Deadline for completion: None.

  Penalty for failure: Death arrives before you gain more understanding.

  Reward: Opportunity to gain a second patron.

  Eloria is conflict. Learning this means realizing that all people share in that conflict.

  There, of course, had been tons of discussion about this quest and what it meant. Dave’s position for the most part had been to encourage the discussion but point to people that action was what had gotten them this far, so better to stay focused on the tasks they had rather than creating new ones. Most everyone seemed to agree with this, even if he had seen more than one of the priests trying to get a grasp on what this quest meant for their church.

  Dave decided this was good advice, so he closed the LRI and focused on completing the remaining two parts of his tour. He still needed to view the military research being done as well as the spell research team. He headed to the latter section first.

  When he arrived at the workshops dedicated to military research, it was a bustling anthill as always. Ozakai, the top elven military commander and second to Sir Morganthal when running Eris’ Rise in the absence of the Nelsons, was there as always. The man seemed to have as little need for sleep as Dave did.

  “It is so good to see you, Baron Murkwood. We have so many developments to go over with you since your last visit,” Ozakai said after a short bow.

  Dave felt so out of place whenever he was reminded of the fact that while he had only been gone from the dungeon for a dozen hours, inside the dungeon another eight and a half days had passed. So much to do and, even with time dilation, never enough time to get it all done.

  “Well then, let’s not waste any time. Start showing me what you’ve got,” Dave replied.

  “You heard the baron,” Ozakai barked out as nearly a dozen researcher, inventor, craftsmen slash mad scientists went to work. It was yet another example of how the politics here stifled the creativity of the lower classes. Well, what was a loss for the rest of the world would be a gain for Eris’ Rise.

  Talvenicus was, of course, right. There was no way that he could risk pissing off the kings and nobles of the surrounding lands, let alone those he was bound to by oaths. What he could do, though, was slowly but steadily grow. Dave just had to hope that the value of what they were building would become apparent.

  For now, though, he had work to inspect. Some of these were projects that he had initiated, and some were the brainchildren of the inventors themselves. Either way it didn’t matter. If it helped his people, he would fund it.

  The first table was a core project. They had a setup with a metal barrel that was three inches in diameter. At the time it was made, that was the smallest they could create. Since then, by combining Shaping Magic and blacksmithing, they had made pipes down to one inch in diameter.

  The group working on this project was varied. There was a blacksmith, alchemist, mage, engineer, and one of the paladins of Mishpat. The headman was the alchemist named Inuya, simply because he seemed to be the most organized. “Baron Murkwood, we can now definitively state that the formula you have for what you called gunpowder will not work. We have tried it and even tweaked it repeatedly. I know you were certain that the last iteration was correct, but it won’t so much as burn, let alone explode.” The man was positively beaming as he delivered the bad news.

  Dave stared at him for a minute till the elf started to back up. “You seem oddly excited about the failure, so I assume you have more news.” The man started to speak but Dave said, “No… I’m not upset. Before you show me whatever you have discovered, I would like to try the powder out one time on my own.”

  “Certainly, Baron, over here is our test station, and we have a wick and bag of powder here,” the alchemist said. He was nothing if not methodical, and Dave approved of how he had everything set up.

  Setting up a small mound of powder and then a trail, Dave used a torch to try to ignite the trail of powder. Nothing happened. He checked the data that he had pulled up with the google power of his research skill. It was all correct. Even so, he reviewed it again.

  “One more thing,” Dave said as he grabbed the entire bag of what should have been perfectly functional black powder and walked to the other end of the lab where they had a three-hundred-foot range set up to try out weapons.

  Dave walked down to the target end and deposited the bag of black powder on the ground in front of the central target. Then he headed back to the other end of the range. Stopping at 150 feet out, Dave yelled, “All clear. The range is hot. All clear.” From all over the room there came an echo, “Aye-aye, the range is all clear.”

  Once he was sure that no one was in harm’s way, Dave raised his hand and began casting a spell. A few seconds later he fired a burst of four fire bolts straight into the bag of black powder. Instinctively he braced himself for a good-sized explosion, but nothing occurred.

  Well, there was a cloud of black powder drifting in the air, as it had been scattered by the explosive force of the firebolts, but no burning and certainly no secondary explosion. Frustrating, but at least this time he got a notification.

  Perseverance is admirable, but you may recall that you were advised in the beginning that not all the laws of physics work the same in Eloria as they do on Earth. Firearms such as you knew will never work in Eloria. Count yourself lucky that you are spared being the father of that horror here. Magic has enough potential for abuse on its own.

  Well, at least it wasn’t too snarky.

  “Okay, so clearly that won’t work. So now I am all ears as to what you did discover,” Dave said to the team. He also noticed though that while he had set up his own test, the blacksmith and paladin had set up a tripod at the three-hundred-foot line on the range.

  The alchemist guided him back behind the firing line as they locked a barrel with a set of clamps onto the tripod. “Please observe.”

