The Systemic Lands

Chapter III – Day 161 (2) – A Momentous Discovery

I stared at the bowl of water and then at my finger. I did that? How? What was going on? I carefully lifted up the bowl of water and there were particulates suspended within the water. I set the bowl back down. I put a crystal in a bowl with no water and poked it, focusing on it dissolving.

Nothing happened. I poured a very tiny bit of water into the bowl, over the crystal resting at the bottom. I poked the crystal, nothing. I poked the water, and the crystal broke apart into the water as I felt something leave from inside of me. It was repeatable. I let out a sigh of relief.

Now what to do with crystal infused water? I set the second smaller bowl of water aside and looked at the first bowl. I poked it again with my little finger of my left hand. Nothing, no reaction. I left my finger in the water for half a minute, still no reaction.

I poked a coca berry and focused on it dissolving, nothing. I poked a crystal sitting on the table, nothing as well. It had been a long day and I would think better in the morning. What was the difference? I left the two bowls of crystal infused water sitting on the table, turned off the light and went to bed.

I quickly fell asleep, a habit picked up from years of maximizing my time to study.

I woke up in darkness. It took me a moment to remember where I was. It took me a moment to fumble around in the dark and turn on the light. No window for my room either. I rubbed my face, clearing the salt from my eyes. The reality of my situation came back to me.

Transported to this fresh hell. Forced to come up with the impossible by the leader of the city who was also a drug dealing mob boss. If I failed, I would be removed. Maybe I should have gone out of the city to hunt monsters? I couldn’t doubt myself now.

My gaze drifted to the table. I went over and checked the bowls. The water had evaporated during the night and all that was left in the bottom of each bowl was a fine powder.

I carefully shook each bowl to settle the powder down. It was finer than sand. It was a very fine powder. I poured all the powder into a single bowl. The bowl I had just emptied, I filled up with water. I wish I had a microscope as I carefully looked at the bowl of water, with a few particulates in it.

It was tempting for me to test it out myself, but I wouldn’t do anything so foolish. I left my room. Jerry was waiting the main room, sitting where he normally sat. “Good morning,” I said.

“Morning, breakfast will be in a bit.”

“I need mice for testing purposes,” I blurted out. He gave me a long look.

“Mice, really now. What for?”

“I have discovered something, but I don’t dare try it.”

“Something like this will take time and effort. It also carries a risk.” What risk would mice carry?

“I figured out how to break down crystals.” I decided to say this to speed things along.

“How?” I was about to explain but slowly shut my mouth. I was not about to give up a huge secret like this. It was the only leverage I had.

“I don’t think I should reveal that. Give me a moment.” I went back to my room and brought out the full bowl of powder. I set it down in front of the older man. He looked at it and then at me. He picked up the bowl and sniffed it carefully. What would sniffing tell you? Probably thought it was cocaine or something.

“This is from crystals?”

“Yes. But I need to test it out. I don’t know exactly what it will do. I know the whole crystals are inert, but this crystal powder might have unique properties.”

“I will pass a message along.” He set the bowl back down. I nodded at that. Eventually we had breakfast, which consisted of some bread and fruit. Sam looked depressed and only said a short, good morning when I saw her.

I was too busy thinking of more tests I could run. After breakfast, I put two crystals into a bowl of water. I touched the water and focused on them dissolving, both crystals dissolved. I only had three bowls. Jerry had taken one, one was evaporating residual with residual crystal particles, the last bowl I had just used up.

I grabbed both bowls and went to another room where there was an oven. I put both bowls into the oven. There were dials I could turn to heat up the inside or the top of the oven. There were no labels. Only a glow from the area that was being heated.

It was the first distinctly magical thing I had seen. I heated up the bowls inside the oven and carefully checked the temperature. I really wanted proper instrumentation. But for now, the quick and messy approach was fine to gather initial information.

I checked my watch, and it took about half an hour to evaporate the water. I turned the oven off and waited for the bowls to cool down. I then carefully removed them and saw a little bit of powder settled in the first bowl, but a lot more in the second bowl.

I emptied the first bowl’s powder into the second bowl. I really wanted to begin animal testing with the powder.

I heard a noise behind me. I turned around, Ken, Louis, two guards, and Jerry entered the room with the oven. I carefully set the bowls down on a nearby table and waited quietly. “The powder, it is from crystals?” Ken directly asked.

“Yes it is,” I responded with confidence.

“Out, make sure no one is listening in.” The two guards and Jerry left. Only Ken and Louis were left. Ken walked over and picked up the bowl of crystal powder, carefully inspecting it. “Impressive. Very impressive. In less than a day, you have a worked out a mystery. How did you do it?”

