Bergen, Kalmar Federation: 25/08/2070
No matter where you are, Mondays are still terrible, huh? Though not as much for me, heh. In fact, I quite enjoy regaining access to the workshops that are closed during the weekend.
Norah had just left the workshop after a long day of technology development. It had taken quite a bit of effort, but she was now set up with all the resources she would need to begin her research. Thank whatever deity is out there for the welfare state and their generous material budget! She was walking through one of the gymnasium's many hallways, and took a turn that led to the nurse's office. She had suddenly been notified that she would be going for an appointment to the nurse, and with the whole reincarnation..? Yes, that stuff, it was probably a good idea to go.
I mean, my behavior has changed significantly, after all. Of course they'd find that at least a little strange. I just did exactly the bare minimum for the highest grade, and nothing more. Now, I am suddenly researching magic equipment, which makes it seem like I was replaced by some diligent doppelganger. Maybe even a spy... A red spy is in the base!? Heh, just kidding. Why send a spy here instead of the BMAU?
Gymnasium level subjects were obviously very easy for a former ESA astronaut, so she had been breezing through most of the classes, the only one giving her challenges being magic class. With her being magically inept, it was impossible for her to participate in the practical parts of the class, leaving her with theoretical work instead. She had been studying magic especially hard, only adding to the already existing concern about her sudden change in attitude. And while it had been difficult before, thanks to her efforts pre-reincarnation and a shit-tonne of reading, she was beginning to make significant headway.
Though, it should also be said that what she is doing is way beyond her grade, and she could have easily kept up with her classmates with her previous pace. But when you want to figure out the intricacies of magic to be able to use it yourself at some point, it will do you no good to be lazy and do the bare minimum, no?
Norah opens the door, and is greeted by the nurse sitting inside.
"Wel... W-Welcome! Please have a seat here. We'll just be doing some checks, and... Uhh... Some..? Yeah, I'll be asking some questions as well, if that is alright?"
She seemed a little spooked at first, but the nurse regained her professional demeanor a few moments later.
Is it just me, or are people getting more spooked than before the whole reincarnation deal? I mean, It's not like I made someone instantly stop talking, they were just intimidated and slowly backed away... But now that I notice it, people are getting spooked quite a bit more when I appear. Would be nice to see what is causing it, but finding out right now not is not exactly guaranteed, especially when it is just a basic checkup like this. Oh well, might as well just get this over with.
Norah shrugs and seats herself in the chair. "Sure, doc."
"Alright then, let me just... Right, do be warned, this will give you a strange sensation when I turn it on, okay? It just needs to take some data readings of your body"
She tapped the enter key on her laptop, and immediately Norah felt like something was staring deep into her soul, at least for a few seconds.
Whoa, that felt weird! I mean, it is for the checkup, so I guess it's okay...
"You might also want to keep that feeling in mind; you will feel that way when someone appraises you, and being aware of the feeling will be a good advantage for the... future... Oh dear."
"...Is something wrong?"
Yeah, that isn't ominous at all, just a sudden "oh dear" from out of nowhere!
This instantly worried Norah. Was something wrong with her? did the reincarnation stuff do something weird to her body!? Is she gonna explode!?!? Ya, probably not the last one.
"Well, I've never seen this before... I might want to consult with some of my more senior colleagues for this..."
"..?" Norah tilted her head in curiosity like a little puppy, only for her expression to ruin the look.
"...Uhh, you seem to be emitting a rather large amount of magicule radiation. But thing is, that should only happen when you have a large amount of magicules within your spiritual vessel, which you don't... This just doesn't make sense..."
...Hmm... If I remember correctly, magicule radiation is caused when a large amount of magicules are concentrated within a small area. The large mass of magicules within you excite the magicules in the air around you, which causes them to emit radiation. The issue here being my lack of magicules, that should be preventing that phenomenon... Fascinating...
"Well... How about we get to the questions, then?" The nurse sat down in the chair across from me, and set her laptop onto the table next to her chair.
"Alright."
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A muffled explosion could be heard across the workshop building, as another magicule battery prototype exploded. Norah had been trying to figure out how to condense magicule storage enough for it to eventually be mounted on a person. To do that, she has made a fair amount of different prototypes based on materials that worked on paper to see what would work and what would explode violently instead. She had already weeded out the completely dysfunctional prototypes, and was now seeing what happens when you overload the functional ones, to test how much energy they could handle.
"Alright, on to the next one..."
This was a part of her 5 part plan for the creation of her very own design: the MCED (Magic Cast Enhancement Device). One: the battery. It would hold a bank of additional energy for later use. Two: The accumulator. It would absorb magicules from the air, and store them in the battery, vastly increasing the amount of energy available at one time, with the disadvantage of a relatively low energy output when out of additional stored energy. 3: A computation device. Something that she had noticed in all the materials she read and watched about spell execution was that the act of executing a spell relied on the caster's subconscious computation. But what if she could have a computer do it instead? After a few experiments with an old computer from the e-waste bin, she had successfully made it execute a small light spell. The CCU (Central Casting Unit) will be the heart of the MCED, making the whole thing work. 4: An interface. While she could not use magic, she could still exert a miniscule, but detectable force on the magicules in her own skin. If she does it right, the sensor could even detect it from behind clothes! 5: a sturdy casing. This one is the simplest, just get the most durable material that one can comfortably wear, and have a magic barrier protect the entire construct when in use.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
She was steadily making headway on her little brainchild, but had hit a little roadblock with her batteries. While she had made significant improvements to the standard magic batteries in both efficiency and capacity, they were still only able to hold enough charge for a few mid-level spell executions. And that was while weighing like 10 kilos!
