Jim and his team made the trip through the jungle. Which was honestly a bit boring for them. The only fight on the way being with the three kobolds transporting mithril ore. However, that boredom was soon quenched in battle. The twenty kobolds, three of which were earth mages, fought a tough battle.
In fact, despite having fewer kobolds, fewer mages, and no healer, the group at the mine ended up being the tougher fight. Why? Because the three mages they did have were of the sa elent in an area beneficial to said elent. All around the exit of the mine, there were small piles of crushed rock. Much of which had already been harmonized with the kobold’s magic as they helped remove it from the mine.
Sure, this isn’t as strong of a boost as it would be if it was still soaked in their magic. However, if all you’re aiming for is to throw so rocks around? Well, this is more than enough to cause your enemies problems. In particular, the three earth mages could work together without any training. So, those piles of rocks? They were being thrown a pile at a ti.
This did not stop Jim and his team from winning. Yes, they ended up quite hurt. They were lucky that Doctor was still tagging along while they looked for soone to step into the place left by Bill. In the end, Jeremy was more than stealthy enough to sneak around and take on the back line. And once the mages were distracted, the kobolds quickly fell.
After that was all cleaned up and the injured were healed, Jim and Jeremy checked out the mine. What they found however, made Jim less than happy. While they didn’t get an accurate asure of the mithril vein, they could tell it had more than just a bar’s worth. Yet, no matter what ti they went to the earlier camp, that was all there was.
Jim was more than a little sour about this. While when he reported this to the others, only Doctor got it right away. The explanation got the point across. Whatever thod was being used, the camp was being artificially limited to only a single bar of mithril. So, if they wanted more than that, they would have to do so mining of their own.
A factor that hadn’t been present in previous ore veins. Before this, they could literally wait around and let the monsters do all the hard work. Not only wasn’t that an option here, but getting here wasn’t easy and would require skillful miners to manage, especially if they were going to extract any ore in a reasonable tifra.
Then they left. The original plan was to grab so more clay and crystal from the golems, but their injuries necessitated proper bedrest. Sure, healing magic could fix everything in theory. However, nothing is perfect and so since they aren’t being forced to stick around, it’s better to do things properly.
About a week after that trip, the town had finally gathered enough of the crystal scales to make a small forge. It was technically big enough to forge a sword, but that was about the limit. Good thing they weren’t planning on forging a large variety of things right now.
Their goal was more singular in focus. They wanted mithril wand cores. Well, technically, they could make the entire wand out of mithril, but that would actually be less effective. While Ace wanted a pure mithril wand made to test things, common knowledge in the greater universe was that the wand’s core and jacket should have different properties.
The core should channel the power, while the jacket is ant to keep any stray power contained to the core. You could even make a “coreless” wand where the air was used to channel things. Or as it was more popularly depicted as, the barrel of a magic gun. Because yes, that was a thing.
However, despite their familiarity with guns, Wolf’s Rest was a good distance away from such a tool being possible, let alone useful. For now, they would be sticking with the most basic wand possible. No batteries, multiple layers, fancy shapes, or tricky gimmicks. A rod of mithril that was inserted into the core of a tree. The mithril is about the thickness of a pinky and the jacket of wood about doubles the thickness, with the whole thing about as long as an adult’s forearm.
Any less than that and the benefits of using a wand quickly drop off, while any more generally doesn’t gain as much benefit as expected. Of course, since this is magic, these rules are more general than the resident researcher, Kelly, would prefer. In particular, apparently such effects were dependent partly on the species of the being making the wand and the species of the one using it. Nevermind the rumors that it might even depend sowhat on what species the crafter is making it for. The lack of detailed system screens for such things is a massive hindrance to any attempt at figuring it all out.
Ace waves away the crafters and researchers desire to experint more, at least for the mont. They know a wand works, improving both accuracy and potency of any spell cast through it. And right now? It is that second one they need.
The birds are annoying, but manageable. What is causing a roadblock are the golems and their resistance to magic. Now, as the researchers pointed out more than once, a wand doesn’t actually make spells more effective at breaking through resistances. However, the potency makes it harder for the target to avoid a spell’s effect. So, while it won’t make spells do more to the golems, a wand will an that crowd control effects used on them will be more effective.
