by Tao Wong
“Owww!” I shouted, dropping the suddenly melting and overheated battery onto the baking sheet while waving my burned hand around. I winced slightly, sucking on my thumb as I cast a Heal spell on myself, then waited for my body to deal with the light burns. “What the hell?”
I stared at the battery that continued to bubble, my Mage Sight showing the last traces of the mana I had input interacting with the normal chemical processes that made up the battery. I frowned, reaching out to tap against the table in thought, and received a nasty shock when I accidentally touched the baking sheet.
“Owww!”
“Shhhhh!” Lily hissed at me, not even looking up from her laptops.
I growled slightly, waving my hand to shake the pins and needles away. It wasn’t a horrible shock, and the Heal spell I was channeling through my body was already healing it, but it had been painful—like receiving a shock of static electricity, except ten times as bad.
“Now what happened?” I asked with a frown. Everything had been going well. I hadn’t even noticed what changed, caught up in my success as I had been. If it had been a major change, I was sure I’d have noticed it. So whatever it was, it had been minor—or something that had been happening all along. As the pain in my hands faded, I grimaced and stared at the pack of batteries. There really was no way to know without testing it further.
Four batteries and a pair of slightly scorched fingers later, I sighed and leaned back in my chair. When I inhaled again, the acrid odor of melted metal and plastic from the batteries assaulted my nose. Wincing, I took the time to clean the mess, scraping the batteries off the baking sheet into the garbage bin outside before I returned.
The problem was the fact that mundane chemistry was interacting with magic—with the mana—and basically kickstarted and ran the chemical processes so long as mana was flowing through the battery. Since I hadn’t kept any formed storage runes, after I took my hands away, the mana itself slowly dispersed and returned the amount within the battery to its normal, ambient amount. During the process, the battery would continue to run, overheating itself.
Now that I knew what was happening, the question was if I could do something about it. Thus far, I was leaning toward no. Even the trickle of mana I was using was overheating the battery, forcing the chemical reaction within it to work overtime. If it wasn’t for the fact that my mana flow insulated me from the actual flow of electricity when I was channeling, I’d have probably noticed the issue earlier. Unfortunately, even if I managed to stop the battery from overheating now by controlling how much mana I stored in the battery, there was no guarantee I could do the same when it was linked to the compass.
So my problem was threefold. Firstly, I had to keep the battery from overheating. Secondly, I had to ensure the battery could store the mana in a decent volume. Lastly, I needed to regulate the amount of draw from the battery so that the runes I used to regulate the battery were not overridden. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Pushing aside the baking sheet and batteries for the moment, I pulled the notebook close and started sketching the runes and the interactions I figured I’d need. It was a habit I had learned from Caleb, working through the necessary enchantment and links on paper before I began the laborious process of actually carving the runes and enchantments. Alongside the runes, I also scribbled down the various spell formulas I was considering, using the shorthand that had been stuck in my brain by Lily for this purpose.
The fact that I was beginning to link multiple spells—each of which were their own rune or set of runes—meant the actual process was beginning to get complicated. While there were no set designs that were correct, the process of drawing and elaborating the runes on paper firmed up the spell formula and their relations in my mind, which made the actual carving and enchanting process smoother.
“Eat,” Lily said softly, setting a bowl of instant noodles next to me. I frowned slightly, noting the chunks of meat and the pitiful strings of vegetables that had been added while Lily sauntered back to her chair, a much larger bowl in her hands.
“Thanks,” I said slowly, standing and stretching as my back proceeded to inform me how long I had been hunched over. I winced, swinging my arms around and doing some general calisthenics as my body adjusted before I dove into my food. Ah, instant noodles. I missed thee.
“How is it coming along?” Lily enquired, seated with a leg cocked up on a table with her bowl of noodles in her hands.
“Pretty decent,” I said simply. “I have the spell formula worked out. Even tested it out…” I gestured to the burnt remnants of the paper in the pot. “The compass Link and draw aspect seems to work, at least from what I saw.” Before it burst into flames from exceeding the paper’s ability to withstand the mana I had flooded through it. “Now, I just have to see if I can make the battery. Worst-case scenario, I’ll enchant a block of metal and use it as the battery.”
“You’re going to superglue a hunk of iron to the compass?” Lily asked, eyes glittering with amusement.
“If it works…”
“It’s ugly.”
“Not sure that’s the saying,” I said, which made Lily snort with amusement again, but she dropped the topic. After all, she could comment but not advise. At least, not directly.
Next was the development of the batteries themselves. Rather than enchanting each one individually with the required spells, I decided instead to save myself the trouble by creating a mana charger for the battery. By enchanting a block of wood to firstly lower the temperature of the batteries placed within and secondly control the amount of energy drawn, I could skip any complicated enchantments on the batteries themselves. I still had to enchant the batteries to store mana, but that was a significantly simpler process.
With a nod, I grabbed the soldering iron and grabbed the nearest battery. Best to get started then. As it was, soldering the design was going to be painful. It’d been ages since I actually picked up my soldering kit, and it really was not like riding a bicycle. Grimacing at the ugly beads I ended up leaving on the battery, I slowly reached out with my senses to check if the enchantment had worked.
