[NR] Just Draw A Bunch Of Lines - Chapter 782 (Patreon)

Robby sits up straight in the chair, his jackal ears laid back on his head. “I was afraid you’d say something like that.”

Alexander, the lionfolk Cleric of Truth, shrugs, “It is simply a Truth that certain things slip into the regular guards. Are allowed to slip into them. There seems to be no end to nobles who want a bit of grease added to the system so it runs smoother.”

Rosha snorts, “Smoothly right into their pockets.”

Alexander nods, “Quite right. Now, let us get someone headed out to your groups, while I set us up to talk to the royal inspector.”

Robby, “Do we wait here?”

Alexander, “No, we will want to move over to the more official meeting room a few doors down. My office is more than enough for what we just went over, but once the inspector is involved, we will want a full array of enchantments to keep a record of the conversation. That makes the paperwork much smoother.”

With that, Alexander guides them out of his office and down the hall. Though it isn’t hard to spot which door they’re heading to. While most of the doors along this hall look shockingly similar to office doors, this one has a bit too much gold filigree and fancy carvings.

And the inside follows a similar pattern. Gold details and artwork. Though Rosha can tell, part of that is to hide the room’s defenses. More than a few of the carvings had Mana flowing through them and there were statues and paintings on the wall that felt like magic items.

Once settled in, Alexander went out and got the ball rolling. First sending a man out to the scene of the incident and then calling for the Inspector. Though once that was all squared away, he joined the two, sitting across from them at the large table. At the end of which was presumably the place saved for the inspector, given the royal sigil engraved into the high back of the chair.

Well, and the fact of all the chairs, it was the only magical one in the room. Or rather, whatever the equivalent word for a Qi-based item was? Rosha wasn’t quite sure if there was a word for that or if it was all just “magical”.

Rosha ponders that for a while before deciding to ask, because why not? “So, unrelated to what’s going on, I just thought of a question. What do you call an item that uses Qi? Like, an item that uses Mana would obviously be a magic item. So, uh, yeah, Qi? Oh, and Energy I guess?”

Robby shrugs, “I don’t know if there is a specific word? They’re all just magical. Though that’s probably because most items are magic items. It’s only once you get into structures that Qi begins to show up and Energy? Hah! I guess the kingdom might have a few large rituals set up around whatever available lay lines are near the capital.”

Rosha rolls her eyes, “Well that’s informative.’

Robby shrugs again, “Mana is for external stuff. Qi users have a hard enough time externalizing their power in the first place, they don’t exactly get far into item crafting.”

Alexander, “Well, I can be a little more informative than that. Though I will admit, most people will just call everything a magic item, no matter the power source.

“Anyway, you seem like the type to be in the know, at least a little, but the most basic ‘permanent’ uses of the three are the enchantment, formation, and ritual. Not magic, not magical items, none of that.

“The first and most basic use of these powers is to draw a bunch of lines on the ground and run power through it. Though history does like to debate whether the true first use was those, reinforcement with Qi, or magical cantrips copied from beasts.”

Robby barks out a laugh, “How can that be the most basic use when most people never even learn to do those things? There’s a reason most homes don’t have some sort of powered alarm. If it was so easy, everyone would set something up at home!”

Alexander shakes his head, “I said the most basic, not the easiest. Have you ever tried to create a spell from scratch?”

Robby frowns, “Why would I bother with that? Much easier to just pick up a decent spell from the market. Not much I do needs anything too specialized.”

Alexander scoffs, “And that is exactly why you do not realize this. To create your own spell is a dangerous task that could burn out your Mana pool if you are not careful! Worse is trying to enhance yourself with Qi, as at least with Mana, you can push it out of you. Creating a new application for Qi will kill you at best, cripple at worst.

“So way back in the most of time long forgotten. And yes, I know, how can we know any of this if it is ‘forgotten’? There is a bit of divine revelation involved and some effort done to dig up stuff in the System itself.

“Anyway, way back when, before skills were known for Mana and Qi, people figured out how to externalize their use such that it does not blow up their legs or some such.

“For Mana, this was the enchantment. Where people would draw magic circles and flood them with raw Mana from their pool. Based mostly on what they observed from magical beasts. And for Qi, people would use wooden stakes saturated in blood such that they could infuse them with Qi. Then those stakes would be arranged into a formation. Though modern formations make use of flags with runes scribed onto them in Qi-receptive inks.”

Rosha, “That’s cool. How does it relate to magic items?”

Alexander nods, “It might seem unrelated, but what is a magic item if not exactly that. The biggest difference between an enchantment carved into the ground and another placed into a sword is that the sword can be moved around and is generally smaller.”