AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 5, Spring, First Month, Third Week.

“Why is there a lake here?”

The Captain of the second section felt completely lost. He had assumed the post for less than a year and saw this mission as an opportunity to show his worth. Unfortunately, things had only gotten worse. First, they were restlessly attacked by beasts, even though this was the forest, they shouldn’t meet so many beasts. Then, when they finally located someone, a surprise attack from a MQ earth digger beast killed a dozen of his Guards and wounded one of the Mages working under the new Wind Lord.

If the series of mishappenings had stopped there, they would be able to move forward and just let it go, but now, an Originless lake appeared out of nowhere to block their path. Of course, the easiest and most obvious step would be just going around the lake, ignoring the oddity. However, because of the mysteries surrounding his target, he couldn’t. So, he would have to humbly request the help of the Mages.

While his subordinate ran off to get the lofty and pompous figures, he turned his attention back to the lake. It didn’t matter how much he tried, he couldn’t see its extension because a dense mist spread above the water. Even so, judging by its borders, the lake would probably have more than one kilometer, which made the event even more strange. They just left Winter, so a swamp formed by the melting snow was still acceptable, but not a lake this big.

The group of grey-robed Mages appeared on the Captain’s sight, making his stomach turn. The memories of the abuse from his siblings were still fresh on his mind, even after ten years. Unfortunately, chances are he would never be allowed to get revenge against the class that commanded the Kingdom. So, he could only keep venting his anger on commoners and his subordinates. Even though his life was worthless in the eyes of some, there were still many under him.

Instead of answering his questions, the Mages stared at the lake while discussing something amongst themselves. The Captain had to swallow the humiliation and quietly wait on the side, after all, what else could he do?

One of the Mages with a slightly lighter gray rob, step forward whistling a continuous tune. Different from common wind Mages, who almost always gathered the energy around their hands, sound Mages use their voice to stir the sound energy in the environment. The sound Commander masterfully formed a string of high-pitched notes, that danced around before diving into the mist. The Mage kept whistling until he started to hear the feedback of the spell that dutifully traveled to his ears.

With a deep frown, the Commander turned back and moved his lips towards another Mage with a darker rob. The second Mage also stepped forward, already releasing a strong swirl of energy around her body. The Captain had to step back to not get caught by the ravenous wind while the other Mages seemed unaffected by it. Soon, the wind swirl grew and rotated forward dispersing the mist around it.

The Mage continued to pour energy into it, but after five minutes of fighting against the mist, the Swirl diminished and disappeared. At the wind Commander’s order, the other three wind Mages moved forward and started to cast a Breeze over the mist. With the empowering of the Commander, the Invoker’s spells combined and grew stronger, but even so, it wasn’t enough to clear the mist that stubbornly recovered ten minutes later.

The Captain couldn’t remain quiet any longer, so he carefully approached the group of Mages, who were discussing the situation.

“Do you think this is an elemental environment?”

“Hmm… It’s the only explanation I can think of. The mist is recovering too fast… Other than this, only an Evoker would be able to cast a spell of this magnitude.”

The other Mages looked shocked by the wind Commander’s evaluation, but the sound Commander wasn’t. In fact, as part of the chorus working under Whispert, he knew about the involvement of the Dynasty, so both options weren’t that shocking.

“Could you go over it?”

The wind Commander looked at the lake again before answering.

“I don’t think it would make a difference… I could push myself high and fast enough to cross the lake, but the mist would block my view anyway. Also, if something happened and I ended up falling in the lake…”

The Mage didn’t have to finish the sentence because everyone understood the consequences too well. If the lake had any MQ beasts like a river, even a Commander wouldn’t last long. Before the Captain could voice his opinion, the sound Commander gave him an order.

“Captain, this lake isn’t simple so we have to stop and investigate. Send your men around it to confirm its size or anything unusual. We’ll camp here for now…”

***

“Sir, the shadow reported back. They stopped trying to clear the mist and are building a camp. The Guards are checking around the lake, so they should find the waterway in a few hours.”

Lew breathed a sigh of relief and finally allowed his body to rest on the chair. Ever since the Kingdom’s forces entered the forest, he was concerned if they would be able to cross the lake. Although Karl reassured him a dozen times that only an Evoker would be able to reach AP, and even so, the Mage would have to pay a heavy price to destroy their defenses in a short time, he only relaxed after they failed.

The mist formed the outer part of their obscuring defenses. Even with the concealment, it would be difficult to completely hide an island in the middle of a lake. If one was to observe the lake casually, they wouldn’t be able to notice it, but if they stared for too long, something would become apparent.

So, they decided to add a dense mist all over the lake. With this, their enemies wouldn’t be able to lock on AP, even when they learned of the island’s existence. Regardless of the distance and the protection of beasts in the lake, if their enemies could lock on AP’s position, they could attack it with long-distance spells. Additionally, seeing the island would encourage them to find a way to cross the lake.

Lew and the other agents were amazed by the mist, but Karl explained that it was actually a simple design. The only challenge was the cost to generate the effect. First, it required a MQ water crystal to get the mist property. Then, it would drain a lot of energy to extract the mist from the lake’s water for such a large area. Fortunately, the mist effect would stay by itself for hours, so they only had to renew it three times a day.

Karl also decided to limit the effect to only one section at a time, so the operator only had to use it in the sections where the mist was reduced, like when the Mages tried to disperse it. Unfortunately, for now, they had to check the condition of the mist visually, though the Alchemist was sure they would come up with something more automatic until the end of the year.

The design was formed by a Combination A. (One circle inside of another) with a Direction A. (triangle) on its center. First, the Array combined the mist property extracted from the water crystal (Properties Extraction A. – star form) with the Manipulation A. (One triangle inside of another) and the Stimulus Rune. The Manipulation A. was used to move the mist extracted from the lake upwards, while the Rune would help increase the area of effect.

On the center, the Direction A. would direct the effect to a specific section using the marks on the lake’s wall. The Direction A. had a removable part inside, where the operator could place the mark of the chosen section. The tool had to be powered by the HQ energy crystal for five minutes to renew the mist on the section. During this time, only the effect of concealment could remain active around AP, unless they used another HQ crystal to power the Array. Fortunately, five minutes wouldn’t be enough to allow the high-density energy to slip into AP.