What I saw was the intermittent drop of a mineral, that contained a high concentration of water mana, and the pumping in of air. But the air’s mana composition was different from normal. Usually there was an even concentration of fire, water, air, light and dark mana. But given that there wasn’t a gap in my sight, there wasn’t any light or dark mana.

Which implies that there had been a process to separate those earlier in the intake tunnel.

Once they dropped in, at the ceiling there was a pulse of blue light on an engraved marking before all the earth mana shifted to fire mana. The increase of fire mana excited the water mana shifting it to air mana. Then a separate valve opened up and the air mana escaped. I couldn’t see any fire mana leaving through that same hole though.

I looked around and saw it flowing out a lower hole. Once it was emptied of the product, the exhaust valves closed, and the initial process resumed.

The reaction was easy enough to understand, and there being no obvious faults within the current chamber, it could be used as the control. With the reaction understood I should probably time them and check each of the cylinders. If the heart is beating irregularly there was likely a problem with the amount of the reaction’s result.

I took out my watch and notebook and after waiting for the next reaction to finish, I timed it out.

I noted the time down, which was about five seconds.

I went one by one to each of the nine cylinders, creating the view port and timing the reaction.

This clearly revealed at least one of the problems, though depending on how long ago this issue started, it would’ve created other problems in the chain.

Four out of the nine took twice as long to fire. That would presumably lead to both an excess and a lack of air mana for the compression of the mechanical heart to then pump whatever mana it was using to fuel the factory.

The intake was the most likely site of the issue. The cylinders weren’t receiving the right amount of either fuel or air to create an even reaction.

I should check to see if there is excess fuel in the bases of the malfunctioning cylinders. That should be cleared out and the intake valves should be cleaned as well since they were either the source of the problem, or now had buildup of their own creating a larger issue.

The initial build up, both within the cylinders and the valves, creating the excess and lack would’ve undoubtably created buildup in a part of the chain further along. I should check them out, without turning the furnace off I wouldn’t be able to clean things out slowly. I could try to clean it out while it’s going, but in order would be best, and leaving any gap in the timing would make any of my efforts not necessarily sustainable.

Though a full system reset, and flush would probably be best….

The flush would be a decision for later, the problems created by the excess and lack of mana in cycles should be addressed first.

I flew up towards the heart. If there wasn’t a limiter on the intake of the heart itself, then the heart would have damage and that would need to be fixed.

I briefly stopped at the intermediary cylinder that the product’s exhaust tube went through. I created a view port to inspect it and saw that there were two chambers, one was filled with water that was pumped in and out and the other was the continuation of the product’s tube from the furnace.

I watched to see that there was a buildup of water in the product’s tube, that would only make sense if the air cooled down enough to reform into water. There would have to be excess remaining in this section long enough for that to even happen.

So, I went up to the heart itself to get a look at the point where the intake valve should be. I could see a what should be a limiter on it, though the engraving language wasn’t one I knew. Other than a limiter, I don’t know what sort of engraving you would place at this specific point.

I watched to double check what happened, and every time the first reaction didn’t have enough mana pushed into it, it would remain open, but when the next reaction happened it would close prematurely, and the excess would sink back down the tube with nowhere to go.

Luckily this meant I didn’t have to mess with the heart itself. The problem with the system was from below the cooling chamber, making things easier. If there was an issue with the heart, not having an adequate understanding of the structure of the material the heart was constructed with would make repairing any portion of it difficult.

Now, what should I do first? Intake valves or the cylinders. The cylinders are probably the easiest to clean with the whole mechanism still running. And the valves… I’m not really sure how to clean them with things running.

The main problem is that I don’t know what started the issue. Was there a buildup in the valves leading to the buildup in the cylinders. Or was there a buildup in the cylinders because there wasn’t enough of the air mixture to properly start the reaction.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Fixing one and then the other, I’d probably have to redo one of them.

Buildup in the intake valves was probably harder to clean out than the cylinders. I’d rather do them twice than the intakes.

Either way, I’ll have to be quick and decisive. Any interference with the current reaction, even if it’s faulty, would be worse than its current state.

What would be the safest way to do things? Does my own manipulated mana have an effect on the reaction.

It shouldn’t, as things didn’t seem to worsen after I placed my own viewing ports.

Well, if there was a changer, there was the chance that it wouldn’t’ve been instantaneous.

I went back to the first cylinder I had checked; there wasn’t any excess fuel, but the reaction was the same as when I had first witnessed it. My viewing port seemed stable on its own, so the reaction was likely unaffected. Though long term, it couldn’t be promised. I would have to revert all of them to their previous state to make sure all my changes were sustainable.

