After a few minutes of basking iement and redrawing the gem’s core pathways between focal points, Emily decides to amend her notes.
Why did the (lightning?) retain the shape of the gem o was destroyed?
Why did the (lightning?) only go towards the (juns?) of cracks, not the aps?
- Focal points
Why did I only feel the explosion on my head?
Why did that metal start floating?!
What affects the number of focal points? Size? Strength of (lightning?)?
focal points be used to extract (lightning?) without breaking the gem?
With a few new queries in mind, she decides her order of business.
If I want to test metal movement, I o focus o point first, getting “lightning” out of the gem.
Emily grabs assorted small shards of metals and wood from her scrap bins, dumping them onto her workbench. Moving back to the cracked gem, she begins pg the materials against the visible focal point, watg the lightning’s rea through her loupe and making notes.
The findings of her experiment exceed her expectations. The different types of wood cause little to ion in the gem, other than the acacia to which a few tiny threads reach out, but the lightning remains within the gem.
Steel and iron give a minimal rea, and a small amount of lightning does leave the gem, which she sees arg when she moves the metal away. Bronze elicits no response whatsoever, aher does raw tin. Raw copper, oher hand, causes the same amount of rea as iron and steel.
Finally, Emily decides to test the bck metal the gems were encased in. When she pces a rge piece of the unknowal against the gem, she sees a slight rea within, and a small arc follows it as it’s pulled away.
Hmmm, how e the gems weren’t releasing “lightning” stantly when encased in this metal? Does the size of the tact point make a difference?
Adding that question to her oo, she cuts off a tiny sliver of the metal as again, this time seeing a torrent of lightning flow out of the gem in a solid crag beam. She tests the shard against other points on the gem and finds that while a few sparks leave from the rest of the gem, only the focal points allow a rge flow of lightning.
The “lightning” seems tle to leave through the body of the gem, like it’s resisting the flow other than to the focal points.
Emily adds more scribbles to her notes and slowly gets lost in her work.
***
Two weeks ter, Emily finishes summarising her notes excitedly while stealing g her creation. She pces her pen down while reading the note a final time to firm it covers everything.
Each lightning gem has several focal points along the pathways with the least resistance.
“Lightning” follows the path of least resistahial has higher resistahan thick.
The number of focal points varies based on size and the total amount of (lightning?) steed. A bigger gem means more (lightning?) and therefore usually more focal points.
Metals have different (lightning?) pull and ductivity, pull draws the (lightning?) out of the gem and ductivity transfers it. Bck iron has strong pull and good ductivity. Acacia wood has low pull and no ductivity.
Certaials, iron not copper, be moved by letting (lightning?) flow around it.
One of her inal queries remains unanswered, but Emily has answered enough of them to build what she believes to be a funing mae taining a lightning gem.
On the workben front of her, sits a delicate bck pocket watch. Its body is intricately lined with thin engravings of lightning streaking across it, its face traced by broallic veins behind a clear gss window. It has three protrusions above it: in the tre a curved link of bronze, ected to a thin ; to the left is a small, serrated knob; and to the right a small domed button.
Emily picks it up, and presses the link on top, twisting it clockwise. There is a small clid the side of the watch pops open to reveal a jagged socket split in half, with eleven bros distributed throughout the walls.
She pces the rgest lightning gem into the socket, its form perfectly joining with the sharp angles as she closes the two halves together and rotates the link bato pce with another click.
Emily rotates the serrated knob terclockwise till the hands sit at the current time of 7:45 pm, followed by ten full rotations clockwise to wind the internal meisms up. She hears the watch tick to life.
Step one aplished, make a w pocket watch. I would be incredibly embarrassed if I failed at that step.
She watches the clock tick by for five minutes, slowly growing in anticipation to test the meism that required the lightnio be installed ich. Turning it back.
Her iion, if dht, should be the first pocket watch that never o be rewound again.
With her intense gaze locked och’s fad her heartbeat loud in her ears, Emily holds dowton on top.
Tick!
One sed passes and the seds hand moves once.
Tick!
Two more seds pass and the seds hand moves once as Emily frowns.
Damn, does it mess with the timings while rewinding?
Tick!
Three more seds pass and Emily feels pressure strict her whole body. She begins to panic.
Tick!
Four more seds pass and Emily’s breath gets stu her lungs, her breathing stops, suffocated by the pressure.
Tick!
The seds hand stops, and the whispers begin.
Uo move due to the strange pressure enveloping her, Emily is subjected to a chorus of voices in her head. Each voice seems to speak at a different pitd volume, creating a cacophoched into her mind.
The haunting sound is joined by a pierg jolt of pain in the back of her head as if someone has jammed a kween her skull and her brain.
After what feels to Emily like ay and an instant all at the same time, the voices stop as abruptly as they began. She is left with only the physical pain in her head and a set of words engraved into her brain.
gratutions Emily Coldstone.
We have reised yenuity in mixing your primitive knowledge of teology with magic.
For this, we grant you a reward and ask of you a request.
For your reward, we name you a Teancer and give you the Teancer System to aid in your pursuit of duality.
For our request, we beseech you to use yenuity to reach the peak of power and save us from our iable death.
Good luck, [User].
