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Chapter 214 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World
🕑 Added 2025-04-11 21:45:56 +0000 UTCAlice took a few moments to look over her rewards for all of her enchanting work. Over the past few weeks, Alice had done quite a bit of enchanting - which, naturally, came with a set of rewards in terms of levels.
You have leveled up!
Careful Enchanter: 50 -> 54
Sadly, Alice hadn’t quite hit the break point for another Perk yet. Alice wasn’t entirely sure what she was hoping to get out of her next Perk, but she was sure that more perks were useful, at least. As much as Alice still thought that [Careful Enchanter] fit her needs and goals better than an enchanting class focused on mass production, perhaps what she really needed right now was a way to pump out enchantments faster. A Perk could have helped with that. However, since she didn’t get a new Perk, the only boost she had gotten was a very minor boost in her instincts related to enchanting. Hardly a notable change.
Alice sighed, before she shook her head and put her levels out of her mind. If she didn’t get a new Perk, she didn’t get a new Perk. She had to focus on changes she could make, not things she wished had happened. Right now, she needed to focus on setting up the Artifact. Over the past week and a half, they had gotten the Artifact to a point where it could be used - now, they needed to execute their plans.
This also posed a new problem.
Where was the Artifact to be installed? There was only one Artifact, and Ethan was Illvarian. Demor had helped them, but he was Morendian. Whichever country the Artifact was installed in, it would essentially mean the other country was being left to its fate.
Alice shook her head, and decided to toss that question Ethan’s way. Alice wasn’t very good at politics, and this seemed like a political problem. Though a part of Alice wondered if that wasn’t the same thing as handing the Artifact to Illvaria with extra steps - after all, Ethan was Illvarian. There was no question where his loyalty laid. Alice had also landed in Illvaria first when she came to this world, and while there were some things that she wasn’t used to in this world, she felt that Illvaria had mostly done right by her. Perhaps a better thing to do was to find a way to help Morendia too?
As Alice mulled over that thought, she started looking back through her other Perks, and realized that {System’s Ambition} had come off cooldown. {Magic Modelling} still had a few days left before it recharged, since she had used it to look at the Society’s artifact during their week and a half long research binge. However, {System’s Ambition} was currently sitting around, waiting to be used again. That meant she could form up to four new magic seeds, and combine them all with her already-existing compound magic seed. At the very least, Alice felt that she should use one of the four magic seed creation opportunities - using even one would make the Perk start its cooldown. Then, she could wait a few more weeks before she decided what other seeds she needed, if any.
What mana types did she need?
Before the Perk had come off cooldown, Alice had used up the last two seed slots that she had saved from her last use of {System’s Ambition}. The first seed slot had been used to integrate Coding mana into her compound seed, since it had obvious synergy with reality mana and worked as a good way to store information. The other seed slot Alice had saved had been used for Organic mana, since Alice already knew it was part of the System. Now that the Perk had refreshed, Alice had four new seed slots she needed to use up.
Alice’s first thought was Reality mana. Regardless of how the real System handled people’s beliefs, Alice clearly needed some way to deal with it, and Reality mana had proven effective enough for her needs. As long as she made a good enough description of reality, she could suppress the changes wrought by human belief upon the laws of physics and the environment, which would prevent all of the worst belief-related catastrophes, and that was what she needed right now.
Right now, Alice could use {Experimental Magic} to generate all sorts of ‘weird’ types of mana that she wanted to use for further experimentation. However, she was becoming increasingly aware that Reality mana was needed for her future goals, and in quantities that {Experimental Magic} had no way to provide.
Thus, without further hesitation, she created a new Reality mana seed, and integrated it into her increasingly complex compound magic seed. That was one of her four new magic seeds done.
What did she need for the other three? Did she want to save this opportunity, or form more new magic seeds right away?
Alice hesitated. There were a lot of different core functions of magic that she still needed… but most of them were more auxiliary, rather than desperate needs. Alice had found ways to get by so far, since she had {Experimental Magic} to compensate for what she was lacking. It was far from a perfect solution, but it was good enough for now. As much as there were other types of magic that Alice wanted, she had already departed from the original design of the System and started going her own way. That also meant that she didn’t want to waste her seed creation opportunities unless she really needed something.
Alice sighed, and decided to wait. She could always add in a few more magic seeds when she needed to, but she only had three more seed creation opportunities for the next month. She wasn’t sure how many more months this world had left. If she made a misstep that cost her a month of time, the world might end before she had an opportunity to rectify her mistake. She wouldn’t hesitate if she realized she needed something, but she wouldn’t go crazy wasting opportunities, either.
With her Perk-related decisions finished, Alice sighed. Her thoughts once again returned to the question of where to set up the Artifact. She glanced out of her bedroom window at Morendia, for what was possibly one of the last times, and then started walking towards Ethan’s room. She knocked on the door, and a moment later, Ethan opened it.
