Chapter 22
Appalling discovery
Early morning, most of the students have taken up on my offer to rest, so there are no lessons planned for the near future. With the exploration on standby – for me at least – and the lack of decently sized crystal, there is nothing much I can do to progress my current projects… on the other hand, I have just assigned some new projects but as there is no one to bother me, I might as well get in on the action.
One of the students working in my workshop nod off. That is dangerous, and the very reason why I told them to take a day off! Should I tell them off or let them be? Oh well, they are not alone, and passing out from excess work is a way to learn your limits. Leaving them like this will have a lot more impact than a mere scolding… even more, if they get hurt.
When I put Ale… Alaric on the project, I told him to look into organic material, and it made me regret donating the wyvern parts. Well, leather is not the same as a fresh hide, but I still had bone and sinew, albeit they were not fresh anymore.
“Where could I buy some fresh magical beast’s parts?”
I retrieve some funds and head to the most logical place: the adventurer’s guild. Monsters and material collection are their main activities, so if anyone knows, it will be them.
The one manning the counter is a male human I have never seen before. As to why I know I have never seen him before it is simple: he is the first human I have seen in the guild apart from the old archivist.
I walk right to the counter and ask. “Are there some magical beast carcasses available to buy at the moment?”
“You are in luck, my lord. Some adventurers have brought a young wyvern and a giant bear last night… although since the sun is up it is not impossible for the auction to have already ended.”
“Where?”
He points. “The large building with a big storehouse, right behind the guild.”
“Thank you.”
“I am here to…”
I do not hear the rest of his sentence because I am already running… and I do not care if it is not proper.
As soon as I enter the auction house, a clerk asks me for the reason for my visit.
“The magical beast carcasses!” Answering only in short sentences sounds strange, but now is not the moment to waste time on pleasantries.
The clerk seems to understand the situation and answer with a smile. “You are in luck, the auction for the wyvern is about to reach its end, but there is another magical beast coming next.”
I really am in luck: the beast was dismantled and sold for parts, and that is why the first auction took so long. Another worker guides me to a large room while giving some explanation about the proceedings.
I have a lot of money and no real need for it: the Palace and the Magic department take care of all my needs, which are few. If that is what it takes, I do not mind ‘outbidding’ until I run out of gold. I look at the competition, and there are not many, the room has less than a dozen people including the staff.
“Wyvern’s guts, starting at 10 silvers.” Announce a clerk.
“Here.”
“forty.”
“Fifty.”
Guts, do I need that? Who cares, it is cheap… Here I go, “One gold.”
“One twenty.”
Eh? “Two!”
“Two fifty!”
If you want it that much, you can keep it, I said I did not mind outbidding until I ran out of money, but I am not wasting all my money on a single part, and there is no way I am leaving without the magic organ.
“One time, two times, three times, sold!”
I remember seeing this guy’s insignia. I saw it in front of a weapon shop when I first came to the city.
“Lastly, is the wyvern blood; starting at five silvers for the whole.”
That, I am really interested in it, so I start high. “Fifty.”
“Anyone else? No? One time, two times, three times. It goes to the man in armor in the back.”
The bear will be sold divided as such; head, pelt, long bones, small bones, sinews, blood, flesh, and gut. Small bones and flesh are sold to the weight.”
I shout. “Thirty sovereigns for the whole beast!”
The others look with rounded eyes, but one of them recover and sweating profusely, counter my proposition with his own. “Forty gold.”
“We’ve got thirty sovereigns there.”
“I said forty… What? Wait a minute? Sovereigns?!”
“One time, two times, three times. The prize goes to the armored man in the back.”
A member of the staff comes to me and directs me to a clerk behind the counter. Although I have trouble reading Korok in general, I am pretty sure this one is eyeballing me suspiciously.
“That will be thirty sovereigns, sir.”
“Here.”
He looks at the money in his hand agape. “Whe… Where do you want it delivered, sir?”
“The magic department, as soon as possible. How long will it take?”
“The wyvern is ready, but we aren’t finished with the bear; If it is already with you, we can deliver it before noon.”
“How long will it take to dismantle the beast? If it is not too long, I will take care of transportation.”
The Korok pause for a long time before answering politely. “It weighs well over a ton sir, are you sure?”
“Yes, just take care of the dismantling for me.”
“As you wish, sir.” Is it me or does his voice suddenly sound tired?
Yet another Korok guides me to a warehouse where several individuals are dexterously cutting my prize in pieces. The parts are put in bags and barrels, and it only takes ten or so minutes before they are done.
