6.59 - Entry Missing
The smelter buildings were also chaotic. Not only because of the people rushing around, avoiding splashing metal and shouting orders. But the heat itself was enough to make any normal person wither as they approached. Theo shielded his face as he waved his hands, desperate to get Nira’s attention. Between the cooling gel they wore on their skin, and some adaptation, thanks to the cores they used.
Nira waved him off, gesturing across the street before getting back to work.
Gridgens stuck around, waiting to see what the woman would say about the ore. It took a while for her to finish up, though. That led to the overly excited miner making predictions about the quality of the ore and what it would mean for the town. But Theo took Thim’s assessment seriously. It was unlikely to shake things up, even if it was cool.
“What can I help you with?” Nira said, sauntering over. She wiped a wet cloth over her face, removing layers of soot.
“Got something interesting for you to smelt,” Theo said, producing several nuggets from his inventory. He handed them over.
“Rare metals? I like rare metals,” Nira said, inspecting the nuggets. She held it up to the sun, bit it, and shrugged. “Seems slightly better than Drogramathi Iron. Not as versatile as Azrugium.”
“Those are apparently expensive,” Theo said. “According to the dwarves.”
“Yeah, dwarves and their precious metals… I’ll cook these up for you,” Nira said, holding her hands out. “Assuming you have more than three nuggets.”
Theo gave her all the nuggets he had, and was unsurprised at her glib response to something a dwarf claimed was so precious. She worked with rare metals every day, stuff that would make the dwarves blush. But this was the only place these rare metals appeared… Unless there was a Drogramathi mine somewhere else. That got him thinking.