Ed followed Vorgarag's suggestion and hurried home. The other orcs were giving him a weird look when he ran so he had to reel it back and speedwalk his way over. However, the other orcs eventually couldn't afford to pay attention to the hurried Ed as they were called to sortie. Nag was the one responsible, he wasn't wasting time either as he was in charge of gathering all the orcs in the settlement.
Once home, Ed went over to the desk and stuffed all of his books in his bag. The sole exception being the space hop spellbook as he instead proceeded to assimilate it. The book shook and it started to look like an empty binder as 2 and a half more chapters worth of pages disappeared.
The knowledge entered Ed's mind and was finally starting to add up. He felt that he could even, in theory, finish learning the rest of the spell without the help of the skill. He had no such intentions however as the space element is a very tricky thing to deal with and the last thing he wanted to do was slice himself in half while trying to run away or the like.
'I should quickly head back to Vorgarag then' Ed looked around the room a couple of times and confirmed that he had indeed grabbed everything he needed before hurrying out.
It didn't take him very long to reach the secluded cottage, it was especially so since everybody else had left to assemble in the plaza-like empty space in front of the main gate leaving the streets empty.
Ed knocked on the door just in case and waited a few short seconds but met no response. He concluded that since Vorgarag didn't answer he was likely inside of the hidden passage fiddling with the array or something. Thus he decided to intrude himself upon Vorgarag given that the matter was of high priority.
He entered the room and took a quick glance around. He caught sight of the open hatch and proving his conjecture was correct. He jumped down the hatch and was immediately greeted by blinding light.
'It seemed that Vorgarag had left more than just the hatch open.' Ed thought. It took him a second for his eyes to recover and adjust to the crystals' light before he quickly made his way into the room.
He saw Vorgarag hunched down and inspecting many parts of the array. His forehead was filled with beads of sweat as he carefully analyzed the runes.
"Vorgarag, I came" Said Ed awkwardly not sure if he should interrupt. Contrary to his expectations however Vorgarag let out a sigh of relief after noting his presence.
"Good, I suppose I should explain things to you then." Vorgarag pulled out the magical array that he had seen the last time he came here. It was roughly written on some sort of wooden tablet.
"This is a small design of my Salvation array." He let out an embarrassed chuckle as he scratched the back of his head, "That's what I called it." He said in a stifled voice.
He then let out a dry cough and went back to his usual self. "Anyways, it's purpose is to help me and the others orcs escape this place through the use of space element magic. For some reason, I can't find a way to make it work as intended, however. So I will quickly explain how I want to change it instead."
Vorgarag then more openly displayed the design, Ed looked on confusedly. He knew nothing about arrays so it couldn't really be helped. A spellbook focuses on spells after all and the earth manipulation for dummies book he first read also didn't dabble into arrays. It seemed to be a completely different field of study even though they were both related to magic.
"As you may or may not know, space magic can be used to form especially strong barriers. While I may not have been able to escape using it, I am confident in the possibility of doing at least this much. but..." Vorgarag scratched his cheek before continuing.
'That doesn't sound very confident' Ed thought.
Luckily the way things were going he might indeed be able to help. His knowledge over the space element was not lacking. As a matter of fact, it was probably greater than his knowledge over the fire, wind, and water elements as he only learned how to cast them through Vorgarag and didn't understand any of the formulas and calculations behind them.
"Over the generations, we have lost a lot of information pertaining to space magic and wind magic. You can probably already tell how this is a problem." Vorgarag said with a wry smile. He then continued to talk but what was ultimately ignored by Ed for one reason...
'Eh? Why does he need the wind element?' Ed tilted his head in confusion. He was caught off guard by the emergence of the wind element in the conversation and thus forgot to pay attention to Vorgarag's words.
An overabundance of element-less mana was more than enough to create a spatial barrier based on what he managed to learn from the spellbook. If that was the case then he couldn't understand why the wind element needed to be involved.
