Chapter 14.1 Copper Mountain (Part 3) 

For another week, I've only been supervising the camera research: the ghost operators in the crystals are diligently gaining experience, and if you show them an example once, they'll pick it up and be able to do a similar (within a certain percentage of difference) task themselves in the future if you just set a common task. That's why I spend my time with them.

What can I say, on the third day of the harvester test, I had almost the whole day free, not counting school from eight to ten. So I rushed to the mountains and sat there all day until I got hungry. I didn't want to go back — there was another orb, probably with crystals, but deep in the rock.

I decided to send the two new spiders out to do their natural job of hunting. An hour later they brought me a wild rabbit, and the ghost operators were just smug. I wondered at the time: is it the physical form that affects neutral ghosts, or were the ghosts not neutral?

Anyway, after I got a spider under control, I cut up the carcass, washed it in the stream, and again, with the help of spiders, collected dried wood and made a fire. Then, when there were occasions, the spiders (all spiders, even those I had not taught) did it all by themselves, but I made the fire myself, for spiders have no lighter function. I surprised Mori's family a few times with roasted game wrapped in leaves.

Besides teaching spiders, I've been working on three other projects: two theories and one design. I'll start with the latter. The issue of growing artificial crystals came to a head, and the old version of the "Oven" had to be redesigned in a hurry. As they say, the devil is in the details.

So my furnace went from a stone sphere with control and power crystals and seals to a sphere, but a different one. At first I wanted to make a glass one, but there was no suitable sand, so I turned to the local quartz. I didn't know how to melt it while retaining the properties of the material itself, so I turned to Mayuri-san. — She simply told me, — I won't help you unless you tell me why. — Well, with a heavy sigh, I "admitted" that I wanted to make a figure of an animal out of rose quartz and try to put a spirit in it to make a pet. The woman, after giving me a strange look, gave me a long lecture on why, for what purpose, and what spirits are usually put into objects and figurines.

She didn't mention the usual shikigami. But in the end, she helped me, though not as much as I would have liked: the woman pulled a small wooden stick from the folds of her clothing, with a green stone in the shape of an arrowhead on the tip, and waved it briefly, saying something in a whisper.

 The prepared stone "flowed", turned into a jelly-like mass, shook a little, and turned into a pink-colored stone guinea pig.

My mind went blank at what I saw. I came to my senses from the shaking. But at first I didn't care, all I could think was "WHAT THE HELL?! After I was given tea with scones and strawberry jam, with Mayuri-san laughing the whole time, I was told a terrible secret: magic is practiced here not only as I've seen it before, but mostly with staffs, wands and magic wands, less often — various bracelets, rings, rings, spears, swords and daggers, and very rarely — magic implants in their hands.

My stunned face amused the woman again, and she laughed out loud, unrestrained. When we both calmed down, I was promised a lecture on the subject as well, but only when Hana-chan came home — it would be good for her to hear it, too.

Also, the woman said that if you approach the creation of a magical tool with intelligence and knowledge, i.e. taking into account many variables, including the future spouse, the result will be better. Another mention of the hanging boa shook me, and I remembered the funny work and the beautiful potions described in it. Such concern for the honorable Mori Mayuri-sama demands a reciprocal gesture, and I set out to analyze the text I had seen earlier.

 I will not retell the whole lecture of the honorable woman about magical tools, but I will specify: the form of the concentrator depends on the tasks, convenience and habits of the magician; the material of the concentrator's shell as well as its core are chosen individually, and there are many factors, and if you create a SERIOUS tool, even more. Starting with the magician's blood and zodiac, and ending with the current psycho-portrait, which can change over time, and the concentrator will change too, improving synchronization.

The simple consumer goods are available for purchase, but it is unlikely to achieve anything special from them, because not every gifted person has a tendency to transfiguration, charms, and combat magic, with a bias toward the fire element. In short, everything is very complicated, and an intelligent tool is created expensively and individually for each user.

Another problem is the ability to pay, so not everyone has a personalized tool. Having listened to all this, I realized that I have no need to hurry, and I will pick up my concentrator much later, when I will study this question more deeply and in detail. The fact that magnetic concentrators have already been mentioned, for some reason, did not remain in the consciousness. Why was that?

However, this conversation and the subsequent lecture did not distract me, and I learned the ritual analogy of what Mayuri-san had done with her wand, and after a few days I took up the orb stove. Not forgetting to "thank" the mistress. No, how could I ignore what I had written down in my special notebook?

Exactly, that's what I meant, so in a small cave I slowly brewed a special potion in a freshly created quartz cauldron — an excellent subject for potions, as it turned out. But not for all recipes. It wasn't a problem to gather the ingredients, except that my "Gratitude" took a long time to brew — a month and a half, but that's okay. It was not difficult to add "gratitude" to the plum juice so beloved by both of Mori's spouses, with which, it should be noted, they did not overdo it.

And a particularly expensive and rare ingredient, not common on these islands, only improved the quality of my "gratitude". "Jade Night of the Dragon Emperor" — an ancient Chinese composition, especially preserved and protected in the Imperial Dynasty of the Celestial Empire, which not only causes heat in the loins, but also the ability to conceive in a person of any age.

And the added ingredient guarantees the conception of a boy, and if the partners are young enough, as stated in the treatise "The Glitter of Stars on the Scales of the Lords of the World," there is a high probability of twins and even triplets. The first passionate oohs and ahhs, quickly cut short by the Hollow of Silence, made me grin and rub my palms together.