22

The fire of the forge was dwindling, the last few embers slowly turning to ash as time ticked away. It was discarded, something better on Charles’ mind at the moment, the forge no longer needed at least for now. On the side, by the wall, the burner section of the generator was invaded by flames and white-hot coals. The heat coming from it was strong, stronger than even the heat of the forge, so strong in fact that they had to open the windows to cool down the room a bit.

Inside the generator, hidden mechanisms where the water vaporized explosively so that its power could be then swiftly directed towards the copper coil. It was large and thick, with a small but powerful piece of magnetic material inside. The turbine spun and spun on its axis, making the magnet itself spin rapidly. The revolving magnetic field made in turn the electrons of the copper wire do things that were foreign to the Metalmancer, but very well known to someone like Charles.

A live wire, exposed and dangerous, ran all the way from the coil to a small iron plate that rested on top of the wooden table. The railgun was placed on top of the plate, and it was silently absorbing the electrical potential inside the metal before it could dissipate into heat. The process was strange, because it occurred naturally and flawlessly, and it felt alive like a starving creature greedily taking in what little sustenance it managed to find.

But it was not Charles’ concern. In fact, it was a good thing that this spontaneous process happened, because it saved him time and effort exactly when he needed them most. His attention had been diverted elsewhere, because ever since he saw that there was Arcane magic on those tapes, everything else became a chore that needed to be done as swiftly as possible, and only because it was absolutely necessary.

He was still one to follow schedule, but building the generator and hooking up the gun to be charged lost all of its appeal in the face of the infinite possibilities of magic. And so he sat, by the fire of the burner, the only source of heat in the now cold room. He didn’t mind the cold, barely registering in his mind, the wind only a minor concern not worthy of his time.

As the gun charged its batteries, he read the spells. He studied them, absorbing the knowledge that was inside of them, he stared at them, and almost felt like he could somehow reach them with his mind.

The theoretical process, the mechanical part of the magic was all stored within the LAI, and he could feel that it only needed that little spark of thought that was his and only his own in order to work. Differently than skills, these spells were not perfect and could not work alone, but he knew that he could make them work.

They called to him. And he desired them. Knowledge, among the first principles of his life. Excitement, and the promise of a new world of magic, science and technology ahead of him. All the guns he could build, all the amazing equipment he could make. Perhaps, he was about to take a step closer to the Empire, whose presence was so distant and faint that even the memory of it seemed to fade.

He took one of his forged iron rods. For the first spell, the simplest, all he needed was a piece of metal. He stared at the rod, looking at it intently like it was some sort of alien life form, and then began to visualize the complex set of instructions that the Metalmancer coded onto the tapes so long ago.

The LAI waited idly. The first test was his to do, because unlike a copied skill this magic was something that was made by a man and could be really understood only by a fellow man, like-minded and similar to him.

He closed his eyes now. He tried to feel the metal, to picture its structure and its form, the atomic bounds and the cloud of electrons. He could feel the mana, as it began to flow. He held out his hands, and put them around the rod. He opened his eyes.

A burst of mana left his body. Text appeared in his optical implants.

Iron.

“Well… that’s underwhelming.” He said in the end, after having waited ages for something else to appear.

Perhaps there was something wrong. Perhaps he did something wrong in the process. There was no way that a magic spell, created by the Metalmancer to analyze the properties of a metal, would be so useless. He was sweating. The image, the mana movement, the steps described in the tape. He did all that perfectly, then why was it not working?

Why were skills working, and not this? What did the system add into them, that these spells lacked? And why was the Metalmancer able to use them?

Maybe all he needed was the LAI. Maybe he was wrong in thinking that he could do this by himself, although the Metalmancer did. Maybe it was too arrogant of him to think of himself as an equal to the creator of the spells, and so he had to use the crutch that was the LAI.

His head was spinning. A stupid spell was all it took to defeat him. Unimaginable.

He took a moment to remove the charged railgun from the charging platform, and its battery drained into the suit. He placed the gun back.

Perhaps it was this spell here that was the issue. Not him.

