Douglas Miller
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MiP B2 Chapter 31: Noble Reaction
🕑 Added 2025-02-25 19:51:05 +0000 UTC<< First | < Previous | Next >
High Lord Recindril Tostral took a moment to get his bearings after respawning, but once the memory of how he died came back, he was unsurprised to find himself not in his normal bedroom at Castle Tostral. Lornera said she would make an example of us; she would not have stopped at just making me respawn. Losing a level is a significant penalty, since I am beyond the level where wellsprings could restore it quickly, but hardly enough to give other noble houses pause. He shook his head and sighed. No, I expect Castle Tostral is gone, reduced to a scattered pile of shattered stones.
Well, eventualities such as this are why we have this backup home. He got out of the bed he'd respawned on and quickly threw on some clothes, followed by armor. He was buckling his sword belt on when the door to his room was unceremoniously flung open, and an angry teenage girl stormed in. "That bitch! How dare she! Father–"
Recindril leapt forward, flung his daughter to the floor, and landed with his armored boot on her chest and a drawn sword at her throat. "Silence!"
The girl's face paled and her eyes widened in utter shock.
Recindril slowly withdrew his sword and sheathed it, but kept his boot on her for now. "Jamar, it is clear to me now that I have been far too uninvolved with your upbringing and far too trusting in your word. You knew that Carlos was ignorant of the rotation agreement, but you led me to believe that he was knowingly violating it instead. You told me that he was from a minor house, when in fact you knew nothing of his background. You rashly confronted him with shockingly little information, and as a result carelessly revealed to the Crown a secret that the nobility have been scrupulously keeping for generations.
"And when the consequences of that finally came back to visit themselves upon you, your first reaction was indignant anger?" He glared at her. "You are self-absorbed beyond reason, almost beyond sanity. My apology for the rough treatment, but you must understand that you have brought this upon yourself by your own actions."
Jamar sniffled and tried to blink away some tears as she stammered. "But, but– You're supposed to take my side."
Recindril sighed and stepped back, allowing her to sit up. "Then you have learned nothing. This is not a matter of sides. This is a matter of you reaping the consequences of your own mistakes." He contemplated in silence for a few seconds. "I will take up arms against the Crown, as you want, but I do not do it for your sake. I do it because I have no other choice. Heed my words well, Jamar: Your recklessness may have doomed our entire house to ruination. I will have to consider what to do with you. Until I have decided, you will be confined to your room. And since you have proven I cannot trust you…"
He raised his voice and called for a guard, who arrived promptly and bowed. "Escort Jamar to her quarters. Ensure she does not stray, and station a guard to keep her there until further notice. Instruct all personnel that, by my own direct order, Jamar is stripped of all authority."
"Yes, my lord!" The guard saluted, took hold of Jamar's left arm, and sternly marched her off.
Recindril stared after her, long after her sullen figure had gone out of sight, then at long last shook his head again. "I need to figure out how to spin this for all the other houses." He chuckled humorlessly. "Maybe I should ask Jamar for advice on that. She is evidently quite skilled at spinning things, if nothing else."
He started walking, considering his next steps as he walked. First, check on Recindren's room just in case. Lornera probably captured him alive, but there's a chance she might have killed him by accident. Whether she has a hostage against me will affect the politics of this.
___
Hours later, Recindril had a slight spring in his step despite his grim countenance as he came to check on Jamar. Lady Balon of House Briston was gratifyingly receptive to my call for action, and a surprisingly large number of others aligned with her. It seems the reports of her audience with Prince Patrimmon were understated, if anything, not the exaggerations I initially thought. We must move carefully and prepare, but it seems the Crown has grown complacent and utterly out of touch with the concerns of the noble class. We fear the Crown's power, yes, but we fear being reduced to nigh-helplessness even more. Patrimmon is too arrogant by far or a fool if he can't see that.
He stopped and nodded to the guard at Jamar's door. "Report. How is she taking this?"
The guard bowed deeply. "Poorly, my lord. Scion Jamar has thrown and smashed several of her room's furnishings, and she yelled a series of vindictive rants for more than an hour. She tried several times to order me to release her, and one time even attempted to physically force her way past me. She seemed rather shocked when I stopped her."
