The Next Morning…
As soon as the early morning sun hit us, we were back on the road, moving through the graveyard. Rhysta used her magic to keep us hidden and the Wicked wandering the graveyard away from us, all the while serving as the main guide for us, sitting together with Avy and controlling the carriage. Meanwhile, me and Odale were inside the carriage, beginning a little practice in sorcery.
"To use sorcery effectively, you would first require to learn how to feel and manipulate magical energy in the air or environment around you, however, due to our rather… Unique location, that is off the table – At least, for now." Odale stated, before flipping through his journal. "Instead, we'll start with a little more in depth explanation of how sorcery exactly works."
"Right." I nodded, looking at the page in his journal that he had opened.
It looked about as complicated as an advanced math textbook, with all sorts of information and formulas, and whatever else in it. Honestly, from the side, it looked a little… Intimidating – at first. However, upon a closer look, it wasn't all that complicated at all.
"Sorcery, in the simplest form, is the act of manipulating the magical energy in the air around you and using it to form spells. This has its strengths and its drawbacks. First of all, due to the magical energy being used for spells not belonging to you, it is a lot more difficult to form spells. Plus, you must go through an extensive training period of feeling the magical energy in the environment around you first before even attempting to manipulate it." Odale explained, before leaning back a little bit. "Sorcery also is limited by its power. The power of a spell scales with the amount of magical energy you pour into casting the spell — the more magical energy the spell receives, the more powerful it will be. The less magical energy the spell receives, the weaker it will be. In raw definition, spells that require more magical energy are stronger."
Then, Odale pivoted.
"However, this rule isn't absolute. If one is skilled enough, even a simple spell such as 'Fire Bolt' is capable of immense destruction if you pour enough magical energy into the spell." He pointed out, before leaning back a bit closer to me, flipping the next page of the journal.
"Now, as for the strengths of Sorcery, the main one is that you don't require any chanting for the usage of spells. All you need is to focus enough to manipulate the magical energy around you to form the spell you wish to cast. This 'no chant' strength is also why sorcery rarely, if ever, needs magic circles to be made."
"Magic circles?" I looked at Odale.
The lich scratched his chin for a moment, as if thinking of a way to explain it before exhaling. "Magic circles act as a tunnel for magical energy from within your body to exit your body. Like a gate that allows a person to exit or enter a walled off city. Without the gate, no one can enter the city or exit it. Similarly, without magic circles, it is almost impossible for your magical energy to exit your body." I raised an eyebrow.
"Almost?"
"Well, you form your special venom using your personal magical energy don't you? Or manipulate shadows using your personal magical energy? It isn't completely impossible for magical energy to exit your body without a magic circle, magic circles simply make the process a lot simpler and easier."
I see… So in short, if I use Odales 'walled city' example again — it'd be like the wall having a few holes in it through which some people can exit or enter the city through. Entering a city without a gate isn't completely impossible because of these holes, however if it had a gate, it'd be a lot easier to do it.
What an esteemed way to simplify my entire theory on Magic and how to use it.
I jumped a little at Ancients One's sudden comment, which seemingly confused Odale for a moment. I quickly brushed it off, before looking away. "I told you not to do that…"
My apologies.
I simply cannot stop myself from commenting when a conversation is about magic.
"I get that, but please— At least give me some kind of warning before you speak…" The Ancient One remained silent for a moment, before exhaling.
…Understood Master. I shall take note of that.
I sighed, before turning back to Odale. "Sorry– You can continue." Odale observed me for a moment, before shaking his head lightly and looking back down to his journal, trying to remember where he left off for a moment.
"Right– Anyways… All you need to know is that as someone who will learn Sorcery, you won't have to really worry about learning about Magic Circles or how to construct them." I nodded, before Odale continued onto the next point. "Another strength of Sorcery is that it is nearly impossible to ever run out of magical energy to use for spells with Sorcery. As you are using the magical energy from the environment around you and not your own, there is no limit to how much magical energy you can use. In theory, you could cast spells forever." Then, he lifted his left hand up.
"But – this strength is a double edged sword. It also means that if you are located in a place with very little magical energy or if you get caught in an anti-magic field, you are rendered defenceless, as Sorcery requires there to be magical energy around you for you to use it."