Storage Ward Created (17% Efficiency)
“Thanks, Lily,” I called out, grateful for her aid. Even if I could sense it myself, the displayed data was significantly more effective and efficient. I liked numbers, and this one at least gave me an idea of how well I’d done with my cobbled-together spell.
Now, I just had to carve out a block of wood to fit the battery, make sure the carvings for the Alter Temperature and Channel Wards were correct and then Link it to the compass. Simple.
***
“Goddamn it!” I snarled, sucking on my bleeding palm. I hated carving. I really, really hated carving. Glaring at the block, I drew a deep breath and channeled my Heal spell once again. Once again, I was grateful we had hardwood floors rather than carpet. Otherwise, we’d have lost another damage deposit from the amount of blood I’d lost. Amazing how even a relatively light cut could bleed.
“No luck?” Alexa asked when she walked down the stairs from her room, clad in a new set of clothing after her bath.
“None so far,” I said with a grimace, glancing at the duo of carved and discarded blocks by the side. The first had been carved perfectly—and then I realized it could not work because I had no way of storing mana inside the block itself, making the refrigeration option impossible to work. I’d then attempted to modify it, to begin the moment I started channeling mana to store in the battery, but that had just ended up with a melted battery as the Alter Temperature rune took too long to get working.
My second attempt had not gone much better. After adding a storage rune on my mana charger, I had charged it with mana directly. That had worked well, but the reduction in temperature achieved by the initial spell had been significantly less than I had expected. After returning to the drawing board and figuring out how to adjust the spell by focusing the Alter Temperature container to just the battery location
, I was working on my third block.
“Are you at least making progress?” Alexa asked as she leaned over my chair. I glanced at the blonde again, distractedly noting she’d gone for a sweater-and-sweatpants combo.
“Some. It’ll get done by tomorrow at the latest,” I said firmly. In fact, I did not mention I could have finished it today if I wasn’t actually experimenting on these mana chargers. While it was important for my own development, we were on a timetable. “How’d you do?”
“Not much better. I spent most of the day watching his office. It’s an office.”
“And he didn’t notice?”
“He works out of the second floor of a retail space. And there’s a hairdresser who had a spot open,” Alexa said simply, touching her hair hesitantly.
I turned my head and regarded her new do, a pixie-style haircut that included some very modest highlights.
“So…”
“Ummm… it’s nice?” I said slowly, uncertain of what she was looking for. It was a haircut.
“It is, isn’t it?” Alexa said with a smile and then straightened. “I’ll make dinner.”
“Great.” I stared as the blonde initiate bounced off into the kitchen and then I exhaled in relief as my brain came out of enchanting fog. I barely escaped the jaws of death on that one.
Well, it did help it was nice.
Chapter 8
“You’re mine,” I growled softly at the wooden block the next morning. Alexa had left to see if she could dig up more information about the property developer who was interested in the orphanage while I had promised to get this enchanting job done. To put even more pressure on me, Alexa had promised to arrange the appointments with our scavengers for later tonight, which meant I needed this done.
After spending the night sleeping like the dead, I had woken up with a clearer idea of what I needed to do. Perhaps the lack of sleep the night before coupled with my experiences yesterday had clarified things, but staring at my previous day’s work, I saw numerous flaws in the enchantment—over and above my poor crafting skills of course. After lacing my fingers together, I stretched them out before I bent over the wooden block, chisel in hand.
A few hours later, I finally had a working prototype. Like all prototypes, it was ugly as sin, barely functioning, and inefficient, but it proved the concept. After some tweaking and dropping nearly my entire mana pool into the charger, I was able to link it with the compass directly for the initial test. Using a simple metal clip, I made sure to link the pair together, allowing the compass to point toward the nearest spotted Wynn mushroom.
The entire contraption was, as mentioned, ugly. A plain wooden block was glued to a plastic compass which had a small spot dug out for the mushroom sample in it. The sample itself was held in place via sticky tape, which allowed me to theoretically switch out the linked material at any time. The block had numerous, badly done carvings of the enchantment runes on it while the compass had a series of gouged out runes on it as well. In the wooden block, a portion of it had been carved out such that the batteries may be inserted and linked to the entire contraption. Overall, it looked like something a twelve-year-old kid would make in a bad eighties’ kids’ movie. It was, in other words, perfect.
Modular Compass and Mana Battery Integrated Gadget
Efficiency: 21%
Duration: 4 hours and 5 minutes using current stored battery charge
I smiled slightly, staring at the information. Perfect. The batteries, as I figured, could hold the charge much longer than a simple block of wood or metal. If I had tried to do the same with the materials I had, I could at best store a total of two hours of work. Now, I had nearly doubled the storage capacity. If I carved a second storage channel for a second battery, I could even potentially double the lifespan. Or, and this was the genius of the concept, just hand them pre-charged mana batteries to swap out. After all, it was in the initial charging and discharging phase the batteries were dangerous. Storing them, thus far, seemed to perfectly safe.