My guide asks. “Do you wish to rent a cart, sir?”
It is true that a single fully-loaded cart would be easier to deal with than several items, but I have already spent my money, and I do not want to waste time returning it. I use gravity to gather everything and fly slowly towards the exit.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The last thing I hear before going is. “See! I told you he was the real deal!”
<><><>
Once I arrive at the department, I ask someone to bring everything to my workshop’s warehouse and drop by the Master to ask about his visit to the alchemists.
“My lord, after you brought us that old book yesterday, I asked the librarian to look for more forgotten reference books and he found these. They are in old elvish and a pretty hard to read, but it is a detailed study of the magical and physical properties of common and uncommon materials.”
“What does it say?”
“As I said, this document is hard to read, it is over a thousand years old and quite deteriorated, but at the end of each is a summary in the form of a listing.”
“Show it to me…” I cannot read elvish, ancient or new; I have no clue what it says. “Do you have a translation?”
“We are still working on it, sir, but I can tell it lists materials by availability, conduction, durability, longevity, and workability.”
“Excellent, when can I hope to see the complete translation?”
“I have two people working on it, so I expect we will have it before noon.”
<><><>
If I had been the one writing the list, I would have made conduction the only important trait, but it would have been a mistake. I have to acknowledge that the author was right to consider every aspect, starting with availability. Take blood, for example, it is the most conductive item of them all, and widely available, but it is unworkable and becomes useless in barely a few hours.
Well, let us skip over the details and write the main candidates as selected by me: magical beast hides – not leather– magical beast guts, freshly cut wood, and plant fibers.
The first two are not readily available, and even with special conservative, they tend to deteriorate in a matter of weeks… not that it matters; one day is enough to cast the dragon-slaying spell.
“I propose we run a test with strips from magical beasts’ hide, and it just so happens that I bought some earlier.”
“Eh? You too, sir?” I expected it, but it seems like I really wasted my money… although I got a large magic organ, so it is not that bad.
“Everything stands on this experiment. Let us hope it’ll work.”
‘I know I ask the same thing often but: why was it not common knowledge?”
“Well, the thesis is over fifteen generations old, and the extraneous content simply faded from memory over time. Anyway, since the content predates the capital and the department… and seeing as it is written in elvish, it’s quite possible the results were never publicized by the author.”
“As usual, a sensible answer. Not that it makes this any less wastefully stupid.”
“Let us see how it goes, sir.”
I ask someone to fetch one of our clairvoyance prototypes and some sources, there are spells with worse consumption but I happen to know how long this one is supposed to last and that makes it the perfect candidate. It is going to be a long and boring experiment, though.
While the apprentice goes on his fetch quest, we cut some strips in various sizes and thicknesses. If you have had the occasion of cutting leather in the past, I assure you, fresh fur it is a dozen times worse.
Half an hour as passed later, the mana in the main crystal shows no sign of diminishing and the strips are slightly hot to the touch.
Two and a half an hour, the spell should have ended, but it is still going strong.
I announce. “Gentlemen, we have gone well over the crystal autonomy, and it shows no sign of stopping anytime soon!”
There are cheers all over, but the student doing the tester voice a different reason. “Finally, I can stop: this spell always gives me a headache.”
<><><>
It was decided to name this new method, the ‘mana link’. It is not a creative name, but it tells what it does. I should be rejoicing more than any other, but more intensive spell burns through the material like crazy: it is unfit for the intended use.
The more mana goes through the link, the more heat is produced which often results in the link bursting into flame. Still, I cannot deny it is a victory, just not as good as I hoped.
“Sir, when I think about the quantity of material needed to equip the knight order and its lack of longevity, I cannot help but feel worried. We need something more readily available or with much higher durability.”
“What about plant fibers?”
“It is widely available and cheap, but worse in every other aspect. We cannot expect the knights to change them every hour, not in armor, and much less in the middle of combat.”
I think that even one more hour of use can be considered a luxury, combat or not combat, but I agree that we need better material, ideally a fireproof one.
“In retrospect, I understand why your ancestor settled on metal, the efficiency is not so good, but it has it all, durability, availability, malleability and even longevity. Even so, I just wish there were some fireproof fibers out there.”
One of the staff answers. “There are some species of giant spiders with fireproof silk. Getting rid of their nest was always a pain… but it was also good money.”
“How do you know that?” Ask another.
