Chapter 2207: Chapter 2207 A Creaky Start
--- Kat ---
Hours. The argument continued for hours until Maryland slapped two people together and declared that they were going to ward the area up above, with a secondary ward down here. It would start off as a detection ward and then depending on how long they took, could become more. There was some grumbling, but Maryland just had to point out that they’d spent so long arguing that it was LUNCH TIME and that if they’d started work, they might have been done with the filter already. Worse, nobody was allowed to crack open the food until the filtration ward was up.
Which made a lot of sense to Kat. Lunch would involve unsealed food, or potentially taking off your suit. Either thing could be a major cause for issues. It seemed like nobody in the group had really understood just how much time they’d been wasting on the argument. Kat would like to say she knew which option was better now... but really she hadn’t been paying attention at all. Instead, she’d spent most of her time chatting with Lily, and then the rest laughing with Lily as they messed around with her feet.
Kat would poke at Lily’s paws, and Lily would push back. It was a silly, simple game that they mostly started up to pass the time without losing track of the sounds nearby. Just in case somebody tried to sneak in. It was extra amusing for Kat because if she managed her pokes correctly she could tickle Lily without making it seem like it was intentional. Yes, a perfect excuse that Lily would never realise.
[Yeah, except for the fact you’re not trying to hide your intentions at all.]
*HARK! Foiled by my own mind! My brain hath betrayed me!*
[Meh, it was fun though. Those idiots really should’ve decided earlier.]
*I probably should have stepped in after the first hour... but I honestly hadn’t realised just how long that argument lasted either. Do you know anything more about warding now?*
[I don’t think so? I already new the absolute basics. There seems to be some sort of alphabet that you need to understand, then you carve that understanding into some sort of sturdy material, potentially with special ink or something and then they all work together to form a ward.]
*How is that at all different then enchanting?*
[I... don’t think it is? Warding seems to be a subset of enchanting. Like... like all chefs work with food, but a baker specifically makes bread? It’s not that a chef can’t make bread, it’s just that for a baker it’s their whole job. I guess that’s why you have those big wardstones. You’re actually enchanting the ward stone, or maybe you’re primarily enchanting the ward stone and then spreading the enchantment out to walls that you mark as a boundary line?]
*Ok that actually makes more sense then I was thinking. I was assuming that there was two different alphabets. Though how is it that enchanters can fit everything in an item? Wardstones are pretty big after all.*
[I really don’t know... but my best guess is just the amount of power. Using smaller runes or maybe different ones? That problem means less magic being channelled through the item. Which is fine for most things, but wards need a lot of metaphysical OOMPH or something. Well, no that makes sense. Even just carving a basic knife isn’t too hard but a house needs a lot more wood then a knife.]
*I know you’re mostly guessing but that all makes a lot of sense...*
[Kat just because these guys didn’t teach me anything doesn’t mean I don’t have some idea how this works. I did look into enchanting a bit remember. I was planning to devote myself to that... before Appoline got her claws into me.]
*I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that.*
[I suppose.]
*Actually... wait where IS Appoline?* Kat pushed herself up off the ground and found... she had no idea where Appoline was. The crew was starting to take out various tools from boxes presumably to prepare for some carving but Appoline was of course not amongst them. Kat listened as best she could and there wasn’t anybody else in the room... nor down the corridor. Though... maybe above them?
Kat glanced around the room one more time and decided to first ask. "Is there a reason we aren’t unpacking everything upstairs?"
The group of researchers paused, looked around and then all proceeded to get annoyed with themselves, a few even slapping their visors with their hands. Everything was packed up and moved upstairs, where Kat soon followed them. Once she was upstairs it was easy to here Appoline because the bubbling of a cauldron could be heard. Kat followed the sound and found one of the rooms had been quite claimed.
"What are you up to?" asked Kat, somewhat softly just in case she spooked Appoline.
Based on the fact Appoline didn’t twitch but was able to answer calmly, she had probably been listening out. "I’m currently trying to isolate the properties of some mould I found here. I’m not certain it’s going to be all that useful frankly. I think it’s just a slightly divergent lineage of ’common moss’ with no special feature."
"What IS common moss?" asked Kat.
"It’s... well it’s considered the most common moss. It’s special in that it can grow almost anywhere and adapts extremely well to crossbreeding... but if there are no special environmental factors present it tends to quickly revert to being... common. I personally suspect the elves created it at some point," explained Appoline.
"Wait created? How do you know that?" asked Kat.
"Nobody does for sure, certainly not me... but it’s just a bit too willing to return to its standard form. If I was to take some ’fire carpet moss’ which is just common moss that grows on a volcano, and then keep it in a normal greenhouse for long enough for it to reproduce... within three generations it will have lost all of its special properties. Sure mana can force mutations and create stable subspecies... but taking it away doesn’t cause the species to revert, certainly not so swiftly. It also doesn’t lose much potency between generation zero and two. Yet somehow, is almost entirely reverted by generation three. That screams ’developed’ rather then ’evolved’ to me," explained Appoline.
"Oh," murmured Kat. "Ok that does seems super weird. Though I would’ve thought it was a dryad creation if anything..."
"A what?" asked Appoline, turning to face Kat with a raised eyebrow that was wobbling slightly.
"Ah... tree person," answered Kat realising that ’Appoline’ had no reason to know what a dryad was.
"Well... if they are a tree that is also a person... then I still don’t know if they would’ve created it. I don’t really know why a tree would want to make such a thing. Elves at least can eat the moss, or use it to make healing potions," explained Appoline.
"Wait it’s edible?" asked Kat as she glanced at the collection Appoline had on a nearby chair.
"Edible yes, tasty... no. Even for a normal elf it’s extremely bland... but it grows anywhere and perhaps if your community was starving for some reason you might want to create something like this to eat," explained Appoline.
"Why spend time making it so adaptable then?" asked Kat.
"I personally suspect the stuff we have now is the second iteration. The one made so that nobody would starve again... of course it doesn’t really contain enough nutrition to keep someone alive long term and it’s even worse for non-elven people but I’m just assuming here. Stranger things have happened in nature I suppose," Appoline admitted with a shrug.
Kat nodded "Alright... well... need any help?"
"No. I’d like to leave to check out the greenhouse of course, but I understand it’s not really the time for that just yet. Come and grab me when it’s time. Well, that or if you find some weird plants around," Appoline answered.
Kat gave a firm nod and headed for the main room again. Kat was expecting everyone to be working on carving out some runes... but that wasn’t it at all. The guards were guarding of course, but everyone else seemed to be either sanding down the wall, or fixing it up. So Kat made her way over Maryland and Vanilla to ask, "So... what are they doing? What’s with the sanding and repairs?"
"First step for warding things properly is to make sure your ward boundaries are as clean and specific as possible. If there are cracks in it, that could affect the final product. Now plenty of times you need to accept those cracks... but the walls here are particularly bad. The ceiling is even worse though... so I’m not sure what the plan for that is. It might just be ignored and left open assuming the wards can be extended high enough," explained Maryland.
"Well... I might be able to help with that? If they have materials anyway," Kat offered.
