Chapter 20 – Settling In
The canteen is arge simple hall, with tables filling the centre of the room, and a window to the kitchen along the opposite wall to the transportation circles. The tables have a simr soundproofing barrier to the library and offer the ability to request food from the kitchen. The food is also delivered through flight, creating the odd scene of a silent hall with trays of food asionally floating above.
Emily and Juliana decide on a lunch of fried meats and eggs on toast while making small talk. After eating they head back to the dorms, finished with their tour.
“Thanks for showing me around,” Emily says as they stop in front of Juliana’s door.
“No problem! I’m d I picked up the mission. It''s not every day you get to earn points and make a new friend. You wanna get dinner togetherter?”
<em>So she was here for a mission?</em>
A little more of Emily’s remaining caution slips away as she responds.
“Sure, what time?”
“Like 7 or 8?”
“Let’s go with 8, I prefer to eatter.”
“Okay,” Juliana says while turning and opening her door, “I’lle grab you then!”
Emily smiles and waves goodbye, walking away as Juliana’s door shuts behind her. Heading into her room, Emily takes off her shoes and leaves them by the door, before opening her suitcase and unpacking into the wardrobe and drawers below.
She takes her toiletries, towel, and dirty clothes from her trip into the bathroom. She deposits the towel over a small rail on the wall, and her toiletries on a shelf above the sink. Then she drops the dirty clothes on the floor in the alcove, ces her hand against the engraving, and injects mana into it, keen to see the clothes-washing spell Juliana exined to her over lunch. The engraving quickly lights up with a pale glow, a mixture of green and indigo. Stepping back, she watches as the clothes on the floor float up a few inches and begin spinning around each other while a light spray of water appears to douse them.
Once activated the spellsts for twenty minutes, and the clothese out clean and dry. The luxury of not having to handwash clothes makes Emily bitter that magic isn’t widespread.
She moves back into her room, leaving the spell to do its work, and checks the suitcase for anything else. She ignores the nightgowns she will never wear but takes out the small leather pouch sitting in the bottom. Opening it up, she lets out a small gasp as she sees five small golden coins.
<em>Woah, that’s a lot. I’d have to sell, like, one hundred and fifty pocket watches to make that much. Nobles really are rich.</em>
A malicious grin spreads across her face.
<em>Very kind of them to give me some starting capital to make weapons with.</em>
She pulls closed the drawstring on the pouch and ces it safely into the drawer of the bedside table furthest from the door. Done with the suitcase, she closes it again and ces it beside the wardrobe.
Emily sits down cross-legged in the centre of the room.
<em>Time to see if they spy on people here.</em>
She enters a meditative state and expands her magical senses to cover the room, unsurprised by the immense magical fluctuations all around her.
<em>Hmm, this may take a while.</em>
She methodically inspects every surface and object in the room, pausing on every mana crystal and enchantment to check for familiar runes from the surveince spells she saw in the Mandrago mansion.
After several hours of investigation, Emily opens her eyes, mostly satisfied that her room is secure. She walks over to the desk, where she has noticed several unfamiliar enchanted objects, and finds a note lying on top of it. She sits in thefortable padded wooden chair and picks it up.
Wee, aspiring young mage, to The Covenant of the Blessed.
The Covenant has great expectations of you and looks forward to your contribution to magical society.
Please find a few wee gifts within this desk to get you started.
We wish you luck in your pursuit of knowledge.
The moment she finishes reading the note, it bursts into mes. Startled, she drops the burning paper back onto the desk and watches as it disintegrates, not even leaving ashes behind.
“Huh, I guess that’s what those enchantments were for.” She mutters while looking at the two sets of drawers that make up the desk’s legs.
Each set of drawers has three slightlyrger drawers at the bottom and two shallower ones at the top. She begins by opening the drawers on the left, starting at the top and working her way down. Disappointingly, she finds all the drawers to be empty. Moving on to the right-hand side with low expectations, she opens the top drawer to find three items neatly positioned inside.
First, she lifts out a delicate feather quill with a vane so ck it appears to absorb the light around it. Around the shaft of the quill is a small silver metal handle, shaped perfectly to be heldfortably between three fingers. As Emily turns the quill in her hand, she counts six unique ck runes engraved around the handle.
<em>Why can’t they just use pens? Though I don’t see an inkwell, so I assume its magic will generate ink or something.</em>
cing the quill down on the desk and moving on to the next item, she lifts a thick leatherbound book out of the drawer and ces it on the desk in front of her. The cover is nk, so she opens it up to look inside and finds hundreds of nk pages as she flicks through it.
<em>A notebook, I guess it would be nice not to have to sort through random stacks of blueprints again.</em>
With a satisfied nod, Emily looks at thest item in the drawer. Thest item, a small coin-sized milky white crystal, causes a shiver to run down her spine. With slight apprehension, cautious of how reminiscent it is of the crystal used in the Mandrago family’s brainwashing spell, she raises it to her eye. Rotating it slowly and gazing at theplicated weaving of runes covering its every surface Emily is left awestruck.
<em>These runes are incredibly delicate, how long will it have taken to engrave this much on to this tiny crystal? Though they could have at least written an exnation on their wee note so I’d know what it actually does. Ah, unless these gifts are only given to the B-grade magesing from noble families who would already have been told what they’re for.</em>
Sighing, Emily ces the crystal down on the desk next to the notebook. She leans back in her chair and taps her fingers against the desk and her chin while considering the gifts.
<em>Do I have to wait and ask Juliana at dinner? Wait, what about the system?</em>
She focuses on the feather quill while calling out for her system in her head.
<em>ˉˉˉˉˉ</em>
[Nighthawk Quill]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +1 dex
[Description:] A quill made from the feather of a Nighthawk. The runes engraved on the handle absorb the ambient mana released by a mage and channel it into the Nighthawk’s natural ability to convert mana into darkness.
