The Way Ahead

Edwin carefully Infused the water he poured out, the mana connecting to and binding with the liquid while it made its way through many tubes and pipes. It was far more complicated than strictly necessary for his mana to properly ‘sink in’ and associate with the water, but did make an excellent obstacle course for his control.

He’d already gotten to the point where he could pretty reliably keep his grip for as long as he needed, but he wasn’t able to keep the Infused water separate from a larger mass. As soon as the two liquids touched, they’d instantly mix and dilute his Infusion. The only way he could avoid it was by maintaining two separate Infusions while they combined, but even that resulted in an almost homogenous mixture of the two instances.

Right now, he was trying something different. At the end of the tubes wasn’t another pool of water, but instead what he’d settled on calling ‘alchemist’s fire,’ firevine sap concentrated and Refined into incredible flammability. It was even more flammable than white phosphorus, but thankfully didn’t burn quite as hot or as fast. It didn’t mix well with water, but that was what he was trying to counteract.

Water fed into the sealed vial, and Edwin carefully expanded the container at about the same rate as water was being fed in. It wasn’t perfect, having frequently found himself either stopped up or being sucked into a vacuum, but he was improving.

Inside the vial, Edwin felt his mana coil and try to mix with the intense fire magic present in the oil, but the two just slid off like, well, oil and water. But that was alright. He’d experienced that problem before, and he was pretty sure he knew how to deal with it.

It would have looked very boring to any observers, but Edwin found himself embroiled in his attempts, trying to first break down the larger clumps of fire into smaller bubbles. He squeezed, fighting past the resistance, and felt in satisfaction as a bonfire burst into campfires. Then, he hunted down each and every campfire, turning them into cooking fires. Then he hunted them down again, breaking cooking fires into Bunsen burners.

Just what he needed.

Bit by bit, Edwin took his Infused water, a veritable ocean amidst the countless tiny fires it surrounded like stars in the night sky, and fed it, trickle by trickle, into the Bunsen burners. In theory, he could probably use much larger quantities of mana, but that was harder to control. But at these scales, he could combine the fire and the water into, well, boiling water. At least in theory.

In practice, his sloppy attempts to merge the two types of magic was exceptionally wasteful. By the time he opened his eyes to the world again, night had fallen and all he had to show for his efforts was a hot water bottle, just slightly warmer than was comfortable.

He still grinned. Proof of concept was a resounding success.

The temperature dropped precipitously as the days came and went. It didn’t really slow Edwin down, he and Lefi just moved their training indoors; the entry hall alone being larger than most Earth gymnasiums.

Edwin didn’t venture outside much at all. Why would he? There was nothing that really incentivized him to. There was plenty of food to be had within the tower, part of Rillah’s compensation, and he didn’t have any particular materials he wanted to get. There were quite a few alchemical materials that passed through the city, yes, but most weren’t for sale before being shipped off to Panastalis via merchant caravans. Those few which were were all absurdly expensive for materials that Edwin didn’t think he could make much use of anyway.

Scarlet fern was predominantly just an anticoagulant, willow bark wasn’t even magical, seagrass was tempting but seriously overpriced here, and none of the things he actually wanted- fulgurite, abysite, and unicorn horn chief among them- were available.

So, he stayed in the tower’s grounds. What few times he ventured into the streets, he was usually subject to at least a little bit of harassment or whispers from commoners and guards, but nothing ever really came out of it. He couldn’t say he even minded that much, at least they said what they actually thought about him and he didn’t really expect anything more. He was if anything more annoyed at their casual derision of Rillah the ‘daywasr’- he still didn’t know exactly what it meant, but he felt he had a decent idea- because he knew she didn’t deserve it. But, he still kept himself under control.

He could always just fly if he preferred to avoid them anyway.

Edwin jumped off the wall, Longstrider turning the world around him into a blur. Unbound Tether may not have let him fly, not yet, but he could jump so far. Ridiculously so, in fact. With just a running start, Edwin could jump nearly seven meters. Adding Unbound Tether got him to ten meters.

If he added Longstrider…

Well, he wasn’t actually sure. Every single time he’d tried it, it ended the same way: Edwin face-planting into a wall or tree or something and being knocked out of the jump. He’d yet to find anywhere with enough space for him to actually check, especially without leaving the city, which he didn’t really want to do… not for any real reason, he just didn’t feel like it. But his jump was at least a hundred meters if not twice that. Even if he didn’t use Unbound Tether beyond its initial charge, he still cleared a hundred, which was more than enough to send him from the tower to the city streets.

So, now he just jumped around inside, which had significantly more space. Kicking off the wall didn’t give him quite as much distance as he could with a run- while still more than the fifty meters Numeracy reached, Edwin estimated it was ‘only’ sixty meters before Longstrider wore off.

There were some interplay oddities around the Skill but it usually seemed like it didn’t care how long Edwin’s jump actually was, just how long it ‘should’ be. He couldn’t jump from a higher place and get more distance that way, because he always broke out of the Skill either at the same altitude he started at, or when he ‘landed’ with his feet or Flight. That only applied when he was long jumping, though. When high jumping, it ended at the top of his arc. How the Skill could tell which Edwin was doing, he didn’t know, but it worked out well enough.

