I followed the Kindlesprite into the other room. There were several engravings around the door already, intricate patterns meant to guide ambient mana in a meaningful way. They weren't active yet, but at least Geni had managed to create her stylus. She was fluttering around near the other door, carving into the stone there. Better not distract her while she was working.
*CRACK*
I winced, but didn't look towards the noise. Instead, I examined some of the things she'd left on the piles of metal. There were three small pencils, most likely backup styluses. Each one was roughly the size of my pinky finger, so probably not useful to a human. There were also a few circuit-looking arrangements of copper and steel casing, but none of it seemed to be a working part of anything. Spare parts for later?
There was a sudden flare of mana. I turned towards the door to see a shimmering field settle into place across it before fading away. The engravings now glowed with a faint purple light, like the necrified stone by the Gate. A small channel of glowing mana ran all the way across the floor from one door to the other. Geni slowly made her way towards me with a beaming smile on her face.
"That's step one out of the way! I did have to add a few things to make it work properly, but four hours is still record time. Considering it's the first time and all." She giggled at me before landing near her spare parts. "Actually, I might be able to build that other tool you wanted. The mana in here is kinda funky. If you manage it properly, I think it can be used to harden materials. If not, uh, you probably just die. That won't happen to me though."
I gave her a concerned frown but she just ignored it and kept talking. "I'll need some time to build a condenser, then I can start hardening some steel to make a new stylus. Then I can use that to make an even better condenser, and then I can make a- Hmm. A chisel, maybe? Seems like the best option. Then you can just smack it to apply force..." She kept talking for a while, but I got the impression she'd forgotten I was there...
I felt like it would be rude to interrupt, so I just sat there listening to her for a while. It was informative, if not very relevant to anything I needed to know. Finally what changed the situation was the Kindlesprite sitting cross legged on the floor next to us. Geni turned to her with a slight frown, looking at her damaged right hand.
"If you put it inside the goop it should also make it grow faster. Then you won't have to break parts off at all." I tilted my head at her. Somehow the flow of the conversation had escaped me. I really had been listening though...
The Kindlesprite responded before I had a chance to think it through. "It would have to be reinforced to stop the Clay from damaging the enchantments."
"Well duh~. That's just the obvious." The Fairy answered. Apparently the Kindlesprite had followed the explanation even though she was otherwise occupied. Seeing their contrasting personalities talking to each other was amusing, but I also felt a little left out. I completely zoned out for a moment, before finding them both staring at me.
"Huh?" I didn't hear them ask a question or anything. They were just looking at me, but I felt my skin flush with embarrassment.
Completely ignoring whatever fumble I'd made, Geni asked, "Did you want something from me? A new order? I still have a few things I can do with the materials you gave me, but I'll prioritize your orders over everything else." She waved a semi-liquid chunk of steel in my direction, before applying it to a circuit like glue.
It was fascinating, but I was still a little shaken from being caught off-guard like that. I latched onto her change of subject. There was something... "Ah! Um... I was wondering if you could make a Spellbook, or something..." I trailed off. I was sure there was more to ask about, but I was too flustered to think of it.
The Fairy put a hand to her cheek and thought about it deeply. Really deeply. I'd never seen her look so intent before. Finally she sighed and answered. "Books really aren't my thing. If it was just about information, I could make something like your phone or that glass thingy, but..." She sighed again. "Assuming I got the idea right, a Spellbook needs an active mana tracing on it. Sort of like my engravings. No matter how I think of it, I can't figure out how to get a... tablet-thingy... to change the tracing it displayed. Maybe if I knew how a Spellbook worked in the first place."
She fell back into another thoughtful silence. Well, I hadn't expected her to be able to do it in the first place. I spoke up again. "That's alright, you have other work to do. Rather than that, do you know what Creatures might be better equipped to make one? Or if there are other Fairy types that can help you with your work?"
