We quickly returned to the tower and stored the coal on the first floor of the tower. It was the level with the least humidity. I had to make a door for the arch opening to the forge soon too.

  Magnar left as soon as everything was settled. We lost a good day for forging, but we gained resources to last us over the winter, or at least I hoped it would. It would be very difficult to procure ingredients once winter started or it would be at a high price.

  It’s not like I would have much to spend my gold on after the winter preparations were ready, but there was no need to be wasteful. Money was such a thing. It was never bad to have more of it. I would find a use for the coins anyway, no need to worry.

  ‘Now I have to find out how to use those parts…’ for now the most interesting was the spider gland. It seemed to be full or close to full, meaning I’d be able to get some more silk out of it if I could find out how to properly squeeze it out.

  I looked at it. There were some circular patterns visible on the sack, on the parts that weren’t covered by the shell. It had a small appendage, most probably the actual gland, connected on the most rounded part of the entire sack. The rest was for excretion and storage of the web fluid.

  ‘I need to find out the rate of flow needed to obtain a nice, smooth thread…’ A spider normally only squeezed a little and then relied on fluid viscosity and steady movement to pull out the rest. That was why normally no spider did crazy stuff like the guy swinging off buildings.

  But I had no idea how a spider this size would proceed to make a webbing. There was one person I could ask however… Professor Vorna. He was the only one I knew that may be able to help me. I set aside the gland and sac full of webbing fluid.

  I brought forward the bowl with silky threads. I took one of them between my fingers. It made my skin crawl. And it wasn’t ending. It didn’t just discharge at once. ‘On this next step depends everything!’ I brought aether to my fingers and pushed it into the thread.

  More and more of my hair started to raise off my hand as I continued pouring in aether. I was gradually increasing the output. This went on until… A flash and the electricity exploded outwards in an arc and zapped the nearby spider abdomen.

  Another bolt went from the abdomen to the hairy legs next to it and then it was released with small arcs into the ground. ‘This is sooo cool!’ I couldn’t help but tremble seeing this. The thunder zapping was the best thing that ever happened to me after being reincarnated!

  I couldn't help laughing happily. What followed can only be said to be me playing around. Yet if anyone asks me what I did... 'Yep, I was researching and gathering experimental data on aether to electricity conversion!'

  I'm sure no one would care; it was my stuff anyway. And it wasn't as if I were lying in any way. This play session with the zapping web, did give me information about its properties such as the rate of conversion, efficiency and latency when underpowered.

  After careful observation I identified the mechanism used by the spider. Two of the legs had high aether conductivity, the rest were great at channeling electricity. The abdomen and the web gland acted like amplifiers and the conductive legs like weapons.

  I took all of them one by one and pushed my aether through, yet the material with the highest conversion rate remained the silk.

  I could probably combine aether conducting legs with some silk to obtain handles for a weapon, or perhaps keep them for stave making... I couldn't decide on the best use for them just yet, when I was also lacking knowledge about what certain parts did, such as the long hairs on the electricity conducting legs...

  As such the only right strategy was to go to sleep. Tomorrow I could ask professor Vorna about the beast, what he knew about it, and if there was any way to get the silk fluid into thread.

  A test I really, really had to run was the frequency test. If I could form an electricity generating formation/array alongside the aether gathering formation, then I would be most probably set. Of course, that was if such a thing wouldn’t just outright shock me to death…

  The next morning, following my routine and at this point usual morning behavior, I presented myself to class early. Magnar arrived soon after me and we chatted. When I told him I had brought the silk liquid sac bought yesterday, his eyes went wide.

  “Aren’t you afraid they’ll just confiscate it?”

  “That would be too much of an asshole behavior even for them. I think they can hold back at least this much. Besides, it’s just the silk liquid not the silk or other parts. It’s the one thing I have no idea how to use or make use of.”

  We waited as more of our classmates made it in. Eventually, the teacher came in too… ‘About damn time…’

  “See Magnar? This is what a watch would be great for, we’d know when the teacher comes so we could avoid waiting like idiots. We could be looking around or something instead of just sitting here.” I whispered after nudging him.

  “I got it, watches are good…” He replied with a hint of exasperation in his voice.

  I waited for class to end. ‘I have an advanced private question, it’s only right that I wait.’ I had to repeat in my head over and over to keep myself in check. There was nothing else to do and I was focused on what I needed, nothing wrong there, right?

  The funny thing about these states of impatience was that you could almost hear the professor’s voice go slower, as if he was messing with you, but no, it was just the tension in the mind that triggered it, however despite the fact you could hear him in slow motion, it did not mean you remembered. Just like now, despite listening to him, for like an hour and a half, I remembered nothing, nothing at all.

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  Anyway, as class ended, I waited for most of the other students to get out of the classroom. The teacher did the same, waiting for the students to go out. It was a pattern we noticed. Something professor Vorna did, unlike most of the others.

  He saw the two of us waiting but said nothing. After we were left all alone, I stood up from my seat and brought forward the leather sack with the gland. I dropped it off on the table.

  “Professor, I need some help with using this thing…”

  “What is it?”

  “Some sort of webbing gland from a spider” I answer opening the bag wide so the contents can be seen and examined clearly. “It has the sac for the webbing fluid, how can I turn the fluid inside in actual thread?”

  “You actually got an intact major ampullate gland… Do you know what spider it is from?”

  “Not really, but I do know it was a spider with a lightning affinity…”

  “Where’d you even get this? Do you even have any idea how rare these are?”

  “I can guess…”

  “They are basically impossible to get! Lightning affinity spiders move too fast to maintain it intact… And most of them are already empty by the end of the fight. So, my question stands. Where’d you get this from?”

