QuestWright BK2 C85: From Induction to Conduction (Patreon)

Author note:

Another lore-esque chapter, with experimentation, and a big reveal. I'm running out of those for this book, so I hope you enjoy it. What's more, I'm also running out of chapters. We're going to have a few minor timeskips soon, then every chapter's going to hit, one-two-three, right in the chest. For an example, think back to the end of the Liora Volume.

Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 85: From Induction to Conduction

Adya and Gary left to get dinner for everyone while Cass and Pellin considered the tiny scrap of paper currently resting on Pellin’s workbench. They’d spent the last several minutes going over the Questforge and Infusion, and with each new piece of information, Pellin’s excitement grew..

The Engineer bounced on his toes as he looked at the piece of paper. ”So there’s a Quest in there?”

“Yep.”

“Hrmm…”

“Don’t mumble at me, Pellin. What’s going through your mind?”

“It’s just…the energy is different. It’s weird.” Pellin fiddled with the gizmos on the pad before scratching his chin. “There’s an extra element within this that I’m not used to seeing. It doesn’t react like System energy. ”

“Oh, it’s not System energy, I think. I’m pretty sure that the Questforge uses my personal energy when I draft Quests. Just like the Quill.”

“Really now? A new energy type.” Pellin’s fingers clenched and unclenched as he stepped closer to the object. “That would explain why my ability never really knows what it’s looking at. It’s tuned to System energy. I can probably get a lot of experience from figuring this out. Maybe even a new Path.” 

He picked up the piece of paper, blinked as the System asked if he wanted to accept the Quest it held, then put it gently on a small table to the side. Pushing a few buttons, the workbench changed shape until it was back into its spherical form. Grabbing a small chunk of metal from a pile of garbage, he handed it to Cass.

“Can you infuse a Quest into this for me?”

Cass looked at it and shrugged. “I think so, yeah. But it takes a lot out of me. The one you just put in there about knocked me out. No, correction, it did knock me out.”

Pellin left, only to return a moment later with a beat-up chair that reminded Cass of his old Annex. He planted it behind Cass with a grandiose wave. “There you go, your highness. A throne for the king. Now you won’t collapse to the ground the moment it’s over.”

“Thanks,” Cass said dryly. Entering his screens, he picked a Message-type, then chose Infusion right after. Focusing on the piece of metal in his hand, he willed the draft toward it.

The drain expectantly hit, but to his surprise, it wasn’t nearly as strong as it was with the small piece of paper. When he finally looked away, Pellin’s face was only inches away from his hand.

“Fascinating. I can see the energy within, but still don’t have any clue how it works. As best as I can tell, that Quest should hold for at least half a day.”

“So you’re thinking that metal holds my energy better than paper.”

“Absolutely. Have you tried infusing a piece of vellum yet?”

“For what purpose?”

“Just to see what kind of reaction occurs.”

“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, so I don’t see any harm in trying,” Cass replied, digging into his bag for one of the spares he’d collected from the Guildtower. 

While he did that, Pellin carefully picked up the piece of metal and put it in a tiny opening within the sphere. A cyan light filled the area as he next grabbed the piece of paper and placed it within as well.

Cass pulled out a single sheet, then used the same outline he’d done with the metal. 

Focusing on the vellum, he started to draft when a System message struck his screen.

Warning: Infused Quests cannot be placed upon treated vellum.

This is your only warning.

“Jeez, that’s a dire warning.”

“What?” Pellin asked. After Cass repeated what the message said, he put his hands on his hips. “That’s super…interesting! The System itself doesn’t want any Quests on Vellum using your own energy. Have you tried using the Quill?”

“It uses the same energy,” Cass replied slowly as he considered the question. “My energy. I think if I tried, I’d get the same message or some kind of punishment.”

“So the energy you push through the Quill or your new fancy Questforge thingy doesn’t mesh well with System energy. Can you think back to the first time you used it?”