A good example of this would be Kellingers favored spell, grease. The golems won’t be able to resist since the magic is only being used to summon the grease and the potency makes it more likely that they’ll trip in it. Strange, yes, as you would expect that if the potency works on them, then they should be able to resist it. However, sotis you just have to accept that magic isn’t going to make sense.
Though Ace was a bit annoyed that mithril wasn’t going to help fix the true situation, that of magic resistance. For that, he would need so proper wizard staves. This doubly annoyed him since not only does a wizard staff make a spell better at piercing resistances, but it also boosts the damage on top of that. As for why they can’t just whip up a few staves?
Just like to make a wand they needed mithril, they’re missing what a true staff needs, the proper rune layout. Of course, all these requirents needed to craft an implent can be sidestepped with enchanting. No magically conductive material to make your wand core out of? Enchant a masterwork stick of wood so that the core works right. Need a staff? Enchants can replace those runes that would normally be needed to properly boost the spell. Beyond that, it also works for the other two common magical implents, the to and the orb which have their own quirks.
Except they can’t enchant things either. Not like Wolf’s Rest was short on masterwork things to practice with. After all, dungeon loot is all masterwork. This little fact? Yeah, Ace was really displeased, but that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t really have any working knowledge. They don’t even have dungeon loot to go off of as the wands used by the dungeon monsters aren’t actual working wands, but rather just sticks of wood through which the dungeon monsters can focus their magic.
This might sound the sa, except in doing so, the magic isn’t being changed. It literally just unlocks the magic for them. In theory, the monsters wouldn’t even need the wands after they’ve trained with them long enough.
Down in the dungeon, Doyle is a bit surprised to find this little fact out himself. Ally can only shrug, ‘They’re playing with words. What you have is recognized as a wand, just as much as a long walking stick would count as a staff, a glass ball as an orb, or a book as a to.
‘It’s like saying a sword isn’t a sword unless you do the final sharpening. Sure, a blunt sword isn’t as effective as a sharp one, but that doesn’t change what it is. So, will adding a mithril core have them function better? Yes, but not having it doesn’t make it not a wand. Sure, many would probably classify them as training wands in a similar manner to how blunted swords might be used for practice sparring.
‘What is important for you, is the fact that they allow your monster to channel magic without years of practice. Ever read one of those stories where they test people with so sort of device that glows depending on their talent and elental affinity? That is literally just a Mana reactive orb.
‘Fancy ones might have so runework or enchantnts to draw the Mana out of whoever touches it automatically. However, that is only useful if you’re out testing the magic ignorant. Any child you would be testing should, by that point be able to inject their Mana into an applicable object already. Of course, not everyone has Mana, but similar concepts can be found for just about any mystical power.
‘Though a device to test for multiple power types? Not that is fancy! They can cost ludicrous amounts as, at the low end, such powers don’t like working together and a child’s power is going to be the lowest.’
Of course, all this talking on both sides doesn’t an the town suddenly had “real” wands to play with. It took a bit more ti for them to make one. Just getting the forge working frustrated the smiths.
While their set up should have worked on paper, the mages weren’t too happy about needing to basically stick their hands in the forges door to inject their Mana. Though their solution was actually quite ingenious.
They drilled a hole about a finger’s width next to the side of the forge opposite to the door’s hinge. That hole was filled in with regular clay. Now, if that was all they did, the magic would leak out like crazy.
The trick was that the clay plug wasn’t stuck in, but rather could be slid in and out by a small amount, about the width of a thumb. And on the inner side? They had attached a triple layer of scales that extended past the edge by about two scales. This way, they could have the forge sealed and yet still insert their Mana.
Once that was worked out, making a wand core was easy enough in the most basic form. This still left them having to insert it in a jacket. Traditionally wood for one simple reason. A carefully channeled fire spell allows you to insert the core without ssing up the structure inherent in wood that is being used to make the wand work. This does not work with low-quality wood warping, as the warping part is quite literal for this.
Of course, by this point, they had gathered a handful of mithril ingots and so could outfit those who needed them with wands. By that point, Ace was a little antsy and so cut in line with his team to give them a go. Though this was partly to bla on Kelly and the others who made it for testing the first few working wands to the point of destruction. Nevermind the failed attempts at using the golem clay instead of wood for the jacket.
And so soon enough, Ace and his team found themselves on the thirteenth floor, looking down the cliff at the kobold camp. Yes, this wasn’t what the wand was intended to help with, but Ace had a few spells he wanted to let loose with.
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