What else is enchanted? The lines are so tiny, I can barely see them with my eyes. I only noticed cuz the crystal was covered with mana.
“Opal, give me your sword,” I demand.
“Huh!” they yelp, clutching the bde. “What are you pnning to do with it?!”
I blink. “Stop being silly,” I say. “I wanna take a look.”
“Yeah,” Thatch nods, grabbing in Opal’s direction. “Hand it over.”
They roll their eyes, cutting the teasing short. “Fine, fine. Just don’t damage it.”
Instantly, I snatch the sword from them, running my fingers over the metal. Thatch stares intently, eyes glowing. Nothing. Nothing. My finger catches.
A thin, tiny line. So faint I can barely feel it, but it’s there. Disguised by the finish on the steel. I trace it, and the line curves, curling in on itself. Then there’s a jagged edge and it splits into two parts. A pattern.
Step by tiny step, I trace it, making sure to memorize the shape. Enchanting. Real, honest to god, enchanting. Hells yes. I want a shirt enchanted to be as soft as possible. One that doesn’t stain with blood, and that repairs itself, too! Something that hides my silhouette and that's comfortable to wear forever!
I wanna take their sword apart. The temptation to cast [Deconstruction] on it is real, but all I do is trace the lines and memorize them. If this goes on, I really do need to work on a structured way of remembering things soon. Maybe build myself a mind pace or something.
At that, I cut my errant thoughts off, focussing on my task. Distantly, I notice Amelie, Jess, Norman, Inu and Opal as well as Dar and Richard head into the maze. Me and Thatch take the enchantments in, while Bay is going ham on the wall and Sylves hovers in the air, stitching fabrics together.
Opal takes their sword back, and I let them. I know the pattern well enough, now, instead focussing on the crystal gain. “Thatch?”
“Yeah?”
“You seen it all?”
“One more minute,” he asks, and I nod, tracing the lines with my finger.
I feel impatient. I wanna know what it does. How does it store mana? How can I take it for myself? Can I craft these? I could store mana while I sleep and practice more during the day… or power bigger spells all at once.
After a little bit, Thatch taps me. “All done.”
He doesn’t need to tell me twice. Without hesitation, I absorb most of the mana in the crystal, filling me back up to halfway, then instantly pour that all into a [Deconstruction]. Could I use the stone as a battery? Yes. Absolutely, I could.
I don’t care. It cracks, breaks into a thousand tiny pieces, but I don’t care. Already, my skill reveals the structure that the runes take, and compared to the skills I’ve been looking at, it’s so simple. My right eye starts bleeding again, but compared to the healing spell? This is nothing.
Every bit of it, each tiny curve, I remember. I grab my needle of solid mana and a piece of metal, and scratch away. “Put my headphones on me,” I tell Thatch, and they do as I ask.
The word disappears. Faint music pys, but there’s no lyrics, nothing to distract me, even the sticky feeling of the headphones against my burnt flesh forgotten. It’s just me, full focus, in the silence. I use my mana-needle as a stylus. The lines are ugly and rough, but I mimick Opal’s sword. I mimic the way the crystal works. I scratch it all into the metal.
Minutes tick by as I work feverishly. I don’t care about the dungeon anymore, or whether it’ll give me a minor request. I’d been pnning to ask for info on what job suited me best anyway, but now? I wanted to enchant.
With Bay’s help, I might be able to turn mana into electricity. I’d be able to run my phone as a music pyer forever. Just turn off the outside world, never need to worry about bringing chargers. Maybe even self repair stuff on my headphones, so they never break…
Yes. I want it.
Only a little more time passes, and then my crude runes are done. The metal was tough to affect, but my solid mana did it. I fed it a bit of my regeneration, keeping the tip of the needle sharp. Now, I have a sb of coppery metal with ft runes carved into it.
The ones from the crystal were meant to be circur, so it’s a botched job. The ones from Opal’s bde I don’t understand as well, so it’s a botched job. I still pour mana into them, activating them.
In my hand, the ptes turns searing hot. I drop it without hesitation. There’s a horrible screech, and the metal twists in on itself, ruining all the work I’ve done. But still. I smile.
Whatever I fucked up, it certainly had an effect. Not the intended one, not at all, but it did. I enchanted something!
