Eli POV
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The guard wished me a good day as he turned to go out my door and into the mid-morning sun. A brief investigation was conducted and the local law determined that it was a simple robbery. My fucking ass it was. I just hope Ryan wants that hammer badly enough to move faster. I had been reluctant to put traps in, at least to keep my maid from accidentally getting hurt. It looks like I was going to have to make the poor woman's life more difficult. But as long as they're all as stupid as the first bunch, this wasn't even my biggest problem.
The mana problem was now becoming too much to ignore. I had a whole list of items, both scientific and magical, that needed doing but constantly waiting for the ambient mana to refresh was becoming the single greatest obstacle to all of them so I had to put everything else on hold until this issue was resolved. The reserve I had managed to build up this past week was a priceless treasure but for my work, it was totally insufficient. The sack of mana crystals I kept in my basement is what would help me make the eventual solution to the mana shortage.
Mana was sourced from the earth. How it was actually made or worked on a molecular scale had eluded the greatest minds for ages, not that the people here knew about molecules, and I don't think it would be a good use of my time to try and develop a particle accelerator to tinker with it on the atomic level. Using the tools that I had was as far as I could go right now. And the only idea that came to mind was using spells to overload an enchantment and store the excess mana.
I had tried just straight absorbing earth into the summoning circles to convert into a spell but it seems the mana ecosystem won't allow non-mana summoned elements into the summoning circles. The only external sources of input were the overloading mana when a spell hit the enchantment.
The main issue here with crafting magic is that its an insular ecosystem within the physical world. Obeying few of its laws but still interacting with the natural world. But from my limited reading and views in the arena, caster magic, on the other hand, seemed to be much more involved in the physical world.
When I went into the classrooms the morning after the over due late-night house warming party, I immediately started going over the caster books in more detail, secretly as they were covered by other larger books of course. I eventually came across what I was looking for around midday. In one of the books was a tale about a lightning user who used a bolt of lightning from a storm to assassinate a king.
This pointed me towards the books more focused on the dual elements. Mages had found that natural electricity could be absorbed as a fuel in certain lightning caster spells. In fact, 2 of the other dual elements also had this absorption ability. Plant spells could suck the life out of plants, and healing could let you use an animal or person as fuel until they also crumbled into dust, but these 2 methods didn't seem to create new mana. Metal was the only one without this ability in the group. It could weaken metals but not absorb it as energy.
The more I found out about the 'healing' element the more of a lie its name seemed to be. It had elements of vampirism, necromancy, and then healing. Why only the latter merited the title seemed to be down to the marketing efforts of its users rather than any honest straightforward assessment.
The base elements had no such provision for 'stealing' from the natural world. Which was a good thing in my opinion. If the greed of mages the world over was anything like it was here, the seas and mountains would have been converted to mana ages ago.
After my lunch, I headed out to get back home after going over the electric conversion spell. But on my way there I overheard a conversation that one of the armor strapped guild members was having with a carriage driver out in front of the classrooms as laborers unloaded the carriages goods.
"I swear driving these things nowadays is almost as dangerous as being an adventurer. I got out of your gig to get into a safer line of work, but now...."
"Aye, I'll tell you, everyone at the guild is pissed. Taking down all the bounties like that left the Guildmaster so red in the face you woulda thought he had fire in his veins."
"Still, to have the freaking government, of all the people, give in to the bandits like this is just mind-boggling. What are the people on the coast thinking?"
The conversation faded after that but it stuck with me no matter how brief it was. As I walked home I still couldn't believe what I had heard. The Coalition actually caved to the bandits? The chance that this would be the outcome was always there but it seemed so remote that I hadn't thought about it after it was first brought up in Tansen's office. Best not get ahead of myself and just wait to see if that's actually true or not. I needed to keep my mind in the workshop which is where I was currently headed.
Over the past few days, I had managed to use lightning magic to magnetize two large half-disks about a foot wide with a hole in the middle and a thick meshing of copper wires with an iron punch to hold the shape of the ring. It was made to fit snugly over the half-disks with about a half-inch of room for the magnet to move inside and generate the electricity. This mesh left a slight hole in the middle of the two half disks which left about one and a half inches of the disk exposed.
