North Tarak [foot of the Torrent mountain range], local time [1793.11.24]
Zeph ended up apologizing to the Gremling for two minutes straight. His sudden shout almost made him spill a flask of acid on himself. When the professor finally cooled down, Zeph seized the opportunity and started explaining what safety measures were provided in laboratories on Earth. The current state of their temporary workshop made him uncomfortable in many ways.
That eradicated all of the bad air between them. People here depended more on Spells and their enhanced bodies than on tools, so the topic was quite interesting for the professor. Especially the acid-neutralizing agents, although not for reasons concerning safety.
“I don’t think most of those precautions are necessary,” thoughtfully summarized the professor. “People rarely practice alchemy without recommended PE. Even the oil of vitriol can’t do much damage to them and the discoloration regenerates in but a few days. But the idea of wide, flat glasses is intriguing, eyes are the weak point,” he said, correcting his own pair.
“What with sticky substances? I am sure gloves would go a long way in preventing unpleasantness.”
“Hmmm, I would have to think about it a little more. But if I manage to build my own workshop in Lurona City, I will prepare the whole set for you as a test, either way. You don’t have enough PE to be safe, even if you can regenerate fully,” P’pfel said, reminding him why, in the first place, he agreed to Zeph’s experiments with sulfuric acid and other more dangerous substances.
The most basic OHS rule here was to not get close to things that can hurt you, after all.
Zeph shrugged. “If it will be necessary, I would try to set up my own workshop. But thank you for the invitation.”
“Ha! He says it like he could afford it. I am sure we will see each other in my workshop often, boy. Now, let’s go back to work.”
With that, they returned to their stations.
“It’s time to test the properties…” Zeph started saying but finally noticed how well-behaved Gru was the whole time. It was somehow worrisome. “Hey, Gru. You didn’t ask for any mercury in quite some time. Is everything all right?”
“Grraaauum,” it lazily vibrated.
“What do you mean it doesn’t absorb? Where are the remnants?” he asked, slightly concerned.
“Grraaaruu,” it mentally shrugged.
“Rolling about…” Zeph repeated weakly as he put his palm on his face. “Tell me you are speaking about your body, not mine…”
“Gra!” it vibrated in indignation. Gru knew mercury was toxic.
He sighed in relief. After a moment, he checked the Interface. “So, after the initial 3%, nothing happened?”
“Grararu,” it explained wisely.
“If you say so… It’s not like we can test your mental capabilities. So, any plans for what to do with it?” he asked, knowing full well that Gru’s experiments with internal enchanting failed. The alloy from his armor wasn’t playing nice with pure mercury, so neither Gru’s body nor Source Net could be permanently enchanted.
“Grarrrru, grum?” his chest vibrated in indecision.
“Can’t you just spit it out?”
“Gre,” it negated.
“Well, I am not eating that. If you want some, you have to take it in yourself. But before you start sucking anything, test if your body can contain it. And test the reaction outside of my body,” he advised and walked to the crate with reagents. He took out a bottle of a blueish, almost black, tar-like substance.
It was a main reagent used for the creation of standard mercury filler. Gru hoped to test the reactions and resulting substances inside his body. Which… wasn’t an optimal solution for Zeph. But Gru had to get rid of the remnants of mercury in some way. Otherwise, a physical wound could easily release it into Zeph’s body.
He took off his shirt and opened the bottle. Gru would have to keep his tendril away from his body for some time and the only place it could do that without hampering his work was from his back. He put the bottle behind himself, touching the skin, and after a moment, could feel as his skin parted.
Half a minute later, a vibration reverberated through his chest. “Gra!”
He secured and placed the bottle back, taking out four more substances necessary for filler creation and carrying them to the station.
Okay, time to test how well it worked out, he thought.
Experiment 2 part 2, artificial Mana-L v.1 behavior – saturation.
He poured the mercury back onto a platter and set the bone disk in the same way as previously. After every 30 seconds of powering the disk, he checked the viscosity of the fluid by pouring it into the funnel and noting the time. After the eleventh repeat, the time stopped increasing. He would have to do an overall test to get the exact times for saturation, but he decided to leave it for the optimization process.
The viscosity of mercury saturated with AML v.1 was around four times higher than the one saturated with his Mana-L, which was good news. The chance was, he wouldn’t have to additionally stabilize the liquid. The difference was what he expected – after all, he used just the bone matter to create AML.
