CH234

“And that should cover the lesson for this month. Any questions?” Quilith asked as he wrapped things up for the night. As with every month, the alien was coming to teach Ben some principles of material science that he simply couldn’t get from the books he could access, the sort of cutting knowledge that the grey were experimenting with to try and determine the universes underlying properties, but as things went on and got more and more complicated there was something he couldn’t help but ask.

“Is this still really material science? It feels more like you’re trying to sneak some physics in there.”

Plenty of it was chemistry by now, and given the subtle differences he was noticing from the few classes on the subject he had to take on Earth he couldn’t help but be grateful that he hadn’t paid too much attention back then, it would have only confused him. Even if he didn’t remember the one from his homeworld too well, the periodic table the grey were constructing was obviously different, with some of the elements that made up this universe having shockingly different places compared to where they would on his old one, even if world speak considered them close enough to indicate them as equivalent in his head. Aside from that, there were some elements he knew were missing while whole new ones took their place. It was all helpful to an extent at least, but he couldn’t help but think that some of the newer things were less so.

“I’ll have you know that baryon asymmetry is an important feature of every life-containing universe. Even after millennia of study our people still aren’t sure why it’s such a common feature of existence, but that doesn’t mean the fact that the reality you currently live in lacks its version of antimatter wouldn’t be relevant to you, especially given how both relate to mana.”

“Okay, I’ll bite. How do they relate to mana?”

“From what we can tell, they don’t. The presence of mana in this reality isn’t affected by particles or antiparticles, though it should be able to affect both in the same way. This leads to all sorts of interesting questions. If there was antimatter still, would there be anti-affinities of magic? Perhaps individuals like you that seem to have no affinity for any known ones might actually have affinities for one’s that the gods are unaware of based on the situation of the reality you’re all in.”

“That’s neat in theory,” He told the alien with a sigh. “But it doesn’t exactly help me at all, does it? Even if that was the case and I secretly had the right constitution to master some non-existent anti-affinities, my body is made up of the standard matter of the universe. Trying to be close enough to anything like that would leave a healthy crater in my place.”

“True,” Quilith relented. “But that doesn’t mean the information lacks relevance to you. We’ll stick to the normal lessons of course, we just want to start slowly drifting to more hypothetical materials. Even if you can’t use them, you’re proving decent to bounce ideas off of.”

“Well, I guess it’s interesting enough so I don’t mind, but why?”

“As we see more of the mythic ranked items the gods have managed to gift their races, we’re simply seeing some of the potential that comes from using advanced magic while ignoring the limits of what we believe is possible.”

That caught his attention. The only mythic ranked items he’d seen were the trial of anailia and Inux’s body, both things that were complex in ways he still struggled to understand while the first wasn’t even an item.

“Alright, you’ve got my attention. What are some of the more interesting things? Come on, don’t hold out on me.”

The grey could immediately see the change in Ben’s eyes as his curiosity overtook him and took mercy on the human, explaining a few he’d seen before he left.

“There’s only a handful on the world and we haven’t been able to study them in great detail, but there are things like the body of your talos, made up of materials that don’t seem to fit the models we’ve produced so far, but a few even more interesting ones as well. A staff made of solidified light that seems to not only have the effect of significantly empowering any light magic that passes through it, but also helps to raise the user’s overall proficiency with it as well. We’ve seen a sword made of spacetime, able to cut through anything, even spells. Lastly, of the more interesting we’ve been allowed to see would be an intangible floating sphere. Neither I nor the race that possess it understands what it’s for and since the god who made it died we may never, but it and the other two I mentioned were all appraised as upper-mythic.”

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“Alright, sold. How do I get to see them?” Everything the grey had described was just so tantalizing. He wanted to get his hands on each one to examine in detail and plunder their secrets to apply to his own work. He couldn’t begin to imagine how the things being described were made, but he wanted to know.

“Unfortunately, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t help you on that front. The races that possess items of such quality prefer to keep them hidden from others. The only reason we were able to see them was because we’re not a part of this universe, they don’t have to worry about us attempting anything on them. Anyway, I have other duties to attend to. I’ll see you next month.”