Arthur decided to go in and check on Daniel. Once inside he saw Daniel at the counter and walked over.
“How have things been so far?” Arthur asked.
“Honestly, this place has been more alive this morning than I have seen it in months. People are out and about, even some I haven’t seen in a while, and as I am sure you found out there are some already turning in orders.” He told Arthur with a smile.
“Yeah, I swapped out the orders for the guys out front and got them back to work already. Allendria and I are about to work on a bit of crafting. I did have an idea run by me outside though. Do you know where Katherine is?” Arthur asked.
“Katherine! Can you, Paula, and Trisha all come out here real quick?” Daniel yelled toward the back.
Arthur saw Katherine round the corner first and was taken aback by her. She looked like a new woman with some food in her and she had gotten cleaned up. He assumed she took advantage of the inn cleaning facility he told her she could use.
“Thank you for getting her cleaned up Daniel. She almost looks like a real person again.” Arthur told him with a grin.
“Wasn’t hard, to be honest. She was willing to hit the floor running but since you were not here she didn’t have a lot to do yet so she decided to help out my girls for a bit in the kitchen after she got cleaned up.”
Katherine approached and as she got close he saw Tisha and Paula leaving the kitchen and heading his way.
“Hello, Katherine. I am pleased to see you are ready for work now.” Arthur told her.
“Of course Sir. What can I do for you?” She asked.
“Arthur, Katherine, just Arthur. I need you to set up a log of meal tokens in the inn. You can see what was awarded on the village interface screen under work orders. Keep track of those tokens with this log. The key feature of this is that those people are allowed to add people to the log, under their name, who are also allowed to use their meal tokens. This is the best option to keep them working and keep a surplus of tokens from being collected for no reason. It also allows a bit of freedom for them to feel useful and provide for their families and even friends if they feel like it.” He told her.
“That sounds like a great idea!” exclaimed Katherine. “I’ll get that taken care of right now. Is there anything else you need me to work on?”
“That should be good for now.” He told her.
Trisha and Paula stepped forward and turned in their work orders as well as accepted the new ones he made for them. They made their way back to the kitchen as Daniel shooed them away. Looking around, Arthur didn’t see anything else that looked like it needed his attention so he turned to Allendria.
“Ready for that crafting?” he asked.
“Sure, let me grab a few things from my room. We can work on it somewhere outside for now. There isn’t much danger in what we are going to work on today but it never hurts to be safe. We can’t go putting the village food kitchen in danger.” She told him with a laugh.” She bounded off upstairs and Arthur turned to Daniel.
“She is sure livening up quickly. I thought it might take her a bit longer to come out of her shell but I’ll be damned if it hasn’t pretty much fallen off already.” Arthur told him.
“I’d wager she was a bit sheltered where she was from. People like that tend to go full circle when finally given the freedom to do so. Will probably do her some good too. She has the potential to be a great woman.” Daniel told him.
Allendria came down the stairs with the small bag she had retrieved from the cave and motioned for them to go as she passed him for the door.
“Later Daniel,” Arthur said as he waved over his shoulder and followed Allendria out the door.
She led him through the streets of the town and they made their way over to the smithy. Arthur wasn’t sure why they came here but he figured he would trust Allendria. She hadn’t shown him any reason not to…well unless you count almost letting him blow himself up. He thought as he chuckled to himself.
Arthur saw Rowan and waved to him. The big man was sweating profusely and pounding away at what Arthur was sure was going to be the sword he had an order for. Rowan nodded at him and kept at his work. He saw Allendria wave at the big man as well and he saw a slightly deeper nod for her. Arthur wasn’t sure if he felt insulted or pleased by that but decided to ignore it and move forward.
“Arthur, I am sure you want to know why we are here. Quite honestly there are two main reasons. First is I am going to teach you a basic enchantment of fire and although the chance of anything bad happening is extremely low this place doesn’t have much that can catch on fire. The second reason is I have a limited supply of writing ink so the coal here can be used as a substitute for the process for now. It is perfectly acceptable for lower level enchantments but anything complicated will need specially blended inks.” She told him.
“Are you ready to get started?” She asked.
“Let’s do this.” He said enthusiastically.
Chapter 19
A Craft Above
“You seem to at least be vaguely familiar with the idea of Enchanting, so hopefully, you will pick this up quickly. First off, let me draw four symbols and see if your ability to understand languages will apply to this.” She grabbed a small chunk of coal from nearby and drew four symbols into the side of a scrap board lying around. She turned it to face him, and he studied it.
It took a while, but just before he was about to give up, the letters shifted into something he could read. He gave it a few more moments, and he could somehow understand what they meant. He looked at Allendria and smiled as he pointed to each of the symbols. “That one is fire, that one is water, that one is air, and that final one is earth.”
“Well, I am kind of jealous about that, to be honest. It took a lot of studying to remember the symbols that I currently know. I wonder if your power works the other way. Are you able to write these symbols natively for other words now that you have seen these?” she said.