Recindril nodded. "That fits with her earlier behavior. What did she rant about?"
"Well, my lord, at first she cast aspersions on your character, parentage, and competence as a parent."
"Drop the sugarcoating. I need to know exactly what I'm dealing with, here."
"Yes, my lord. Jamar called you a cruel heartless bastard, said you had failed your parental duties, accused you of stabbing her in the back with a foul betrayal, and called you a lying traitor for 'siding with' the Crown after all the times you've said hostile things about the Crown."
Recindril sighed. "It seems that I have failed my parental duties by not teaching her better than this before now." He gave the guard a sharp look. "There's more, isn't there?"
"Yes, my lord. After she got on the topic of the Crown, Jamar went on quite a tirade about Princess Lornera's arrogance, rudeness, and disrespect. She called her a bitch, and several other things I'd rather not repeat." The guard shook his head. "Jamar seemed to give up on that topic eventually, I think because she knows that the Crown is beyond her ability to punish. Instead, she's settled on blaming Carlos for everything. The last time I checked on her, she was going on at length about all the various things she wants to do to Carlos to punish him for ruining her life."
"Blaming Carlos, hmm?" Recindril cocked his head for a moment, thinking. What I really need right now is just to keep her from causing any more trouble, until I can spare the time and attention to properly correct her education. He nodded. "I can work with that. Stand aside."
Recindril opened the door and stepped in, unsurprised by the torrent of invective that greeted him. Jamar's swearing trailed off quickly as she realized who had come to visit, and he seized the moment of silence before she could decide which new reaction to settle on. "Jamar, I hear you want to punish Carlos. How would you like to command the force I'm about to send to hunt him down?"
He met her beaming smile with a milder grin of his own, keeping any hint of his thoughts out of his expression. A figurehead command position, of course, and she'll never catch up enough to actually reach him if the speculative report about Carlos heading for a wellspring is correct. He has too much of a head start by now; by the time Jamar is even able to survive the ambient mana where Carlos is, he'll have already claimed the wellspring. This should serve perfectly to keep her out of trouble without having to forcibly constrain her.
___
Carlos woke up uncharacteristically early, eager for the day's planned activities. Finally, we'll get some practical field experience! And I'll get to try out using my multiple minds for something other than making yet another set of soul structures! Hell yes! He sprang up, threw some clothes on, and set about industriously packing for their move. He barely even noticed Amber watching him with an amused smile on her lips as he left her nothing to do.
He waited for Felton to teleport Kindar to safety, then scooped up Purple for their flight. He idly inspected the dungeon core while Esmorana called up a fierce wind to fill the sail of her… What do we even call this thing, anyway? Neither airship nor airplane fit. It's kind of like a multi-person reverse parachute, I guess? With seats? Whatever we call it, maybe we'll be able to use Fly spells instead next time. He shook his head and refocused on the purple crystal in his hands. Closing in on 3 inches tall, I think, though not quite there yet, and half that wide and thick. Getting to be inconveniently large for carrying in a pocket, anyway.
Amber's mental voice interrupted his ruminations. [You're almost bouncing in your seat with eagerness, but have you made any actual plans for this? If so, you haven't shared them with me.]
Carlos blushed and hung his head. [Plans. Right. Plans would be good. Um. Well, to start with, we should test the limits of our current capabilities. The ones that are readily testable, at least. Like how many parallel minds we can support. Our limit for that was 3 minds when we initially created that structure at Level 16.]
[4 minds.] Amber responded almost immediately. [I can have 4 minds at once now that we're Level 22, though the fourth one takes some extra effort.] Overlapping with that statement, another thought came over their mental link at the same time. [The real question is how useful the extra minds can be now. I managed to activate a pre-prepared spell with purely mental effort before, but casting without verbalization was too much.]
It took Carlos a moment to sort out and separate the concurrent mental conversations, but ultimately it was just a variant of focusing on one conversation while in the presence of other active conversations. He focused on the 2 conversations with 2 of his minds, and the obvious next step immediately sprang to mind for his second mind. [`spell begin; use mana =…`]
Amber's mental voice spoke in concert with his, each of them casting the same spell in unison with only their minds and mana. Carlos's third mind watched in fascination as the process played out. Each mentalized word prompted a tiny piece of essence to be formed into the corresponding part of a spell structure, the pieces were assembled, some parts were duplicated or even mass produced as if by a factory assembly line, and finally the whole of it was put together and his spell activator pressed the triggers to set its operation in motion. White light bloomed above his right hand, and simultaneously above Amber's hand, as they each completed the spell.
