Sitting at his kitchen table Arthur was reading a while surrounded by several bottles of the enchanting ink he recently bought which turned out to be of a better quality than what he could produce by himself. The book he was reading was titled The Basics of Enchanting and covered how to create the most basic of talismans. The first several pages of the book covered the possible risks that may come with enchanting and several safety precautions that should be taken when you do so.
The materials that were required were not all that expensive for creating the most basic of talismans, all that was needed was the ink, a rod of wood or stone depending on the type of magic being imbued, and a mana capacity of at least twenty five to keep things stable.
Since it was cheaper to buy wood than stone, Arthur elected to buy several small logs of wood that he cut down into small pieces with a conjured saw into something that would be very good for kindling. Using his geomancy he conjured up a knife like object with a flat end on the blade to smooth out the sides so it would be easier to hold.
Taking a quick look through the basic talismans listed Arthur thought about what would be useful for himself or for either Gaelin or Calavia as they were his two closest friends. ‘This candle talisman might be helpful to Gaelin for practicing his pyromancy since he still hasn't figured out how to conjure up fire yet. But this liquid talisman could be useful for Calavia for when she needs water in the clinic, she did mention they use water to clean wounds along with some soap. This could help reduce their mana consumption, and every little bit helps.’
Looking over the actual processes of both Arthur figured that it would be both easier and more beneficial for Gaelin to receive his candle talisman before Calavia received hers. Quickly getting to work Arthur picked up one of the bottles of magic ink and the wooden rod, following the instructions in the book he traced various lines of ink across it in a very intricate pattern that he unfortunately still did not understand how it worked. Once he was done he held the rod an inch above the table with his aeromancy and began to cast the tier one spell that came with the specific talisman instructions.
Like the alchemy spells he was so familiar with despite being a tier one it took around a half minute to cast, but once he finished the inscribed lines across the body of the talisman began to glow before quickly disappearing along with around half of his mana capacity.
Picking up the talisman Arthur looked it over before placing it back down on the table, the only way to test it out would be to connect it with his own mana, and so far he didn’t know of any way to disconnect a talisman from a person without killing them. Despite its simple design as just a non sanded wooden rod it felt very impressive to Arthur as it was his very first proper enchanted item that he hoped worked as intended, the rat flesh golems did not count as they had several problems he had not addressed.
Leaving the talisman on the table Arthur also left a short note on a cheap piece of parchment for Gaelin describing what it did and to tell him how it worked as soon as possible. Then Arthur began working on the second talisman, this one being a liquid talisman that would produce water whenever it was being used.
Following his steps with the previous talisman he took one of the rough wooden rods and rounded the edges off until it was for the most part smooth all the way around and easier to hold. Like before he followed the instructions and copied the intricate lines down with the magic ink, by the time he finished most of the mana he used giving to the candle talisman was already recovered.
With the liquid talisman floating in front of him Arthur began to cast the spell at the end of the instructions for this talisman and used up around half of his maximum mana pool like before to complete it. Like the previous talisman he made he placed it on the table with a short note explaining what it is and who it was for.
‘Hey, it's getting quite late. Why isn’t Gaelin back yet?' Arthur looked at the time, it was nearly five o’clock in the afternoon. ‘He should be back by now, I don’t think he has ever stayed out for so long.’ Arthur stood up and opened the door wondering if Gaelin might be out there. To his disappointment and growing worry he wasn’t there.
Stepping outside Arthur looked around the rood for any signs of Gaelin but only found a few snow prints from a few people walking around. Regretfully Arthur began walking back towards his house when he saw something out of the corner of his eye, it was a humanoid figure slowly walking towards his location.
Watching for a minute this person turned out to be Gaelin covered in cuts and bruises across his body, his clothes and cloak covered with cuts and holes from only the gods know. Arthur quickly rushed over to him and draped his own cloak over the likely cold and worried Gaelin. They didn’t say anything as they walked back to Arthur’s house, they just remained silent as Arthur handed several potions to his apprentice starting with basic healing potions that were followed by warmth potions to get his temperature up.
Once inside Arthur had Gaelin take off his shirt to take a look at the wounds, thankfully the shallow wounds were already healing from the potion. The only wound that wasn’t was a single deep gash that Gaelin had been keeping pressure on for quite some time as shown by the dried blood on his shirt. Quickly Arthur tore up the shirt into several strips like Calavia explained to him and used the non bloody strips to wrap around and bandage the wound.
Though it wasn’t the best it could have been it would be enough to keep most of the blood from leaking onto the floor, that combined with several more basic healing and warmth potions from Arthur were more than enough to keep Gaelin safe for the time being.
“So do you want to tell me what happened out there to leave you in this condition?” Arthur asked as Gaelin looked away in embarrassment. Shame apparent in his facial expression despite trying his best to hide it.
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After a short yet awkward science Gaelin eventually spoke up. “I was jumped by a group of five with weapons. A few had knives while the rest had wooden hammers, I tried running away but they managed to get several hits on me. I used my magic against them, but I don’t really know how they reacted or if I even hurt any of them. During that time I got turned around and lost my way, I only recently found my way back.”
