Chapter 20

Prudence is the mother of all virtues

but

a great source of boredom according to certain individuals

There is a lot of information I would like to get for each species; autonomy, efficiency, direct channeling endurance and so on… But with so few prototypes there is no way I will get my answers before I need to go back.

For now, I leave one Clairvoyance enchant to the officers and the other to the troops. As for the cooling/heating one, I did not expect it to be so popular. The apprentices were right, temperature shifts a lot inside in armor and on some occasion in can be deadly cold outside but sweltering inside.

It is a bit regretful that I will not get to reenter the labyrinth anytime soon, but this is why I am here, to do everything I can while I can. I use the soil from the cave to raise the golems, its unusual hardness should make it a good material, but I nevertheless confirm it by shooting a few ice bolts at them.

“Nice, it is even sturdier than I thought.” For a few moments, I consider asking a knight to attack it but decide against it. However small, there is still a risk it will destroy one of the power sources and no matter how cheap they are, that would still be wasteful.

A thought comes to me, could I use a temporary construct to scout ahead… My contentment is short-lived: a construct cannot navigate such a complex environment without instructions and I have no way to give them from afar.

Or, do I? Following its progression is easy with farsight, but I do not have a far voice equivalent to transmit my order. Even if I know how to record my voice, I have no idea how to play it back from afar.

I try anyway. I pick apart some element of the recording spell and try again and again until I am convinced: sound cannot be produced without a medium.

“Talk about a waste of time…” I look at the knights, I know they have a method of long-range communication that does not use magic. “Captain, how do you communicate over a long-range?”

“It depends on the urgency, the distance, the nature of the message and where we stand. When garrisoned, we will mostly use mail coach or pony expresses, but sometimes when secrecy is important, we will send coded messages through carrier pigeons.”

I have no clue what is a pony express, but I have a difficult time imagining a pigeon courier transporting a message on demand. I dismiss the image and ask. “And when on the field?”

“Signs, for short distance and personal communication. Flags for long-range and army-wide, it is discreet and hard to decipher since the meaning with every mission.”

“I must admit a lot of what you said went over my head. How do you tame pigeons to carry a message? What is a pony express and how do you use flags to communicate?”

The captain appears kind of lost for a moment, then starts explaining. “The pigeons aren’t exactly tamed, it’s just that they somehow know how to get back to their nest.”

Do they? Maybe they are not as stupid as they look.

“A pony express is when you put a succession of fresh mounts at an interval so that the messenger can carry a message at full speed all the way long. As for flag communication, it is pretty simple: we agree beforehand on the meaning. As a result, it cannot be too complex, but it is fast and can be relayed from battalion to battalion.”

Not everything is useful, but two principle stands out: relaying and homing.

“Thank you. You have given me some ideas I must try right away.”

“Glad to be of service, my lord.”

Relaying appears to be the simplest, but the sheer amount of resources makes it almost laughably impossible. On the other hand, homing seems hard but possible… assuming I can go over a few hurdles.

The easiest solution that comes to mind is slow and cumbersome, but reliable: a homing golem transporting a message by following the markers laid by his predecessor.

The second might be impossible, but it is so much more interesting and rewarding that there is no question as to which I will choose.

“Reverse teleportation it is!” On principle, it should work… but there has to be a reason why no one did it before.

I spy a rock slightly bigger than the others a few meters away and make my first attempt. I get the usual sensation of mana gathering, but somehow the process fails before going to the next stage.

It is not because of the spell. It is like… “Something is lacking.”

What, though? I teleport myself a few times in a row but do not get the difference. I try teleporting an object away from me, as it is more similar to what I am trying to do, it will probably be a better frame of reference.

It takes dozens upon dozens of attempts, but as soon as I stop picking up the item, the answer strikes me in the face: I am the problem because most of the spell is carried by instinct.

“As long as I touch the object, I only have to care about the destination… but when it is out of my reach, then I also need to take into account the point of origin.”

The thing I am about to try sounds dumb but… I use Clairvoyance, then align the target with my hand so that both are in my line of sight and… just like that, the stone appears in my hand.

“It is possible!”

It is not like I can easily apply the same method, nor that it helps with my current goal… but that still proves it is possible as long as I put the efforts… which I would rather not because I do not have that much time.

“What is it hard?” If you think about it, as the destination is my own hand, I should not have to worry about the coordinates, right?”

Oh, right! I am getting further and further from my original goal. I walk to the captain and ask him. “What do you think of the enchant? Are they usable?”

“I would not say that, sir: I see better at night with my visor down than in full daylight! If we made it permanent then we could forgo the eye slits entirely!”

No, you could not, that is a terrible idea! “How is the autonomy?”

“I do not know yet, sir. We are passing them around to try, so we are nowhere near depleting them.”

