I passed on a manascope to the goblins who were making astronomic readings as another piece of data for them to collect over time. While they made readings I decided that I should work on finishing constructing all the mana crystal growth apparatuses in the new lab area.  I still had the 16-foot crystal growth apparatus to make, in addition to all the smaller apparatuses to replicate from the cave.  I also took a few days to bring what remained of the crystal slag down the mountain, and seal off the portion of the cave where all the old apparatuses are in a way that makes it look semi-natural, to hopefully keep out any would-be spies.


    It felt a little sad to do, since this was the first time it really felt like I was leaving the cave for good.  I couldn''t quite bring myself to actually destroy the apparatuses, even though it would have probably been the smarter thing to do.  I''d gone back to the cave over the years for one thing or another, but I''ve slowly been moving more and more things away from the cave, and this was the last of my original reasons to come here.  The only remaining reasons to come that far up the mountain are for the mana poison plants, the scouting towers, and to go to the peak.  Ultimately, it felt like I was moving for good.


    I ended up working for a few months on the new apparatuses, and while I haven''t finished the 16-foot apparatus quite yet, I thought of a few other projects that I''d like to work on temporarily based on information that others have gathered.  I still have a few years before I need the 16-foot apparatus, so I''m not in too much of a rush.  First, Tiberius has figured out there are a few problems with using lead doped fluorite for weapons.


    The biggest one being that the lead doped fluorite is very light compared to lead and to make the shells worth it to actually make, the fluorite crystal ends up needing to be five inches across at least.  Due to the variable nature of mana between day and night, the effectiveness of the shell also changes.  Realistically, you need an eight inch in diameter shell in order to house the necessary amounts of quartz and fluorite, and it needs to be composed of a lot of different parts.  The quartz and fluorite frequently crack during the actual firing of the shell, reducing their effectiveness.  So, I''ll lend him a hand for a few days to help troubleshoot and solve some of his problems.


    The second bit of information that is drawing my attention is that the goblins who I trusted one of the manascopes to have been using it to make their own readings beyond just passive daytime values, and their results have intrigued me.  I had told them about the values I had gotten and where I''d gotten them, and my thoughts on the matter.  They''d decided to retest some of my points, and while their manascope readings were the same, they noted that their mana regeneration rate actually was zero while deep underground, rather than just slow like mine was.  So I''ve got a few ideas to follow up on with that matter.


    <hr>


    Tiberius had done multiple tests with different sized crystals to determine all his values and, smartly, he had used smooth bore scale pieces for testing, rather than potentially damaging our actual artillery pieces.  Our current artillery shells are only about 2 inches in diameter, so the existing artillery would be incapable of using any hypothetic shells to begin with.


    Much like the heat fluorite, lead fluorite seems to get more efficient the larger the crystal is, and as such, once we reach a crystal 6 inches across, during the daytime, the crystal becomes more dense than lead.  Ultimately, that''s about a three and a half fold increase in mass, which on it''s face would appear to be a three and a half fold increase in kinetic energy of a projectile, it''s actually almost a thirteen fold increase under perfect conditions, since the initial velocity of the projectile would also be faster, due to the lower initial mass.  The issue is that the explosive power of the shell results in the crystal materials breaking.


    So, after some discussion and tests, I proposed two changes to the initial shell design, to hopefully help mitigate some of the problems.  First, two halves of copper should be placed around the outside of the shell to allow plastic deformation to hopefully mitigate any cracking of the quartz.  Second, a solid jacket of lead should be put around the fluorite crystal in the center for a similar reason.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    After some testing, we got the sizes and locations of the amount of metals figured out, and we ran into some new problems as a result.  While the jackets did cause the crystals to stop breaking, they also added more mass.  Considering the quartz and the copper jackets fall away in the air to allow the inner shell to gain access to mana, we''re losing quite a bit of mass as compared to the initial shot, meaning the fluorite crystal needs to be larger to compensate.


    With a two inch quartz shield, the fluorite is about 50% denser than normal, which we also need to consider.  Ultimately, to allow for decent plastic deformation, we''d need a 3/4 inch copper jacket, then the 2 inches of quartz insulation, then another half inch of lead, and then finally the central fluorite shot.  So, after a bit of math, for a 12-inch shell, minus the black powder, the weight comes out to 1667 pounds.  When exposed to mana, however, the central lead and fluorite part comes out to 2626 pounds, or about a 1.6 times increase in mass, even after shedding the outer shell.


    For a comparison we also tried increasing to a 14 inch shell, with a larger fluorite crystal which resulted in a larger initial and final conversion rate, results in an initial shell weight of 2681 pounds, and a final projectile weight of 5014 pounds, or a 1.87 times increase in mass before and after firing.  Since the resultant kinetic energy is squared beyond the shell just being heavier, it also results in better returns on the initial explosive power.


    However, the ratios of components was hardly optimized.  After eleven days of experiments, those were the main two numbers we came up with, and while I''d like to say that''s great, both sets of shells are too heavy for us to do anything with in our current situation.  However, I''m confident I could develop assisting weapon systems to allow their use, if we can make them worth our while to use.  From scale testing, I could tell that the shells have some unique properties on impact.  Since the crystal causing the increased mass breaks on impact, it results in the projectile rapidly losing mass, however, it''s not quite instantaneous, resulting in the kinetic damages seen in the lab.


    Essentially, once the initial impact is finished, the remaining material blasts through whatever surface it hit.  If the surface is too thick, the shrapnel bounces backwards, along with a decent chunk of whatever it hit.  Ultimately, it functions as a quasi explosive round.  It''s probably a bit less effective than an actual high-explosive round, but it''s quite a bit more stable and the shell itself is relatively simple.


    So, after taking an additional seven days explaining the math to Tiberius, I left him to do optimization for three different sizes of shells, so that we could have the data to approximate optimal ratios of components for any size shell.  He''ll need to gather data on various ratios of quartz and fluorite crystal thicknesses alongside the relevant amounts of metals.  I also told him to experiment with using brass instead of copper for the outer portion of the shell.


    The two inches of quartz we used is a good approximate starting value, but it''s not optimal and as those numbers change, we''ll probably find that at various different sizes of shell the thickness of the quartz portion should change.  If we extrapolate those values, he should be able to figure out the optimal portions of each shell to maximize the mass increase of the final projectile compared to the initial shell.


    <hr>


    After I set Tiberius on his new research path, I turned to investigate with the manascope again, since my internal mana regen values weren''t matching up with the goblins who attempted it.  I brought in a few other goblins, and all their values also didn''t agree with mine, but did agree with each other.  I was starting to get frustrated after eight days of trying to figure out why this would happen, so I consulted Zeb.  He came along with me, and he found that his values agreed with mine.


    With two data points in agreement with me, I started to think through all the relevant information before I had an idea.  I brought a lesser earth demon that had gained mana affinity from working with mana crystals frequently to test his values, and they matched mine as well.  A few more tests confirmed it.  For whatever other affects mana affinity has, it also seems to be playing a role here.  Whether we''re better at accessing the mana, or we''re just utilizing the mana we are getting differently, I can''t think of a safe way to test that.  These results, however, do make me want to use the manascope for any future mana measurements rather than my own internal values, since it seems like the biological systems for it are more complicated than I had initially thought.