As Emily tries to process the words, the pain subsides, and a strange glowing blue windoears before her eyes.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Wele User {Emily Coldstone}
Teancer system initialisation enced
[Sing host]
_____
She reads the words that appear on the s, watg them fade out of existence when she’s finished.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Taleed: Meical Genius
[Error baneeded]
Talent granted: Magical Genius
[System initialisation bonus]
Intrinsic talent granted: Magical Engineer
_____
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Skills detected: Parkour (passive), Basic Mae stru (passive), Basic Melee bat (passive)
[System initialisation bonus]
Skill granted: Basic Spellweave (active)
_____
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Knowledge detected: Basic Clockwork, Basic Steampower
[System initialisation bonus]
Knowledge granted: Basic Electrical Theory, Basia Formation
_____
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[System initialisation bonus]
Intrinsic equipment created: Clockwork of Time (Ex)
_____
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Initialisation plete]
[Begin awakening]
_____
Emily suddenly feels ahereal flow around her iopped time. A vague buzzing of power just beyond her reach.
The flow of the energy slowly bends, entering her mouth and cyg in pce of the breath that was stopped. She feels the energy spread through her veins and gather at her heart and brain.
In her heart forms a vortex of energy, building up heat and gradually densing throughout its rotations. In her head the energy fades, ging into cold lightning that causes a splitting pain as Emily’s brain is moulded and pressed. The remain space is filled with new growth as her brain bees denser.
After a few mihe flow of energy around Emily stills, as a burst of power emanates from her.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
gratutions!
First Circle [Magic Circle] formed
[Mana stat created]
First Stage [Maa Cortex] formed
[Maa stat created]
_____
The struct around Emily’s heart starts to pump mana through her body, the burning wave of power carving new els and pathways into her flesh. Meanwhile, her cortex releases a flow of maa into her nerves, sending a shiver down Emily’s spine as her awareness of her own body slowly increases.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Skill created: Magic Circuit (passive)
Skill created: Neuro (passive)
[patible skills detected]
[Merging skills]
_____
The hot and cold energies collide, swirling together and f a banced equilibrium as a wave of fort and pleasure spreads through Emily’s body.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Intrinsic skill created: Magietwork (passive)
[Awakening plete]
Please call [Status] in your mind to open the system iure
_____
As the st words fade from Emily’s gaze along with the blue window, the seds hand on the pocket watch held in front of her ticks backwards.
Tick!
Four seds pass and space around Emily begins to strict.
Tick!
Three seds pass and Emily’s breath is sucked from her lungs.
Tick!
Two seds pass and the flow of mana and maa in Emily’s body resists the external pressure, holdiogether.
Tick!
One sed passes and Emily’s perception is ripped to pieces as lights and sounds stretch around and through her.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
The clock rushes backwards, tearing through temporal tides and pulling along its unwilling passenger.
Tick!
The watch stops at 7:45 pm as a wave of force bursts out of Emily, sending all the loose papers on her desk flying as a loud crash of thunder rings out from her, spreading throughout the whole city.
She sits in a daze, her perception back to normal and the pressure gone, but her mind struggles to process the rush of events that just occurred.
Hurried footsteps grow increasingly louder before the door bursts open and Herber enters, quickly looking at Emily and taking iate of the room.
“What in Goddess’ name happened here? Are you okay?”
“Um, yeah. I’m fine, a gust of wind just messed up my notes. Did you hear that thuhink it’s gonna rain?” Emily quickly tries to deflect Herber’s worry.
“Really? It sounded like it came from io me,” Herber questions before muttering under his breath. “Not quite sure what it could be though, I don’t see any rge explosion sites in here.”
“Yeah, it’s not my fault for once. I thought the skies looked clear earlier.” Emily rexes into her lie and shrugs off Herber’s . Standing up from her desk, she begins to gather the scattered papers while dismissing him.
“I didn’t do anything, go back to cooking and stop looking at me like I’m about to blow up the house.”
Herber gres at Emily, trying to spot the cra her fa?ade. Uo call her bluff, he leaves with his suspis unresolved.
With Herber gone, Emily sighs and drops back down on her chair, dropping her notes onto the desk unsorted. She brings a hand to her forehead and starts massaging her brow as she tries to uand what just happeo her.
What were those strange voices? Who am I meant to save and why should that be my problem? Did it say magic? Magic’s real?! What was it I was meant to say to see that system again? Status?
The familiar blue window popped into Emily’s view again, this time taining a cise list of information.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Name:] Emily Coldstone
[Race:] Human
[Age:] 15
[Magic Circle:] First Circle
[Maa Cortex:] First Stage
[Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22
[Health:] 115/115
[Stamina:] 175/175
[Mana:] 330/330
[Maa:] 330/330
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Talents:
[Intrinsic] Magical Engineer
-Meical Genius
-Magical Genius
Skills:
[Intrinsic] Magietwork (passive)
-Parkour (passive)
-Basic Mae stru (passive)
-Basic Melee bat (passive)
-Basic Spellweave (active)
Knowledge:
-Basic Clockwork
-Basic Steampower
-Basic Electrical Theory
-Basia Formation
Equipment:
[Intrinsic] Clockwork of Time (Ex)
_____
Reag the bottom of the window, Emily’s focus lingers on the Clockwork of Time, and the window suddenly ges.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Clockwork of Time]
[Rank:] Exclusive (bound)
[Description:] The first marvel of teology and magic created by the Teancer Emily Coldstone and blessed by the will of the universe upon iion.
[Effect:] Upon activation, rewind time by up to twenty-four hours
_____
…
…
…
Did I just time travel?!
