The mage, the inventor, and the explorer

by Jonny Bench

tour of the workspace

“Good morning class! I hope you all have had a good night’s rest last night. Today is going to be the full tour of the tower.” Jonny says as he greets his students once all of them had arrived.

“Jonny, why didn’t you show us everything yesterday? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to see everything before we picked a form of magic to study?” Dinky asks

“Excellent question Dinky! The reason I didn’t show you everything yesterday is because I felt it would make the choosing process harder. Picking a form of magic to study tends to be easier when you go off of the description of it as opposed to the end product. For instance, a friend of mine was prejudiced against witchery because he could only see it as farming and not as attempting to draw out the magic hidden within the plants that are being grown. Likewise, some of you may not have wanted to study the magic you have chosen if you had seen the way it is practiced. Do you understand what I’m trying to say, Dinky?”

“Yeah, I think so. It makes sense that somepony wouldn’t want to do something if it looked more like a chore than an adventure.”

“Alright then, without further ado, allow me to show you the rest of the tower! If you all would please follow me.” Jonny says as he walks towards the staircase leading up. The class follows Jonny as he walks up the steps to the first floor.

“This, class, is the refinery and alchemy room.” he says as he gestures to the entirety of the room. The class looks in to see an assortment of different brewing stands and cauldrons with flames underneath them. There are chests that seem to be overflowing with various ingredients and shelves filled with both glass and clay bottles. Some of the bottles contain glowing liquids, while most tend to be empty. On some of the clay jars there are various markings, ranging from a small plus sign to the blurry image of what appears to be a goat. On the opposite side of the room from the brewing supplies is a wall of machines.

“Those machines are used to break down and smelt ore that you obtain from the magical crops you harvest. As you can tell, there are seven sets of machines there. Each one of us, myself included, will get our own set of machines. If you want to know how they work, we could go sit in on one of Lucifer’s lessons on the inner workings of machines. I’m sure he won’t mind”

After letting his students look at everything in the room for a minute or so, he continues the tour on to the next floor. On the second floor, there is a large furnace up against the western wall, a dark purplish black with a metal grate on the front of it. On the eastern wall, there is an oddly shaped furnace with metal cylinders stacked on top of it. Each of the cylinders has a pipe coming off of it that leads to a large assortment of labeled jars along the northern wall. In the center of the room is a large stone structure made up of four stone pillars and a floating piece of stone that has various runes inscribed upon it. Under the floating stone is a pedestal, along with multiple other pedestals around the structure. On the ceiling there is an assortment of crystal clusters of different colors, with six clusters being solid colors and a seventh cluster being a combination of all six colors.

“This is the thaumaturgy room. All of the devices you see here are used for different parts of thaumaturgy. While they might not make sense now, they will in the future.”

Once the class is ready to move on from the sight of such foriegn objects, Jonny leads them up to the next floor. On the third floor, there is a strange, small altar on the ground that. The altar is white and has a small groove in it for gathering liquids. Apart from the altar, the room is mostly barren, aside from a few small desks to lay equipment down on.

“Alright class, this is the blood magic room. Since this is a risky form of magic, I will need to be with any of you who wish to practise blood magic to keep accidents from occurring. While the room may seem empty now, it definitely won’t stay that way for long!”

Without there being much to see, the class is ready to move on far faster than they were on the previous floors. On the fourth floor, there is a black table that has a red cloth on it and a book floating above it. The edges of the table are a light blue. The table itself is surrounded by shelves of books, and as students try to approach it, the book turns towards them and opens on it’s own, the pages turning quickly. Most of the students are taken aback by the table, except for Silver Spoon.
“Let me guess, this is a room for enchanting right? I read about it in one of the books you gave me last night.”

“You got that spot on Silver, this is the enchanting room. Enchanting an item is able to make an item stronger, such as making it more durable or able to do it’s intended job more easily.”

Silver blushes slightly at the praise Jonny gives her as her classmates look at the table curiously. After a few seconds though, everypony is ready to move on to the next floor.
On the fifth floor, there is a large stone gateway on the northern part of the wall. Along the eastern and western walls there are chests and shelves, all of which seem to be empty, save for some books, quills and inkwells.

“This is the last of the classrooms, kids. Here we have the Ars Magica room. Of course, the gateway isn’t able to function yet, you’ll have to learn what’s missing and fix it as part of your lessons.” Jonny says as he winks at Pipsqueak, who looks at the gateway with a mixture of awe and disappointment.

“What about that door, Jonny?”
Ruby asks as she points to a door blocking a flight of stairs that lead upward.

“That is the way to my bedroom, and before you ask, no it is not a part of the course material!”
He replies as the foals snicker at his comment.

“Now then, that covers everything in the building for now. For those of you working on witchery and other more nature based magic, everything you will need is outside and ready to be used. Now then, let’s go ahead and get to work! We have a good day of studies ahead and I’m sure it’ll be productive!”

Author's Note:

This is a layout of what the tower looks like. more will be added on in time, but for now this is it. Also, I am going to do a bit of a time skip to a point where the magic being learned is able to be used. if you want to have more detail on the studies, make sure to let me know. input is always appreciated. Hope you all enjoy!

Comments

[Gizmo Gear]

I think it would be great seeing the students go through some of the problems that people new to the mod go through.

[Cauchemar]

I kinda want them to somehow talk to spike about draconic evolution.

[Demonicwolf]

Nothing personal, but i cant read this. The premis is great and i would normally read it regardless, however it hurts to read... literaly and i dont know why.

[Furlok Serket]

You said you came up with this story after reading one similar. Was it 'The Captain of Mining'? A fic about a displaced CaptainSparklez.

[P1000_monster]

I cast mimic

(P.S. This server is the reason why I rarely update. Feel free to drop in to yell at me for being a lazy bum.)

I love the story take your time work at your own pace can't wait for more

[StabbymcKnife]

9726533
So is this dead or are you going to continue?

[Las_piedras]

¿Aceptan personas de habla española en el servidor? Por que si es así, se me hace mucha ilusión unirme e ir a explotar tu casa con dinamita.