That makes sense. In an environment with near limitless magical energy, a sorcerer would be basically unstoppable, as they would have basically an infinite fuel source to use for their spells – while in an environment with very little or no magical energy at all, they'd be as useful as a sitting duck.
"For this reason, a lot of sorcerers also train themselves with some sort of melee weapon – in case they get caught in an area where they're incapable of using sorcery, so that they're not completely helpless." Makes sense. If you can't use your key ability, it's better to have some kind of backup plan so that you can still defend yourself.
"Although… For you that shouldn't be a problem. You have quite a few very powerful abilities which you can use in place of sorcery that don't rely on the magical energy found in the environment around you." I laughed lightly.
Even that wasn't reliable though.
As in the case with Gidou, if someone uses a special skill to eliminate all magical energy in a select area, my skills are rendered useless as well. "I should probably get my hands on some sort of physical weapon when I get back to Ordial from this request."
Actually, I may have something that could—
Before the Ancient One could finish his statement, the carriage stopped. Then, from the front, Avy's head poked into the carriage. "Well, Rhysta says that we've arrived." I looked at her for a moment, before back at Odale and nodding. The lich closed his journal, before placing it inside his coat and moving to exit the carriage first.
"Hold that thought for now Ancient One. I'll hear it later."
The Ancient One released a rather annoyed sounding sigh. Very well.
Then, I followed after Odale getting out of the carriage into a very… Unexpected sight. The area around us had suddenly changed. The dead ground beneath our feet was replaced by grass – not exactly lush green grass, but grass nonetheless. There were actual trees around, with a few bushes and there was a gentle wind blowing.
"Did we leave the graveyard…?"
"No, it seems we have entered a dwarven environment simulator." Odale replied, looking up at the sky. I looked up at where he was looking, spotting a slight reflection of what looked like a dome-like barrier around us. Following it to the ground, I noticed the spot where the expected dead wasteland ground of the graveyard met with this grass.
It was like a dark piece of paper placed on a light one.
The contrast was vast.
"You seem quite well educated about this little trick." Rhysta commented, leaning slightly against the carriage. Odale looked at her before nodding and looking back up at the barrier around us. "I studied with some dwarf forgemasters for a bit of time in the past. They showed me all the different technologies that the dwarves had managed to develop – the environmental simulator was one of them." Odale replied, looking back down and turning around, before moving towards Rhysta. "It is one fascinating creation."
"You can say that again. Honestly, it's impressive that it is strong enough to even keep the corrupted energy that makes up the Deadman's Graveyard out of its simulation." Rhysta nodded, before kicking herself off of the carriage and turning around.
"But we can talk about that later. Come on, the recipient of the letter you're delivering lives in this simulated environment." Then, she began to walk off, with Odale quickly matching her pace. Avy looked at me for a second. "You coming Faofa?"
"Yeah… Sorry."
I responded, quickly moving after them, walking beside Avy as we followed Rhysta's lead.
"I would normally ask Odale or Avy to tell me about this environmental simulator… But I assume I can simply ask you instead, Ancient One?"
That you can, Master.
He responded immediately, before clearing his throat. Then, like clockwork, he began his explanation. A Dwarven environmental simulator is one of many pieces of rather advanced magic technology developed by the dwarf forgemasters. The environmental simulator in specific was first built around seven thousand years ago, when a dwarf forgemaster by the name of 'Ironbarb' was in need of a way to test whether his weapons could survive in any weather condition.
Usually, to test the durability or rather, the resistance of weaponry, the dwarf forgemasters would hand their creations to some adventurers who would take the weapons to all sorts of different locations, each one with a different climate. From there, the adventurers would document and write down how well or how poorly the weapon fared in each environment. Once the test was done, the weapon was graded and proposed for mass production.
The Ancient One flipped through the endless pages of information within the Nexus for a moment, eventually grabbing the next page. The obvious drawback of this method for testing weaponry was the time it would take. On average, a weapon test using this method would take anywhere from two to four months, depending on how fast the adventurers that were entrusted with the testing of the weapons managed to perform the tests.
Ironbarb saw this flaw in the industry and sought out a way to solve it. His solution – a machine, which could artificially recreate any and all climates that the weapon would need to be tested in. His original prototype used the hearts of monsters belonging to the 'Serpentine' family tree to simulate these different climates, which was… Inefficient, as the hearts required frequent replacing with fresh ones and at the time, were rather expensive and hard to get your hands on.