“No, that’s stupid.” He said out loud.

He had to try again. He decided to use the LAI to take care of all the steps this time, much like when he used it to replicate the system skills. All he needed to do was to let it do its thing. Sit back and watch, like when he used the skills. Just like that. Easy.

Another, even larger amount of mana left him. Text.

Iron. Low purity.

“Yes!”

More information this time. The spell was working better now. But to go beyond this, he had no idea what he needed to do. The spell, used as it was, could not go further than this.

And yet, the Metalmancer talked about this spell and its potential applications like it was some sort of specialized appraisal that could scan a metal better than many modern world techniques. Assuming he didn’t lie about the spell, and he didn’t, Charles knew, then there was something else. He was definitely compensating for the incompleteness of the spell with his mind. With his own power.

Something that Charles lacked knowledge about. Something Charles had no idea how to learn to do.

He could try something else, though. Even if he could not use the spells to their full power, maybe there were some that he could make use of right now, among the many of the Metalmancer. He didn’t really need magic, after all. All he needed it for was to make his life easier, but he could still do wonders even if he had to do everything by hand.

A simpler spell would definitely work better.

“Tungsten. I need tungsten for my rods. LAI, pull up the spell for locating metals.” He ordered.

In his vision, another complex set of instructions appeared. This time, it required him to move around, wave his arms and speak words, on top of the usual instructions on the movement of mana that the LAI could replicate.

“This is cringe. Do I really have to do all that? Can you take care of it?”

The LAI confirmed that, indeed, it could. Wonderful.

“Then do so.”

After the ritual was done, he spoke the last word. “Tungsten.”

A few motes of light left his body, along with all the mana that was left in him, and coalesced into a small arrow that was floating in the air. But before it could stabilize, it disappeared.

“Crap.”

He sat back for a moment. The railgun was still charging, the fire was still burning hot. Everything was under control, everything was fine. He was breathing hard and fast, the shallow breaths coming at the rhythm of his beating heart. Why was he getting so agitated over this?

Everything would be fine, he knew. Everything was under control. Except for this magic. This magic was proving to be quite tricky to learn.

He felt the anger fade. Yes, tricky to learn, but not impossible. He had to admit, now that he thought about it, that he was being quite arrogant. Pretending to learn something that took others decades to learn in just a few minutes. Of course, it was not going to work. But he wanted it to work. There had to be something that he could do to make it work, and that didn’t require decades of training.

“LAI, how old was the Metalmancer in that diary entry?”

99.

“Motherfu… I’m not spending a century on this crap. Pull up the other spells, let’s see what we can use!”

You’re out of mana.

“Ah, right. I need crystals, don’t I?” He took out one.

He absorbed all the mana that he could from it, and as soon as it dissipated into nothingness, he took out another. Eventually, he was full of arcane energy and stopped.

“Alright, let’s try this one. Should be easier.”

The LAI did, once again, the whole ritual with perfect machine precision. The three different colored ingots, all smaller than a hand, moved towards each other as if pushed by an invisible force. They started to fuse together.

A grin appeared on Charles’ weary face, the lines easing from his forehead.

But then he felt control slipping. And the process stopped, leaving only a misshapen lump of grey matter behind. Brittle, fragile, useless.

“Again! Let’s do it again! I could feel it, I almost did it.”

Another failure.

“I’m getting close, again!”

This time, he tried with only two different metals. This time, he only slipped at the very end. This time, he knew he was getting closer.

“Again!” And closer.

“Again!” And closer.

“Again!”

He stared at the newly made, golden colored brass ingot. In the end, he was right. All he needed was some little training.

“Ha! Easy peasy copper and zinc messy messy mélange!” He yelled.

“Did it work?” Asked Eereen. She had just come in, although Charles didn’t notice when she entered the room, despite the creaky wooden door.

“Oh, yes it did. It was hard, but it worked!”

She smiled at him warmly. With higher spirits, he proceeded to take out two new ingots. Different this time, and more useful to him. This time, he knew he could do it.

But he failed.