Then, he prepared two additional batches of mercury and saturated them with Mana, one with AML and the other with ML. He wanted to compare the Mana-L dissipation times between the two, so he powered the timer constantly to check on the two samples every five minutes.
Experiment 2 part 3, artificial Mana-L v.1 behavior – conductance and dependency on Mana source.
He saturated his first batch with AML again and sprinkled it with the red powder. His Mana-L conducted only his Mana, while blocking the ambient Mana and opposing the movements of gases. Would the AML be different?
Firstly, he tried to form the same circle of moving Mana near the surface.
He observed with glee as a vortex started to slowly form on the surface of the liquid. He still lost connection to around 60% of his Mana on contact, but it was a far cry from what happened with pure mercury. AML was able to channel his Mana.
A resounding success!
But after a minute he noticed a problem. He wasn’t able to speed up the flow enough to induce a change in the AML – the liquid was too viscous.
It seemed that too much stabilization for the liquid was bad for his purposes.
He stopped the manipulation and formed a small vortex of AMC above it. At its best speed-to-volume ratio in stable Mana density, Ambient Mana Channeling efficiency sat around 50%. It was enough for him to actually feel the change in ambient Mana density in the vortex.
He slowly lowered the AMC vortex into the mercury. After the initial chaos of stabilizing pressures of different Mana types, he could feel as relative ambient Mana density inside the vortex rose almost 6 times. The speed of the vortex slowed drastically, but it seemed like ambient Mana was being channeled through AML v.1 without problems.
Silently cackling, he wrote the results. Everything was coming together.
All according to plan! he cheered internally.
Sadly, the next part of the experiment had to be postponed. Zeph had to be able to force the AML to remember Spell structure before continuing.
As so, he started the first part of the optimization process.
Optimization 1 part 1, comparison of different bases of the filler.
Firstly, he prepared two new bone disks for enchanting. This time, he didn’t create a full lattice shape while making the canals inside. He spread his Mana-L through the bone and tried to feel for places that could funnel the Mana into the nearest enchanted pathways by themselves. Most of them were weak or empty spaces in the bone structure, allowing an easier pass for Mana. Thanks to that, he increased the amount of Mana that would interact with the bone directly.
Secondly, instead of using the standard mercury filler with bone powder, he mixed mercury with fresh blood. It was easily accessible in the kitchen, he just had to ask. Even partially coagulated mix was flowy enough to use as a filler, so he was done in no time at all.
What took a lot of time, was waiting for the blood to clot entirely. Especially because he had to keep adding more fluid to fill the gaps.
He asked P’pfel to help him a little, and managed to fill the second disk with the mix of organomercury and blood. Meanwhile, he was checking the dissipation rate of Mana-L in two other batches.
Keeping up the flow in the two bone disks wasn’t that much of a challenge, but required time. He could, theoretically, just leave the two submerged in the blood for the night, but he wanted to be sure the shapes were correct.
Actually, that’s not a bad idea? The thought hit him. I have no reason to hope the natural shape of the bone would increase the effectiveness… But it doesn’t need much work, anyway.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Optimization part 1.1, natural bone pattern included in the production procedure.
As so, he hollowed out two new disks, making the modified lattice patterns inside of them. It was good training for multitasking, too, to keep manipulating so many different materials with his Mana flow at the same time. The timer was powered by his Willpower, two streams of fluid were flowing along an intricate pattern inside the bones while he concentrated on making the new pattern in a bone.
When he finished, it was late at night, and he was totally spent…
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Zeph opened his eyes slowly. He couldn’t remember how he got to the bed but was sure he didn’t drink anything last night.
A strange, almost alien emotion buzzed inside of him. It was a feeling of anticipation and of impatience, urging him to wake up and get back to... work?
A gentle impression of familiarity overwhelmed him, almost like a déjà vu. His mind scrambled to find the connections necessary to understand this sensation.
It was years ago when he last felt like this. When his studies, his laboratory work were still unmarred by the harsh reality… He was often waking up feeling the same anticipation, the same merry emotion at the thought of doing something new… Something relevant.
Good old times did come back, he thought with a small smile while looking at the window.
