Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

I need to make a decision on the crystal project.  First, it seems like it might be dangerous to make the crystals larger than they already are if someone uses them to regenerate mana.  The existing artificial crystal clearly is already on the precipice of that being an issue.  So, what I need to check is whether the existing crystal will deteriorate at the surface.  In case it deteriorates, I'll embed it in a vacuum container, like the previous crystals were.  It'll have to be a bit bigger than those containers to house this crystal though.  It will be quite the labor loss if it deteriorates, but it will be very important to informing the project plans moving forward.  As such, today, I'll get the special vacuum container made for it as well as getting the smallest crystal growth apparatus set up to start growing another crystal.  If it deteriorates, I'll want to melt it down as quickly as possible, and start the re-growth process.

As I carry the container up to the surface, I periodically check it with tectonic sense.  Initially, it seems to be holding stable, at least, it makes it further than previous tests did, but I'm still quite a ways from the cave exit when I no longer can detect the crystal in the container.  Which means two things.  One, this crystal obviously didn't make it, but it implies that, two, I'll need a much larger crystal for it to actually make it to the surface.  Well, time is of the essence, so Zeb and I start the furnace up, and begin the process of melting this crystal material down.  It'll probably be at least ten days before we get a crystal that size again.

While I actually overestimated how many days it would take to re-grow the crystal given the larger apparatus was still charged with a decent amount of the gas from last run, it still ended up taking ten days because we spent one day making more charcoal.  While I'd like to say we can keep this pace up, we'll actually need more charcoal again soon enough, so we'll still have to keep up the periodic breaks where we make charcoal and build some stairs, or work on other areas that need it.

I've actually taken to doing various small tasks while waiting for crystal material to cool to a usable temperature.  We tried a test this time where we only heated the crystal material to the temperature that we need it at, and it ended in failure, so we've been heating it to the high temperature and waiting for it to cool some before use, which takes a decent amount of time.  Sometimes we spend the time extracting lightstone, and sometimes it's breaking down that metal ore into powder.  I figured it was a good way to pass time, plus I'm helping Zeb get used to using his own stone shaping while we wait, since he helps me with these processes.  It reminds me of back when I was healing from my near death experience, and just sat refining lightstone all day, which actually did help me get a more precise grip on the magic.  As I can tell from his first works of lightstone refinement still having some patches of dark in it, which needs further refinement to remove.

I've made the executive decision to make a third, larger apparatus.  A finished crystal from this will be almost two feet tall.  This should octuple the crystal's volume, while only squaring its surface area.  I've come to suspect that the ratio of surface area to volume is likely playing a role in how quickly the crystal deteriorates when it gets near the surface.  As I recall, when I'm on the surface, I have an ambient mana regen rate, which is somewhat higher during the day than at night, and is severely limited during an eclipse.  My guess is that the crystal's volume dissipates mana at some fixed rate, and when the ambient mana exceeds that rate, the crystal structure falls apart.  Given that the crystals glow when charged, my guess is that it dissipates the mana as light.  Which is why as I approach the surface, and my mana regen rate slowly increases, I'm actually just absorbing the higher amount of ambient mana.  Then, by extension, there should exist some level where the crystals are capable of surviving on the surface, where their volume can dissipate all the mana they absorb when they reach a certain amount charged.

The biggest concern with a crystal of this size is the dangers in using it.  Given the uncomfortable feeling that the large crystal gave us, I'm a little worried about what a crystal this large might do.  I'll hope that a small test using only a few missing mana will be a short enough time that I won't have any lasting effects from whatever happens.  All that will likely be after Zaka returns next time.  I'll voice my concerns with him at that time, and see what he thinks.

Well, Zaka is supposed to return tomorrow, and the extra large crystal is only 75% done, so he won't be getting any demonstration this time of it.  We're also through almost 25% of all the extra small crystals that we had on hand from all our known crystal deposits.  If I lump in the small sized crystals as well, then we've probably only used 10% of the total volume rather than 25%, but its still a worrying amount, and I'm starting to consider looking for more crystal deposits.  In theory there should still be quite a bit available if I survey the side tunnels and use an even larger tectonic sense ping using my larger mana pool.  If push comes to shove, as long as we preserve the gas, I can start using the recycled material for slower gains, and that will last a significant amount longer.

The good news, is once the apparatus is charged with enough gas, the rate of crystal production increases to a decent pace, and we get significantly less leftovers than we were getting before.  All that said, it took quite a while to charge the largest apparatus to that point, and we've increased our number of recycled crystal material containers by quite a lot.  At this point last month, we had 8 containers.  That has ballooned to 33 containers now.  I even had to extend the room once now to make room for all of the new containers, and am considering another extension now.

Zaka returned with a goblin again, and the whole interaction went very similar to last time, save for any crystal testing.  We had a brief discussion about the dangers of a larger crystal, and Zaka had an idea that I thought wasn't half bad.  He asked if it would be worth trying to put hide between the crystal and the body part that touches it.  So next time, he's going to bring some hide from one of the large lizards so that we'll have something we can test with.  I wonder if leather would be useful, although we'll have to wait and see if the hide even works first.  That said, actually, I should probably teach the goblins leather working when I'm back in the village.  Especially if Zaka is killing all these large lizards anyway.

The two foot crystal was finished yesterday, and there are still 22 days until Zaka comes back with the hide.  The weight of the crystal is actually incredibly heavy at this point.  It is well over 150 pounds, and as such, to actually move it, we'll need multiple people's help.  It's so heavy, that honestly, if we need to make a larger crystal, it's going to need a cart to be moved.  Honestly, making a cart system to allow the transport of goods down to the goblin village wouldn't be a bad idea, but first, the stairs would need completed.  That said, there isn't anything preventing me from making an inlaid rail in the cave here.  Honestly, given how often I move rock in here, having a central cart line up to the house sounds like a pretty good idea.  For the remainder of the month, I think that might just be what I work on.

Well, the cart system isn't quite ready and Zaka will be back tomorrow.  I did some basic testing with a simple cart down in the cave to get the sizing of the rail right so that Zeb could push a lightstone cart with materials in it.  It might take two people to get it uphill still, but if push comes to shove, we can always attach rope to the cart, and have multiple people help haul it.

The biggest hold up on the entire cart system was actually modifying the area near the entrance to the cave.  I've had to widen the area behind my house, and make a receiving area next to the storage area.  The receiving area is the hold up, since I've needed to dig the whole thing out, and get rid of the stone.  The smoothing of the ground down into the cave and the inlaid rail embedded in it are actually already done.  There isn't a finished end to the rail down in the cave either.  However, the basics are in place.