Of course, I had to add thus far. With a grimace, I made a note to store these batteries in a cooking pot somewhere non-flammable. Just in case.
“Don’t you need the initial charger?” Lily’s voice woke me from my self-satisfied stupor. I still hadn’t built the initial charger that regulated the batteries while I was charging them, ensuring they didn’t overheat. Once it was built, I could just add mana directly to the charger, pre-charging a slew of mana batteries. On top of that, I also needed to build at least a couple more of these blocks since Alexa had booked three scavengers to arrive.
I winced slightly, flexing stiff fingers, and I stared at the next block of wood. Right. No rest for the talented.
***
Reworking the enchantments for the next couple blocks was significantly easier. Of course, I grumpily wished this was a game—or at least had easy crafting options like most games. Thankfully, everything I was doing currently required minimal actual skill. Etching, carving, and soldering were all within my wheelhouse. Blacksmithing, glassblowing, and tanning were crafting areas I was going to ignore for now. I certainly did not have the time to spend learning how to forge a sword properly, no matter how cool it would be to have a magical sword.
After I completed all three blocks, I turned to my second enchanting station. This one was significantly simpler in theory. I picked up a bottle of ink and began the process of lightly imbuing it with my mana. I wanted the ink to be mana imbued because what I wanted to do next was drawn from a magic trick I recalled seeing before.
First, Link the Leprechaun’s Foot to the laminated map. Then, Link the map to the city… or the concept of the city. That, of course, was more difficult. Thankfully, as a representation of the city itself, the map did not require significant amounts of mana to achieve the link. Next, Link the drug to the ink and to the map at the same time. Then I would have to cast a Track spell while Linking that spell to the ink which was linked to the map. Lastly, if my theory was correct, all I had to do was pour the ink on the map.
Of course, creating so many Links at the same time was going to be difficult. I needed a very high level of synchronicity for this to work on each Link as their efficacy would break down along the chain. It was sort of like linking numerous pieces of wire together for electricity—you always had a loss of current the more you added. As such, while the actual theory was simple, doing it was less than simple. What the level of synchronicity I needed was… well, that was what experimentation was for.
Worse, Caleb had indicated doing something like this was considered a “simple” task for any “real” mage apprentice. Of course, at times I was uncertain how much to believe him. The mage was not above exaggerating to make me work harder.
“Ninth time’s the charm,” I muttered, staring at the pieces of equipment strewn around me. I took a moment to feel my mana level and sighed. Right, time for a break first. I needed at least two-thirds of my pool to do this safely, and I was just under half right now.
“Great! I’m hungry,” Lily called.
“Make it yourself,” I grumbled.
“But you’re in the kitchen…” Lily did have a point.
“Pizza?”
“Have I ever said no?”
I dug into our freezer and quickly pulled out a frozen pizza, then turned the oven on to preheat it. Then, spotting the time, I decided to grab a second pizza, knowing Alexa would be back. Ah, the convenience of ready-made meals. I prepped the pizza sheets, pulled them aside and then took a break to hit the washroom. By the time I was done, the oven was ready and so was my mana pool.
Standing over my equipment, I drew a deep breath, forcing myself to focus again as I began the process once more. First, drug to map. Then map to the concept of the city. Mana rushed out of me in a torrent. Once the connection was made, I continued the process, carefully “sewing” the Links between each piece. In the end, I stared at the 41 percent Link efficiency I had and nodded to myself. Good enoug
h. All that practice and previous attempts seemed to have done some good.
After drawing a deep breath, I cast a Track spell, holding the Linked aspects together through the process. My head throbbed, but I pushed it aside, the numerous portions of the spell pressing against my mind. I chanted the words of the spell softly, forced to rely only on the oral components to keep the spell together.
The ink dribbled from the bottle slowly as I poured, my mana seeming to fall with the ink itself. I gritted my teeth as a headache began to form beneath my eyebrows, but I pushed forward. I was not going to stop. As the ink fell, it began to squirm on the map, flowing to pool in larger and smaller concentrations in different places. Some of the concentrations were no more than dots, others a quarter of the size of a dime. The smallest dots even shifted slightly, most on roads of some sort when they did. When the last of the ink fell, I exhaled and put the bottle aside and grabbed my phone. A few quick photos later, I finally released the spell.
Thankfully, the ink did not run much even when it was no longer magically bound to specific locations, allowing me to take a few further photographs just in case. I smiled slightly, staring at the result. Not a bad result, for a mostly theoretical and impromptu spell. Even if it was cobbled together from the basics of other, more-established spells.
“That our map?” Alexa asked, making me jump and let out a very manly shriek.
“Oooh…” The face of a thin, angular creature in grey—who stood nearly eight feet tall—twitched, and it rubbed furiously at its ear. “Do you sing soprano?”
“That… you… When did you get here?” I asked in a low, masculine tone.
“About five minutes ago,” the thin man said. “That was a great show.”