Kiresula breathed in. She could do a lot but no miracles. This girl with a Fortitude of 5 was very much an issue: "How did you even get here in the first place?"

The girl whispered: "Mom carried me, then dad did, then auntie Nur, then uncle Aslan, and a few more folks. Eventually, Mayana did."

Kiresula blinked for a moment.

Kju asked: "So, next would be me?"

The girl made a sound of unhappiness but nodded.

Kiresula asked: "You would prefer a better solution?"

She nodded: "I would, but don't want to cause problems. I almost fell off Mayana's shoulders a few times."

Kiresula walked to her. "What is your class?"

The girl looked embarrassed: "Artifician."

Kju looked at the confused Kiresula and spoke: "A class that works around the creation and usage of magical artefacts. Kinda like an enchanter, but not really. Enchantments are inherent to things and their magic stems from the initial enchantment or ambient magic. Artefacts have an external power source and work mechanically, that is from the constellation of material. The power sources can be magic crystals or the magic of an [Artifician]. This is basically the first threshold of the class: high magic storage and output."

Mayana asked: "So, how many Seren?"

The girl whispered: "810."

Everyone looked to Kiresula who was known for her high magic, and she looked shocked. Then, she realised how her stats were divided between the physical stats and the magical ones as both of her classes were combination classes. However, this girl had a magical class that would do nothing about the physical attributes. Of course, it would start with higher magical capacity. The fact that she was the one person with two levelled up magical classes didn't mean that her stats were anything in the big scheme of things. Her thing was not even magic per se: It was a combination of magic, perception and skills based on the physical body. At least that was what she told herself in this situation in order not to let envy get the better of her. "So, you can use your magic to empower things. Does that also mean enchantments?"

The girl made a vague gesture: "I never tried. Why?"

Kju looked at her with a vacant stare: "She can, if she takes a particular skill which allows the empowerment to be indistinct. I am not someone who can tell her how to create her build and the first skill or spell points are kinda the basis for that as you normally get one point per level. But if she considers this something she will often do, like in cooperation with an enchanter, she can take it."

The girl asked: "She can take what?"

Kju smiles: "[Nebulous empowerment]."

The girl nodded, her eyes unfocused for a moment and then, she smiled. "Do I need something else to get to wherever we need to be?"

Kju looked at her: "I can suggest things, but again, it's your build, not mine. Don't let me influence your future development."

The girl said quietly: "I am not even sure if there will be an Eylul if I don't follow guidance."

Kiresula first had to wonder why there would not be a 9th month if that girl didn't follow the suggestions of Kju, only to realise that Eylul was most likely her name. She sighed about the habit of Ilkshehirians to use Ancient Imperial words as names, which often meant something mundane like roe or reed, which was okay for most folks, but as Kiresula learned at least a bit Ancient Imperial, it sometimes tripped her up. "We are going to get through this. Somehow. I can assist with carrying you too, Eylul, if you want."

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She looked at Kiresula, then to Kju: "Hypothetically speaking, what would you recommend, Kju?"

Kju looked at Eylul: "So, we are expecting that Mayana can put an empowering enchantment into any object on you as an enchantment. In that case, take the skill [Accelerated Recovery] and [Chimeric Recovery]. The former to be able to restore magic faster, the second to be able to recover from other kinds of magic. It only works with conventional and synthic magic, but has a better rate than Kiresula's [Glitched Recovery], which however seems to work also with other kinds of magic should they exist."

Kiresula breathed in, about to say something but decided to do better.

Mayana looked unhappy about this: "I cannot do that. I don't have a spell that can increase Fortitude that I can enchant things with."

Kiresula asked: "If I cast a spell into a synthic structure you make, like with the rods that detect synthic magic originally required, can you use that?"

Mayana nodded: "That actually would help a lot, I would need to see it to be able to make a shape for it. It's difficult to do so because it is a touch spell, these have only a lower rate of being understood in casting so I can embed it."

Kju asked Mayana: "Do you have skill points? If yes, I can look into what you can do?"

Mayana nodded. "I never fully understood the system, so I am currently at 26 unassigned ones."

Kju gasped and then went with her to the side to advise on allocation.

In the meanwhile Kiresula and Eylul talked in hushed tones about their future plans.

When Mayana returned, she looked energised and positively vibrant. She looked incredibly happy and skipped to Kiresula. "Holy system! I never expected something like that. Kju was able to put things into perspective and explained a lot of factors to me whose importance I didn't realise. This is not just conventional enchanting in synthic magic, even though I used it that way before. This is a completely new system that has completely new options and options at completely different levels. This is an amazing revelation."

Kiresula smiled at this discovery. "So, can you help absorb a spell and then put it into an item?"

Mayana smiled: "From you, always. I mean, literally, I can select a preferred person whose spells have a higher chance to be caught. And of course, I chose you."

Kiresula smiled and cast [Enhance Ability] on Mayana to enhance her Fortitude. The spell seemed to fizzle out and be absorbed. Kiresula looked at Mayana's face in worry, then relaxed as she saw Mayana smile widely: "I did it! Well, kinda. Rank 1, not rank 2, and only the shape you used, not the general spell, but that is enough."

Eylul asked hopefully: "So, you can assist me?"

Mayana nodded: "I might. Do you have any material that can contain at least 4 instructions? So, like, a metal, or an item from a dangerous beast?"

Eylul looked at her and shook her head. Kiresula had a rib of a groundsnarler in her pockets, but that one could only take three instructions. She had otherwise no metallic items. Kju had nothing that could be used. Some folks had a few tools or items, but these seemed unusable for various reasons: them being too heavy, them being too bulky, the metal would be hard to hold in constant contact with the body, or other factors. Eventually, a lady walked to Mayana and asked: "Would this work?" while handing her a necklace with a silver pendant, showing a sigil of a family.

"Mum!" Eylul looked at the lady in protest, "this is your necklace. Grandma never wanted me to have it!"

The woman smiled softly: "Grandma can take a hike! She always hated you for being unable to walk, then when you regained use of your legs after we glitched, she hated you for being a glitchling. She can go where the sun doesn't shine!"

Mayana reached out for the pendant and concentrated for a moment, while the woman tried to open the mechanism frantically, eventually handing it to Mayana, who seemed to not even notice that this happened. She instead kept her concentration on the item and moved her mouth in silent murmurs. Eventually, she handed the item out to Eylul who looked worried and needed to be enticed to actually put it on. As she did, she gasped. "Is this… what it is to have decent Fortitude?"

Mayana moved to the side of the road and sat down. Kiresula immediately moved to her, worried that something went wrong: "Mayana, are you okay? Do you need help?"

Mayana nodded: "I am okay, just needed to sit down as I am completely out of magic. I know it looked easy but that enchantment was straining."

Kiresula sat down next to her and hugged: "I know well enough not to think that anything you do is easy. We have shared classes about enchanting, so I know how much is behind even simple enchantments. And that is despite me chickening out before things became difficult."

Mayana smiled at her: "And I don't know anything about elemental magic because I did the very same."

After a few minutes of drinking water and resting, they got up. Kiresula offered an [Enhance Ability] to some other glitchlings who asked her for help and had Fortitude in the low 100s and in one case in the 90s. Then, the group departed for the Black Waters again.