"If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve.― Jeff Bezos

Having addressed at least a few of the more immediate questions, I solicited Kraal's assistance in speaking with Hakdrilda. I was generally fine with helping her, and I was assuming that both her presence and her magical experiments would generate some extra mana flow for me. That said, I did need to establish some boundaries, see what sort of assistance she needed from me, determine a bit more clearly what her research focus was (in order to sort through my memories of related academic knowledge), and ascertain what exactly she intended in terms of both experiments and compensation for my help.

Kraal began with a quick summarizing statement. "Good day, Hakdrilda. Vay has asked me to convey his words to you, and he seeks to establish a firmer understanding between the two of you of what each can expect from this somewhat limited partnership."

The dwarf smiled, a bit nervously. "Of course. Once I learned the dungeon was sapient, I rather assumed there'd need to be a formal negotiation, of sorts. I suppose I should begin by asking if there are any formal rules, or at least concerns, that Vay needs to have addressed?"

That was a good point, and one I had given at least some thought to, and Kraal passed those thoughts on in his good-natured, croaking manner.

"Well, there are the basic rules of the dungeon, of course, mostly having to do with the security of the core. He doesn't anticipate any issues, particularly, but seeks assurances that you not only won't need direct access to his core for experimental purposes but would be willing to pitch in for his defense, if need be."

Hakdrilda nodded her assent. "While I won't lie, access to his core would likely open up a range of interesting experiments, I understand that he has no reason to trust me that far. I will swear on the Blessed Forgemistress that I have no intent to experiment on the core directly, and that I will defend him as I would any coworker."

Kraal made an oddly clerical gesture with one taloned hand, "So witnessed."

He continued translating for me, "Otherwise, he'd ask that you limit the destructive power of your experiments, at least without running them past him first, for obvious reasons. I'm given to understand that compressed air can be highly destructive and in his old world at least those kinds of pressures can also lead to explosive failures?"

Hakdrilda nodded again. "Yes, that certainly can be an issue, though I didn't bring along machinery capable of that kind of effect. Any explosions are likely to be due to failure of some experimental magecraft, and I might ask him to generate a test chamber for me with reinforced walls, and ideally some protective barriers for that kind of work."

I pondered that briefly, before issuing a decision for Kraal to pass on. "That might be doable, but most of his mana budget is committed to rehoming the Redcrest tribe for at least the next week or so. The walls of this room should already be pretty sturdy, but he can take some extra steps to provide a testing space in a week or so. He'll need to give it some thought, as his array of blueprints and materials are a bit limited at the moment. Any guidance or materials you have to offer in that regard would make life simpler for the both of you."

Hakdrilda responded eagerly. "I did bring some materials I thought would be helpful, and I'll try to draw up at least a schematic version of the kind of test chamber we use in the Daekaran Institute of Magic! We won't be able to duplicate the defensive enchantments they use, but the physical parts of it should be within his capabilities."

I then had Kraal turn the discussion to what kind of participation she needed from me. "Vay is also rather curious about why you need the participation of a dungeon in the first place?"

Hakdrilda flushed a bit in excitement as we touched on her research more directly, her voice becoming more animated and its tempo increasing. "Ah well, there's been a long debate about how directly dungeons work with air mana. Are they manipulating ambient air mana directly, generating it from some basal form of unaspected mana, or simply using their control over matter to create physical effects that mimic air magic? How fine is their control over pressure, volume, flow, etc.? With willing participation by Vay, we can settle a lot of those issues directly!"

I had to say that I didn't actually know the answer to most of those questions immediately, though my general sense was that I could do all three of those and would have as fine a control as I wanted, if I was willing to put in the mental effort. Hakdrilda had to be talked down from starting experiments immediately.