[That's still more difficult than speaking it, but it's possible now.]
Carlos nodded in agreement. [Yeah, and I think I could race through it mentally faster than I could form the right sounds verbally. It's not at the point of just invoking the spell like a compiled program on a computer, but we're getting closer to that, at least.]
They experimented a bit more during the flight, but aside from verifying that they could cast multiple spells simultaneously, most things would need a more practical field exercise for a truly meaningful test.
Soon, they were circling over a potential landing site, with Haftel pointing out relevant features. [Level 29 aether, suitable for Ressara without special measures. That small clearing over there would be good for positioning Kindar as a decoy. Esmorana detects plentiful game and a fair number of predators in the jungle nearby to the east, good for practicing your hunting and combat skills. And it's a bit obscured by all the trees, but there's a steep hill right below us. Putting your dungeon core in the side of that hill would be a more defensible position than most.]
Carlos looked at each of the spots Haftel pointed at. The clearing was obvious, of course, but aside from that all he could see from above was a thick canopy of leaves and tree branches. [Sounds good. Let's do it.]
In short order, Carlos was looking at a 60-degree slope and whistling. "You weren't kidding about it being steep!" He placed the purple crystal he was holding into the side of the hill. "Alright, Purple, do your thing. As we planned."
The crystal pulsed with purple light, and a web of mana and hair-thin strands of essence flowed out into the surrounding area. The web focused its expansion in a few specific directions, and the currents of aether changed. The change was subtle at first, a slight increase in orderliness and reduction of chaotic randomness, but grew stronger quickly in the nearby area.
Unlike the previous times they had done this, however, the web kept expanding, growing to cover a vastly larger expanse. For the first time, Carlos's soul structures specialized for sensing large scale bulk movements of mana, essence, and aether got a proper workout. Before this, he had sensed only the natural background and actions on the scale of a single localized fight. The web he sensed Purple emplacing now was miles across, and all of the more distant parts of it got more subtle, rather than less, as it all settled into place. The outer regions hid themselves, but most importantly concealed the stream of blatantly hyper-ordered aether that was coming from the clearing to fuel their continued advancement.
Carlos's jaw dropped open as he stared in wonder with his various mana senses. "Wow, Purple. I had no idea. That's amazing!"
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Comments
Sheriff
A war is brewing.. Will Carlos aid the Crown? And will that end up a mistake if the Crown ends up coming for him.. 🥶🤔
Elaborate
I feel the Nobles are deluded if they think force of arms will be effective. The Royals seem overly focused on that particular front. No, what would *actually* work is every single Noble packing their troops and treasures up and leaving for another country, or starting a new one in the wilds together (maybe unleashing all their mana springs before they leave, in order to keep the Royals busy). If you have no representation, you can just vote with your feet.
Sean Roach
Why limit to people Purple LIKES? If he can do it, set respawn points for trespassers in the House’s own jail. I’d call it the dungeon, but that has another meaning, in this case. Edit. PRETTY sure I said this before you did. I'll see if this edit is identifiable AS an edit...
Silvernuget99
It's been awhile since this came out is everything okay Douglas?
NoneSuch
Can we get a status update please? Is there a chapter coming today (or soon)?
