A Hero's War [Web Novel]

[Breimn]

Finally MC starts alchemy. Have been waiting for that ever since Landar made that comment when the molten steel made a mess everywhere(FULL METAL ALCHEMIST!).And it looks like they can even get free electricity with magic.And for some reason i just started thinking about the crystal door/shield when MC mentioned crystals. I guess he is going to get filth rich with that.As for magic i guess each race will have their own speciality, fukas/ s being probably earth and wind for the flying race.
As for Landar s house who in their right mind would enter a mad alchemist s house? Lol

[jseah]

Cato is already 'filthy rich'. Imagine you're skimming off 5% of the profit of say, Kraft Foods.
For comparison, a very good craftsman (eg. Razzi's workshop leader) will earn perhaps a rime a week.
You only earn something comparable to what Cato does if you're the very best (eg. Landar can sometimes earn a hundred rimes from a single assignment, like the enchanted windows), or you're a noble who collects taxes.


Depends on what you mean by free. Magic can be used as a power source, and it does appear from "nowhere" in that a person can output far more power than they eat. No first law of thermodynamics here.
This only really matters if you're trying to make, say, a reactionless drive for a spaceship.

Which I hope you agree is a little too high-tech... =P

On the other hand, magic is still 'people powered'. So that's very much not free, since you need to pay the person.

[Breimn]

1)Filthy Rich as a king >> filthy rich as a simple noble , you are never enough rich:P
Plus he will be able to make himself some safe house instead of that hell that mad companion of his prepared
2)There are ways to get around that cost or at the very least lowering it. Just to make an exemple having students of schools(and cato seems to be planning bigger schools) training electricity spells in special facilities and here are already 1 or 2 months of free electricity and you can already see which student you can approach in future for a full job.
Furthermore considering magiciansseems like they are going to be more common they may even recharge their own energy storage to avoid paying any money.
As for magician prisoners are there way toseal/ suck their mana dry?I guess forced labor may be a bit dangerous but they can still have them work from their cells somehow(like mana sucking chains to make prison self sufficent)
I guess therr are other things that could be done but a bit sleepy after meal so will stop there.


edit->
ah right, kinda forgot how much mana a few things(like robot) eat .Well at least it is an idea to get those few days of free energy.

[perspherspley]

Read the latest chapter, and I must say that after all these 41 chapters, Cato is still useless when it comes to fighting. He just there hiding behind Landar's back while she was ready to confront those adventurer. He focusing too much on his inventions, if he can't fight physically, then build something that helps him fight against people, or monster that are stronger than him, his bowgun isn't enough, he needs to create a powerful weapon than that, stop being useless and hiding behind a woman's back.

[Breimn]

It is not like he can do much. Some things require time , a lot of it.
Especially when you need someone else to fill it with magic.
Even robot lasted only a step.

[Dart-Sama]

oh my god... wasnt landar suposed to be the one with no common sense? whats Cato doing by trowing dirt on nobles with no power to cover for the backlash?...

[Breimn]

Well i guess a normal modern person isnt used to these things. Over here the rich are always arguing in court for even tiny details, he probably thought Landar s backing as noble would be enough.

[perspherspley]

Originally Posted by Breimn

It is not like he can do much. Some things require time , a lot of it.
Especially when you need someone else to fill it with magic.
Even robot lasted only a step.

Well, he could do less projects, and focus more on improving the bowgun, or create a better weapon than it. At least he should make sure first that he can protect his life, first.
Before he helps others to improve their lives, he should help himself first, because a dead person can't help others.

[jseah]

Cato and combat:
The problem of magical weapons is that if they're useful, other people have them too...

Despite how it looks, in raw power, Landar + Chakim have perhaps half the power output of the seven adventuring parties. They're only at a disadvantage in attention and flexibility. Until you really get into higher magitech levels (which to be frank hasn't even started yet, but will begin near the end of this arc), Landar will essentially be the entirety of their battle power.

EDIT: I also hope this puts into perspective just how ludicrously powerful Ereli is from Morey's side. (and thus by association, Nal and Etani)

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

Landar is the one with no common sense... as an engineer. She doesn't appreciate how difficult it is to do something tech-related properly, a bit like how scientists go "it's twenty years away!".
Magic makes things easier, but only enough that... well, you'll see. =)

Cato doesn't understand how the Inath world works, especially to do with politics and people in general. Writing that last part was difficult because I didn't realize how many layers that conversation has until I started to write it and wonder how I'm going to get it all across. I gave up and didn't do more than hint at most of them.

Inath people might understand what wasn't said, but we wouldn't. It's not just avoiding accusing Corbin, the concept of a justice system and/or due process is severely different in Inath. (eg. Chakim and the adventurers' talk has very little to do with using political power to avoid being taken into custody; and more of Chakim not wanting to give away information and the adventurers trying to dig it out of him; Chakim is also trying to sound out the adventurers to see if Corbin is behind them)

Not known to Cato / not mentioned in text / general setting building:
On the other hand, politically, Iris is about on par with Minmay. (Corbin belongs to Minmay, in the same way that San Francisco belongs to California) And they also have influence in the Inath federation court while Minmay doesn't.

The Iris extended family has sufficient military power to make life very difficult in Ektal. Even if they're not officially nobles and don't collect taxes, the Iris clan is very prominent on the military front and with all the monsters running around, wield a lot of money and influence.
They're one of the Tsarian summoner clans, who are one major pillar of the war effort.

Iris can certainly put a lid on whatever political fallout happens with Corbin. The problem is that Landar/Cato don't want to get Iris involved. The clans being what they are, Landar doesn't want to be stuck to them if at all possible.


That said, if Corbin is sending assassins to kill you already, then what's the worst that could happen if she gets a little angrier? =P
And it's not like this sort of incident doesn't happen from time to time in political games.

