章節 50: Chapter 47: Balance
Eli POV
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The sweat on my back dripped down as I pushed a wooden cart along the dirt road. While moving the cart itself was no big deal, pushing mana into the small sack with a hole facing my back at the same time was quite strenuous. The bright morning sun was beating down on me as Salamede came up to me with a water bottle.
"Oh yeah. I brought up our project at a local pub popular with Keltons. Everyone was really excited to be getting stone roads. I wonder what they'll be doing with trade once they're finished." She said happily as I started the carts stone summoning function back up.
I was in the middle of upholding my end of a deal Salamede cut with the local head honcho yesterday. The mayor was quite eager for these new roads and I was quite keen on a more secure living area. One small stone watchtower was sitting near the downstream bend of the river that had been abandoned when the massive bridge meant the barge system it helped maintain wasn't needed anymore.
Typically getting such public property would be a nightmare but the wheels of government can be greased with many lubricants, stone road work being one of them. New roads were a central campaign initiative that the mayor had promised and his ass was getting in hot water over the project's lack of progress. I was stamping out the final design for my vine suits power source in my head as I waited for the stone to push out from the cart like a moving granite wave in front of it.
This new design had a metal box with hollow copper spheres inside that will hold a wheel inlaid with small metal balls in a groove pressed into the wheel. That would allow it and the magnets near the copper shell on the metal wheel to move around in the sphere. With smaller bags of holding in the middle of the wheel that were covered with special metal boxes over their mouths, these would provide the wheel movement as the released water filled into the metal boxes and had the water slide back into the weight negation dimension from whence they came.
This inner sphere design would eliminate the multi-directional issue in combat. My biggest obstacle now was getting the balls into the correct shapes. That was something my piston was not well suited towards compared to the flat shapes of the boxes, not to mention the difficult precision needed for the copper spheres.
Mana was now the issue again and when Salamede told me of our newest endeavor it wasn't physically demanding and I had an idea that would let me absorb far more of the ambient mana than the kinda-sorta-not-really balancing act I typically strove for. This had been the perfect opportunity to plunder the surrounding mana with no restraint and I had taken the opportunity for all it's worth. Right now several bark crafts were slowly shaping the spheres and balls I would need as they took in as much mana as they could get.
In addition to that, I also made a knapsack firmly attached to my hip to allow me to push mana from my back into the bag.
We spent a few minutes pushing the cart as the enchantments on the bottom summoned a solid layer of stone. This layer would 'grow' out from under the cart for several feet in front as it pushed a solid mass of stone bricks into and over the dirt. The roads from my warehouse and hers were now solid stonework of large square pads with more rectangles on top. Even now the surrounding dirt was working its way between the rectangles with help from the water of last night's rain and moving pedestrians, making it look like it was made up of hundreds of individual bricks.
Our current slog was going towards the docks to give the lanes there a proper road. But this much stonework took a lot of mana. Not anywhere near as much as metalworking but it still ate through it enough that even working since the rising of the sun hadn't given us enough time to let the ambient mana recover. At least that's what I would tell any inquiring mages.
Some peasant men and women would walk by whispering. I had heard a few talk about the physical demands of magic, ignorant of the fact that most of my strain was from me condensing a small number of crystals into being as I waited for the cart to do its thing. Once this block was complete I pushed the cart again past the newly formed stone slab to do it all over again.
"Once we get done tomorrow, I bet the local merchants will go out of their way to use the roads on our side of town," Salamede said excitedly.
"Maybe, I think at the very least the local vendors will move closer to us," I said as we gradually made our way towards the next street. We did this for a while before we came up to a busier main section.
"We'll probably have to wait until after sundown to finish this when the traffics cleared," Salamede said through the spirit connection as we turned around and went to put the cart back. I also had to turn off my metalworking bark crafts to make sure it didn't keep draining the ambient mana.
"And the appointment with the teachers is in the afternoon so it will be tight getting it all timed right but I think we can do it. Hopefully later today you can get the guild application done as well." Salamede said as she walked happily over the brickwork while her blue dress now went without touching the dirt. We both parted ways in the street and I put the cart off to the side to get ready.
After getting into it with that fat mage two days ago we both thought it over and decided that becoming an official member of the Guild would at least help provide us some protection. Somewhere in the conversation I also brought up Bess's offer to work with her and the crafting master. Salamede had immediately twisted a promise out of me to go to the meeting, which honestly wasn't a bad idea to at least hear them out. I had scheduled the meeting for today and was now getting ready for it in my home.
Frankly, I was content to be outside the magical community at this point and just be another crafter who couldn't hack it, for a while at least but I suppose giving it one last go won't hurt. As I quickly showered I mused on how the conversation became about 'our' protection as I put on my school uniform. But I had to admit, it was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.
