by Max Jager
"Question" Esyll started. When Zanath turned to her she continued "if these panels can power the lights, and are powered by light, couldn't we just place the lights in front of the panels for an infinite power source?"
"Yeah! That or use light magic on them, what do you think of that" Lillith asked Esyll rather than Zanath since Zanath had no knowledge of magic.
"That too could work" Esyll replied.
"Well, they are powered by sunlight not regular light. They are different. As for magical light I would assume that wouldn't work either, since it also is not sunlight but I wouldn't know."
"Let's try it then." One of the male scientists stated as he held up his hand. Light suddenly came out of his palm as if he was holding a flashlight in his hand and he shined it on one of the solar panels. The light bulb it was attached to turned on, but then after a moment the light bulb shattered and the solar panel also shattered and broke apart. Everyone jumped and Zanath gave the solar panel an odd look. That sort of light should not have been able to turn it on, and that wasn't nearly enough light to make it break. So then, why did it turn on and break? Frankly, Lillith shouldn't have been able to turn on the lightbulb with her lightning magic like she did before either but he had just ignored that detail before.
Zanath stared at it with a perplexed expression on his face. Oblivious to the elf apologizing to him. Like the scientist he was, he was trying to make sense of it all. Even if it was magic, it HAD to have some scientific explanation. It HAD to follow some sort of scientific rules, otherwise magic would have no limits at all and would be able to effortlessly bend time and space itself. "Esyll, magic is created by pulling your energy out of your body, then infusing it with an element, and controlling the energy to control the element, right?" He asked.
"Well, yes. That would be the way magic works in a very simplified and basic way." Esyll answered.
"Can you project the energy from your body without giving it an element? Just as pure energy?" Zanath asked.
"That would be difficult, even Aether magic, the purest of all elements, has a tiny bit of conversion to an element. But it would be possible." Esyll answered.
"I am inexperienced in the use of magic, so I will need one of you to do this. But please try sending energy, without any element attached to it, into one of the working solar panels. Be prepared for it to break like the others did." Zanath asked.
Esyll hesitated, giving him a curious look. But she placed a hand on one of the solar panels and focused, sending pure energy into it without any elements. For a moment, the light bulb attached to it turned on, just like before, but then it shattered and the solar panel also shattered and broke. "Okay, it broke. Why did you want me to break it?" She asked.
"To test a hypothesis." Zanath answered. "The light this guy shined on the solar panel did not turn it on, nor did it break it. And Lillith, the Lightning you sent into the light bulb earlier did not turn it on either. It is the energy, the energy infused with your magic is what powered these things, and is what broke them because they are not built to run off that type of energy."
Esyll and Lillith nodded "So what does that imply?" Lillith asked.
"It explains how you two were able to turn these things on when you shouldn't have. It also gives me an idea. I may be able to build something that can convert your magical energy into electricity. And if I can build something that converts energy into electricity, I can build something that converts electricity into magical energy." Zanath thought out loud, his mind racing through possibilities faster than ever.
"That sounds like it could be very useful, in some way, but how so?" Esyll asked.
"The problem with closing these demonic rifts was that nobody had enough energy to keep up with sustained magical attacks on them right? And you said Aether was the element that worked best, and Aether is almost pure energy. So if we hook a few machines up to huge solar panels and channel all of that electricity to a machine that turns it into magical energy, and use that machine to pump the magical energy into the rift nonstop at massive volumes… That might just close it, if your observations are correct."
"Are you serious? We've been holding these things back for over a year and you find a way to end this in a day?" Lillith said in shock.
"You figured out how to close it. Not me." Zanath replied. "All I did was potentially solve the problem of not having a big enough power source to successfully use your strategy of closing it. And I still don't know if that is even possible, it is just a hypothesis. I must go and start doing some research and tests, it could take me weeks to figure this out and get a working prototype built. But if both electricity and magic are types of energy, and both can interact with technology, I should be able to make some sort of conversion system." He said, pressing his fingers against his temple as he racked his brain trying to think it through. "I need someone to bring me whatever books you have on the scientific explanations of magic to my room at the Inn, and for you students, your homework today is to study everything we went over, and build lights with switches that can be attached attached to these solar panels. I expect everyone to have a working system by tomorrow. The switch should be able to turn the light on and off."
The scientists nodded and took a few last minute notes. Esyll turned to Zanath "I will get the books. I would rather not bring them all the way to the inn, it is a bit out of the way for me, but if you come with me I can get them for you now. I just need a promise that you'll bring them back when you are finished." She said.
Zanath nodded "I promise. Once I have thoroughly studied them I will no longer have a need for them, so I will bring them back. That may take a few days though." He said. And with that he followed Esyll to get the books then went to the inn for the night.
As he entered the inn he was greeted by the receptionist. One of the few males he had seen in the village that had short hair. "I was told the humans were given a room to stay in for a week?" He asked.
The man nodded "Yes sir. It's upstairs, third door on your right. It is room 023, your friends are already there." He said with a smile. "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask, I'm Eric, I'll be in room 1."
