47 Searing 121
Working non stop for three days was well worth it as it meant five batches of completed Viscerite; the only thing left was to fashion them into caster shells for firearms. Easier said than done actually as everyone was already worn out from the job- it was important the Viscerite was checked, double checked with a fresh set of eyes and then, rechecked for defects. Firing, dry or miss, would be the least of their issues if anything went wrong as chances are whoever got those would be offed in a firefight and no longer be their problem or, just get paid off to make the problem go away. The worst was for someone to get faulty shells and have their weapon exploding in their hands and truthfully, in their hands surviving something like that was considered the worst of it; the quickest way to get the Order of Reconciliation sniffing around.And so the assistant for this particular project, Dakkur, took an aura glass to the completed Viscerite; commenting on the difference in quality from Viscerite he had made before with the obvious, "well, its a lot brighter than the ones I make." The more experienced runesmith he was under without a doubt would make Viscerite far better in quality compared to whatever Dakkur made making it a stupid observation which did not contribute much. Looking into it deeper, "shouldn't it be more... inert? I don't remember the aether in Viscerite being this energetic. Not till its put in a vessel and given a function" which while not a stupid observation remained nothing which would contribute to appraising the Viscerite but at least it had Dakkur on the right path; he would not have actually considered that the transience of a caster shell which only needed it to blast once meant it should always have energy within it ready to explode.
That may be the reason why he heard those old antique firearms found in old ruins were sold as duds by those who did not know any better- a big mistake for them as sometimes they ended up working right after the shells were swapped out. The aether was always in there, working, and at some point would have to run out no matter how many years it took. Considerably a lot better for what should be a malfunctioning firearm after being left out to the elements.
As he continued on with his analysis, Dakkur was able to learn more about what went into making caster shell. For example, the shells were usually round balls because it was standard to most firearms out there although more creative killers would have differently shaped shells for for their purposes. Not something which Dakkur needed to know about, yet, as he only needed to take the aura glass ball to ball ensure the aether was only swirling around in there- no leaks from the Viscerite. By the fourth hour, Dakkur was getting tired of balls and his mind wandered lunch, sincerely hoping the dish of the day at the nearby tavern could be spa- oh no those have balls in them! The balls were even intruding his daydreams and it was terrible. As the horrible idea surfaced Dakkur felt that even the Viscerite was reacting and fortunately someone was around to stop him because... it was. Made from Dragonshard, it should come as no surprise the aether of the freshly cooked Viscerite could be reacting to his own.
A sign Dakkur was still green or as a person with a hint of vanity in himself, a sign his family loved him too much to shelter him from this aspect of the craft. A little break to make himself less vulnerable to the Viscerite now he was more aware of its volatile nature and Dakkur returned to his search. While he did not know exactly to look for, going through dozens of Viscerite which were to be made into caster shells either imprinted their details into his mind or fed into his delusion that he may have just become that much more capable a runesmith. There was one batch in particular which was different from the rest and after he brought it up, Dakkur was surprised to learn not only was that batch different but it was actually... better?
"How?"
It turns out not even experienced runesmiths were immune to distractions although for them it was not too big a problem since they knew how to reign the products back in only in this case, when thinking of reinforcing the caster shells by drawing out the latent qualities of the Terrasyte used the question of 'why not?' became more of a motivation than a deterrence. As if his mind was completely open, Dakkur got the recognition that of course it would not be that easy to reinforce the caster shells; they still had to stabilize the Viscerite for the reasons Dakkur had already demonstrated and, they had to use more ordinary methods or at least for runecrafting, more ordinary than the impressive work with the aether forge just by being able to operate all the sensitive equipment without blowing up something but...
"Again?"
Again?! It was hard to believe Dakkur had to go through all the Viscerite again although the logic was sound that the aura glass was to look at the viscerite's aether which could also obfuscate the crystals themselves. Fortunately this was not something new for Dakkur either. However aura glass or loupe, it was yet another lengthy exercise for Dakkur to look through ball after ball. His eyes and hands went over each crystal to make sure it was smooth, unblemished and more importantly, whole. Whether it be a material for runecrafting or a decorative gemstone, it seemed like what determines the value of it is the same, how flawless it was. For the former it was to make sure the aether was not leaking out or finding some other outlet and... well yes, Dakkur could tell now how trying to look for cracks through an aura glass instead of a loupe could actually inadvertently hide any imperfections instead.
But at least it was only that stage which needed Dakkur to take some initiative and exercise his judgment. The finishing touches were just mimicking some of the motions. There were some other details on how the tonal fork had to hit a few key points of the Viscerite to solidify the teeming aether within followed by a few blows at the opposing points with the chisel after a different tuning fork was used to cause the projectile to activate when fired but technical mumbo jumbo aside, Dakkur was more of a doer and after a few tries and some wasted shells, he was well on his way to finishing up the shells making use of what he was taught.
"And that is how you reinforced the shell's structure except for that one deliberate point of vulnerability so it can fire?" Dakkur asked thinking he finally held the secrets to making his own shells until... "these shells? This batch? What?" Apparently everything he just learned was completely worthless as it only applied to the batch of Viscerite which was just made since future batches made by a different runesmith, through different methods, with different outcomes in mind and a different hand and set of eyes to notice the quirks- all those very different things made it so that there was no shortcut to the benefits of experience- something which Dakkur was yet to have himself. Not until he was involved in making hundreds if not thousands of shells at least. "Who even uses that many shells?" Well soldiers in a war would be the most obvious answer and where and when the next war would be is the million aven question.
The shells they have just made? Those too were worth their weight in aven so Dakkur did not expect to be offered a few of the shells they have made and he did not believe it was simply because of stress relief after the last few taxing days. Granted barring events which caught them off guard like the shooting competition, Dakkur felt he had quite the cushy job so working a little bit harder as needed felt like something he owed his job and of course, he was right on the aven. The few bullets he was given, those were from the 'better' batch of Viscerite he found earlier and so they needed to be tested. There was no mistaking they would work but the question was how much better are they going to work and for that some tests were needed; asking the customers for feedback would not be the best of ideas not only because no one would want to pay to be a test subject but also because there was no reason to let anyone think they were getting better bullets. If they found the bullets were better maybe they would chalk it up to the store's quality and come to it more instead of the competition.
Which was as good an explanation as any Dakkur would accept and off he went to find a sack to fire off a few rounds and, if they really were good maybe he could pocket a few. There was no need to divulge just how many shells he used in his tests.
