Back ho, the construction was still going on, entering the phase when people were building the outer city where most future residents would find a ho for themselves. These houses were less spacious and not ant for those who had been there since the first day. Still, they were leagues better than what most people were used to, and the mont they were finished, we could begin erecting the first wall around the city. That... will be an actual undertaking.
As groups were erging, with enough experience to take over in delegating the work and showing the newcors how it was done, I was free to start studying my newest resource. My first problem showed itself when we were still returning with Sasha, and I tried breaking one of them apart. It just didn't work.
Even if I beat it against a slab of stone, it remained whole, without scratches or dents. Then I tried cutting it. Nothing. Smashing with a hamr? No results. I threw it into a kiln. Of course, it withstood it without a problem. It didn't even get hot! Is this the most resilient piece of ore in the world, or what?
"Well, this is a problem!" I shrugged, visiting Sasha, who was in the middle of designing the interior of the palace, and she was wholly imrsed in how it should look, working on it with none other than little rlin.
"What problem?" They asked, turning towards .
"I am running out of ideas on what to do with these CCs and how to split them apart!"
"How are they mined?" rlin asked, quickly narrowing it down to the question also floating within my head.
"It is a good question!" I shrugged, rubbing his head, "But I can't really go to the Empire, ask them, hey so... these strategic resources that only you can access... so, how are they mined? Why? Oh, I'm just curious, that's all!"
"I see." He nodded, thinking, "You are right, My Lord! And magic won't be of use as they react to it then... hm... Why not hit one with another?"
"Fuck." I stopped as I exclaid, wanting to hit myself instead, "That's it!"
"Leon! Not before the child!" Sasha grumbled, but rlin just looked up at her with an innocent smile.
"I heard worse! I know that coarse people use it to express intense feelings when they can't do it otherwise!"
"You little shit!" I grinned, pulling on his face, stretching it, "Are ya callin' ya daddy here uncultured?!"
"No, My Lord!" He giggled, answering without complaining.
"Tsk! You win this round, kiddo!"
I don't know why I never thought about that; it is evident in hindsight. I started out small, beating two at each other, and the mont the impact happened, both shattered into a dozen pieces. Okay, so this needs to be refined, or I will destroy my stash. For the second try, I picked out basically the sa-sized CCs, and this ti, I put one on a table and hit it with the second one.
"Success!" I exclaid when only one was smashed apart like a glass. "How quaint!" I couldn't help but wonder about the properties of CC. What happened right now partially ignored a fundantal natural law in my previous life... so I had to develop so tools to help study it. This led down a road that kickstarted so extra developnt I didn't expect.
First, I needed a universal weight system as I couldn't go on with my feelings alone. I could have used what was present in the Empire's books, but they were using past emperors' body parts as a base. Screw that. So.... How did I decide about what was a kilogram? Easy. Thanks to my mory, I could quickly determine how long a ter, centiter, etc., was, and I had already used it while building the city. It was normal for to draw the plans with those included, and rlin had already taught it to the masses.
The little genius didn't even question it, accepting it at face value and deriving the rules of the decimal system, correctly guessing all the exchanges. I was still sowhat doubtful he was not a reincarnated person... oh well! Less work for !
Going by the sa thod, I grabbed a bucket and drew the scales on it after recalling a simple image within my brainbox. When it was done, I filled it up with water... and there. One liter of water equals one kilogram. Of course, I knew it would be off because of the weight of the bucket, but... oh well, I am creating it now! In this world, 1 kilogram will be this from now on, and if one of my old teachers pops up here, he can suck it!
Now, it was ti to make my weights, and as they were nothing but lumps of iron, it was easy to make. The best thing to train my future blacksmiths on! I quickly gathered individuals who either showed interest or even had so background in making horseshoes, fixing tools, and the like. After reworking Sasha's formation inside the blacksmith's workshop, it was burning with less intensity, making it bearable for us, re mortals, to exist. For what I needed now, this was enough!
I began introducing them to my new invention as I was explaining it. It was less challenging than I expected, and I saw rlin lingering close by, watching intently, nodding his little head occasionally. After a few tries, the first, ideally 1-kilogram plates, were made. I left a set for them to replicate and gave them my first scale to asure the completed pieces. I was glad to see that rlin jumped at the occasion that there was sothing new to learn and teach, and by the ti I left, he was explaining to the others again why it was crucial to develop a new, unified system.
"Now... where was I?" I murmured, snapping my fingers as I rembered. Yes, I wanted to weigh the CC fragnts!
After a week's worth of detour, I was back at my initial experint, putting them on my new scale with the correct weights, and there it was. No matter what I did, they all had the sa weight, 1.5 kilograms. The one that was as big as a ring? 1.5. The one that was the size of a head? 1.5.
"Magic..." I murmured as it was inconceivable yet real. Even if I broke one apart, the two new sides were identical. "One. Point. Five."
The other weird thing was that when breaking them up, the stationary was the one that always broke apart when hitting them against each other. Even if I smashed a smaller CC against a much bigger one. Was this a perfectly elastic collision? Where did the kinetic energy go? What the hell was happening? I didn't know... What I did know was that they acted like nothing I had knowledge about. I was never a scientist, only an engineer, so it baffled , but it was not enough to make stuck.
