AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 5, Spring, Third Month, First Week.

“We hit another rock, sir.”

Karl gave off a tired sigh as he stared at the recently built tunnel with a complicated expression. This was the umpteenth time they were barred by rock since yesterday when they started excavating. Usually, the excavator would be able to go through the rock with some difficulty, but the rocks close to the Green Mountains’ vein were bathed in magic energy for thousands of years making them stronger and resistant to their tool. Diana, who was impatiently leaned against the cave wall a few steps back, couldn’t help but voice her opinion.

“Why don’t we use the tunnel above the crystal cave? We just need to make it wider…”

The Alchemist felt a little irritated by the unhelpful interruption. Of course things weren’t that simple, otherwise, why would they waste time and resources trying to go through another path? Even so, Karl pushed back the irritation and answered her politely.

“We must leave the crystal cave structure as untouched as possible. We don’t know how much time would take for the crystals to start forming again, but if we change the layout or obstruct the flow of magic energy, the cave would never form crystals again. We’re sort of planning for the long run… That’s why we didn’t destroy the wall, even though it would facilitate the extraction of crystals.”

The boredom might have influenced Diana, but she was oddly interested in the discussion.

“Wouldn’t harnessing the vein affect the energy flow into the cave too?”

Karl was slightly surprised by her sudden interest.

“It could. But we’re trying to absorb the energy that flows to other caves, and even so, we’re measuring the energy that flows into the crystal cave to identify any changes… We also have to pay attention to not cut the flow that feeds the Tunnel.”

The excitement in his voice made Diana unknowingly blush. After so many developments she feared not being able to maintain a conversation about Alchemy and whatnot that could really interest him. Karl, on the other hand, took her recent silence for lack of interest in his craft.

“Wouldn’t the vein’s energy be insufficient for all of our projects? I mean, we’re trying to expand our operations here and in the Tunnel… You also mentioned about transferring energy to AP…”

Again, he was surprised that she has been paying attention to his usual unrestraint pouring of ideas.

“I don’t know if the vein would be enough to supply AP, but it’s definitely enough for the mining operations and the Tunnel expansion… Although the vein is several times smaller than the capital’s, look at how much it’s sustaining… More than one hundred kilometers of Mountains, the plant environment, the Treants, the thousands of caves under the Mountains… Think of the Tunnel’s effects we managed to maintain with only the remnant energy.”

The pair continued to discuss the project to harness the vein and expand their mining operations. The Green Mountains ended up being a rich mineral resource site. For every new cave they uncovered they would find another type of ore enriched by the sipping magic energy. And this wasn’t limited to the surroundings of the energy vein, closer to the Tunnel, they also found important deposits of ores. In fact, the deposits closer to the Tunnel were better for common uses since they could be extracted easier due to having less enhancements.

Even though enhanced ores had better properties, the less enhanced ones were also important to craft some things. Working on enhanced metals was harder and took more time, so they couldn’t limit themselves to it.

The next step of the mining operation was to connect the crystal mine and the Tunnel. Aside from being dangerous to move the mined crystals and ores through the forest, they had to watch out for other parties, after all, keeping the mine a secret was a priority. So, they decided that opening a path under the mountains would be the best choice.

The distance in a straight line between the two locations was roughly 60 kilometers. If they had to dig through the entire path, it wouldn’t be worth the trouble. However, the mountains had thousands of caves, which would decrease their work considerably. The challenge would be deciding which caves to follow and when to dig through the walls. Fortunately, they could follow the flow of energy or at least get some guidance from it.

Still, their problems wouldn’t end up there. The existence of ants and other earth digger beasts was a constant threat to their project. That’s why they had to harness the energy vein before they fully committed to building the connecting tunnel. Although they wouldn’t be able to secure the entire tunnel, which would cover more than 60 kilometers, they could create sections and only erect the protection when they need to cross them.

A few days passed and they finally dug a tunnel to the energy vein, which brought another problem, the unbearable heat. The tunnel was closer to the magma environment below the vein, and now they had to find a way to deal with the temperature. Fortunately, Karl had brought another MQ water crystal to help with AP’s phase two.

The cooling Array added an extra day to their plans, but after the temperature was controlled, Karl finally started drawing the major powering Arrays. The Arrays were placed over the edge and in a few meters inside their tunnel to collect the energy that slipped into it.

They waited for a few days to confirm that they didn’t have disrupted the crystal cave’s flow or the Tunnel’s. For now, the energy collected by the Arrays would be enough to sustain their connecting operation, but later they would definitely need to add another powering point.

Karl and Diana bade farewell to the mining project manager and the workers before leaving towards the Tunnel. The Alchemist had stayed at this side of the mountains for two months, and it was past the time he returned to their capital. Fortunately, his return would be much more pleasant with Diana accompanying him. Although her post was here, at the tunnel leading their military forces, she would be allowed a two-month break since the Kingdom’s forces had withdrawn.

In two days, the pair was already traveling at high speed towards AK’s capital. On their first night of travel, Karl decided to reveal something to Diana, he was using the excuse of being practical to justify the action to himself.

“Hey, D. Can you keep a secret for me?”

The newly appointed Military General was so curious that she might as well agree with it just to learn the secret. After she nodded in a sign of agreement, Karl continued:

“I’m training a new Alchemy technique that exhausts my energy very fast, so I might faint or get dizzy from doing it… It’s not dangerous, just exhausting… I would like to keep it a secret from others…”

Although she couldn’t understand why the secrecy, she promptly agreed to it.

“Thanks… Please, don’t get scared if I faint…”

Karl closed his eyes and visualized the Array while stretching his arm forward. This time, he had drawn a small Spiritual Gate over his palm, which started to shined as soon as his energy started to circulate through it. The slight glow of energy started to move in front of his hand, forming first a circle, then a triangle that represented the Direction Array.

Diana was initially confused until she got it. Karl continued to pour energy and guide it to form another Array inside of the Direction Array. However, before he could finish it, his energy was exhausted and he staggered back. Diana moved to support him, but the Alchemist recovered himself first.

The sweating Karl smiled at Diana and said:

“After I learned Spiritual Alchemy, I realized that I could control my spiritual energy… Arrays are activated when magic energy passes through it, so in theory, if I could guide the energy to form the Arrays by itself and get the same results…”

She was awed for a moment before thinking of something.

“But why would you do it, if it’s so slow and takes so much energy? Also, why keep it a secret?”

Karl looked for a place to sit before explaining:

“When I started drawing, it took me ten times more energy and I was much slower… So, I think that in time and with proper training, I would be able to energy-draw easily, maybe even faster than drawing by hand because passing a concept into my spiritual energy is easier… I have to test it, but it might be stronger too, because of the strength of the concept of pure energy drawing… As for why I’m keeping it a secret…”

Karl’s voice become serious all of suden.

“I’m not sure everyone wants the same thing for our Alchemy Kingdom, D… If a time comes when someone on our side moves against me, I would like to have some hidden cards to play…”

Diana had an understanding but sad look on her face. She hoped that such a day would never come…