With one more set of hands we managed to mix up about ninety liters of refractory clay in an hour. The wet thuds of us slapping clay created a steady rhythm. I heard the gate open, Hargrave stepping in followed by Vex.

  “I’m telling you; the body has some strange ways to lead aether along its structure. You should research and observe it more, you might find some natural formations in us, just like monster materials ha—”

  Vex’s voice cut short as he bumped into Hargrave’s back. The older professor had frozen mid-step, staring at us.

  “Hello, I’m glad to see you two are back to arguing on your fields of study with this much vigor.” I saluted them.

  Vex, shorter than Hargrave, had to move to the side to look at us too. He froze wide-eyed seeing us three as well. All of us stopped working upon seeing their reaction.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked, confusion evident in my words.

  Vex was the first to snap out of the trance and answered with a shaky voice. “Is that… Isn’t that the principal’s daughter? You are playing in mud with the young lady?”

  “Yes, she’s Cassia… Is there a problem? Also, this isn’t playing, we are mixing clay to make a furnace.”

  “Oh my, is it so strange to see myself doing some manual work? I thought by now mine reputation would make this unimpressive.” Cassia said, her spine straightening instantly. Her tone shifted, dropping the fatigue to adopt a haughty, noble cadence.

  It reminded me of how she acted all the way back on my first day out of the medicine ward. She drove away two upperclassmen, and she had the same attitude and posture. While I was unsurprised, just a bit unsettled by this mask of hers, Magnar was beyond shocked.

  As soon as he heard Cassia speak, his head snapped up to look at her. His mouth opened slightly, his hands falling on the clay before him.

  “May aether cradle you, my lady.” Hargrave saluted Cassia.

  For the first time I got a feeling for the weight this girl could throw around, and I had to say it was a lot… ‘Even the professors seem scared of her.’ I couldn’t help but shake my head internally.

  “What is this smell!?” Asked Hargrave getting closer. His face scrunched up and he pinched his nose. He stepped back and took distance.

  “Is that horse dung?” Vex requested a confirmation.

  “Yes. It’s manure.” I answered.

  “So, you are mixing clay with manure… and is that stone crushed by Hargrave?”

  “Partly. I had to gather it all and further crush it to use it like this. But indeed, that is the mix. Two parts clay, two parts crushed stone and one part manure.”

  “Interesting… Why this ratio and these materials?”

  “Well… it’s to prevent shrinking. The dust is from cinder blocks—already baked material. It acts as a rigid skeleton for the raw clay to cling to.” I grabbed some of the dust from a sack and rubbed them between my fingers, enforcing them with aether, to prove how hard they were at that size.

  Their grinding made a soft sound, barely affecting them. I let them fall back where I got them from as my point was made. “As for the manure, the straw burns away in the heat, leaving microscopic voids. It allows the clay to compress without cracking.”

  "Clever," Vex muttered, rubbing his chin. "Crude, but clever. Also, heat? What heat? Are you going to use this for a furnace?” continued Vex. Meanwhile Hargrave rushed past us holding his nose and went in the back where he left his research materials.

  “Yes, a furnace. That thing’s going to be pretty much lined and then mirrored above then lined again.”

  “That is a big furnace you’re making… Why?”

  “To make billets for swords and other weapons… To produce my own ingots. If I make them myself, I should be able to save some time down the line and more control over the result.”

  “Well, to finish all that would take you a long time. How about I lend you a hand?”

  “Sure, let me show you how to do it!” I enthusiastically jumped to the opportunity.

  “No, no, no. Let me!” He stopped me. He came closer. “Bring all the materials you think you’ll need, and I’ll take care of the mixing for you.”

  “… Ok!”

  Both me and Magnar started running back and forth carrying sacks of clay, manure and cinder stone dust. After we were done Vex waved his hand. A purplish light expanded like a cloud and seeped into the sacks.

  The clay in several sacks floated up, along with sand and manure, elongating like tendrils and twisting together, their ends turning into a growing ball that was changing shape, elongating and folding onto itself.

  Then a tendril descended from the ball and gathered where the mix we made was placed. More clay raised to mix and descended into the pile.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  The spectacle came with a wet churning sound, a low faintly audible hum and a slight ache in the bones, a sensation I attributed to the earth affinity.

  “Air needs to be removed from the mix entirely or as close to entirely…”

  “Yes, I’m taking care of that too, don’t worry.”

  The three of us were left with nothing to do. We could only look as Vex magically turned the work that would have taken us multiple hours into one that took just half an hour. Cassia looked on with us at the spectacle but turned unimpressed.

  “Say, Cato… How long do you think this would have taken us?” Magnar asked, his eyes never leaving the tendrils of clay, sand and manure.

  “At our rate? About three-four more hours, I think. I’m not sure.”

  “I’ll be…”

  I could only nod at his reaction. This was mind-blowing. The clay made a squishy sound as it mixed in the air. I looked down to my hand. Clay was drying up on it, giving me a ticklish-itchy sensation. I clenched my hand and wiggled my fingers.

  “I think we have to wash our hands. The mix will suck the moisture from our hands. I doubt you want to get cracked skin…” I went to the other side, while Magnar followed. Cassia was still there scrubbing her hands vigorously.

  “Woah, there, that’s enough already… You’re going to hurt yourself using that much force…” I spoke up. She suddenly straightened up and stood there stiffly. ‘She hadn’t heard us coming…’

  “Yeah…” Her voice was shaky, so I drew a conclusion. She lacked conviction.

