“Believe it or not, a small distraction can help a lot of people focus on something they need to think about. I believe the main reason for this is that the mind and brain need a break from thinking solely on one topic. Of course, many do not need distraction and many find it counterproductive, but my point stands nonetheless.”
-Productivity advice from Herla
*=====*
Mori nodded, looking between Aetra and Fara, “So that’s what you mean… So, what are we supposed to make of this?” Mori asked them all. She looked between Fara, Aetra, Jel, Pride, and Desire for a few moments, shrugging when their collective attention narrowed to her.
“It’s not good, that’s for sure,” Aetra said, grimacing and looking out over the vast sands beyond the cave, “It either means that an event horizon was reached or the Demon of the Clock just wants us dead a lot more than usual.”
Mori and Fara shared an awkward look when Aetra was not looking, remembering the words of the gods but two or three weeks before. “What’s an event horizon?” Desire asked as she leaned against the wall next to the cave’s entrance.
“Oh, that’s when the Clockworks decide to up the ante and start using technology being deployed against them. It’s how they went from swords and shields to guns and cannons,” Jel explained with a smug look, “Pridey, you should’ve known that! Maybe you should’ve learned history before you went off and studied mineralogy!”
“Oh, I would have loved to study history,” Pride said sarcastically, “But you still refuse to explain where you even learn most of the knowledge you have. It makes studying the same topics as you difficult.”
Mori sighed, “Well, at this point I’ve stopped questioning Jel’s sources-”
“Even though we all probably should,” Desire cut in from the side.
“But where did you learn about mineralogy from? Also, why?” Mori asked, raising a bony brow at Pride.
Pride shifted on his feet for a second, something that would have looked like a fidget were it not Pride doing it, “I learned from some of the fortification mages during their off hours. As well as from the elven man at the fortress camp. As for why I learned it, I wanted to explore the process of creating imbued materials. Like your palm-slate,” he explained.
“And good luck to you,” Aetra added, “It’s a tough field to study, pretty much because the only way to have reproducible results is by using mana crystals or copying someone’s mind, which is impossible. The effectiveness is pretty dependent on what material and mana type you're using. Metal is usually a pretty solid baseline. Unless you’re using a mana type that messes with metal. A bone would be a good thing to imbue with a necromancy mana type, for example.”
“Because it’s always bones,” Mori grumbled, “Never a piece of a grave or something.”
Aetra pretended not to notice Mori’s complaints, smiling to Pride, “Like I said, it’s a tough field to get right and get the right results.”
Pride nodded, “Duly noted.”
“Now, back to the main subject of interest,” Aetra continued, turning to face them all, “Do any of you have any way to defend against spells?”
Mori and Fara once again shared glances, giving each other sly smiles as they came to the same conclusion, “Mana shields.”
“Mana disruption.”
They stared at each other for a moment, “Why mana disruption?” Mori asked, “If the mechs shoot wide, they could disrupt the spells of others with it. Besides, we already went over why giving them pure mana-based weapons isn’t the greatest of ideas.”
“But it’s still better than the efficiency of mana shields,” Fara countered, “They spend mana constantly to keep their effects up while the disruption weapons could only be used in dire straits.”
Mori had to give it to Fara, she had a point. She did as well, though, “So can shields. If an undead could be trained to put up the shields when a spell is being shot at them, then they wouldn’t need disruption mana to counter spells.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Ahem…” Aetra coughed, putting herself between them, “Alright, why can’t you just have both again?” she asked.
“Because the runes needed for the type of power needed would be too big to fit two of them on,” Mori explained, “Besides, with every additional rune added, the production cost climbs higher and higher. And time. Morso time.” Fara nodded with her. ‘At least we can agree on this,’ Mori thought to herself.
Aetra paused, thinking for a minute, before Desire piped up from the side, “Why not just have some of them use one type and the others use the other type?” she asked, “They could play to each other's strengths.”
Aetra shrugged, “That’s one way of doing it, but tools that are too reliant on other tools to work aren’t worth having. That applies to military philosophy as well. Sure, each team has a role, and they need to work together, but one soldier needs to be able to at least stand on her own if need be.”
Desire shrugged, “Well, either way, that’s not my business. Mistress, I’m going to go get the crews back into the tunnel. This has delayed the project enough already,” she said, skittering her way back into the gut-like tunnels of the range.