“Luck,” I finally settled on as an answer. Ken let out a long hum and set the bowl of powder back down.

“Luck, luck sounds about right. You discovered something quite potent.” Ken looked over at Louis who was silent. “First, you can put your mind at ease. You have already proved your worth. Now it is just working out the details. We need to work out dosages, production, and to scale up.” I didn’t trust this man for a second, but I would use him to get ahead.

“I need mice, or another animal to run a testing protocol on,” Ken looked over at Louis who shrugged a bit. “After that, I would need more crystals, bowls, ovens. Also, a notebook, and pen to record my observations. Finally, a sizable salary.”

“If we cut off further recruitment, what is our budget?” Ken asked Louis.

“Without impacting our other operations or projects, we are looking at 100 crystals a day we can safely divert. If I move around some things, we could redirect up to 400 crystals a day. Not counting level 2 crystals.”

“Not counting level 2. Hmmm. An initial investment of 50,000 points. Half of that is your pay. The other half is to be made into powder and for testing. We will work out the details once you have more information and the exact dosage needed.” I was curious what effect they had already discovered that the powder had.

“What effect does the powder have?” I just asked. The speed at which they had tested it was impressive and the response even more so.

“It induces a high and increases the power of a person for a short period. After that there is a period of weakness,” Louis said. “That does raise the issue of organizing test subjects to observe more long-term effects.”

“We can use a nearby building, in the same security envelope. Anyone who participates, gets food, water, and a bed. That would run about 25 more points a subject a day?”

“Just about, we would need to increase security as well,” Louis said.

“Perform another round of recruiting and divert the third security team to this area,” Ken said. I was trying to follow along as things were moving quite quickly. Ken turned back towards me. “We will set up a nearby testing area with test subjects. Use the initial funding to purchase what you need with an eye to scale up in the future. By day 170, we will meet again to discuss what you have figured out.” Without him saying anything, I knew he expected major results.

“Thank you, Elected Representative Ken, I will make sure you won’t be disappointed,” I said.

“I am sure.” He reached over and patted me on the shoulder. Ken then turned and left the room.

“Well, you are moving up in the world. Let’s get you the crystals and a cart to move supplies. I will have test subjects ready by tomorrow.”

“How many subjects?” I asked.

“How many do you need?”

“More the better.” That was one thing I learned when writing grant requests. Always ask for more than you need.

“Careful what you ask for. I will arrange for 20 test subjects. If there is a need for more, then I will arrange for more.”

“That sounds perfect.” My mind was already racing to set up an experiment. This was probably what the greats like Marie Curie felt like as they broke new ground. I would be cracking open the secrets of this world and these mysterious crystals.

I had been surprised Ken didn’t push me on the process but was not about to complain. He wasn’t worried. Where could I even run away too? I needed to figure out a way to escape. I needed a plan.

Once they had left, I rinsed out the empty bowl and then filled it with 10 crystals and water. Time to see how much I can scale things up. I touched the water and focused on the crystals dissolving. Nothing happened. I poked the water again and focused, nothing happened.

I carefully removed 9 crystals from the bowl, leaving one left. I poked it again and nothing happened. A sense of panic began to settle within me. I quickly discarded it. A different result meant I was missing a key detail. This could only push my knowledge forward.

The water was older, perhaps that was a factor. I had rinsed out the bowl. Why was even poking the water a factor? What was different about me? The answer hit me like a lightening bolt. The stats, specifically Spirit and Regeneration for Energy.

I didn’t dare ask about the exact effects and tried to recall what had been talked about during the question-and-answer session.

Energy was based on 100 minutes. I checked my watch. I dissolved two crystals about 30 minutes ago. With my 2 Regeneration, I should only have to wait another 20 minutes to regain one unit of Energy. I went back to my room and sat quietly.

I needed to meditate, to focus my mind and exercise my mindfulness. Breathe in and out and think back on the last couple of days.

My watch let out a beep. I opened up my eyes. I poked the bowl of water. The crystal dissolved. I smiled as my hypothesis was proven correct. Stats were the key to advancement. I would need to invest a lot into Regeneration and Spirit.

I began doing mental math. With only 15,125 points I could purchase 50 more stat points. I would put 8 into Spirit to bring it up to 10 and 42 into Regeneration, bringing it up to 44. That would put me fairly close to 1 energy per 2 minutes. The math was too annoying, I would buy 6 more stat points, bringing Regeneration up to 50. That would make the math a lot easier.

With those stat upgrades I could get through most of the 5,000 crystals in time with the deadline that had been set. Also, if there was some loss, that wouldn’t be too surprising. Ken clearly wanted results and I would be sure to get them for him. It was almost too easy how everything was to my advantage.

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