Edwin paced restlessly in his new room. It may not look much like a prison cell, but that was apparently what it was, as the notification he was currently upset with testified.
Congratulations! For being forced into a non-paid working arrangent, you have unlocked the Slave path!
He knew for a fact he was never filling out that path. Still, looking at it was just making him mad, so he dismissed the ssage and took another look around his cell. Overall, his new surroundings were decently similar to his previous rooms, though not quite as large. There was still the bathtub in one corner, a bed on the other wall, and a table bearing so delicious-looking food located directly under a steel hatch, presumably for delivering more.
Really, the main change was simply where the door led to. Instead into the hallway, it instead opened into a fairly large workroom, with a layout vaguely familiar to Edwin. There was a large table in the center, a burning stove, a basin of water, and miscellaneous lab equipnt and glassware. While most of the implents werent entirely unfamiliar (only so many ways to set up balance scales, bowls, and sifters after all), though with slightly different dinsions, there were a few that were completely novel. The most interesting of these were an entirely sealed glass orb, a device that looked like a balance scale fixed in one position except there were glass bulbs instead of platforms, and a tightly-sealed hinged tal sphere.
A noise in the workroom broke Edwin out of his aimless thoughts. Moving to investigate, a none-too-welco face greeted him, You. I suppose this is typical for you? Taking half-dead people from the mountain and enslaving them the mont they have sothing you want? he spat.
Rashins face was unreadable as the door closed behind him, sealing into the wall without so much as a seam, Lord Sfashkchlil is fully within his rights to desire recompense for abusing our hospitality.
Abuse? Ha! I fell out of the sky not a week ago, have been here for two days, and demanded nothing! All I wanted was to not die out on the mountain. Just let go and keep your hairy noses out of my life! Youre just slavers, thats what you are.
You offered no gifts of thanks nor gave any indication when you would leave. Abuse of hospitality can be a serious offense, be thankful you are still alive after taking our clothes and eating such fine food with neither thanks nor indication of intent to leave. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You are not a slave in the slightest, rely a worker, free to go once your debt is paid. Your Task is to develop Blackstone through whatever ans necessary, and to do so is to be your only concern.
Edwin glared at the scheming dwarf, This was intentional. I dont have the faintest clue about your customs nor the value of what you freely gave , and you know that. You even provided with finer conditions once you heard about the sorts of things I might- might!- be able to provide, which I suppose was just to get in debt? Youre slavers, plain and simple, his eyes narrowed even further, Youre going to keep throwing deeper into owing you, arent you? Thats why this food is even nicer than before, isnt it?
Not at all. We are a hospitable clan, we do not wish for your ti in our service to be uncomfortable, the traitorous dwarf lied.
They stared each other down, Edwin glaring at the mass of silver hair, who returned a cheery gaze even as as the dwarf lied directly to Edwins face.
Eventually, the tension was too much, and Edwin broke the silence, What do you even need to make Blackstone, anyway? Isnt that your whole thing? Clan Blackstone and all?
That is classified.
Edwin glared.
You are not allowed to know that.
I know what classified ans, darn it! I just How do you expect to make the stupid rock if I dont even know where to start? At least give so of your lab manuals or a paper on the stuff, though I dont know why you couldnt- Edwin stopped as a thought occurred to him, You dont know how to make it, do you? Soone in your glorious Legacys past didnt write the instructions down and now youre floundering, looking for any chance you stumble across to try and find it again. You do need , because concrete is the closest thing youve heard of to whatever fragnts you know about it. You could have just asked! I would have gladly helped you out in thanks!
If that is so, Outsider Edwin, Rashin glowered, throwing sothing at Edwin, Prove it.
Edwin fumbled for a mont to catch the sudden projectile, but looking at it showed that it was a thin notebook of so sort, Whats this?
What I ca here to deliver, and conveniently, what you requested. Notes on the properties of Blackstone, copied by my own hand. Solve it, and you can go free.
