood harvest from the same area as the iron came from, he could selectively disable the effect. This is convenient as it means low magic zones and dispels won’t result in the rod being stuck. Sure, without an enchantment active to improve the steadfast effect you just need a strong enough person to move it but who knows where you might be when it happens. More than one skeleton has been found suspended by a backpack containing a dispelled rod.

Though none of that really matters to Jeremy. What he cares about is allowing his friend to switch the effect on and off with a mental command and only his method will allow for that. So, with great care, he began to carve out an intricate pattern. It starts with an outline that would need to be cut away, anyway.

From there though comes the real secret as he carves what to most looks like a simple running-vine pattern. In truth, there was more than a little of that traditional flourish incorporated into the design, but the meat and bones of the work is how he used the curling vines to create some of the most fluid runework he had ever seen anywhere. Runes, even those meant to represent water or what have you, tend towards creating straight sided shapes like hexagons and triangles.

This style of runes, however, was something Jeremy had picked up from an ancient nature temple when he was still irl. It is kind of amazing that it still works here as well but he isn’t not going to complain and just chalks it up to the system using a proper simulation of magic.

What is important is that by using the nature runes on actual wood will allow his friend to channel his thoughts into the enchantment like it was a continuation of his nervous system. Something normal runework could never do. Sure, it has ways to mimic it, but never at the level of being a natural extension of a person’s actions.

With the nature runes finished and double checked, the enchant should turn on and off through the simple actions of his friend moving his hand or trying to hold it in place. From there he cut out the shape and discarded the extra piece of ironwood for later work as he refocuses on the steadfast iron pieces he had made.

By this point, they had properly cooled down with the metal recrystallizing in the proper patterns such that each piece isn’t moving anywhere without a whole lot of convincing. Just what Jeremy wanted. The edges and bars had all been placed to cool in such a way that he could lay the wood parts on top of them.

First was the lengths of metal that crossed over the front so as to hold the pieces of wood together. With the wood parts laid out, Jeremy began the difficult work of riveting the straps to the wood. A delicate balancing act between getting the rivets hot enough to actually work as rivets yet at the same time, not so hot as to ruin their steadfast nature. More than a few of the first attempts went in the scrap pile when they couldn’t stay suspended in air after being heated.

After that, though, Jeremy got into the groove and started working his way through all the metal edges as the wood’s runework even now allows him to slightly move the work around. While this slowed the work down, it couldn’t stop him and there were soon enough only four rivets left to add, which he had left to last. Those four rivets would be the most difficult of the whole lot if only because he had to handle them at the lowest temperature possible as they would be used to attach the leather handle.

So with great care, Jeremy watches the first rivet heat up, just a bit more, just a bit. There, he pulls it out and slams it into place before going to town on it. Without the higher temperatures, the steadfast nature really shows through and it requires many full power swings of his riveting hammer. Then he repeats the process three more times to complete the work.

With a smile Jeremy picks it up and then lets go causing it to hang there having lost all momentum and movement the second he had released it. Then he grabs it and lets go again. This time, though, it falls to the ground, just like he had meant it to. Better yet, when he goes to pick it up the work has returned to being steadfast.

Almost done with the basic tests, Jeremy suspends it in air once more and swings a giant brass hammer at it with all of his strength. Not even a sign of vibration as the steadfast iron’s nature had managed to cover even the wood and leather bits.

Jeremy steps back with a beaming smile as he observes the finished product and the system queries him to name his masterpiece. He hadn’t ever been one for fancy names and so a simple name slips from his lips, “The Steadfast Shield”.