The Way Ahead

Chapter 113: Alloying Insight

Chapter 113: Alloying Insight

Are you Are you freaking kidding me? Edwin didnt swear, but that part of him was being heavily tested, No! No, thats not

Rillah dropped down right next to him, Whats up?

Gah! What the heck, Rillah! What was that for? He frowned, Were you were you on the ceiling?

I was close to it.

What were you doing there? No, how long were you there?

Oh, not long at all. I came when you called and decided to surprise you.

Well, I suppose you succeeded there. Wait. I didnt call you?

You called for me? Are you alright, Edwin? Lefi burst into the room almost right on queue.

No I no, never mind, Edwin sighed, I was just testing out Bomb Throwing.

Did you manage to figure out whatever you were testing about it?

You mean my testing to figure out why the Skill triggers really unpredictably? Yeah, I did.

Marvelous! Lefi cheered, moving closer to clap Edwin on the shoulder, which Edwin didnt dodge.

You did? Congratulations! Rillah wrapped him in a quick hug, which he enjoyed immensely. It was all too short, though.

Inion appeared from somewhere, seemingly materializing in the few inches between Edwin and Rillah after they disconnected, What happened? she asked breathlessly, which made Edwin mentally frown. What had brought everyone here so quickly?

Oh come on, I wasnt that loud! Edwin complained, Why did all three of you decide to come visit me at the exact same time?

We heard- Rillah started, only to be cut off.

There were many explosions from this room for hours, followed by sudden relative quiet and shouting, Inion interjected, I wanted to make sure you were alright.

...Okay, thats fair, he conceded, I always forget how loud they are because Adaptive Defense helps make up for everything my earplugs dont cover.

What happened, then? Inion asked.

Well, I just told Rillah and Lefi, but I was experimenting with Bomb Throwing and I finally figured out what makes the Skill trigger.

Oh you did? Good job! she congratulated.

Yeah, well if I could explain my findings to people

Just go ahead and tell us, Rillah added, Or well be here all day.

It might be easier if I show you, he sighed. A quick tug on Unbound Tether summoned an Infused Phosphorus pellet to his hand, and he showed it to his spectators. See this? This is a fire pellet. When ignited, the pellet expands into a fireball.

Edwin held the pellet between his fingers and pushed with his Tether, sending the projectile hurtling towards the open window. As it passed over the windowsill, he twisted his hand to help trigger Firestarting.

WHOMP

The fireball enveloped most of the windowsill, momentarily blocking the view outside with white-orange flames. Then, it subsided into white smoke and some drifting flakes of black phosphorus slowly settling into place.

See? No Bomb Throwing activation, because it wasnt a bomb and I didnt throw it, Lefi looked like he was about to ask something but he preempted it, Wait just a minute still. Next I want to show you what happens when I throw a fireball bomb, he explained, holding up an identical object to what hed just used.

He once again pinched the bomb between his fingers and pushed it with his Tether. As before, he twisted his hand as it flew through the windowsill- though this time he waited until after it was mostly outside.

BANG

The fireball was largely made of white flames, but the accompanying shockwave was unmistakable. From experience, he knew the fireball was about three meters in radius, from the base explosions one, and it completely blanketed the exterior.

Its exactly what I think it is, Edwin explained.

Rillah frowned, So whats the difference?

No, no. I mean, its literally what I think it is. If I perceive something as a bomb, itll trigger the Skill. If I think of it as something else- like as a pellet- it wont. If I dont think of anything, well I still need to do some more tests, but I think its the same as when I consider my projectile an explosive, namely that it sometimes triggers and sometimes doesnt. While I still need to do a bit of testing, he shot a glare at Inion, who looked very ready to try and take words out of his mouth, Im pretty sure it then depends on if Ive ever thought of myself as making a bomb somewhere previously. Now, there does seem to be a lower limit to what counts as a bomb- I cant make a rock explode no matter how much I try- but I still need to figure out the exact criteria.

So then it does respond to how you think of it? Is that so surprising? Lefi asked.

Well, no. I actually tested it, back when I was first experimenting, because that seemed like a very magic-y thing. However, I think I messed up the experiment because I didnt realize its whatever is most recently thought about the object, and its super sensitive. I had to really, really focus to figure it out, absolutely no wandering thoughts.

Aw, that must have been torture. Guess I should have been here. It would have been way more fun!