“Well, since clairvoyance is a pretty mana-intensive spell, I would not recommend using it on a large scale or for a long time, furthermore, there is less mana going around during the night. Sure, in a place with a lot of life like this, I do not believe it would be that big of a problem but I still would not recommend it: mana depletion is a scary thing.”

“I have never heard of it before, my lord.”

It is one of the mages who spoke up. Do they know about the mana cycle? I did not ask my students about it, and even in the city, there were debates about its nature. Still, no one ever thought of denying the dangers of mana depletion and its terrible effects on the environment.

I ask the mage. “What do you know about the different states of mana?”

The elf answers almost instantly. “Mana radiates from the sun, is absorbed by animals and plants where it turns into Chi. The Chi within us allows the use of magic by giving power to the words and affecting the surrounding mana with our will.”

He is not wrong, although it is possible to cast a spell with only the mana inside you, or the Sha in my case. “What about Sha?”

“When a creature dies, unless the body is eaten or burned, the Chi rot and becomes Sha.”

Not bad. Sha is death, it is present in small quantity in every living creature… but one would have to be seriously be poisoned or terminally ill to build a noticeable amount.

“The Queen taught you well! You need to remember that although the sun produces an almost infinite amount of mana, the quantity available in one moment is limited. Imagine water directly pouring from the ocean into a goblet: the goblet as a limit to its countenance, and it is entirely possible to empty it if you draw the water faster than it replenishes.”

The mages nod and I continue. “If something like that happens for a while, something happens that interferes with the normal cycle. One result can be a buildup of Sha, and worse, a place where mana stops gathering and both are equally bad. The risk is tremendously low but I know of a few places like that and I assure you: you do not want it to happen anywhere, much less around you.”

It reminds me of my past failed research. “It reminds me of an old theory. It stated that mana was an inactivated state while Chi and Sha were the activated state. But because all three states disappear when consumed by spells or other phenomena, a fourth state was theorized.”

There is not much more to it, and the feeling of boredom emanating from the captain and the other listening officers is almost palpable.

“Anyway, just remember not to overuse spell and enchants in the labyrinth. Please, continue testing the enchants. Do not worry about me, I have some research to do, and I will also send a temporary golem in the labyrinth to see if it draws the Undead’s ire.”

The knight not occupied with the enchants immediately go back to their training and I conjure a small temporary golem with the order to walk until the first junction then come back once it spent an hour there. That should be enough to see if the golems can be used as shields and lure.

Back to my teleportation problem… where was I? Ah, yes, how to keep track of everything at once. Training is the obvious answer… but I have become greedy: I want a fast and easy solution… something I can apply even to an enchant.

Well, thanks to the earlier example, I have an idea of how: homing.

I create a maker and put it down the group, register a message into my recorder, and then send it to the temporary construct. It does as instructed and walks into the rightmost tunnel for about five meters.

Now, to the hard part. I concentrate on the recorder while using my other senses on the maker. Focusing on different coordinates at the same time is hard, but use multiple senses in conjunction is an everyday thing. People do not go blind or death when they taste some food, right?

“Ah, it got destroyed.” It is nice that I confirmed its use as a lure, but I really mind the unwelcome distraction.

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It was not so hard after all; I have done it so many times in a row that I have almost grown bored. I still do not have a clear vision as to how to it with enchants, but there is no need to rush it, anyway.

I hail the captain. “Are you finished with the test? Did everyone have a go?”

Here is the full report: a fully charged clairvoyance tool lasts between one hour-and-a-half and two hours. The difference can probably be chalked on the quartz size and purity.

Direct use, is another matter, the great Koroks can only use for about thirty to fifty minutes, the elves for about two hours, but the human scout has been at it for over one hour, and his mana is not as plentiful as the great Koroks.

I knew it, it is not going to be that simple to use inside the labyrinth… Alaric, Master, may your research be fruitful, because we are going to need it.

“What about the temperature control thing, was it serviceable?” At least it looked popular.

“Yes,” He looks angrily at a group of knights, “although I had to confiscate it at some point because some idiots tired themselves from playing with it.”

“How so?”

“They heated their bedding and tents with it.”

It cannot say it was designated with that purpose in mind but heating the bedding is a clever use… I cannot say the same about the tents though, that is a clear waste of time and mana.

“Heating the bedding was a good idea, that is the kind of innovative use I was looking for.”

“I don’t care if it was clever or not; it was against orders.”

Was it not within parameters for the given task to find prospective usage? Oh well, it is probably one of those chains of command I hear about every so often.

I call the greater golems I created earlier. “Obey this knight’s every order as though they are mine. Captain, they are yours, do with them as you wish: you are free to explore the labyrinth while I am away.”

“Yes, my lord! Thank you, my lord.”

I am very worried; these people clearly suffer from a severe case of recklessness. I find newfound respect in her Majesty's ability to hold the reins upon thousands of likely minded individuals.