“I’m heading out too, mistress!” Jel said, “Come by the library some time to see what I made for Dessy!” Jel skipped her way out of the tunnel system, dragging a begrudgingly agreeable Pride with her.
Aetra looked between Fara and Mori, shrugging after a few minutes, “Let’s get going, then. We might as well talk about it on the walk back,” she said. The three of them began making their way into the tunnels, side by side, “So, where were we?”
“Shields versus disruption,” Mori reminded, “I just realized something. Do you think my undead can ever recognize when someone’s using magic…?” A silence hung over them as the question did, “I guess we’re going with the shield then.”
“What about the mana cost?” Fara reiterated, “We can’t just have the shield always up, can we? Unless… we don’t always have it up. Like you were saying, we train them to put the shield up when a ranged attack is coming their way.”
“That might be tough,” Aetra added, “Though, I have a sense about how smart your undead are, but are they…”
Mori and Fara looked each other in the eyes for a long moment, “Really dumb sometimes,” they both said at the same time.
“It’s like gambling, sometimes,” Mori explained, “Sometimes, I get a smart, no-nonsense undead like Tisi, Pride, or Avar. Other times, I get undead with their own things, like Desire, Aerolat, or Mae. Then I get stupid. Thank the gods none of my death knights are plain stupid, but it’s a bit of a problem for some of the more stupid zombies.”
“If they aren’t very smart, we can just see how they do,” Fara comforted, patting Mori on the metallic back, “Who knows? Maybe they’re just idiot savants?” Mori glared at Fara, earning a chuckle from the mechanic.
“Well, either way, they won’t be useless. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how stupid soldiers can be on the battlefield,” Aetra replied.
“I doubt that,” Mori said, “I’ve seen some pretty dumb things. And heard about some pretty dumb things. And done some pretty dumb things, come to think of it.”
Aetra grinned, “Oh, you’ll see. So, the worst story I have is about this sniper from the Home Guard Fleet. So, the most important thing to remember about the Home Guard Fleet is that they always fight mana beasts, wild animals, bandits, or pirates. That’s it. Another thing to mention about them is that they are… willfully ignorant on the matter of Clockworks. They instead spend their time refining their abilities against familiar foes. That’s good, but…”
“It’s bad when they aren’t fighting something familiar,” Mori finished, “Oh no… What’d the sniper do?”
“I’m getting there,” Aetra said, “Now, Mount Averus has plenty of eccentric visitors. Of them, one of the less common visitors is a cyborg-”
“Really?” Mori asked, “That’s neat!” Fara nodded with Mori.
“Yes yes, very neat. Technically, you’re a cyborg yourself, Mori, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, as you can expect, a cyborg is running towards the city, his backpack jostling from side to side-”
Mori tilted her head, “Running?”
“He’s an… eccentric man. Anyway, he’s running towards the city, backpack on, and he looks too close to a Clockwork for the sniper. Now, another thing, this sniper just came out of boot camp, so as he’s sitting in a small lookout tower, he’s got nothing to help him but his training,” Aetra explained, “He could let the fast, obviously mechanical thing run past his post, which could lead to a Clockwork being let close to the city and a court martialing for him, or he could just shoot it in the head and be done with it. Guess what he goes for?”
“He takes the shot?” Fara asked as they got back into the main tunnel.
Aetra nods, “Yeah. So, he takes the shot and, big surprise, the cyborg doesn’t die. Now, this cyborg is a good person, eccentric, yes, bad as a person, no. So, the cyborg gets shot in the head and his metallic skull is dented. Instead of fighting, he decides to keep running, hoping to find someone to talk to. This, to the sniper, looks like the Clockwork is doing a sucide attack on the city. He fires the emergency flare and… you get the picture.”
Mori giggled a bit, “So what happened in the end?”
“Oh, it all worked out fine, though not until the sniper tried to kill the cyborg a couple more times. The sniper got a bit of a punishment, but he was fine in the end, the cyborg wanted help un-denting his head, and everyone was happy with the outcome. Though, that incident is why we require all cyborgs to wear some sort of outer layer of cloth to show that they’re people.”
They all shared a laugh, talking until they reached the mouth of the tunnel, “Alright, I’ve got to get going,” Mori said, “Some more stuff to plan out. I’ll see you guys later!” she yelled, running off. It was fun, being with others, Mori reaffirmed for the thousandth time.