After finding out that Enchanting was bollocks, I proceeded to write on a sheet of paper all of my crazy ideas that I wanted Carmine to try out. Some of those were the following:
-Enchant metal rings by placing circular runes inside the circumference of the rings themselves. And as a derivative of that, also check out what would happen if a chain-mail armor was crafted by entangling together a myriad of pre-enchanted rings. Even if each “link” was as low as a +1 to a certain stat, having THOUSANDS of them linked together must create something stronger, right? Just imagine an +22000 extra stats item, which is the average amount of rings for a basic chainmail.
-Construct progressively non-entangled runes inside of an item, like for example placing them inside the cylindrical structure from the shaft of a mace by staggering the “strokes” of each rune-circuit in such a way that they would not overlap onto eachother by spinning them at a certain angle inside of the cylinder. Also, to check out what would happen if the runes DID overlap with each other. Could one rune “share” a circuit-section with another rune if that particular “piece” of the whole rune contained the same strokes in the exact position for both?
-Check if “spiral” layering was possible, by creating a rune-circuit that progressively led upwards inside of the material in a spiraling-fashion by being partially-slanted.
-What would happen if we ditched the collector rune, and simply shoved a spirit-stone in its stead. What if we did the same for the “battery” circuit as well? Could you have an “effect” circuit that directly fed itself only from Spirit Stones? I mean, we now had the ability to create 100% Qi-filled Spirit Stones of any Qi-type, so having those act as a ”fuel” source would not be impossible. That way, even mortal “commoner” people without Qi would be able to wield “magic” weapons, albeit ones powered by premade Spirit Stones.
As I was scribbling, Carmine was looking over at my list, and was starting to glow through the whole rainbow-color gamut in a repeated cycle from her continuous shock.
"Ye cannay do dat! Daz’ SACRILEGE! What ye proposin’ dere would spit inda face of all meh ancestors and all dat came before dem! I swore to pass down meh clan’s runes onleh to meh children if oi ever had some, but without alterin’ or twistin’ dem runes in anneh way!"
"Has it ever occurred to you that such a mentality, one that seems to be sooo prevalent everywhere across this planet, is why this whole damn world is so primitive? Hoarding knowledge and selective dissemination of said knowledge are the worst crimes you can do against a CIVILISATION. It negates the basic idea of CULTURE, which is the foundation stone of any advanced group of people."
"P...PRIMITIVE? Oi’ll have ye know dat meh village wuz among th’ best on th’ whole continent! We were always at th’ forefront of Dwarven Smitthin’! Meh Clan created wonders!"
"I don’t doubt that, but pray do tell, compared to your cherished Dwemm ancestors, how well does your “advanced-civilisation-of-a-village” stand in comparison? Can you create Automatons with your village’s knowledge? Or a Flying Fortress? Or an Undying vast Underground City?"
"Wot? No, of course not! Dose are Heresies! Th’ work of the Devil! Whispers from Evil Gods given form!"
"Is that what you’ve been told? Oh...poor...poor Carmine. Come over here for a second. I want to test something out, and also show you something, if it works…"
"Ugh...Wot?"
"Just stand still...ok...just like that...there…"
I then immediately grabbed her dangling branch-tentacles with a bunch of my own, and I furiously began to send over the temporary bridged-connection a large quantity of images and videos that I could remember back from Earth. The sky-scrapers, the immense cities, airplanes, helicopters, Tv’s, mobile phones, war, machine guns, Nukes, cartoons, games, students in class from kindergarten to university, a flashback of the Periodic Table of Elements which had been the poster on the wall above my bed for most of my childhood, automation in factories, robots from science and reality both, and many other things that screamed “modern wold”.
Carmine got instantly overwhelmed by the sudden information flow, and was left agape while she was still trying to figure out what she had just witnessed, even five minutes after I had let her go.
"D...Dat was th’ world ye came from? Dat wuz insane! So many magical items everywhere!"
"NOT MAGIC! ZERO of that stuff! Everything you saw was based on Science. Well researched, well thought out, and above everything else, WELL-COMMUNICATED scientific discoveries. When one person discovered something back on Earth, they would gather other people that held similar interests, and they would further research and expand on that discovery to see if it could be used for the greater good. At least, most Scientists did it that way. Of course, even Earth had its own rotten apples like the Mega-Corporations, but even those greedy people who only wanted profits had acknowledged the incredible value of basic Communication and Experimentation."
