Chapter 101: Aquatic Trials, Friendships, Rat (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Quinn looked down into the 'well' known as Hadal Encumbrance. It was definitely of the most intriguing concepts Quinn had seen, and only by researching the subject he had realized why it was called as such.
'Hadal', from the Greek god of the underworld, Hades. The underworld, which was the realm of Hades, was under the ground. Similarly, it would be the aquatic world that resided below the 'ground level.'
The Hadal Encumbrance represented the ocean depths in its deepest regions, where oceanic trenches lay. A place where humans couldn't survive and only those species evolved to withstand the harsh conditions would tread the waters where the warmth and light of the sun didn't reach.
”It is interesting how the creator was able to emulate the water pressure at ocean depths,” noted Quinn as he stared down the well, and he could see the extraordinarily still water, remembering the pressure that would assault as he went down.
One of the simplest definitions of pressure stated that 'pressure was the force exerted on a body'. The air around the globe had weight, and it pressed against everything it touched. That pressure was called 'atmospheric pressure' or 'air pressure': it was the force exerted on a surface by the air above it as gravity pulled it to the Earth.
The oceans were deep. If one was to shave off all the continents and fill the trenches in the oceans with the ground from the continents, the entire globe would be covered with water about 2 miles in depth.
And within those depths was the world of pressure.
When one was in contact with air, a body would feel the pressure from the air, and it was dubbed air pressure. Similarly, when in contact with water, a body would feel the pressure from water and had the name hydrostatic pressure, or water pressure.
But the main difference between air and water pressure was that air was 830 times less dense than water. Meaning that water pressure was much higher than air pressure.
As one went down into a sea or an ocean, more water would get piled up on top and thus increase the weight of water above and thus increase the pressure on the body.
”Here, the water pressure increases much quicker than natural aquatic depth,” said Quinn as he sat by the ledge with his chin resting on the palm. ”I guess this would be difficult for some people.”
Quinn had gone through two trials: Poseidon's Wrath and Tehom's Delight. And in those trials, Quinn had struggled a lot.
”Poseidon's Wrath required fine control over magic to get to the center. Without fine control, I would've stuck there without any progress.”
”Tehom's Delight required ingenuity or maybe luck. Without the Ripple sonar, I probably would've found the entrance, but it would've been completely up to luck.”
He continued to stare down the well and recited his thoughts about what was required by this trial.
”Hadal Encumbrance simply requires power. Pure magical force to overcome, oppose and repel the emulated oceanic pressure. I guess this trial is compatible with me.”
Quinn had magical power in abundance. He had deep magic reserves that had been built through the daily exhaustion of his magic. Ever since Quinn was five, Quinn had used all of his magic every day. The only exception to that rule was the time he didn't have any control over his magic.
That had given Quinn deep reserves of magic that were perfect for Hadal Encumbrance. He just needed to optimize his magic usage against the pressure and pour his vast reserves into the magic till he reached the bottom.
So unlike the first two trials, Quinn was having a breezy time in going through Hadal Encumbrance.
”Alright, let's see if I can break my high score,” said Quinn and dove into the well of water with accelerated water pressure increase.
With his body facing downward and aligning his entire body horizontally with the surface of the water/floor of the well, he sank down. The purpose of this posture was to decrease his surface area vertically.
The pressure in the vertical water column changed very quickly, meaning that the pressure at his head would be significantly less than that at his feet. So to get a uniform pressure all over his body, he distributed his body surface area horizontally. That way, his body mostly would have a uniform pressure.
As Quinn sank down, a cylindrical area constructed with water magic manifested around Quinn. The pressure inside the cylinder was normalized to the level of surface-level pressure.
In no time, Quinn reached fifty percent of the total depth without feeling any difficulty at all. The difficulty to keep the pressure normalized came when he hit sixty percent depth.
'I wonder if the pressure here is because of gravity manipulation or it is simply water magic that is pulling down the water.'
Quinn realized that the entire Aquatic Vault was based around water concepts. The instructions in the stone cave explicitly talked about Laws, but that didn't mean that the trials were created via water magic.
In Poseidon's Wrath, the vortex had been definitely created through water magic. But the vast array of conjuration and charm disablers weren't part of water magic.