So what if their weight remained the sa? What if they don't indeed follow the laws of energy transfer? These were fucking magic crystals! Hehe... After developing a more sophisticated version of breaking them apart, I could start determining their efficiency. Are the big ones better? Or could the smaller ones do the sa?
That experint happened once again at the abandoned mine. Oleg made sure to surround the area with his n, keeping everyone from coming close to sabotage us while doing the tests. I brought rlin along this ti, and he was so excited I barely recognized him. I had never seen him chatting and babbling so rapidly, asking a hundred questions about CC and magic, to which I had no real answers.
"rlin, we are here to explore what they can do! So, if you want answers, you must also start experinting with them! Okay?"
"Yes, My Lord!" He nodded while jumping up and down in place, saluting towards .
"Calm down for now! This can be dangerous; last ti, Sasha shot a fireball at !"
"It was an accident!" She shouted back, hearing despite being almost a hundred ters away.
"Understood!" He grinned, hiding behind .
"You little... heh! Okay!" I shrugged, waving at Sasha, "Do it!"
She was standing with a lump of CC in hand, almost as big as rlin's little head. After focusing her thoughts and mana, a formation appeared right behind her once again before a fireball flew out, hitting the water in the flooded quarry this ti.
"Woah!" Both of us exclaid as rlin's eyes were shining brightly.
Of course, Sasha was not finished, as she was switching to a smaller piece about the size of an almond. The fireball ca out once again, but as I had expected, it was weaker. Noticeably weaker.
"It broke!" Shouted Sasha, and after turning off her magic, she rushed to us, showing the tiny CC continuing to crumble until it turned to dust.
"So there is a size that makes them into a one-use item!" I nodded, "Maybe the big ones are also eroding? Would using them multiple tis end in them breaking apart? Hmmm... this will have to be tested!"
"I will do it!" rlin yelled, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"You just want to play with them, no?"
"Yes!"
"Honest boy!" I grinned, ruffling his hair and nodding.
"Leon... is... is this? You know..." Sasha murmured, feeling shy, but he may be too young to feel that way when holding it. So far, he didn't ntion anything weird when standing close to CC.
"Ah!"
Well... Right until Sasha gave him the big one. The mont it landed in his hands, he dropped it, falling to his knees, his face turning bright red, and it was the first ti I saw him close to crying.
"I peed..." He sniffled, looking up at us, panic-stricken.
"He's yours!" I shrugged, and to my surprise, Sasha, like a good mother, quickly ensured rlin was cleaned up and changed without any awkwardness.
On the second try, he was now much more collected, expecting sothing strange, and with a serious face, he resisted, nodding his little head.
"I withstood it! You are both anies... You didn't tell about it makes you pee..."
"Err..." Holding my laugh, I chortled, unable to fully keep it under wraps, "We thought it would not affect you as you are still too young!"
"Um... now I should... do... magic stuff, yes?" He asked, quickly forgiving us as he was keen on learning sothing new and exciting.
"Yes and-" But it was too late. A massive, blue formation appeared right under our feet, spinning way faster than Sasha's. "Look at that..." I murmured, morizing the symbols as fast as I could.
"Leon!" Cried Sasha, and I watched her panic as a red formation materialized behind her, responding not to her mana but resonating directly with rlin's! A new fireball was forming in the hand of Sasha as she began sweating and breathing heavily. I could not feel any heat coming from it, which just made it more dangerous.
"Lord!" I heard Oleg's shout, already rushing in, but that would be useless anyway.
"Aim towards the sky!" I said, holding Sasha, helping her aim. When rlin managed to snap back to reality, he quickly began reigning in his powers, trying to turn them off.
The mont his formation disappeared, Sasha's spell blasted off, throwing all of us to the ground. Looking up towards the sky, I watched a bright sphere soar higher and higher, just like a rocket launch. It had to be a few kiloters high when it finally exploded. The sound reached us a second later, and it was like a dragon's roar, echoing through the whole region.
"Holy... shit!" I gasped, sitting up, "That was fucking aweso!" The ball of fire was still flickering and glowing in the sky, dying off very slowly.
"Lord!" I arrived at Oleg with another shout, inspecting first like I just survived an assassination attempt.
"We are fine, fine!" I waved my hand, checking on the two mages, and rlin was at the edge of tears again, feeling he had done sothing terrible. "Chin up, kiddo!" I grinned, patting his face, "This is what experints are about! This is progress!"
"If this is progress..." Sasha moaned, unable to move, "I want to rest before we make another advancent... I feel numb..."
"Like when we-"
"Shut up..." She groaned, turning red as a tomato, "Not before rlin..."
"What is it?" He asked sheepishly, returning to a good mood after my encouragent, and I couldn't help but tease them a little more.
"Nothing rlin~! Sasha here just peed herself the sa!"
"I DID NOT!"
"But you usually do when-"
"NOOOO, DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!"
This ti, I didn't hold back any laughs as I was not just happy but excited... Magic. Damn... I need to harvest its forms! If I can manage it... I will have rockets that can escape the pull of gravity before I invent any type of combustion engine!
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