Geni blinked at me a few times, her focus returning to me like a diver coming up for air. "Huh... For a Spellbook... You could try Water Fairies or Aletheia Fairies. Water Fairies are strong enchanters, and Aletheia Fairies love gems, books, and libraries more than anything else. But I don't know if they could live off the mana here. There's no water or books around."
Well, that was true. I did have a few books that I inherited though... I'm sure they were in a box somewhere. Before that... "What about Earth Fairies? They came up in the same search results as your species."
"Huh? Earth Fairies... I guess they are good at manipulating minerals. And making them. OH!" The Fairy suddenly shot up into the air, circling above my head. "If you get an Earth Fairy, it would super speed my work along. We could make a great condenser together! And they could even-out the floors around here too. That would look much nicer."
I couldn't help but smile at her excitement. Out loud though, I wondered, "Why didn't you mention this before, then?"
She just shrugged, enthusiasm unaffected. "I didn't think of it. The knowledge I was born with is kinda... hard to grasp? I really need to think about something before I actually know-know it. You know?" She grinned down at me, tilting her head a little.
I smiled back at her. Then I asked, to both Geni and the Kindlesprite, "So, which should I make first then? I have a few books that the... Althea Fairy might like. But we already have a ton of Earth mana around. Is it better to start working on the Spellbooks now, or to double down on what we've already started working on?"
The two hesitated. They glanced at each other, neither seemed confident in their answer. In the end, Geni said, "I don't know why you want a Spellbook, really. I could really use the help of an Earth Fairy though."
Oh, was that the problem. I hadn't taught the Contraption Fairy any spells yet. Her innate abilities seemed to give her enough magic that it was unneeded. Though if I wanted to teach her any combat spells that would change. As for the Kindlesprites, it would still be a long time before another one appeared, unless I didn't use any CP for the next fifteen hours. I figured I had enough time to start working on Spellbooks after I created an Earth Fairy. And it might be useful to mix it in with the Rockworms.
"Alright, I've decided."
Now i must search google for verity fairy
Update: for me it shows 2 things mainly - children books, and fairytale fanfic - which is the one you dont want to associate with?
The children's book, lol. It's a published work, which means copyright claims may occur. I dun wanna get sued even as a joke.
Ah, mostly because it would have been seen as a reference, rather than an original idea. Not my intention.
@Cipiteca396 yea fair enough, there are alot of creatures with similar/same name but they are different creatures/universes, but better be safe than sorry, fighting in court if it ever comes to this is too expensive unless you want to change your status from billionaire to millionaire
Huh, i had forgotten to rate this story before, so that was remedied.
I know it was explained by why does she need a spellbook again? Perhaps to teach her creatures things or something?
That aside, getting some earth fairies does seem like a good idea. Would be able to as stated, help level things out and assist Geni with her shenanigans. Could also potentially make some of the fortifications that Selene undoubtedly wants. Perhaps even have some offensive earth magic, but don't know that much about the innate abilities of different creature types in this yet
To teach different spells to her creatures she would have to spend 1 CP per creature per spell, or a spellbook, for each spell. It may not look like anything yet, but each Kindlesprite would need 1 healing spell, and each monster in the dungeon would need attack spells, among others, it would also be a good idea to give the same earth magic to the Rockworms that Elemental Rockworm has.
That makes me wonder, can the basic Rockworms actually be taught spells? They're more 'animal' then 'individual' from what we've seen of them so far, which might introduce limits into their ability to comprehend education.
Thank you for rating.
Yeah, Spellbooks are mostly for saving CP teaching magic to creatures as Chouzen described.
Earth Fairies will be explained next chapter, so I'll leave that alone for now.
As for the Rockworms learning magic... Well, I won't say it's impossible. But not very efficient, I guess? The Rockworms have their magic carved into the Elemental Gems on their heads. That is the source of all their magic. They don't actually have the right stats to cast magic on the fly like a mage would. They know how to manipulate mana into their gems, and they instinctively know how to control the spells manifested that way. They could learn to use other types of magic, but it would be slightly harder than a human trying to use their feet as hands. And Rockworms in particular are poor learners.