Evan stared at the beautiful sword lying before him. He remembered buying it, excited to work on such a nice blade from scratch, finding that he quite liked the look of it. Most of the weapons he imbued were quite plain and unadorned, but this one had clearly been made by someone with an artistic eye.
Probably not made by a military smith, then.
He liked it, even though he still wasn’t sure where he stood on the matter of decoration. On one hand, he wanted others to appreciate his work when they first laid eyes on it, even if most would never get to truly see what was happening underneath the surface.
On the other hand, he was a fan of the utilitarian nature the military seemed to adore. Extraneous things such as decorations tended to get in the way and were commonly overdone, ending up looking tacky and detracting from the product instead of adding.
In any case, he still had plenty of time to decide. Several more months had passed, and by now he was truly a part of the outpost. His life was much better than it had ever been in Starspire, even if the military seemed too strict at times.
Picking up the sword, he quickly forged a connection with it and inspected it one last time as he made for the stairs, careful not to hurt himself or anyone moving down the stairs. For the moment he was alone in the workshop, and he knew Arnav was out.
The imbuement was far better than when he first fixed a sword, and even Master Isaac gave him praise for the care he showed. As he had gotten better at wielding his will and began doing entire imbuements, he found that his talent truly was quite decent. It wasn’t like he was some prodigy though – most of the swords that he got his hands on were mass produced, the imbuement laid down in haste by those without enough talent to truly pursue crafting, but just enough to imbue with a little cultivation backing them.
It made for sloppy work, and having some cultivation himself meant that his talent allowed him to make superior swords, able to fetch a decent profit. He still lacked the tools or spells to physically change the swords and only dealt in ones already prepared for imbuement, but he was still able to differentiate himself in the market somewhat by specializing in efficiency rather than power.
That was what seemed to sell the best, at least for these mortal grade swords. That was their actual classification, he now knew. Mortal grade, class zero weapons. Grade represented the general quality and power of both the imbuement and the weapon, while class was determined by how complex the imbuement was. Class zero meant that they had no real complexity – whatever the imbuement did, it would simply do that until it broke.
The grades were based around the cultivation level the object could be wielded or used by. In the case of his most recent sword, it would be fine for a mortal to handle the weapon – he himself could do so, and his strength was unchanged from when he was a mortal. One step upwards would be grade one, to signify a cultivator would need at least one Collapse to wield the sword, and for this sword – possessing an imbuement for durability and weight – that would mean a cultivation with lots of strength Substance.
Jumps in grade were a big deal, as each Collapse was not linear. Even only being halfway to his first Collapse, his ability to imbue was a significant margin higher than it would have been as a mortal, even if he never got the chance to experience that.
Class was less of a demonstration of power and more one of skill. While an increase in complexity required extra capacity to fit, it took skill and vision to create. Class one would be something that had some kind of control built into it, such as the lights in the workshop. Each step forward would bring more control and autonomy.
He wouldn’t get to explore any of that today, but his studying had reaped returns. Recently, he had finished studying a book on the militaries larger scale formations present in the outposts, and today he was to meet Master Isaac at the wall – for the first time since joining the military, he would fulfill one of his obligatory duties as a formation master and complete maintenance on some of the less important formations.
Evan didn’t want to be all giddy about doing his job, as he still somewhat resented Starspire for making this his best option, but he couldn’t help it. Working on the swords and other weapons was definitely helping him get better at imbuing, but it made him yearn for more extensive, impressive projects.
Taking his sword back up to his room and carefully storing it, he caught Arnav in the workshop as he was leaving. It would just be him and Master Isaac today – as their studies progressed at differing rates it became impractical to teach them all at once, and being taught one on one was nicer anyway, so no one had any complaints.
“Hey man! What are you working on?” He asked as he walked over, the small dividing walls hiding his project from view.
“A bow. And before you start, I know. I just like working on the bows better.” The words died in his throat, already preparing to tell him there was just more money in the swords, that they sold better, and were just easier to work on than the bows. It was something they commonly bickered about.
This was in spite of the strange imbuements they used. Weight was a strange choice, but it was easy, cheap, and it sold. Perfect for the common soldier looking for a slight upgrade, and easy enough even for the still relatively inexperienced.
Bows were more complicated than swords and had more demands, including a much more diverse mix of Substance of different ratios – his first time fixing a bow had been a pain, and he had failed. Even imbuing was more complicated, requiring the Substance to affect different parts of the bow differently in order to manipulate the draw weight, arrow speed, and let-off. Evan didn’t even know where to begin in order to make an actual bow, and while their additional difficulty in imbuing meant they were a little pricier, they also had fewer potential buyers in Fool’s Hope.
