The Chained Watcher

Backstory: Novelty or Revolutionary?

~~~

You wanna laugh at me? I wrote the next chapter, finalized it and everything, then realized I needed to write and post this chapter first.

Yeah yeah, laugh it up. The silly writer forgot that they need to actually tell people what's going on in the background if they want people to know what's going on.

All jokes aside, I'm feeling a bit meh about parts of this chapter, but that's probably just because I'm a bit annoyed with myself and that annoyance is bleeding over. So, enjoy!

~~~

Xelqua drops the 327th identical component for his latest project in the pile of components. Honestly, what was he thinking? Armor made up of individual interlocking pieces that can reshape itself on a whim? Even for a proof of concept, this is taking way too much time away from his other projects.

In theory, it sounds incredibly useful. The armor could thicken in the area an attack is about to hit, reducing damage further than normal armor. Damage won't require a complete reforging either, simply needing new components to be added. Same for when he next Tiers up. The armor will still fit him, because all he needs to do is add more pieces to make it fit again.

In practice, he ruefully acknowledges as he drops the 328th piece in the pile, it's incredibly tedious, and he doesn't even know yet if it'll work well enough to be worth it. This is the proof of concept he's working on making. Bare minimum, he needs a thousand pieces, and he's tired already.

Why does he need to make all these himself? For a moment, he feels the temptation to take on a lower Tier interested in enchanting as a protege. ...But no, he shouldn't. There's no loyalty between Watchers. The moment they saw an opportunity to get a leg up by betraying him, likely to the other higher Tier enchanters who find his unreplicatable skills to be infuriating, they would throw him to the wolves.

It's not for no reason that he prefers taking commissions from Watchers of a lower Tier than him.

The 329th piece drops onto the pile. Yeah, he needs a break.

Standing up with a stretch, Xelqua strolls over to his scrying room, trailing his fingers over the labels on the different scrying orbs linked to different types of locations. Castles, cities, outer space, harbors, specific ships... Hmm, maybe modern factories? The blunt efficiency is pleasing to view from time to time. Hopefully his scrying spots still have one or two that haven't been abandoned yet.

He places the orb on the pedestal. An array of small images projects in the air around him, and he starts dismissing them one by one. Ruined, defunct, reclaimed by nature, defunct, abandoned, now a gang warehouse... Ah, here's one.

The hologram expands to obscure the rest of the room, providing a rather realistic view of what it would look like if he was standing in the factory. The sound of magicless machinery fades in as well, giving life to the scenery.

Looks like this factory in particular is producing... fidget toys? Well that certainly wasn't what this place made when he placed this scry point. Oh well, might as well watch for a couple minutes.

The longer he watches though, the more a question grows in his mind. Using nothing but machinery, powered by electricity, mortals are able to mass produce this finished product. Why can't he do the same, but with magic? Look, they've even got decal on some! Can't he do the same thing for enchanting?

A thread of magic slips out, bringing to him a core taken from a monster from a planet where magic is concentrated into cores within the body. A chunk of obsidian is brought as well, reshaping under his will to become a chamber with an open front, with a spot to place the core.