The DAO of Magic

by Andries Louws

  We walk in silence for a bit longer as Ket mulls this over. Ket is about to speak when Selis walks into a store. I follow her while motioning for Ket to be silent for now. The store is one of the alchemical variety; the walls have some bottles on display. The storefront is rather small, a big counter cutting the room in half. A clerk stands behind said counter with his back to big shelves filled with bottles and ingredients.

  Selis takes a small book from her pocket and drops it on the counter. “I found this book in the dungeon. What can I get for it?”

  Since when did Selis sound so childish? She talks in the voice of a ten-year-old. I peer at the back of her head but do nothing to blow her cover. I can tell from her bones that she is around sixteen, she is just rather short for her age. The clerk looks at her after glancing at Ket and me. He plasters a smile on his face and the negotiations begin.

  “Hmmh, a book is worth a couple of gold, can I look inside?”

  Selis nods so the clerk carefully opens the book. He visibly pales as he flips pages. “T-this is… alchemy recipes? Did it drop from a boss?”

  Selis nods again. “All that dropped after a really tough fight was that book. How much can you give me for it?” She pouts a bit, seemingly displeased with such a small amount of loot.

  I can see the clerk scheming, his face displaying micro-expressions that are rather easy to read. I walk forward and place my hand on top of the girl’s head. “A book is worth a few hundred gold by itself, but the content is the most important. Don’t get ripped off, sweetie. Maybe ask around a bit before selling it in the first shop you enter.”

  My grandfatherly smile must look pretty weird on my youthful face, but the clerk pales even further. “Two thousand gold! I will buy this book for two, no, three thousand gold.”

  Selis whips her head back around and stares at the clerk. I walk back and continue discussing math with Ket in a hushed tone. Selis continues to wrap the clerk around her finger, staring at him with her big, blue eyes.

  The clerk ends up buying the book for four and a half thousand gold, and I discuss matrix multiplication with Ket as we wait for the clerk to come back. He bustles out of the back with a big bag of gold in his hands. He gives the bag to Selis while snatching the book. We are then ushered out of the store while the door gets locked behind us. A ‘closed’ sign appears behind the door’s window a second later.

  Selis smiles while giving the bag of gold to Ket. “You get the first one.”

  Ket nods and we follow Selis while she walks to another store. Ket stores the bag sneakily in his ring. He turns to me and we start talking about transformation matrixes, with a small detour to discuss vectors.

  Selis continues to guide us through the city, replaying the scene at the earlier shop multiple times. She sells the same book at least ten times, earning thousands upon thousands of gold coins. Night has fallen when she turns to me.

  “Thanks, teacher, I’m done.”

  Her smile is refreshing. I have an idea of what she is up to by now, so that smile clashes with the image I had of her. Cute and adorable with a mile-long mean streak.

  “What are their projected losses?” Ket asks.

  Her cute smile turns a bit savage. “They won’t be able to survive this, even if they had ten more daughters to give away.”

  I look at the duo, who seem to be the picture of villains whose evil schemes have come to fruition. “Want to explain it to me?”

  She looks at me, once again the picture of innocence. “My parents wanted to sell me, so I sold their secrets. Ket helped me make the books.” She pouts a bit. “Just because I could only read books from very close up does not mean I am stupid.”

  Okay then… I know that she comes from a merchant background, I did some research on my disciples before kidnapping them, but I have not looked up the finer details. I decide that this is a worthy cause, so I start digging through my data archives.

  Selis is the third child of an average merchant family. Her parents wanted to give this unneeded child to a noble to placate him. That’s why she was in jail, to facilitate this process. The books she and Ket made are filled with that family’s secret recipes, alongside improved and more effective versions, something that family had built their entire trading business on. Selis just ruined her parents’ profit for many years to come with a smile on her face.