I knew it would be frustrating to her, but I had Kraal pass on a few notes. "Again, Hakdrilda, Vay notes that he's going to be largely occupied with the Redcrest tribe for a while, but he will try to set aside an hour or two each day to assist you in your experiments. If you have a need to establish some basic control experiments that will work with only passive input from him, that would be a good place to start. He hopes to have more time available once the migration occurs, but expects he'll be busy adjusting the birdfolk village for a few days following their arrival. After that, he hopes to be able to assist you more actively. He encourages you to spend at least part of your time writing down experimental procedures and designs for anything you need constructed. Once we leave, he won't be able to communicate quite so directly, unless one of the migrant birdfolk is capable of filling this role and willing, but he can read your documents and save you at least a little time that way. He did also just get a logbook skill that will enable him to communicate directly himself, but only a few lines a day for the time being."

Hakdrilda seemed a bit frustrated, but like most academics was familiar with the need to accommodate necessary delays in the process. She heaved an unconscious sigh but forced a gracious reply. "I understand. I'll try to make sure that experimental protocols and material needs are as clearly explained as I can manage. I've also brought copies of the most relevant scholarly works on Dungeon Air Magic to share with him. I'm happy to give them to him, if he can promise to generate copies for me to bring back; they're quite expensive, unfortunately, given the scarcity of them."

Kraal smiled, in the limited fashion allowed by a large beak. "I have no doubt he'll make that deal. As you may have heard, he's very invested in improving his store of knowledge about this world."

Hakdrilda continued to explain her work. "We can go into greater detail once we both have some base level of knowledge about each other's understanding of the field, but I'm also hoping to perform experiments on turbulence and airflow in subterranean spaces as well as research into the differences between surface air and subterranean air at various levels."

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Kraal shook his head, ruefully. "That's mostly beyond me, but Vay seems to understand what you mean, so that's a hopeful sign, I suppose. That does bring us to one final awkward topic of conversation - compensation. I don't get the sense that Vay is really seeking to make a massive profit out of your presence; he's told me that in his world, academics generally weren't that well compensated unless they turned their research into something directly profitable, after all. Still, you will be drawing his attention away from some other things he needs to pursue - ranging from his exploration of the island to the continued growth of his dungeon proper. As such, interesting as your research may be for him, he asks the traditional question - 'What's in it for me?'"

Hakdrilda responded slowly and cautiously. "Well, I might counter with the traditional response - What do you want? He's not wrong that his participation should be rewarded, but he's also right that I don't have a huge array of resources to offer him. I'm hoping the knowledge itself will be worthwhile for him, and it might help refine his mana usage and give him useful ideas for his dungeon building, but I can't guarantee that. I AM hopeful that my research will be profitable, but that is likely some years down the line. I'd be happy to offer him co-author status on my research papers and a cut of profits - say 5% of net profits for the first 20 years?"

Kraal cocked his head, curiously. "That sounds like a reasonable starting position, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't try to negotiate on his behalf. Counteroffer might be, let's say 15% for the first 40 years? Payable in materials to be transported here, since he'll have no real use for gold directly, obviously."

The dickering went on for a while, but good-naturedly, with Hakdrilda probably coming out ahead, frankly, since I didn't actually care as much as I should.

"Done then. 10% for the first 20 years, beginning when you first make a profit, and 5% for the 15 years after that, with transport costs coming out of his share but with good faith efforts on your part to provide new materials with each shipment on an annual basis." Kraal concluded with a ceremonial handshake, and a repeat of his earlier oath witnessing procedure and a simple duplicate signing of the hastily drawn up contract.

Hakdrilda straightened to her full height of about 1.2 meters with a relieved grin. "Well, with the formal business concluded, maybe I can break out those books I was mentioning before? The first couple cover the basics of air magic in Daekaran mining – first year textbooks, really. The remaining eight should give him at least an overview of more advanced theory relating to these topics. That's not the full picture, of course, but I'd expect it to give him a good sense of where I'm starting from and might point out some places where he could offer some new insights based on his past life knowledge. Or so I hope!"

With Kraal passing on my assent, I quickly absorbed the volumes she laid out for me, replacing them immediately to her relief, and secreting a second copy in my own library.

