Holding a wooden talisman in his hand Arthur smiled to himself, this candle talisman was easily doubly as effective in terms of mana consumption compared to the very first one he created and it only took him around three weeks to achieve this. Looking over his work he knew that with his progression speed he would be creating proper enchanted items very very soon. The big reason why this talisman in question was twice as effective was the engravings were around half as wide and more accurate to what the book showed.

Using his mana to command the talisman he had the end ignite a flame and within a second it did so. Like it was designed the flame that was produced was no larger than that of a candle, he had also been busy creating more liquid talismans for Calavia and her clinic. Apparently being able to have water on command to clean wounds was a significant advantage, and so he started making and sending a half dozen or so every week for a small amount of money.

Slowly he had been moving towards more and more complex talismans such as the bump talisman which would conjure up a small ball of air that could be used to hit things from a distance. The air ball in question wasn’t very dangerous, at most it could surprise you, perhaps even leave a very tiny bruise if you are fragile, but mostly harmless.

The biggest problem that Arthur was facing during the enchanting of this talisman was the mana consumption and capacity. At most the talisman could last for a single air ball and Arthur wasn’t sure why this was the case, though he did know someone who might be able to help him in this regard. ‘Looks like I might need to contact Henry again and schedule some more lessons, just this time for enchanting magic instead of evocation magic.’

Using his mana he made the talisman in his hand to stop the small flame and looked towards his apprentice Gaelin. Though he looked and was acting fine since the time he was jumped he made sure to always be there for him. He would walk him to the guild and back to his home where he now stayed the night having his own bed in the alchemy room with a small space cleared for a bed Arthur bought for him.

‘I’ll have to schedule it during a time when Gaelin is either at class or staying here. I’ll have to ask him if he is ok with giving lessons after dinner time because as far as I can see that will be the optimal time for me to keep Gaelin safe from these criminals. I should also talk to Captain Tasius about that as well, it seems like whenever they get rid of one criminal two more pop up like mushrooms.’

********

After quickly scheduling another set of lessons With Henry in the guild while taking Gaelin for his classes Arthur decided with a few hours to spare that he would stop by the southern district barracks to speak with Captain Tasius about the criminals running rampant.

Inside the barrack all seemed calm and quiet, the secretary even looked a little bored with her job. “Good morning, I would like to speak with the captain. I am an old acquaintance of his.” Arthur said while showing off his guild cloak showing his rank within the guild, not that the secretary would know the difference between the ranks.

A little surprised by the sudden appearance of a ‘clearly’ high ranking mage within the mages guild she quickly checked the Captain’s schedule for the day and saw that he was currently free. “Um, of course. The Captain is free at the moment, would you like me to let him know of your arrival sir mage?”

“Yes, that would be just fine.” Arthur smiled as the likely newly hired secretary quickly walked and entered the Captain’s office. A minute later she exited and returned to her seat and said “Captain Tasius will see you know, he is just through that door to your left.”

“Thank you miss.” Arthur quickly answered as he began walking towards the Captain’s office. Inside he found the Captain sitting at his desk looking a little worried, or at least he was until he noticed who the ‘powerful mage’ that his secretary told him about was.

“Oh, it's just you Arthur. You gave my secretary a heart attack when you arrived here.”

“Sorry about that, I assume she was new to the job and didn’t know who I was.”

“Yes she is, her brother is one of my men and he mentioned that she was looking for work since she just turned 18 about a month ago now. But enough of my secretary, what can I do for you my friend.” Arthur could see in his shoulders that the Captain was beginning to relax a bit, something was causing him stress and it likely wasn’t just his arrival.

“My apprentice was attacked by several criminals on his way back from the guild around a week ago, while he did recover from his injuries I have noticed that there has been an uptick of criminal activities within the city. Is there anything being done about this problem?” The moment the work criminal came out of Arthur’s lips he could see that the Captain already knew of the problem that he was addressing and was likely what was causing him stress.

“I am aware of the rising criminal activities within the city and specifically within the southern district, and I am taking action to deal with these criminals but the problem isn’t as simple as arresting these people. Many of those that have turned to crime are those who are exceptionally poor and either are or have run out of food. Truth be told there isn’t very much to do about it other than patrolling the streets and recommending that people stay away from dark alleyways where they may get cornered.”

Arthur paused for a moment and took a seat that was on the opposite side of the table from the Captain. He thought about how the problem was that people didn't have enough food and were turning towards stealing and robbing people to pay for it. “Captain, what if there was a sort of daily food rationing for the poorer areas of the city. Would that perhaps keep these people from stealing and robbing?”

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“Well… I suppose it might, but I don’t exactly have the authority to issue such an idea. I would need to bring that up to my higher ups and see what they think of the idea. If they think it is a good idea then they will pass that along towards the people that make those decisions and perhaps even the crown if it needs their approval, this is their city after all.”

“Alright, could you keep me updated on the progress of this, I would be very interested to hear the results of such an idea.”