When I got to the classrooms I looked around and saw Bess waving at me off to the right. Coming over she pointed towards a door leading to a conference room. Once we got there I saw the short chubby crafting master, her green eyes and glasses combined with her gray hair to give her the appearance of a witch despite her blue and white robes and a white undershirt. The whole room had the classrooms grey brickwork with a thick red carpet with lighting provided by the window.
"Ah, just the person I was waiting to see. We were hoping to collaborate on crafting techniques and maybe even look at a few organizations that you may be interested in joining." She said in front of a table with three chairs. She was one the left side with another chair to her right and one on the opposite side. On the table were several pieces of square leather.
I sat in the chair on the right side.
We talked for a while about various crafting aspects like our preferred ways of putting the squares, triangles, and circles in the material, where and how big to make the proportion of elements being expelled by the triangles and other such things. Then the subject of general tactics came up.
"When you made the hammer how did you manage to get it to hit so hard, even without shooting flames out of its back?" Bess asked.
"It mostly relied on using the boosters in the armor giving the blow some added kick. When making my items I try to focus more on how they will all work together, rather than how strong I can make them by themselves." I replied.
"Really?" The crafting master said.
"Yes. Think about that mud spewing arm guard I made. If I went with the typical stone shield it would have made the booster function almost unusable when activated due to the weight it put on the arm. By having a stream of mud it can also be used mid-air without throwing the user too far off balance." I said.
"That does beg the question though, are you an offensive or defensive crafter? Most crafters will lean towards one or the other after a while." Bess asked, with the crafting master looking equally curious.
"Depends on the situation. Killing people before they have a chance to fight back is always preferable, but having no defense means you die the minute someone decides they want you dead and are willing to wait to make it happen. I find it isn't defense or offense that's really important but movement. No defense is perfect and there is no attack so absolute it can make up you not being in range. Getting into a position to counter-attack after a strike or to hit a weak point in the armor is better than just trying to batter down the defense or trying to make your defense impenetrable. All things being equal, of course" I replied.
This drew a look of consideration from the two women who eventually nodded.
"We have several lines of inquiry into some magic research associations. These are far more accepting of us crafters and some have expressed interest in you. If you're also interested." the crafting master said, with a hint of hope in her voice.
"I was also considering joining the Guild. Would that interfere with joining those associations?" I asked genuinely intrigued.
"No, it will probably help your application. They typically like people who can go out into the world and extract specimens and materials. They aren't as rich as the more combat-oriented associations, but they still have some influence and pull in the government." She replied happily.
"There was even a good harvest of mana crystals this year for the western organizations. I heard one of the associations even got to work with one the size of a pebble." Bess said enthusiastically.
"How lucky for them. I wish we had enough mana here for that." the crafting master sighed ruefully as she ran her finger over the table with a pout.
"Does anyone know why the mana is so much weaker here?" I asked, only just realizing my error as the last word left my mouth.
They both gave me an odd look before looking at each other in a quick movement.
"Where are you from that you wouldn't know that?" Bess asked.
"A simple farmhouse from the ass-end of the north. Why?" I asked, quickly trying to cover my slip up due to the moment of rushed curiosity.
"Ah, well student history can be a delicate thing so that portion of a student's file is typically kept hidden from teachers. Personally, I think letting us look into a student's background would help us out in situations like this." Bess gave a light cough before continuing.
" The lowered amount of mana here is not a natural phenomenon. In the mage community, there is seething malice for the dwarves as they diverted the stream of mana from the earth that would make our region as prosperous as the coast." Bess finished with a clear hatred in her eyes.
"Still it's not like we had much to begin with. Even the coast is destitute compared to the central continent." The crafting master said.
It then occurred to me that what the crafting master considered a great treasure was burned through by me in two or three days.
Our meeting now coming to a close, we left the room and I headed towards my class for the day. Several passersby looked at me like I had something that was catching. Even some of my previous hecklers just got a disgusted look, shot out an insult and left me alone. But this didn't stop them from talking behind my back on several occasions. The most common phrase I heard when describing me was...what was it they called me? Oh right.
Goat Fucker.
My, my what great wordsmiths they have here. I thought it may have just been a one-off insult from that student but it seems to have caught on. I do hope they didn't injure their overworked brains trying to deploy such linguistic mastery.
After going through the military tactics class that I would render obsolete in the near future, I headed back home as I took in the late afternoon sun. When we got to the dorms I quickly went towards the reception kiosks by the entrance on the inner side of the wall. After filling out my application to the guild, I went down to my side of the docks.
Coming into my house I got the cart and took it outside. A few yards off I saw Salamede in a green dress.
"Ah, good. How was school?" Salamede asked as she approached me.