Arthur thought about it for a moment and grabbed the coal from her. Next to her last symbol, he decided to draw one of his own. After he was finished, he showed it to Allendria. Her eyes widened when she saw what he wrote.
“Wow, I guess it does work. That is the symbol of power.” She told him in astonishment. “Well, this is the perfect skill for you, it would seem. How about we get down to business?”
Allendria pulled out a small knife and asked him to find a small stick about as long as his forearm and the width of his thumb. He found one near a tree by the forge and brought it back to her. She used the knife to smooth off the wood and pull the larger pieces of bark from it.
“We are going to do a very minor enchantment here. This basic stick has no chance of holding a powerful enchantment. Some of the yew wood you found would be able to hold a decent enchantment though and might be useful to you as you progress.” She explained to him.
She carefully drew symbols onto the side of the stick in tiny writing with a metal-tipped quill she had pulled out of her bag. When she finished, she turned it for Arthur to see. He was able to look at the symbols and see what she wrote. He saw the symbol for fire, the symbol that signified power, and finally, a symbol that meant weak.
“So that is all you need? How do you determine the effect it will have?” Arthur asked.
“That is all we need for this particular spell. More advanced spells require more advanced symbol combinations, and you can make simple spells more powerful by adding additional symbols that complement the intended effect. Keep in mind you do not want to add too much if the source cannot hold the necessary power. It would be catastrophic to do that and, at best, will result in the item exploding. At worst, it might do a lot more damage in the explosion. You will know you are approaching that point in the next step. It is essential if you feel the power trying to overload the object to cease the enchantment immediately. Do not push the boundaries and try to snap it into place, or you will cause damage.” She told him seriously.
“You asked what determ
ined the effect, and it is this next step. If you recall from our walk, I told you that you had to visualize the spell and imbue it into the enchantment. That is the step that determines the effect, and it is solely based on your will and the symbols. You cannot draw symbols for water powers and try and imbue it with a fire spell. It will just fail as you try and push your mana into the object. The better your symbols match your will, the more powerful the spell. Some advanced magical items are known to have very in-depth descriptions of their abilities to augment the power.”
“For this part, I want you to envision a flame shooting out of the end of the stick for 10 seconds. It shouldn’t be more than a foot long at most. Also, remember our discussion on time in spells. This will be a fire-starting wand. Some enchantments are permanent, while others only have charges. This spell will be using charges. To make it permanent, you have to include runes to allow the item to naturally replenish power from the surrounding area. This works best if you have something capable of storing magical energy placed in the item itself to tie the power draw into. I want you to picture this spell effect and push your will into the symbols themselves. Push mana into the runes with your will, and once you get the feeling that the enchantment is complete, cut the flow. You will know by the feeling you get. When it is ready and complete, the runes will permanently burn into the material.” She told him.
Arthur focused on the item and pictured the intended effect. He focused on the flame becoming a foot long and lasting roughly ten seconds by using a time passage of him taking five deep and slow breaths in the vision of his effect. The mana started to trickle into the wood. The effect soaked into the wood, and he could feel the spell occupying the stick, but it felt incomplete. He couldn’t explain it, but it felt like a sensation of the wood being hungry. He kept pushing mana into the item, and after 20 mana was infused in, the feeling shifted. The thing felt like it was done, so he cut the flow and was amazed as he heard a chime and watched the symbols permanently burn themselves into the wood.
Congratulations, you have learned Enchanting for a 100 experience bonus.
Congratulations, you have successfully created Basic Wood Fire-starter. You have gained 50 experience in Enchanting for creating this item.
Item:
Basic Wood Fire-starter
Durability: 50/50
Rarity: Common
Quality: Good
Weight: 0.3 kg
Slot: Main Hand
Traits: Emits a flame that is one foot long and lasts for 10 seconds. Each use of this item will reduce durability by 1. When the durability runs out, the item will disintegrate. Able to be activated by anyone holding it with the command word “Fira.”
Congratulations, you have learned the Fire Magic Spell: Weak Flame. You have gained 250 experience in Fire Magic for discovering a known spell.
Congratulations, you have reached level 2 in Fire Magic. Fire Magic spells now have a 3% increased effect.
Spell: Weak Flame
Requirements: Fire Magic
Spell Damage: 1-2/sec channeled
Mana Cost: 1 MP/sec channeled
Cast Time: 1 seconds
Description: Releases a small flame from your hand for the duration channeled. Great for starting fires.
Mastery Level: 1
Arthur was thrilled by this development. Not only did he learn a new skill, but he also learned the spell from it, as Allendria said, could happen.
“Awesome, I also learned the weak flame spell from that. What are the limitations of this ability?” Arthur asked.
I am glad you were able to pick it up on the first try. You seem to be a bit of a prodigy here. The limitations are all going to come down to your mana available and the power the item can absorb. That is another reason that casters are the only ones able to use this skill. You need larger mana pools for the better enchantments. Now you are going to be able to use this skill to make new effects. You do not need to know the spell or effect you wish to enchant into the item. You just have to be able to correctly picture the effect and put the minimum necessary symbols to harness that power.”
