Into Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 8 Nirn's Beta

Chapter 119 - Processing and Comprehension

Looking through the storage room I was shocked at the amount of material. Hundreds of ingots lined the shelves, from iron to ebony were laid out. Past the ebony ingot were perfectly cut orbs of carbon, lithium, calcium, magnesium. The amount of raw metal and periodic elements that was stored here was incredible.

Past the raw ingredients were gemstones and jewels. There was far more than just the normally found gems too. I lifted up a Tiger's eye and set it back down with the other natural gems. I picked up some of the more odd ones to look at them. I couldn't recognize some such as Silver Quartz and Crusted Coralite.

Past those were Soul gems and the red memory gems. The soul gems came in a wide variety with both unfilled and filled soul gems. Though my interested moved to the memory gems. I held up a memory gem and inspected the description. "A memory gem with the stored history of a spider."

I moved past the gems and walked deeper into the storage room to find several glass containers. Each were labeled, but I couldn't read them. I could recognize things like Crimson nirnroot, a deadra heart, the chitin of a Dreugh, and even Ironwood Nuts. Though some ingredients I had less of a clue about. Some type of antlers I believed were from and Indrik. A several glass containers of turtle like shells and scales. Finally things I couldn't recognize at all like a giant eye and some sort of glassy flesh.

I would need to remove them from the glass cases to inspected them. I looked further up and the containment of the materials stored here got more complex. A large metal casing with a single glass window held a liquid inside. The liquid was a blue-white hue and I looking it over I guessed it was likely the binding agent used.

The storage room went on with machine parts. Premade scrap and dwemer cogs lined several shelves. I paused though as I picked up one piece of scrap and inspected it. "Aetherium infused dwemer plating." I looked at a few other pieces that shared the blue specs. Sure enough a few of the scraps had aetherium. I twisted in some thought, removing the aetherium for my own use would be extremely difficult. The plating here was likely used for the aetherium forge master.

I looked at other premade pieces and found a replicated Spell Breaker. Though picking up this version of the shield I could recognize it was lacking any magic to it. It also lacked detail to it such as the small circuits that the real spell breaker had. This was likely the prototype. I set it back down and frowned, several dwemer prototype parts were here actually.

This storage room had an insane variety of items. It made me wonder what they used it all for. Why keep prototype replicas of varying artifacts? Yet I couldn't dismiss them. After all I could easily use some of the spare prototypes.

I looked past the prototypes to the last set of shelves. I raised an eyebrow as I picked up one of the metal plates. I looked up at a vent that displaced cold air over the metal plates. looking back at the metal plate i shifted my hand over the grooves. The plates had small embossed words at the very tips of them. Across the rest of the plate though was several etchings with deep lines that expanded throughout the plate.

The plates were kept at the very back with cold air. Making me wonder about their specific use. Some of the etchings were in the shape of symbols I could easily recognize. Some were in the shape of daedric runes, while others were the symbols of the skill trees. My eyes went wide as I realized the use. I picked up one of the plates and felt the etching and shook my head. "Enchanting plates, prefabricated enchanting tools." Dwemer enchanters were rare, so why wouldn't they make enchanting easy for the forge masters?

I set the metal plate down, I could experiment later. I moved out of the storage room and rushed toward Viree to tell her what I found. "Viree! Viree! You gotta hear about this."

I entered the break room and found Viree half way with spoon in her mouth. I raised an eyebrow, "Are you eating one of the preserved meals?"

She stared at me and set it down. "No, it was, uh..."

I shook my head, and Viree scoffed, "Look you can experiment on your metals and stuff, I can try the mysteriously preserved soup."

I rolled my eyes, "Anyway, In the storage room were all kinds of stuff. Stuff I couldn't recognize, some old prototype versions of dwemer artifacts, as well as automatic enchanting tools. I prepared my own material, but with the stuff from that storage room I could easily upgrade everything we have. I could likely even make some extra stuff I wasn't planning."

Viree nodded, "That's good. I assume you are telling me so I can make a request on what to make?"

I nodded, "Pretty much."

Viree nodded, "Okay, I obviously want a hammer, I would like some medium weight armor. If you could make a circlet of some kind instead of helmet? Something that would keep my hair out of my face. I don't like my harness you made last time, I would like one that doesn't dig into my skin. Oh! Chainmail underwear!"

I shook my head, "I'm not making chainmail underwear."

She shrugged, "Fair enough, but if you could make some underwear for me that would be cool."

i raised an eyebrow and Viree shifted, "I only have two pairs alright? I know you don't change your clothes, but I spent my teenage years in a sewer I would like to be able to exchange my under garments freely."

I nodded, "Okay, that is fair. Anything else?"