Archery took a lot of skill and because of everything else, enhancing the durability was pushed to the side. He appreciated a challenge, and had been convinced by Arnav to work on a few just for that, but ultimately just wasn’t worth the effort with their situation.
Still, Arnav persisted, always working to push his abilities further in spite of his talent, always preferring a larger challenge than a bigger payday. Evan didn’t understand, but even now Arnav was better than him when it came to their imbuement work.
Arnav loved to mention it, but it didn’t bother Evan.
Instead, he was always trying to make the most money, and right now that meant fixing or freshly imbuing swords. They were boring, but he wanted to get more Substance before they were inevitably called away further from Starspire. Master Isaac had told them in the past that his reputation meant getting called elsewhere was almost a certainty within the year, and already half of that had passed since arriving at Fool’s Hope. Experience would come with time, and right now he didn’t feel safe enough to pursue anything but safety.
The man had also said that even if they weren’t called away, he would have them transferred anyway. Fool’s Hope was closer to a military controlled town than an actual outpost, apparently, and too saturated with stronger formation masters for them to have much on-the-job training. Even then they wouldn’t be close to the front lines, but it was better safe than sorry. Evan could somewhat see his point, even if he didn’t like it – he also desperately wanted to work on more important things than whatever he would be tasked with today – something like the actual defensive formations.
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He had no illusions about his personal combat ability. As he was now, he had little ability to resist in any way, and even after saving enough to make a cultivation chamber worth renting, he would be in the same boat – for the moment, his entire cultivation plan was made up solely of crafting enhancing Substance, with just enough auxiliary Substances to maintain his current bodily needs.
If not for the increased sleep requirement, he would have considered making do with the increased food intake. Substance that reduced the need for sleep was a lot more expensive than the same for food, almost at the same level of his crafting Substance. Given that was the case, he decided to do away with the increased needs entirely.
“Well, alright I guess. Just remember we won’t be as safe as we are now, okay?” Evan decided to leave it at that.
“If you’re so worried, you should join me for some physical training. I think that’s more likely to save my life than the profit chasing you do. We’re here for the training, and should embrace that while we can.”
“No thanks. I’m fit enough, and soon enough I’ll wear down Master Isaac enough that he’ll teach me some combat magic, just in case. Don’t have the time for all that exercising.” He summarily refused. Growing up as he had meant he was fit, but had never been one to engage in much purposeful muscle building. Not enough food to really support it anyway.
Plus, it was hot outside. He had his air conditioning spells, but his mana was better spent on the cleaning spells. It was a weak excuse, but he had a slight aversion to exercise. With the cultivation of the soldiers, it wouldn’t matter as it might if all the combatants were mortal.
What good was being in top shape when the soldiers had the strength to snap them like twigs? Outpace their sprinting at a hurried walk? Evan’s time was better spent trying to ensure that never happened, and that if it did, an imbuement always remained between them.
Master Isaac was expecting him, so he exchanged farewells with Arnav and took off through the streets outside. He already had a vague idea of how to get there, having gotten far more familiar with the streets and side passages of Fool’s Hope since he first got here.
It wasn’t long before he found himself at the same gate he had entered from. Walking up to one of the gate guards he was soon led to a nearby guardhouse. Master Isaac was waiting for him when he got there.
“There you are Evan. Come on, I already know where you’re needed.” He followed, another guard just behind them, and soon they found themselves returning to the gate.
So much unnecessary nonsense.
Entering through a side door at the gate, they climbed some stairs to the top of the wall before walking some ways to one of the various towers dotting the wall at regular intervals. It was the first time he was able to see the forest from an elevated position, the walls too high in Starspire to see over.
It was beautiful, but in truth not much different from the view he had gotten while traveling. Thanks to the natural growth of Substance in wildlife, the forest appeared almost as a wall from where it started some distance from the wall, just like at Starspire.
Even from his elevated position on the wall, which was nearly four stories tall, the trees towered above him, coming in at more than a hundred meters tall on average. Their wide trunks told a story of how durable they were, and were partially why the forest wasn’t ravaged for its Substance – cutting them down was beyond a mortals capability, requiring intense effort and large amounts of manpower.
It was also prohibited – while cutting down a tree could making anyone rich overnight, it was seen as harmful to the forest, a large contributor to the prosperity of Starspire and the lifeblood of the many, many hunters that made their living inside it.
The canopy was thick enough that within a dozen trees his vision was obstructed, and the trees grew close enough together that it would be easy to lose sight of anything but the nearest trees.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine heading out into that for a living. Within a few dozen meters you could be lost!
