Chapter 21

The end of scarcity?

“That was the last of them. You go and take a good rest.”

A chorus of worn-out voices responds, too soft and too weak to be heard properly. In the last few days, I have worked myself and my apprentices to the bone to produce this batch, and as I watch them go, I cannot help but feel sorry for them as they have yet to realize this is only the beginning… there is a probability we will have to outfit a few battalions from the knight order.

At this time of the day, Elaric should be giving a lecture, so I go and listen and it turns out his method rely heavily on his personality and perception. Not something that can easily be passed on to others… that and his terrible teaching, he really needs some pedagogy lessons.

I take a few bags from the storehouse, cram the within enchants and drop by the camp.

Strangely, there are only a few knights there, I ask. “Where are the others?”

“Most of them are in the labyrinth, hunting, foraging or sleeping.”

Maybe I should have brought some rations with me, I will try to remember for next time. “I see. Here are the enchants I promised.”

“That was fast my lord. It has only been nine days.”

“Nobody slept much, I expect the apprentice will need at least a week to recover. Well, it is I get back to the capital…”

I am interrupted by a voice I know very well. “My lord?”

“Captain, I brought the enchant. How are things going on your side?”

“We have made some progress, but it is a mess down there, it is really deserving of its namesake.”

He shows me a map, and it is just as he said. “It is nothing but dead ends. Is there any point to those tunnels?”

“One day doesn’t pass without me wondering the same thing, sir.”

“How do you go about your exploration?”

“As you can see on the map, we always go from the rightmost to the leftmost. First, we send Chi elemental, followed by the scouts, and if there is a room or a bunch of undead ahead, they call the main unit. We use the golems you left us to act as vanguard and rearguards. The process is time-consuming, but this is the only way since the place is chock full of traps.”

“What about the undead?”

“We have seen none of the intelligent ones, but we had our fair share of encounters with the dumb suicidal ones. Even with all our precautions, we’ve been taken by surprise more than once, those hidden tunnels of theirs are damn nasty.” He looks up in the sky. “Franky, I cannot help but wonder if the adventurers who make a living from this place are excellent, insane or both.”

“Your kind as a saying: ‘there is a fine line between genius and madness.’”

“That is so true, it reminds me of my old instructor: she was a genius in combat, but a weirdo in everything else.”

“She was not a great Korok?”

“She was, and that is one part of why she was so weird. As you know, great Koroks are asexual, but this one always acted like a particularly feminine Korok… no, I’d be more just to say she acted on what she thought a girly Korok was like. This idea of femininity was unique to her.”

“As a matter of fact, I had no idea you were asexual. I mean, I only ever heard male pronouns.”

“True enough, it has become customary, but it is not like we mind which pronoun people use… as long as it is not neutral.”

Does it mean that people consider neutral pronouns rude? I have used them a lot before I learned the local language… and I am still using them for the Queen… all the time.

I once read the great Koroks were an offshoot of the Korok species, but I thought it meant they shared ancestors, it never occurred they were the same race and much less that one of the two was sterile. Seeing how the people of the Queendom care about family, it must be strange to have offspring with a least six times the longevity of their parents. “Is it hard on you people to have parents with such short lives?”

“That’s an expected question... It is true our genitors’ lives are much shorter than ours, but the greater Koroks doesn’t belong with them, they are raised by the order: the knights are our family, and the goddess is our mother.”

“I apologize for my question. My curiosity is far stronger than my ability to read social cues.”

“Do not worry, sir. I was more surprised by the fact that you cared. I was told your kind showed little concern for others, including their own family.”

“I am changing, and I hope it is for the better. I must admit that despite my upbringing, I am awed by the strength of your bonds and what they helped you accomplish despite your weakness. Once again, I beg your pardon and ask you to forgive me if I trouble you again over such matters in the future.”

“Ask away, sir, it is my honor to serve!”