The sheer calmness of the water that even weakened Quinn's Ripple Sonar was definitely achieved by water magic in Tehom's Delight. But Quinn realized that the extensive sensory deprivation didn't have anything to do with water magic. The zero ambient noise could have been achieved through a sound-dampening magic application. That state where the light was getting blocked could have been light magic weaved into the water and not an application of water magic.
And just like that, the accelerated gradient pressure increase might have been accomplished by other magic and not water magic.
But one thing Quinn was sure of was that if he was to complete the vault, he would need to use water magic to get past every trial.
Not because the trials were closely related to water; sure, that was a part of it, but the real reason was that Quinn constantly used water magic as he thought using water magic made his job easier.
It was clear that everything was related to water. From that, it could be inferred that the vault wanted Quinn to use water magic. And if he was to use water magic, then his journey would be a whole lot easier.
Sure, inside Poseidon's Wrath, Quinn could have extensively studied conjuration magic and try different spell designs till he got a hit that wasn't covered by the wards. Or he could design a new type of broom that didn't use the traditional broom charms and reinvent the wheel.
But all of those required much more thinking and effort on Quinn's part just to make the end result easier. If he had something that would allow him to fly over the vortex into the center, he wouldn't have to struggle against the raging water, but at what cost? How much time and research would it take him to accomplish that?
And when Quinn did create something like that, would he start the next trial? Would the broom that worked in Poseidon's Trial be helpful in Tehom's Delight? No, it wouldn't be helpful.
What would be effective was the knowledge and experience of water magic that he practiced and researched to get past one trial.
That is why Quinn didn't try to find 'unique' methods outside of water magic to solve the trials.
Because Quinn knew that if he stuck with water magic, then it would make his job much smoother.
And the results were showing right now.
Quinn had plenty of magic to expend from his reserves. What he needed was simply to change how he was directing his magic. Poseidon's Wrath had driven him to gain fine control over water magic so that he wouldn't be blasted every time he tried to water magic, and that was working now when extreme pressures were bearing down on him.
「90%」
The water magic cylinder's surface thrummed with erratic ripples. A humongous pressure was being normalized by using water magic as Quinn applied an equal and opposite force.
'Just a little more, and I will pass this trial without much problems or injuries.'
Quinn dipped further down and reached 92% percent but stopped because the pressure inside his normalized cylinder suddenly increased, and Quinn could feel the pressure against his bones.
'Some pressure is leaking through. This is the limit for now.'
Quinn retreated by a percent and stayed at 91%, and carefully tried to figure out how to normalize the pressure back to the surface level. He was extremely careful because one mistake and the pressure would bear down on him, and his muscles wouldn't contract, which would seal away his movement capabilities— while the water inside his lung cavity with lower internal pressure would be pushed out, and he wouldn't be able to breathe.
In the water column, Quinn swam alone inside the dangerous waters while trying to figure out how powerful the deep oceanic waters were.
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- (Scenes Break) -
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”It doesn't work that way,” sighed Marcus as he sat in the Ravenclaw common room in front of a chessboard. ”The knight only moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically.”
”But why? The horsie should be able to charge straight ahead,” spoke Luna as she stared at the knight chess piece on the wizarding chessboard. ”I have seen them. They are fast, you know?”
Wizard's Chess was the magical variant of the classic board game Chess, in which the pieces were enchanted to move of their own accord when commanded by the player. The moving chess pieces were reasonably sentient and could offer advice to the players who weren't good or experienced at the game.
The white knight piece on the board turned its head towards and looked towards its commander. The animated knight chess piece wasn't sure how to proceed. The chess piece wasn't sure how to react to this situation. The magic that made it animated didn't cover what to do when the commander wanted the 'horsie' to charge forward.
It looked at his white companions as if to ask what to do, but they looked as confused as it was and shrugged towards the white knight. The black chess pieces, on the other hand, were laughing hysterically. And that made the white pieces feel embarrassed.
Marcus turned his face towards Quinn, who was on the floor and sitting in the lotus position. He had his eyes closed, with his hand resting on his lap. ”Quinn, explain to her that the knight piece can't move straight ahead.”