“Easily. It was when I made my first Hybrid Quest, Lure.”

“See!” Pellin yelled, fully wrapped up in his thoughts now. He paced back and forth, gesticulating wildly as his mouth tried to keep up with his mind. “Lure is a Hybrid Quest. It doesn’t use System energy, it uses your own! Cass, don’t you get it!?”

“Yes…no?”

Pellin ignored him. 

“I wonder if this makes your energy synonymous with corruption. A friendly corruption, maybe. Or at least a type of energy that the System doesn’t find harmless. I mean, you’re still here and alive. The Source still talks to you. There’s gotta be something else…” 

He tapped his foot for several minutes, his fingers slashing then stopping as his face moved through a range of emotions. Cass let him do it, not wanting to interrupt the man when he was diving so deep into how his own abilities worked. Then, Pellin held up a fist.

“Aha! Vellums are treated to manage System energy, the human System, that is. I’ll bet the System is treating the Quill like a bridge between two energy types. A transducer for your energy and the System’s. I think. I’ve only read about them in old books, but that fits. But if it’s two different energy types, and it was created by the System, then we’ve got a real head-scratcher on our hands.”

“How so?”

“Well, your energy is your own. You create it, store it somehow, and it gets expelled in the form of Quests. If your energy isn’t conducive to working with System energy, then how did you get the Quill in the first place?”

“I asked for it. The System threw me into my Reputation screen and I found it waiting behind a cracked, failed Quest. When I realized where it was, I took it.”

“Hrmm, so you took the Quill from your own screen, and it just appeared in the real world after that?”

“Yeah. I call it from somewhere, though I’m not entirely sure how that works.”

“And I don’t understand how you have a girlfriend while I still do not. We all have problems, Cass.” He stumbled sideways when Cass shoved him, but immediately started talking again as his pacing returned. 

“See, it makes a lot of sense that the System had you grab the Quill yourself. If I remember right, you demanded something from the System to help you fight back. As a QuestWright, the System expects you to do so using Quests. People. Because that’s your Calling. But there’s no Vellums nearby and it couldn’t just will them to appear for you. So that leaves only one option.”

“Make them myself,” Cass replied, his mind beginning to travel the same currents as Pellin.

“Exactly. The System is tied to our continued success so it wants you to win, and will do what it can within reason to help you get there. And since you want to make Quests yourself, you still have to pull the energy from somewhere, which is your own body and-”

“And that means I can’t use the Quill or the Questforge on Vellum, because it’s not System energy, it’s my own. It would create a new form of corruption because my energy is somehow unique.”

“Yes!”

“Unique…just like the Survivor Path.”

“Right you are!”

“But hold on,” Cass said, pausing his friend. “I got Survivor from the System.”

“Did you?” Pellin said. “I’m not so sure. Who’s to say the Human System is the only one here? Or, who is to say that whatever manages the Human System manages every System on Earth that doesn’t have anything to do with Monsters. For all we know, there’s dozens of ‘em. Could even be region locked.” He paused as if to think deeply on the matter, then waved it away. “But who cares! This is progress, Cass. This is progress.”

“I really wish I could ask the Source about all this.”

“Meh, the Source is limited by whatever higher power it reports to. I’ll give you ten Crests if it tells you anything, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. However, if we keep experimenting and testing the limits of what the Questforge can do, I’ll bet we can come up with all kinds of special things to have fun with. Who knows, it might just lead to another breakthrough for you, or yours truly, which is the more important option. Now hop to, I need to see what other materials react with Infusion.”

When Gary and Adya got back with the food, Cass was seated with his back to them and the Engineer was taking an old-world plastic bottle away from his hands.

“Useless! The Quest held together for less than thirty seconds!”

“What are you doing?” Adya asked as she put the food down after swiping a large amount of detritus off it. She came over to Cass and looked at him.

Deep circles ringed his eyes and a light sweat matted his brow. All the same, he smiled at her and took a breath before speaking.

“Hey, cutie.”

