Chapter 20 – Settling In

Chapter 20 – Settling In

The canteen is a large simple hall, with tables filling the centre of the room, and a window to the kitchen along the opposite wall to the transportation circles. The tables have a similar soundproofing barrier to the library and offer the ability to request food from the kitchen. The food is also delivered through flight, creating the odd scene of a silent hall with trays of food occasionally floating above.

Emily and Juliana decide on a lunch of fried meats and eggs on toast while making small talk. After eating they head back to the dorms, finished with their tour.

“Thanks for showing me around,” Emily says as they stop in front of Juliana’s door.

“No problem! I’m glad I picked up the mission. It's not every day you get to earn points and make a new friend. You wanna get dinner together later?”

So she was here for a mission?

A little more of Emily’s remaining caution slips away as she responds.

“Sure, what time?”

“Like 7 or 8?”

“Let’s go with 8, I prefer to eat later.”

“Okay,” Juliana says while turning and opening her door, “I’ll come grab you then!”

Emily smiles and waves goodbye, walking away as Juliana’s door shuts behind her. Heading into her room, Emily takes off her shoes and leaves them by the door, before opening her suitcase and unpacking into the wardrobe and drawers below.

She takes her toiletries, towel, and dirty clothes from her trip into the bathroom. She deposits the towel over a small rail on the wall, and her toiletries on a shelf above the sink. Then she drops the dirty clothes on the floor in the alcove, places her hand against the engraving, and injects mana into it, keen to see the clothes-washing spell Juliana explained to her over lunch. The engraving quickly lights up with a pale glow, a mixture of green and indigo. Stepping back, she watches as the clothes on the floor float up a few inches and begin spinning around each other while a light spray of water appears to douse them.

Once activated the spell lasts for twenty minutes, and the clothes come out clean and dry. The luxury of not having to handwash clothes makes Emily bitter that magic isn’t widespread.

She moves back into her room, leaving the spell to do its work, and checks the suitcase for anything else. She ignores the nightgowns she will never wear but takes out the small leather pouch sitting in the bottom. Opening it up, she lets out a small gasp as she sees five small golden coins.

Woah, that’s a lot. I’d have to sell, like, one hundred and fifty pocket watches to make that much. Nobles really are rich.

A malicious grin spreads across her face.

Very kind of them to give me some starting capital to make weapons with.

She pulls closed the drawstring on the pouch and places it safely into the drawer of the bedside table furthest from the door. Done with the suitcase, she closes it again and places it beside the wardrobe.

Emily sits down cross-legged in the centre of the room.

Time to see if they spy on people here.

She enters a meditative state and expands her magical senses to cover the room, unsurprised by the immense magical fluctuations all around her.

Hmm, this may take a while.

She methodically inspects every surface and object in the room, pausing on every mana crystal and enchantment to check for familiar runes from the surveillance spells she saw in the Mandrago mansion.

After several hours of investigation, Emily opens her eyes, mostly satisfied that her room is secure. She walks over to the desk, where she has noticed several unfamiliar enchanted objects, and finds a note lying on top of it. She sits in the comfortable padded wooden chair and picks it up.

Welcome, aspiring young mage, to The Covenant of the Blessed.

The Covenant has great expectations of you and looks forward to your contribution to magical society.

Please find a few welcome gifts within this desk to get you started.

We wish you luck in your pursuit of knowledge.

The moment she finishes reading the note, it bursts into flames. Startled, she drops the burning paper back onto the desk and watches as it disintegrates, not even leaving ashes behind.

“Huh, I guess that’s what those enchantments were for.” She mutters while looking at the two sets of drawers that make up the desk’s legs.

Each set of drawers has three slightly larger drawers at the bottom and two shallower ones at the top. She begins by opening the drawers on the left, starting at the top and working her way down. Disappointingly, she finds all the drawers to be empty. Moving on to the right-hand side with low expectations, she opens the top drawer to find three items neatly positioned inside.

First, she lifts out a delicate feather quill with a vane so black it appears to absorb the light around it. Around the shaft of the quill is a small silver metal handle, shaped perfectly to be held comfortably between three fingers. As Emily turns the quill in her hand, she counts six unique black runes engraved around the handle.

Why can’t they just use pens? Though I don’t see an inkwell, so I assume its magic will generate ink or something.

Placing the quill down on the desk and moving on to the next item, she lifts a thick leatherbound book out of the drawer and places it on the desk in front of her. The cover is blank, so she opens it up to look inside and finds hundreds of blank pages as she flicks through it.

A notebook, I guess it would be nice not to have to sort through random stacks of blueprints again.