  “An old lady was selling this yesterday. Said her son died shortly after bringing these back covered in burns. Bought it for three golds… All the money I still had on me…”

  “I’ve been told the Harvest Festival often brings out unexpected windfalls… But this is the first time I was given to see one this big…”

  “So, any way to get the silk?”

  “Unfortunately, even with the entire organ in perfect condition as it is, it’s almost impossible to get it out as silk.”

  “Why?”

  “You see, the gland is dead, the corroders input and usual pressure controlled by the spider are gone. Not just that but there’s water in this fluid. That needs to be pulled out, you can’t do it with a dead gland…”

  “I see… I think I have an idea, thank you very much!”

  “You do? How?” he looked at me, alarmed and baffled.

  “Lightning.”

  I took the bag off the table and left hurriedly with Magnar following close.

  “What the hell do you plan to do?” he asked confused as we got away from the beastology class.

  “I just guess lightning will let me remove the water. Besides there are some more things inside this, he just reminded me of their nature. Besides this creature might also have used lightning to create thread faster. I have my reasons to believe that.”

  “What would those be? Have you seen a small spider untouched by aether?”

  “As luck would have it yes…”

  “Then you should know their threads are so thin you can barely see them. That is not the case with the threads from this one, and that means it must have some additional mechanism or else his web would have collapsed into some gooey stuff. Which it didn’t.”

  “So, you plan to zap it?”

  “I plan to do much more than just zapping it. I need a mechanism to keep a constant pressure and constant speed of rotation… One that buffers natural breaks we take and can’t control.”

  He shrugged. “It’s not like I have to make it.”

  We continued on to the next class. Harvesting and herbology, neither offered me anything of importance. It was this sort of thing where the common knowledge was not part of what they taught. ‘Herbology would have been so much more interesting and useful if they said anything about vegetables and fruits…’

  As soon as harvesting class ended, we returned to the tower. First thing we did was to start filling up the kiln. Much to Magnar’s surprise the pottery was bone-dry despite the colder weather these past two days. I guess he still didn’t get the concept of thermal contraction and expansion…

  As we were carrying the tiles in the kiln Cassia hopped in the courtyard, over the gate too. Both me and Magnar froze in place and looked straight at her. I didn’t know about Magnar, but I felt very tired seeing her do that. ‘You really just can’t enter normally? Why’d I fix that gate if you are just gonna jump over it?’

  She ignored the stares and skipped forward stopping next to us.

  “Guess what?”

  I ignored her and started moving again, entering the kiln to set the tile inside carefully. Magnar followed and handed the tile he carried to me as he couldn’t enter the kiln. We continued our work ignoring her. As soon as I started going for the next tile Cassia rushed and gave me a hard kick to the side of my leg.

  “Bah!” I couldn’t hold back a shout as I crumbled to the ground. This brute did it! I was in pain, holding my leg.

  “That’s what you get for ignoring me!”

  “It doesn’t mean you have to break my leg! Why are you here anyway?”

  “What do you mean why? You had me buy stuff for you! Is this how you treat me after I got you the materials you needed for half the price?”

  “How was I supposed to know you didn’t come just because you wanted to annoy me?”

  Another kick connected to my side. A heavy thud. Then a blood curling scream as Cassia fell in a similar position to mine. I had reinforced myself with aether…

  “You two… Why do you always turn into idiots when you get together…” Magnar shook his head with a heavy sigh.

  “You are so annoying Cato…” Cassia hissed through clenched teeth.

  I slowly stood up right. “Back at you. Why is the first thing you do hitting? Can’t you argue more? Where’s your femininity and refinement?”

  She delivered a fist to where she had kicked me earlier. I crumbled back down.

  “Don’t question my charm! You’re just too hardheaded and I have to educate you!”

  “Damn it…”

  Magnar sighed again seeing the two of us and went further away to sit on a block of cinder stone.

  “Tell me when you’re done.” He said in a tone that oozed tiredness.

  “We’d have been done, if she wasn’t such a brute!”

  I got hit again and another whimper sounded out from Cassia. I wouldn’t make the mistake of lowering my reinforcement again.

  “So, you got the materials already?”

  “Yes, I’ll bring them over tomorrow or the day after. I got them for a gold and a half gold.”

  “That means I owe you a half gold. Damn it… I’m out of gold.”

  “No need to pay it back.” She said hurriedly.

  “Magnar, can you lend me one of those half golds I gave you yesterday? I’ll return it later this week, I must forge something to sell first.” I ignored her offer.

  “Sure!” He took it out and threw it over directly at Cassia.

  “Why is it fine to owe money to Magnar but not to me?” Cassia cried out angrily.

  “Because he’ll at most ask of me to make some weapons at a discount for him and his fellow beastmen in the academy.” I replied calmly. “You, however, can get me dragged in your political storm and get me killed.”

  She looked down… I saw her fingers tense on the ground. ‘It has nothing to do with me.’ I was trying to convince myself. I was no cruel person. I wanted to help, but it couldn’t be on their terms.

  She took the half gold that had fallen on the ground in front of her and stood up. She looked at me and Magnar, tears streaming down her cheeks. Crying she jumped over the gate once more.

  “Do you really have to be that hard on her?” Magnar looked at me questioningly.

  “You don’t have any idea how messed up the political mire can get. I already promised I’ll help her, that’s more than I had to do. It’s her job to accept and wait for what was offered to come into fruition.”

  Magnar shrugged. We got back to work, with me limping slightly. I really did not know what sort of storm was brewing for me ahead. Cassia’s issue and the looming war. Both issues I couldn’t make up my mind about.

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  ?? Author's Question:

  Cato just unlocked the secret to generating stable electricity from aether! Now that he has the silk thread, what should be the first electrical device he builds? A motor for the bellows? An electric light for his tower? Or should he go straight for an electric furnace?