25 Astra 10,391
On their fourth day of the trip Six found the morning training unremarkable but satisfying. His Heavy Armor, Perception, Survival and Herbalism all went up as Denny tutored him and Charles in the ways of the forest, Herbalism actually went up by two. When midday came and they regrouped with the marching column Six hunted down the Lizardfolk Vrill soldier known as Kali Kik. She was seated amongst the other soldiers and they all turned to regard the incoming Six.
“Criminal and draft dodger.” Irduth nodded at Six.
“Praise be Kynairos,” Six replied, flashing Irduth a peace sign. “I was hoping to speak to you,” he said, pointing at Kali Kik.
“Oh,” she said softly and looked at Six expectantly.
They stared at each other for a bit, Six not wanting to explain in detail in front of Irduth.
“Didja give any thought to my proposal Six?” asked Gatbark. His giant boar asleep at his side.
Six looked at him before rolling out a short, “No.” He was done with the staring contest. “Can we speak privately?” he asked Kali kik.
“Take her out to dinner first,” the halfling named Jebbedo snickered.
Six looked at the little man. “No. That’s not what this is going to be.” He then gestured to the Vrill woman to join him to the side.
“What?” Irduth hissed. “Do not seek to include our compatriot in your illicit activities. Speak your lies and threats infront of us all.”
“Irduth, I don’t think I could take any of you.” Six said, hands splayed upwards in a I dunno position.
“Not with an attitude like that,” Narhurin who wore the dark dragon plate guffawed. He had removed his helm, the only piece of armor he had ever removed. The man's features were beautiful and noble, his upturned ears spoke of Tsuken Aelf lineage but his square jaw said human. “I see you use a glaive. I use a too glaive. Care to train sometime? Keegan is a training monster but its always fun to train with new people.”
“Narhurin,” Irduth growled.
“Come on Irduth this man has been fighting for and helping these people. A little martial training couldn’t hurt anyone.”
“Yes,” Six interjected. “I’ll take you up on that when I have the time, but, well actually, I was hoping to ask you Kali Kik if you would be willing to teach me to enchant.”
“Kali,” Irduth growled. “Now that is most definitely against imperial doctrine.”
Kali Kik pursed her thin lips and shook her head at Irduth. “Narhurin is correct, we should be helping these people prepare for their new life.” She inclined her head at Six. “I shall help you but I empower more than I enchant. Enchanting requires many resources. As such there is not much I can teach you, I am but an initiate in Enchanting and am only capable of natural enchanting.”
“Kali, no,” Irduth hissed. “You are going against the empire!”
“Does it really matter Irduth?” Indigo asked. “We have more important things to care about than the spell use of some random mountain man.”
“Does it matter?” Irduth seemed bewildered. “I would expect more from the Gwenwynn scion.”
“How does my lineage change our priorities, Irduth?”
Keegan cut in with his deep, smooth voice. “Having a more capable population amongst these settlers would be ideal. Them having access to enchanted items even at the natural level would improve the survivability of this venture and we need them to be self-sufficient in that respect.”
Six shook his head. “I am not a part of these people. More like a middleman guide more than anything.”
“Then teach this drifter nothing!” Irduth shouted. “He refuses to take responsibility.”
“Don’t get mad because I don’t want to be conscripted into your little army. I am not a slave.”
“I was a slave,” Gatbark said. “S’not so bad. I earned my freedom in thirty years or so.”
Six held up a finger in thought. “Or… or… Fuck that.”
“Changed your mind about my proposition Six?” Gatbark asked.
“Nope.”
“Ah well, think about it.”
“Think about what Gatbark?” Irduth asked.
“Oh you know…” Gatbark trailed off and rubbed his giant boar.
Six looked about at these people before returning his gaze to Kali Kik. “Well?”
“I have no objections to teaching you the basics. Do you have any affinity for enchanting?”
“Nice!” Six made a fist in victory. “And I don’t know my affinities. What do you want and when do you wanna lay down the knowledge?”
Kali Kik smiled. “Walk with me when the march begins and I will teach you, I do not need anything to help you. When we camp I will guide you through a practical application.”
Gatbark groaned. “My purse cries at your idiocy Kali Kik, you hurt all tradespeople with your freely given labour.”
“Dope,” Six said. “Thank you very much.” He inclined his head at her and went to tell Denny he needed to skip the next scouting session.
The old man was surprised. “I didn’t think you would find an enchanter willing to teach you. No refunds, I expect full payment even if you are skirting my teachings.”
“I need to start training this now if I hope to raise this to my highest skill.”
Denny waved the explanation away. “It’s ok, it’s not like you’re wasting time. Can't let yah go after this though, you do your enchanting on your own time. When we camp yeah?”
“No problemo,” Six said in his thickest russian accent.
Denny lifted an eyebrow at that but nodded and took Charles away. The break ended and the marching began again. Six took up pace with Kali Kik and the human and Vrill began to discuss the basics of enchanting.
Kali spoke slowly and with meaning. “Enchanting is the imbuement of an item with mana in such a way that an effect is present. The simplest being natural enchantment. Now you may think that my Flame Enhance was an enchantment but that would be wrong. It was a conjuration, to imbue the conjuration into an item would be runic enchanting and is more complex than natural enchanting. Which is simply gathering mana within yourself and then slowly infusing it into an item.”
“That sounds pretty simple.”
“It is the basic essence of enchanting but there are constraints and other considerations to the art.”
“Such as?”
“Constraints like the size and materials of whatever you are enchanting being capable of withstanding the chosen level of enchantment. Catastrophic arcane decontainment is not rare.”
“Is that like an explosion?”
“Yes. For example,” she picked up a stick.
“Fir,” Six identified.