With a satisfied nod, Emily looks at the last item in the drawer. The last item, a small coin-sized milky white crystal, causes a shiver to run down her spine. With slight apprehension, cautious of how reminiscent it is of the crystal used in the Mandrago family’s brainwashing spell, she raises it to her eye. Rotating it slowly and gazing at the complicated weaving of runes covering its every surface Emily is left awestruck.

These runes are incredibly delicate, how long will it have taken to engrave this much on to this tiny crystal? Though they could have at least written an explanation on their welcome note so I’d know what it actually does. Ah, unless these gifts are only given to the B-grade mages coming from noble families who would already have been told what they’re for.

Sighing, Emily places the crystal down on the desk next to the notebook. She leans back in her chair and taps her fingers against the desk and her chin while considering the gifts.

Do I have to wait and ask Juliana at dinner? Wait, what about the system?

She focuses on the feather quill while calling out for her system in her head.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

Mana is everywhere throughout the universe. The density of mana in an area can vary based on many variables and some areas can even lack mana completely, though rare and usually sparse of life as a result.

Every planet has channels that mana flows through more easily, these are called mana veins. The majority of mana veins are deep within the planet, but occasionally they stray close to the surface. When a mana vein is close to the surface of the planet, areas of high-density mana are formed. Sometimes mana veins will meet each other close to the surface in convergence points, forming areas of ultra-high-density mana that can form into dungeons or spawn mana-dependent lifeforms.

In areas of high-density mana, minerals and materials exposed for extended periods of time can often gain magical attributes. These can include high magical conductivity or resistance. Along with affecting existing minerals and materials, mana will often crystallise.

Lifeforms living within high-density mana are often affected, experiencing extended lifespans and sometimes mutations. New lifeforms are often formed too, ranging from beasts to elementals.

The information that seemed hazy when the knowledge was first granted suddenly flows clearly through her mind as she writes. Further details on the variables for mana density, and information on the common and exotic mana crystals and magical materials that can form fill her thoughts. Emily places the quill down the moment the page is full, while massaging her brows, feeling a light ache as her mind adjusts.

Weird, I would have thought that should happen when I was given the knowledge. My knowledge of steam power and clockwork definitely became more complete the moment I gained the knowledge, but not the other three. Maybe it’s because they were granted completely by the system initialisation, and I knew nothing about them before.

As the aching subsides, Emily picks up the quill again and places it against the other open page.

I don’t need this much detail written down, so let's try focusing on key points and see if that activates the knowledge properly.

Electrical Theory is the study of the flow of charge, referred to as electric current.

In a circuit: V = IR

Electrical current flows from positive to negative and takes the path of least resistance.

When voltage is generated by a source of energy, or by varying the magnetic field, it is referred to as electromotive force. The force to move electrons and form current.

If there is a magnetic field and a change in current, a force is produced, referred to as electromagnetic force. This can also be used to induce a current, as when there is a change in magnetic field across a conductor, the force that is produced is electromotive force.

As she had hoped, segments of knowledge on particles and forces slot into place in her mind as she writes. Once again placing the quill down and reaching up to massage her aching head, Emily is surprised by a new system notification.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

Knowledge acquisition complete!

[Reward granted]

Quest generated: The Four Fundamental Forces

Sub-system unlocked: Quests

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[The Four Fundamental Forces]

[Rank:] C

[Description:] Learn and understand the four fundamental forces of physics

Requirements:

-Learn 1/4 Forces (Not Complete)

Rewards:

-Blueprint: Universal Transmitter

_____

She stares at the windows before her with a confused look on her face.

How am I meant to learn about these fundamental forces when the first of them is something I’d never heard of before today? Maybe there’ll be information in the library. If not I have to hope I can work them out myself. And given that the rating of this quest is higher than the recording stone, I’m probably fine leaving it till later. Important goals first!

Blinking the quest out of her vision and looking back to her notebook, Emily’s expression shifts back to a satisfied smile. Fuelled by her new knowledge, ideas for interesting machines flow into her mind and she is eager to get to work.

“If electromagnetic force requires a magnetic field, how was I able to use it without a magnet on The Clock?” Emily asks herself aloud while picking up the quill again.

She circles the ‘magnetic field’ in the last paragraph on the page and writes a question beside it.

Does lightning attribute mana have a magnetic component?

Nodding, she turns back to the first page. She crosses out one of the lines and makes a note branching off another.

Work out what affects the grade of items.

-Level of knowledge used?

Work out what current knowledges changed.

Emily pulls out the two tokens she bought earlier, along with her crest and communication crystal, and drops all the objects onto the desk in front of her.

Finally, let’s have a look at these four before dinner.