A Hero's War [Web Novel]

[Xacual]

I picked up the story after seeing it recommended in a WN/LN thread on 4chan a week ago and finally caught up. I really enjoyed watching the changing dynamics of the world as it suffers from the wrath of Cato and his spreading of knowledge and I like Cato and Landar's relationship too. It's been developing very slowly but understandably. I loved the scene when she came back to find someone else had worked on "their" project and was having weird feelings about it. Then of course the recent scene with her getting angry about the romantic present and forcing Cato to go on the expedition.

Personally with how Landar's parents are, I'm honestly surprised they haven't extended an invitation to Cato to visit since it seems like despite how Landar views them, they do care about their daughter. I'm honestly curious about how Landar's parents view her working relationship with Cato and whatever information about it that they're getting fed to them from Chakim.

On the Morey possible romance side, I can't see him going for any of the four girls. Based on how he is, I think it would take some girl treating him like he wasn't special just because he was the hero or from another world for him to take notice. Also looking forward to the inevitable meeting between Cato and Morey.

Also on the politics / war side of things. I'm surprised Minmay or Hino haven't actually asked Cato how people survived in his world with access to all these crazy weapons and things. I mean their chat between themselves was pretty telling that Hino is very suspicious about how free any country could be if everyone is potentially armed.

Edit: Something else came to mind, what does the Iris Clan think about Cato and Landar's theories on magic that they've been messing around with? I'm sure Chakim has sent that information to them too.

[Breimn]

Originally Posted by jseah

The explanation is as follows:
- When running a magic power pump like the box, you move magic through the spell to the other side. (ie. inside of the box to the outside or vice versa)
- If you are moving magic from a low magic area to a high magic area (or even just equal), you lose power
- If you are moving magic from a high magic area to a low magic area, you gain power, but less power than the difference
- Left to its own devices, magic flows from high magic areas to low magic areas naturally, leaving you with a nice approximately even field

- Large concentrations of stuff, like mountains, attract magic and naturally cause a gradient of magic, with high magic area inside the mountains like the places where mana crystals grow
- The gradients aren't steep enough to pump the magic for a short distance and still come out positive; and since you gain the most power from the greatest density differences, it is best if you pump the magic all the way out of the field
- A magical barrier, like disruption shields, magical materials or the walls of the box, blocks this attraction force and also blocks movement of magic; a high magic area fully enclosed by magical barriers cannot disperse even if the whole box is brought into a low magic area, unless you open the box of course

- Given that making the tunnel into a giant pump will run into practical difficulties in the next part, there is a much easier way to gain some magic power (but works differently from the pump)

Hint:

Spoiler:

The other method relies on a different way to get a high magic area to draw power from.
You don't a mountain and it works everywhere but also has practical limitations of a different sort.

Note also that there is actually a lower level explanation for this behaviour of magic that Cato hasn't and won't discover for some time yet. Maybe after another arc or two.
You may note that magic power in spells isn't explained by the magic power density theory. That isn't relevant for this however.

Extracting power from mana already existing in the ground? Or maybe Air?

As for Xacual i am glad that me spamming this on /a/ wn threads for months helped someone read this.
Ifbyou didnt already try mother ofnlearning too.

edit: is it wind turbines?
Or perharps highrise building?

[jseah]

More hints:

Spoiler:

It involves obtaining a high magic density area without using magical weather effects.

[jseah]

This has only covered the practical difficulty part (it takes too long to enchant an entire tunnel), not the alternative idea.
This small tube only solves the enchantment time issue so they can perform the experiment, basically just a realization that they didn't need to build a production-sized version to test a theory.

I'll see about adding an Inath report on Morey's side now.

[Breimn]

So new ch out already? I was thinking, since Cato's has problems with crystals not having the same efficiency, cant he just make sure that the crystals adopt themselves a fixed form?
Maybe having crystals grow in certain small boxes(all in rows) with the shape he wants?

[jseah]

Um, where did you get that from? I might need to fix it if I wrote something wrongly.

The crystal shaving is to make a calibration series, not for power. Like the difference between burning a piece of coal to calculate energy content versus chucking them in a boiler.

[Breimn]

Yes, but does it not take a lot of money to shave the crystals? And Cato at the moment is the only one who has enough money to shave off some crystals as they are consumable items.
Otherwise there would be a need to find another way to calibrate so that even poor people can do.
And while giving jewelers special lenses would make it a work that even new apprentices can do easily, the quantity would still be very limited .
(ps since english is not my first language i tend to get wrong words sometimes so problem is on my side)
BTW just read new ch, Cato and Landar closed off in their own world lol.

[Tenzen12]

Why should anyone but researcher need do that?

Anyway poor Rika getting fooled by obvious and undeniable proofs.

[Breimn]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Why should anyone but researcher need do that?

Anyway poor Rika getting fooled by obvious and undeniable proofs.

Just cause one is poor does not mean one is not a researcher.
Even the knights accompanying admit that not many have not that much money , think of all the low/middle class people that are in the academy.
The only way they would manage is to work under someone else.Kinda like what happens nowadays to be fair, with people being paid to research by big companies.

[Tenzen12]

I think it's natural assume most academy projects are funded by Minmay and Guilds and doesn't require personal financial involvement.

I would also bet some money find it's way back through technology export.

[jseah]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Why should anyone but researcher need do that?

Later, when a magical industry starts, you are going to need a way to quantify magic power, and calibration services are one way to make sure one person's MP units match up with the next person's.

[Tenzen12]

Later once magical industry starts I assume magic will be possible buy as batteries if with standardized capacity or as fuel of several grades that would be bought in grams (kilograms) or in of volume if liquid.

