Aassed, and Zeb opened up and asked me, "Was what I did wrong? I didn't even realize what I was doing until I was already done... Kurg thought we were bad, and then I killed him, was he right?"
I think I'm starting to see what exactly is gnawing at Zeb. He's beey sheltered ever since he started following me around from way back when he was learning to hunt with the oblins. So now he's starting to wonder, since he's been so isoted from them, if what we're doing is wrong, and if the other side had a point.
"I 't fully ahat for you. You have to ask yourself, what was your i at the time, and are you intending to do bad things? Sometimes bad things happee good iions. Just a few months ago, I was struggling with the same questions. I felt responsible fa's death, and for various problems that happened in the vilge." I replied.
"So what did you decide?" Zeb asks me.
"Well, I decided that I could be more careful iure, but that I had good iions. I still feel responsible for what happened, but that just means I have to do more tht the wrongs I made in the past." I say.
Zeb stops w for a few minutes, but I tinue leveling the pipe uhe road that I'm w on. If he has more to open up with, I'll help him, but if he just wants to think, that's ok too.
After those minutes, Zeb starts w quietly with me again.
Over the st two weeks, Zeb has started to return to normal, which is good. He's more talkative, and is starting to work on things other than what I'm w on. In that time, we've finished fixing the drainage uhe houses and the road, as well as fixed the third basement in the pavilion. It'll still probably be a little while until I out the reservoir, so I've decided we should work on a new proje town here.
That project is building the vilge its own steam on. Now, the goblins won't be able to operate it, sadly, due to the ck of airtight valves, but having one here will allow us to have a sed location to shoot from if the need arises. Unfortunately, unlike on the mountain, the vilge won't have as long to charge the on.
Hypothetically, they could just keep it charged for a few days, and wait for the eagle to potentially return, but that sounds like an act waiting to happen. Instead, I have a little idea, but I'll need Zaka's assistance, and I'll only ask him after I do some preliminary tests.
Yesterday, I came up with a hypothetical solution to charging the steam on, but I o do some testing, so today, hidden away in the woods a little ways, I'm running one of said tests, alone.
I've cut myself quite deeply on my hand, and bled into a tainer about the size of a drinking gss until it was half full. I've since ed my hand in some pnt cloth that I traded for to stem the bleeding, and filled the taihe rest of the way with water, and closed it off. After my mana recharges, I'll move on to the step.
The step is quite a jump. When I used teise in the past on a crystal, it would absorb the mana from the teise, and weaken the signal from that area siderably. What I'm w is, if I use all my mana oonise on a tainer with blood, if it would work at least a little like when a crystal was submerged in the blood ba the mountain. For this test, I'm basically looking to see if this tainer springs any leaks, as if using stone shaping without any particur goal.
While it's nowhere near as rge of a mana pool as I'd like, it'll have to do. I hold the tainer and use teise such that it es all my mana.
I get quite the mental echo first and foremost from the magic, as all the signal bounces around the tainer repeatedly as it returns to me. As it does so, I do notice that the tainer deforms, if only slightly.
I'd sider the test to be a marginal success. On the positive side, it does seem like it influehe tainer. On the ive side, it did so only barely, which means I o evaluate things I attempt to improve the situation. sidering that, I'm actually gd the tainer didn't spring a hole, so I reuse the blood water again.
I'll take the tainer back with me to the vilge, and attempt to make a new taiomorrow after I've had some time to think on it. For today, I'll just enjoy the bathhouse and rex for a little bit.
I've e up with a sed tainer idea to try. The inside of this tainer has lots of thin poles pointed inwards towards where the blood mixture will be. The hope is that the increased surface area might increase the amount of mana verted into the mixture. It's just a hypothesis but it's worth a shot.
After everything is ready, I use teise at max power through the tainer again. This time, I receive much fewer echoes, and the stone almost seems to bubble, although it stops fairly quickly. All in all, a much better result. The stone has deformed much more heavily, although not to the level of springing a leak. On my way back to the vilge, I open the tainer with the small amount of mana I'd regeed on the walk, and on the inside, pretty much all of the small poles had either fallen loose or been pletely deformed within the tainer.
Given this result, I decided it ossible for the step to be researched, and brought to Zaka. I had decided before not to inform Zaka about the effect crystals and blood had together, but now, it could be useful.
Today, I informed Zaka of my experiments with blood, along with my prior experiments in the cave. After a short demonstration, he was intrigued. I then expio him how the steam on worked, and how I wao do a test with his blood, to see what effects it had. If it causes the water mixed in to instantly boil, or causes an explosion, then it could be useful for making a on that fire almost instantly using a pre-charged ister of mix.
Although he's likely not yet fully recovered from the amount of blood he lost, we decided that a small amount should be enough for testing, and that we'd wait at least a month before we draw any more blood for use in a on if it is possible.
The new tainer for this test isn't pletely closed like the previous one was. Instead, I've made it closer to what I would use ieam on. A tainer with a small tube opening on one end. Uh my blood, I shouldn't o worry about the stone def, although it may randomly explode.
I took it behind Zaka's house to ruest, after making sure no one else was in the area. I ahe opening towards the wall of his house, and used teise on it. Immediately after, there was a satisfying little pop sound, as steam evacuated the chamber. Followed shortly by the sound of tiny sticks hitting the wall of his house.
When I looked in the chamber, most of the blood and water mixture was now gone, along with a bunch of the small poles ihe chamber. My guess is that the sound I heard of sticks hitting the wall were those poles breaking off with the sudden evaporation of the water.
It's quite the success. With this, as long as my mana pool is big enough, we build a new version of the steam on, ohat needs a lot less time to get ready to use. Obviously though, it brings into question the morality of using blood to do this. If Zaka is fih it though, then I'll choose to look at it like blood donations. You never know who it might be, but it's being done for the betterment of the rest of society.