Traveling atop the wall, they eventually arrived at one of the towers, once more climbing some stairs to the top. There was a large, heavy looking gong along with a mallet standing against it, along with what he recognized at a searchlight.
There’s no way…
“Master Isaac, is that what I’m to be doing maintenance on? A searchlight?” Disbelief and a hint of accusation was evident in his tone, and his master grimaced.
“Yes. Sorry boy, but this is the best that can be done. There’s simply no way you’ll be allowed to work on anything actually critical to the defense in Fool’s Hope.” Sparing a long glance at the guard who had escorted them, some hidden message seemed to be conveyed as their escort handed over a larger cube than he was used too before making his way back down the stairs.
He realized he had forgotten to ask about the Substance he would need, but thankfully someone else hadn’t. That would have been embarrassing.
Now alone, Master Isaac continued. “Fool’s Hope is too critical to the security of Starspire, and even if the odds of it ever coming under attack so far from border are minimal, it would truly be foolish to not be prepared for it. It was hard to even get you this chance, so don’t blame me.”
Evan couldn’t argue – he truly did want to work on more important things. Instead, he asked after the gong. “Am I just fixing the searchlight, or am I also repairing the gong?”
At the very least, he hadn’t worked with any imbuements dealing with sound. If he could work on the gong, that would be something.
“Just the searchlight. Don’t give me that sullen look, it makes you look like a child.” Evan ignored his master and stepped towards the searchlight. He didn’t lay his hands on it, having grown used to his ability to forge connections from a distance – the distance from which he could see Substance, which was still only about a little more than a meter in every direction, but it was a start.
Once connected, he first used his will to analyze the imbuement. It was quite strong, many times his current ability to match. It was also well-built, superior to his own technique in every way, though the difference wasn’t as large.
“Grade one, class one.” He suddenly said after a few minutes. His master nodded, showing he was correct. The gap in strength was more than simply double, and his own talent was quite good, so it being grade one was easy to figure out. Class one took a little more time – while he already knew this from the blueprint, part of his training included identifying unknown imbuements, and he had complied by studying the inscriptions and gauging the intent to figure it out himself.
There was no way for Master Isaac to know this, but he had already essentially said that their training was what they made of it, so long as they didn’t embarrass him.
After that, he completed a more thorough analysis of the imbuement, figuring out which portions needed fixing and building a tentative plan for how he would do so. Evan could see why it was so difficult to get him this chance – the gap in strength was large enough that even after fixing the searchlight, it wouldn’t be noticeably brighter than before, and not just because it was kept it in good shape.
Halfway through his work, Master Isaac spoke up. “I’ve decided. Today I’ll put in a transfer request; this place is too stifling for you three.”
Evan immediately began to sputter out concerns. “W-what? I don’t think we should go anywhere Master Isaac. Wouldn’t it be more dangerous? Less comfortable?” He continued giving whatever complaints he could – if the request got approved, he would have no choice but to comply.
What had brought this on?
“That’s fine. We won’t go anywhere truly dangerous, but Fool’s Hope is too populated. We need somewhere quieter, somewhere where all of you can properly contribute. Don’t worry, you’ll still have plenty of ways to make money.” The older man nodded, as though everything was already settled. He wouldn’t consider any more of Evans pleading, and silence settled back over them as he returned to his work.
When everything was said and done, the searchlight fixed to his master’s standards, more than two hours had passed. It was easily the most difficult imbuement he had ever worked with, even if the Substance was somewhat familiar to him.
It was also the first imbuement he had worked with since arriving at Fool’s Hope that gained its primary purpose from Substance rather than simply being enhanced by it. Up until now, he had solely worked with weapons, all of them perfectly serviceable without Substance, only having certain characteristics enhanced by it.
The searchlight wasn’t like that – physically, it was rather simple: a ten-centimeter-thick plate in the shape of a circle, mounted in a rotatable frame. It was the imbuement and the many inscriptions inside the plate that both created and directed the light, with a small area on the back with a switch to turn it off and on. It worked on touch, and he noticed the inscription as being very similar to the one that managed the lights back at the workshop.
Seeing this was an eye opener for Evan, better allowing him to understand how to do this himself after completing maintenance on it. It was different than simply reading the blueprint out of the book – imbuing was as much an art as a science, and words on a page simply couldn’t compare, even with the meticulous diagrams the military provided.
On their way down from the wall, they met back up with the guard who was waiting for them at the bottom of the tower, before heading back to the guardhouse and returning the cube – the Substance container – and heading home.
Home?