A ugh bubbles out of me, and the system agrees.
[Congratutions!]
It pipes up. “Yeah,” I say, grinning. “I did it. That was an enchantment.”
[You have gained access to your job through essence and skill.]
[Additional details will be revealed. Brace.]
I’m already sitting, so when the info pours into my head, I don’t mind too much. It’s much the same as what Sylves told me. Jobs are paths that are somewhat explored, that we are encouraged to experiment on. Our innovations will give us levels and stats, and in exchange, our experiences will provide essence for the system to grant others.
That’s fine. There are some mechanics to keep secrets built in, but right now, I’m way too bad to care for those. Really, this is almost like an investment in education. Raising new generations of craftspeople, so that they can teach more people in turn.
So, we’ll get stats. We’ll get essence packets. But we will not get any materials, needing to find those ourselves. Can we direct the essence we get? Can we ask questions? Will we get multiple packets from the same teacher? I wanna know it all, but it doesn’t tell me.
And that’s entirely fine, too. I’ll find out, after all. For now, I want to know my options. Just like csses, jobs stack, giving increasingly higher stat bonuses. For now, I want to see them.
[Job Options:
,
,
I frown. “System, please, in the future, exclude options that are intended to directly sabotage my potential.”
[Job Options:
,
As I thought. Two of the powers with an eye of me seem genuinely interested in my growth. They seem to view me positively, for one reason or another. Firestarter was probably granted by whatever decided to give me the lovely brand on my molten face, and the politician css was for the thing that saw me when we crushed the mayor, its sponsored champion.
[The Deceptive Maniputor smirks as you discover their trick.]
I shake my head at that. Someone who’s in it for the game of it all, then? How annoying.
Still, I’m not about to rely on the goodwill of these critters to rise above, even if they currently want to support me. No. I’ll do it my way. Without hesitation, I pick enchanter.
[Job gained:
[Stat bonuses: +1 Vessel per level]
[Experience modules: Enchanting]
And then, the big one. Every css, every job, bestows something upon acquisition.
[Essence Bestowed: Runecraft.]
Information floods into me. It’s a little more gentle, more slow than the ke, but it still feeds me. Like a textbook, with guidance and diagrams on how to cut. How to create runes, how to pce them on ft surfaces, how to etch them onto metal, what tools to use, how to fuel them…
Feverishly, I pounce on another discarded pte of metal from Bay, pulling out my needle. I will it to change shape, feeding it mana, solidifying more and more of that magic, and pushing it into a shape more suited to carving metal, a somewhat proper enchanting stylus.
[Solidification 4 > 5]
It’s the biggest I’ve made my construct until now, but it works. The mana comes together. It feeds off my regeneration, and I begin to dig into the metal. Carving away, following my memory, letting the essence-based intuition guide me.
Bit by bit, I carve away pieces of metal. It bends a bit under the force of the style, the walls becoming a little more dense than they otherwise should. I know I’m introducing stress and fws into the metal. That my lines are ugly and rger than they need to be. That I’m missing key parts of the enchantment.
And I don’t care. It doesn’t need to be pretty. It just needs to work. I wanna enchant something, properly enchant it. And then, when I finish the st line, it glows. I’m out of mana. “Feed it a bit, Thatch,” I tell him, my mouth feeling dry.
The music in my ears stops his answer from coming through, but he does as asked. Mana flows into the rune, and the copper pte glows a little. It’s not thick, but not thin enough to cut, either. Yet, when I press it against my palm, my skin splits, and I bleed.
A ugh bubbles out from my throat, as my shadow greedily devours the crimson drops. “Hahaha. Hahahaha. Ahahahaha!” It’s magic. Something I made. And the world listens to it.
[New Skill acquired!]
[Inscription 0 > 1]
[Job Up! Enchanter 0 > 2]
A new skill. Not bestowed on me, but earned. I figured it out. Found the lines. Learned them. Reproduced them. A grin spreads on my face. There really is nothing more magical than, well, magic!
Next to me, a part of the wall explodes in Bay’s face, and she ughs alongside me. There’s something wonderful about taking things apart.
- - -
A/N: Book 1 is FINISHED on Patreon!!!