NoneSuch
I think it's unusual for languages to specify the requirements of an implementation, I've seen different implementations of the same language that made different tradeoffs (for the same language). Specifically, I'm Thinking FORTH. Although The Wiz Biz series by Rick Cook used that. https://www.forth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/thinking-forth-color.pdf
Test Patron Plz Ignore
I believe Purple is a bicone or similar
Dave W
The Magic Computer Language/System in this story has the following characteristics: An imperative structure so it consists of commands that explicitly say "DO THIS". this is consistent with many computer systems extant today. The "DO THIS" structure is compatible with a subroutine structure. It's not clear if there is a call stack or subroutine stack, nor is it clear that "local variables" allocated on a stack are a thing. The language has "Parameters" which may be globally allocated variables though there is no discussion of symbol table management (SETting up new variables, KILLing off old variables, explicitly scoping NEW variables according to a call-stack, or a lexical level in code. Some languages have open stacks so a program can return multiple resulting values on a stack. Some languages require any result from a subprogram (or function) to be stored in a variable. Some languages have variables dynamically created on the subroutine call stack so every subroutine call will create new instances of the variables. A lot of functional languages do this. Some languages have variables statically created so every subroutine call re-uses the same variable with the same instance of its value. Depending on the language, the value of the variable may be cleared each time the subroutine is called. These are usually called non-reentrant, as recursive calls to those subroutines can make a fine mess if you aren't aware and careful. Some languages have all variables in a COMMON block that is explicitly used by a subroutine. Some languages have all variables in a memory array (usually called a heap) accessible by subroutines if they are given a key (or pointer) to that part of the memory array/heap. Management of the heap can be complex, and generate problems called memory leaks. Some languages are goal seeking logical languages, like Mercury or Prolog. These provide built-in backtracking, with pattern-matching and unification. In these languages, it isn't necessary to state how a value for a variable is found, but rather how to recognize an expected correct value for the variable.
Dave W
assuming Purple is roughly spherical, Purple is larger than a billiard ball now. This website gives the rough dimensions for various balls : https://www.dimensions.com/element/billiard-balls
Ben Bass
TYFTC! I do hope Jamar is not going to get in over her head, although I think that is wishful thinking. Let’s see how Purple’s reach has grown since he has been growing.
Jouni Osmala
I think Purples number of soul structures are developing like normal noble until real strength of Carlos soul plan is revealed to the rest and then Purple can start improving his plan with Carlos help to Royal tier. Of course there's possibility that purple got same tricks to hide his soul plan as Carlos and Amber between some discussion. But that wasn't mentioned explicitly. Basically, changing Purple's plan beyond expected is additional risk of detection that all three want to avoid consequences of that. And the bonds make it more likely that some of their staff would notice the difference based on how those bonds were used. Also they probably don't yet know every structure they want purple to have because that would require more practical knowledge they don't posses yet. But yes. Purple is going to be extremely powerful that nobody really want to mess with. It still has a vulnerability of being something that could be reasonably easily be killed permanently unless it has the soul structures to fix that well enough. But I would consider that at top tier Purple could also permanently kill most armies sent against him. And possibly high nobles could be permanently killed if that anchoring trick is done. But even knowledge that, Purple is sentient being is a large revelation, and then revelation to the fact that Purple can make soul structures makes it even more shocking revelation to the Crown mages and the Crown. The realization that Purple makes soul structures implicates its sentient being with its own soul. That alone raises many ethical implications, and possibilities.
Lucy Marsden
I completely forgot that normal dungeons don't have soul structures. You're right, this will make Purple exceptionally powerful. A royal tier soul plan in a dungeon, considering dungeons are already quite powerful with their more fundamental form of magic. Not to mention Purple's final domain will likely _be_ the mana wellspring, making him quite possibly the highest levelled dungeon in the world too. He will quite possibly be the most powerful character in the series by a large margin when he is finished developing.
viperfan7
I'm not really counting that since those seem to be entirely self contained, drawing from their own source of power. So question is, does the respawn happen due to the soul, or due to what's in nature
Jouni Osmala
In chapter 52 they tried to go over the limit. And it strongly suggested that limit of A is actually limit of B. And in chapter B2:20 the superstructure was pulling tens of thousands of times more than other structures, thus its the structures that do the pulling of mana. Also in B2:23 states ". Soul hardener synergy… Hmm. That one's meant to make our souls more resilient, and in particular resistant to erosion, such as from too-powerful aether" There's enough to suggest that Carlos and Amber can pull and use a lot more mana than your formula suggests. And if it becomes necessity they are capable of choosing which structures to upgrade and how much they would dedicate strengthening the surface layers. If aether absorption wouldn't scale with anything then it would take 2^n more time as people level up. If exist a surface limit I doubt it doesn't, then they could scale the surface faster than significant portion of the structures. A structure that's growing at one level below other's consume half the essence, and structures growing two levels below other's consume quarter essence. And the whole concept of nobles being able collect enormous amount of aether to pacify the wilds suggest it's extremely scalable, or that structures take extremely more essence than leveling the surface. Large number of commoners could together do to wilds what nobles do if things didn't really scale extremely well. I'm more inclined to think that Carlos and Amber could potentially start actually power leveling really fast if needed, but are limiting their rate to keep the facade and to learn the skills. As difference between hitting soft cap in a week or a month seems insignificant compared to skills they gain and improvements their followers get if they do it a bit slower way. Except maybe their power leveling would be limited by the rate they could kill monsters attracted by their aether absorption, thus until they are sure they can handle that they would level around normal rate multiplied by dungeon core. Later addition... Oh. And the brainstorming with purple chapter also gives a hint that Carlos figured out something that would keep up the development after they have reached the limit of wellspring.
