Chapter 195: Efficiency

Enchanting was quite the unique process. For a world without computers, it was eerily like software engineering, except there were four programming languages, one for each of the elements. If you were only using one element, things were simple, but as soon as you used two, or three, or god forbid, all four, things rose in complexity horribly quickly. 

That wasn’t even mentioning that the languages weren’t necessarily complete. Until every possible spell and bit of information was unearthed, including the deepest intricacies unknown to all but the most powerful warlocks to ever live, the languages wouldn’t ever be completed. It was like the laws of physics. We knew what we knew and had to work within the limits of our own flawed understandings. 

Thankfully there was more than enough to work with as it was. I didn’t need to concern myself with discovering anything. What I went on to learn over my first month working in Sawn Industries involved everything regarding designing enchantments. It was the difference between learning a programming language and actually creating a program yourself. 

Perhaps expectedly though, it came to me almost too easily. My powers of visualization were the single greatest tool for developing enchantments where entire structures had to be, well, visualized. It was like a game inside my head. I already knew what all the pieces did; I just had to match them together and, by consequence of everything else, the enchantment either worked or didn’t. I could imagine what the enchantment would do before I even got it out of my brain. 

The only unfortunate part of this whole thing was the fact that I couldn’t modify my Mind Palace and install a dedicated workshop there. My mind was a bit too rigid for that at the moment. I’d have to wait for my next advancement, but when that came, I had a list of changes ready to implement. This would only get easier. 

Ovidius was quite shocked at how quickly I was able to understand what he was teaching me. It wasn’t enough to simply memorize the details of all the parts and pieces. You had to comprehend what it all did and then extrapolate what the various pieces would do when they came together and their functions compounded. 

I could understand it as if I were being told by someone else what the enchantment would do. The information flowed freely in my mind and when Ovidius would hand me an enchantment, I could tell him whether it would work, if it was broken, or if it was fractured and how to fix it. 

At some point I started seeing deficiencies even in the most basic arrays, and that’s when my understanding of all this really started to take off. 

The enchantment system of this world started to form in my mind, coming together until it became a logical chain. In other words, it clicked, and before my month of training ended I started memorizing dozens of various enchantments. I memorized those both simple and complex, loading up on data that I could think about when I went back to the Treehouse. 

Even before that though, I figured something out about enchanting. Not just how one or many pieces functioned, but a core foundational rule and function of the way enchanting worked. 

It came to me one late night in the Spire. I had three days before leaving to go back to the Treehouse and I had gotten engrossed in my work for the eighth time since coming here. It was like my body knew that I’d be leaving soon and it wanted to put me in a trance whenever it could. 

I quite enjoyed it, especially since Ovidius didn’t mind letting me get extra sleep whenever I stayed late. 

I tabbed through a dozen or so formations and arrays on my huge workstation. The massive screen fluttered with images of pure Psyka, the entire thing a giant Orb for me to use and manipulate with my mind as I saw fit. 

After gathering up a few of the formations I saw I brought them to another screen where I plastered them all together, almost instantly drawing up the connections between them and turning them into one big whole. 

It was a relatively simple enchantment despite the number of components. According to Ovidius, this particular enchantment was a valuable teaching enchantment because of how complex its formation was despite the simple function. 

It was a fire element enchantment designed to make a White Crystal emit heat. Not fire, not hot air, but simply emit heat. It would heat up the device around the crystal, one usually made of some kind of metal, and the metal would conduct and emit that heat in turn. 

With the size of this one, it was basically a hand warmer, but the enchantment could be scaled to have myriads of applications such as temperature regulation in fancy clothes, vehicles, homes to heat up water, roadways to melt snow, and more. 

The most complex part of the enchantment came from the on and off switch that was implemented. There were also several other conditional switches that could be built in, such as to only activate at certain temperatures, to maintain certain temperatures, to activate at different times of the day. This was where I got some inspiration. 

The most important detail to me though was when I saw the insulation. 