The world to his sides came back into focus as Longstrider wore off, and Edwin fought back the stomach-dropping terror of freefall while he plummeted towards the stone floor below. He’d been getting better, at least! Unbound Tether helped him stay somewhat in control of his fall, which was a major factor in his current comfort, he knew.

Less than a second later, he got close enough to the hall’s floor for Flight to kick in, and he lowered himself to the floor. A bit of math to account for the time spent arcing through the air, and…

“Sixty-two meters. Nice.”

“Marvelous!” Lefi blurred into being next to Edwin, the man needing only a single step for his Longstrider to carry him the same distance, “You truly are growing fantastically with your Skills!”

Edwin gave a small smile, “Yeah. It’s satisfying. I’m betting that’ll be in the next obstacle course?”

“Oh, but of course!”

“Well, I finally found out what’s taking so long,” Rillah vented as she dropped into her favorite chair.

Edwin held up a finger, “Just a minute, let me finish this.”

Conscious of his limited time, he quickly sped through his remaining tests. He hadn’t really expected to succeed in his quest to synthesize ammonia simply by creating a mana ‘lightning potion’ and imbuing water with it, but he would have felt really stupid if it could work and he just never tried it.

What was slightly more disappointing though, was the complete lack of any change in the water. He’d hoped to get at least a little gaseous hydrogen, but if there was any, it was less than Alchemical Analysis could pick up. It was probably an issue with his imagined lightning potion, because it was definitely outside of his normal wheelhouse and he didn’t know how to properly make it. Maybe he needed to figure out how to ‘brew’ a lightning potion-spell first?

He sighed and tucked the beaker away in his bag, “What’s up? You just had your weekly meeting with the politicians, right?”

Rillah threw her head back, leaning well into the chair, “Yuuup. I overheard a coupla nobles scheming in the corner. Turns out, they have a couple replacements for me, both well-known mages back in the capital but they’re each trying to ensure they get the Sheraith Mage position. Lots of backstabbing and posturing, and the end result means neither’s likely to get here soon.”

“Okay, but if you know that they have options, but it’s just political shenanigans that you’re still stuck here, can’t you leave with a clear conscience? Let them figure out their own mess.”

She shook her head, “Unfortunately no. It would still be abandoning an official position, and that carries many, many penalties.”

“Like what?”

“It appears on every Wanted List, among others. I don’t want to avoid cities, I love seeing them too much! Oh, remind me to take you to Farport at some point. That’s the most beautiful city on the continent.”

“Oh, uh… sure! I was planning on heading there at some point myself.”

Wait, so when she said that she wanted to take him to Farport at some point, did that mean that she didn’t mind his presence? Did it mean she just wanted some company? Why not ask Lefi? Did she just wanted to stay in his good graces because she thought he’d help her get to Vis’Daric?

“Wonderful! Who knows when that will be, though,” she sighed. “That’s why I can’t leave, though. I nor the nobles are happy now, but I can’t leave without repercussions, and they can’t chase me away without suffering the worst of winter. So here I am, stuck in one place for longer than I’ve been for years.”

“Politics,” Edwin summarized with a sigh, “is the absolute worst.”

“Politics,” she agreed.

A thought flitted across Edwin’s mind, “Well… what would happen if you suddenly weren’t needed?”

“Oh?” Rillah sat up in attention, “What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m just imagining that we somehow figure out some automated system that does your job for you.You basically just need to supply wind magic, right?”

“It’s slightly more complicated, but essentially yes. It’s not hard.”

“Yeah. So if I somehow figured out some way to create a wind magic supply or whatever.”

“How’d you do that?”

“I don’t have a clue. Something to do with my alchemy or magic, I’m sure. Maybe I’ll finally dip into Essentia properly? But I’m more curious what the repercussions of it would be if I did manage it.”

“Well,” she thought, “The pair currently jostling for the Mage appointment would be really mad for one. The nobles might be happy or they might be furious, depending on if they like having a dedicated city weather mage, or just want to keep the wind walls up. I’d be free from my obligation, and no matter how much Kos’vilista and Finnas want to complain, it would satisfy my duty of enchantment maintenance ‘until such a time an alternative is established.’ It wouldn’t help my reputation if I were to suddenly dance away, and I’d expect to both be accused of wasting time when there was a perfectly viable alternative and abandoning the city when I was needed like the faithless adventurer I am.”

“That doesn’t… sound very fun. Other than the ‘making the candidates mad’ part, that sounds amazing.”

“Bah, what do I care? They have short memories, and I’ve spent enough time in Sheriath to keep me happy for years. It’d annoy the people I want to annoy, and not affect the everyday people! You should do it,” she smiled at him, “I’d love it.”

Edwin wrenched his emotions in check and gave a small smile back, “I mean… I can try, but like I said, I don’t know where I’d even start. I can’t make any promises, that’s for sure. It’ll just be something I keep an eye out for, see if I can’t come up with anything. More of an idle thought than anything.”