However, it served as a proof of concept.
It showed the other dwarf forgemasters that it was possible to artificially recreate the environments in which the weapons could be tested. All they needed was to find a way to do it more efficiently, cheaply and effectively. And with time, trial and error, the dwarves eventually managed to build what would be known as the 'Environmental Simulator Mark I' which used special runes engraved into the machines inner workings to simulate environments inside a specially isolated chamber, by just pouring some magical energy into a rune.
Using these runes, they managed to create a way to test weapons faster, more efficiently and with time — more effectively than doing it the old way. The Ancient One finished off, before making all the pages of the Nexus disappear once more. These days, the Environmental Simulators have become a mass produced product, which is mostly bought by researchers, education centers and the Adventuring or Mercenary guilds for their own uses.
They vary in size, however they all function essentially the same – by using a much more advanced system of the runes which made up the Mark I of the environmental simulator.
Once his lengthy explanation was done, I took a moment to process it all. I think I had picked up on everything he said and understood it, though, I can't say so confidently. "...A little note Ancient One – Whenever I ask for such explanations from you in the future… Please keep them as short as you can."
…Understood.
Exhaling, I shook my head.
That said – I think I understood what the environmental simulator was now. It was basically a special machine that was capable of artificially recreating any sort of environment inside a special chamber, by using a system of advanced runes developed by the dwarves.
"Faofa, you okay?" Avy asked, looking at me with a slightly concerned look in her eyes. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts, shaking my head before nodding. "..Yeah…. Sorry, I was just zoned out for a bit."
"Okay… Just– Let me know if something is wrong."
I remained silent for a moment, before smiling. "Right."
Then, I heard the sound of hands clapping. We all stopped before looking towards Rhysta, who had stopped in front of a rather large, metal building, with pipes and all sorts of other mechanisms going into it. She then flipped around to face us all, before lifting her arms up. "Here we are! This is where the recipient for the letter lives."
I shed a slight sweat.
This metal facility…? Seriously? It looked like some sort of steampunk factory, not a home where someone was actively living. Odale scratched his chin lightly, observing the building. "Dwarven black steel?"
"Close, but not exactly. The building is primarily made from greysteel from Duerra Mountains."
"I see… I suppose that's not surprising." Odale commented.
"Is there a reason for that material specifically…?" I asked. Odale threw his gaze at me from over his left shoulder. "Greysteel is a special metal found only in the Duerra Grey Mountains and is known for its immense resistance to extremely high and extremely low temperatures. It is also a rather great repellent of magical energy, which makes it a rather popular material to use in the construction of shields and walls." Odale explained, before looking back at the building.
"The only problem is the price… As the Duerra Mountains are the only source of this metal, the dwarven capital of Duerra has a monopoly of it and thus, basically dictates the amount of the metal allowed to be distributed in the market at any given time." He placed his hands on his hips. "Because of that, greysteel usually goes for at least fifty gold coins per shard. A whole crate of it can even go up as high as three hundred gold coins."
At first, I wasn't all that surprised by the price.
However, after the Ancient One automatically crunched through the numbers and converted the prices Odale had mentioned back into currencies I understood…
In your previous life, a shard of greysteel would have gone for around 92,855,000 yen. And a crate of greysteel could go all the way up to 557,130,000 yen.
….To say I almost fainted, would be an understatement. I don't think even the richest people from my old life would be able to afford too many of these greysteel shards before going bankrupt – how on earth is anyone in this world able to afford them??
Shaking my head, I looked at the building. "You said the whole building is made of this stuff?" Rhysta nodded. "Indeed."
"...What kind of uber rich individual lives here that they could afford to build this place out of this stuff." I commented lightly under my breath, with Avy laughing lightly at it. Rhysta then turned around before moving towards what looked like the main door of the building. The three of us quickly followed after her, joining her side in moments.
Then, she knocked on the door three times.
After a bit of silence, a click on the other side of the door sounded. "State your names and reason of visit." A rather robotic voice spoke from the other side. "Rhysta and some acquaintances. We're here to deliver a letter to Ye." After her answer, the door clicked again.
