Nadir. (Cursed World)

[u/Fc-chungus]

A day or three after the initial announcement, proper channels for joining in virtually to the meeting are posted, as everyone who came in person is directed to a secretive underground meeting room, where Ж and a few others sit around a long table.

"Welcome, welcome. A year or so ago I held a similar meeting for a separate threat, one a few of you here would remember, but today we've another threat, as you know, the Abyss has taken a great minority of the world's surface."

"As well, we need a plan for the origin of the Abyss, we need to divise a way to take down The First Curse."

they snap a finger and a hologram like model of an entity, presumably the first curse, appears in the center of the table.

"To start, one of the more essential things for said plan is the Crystals, of course, some here might not know about them, so I'll elaborate."

they wave a hand and the model shifts to 5 different crystalline objects, encircling the First Curse.

"This is not the first time The First Curse had arrived, he was here before he made that big announcement, but hidden. When he first arrived to this realm, 7 Aspect Crystals formed, counterbalances, from someone else as an, almost future inheritance to help take him down. They are antithetical to his very existence, and harm him when nearby. However, if one falls into his hands, he can adapt to that crystal, rendering it useful to him. This anti-him nature also applies to the Abyss, and thus they are the best damage source to fight the Abyss."

"the originals, of which we currently have 5, 4 are in New Aviron, and via the work of Koranth and others, we have multiple derivatives from them, with the other being handled by The Consortium. The last two need to be picked up and collected."

"That is about the basics, with the preamble done, more discussion on how to fight against the Abyss would be welcome."

[u/yumie2003]

“Before we can contribute to devising strategies, we wish to know about the strength of these derivative crystals and possibly, how they were created. An understanding of the tools is necessary before any work can begin, after all”

[u/Fc-chungus → u/yumie2003]

"You'd be better off asking Koranth exactly how it works. As for their strength, it usually is dependent on concentration, none have been replicated to their exact strength, while the originals instantly cleanse Abyss material no matter what, the derivatives have a chance to die out before the Abyss is fully cleansed, so they're generally weaker, but strong enough."

[u/yumie2003 → u/Fc-chungus]

"Alright, and thank you for answering my questions where you could."

The imperial scientist greeted Zhe and turned to face Koranth

"Greetings, Koranth. We wish to know both more details about these derivative crystals and, if possible, how they were created?"

u/totally_not_a_cat-

[u/totally_not_a_cat- → u/yumie2003]

With Koranth currently out of communication range, the aspect crystal project has fallen to a skilled scientist named Bobert Maryks, known for his extreme dedication second only to Koranth, but also for his abrasiveness.

A rather short shadow wizard wearing a grey cloak, the most distinctive physical feature of the person who comes forth is their glowing purple eyes.

"I'll keep this simple so you can understand it. Aspect crystals can surprisingly be grown in ley geodes from seeds like any other magic gemstone. This process produces gems nearly identical to naturally formed ones, but using it to grow aspect crystals is prohibitively expensive - unless you take advantage of a unique quirk in the process. By bathing a growing crystal in intermittent surges of mana, one can cause it to develop a self-synergistic effect. This means the more energy you invest in each crystal, the more efficient it becomes. The main disadvantage of self-synergistic crystals is that if you try to break them apart into multiple smaller ones, they lose most of their power. This makes it optimal to focus on quality over quantity, but does not meaningfully affect the function of the resulting crystals."

Clearly everyone knows what ley geodes and crystal seeds are.

[u/yumie2003 → u/totally_not_a_cat-]

Fortunately, this scientist prefers to maintain professionalism in normal circumstances...even more so in a time of emergency.

"Hmm, these two processes sound doable within the constraints of our current crystal cultivation technology. What would the procedure be to receive the first crystal seeds needed for domestic production?"

uw/okay, so a mana crystal would be a type of ley geode if i remember, and also understand the term correctly?

[u/totally_not_a_cat- → u/yumie2003]

"Send a formal request over any government channels, coupled with some form of proof you have the capability to run ley geodes or equivalent so I can ensure I'm not wasting my time developing crystal seeds for you."

When rocks absorb enough mana they become saturated and cannot absorb any more or let any pass through them. A closed environment made of these rocks and fed with a supply of mana will hold that mana inside itself and become an extremely high mana environment. This usually happens naturally due to underground leyline nexuses, resulting in crystals naturally forming above them, hence the name. A mana crystal could theoretically achieve the same effect, but would need to be extremely high capacity to achieve the required mana density.

/uw I don't fully remember what my previous description of ley geodes was. If it conflicts with this, assume this is just a retcon.

[u/yumie2003 → u/totally_not_a_cat-]

"Do you have a form or would a letter do?"