Viree tossed a staff at me, "I don't use that thing. If you could make something long ranged for me that isn't a useless stick. That would be amazing."

I took the hag's wraith staff and twirled it around in my hand. "Fine, I got an idea. If I can manage it I promise you will have one long ranged weapon you can use easily."

I pocketed the staff and thought about, "i'll try to make you some jewelry too. I have artifact rings, but other than the Dreamsworld amulet you don't really have anything."

She nodded, "Are you going to get started now? or are you going to check out that Oculory thing."

i snapped my fingers, "Oculory, wanna check it out?"

She nodded and put the ancient food down and followed me to the Oculory room.

The Oculory was almost as expected. Many of the dwemer ruins ended in an Oculory of some kind that worked as a puzzle. Though that was exactly what they were. Well designed puzzles that did very specific things. The safe that Septimus Signus wanted to crack is an Oculory. This one wasn't as complex as others though. All the mirrors pointed to a single angle.

Viree looked at the pedestal in the middle of the room. "So you put the lexicon in this thing?"

I nodded, "I'll start with the one I unlocked myself."

They pedestal wasn't like other lexicon holders. This one had a casing that closed around the lexicon and on top of the casing was a filter of some kind. "I think this is how it works."

I placed the lexicon into it and motioned to Viree, "Press that button."

She walked up a small ramp and pressed the button. The pedestal shifted and locked the lexicon into place. A red dot appeared on the top of the pedestal. A small heatless laser pointed to one side of the room and began to spin in a circle until it landed on me.

"Fascinating. I think it scanned who was on the floor here."

I heard the frown in Viree's voice, "You sure that is safe? That laser looks a little."

"Looks a little what? It doesn't have any magic properties and the laser doesn't have any heat so it shou- Fuck!"

Viree jumped to me, "Are you okay."

I looked at her and someone else's face overlapped with hers. Blurring images and machines came to life around me and suddenly I got a notification and the images vanished.

I blinked and my eyes drifted to find the new passive effect. "The complete knowledge from a Memory Lexicon?"

Viree patted my side, "Are you okay! Vek?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I uh, feel a little disoriented that's all."

Viree looked extremely worried and punched me in the side, "You idiot! You were just staring off into space for like 5 minutes. You scared me I thought your brain got scrambled."

I nodded, "I think it did for a second. The lexicon beamed someone's memories in my mind. I think the Red lexicon's are exactly what I thought they were."

Viree frowned at me, "So you knew it might do something like this?"

I shook my head, "I didn't think it would literally beam the knowledge into my head."

Viree shook her head, "What is the knowledge that you were given that made you just stare off into space like that?"

I tilted my head in some thought, "It feels like I've been working with Dwemer metal all my life. On top of that I could identify impurities and weakness in tools and weapons. Apparently it was called the Memory of Design. So I guess it gave me the knowledge and experience to identify things like that at a almost legendary level."

I paused and took out Sable Wave. Looking at it I suddenly just knew where I went wrong with it. I could see the problems. I could also tell many of the mistakes were almost fixed. They were smoothed out with magic, most likely Alchemic Shift.

I nodded, "I wonder what the others do."

Viree frowned, "Are you seriously thinking about doing the other lexicons? You scared me half to death with the first one."

I nodded, "Well, I mean. We know what will happen now."

She sighed, "You are an idiot. Fine, but if you don't wake up in five minutes like the first one I am gonna gut punch you so hard."

I nodded again, "That was mostly fair."

Viree walked back up the ramp disgruntled, but willing to accept the fact I would likely do this anyway. Her watching over me would at least comfort her. She pressed a button that the pedestal shifted to release the lexicon and replaced it with one we found in the schematic library.

When the lexicon locked into place the laser appeared again preformed it circle of the room and landed on me. A second later I felt the same sting in my head and blinked back into related even as phantom images faded into the back of my mind. Viree called out, "I counted 3 minutes you are so lucky!"

I raised up a thumb, "Next one?"

The process repeated another 4 times. Each time the sting sent me reeling into my mind while some past event or scene haunted me briefly. The entire time Viree was threating me with each minute. I shook off the final sting and looked at the haul.

The five new passive effects were similar to that of Design. Accomplishment was perhaps the most useful right now. It was if I was given the combined linguistic skills, Magical Aptitude, and Occult Understanding of a dozens of sages. It felt like I gained some kind of Enlightenment. Actually, it was as if a dozen sages and their accomplishments were beamed into my mind.

As for the rest, Architecture was completely useless. Gaining the knowledge of how the build Dwemer Cities wasn't that useful. Excavation was a little similar, but instead of building the cities. It was digging out the caverns and tunnels that the cities were constructed in. The excavation techniques might not be bad to send over to Derkeethus.

