Magic Capacitor

With Marcus and Cherry off to slay a dragon, Will and Nisha walked to Embassy Row. Embassy Row was the street name where the Elven, Dwarven, and Beastmen embassies were being constructed.

Will smiled, Friendship Valley was living up to its name. Each of the embassies was massive. Embassy Row was barricaded on both ends. The elves, dwarves, and wolfmen were responsible for policing the street. As each property was considered their land, humans were carefully searched to be permitted to enter.

As Will and Nisha approached the security checkpoint, people moved to let them pass.

Today's guard duty belongs to a troop of Dwarven Shield Barriers. When they recognized Will and Nisha, they let them through unchecked.

Will wanted to report on the Sage Aldrin, he had all the ingredients except the dragon core.

Will walked into the elves' construction sight to see a massive tree. Elven mages, we're using magic to accelerate the tree's growth.

What Will found odd, was the tree itself. It wasn't an Elven Oak, they were growing but another type of tree, like a redwood. The tree towered overhead, like a skyscraper.

As Will was straining to look up, he heard a familiar voice.

"Are you here to help out? Want me to teach you the spell?" asked Nuvian Miasalor.

"I came to report to Sage Aldrin," Will said.

"He went back to the home, after examining Grandmaster Thaddeus," Nuvian Miasalor said.

Just then Will realized that Bradley and Rupert were here with him, and they all had excited smug faces.

"It took you long enough to notice," Bradley said.

"What's made you three so happy?" Will asked.

"Thanks to Nubian we finished the train's magic capacitor," Rupert said excitedly.

"Are you telling me the train engines finished? Quick show me!" Will said matching Rupert's level of excitement.

Bradley led the way to the top-secret warehouse they used. Outside were plainclothes guards.

They walked into the warehouse, and Will saw the massive train engine resting on tracks. Will had contracted the train engines construction to the dwarves. Master Duncan followed Bradley's blueprint and built a Dwarven Steele engine.

With the train engine built, it was Bradley and Rupert's to figure out how to make the engine operable.

"How did you do it, did you find the right rune combination," Will asked.

Rupert looked embarrassed and his head slumped down, "Ah, no. According to Nuvian, my runes on the airships were shoddy work and I ruined six good wyvern cores. I apologize, Will," Rupert's face turned red.

"You should feel proud, those airships are still flying. They've not crashed once, and you accomplish something people never thought possible," Will said encouragingly.

"By sheer dumb luck," Nuvian complained.

"We'll sometimes luck is all you need. Rupert spent countless hours on that project. I don't believe it was only luck. Luck may have played a part, but Rupert did something extraordinary by his merit," Will said.

"Thanks, Will. Yesterday, I showed Nuvian the airships and they need to be serviced immediately. Nuvian's going to show me how to correct my mistakes," Rupert said.

"Very well, modify the airships one at a time."

"Oh, Will there's another thing…," Rupert looked unsure.

"Yes?" Will asked. He knew Rupert was an introvert, but he did act that way to Will. He only did that when he needs money.

"Nuvian agreed to accept me as his disciple. But training materials and accidents make it an expensive trade to learn. I like to ask your permission to become his disciple…and a salary increase?" Rupert asked nervously.

"Rupert you were my friend before becoming my employee. I'm happy to help you reach your dreams. How much money do you need?"

"25,000 silver leaves a year."

"You want me to pay you in Elven currency?" Will's mind went black in rage.

'If one silver leaf equaled 200 gold then Rupert just asked for 5 million gold. That fucking Nuvian set Rupert up to rob me. Five million gold my ass! That bastard,' Will thought trying to hold in his anger. But a vein bulged on his forehead, and a murderous aura leaked out.

"Will you are you okay? Get it together! You're killing Rupert!" Nisha telepathically warned Will.

Bradley looked at Will in horror, mentally reminding himself never to ask for a raise.

"Is there any room for negotiation?" Will asked Nuvian controlling his aura.

"I guess 1,000 silver leaves are okay too," Nuvian smiled.

Will wanted to curse at Nuvian so badly, that he almost coughed blood.