“I played adventurer when I was young. Collecting spider silk was among the most lucrative jobs, albeit not one for the faint of heart.”
“Next time a spider comes, we’ll know who to ask.”
“Lookout, a spider! Protect us, o hero.”
“Hilarious. Say that again after you’ve attacked by a colony of eighty centimeters spiders!”
Silk is a fiber and even if their magic organs are too small to use, they are still magical beasts! It is not exactly common, but it is probably harvestable without a need to kill the beast! I need a sample on!
As far as I know, only a few giant spiders produce silk. I vividly remember how I had to kill the foul beasts and clean the refuge every single time I went in the mountain for a job.
He said used to harvest the silk when he was an adventurer, right? Then I know where to go and who to ask.
I walk to the counter. “Can you tell me where I can find some giant spider’s silk? Or where they live?”
“Normally, you would buy the silk at the auction house, but in your case, it would be faster to ask the palace: it is used in many types of protective gear and armor.”
The palace? Awesome. I will go check as soon as I get back.
The receptionist calls someone behind the door. “Hey, giant spiders, Silk, where?”
A few instants later, a small old human – probably the one from last time – comes out with a map. “You will find some in the mountains here, here and here. The village over there asks for a culling once or twice a year.”
“Culling? Not extermination?”
“Because it is impossible to get them all.”
“Thank you”
The palace is not far, so I teleport directly to the warehouse and ask the manager. “Giant spider’s silk? Do you have some?”
“My lord?!” Squeal the panicked manager. It is understandable, I literally appeared before his eyes to bombard him with questions. “Yes, we have some! Let me get it for you!”
He runs inside the storehouse as though his life depended on it. While he is gone, I compose myself, in the last few hours, I really lost all dignity and it is not like there really is a point in hurrying as I do, the durability tests will take days maybe weeks.
It reminds me that I used to be considered an excitable freak when I was young – or an apathetic child by today’s standards.
“There it is my lord, sorry for the wait.”
What wait is he referring to? He has been gone for less than two minutes. No matter, I have what I want. I cut a bit of string and try pouring mania. It is about as good as the fresh hide, maybe slightly worse since I can definitely feel some resistance, but there is no leakage.
I try again, by increasing the mana released until it burst into fire. Definitely not fireproof, but it endured much better than the hide. It seems good so far, but we still have many tests to perform.
“Thank you, manager, do you have more? If not, I can settle with half of this. “
He answers, clearly more upset than afraid. “Sir, I would never allow the stock to drop this low!”
“If you say so, farewell.”
I teleport back to my workshop. As I have an external energy source, and a big magic organ, there seems to be no better moment to work on the dragon-slaying spell… or at least a powered down prototype.
I take a good look at the mutated bear organ to get a good estimate of the space I have, then write a simplified version of the spell.
“Eh? That’s it?” Just by reducing the size by three quarters, the space need dropped from the size of a boulder to that of my fist.
I do not know how much less powerful it will be, but I want to see how the spell works at least once. All I know is that it creates a subspace, isolate it, then collapse it but… What does it look like? What are the effects? I have never seen the spell in action but I have heard a lot – and I mean a lot – of warning.
Taking the warning to heat, I engrave an even smaller version of the spell, before taking a few power sources and teleporting on some distant mountain, coast side. On arrival, I see the ground travel at high speed under me.
“That is what long-range teleportation is like? No wonder, it was considered dangerous.”
I set everything up, start the spell and wait… then wait some more… and even more. I did not expect it to take this long. Maybe I should have taken more power sources, or maybe I should have supplied the mana myself for the first time! I mean, by myself, I could have supplied this much mana in less than a minute.
Almost! I cast an isolation barrier around myself and even wait a few minutes to be on the safe side. It might seem like I am overdoing it, but as I said earlier, there were a lot of warnings.
I drop the barrier and see the reason why. Uprooted trees, enormous stones spread everywhere and right under the target, a hole with a jagged surface: everything was sucked up, including the rock bed!
I am appalled by the destructive power… the destructive power of the much, much-weakened version. I heard the warnings and felt I took them to heart, but seeing this, I understand I did not.
This is in no way comparable to the real thing. The need for so many barriers makes more sense now, but the most appalling discovery was assimilating this fact: only the full spell can reliably kill a dragon/calamity!
I now truly realize why it has to die in its sleep: once awake, it will be unstoppable! My heart heavy, I teleport back to the magic department. Whether it is our project to grow our own crystal or understanding the bag of holding works, one of them has to give a result. Soon!