Blueprint Acquired: Air Magic: An Introduction

Blueprint Acquired: Breathing in the Deep: Air Magic in the Mines

Blueprint Acquired: Circulation, Filtration, and Ventilation: Practical Techniques

Blueprint Acquired: Air Affinity Dungeons: A Catalog and Theories

Blueprint Acquired: Hazardous Air: Unusual Issues in the Deep Mines

Blueprint Acquired: The Damps: White, Black, Fire, and Stink

Blueprint Acquired: Pressure, Turbulence, and Flow: Theories and Experiments

Blueprint Acquired: Afflictions of Miners: Theories on Causes and Treatments

Blueprint Acquired: Heating, Cooling, and Ventilation - Fans in the Mines

Blueprint Acquired: Alchemy and Air Magic: Better Breathing Through Potions

Quest Completed: Expand Your Collection II; Reward: Index of the Order of Almeidra

Quest Reissued: Expand Your Collection III; Reward: Scholarly Material Blueprint

Well, that was a lot of information, and it was going to take me some time to go through it all. At a quick skim, it seemed like the dwarves of Daekar were working at a roughly 19th-century understanding of ventilation in mines, though working much more with magic than technology. That mostly meant they could avoid the need for safety lamps, for instance, as mana lamps offered no fire hazard. They also understood that air was made up of a variety of gases, and that some were toxic; they didn't have any real notion of molecular chemistry, though, and their grasp of aerodynamics was basic. Likewise, access to healing magic actually meant they had a relatively poor understanding of how toxic gases and particulates in the air caused physiological issues; miners were routinely treated with purification and healing spells, preventing a lot of the long-term issues faced by miners in my old world. Ventilation was usually provided by magic air purifiers/fans, and their knowledge of mechanical ventilation techniques was limited. Failure of magical tools was a perennial issue and resulted in deaths periodically.

I did think I could help her make a contribution, though I wasn't really sure if the gods would let me introduce a more scientific version of chemistry to this world. I could likely at least introduce some new ventilation schemes and the notion of redundant safety features without divine objections.

For me, the real benefit was the introduction to basic concepts of the formal magic system in use. It did, obviously, work using mana – ambient, internal, or stored – and could be managed directly through sheer force of will for some people. Most others needed some form of external focus, frequently involving formal techniques using runes, circles, incantations, sympathetic components, divine (or other external actor) intervention, or some combination of them. The dwarves of Daekar leaned heavily on runic enchantments and sympathetic alchemy to manage their standard magical effects.

Their theories about air affinity dungeons ranged from the bizarrely wrong to the almost correct, but it seemed like the predominant theories fell somewhere in the middle. As noted, some researchers assumed dungeons simply used whatever mana was already present, others felt they generated air affinity mana from un-affinitied mana, and some felt dungeon air effects were generated through manipulation of the air more directly. A few thought such dungeons had linkages to the elemental plane of air, and at least one argued that it was less a connection to air-affinity than it was an avoidance of earth-affinity.

The researchers did, generally, concede that dungeons, as masters of the manipulation of mana and with the ability to handle much larger pools of mana, had far finer control over related magical effects than most others. Arguments did occur over exactly how fine, and how they stood in comparison to other notably magical entities (including dragons, for instance). I looked forward to addressing some of those questions a bit later on.

I shared at least some of that with her, through Kraal, though for obvious reasons I didn't want to raise the knowledge of molecular chemistry until I established whether that would be acceptable to the divinities of my new world. Beyond that, I let her know a bit more about my new scholarly skill to reassure her that we could still address some more technical concerns once the dungeon priests had departed. Following that, I suggested she take some time to ponder the specific questions she most wanted answered to arrange her research plans, promising that I'd try to transcribe at least one or two basic texts from my old world before the next morning for her to examine. I wasn't sure if she had any translation magic, but hopefully the diagrams and the like would provide some context. I figured translation magic was a possibility, since the books she had given me were in at least three separate languages.

Meanwhile, I had Kraal rejoin his party for additional discussions.

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