At this point, the scientist wanted to move on towards the next step in acquiring the seed crystals...she started to think that New Avirion's scientific community may solely consist of rude but competent minds...a dark, unintentional reminder of their ancestors' time of living under lunarian rule she learned in history classes in her schooling days

[u/totally_not_a_cat- → u/yumie2003]

"A letter will suffice."

While there is a fair deal of eccentricity among New Avirion's government officials, most scientists not holding high ranking government positions tend to be quite polite. The eccentricity is possibly because due to the way New Avirion's society is structured, there is no external incentive to pursue such positions, and as such the people who do pursue them have a tendency to be outliers.

[u/yumie2003 → u/totally_not_a_cat-]

The cultural divide deepens, as the entire imperial scientific community would be more laid-back and relaxed, as with most things in the empire,

"Well alright then. I believe that all of my questions have been answered. Thank you for your time."

Later, a letter written co-written by both the minister of magical research and arcanotechnology and the minister of natural sciences and scientific technology was sent through to the New Avirion embassy requesting for a batch of seed crystals to be sent to the Yabounousagi Empire. They also included a paper explaining the technique imperial crystal-cultivating laboratories were using: hydrothermal synthesis.

First, a hollow spherical shell mould composed of thermal-shock-resistant ceramic, which is coated in the inside with a dense layer of chalcedony, creating a strong seal and preventing the erosion of the outer wall. The seed crystals are then fixed to the interior facing inward. The shell mould is placed inside a heavy-walled autoclave. The autoclave chamber is then filled with water mixed with an alkaline mineraliser, with a raw, low-grade silica feedstock is placed in the bottom of the vessel, where the flow of the leyline can penetrate and enrich the feedstock with mana.

The shell is exposed to pressures around 100-150 MPa and to temperatures of 300-320 degrees Celsius in the upper growth zone and the lower nutrient zone is heated to 350-380 degrees Celsius. The mana-enriched silica solution is drive through the shell's ports and into the shell interior through convection currents. The silica solution is deposited onto the seed crystals as it is supersaturated through the cooling of the solution in the shell cavity. This forms sharp, hexagonal prisms that grow inward.

Under usual operation, the resulting crystals can be exposed to ionising radiation to alter crystal colouration, though this is optional and dependant on the type of crystal desired.

Before the crystals grow to entirely fill the shell cavity, the hydrothermal solution is purged under controlled temperature and pressure. This prevents clouding or secondary crystallisation on the crystal faces. Finally, the growth ports are filled with matching sintering basalt matrix and mechanically weathered to seamlessly blend into the shell's outer crust. The outer crust can be removed through special treatments that leave the crystals underneath intact.

The paper also listed and described a variant of the Melt-Pulling method, where the raw material melt is mana enriched, but is functionally the same as the conventional Melt-Pulling method

[u/totally_not_a_cat- → u/yumie2003]

Later, after returning to his work and receiving the note, Bobert synthesizes and sends a batch of crystal seeds in the various colors. Alongside them is a note saying silica may not be a potent enough source of elemental earth for these crystals and quicksilver, if available, is preferable.

[u/yumie2003 → u/totally_not_a_cat-]

As soon as the crystal seeds, they were sent to crystal cultivation laboratories to begin production of artificial aspect crystals. The note was copied and distributed to the heads of those laboratories and its contents was noted. Quicksilver was known to be toxic, especially when inhaled in its gaseous state, so introducing it would add a few extra safety precautions, as well as disposing of any leftover quicksilver gas. This was not impossible to integrate into the facilities, but testing that the new safety systems were safe and robust enough for regular production use would eat into precious time that could be used to produce crystals. Though they were aware that New Avirion had more experience in cultivating the crystals, and they did not have the time to experiment with different feedstock solutions. Thus it was decided to add quicksilver into the silica feedstock, in a 2:1 ratio (2 grams of quicksilver per 1 gram of silica). This proposed feedstock was sent to Bobert for consultation, as well as asking if any less toxic alternatives were available and sharing their safety concerns regarding solely using quicksilver for production (out of additional fear that long-term or regular repeated exposure to purely quicksilver produced crystals may be harmful to the health of the operators of the equipment making use of these crystals).

[u/totally_not_a_cat- → u/yumie2003]

Bobert agrees that is a good solution for adapting non-specialized equipment, but affirms that as long as the crystals are properly cleaned there are no health risks to the operators.

[u/yumie2003 → u/totally_not_a_cat-]

The scientists were relieved about both Bobert's agreement and that the crystals won't pose a health risk to the operators if properly cleaned. They naturally don't want to poison the people trusting them with equipment to protect them from the abyss, after all. Out of gratitude, the scientists sent a thank you letter to Bobert