"Ow!.."
Whoops, better be more careful poking sharp objects... Hmm?
When she went to touch one of the batteries, she accidentally cut her finger. But the blood that was supposed to be there had been absorbed into the battery itself.
Damn, this will probably cause some funny effects... Ya, I should probably get the hell out of here before it goes kaboom.
She exited the blast chamber, and began doing to that battery what she had done to all the others. But to her surprise, it easily shot past the energy stored by all the previous batteries, and kept soaring to some rather absurd energy levels.
What the hell is going on here!? How the hell is this thing so much better than every single other one!?!? and how has no one discovered... this... before... Oh shit. Shit shit shit! Fuck!
The battery was reaching some insane power levels, and the power transferring parts, not made for the extreme heat generated from the energy transfer, were beginning to glow red hot. The battery itself was glowing a brilliant white, and was at this point much brighter than the lights in the workshop. In quite a hurry, Norah rushed to the power breaker and shut off power to the blast chamber, averting a potential building leveling explosion.
"Phew..." She collapsed to the floor, with her hands shaking from the unexpected stress of almost blowing up half the building. After collecting herself, she walked back to her laptop to check the energy readings on the battery.
"...Holy mother of severe explosion hazards..."
What the hell! This thing is storing enough magicules for three dozen high dominion spell executions!!! Scratch the building, I almost just blew up half the fucking city!!! Shit...
After a few moments, a group of firefighters in heavy power armor busted straight through the door to the workshop. She had been too focused on the anomalously incredible performance of her battery to notice the sirens of the approaching emergency vehicles that were rightfully wondering why the hell half the fusion power plant's energy output was going straight to a single spot.
"Hey! Are you alright, kid!?... Huh?"
the power armor clad firefighters and paramedics began staring into the blast chamber, right at the shining object stored within.
"Hey, that glass is supposed to be tinted, right..?"
"The hell, it hurts my eyes to look at it, as if I was having a staring contest with the sun..."
One of the firefighters brought out a Geiger counter. The moment he switched it on, it immediately began blaring every alarm that it was capable of blaring at full blast. Whatever the hell the... thing in the blast chamber was, it was emitting enough magicule radiation to rival the emissions of a battleship's reactor.
The firefighters, regaining their composure, immediately sprung into action, hurriedly leading the student out of the danger zone.
Ya, seems like I've created something rather crazy...
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Oslo, Kalmar Federation: 26/08/2070
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"So, do you have news about the anomalous object?" A man dressed in a suit with a small pin of the Kalmar Federation's flag sat back in his fancy chair, intertwining his fingers while waiting for a reply from the staffer who had just entered the presidential office.
"Yes, mr. president. The object seems to be a mono-molecular magicule storage device, storing an equivalent amount of energy to a small nuclear warhead. From our energy readings of the object, we concluded that it could support up to 32 upper construct spell executions with the energy currently stored in it. However, how exactly a mono-molecular magicule storage device has formed is still unknown. Though, the researchers have found trace amounts of genetic material from the student who was present at the scene inside the object."
"Hmm..."
Magicule storage devices, or more commonly known as magic batteries, are usually made of quadrillions of tiny crystals all working together to hold a magicule charge. The way magic batteries are manufactured simply guarantees that they will be made of many, many, many microscopic crystals. But this... thing was defying all common sense when it comes to magic batteries. Instead of quadrillions of crystals, it was just a single 10 kilogram molecule.
"Though the object does seem to be stable, sir. It has been stashed away at one of our facilities in Greenland, and will not be any significant danger to any of our large population centres."
Obviously, having a potentially unstable low-yield nuclear weapon right in the middle of one of your biggest population centres is a rather terrible idea. Thank god they managed to get it transported out of there...
"What of the investigation at the gymnasium?" The president leaned forward, waiting for an answer from the staffer.
"Well, they discovered that the student mentioned before, Norah Berg, was experimenting with the production of magic batteries. While nowhere near as extraordinary as... the object, many of the samples were impressive, and handily outperform any known designs for magic batteries. It is also important to note that the genetic materials on the object match this individual."
"Hmm, most intriguing..."
This youngster must be a crazy talented one. Not even mentioning the object, the battery advancements alone would easily land her a spot at BMAU. And as far as I have heard, these developments only began occurring after this summer break.
"Well then, I'd like to invite this youngster here. Would be a waste to leave her alone, not to mention the national security risk. Can't have people running around creating things equivalent to small nuclear warheads all willy nilly, can we?"
"Understood, mr. president. I will make the arrangements." The staffer left the presidential office, leaving the president to his own thoughts and the ongoing news broadcast from the tv.
This is going to get rather exciting, isn't it? Something to bring us farther ahead of the Americans.
With that, the fate of Norah Berg was never going to be the same.
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Bergen, Kalmar Federation
Norah woke up, and got out of bed. Still not used to the missing object between her legs, she flinches for a split second before realizing that it has been gone for a while now.
Man, yesterday was real crazy. A whole ass military convoy came rolling down the road going towards my little super-battery, and the news can't shut up about it either. I mean, it did kinda suck up enough power to level half the city... Oopsies!
"Norah, get dressed! Someone is here to see you!"
"Okaay."
She got dressed quickly, putting on her favorite pair of pants and a hoodie, after that promptly walking down the stairs to see who was standing at the door. Three men in suits with a little Kalmar flag pin on the left of their chest stood there, and every one of them turned to look at her.
"Norah Berg, I assume?" one of them queried.
"...Yup."
The man nodded. "The president would like to meet you."