Oh why, so you could distract him?

Yup! Theres gotta be some point where my Skill just occupies all of his spare attention and keeps his mind from wandering. It would be fun!

Oh, so you think you know what would be good for him? Ill have you know that-

That actually sounds like it might be useful, Edwin cut in, We should probably experiment with that at some point, yeah?

Most excellent! Lefi was clearly eager to go back to whatever he was doing before he ran to check in on Edwin- that was actually quite nice, now that he thought about it. All three of them cared enough to see that he was alright or, he supposed, it might be that they came in the hopes that hed blown himself up at long last.

He chose to interpret it as the former.

Bill was such a good pony. Despite being stuck in an outbuilding somewhere between a stable and a barn for several months, he seemed perfectly content to just stay indoors, particularly as the weather was so cold.

When hed asked Lefi, because of course he knew about horses, the adventurer had said it was actually a Skill most good beastmasters and trainers encouraged their beasts to take, namely Stabling (or Kenneling, for creatures such as dogs). It allowed them to not get restless in relatively enclosed spaces and require very little exercise to stay healthy.

He felt moderately confident that he knew which Skill was the one in question, actually. A faint brown aura surrounded and flowed around Bills body while he was in the stable, interacting with a similar-looking Skill that permeated the stables. While Anatomy was more focused on humans still, giving the horse a physical check-up still fed into the intuitive knowledge the Skill granted him, and so far as Edwin could tell, the pony was doing just fine.

You make this too easy, you know that? he told his horse, stroking his mane.

In response, Bill shook his head, neighing slightly before nuzzling towards Edwins side pocket.

Little rascal, Edwin withdrew for a moment, pulling out a carrot from the suspicious pouch and handing it off to the uncomplaining animal.

(Interestingly, it also revealed that Lefi wasnt 100% human, only about 90%, but what the remaining 12-ish percent was remained a mystery that the adventurer himself remained frustratingly unhelpful in cracking.)

Anyway.

Perhaps he could make something that was conductive to mana? Perhaps he could work with copper. It had decent electrical conductivity, perhaps he could edit that in some way to make it magical conductivity? If he could refine out the electrical conductivity of copper and replace that with a mana conductive trait?

While he couldnt ignore the filtering trait of molai, it was technically conductive in that it could decidedly hold mana while also not keeping the mana trapped. It was definitely close enough to at least try, and Alchemy whispered that it might just work.

Sounded like a plan to him. Also, he might need to reevaluate his habit of ignoring Alchemys baseless information when doing exploratory research. He needed to find the weird patterns before he could understand them, after all.

It took a really long time to Refine metals. Like molai, they had a really high mana capacity, but fortunately unlike the annoying flower, he retained his connection the entire time and so didnt have to resort to any particularly fancy tricks to render down Refined materials. It just took time and power. Lots and lots of time.

It felt a bit like corrosion, to Refine copper. He could feel his mana, acting like an acid, slowly dissolve the metal one atom at a time. It stole away nuclei and electrons one at a time, snatching them from their established crystal structure and binding them to mana itself.

Did Infusion have something to do with bonds or electrons? Perhaps Refining worked by interrupting intramolecular bonds somehow, reducing it to a powder? He hadnt encountered any Refining products that ended up as a gas, but that didnt mean they didnt exist.

Still, by cannibalizing a pile of ves he eventually assembled a decent amount of copper, which he then Refined into a faintly green pile of Refined dust. In theory, it should be superconducting but Edwin didnt really have any way to test it.

It still served as an excellent trait-solvent, though.

Edwin had redesigned his manaclave a few times, with the latest iteration being a single Apparatite sphere he could just rotate to move his sample from one trait-powder to the second. It was tricky making sure that the powders wouldnt mix, but he got it without too much difficulty.

He triumphantly loaded up the device, ran through the procedure and

Nothing.

Well that was disappointing. A bit of prodding showed that he did successfully remove conductivity from copper, but there hadnt been any change in the mana conductivity. He shouldnt be that surprised though, he didnt have that much experience with Essentia and this was a bigger change than the native temperature of an object.

Annoyingly, his normal cheat of asking Rillah or Lefi what the substance Identified as didnt work, as it only ever came back as alchemical copper. Apparently custom-made, brand-new totally novel altered variations of a metal didnt count as common knowledge or something. Truly, life was fantastically unfair.

He kept most of the failures for later testing.