"How can all o’ dat be without magic? Ye had birds of metal dat flew in th’ air, loike dem cultivater’s magic boats, and they musta weighed hundreds of tons! Wot th’ bloodeh hells! No wonder yer such a condescending lil' git all of da toime, ye've seen some incredible shaite fer sure!"
"I'm WHAT? Since when the hell have I been condescending? I've never once looked down upon you! If anything, I pity you all for having to put up with the Mother System your entire lives. Is that how I sound to you?"
*General grumble and nodding from all the present people*
"Look lass, ye may be a smart one, but nobodeh loikes havin th' shotcomings dat dey DID NOT EVEN KNO' DEY HAD INDA FIRST PLACE bein' rubbed in deir faces all of th' toime. Oi've been puttin up wid yer shaite cuz u've been mostleh roite so far, an' oi can appreciate dat as an Engineer, but dat don't make yeh less of a cnt. Oim sure th' others agree too!"
*Furious nods from the rest.*
"Ugh...well sorry for that then...it's not like I mean to sound like that...but how the hell am I supposed to point out to you where you are wrong, if I don't simply show it to you?"
"Well, try applyin' more tact or sumthing'. Be more polite. Less edgy! Ye don’t need ta’ hammer it in so hard!"
"And how the hell am I supposed to do that? “OH, why hello there, my dear sir/mam I would like to inform you in a very polite fashion that your perceived notions about your entire reality are completely wrong, and I am about to shatter them into pieces. Now be a dear and clench your mental buttcheeks in preparation for the spanking that is about to occur. Ta-tah!” I think that would make me sound like an even greater douchebag!"
"Now see? Daz exactleh wot oi’ve been talkin about! Yer makin meh wanna put meh smithin’ hammer roite between yer eyebrows, and ye don’t even know it! Nobodeh loikes a little Miss Smartypants paradin’ all over dem! People have deir own pride! Ye come in ‘ere, and den ya tell meh dat everyfin’ oi ‘ave learned so far in meh entire loife is bollocks, of course I’ma be pissed off! I’ve worked meh ass-off to git to th’ level where oi’m at roite now!"
"Hmmm...ok, I can see your point. Maybe I’ve been projecting my own dissatisfaction with being tossed into this world against yourselves by talking down on you all...even if it’s not your fault. Hmm...is that some form of subconscious lashing out? A shrink would have a field day analyzing my plethora of mental disorders that I have at this current moment…"
"A wot? What’s a Shrimp gots ta’ do wit’ yer head? Yer talkin’ nonsense again! Ye do dat shaite every time someone locks ye down in a talk! It don’t make ya look more mysterious, it makes ya look insane! An’ totalleh pisses off whoever yer talkin’ to, when dey can’t understand even half the shaite yer mumbling about!"
"Shrink, not Shrimp...That was a nickname for a [Psychologist], a form of [Mind-Healer] back from Earth. Something that this world is in dire need of, myself included. I think...I may have issues…"
"No kiddin!" *Unison voice* *Furious nods from the rest.*
"Well, you can be a little bit unbearable at times..." Fung added.
"AH...ET TU, FUNGUS?" I theatrically mimicked getting stabbed.
"Look, you do indeed come across as callous or absolutely uncaring about any form of politeness, customs, traditions or personal skills or values to the people that you meet." Lingfeng added. "The persons in this room ignore most of that because we all KNOW about your weird “circumstances”, and that you’re not from “around here”, but to anybody else you sound just like some pompous noble douchebag that likes to rub his higher education and “mysteriousness” in your face!
"AND EVEN IF YOU ARE RIGHT, people do not like being told that they are wrong, or deficient in a certain way. But you, you simply come and tell them “Hey, you know something? Your Dick is short! You have been improperly cultivating it so far, even though you have been working hard at growing it your entire life!”. Of course you are going to piss people off if you keep doing that!"
Everybody couldn’t help but snicker at Lingfeng phalic analogy, but he was indeed right. People HATE being told that they are wrong, even when they do dumb shit and are totally at fault.
Coercing people that continuously do dumb things into performing properly WITHOUT pissing them off, is even more of a monumental task. Basically, it reminded me of the 40-man raids back from Earth’s MMO’s, and how skilled at diplomacy my Raid-Leaders used to be, just to keep all of the morons in check.
And now, I had an even worse case of that on my hands, as I would probably need to keep together a cohesive unit of HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of people at the same time, just to get rid of that Ancient Evil that lurked below us. I knew being heavy-handed won’t work, as it would demoralize the whole unit, and they would just see me as an Enemy instead of a Parent-Figure administering a well-deserved spanking, so I probably had to correct myself. Ugh...