“Morning, Gru. Hmmm, it seems we have overslept a little.”
“Gre!” his chest vibrated in displeasure.
“Heh, yes, I guess it’s just me. Sorry for forgetting about the reagents yesterday,” he said, vigorously sitting up. “Let’s prepare for work!”
After a quick, late breakfast, he presented Gru the second reagent and immediately moved to his station.
The blood clotted around the two bone disks submerged in them. He used a small hammer to release them from the encasement and got rid of the remains with a rough cloth.
Let’s start, then, he thought with excitement.
He prepared four batches of mercury and placed the disks. He could easily power four of them all at once. He was doing the standard funnel test every 30 seconds and after all of them were saturated, he did the manipulation tests.
All of the samples remembered the circle of Mana flow. Sample number two, created by the disk with blood and organomercury mix in a standard lattice pattern, was the fastest to saturate. Sample number three, from the disk with blood and mercury mix that was submerged, was the fastest to remember the shape. He named them version 2 AML and version 3 AML respectively.
That reminds me, I forgot to write down the results of the ‘empty test’… I got rusty it seems, he thought, quickly writing everything down.
He already made such experiments with water as a medium during the travel. Mana-L inside of it was purged the moment he slightly moved the sample – changing into Water-Mana, or rather Water Magicules, most probably. The most important property of mercury was that after a Magicule was accommodated between its atoms, mercury didn’t interact with them much anymore, adopting their properties instead. Another important detail was that mercury didn’t change Mana into Mercury-Mana, everything that got into contact with atoms was dissipating into pure Mana.
Experiment 2 part 4, artificial Mana-L v.2 behavior – viability of forming Spell structure.
He prepared another cylinder and filled it with version 2. The speed of saturation was more important than the speed of enchanting so version 3 was left out.
Then he walked up to P’pfel. He waited a moment to let him finish the batch and spoke right after that. “Hey, can you help me a little?”
The Gremling looked at him over his shoulder. “Sure can, but explain to me finally what are you trying to do,” he said, slightly irritated.
“It’s the same idea, for now at least. The modifiable enchantment,” Zeph said, omitting the next part he had yet to plan out. “Ummm, do you have access to the Fog Spell?” he asked instead. It was the only cantrip with a closed circuit of Mana flow he knew of.
“Yes, give me a second,” the professor said, changing his Matrices. “Done, what now?”
Zeph showed him the glass cylinder with mercury. “Try constructing the Spell inside. Set the entry at the surface and move your Mana until you feel that the resistance disappeared.”
He did just that, and after a moment a fog started to condense in the air around the cylinder.
“Yes, like that. Now we need to wait for a minute.”
Gremling’s eyebrow raised. “That doesn’t explain much?”
“You just enchanted it,” Zeph said, smiling widely. “When the fluid stops moving, just push some Mana at the entrance point.”
Now with both eyebrows raised, the professor started to scrutinize the silvery liquid closely. “Just like that? But… Isn’t that just pure Hydrargyrum?”
“Not so much, it’s imbued with a neutral… Stabilize Spell, basically,” he said, trying to explain it in the terms he would understand.
“Neutral?! How… no, I can see what you have done,” he said, looking at the bone disks laying nearby. “That was quite ingenious but surprisingly simple idea. I am surprised I never heard of someone testing it… Ah! Probably because you won’t be able to change the Spells that fast. Purging life energy from mercury is not easy,” he said, testing the fluid enchantment. It worked as intended, producing vapor around the glass.
“Most Spells also have to be modified… But don’t worry about it. It’s the next part of my experiment. Thanks for the help,” Zeph said, writing down the conclusions.
After being dismissed that way, the professor just shrugged and returned to his own work.
Zeph did the durability tests and excitedly started the next experiment.
Experiment 3 part 1, purging Mana-L or its memory.
For this part, Zeph added a new cantrip to his Matrices - Electrify. As much as it sounded like a good basis for the creation of an offensive Spell, it was too costly for him for a long time. At 63 Mana and 10 Mana upkeep for a simple cantrip, he feared how bad the cost of a Tier 1 Spell would be.
His idea was to disrupt the balance between the atoms and Magicules in the liquid, thus provoking the Mana-L dissipating process. Adding some electrons should work as it would change the shape of the electron cloud of atoms temporarily.