A thick pole of wood was then grown down the middle and grown firmly against the disk. I then tried attaching three wood fans to the pole. The copper head and the pole were placed on two different smooth stone arches with indents to hold the pole slightly higher to allow the magnet free movement inside its copper prison as the pole spun.
I placed a single piece of copper wire near the copper shell in a stone holder. This probably wasn't necessary right now but I needed to make sure all the magnetic principles back in my universe still applied here. As I used wind magic to spin the pole I noticed the sparks between the strand and the copper shell occasionally going off.
"Well, at least magnets still work how they should," I said to the empty underground room.
The mana portion of this experiment now came into focus. I put up a bark craft that would take all of the overloading mana and shunt it into a blank triangle to release all of the mana into the upside-down glass bowl over it. In between the strand of copper and the generator, I placed a lightning construct that would take any lightning, a spark in this case, and add it to the spell which would hopefully mean it was converted into mana.
It was tricky doing that and using the wind magic but I managed and after a while, I saw that the mana in the bowl was near the same amount that I had used for the lightning spell. After several hours I realized that the process wasn't producing any new mana. Where in my assumptions had I gone wrong? Maybe the spell just bent the lightning but didn't actually make it a part of the mana made lightning. Or maybe it's just because magic and that's the simple reason why. At this, my stomach grumbled.
I went up and sure enough, I had worked way past dinner, again. After getting my meal from a street food vendor I went back home and slept through the night.
The next morning I headed towards the classrooms early to get a quick breakfast and try and figure out what went wrong. I thought about maybe using the healing and plant elements to absorb mana, but that had its own set of problems. To safely harvest the mana rich beasts and plants I needed my specialized equipment, but to make my specialized equipment I needed more mana. No, working with the element I can reliably produce in the workshop was probably the best idea.
What I did notice as I moved between sections was that the parents left me alone now. Sure a few of the parents were around seeing to some issue, personal or business, but my older detractors mostly kept to a few mean looks now. As I was going over the lightning magic through the various assorted books I couldn't find any new information. So I decided to head home after lunch to see if I could work out something on my own.
As I was heading down to the docks, Ryan called out to me from the academy entrance.
"Well, I've pulled some strings and your day has been more peaceful, has it not?" He said, his tone and manner clearly very eager to get to the point of this conversation. I was not so cruel a person as to string him along.
"Yes, indeed it has. Where would you like to do our item crafting?" I asked.
"At my house in the.." He started but looked behind.
I turned around and saw Salamede looking at us with what I assumed was a broken bark craft in her hands.
"This is official scion business, get... If you would wait, ma'am, we have to work out some details." Ryan said as he forced his tone to be more civil towards the end, no doubt seeing the look in my eyes that I couldn't manage to keep out. Still, there was a slight shake in her now as she nervously clutched the bark pieces.
"Well, I will need to finish up a mock staff and get the leather pieces in order. So I will be over in about an hour." I said gracefully.
Ryan nodded.
I headed back to my house with Salamede. When we were on a less crowded street she touched me with spirit magic. She hesitated for a long moment before actually saying anything through the connection.
"So when will you meet that scion that he was talking about?" She finally asked as we were coming up to my house.
"That was him, I'll be-"
"Eli!" Salamede squealed as she squeezed my arm and started swatting me with her free right hand.
"You can't look at a scion like that! My god. What'll happen if that face you made hurts your relationship with him?" She said, half-panicked.
"Then it will be what it will be. I won't be told by anyone who I can and can't be around." I said plainly back through the connection.
She bit her lower lip at this and moved her right foot back and forth. Her right hand played across the lower part of her dress.
"Eli...thanks." She said happily before giving me a hug and starting off back to her house.
"Oh and later I will be putting in a few traps. Some people have been getting the idea they don't even have to wait till I'm gone to start rummaging through my stuff. But don't worry they'll be nonlethal." I said.
"I saw the constables near here this morning. Were you hurt?" She said as she turned, looking me up and down.
"Nah, I'll just have to be more prepared. I'll show you the new protections after I put them in so you don't get hurt." I said before we both gave a slight bow and went our separate ways.