Despite telling Rillah that he wasn’t going to dedicate too much time to making a wind magic accumulator, Edwin kept finding himself drifting towards the idea. He didn’t think that it was a Skill affecting his thoughts, but that idea did tie into a lot of his projects.

After all, it would definitely require the use of magic, it would probably deal with alchemy in some way, and it would definitely require the use of enchanting. Ammonia production was beyond his grasp for the moment, and that barred a lot of modern chemistry from his grasp. Infused phosphorus served as an adequate explosive, and Unbound Tether as a decent projectile weapon. He didn’t really need more conventional weapons yet. Training? Yes. But he had plenty of tools.

What he really needed to explore was proper alchemy, and what better project than a wind magic accumulator or maker? While atmospheric mana wasn’t abundant this far from the Verdant, the tower’s top room did have a fair bit present. If he could tap into it, then… Well, he could make Rillah happy, get a Path or two, some Skill levels and best of all, learn more about magic!

He wasn’t having much luck, naturally, but it was an interesting problem.

What more could he want?

Edwin jumped, attaching his tether to the central pillar Lefi had constructed. The adventurer apparently had some Skill called Temporary Structure Conjuration he hadn’t been using before which made vaguely metallic, mirror-like objects. It was reminiscent of but not quite like Apparatus, and Lefi was able to make much larger objects much quicker than Edwin could manage with his own trophy Skill.

Edwin had firmly locked all of his feelings of inadequacy about there being yet another thing that Lefi could do better than him away in a deep, dark corner of his mind and instead just enjoyed the obstacle course.

He jumped off the edge, using the force that Unbound Tether could provide to swing himself back around, landing on the floor below. Immediately, he had to duck under a low ceiling, then use Longstrider to clear a gap. Below him, Lefi was making more of the course in real time; just as fast as Edwin could complete it, more was made and pushed up before vanishing back into Skill light.

It was a ludicrous display of power, but Edwin wasn’t thinking about that. Instead, he raised himself into the air with Flight and leveraged himself through a tiny gap. He could have done the entire course airborne, of course, but that would defeat the purpose of learning how to integrate all of his Skills into his muscle memory.

By filtering his mana through Unbound Tether, Edwin found that he could create a different form of magic, namely movement magic. It was interesting, as he could mix it with his fire spell-potion to get a combination of movement and fire. If he used that mana as the basis of a Firestarting Infusion, he could make a bit of a weak blowtorch for the thirty seconds or so it took before the mana ran dry.

Truly, an earth-shattering discovery. Edwin was still super excited when he got it to work, though. Finally, his mana was actually doing something outright magical.

Unbound Tether could combine with Flight in interesting ways. It definitely increased the amount of force he could apply when airborne for one, but also just made his flight a little… springier.

He could deliver an awesome drop-kick, that was certain. It was even enough to knock Lefi off-balance.

…so long as the adventurer wasn’t expecting it. And wasn’t on solid footing.

Still, Edwin was really pleased to find that he could legitimately knock the man back a bit even not from ambush.. All it took was a 1-kilo stone, fully charged and with about ten meters of acceleration. Three kilojoules of energy may not have been enough to injure the guy, but it could disorient him.

Edwin decided to take his victories where he could.

Okay, so molai might work if I could refine it, Edwin tapped his mouth with his apparatite stirring stick, I just need to figure out how to get to it without it just eating my Refined mana.

Molai really was one of the unsung heroes of his garden, and he was really glad it grew so well in his greenhouse. So long as it had even a little sunlight, if he watered it with Infused water and kept it planted in Infused soil, it flourished. Once the flowers were picked, it stopped directly consuming mana for energy, but it did keep absorbing ambient magic and then holding onto it. If he overloaded it, all the mana would release in a flood, and if the molai was fresh enough, it could keep gathering mana afterwards.

The only problem was its perishability. He hadn’t had any problems with his potions having shelf-lives yet, but if he wanted to make a true solution to Sheraith’s mage problems, Edwin would need something whose efficacy dropped dramatically every few days, and so far as he was able to tell, his Refined creations basically fit his requirements.

If he was right, Refined molai would be a sort of mana accumulator and battery, pulling in mana from the surroundings, filling up and then needing only the tiniest of triggers to dump everything it had in seconds. After that, he’d just need a filter and some sort of conductor, to get wind mana, and only wind mana, from his Refined molai into the tower’s enchantments.

Hmmm…

“Great! Now faster.”

Edwin groaned, picking himself up off the ground with Flight as he settled back onto his aching legs. His attempts to master Stamina Manipulation were… mixed, to say the least. Half the time, his trials didn’t seem to do much of anything. The other half of the time, it definitely felt like he was working with less stamina than normal.

Edwin looked up at the looming spiral staircase above him, dreading what came next.

“Come on now, let’s get to it!”

With a deep breath and with burning calves, he started running up the massive staircase nearly to the top once again.

At least the way back down was easy enough, if far, far too fast.