Alone in a corner of the cave system, I focused on my task. First, I had to find where the metals were in the ground. The good thing about magic was that it worked through one’s will. As such, I only had to order.
Earth, tell me where there is metal.
I received a strange feeling in response. If I were to translate it into human language, it would be something like: ‘error, command unknown’. I tried a few times but always got the same result.
I barely started and ran into a problem. Could it be that the earth and magical energy didn’t know what to do? Or that they didn’t understand what metals were? Or that I wasn’t precise enough?
I tried again, this time focusing on my mental image a lot more. Metals, hard minerals that can be forged into hard tools. Part of the earth and rocks. Can be mined or extracted. Can melt if the temperature is high enough.
The more details I gave, the more I felt like they started to understand what I was talking about. It was a strange feeling, almost as if they were a conscious being or a large sentient entity. Eventually, we reached a consensus, and my command was activated. A sort of mental image of the surroundings came back, in a large radius area corresponding to my magical power capacity, where spots of metal were marked here and there. As expected, they were everywhere, colored differently depending on what I guessed was the type of metal.
My mind pinpointed the one closest to me, and I gave another order.
Earth, extract this patch of metal for me.
This time, the answer was immediate. I “saw” the patch of metal moving quickly in my direction, and, soon enough, it jumped out of the ground to form a pile in front of me. It was a mix of dark grey solid and powder-like metals. I wasn’t too certain what type of metal it was, but it looked like iron… or maybe aluminum?
Anyway, this was a huge success. It didn’t even consume that much magical energy, maybe because it was close by in the first place.
The next step was the critical one. I had to transform this pile of raw ore into something useful. I could see that it was far from being pure metal in the first place. Both the powdered part and the hard one were mixed with a lot of soil, rocks, and whatever else, making for a very inconsistent mix. I wasn’t certain how blacksmiths or smelters normally refined metals, but I didn’t have similar constraints.
Earth, refine this into pure metal.
Which, of course, completely failed. Just like before, I gave a lot more details. Extracting metal particles from other elements. Separating molecular components. Purification.
In return, I received… complete silence. Finally, after a while, what I got was something like: ‘never heard about something like this. Are you sure you want to proceed?’
It might be that I was the first shaman to ever think about the concept. And yes, I wanted to proceed. With this last command, I observed as magical energy was extracted from me aplenty, moving toward the pile of metals, and breaking them down into fine particles. Then, a small whirlwind appeared and several piles were created, from which I could recognize a few. There was, of course, one made of soil, and one made of fine metal particles. The others were more unsure, but I thought one might be organic elements, while I didn’t know about the rest.
It didn’t matter. I now had my pile of pure metal in front of me. This step consumed a lot more magical energy than I expected. Was this the price to pay for trying something new? I could only hope the consumption would stabilize with more experience.
The last step was the only one left. I needed to transform this pure metal into something useful. I could see two possibilities. I could either use magic or I could build a forge. I tried the first method first.
Earth, create a spear out of this pile of metal.
I added a lot of visual enhancements to it. A solid tool, with a pointy head and a long handle. Condensing and melting the particles into that form. A shiny, solid tool that would last for a long time.
However, I kept getting back the same response: ‘error, impossible.’ I tried again and again, but it wouldn’t do it. When I forced it anyway, the particles stuck together in the form of the spear I imagined, but that was it. As soon as I released my magical energy, they fell back to the ground in a pile.
I wasn’t completely certain why it didn’t work. If I had to guess, it might be because this was outside of earth’s capacity. Maybe because melting was more the domain of fire instead.
Whatever the reason, I understood magic wasn’t omnipotent and wouldn’t solve all my issues. There was only one option left: forging it myself. That would have to wait for another day, though, since I felt tired due to using my magical energy so much. It wasn’t a bad thing since I still had to deplete my reserves every day. I just wanted to take a break.
The following day, my motivation surged again. With my power over earth, building a forge wouldn’t be anything hard. The only problem was where to install it. As an apprentice warrior, I didn’t own anything. To be exact, no one truly owned much in this prehistoric world. Most things were shared property of the tribe. The only exception was what one wore, meaning items such as pelts, furs, and weapons. Even the beddings were shared property, with people being assigned where there was room without any actual ownership of the personal spot.
I would need to make a small change to that. I needed somewhere that would only be mine, and that other clan members couldn’t interfere with.