No, you wont. That will just make even more valuable. And if Blackstone is really so important to you, youd never let go knowing your secret, Edwin thought as he thumbed through the notebook, I dont even know how to make concrete! Let alone whatever black magic Alchemy stuff itll take to make your stupid rocks. I need to at least learn how to use alchemy if you dont want flailing around blind.
Then I suggest you do so.
How am I supposed to do that?
That, Outsider Edwin, is your job. We shall keep our hairy noses out of your life. That is what you wanted, no?
With a wordless cry, Edwin threw the closest heavy object- a tal bowl- at Rashin, but missed by a few inches.
Such a temper. It wouldnt do for you to break anything you might later need, would you? Do let us know what materials you shall need.
Rashin knocked on the wall, prompting the door to swing open and latch shut a mont later, vanishing back into the wall, and Edwin found himself alone with his thoughts once more. He vaguely wished he could have rushed out the door and left this whole ss around, but before he could act on it, the mont was gone.
Stupid treacherous dwarf, stupid alchemy, stupid world, he muttered to himself before regaining his composure. His burning anger faded quickly, which made Edwin wonder. Did Rashin have so form of emotion-manipulating skill? It would explain why Edwin felt so trusting of him, and the sudden wave of anger when he was visited now. How far did that extend? Was there more mind-control in play? It would be sothing hed have to keep in mind. He did feel his thoughts continually drift to concrete, which was odd. Was that another Skill, ant to keep him on task? He could ignore it, but it was annoying. Easier to just go along with what it was prompting him to do, which was admittedly fine for the mont.
Idly, he looked through the notebook, glancing at its specifications.
Sheesh. I can see why they want this stuff. Stronger than steel, barely denser than water, magic resistant, supposedly liquid until set, insanely good insulator, almost entirely scratch-proof. Heck, I want this stuff now! But first things first. Start with concrete and see what I can get from there.
Water, sand, and cent, right? Was there sothing else? Cross that bridge when we get there. What is cent made of, though? Li? Uh calcium carbonate? Are those the sa thing? Is there li in listone? Gah, I wish I had the internet right now.
I need a notebook. And so listone. And so samples of Blackstone, see if I can learn anything from that, He looked out over his workroom,eyes narrowed and hard, But they have another thing coming if they think theyre getting any Blackstone from . You locked in a cave, and I have way more than just a box of scraps.
Edwins Logbook
Day 1:
Analyzed samples of sand, listone, and Blackstone.
Blackstone sample held up to reported attributes. Unable to scratch or crush with available tools, slightly heavier than water, and did not heat up when exposed to fla nor cool in water, staying at a constant warmth.
Attempting to use Mana Infusion on Blackstone failed, the skill finding no purchase on the material. Seems to function as a mana mirror? Needs more testing. Basic Mana Sense was apparently disabled. Re-enabling it resulted in montary sensory overload, and so disabled it again afterwards. Note to self: train mana sense tolerance.
Initial attempts at extracting li from listone via crushing probably unsuccessful (no way to check). Crushed samples now soaking in water to see if that helps.
Listone, when Mana Infused, grew harder. Unable to crush samples post-infusion. Established a second cauldron to attempt to soak Infused listone.
Sand seed normal. The magical fires in the workroom are not quite hot enough to lt it (seems close, though), so uncertain if silicon (proceeding under the assumption it is, not that it makes a difference?).
Infused Sand has odd properties. Outsiders Almanac recognizes it as a distinct material compared to non-infused sand. Individual sand grains have no apparent change, but refuse to pile together, spreading out like a liquid. When held in a container, they flow like water.
Hypothesis: friction on Infused sand has been reduced or is negligible.
Trial: Spread layers of Infused and non-infused sand out and compare the force required to move an object across the bed of sand
Conclusion: Infused sand refuses to support weight. Any objects placed on top of Infused sand imdiately falls through as though sinking through water. Trial inconclusive.
Hypothesis: sand has taken on the properties of a liquid
Trial: Attempt to mix with another liquid (using unspecified oil for non-polar liquid, water for polar liquid)
Conclusion: Infused sand refused to mix with either water or oil, instead sinking to the bottom of the respective containers. Was wet and oily respectively when retrieved, and the two samples had no issues mixing with each other.