  With that, a small pouch was loaded into the back end of the barrel, and then a rear door was sealed over the end of the barrel. The pouch looked and sounded like nothing so much as a bag of marbles. Dave noticed that a rune had been etched into the metal at the end.

  Next, the mage went up and placed his hand against the rune. He began chanting a spell, and three seconds later the alchemist yelled, “Live fire.”

  No sooner had he finished yelling than the spell finished and the contents of the pouch were launched out of the barrel faster than the eye could follow. An instant later there was the unmistakable sound of pellets ripping through the target.

  Dave looked at the alchemist and asked, “Is it all clear?”

  “All clear, Baron Murkwood,” he replied before telling the team to turn the weapon away from the target and take the barrel off.

  Dave ran down towards the target, and sure enough, where his firebolts had scorched the target and left serious burn marks, the small projectiles had done so much more. The wooden frame of the target was ripped to shreds and had collapsed in on itself. “So tell me how you put it all together.”

  “Well, we are far from done, but we have been able to achieve a fair amount of what you described,” Inuya said. “I think you called that grape shot.”

  “Damn, man, I would call that downright deadly.”

  “Agreed.”

  “So is the barrel enchanted?” Dave asked.

  “Not yet, but we hope to get to that point. Right now there is a fire and a wind rune crafted into the end plate. A caster is still required, so that is a limit on it. One that hopefully we can overcome someday. For now, though, the rune enhances the power of the spell and focuses it down the barrel rather than exploding in all directions,” Inuya answered.

  “Well, what spell are you using? I don’t think I recognized that one,” Dave asked.

  “It is a new one created by Lady Mira, actually. Your daughter is quite the magical genius. The spell is called Explosive Burst. It does very little damage on its own but creates a tremendous amount of force. The problem is the energy is unfocused. That is where the runes and the barrel come in handy. They direct the force.”

  “Excellent work, all. I believe that rather than tinkering around, we need to develop multiple models of this. As far as improvements, we will have to work to see if we can get the barrels rifled. Have the blacksmiths made any further progress on that front?”

  Dagen, a blacksmith, stepped up. “Yes, my lord, we have created a set of rods as you described. Tomorrow we should be ready to start testing on the rifling. If I understand what you said, this will cause the projectile to spin, and that will make it more accurate?”

  “Exactly. It will allow the weapon to be able to hit key targets at greater ranges. So next we need to look at sighting mechanisms or spells, enchanting the barrels, and developing different projectiles. I would like to have a dozen of these ready by spring if they require a mage to operate, and if we can create some that don’t require a mage, I would be happy to have forty of them,” Dave said.

  After a little further discussion, Dave moved on to the next workstation. This one was a combination of leatherworkers, blacksmiths, tailors, and a potter of all people. “So what have you got for me?”

  All the craftsmen began to speak at once, and Dave had to get them organized. This project was the personal armor project. They were working on creating sets of armor that would be lighter and more pliable. Once again magic added a component to this that Earth never had.

  The mages had helped to create a new polymer of sorts that the potter was able to work into small plates. Those plates were backed by thin metal plates, with the overall effect being something just as strong as regular steel armor but more flexible and at half the weight. It would revolutionize the way armorers worked.

  Since they had to prepare their soldiers not only for swords, maces, spears and arrows but also for magic, it helped that the metal could be coated by the polymer, which effectively eliminated the conduction of electricity. The armor also became much more heat resistant, thus adding protection against the two most common magical attacks.

  Dave was thrilled with the results, and the team thought that it would be possible to have as many as five hundred vests with helms, vambraces and greaves ready by spring given the time dilation in the dungeon. The biggest obstacle was going to be the creation of enough of the polymer, but Dave promised to try to find more mages who could help the potters with that.

  It was much like this as he moved from project to project. The magazine-loaded crossbow was not yet functional, but it looked like it would be. Dave liked that because even though there was no way they would be able to add enchantments to each of the weapons, they still added a ranged attack option for the majority of his soldiers who had no magical aptitudes.

  The final project was one that he didn’t know about. They were working with the magicyte and mithril fiber that Dave’s main pet project had developed. He hoped that ultimately it would be used as power conduction to bring light and heat and even cooling to Eris’ Rise. They, however, had found some military applications for the cables.

  It appeared that if it was strung onto bows made of sacred ash, they were vastly more powerful than regular bows. They could even draw upon the mana of non-caster archers, who could then shoot 50% farther with arrows that moved so quickly that they shattered upon impact. The team speculated that these arrows could even be used to bring down ogres and giants with head shots. As much as Dave didn’t worry about head-to-head combat with the large humanoids, he was all in favor of anything that kept his citizens out of the reach of their heavy clubs and fists.

  The team also had built a model of a trap that would be triggered once enemy troops moved into an area. Then thin filaments of the strong wire would be pulled taut, cutting through enemy armor and flesh alike. With a caster involved, an electrical charge could be added to the wires to further increase their efficiency.

  At the end of their demonstration, Dave noticed what appeared like a length of cable coiled up at the end of the table. He asked, “What’s that there? It doesn’t look like it was randomly placed like that.”