Zanath nodded and thanked the man then went up to his room. He opened the door and walked in, spotting the three other Alphas already in there. It looked a lot like a hotel and even had some furniture such as a couch, table, and four small beds. Estellese was lying on one bed with a book in her hands and a couple other books beside her on the bed. As Zanath entered she glanced up at him and gave him a brief wave in greeting and resumed her reading. Mendelen was lying on another bed on the other side of the room, and Kaden was on the floor doing pushups.
"Welcome back." Mendelen greeted. "How did it go?"
"I may have solved the problem with these demonic rifts. I will need to do some research but I might be able to build something that can convert solar power into magical energy and pump that into the rifts to force them closed. However I do not know if this is possible, it is just an idea." Zanath answered.
"Awesome! Seriously, nice job!" Mendelen replied, sitting up and holding up a hand to Zanath as he walked past.
Zanath paused for a moment to glance at Mendelen's hand, it took a brief moment for him to realize why Mendelen was doing that but once he figured it out he high-fived his friend and went to sit on the edge of one of the beds. "Thank you." He replied.
"I had a feeling you would figure it out. But I didn't expect you to solve it so quickly." Mendelen said.
"I didn't solve it. They did. They just had one hole in their solution to the problem, and I was able to patch up that hole for them." Zanath replied. "Should I even ask why Kaden is doing pushups?"
Mendelen shrugged, and Estellese was not paying attention at this point. Zanath could see that she was reading her fireball spellbook, and the books beside her were other spellbooks. Kaden did speak up though. "Mendelen said he thinks we are growing at a much faster rate in this world then we did in the real w- ….." He cut himself off before sayi
ng more. "On Earth." He corrected himself. "So with that in mind, I'm exercising. Partially to test that idea and partially to get prepared to fight some demons since we all know that is coming up soon enough." He explained.
Mendelen nodded "I had them take me to the portal earlier. We met a demon on the way there, it was just a lesser demon but still. I saw that fight, they are so many leagues above us in sheer power. We never would have stood a chance if we bumped into even the weakest of demons on our own. If we are really going to help them with this, we need to hope the prediction you and I came up with is right, that we do learn and grow stronger at a drastically faster rate then on Earth, and we need to seriously do some exercises and other training for the next couple weeks. Learn some magic if possible, and preferably get ourselves some guns. Or, at the very least buy new equipment. I got all of our things back so tomorrow I will sell everything we don't need and will distribute the money evenly between the four of us." He explained. "So if there is anything you want to keep, claim it now. I will not sell our weapons, armor and other worn things. But everything else is gone tomorrow unless claimed."
"Dibs on that fancy cup we found!" Kaden called out.
Mendelen gave him a confused look. "Why would you want the cup?"
"I dunno, it felt magical like the other things we got. We dunno what it does, but we shouldn't get rid of it if it has some sort of magical properties we may not know of." Kaden pointed out.
- Next Chapter: To war. –
(Editor's note. As per my usual habit, whenever there is a lull in the story for a prolonged period of time I make up for it in the next chapter. Needless to say, next chapter will be long, and with college finals right around the corner the next chapter may take a little longer than usual to write up. Apologies in advance.)
Chapter 14: To War
~~ Chapter 14: To War ~~
~~ Part 1: War Preparations ~~
"Alright, and that concludes your class for today." Zanath instructed as he closed his books. "We are doing very well everyone, with that you have constructed your very first firearm. It is just a simple pistol and ammunition, but even something as small as this can be deadly. Arlen, please summon a melon in the target practice area." He asked as he raised the pistol he had built himself.
The man nodded and focused for a moment, making a watermelon appear on the other side of the room in an area designed for target practice.
Zanath raised his gun and within a split second fired, and a moment after the watermelon burst apart. "And unlike a bow, you can fire these incredibly fast." He said as he fired his next three shots within a second. "They only take up one hand, so you could hold two of these and fire both at once to fire even faster, or hold a sword to fight in close quarters using the gun to shoot them once you clash swords. And the ammunition is small and easier to carry than a bunch of arrows. Just be sure you hit something vital, unlike the arrows a bullet may not kill a target if you don't hit something vital such as the head."
Adamus walked up to Zanath from the sidelines where he was watching. "Thank you, human. These look like they will prove useful in the battles with the demons."
"The elves will need to train with these, and I have different types of guns to show them. There are far too many to go through them all but I intend to also introduce rifles, which are meant for shooting at longer ranges, automatic guns which fire faster, and RPGs which are essentially big explosive guns. I feel those will be the most useful for the battles ahead of us. Oh! And gun safety, never point a gun at another person. That would be essentially like pointing a drawn bow at someone." Zanath explained.
Adamus nodded "Of course. Understood. How goes the conversion device? Have you made any progress in the last two weeks?"
