Death's Favorite Child

14. Good Lord

[A/N: Next couple of Chapters, I'll focus on building the territory and giving some background to characters. Oh, I skipped a couple of years, so Daniel is now 13 and Helena 12]

'Captain, move it to the right! Now, a bit more, it's going to work! Connect the final rune!' shouted Jon in the mind of the 13-year-old boy -- Lord Daniel Thanatos.

They were currently at the edge of the Endless Forest, the territory's border on the west side. This mana-rich area gave birth to many magical beasts and was a good source of income for the territory. Adventurers would hunt and collect resources and magical crystals from the beasts. The Barony would get taxes on them.

However, in a restricted area on the outskirts of the forest, the Lord of the territory was known to run strange experiments that made even the bravest adventurers shiver. It was said that unexplained noises and explosions could be frequently heard, and even great magical beasts avoided the area.

Once, a group of adventurers was being chased by an Arktos, the so-called king of the forest. A magical beast that looked like a bear with the rare ability to wield two elements, earth and wind. The panicked adventurers entered the Lord's restricted area by accident and were stunned to see the great beast frozen in fear. The beast turned around and ran, while whining, to the forest. Rumours spread even faster after that.

"Are you sure it won't explode again?" asked the boy, adding, "Last time, I almost lost a hand".

'I'm sure! (sort of...) Do it now!' squealed Jon.

The boy groaned but connected the final rune. A humming noise was heard, and the hundreds of runes around the room glowed. The walls were lined with intricate symbols, and characters interconnected with mana-channelling lines, parallel and series connections, and multiple subsystems in standardized blocs. With his fists clenched, waiting for an explosion, the boy watched in awe as the structure whizzed and buzzed.

"It worked?" Daniel was the first to speak. For once, the voice in his head was speechless.

'Do you know what this means, Captain?' said Jon, finally breaking out of the trance.

The boy nodded, "Yes, you explained a thousand times in the last two years."

'We just made history, Captain! More than that, we probably made history in multiple worlds!' Jon kept shouting.

In this world, the magical devices were powered by magical crystals. These crystals were harvested from magical beasts and used until drained. Then, the empty crystals were nothing but shiny rocks and were discarded. Often, people would throw the empty crystals away or gift them to the children to play with.

Since the beginning of history, there has been an undisputed law: only magical beasts can refine mana, condense it, and store it in a crystal. Today, the unusual duo proved them wrong. After more than two years of studying runes, or magical circuits as Jon called them, and hundreds of experiments, they succeeded in building the first magical crystal charger. The apparatus would collect ambient mana, condense it, and recharge empty crystals! It was revolutionary.

'Sustainability, b*tch!' Jon yelled in a rare moment of profanity. 'Captain, we'll be rich!'

The boy nodded. This would be a significant boost to the territory. They had secretly imported empty crystals of different purity and size from other territories for the past six months. They had stockpiled thousands of them. They could now recharge and export or use them to power devices in the barony.

In these years, Jon developed many circuits to replicate Earth technology. He would frequently shout, 'this is an op-amp!' or 'this is a transistor!'. All things unknown to the Captain, but he needed to respect their contract: Help with the Baron's responsibilities in exchange for 2 hours per day of 'Jon time'.