^^ Erdogan's Crow ^^

Having been given three whole years for testing and development, it did not surprise Finnegan that the two hundred contestants for the competition managed to craft a variety of amazing and innovative designs; some crafted Items that used physics to achieve lift, such as a very primitive concept of a propeller placed on top of a craft, and others tried with pure magic, using gravity magic and iron fields to lift and carry their crafts, but the ones who stood out the most were those who went above and beyond, not fettered to any one concept or creative direction. "The Rules are simple; the contestants were charged with developing, over a three-year period, a prototype magical item capable of both floating and accelerating in a smooth, efficient, and precisely controlled manner. This Machine cannot expend more than One Thumb-Sized Core per Month of sustained daily use, and the Magic Engine Prototype should fall within a one-meter-wide range of size. Core Expenditure will increase proportionally to size, and this has been taken into account, so items less than ten centimeters will likely fail this parameter. To win the competition and claim the prize, you must satisfy all of these conditions, or at the very least more than your competitors. The Prize, as I'm sure is all some of you are thinking of, is Five Thousand Gold Pieces, furnished by the organizer of this event, ArchMage Moonspring, and a position as a Magical Engineer and Apprentice to Sharron Erika, Heir of the Erika Clan and the current heir apparent of the position of ArchMage of Innovation, as well as Finnegan Moonspring, the Elven Hero who has in his short career so far Invented the mysterious and transformative material, 'Glass', as well as developing and building the Trains that have swept their way through our nation and altered how merchants, soldiers, and civilians alike travel, and of course who could forget the Living Tower, the Home of their Healer's Guild, which ArchMage Moonspring and Grand ArchMage Albert 'Bird' Thistle have built from the ground up, markedly increasing public health and safety in our resplendent Kingdom! But, Worry Not!!! Even failure is useful in the pursuit of Science and Magic, so there is a possibility that other Guilds, -such as the Merchants' Guilds, the Nobles' Guild, and even the Royal Guild,- will still sponsor your invention, and fund further research into your particular endeavor! But I've talked long enough, so let's get straight to the Competition!!! First Contestant, step forward and present your invention to the Panel of esteemed ArchMages and Grand ArchMages!" Sabin Meracles, King of the Mountain, grinned like a child on midwinter's eve about to open his presents, while the first contestant stepped forward to about three meters away from the panel's position, holding up a small bird made of onyx, holding a Mana Core in the shape of a berry in its beak.

"I-uhm... my name is Erdogan, and I have made a-uhm... it's a thing? That... flies? Sort of? It hovers, really, and can move in every direction, pretty quick, but it's difficult to control without keeping your hands on it, so you have to float with it?" The young man held up the bird again as his explanation ended lamely, and simply waited for their response, which was soon forthcoming.

"Alright... can you show us?" Finnegan urged him quietly; he was trying not to embarrass the poor boy, but the item in his hand intrigued Finn quite a bit, especially the Silver Core in its mouth, which represented Iron Field Magic. That alone meant that the spell was based off of Gravity of some sort, or perhaps ElectroMagnetism?

"Ah! Right, sorry!" The item glowed briefly in his hands as he focused on it, and his entire body began carefully lifting into the air, despite the item being held in his hands, not under him; oblivious to the absurd achievement just that accomplished, he proceeded to spin in a circle, firstly around and then upside down, all without ruffling his hair a bit, even upside down.

ArchMage Serena Erika, standing next to Finnegan and the King as the premier Magic Item Craftswoman in the Country, spoke first as he came to a rest. "Gravity Magic... he's changed his center of gravity to his own feet, then he's simply moving his feet, it would seem... well, let's see some
More; it's quite effective at finely controlled movement, so can you show us the Speeds it can sustain?"

"Sustain... for how long? Because that's a very open-ended term! This can carry me and keep me above ground all day, and it needs a new core every twelve hours of use, but if I start trying to go super fast, it drains quicker; I can go from the first floor of the tower to the top in about fifteen seconds, but that's the fastest it can go, and it drains nearly a whole core to do so?"

Finnegan did the math twice to be sure, then spoke his opinion carefully. "Thirty floors in fifteen seconds, that's the natural speed of gravity, in a negative direction, with no acceleration... that's actually not bad, considering you're altering your point-specific gravity and the point of gravity's origin as well... is there a reason you don't go faster by allowing the acceleration to go naturally? I imagine decelerating would become an issue 'falling' that distance, but a simple barrier at the top and bottom would end that danger."

The young man grinned, scratching his cheek slowly, and responded a bit awkwardly. "Right, so, here's the thing, I'm... not really a Mage? I can write the arrays, but I can't cast magic without a Staff, soooo... attempting to reach (or gods forbid reaching,) terminal velocity would be dangerous?"

