Steel and Mana

Chapter 18 – First Step: Complete

Waking up the next day was wonderful. Sasha was pretty silent and didn't know where to glance, but she didn't look angry. She even helped me dress up, so I guess all was fine~! After eating breakfast, I was at the back of the city, heading up the trail, checking the last connections of the piping before we began. I would lie if I said I wasn't nervous.

Back up top, people had already carved a path into which the underground river could split; they were only waiting for my word to break away the last part. When it happened, I was rushing down, following the pipeline, watching for leaks, but miraculously, it worked like a charm! By the time I arrived at the bottom, Sasha was already waiting for me, excited, explaining how water was filling up the castellum.

"Great! Let it be filled before opening the valves and letting it flow through the city!"

It was the first stress test. From here on, what would push the water forward was not gravity but simple pressure. I watched with my breath being held as it took some time, but the open ends of the smaller, thinner pipes finally burst out with water, signaling everything was working as intended! I watched as it flowed towards the finished sewers, disappearing from sight. Goodbye, shit-stained streets and the smell of pigsty! Hah!

While I observed my success with a wide grin, others were also marveling at what we had just achieved. They finally realized this meant no more walking a kilometer to the river and back, digging wells, or… taking a bath only once a week. They already knew that the pipes that were sticking out of the ground were where houses would be built. It meant everyone would have their own bath in their homes… which was still like a fairy tale for them.

"Great! I think the first step is complete; time to move on to the real work!"

"The real work?" Sasha asked, thinking we were already doing that.

"Oh yes!" I nodded, hugging her waist and pulling her close, "Get to building homes! I will split up our people into three groups. The most talented ones we collected will work with me as I begin building my palace. The second group will assemble the surrounding infrastructure and housing! The third will continue the work on the roads and in the mines! I already laid out my plans; they just need to follow them, and we can build up houses quickly! Maybe do it in a year?"

"In a year?!" Sasha gawked, thinking it was impossible.

"Why not? The magic circle of ours that makes things weightless alone is a great tool! One man can lift up any log, block of stone, whatever, and place it where it needs to be! The hardest part of construction is out of the window like this! Oh, this reminds me, I had an idea!"

"About magic?" She chuckled, and I nodded with a grin.

"Remember the circle you burnt into the ground before? I was studying it and comparing it with what we have at the mines. Some parts are an exact match. Which, in turn, told me a lot about how they work, so I made several new ones! I want to test them out!"

"Should I bring Merlin here?" She asked, a bit unsure and loosening her smile, which became less honest.

"No, I need his presence at the mines; we are still working, producing what we need. I told them to start expanding, and it turns out the iron vein we found runs deep… anyway, he is still a kid, and I want you to work with me now. At least you can control your magic better!"

"Um! Anytime!" She nodded like a chicken; I feared her head would suddenly fall off.

…
….
……

Later that afternoon, further away from the constructions, I had my new 'inventions' ready and set up. I call them inventions, but they were nothing more than three thick wooden logs and one blacksmith's tong. I was accompanied by Sasha, Oleg, and a few other soldiers who were here to protect me if anything goes wrong… well, if it does, I don't think they could shield me from it.

"What do you expect to happen, Young Lord?" Oleg asked, being apprehensive of it, feeling it had to be dangerous because we had come so far from the city.

"They are all different, and I don't know if my calculations are right or not… you see, making up magic formations is like working out an equation with too much unknown! I can think of some possible solutions going by nature's law, but…" I looked at them, forgoing to explain it further. "What I am saying is that there is a high chance I messed it up and made bad alterations, so they-"

"Will blow up?!" Sasha yelped, making me twitch my mouth.

"No… they will simply not work."

"Oh…" She blushed, lowering her head and making me chuckle.

"Okay, there is no reason to delay the inevitable, so come Sasha! Try to focus on the first log! I inscribed the formation on the back of it!"

"Um! Right!"

Stretching her hand out, she looked directly at the prepared specimen, and when the magic in her activated, we heard a loud, scary crunch. She quickly stopped while jumping back a meter. On the other hand, I was looking on with sparkling eyes. The thick log that should weigh multiple hundred kilograms broke apart as it collapsed in on itself.