Turns out, energy leaked from these enchantments. Go figure, I had learned this long before. However, what made it particularly outstanding was the fact that these leaks, usually of mana, didn’t just radiate from the enchantments. They could pass through anything trying to block them, to insulate them. 

That wasn’t possible on this scale unless it acted like one of the fundamental forces. 

The Electromagnetic Force. 

Electricity, and magnetism, operated the same way. That’s why wires had rubber insulation on them. If they didn’t, wires that were close together would be interfering with each other, data cables would get their data messed up as the electromagnetic forces reached out across space to push and pull on other electrons or charges. 

That’s why the more powerful the cable, the more insulation it needed. Even then, up the voltage enough and electricity would find a ground, whether the humans nearby liked it or not. 

I started finding that these enchantments operated in much the same way as electricity. Not completely, because magic still broke a few fundamental laws and that part still drove me up the wall. But it was similar enough that it could influence design philosophy, and I immediately latched onto that. 

My degree would not be for nothing!

Of course, it didn’t help me immediately solve the insulation issue. That would come later once I could experiment. However, it did affect how I approached developing these magical circuits. 

Would I be able to make a magic computer anytime soon? Not necessarily, even if it might be possible. However, magic followed the amateur logic gates that the people here at Sawn Industries developed, and that meant I could take their designs to a whole new level of complexity and efficiency. 

My last three days in the capital passed with that excitement at the forefront of my mind. I couldn’t even explain to Ovidius what I was so excited about. I couldn’t show him yet, not because I didn’t want to, but because I’d have to spend some time actually improving designs first. He’d have to wait until the next month I was here. 

But it was a lot of food for thought. I’d be pondering this stuff at the Treehouse. 

The only unfortunate thing was how I’d actually have to go back. 

That dreaded day soon came. 

“I don’t wanna.”

“You need to go.”

“I wanna stay.”

“You’ll be branded a deserter.”

“Just tell them that I’m staying to work here from now on.”

“It was hard enough getting you for as long as I did. You had to go make yourself important. They’d skin me alive if I tried to take you away from the front lines for good. Blame yourself.”

“Ugh…”

I grunted at Sawn’s ruthless words, slumping over my workstation. 

After sitting there for a handful of seconds I rose back up and tapped the screen a few times. 

“Well, while I’m gone you can go over my work. Let me know if I’m actually right.”

“Regarding what?”

“I’ve changed a few things in some of the schematics I was actually able to go over. There are only three of them and I don’t know if I’ve finished making the changes completely, but it’s close and it should paint the picture.”

“Hm.”

Sawn hummed while looking over at the schematics I pulled up on the screen. At that point I glanced at my Aerial. I had a bit of time before my Rail departure but the window was closing and there was something I wanted to do before then. 

“I’ve improved efficiency, putting it simply. Let me know if it works though. It’s not like I’ve been able to test anything.”

“… Very well. I’ll review your work. You should go.”

“Mm. See you next month.”

“Indeed.”

Sawn nodded as I lit a cigar, walking out and puffing a bit of smoke into the area.

After leaving the Magic Spire, I looked down at my Aerial and brought up a new message, typing a response. 

I hadn’t necessarily had time before, but I happened to have a bit of time now and I was particularly interested in finally getting my hands on an item only now decipherable. 

I headed over to the Founder’s Market, bypassing dark and shady streets like they were my old stomping grounds. It felt like ages since I’d been to some of these places. I could even remember the location of my first delivery with Plex. 

Shrugging, I came upon a little mask shop with an open door. There were a few parents and children in the area, many of them wanting for the pretty masks, most of them too poor to get anything beyond something incredibly basic. It seemed Aki was generous though. Every child walked away with something. 

I picked out the kitsune mask pretty quickly, Aki raising her head as soon as I took a single step in. Now that I got a good look at her after all this time on the battlefield, I realized how good her Aura was. 

It was actually sharper than mine, elusive, threatening to escape my senses should I let it. No wonder I hadn’t even thought about it before. 