  The reason I don’t like to do this also rears its head though, I involuntarily learned about the number of kittens that were beaten to death, the number of rapes per day in Tower city and some torture statistics. I had to dig through a lot more unpleasant information to get to the info I wanted, so I distract myself quickly.

  “Are you satisfied now?”

  Selis looks up at my question and thinks for a bit. She then nods.

  “Good, don’t let the past hold you back. You won’t see the road ahead if you keep looking back.”

  Selis thinks a bit before replying with a smile. “Thanks, I think I am done with my family now.”

  With that, we walk back to the city walls. I try to introduce some geometry and trigonometry concepts to Ket, but he will need to process the topics we talked about earlier before truly understanding more advanced math. Knowledge is a like a pyramid, talking about higher level concepts is a lot harder without a solid foundation of underlying principles.

  I turn to Selis while we stroll. “Can you control all the elements yet?”

  She gives another nod. “Hmm, lightning was really hard though, I can only make a small spark.”

  “It’s fine as long as you understand the basics.” We walk in silence for a few more streets. “You don’t have your glasses or water lenses; can you see well now?”

  She shakes her head. “No, but I am used to it.”

  “Try to control the water on top of your eye to form a lens, you can see sharp without drawing attention that way.”

  Her eyebrows climb upwards as she draws some moisture from the air. She places a single drop on a single eye and I see her correcting the curvature of the water contact lens. She stumbles a bit so I put my hand on her shoulder to steady her. We are nearly at the gates when she smiles brilliantly, both her eyes covered with a thin film of water.

  “This is so cool! I can see even better than with the water glasses now!” She blinks her eyes a bit, the water on top of her irises wobbling around.

  I grin at her delighted expression. “You needed to learn some control before trying this out, accidentally crushing your eyeballs is very, very painful.”

  She grins back and she walks through a gate with a skip in her step. The guards don’t even glance at us as we walk through one of the many gates in the city wall. We leave the brown walls behind us while walking to a collection of big rocks. Once there, I turn to the two disciples.

  “I want to expand the area inside the Tree before we start exploring the islands by boat. Do you guys know of a place where I can get a lot of dirt without drawing attention?”

  Selis shakes her head while fighting to keep her eyes open, and I see Ket suppressing an occasional yawn as he answers.

  “There are deserts far to the south; nobody would miss the sand.”

  “Nah, I don’t want to travel that far. A sandy layer would be useful though.” That, and my drone spotted sandy beaches at the coast further north.

  “Then maybe the western plains?”

  I raise a single eyebrow. “How far to the west are these plains?”

  “A few hundred kilometres? This is one of the most western cities of the kingdom. There are very few villages further out.”

  “Okay, you guys get some sleep while I check that out.”

  Ket wants to protest, but I cut him off. “You still need sleep; it is also the fastest way to process and integrate new knowledge for braincore users.”

  He gives a sullen nod and both touch my necklace. I peek inside and see them both talking a bit more while walking to their houses. Tree is busily grabbing clumps of dirt and debris that are floating through the e
ndless space, slowly piecing the ground back together. I try to communicate with it for a bit, but it is too busy with its self-imposed tasks, so I let it be.

  I look towards the west, lower my stance and jump. I have some dirt to steal.

  Chapter fifty-seven

  Acquisition

  ‘Godfuckingdamn faggoty-ass nobles, all shit-stained smiles while holding poisonous daggers behind their backs. I can’t fucking trust anyone. The only reason I am not dead yet is because the commoners would riot and the Flight would start a shit-fit.’

  The king of the Shi-Eit kingdom, ruler of the Capital and the First Defender is sitting on his throne. It’s placed on a dais in a big, circular room. The walls are lined with multiple rows of comfortable seats, pompously dressed people filling each chair. The air is filled with talking, cursing, yelling and thrown accusations.

  The king slowly rubs his temples while smiling vacantly, not a sign of his inner tirade on his face. The usual headache-inducing clamour seems extra irritating today. A grand gathering was called the moment they received news from Peak City. A large amount of noble and merchant families are very pissed right now, and they have no qualms about venting it here.