********

Once done speaking with Captain Tasius Arthur returned to the guild to see if Henry responded to his message, luckily he did and was available for lessons after dinner time starting tomorrow. But since he wanted lessons on something more complex it would end up costing him four silver coins per hour of lessons instead of the two per hour he paid for training in the four evocations.

Arthur was a little surprised by this but could see where Henry was coming from with his pricing. ‘I guess that makes sense. This is far more complicated than just conjuring up fire or water, it is just as complex as magical alchemy which I have basically been learning on my own aside from the few small lessons I received from Georgius as his apprentice, only this is far more complex. I am basically asking him to share his secrets with me so I shouldn’t be surprised when he wants more money.’

Arthur quickly responded to his teacher’s message that he was happy with the price and wanted to schedule two hours worth of lessons from six o’clock to eight o’clock tomorrow night and that he would have the money with him when he arrives.

********

The next day on the thirteenth of Obsidian Arthur arrived at the northern district gated entrance. The guards standing there weren’t all that interested until they saw his grey cloak, when they noticed he was a mage they quickly straightened themselves out and acted like they weren't just talking about the women they were interested in moments before.

Arthur just ignored them, hoping they would at least try and pay attention to those entering the district. But he doubted they would and would just as quickly return to their conversation.

Quickly making his way towards Henry’s old church he passed by a few people still shoveling snow off the roads, a few were individuals doing it around their homes or business but most were city employees as shown by the uniform winter clothing that they are given.

Thankfully the walk from the gate to the old church Henry calls home wasn’t very long, giving three loud knocks on the front doors Arthur waited patiently for Henry or one of his golems to open the door and allow him inside. Listening patiently in the cool silent night Arthur could hear what sounded to be footsteps on the other side of the door. ‘That is probably one of Henry’s golems, I know these doors aren't that thin where you could hear someone walking without stomping around like an actual golem.’

The leftmost door opened to reveal one of Henry’s golems standing there. “Good evening, Arthur, Henry, is waiting for, you, in, his, office space.” The golem spoke with its monotone and cobbled together speech and Arthur quickly passed by and started up the stairs to the office. Opening the door to the office Arthur found that Henry was waiting in his chair.

“Ah, there you are Arthur. I was wondering when you were going to arrive, or if you were even going to at all.” On his desk were various magical looking materials that Arthur assumed would be used in the lesson that Henry had planned for him today.

“Good evening Henry, it is good to see you again.” Arthur allowed himself to smile in the presence of his friend and mentor, it had been some time since they last spoke.

“And it is good to see you as well Arthur, please come and take a seat. I believe you will be very happy with what I have planned for you today.” Following Henry’s instructions took a seat in the chair opposite Henry.

“Now I am going to assume you have at the bare minimum a basic understanding of how enchanting works, and what a talisman is and how to use one. This lesson will for the most part be about enchanting theory with a small handful of practical lessons thrown in here and there to show you progress and understanding of the subject.”

*******

For the first hour Arthur listened to Henry as he explained the origin of enchanting magic and the basic theory of how and why it worked, apparently the first enchantment was likely created by a priest under the guidance of their patron god during the early second era. The reason why there are no definitive records of this is because at the time people didn’t write down when they did something for the very first time. Instead it likely became a super weapon of sorts that was used against the enemies of that god.

One important thing about talismans and enchanted items is that they can be used by priests, mages, and occultists. This is because enchanting is one of those few selective types of magic that sort of overlap with all three types of spell casters in the same way that alchemy does, that is why there are stories about brave heroes vanquishing evil demons or angles and taking their weapons to use in later fights.

Enchanted items also don’t rely upon the user's skill in the associated magic type, instead they use their own skill in enchanting to control those energies as they technically fall into their own category of magic. For example a talisman or wand that shoots out fire magic will not rely upon the users pyromancy skill to control the flames, instead it will be their skill in enchanting over all.

Once this simple yet very long explanation was done Henry had Arthur do a few simple exercises to see where his skill was at, and he was quite surprised and happy with what he saw. “Considering how not that long ago you just started practicing enchanting magic you are quite a ways down that path, though you have developed a few bad habits that I will be immediately correcting.”

Those bad habits were him holding the talisman as he inscribed it instead of just using aeromancy to levitate it and spin it as it was needed, the second was taking his time when painting the inscriptions. Apparently he would have been going at a faster yet moderate pace which would somehow improve the quality of the inscriptions and by extension the energy consumption allowing the talisman to be used for longer.

To test this Henry had Arthur create a candle talisman and do it as quickly as was demanded. “Now take this talisman and test and see just how long it will run for, I suspect that you will be surprised by just how much of a change that little extra speed will have made.” Henry smiled as he handed the talisman back to Arthur.

For the remainder of the lesson Henry just had Arthur make several more talismans while giving his opinion of how he could have improved them. It mostly came down to thinner inscriptions, smother painting, and not touching it with his hands as he made it. At the end Henry decided that he would keep the mall aside from the one that he gave to Arthur and told to watch, but Arthur wasn’t all that mad about it. While his enchanting didn’t reach level 3 like he was hoping he could feel that he made significant progress.