Did someone say Thaumaturgy? Heh, yeah, I was already planning on introducing some more Thaum stuff here, so there is that at least!. Might be a bit shorter than usual, but hopefully you guys enjoy it nonetheless!

Chapter 10: Thaumaturgical Conundrums

The next day, Tlopfest woke up back in Louise's room, still somewhat cheery after the ball last night. "Morning Louise." Yet, no response was heard. Tlopfest quickly looked over to Louise's bed, only to notice that she was not there. "Louise?!" Panicking, Tlopfest jumped up to rummage through the bed, only to find a note on her pillow.

'Tlopfest,

The princess has summoned me to ask for a favor. Unfortunately, I cannot say what that favor is. Just know that I will be away for a few days. Do not come looking for me. I'll be alright.

-Louise.'

"...Oh." Tlopfest calmed down a little bit, though he couldn't help but still be worried. "...I guess I'll give her to the end of the week, after which I'm gonna go and look for her and make sure she's not dead in a ditch or something." About as content as he would be on that, Tlopfest got up to wander the campus. "Although, now that I think about it, I feel like I've been forgetting something." Looking down, Tlopfest gazed on his cloudstepper ring hanging on his finger. He then facepalmed in frustration. "Duh! Thaumaturgy! I promised Louise to look into it, and what have I done? Basically nothing for it! Ugh…" With that, Tlopfest started towards the kitchen, where he would get some breakfast before heading to Colbert's place. "Now..where was Colbert's lab again?"

After getting breakfast and asking for directions from Siesta to Colbert's lab, Tlopfest knocked on the door, with Colbert answering after a moment. "Ah, Tlopfest. How can I help you?"

"If you don't mind Professor Colbert, I need to borrow your lab again. I've got some experimentation I need to be doing."

"Oh, please, come right on in!" Colbert opened up the door fully, letting Tlopfest come back on through to his lab. It was about the same as the last time Tlopfest came here, only now there were more notes and drawings concerning that 'dragon blood' Colbert was studying so much.

"You have any more luck with that 'blood?'"

"Somewhat. I have at least been able to start recreating parts of it, although I'm still unsure as to how to access the energy stored within."

"Unfortunately, I can't really help you out much there. I'm good with machines, not chemistry. However, I do have to ask," Tlopfest leaned onto one of the counters in Colbert's lab. "Knowing that the magic system here uses the primary elements to form magic; earth, air, water, fire, do you happen to know if there are any crystalized versions of those elements in this world?"

"I suppose," Colbert said, unsure as to what Tlopfest was asking for. Tlopfest slid his goggles off, switching to Thaumaturge mode and exposing the Thaumometers on the lenses, both of which were missing some of their crystals (namely ignis and terra on one, and aer and perditio on the other) and the glass cracked. "I mean these kinds of crystals. Back in my world, one of the branches of magic was Thaumaturgy, of which, when I started, required the use of 'vis crystals,' basically crystalized versions of the elements. If you have them here, there may be a greater chance of me being able to recreate some of the Thaum magic here."

"Hmm..I'm afraid that I have no recollection of crystallized elements existing, Tlopfest."

"Sigh Great…" Looking back at his goggles, Tlopfest got a different idea. "Do you happen to at least have a lot of quartz, as well as a cauldron? Oh, and something like redstone?"

"Redstone?'

"It's basically a material that can conduct energy. If you guys have something similar to that here, that should help me out with this experiment."

A little bit later, and Tlopfest had a bunch of quartz nearby and a cauldron sitting in front of him. Colbert was also able to get some copper from one of the other staff members. "Copper huh? Well..I may as well try it, see if it works." Placing his goggles on the counter, Tlopfest detached the thaumometers and started to remove the crystals in them. "Not like they're gonna be useful in this situation, but maybe I can repurpose these…" After getting all of the crystals off, Tlopfest put the crystal-less thaumometers into his inventory, prompting Colbert to look questioningly at Tlopfest. "Invisible backpack of sorts. No, I don't know how exactly it works, other than it just does."

Taking some of the copper that Colbert was able to get, Tlopfest sheared off some with his pickaxe, attempting to create some powder with it, although at the great cost of their hearing. Getting a (sort of) small mound of powder, Tlopfest stopped and put some of the primary elemental crystals on it as well. He then proceeded to start mashing it all together, creating a dark purple powder in the process.

"Well, it's normally supposed to be pink, but this may just be what I need to get started."

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

"Essentially," Tlopfest picked up the powder, noting that it refused to become an actual item in his hands. "I'm trying to make a material called 'salis mundus.' Think of it as a powder that can fortify some things to handle Thaumaturgy." With that, Tlopfest tossed the powder over the cauldron, with just about all of it sticking to the container and staying. "Come on…please work…"

After about a minute, the powder simply…dissipated, seemingly doing nothing to the cauldron. "Darn it. Looks like it didn't -" And yet, the cauldron suddenly 'poofed' into a square crucible, similar to that from Minecraftia. "Or…it did work. Nice!"

