The crowd had grown considerably smaller since the first round, but not as small as Hunter would have expected, given that over half of the teams had been eliminated.
Perhaps some of those teams had stayed to watch competition, or more older, professional artisans from the city had come to watch. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that to most people wouldn’t be interested until after the first round.
“Contestants, welcome to Round 2 of the Global Youth Artisan Competition! The last round tested your fundamentals, and some of you offered the judges a surprise! Congratulations to our two 7-Star winners for impressing every one our judges. We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next,” the announcer was back and she was as enthusiastic as ever. Her upbeat attitude cleared away Hunters nerves and inspired a round of murmuring. Hunter received some looks from the surrounding teams, where there was once skepticism and clear disdain, there was now curiosity and respect.
Who would have thought that a single evening was all it would take for such a dramatic turnaround.
Hunter had yet to see David Nettle, he wondered what they’d done when they saw his name up there, with a full score.
He smiled at the thought.
“Today is a big day! 22 teams made it through the first round, and only 5 will make it to the third to compete for the grand prize,” the announcer said.
Her words pulled Hunter away from his thoughts.
Those were steep odds.
“This year’s second round will be a test of Force! One of the most powerful and widely utilized glyphs— yet one of the most difficult to understand and master. The use of the Force glyph has wounded and killed many aspiring artisans over the decades since its discovery— but its mastery is essential to become a leader in the field of ether artisanship. Wherever your career takes you, the Force glyph will be a constant companion. Although its use is simple, the ways to approach it are manifold. Today, we will be testing your familiarity with this glyph.”
Hunter saw some of the surrounding teams shrugging and laughing, much of the pressure melting away.
The force glyph could be dangerous, but anyone whose spent enough time studying the glyph and using it in low AR constructs— a limitation all of the contestants would have been working with as their AR’s were still low relative to a fully grown adult— would feel that this round would be far too easy.
Even Hunter felt skeptical. He would have more of a challenge than the rest of the gathered teams, but it would be much easier than he’d expected the round to be. He wouldn’t even have to reveal too much of his synergy knowledge in order to gain an advantage.
“Unlike the last round, your submission will be demonstrated and judged publicly. This means that the judging portion will be shorter, and you’ll have more time allotted to you for planning, designing, and crafting your submissions.”
Behind the announcer, a large white curtain was lowered, revealing a machine that Hunter recognized. It was essentially a large, horizontal weight scale. It would directly measure the force exerted by the construct in pounds— or so he assumed.
The more he had time to think about it, the more this round made sense. The Force glyph may be well known and familiar to all of the contestants present, but that just meant that they’d need to push themselves to create something a bit more unique— to stretch their knowledge to the fullest in order to distinguish their design from someone else.
“Not only will the the force output by your construct be measured, but the final affinity requirement for the construct will also be factored into your final score. The judges will also grade your craftsmanship with a star system similar to yesterday’s round. You will all be limited to an output plate with the same dimensions. When the materials are handed out to you, you will also be given a small piece of paper with the maximum dimensions of your final submission. Attendants?”
At her beckon, the attendants started to filter through the 22 teams, wheeling in the gathered materials behind them. They’d brought in Hunters’ tools on one of those earlier in the morning when he’d arrived to set up his workstation.
They were giving the contestants a lot more material to work with for this round, which made sense. Force constructs were easy in principle, but in practice, they could become very complex.
The paper with the size limitations also mentioned that the teams were free to use as many supporting glyphs as they desire— but each team was limited to the same materials in the same amounts. There would be no substitutions for this round.
Hunter was starting to see the wisdom in making the second round centered on Force constructs. It was simple on the surface, but each team would be forcing themselves to think outside of the box to leverage every ounce of efficiency that they could. The creativity wouldn’t be in the type of product they made, but in how the product was made. The Force glyph was really only good for one thing. This wasn’t just a test of fundamentals, it was a test of experience.
Hunter felt like he’d been handed a gift from heaven. They wouldn’t have had any way to know that this was right up his ally. There were practically begging him to pass through to the final round.
“Contestants, are you ready? You have five hours, starting now!”
The large clock just behind the stage started its countdown.
Five hours. Plenty of time.
He took some time to center himself. He could hear the other teams discussing their strategy. He couldn’t make out specifics, only murmuring and enthusiastic rebuttals. Despite the chaos of the hubbub, Hunter could predict most of their strategies.