Dwarf_King
I completely agree with you, but I want to add one factor that limits how fast you can absorb. And that is how often you do it. Carlos and Amber can absorb the entire time, that they spend in a suitable area. Others have to actively absorb it to get the most out of it. So yes in theory Jamar can absorb way faster, but I doubt she has the discipline to do it all the time she is awake, which will slow her down quite a bit. Probably not so much that they progress at the same rate. But it's a factor to consider
Test Patron Plz Ignore
It doesn't drain the area of everything -- soul structures were explicitly stated and shown to still work multiple times.
M
Purple is the real main character!
Connor Mcharg
No, the limiting factors of leveling up are: A) How fast the soul itself can safely collect æther, B) How much of that æther the soul structures (and their synergies) can catch and convert, and C) how many basic structures are using that æther. High House Carlos presumably still have full synergies (it hasn’t been confirmed for their full set of unified structures, but I doubt Carlos would settle for less), which means that they’d be converting 100% of the collected æther, but since it’s being spread out over 130 structures, they still need to absorb 13× what they did when they were in their first stage. Combining that with the 400% rate amplification from Dungeon-based æther calming, and they’re taking about 3.25 times as long each level than an un-boosted first stage Orichalcum soul plan would take (though they’re disguising their souls as ones that should only have 40-45 structures, depending on how far they’ve leveled, which with the help of Purple should only take 1 to 1.125× the time). We don’t know how good Jamar’s soul plan is (beyond it being adamantium), but it’s pretty safe to say she’s probably going to be leveling faster than High House Carlos, at least to start, especially since any missing synergies (which she does have, since she’s not orichalcum) will mean she won’t be able to fit as many soul structures into her unifications, which means that she won’t get slowed down as much by her second stage (even compared to a normal orichalcum soul plan that isn’t cramming 13 structures into each unification).
viperfan7
The thing is, it doesn't just fuck up the spell casting system, but drains the area of everything. And yeah, he's sworn never tondo that again, but I still wonder if it could be used to cause a permadeath zone. Hell, I wonder if it can be localized to a single individual
Jouni Osmala
Purple really needs a soul structure to operate as a respawn anchor to people of Purple's choice within its domain with each person a point of Purple's choosing. For instance, if friends respawns purple can choose the best possible point where they can get some weapons and clothes and be in a defensive position. If enemies die that need to be captured they will respawn in a prison cell. If someone needs to be completely demolished, the respawn point is a vertical shaft without oxygen filled with lethal gas with poison spikes and acid at bottom. Also voice communication system would be really nice. Also it would be nice if purple could move within its domain without shedding the mana or releasing hold of the domain. So it could create a safe location and teleport there to avoid capture within its domain. Someone treating it as a normal dungeon would be completely perplexed by the fact that they could never find the dungeon core simply because no matter where they go dungeon core isn't there, and area to search is many miles.
Jouni Osmala
Purple's capabilities that could be beyond normal dungeon operation with having soul structures could be interesting leak for the royal mage. But casting multiple spells simultaneously without speaking and other feats they can do could also impress the rest of the group they are with.
Jouni Osmala
A Mage destroying ability to cast spells when facing bunch of warriors with swords. Not a good plan. And the risking of the spell casting system in general a bad idea that he has already sworn off completely.