"Wait a moment, what just happened? Why did my round cauldron just become a cube?"

"It seems that it transformed it to a Minecraftian Crucible, similar to that of my home world. Kinda surprised it decided to do it like that, but hey, at least I got it!" With that, Tlopfest hit the crucible with his pick, making it drop as a normal item for him to carry, after which he put it in his inventory. "Yup, definitely Minecraftian." Tlopfest turned towards the door of the lab, grabbing the hunk of quartz to carry with him. "I gotta run to gather some materials. Thanks for the help so far Professor Colbert!" With that, Tlopfest hurried out towards the nearby woods, from where he hoped to gather enough kinds of materials to at least get his Thaumaturgical goggles back in working order.

After rummaging around in the forest and gathering some wood and stone, Tlopfest came back to Colbert's lab, upon which he noticed Colbert attempting to study some of the leftover powder from his desk. Tlopfest didn't pay him much mind however as he went over to get a fire started.

"Now then, just gotta get some heat under here….oh, right, and some water." Tlopfest got up before he started the actual fire, leaving his materials on the floor near one of the walls of the lab. Heading out towards the fountain, Tlopfest noticed Siesta there as well, apparently fetching some water for someone. "Hey Siesta! How's it going?"

Turning to see Tlopfest, Siesta couldn't help but smile a bit. "Ah, Tlopfest! Things have been going as well as they used to, all thanks to you!"

"Hey, no problem on that part. Say, do you happen to have a spare bucket I could borrow for a couple of minutes?"

"Oh, well," Siesta offered the one she was holding already. "You can use this for now. I do have some spare time before I have to have my duties completed."

"Thanks Siesta!" Tlopfest took the bucket from her, getting some water from the fountain.

"Although I must ask, why do you need some water?"

"Long story short, I'm testing some of my home's magic to see if it works here."

Siesta was surprised at hearing that. "Your home's magic? You mean different from how we do it?"

"Yupper. I can tell you more about it later if you want me to, but I'm kinda eager to go test this out…"

"Ah, of course! Perhaps after your testing?"

"Sure, we can do that." Tlopfest nodded, heading back to the lab to finish setting up the crucible.

"Well…it could be worse," Tlopfest said.

For the past half hour or so, Tlopfest had been trying to burn/melt some of this world's materials within the now minecraftian crucible, but with no luck. While the vis crystals were able to transform the cauldron into a crucible, it seems that other items from this world would refuse to properly melt and/or transfer into essentia.

"So…long and short of it, there is not much compatibility with my world's magic and this world's mechanics…at least with Thaumaturgy…" Tlopfest rubbed the back of his neck in thought. "Man, the multiverse is definitely a lot more complicated than I thought…" With that thought though, Tlopfest finished putting out the fire and gathered up the crucible. "At least I got this. Maybe I'll find a usage for it eventually…"

A couple more days passed, and Tlopfest continued to try to study the issues he was having with Thaumaturgy, although with no luck. Eventually, after having gone through the library for the upteenth time in search of any other Thaumaturgical substitutes and/or help, Tlopfest eventually just headed back up to Louise's room, which had been empty for the past few days while she went out on the Princess' mission. Though that seems to have changed this time, as Louise was finally back. She was resting on the bed, seemingly asleep until Tlopfest came in.

"Hello Tlopfest."

"Oh, Louise! You're back. How was the mission?"

"Oh, well…uneventful." Louise twitched a bit from the mention of the mission, although she didn't portray her emotions much with that. "I did at least get some of the worse nobles to leave some of the commoners alone. Although…." She trailed off, looking down towards the floor and seemingly unsure as to how to say it.

"Hey, if you can't say it for whatever reason, fine by me." Tlopfest sat down at her study desk, facing towards her. "Although, I have at least got some news for you about Thaumaturgy." Louise visibly perked up at the mention of that. "Although, it isn't exactly great news… Long story short, I don't think it is really feasible for me to do Thaumaturgy here." Louise quickly deflated with that. "The main problem is just how things work here versus back home. I'm sorry Louise, I know you were looking forward to that kind of thing."

Louise looked back up towards Tlopfest. "I-It's fine, Tlopfest. I should have known better than to get my hopes up with that.."

Not a lot going on, huh? Don't worry, I'm planning on trying to expand upon this soon enough. Can't make it as simple as that, right? Anyhow, hope you guys enjoyed the (somewhat short) chapter though! As always, if there's an issue, whether that be characters or just stuff in general, don't be afraid to let me know! Catch you all in the next chapter!