“John! It’s good to see you!”

“Hi Aki.”

I gave her a smile as she finished up with a customer, giving me a quick, habitual bow before waving me over. 

“Come come, I have the booklet!”

I followed as we went to her back room full of supplies and crafting tools. She took the booklet out of a pocket storage and handed it to me once the door closed behind us. 

“I’m sorry it took so long. Some of his Japanese seeped into the formations themselves and it was difficult to decipher what he was trying to say. Some things are also incomplete as well, but I’ve gone over everything I could.”

“That’s very alright. I’ve been caught up with the military myself so it’s not like I was the one waiting on you.”

I took the booklet as well as another copy of a near identical booklet. One was the original, completely untouched, the other was the translated version. 

I set them down on a table and flipped through both, shocked at how thorough she was. She even wrote down when translations were either vague or multi-faceted, allowing me to interpret it multiple ways. 

“Wow. Thank you so much, Aki. This is incredible.”

“Don’t mention it. You bought it anyway. That money got me this home and business. It’s the least I can do. I have something else for you as well.”

She handed me a bound stack of papers. 

“This is everything I know on Invocations. It’s not much, but it details the processes, the materials, and any other small details I could pick up on and remember. Since you’re a summoner and studied engineering on Earth, I figured you were dabbling in enchanting and could do something with this.”

“I’ve actually taken a deep dive into enchanting recently, so yes, this’ll be great material to study from.”

I flipped through the papers, scanning and memorizing certain key words and sections unconsciously. Aki and I had discussed many things back when we first met, and besides, it wasn’t far fetched to assume a summoner was doing something with enchanting.

The only issue was that I couldn’t do much with this right now. From quick glances it seemed like Invocations were a field of their own separate from enchanting, and I didn’t want to risk exposing this information and catching attention. 

I decided to just keep it hidden for now. Maybe when I got more resources I could properly dabble in the field. If it was anything like Crowns, I’d need much more than just an enchanting workstation. 

“I’ll make good use of it.”

“I know you will. Also… I have some information.”

“What’s that?”

“I was approached by the Church recently.”

Aki’s tone fell, but I didn’t sense any particular fear or urgency from her. This didn’t seem like anything bad, at least as it pertained to her. 

“I don’t know who it was but they invited me to help them study Invocations at the Holy See. I happen to be rather adept with them so they were going to bring me on as a researcher, to help them figure out how to use them.”

“…That implies that they figured out how to create and implant them. I know they have the legacies from other people from the Pillars, but I didn’t expect this so soon. Did you accept?”

I cut off my train of thought and looked back up at her. She nodded.

“Yes. They’re going to give me a salary and it’s frankly too much to pass up. I don’t exactly enjoy living in the Founder’s Market. I also want to help in their fight against the Scourge, even if it doesn’t matter all that much.”

“That’s good. Every little bit matters, no matter how small. We’ll need everything to face this enemy. I myself am going to be mirroring some of Earth’s technology as I develop some enchantments. Hopefully it’ll be enough to bolster the Kingdom’s military.”

“Ooh, that’s amazing. Going to make some planes?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. Air superiority is the name of the game.”

“Hehe, spoken like a true American.”

“Damn straight. Only reason I didn’t become a pilot was because I’m too tall. Shorties couldn’t handle all this Texan muscle.”

“Hahaha….”

Aki laughed as I stood and flexed on what could have been. 

……

Sawn looked over at Ovidius, who sat in a nearby chair by John’s workstation. Since John was gone they could review his work on the desk, and Sawn wanted to go over this stuff now, though he wasn’t sure what John had been eluding to when he left.

He pointed to the screen and looked over at Ovidius.

“What did he do?”

“I’m not entirely sure. He said he had a breakthrough and then went off doing his own thing. He’s spent the past three days modifying our enchantments and he didn’t let me look or help.”

“Well, now is the time to do just that. Come with me.”

Sawn grabbed the Orb that sat on the workstation. It contained the data and it was time to review John’s work. 