The solstice had come and gone to no particular fanfare in the tower. The weather had been mild, Rillah used very little wind mana, and the days marched on. Outside there had been some celebration going on near the shortest day of the year, but after how his last trek into the city had gone, Edwin was more than happy to stay inside and mess around with his potion set.

Edwin wished he could say he gained some clever insight over the next few weeks and his dozens of Essentia experiments, but honestly all he was gaining was sheer practice. The levels he earned in Alchemy were helpful, sure, but what he primarily refined was his own technique, and the ways he could tweak his manaclaves function to more effectively swap traits. He hadnt had any luck in just directly editing a substances natural traits, just swapping similar ones between substances.

The only real change hed encountered with his copper-editing experiments was mixing in a bit of Refined copper dust with his Refined molai dust. He also found that for this kind of trial, the margins for success versus failure was measured in milliseconds. His copper had to go essentially straight from dissolution to replacement, and that was only possible because it didnt matter if copper got mixed in with the molai.

Those two discoveries were actually related, but that was besides the point. Because of the massive difference in densities between the two substances, he could separate them again later, but it added even more time onto an already time-consuming procedure. Heck, starting his manaclave already took nearly half an hour thanks to the volume of mana needed in its use.

This time, though, he knew it. Hed succeed totally, and the copper wouldnt glow but do nothing else, it wouldnt just make all the mana he tried to pour into it just skate right along the surface, it wouldnt suffer any of the many unique failures hed experienced over dozens of experiments.

This one would work, he could feel it.

The workbench in front of him held a single crystal ball, suspended off the table by Apparatite supports. The crystal ball was far from clear or even solid, and held in its center was a tiny bowl, just barely larger than the copper disk- formed from half-a-dozen ves beaten into a uniform mass- it held. A faintly green-tinted copper powder completely enveloped the disk, and a large pile of white dust was mounded at the bottom of the sphere.

Edwin took a deep breath, and pulled on his mana. He fed it through Basic Thermokinesis flame and the Unbound Tether press, through a Refining crucible and ignited in Bomb Throwing. It was lit on fire with Firestarting and filtered through Feys Caress. Over time, the combined pressure and heat was imbued into his mana, and it was in turn fed into the crystal sphere.

If Edwin had his eyes open, he would have seen a slightly reddish glow begin to suffuse the manaclave, but Ritual Intuition told him everything he needed to know. Alchemical Dismantling was at full work, gently coaxing the copper to magically melt and mix with the copper it was surrounded by. Bit by bit, the metal complied, its structure weakening under extreme conditions.

Then, complete collapse. The coppers conductivity disassociated, and the copper dust it was buried in shifted and flowed.

Edwin flipped the contraption upside down with a sharp shake, sending white and copper powder flying into the air, mixing and combining around the copper disc. He could feel the magical aspects of the molai mixing with the familiarity of the copper and then it settled into a single pile, flowing smoothly into the copper disc.

With a triumphant grin, Edwin unsealed the container as he allowed the manaclave to dissipate. The air inside hissed as the pressure was released, and the fire-like mana blasted out like actual hot air.

With what basically amounted to Apparatite chopsticks, Edwin delicately fished out the copper disc at the center of all of this. Was it glimmering slightly? This was a big moment, all that was left was to drip a bit of his basic mana against the coin and see if it conducted it properly. With bated breath, he summoned a drop of mana at his fingertip and let it fall

where it promptly splashed against the metals exterior with minimal absorption, the disc apparently no more mana conductive than normal unmodified copper.

Dangit. He hadnt mixed the copper and molai enough, it seemed. Or maybe hed used too much molai? Should he try introducing just a bit of magic to the familiar conductivity, instead of the other way around?

Okay, maybe next time hed succeed. He had a good feeling about this one!

Level Up!

Skill Points 11121142 (Avg level: 57)

Adaptive Defense Level 4849

Alchemical Analysis Level 4447

Alchemical Dismantling Level 5455

Alchemy Level 9698

Anatomy Level 4547

Basic Thermokinesis Level 4144

Bomb Throwing Level 6062

Improbable Arsenal Level 4243

Outsiders Almanac Level 138139

Prototyping Level 4445

Refining Level 4346

Ritual Intuition Level 5354

Sapper's Apparatus Level 6667

Stamina Manipulation Level 1419

Unbound Tether Level 2629