“Is there anything left for us to do here?” asked Alice as she stepped inside.
Ethan paused, and then shook his head. “We have the Artifact functioning, and while we don’t have the Statue working properly, I’m not sure if we want to get this thing working, either. You seem to have found a way to sidestep the issue, and the statue is… unpredictable. I figure we can probably do everything else that we need to in Illvaria. Not to mention, with any luck, Murim will have returned by now with news of the System’s mainframe. If that’s the case, we can immediately head there to implement a more global solution to the crisis and save the world.” Ethan grimaced. “Or at least whatever is left of the world.”
Alice grimaced, and tried not to dwell on the number of people who had already died. How many had been lost? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Tens of millions? She sighed, and pushed the thought away. There was nothing she could do but move forward and do her best.
“So is it time to head back to Illvaria?” asked Alice. “What do we do about the Artifact? It can only be installed in one country, but Demor helped us fix it. It doesn’t seem right to leave him with nothing, either.”
“Well, I don’t know. I don’t see a way to replicate the Artifact, and I did already pay Demor for his assistance…” said Ethan, as he trailed off. He sighed, and then shook his head, before he placed a comforting hand on Alice’s shoulder. “I know it feels terrible, but we have to look out for ourselves first. If we find a way, we can send assistance to Demor - in fact, I’ll help ferry as much information and other assistance as I can. To make up for us taking the Artifact. However, it’s not like Morendia has no solution, either - the statue managed to drain a bunch of the mana in Morendia. If they keep doing that, it’ll also resolve the crisis. Sure, it’ll also throttle a good chunk of their enchanting material production, and create some other issues… but it’s not like there’s no way out. At the end of the day, they just need to survive until you fix the mainframe of the System, right? Fixing the mana flow in the region afterwards will be a pain, but it’s not like we’re leaving them to die. We’ll leave the statue behind, so that they have a way forward.”
Alice grimaced, before she nodded. Ethan’s words weren’t fair, per se. It definitely implied that Ethan intended to look out for Illvaria first, and Morendia second. However, Alice had indeed forgotten about the idea of intentionally draining all of the mana in Morendia away. It was a radical solution… but it would work, and Demor had the tools to do it if he wanted to. Especially if they left the statue behind for his use. It still left a bad taste in her mouth, but it at least didn’t feel like she was abandoning Demor after all of his help anymore. Alice sighed as she nodded at Ethan, and made her way out of his room.
Alice frowned as she turned over her thoughts. The statue was, indeed, a solution. However, was that the only path Morendia could take? Even if that did fix Morendia’s problems, the statue probably had range limitations, much like the Artifact did. Alice didn’t want to save only Morendia and Illvaria - if possible, she would prefer for everyone in this world to have a way to defend themselves against the chaos.
A moment later, she made a decision. It might not be the smartest decision, and it directly contradicted several other times where she had tried not to give Demor too much information, in case he ran wild with it after they patched up the System and created another crisis.
However, even though it felt like a bad idea, Alice smiled after she made her decision. It might seem stupid, but she felt that it was the right thing to do. Resolving a crisis wasn’t always about solving the bigger picture - it could also be about helping the people right in front of her, and finding ways that people could help themselves.
She made her way back to her bedroom, and then spent several minutes writing something down. She might not be able to leave the Artifact with Demor, but she could leave something behind besides just the statue.
She made her way back to Demor’s workshop, before she hesitantly knocked on the door.
“Come in,” said Demor.
Alice made her way in. She saw Demor quietly extracting several pieces of flesh, bone, and a magic core from the carcass of a dead monster, and resisted the urge to grimace. The smell in the room was truly overpowering right now.
Alice tried not to gag as she started to speak.
“I wanted to talk with you.”
“Are you planning on leaving Morendia soon?” He asked.
“I’m surprised you realized,” said Alice.
Demor smiled, although his smile didn’t contain any joy in it. “Ethan has always been a man with focus. His family is in Illvaria. Now that we have the Artifact working, and you have the information you need, I figured it wouldn’t be long before you left. You coming here just confirmed it, at least in my mind.” Demor blinked at her. “It also seems that my value in this cooperation has come to an end. So is this a goodbye?”
“That’s not why I’m here. Or at least, not the only reason.”
“Oh?”
“I wanted to give you something. As thanks for all your help,” said Alice. “I’ve been trying to keep a lot of information to myself, for good reason. If some information is exposed, it could mean the destruction of the planet. But I think you’ve earned at least some measure of trust, and, well… this country is going down a bad path right now. I know that if I were stuck watching my friends and family die, I’d be frustrated. I’d constantly feel anxious, and wonder if there was anything I could do to help them… and I figure you’re probably the same way, right?”
