Bev had been gathering stones for the smelter when Kennon sent word of his new spell. Heat. That would change things. A lot. She had assumed they would need a typical smelter while using gust as the billows. But with the ability to heat things without a fire.

  She needed to do a complete redesign.

  First they needed to turn wood into charcoal. That was the easy part. Casting earth mold on a pile of sandstone she poured mana into it until it was the consistency of wet dough. A quick kneading of the disparate stones into a solid whole and she took a break to regather her mana.

  Mana gathered in the body naturally over time. But with excessive use manual gathering was required. She had heard many learned to manually gather constantly and unconsciously. But she wasn’t at that point.

  She reached at the mana flows around her, grabbing them with her will and drawing them into her core where they were attuned to her. Where it became her mana.

  When she was nearly topped off again she poured her mana back into the stone. This time she had placed it on top of a rather large piece of flat slat as a work table. Using the flat of her knife she smoothed the doughy stone into a cube about a meter in length.

  Then, targeting only the top centimeter of the cube she pulsed just enough mana in to let her knife cut through. Removing the lid she targeted the interior of the cube and poured all of her mana into it. In seconds a smaller cube of liquid stone formed inside the solid one. She poured it out on the ground. Doing her best to make sure it left behind a flat surface.

  It took all her mana, and all her focus. But she was left with a hollow cube of stone with a lid that fit perfectly. As well as a thin slab on the ground that had been flattened by gravity.

  Taking another break to regain her mana she targeted small circular portions of the lid. Pulsing enough mana to drill three perfect holes. Each the size of her finger.

  When Kennon got back they could fill the cube with sticks. Close the lid over it. Then heat the cube. Either with magic or with fire the end result would be charcoal. The first ingredient to smelting.

  The smelter itself would be similar in ways. A box to melt the ore in. There would be differences though. For instance a way to allow smoke in. She needed Kennon to test the temperatures he could achieve but he probably couldn’t melt the ore himself. So there needed to be a proper fire box.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Fortunately this was almost the exact same criteria for a smoker to make jerky. With a little work she could do both at the same time.

  Or rather a lot of work.

  The size would have to be rather large. And even a one meter cube took hours. But with a proper jig she could do it. The first step though was making a clean space to work. She looked at the slightly lumpy slab she made. Sighed, then threw a quick gust to clear it of dust.

  Air Magic level 2 reached.

  Wind blade unlocked.

  About time. Even without practice, gust was about as simple as it got. She figured with minor modifications it would move everything. Not just air. She formed the array for wind blade above her palm.

  It was absurdly complicated. At least compared to gust. No matter, she didn’t need air magic right now. Though wind blade did look to have potential of its own. She would leave that to her spell obsessed brother. She didn’t need a message to tell he had gotten the unlock at the same time. His mood was high.

  He would also be back soon. They could test the charcoal box.

  Kennon knew it was an important job. That it needed done. And that he was the best to do it.

  But cooking wood was a weird task.

  Bev wanted to know how hot he could get a box of this size with the heat spell. It took all he had to get it to start smoking. And holding it there was difficult. He doubted his mana could last more than an hour. So Bev built a campfire under the charcoal retort. That gave him a break. But bev still wanted to test his abilities.

  With the box pouring smoke Kennon targeted just a small portion of it. Just one corner, and began heating. In seconds it started to glow a dull red and Bev stopped him. She said it would be enough.

  He had no idea but he trusted her.

  It was interesting. Keeping something at a stable temperature was far easier than raising the heat. And smaller areas were better. It also seemed to affect contents as well. As the retort started to smoke far before the box got hot enough.

  He knew he couldn’t get a large amount of iron to melting temperature on his own. But with a charcoal fire under it helping him it should be simple enough.

  While watching the fire he examined the heat spell. He was a little surprised it didn’t cool things as well. But had a clear bend towards fire. Maybe water magic would unlock cooling.

  Eventually the smoke stopped pouring. And eventually stopped trickling either. That was his cue to plug the holes and put out the fire. A quick application of mud over the holes, and a splash spell on the fire and it was done. The wood was cooked, and they would have charcoal ready as soon as it cooled.

  The entire time he was watching the charcoal form Bev was working. Sorting stones that looked nearly identical to him. Yelling at branches for not being straight enough. And occasionally using rock toss to uproot patches of grass and throw them across the camp.

  With how frustrated she seemed to be, maybe he had gotten the easier job.