Trial: Attempt to asure viscosity and buoyant force.
Conclusion: Viscosity of Infused sand appears to be close to 0, and buoyancy is negligible.
Hypothesis: each grain of sand has an upwards force on it, nearly cancelling the weight of gravity on it, like in aerated sand.
Trial: compare equal volus of Infused and non-infused sand on scales to compare weight.
Conclusion: Infused sand has the sa weight as non-infused Sand.
Congratulations! For conducting rigorous scientific research via the scientific thod, you have unlocked the Scientist path!
Edwin sat back with a sigh, rubbing his forehead as he completed his latest notebook entry, an act more intensive than he would have thought. How did anyone ever write with a feather quill? That thing was impossible to use! The Infused sand was definitely behaving as a fluid, though the how was beyond him. It seed to basically act how people thought quicksand worked- sucked whatever touched it imdiately all the way to the bottom. But he couldnt imagine how that physically worked, and there was no way hed accept just magic as an answer long-term. Hed have to for now, though, as sand wasnt close enough to concrete for his focus to stay on it long-term, apparently.
After he had tried and failed to use Mana Infusion on Blackstone, he wondered if it was just a matter of making concrete with supercharged magical ingredients. He had the second part of that down, at least. Though if he was dealing with an almost-superfluid with sand, he wasnt sure if that would interfere with the concrete-making process. Hed have to make a nonmagical patch of concrete first, then add magic one ingredient at a ti.
Despite his frustration with actually asuring its properties, he could barely contain his glee at his Infused sand overall. Hed been at this for less than a day, had really only tried using magic on three (well, four if you counted his bath the other day) different types of material, and he had already found an object really close to a room-temperature superfluid! What else might he find with just a bit more experintation?
He was done for the day, though. Edwins body clock was all off, but he was starting to feel tired, and the listone would need to soak overnight anyway before any further steps probably. He could be totally off, for all he knew. Maybe concrete didnt need li, or li wasnt actually in listone thanks to so weird linguistic quirk. Most likely, listone wasnt water soluble, but he needed to be thorough.
Only one way to find out, I suppose.
Edwin flopped onto his bed with a loaf of bread and his dwarven. He didnt have anything better to do, might as well try and learn the dwarven language. Perhaps hed be able to get a book on alchemy at so point? That would be a huge help. There was no way sothing as incredible as Blackstone didnt involve it in so way. He was running blind in far too many directions, and didnt like it. Maybe he should next focus on filling his Physical Alchemist path? That seed like the most promising avenue to explore.
And that was all without even touching how he would be able to escape. That would require a whole host of tools, hed need to be prepared to survive in the wilderness again, and he needed so way to break out of his room. Plus, hed need to do it while under an unknown level of surveillance and with an inability to directly think about it for extended periods of ti, because it wasnt hard enough already. Any weapons he created would have to not only be essentially untested, unless he wanted to risk them finding out he wasnt just working on Blackstone, but also using materials and thods similar to concrete. All Edwin could really do was hope that he happened to stumble across sothing weaponizable in his research, which was a dubious prospect, but he also knew that compounds could have all sorts of unexpected properties.
Heck, was it even so bad to be only researching concrete, really? He got to do magical research, didnt have to interact with anyone, and had food and shelter basically for free! The thought of being a slave, though, even if the work wasnt too bad, was not the life he wanted. No. He needed to get out, and the sooner the better. All of that, though, required him to be stronger, to complete more Paths, to advance his Skills. He could do all of that during his research, probably. It was a long road ahead of him, but honestly?
Level Up!
Language Level 14
Research Level 2026
Nutrition Level 67
Mana Infusion Level 212
Outsiders Almanac Level 2425
Improvisation Level 1112
Basic Mana Sense Level 2123
Throwing Weapons Level 34
Breathing Level 1011
Hed be lying if he said the compulsion was the only thing making him look forward to it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)