Aether Engineering

Chapter 30

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

The last week and a half of instruction proved to be extremely tiring. In the mornings, Primrose would put the platoon through rigorous training that more than made up for their late start in combat training that month. Myles did so many repetitions of the snake step in its different forms, he had to actively stop himself from using it outside of training.

Their aether space class proved intense as always with Primrose introducing the basics of other mana types. She described how there were five main type of mana that could each be considered subtypes of pure mana. The group was drilled in intense detail about the differences between each of main types to the point where Myles thought he would never forget them.

Force mana was constantly in directional motion. Primrose described it as having a very rigid structure. In the aether space, it essentially took the texture of a series of flat walls, each following the last with the exact same motion. Primrose described the evocation of force mana to be generally useful for movement and combat.

Energy mana was similar, but instead of flat walls all moving together, its texture had rough tendrils that chaotically leapt over and around each other. When it came to energy mana, chaos seemed to be a theme. When evoked in its basic form, energy mana was highly unstable, often resulting in explosions.

Apparently, most subtypes of energy mana followed the same rules. Primrose had demonstrated that by evoking fire mana within a bubble of evoked pure mana. The resulting explosion had made Myles very glad that Primrose had thought to seal it off. It also made him give more credit to the runes they were using on their fire spears. Without the appropriate runes, their spears would simply blow up, un unideal scenario.

Earth mana was less about texture and motion than it was about density. This type of mana had to be packed down tightly to maintain its integrity. Primrose said that it was highly useful in a variety of situations. Its density allowed an arcaner to use it as a defensive or offensive option. Additionally, it could be used for mobility or traversal.

Primrose told a story of an arcaner using earth mana to build a bridge. As she told them how the bridge had allowed the arcaner to escape from a horde of monsters, Myles got the distinct impression that Primrose was telling a story about herself.

Air mana was the complete opposite of earth mana. It needed to be free to roam. This was one type of mana that Primrose praised for its utility. While it was next to useless for either attacking or defending, it could be used for perception. Because air mana wasn’t very dense, it could be evoked over a large area even with little mana. If an arcaner was skilled enough, they could potentially perceive their surroundings by the way air mana interacted with the world.

Fluid mana was perhaps the most unusual of the mana types. Its density was as important to it as to either earth or air mana, and it needed the proper density to exist. Beyond that though, fluid mana also had a distinctive motion that was in many ways more confusing than either force or energy mana.

Primrose had fewer stories to tell them about fluid mana than many of the others. Apparently, it wasn’t used quite as frequently. She told them that this was largely due to the lack of utility in its evocation. While it wasn’t unstable like energy mana, it also just wasn’t that useful. That didn’t mean that fluid mana was without benefit though. Some of the more controlled techniques that Primrose described sounded very useful. When asked how they were pulled off though, Primrose smiled and told them they would have to wait to learn that.

Primrose went through the intricacies of each type along with many of their more common subtypes even as the group was made to delve. They were all required to repeat the information back from Primrose’s randomly posed questions, so, they were forced to learn to listen and delve at the same time.

Kate had it worse than most since she was still being tutored by Reah. From what Myles could tell though, she had started making some small progress on her ‘affliction’. That seemed to keep her extremely motivated, a trait that she definitely needed.

Lunch was largely spent theorizing what tasks they would be assigned for their end-of-month exam. Kate and Seth insisted that they would be sent to hunt monsters like last time though they never agreed with the other on any of the possible monsters suggested. Those two seemed to have trouble getting along when they were face-to-face.

Mercy had proposed a theory that they would instead be sent after bandits. She claimed that now that they had unlocked the first connector, the same level as was minimally needed for active-duty soldiers, they would be assigned to face off against deserters or weak bandits.

Silas seemed to think that it would be a completely different task from last time, but he was resistant to offering a specific suggestion.

Myles and Jane didn’t participate in the debate at all. Instead, they got some preciously needed sleep.