There were quite a few considerations to be mindful of when you were designing a construct. Glyph size, glyph placement, and the amount of glyphs you had networked together. A glyph on its own was one thing— a bigger glyph would have a stronger effect (in most cases), but would cost more AR. Networked glyphs would have the combined AR requirement of the glyphs, as well as the combined total AR requirement of the Link sub-glyphs as well. Many glyphs would also have one or two supporting glyphs— any more than that would inflate the AR requirement.
But sometimes, you couldn’t escape glyph-spam. Hunter considered the ships he had seen high in the sky, transitioning though the strange barrier that kept this world contained— an experience that Hunter always wanted to experience first hand. Those ships weighed many tonnes, and the amount of glyphs and sub glyphs that would have been required to lift them would demand an extremely complex network that must have demanded an AR requirement in the thousands. Each ship had teams of individuals with high-AR, whose job it was to keep those systems running at all times with the help of an ocean of ether batteries.
Hunter realized his thoughts were about to drift way off course, so he brought his attention back to the project at hand.
It was an interesting project, and it provided some interesting problems to solve. He imagined that most teams would balance the AR requirement for their constructs by using a large Force glyph on the output plate, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the most efficient path. The Force glyph was known as a direct-output glyph. The ‘force’ would emit from the glyph itself.
You could use support glyphs to enhance the strength of the Force glyph, which would add to the affinity requirement, but when done right could add a significant multiplier to the desired output.
Hunter thought about how he would judge this competition. If he were in charge, he would divide the force output from the construct by the AR requirement. The higher the result, the higher the score.
So, obviously, the idea was to output the most force with the lowest affinity requirement. Hunter was nearly salivating at the thought.
It was like this round had been tailor made for him.
The study of synergies was all about efficiency— more output for less cost. He was born for this competition.
He sorted through all of the Force constructs he’d seen in his life, and thought about what would be the most appropriate. Most of the channels would converge on a single Force Glyph at the center— the star of the show. He would probably follow the herd and carve a large Force glyph on the output plate, but where he deviated from most would be what the Force glyph was connected to.
Amplify would increase the effect of the glyph, Reinforce was another glyph that could be considered a direct-output glyph, but its effect could also be used in a more subtle way. Hunter discovered that it synergized very well with some other glyphs in the right proportions, the desire that the etherium was charged with would end up having an amplification effect as well, but to a lesser degree than amplify would. He could also achieve a similar effect by changing the syntax; adding Reinforce to a separate network, and then leading the etherium down a channel that connected it to the Amplify glyph. It wasn’t a direct use of synergies, it was more like novel twist on an old concept which was informed by his sensitivity.
He would bet good money that none of the other teams knew about this little trick. Some might end up stumbling upon it indirectly, it wouldn’t be hard, it would just take a nonstandard design syntax. It didn’t take a genius to place the reinforce glyph before the amplify glyph, the amplify glyph would have a greater-than-intended effect on the Force glyph. In fact, he’d further bet that if anyone can come close to his score, its because they leverage this trick.
He thought about it some more, and realized that he couldn’t count on this effect on its own to win him the round. All it would take is one observant artisan among the gathered teams to have noticed this effect at some other point in their life. On the other hand, most people would never use reinforce as anything other than a direct-output glyph.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
It was hard to gauge the risk, so he’d err on the side of caution.
As he thought, he amended his design. He would have to add the Reinforce glyph directly to the output plate. It could serve two functions— reinforcing the Force glyph through proximity, and the Amplify glyph which would be hidden behind the plate, which would then create a greater output. It would barely have an effect on the Force glyph, but he would milk every ounce of efficiency he could out of this construct.
He wasn’t content to leave it at that.
He’d experimented with many combinations of glyphs over the years, and had made his fair share of mistakes. Some of those mistakes led to unexpected discoveries. Hunter had once almost destroyed one of his clients’ most expensive constructs by trying to improve it. The synergies he’d added had converted one of his support glyphs, Speed, into a direct-output glyph. It was the strangest thing, and Hunter had almost missed the mistake, but his sixth sense caught onto it just before it tore the construct apart.
If he’d been a bit slower in disconnecting the ether battery, he’d have lost that client. He ended up ghosting Hunter after a while anyways, and Hunter never found out why. However, he’d never forgotten what happened in that day. He went on to discover that the direct-output did not lessen the effects of the support element of the glyph. When used correctly, he could target it towards the amplify and reinforce-charged etherium flowing towards the Force glyph, it would mean that the Force glyph would be saturated with more etherium in less time. There were only so many channels that he could carve, and and only so many glyphs for those channels to connect.
In the interest of style, AR efficiency, and output efficiency, he could use the Speed glyph to increase the speed of etherium flow within the channels he’d carve into the construct, but only where it counted. It would do multiple jobs at once, increasing the efficiency of the Force glyph by a considerable amount, but he wanted it to effect the force glyph only.