Zanath nodded "I have made a lot of progress. Well, little progress but a big breakthrough in understanding which I consider a lot of progress." He replied. "I have figured out that magical energy is the same as any other energy, only it is at a frequency drastically lower than radio waves. So now that I have figured that out I am pretty sure I can make something to convert it into a frequency we can use, and vice versa. I just need to build something that can detect this frequency and-" He was stopped when Adamus held up his hand.
"I appreciate the details, but I have no idea what you are saying." Adamus replied. "I will just take your word for it when you say you made progress. I wish you good luck with the rest of this. As thanks for the help I have added an additional two weeks stay to your room at the inn so you do not need to worry about paying for the room for a while."
"Thank you. But does the military have the funds to pay for that? With this year long war, and with the losses the demons bring in every attack, you must be struggling with financing the military." Zanath asked.
"No. The military can not afford this. I paid for it out of pocket, not with military funds." Adamus replied.
Zanath seemed surprised "Thank you, very much. We will do our best to make sure it is worth it."
"I am counting on it." Adamus stated. He then turned to leave, taking a few of the pistols that were built. As he walked he inspected them, looking them over as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea of these new weapons. He had to say, while they looked powerful he took more comfort in the use of his bow. One thing he noted right away was that these weapons were incapable of using the volley attacks he and his army had liked so much. He definitely saw their power but he did not see guns as a replacement for bows, rather he saw them as a companion to bows. Now his Rangers had a ranged weapon that worked in close quarters. Now when those pesky speedy foes got into the back lines the archers could switch to a pistol and fight back rather than being sitting ducks with their bows. And their warriors could keep a pistol on them for those evasive rangers who kite them just outside of striking range. Just these pistols alone would make their army much more versatile and adaptive. As a master tactician, he liked these new possibilities a lot. It gave him confidence for the battles ahead of them.
With the lecture for the day finished Zanath returned to the inn to resume his work on the conversion machine. That had been his everyday schedule the last two weeks, teach then research and build, then bed and repeat. He had been working nonstop since they arrived, and it was clear it was wearing him down. He had bags under his eyes and his white hair was becoming messy. He was starting to walk with a slump and his eyes were half open as he made his way into the inn. He entered his room and went to get to work on the conversion machine, but it was gone. Everything was gone, the partially built machine, his tools, his books, notes, and plans. Kaden was the only one in the room and he was sitting in the open window.
"Kaden, did you see what happened to my stuff?" Zanath asked.
"Yep." Kaden replied.
"Oh good. Where is it I need to get back to work." Zanath asked.
"All gone." Kaden answered, turning to Zanath with a soft smile.
"What do you mean all gone?" Zanath questioned, narrowing his eyes.
"I made it all disappear. And I dunno how to make it come back." Kaden laughed.
"Are you serious?! Kaden we need these things, we have to get that machine working as soon as possible!" Zanath shouted back.
Kaden shrugged. "Oops" he said simply. "Guess you'll just have to wait till I figure out how to make it reappear. You can't rebuild it without your notes, so you mine as well get some rest so you're ready to continue once I figure it out." He stated.
"Kaden no, bring it back now." Zanath sternly ordered.
"No can do I dunno how~! Goodnight!" Kaden called out despite it being only around noon. He spun around on the windowsill, slipped, and fell out the second floor window.
Zanath quickly ran to the window to make sure Kaden was okay. As he looked down to see where Kaden had landed he saw that the man had landed on a big pile of pillows. Obviously this exit had been planned. He turned to look at the beds and noticed that the pillows had been taken off every bed in the room and placed on his own bed, to make his own b
ed look as inviting and comfortable as possible. Zanath sighed and pressed his fingers against his temple. "I get the hint." He murmured. By now Kaden was long gone, and without his stuff he could not resume work on the machine. So he went to bed.
Once Kaden had finished cleaning up the mess of pillows he had made and returned the extra pillows to the front desk he headed off into the city. Not far from the Inn he bumped into Mendelen heading in the direction of the Inn. "Zanath is sleeping in the inn and has asked not to be disturbed." Kaden said.
Mendelen nodded "I was going to take everyone to go and get some equipment. Estellese is already at the store." He said. "I guess Zanath will have to go on his own later. If he wants anything here, it seems like he'd rather just use the guns." He said as he lead the way to the main shop.
The elves had designated one building to be a shop, it looked very much like the shopping malls back on Earth where everyone had small stores all set up in one big building. The only shops that were outside of this building were the elven equivalent to grocery stores, where they sold food and drink. The place was massive and was packed with people, you could always see at least two hundred people in any direction you looked but the building was big enough to accommodate everyone and still give you space to see the stores and maneuver your way through the crowds. This big building had what looked like streets, they were mostly straight pathways where the tiles on the floor were a darker color than the rest of the floor. They were wide enough for four people to stand side by side, however there were people walking in both directions so to avoid bumping into each other walking in lines of two was better. It seemed like there was some unwritten rule, or a cultural norm, to not stand still on these pathways just like the rule to not park in the middle of the street. Anyone who wanted to stop walking or stand around stood off to the side and everyone who was walking somewhere walked on the pathways. Mendelen looked around and thought it was a pretty clever way of handling the large crowds