“A failure! Why? How is this shit possible? It’s not all that harder than making brass!”

It was evident by now that using magic was not consistent, for some reason. He even tried out another spell, made to modify the shape of a metallic object, but encountered the same problems.

Sometimes the magic would fail. Critically so, making the whole thing useless. At other times the alloys would come out as if they were not mixed properly, or the shapes were distorted and warped. At other times it just worked, for some reason he could not identify in any way.

With training, he gradually got better. But the gains were infinitesimal. He was going roughly in the right direction, but he needed more information in order to better focus his efforts.

He knew that the secret was hidden in his mind, he just could not understand what he needed to do. And it was frustrating.

Out of mana, and out of crystals, he picked up the charging railgun to check on its power level. It was a nervous habit he developed over the last few days passed attempting to get the magic working.

It was not charged yet. But as soon as it was, then he could power off the generator and theoretically be happy that his objectives were complete.

And yet he was not. Because of that wild beast he could not tame. A beast called magic.

“It worked, though, right?” Eereen asked him. She was trying his best to cheer him up.

“Kind of. Only at times. It’s irritating, this magic thing. I am missing some crucial information for sure.”

“Usually, one gets better with practice. They say that at a certain point, there is a kind of enlightenment and then you can start using magic at a whole new level…”

He turned to face her. “How do you know all this? Are you not a skill user, like all the rest?”

“Ah, yes. I might have read about it somewhere.”

His eyes opened wide and his pupils dilated.

“Some... where?”

“There is a library, I went there once.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. “Take. Me. There. I need you to take me there now!”

“It’s night. We can go tomorrow at first light.”

Charles relaxed and regained his composure “Of course" he said. “It's perfect, let’s go tomorrow.”

He went back to work on a little side project. It was an idea that came to him back when he ran out of crystals after so many times trying out magic, something was supposed to take his mind off the other issue for a while. The elf, instead, went out. She was not sleeping on the floor anymore, and thus she left every evening and came back in the morning.

She made her way to the city, expertly navigating through the overgrowth. After so many times, it became almost instinctual. Perhaps, after the library, she could try to ask Charles to build her a room. She could use the fact that she took him to the library as a bargaining chip. That could work, she figured.

“I managed to retrace the steps of the ring, just as you asked.” Giona told her, after she went to him.

She had asked many times that question, out of curiosity and maybe a bit of fear.

“So?”

“It had been in the possession of the noble family of Meyreen for a long time, before it was lost. Does this satisfy your curiosity?”

“But I heard that they fell in disgrace.”

“Yes. That house has now fallen. They have been in decline for a long time, although for a brief moment there seemed to be hope for them. A new rise, as their trade intensified and their riches grew once more. Then some secret mission, and now their fall.”

When she came back in the morning, she found Charles tinkering with a monster core.

“Good morning.” She said.

“Hello, come in.” His mood was definitely good, this morning. There was some weariness in his voice, however, but his eyes were alive as he fiddled with the core.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

There were a few more cores out on the table, and on the floor. A few were shattered, and there were signs of explosions on the walls. While the concrete walls had resisted the blasts without much damage, part of the table was charred and still smoking. A few tools were on the ground, and among the charred signs of the detonations the walls also sported several new little holes that were compatible with the pointed ends of said tools.

“Experiments. Trying to see why I cannot use the cores as a battery like I can with crystals.”

“Ah, but that’s because of the chaotic energies they contain!”

“I know that. But why can a machine use them, then?” He replied, speaking quickly. “I saw a farmer use a core to power up a spell, probably inscribed inside the strange wooden machine he had. It looked half alive, even. I think it’s because a non-intelligent entity has no risk of going insane because of the chaotic energies. But, then, it also means that a machine should be able to convert cores into crystals. Maybe even the LAI, or myself with the right spell. Right, spells. Can we go to that damn library now? I have been using magic any time I had enough mana, and I’ve seen some improvements. Not many, though. Not as many as I’d like. Take me there, now!”

The elf looked worried. “Have you slept tonight?”

“Unimportant. Library, please?”