He would need to add it to the plate as well, but it worked a bit differently than the other two direct-outputs he was using. Speed acted more like a field, and it was something that Hunter didn’t quite understand yet. It was one of the few effects he’d encountered that he could sense, but not understand.
He saw it as something of an invitation from the etherium itself. An invitation to look deeper, and innovate. Force was similar— it output a field of directed something that caused the objects within it to be propelled away from the glyph. That something, Hunter knew, was etherium exhibiting a new desire, a new charge. What that meant, he didn’t know.
Etherium was just a word— it was still just as mysterious to him as it was for others, he just had an advantage that they didn’t.
Etherium didn’t conform to the laws of physics as they were currently understood. The Force field emitted by the Force glyph didn’t effect the mass of an object. Any stationary object subjected to the field emitted by the Force glyph would simply move, as if it had been subjected to force.
Speed would further amplify the effects of Force, but it would add to the affinity rating required to use the network after the addition of the small series of glyphs required to convert it.
It took a few minutes to rework his design plan to make the best use of the converted Speed glyph, and he managed to proliferate the burden of the glyph throughout the rest of the network, only a couple of extra support glyphs would be necessary, but the extra mental labor was worth it.
He suspected— though this was purely guesswork, that it acted something like the Amplify glyph— a similar desire. Perhaps if glyphs could be assigned to a family tree, both Amplify and Speed had a common ancestor.
He laughed at the idea. He had no way to understand how glyphs were organized. Amplify did what it did, and Speed did what it did. They were different.
It didn’t speed up time, or entropy, nor did it increase momentum.
It was etherium, not physics. Mysterious as always.
Hunter didn’t understand why Speed acted the way it did when he attached it to certain synergy networks. It was almost as if the charge was hidden from him, its desire was hiding under a layer of mystery that Hunter had yet to penetrate. It was one of the rare times when he would feel like any other artisan— frustrated at the seeming futility of trying to understand how it all worked.
Why these glyphs? Why these shapes, in these combinations? Was it a language made by the universe? Was it discovered, or created? If it had been created, who could possibly create such a thing? The first glyphs were discovered a few centuries ago in Asutnahem ruins. It was unknown if they originated from the Asutnahem, or if the glyphs were a relic from an even earlier, unrecorded age.
Hunter shook his head and focused on the work.
He was proud of the Speed glyph’s addition to the network. Anything that was caught in the Speed field would move faster, and he was hoping that any oxygen and dust caught in the field would inflate the force measurement.
It wasn’t cheating, exactly. He hadn’t ready any rule that prevented the usage, and doubted that anyone here would catch onto what he was up to.
He took one final assessment of his draft.
The Force glyph would need to be smaller, the Speed glyph would need to be close enough to the Force glyph that it increased its effect, but far enough away that it didn’t interfere with the reinforce glyph.
Hunter hadn’t used this specific combination before, but he knew the effect that Reinforce had on Force as a support glyph, it was something he’d used many times before. The result was an etheric desire that was different from what would normally be emitted from a normal Force rune, but it wasn’t something that the Speed-charged ether should have any conflict with— it wouldn’t create any inefficiencies.
But he’d never used the Speed Glyph in tandem with a Reinforce glyph, let alone a modified Reinforce glyph.
Better safe than sorry, he’d heard someone say once upon a time. He couldn’t remember who.
But then Hunter started to feel an urge rise up from his gut.
He almost gave into it. It was tempting. What if the Speed glyph improved the reinforce Glyph as well? He didn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t. But even if it did improve it, it might have a chance of completely inflating the AR requirement.
If the stakes weren’t so high, he’d give into this urge. He believed that his current plan would be enough to make it to the top 5, if he didn’t place first.
Hunter looked at the clock. Four hours and thirty minutes left.
He took out a sketch pad and played with a few ideas. Spacing would be important, and the syntax would look absolutely ludicrous. In order to create the most clean design, he would need to add a Link glyph that was almost completely arbitrary. So he scrapped that design and went with the second best.
He considered his design once more, and started having doubts. He could dramatically reduce the AR requirement if he scrapped the speed glyph, slightly increased the Force glyph size, slightly reduced the Reinforce glyph size. That design would probably only require an AR of 14, maybe 16, max.
The modified Speed glyph would require three small support glyphs, and three link glyphs, but he would also be able to reduce the size of the Amplify glyph, which would reduce the AR requirement by around 4.