I wasn't expecting any danger so I just kept on my water-based weapons and my jumping equipment. After collecting the leather pieces and wooden bits I would need I headed back towards the academy with the assorted goods slung under my arm. The special section for the scions was a walled-off area with three houses. Ryan was waiting in front of the gate clearly excited to get started. We went through the black metal gate and up to the house made of stones.
This one, unlike the other structures here, or even the other scions' homes, was made with thick blocks of stone and wooden beams showcasing excellent craftsmanship across the three floors. Its front entrance had the slopes and angles of a cave entrance with stone steps leading up to it. Inside was a long hallway with dark oak wood walls and smooth stone floors. The long doorway to the left and a regular doorway further to the right were all that I could see aside from a staircase leading to the upper floors at the end of the hall.
Ryan came in and motioned towards the room to the left. Coming in I saw it was a wide-open room with a couch to the right and two chairs to the left with a large door to the back yard. I followed Ryan towards the door but on the way, I saw a portrait of a woman on the left wall. She looked like a female version of Ryan but with a smoother curve to her cheeks. She wore a black dress with a wooden bird on her right shoulder.
"Ah, mom was quite something, served in the military in her younger years and eventually settled down with dad after getting enough honors to retire young. My earliest memories are with her smiling and making me cookies." Ryan said as he stopped to look at the painting affectionately.
"Sounds nice, she must have been a very interesting character to go from the military to cookie baking," I said.
"She was. Always talking with the neighbors and very involved in her peoples' needs. But one day she....uh, tripped on a rock and went right over a cliff. So many years in the military and a single trip took her." His voice grew strained and the gaze in his eyes distant.
Silence was the only appropriate comfort I could offer him. A long moment passed before Ryan finally shook himself.
"Enough about that, we have work to do." He said as he took himself out of his stupor.
We went through the back doors and out onto a plain yard of grass going off for several yards before coming up to the smooth white wall of the scion enclosure. Off to the left was Andrew, Jeff, and Annie talking with Veronica and her friends, Eska and Mia. On a stand to their right was the armor pieces Ryan used in the trials and on the guild trip.
The twins were looking the armor over, their distinct sharp chins and short brown hair distinguishing them easily in a crowd. Ren's green eyes to Len's brown were the unique traits amongst themselves. Ren was looking over the boulder-like armor's sides intently while Len occasionally looked longingly over at the red-headed tomboy Mia as she idled amongst her friends. He did this out of the groups' view of course.
But as Ryan walked up all the idle chatter stopped.
"All right, we've got refreshments on the way. So let's allow the master to work." He said to the gathered crowd.
I looked over the backside of the armor and found that the backplates and legs had holes to allow for the wearers' movements. Looking it over, I could probably work in some back leather pieces and down the backs of the legs. The whole thing was too heavy to even consider using any kind of elongated jumping so the next best course of action was to use the boosters to lighten his weight and use them for a quicker frontal charge.
"Well, I think I know what we will need for your equipment. You won't be doing any of those crazy jumps but a lot of people will be wondering how a mountain can move so quickly." I said as the rest of the group started sampling the various cuts of meats and crackers being laid out of a table the servants were bringing out as well as some papers and pencils for my work.
"Excellent, and the hammer?" Ryan asked by the table as he put some charcuterie on his plate, clearly trying not to sound too excited.
"That is something we will need to discuss. Did you have anything, in particular, you wanted for the hammerhead?" I asked him.
"A dragon head. with flames shooting out of its maw." He said as his eye lit up in excitement.
"The flame part of the hammer is what thrusts it forward. For that design, the hammer would be hitting them with the dragons butt. Are you sure that's the kind of business end you want to be hitting people with?" I asked. The surrounding onlookers giggled at the suggestion while Ryan nodded with a grin.
"No, that's not quite how I want the portraits to look. What would you suggest?" He asked.
"A lions head. The flames can shoot out the back making it look like the flames are an extension of the mane." I said.
"Excellent." Ryan agreed.
I gave a slight head nod and headed over towards the armor and worked on the mock staff. There was a point in making the stone head after making the spells output triangle that I nearly made an earth mana construct for the summoning circle just from habit. That wasn't a conversation I was prepared to have at the moment, so I took it over to Ryan.