Jouni Osmala
Limiting factor of leveling up speed is ability of soul structures to tolerate the torrent of mana coming at them. Thus each soul structure should support its own leveling. The slowdown previously was needed to replace the essence needed to build new soul structures. And Purple purposefully hiding details about absorption this is something that other's may not realize or is within margin of error having special purpose soul structures and co-operative dungeon core. You know observing those two things isn't common. That slowdown will also happen when Ressara and Kindar will have unification. Oh. And about that, Kindar needs teleportation to lower level area. Then there's possibility that Mayor will call for help because of Jamar. But what would be impressive from the others perspective is casting multiple spells simultaneously without speaking. And the coming attackers clearly don't expect a rate of casting those two can do. But getting killed once isn't a penalty when they advance more by absorbing aether from the area. Thus unless there's some really serious let's soul kill someone or give them to the crown some other trick to cause permanent damage there isn't much negative sides to loosing for the Jamar. Catching up would be fuck up from Recindril, but expected consequences may not be that bad. Unless it shows crown their hand too early and the real plans get destroyed because of it. On the other hand, Recindil thoughts imply she's given a figure head leadership position with someone else as the real authority over the group. That means that there's an adult in the group that probably has some instructions keep things from getting out of hand but also instructions to keep facade of her being in charge unless things get out of hand from the true leaders perspective.
Connor Mcharg
You’re quite right, I did mean Jamar, I’ve corrected it. And yes, Ressara is leveling faster than High House Carlos, but that’s as a non-noble in first stage - Jamar is also first stage, but has 10 structures and the synergies to match, so she’ll be even faster (at least until she reaches second stage).
Commander Phoenix
If that is the case then Jamar will hit a snag the second her level is high enough for the first unification. Given her attitude and excitement at the prospect, I don’t think she knows what that entails.
Test Patron Plz Ignore
(I think you mean Jamar) Ressara is leveling up fast relative to Carlos and Amber specifically because they have so many soul structures. Jamar is still in her first stage so she can absorb at a rate far faster than non-nobles.
Connor Mcharg
No, Jamar would be higher ranked than her guards, and as Ressara has demonstrated, that means they will level faster than her, and she’s a low enough level that I suspect even a level one would be able to get deep enough for her to be able to level, so they wouldn’t slow her leveling. And besides, Lornera is entitled enough that she wouldn’t accept guards that are lower level than her - they need to be able to guard her, and mere “peasants” wouldn’t have anywhere near her “noble” power at her level.
Test Patron Plz Ignore
The other potentially limiting factor is the retinue she'll be "leading" -- if Recindril is smart about keeping her busy through all of this, he'll send mostly lower-level troops who will take even more time to level up.
Connor Mcharg
…y’know, I think ‘High Lord’ Recindril Tostral (I’m not sure he’s managed to keep that title) *might* have made a mistake assuming that Jamar won’t be able to reach High Lord Carlos Founder… She’s first stage, but I doubt she’s orichalcum, so she can get some distance past level 15 before she has to deal with the slowdown that is second stage, and High House Carlos have managed to accumulate 127-130 soul structures by now, meaning that even with their 400% dungeon boost, they’re having to take as long as if they had 27½ soul structures, a state that I do not expect Jamar will be in for quite some time. Speaking of, according to the scans that the guards can make, they should be absorbing mana at almost twice the speed that they’re currently demonstrating, and between two Royal Guards and a Royal Mage, someone really ought to be noticing how (relatively) slowly they’re leveling - they’ve already stated that they can’t disguise how much mana is being absorbed (and in telepathic communication too - they had no reason to lie there). Edit: used the wrong name, and have now fixed it.
Markell
Ah… nothing like a good old fashioned coup to start to the day off.
Connor Mcharg
The incantation system is an artificial layer on the world’s system, and I highly doubt it includes a respawn system for everyone (rather than just people who are utilising the incantation system). And besides, Carlos has sworn to never do that again, and I see little reason to doubt that.
viperfan7
I don't think the tostral's know just how fucked they're going to be going after Carlos. Not when dealing with an intelligent dungeon core, and multiple minds, and someone who knows how to nullify magic. I wonder if the magic nullification thing could stop respawns from happening
drasham
things feel like they are about to, even more, rapidly progress and i'm so excited about it
D S
TFTC! Cant wait for the inevitable war against nobility
Duckytheclaw
hello
NoneSuch
Excellent answer to my previous question! Thank you!