[Effect:] Passively generates liquid darkness.
_____
After reading the quill’s details and finding them to be as she expected, other than the bonus stat in dexterity, she eagerly changes her focus to bring up the notebook and crystal’s descriptions.
<em>ˉˉˉˉˉ</em>
[Leatherbound Book]
[Description:] An empty book with a leather binding.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Recording Crystal]
[Rank:] D
[Description:] A mental attributed mana crystal carved with a spell for recording memories.
[Effect:] Record up to thirty minutes of the user''s perspective.
_____
Emily is disappointed by the in description of the notebook, having hoped for there to be something special about it. But her excitement returns as she sees the recording crystal’s details.
<em>Nice! This is probably given for recording lectures.</em>
She happily ces the crystal back into the drawer and opens the notebook to the first page.
<em>I need to work out my priorities for now. Let’s have a look at what I need to increase my circle and stage first.</em>
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Progression]
[Circle/Stage:] First
Requirements:
-Intelligence 23/35 (Not Complete)
-Create 5/5 unique F rank machines (Complete)
-Create 0/1 E rank machine (Not Complete)
-Learn 0/5 first circle spells (Not Complete)
-Learn 1/3 basic magic knowledges (Not Complete)
_____
Emily considers the progression requirements before her and begins writing a few notes.
Meditate a minimum of four hours a day.
Work out what affects the grade of items.
Learn spells (sses?)
Work out what current knowledges told me.
Learn knowledges (sses and library?)
Collect tools and materials for creating machines in my room.
Checkmunication crystal, market token, ss token and my crest with the system.
Check when sses are.
Look through the contribution market.
<em>Let’s start with working out what electrical theory and mana formation taught me, there’s definitely more information in my head, but I don’t know what.</em>
She turns the page and ces her quill against the paper while focusing on the concept of mana formation in her head.
Mana is everywhere throughout the universe. The density of mana in an area can vary based on many variables and some areas can evenck manapletely, though rare and usually sparse of life as a result.
Every has channels that mana flows through more easily, these are called mana veins. The majority of mana veins are deep within the, but asionally they stray close to the surface. When a mana vein is close to the surface of the, areas of high-density mana are formed. Sometimes mana veins will meet each other close to the surface in convergence points, forming areas of ultra-high-density mana that can form into dungeons or spawn mana-dependent lifeforms.
In areas of high-density mana, minerals and materials exposed for extended periods of time can often gain magical attributes. These can include high magical conductivity or resistance. Along with affecting existing minerals and materials, mana will often crystallise.
Lifeforms living within high-density mana are often affected, experiencing extended lifespans and sometimes mutations. New lifeforms are often formed too, ranging from beasts to elementals.
The information that seemed hazy when the knowledge was first granted suddenly flows clearly through her mind as she writes. Further details on the variables for mana density, and information on themon and exotic mana crystals and magical materials that can form fill her thoughts. Emily ces the quill down the moment the page is full, while massaging her brows, feeling a light ache as her mind adjusts.
<em>Weird, I would have thought that should happen when I was given the knowledge. My knowledge of steam power and clockwork definitely became moreplete the moment I gained the knowledge, but not the other three. Maybe it’s because they were grantedpletely by the system initialisation, and I knew nothing about them before.</em>
As the aching subsides, Emily picks up the quill again and ces it against the other open page.
<em>I don’t need this much detail written down, so let''s try focusing on key points and see if that activates the knowledge properly.</em>
Electrical Theory is the study of the flow of charge, referred to as electric current.
In a circuit: V = IR
Electrical current flows from positive to negative and takes the path of least resistance.
When voltage is generated by a source of energy, or by varying the maic field, it is referred to as electromotive force. The force to move electrons and form current.
If there is a maic field and a change in current, a force is produced, referred to as electromaic force. This can also be used to induce a current, as when there is a change in maic field across a conductor, the force that is produced is electromotive force.
As she had hoped, segments of knowledge on particles and forces slot into ce in her mind as she writes. Once again cing the quill down and reaching up to massage her aching head, Emily is surprised by a new system notification.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Knowledge acquisitionplete!
[Reward granted]
Quest generated: The Four Fundamental Forces
Sub-system unlocked: Quests
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[The Four Fundamental Forces]
[Rank:] C
[Description:] Learn and understand the four fundamental forces of physics
Requirements:
-Learn 1/4 Forces (Not Complete)
Rewards:
-Blueprint: Universal Transmitter
_____
She stares at the windows before her with a confused look on her face.
<em>How am I meant to learn about these fundamental forces when the first of them is something I’d never heard of before today? Maybe there’ll be information in the library. If not I have to hope I can work them out myself. And given that the rating of this quest is higher than the recording stone, I’m probably fine leaving it tillter. Important goals first!</em>
Blinking the quest out of her vision and looking back to her notebook, Emily’s expression shifts back to a satisfied smile. Fuelled by her new knowledge, ideas for interesting machines flow into her mind and she is eager to get to work.
“If electromaic force requires a maic field, how was I able to use it without a ma on The Clock?” Emily asks herself aloud while picking up the quill again.
She circles the ‘maic field’ in thest paragraph on the page and writes a question beside it.
Does lightning attribute mana have a maicponent?
Nodding, she turns back to the first page. She crosses out one of the lines and makes a note branching off another.
Work out what affects the grade of items.
-Level of knowledge used?
<span style="text-decoration:line-through">Work out what current knowledges changed.
Emily pulls out the two tokens she bought earlier, along with her crest andmunication crystal, and drops all the objects onto the desk in front of her.
<em>Finally, let’s have a look at these four before dinner.</em>