True to his word, Vance had been able to find and supply them with the basium they would need to forge the three aether spears. Now, all of their spare time went into working on the spears. They had no room for error, so, they were meticulous about every step.

From their current use of mana, it was looking like the nobles would get their wish for a spear that could be used to send out marginal bursts of flame. They were just slightly ahead of their estimated mana amount due to the second core they drained being on the larger side in terms of mana capacity.

All that meant for Myles and Jane was more work though. They had to account for the hours it would take to perfectly engrave the rune that allowed for varying power output into the noble’s spear. It was no exaggeration to say that all of their time was accounted for.

The worst part of the daily routine was the nights though. Primrose had declared that it wasn’t enough that they could commute their pure mana armor around themselves at all waking hours, so, now, they all had to maintain it as they slept too.

The problem was that doing that was nearly impossible. For the last couple of days, the dorm room’s common area had been transformed with blankets and pillows. The blankets were actually used for their normal purpose, but the pillows were used as projectiles more often than for head support.

One would go flying across the room whenever anyone fell into too deep of a sleep, losing their armor. The group quickly found out that Silas was the heaviest sleeper of the lot. Even a barrage of pillows wouldn’t wake him up. Nobody was particularly willing to move from their positions though, so, they tended to throw whatever was close at hand, usually something much harder than a pillow.

The added incentive of avoiding harder objects seemed to be effective as Silas had been the only one to show any significant improvement. Everyone else simply paid for their incompetence with a lack of sleep.

All that meant was that when Primrose finally told them she was giving them their monthly assignment, she got six blank zombielike looks.

Myles quickly replaced his blank look with one of attentiveness when he finally processed what she was saying.

Primrose took a sheet out of her folder. “Squad 13.”

Mercy, Jane, and Seth stepped up nervously.

“You will be heading to the east. A town called Timberhelm lies there. The town’s main function is to provide a steady supply of drakewood for the use in forts across the Verith-Candis railroad. The wood is unique to the area and highly resistant to many types of arcaner attacks. The town is currently experiencing a very violent workforce strike. The conglomerate of faces has asked us to send you to attempt to resolve the problem in a less…confrontational manner than the soldiers they will soon be forced to send.”

Mercy nodded nervously. Myles didn’t envy them their task. He had no idea how they could possibly convince the workers to stop their strike. Not to mention, if Primrose described the situation as ‘very violent,’ Myles was afraid that the town was likely an all-out warzone. Still though, Myles could see the determination in the eyes of his three friends.

Primrose pulled the next piece of paper from her folder. “Squad 14.”

Myles stepped up alongside Kate and Silas.

“Your exam this month will be to head north to Hydrabridge.”

Myles recognized the name from a mini-lecture Professor Hazel had given him and Jane last month. As he recalled, there were mines there that brought up ray-crystals, a unique material that was extremely useful for aether engineering with energy mana.

Primrose continued without a pause. “When you arrive, you will meet the minister of education, a man called Rufus Lance.”

Myles noticed that Primrose’s face gave an involuntary twitch as she said the man’s name. Whoever this man was, Primrose did not like him.

“You will find Mr. Lance at a temporary command base setup in the area due to recent events. He will personally brief you on your mission there.”

Primrose seemed like she had finished talking, but Reah gave her a look from where she was sitting in the back of the room. Myles had been so tired; he hadn’t even noticed her when he came in.

Primrose seemed to sigh slightly. “I’m not usually one to give out warnings since you are meant to gather information about missions yourself, but I will make an exception here. Be weary of Rufus Lance. He will act in any way he can to make you put your guard down, but make no mistake, he is one of the most politically dangerous people in the province. He is also among the strongest arcaner’s in the province’s army.”

Myles felt a sense of unease run over him. The other squad’s mission had sounded terrifyingly difficult, but at least they had an idea of what they were walking into. Myles would be walking towards one of the most dangerous men in the province to help him with some unknown task.