[jseah]

To my chagrin and deep embarrassment, it appears that I forgot Tam's name and in the latest Interlude chapter, I wrote it as Tim.
I may replace Interlude when I upload this week's chapter. (soonish? Today or tomorrow anyway)

*Sighs* I have fixed this in my local harddisk but the confusion of names is across more than just one chapter and I lost track of which had the mistake. (and the document organizer I use to write doesn't allow undos across different articles so I can't backtrack to find out) At least one chapter had a mix of both Tam and Tim too.

So if you come across any Tims, please forgive me and try to remember it's Tam, Danine's first Fuka friend in Corbin. You can report it here too, if you want, I may go back and fix the AO3 / FFnet versions. (RRL version is too hard, I have to format manually, so that will not be receiving fixes)

*bows*

[Breimn]

I already have trouble remembering all the names from tge various Light novels and web novels so dont count too much on my bad memory U.U

[jseah]

Then it won't bother you right? Move on, nothing to see here. >.>

Also, 42 is up, and 40 is replaced (Tim -> Tam, should be all of them, I hope). Someone asked for more detail on Cato, so here we go, I found a place to put some reflection.

[Lhklan]

Just marathoned thi and I have to say I'm really loving it. The characters feel like actual people and Cato's reason for staying is quite different from what the norm.

PS: CatoxLandar is my OTP for now.

[Darius Drake]

Just read chapter 43. For my answer to the questions at the bottom of the page, & my reasoning:

1. Farming. Useful, convenient & probably profitable. Even if it isn't, it shows the populace that you are seeing if you can make things easier for them, so possibly good for public relations. Probably won't cause any problems with anyone else, either.

2. Compulsory Education/Mana Tax. Will be something that comes up, long term. While it will change the world, it's not something that could be stopped, once started. Better to lead than to get dragged along, and it will improve the lives of everyone.

3. Magical Weapons/Tools. I see it as a subset of Compulsory Education/Mana Tax. A way to use the stored mana will be required, and thus this has to be my third option. Honestly, it's to the point where I really consider this to be a compulsory increase in difficulty to number 2.

[NP-3228]

I would pick farming to increase teh standard of health a bit and decrease death due to illness due to malnurishment. It would strengthen their immune system. Irrigation pump and fertilizer.

Next would be education and mana tax cause I have never seen a story that would have a tax on it.

Lastly would be steel in long term to kick-off anything else he comes up with that needs machinery.

[Breimn]

1)Farming
If you want the general population to start training with magic you must start by making their work easier and give more resources so that they have enough time and strenght to put in training
2)Printing press , at the start there wont be enough mages(both because many may not want to train a lower class both because it would require sending at a least a mage for village to train them) so by giving a "free" book(read as pay later) to each head village they can start training on their own.
As for 3
If there is someone preparing for a fight/ war really soon then weapons
Otherwise Standardized Process so that
a)later working will be easier if he has need for something with precise calculations
b)by introducing standardized process he will increase local economy because it will increase production speed->things cost a little less -> more people can buy more things (exemple for furniture Bauhaus will give you a nice exemple of standard products with nice designs ) ->coin circulation increases
~> economy improves
Furthermore like with mana training it will have a lot of people being able to gain money by doing even simple things(they could even just be putting enchants on it at start) while at the same time a single teacher may train a lot of students at the same time.
Since there probably isnt any mass production industry at the moment whatever industry starts first it will find its market free from competitors giving it an head start in establishing its firm.
Even then it will still be useful in weapons field thanks to someone who may want to start massproducing wands or arrows(enchanted or not) by catering to the knights who dont want to bother with this work just like Fukas did at start.

A little equation about coins
m × t = t x v
monetarity density , it s increases brings an increase in prices
monetary density x circulation speed = prices x number of coins in market
It may be better to look up directly in English the quantitative theory of money since i am still half asleep and cant even manage to make copypaste work properly

[Breimn]

Ah i forgot a few things
a) the mass selling of Art items ) and books will increase general colture especially in those rising up to middle class(reminder that at start even with printing books were still valued a bit so a normal farmer will either have to avoid unwasteful money for a while or find friends/convince village to invest money to buy the books especially since it will require the help of someone capable of reading like head village)
b) Since MC plans to print his books people who knowl his exploits will surely try to get their hands on those and things should go as MC told his little fuuka disciple(sorry forgot names once again ��) with competition rising and even normal folk being able to apply some idea together with magic they will be training so making inventions different from MC and Landar .
For exemple they could make on their own water pumps that work on magic if MC still did not sell that idea yet.

[Breimn]

Just tought of another thing. While I have yet to think of a fast way to kill the miasm ( if it can think getting it into a trap is going to be a pain and i guess a few laser/light hits are not going to kill his whole body at once)
mass production +general population using mana = lamplights on the road towards the fortress increasing security.
I wonder how to trap it <3 make a sealed off glass(or some pther material that lets light through) building with only one entrance and living bait inside only to seal it and use as much light as possible?
Or maybe just some giant vacuum cleaner ? xD
To begin with how much big it has gotten after all these years ?
It is going to be a real pain to kill it.

[jseah]

You're talking about the Miasma in the Death Marsh?

Well, let's just say that the truth of the Miasma is both stranger and more useful than you are imagining... It is related to a major plot point planned for a few chapters down the road, when the magitech is beginning to start. You might be able to guess what the deal is with Miasma right now, but not all the required information has been presented.

EDIT: I meant "for one or two arcs", not chapters. 10+ chapters might still be considered a few, though...

[Breimn]

Umhh.... if it is useful than i guess it is a manmade guardian against that black smoke and any eventual organic monster that were left from previous war? Or maybe it was made to stop diseases/biological weapons ?