"What happened?!" Oleg exclaimed while I waved my hand, silencing him.

"Success, that's what!" I laughed loudly before explaining. "I tried to reverse the anti-gravity properties! It doesn't work as smoothly, or else this wouldn't have happened…"

"But you said it was a success…" Sasha whispered, walking up to me, holding my shoulders, and looking out from behind my back, ready to pull me away if necessary.

"It was! The formation increased its weight so much that it broke apart! The problem is, the weight should have been spread out evenly… instead, it was concentrated where I put it, so it needs tweaking…"

"Young Lord, does this mean that the thing became… heavier when activated?"

"Much, much heavier!" I nodded, happy to see that Oleg caught on quickly.

"What use does that have, Young Lord?"

"Right now? I don't know. I'm just experimenting! But we could use it to drop a pebble on someone but raise its weight to that of a boulder? Or seal away something, and then a wooden door becomes as heavy as a mountain? We can find a use for it later; I just want to see if my modifications work as intended or not! Okay… Sasha, now do the same with the next one!"

"Um!"

The second log was a bit more fiery. Literally... On it, I combined the one formation that Sasha left behind and parts of my very first invention that I showed her. In a snap, the wood has gone up in flames like it was dosed in kerosene. It burnt like the sun, and it wasn't put out even after Sasha stopped concentrating. What was strange was the fire didn't spread but remained attached to the log where the formation was placed. Pouring water over it also had no effect; it just turned it into vapor and kept burning on merrily. We had to wait until only the ash remained behind, which only took around half an hour.

"Fire that can't be put out… that is a potent weapon!" Oleg exclaimed, rubbing his hands together.

"The soldier's eye." I looked at him with a smile. "I had a different idea. If I can adjust its intensity and how long it can burn, it would be the perfect addition to the blacksmith's workshop! Not to mention, I could use it to create kilns and smelt steel with less effort… and in a more eco-friendly way!"

"Huh?" They looked at me, and I just waved their questioning gazes away.

"Next, please!"

I knew she wanted to ask what the eco-friendly meant, but she was also curious about the next experiment… yet nothing happened.

"I… Um… Is it my fault?" She looked at me after a minute of trying, but no results.

"Nah." I shrugged, patting her head. "It is on me. This one, I fiddled with too much and probably messed up many things. I was hopeful, but I can't be lucky all the time! This one is a dud… okay! Try the tongs! Pick them up, and try to pick up the log with it while focusing and using it!"

"Eh? O-okay?"

I knew she wasn't getting it… not until she touched the tong. The moment her magic interacted with its handle and its embedded formation, she already realized what I wanted to do.

"This is genius!" She yelped, and I just shook my head. "You are sharp. So? Try it! We will see if it is truly genius or not! If it doesn't work, you must take the compliment back!"

Luckily for both of us, it worked. The moment she used the tongs to 'hold' the log, the anti-gravity effect spread over, and she could lift it without issues. Now, just like the simple tools, the thing held with it also had zero weight.

"Woah… Young Lord… this is magical!" Oleg clapped, looking at Sasha, holding a huge and heavy object above her head with one hand like some kind of circus freak.

"It is magic!" I winked at him, "For now, it only works in a witch's hand, but I will tackle that problem later. But this would also have many uses, especially as we begin our Second Step!"

"Finishing the city?" Sasha asked, and I just nodded.

"Exactly…"

"Young Lord… is there a third step?" Oleg asked curiously, and I couldn't help but grin.

"Of course! I can finally have a base then to start exploring magic for real! Do you think creating a city is my ultimate goal? Nah, it is just to have a headquarters to create even more wild stuff! Ahahaha! You will see! I would say, I feel like playing a 4X game, but… none of you will get that…"

"What are the… four… exes?" Sasha asked, putting the log down and deactivating the tong before approaching me.

"Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate. I want to explore magic, expand it, exploit its features, and… well, the last one is something I don't want to do~ So let's forget about it!"