Finn nodded calmly, amused by the concept and its creator, and looked at Serena, some asking questions for now. "Fair point, I retract my criticism; any further questions for him?"

Serena shook her head, while the others agreed silently behind her like her normal retinue. "None currently; I'd place him in Second on a temporary note and see if he moves up or down the rankings later on... Still, that's a good way to start, right out of the gate having someone who has made a lovely bit of progress towards a perfectly functional Item, I like it. Well done, mister Erdogan, you may retreat to the second stage for the second battery of tests."

The young man bowed excitedly, nearly vibrating with joy, then jogged away while the next contestant approached at the King's beckoning.

—

The next who caught the judges attentions was Stella, a young human woman from a fort city, who had made a curious system wherein she used the dead body of a goblin mage (preserved inside a silver barrel where its hands were touching both of the arrays and it was being forcefully used as a conduit,) to connect a barrier to a Mana Core to transfer energy gathered by the Barrier Spell into the Mana Core directly, something thought impossible without actually holding the core in your hand. Finnegan didn't hesitate to cut off the ArchMages who seemed to view it as a form of cruel torture for the goblin, seeing as it was dead already, and give the young woman his professional opinion. "Your creation is similarly designed to a standard carriage, -though much smaller, obviously,- and seems to be powered by gathering the rotational inertia of the wheels and the gravity pressing the user down upon it through a barrier spell, then redirecting that energy into the thumb-sized Mana Core in the center, but that requires a biological component to work, the one weakness of Magic that I have come to a solution for in my own way... This one seems to solve it by using a monster's circulatory system to access both the Array and the Mana Core, taking advantage of its natural Mana Pathways to power the system. However, It doesn't fly, necessarily, though it does make itself lighter, and it does accelerate in a precisely controlled manner, but the methodology is incredibly inspired; were I to integrate this basic method into an existing system, I could easily surpass any previous efficiency ratings by about thirty percent, which is not something I'd expected to see today. Altogether, while barbaric, it is certainly incredibly inventive, and I for one applaud your scientific vision, Miss Stella, and look forward to your future work."

The young woman bowed politely, accepting his criticism and praise equally magnanimously and equally silently; she hadn't said a word so far besides a short greeting to the King, but Finn could tell she was mostly pleased by his overall review.

Serena laughed, shaking her head and taking a seat as her old knees nearly gave out from standing for just twenty minutes or so. "Agreed... the way it charges itself intuitively is beyond innovative, its genius! Finnegan's system is just as insanely forward-thinking, but combining the two... you are undoubtedly going to receive a sponsorship from the Mages' Guild, regardless of Finnegan's end decision..."

Finn laughed sarcastically, shaking his head at her while Stella joined Erdogan on the second stage for Round Two, and then waved the next contestant forward while the contraption was wheeled over to the second stage. "Oh, sure, like I'm going to let you hijack the talent my competition found? I'm recruiting every single one of the brilliant minds here today, and technically they'll be employed by the Healers' Guild, due to our non-partisan standing between the Nobles', Royals', and Mages' Guilds alike! You'll reap the benefits when everyone else in society does!"

Unbothered, she shrugged casually and responded with a knockout one-two punch of logic. "Either way, Sharron will be near the forefront of a new age of invention, and either you or her will be a shoe-in for my replacement as ArchMage of Innovation! As far as I'm concerned, we as a society and my Clan in particular, we all win either way!"

The King nodded wisely, the serious expression visibly difficult for him to pull off, and added his own two cents before addressing the young woman in front of their group with her invention. "Agreed; as a Society, as a Kingdom, and as an Economy, there is no downside to this, as far as I can tell. Now! Hello, youngling, what've you made?"

—

There were other standouts, Mages and Engineers alike whose intellect and creativity intrigued Finnegan greatly, but even the ones who failed the requirements, (which was all of them, of course, the requirements had been ridiculous and intended for failure,) were offered positions as assistants to the top three contestants; Finn planned on creating three new branches of the Healers' Guild that were based in three different fort cities, and having them have some sort of showing every six months to show off their creations and rank them against the other branch's. As the medical researchers who were already part of the Guild would be taking part as well as the fourth Branch, this healthy rivalry would create a slow but steady progress in a number of fields, without relying on Individual Magical Engineers to reveal their work. At the end, Stella received first place, Erdogan received second place, and a slightly older human noblewoman named Jana who'd made a lift system similar to a hot air ballon received third place, while the rest of them were graciously offered a position as assistants to the three new 'Branch Managers', ending up with thirty 'assistants' to each 'Manager'.

