Tunnel Rat

Chapter 190: Dangerous Knowledge

This was a very dangerous rune …

Milo had separated the particular bone he needed from the horror of taxidermy he had bought from the Eels and was carefully examining it. The bone was very old. That was immediately apparent as he tried to investigate the runes inside of it. There were several lesser runes repeated over and over. They reminded him of dwarven engineering runes but were more...fluid? Adaptable? He saw many versions of the same rune with minor changes to just one part of the formation. The Ancient Rune lurked in the bone, waiting to be released. Milo looked at the bone from different angles. One end had been carved to a point. The other end had markings on the bone made from some residue that made a spiral effect. The image of a wand clicked inside his brain. The markings were the remains of a leather handle that made gripping the rod easier.

But what did this primitive wand do? Before experimenting, he needed to document the lesser runes' variations. Hours later, he had only the Ancient Rune to copy. It was difficult, like the Rune of Velocity and the Rune of Destruction. It had things in common with both of those runes. Or maybe Velocity and Destruction contained versions of the unknown rune? He put down his drawing tools and retreated to his comfortable chair to think. He considered the effects of the two runes with physics, not magic. Velocity was a vector describing both speed and direction. To change velocity, a mass needed to be accelerated. That was an effect in one of his spells: The material component, a bone javelin, was accelerated in the direction of his choice until it attained a certain velocity or impacted the target. Acceleration depended on the mass of the object and the force used to accelerate it. Force equals Mass times Acceleration. Or did it? In a fantasy world that had magic? What about conservation of energy? Gravity? Well, gravity worked as normal. He'd fallen enough, and used physics as a weapon to know that gravity worked the same.

As Milo thought more and more about magic and physics, he started to get worried, like the ground was shifting under him. He retreated to engineering. The dwarves used mathematics, thermodynamics, and physics in everything they did. Magic was a power source to them until they advanced to magitech. He relaxed and breathed easier and considered magic again. It was his ignorance of magic that was causing his unease. It was a different branch of science, and maybe this world had an extra rule or two, but the fundamental laws of reality seemed to hold.

He pondered why that was important. Wasn't this just a game? Would it be so bad if not everything worked the same on the fundamental level? His problem was not knowing the rules. That was causing him some anxiety. In the real world, if he didn't know how something worked, he studied until he had the knowledge to solve a problem. He just had to have confidence that he could do the same here. He needed to learn everything the Tower of Spite had to offer. And then, he needed to make a complete study of dwarven engineering. And then? Then he needed to dig out the secrets in this world until he knew them all and things made sense. The last of his panic attack faded away, and he returned to studying runic formations.

But fires, more tea and cookies.

He considered the runes he used in his exploding skulls. The Rune of Destruction released the mana placed in an object into an explosion. An explosion was a force that radiated out in all directions. A modern grenade used the force generated by the explosive to shatter the metal casing and accelerate the parts, sending fast-moving shrapnel in all directions. His version did the same, but with bone shards. The spell was very mana efficient because of the stored mana and use of a material component.

Force? Was this unknown rune associated with force? Many of the runic systems he was studying had runes that used force in one way or another. Dwarves use many different runes to move fluid, apply torque to axles, and of course, blow things up. Gendifur used runes that moved blood through tubes. What did the unknown runic wand do?

There was, of course, a way to find out. But not in this room.

"Can I ask a favor of you, Moray? Or rather, of your clan?"

Moray was cautious in his reply, but the experience he had gained the previous night and witnessing the destructive the spells Professor Tallsqueak was crafting meant that denying the Professor anything was crazy talk. "Of course, Professor. What can clan Emerald Wyrm do for you?"

Milo had finished with his work copying the runes, but in doing so, he had noticed how little actual physics and mathematics the students knew. The subjects were barely touched upon in the Tower. He'd first seen this when working on the large machine with Arlothe. The students studied magic and casting storm spells, not electricity. But he knew many of the principles of physics were the same because of his time with the dwarves. Magic simply added another layer to the underlying physics.

"I'd like to do a series of lectures on the underlying principles of the runes I am working with. The ideas can help all students no matter what aspect of magic they are studying. Your Clan has that wonderful dining hall, and it occurred to me that it would be a shame if the other clans didn't know just how powerful your clan was. I'd only need three movable blackboards added at one end."

Moray understood immediately. The professor was impressed with his clan's wealth and was giving them a chance to show it off. Hosting a series of lectures on powerful magic would do much for their reputation and give them front-row seats. "We'd be honored, Professor. When would you like to begin?"

Milo had nothing else pressing at the moment. "Let's begin in an hour. I'll tell the other clans they can send six people, and your clan can take the rest of the seats."

An hour? Moray realized he had to get busy. "Of course, Professor. I will see you in an hour." He walked calmly out of the library, then sprinted down the stairs to his clan and yelled at his brother eels. "Races are off for the night! Feed the lizards and get them back in their cages! Clean the dining hall and set it up for a lecture with forty students. Everyone needs to attend and pay attention. We have a chance to learn tools for constructing powerful spells! Go, Go, Go!"