He would rather use a magnetic field, as it had higher chances to work out, but the whole prototype would be in jeopardy if any ferromagnetic was nearby. He could also heat it up significantly, but he planned to enclose the mercury, so the risk of explosion was real.
He took one of the most durable fillers from their collection. It was used in weapon enchanting and was actually more durable and flexible than most alloys accessible on the market, to not compromise the weapon’s integrity and to be difficult to break.
He knew it was a waste, but the testing had to be done beforehand. After pouring a small amount on a big platter, he manipulated it to take a shape of a long and thin bar, then hardened it with his Mana.
He checked once more if the liquid enchantment was still working, then he opened the cylinder, touched the surface with the bar, and started using Electrify.
The Spell construct emerged and shocked him.
Not literally, thankfully.
Instead of directly producing Magicules, it produced microstructures that flowed around to interact with matter in a small radius. No wonder the Spell was so Mana-intense, but Zeph quickly concentrated back on the problem at hand.
The mercury was stirring slightly. He kept the Spell up for ten seconds before checking if the liquid enchantment was still working. He repeated that almost 20 times before the results showed up.
The enchantment finally failed to power up, and he smiled widely. The process was slow, but he only used basic cantrip. He knew how to construct a simple battery; the possibilities were vast.
Prototype, here I come! he laughed internally.
The next hour passed in a blink of an eye.
Firstly, he enchanted a thin bone with the Self-sustaining part of his Spells and attached it to the slit in the bone disk AML v.2 using the filler. He made sure the slit could still be powered manually if needed, as the Self-sustaining structure didn’t produce much power. It would be enough to keep the mercury saturated with AML without input from the user, though.
Secondly, he enchanted another bone disk with five Electrify Spells. That should speed up the erasing process.
Thirdly, he created six rectangular plates from the same filler, around eight centimeters high and wide. Before initiating the hardening, he nestled bone disks in two of them – one with Electrify enchantments and one producing AML v.2.
Then, he ‘welded’ the plates together to form an open cube, using more filler as the binder. He even doused the insides of the edges with more of it to make sure the ‘weld’ would hold. The two bone disks were set on opposite walls. Finally, he poured pure mercury inside and sealed the cube with the last plate, making sure the crystalline structure was hermetic by heating the contents a little to see if the mercury seeped from any of the seams.
He was now holding a black cube with two white-ish disks at each side. The prototype was quite limited – he could only use modified Spells on it, and the ones that were sending Magicules outside of the construct to function, like detection ones. For example, ‘Condense water’ wouldn’t work at all.
Yet.
Nevertheless, he smiled almost maniacally while looking at it. His prototype was finally finished.
The System noticed it as well.
Congratulation! You have created [Low Mana density Liquid Spell Medium] a [Tier 2] [Enchanting Tool]!
Corresponding [Upgrades] and [Items] have been unlocked in the [Exchange]!
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
[Profession] [Shaman] is now level 31! (+1)
You have reached the diverging capacity for the Spell [Primitive Enchanting]! Diverging process started automatically!
You have gained [Tier 1] [Spell framework] [Material Enchanting]!
You have gained [Tier 2] [Spell framework] [Lesser Shamanic Enchanting]!
You have gained [Tier 2] [Spell framework] [Life Energy shaping]!
You have earned [Mixed Enchanting Arts] [Tier 2] [General Skill]!
You have earned [Life Energy] [Tier 1] [General Skill]!
You have diverged [Earth’s methodology] [Tier 1] [General Skill] from [Memories of the Earth]!
[Mastered Matrix Spells] list not empty! You have 1 [Spells] awaiting a decision!
Reminder: you can choose to transform it into an [Energy Enhancement] or a [Passive Class Skill].
And as his chest vibrated in excitement, he knew he wasn’t the only one to finish with the experiments.
Now, if he managed to crack the enigma of how his EE copied the Spell structures to the outside of his body, his first true invention would be complete. The universal external Spell Matrix.
Today, the laboratory. Tomorrow, the world!
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Interface:
[https://i.imgur.com/Yl4ETk5.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/ekeJ7Tl.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/dbEN8m5.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/teSsQAa.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/YvHevMp.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/cZvAKYc.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/rjRpcys.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/6d4lwve.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/YCyNHQJ.jpg]