"Ok, but I managed to get my application to the guild submitted," I said, keeping my voice neutral.
"Excellent," She said as she went to shoo away some kids who were playing too close to the cart.
The sun was now fading as I came onto the main road with Salamede following me. Traffic was now significantly slower and I saw several guards stroll by. They gave us a slight nod as they passed.
We had managed to get almost the entire left side of the main road before it became too dark to continue.
After we parted ways I quickly went through my bark crafts that had been molding the assortment of metal pieces I needed. I went over the steps for getting the ball into the groove of the ring until I put it back into the cradle of bark that shaped it.
I added the sparse few strands with the others in my mana crystal sack and slept through the night on the second-floor hammock.
The next morning I got ready for another day of class. The clear blue sky and slight mist made it look like a cool spring day but there was the slight note of a chill in the air. As I headed towards the market, Salamede, wearing a blue dress, waved me down.
"So, I was thinking once you get done working-" Salamede started saying but then our gazes were drawn to a small squad of guards coming down the road who quickly surrounded us.
"Are you Eli? Student of the Diamond academy?" One of the guards asked.
"Yes," I responded as I moved Salamede behind me.
"You are under arrest. The specific crimes which you stand accused of will be explained to you by a public defendant. Your trial will be held two days from now." he said as he put a metal cuff around my hands.
"Eli?" Salamede said worriedly.
"I didn't do anything, Salamede. It's just a misunderstanding." I responded calmly despite the pounding in my chest as my heart felt like it wanted to explode.
"I'll see if I can get Ryan. He still owes you so maybe he can help," Salamede quickly said through a spirit connection. I could only nod in agreement.
The guards moved me a few steps ahead and brought me up to an armored carriage in the alley that was guarded by four other lawmen.
When we came up to the carriage they frisked me. After putting all of my tools into a special box they put me in the back, gently enough, and the driver started the carriage forward Looking out the small window I saw Salamede standing there, holding her hands to her chest waving me goodbye as she ran towards the academy. I just stared at the wall as we rode towards our destination. About 40 minutes after getting over the bridge we came up to Holstead. Going through the streets we came up to a large stone box of a building that just screamed 'prison'.
I was lead on past a desk with what looked like a courtroom on my left and deep halls in the grey stonework that apparently went to the cell area. Going down the hall I was brought into a long line of iron cells on the right and left. This section was far mustier, with bits of mold on the grey stonework in the various corners.
After removing my restraints I was placed into a cell slightly bigger than a closet with a bench. Leaning against the wall I went over in my head anything that I might have done that would be illegal but I couldn't think of anything. I just waited for a while, actually grateful that I had forgotten to start up my metal crafts this morning.
Eventually, a guard came by and rattled a flat piece of metal against the cell bars.
"All right lad, your public defender is here. Your trial will be held two days from now. I'll warn you, any disruptive behavior will be marked down in your profile so try to keep it civil." The older guard with a bored, indifferent voice said. He placed the flat metal piece against the cell door and it popped open then two other guards came in and put me in restraints.
Back in cuffs, I was lead to a room with a balding pudgy man in a brown coat and pants with overalls. His white undershirt was slightly stained from his lunch of what I assumed was chicken soup. He looked at me and his brown eyes held the guards the same indifference. I sat down in the chair and put my hand on the rickety table.
"Hello," He put it his hand out which I shook.
"So what exactly am I doing here?" I asked, having no patience for niceties.
A single cough and he proceeded to read off my alleged crimes with all the weight and gravitas of going over a grocery list.
"You stand accused of child molestation, murder and orc mating." He said.
I just looked at him with a blank expression as I tried to comprehend what he was saying.
"What?" I asked softly.
"You are being accused of child molestation, murder, and orc mating," He repeated.
"I know that but, what by the almighty processor are you talking about?" I asked again, my anger now starting to cut through the confusion.
"Several people have come forward with testimony saying to the effect that you indulged in orc mating and the raping and murder of children." He said plainly. Thankfully, a raised eyebrow was all the slip up in my curse warranted from him.
"No, I haven't," I growled between gritted teeth.
"Look, as a public defender, I'm your lawyer here. For now, we need to go over where you've been and what you've been doing the past two weeks if we want to win this thing." He said with a shot of firmness.
From there we did more of a back and forth on firmly establishing the timeline for what I had been doing the past two weeks. Of course, I altered what exactly I was tinkering with when I was at my house but that had no effect on the outcome of my day so I had no problems there. I was confident that my hidden sanctum wouldn't be revealed by any passing investigation they did after I made the waterside entrance better hidden.
Going over various legal minutia we finished about half an hour later. My lawyer nodded towards one of the guards and I was brought back to my cell. Looking around the dingy place I could only lay on the rotting bench until something similar to sleep took me.
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