Green Crest town, Spire Sea northern coastline, local time [1794.04.05]
“By the way, where is Makani?” Ferrandis asked as they walked through the town. “I’ve heard he would be accompanying you.”
“He was so bored during the travel that he started to meditate,” Zeph said lightly, looking around with curiosity. Different than in Lurona, small business was blooming here this season of the year. Or maybe it was simply more visible. People here opted to remove the snow instead of forming tunnels inside of it – a smallish settlement like this one should be able to do that without forming mountains of snow on the roadsides. At least if they moved it outside of the town’s perimeter as the downfalls were much more intense on Corora in comparison to Earth. “It seems he has found something worth pursuing while doing that. I’m not going to rudely wake him up just because we have stopped here. Anyway, you two will have a lot of time to catch up after we start sailing.”
“He isn’t eating well, though,” Vuld added his own, unnecessary opinion.
“If that isn’t enough to wake him up, I would rather leave him be.” Zeph shrugged. “He doesn’t seem to be starving. If you want to interrupt him, do it yourself.”
A cold silence ensued. Nobody here, besides the brownbeard, was close enough to the Manacaster to actually try invading his room. Even Zeph would hesitate.
What he didn’t tell them was the fact that Makani was, most probably, reading from his new knowledge Skill. One rewarded after Zeph explained to him how ionization of air was working. He didn’t go deep enough to explain the atomic structure of matter, but the ‘genius of his generation’ was able to find a lot of inspiration by comparing natural phenomena, like lightning or static discharges, to Zeph’s simplified theory lesson.
It seemed the Manacaster was on his way to expand his niche of expertise. As much as Zeph was cheering for the man, he was becoming a bit apprehensive after seeing how quickly Makani was finding applications for new knowledge. Not because it was humiliating, in a way, but because he finally started to see and understand what it meant to have a talent in a discipline of Manacasting.
And while Makani turned out to be a true monster in the confines of his specialization, Zeph could only depend on his abnormal Will and advanced knowledge to pull ahead of other people. It was a sobering and horrid realization, for many reasons. For one, Makani wasn’t the most talented person even on stratum zero.
Either way, they had two medics on the ship. Even if Makani forgot about his basic needs, those people were sure to beat some common sense into him.
Meanwhile, they have finally found the inn. It did look impressive against the surrounding buildings, for sure. The material it was made of off wasn’t just boulders and wood, like in the rest of the town, but polished, decorative stone similar to marble. Moreover, the individual parts were truly massive in size, not dissimilar to the ancient Roman buildings. However, the stone was brownish instead of white, and the structure lacked the characteristic columns and engraved adornments.
It was a cut above the rest, nonetheless.
Looking around as they walked through the town, Zeph noticed that this whole place had to be an old fort of some kind. Not only most of the buildings were made out of stone, but they were organized in clean square grids. Well, at least the center was – the port was a bit more chaotic, but he suspected it was a case for the outskirts in general.
However, there was one thing that made him puzzled. The town had no walls. Not only around the town’s perimeter but also around the more sturdy buildings near the center.
He didn’t know much about this location. It was entirely possible that the walls simply weren’t needed because of the mountainous terrain surrounding the location. But if it has been a fort of some kind in the past, it meant people here demolished the walls at some point. And that, generally, wasn’t the best idea if the walls weren’t already heavily damaged.
I can’t see any militia or guards, too. Even ignoring possible past events, the smell of a smuggling den is as strong as the fetor of my crewmates’ socks… It’s quite a shock I can’t see any trace of pirates here, he thought, automatically following the group.
His musings were interrupted when Ferrandis turned around to hand them the room keys.
“I really hope your captain will pay for it. The locals aren’t exactly delicate with swindlers…”
“No worries. As long as it won’t suck up hundreds of gold we should be safe,” Zeph said absentmindedly, taking the key.
“Haha, no worries then,” the beardman said merrily. “It’s rare for anything to cost that much outside of a city!”
“It’s still pricey…” Vuld mumbled, his low voice ignored entirely.
“What would you tell about a tea and a light dinner in one of our rooms? We have a bit of time, after all,” the scholar asked.
Zeph smiled widely. “Sure. But let’s check whose apartment is better suited for having guests, first.”
~~~
As it turned out, Zeph’s room was what they needed.
The inn wasn’t uniform, standing on the foundations of quite a few old buildings while incorporating old structures within its walls. It was a perfect example of incorporating and leveraging existing resources to make something new for cheap.