So, if my manipulated mana didn’t affect the reaction, I simply need to create a false base over the excess. With that there I can clean it out without working about changing the mana levels. Since the excess is already messing with the capacity of the space, a momentary and slight change in the capacity shouldn’t affect things any more than it already is.

I flew down to the halfway point on the first messed up cylinder and created a new viewing port. I looked inside to check how high up the excess fuel was. Just at that distance I wasn’t far off. It seemed to be about half an arm’s length away.

I measured it out and then held my left hand there to keep the mark before repositioning myself.

I carved a short line with my finger and then wrote the symbol for ‘barrier’ above, a measurement for about a finger’s thickness below then drew a circle around it and then finishing the engraving off with mana input markings and the sequencing ones.

From the view port I could look inside and watch the reaction while touching the input markings.

I watched carefully and after the second fuel injection period, where a proper reaction would occur, I quickly injected earth mana into the circle.

The barrier formed and now there was a new, false base of the cylinder.

I just went to the bottom of the cylinder and cleanly cut out a hole for all of the excess minerals to fall out.

It didn’t take too long for it to empty itself and once there wasn’t any fuel remaining, I put the cleanly cut piece back in to reform the wall and put precautionary seal markings on four points of the edges. Then I went back to my first circle, looked through the view port and when the reaction finished, I was about to pull the barrier back out when I remembered my first failed experiment.

The one that blew up my brand-new personal study room. My mentor, Ashkur, was so pissed at me, it took a week to rebuild it, and I had to be supervised for another month afterwards.

How could I forget to empty the excess air? That would make a completely uneven reaction.

Come on idiot.

I went back down and in the center of the cut out I had made, I pushed out a small hole.

Then I fished around in my storage space. The tiny mechanism I made way back when should be in here somewhere.

After stabbing myself on my own cutting tools I found the tiny contraption.

Having to memorize all the small calculations for these sorts of things was way too annoying. Much easier to just write them on something that could enact it for me.

I stuck it in the new hole. Created yet another, small view port and then stuck my finger into the wall next to the tunnel my mechanism was attached to. With my finger now touching the fresh tunnel, my eyes looking at the mana level in the space, and my other finger on the mechanism, I put a small amount of air mana into the second stage of the circle and then put fire mana in the first stage. The fire quickly evaporated the air and started the suction process.

I felt a rush of wind past my finger in the tunnel and the hand by the circle and watched as the mana in the cylinder slowly disappeared. I had to restart the reaction a few times before the entire chamber became empty.

I used my finger that was touching the hole to rebuild the barrier I destroyed. And then took my device off and fully refilled the hole.

I looked back inside to check that I hadn’t messed up.

And of course I hadn’t, but it’s always best to be on the safer side.

But if I didn’t remember, that would’ve been a disaster but also hilarious. I mean it would be annoying since I’d have to rebuild all of the damage I created, and there’s no way to know how much damage I would’ve done.

Would’ve just ended up having to destroy the whole factory to complete the challenge.

I can’t believe I almost wasted this golden opportunity.

I shook my head.

Come on you can do better than that Dot.

I went back up to the barrier and view port and timed the removal of the barrier with the moment after the second complete reaction.

Great, nothing bad happened.

Now to just clean out the other cylinders.

A bit of time later, and I had finished them. Next task was to decide what to do about the valves. Even with the excess fuel no longer in the cylinders, the reactions weren’t balanced. If left like this eventually it would build up again.

Its best to work things out as well as possible in my head first. Start with one method, work it till it either fails or doesn’t and then move on. Since there isn’t any reaction happening within the tubes themselves, there shouldn’t be any adverse reaction if a part of me was inside. That would make cleaning them easier, but that also depends on which one if not both have problems.

I should check them to see which portion of the mixture is wrong.

I went to the top of the first cylinder I cleaned and went along the tube until I was at the junction point. I made a viewing port and saw the two inner tunnels and the mechanisms controlling the proportions.

It was easy to see that the mana entrance was the issue. It could close completely but when it was open it seemed that there was too much of a buildup restriction the amount of mana able to enter the chamber. And whatever amount made it, wasn’t enough for the reaction to occur properly.

I crossed my arms and sat down.

The lazy part of me wants to block off both ends, take it apart and just remake the flap. But if I did that the reaction, even if it was an incomplete one, wouldn’t happen. That has unknown consequences. And not being able to properly recreate the same material that the flap was currently made out of, let alone the circle it had were also risks. I know I could create a functionable circle, but whether or not it would mesh well with the system for long periods of time, or that would be an accepted method by the tower….

Not an option.

I could put my arm in and scrub it, but the mana in the blockage scrubbed loose could mess with the reaction…