“I can’t thank you enough, Allendria. Is there anything else I need to know of importance?” Arthur asked.
“Nothing much. You know the basics, and now it is up to you to advance your skill. Your ability to interpret the symbols naturally turned this from a long process to a speedy one. I will give you two pieces of advice. The first is to always make the script as in-depth as you can. You can never overdo the script, but if you do not have enough to hold the necessary power, it will cause a failure. The second piece of advice is to have you a metal quill tip made for your work. You can get by with shaved pieces of coal for simple things, but as you start doing better enchantments, you will need it. Especially when you get to the special inks to be used.”
“Well, I appreciate the help. Why don’t you take the rest of the day to go have some time to yourself? I think I will hang out here at the forge for a bit with Rowan. Might decide to help him a bit and pick up another skill, since I have the time.” Arthur told her.
“I think I will. I’ll see you around Arthur.” She said as she walked off.
Arthur turned his attention back to the forge and saw Rowan still working away at his project. He continued to watch the man for a few more moments until he stopped what he was doing. Arthur could see his metal had cooled too much to continue working, and Rowan threw it back into the coals to heat up.
“Mind if I help out a bit Rowan?” Arthur asked.
“Do you even have any skill in Smithing?” Rowan asked him.
“Technically, no. I understand the process of it and know how it works but never done it before here.” Arthur told him. He had indeed dabbled in some forging back on Earth. He had a small propane forge and liked making knives and the occasional sword, but since he had never done it on this world, he had no skill in it here.
“How is it you know the process and how it is done but don’t have the skill. You seem to be stranger every time we talk. I’ve noticed this with multiple things. You seem to recognize many herbs although you had almost no skill in herbalism, you understand the basics of farming and even knew to ask me about certain things I used in smithing and yet again have almost no skill in those either. You tend to have some rather advanced knowledge of skills without the actual skill in them.” Rowan said as he eyed Arthur carefully.
Arthur wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He couldn’t very well tell him the truth. He decided on what he believed was a probable answer.
“Where I come from, most of us are similar to scholars. We study a lot of different skills and trades, but we mainly learn how they work and read about them. Very rarely do we do the skill itself. Since we don’t do the skill, we do not gain the skill or experience in it, but we are very familiar with how it is done.” He told him in a severe tone.
Rowan eyed him for a second and then shook his head. “Well, that would explain it, but I can’t understand the good of learning about something without actually performing the skill. Learning advanced techniques is also somewhat worthless without the skill to use them, but I can say that, based on my experience, it will help you with skill points. Some of the advanced techniques can be learned by skill points in the later trees, but if you already know them, it will save you some points.”
“I hadn’t thought about that, but it will be nice to save some points for other things,” Arthur told him with a cheerful tone.
“Well, get over here. I have a few extra tools around. Grab you a pair of tongs and a hammer from that rack over there.” He said as he pointed to his left. Arthur walked over and grabbed the tools as he was instructed.
“Is there anything specific you need me to make?” Arthur asked.
Rowan thought about it for a moment. “Can you make me a pick head? I could use a decent pick, so I don’t damage my axe again. You will probably have to put it to use yourself when you go on your next gathering trip tomorrow.”
�
�Do you have a punch and a drift around here somewhere?” Arthur asked.
Rowan raised an eyebrow at him and, after a few seconds, shook his head in resignation. “They are over by the tool rack where the others were. They are usually lying on the bottom.”
Arthur sifted through the tools until he found what he needed. He walked over to a stack of iron bars that had been prepared. There was no way to tell for sure if Rowan had made them or his apprentices. Either way, he grabbed one close to the size he needed and tossed it into the fire with the center of it in the hottest part of the flame.
He let it slowly heat to a bright red that was almost white-hot and pulled it from the fire. He felt the heat pouring from the iron onto him as he brought it to a smaller anvil that Rowan had in the forge. Using the punch, he punched a hole in the center. It took him a few heats to get all the way through as he would hit the metal and flip it back and forth. Eventually, a compressed metal disk popped out, and the hole was complete.
From there, he threw it back in the heat again and let it climb back to temperature. By this time, Arthur was starting to build up a good sweat, and he was sure he had some coal dust on his face by now. He pulled it back out and used the drift to slowly widen the hole until it got to a diameter he felt was good enough for a decent size handle. The metal flowed smoothly as the point was hammered into it on one side. Once that side was done, he made the other side mirror it, and the pick looked ready to go. He heard the telltale chime he knew to expect.
Congratulations, you have learned Blacksmithing for a 100 experience bonus.
Congratulations, you have successfully created Basic Iron Pick Head. You have gained 75 experience in Blacksmithing for creating this item.
Arthur noticed he wasn’t as tired as he usually got working back home. He also noticed he was able to do this work in a lot less time than it would have taken him back on Earth. Not only that, but it didn’t require all of the tedious grinding work to smooth everything out. The skill in this world seemed to assist in both speed and the outcome of the final product. Other than the sweat, he was feeling fine.
Dravincia Page 24