"Ok...I admit that I have behavioral problems, but we’ve derailed off the track here...we can talk about those issues later. For now, we were talking about pointlessly sticking to your past notions that are probably incorrect, and your unwillingness to let go of them, Carmine!"
"Soo...yer tellin meh to just ignore all of meh traditions, an’ start experimentin’ loike sum deranged maniac on dem runes an’ items instead?"
"Not like a maniac. We’re not going to do things at random here, quite the contrary. Everything will be well-documented every step of the way, and we’ll try and learn from our mistakes as much as possible. If I’m right, the old Dwemm Civilisation at some point had become even more advanced in certain technological areas than even that of Earth, especially when it came to blending their advanced technologies with the local flavor of “magic” provided by the Mother System. The Automatons are a testament to that." I pointed at Will-E. "We most certainly did not have any of those back on planet Earth when I departed. Of course, calling it “magic” would be incorrect, because there’s no such thing even here on this planet."
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"Wot do yeh mean dere's no magic? Then what the bloodeh hell has everybodeh been doin’ across th’ whole planet ever since ancient toimes?"
"Ok, let me rephrase that... You may indeed say that “magic” exists in a certain tangible way in this world, but just labelling everything you cannot understand as “magic” is totally incorrect. If I were to label the local “magic” in a proper way, then there would be several categories of “magic” that you would be able to encounter on this planet:
"-First and foremost, there would be the type of “magic” phenomenon that is created by the Mother System on her own, without any intervention from external factors or entities. You can think of most magic-infested zones as a good example of that.
"-The Second type of “magic”, the one which is the most commonly encountered everywhere, is the one created by the Mother System AT THE BEHEST of this planet's inhabitants. Reciting certain words to invoke a [Spell], or carving a rune that symbolizes a certain meaning onto an item, these are basically one of the many ways that a “magic user” can “conjure up” the power of the Mother System and get her to perform certain tasks for the conjurer. Think of these types of “conjured magics” like “making a wish”, and the Mother System granting that wish within the precise parameters of the request, just because the “conjurer” is her "child".
"And yes, the Mother System is incredibly impartial and uncaring when it comes to acceding to the requests of her mortal offspring. For example, when two mages begin casting fireballs at each other, it isn't the actual mages themselves who construct or launch the fireballs, but rather the Mother System granting them the “wish” contained within the [Fireball] spell, and then causing the explosive plasma spheres of destruction to come into existence and get launched.
"As long as the spell has been recited and triggered properly, it does not matter who the conjurer of the spell has been in the first place, because as far as the Mother System is concerned, she will simply just execute said [Fireball] within the parameters of the uterred spell mechanically, even if the Mage or even both mages wind up killing each other with those conjured [Fireball] spells as a result.
"The same seems to apply to the “crafting” professions like my Alchemy, your Smithing and Enchanting, and probably a plethora of others. It’s actually the Mother System that does most of the work, instead of yourself. You would never possess the know-how or precision to do what the Mother System does without any issues, not in a million years.
"-Thirdly, there is the user-created “magic”, which is basically all forms of environmental manipulation that you can perform with your own spiritual roots, without the Mother System intervening on your behalf at all. It's like how you have been separating those impurities away from the metals by using your branch-tentacles, or manipulating the thermal Qi inside of an item.
"That “magic” has been performed by yourself alone without the Mother System having to lift a single finger for you, so it could be indeed considered your own “magic”, except that it’s not actually “magic” per say, but just another form of manipulating the environment with your “whole” body and mind, including your spirit-roots and meridians, instead of only your fleshy body.
"Just because you now have a “spiritual-tentacle arm” that can hammer down a nail instead of a physical one, it does not mean that it is a “magical arm” in any way, but rather that you had no idea how to use it properly before, since the manipulation of said arm requires quite a high cultivation base for most people, at least before they can access those “extra” parts of themselves. You could consider yourself quite “blessed” for that matter, because you have learned my “shortcut” methods instead of the regular cultivation methods, which expedites the process of accessing your “spiritual body” by an incredible amount. But in theory, any mortal should be able to perform the “third” kind of “magic” with their own spiritual-roots.
"Yet, as far as the first and the second type of “magics” are concerned, only the Mother System has the knowledge and the wide-enough and precise-enough environmental control to perform those correctly. Never undrestimate Her. She can change the entire surface of the world on a whim!
"Do you think you have what it takes to hold an incandescent ball of plasma in your hand only by yourself, like in the case of that [Fireball] spell for example, even if you were to use your spiritual-roots to do it? I think not! Momma System is the one creating the real plasma-container, so it does not blow up in your face before you actually launch it! YOU would have no clue how to do such a thing by yourself! Even I have no clue how she does that, even though I can wildly speculate!