Arthur could tell by his body language that Gaelin was telling the truth, though the fact that the people attacking him were criminals likely wouldn’t ease his consciousness regarding their fate after he started swinging magic around like a madman with a knife.
“Well, I suppose that everything is alright as you returned safely. Though I would rather you don’t hesitate when using your magic next time, even if you need to kill one of them it is better that you come back here safe than risk your own life for theirs. Do you understand?”
Wiping some of the dried blood from his face Gaellin gave a small nod.
“Good, and while I didn’t plan this as something to cheer you up after being jumped, I made this for you.” Arthur stood up and walked over to the other side of the table to pick up the wooden candle talisman and handed it to Gaelin who looked at it with confusion.
“That right there is a talisman, specifically a candle talisman that upon being used will generate a small flame that can be used as either a source of fire and light or something to practice your pyromancy with.” Upon hearing the word pyromancy Gaelin’s eyes lit up like little stars as he looked at the simple wooden rod. Suddenly he wasn’t so sad.
“How exactly do I use it?” Gaelin asked as he realised he did not know how to use it.
“You will need to use your mana and attune with it. That basically just amounts to putting some of your mana inside of it until it recognizes it and you can use it. Go and give it a try, and be sure you don’t use too much of your mana at once when you do it as it can slow the process significantly, try starting with a little and slowly increasing it.”
Following Arthur’s instructions Gaelin put a small amount of his mana within the talisman, around one unit of mana in total. Slowly over the course of several minutes he increased that to around five units of mana when suddenly the tip of the talisman suddenly ignited with a small flame no larger than a candle's flame.
Upon seeing his success at using the talisman for the first time Gaelin nearly did a little dance in celebration, but he quickly recalled that Arthur was still watching him. “Great job Gaelin, now this is the first talisman I have created so I don’t know how long this will work for. Just let me know when it stops working and I will make you another one.”
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Flipping through the book in his hands Arthur devoured the information on enchanting theory into his mind like a starving wolf, the how's and whys of how enchanting works and its limitations were slowly coming together. The first thing that an enchantment needs is a power source, in long lasting items these usually come in the form of mana stones embedded into the object itself. The mage staff that was gifted to Arthur was an excellent example of it despite it being unseen from the outside. Though sometimes objects like talismans would simply be given an amount of mana during creation that would slowly be used up until it became useless.
The next part that was essential for all enchantments was the engravings themselves, while not literal engravings into the material the earliest examples of enchanted items did have actual engravings that allowed the mana to flow. Nowadays the magic ink that is so common in magic stores is used instead, this allows the object to send its mana around where it is needed but also retaining its structural integrity. An old problem that has been solved with the ink was that enchanted items weren’t always the strongest once they received their engravings, the engravings would be across the object and would often lead to it falling apart if struck in the wrong place.
The last part needed to make an enchanted item work is a user with at least one unit of mana within their bodies. Since the items run off of mana you need to control your own mana to operate it. No matter how little you have it will work, though it might take longer to attune to the item which is how you control it.
As Arthur continued reading he found several examples of basic inscriptions and why they work. The inscriptions themselves are just instructions that the mana within the item will follow to the most literal sense, that is why when you are inscribing an object that you keep things as simple as possible or it will not work properly. For example a sword that was enchanted with the intent of its blade igniting for extra damage during fights might actually just melt the blade itself because the instructions it was given either were too complicated to follow or didn’t even cover what to do with the blade whatsoever.
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A week after giving Gaelin his candle talisman he returned with it in hand. “Excuse me sir, the talisman isn’t working any more.” To demonstrate this point he tried channeling his mana inside to get a flame and nothing happened.
Taking the talisman from his apprentice Arthur looked it over from top to bottom before casting a quick enchanting spell over it. The spell being a tier one spell called Detect Talisman Power, this spell was contained within the book he was currently reading and would tell the caster the amount of mana was within a talisman with variating results depending on the caster. But if there was no mana at all within the talisman in question then it would have no feedback at all.
The candle talisman in Arthur’s hands gave no feedback signaling that it was empty of all its mana and that a new one would need to be made. “I am sorry Gaelin, but it looks like the talisman has used up all its mana. I will need to make you a new one if you would like another.”
Looking a little sad by that statement Gaelin hurriedly nodded his head, saying yes he wanted another one. “Alright then, but could you show me your progress in pyromancy? It would help me figure out just how many more I will need to make for you to conjure fire all on your own.”
Walking over to the fireplace with the blazing fire keeping the house warm, Gaelin reached towards it and pulled out a small fist full of flames and kept it floating above his hands. After showing it off for a few seconds Gaelin began doing little tricks that involved spinning the flame around his hands and body like it was some sort of toy on a string.
“That is enough, I will prepare a few more talismans for you in advance so you don’t run out while you are training. Hopefully these ones will last a little longer than the first one I made for you.” With that Arthur walked over to his table and began the process of making the small wooden rod that would become the next talisman for his apprentice.