Zeph has learned that only because Ferrandis visited quite a few towns like that along the coast and was knowledgeable enough to not only deduce the reasoning but also ask correct questions to the locals.
As per the innkeeper’s recommendation, Ferrandis got an apartment more suited for relaxation and meditation, which meant a lot of potted plants, a spacious bathroom, and no guest room. Zeph, on the other hand, got an apartment ready for basic training – that included an oversized dining hall and enough furniture to seat half a dozen people. Thus, the choice was simple.
The hours of the day flew past quickly as the two scientists started determining the boundaries of their knowledge and vocabulary. Both of them knew that without placing a foundation of mutual understanding no advanced discussion could take place. And while they both used different methods to test the waters and form mutual ground, Zeph couldn’t shake a feeling he was talking with a kindred spirit.
That didn’t change the fact that he was sweating buckets when trying to steer the discussion away from Fullangrarians. He could pose as one, technically, but his surface-level knowledge about their civilization wouldn’t stand a chance before a person who was learned and interested in the topic. The only saving grace was his self-given title of Tabitalo – a Traveler, going by a simplified language. It meant that he had broken all ties with his people, which could explain his general detachment from common sense. It seemed to work, especially because intelligent people like Ferrandis liked to fill the gaps with their own assumptions, which the man did eagerly.
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Not like he could blame the man. When studying on Earth, Zeph had fallen victim to the very same type of hubris. Being too assured of your knowledge and intelligence was the fastest way to close your mind to objective thinking and observation-driven reasoning. It could be harmful in social interactions and was a glaring weak point – one Zeph was now using to keep his secrets uncovered.
For some, only wisdom that came with years of experience or high social skills could counteract this fault.
Despite that, it was clear the man was consciously trying to avoid certain topics that made Zeph hesitate, so he couldn’t be sure how seriously Ferrandis was during their talk. He definitely wasn’t faking it, but maybe some consideration was strengthening this behavior.
Thankfully, Vuld left to get some rest after half an hour, lost as he was during their speedy debate. As so, Zeph didn’t have to be careful of his words as much. He wasn’t even sure what Vuld knew at this point – the man was quite proficient in gathering information and Zeph didn’t remember well what he had told him during their short encounters.
But finally, long after dusk and just before the night cycle would start, Ferrandis decided to touch directly upon a topic mentioned by Zeph earlier.
“The personal gliders aren’t a new idea, you know? They existed on higher strata hundreds of years ago,” he commented, referring to Zeph’s idea of a portable gliding device.
Zeph frowned. “What with lower strata? And why does it sound like they were replaced?”
The man shrugged. “There are more convenient methods of floating in dense Mana environments. Spells and enchantments mostly. On lower strata, big gliders were used in the past to fly. They were utilizing Mana and air currents. The technology was replaced by the aerostats quite quickly, though. As you can imagine, it wasn’t exactly a safe method of aerial travel. The rising presence of the System Onji contributed a lot to this change, too.”
“I was thinking about personal gliders on stratum zero, though,” Zeph said, crossing his arms. “Also, I am well aware that falling damage isn’t exactly an issue after reaching third milestones in physical Passive Enhancements.”
Ferrandis chuckled. “Yes, indeed. But I was mentioning the times when not even half of our population was using System Onji’s Enhancement implementation. Falling down was very much harmful to everyone. Also, people were using gliders to move between the floating landmasses mostly. Falling damage or not, landing in the middle of the ocean was a death sentence. Not to mention the aerial predators – those like to pick the slower-moving targets out of the sky. All in all, it’s a multi-faceted problem,” he explained calmly, leaning back on his chair. “The current technology cannot support mass production of highly-specialized personal gliders. Even if they were safe, we have better and faster methods to move around a city on any strata. Long-distance travel using gliders wouldn’t be possible without expertise, anyway. It’s a domain of aerostats, which are much easier to build and use.”
The twins would be arguing so much with this, he mused, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. We would need a parachute equivalent, though. Screw the idea of moving around the city, we need an evacuation method for our stratum-zero airplane. Not like I would throw the idea away, but they do have those jetpacks…
“Let’s change the topic a little. I saw you weren’t exactly thrilled by the idea of ballistic weaponry…”
“Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t sound useless,” Ferrandis immediately defended himself. “It’s just… we have so many destructive methods available that it’s hard to believe such a technology could be impactful…”
“Why, tho?” Zeph asked innocently, tilting his head.