She brushed his cheek with her fingertips. “What’s he doing to you?” She turned around quickly, her hands bunched into fists. With a deadly voice, she said, “What are you doing to him?”

“What he asked,” Pellin said in frustration. “We’re testing out anything I can think of to best see how Cass’s new ability will transfer and hold Quests. We tried paper, metal, and wood. His hatchet was a resounding success. That bad boy will hold a Quest for days. But plastic is garbage, copper wire is fine, and glass, though not exhausting to your boyfriend there, only held for seconds. There’s something I’m missing.”

“These tests are done,” Adya said with total finality. “Have you even looked at your friend?”

“What?” Pellin glanced at Cass and really looked at him. “Oh, man. I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d keep going if you were really feeling it. I’m sorry, Cass.”

“S’fine. I wanted to know and this saved me a lot of time, Pellin.” Cass replied with a smile. “I’d probably have only tested things out a little at a time.”

“And not been completely worn out in the process,” Garry commented. He sniffed him right after. “You stink.”

“Thanks, dick.”

“Welcome, dickless. Weenus.”

“Ugh.”

“Only fair.”

Adya looked at all three of them, then rolled her eyes as if asking the heavens why she was being punished. “You’re all idiots.”

“True.”

“She’s right, you know.”

“I happen to believe I’m very intelligent,” Pellin replied last, then his eyes grew big. “Wait, Adya. One more test. I promise, this is the one, and I am an idiot for not considering it before. Let me do one more test before you wheel him out of here like he’s some kind of invalid.”

“Hey,” Cass weakly protested.

She stepped close to the engineer, then leaned so her mouth was right next to his ear. Cass didn’t know what she said, but when she stepped away, Pellin’s face was white as a sheet. His eyes twitched and his fingers bunched into fists, then he sighed. Cass’s exceptional hearing picked up his muttered words all the same.

“...she wouldn’t really flay my backside. Still, I better be right about this.”

Pellin rummaged around behind his workbench before finding what he was looking for. Hurrying back, he presented Cass with a single, small chip of wood.

“This is a piece from the Black Walnut Tree you ravaged and murdered in the second dungeon. I still have several pieces hanging around that haven’t made it into the workbench yet. Try this. It’s a hell of an energy conductor.”

Cass held it up to the light. It was so thin as to be almost see-through. “You sure about this? If my energy is really like corruption, we could get into some big-time trouble.”

“Completely corruption free, or the System would’ve come down on me the moment you got here. Heck, you probably would’ve been told by the Source to smite me where I stood.” He laughed, but it was the manic-kind. One that tapered off uncomfortably in the dense atmosphere of his shop while Cass considered things.

“Alright,” Cass said, diving into his Outliner. Once again, the Message Quest was brought up, but he felt a slight difference in the material within his hand. As he began the draft, the black wood glowed pale, almost silvery-white. In the sparsely lit workshop, the intensity of the brightness grew as Cass didn’t stop speaking his words to the System.

When he finished, he felt something. Almost like a tug. Wiling it, Cass allowed the small chip of wood to drink from his energy. The bright, pale light continued to burnish the room in its luminescence. Experimentally, Cass stopped, then went the opposite direction, willing it back toward himself. What was crazy was, it worked. He felt his own energy coming back into him a little bit at a time.

Pellin stepped close and gently took the chip of wood away. The glow never faded.

It cost him no energy to Infuse at all.

“I can see it, Cass. I can see your energy. Hell, I can feel it. This tiny little bastard will hold this Quest for months, not days or hours my friend. We found your perfect Infusion material.”

“More than that,” Cass said, tired from all the experiments. “That thing in your hand can store my energy and let me pull it back out. Pellin.”

“Yeah?” Pellin said, looking away from the glow lighting the deep shadows beneath Cass’s eyes.

“We just figured out how I’m going to purge the Book of Callings.”

“Really?”

“Yep. How would you like to engineer me some armor?”