When he finished the mana construct and pushed the square to summon the hammerhead a smooth stone lion roaring with a mouth full of smooth stone quickly grew from the end of the wooden staff. Ryan looked it up and down appreciatively.
"Once we get a metal staff from a blacksmith I can work in some leather strips for the enchantments on the grip. While that's happening I'll work on your boosters and the hammers cushion." I said
"Ah, each house has its own separate blacksmith and leather workshop for any items they want to be made at home. The craftsman will be here soon." Ryan said.
I nodded and then started drawing up some plans on a plank of wood and rough paper. As I did so, I made sure to keep my hearing trained on the conversation around the nearby table.
"....They did, pants were down and everything right by the docks." Mia told the group as the other took in the juicy gossip with eagerness. A light laugh went up at this revelation I was too late to the party to understand. This jovial banter went back and forth until one particular piece of conversation came forward.
"Hey, I heard that the government stopped the bandit bounties is that true?" Len asked. A quick look told me he was facing towards Andrew and Jeff.
"Yep, they just took down all the posters this morning." Andrew said as he munched on a cracker and sausage sandwich.
The snap of my crude pencil drew the gaze of those at the table. But when they saw what had happened they returned to the conversation at hand.
"Why?" Eska asked.
"How would we know? Dad doesn't run military operations by us." Jeff said as he chugged a glass of water. The others shrugged and went back to gossiping over various items that I half paid attention to as I took out a new pencil from the small collection of them by the table end with the other tools.
Soon two men, one black-haired man in a thick blacksmiths apron and the leatherworker I got my other items from came by. After going over some of the sketches they got to work. As I waited for them to finish the designs and I worked with veronica to make the hammerhead cushion. It was hard but nowhere near as arduous as when I made the first design. After we had burned through 4 or 5 cushion designs to make it activate when the hammers struck something we took a break. When I went over to the table for refreshments, I grabbed some of the food and tried mingling with mixed results. But eventually, the time to get back to work came.
As we stitched and glued the various pieces together we had to wait at certain points to get constructs from the onlookers who had the right element. Another problem came up with the staff grip so that had to be reworked to make the grip just right for Ryan. When Ryan was putting on the armor he raised the issue of how to activate the boosters. I thought about it for a while and decided that being known for this discovery would be an easy way to boost my standing without giving up anything really critical.
"Use spirit magic to repeat the word 'flow' like you would in crafting while pushing the spirit magic into the indents. This will create a temporary channel for the mana to travel through and activate the enchantment." I responded.
"So that was how he managed it." Veronica said from the table. The blonde got up from her chair and came over too look the armor over in more detail.
Ryan motioned for us all to move back. He took a deep breath and then launched forward as his getup made him look like a miniature mountain given legs. After a second he got a huge boost of speed, covering several feet in a single movement of his legs. The sudden speed burst compromised his balance and he went down churning up dirt and grass as he skidded across the lawn.
"WOOOH!" He yelled as he got up from the small crater he had made.
"Damn, that was fun." Ryan said breathlessly as the onlookers all clapped for him.
Now we got to the main show. I put the long metal staff in his hands, it had deeper reds and blacks to make it look like a more natural piece of marble stone. He took it almost reverently and looked over the lion head with wonder.
Then he pointed it towards a random spot on the lawn and launched the head. It tore a smaller crater in the ground and then disappeared as the new head gradually materialized.
"I thank you all for coming. Some dishes are coming in from the kitchen..." as Ryan was announcing to the group a team of servants came out of the house and started laying out various dishes at the table and taking away any empty platters.
"Ah, just in time." He said.
We all ate a rather substantial meal for a good half hour.
Eventually, the party died down and we all begged off to leave at various points, with the twins being the only one staying behind as Ryan practiced the rocket swing function. After I got out of Ryan's house I saw Jeff and Andrew walking off to their house with Annie. while Veronica headed to the house beside theirs. It was a similar mini-mansion with two stories and blue paint with wavy patterns in the roof and woodwork.
"When will you want your's done?" I asked Jeff's group.
"Eh, I have some classes that are really kicking my ass right now. But some time soon definitely." Andrew responded.
"Same," Veronica called.
I gave a light bow and headed home. But when I got there I saw the door to my house open.