AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 2, Winter, Third Month, First Week.

“Excuse me… Where’s the department’s Head?”

Wein refrained himself from cursing the aloof crafter who took ages to locate and bring Alfeur, the man wasn’t guilty of his bad humor. That would be his boss, who was also his Master’s mother. She was the one that gave him the unrewardable task of leading the team responsible for the earth builder. Wein pleaded to work in the energy detoxifying tool, but of course, the job would fall into the hands of the star of the Alchemy Department, his fellow direct disciple and archenemy, Anya.

Fortunately, constructing the prototype of the tool only took two days, maybe he would be able to finish this fast and move on to a more important project soon. Wein followed Alfeur to a clear space near the western border of the camp, which had been specially prepared to build the earthen hut. After he explained the tool’s functionally to the Head of crafting, Alfeur passed orders to prepare a few things.

The first test would be trying to erect the earth wall without any special preparations. Wein passed the tool to Alfeur, who excitedly crouched and placed the wooden plank in the ground. With the Alchemist’s approval, Alfuer pressed the activator. The shine spread through the Arrays, making the plank glow as the soil in front of the tool started to stir. Without warning, the soil was pushed upwards while being solidified, earning smiles and awe reactions from all crafters present until the solidified section fell to the side.

The excited reactions quickly turned into disappointment and concern. Wein could only sigh in disbelief, did these fellows believed that their magic tools worked on the first try? Which tool hadn’t take four or five adaptations before operating in minimum conditions? The few tools that achieved complete satisfaction of the department shouldn’t amount to three, and they too passed through dozens of modifications until they were deemed to be the final version.

After placating the disappointed crafters, Wein in his three assistants (practically slaves) made a few modifications to the tools. In the second test, the earth builder performed considerably better but still couldn’t leave a complete wall standing. Soon, the problem became clear to everyone, once the soil was pulled from the ground the base became unstable even when they tried to erect the wall in a small hill.

To the crafters' relief, the solution appeared after a few minutes of discussion. To avoid leaving the base unstable, they would have to separate the processes, first, they would gather and pilled up the necessary soil to build the wall, then they would harden it. The solution added to the time of construction but that could be improved later. Since they would need to make bigger modifications to the tool, they decided to make the pile of soil manually just to test the hardening part. Isolating the two parts of the Array was easy for Wein, he even used the earth-moving part to help the crafters to pile up the soil. In the end, the hardening effect did its job and they finally built the first earth wall in the camp.

Since they had two MQ earth crystals, they decided to leave the semi-working tool with the crafters, so they could test ways of making the walls sturdier and the job more efficient. Wein’s group would dedicate the next two days to finalize the tool and build a few working prototypes. However, they already had the final design on their mind and only the Arrays sizes and drawing concentration would need to be tested and adjusted.

The earth builder would need to be separated into two tools, one tool for moving a large quantity of soil and another to harden the soil. The first tool would use strengthened and increased earth affinity to push the soil. So, a Property Extraction Array (star form with a LQ earth crystal inside) combined with the Focus Rune to strengthen the affinity and attract more soil, and a Direction Array (triangle form) to push the effect forward with a Stimulus Rune inside to increase the area of effect.

The second tool would be responsible for hardening the soil in the form of a wall. So, an Extract Property Array (star form) to get the harden property from a MQ earth crystal, combined with a Stimulus Rune that would help increase the harden property’s area of effect, and a Direction Array (triangle form) to spread the effect in the form of the wooden plank (rectangular) while pushing it forward.

***

“We agree.”

Lew breathed a sigh of relief, waiting half an hour for an answer that might also come with an attempt of capturing him, put some pressure on his nerves. However, he couldn’t relax just yet. Although he felt more comfortable dealing with Adventurers than Merchants, the last would have clearer motivations. Still, he had a good feeling about this cooperation, the other party seemed sincere.

“So, how do we proceed?”

Lew smiled and answered while leaving.

“Tomorrow… Tomorrow we’ll take you there.”

The night came and left fast, without any incidents. A little after dawn, Lew and Samia walked into the Adventurers’ camp. To play safe, they decided to send the other two hunters back to the camp to inform them better of the recent events, after all, there was only so much they could pass through the communicator. Samia looked calm and inexpressive, while some Adventurers didn’t hide the fact that they still held some grudge from their previous encounter. The leading Fighter and the wind Mage also observed her closely, but more out of curiosity than anger.

“Let’s move?”

Again, Samia was tied by slow walkers, even more than with her team, not that she would say something. Fortunately, with a steady pace, they ended up covering the eight kilometers in two hours, much earlier than Samia expected. The leading Fighter observed the stone cave suspiciously before saying:

“This looks a little… Are you sure a MT beast is hibernating inside?”

The two “tribals” looked unconcerned by the other group's scrutiny. Lew only answered casually:

“We could go inside first and check it…”

The leading Fighter exchanged an agreement nod with the wind Mage before leaving with Lew. The level of staring at Samia seemed to have grown even higher, but she continued to ignore it.

The Fighter encouraged Lew to enter the cave first and he didn’t argue, however, he took a MQ energy crystal and started to absorb its energy, which was also copied by the other party. The cave didn’t look deep, but it was dark enough to make them move forward carefully. After passing through a strangely narrow passage, the two Fighters arrived at the biggest and probably last room of the cave.

They couldn’t see much because of the darkness, but both of them already started pushing energy towards their eyes. The dark scene in front of them started to become clearer until they finally saw the complete picture. Fortunately, their training kicked in and prevented them from making any panicked or shocked noises. They didn’t have to communicate to agree on leaving the cave immediately. Strangely, they felt even more on edge when exiting the cave than when entering without knowing the kind of danger that waited inside.

The Adventurers felt relieved seeing their leader coming out, but then, her expression made them feel scared. The wind Mage was the only one composed enough to make a question.

“What happened? Didn’t you found the beast?”

“Oh… We did, but…”