The two made their way into Sawn’s office, placing the Orb onto his personal workstation and bringing up the schematics on a screen that took up half the wall. 

The two were silent as they scanned the first schematic. It was the heating enchantment, the one most often used for learning and teaching. It was both basic and complex, and most importantly, hadn’t been improved upon in nearly two decades. Most didn’t bother because it was efficient and it worked perfectly fine. Any improvements would be minuscule at best and weren’t worth the hours put into it. 

This enchantment looked completely different though. It didn’t have any of the conditional switches implemented, nothing but a simple on and off switch that let out a fixed heat. It was the most simple iteration of the enchantment and yet the two could barely recognize it. 

The design was a third of the complexity and twice as compact. If it were enchanted onto a device, it would be six times smaller. 

Not only that, but the remaining complexity looked like a redundancy built into the heating system. What it did, Sawn wasn’t sure, but when he ran a virtual test on it, the results were positive. That meant it at least worked. 

“…Get me a heating shell and an Authority 4 White Crystal.”

“On it.”

Ovidius ran out, going to another facility where he grabbed the requested items, and ran back. 

He placed the two objects onto a desk, Sawn grabbing the shell and planting the crystal into the designated slot. After that he took out one of his personal enchanting tools, a Mana Quill and Eyecrystal, placed the device onto his workstation, clamped it down, and went to work. 

The enchanting was done quickly, Sawn having engraved his mana into the device following the simple schematics. Then he tuned the White Crystal to the device according to John’s specifications before bringing over some measurement tools. 

After three different devices were in place, Sawn activated them and the device. The heater, a thick metal plate without any outstanding features beyond the slightly protruding White Crystal, started to heat up. The devices measured the heat as well as how much energy the Crystal put out to run the enchantments. 

After a few minutes the numbers came back, Sawn’s eyes widening just a second after Ovidius’. 

“…What’s the efficiency change, Ovidius?”

“Just by the energy used, it’s about four times more efficient. If we also factor in the size and scalability… over 20 times more efficient. It also seems to leak nearly zero Magika.”

“Haha…”

Ovidius glanced over as Sawn started laughing, barely managing to stifle his excitement. 

“I knew it… I knew it! Do you still doubt me, Ovidius?”

“I never really doubted you, sir. I just didn’t expect this much…”

“Neither did I! And yet here it is. Just this innovation alone could make us hundreds of thousands of gold and save us a few times that over the next five years… And that’s just for a simple heating device. Can you imagine what we can apply these efficiency improvements to?”

Sawn’s eyes were wide in anticipation, Ovidius nodding as he thought of the thousands of applications. Efficiency and leakage were the two problems plaguing the entire enchanting industry. 

He hadn’t thought John would be able to solve it. Even if he didn’t solve it completely, the improvements he would bring were invaluable. 

Suddenly, Sawn snapped. 

“Nobody must hear of this, understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Wipe his workstation, and I’ll keep this Orb with me. Next month he will train with you in a private setting. I will build him an office on this floor. Give me a list of everything you two will need, and develop an accelerated curriculum with curated enchantments and schematics. I want him in R&D by the end of the next month at the latest.”

“It will be done. He is smart enough to pull that off.”

“I know he is. That’s why I started trying to recruit him as soon as he won the Magisterium’s tournament.”

Sawn rubbed his chin, Ovidius giving him a knowing glance. 

“He will be a summoner whose name echoes through the annals of history. In some way he already is… and I will not squander this chance. Perhaps the Lord has finally heard our cries for an enchanter to rival Gearworks. I’ll have to arrange things with his General, perhaps get a workstation built over there. Maybe I can give him more time to work if we set something up…”

Sawn retreated into his own mind, a mess of thoughts and plans, occasionally throwing something out to Ovidius standing by the side to record on a piece of paper. He would forget things later and would need reminding. 

Sometimes, Ovidius thought that Sawn was actually a summoner at heart, mistakenly born into a warlock’s body.

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