"Impressive in the extreme, all of you! I find myself in awe of the engineering prowess and inventive creativity that you all showed here today; while it is true that none of you individually succeeded at all of the criteria placed before you, there did exist three outliers whose prototypes, with some combination and teamwork, would exceed my expectations. As for the rest of you, whose intellect has been acknowledged by both myself and the ArchMage of Innovation, Lady Serena Erika, with some hard work you may someday rise to create incredible inventions: for now, you will work together, continuously striving to improve various systems and aspects of this Kingdom and the world beyond! Welcome, all, to the Healers' Guild, and to the Moonspring Company!" Fancy speeches weren't really Finnegan's forte, but he was willing to be a little outrageous for the sake of the young people in the crowd who needed some encouragement after the disappointment of failing in the competition.

"Laid it on a little thick there, huh?" Sharron muttered as Finnegan sat down on the small sky-craft that'd floated up into the tower's auditorium to escort Lady Serena and himself out of the venue, to the awe and surprise of the rest of the contestants.

"Oh, you think you could've done better, Miss 'Terrified of Public Speaking'? You're welcome to give an encore, if you like?"

"... shut up." The craft moved forward and out of the Royals' Tower as she pouted to herself, skating through the sky towards the Factory.

—

Progress, in a way, was Finnegan's only goal with his new Guild. Progress in medicine, in science, in magic. There did not currently exist a method which properly motivated young minds to make progress, in the various Guilds, and this was due in no small part to their reactive policies: they preferred people with natural ambition to rise to the top with their own personal grit alone, but this ignored the unmotivated geniuses at the bottom of the ladder, those who would shoot upwards like cannons if given the push they needed. Finnegan decided rather early on in his planning process how he'd spread Mana from the Wells, by using his Healing Potions and then spreading them with a merchant company, but that idea had evolved and spread, and now he had decided to spread the Mana in other, more efficient ways as well, such as the flying ships that would be coming soon; they would fill up their cores from the Mana Wells, make their trips, and then refill at another well, spreading Mana all over the continent in that way. But that ignored the largest source of Mana in the entire Continent: the Anvil. Unfortunately, Finn didn't have any current plans for what to make there that would require so much Mana; he'd thought of many things, from a refueling station for the SkyShips to a tower like the smaller one in the Elven City, but that seemed derivative and repetitive, so that wouldn't do. A Tower made entirely of Glass had seemed fun, but what would it's purpose be? Expanding communication with a Radio Tower of that magnitude would be simple, but to what end? The cubes could already reach across the sea, so clearly the standard method of expanding their reach with the trains was working fine on its own...

"Sir?" One of the Apprentices, Jana, shook him out of his thoughts as he stood before the closed door of his workshop inside the Tree Tower; His old workshop in the tree had been moved and expanded greatly, taking up half of the Eleventh-Fifteenth Floors, while the other half had been separated into much more expansive research laboratories than the originals down on the Second-Fifth floors.

"Ah, Sorry, I was thinking about my next project, while you all are working on this one... in we go!" The doors opened as his presence was detected in front of them, sensing him as he moved within ten feet, and they all froze in shock at the display in front of them: a trio of massive, fully-sized Royal Navy Vessels bedecked with purple wood and gold trimmings, floating some five meters off the ground and connected to the ground with cables like reverse anchors. "These are the Helios-Class Ships Cirrus, Cumulus, and Nimbus, SkyShips I've made but not yet perfected. Three years ago, I was having some issues with the blueprints, so I declared a competition which you all took part in. In the past three years I've solved most if not all of the issues facing them, but your solutions were artful and creative as well, so perhaps you'll put your own spin on them, and in a year's time, hopefully you'll have a better working model than mine! In your free time you're more than welcome to do your own research, and besides no one being allowed to know about these, you're free to do as you please with them. Each team gets one to play with, and if you'd like to work together to achieve the best results, I'm all for it! If you're stuck and you need help, ask Sharron for some assistance, and she'll likely teach you how they were made, considering she was my assistant during the process."

"I am not his assistant, just so we're clear! Don't take him seriously!" Despite having spoken out so boldly, the young dark elf returned to her work swiftly as ninety three sets of eyes turned towards her at once.

"As I was saying, ask her for help if you need it, but consider studying the blueprints and the actual object itself as my contribution to your teaching as my apprentices and assistants. My method for overcoming the Mana Core Drain, my methods for gravity assistance, all of them, let them influence and teach you, as you make your own crafts of similar type and size. I look forward to your results, all of you, and I hope you'll learn a lot from me, and me from you, in the coming years of our working together. Does anyone have any questions, before I release you to the glowing toys in front of you?" A veritable explosion of voices came following his question, which he'd expected, and he got to work immediately answering questions and explaining in slightly greater detail about how he expected things to go, before eventually moving on to his next meeting.