Trying to self reflect on what Bio-Chemistry gave me I couldn't put a finger on it. I gained some extensive knowledge on mushrooms, man and mer anatomy, as well as several insects. Though that wasn't really chemistry. Actually Materialization wasn't bad either.

"I think I sorted it all out in my head. I gained some important things from this, the first is some memories of a blacksmith and the skills that came along with it. The second gave me the ability to read dwemer so that's nice, but in context it doesn't mean much. Just removes my need of trial and error. The last though gave me a rather extensive nodded on how to put together advance machinery. It gave me an interesting idea, I need to get started on it right away."

Viree watched as I ran toward the ramp down the Oculory. I slipped and fell half way, but I landed on my feet and ran toward the Forge. I ran past Philip and went straight into the door. Viree was behind me a second later as I began dumping out the materials I needed that were on me. I spun around and ran toward the storage room and began grabbing certain items.

Viree watched me, "Is this gonna be a good idea?"

I nodded, "One of those Lexicons were called the Memory of Materialization. It gives knowledge on advance machinery, right?"

I took out the schematics and flipped through them and paused. I searched my inventory and found the schematic on crossbows. Placing it down and holding it down with an ingot I pulled out three more schematics. Viree looked at them, "I don't see how these come together."

I pointed to the Crossbow and Ballista, "These are essentially the same except for some key details. If I combine these concepts with a little effort I can create a very strong supported weight."

I pointed to the diagram of a Centurion, "The Centurion is also very interesting. Not the centurion itself, but this hammer. It uses a suspension system that stabilizes the hammer and gives a greater control of the swing from the hammer. Finally this schematic of a mechanical horse I am specifically looking at the legs. Which may seem odd, but if you look at them they need to compress down without a suspension system. If I were to combine the two the stability of my idea will skyrocket."

VIree looked at the materials I grabbed, "And you are using Volendrung? and all that other stuff?"

I nodded, as I lifted Volendrung, "The hammer is slightly cracked from the impact with dragon bone. You put a lot of strain onto a single point of the hammer which caused it to crack and ultimately cave in the skull of that dragon. Volendung is covered in enchantments, some I have a feeling would take years to figure out. One I know is on it though is something that displaces kinetic force upon impact. I know because..."

I trailed off as I pulled out another Schematic, "Thanks to my new found dwemer vocabulary I can recognize this word on the Colossus schematic as Kinetic Disruptor Enchantment Module."

I smiled at Viree who stared at the Schematic nodded and pointed backwards. "I am going to let you obsess over this, while I am over there."

I nodded and pulled out Nuzava's Anvil. It seemed extra-ordinary, but upon some closer inspection the metal was made of pure Meteoric Iron. While a strip across the Anvil that was ornately carved was made from Mithril. To call the Anvil simple was an understatement. The fact the Psijic Order collected this Anvil and just left it to rot was cruel.

I took out the Sload Soap I bought from Enthir and began to rub down the Anvil. Next I took out some Dwarven Oil and coated the very top of the anvil. I took several ingots and began working out the very first part I needed.

I grabbed the silver ingots and paused. I picked up a single ebony ingot and began turning it into metal bolts. Once they were done I returned to the silver. Making 6 curved braces, I looked at them and frowned. I grabbed another set of ingots and made four more curved braces. The braces would serve as the needed limbs of my idea.

I set them to the side and began working out the next parts. I would need to make some gears, a lever and some pistons. I would need to double the amount though. Designing a hand held ballista was actually rather difficult. It couldn't be the normal size or Viree couldn't carry it, but if I made it too small I couldn't fit it together.

I made several parts from ebony and silver until I got to the the more complicated parts. They needed to be more flexible. I began looking through my inventory and found the document I was looking for. I paused though as I gained unexpected insight.

I took out the production methods for Frog-Metal and Tyranite Calx, but I also took out the recipe for Skinmail. Looking at them I put away the recipe for Tyranite Calx, it was a good material, but not what I was looking for. Frog-Metal and the Skinmail did fit into my idea. Frog-metal was incredibly light and could free float on water without any augmentation. While Skinmail might be perfect for the more flexible materials.

I had bought the items for Skinmail from Enthir and already had some of the other ingredients. i paused and moved to Binding station and got to work. Mixing a Daedric heart, some Sload Soap, Frost Salts I got to work on making the Skin mail. The ingredients fused quickly by using the Binding tool. Adding some ingredients afterward I began using the Binding tool to create a long pasted belt.

I stretched the substance and nodded. It was like carbon fiber Kevlar, and matched my needs perfectly. I made several more belts and strings from the skinmail material. The name was a little gross, "I think I will just call this stuff Fiber mail rather than skinmail. This would allow me to distance this away from the crazy alchemist who originally designed skinmail."