“The technical issues are sure to limit the power and usability of any physical mechanism that depends on quick energy release. We both know well that it wouldn’t be reliable nor easy to manufacture,”—his comment was clearly pointing at Mana density and interactions, knowing well that Zeph was a Manacaster—“Even if you manage to tame the reaction and form any kind of standardized production system, going by the historical inventions of similar nature, the most you can reliably produce is a niche piece of equipment specialized to work in certain environments. Useful, but still worse than enchantments and melee weaponry.”
Zeph grimaced. “You are assuming a lot of things here. What if the weapon is modular? What if it is also enchanted and has modifiable parameters going by the Mana injection rate? What if the projectiles have to be saturated by the user’s Mana?”
That made Ferrandis pause for a moment. “True, but the tool becomes too complicated to master, isn’t it?”
Again, he spoke in the context of the System’s General Skills and mastered styles – two things that disregarded the power of a well-armed mass of weak people. It seemed that the almost-feudal reality of their society, and the culture of direct conflict and honorable death, were shaping the strategic minds as well.
Sure, using long-range weapons blindly during a war between nations would be a disaster, spiritually speaking. But having half a million rifle users during the siege of Lurona would definitely be helpful – nothing bad would happen when the ‘monsters’ were killed. Better yet, poor people would have a chance to level up some more.
But that idea of ‘quantity above quality’ in big conflicts was proved wrong so many times in Corora’s history that a new type of weapon wasn’t enough to shake the beliefs of the leading figures and, evidently, scholars. The elitism was a thing here. It was actually the reason his Guild sent him away – according to the general common sense, only elites and veterans were worth anything during a big clash of forces.
“Okay, I am not arguing about that again,” Zeph said with distaste. They had spent quite a lot of time exchanging examples, but it led nowhere. “Let’s Ignore the possibility of mass production and usage for a moment. Did you ever see a Netherbeing firsthand?” he asked instead.
Ferrandis scratched his head, somewhat baffled by the question. “Are we talking about studying them or fighting with one?”
Zeph rolled his eyes. “Okay, so you didn’t fight one. Even in a simulated environment.” Zeph stated, to which the scholar could only nod. “Theoretically speaking, what is the most glaring weakness of any Netherbeing?”
“Ugh… the lack of reason?”
Zeph wanted to facepalm but restricted himself to not offend the man. “ANY, I said. You should know there are intelligent ones.”
“Hmm... I don’t think I had heard of any glaring weak points, then…” he admitted thoughtfully.
“It’s Mana,” Zeph said, pointing in his direction. “Nether and Mana are mutually exclusive. And if you have a similar amount of both clashing with each other, what do you think can turn the scales?”
Ferrandis’s eyes widened. “Physical force!”
“Indeed! And guess what a super-fast bullet has in abundance? If it’s saturated or enchanted, then the possibilities suddenly multiply…”
Thus, a long discussion continued long into the night.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Green Crest town, Spire Sea northern coastline, local time [1794.04.06]
A loud sound of bells woke him up.
Groggily, he shouted for the servant to stop making noise. The jiggling stopped immediately and Zeph threw himself back at the oh-so-comfortable pillow in hopes of returning to the land of dreams.
But instead, a loud banging replaced the unpleasantly high-pitched jiggling.
“La-Einar, your ship will leave the port in three hours! Please open the door so I can help you get ready!” The voice of a young man was barely audible from behind the thick doors, and yet his voice was even more irritating than the banging.
It wasn’t that Zeph couldn’t wake his mind up immediately. He didn’t want to. The discrepancy between his cabin on the ship and this luxurious environment was just too stark. It was like comparing a cave floor and a comfortable couch.
But Zeph could recognize a dismissal when he heard one. The young man behind the doors also sounded quite irritated for some reason, even if he tried to hide that fact. Left with no other option, he crawled out of his heavenly bed.
The cool, fluffy carpet sent shivers up his spine as he put his legs down. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Still, he wrapped his body in one of the velvet blankets before leaving his still-warm lair.
Opening the doors, he was met with more than he expected. Behind the young man stood a tray with a hearty amount of hot breakfast food whose smell made his stomach grumble loudly.
The man smiled wryly for a second, before his face started beaming with an unrestrained friendliness. “La-Einar, do you prefer a bath, a sauna, or perhaps... a maid to assist you?”