He was struck by a sudden burst of inspiration. He could leverage his crosshatch channels in lieu of the Link glyphs, but only for the supporting glyphs that modified Speed, which would decrease the AR requirement by another 4, although it would undoubtedly reduce the efficiency of the glyphs, which he figured would be approximately 2 more AR added to the requirement. Still, that 2 AR could be the difference between 1st place and 2nd place. Or even more important, 5th place and 6th.
The only reason he could justify the substitution was because the support glyphs were very similar, almost identical, and they charged the etherium in almost the same way, with an effect that only mattered when they interfaced with the Speed glyph itself. In any other situation, he wouldn’t dream of substituting a Link Glyph with an intersecting series of channels.
It would probably earn him some style points. That, along with the utterly unique syntax and glyph combinations— his design would go a long way for earning stars from the judges. The only thing that mattered now was the exact Force output, as well as the final Affinity requirement.
He would be taking a bit of a risk with this design, but he was confident. It would work, and it would make an impact.
He glanced at the clock.
Four hours left. The teams around him were already starting to machine their parts, and etch the channels into the materials.
He would need to work fast to keep up, but with the excitement that came with his confidence, and the potential pay off of taking a small risk with his design, he felt that he was up for the challenge.
It took three hours for Hunter to machine all the parts he needed. He preferred to manufacture, and then create his channels as he went along. He created all of the most complex parts first, as well as the parts with the hardest angles to work with. He left the output plate until the end.
With half an hour to go, he assembled the final pieces of his construct.
----------------------------------------
He had attempted to make the end result look as symmetrical as possible, but there was only so much he could do on his own.
There was a small nook for a drawstone to be slotted into, which he called the user end. The user end expanded out to for almost 12 inches to meet the edges of the output plate, which he had dubbed the business end, which he had carved with a large Force glyph, a circular design with swirling, symmetrical patterns throughout. The Speed glyph was nestled at the top right-hand corner of the business end, and the Reinforce glyph took up a significant portion of the bottom left-hand corner. Various channels stretched around the plate, back into the innards of the construct where they flowed into a pretty system of channels carved with clean lines, meeting either at a crosshatch or a glyph-link network, spread throughout the inside of the casing.
Hunter had to take some liberties with the material, using wood when he could— carving along the grain to get the most out of the material. It was only ever used to lead the channels towards the glyphs, which he had carved using more solid materials.
The user end had taken the most time to get right, but he’d created, modified, and broken more of those than he would care to count over the years. They were pretty simple to make, at this point, but required an experts hand to get just right.
He’d drained quite a few batteries over the last few hours, and had finished off the charge of one of his old, modified batteries in order to gauge the AR requirement of the device, which he estimated to be somewhere between 22 and 24. He let the construct run for about half a minute, and it didn’t appear to break, so he decided it was done.
There was no use worrying about how it would perform. It did work, and it did create a strong propulsive effect when he used a piece of paper to carefully find the edge of the Force field, confirming that it was outputting the way he wanted it to. The Speed glyph added an interesting effect to the paper, dramatically exaggerating the way it flapped back whenever it touched the field, creating a soft slapping sound.
He guessed that the sound was generated by the air in the room, accelerated when it hit the field. The next workbench was too far away to tell if he was creating much of a breeze, and Hunter didn’t care to test it himself. He didn’t want to get in trouble by letting go of the paper and seeing how far it flew. He couldn’t afford a disqualification at this point. He’d come too far.
But he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted.
He let the construct run for half a minute, closing his eyes and sensing for any sudden changes in the what he was sensing. Closing his eyes brought with it a feeling of comfort, and he realized that he really wanted to sleep.
He hadn’t even realized how drained he was, but he had been so engaged with the work that it didn’t really bother him at the time.
When nothing was amiss, he deactivated the construct and smiled.
Hunter followed a whim and used the third arm to lift the construct, etching his signature along the bottom.
He needed a break, this construct required a lot of testing, especially when he was verifying that the crosshatch worked like he had planned. He didn’t feel as drained as he had during the first round— apparently moving his supplies from the hotel to the stadium had taken more out of him than he’d expected, but he was still nearly exhausted.
Tired as he may be, he was proud of his work. He considered it a piece of art— although it may not be as visually impressive as the other teams, it had challenged him, and he’d risen to the challenge. It was almost an experiment in itself, and barring the pending results from the coming assessment, in his mind, it was a success.
There were still 20 minutes on the clock, and Hunter decided to sit down, lean against his workbench, and rest his eyes. It was too loud to sleep, but sometimes, just closing his eyes for a while was enough to trick his body into thinking it had just gotten some rest.