I emptied out the rest of the fiber mail into a sheet of fibrous cloth. I could cut the rest out of the cloth if need be. Now I just needed to make the frog-metal. I put the fiber mail to the side and grabbed the ingredients needed for Frog-metal.

Frog-metal was surprisingly simple to make it was just the ratio of material needed was difficult. I decided to to create the material from scrap. Making Steel with a very high carbon content was the hardest part. Second I took out some blank soul gems and Void Salt. Crushing them together I began slowly creating several ingots of Frog-metal.

Once the Frog-Metal was made I began shaping it into the barrel and flight grove. Along with creating a trigger mechanism. With this almost all the parts for the cross bow was made. I still lacked the Foregrip, Stock and Stirrup. I would like to make it from Silver, but I had to use a sturdier metal. I felt Orichalcum was the best bet for this.

For the last part I picked up Volendrung. Reshaping Volendrung would take a lot more. First I would need to weaken the metal. This was easy enough I just dipped Volendrung into the lava. Once it was heated the hammer glowed with a dark red. Even dipped in lava it struggled to be melted. I walked toward the forge and began dumping fire salts onto Volendrung. In time the hammer grew brighter and brighter.

Eventually it reached the point I could freely reshape the hammer. Contorting the heavy block of metal that made up the head of the hammer took a while. Analyzing the metal of Volendrung it was made of several layers. Each layer was a different alloy, the first layer and most outer was Ebon-Steel. I would need to make my own from scratch after I peel off the outer layer. The second layer made me smile more, an alloy of silver and orichalcum. That was good for me, I think I might've gotten rather lucky with this alloy though. None the less I separated the second layer off of Volendrung.

This left me with the core of Volendrung and I frowned as the metal wasn't hot at all. I twirled it in my hand inspecting the metal. "Shit." The core of Volendrung was made of Dwarven Adamant. A metal which was even harder to craft than dwemer alloy. No recipe existed for this metal and I had not method to reproduce it. The core of Volendrung couldn't be melted down easily and so I left Volendrung inside the forge to heat up.

While Volendrung's core was being set up to be reshaped into what I needed I got started on my next step. Taking out Pendulum I began working on taking it apart. This task was far easier than Volendrung and soon I had four crescent blades and a small bar that they were once connected too.

The handle of Pendulum was useless, but I could melt it down later. I looked at Volendrung and it barely changed. So took out the poacher's axe. I really only needed to enchantment on it. I set it to the side and headed toward the storage room. Looking in the very back I began looking at the prefabricated enchanting plates. I smiled as I found a blank enchanting slate on the bottom of the shelf.

I headed back toward the forge and stopped at the enchanting table. Now only if I figure out how to use this. Sadly I wasn't given a tutorial from the lexicons. I placed the blank slate in a slot on the side. Picking up the Poacher's axe I slid it into a thick opening on the other side. A second later the axe was destroyed and the enchanting table began making noise. I was worried the insides were melted like some of the other workbenches. A minute later the blank enchanting plate popped out of the slot.

Sure enough I could see it held the Poacher's Assault enchantment. The process was fascinating! All I needed now was to place the plate and parts together to transfer the enchantment. I began copying the enchantment to the several limbs I made earlier. Once done I checked on Volendrung. The hammer was glowing with heat, not as hot as I would like, but this would work.

I smiled all that was left was reshaping the core and reassembly of the hammer as a whole. First I shaped Volendrung's core into a slimmer flatter block with a small valley in the center. Second I needed to add the limbs to the core and bolt them together with the right spacing. Before the next step I needed to add the stirrup. I placed it perfectly into place and smiled. Once that was done I began recreating the second layer of Volendrung.

While creating the second layer I began to shape it and add several grooves to it. Starting with the bottom half I slotted in the Foregrip that fit perfectly and fused it to the alloy. Second I took the bladed left overs of Pendulum and placed them into the grooves I made length wise. This just left one more thing to add. The frog-metal firing mechanism this was the hard part as I slid it underneath two of the bladed edges. It fit well into the large groove I made. A small gap though made it wiggle in the groove though.

I took more of the ebony bolts and added them in. With this final step the second layer was done. This left me with the hardest task of the outer layer. Remaking the Ebon-Steel outer layer required the most time out of all the others. Eventually though I made the outer casing. The firing mechanism was encased, but a bolt could be freely added and it would fire through the outer casing.

I smiled at the unfinished item, it was already incredibly well-made. All I needed to do was add the belts and strings, improve the handle and grip and stock, and finally re-enchant and edit the enchantments on the outer layers and parts. My smile grew as I could hardly wait for the finished project.