"Sure, with enough training, understanding, and a very profound control of your own spirit-roots, you might be able to do that by yourself in the end, but it would take hundreds of years of exercising that particular skill to get it right, and that would be an incredibly hard feat to achieve, especially when it comes to a highly-volatile and highly-destructive spell like a [Fireball], as you would more likely blow yourself up before actually managing a successful cast without the System’s aid.
"Also, I can GUARANTEE to you that you would never be able to create items that have the same crafting-precision to those of the Mother System, unless you became some incredible spirit-root user with a God-like computational power and a spirit-root manipulation accuracy that would be able to move even atoms separately on their own. By the way, ATOMS are the basic stuff that makes up everything, as I have already explained to you when we talked about the Periodic Table, and they are VERY, VERY small."
"Lass, oi would be able to carve a rune even on top of th’ head of a needle if oi had some small enough tools available, plus a large enough of a magnifying glass ta’ see wot oim doin’. See dis? [Perfectly Steady Hands], tis one of meh [Clockwork Engineer] passives." She showed me her rock-solid hand movements, which had zero wobble in them.
"Nononono! I don’t think you understand how SMALL I’m talking about, love. Let me give you a mathematical example, as you might be able to appreciate it more, since you’re a Clockwork Engineer and know how to properly measure stuff. I remember this shit because of my grade-school Chemistry teacher who was a dear, and she had told me back then that in a “drop” of PURE water, which is about 0.05 milliliters by the way, there’s about five sextillion atoms. To put it on paper so you can understand it, that’s 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Yes, that many fucking zeroes, Carmine!" I waved the paper I had just scribbled in front of the dwarven girl. "Atoms are THAT small! Do you think you can move that precisely? I highly doubt it. Yet, the Mother System seems to be able to do exactly that, so that’s why you are never going to be able to do what she does. Just look at the Immortal Rooster as a good example.
"Everytime the creature gets beheaded, the Mother System rebuilds its entire body back from scratch, and leaves it in a perfectly-working condition. Can you even imagine how complex the rooster’s body must be from an ATOMIC point of view, if even a single water-drop has sextillions of atoms inside? And yet, the Mother System seems to be able to rebuild him over and over again without any problem whatsoever.
"So yeah, to get back to what I wanted to point out the most, the best thing you can do at this moment is not to try and do everything by yourself, but rather to find the most efficient way to “fool” the Mother System into doing “the job” for you instead.
"Why the hell hammer on an item to make it “perfect” for ages, when you could just let the Mother System adjust the item’s appearance for you instead, and with such an extreme precision that you would never be able to duplicate as a humanoid mortal?
"Or alternatively, “persuade” Her to properly distribute the internal metal contents inside the internal structure of an item, to obtain the maximum alloy strength for you instead, just because you had the right [Skills] for such a thing to happen.
"What we need to focus on from now on is how to “unlock” such "automation" [Skills], instead of actually persisting stubbornly in our arrogance that “we can do everything on by ourselves”, like you are doing at this moment. A System-Crafted item will ALWAYS beat whatever you can create, PERIOD. Once you accept that fact, you can move on to greater heights, and let the Mother System do all of the work for you. She is never going to complain about it, you can be certain of it. This is not some sort of “cheating”, because everybody else in the world would be able to get the Mother System to do the same for them, if they had all of the requirements fulfilled as well. Consider it just applied knowledge instead, just like those Runes you have been hoarding. Basically, make your motto “How can I get the Mother System to do this job for me instead”, instead of trying to do everything with your own power. You can’t go wrong with that, at least not while you remain on this planet!"
*Scribble*Scribble*
"Fascinating...Get the Mother Earth to do it for you instead..." Yi Gore kept writing my entire rant on a sheet of paper while still looking at Carmine the love-struck eyes.
"Why the hell have you all gone so quiet all of the sudden?" I turned to the rest of my companions.
Lingfeng partially opened his eyes away from his meditation, and then told me that after hearing my “crazy ideas” about runes, he had suddenly remembered some schematics that he had seen in a certain section of the Heavenly Library, but had discarded the written words as “impossible” and “useless” back then because he was missing context.
It seems that certain Dwemmer construction manuals were indeed still available inside of the Heavenly Library, including their material-crafting techniques and attached runes for them, except that these runes weren't just simple FLAT runes like the current enchanting ones, but rather complex 3-dimensional patterns of incredible detail, as befitting for runes that went straight inside of a material’s lattice.