Doesn't Cato use shaving crystal into cube for sake of acurately determining it's atributes that would allow set such standards?

[ndiezel]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Later once magical industry starts I assume magic will be possible buy as batteries if with standardized capacity or as fuel of several grades that would be bought in grams (kilograms) or in of volume if liquid.

Doesn't Cato use shaving crystal into cube for sake of acurately determining it's atributes that would allow set such standards?

I imagine that magic power will be transferred like electricity in common. And magic devices can be clients for servers of magical "programs" in civilian uses. BTW, author, I hope you will make different kind of storages for magic power. For example if you make magic power work like electricity, then make it reserved only for electrical network, batteries have so low efficiency, that it'll be absurd if technology even develop in this direction, because if you can store it like fuel storage can be a simple matter of space. Also using magic power as electricity in military is a no go, as autonomous work is much more important, than efficiency of delivery.

[jseah]

The crystal shaving is to ensure the crystals all discharge in the same fashion. Mana crystal evapouration in a low magic density environment is controlled by surface area.

-------------------

There are three "levels" of storage planned, so to speak.

Lowest grade is mana crystals. They're hard to draw power from but stable in the very long term, you can just chuck them somewhere and forget about them until you need them.

The middle is high magic density itself. This is the one you can pipe around like a network, it works like an gas line. You still need a generator at the end to use it but that's just a single patch of magic and in fact the 'generators' could be affixed to the line like power outlets.
They haven't thought of this yet.

The high grade is raw magical power itself. Landar's original thread network and Cato's improvement of ground enchantment is this. The advantage over magic density is that you can use the power directly without being restricted by the rating on your generator or the width and density of your magic power pipe. You could blow the entire stockpile in one go if you wanted. The drawback is that the 'speed of sound' of magic is only about 10m/s and so too slow to build a power line all around the city.
You also need a huge volume or special materials to store a good amount of magic. (normal wands are about to become very weak in comparison)

Depending on application, the military is going to use all three.

In a defensive battle, raw magic power would have been stockpiled in a city wall or bunker inside steel rods or cubes. This allows you to discharge it when you need it, as much as you need, for shields, for spell cannons, for anything.

High magic density lines are useful for longer term defensive battles since they can continuously provide power from the 'power plant' (ie. the source that Cato discovered how to build).
In space sensitive applications like mobile wagons and later, airships, compressed magic density above any natural level is inefficient but the most energy dense source, albeit vulnerable. (you have to spend magic power to compress it first, or by another method about to be revealed; if the container is damaged, it's liable to leak though)

A sieging army or sea going warship would stock mana crystals and power boxes (later improvements would make it continuous and self-feeding) since its stable and has a reasonably good energy density. For long range commercial transport, crystals are also favoured for being easy and cheap to store.
A later invention will allow the creation of artificial mana crystals (it's actually just a magical material like elemental Water).

[ndiezel]

Originally Posted by jseah

High magic density lines are useful for longer term defensive battles since they can continuously provide power from the 'power plant' (ie. the source that Cato discovered how to build).

Sounds like a very bad idea. The moment your defence depend on single stationary object you lose. What are the first things that become targets for artillery and aircrafts? Roads and railroads. This all will ALWAYS be a targets for diversions and artillery strikes, so I doubt military will ever use this sort of unreliable piece of technology. Please, reserve this only for civilian uses. And remember, that there's no "long term defensive battle" in our world anymore because of cannons (for fortifications) and highly mobile infantry that can charge much faster, than effective defensive lines can be built.

Oh, and about sieges: walls are useless against cannons (especially with mass production of long range ones and introduction of bombers), so I recommend switching it to "street battles" thing, as it what replaced sieges in WW2.

[jseah]

The difference here is that magical shields allow for effective fortifications. Layered versions can defend against anything, only costing magical power. See Nal's shield against Morey's gun. Also the Shieldwall/Bladewall the summoning stones are nigh impenetrable without destroying them, even to more exotic weaponry like the lasers the crystal zombies are use (summons are opaque).

With proper shield generators and enough magical power, you could replace or recharge a destroyed/damaged shield virtually instantly.

Spoiler for Later magitech:

The more advanced versions that Cato is about to discover next arc or two and Morey has seen in the crab-Titan have reactive properties that allow the shield concentrate all it's power into the point of impact. Remember that free standing (non-alchemy) magic doesn't have any density limits and you can simply charge a shield until nothing gets through.

To a large extent, the reason why the war between the First and Tsar went on for so long was because large scale magical battles eventually devolve to who has more power. Defences have a strong advantage in the magic system. As we're about to find out in the Elka visit chapter, this results in ridiculous power escalation, the effects of which can still be seen today.

That said, long range magic density pipelines aren't really going to be around for military purposes since they are too vulnerable like you said. Can't put shields everywhere.
I was thinking more of a city defence where the pipes in the city also run to the fortifications.

[Breimn]

Thing is with barriers being a thing they can have something that can actually resist cannons.
While it may not last many days it is still bettrr than nothing.
edit:->well , what jseah just wrote(just saw it). I wll just go to sleep. See you tomorrrow.

[El Rue]

Magic's existence & how it's used really will shift so many things beyond our normal common sense & standards, be they military, general technology, medical science , etc. etc.

Part of the story's charm is seeing the process & different effects/changes from different sides/people.

[chaosbeowulf]

Heh, if Landar is the Mad Alchemist, then Cato is the Absent-Minded Professor.

[Breimn]

Shipping and magic bank, what to wish more of?

They were tied up in a ponytail anymore,
They were not tied up in a ponytail anymore,

There was another grammar error i think but cant find it again and i am sleepy. See you tomorrow.