Then, after a bit, it opened, with a metal golem standing on the other side. Swiftly, 'Analysis' activated, giving me a peak at some information about the golem.
[ Creation ]
Species; Blacksteel Golem
Rank; A
A golem made using Dwarven Blacksteel. It is nearly impervious to physical attacks and has high magical and spiritual resistance, making it a very powerful tank. It usually serves as a body guard for researchers or scientists.
[ Creation ]
"Huh… Blacksteel? Odale had mentioned it before… Is it similar to greysteel?"
Not exactly.
Blacksteel is a rather common material – mainly because there are different variants of it. The Dwarven Blacksteel this golem was made from is more of an alloy that the dwarves made by mixing mithril together with monster blood and what your world called titanium.
Currently, on the market, Dwarven Blacksteel goes for about two gold coins per shard – Which would equate to around 3,713,600 yen of your world.
Okay… Still extraordinarily expensive, but not as insane as the greysteel from before. Rhysta bowed towards the golem, before moving inside the facility. After a moment of hesitation, the three of us followed suit – also bowing towards the golem before following Rhysta into the facility. After we all had entered, the golem closed the door once again.
Moving through the facility itself – it felt… odd to be here.
This whole world so far had felt so medieval and old school so far, but this place… I mean, this was like a steam punk laboratory, with pipes running through the entire place, streams of steam shooting out from occasional ventilation shafts and the grated ground beneath our feet – making a rather satisfying metallic thunk every time our feet hit it.
It was definitely a slight one eighty from the medieval feel of Ordial and the Abyssal woods that I had spent my time in so far in this world.
"I'm assuming this person that we're delivering the letter to for the Guildmaster is a researcher of sorts?" Odale asked, looking around. Rhysta nodded. "Mhm, a very well known one at that. Ye is a genius. She has received so many awards and acknowledgements for her research and work, that it is honestly easier and faster to list off what she hasn't achieved than what she has." I shed a slight sweat.
This person sounds like one impressive individual…
Also, I didn't realise that the person we're delivering the letter to was a woman.
"But don't let that intimidate you or anything. Ye is a kind person – sometimes a little… too kind." I raised an eyebrow, throwing a look at Avy for a moment. She looked just as puzzled as me, however the two of us remained silent. We wandered through the facility for a little bit longer, passing by all sorts of rooms and smaller golems, which were carrying all sorts of things around the place – some carrying papers and documents, others strange contraptions.
Eventually, Rhysta brought us to a door which had a small engraved label on it: 'Personal Quarters'.
Before entering, she looked at us. "A little suggestion – do not take anything she offers. Especially the tea." The three of us stood there in silence, a little confused as to why it was better to not do it, however none of us asked anything. We simply gave a collective nod.
Then, she turned back around before knocking lightly on the metal door.
After a moment, it slid open. "Come in."
A gentle, rather warm voice said from the other side. Immediately afterwards, Rhysta moved inside – with the three of us following suit. Inside the room, it was once again a complete one eighty compared to the rest of the building. A spacious room, with plants, flowers and other greenery covering the walls and floor. In the back of the room, there were enormous bookshelves – filled to the brim with scrolls, books and papers.
In the center of the room, there were three couches, positioned in a slight triangle shape, with a round table in the middle of them. "Oh, it's you Rhys. It's been a little while." The same gentle, warm voice from before spoke.
Looking up, my eyes met with a rather astounding sight.
At a desk located just in front of the massive bookshelves was sat an incredibly beautiful woman. She was dressed in a light dress, with a deep blue, fluffy cloak hanging off of her shoulders. Her hair was diamond blue and neatly caught into a bun, her eyes were like a pair of sapphires had been placed in them and her face overall looked like something straight from a fairytale. Dainty lips, eyes on the smaller side, small nose… It was like I was looking at a fairytale princess.
But one thing caught my attention more than the rest — her ears. Long and pointy. My knowledge was a little limited, but if I wasn't mistaken, people with long, pointy ears and such incredible beauty were usually known as 'Elves' in fiction — back in my old world. Was… Was she an 'elf'?
Most likely.
Her energy signatures match that of the elven kind.
"Good to know…"
She looked at all of us, before placing the papers in her hands down on the desk and pushing them away, smiling gently, her eyes sparkling. "How have you been, Rhys?"