  A peaceful smile starts to spread across the ruler’s face, giving off a feeling of a strict but just grandfather. He stands up and his expression becomes even more friendly and approachable.

  ‘Nine copies have been found so far, half of the fucking secret recipes and god damn money-making schemes of these shitty nobles are now public. I got to do something about this.’

  The king holds up a single hand. Silence slowly descends upon the unruly ruling classes gathered. The king starts to speak when absolute silence reigns.

  “Our dear friends, it has come to our attention that there has been some unrest in the lands the past few weeks.”

  The smile on his face is like an angel’s as he keeps internally cursing everything under the sun.

  “First the honourable mages detected multiple large-scale mana disturbances to the south. Then we received reports of a stationary beast horde gathering near Tower City. That is followed by the Tower losing its top half. Then six peasants rampage through the city using unknown magics, alarming the revered mages further.”

  Here he glances at a fat, sleeping man sitting to his side. It is a well-known secret that popular or successful mages never become representatives to the kingdoms. The current mage stationed in the Capital is an ageing bald man, his magical talent drying up due to old age. Suppressing the rage and frustration in his heart, the king continues his speech.

  “Afterwards, a freak tornado ripped the roofs off of half the houses in Tower City, and now we have received reports of a dungeon book being sold to multiple merchants. We have learned that these books are copies and contain many well-kept secrets.”

  The king pauses here for effect. Books are highly sought-after commodities, the Royal library is filled with tomes that dropped from the dungeon, this knowledge monopoly allowing the people in power to stay in power.

  “We do not know the cause of these incidents. Our revered mage representative,” the king waves his hand in the direction of the snoring man, “has told us that these happenings must be the vile rogue mages doing their evil workings. We do not know the reason or cause behind these incidents. We now ask all of you to give us your insights, one by one if you please.”

  ‘Horse-shit third person, I fucking hate talking in “we” and “our,” but tradition is important. And of course, the moment I ask a proper question to this sewage-covered collection of ass monkeys, nobody says a thing.’

  And indeed, silence lingers for at least a minute before a person stands up. Decorated in gold, jewels and the finest cloth, his clothing stretches around his voluminous frame.

  “I have no knowledge of these events; I only want to know how I will be compensated! I will lose half my profit because a third of my proprietary recipes can now be read by,” the man pauses here to spit on the floor, “commoners.”

  A maid scurries across the floor with a cloth in her hands. She wipes at the spit stain but can’t dodge the kick the noble aims at her. She grunts in response and scurries back to the servants’ alcove without making another peep.

  Other voices start yelling their own demands. The word “compensation” is thrown around a lot. The king still stands there with a peaceful smile on his face. Tradition allows a single interruption from the king per gathering, he will be completely ignored from now on. He grins internally.

  ‘I got my fucking ass covered now. Continue to ignore me, the scribes have written down every fucking word I said. Not a single fucking person can accuse me of negligence now. I brought up the entire issue at once. Not my goddamn fucking fault they can’t even agree on the colour of the sky.’

  The king sits back down, watching the monkey show in front of him devolve into chaotic shouting again.

  ⁂

  “Lola, is there anything you want?” I ask the bunny on my shoulder as I walk over grass-covered plains. “Maybe some carrots, or to make your own burrow?”

  I spend the night making my way west, taking my time without hurry. The sun is peeking over the horizon now, the mountains in the east casting long shadows across the grass.

  Lola just nuzzles my cheek as she lies in the hollow of my shoulder. “Alright, tell me if you want something, kay?”

  I rub her head while thinking about the best way to do this. I could dig a large hole, but the soil is just a few metres deep here. Beneath that is clay interlaced with rocks. I think I should skim the top off a large area instead of digging deep here. I look inside my necklace and see Ket lying in the pond. Steam is wafting from his head; he must be applying the newly learned principles to everything he knows, seeing where they are applicable. The rest are still asleep.

