"As many as we need. The runes aren't all that complex and as long as an enchanter has a well-made sphere just about anybody can make one. Capturing or storing life force can be done by the healers and priests after they're made.
The bigger issue will be acquiring spirit aligned with the spatial element. Right now, only my Beklaedning clan can use spatial spirit, so the enchanters will need to commission us to fill some spirit crystals." Chronos said.
"Why are you here anyways Emily?" Old Tobias interrupted them.
"Hah, are you so old that you're losing your memory Tobias? You asked me to be here yesterday to make a new spell." The head healer named Emily said.
"Oh, I forgot about that." He sheepishly said. "This new sphere has too many possibilities to ignore it."
"Hm, what can it be used for? What are its limits?" Magnus asked.
If Old Tobias was saying that it was useful then it might become a major part of their army later on.
"It can contain any object that is smaller than a meter and it shrinks down to be smaller than an apple. Just a handful of these could carry supplies for an entire unit." Old Tobias responded.
"So, it's similar to our ballistae bolts? Can it hold spells?"
"No, it can't hold anything that's alive or too volatile. That means no magic as magic constantly wants to change form. It can hold pure spirit or aura for a short while, but it slowly dissipates over time.
Right now, life force is the only power stable enough to be held long term and as you just heard from Emily, we still need to change the sphere to be more specialized if we want it to hold life force indefinitely." Chronos said.
"I believe we can get it to hold spirit and aura long term as well, but we need to experiment on it some more. If we have it contain an enchanted item that's enchanted with a delayed fireball or other similarly destructive spell on it, we can make it into a handheld fireball too." Old Tobias said.
"Even if we can't do that, being able to carry a meter of extra space in your hand is extremely helpful for an army. I don't doubt that my father will be commissioning thousands of those spheres for the nation." Magnus said.
"By the way, Magnus, was there a reason you came down here?" Chronos asked as Tobias and Emily were already discussing what spell to use on the vitality layer.
"Right, I need you on the surface. The towers are having a problem synchronizing with the power core room and I think it's got something to do with the layers." Magnus said.
"Got it." With his business in the power core room finished Chronos went back to the surface.
Once he was on the surface, he saw that the towering mountain-like castle was already halfway finished and there were six towers around its base. The tops of the towers were still unfinished, but the base was sturdy and most of the lower rooms had been completed.
"Geez, you crucible knights really work fast." Chronos commented.
The castle hadn't even reached a fourth of its height when he had gone into the power core room that morning. He hadn't thought one morning's work could change things this much.
"It helps that most of us can use some form of magic for construction. A regular army would take several months to do what we can in just a few days." A foreman said as he came over to Chronos. "Commander Magnus sent you to help with the tower problem, right? Follow me up, I'll explain the issue."
"Ok." Chronos took the offered hard hat and followed him into the tower.
In the center of the tower was a large pillar that had countless runes written on it while the rooms were arranged around the outer edge of the tower.
"Is it fine for the central pillar to be exposed?" Chronos asked.
"No, we'll be encasing it in stone once the tower is finished. Now when we activate the tower it draws power from the power room just fine, but when we try to synchronize with the castle's magic it flickers and several runes warp. We have to replace them after each test and haven't been able to find a solution yet."
Walking up several flights of stairs the foreman pointed at a rune in front of him.
"Here is where the first rune warp appeared every five to seven runes after this another warp appears until the tower stops transmitting power altogether."
"Are these runes the ones used to send power to other locations? Do they only transfer spirit power, or do they also move elemental power around?" Chronos asked.
"They are used to transfer power to other towers and they move elemental power too."
That explained it. This castle wasn't like other crucible castles; it touched on other layers instead of using elemental power.
"That's no good. This is an experimental castle using a different power from the other castles. We'll need to change the runes to match the new power. Show me the plans for the towers, I need to understand the full extent of the runes."
Nodding the foreman passed him a set of blueprints detailing how the towers were made and the runes on them.
Looking it over Chronos saw the issue immediately, the runes at the bottom of the tower synchronized the rest of the tower with an element which is why the ones at the bottom didn't seem to have any problems. But the further they were from the syncing rune the worse the damage became.
Chronos held his chin as he thought about the possible fixes.
"We could add more syncing runes at the base to push the power through the tower."
"But we're planning to extend the spell's effects beyond the castle walls. The number of syncing runes we'd need to be able to maintain control of the spell at that distance would fill the entire tower on their own. Should we change the runes that transfer power?"
"No, if we change the transfer runes we'll have to redesign the rune arrangement and that will force us to redesign the entire tower. Maybe we can add sync runes next to the transfer runes that will resync the power?"
"That should work but we'll need to clear it with Tobias before we change anything."
"Clear what with me?" Old Tobias asked from behind them.
He and Emily had already completed the preliminary design, and she was testing it now. Since he hadn't been needed any more, he came up to check on the rest of the castle.
"Changes to the runes on the towers. The towers are rejecting power because the sync runes are used to handling elemental power, not the power of layers. It doesn't help that we're linking multiple layers at once either." Chronos replied.
The foreman glared at him before looking around to make sure nobody was close enough to overhear them. Only a few of the highest ranked enchanters knew that the elemental source had been changed to layers.
Old Tobias gave them a confused look, "Why don't you just change the elemental rune here next to the sync rune for the rune representing the layers?"
Both Chronos and the foreman stared at the small change that old Tobias had made then felt embarrassed that they hadn't thought of such a simple solution.
Synchronization runes were used to sync multiple materials or items together with a single power source, but it only worked when it knew what it was trying to sync with. The rune arrangement was very simple as it was just two runes linked together and could easily be changed.
"We're linking three layers to the castle. Can we still sync the towers like this?" Chronos curiously asked.
"Yep, we need a special arrangement for it but once you know the arrangement it's not a problem. Here let me show you."
Old Tobias took the plans and drew an abnormal rune arrangement that had multiple connection points and transfer points around a central rune before drawing runes to block most of them leaving only three input points and one exit point on it.
"Make sure you don't draw the lines in the wrong order or the arrangement will collapse." He commented as he passed the plans back to them.
Taking a look Chronos could see that it would work but the structure was complicated with five circles for runes above the central sync rune and five more circles for runes below the central rune.
The runes in each of the sets were also connected to two other runes on the same side by directional lines. So, a single mistake in the rune lines or direction of writing would collapse the entire arrangement.
"This isn't going to be easy. I'm not very good with delicate runes like this." The foreman said.
"Most spatial runes are as delicate as this. Let's head down and I can try to write it." Chronos said.