'Unless...? Does he have the wrong information?' The orcs' first shaman ancestor probably had a lot of knowledge but was not able to pass it in writing to his descendants meaning that a lot of it ended up being warped or lost entirely. The former was likely what happened to the space element and the latter to the wind element.
Vorgarag took notice of Ed's confusion and stopped for a second before carefully asking, "Ed?"
"I think you have been going about this all wrong." Said Ed pensively before looking at Vorgarag in the eye.
Vorgarag froze for a second thinking about Ed's words. He couldn't so easily believe that his knowledge was incorrect but... wasn't he stuck without a way forward for a while now? What if it was because he was going about it all wrong in the first place? For a person that he barely knew to so easily dismiss his effort and knowledge felt laughable, it was especially so since he was teaching him magic but... he couldn't laugh.
"...Why? How?" Vorgarag asked while holding in his grief. If Ed was right, had his last few years of research and effort not have been in vain? He would be lying if he said the possibility didn't pain him but... He always tried his best to seem confident and certain. knowledgeable. A person worth following, and worth listening to. Point being, a capable leader.
"The space element is... Ummm... " Ed was trying to provide Vorgarag with a brief explanation but found himself unable to find the right words.
"The twisting of space by overwhelming natural powers. That makes it sound kind of simple..." Ed muttered contemplatively for a second before getting back on track, "The point being that any of the elements can cause this phenomenon to happen. Just with different effects and to a different degree of severity. I think that is a pretty good explanation, right?" He stopped to wonder if there was anything else he could add and also to wait for Vorgarag's response.
"That- What?" It wasn't that the explanation was bad. It was a fairly accurate summary but... maybe he did make it sound too simple?
"Ummm... Maybe we should just work on the array...? If possible give me an explanation as you do, that would be helpful." They were running out of time, there was no time to be confused. It would be best for them to immediately get to work.
"That, that works." Vorgarag didn't have an issue with that arrangement. They never got to discuss any alternative plans but in the end, he didn't think there was a better option. Creating a barrier to protect the ones incapable of fighting as well as creating an impromptu fortress out of their settlement seemed like the best option to him.
Thus they moved forward with the array plan. And in order to do so, there were a couple more issues to address...
"The first issue." Vorgarag said in a clear and powerful voice.
'First issue? There is more...' Ed couldn't help but think that maybe these orcs were doomed after all.
"The power source. I don't think we have any. These crystals all have elements as well so the only other option is to use a person. That wouldn't provide us with much time and would also cut significantly into our strength." Vorgarag's words made sense even to Ed who knew nothing about arrays.
'Vorgarag and I are both pretty important to ensure victory in battle...' The last battle for the boars was more than enough to prove it. Without Ed's help, they would have suffered more losses and Vorgarag might have also been injured by Torgan in a confrontation. Torgan would probably also suffer injuries but might still be living.
"The next issue, how to construct it. The field of magic formations is unique and although directly connected to the magician profession it is a one-way relationship. Although formation experts may be knowledgeable magicians it doesn't work the other way around. Basically we would be reinventing or I suppose in this case filling in the blanks of my faulty knowledge on how to build a space element array." Vorgarag's evaluation was pretty spot on. Although Ed had studied spells he knew nothing about arrays.
"And third, well... winning the actual battle. Their numbers are still uncertain but they shouldn't be smaller than us. I estimate at least double since two tribes are definitely involved." Vorgarag's estimates were extremely conservative and arguably optimistic. The next battle would definitely be an uphill battle and Vorgarag was definitely aware.
therefore Ed couldn't help but smile wryly, "Sounds like a lot of fun, no?" He said to reassure Vorgarag who was inadvertently spilling his true thoughts through his self-comforting words.
Vorgarag's solemn expression turned into a small smile, "I guess it does" He lightly chortled, the ever increasingly bleak atmosphere vanished entirely.
"We should get to it then." Vorgarag said while stretching his tired legs. He had been standing and looking around without break long before looking at array so he couldn't help but feel slightly sore.
"Alright.." Replied Ed with that same wry smile albeit more confidently.