“I will take my leave; it has been confirmed the empire’s envoy will arrive in the next few days. I do not know for how long the negotiations will run, but afterward, I should be free to rejoin. One last thing, I have come up with a decent estimation of the replenishment rate in the labyrinth so as long you never use the enchants for more than fifteen minutes, and let them recharge for at least four times as much, there should be no risk of running out of mana at a critical juncture.”

“Four times? I had assumed a lower recharge rate but not that low. Thank you, sir, I will take that in mind… Oh! One last thing, you probably heard that many times, but be wary of the empire, deceit is their bread and butter.”

“I will keep that in mind. Until next time, captain.”

“Farewell, sir.”

I teleport back to TheNewCity.

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“I am going to my office. Do not disturb me unless it is important!” Is what I say, but I mean the opposite: I hate paperwork, so please, someone, anyone, hurry and save me.

I cannot express how thankful I am to the master. The pile there is what is left after the master doing most of the work… If it were not for him, I think I would have gone back to living in the wild. Sadly, even with his help, I still have reports to read, and direction to give and it appears that I must be cursed because as usual, no one comes to save me from my terrible fate.

Suddenly, a title catches my eye: ‘From the origin of gemstones and what separates them from amorphous solids’. How long has it been there? The subject is of great interest to me, but the title illustrates all I hate about my current job: pompousness to the extreme! Is there an academic reward for who will write the longest title?

No matter, I have been waiting for this. I forget everything else to read through the thesis. The first half is mostly useless rambling about the properties of natural gem and why it is impossible to make them through glassification. Spoiler alert: non-uniform cooling results in an irregular lattice… whatever that means.

“Unpleasant individual, you have spent fifty pages spent on pompous statements and boring recount of failed experiments!”

I skip some text, then I skip more… I know I am being dishonest, experimental results matters, even the failures but I am interested in the origin of gems and crystals, not a history of failed attempts!

… Finally. “What? This is it?” How do I say this, I am overly excited by the possibilities but underwhelmed by the nature of the growing method which roughly translates to: water saturated with specific salts will birth crystals.

There are many small variations on the method, such as the liquid used and the temperature, but for the most part: this is it. Well, the author complains a lot about their lack of luster and color compared to natural gemstones as according to him, impurities are what give them their values… but he could not be more wrong and I could not care less about his uninformed opinion: the fewer impurities, the steadier the flow!

The best part is that in a lot of cases, you can grind to dust one crystal, to get the same type but a lot purer than the original! And all that is needed to make Quartz is Quartz or even sand! There are millions of tons of the stuff lying around in the mountains and the beach.

“So wasteful, why is it not common knowledge?!” The book is centuries old, they should... Oh, right… there was no demand for crystal before I came.

I am about to run to the master’s office when I remember that I am supposed to show proper dignity at all times. Doing my best to hide my excitation, I walk to the master’s door and knock.

“Who is it?”

“It is me; I have something to show you!”

“Milord? Please come in.”

There are other people in the room, people I do not know… probably. Yeah, I almost sure. Whatever, I ignore them and brandish the book. “Read this passage!”

“Yes, sir!”

While he does as I say, I use clairvoyance to get a look at the other. Some of them appear upset, or maybe frightful.

A big smile creeps on the master’s face. “That can’t be! It’s too good to be true!” He waves at the people. “You are dismissed! If you will excuse me, my lord, I must meet with the alchemists’ guild!”

He runs off calling people names, probably his assistants.

Whatever it was they talked about probably was not as important, but I still made a disturbance. “I apologize for the inconvenience, but we stumbled upon a very important discovery that could solve our resources problem for good. Good day to you.”

The people seem too shocked to do or say anything, but that is their problem. As for me, I go back to my office to think. If it works, we will basically achieve a state of almost endless supply, a lot like what we had in The City. We have yet to determine the truth of this method and the size of the crystals, but…

“Tsk,” I sound my disapproval at myself. “I have really become greedy ever since I have come back from the dead.”

Nothing is certain yet. To temper my enjoyment, I go back to working on my pile of documents and as one would expect, there are no more hidden gems.