  The team leader started to criticize a small elven woman, but Dave cut him off. “No, it’s okay. Let her show me her idea.”

  The elf, Nikea, stepped forward, grabbing the coiled cable. As she did, he realized that it was a whip of sorts. A very deadly whip, it appeared at first glance. The braided handle was about twelve inches long and had a small amber pommel that appeared to be made of the material left behind by the tree sappers. Dave knew that material had been used in the armor polymer as well as in the creation of the magicyte-mithril cables, so he was immediately intrigued.

  “Baron Murkwood, according to the tales my family has passed down, one of our ancestors was a master of something called the nine-tailed terror. It was supposedly a whip of sorts.” As she spoke, she dropped her hand down and moved it so that the three separate tails became evident, extending off the whip. Each had a short metal spike affixed to the end and was approximately ten feet long.

  “It looks like it only has three tails, not nine,” Dave said.

  “Yes, of course, because the legends say that my ancestor had to train and learn to control the tails before being able to increase their number.”

  “I suppose that is reasonable. Is this a weapon that you are trying to learn?”

  “Sadly, I can’t use it the way that it needs to be used. I have some limited magical aptitude, but from the legends, this weapon is meant to be used by a mage of magic,” Nikea said.

  “A mage of magic, I thought that all mages used magic.” Dave grinned as he replied.

  “Yes, of course, which means that the phrase must mean something else. I have been speculating that it means a meta-mage like Lady Mira.”

  “And you wanted to make a weapon for her?” Dave asked.

  “If you are willing. I would never offer a weapon to your daughter without your consent or that of Lady Emiri. I would have to train her in the physical use and show her the legends, but I thought this might be a perfect weapon for her. It is woven from the cables that conduct magic, and if a mage is able to channel powerfully enough, they should be able to direct each tail separately and eventually work with even longer tails. It would be a perfect weapon for someone who didn’t want to engage in close-up combat but might need a backup option when spells won’t be enough.” Nikea’s voice rose in passion as she spoke.

  “I will introduce you to her, but ultimately the decision will have to be hers. I think your point is valid though, Nikea, and hopefully she will see it the same way,” Dave said.

  He then said his goodbyes to everyone there, congratulating them on their work, and headed out for the spell research room. Nikea trailed after him in case Mira was there. When he got to the room, it did his heart good. At first it had just been him and Mira, but now there were thirteen men and women in the room when he entered it. They were engaged in a series of conversations about different magical research.

  At the far end of the room, he found Mira with two of the new human casters, discussing the best way to combine various elements in battle. Dave hated that so much of the research had to revolve around fighting. He vowed to himself that someday this room would be filled with mages busy trying to find spells that would improve daily life. For now though, the impending attack was a reality they couldn’t shut out.

  Mira smiled when she saw him, and he said, “It looks like you are busy, but I have someone I would like to introduce you to,” Dave said as he motioned Nikea forward. He realized then that he didn’t even know how old Nikea was. Younger elves all looked like they were anywhere between 15 and 25, and it was hard to differentiate. She could have been anywhere between 15 and 150 for all that he knew. “Mira, this is Nikea. She has an interesting idea for a weapon that you might find more useful than a dagger or hand-to-hand fighting.”

  “Oh, what is it?” Mira asked. Dave knew she would be happy for anything that might reduce the rigorous exercise regimen that Daichi had set for the three Nelson women.

  Nikea stepped forward and bowed as she said, “Lady Mira, it is a weapon from my family’s past made possible again by the development of the magi-fiber.”

  Dave ordered an area cleared so that Nikea would have space to demonstrate. Some of the mages were so lost in discussion that they started to snap at the person who was interrupting their conversation. In every case they eventually realized it was their baron, and all bowed or apologized before making way. After that Nikea put on a short demonstration of how to use the whip.

  “That looks like a very complicated weapon to learn. How would that be better than other weapons?” Mira asked.

  Nikea’s dusky skin grew darker in embarrassment. “The problem is that I lack the magical power or channeling ability to make the weapon work as it should. Let me try to show you.”

  The elf then pulled the whip back and, with a flick of her wrist, sent it moving forward. Yet for no apparent reason, one of the tails moved to the right while the others moved to the left. They ultimately struck two points in the air that were a good ten feet apart. A sheen of sweat was visible on Nikea’s brow as she completed the movement.

  “How did you make it do that? I felt a pulse of mana flow into the whip from you, didn’t I?” Mira suddenly demanded. Her attention was now completely focused on Nikea.

  “That is but the simplest of things that the weapon can do, my lady. I only ask a chance to show you how someone as gifted as yourself might make use of it.”

  “I’m game. I have to finish my research here, but we could meet at nine in the morning dungeon time tomorrow,” Mira said.

  Nikea sighed heavily. “Nine it is, my lady. I will see you there.” Then with a bow, she backed away and left in a rush.

  “She seems very intense,” Mira said.

  “Yes, but I think she only means well. That weapon or that type of weapon has something to do with her family’s heritage, and she seems to think that you can use it the way her ancestors used to,” Dave replied.