  “Is it because there was manure in the mix? If you hated it this much you should have not helped…”

  “It’s not that I hated it… Just got very uncomfortable with it now after the fact…”

  I nodded slightly and started cleaning my own hands. Cassia hesitated a bit longer then headed to the tower and entered it. I hurried back to the mixing site. ‘Since we have Vex here willing to help, then we might as well have him work some more. Let’s profit from his presence.’ Magnar followed after me a bit later.

  “We need to bring the sand. Let’s have him do the inside, it will be way faster.” I told Magnar.

  We both took sand sacks and more cinder stone dust sacks and got them near the half-built blast furnace. We moved on to the stone blocks just as Vex finished with mixing.

  “So, this thing is what you need the clay for?” He asked walking towards us. The clay heap was rolling on the floor, leaving no trail behind, clearly under his aetheric control.

  “Yes. It will be used to smelt metal.” I replied.

  “But are you even allowed to build all this on academy grounds?”

  “Hm? Do I need to be allowed? If I show off my talents more ostentatiously, won’t nobles be finding trouble with the headmaster to win my favor? Better yet I don’t need to do anything for them in return since they will act by themselves. Besides I know the pinch that guy’s in…”

  Vex smiled wryly. “Are you even a kid to think like that?” He shook his head. “I thought you merely did not consider that issue, seems I was wrong…”

  He looked at the materials and the built structure. “You want me to help with these too?”

  “Yes. It would go much faster. It took me about three hours to get those chiseled and mounted.”

  He nodded. “I can do that, but what will you offer?”

  I was astonished, my mind freezing for a second. ‘Doesn’t this guy want me as his disciple? Why is he talking about charging me now?’ I looked at him questioningly.

  “You just told me how you’d manipulate your situation. Aren’t I in the same boat as those nobles you spoke of? If I know I won’t get anything by doing this, why would I do it?” He laughed, grinning at me like a predator watching his cornered, harmless prey. “You’re still too green, boy.”

  ‘Fuck…’ I couldn’t help but swear. This guy thought too fast. ‘Isn’t he supposed to be just a damn doctor? Why’s he so sharp?’

  “You saw my crafts… Do you want one of those? I could make some medical needles with lightning effects… Those would help in your actual job.”

  “Interesting… But I’m not good with needles.” He shot down the offer.

  “Well, you request something then. A craft, I’m not promising or giving anything else.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll see to make a good deal. I should wait for you to become a fifth stage powerhouse, then you can make me some fifth stage artifacts.”

  “Pffff” I started coughing at the unexpected strategy. This guy wanted to wring me dry. It wasn’t worth it for a blast furnace. “If I think about it, I better build this myself…”

  “Too late.” The purplish cloud left his body again, crawling above the ground, seeping into the sand and blocks to raise them into position. The stone crackled slightly as they were shifting and fusing together in place under his magic, while the sand rustled softly as it flew into place.

  “The sand is supposed to stay between the clay layer and the stone one… To allow the basin to shrink or expand… The top is supposed to be an upstanding cone! Don’t expand the upside-down one anymore!” I gave the commands rapidly, seeing him almost mess things up.

  Amongst all the benefits of Vex taking care of finishing the blast furnace, was the fact that he squeezed the water right out, leaving the clay ready for firing. The water beaded out of the contracting mix and flowed down and out through the slide I made. Someone like him could bankrupt any potter with his speed and accuracy…

  The sun was already descending as he finished. I had him make some more holes and clay ducts all so that more bellows could be used on the furnace, but that was it. I needed to make a pulley system and the bellows before anything else.

  Vex also made the coal float right into the furnace and I lit it up. Once the clay baking was done I could in theory start using it for smelting and casting my own ingots to make into weapon billets.

  “Thank you for helping. It would take really too long to do it by myself.”

  “It’s fine, I’ll profit from this later.” Vex said wearing a wide grin.

  I took the sack of materials brought by Cassia and went to talk with Hargrave.

  “Here are the materials for the toilet array. Could you set it up today?”

  His head snapped to me. He was working on his array, slightly moving some materials and rearranging conductors.

  “You have them? Alright I’ll do it later. Do you have a pit dug up? The array takes some time to process the stuff, so it is usually placed at the bottom of a not-that-deep pit.”

  “No… we don’t have one yet.”

  “I’ll take care of it. You just move your ass to arrange the formation.” Vex told Hargrave. “Show me where you want the pit.”

  The spot chosen was between the shower and water area and the back area, so close to where we talked to Hargrave. In a few minutes the earth moved, folded and compressed into packed smooth walls surrounding a pit. It was close to the tower, the pit having one side stuck to the stone wall of the tower.

  Vex used his aether to smooth out and block any possible opening, isolating the pit from the tower completely.

  “Cato, you have no conductors here.” said Hargrave calmly as he was looking in the sack. Then he raised his eyes and looked at me. “How are you expecting me to set it up!? This is a waste of my time!”

  I face palmed. ‘I forgot I told Cassia not to buy those…’

  “I’ll make them right now… Come with me, I have the iron needed but no idea what lengths you need.”

  “Come with you…” Hargrave kept mumbling angrily.

  I looked up and saw Cassia looking at us through the window. She was admiring the window moments before her gaze fell down, judging by the way her hand was on it.

  First making living conditions, then the lesson. I had to forge these two in powerhouses if I started this.

  Join the Aether Gatherer tier to unlock the 10-chapter backlog instantly!

  Enjoying the story?

  Please leave a Rating and hit Follow!

  It helps the story climb the charts and keeps the daily updates flowing.

  ?? Author's Question:

  What else do you think Vex would be able to do with his earth attribute? Original ideas, not atla.