  The space inside Tree is not normal space. It can expand and contract as needed, the same with the application of physical laws. Tree is holding the big disk of earth and water together while imposing gravity. I could even turn it into a zero gravity zone if I want.

  Expanding the walkable terrain is as easy as spreading a thin layer of soil, but I want something a little sturdier. I sink my qi into the ground, feeling for a layer of bedrock. I don’t find it, just large chunks of stone with irregular shapes. I pull my necklace off and wrap it in qi before dropping it to the ground. I can break those rocks up to create the foundation for the ground, a layer of clay on top of that followed by thirty centimetres of fertile topsoil.

  The necklace sinks into the ground while I guide materials to it. I tell the Tree to eject the soil and rocks beneath its roots, no need to interrupt Ket by floating tonnes of dirt above his head. The icy mountain is a few hundred metres below the Tree now, slowly lowering the temperature of its surroundings.

  I sink down for half a metre, the grass under my feet turning in a shallow bowl. I then adjust the qi construct around the necklace, telling it to absorb a wide disk of earth. Radial filaments of qi pull earth, dirt and rocks to the necklace, where Tree pulls them inside. I set it to absorb about half a metre of material in a ten-metre radius. I can make a shallow and wide depression, that should attract a lot less attention than a gaping hole. The necklace starts moving faster as the Tree grows used to accepting a steady stream of materials.

  The process pauses now and then to allow for a big rock to be pulled through. I instruct the Tree to deposit the materials in the manner described earlier, and it happily agrees that it is a good plan. Some of the leftover normal trees have their roots dangling from the thin soil layer, they get covered one by one as Tree thickens the ground. I keep walking, speeding up slowly, as we smooth out the kinks in the process.

  I instruct Tree to create a big lake. I want fresh and saltwater separation; I do not yet have a volcano to start a small rain cycle. If I were to pour seawater inside the necklace now, it would just create brackish water and kill all the plants. Tree makes a big bowl shape from dirt beside the garden.

 
Seen from the top, the garden is to the northeast, the clearing is to the south and the new lake is to the north-west of the Tree. The water surrounding the ring of dirt gets slowly funnelled to this lake and starts filling it. Golden threads of qi pick up water plants, fish and aquatic insects as they get transported to the new body of water.

  I can see the sea to the north, so I plan on surrounding the disk of earth with sandy beaches and salt water.

  I create a few processes to automate the necklace’s underground path. I see the ground sink in a widening circle around me and adjust the radius to slowly increase, speeding the process up further. I then grab Lola from my shoulder and look her in the eyes. “Had a nice time relaxing these past few days?”

  She tilts her head at my question. I grin at her. “That ends now, go do some training.”

  I throw her up into the air while wrapping her in a small qi formation and watch her soar upwards. There are now two white dots in the sky and they are growing closer fast. I hope that Rhea has cooled down a little bit, the rabbit flying towards her at subsonic speeds is sure to piss her off.

  I stop walking, automating the necklace to move on without me as I gaze upwards. Enhancing my eyes with qi, I sit down to watch the show. I compress some air to form a zoom lens, allowing me to clearly see what will happen.

  ⁂

  Re-Haan is confused again. First, her stalking victim went into a city with two of his disciples. Then he ran to the west at top speed, and she had to work her wings heavily to keep up. He stopped when he arrived on the open plains and the ground started sinking under his feet. The dragoness can see a circular indentation forming, her sharp eyes catching the widening circle turn into a longer shape.

  Then he threw something at her. The small object went too fast for her to get a good look at it, and it didn’t slow down until it was nearing her height. Now she sees a small flailing rabbit gasping for air. The fluffy critter stops flailing as it slows down, and the dragon calculates it should reach its apex around the height she is flying. She licks her lips and concludes that the human is not only strong, he is also considerate, sending something to eat her way. She was just getting peckish.