Demor raised an eyebrow. “It’s a bit dangerous to ascribe such ideas so wholeheartedly to other people. Otherwise, you’ll surely encounter someone who will betray your trust one day. Don’t end up dead in a ditch because you were too empathetic.” Demor shrugged. “I am a lot less empathetic than other people towards the plight of those who aren’t Immortals. After all, they’re going to die anyway - whether via old age or via a catastrophe right now, it changes surprisingly little. But I would still prefer if they died later, if only because the country of Morendia holds sentimental value to me. If the country implodes, I would find it quite unfortunate.”
Alice winced. She had almost forgotten who she was talking to. Perhaps Demor was right, and she was being too sympathetic right now. but she also didn’t want to leave this country to burn after all the help Demor had provided them. Even if Demor himself might not be the best person for this morality-wise, he was in a position to enact the changes Alice was hoping to make, and had at least some knowledge of the greater crisis. That would have to be good enough. In normal circumstances, Alice would have tried to find another person, or another way - but there just wasn’t enough time.
“That’s not what I meant. I just… wanted to give you something,” said Alice. Then, before she could change her mind, she handed Demor the papers she had spent several minutes writing. Demor glanced at the papers, and frowned.
“What is this?” he asked.
“It’s an instruction manual. For reality,” said Alice. “It’s something that was… umm… well known back home. Just the basic fundamentals about how the world works. I described a bunch of things here, like atoms, and gravity, and so on. I know that we’re taking the Artifact back to Illvaria, and that you might not care as much about the people of your country… but I still wanted to leave something behind. A basic set of instructions for how the world works. If you’re willing to, could you find some [Scholars] and get them to read over this? And have them spread that information more? It could help. Maybe provide people with food in exchange for learning the information written here or something, I don’t know. You’re probably better at designing incentive programs than I am.” Alice paused. “Also, Ethan and I have decided to leave the statue here with you. If things get bad enough, maybe you can find a way to get the statue to finish draining mana from Morendia. It’s not an ideal solution, but it’ll help some, at least.”
Alice had two purposes in mind when she gave the transcribed learning materials to Demor.
First of all, Demor knew how Reality mana worked. He might not know all of the details behind why Alice had weird mana types like meaning mana and communication mana… but he had enough information to work out a big chunk of what Alice was doing and why. Second, Demor had worked with Alice on repairing the Society’s Artifact - and knew every single piece of it. In other words, Demor could also create a lesser version of the Artifact and then use it to help Morendia, if he had the right magic seeds. Right now, Demor didn’t have those magic seeds, and forming a magic seed was far more difficult without the help of the System - but it wasn’t impossible. Alice had a method of helping others do so, and she had detailed the best way she could think of to form a magic seed in the notes she had given Demor. If she handed it off to a regular Mage, she would probably feel worried - but Demor was an Immortal. She doubted that he had no way to resolve the issues she had described. Even if it wasn’t his specialty, an Immortal of any kind was an impressive figure.
Even if he didn’t have a way to form a new magic seed immediately himself, Alice suspected there were other ways the man could use her notes to make things work. He probably had at least some contacts, servants, or people he could get in contact with. It was just a matter of him using his influence and Perks in the right way. Either way, it was out of Alice’s hands. She had done everything she could, and they were even leaving the statue behind so that Demor could use it to fix things. It was still far less aid than Illvaria would receive from her, but it was certainly better than nothing at all.
The final purpose that Alice had when she handed the notes over to Demor was a bit more experimental.
It was becoming increasingly evident that human beliefs could wildly and drastically alter the very nature of the world around them. This had a lot of potential… but it also had a lot of potential dangers and drawbacks.
Alice had been thinking about it, and she had decided that giving people her old world’s textbooks on physics and basic science could help ground things a bit. If people knew how things like atoms worked, they were far less likely to have crazy beliefs like ‘and then the trees are going to explode’ unless they had good reason to think otherwise. She wasn’t sure how effective this plan would be, but she hoped that spreading some information from Earth would at least help stabilize things a bit, even if many people were no longer mentally well and thus might not be able to learn very much. It was kind of a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep things from spiralling out of control, but Alice thought it was worth a try, at least.
“So when exactly are you leaving?”
Alice shrugged. “Ethan hasn’t said exactly when we’re leaving yet, but I would be surprised if we’re here next week.”
Demor gave her a final nod. “In that case… Lady Alice, I wish you the best in the future. Thank you for the notes - and for leaving the statue here. I will see what I can do about propagating this information, and making things better in Morendia. As for you… may your endeavors be successful, may you resolve the current crisis, and may you safely reach Immortality.”
“Thank you. Good luck to you as well,” said Alice.
With that, she left Demor’s workshop.
Author’s Note:
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Comments
Rain
TFCCCCCCCCCCCCCC I'm glad she's at least trying
Stephanie Washburn
You know.... Alice has remarkable faith that she knows exactly how the world works, considering she woke up in a land of magic. I also wonder if her best memory of scientific explanations will prove all that persuasive or useful to people.