The reason everybody had become dead-silent was because Lingfeng had urged everybody else with “Library Access” to “switch over” to their Heavenly Library avatars, and help him with the search. So now Fungus, Xibei, Liliam and Jin were all in “projection” mode together with Lingfeng, and were all ransacking the shelves at the location he had remembered.
Of course, upon hearing about 3D runes, I immediately joined him, with Carmine following me as well. The only ones left “outside” had been Yi Gore, who unfortunately did not have “access”, Quan the Monk and a fidgeting Will-E, as they were left staring at our entire group that now sat in “silent meditation” at the feet of the Master “Brother Zhang”, not knowing what was really goin on.
Once we got to the Library section that Lingfeng had pointed us to, we had indeed discovered a veritable treasure-trove of Dwemmer manuals. Some were just crappy “How to use your household Automaton” leaflets that an owner received with every Automaton purchase, but others were PROPER maintenance manuals, containing circuit diagrams, disassembly methods, and even material servicing.
Some of them even contained 3D runes that would “pop up” like holograms in mid air, once a manual’s contents was opened on the rune’s page, which was an astounding display to say the least. Unfortunately, the runes were only displayed for maintenance comparison purposes, so that any Dwemm Engineer would be able to compare the rune from the manual with the one on the actual object and check if it was faulty or not. This did not include the rune manufacturing process or stroke order though, which was a bummer.
Still, we now knew for a fact that 3D runes were a real thing, and had also gained a decent idea about what they could do, as the “correct” effects of the runes were fortunately described in the maintenance manuals.
Comparing the 2D runes to the 3D ones was like comparing the Lego-Brick-Castle of a 5 year old with the architecture of the Pentagon Building. They weren’t even the same league. Even the most simple of all 3D runes was so complex that it gave me headaches just by looking at it, but the resulting effects were similarly astounding. Something that would have taken up about 100 “2D” runes all connected together on a flat surface, could now simply get “compressed” down into a 3D rune instead and increase the effects and outcomes of the enchantments by an insane amount.
The values described within the manuals were so outrageous, that Carmine’s astral-projection was wobbling like gelatin while reading the compendiums. Fortunately, I could now also see how her Engineer’s fire had been lit, and I knew that she would start producing even more wonderful items from now on, as she had something to compare herself against.
Ah, those are the woes of freshly-attained knowledge. Once you know how high the mountain peak is, only then will you be able to know how small you are, and what you must do to climb-up the whole mountainside. People nowadays thought that the “peak” of a profession was the first “camping spot” up the mountain trek, when in truth 75% or more of the “mountain” had yet to be explored. But to someone who knew how tall the mountain really was, they would not even bother to stop and think about the 25% “resting spot”, and would whizz past that place relentlessly. Of course, this would leave everyone that thought the 25% spot was the “end of the road” completely dazed, and unable to compare themselves to the greatness of a “true” mountain climber.
Once I opened my “real” eyes once again, I had been welcomed by the nice smell of freshly-cooked chicken, as Quan the Monk had found the Smithy’s designated kitchen room and had decided to make dinner for everybody. Of course, the main ingredient had been the Rooster’s extra bodies, of which I had a ton-of, all properly stored inside Will-E’s time-frozen warehouse that prevented any decay. Quan had turned out to be quite a good cook, and had flavored the chicken-breast cubes with some weird spice that reminded me of that “pizza flavor” universal spice crap that you could find everywhere back on Earth, but I did not mind it at all, especially as the nostalgia hit me.
I immediately asked what it was, and he told me it was a powder derived from some dried-mushrooms that could be found inside of the Old Monastery catacombs, as they seemingly grew everywhere in that place, or at least that’s what I had been told. As I did not remember seeing any mushrooms in the Dungeon when I had been down there, he explained to me that they were located somewhat deeper underground, at about halfway from the surface to the lowest level.
GEH! Seriously Mom Sys? Is this how you start the old plagiarized Mushroom quest? I immediately begged Quan to show me one of those mushrooms, and after he ran back “home” where the exiled monks were currently staying, he returned to the Smithy five minutes later and gave me a few of those dried mushrooms to examine. Of course, that had confirmed my suspicion. All of the damn things were black as hell, and had a rather large mushroom-cap that looked sort-of flat. The monks were using them as spices, but the mushrooms couldn’t have been THAT simple. I took some of the samples, and then stuffed them inside Will-E for safekeeping, as I knew I would be Alchemically experimenting with them as soon as this whole Root-Healing process was over.