AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 112: The tunnel I

Year 3, Spring, Second Month, Fourth Week.

Tael knocked an arrow and placed his fingers slightly above the activator, he wouldnt be caught unprepared when facing a Mage. At the scout leader signal, he ran through another 20 meters before stopping behind a tree, forcing his sight he could already make up the forms of the camp. He turned to the leader and whispered:

How much further?

The scout forced a bitter smile, did the Councilman really thought that whispering would prevent the sound Mage from locating them? He struggled to decide between answering the man who was temporarily his superior or following the safety protocols of engagement. After what happened last time, their unit leader talked with Johann to find countermeasures against sound Mages or other enemies who could perceive their surroundings. Although this wasnt a perfect solution, they drew a simple set of protocols to avoid detection, silence was one of the most basic measures.

By process of elimination, Tael was one chosen to lead this operation. The first option would be Samia, who could probably approach undetected, however, the Council decided against revealing the extent of their stealth capabilities, better for the enemy to think that the regular shadow team was their best. The other veterans were currently occupied, Toni was leading the expedition in the cave, Sania was leading the hunts for resources around the camp, and Diana should be returning from her mission any time soon, which also meant she would be tired and probably not very healthy. So, only Tael was free to assume command of this operation.

While the scout leader considered the right action, a figure appeared between them and the camp, in an instant, the problem of how to answer Tael became irrelevant.

Youre finally back It took you long to get an answer I almost paid a personal visit to your leader

The sound spell didnt have the same effect as last time, only Tael felt an urge to look back and check, but he was warned of the trick beforehand so he ignored the impulse. Moving carefully and maintaining a safe distance wouldnt help them anymore, neither would an arrow, so he chose to let the bow rest on his left hand while moving his free hand to the activator on his coat. At the first sign of a sound attack, he wouldnt hesitate to activate the barrier. Hiding their abilities was important, but remaining alive was more.

Tael exchanged a nod with the scout leader and stepped forward to answer the Mage, while the other started to give sign commands to the other scouts.

Greetings, my Lady. Im here representing the Council of the AK rule to answer to His Grace, the Wind Lord proposal.

The formal and polite greeting was decided by the Council to mark their autonomy and show respect to the other party, after all, Mages were easily offended, though being addressed by a commoner would already offend most of them. Aside from avoiding offense, the Council also wanted to establish their position to the Kingdom, giving a clear message, they are free and wouldnt accept any type of command from another nation. The choice of name was already decided since their cooperation with the Adventures, AK would be their name until they could afford the Alchemy Kingdom title.

The Mage smiled like she was mocking Taels answer, but refrained herself from laughing.

I see So, AKs representative, whats your answer?

If His Grace wants to generously cooperate with our humble selves, how could we not agree? However, were regrettable too far from the Kingdom, so we can only delegate our cooperation to our business partner, the Merchant

***

Reiner inspected the drawings progress through the faint light offered by the portable lights, she took special care while registering the data on her book, she couldnt waste a single page from the rare resource since it was unclear when they would meet Keller again. Alfeur waited impatiently at the side, ready to monopolize her attention as soon as she finished the task.

Reiner, couldnt we finish this section first and activate it instead of moving forward? It would make the crafters' and hunters' job easier

Unfortunately no, Councilman Alfeur. We need to guarantee that each section is drawn by only one Alchemist, to make the re-drawing process feasible Unless you volunteered to spend weeks redrawing all the connections every year.

Because they still had to manually re-draw all the drawings using a reference model from the Alchemist who drew each connection and Array, the Alchemy Department decided to leave each section for an Alchemist to draw, which would save on future maintenance. Fortunately, the disciples were doing better than Karl estimated and Reiners management was improving their results. She placed the spiritually stronger and faster drawing disciples in the first sections and continued to position them using this logic. This way, the initial sections would be ready first and could immediately be connected and activated.

After a week of work, they were finally activating the first sections of the magic tunnel. The four initial sections covered two kilometers, half kilometer each, and would offer only some basic functions, for now, protection against beasts of any tier, reduction of energy levels and illumination. The effects were being powered by one of the HQ energy crystals until the direct disciples finished the major powering Array, which would give the tunnel independence of energy crystals.

Reiner was now inspecting the recently activated sections for any problems. A group of students, who were helping her, looked excitedly at the major powering Array being activated and couldnt keep themselves from asking how it worked. Reiner silently laughed at their antics, shouldnt they be helping her instead of observing others? However, she wouldnt deny them this small pleasure, after all, she knew that most students dreamt of being Alchemists but didnt have the ability.

This is called the major powering Array. Its basically formed by six absorption Arrays connect to amplify their absorption power. Do you see that these Arrays are oddly positioned along the tunnel without a fixated distance between them? Thats because they are placed next to points with higher energy. Look at the holes next to them, most of the energy is traveling through those, thats why we place the powering Arrays there.

The students grew even more interested and started to flood her with questions. Reiner could only sigh and continue.

We know which holes and places are energy passages because we used the energy reader. As for the Absorption Array, youre right, the Array is usually very inefficient, taking hours to concentrate enough energy, but its performance is greatly improved by this arrangement, it can be considered a different Array.

Seeing their eagerness to learn, Reiner decided to discuss a few more things.

Lets talk about the Arrays function, even non-Alchemists like us have to know the difference between basic Arrays. In a common situation, we would use an Extraction A. with an energy crystal to power the tool and the Absorption A. would only serve to recharge the crystal. Although these Arrays are similar, they practically have an opposite effect, the Extraction A. takes concentrated and compressed energy and supply less concentrated energy. While the Absorption A. gathers the environmental energy, then concentrates and compresses it. However, if you amplify the efficiency of the Absorption Array with that arrangement and if the environment has enough energy, its possible to use it for powering.

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