"Oooh! A party? Clan Puffyfur will bring cupcakes."

"Clan Manticore is excited to attend. We will, of course, bring a fruit tray. If you are interested, Clan Manticore is continuing its lecture series on Historical Last Stands. We'd love to hear a blow-by-blow account of your battle with General Gangrene."

"Clan Raptor Tail is delighted to learn anything new. Also, if you have openings for lab assistants? Several fourth-year students and I would be thrilled to help you."

The event was everything that Moray had hoped for. The clans were mixing congenially, competition dampened by the anticipation of the upcoming lecture. Cheese Master Smiley had sent over a tray of small deserts that added tremendously to the quality of food they had to offer. The cupcakes disappeared first, to Moray's disappointment, he was slow to notice, and the last was snapped up before he got to them. It was a happy surprise when Patsy handed him an extra tray of the frosted cakes that she had brought just for his clan. They had pink frosting with little green lizards on them. Moray gave her a large smile and bowed, words escaping him for once.

Professor Tallsqueak appeared and addressed the students.

"I realized something the other day. Mining, engineering, demolitions, and magical research all have one thing in common: It's the things you don't know that combine to make large explosions and kill you."

"For example, A gallon of waste fluid left over from processing Deep Steel can yield 138,000 DTU (Dwarven Thermal Units) when burned in a subragator. By contrast, Aged Dwarven Whiskey will yield 2,600,456 DTU when burned. It also burns 22 times faster with a proportional release of energy. I may have overlooked this during one experiment, and if you multiply the heat difference by 27,000 gallons, you can comprehend the magnitude of my mistake. When 7.02 x10ex10 DTU gets released all at once, bad things happen. By comparison, a normal fireball thrown by a 4th-level student releases 2,500 DTU. If you ask Professor Boom about the story, he can detail the magnitude of the destruction."

"Any questions?" The students looked a little stunned and confused. That was a lot of numbers that didn't sound like magic. One Raptor Tail student raised a hand tentatively. "I'm sorry, Professor, but I don't think I have the knowledge needed to absorb this lecture, and I feel guilty that I'm taking the spot from someone else." Others seemed to agree with her.

Professor Tallsqueak smiled at them. Some students prepared to flee. That was the "I have a surprise test for you." smile. Two loud clicks made them turn to where the doors to the room had just been locked by two of the professors attending the lecture.

"I agree. That's why we will review basic mathematical principles, and by the end of the week, we will move on to the Laws of Physics. Hopefully, by then, Gendifur will pronounce me healed, and we can all participate in some experiments with a new spell I'm working on."

For the next few days, the Tower of Strife vibrated with excitement. The strange magical knowledge Professor Tallsqueak was proving to be helpful with many aspects of their magical studies. He demonstrated methods for not blowing yourself up with alchemy, not electrocuting yourself with storm spells, and not over-dosing on poisonous substances. The lectures were expanded, with many other Professors attending and afterwards working with their students on their pages of homework.

The visiting Engineers were brought in as additional teachers. Professor Boom gave lectures on the trajectory of projectiles and how to increase the potency of explosions. He also gave a detailed account of the damage done while hunting a large elemental in the old engineering complex. "Some things are hazy; I didn't have much of a brain back then. But we destroyed rooms of machinery making traps, and then the snake outsmarted us and destroyed the traps. We weren't considering how much momentum a pure copper serpent contained or how strong it was. Eventually, I came up with the idea of burning it, and Professor Tallsqueak devised a plan." He stopped to shake his head sadly. "We'd forgotten where we hid the whiskey until it was too late. But what the hell, we needed a new project. We'll have things sorted out in a few years."

Professor Sledgemonkey gave a lesson on basic principles of magitech that went over everyone's heads but lit a fire in several students to know more. Professor Two Screws showed the schematics for a Dwarven Rivet Gun and explained how to calculate the cooling needed depending on how many hundred shots you wished to fire per minute. The students of the Tower of Strife were impressed by the engineers. They mixed strange mathematics and powerful explosives to create weaponry rivaling a fully trained Battle Mage. The fact that Professor Tallsqueak was working with both branches of knowledge opened up many eyes. By the end of the week, Sledgemonkey had a half dozen applicants who wished to study engineering.

"How come we never had any ratkin engineers in the old days?" He and the other dwarves were considering the question over a beer one evening, and Two-Screws asked the question.

Boom-Boom shrugged. He'd just been a junior engineer. Sledgemonkey thought about it for a bit. "I think the guilds used to be more conservative. Certainly, the ones up top were. It was one of the things that made us go so deep in the caverns before we built the outpost. Fewer people getting picky about experiments and projects. Doesn't matter now, though. That's one advantage to being one of the few old outposts still left. I say we take anyone interested in learning and willing to get their hands dirty and make mistakes."

Boom-Boom agreed. "Anyone who loves to blow stuff up with magic and spend years experimenting with half-assed magics has the right attitude. They just need the training."

When the dwarves began the trek back home, they took six new apprentice engineers.