"If 200,000 gold is fine, why did you request 5,000,000?" Will asked through clenched teeth.

"I don't know, I wanted to see if you'd give it to me?"

"Nisha attack him, right now!" Will spoke and said telepathically to Nisha.

Nisha didn't move; she knew Will didn't mean it.

"Okay, okay, maybe I took my ruse too far," Nuvian said shrugging off the fun.

"I almost killed Rupert! I'll talk to Vaal tomorrow," Will said, now it was his turn to bully Nuvian.

"Fine! Enough! Just give me 500 silver leaves. I apologize, there's no reason to involve the Royal Family," Nuvian said worriedly.

"I'll give you 250 silver leaves. Rupert if you need more money, go through Sage Aldrin or Vaal first. Now show me how this works," Will said heading Will 50,000 gold coins.

Rupert open the engine's hood and Bradley sat in the train's conductor seat.

Bradley turned the levers, and the train engine started to warm up.

Will looked and was dumbstruck. Rupert and Nuvian wore satisfied smiles, after watching Will's reaction.

When Will lowered his head, he saw a honeycomb magic web with a wyvern core in the middle. Next, Will stood behind Bradley and could see the power output, speedometer, and engine earring sign.

"This is impressive, how does it work?" Will asked.

"Runes and cores work well for simple projects, but when you are hauling people and heavy cargo you need to use Eternal Crystals," Nuvian said.

Will looked under the engine's hood and saw the dull gray-looking crystals that made the honeycomb shape around the wyvern core.

"These crystals are called eternal because they suck in ambient mana and sustain mana cores. Artificers use these crystals to magically guide mana into their constructions. Without eternal crystals, mana cores lose mana with each use.

Using eternal crystals we can extend the life of our mana cores and increase our airships' longevity. The low-grade mana cores, we're using now, restore 30% of our mana cores. High-grade eternal crystals replenish 90% of the mana in the cores. Middle-grade crystals replace 60%," Rupert explained.

"Honestly, it's a wonder none of your airships have crashed yet. After years of use, your mana cores are almost depleted. However, you can purchase high-grade or middle-grade crystals from me...or the royal family" Nuvian added seeing Will's skepticism.

"He's right we'll have to purchase new crystals. The greatest problem with the mana core is energy dissipation. Even with the runes on them, the mana cores shall dissolve over time," Rupert recommended.

'Everything breaks over time,' Will thought.

Back on Earth, he knew airlines spent 10-15% of their budget on maintenance. But, what shocked Will, was Rupert and Bradley's recommendation. They were asking him to replace the engines for all his airships. It was an expensive request.

"Will, we have options. The best option is to replace the wyvern cores, with new runes, and connect them with high-grade eternal crystals," Bradley surmised.

"Fine, cycle the airships through upgrades, but purchase the crystals from the Elvish royal family," Will ordered.

"Rupert, how is your rune-crafting coming along?" Will asked sincerely.

"Slowly. Carving runes is a very technical job. Each rune takes a long time to research and practice. It's not as easy as a 'produce-then-repeat' job.

Apart from production and repetition, runemasters need the ability to create and adapt according to situations. Each magic tool used varied materials and required different attributes.

When put together, there could be countless variations. It inevitably takes a long time because I must change the runes' sequence according to the materials, function, and connection nodes.

In short Will, runemasters create blueprints with each new creation. That's why I want to be Master Nuvian's disciple," Rupert said.

"Don't let him take advantage of you. If he does, report to me immediately!" Will advised.

"I'll do that," Rupert promised.

"Has he taught you anything so far?" Will asked.

"Yes, he's taught me the Elvish skill to sense magic and skill to 'tune' runes.

The skill to sense magic may be used to make sure every rune is working normally, as well as to sense if there are any disturbances between runes.

The tuning skill requires I inject my magic into the runes to conduct a practical test. At the Mage Academy, this was theorized, but no human mage ever proved it conclusive.

While I don't have the ability to sense and control complex runes, I'll eventually learn to do it on my own!" Rupert smiled.

"That's wonderful progress. I'll be following your progress closely. Now, let's prepare the maiden voyage for the train," Will said happily.