AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 3, Spring, First Month, Third Week.

Alchemy is half ability and half effort, most times it takes countless tries to get an Array right and the testing part can become even more difficult. However, the Alchemists' complaints are basically focused on lack of resources. Since they left Caiset, the Alchemy Department had never experienced another shortage of materials. Of course, they could always work with a few extra hybrid crystals, but missing essential materials was another matter entirely.

Reiner ignored her husband's protests and continued to move towards the Hunting pavilion. Did he really think she was idle enough to stop working just because it was dark? Not everyone could have nice and healthy work hours like the Farming Department. She entered the pavilion and tried to locate Katlyn amongst the groups of hunters processing beasts, polishing weapons and preparing provisions. How could they work in such a disordered pavilion? In Reiner’s opinion, every task and workstation should have clear separations and identification.

“Katlyn dear, could I have a moment of your time?”

The Head of Hunting could barely hide her irritation behind a forced smile, she knew that over-politeness coming from the woman could only mean a difficult request. The two Councilwomen went to a private and more silent corner of the pavilion to discuss the request.

“Katlyn I need more MQ energy crystals and before you say the hunters need it to keep the perimeter safe, if we don’t get more crystals the department will not finish the scouting unit equipment nor the other essential projects in time…”

“This… Reiner, I understand what you’re saying but if we don’t have enough locators, beasts or other forces could sneak on us…”

“Argh… I already took all crystals in the LCs and with the crafters, but… If it’s like this, I’m truly sorry, but I have to…”

“Please, don’t say it…”

“… Request an emergency meeting.”

***

“The situation has become unsustainable. Our efficiency in transportation and crafting has dropped five or six times, everyone was just so used to using the magic tools…”

Suddenly, the number of magic tools that used MQ energy crystals grew to unsupportable numbers. Actually, everyone knew this was unavoidable but they decided to ignore it since they had other problems to deal with. The demand and supply for the MQ energy crystals were just too unbalanced. First, finding a MQ energy crystal, even inside the Forest, wasn’t as easy as finding LQ crystals. During the four months that they entered the Forest, the hunters only found ten crystals. While the number of tools that need them grew daily.

Just to power the magic re-drawers (operated non-stop), Johann barrier, the magic fields outside the camp, and the 15 surveillance teams, they spent 20 MQ crystals that couldn’t be shared in other tasks. Only leaving one MQ crystal for the Alchemy department to use for crafting and testing. They weren’t even counting the tools that had a better performance using a MQ energy crystal, like the carts, wood-cutters, LCs, earth construction tools, MACs, WET, magic excavator, practically all tools.

However, the problem escalated even further when Reiner started gathering the LQ crystals to use in the Alchemy Department’s tests. This solution ended up leaving a lot of workers magicless while it didn’t solve their testing problems, after all, in terms of power transference ten LQ could replace one MQ crystal, but in terms of quality and performance, not even 50 LQ would be enough.

Kanin, who always thought his wife was exaggerating, tried to de-escalate the situation:

“Tomorrow or in two days the green vegetables should be ready for harvest, so you can take our crystal back… Also, hasn’t Karl created the energy matrix to solve this?”

Karl saw that his mother was ready to kill his father, so he decided to intervene. Why did his parents always try to transform serious problems into family matters?

“No, dad… The matrix was a solution to share HQ energy between tools that needed it, it doesn’t help with the other dozens of tools in the camp…”

Because the barrier didn’t have to block MQ beasts the entire time, actually none until now, it didn’t use a lot of energy, so Karl designed an energy matrix to share the HQ energy with other tools. The signal attractor used to receive the communicators' signals was one of those tools. To improve the reach and guarantee the reliability of the signals, the tool used HQ energy. Karl also left an available connection for the Alchemy Department test tools that needed HQ energy.

He even allowed the disciples to start connecting a lot of tools until the barrier around the camp started to falter. Instead of just telling them, it was better to demonstrate what happens when they try to connect too many tools. Initially, they couldn’t comprehend how a crystal that should be a thousand times stronger than a LQ crystal would fail to provide the energy for dozens of tools. But everyone understood once Karl explained that what was limiting the supply of energy was the drawings and not the crystal. For example, the Extraction Array, which was responsible for extracting the crystal’s energy, could only extract so much energy at a time.

This limitation made them feel powerless to use the complete extent of the HQ crystal’s power, but only until they realized that once their abilities improved their drawings would become even more powerful. In the end, it would be Karl’s job to find a solution to the MQ energy problem.

“There’s a way to solve this, but I was avoiding it until we settled in the energy vein…”

Everyone waited for him to continue.

“A crystal mine…”

***

30 kilometers east of the camp.

The scouting unit responsible for marking the path of their journey and finding an appropriate location for their next temporary camp met an obstacle. Tael checked the locator’s reading for the third time but got the same result. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find a path to avoid the MQ beasts and move forward. He took a minute to consider his options until he made a decision.

“Let’s go back… If we don’t want to make a big detour, we’ll need the special unit to attract the beasts out of our path…”

***

In the Council pavilion.

“Councilors, excuse me…”

The assistant hurried to Reiner’s side and whispered a few words before leaving. The other Councilors looked at her waiting for an explanation.

“A team sent an urgent message… They located a group 42 kilometers in the Kingdom’s direction moving towards us.”

Strangely, everyone looked calm.

“Let’s start moving.”