Chapter 97: Technicalities behind the magical stones

"Do you mean that... "

Initially standing up and shouting in reaction to my words, Pavlo suddenly went silent when the realisation of what it really meant dawned on him.

"Let's not keep you out of the loop, mister Baskar."

Given how the two of us were already in the know, the head of the family was obviously the only person remaining in the dark. Even though I could guess that a man of his calibre would be able to guess a huge part of the story from our actions and reactions so far, there was no point in holding the proper information away from him.

This line of thought actually struck a delicate cord in my soul. As much as I wanted to avoid this topic in a silly attempt of believing that what I didn't think about wouldn't become a problem I would take care of, ultimately it was impossible. Sooner or later I had to face the reality.

The reality where the middle-aged man in front of me was actually pulling the strings behind most of what was happening in my faction. I wasn't naive enough to believe that everything that happened so far was just a pure coincidence. To a certain degree, this man was surely responsible for how the recent events played out. 

And that meant, there was no avoiding the politics within the single entity that I wanted my faction to be!

"To put it in short words, I'm in a possession of the know-how and technology allowing to turn simple gems born from earth into magic stones that are either the same or pretty similar to the ones obtained from the dungeons. What's more, contrary to everyone else, all the tests that I concluded so far point at the possibility that my technology would allow to turn those magic stones into parts of early magical systems."

Smiling at the middle-aged man, I cupped my hands in front of me before resting my chin on top of them.

"In other words, while others will cultivate, we will be using a special technological system to turn those stones from simple units storing energy, to actually usable applicancies. The first one that comes to my mind, are barrier stones."

Dropping a huge bomb right on top of both of Baskars, I had to try my absolute best to hold my smile back. In the end, they were my allies that I was teaching the extend of our advantage, not the enemies that I would love to flaunt my trump-cards.

"So that's the case… Just to make sure we are on the same note, would you mind elaborating what those barrier stones are? You know, to avoid later misunderstandings born from misconceptions…"

This sly old fox… He wouldn't let me keep any advantage of being vague. Thankfully, it wasn't as if I just threw this name from the top of my head. In fact, I already learned about three basic types of magical stones back when I watched Huskarl's work and later on when I read through the basics manual. 

Starting with the barrier stones, the most popular commodity in Ayda's world, there were many other types from fire stones through cooling stones all the way to the resurrection stones. But as I was reading through the manual, I couldn't help but classify all the types that I found out about, into three categories.

"Barrier stone is actually a set of three different stones, acting in unison to create a certain phenomenon. While you could say that it's a pretty silly attempt to simplify a complex topic, you can imagine it as a group consisting of a fueling stone, commanding stone and executing stone."

Spreading my fingers before curling up my thumb and pinky, I showed the three raised fingers to both of my listeners.

"Starting with fueling stone, its role is to provide magical energy. While I have yet to discover the laws that govern the capacity, for now, its safe to assume that the bigger and cleaner the stone, the greater the amount of magic it can hold."

Bending one of the fingers down, I glanced through the window. With the sun still high up in the sky, the atmosphere in the room was pretty cosy. Even though I was talking about matters of absolutely utmost importance, I couldn't help but get nostalgic when the warm rays of the light from the local star shone upon my face.

Shaking my head, I moved my eyes back towards Pavlo and his father. With their burrows pulled down and lips tightened, it was clear that they were fully focused on my words.

"Secondly, there is the commanding stone. While it sounds haughty, it's something similar to a computer's circuit. By connecting several types of different, basic runes, one can shape the magic according to his desires. For example, there are four runes within the barrier commanding stone. Absorb, shape, turn and push."

Using my other hand, I raised four fingers before starting another count.

"Absorb pulls the magic from the fueling stone, charging the circuit. Shape forces the magic to take the form, in this case, of a triangle. Turn adds the third dimension, turning the flat triangle into a cone, while push is a connector that allows one to attach the execution stone. For each of the runes I mentioned, there are many ways to modify it depending on the thickness, deepness and many other factors taken while preparing it."

Lowering each of my fingers as I went through all four runes carved to a barrier commanding stone, I placed my now tightened fist on the table.

"And that leaves us with an executing stone. While there are many different kinds of those, they generally have one task. To force the magic flowing through the commanding stone into executing the phenomena in the real world."

This classification that I came up with allowed me to set my first steps at writing a basic manual for the eartherners that would soon be employed with the manufacturing of the stones. Even though it was nothing but the idea in my mind, for now, I could already see many ways to make great use of the runes written in Ayda's book.

Just like with programming, instead of bothering to carve extremely complicated runes, runes that I personally believed to be just a merged type of several other runes, one could use just the basic runes to construct complex tasks. Just this alone was more than enough to prompt me into the idea of creating a completely magic computer, replacing electricity with magic. While potentially a huge waste of time and efforts, it could give me a lot of insights into the inner workings of the pure magic that magical stones operated on.

"I see… Okay, there is no point pretending that I have any clue what's going through your head, but I'm now sure of one thing. No matter where this strange knowledge of yours comes from, it can be extremely beneficial both in the short and in the long terms. So let's cut this discussion short."

Finally revealing his true, business face to me, the old Baskar stood up from the table before walking towards the window. Form there, outside of the perfectly fine, spring weather, one could only observe how the crowds of workers in yellow-safety jackets continued to rush around the site of the construction. 

Following the boss' actions, I approached the window and took a look at the outside myself. Even though we were on the first floor of the building located in the very middle of where the huge, nearly apocalyptic devastation ensued, I could hardly see anything beside sets of scaffolding and piles of building materials.

"Tell me what you need to put this knowledge of yours into use. While you will handle the precise details, I can take care of all the groundwork. Given the appearance of the dungeons, I can tell that we are not through the apocalypse yet."

Even though initially he appeared to look through the window, now that I looked at the older Baskar's face, I realised that he was gazing in the abyss of his own thoughts instead.

"There is no time to waste. I will pull some strings and call on some favours. Give the list of the things you need to start this… magical stone industry up to Pavlo, and I will make sure everything on it will be fulfilled."

Shaking his head, the middle-aged man looked at me suddenly, with a peculiar look on his face.

"Just please, keep it within reason. While I would like to appear otherwise, we are still just a small, provincial power. If you request to build a nuclear plant on our newly obtained lands, even I might find it troublesome to fulfil that request."