Skill Increase: Herbalism - Initiate - 5
She nodded. “This stick can be enchanted and depending on what attuned mana you infused into it, different effects would manifest. Very minor effects. A more magically attuned material would be able to accept a more significant enchantment. My Flame Enhance could be placed on any weapon regardless of the materials of the weapon, as the energies are shrouding the item not suffusing it, an advantage. There is also the advantage of materials, I do not need any materials for the conjuration to be applied. For even the most basic enchantments you require mana cores for the enchantment process alongside your own mana. Additionally, certain enchantments require additional mana cores to recharge its expended power, normal spellcasting does not require this, an advantage.”
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“But they are permanent?”
She nodded. “An advantage in favor of enchantments.”
“And anyone can use them?”
“Generally.”
He gestured for her to continue.
“Simple Fir is a common material and is only capable of holding minor rank spells. Golden Wood is an unusual material and could hold moderate rank spells. The higher the quality of material also allows for higher caps of enchantment. I am not skilled enough to teach you all the intricacies of the interactions between materials, complexity and size.”
“Size? A general explanation of anything you know?”
“The smaller the object the more difficult it is to infuse it properly and the larger the enchantment, the larger your personal overall contribution must be. That increase is also present with increasing the rank of spell enchantment you are seeking to imbue. This is why enchanters have covens, to assist in the transfer of mana during grander enchantments. I’ve heard that classed Enchanters have perks that can mitigate such factors.”
“Nice.”
“You also need certain perks for certain kinds of enchantments. Spells and Runes won’t do everything.”
This was to be expected, things were never so simple. “Not so nice but that's ok. How do I learn runes.”
“You are taught them or unlock them at class milestones. You can also create your own but that is said to be incredibly difficult.”
Ok, so gaining a vast library of enchantment options could be difficult but that was all in the future, he needed to focus on the first smallest step. “How do I infuse mana?”
Kali smiled. “Gather mana within yourself and decide if you want to attune it.”
“How do I attune mana?”
“When you go to cast that stone spear spell of yours, there is a process in which you change your mana into earth based energies. It is one of the the first steps of the casting process, You can either use the initial gathered mana or transform it into something else. The effect of the natural imbuement would be different for differently attuned mana. I am capable of infusing fire earth and life attuned mana. They all produce similar yet different effects.”
Six thought about his spell and broke down the implanted functions within his head. There was a step where the general energies within him were almost vibrated, almost hummed into being something different before they were forced through the magical functions. He thought he could do just that, gather and warp it into something else. He felt confident that it was correct.
Skill Gained: Enchantment - Initiate - 1
Each level in Enchantment provides a 1% increase to enchantment effectiveness and enchanter flow stability.
Current increase: 1%
Nice. “Could you show me?” A demonstration couldn’t hurt.
She shook her head. “Natural enchantment is not a visual process, once runes are incorporated it becomes somewhat visual but if i were to demonstrate you would just see me holding something in complete focus. I would suggest an attempt on your part.”
Six nodded.
Kali Kik brought them to a halt and pulled them aside, allowing the column to march unimpeded. “This is something that requires your complete focus. There is no reason to do such things while marching.
He withdrew a dagger and a mana core from his storage and gathered pure mana, he then experimented with pushing the mana into the object. Focusing his will on the task did nothing. He attempted to move the gathered mana from his core to the hand that held the dagger. It took a few minutes but he managed a clunky manipulation of the energy in his body, aligning his focus with his breath and pushing the ball of energy down a visualized pathway through his body and into his hand. Just like in the engrained spells. Just like in the stories.
His hand tingled with arcane power but still it did not flow into the dagger. He grimaced in annoyance. He pushed the energies in different ways but it was the reexamining of his stone spells that gave him the answer. When the casting completed the mana actually flowed from his hand to the closest aspect of the ground, it emitted from his body. Until that point, in his experimentation he had not actually projected it from his body, he attempted to break down that aspect of his spell knowledge and soon figured out how to emit small blips of arcane mana.
He fed the tiniest blip of mana into the dagger and was presented with a prompt.
You are attempting to enchant a Common Mundane Iron Dagger with a Minor Aura of Force. This will require 100 mana and one Mundane Common Mana Core to complete. No suitable reagent detected. Would you like to begin this enchantment now? Yes/No?
Six smiled. He nodded at Kali Kik in thanks and selected yes.
Immediately he felt the draw of mana from both him and the core he held. A progress bar appeared in his mind and it filled up sporadically as he pushed out bubbles of mana into the blade. His progress quickly rose to 32% but something went wrong and the mana core he held shattered. He was then presented with a failure screen.
The enchantment had failed, on the failure screen there was the message of failure but also an efficiency rating, he was rated at 13% efficiency. That was shit, he would need to fix that.
“You failed,” Kali Kik remarked, no malice in her voice.
“That I did, that's ok, I’m learning. Do you know any prompts on the actual process?“
“Prompts?”
“Like practical tips, cues.”
She thought for a second. “Do not rush but do not tarry. Infuse your mana as if you were pouring a pot of tea, smooth and graceful.”
Six nodded, he had been sporadic with how he fed it with his mana and it had ruined everything. He waited about ten minutes for his mana to refill before he pulled out another mana core. He fed but a drop of his mana into the blade and was presented with the same prompt, he pressed yes but was ready this time. He pushed the mana out in a large exhalation and he continued to push on the inhalation. The pressure was his breathing and he fed a stream of mana into the blade. His excitement rose and he smiled in triumph, he pushed, he pushed too far.
The dagger gave few signs and Six was bewitched by what he was doing, his focus completely on the flow on mana. What he could not ignore was the shattering of the weapon. The failure was a catastrophic explosion and his face took a few hits of shrapnel, his hand was shredded but it surprisingly still worked. He was kinda surprised he didn’t die. No settlers were injured but Six’s howls of pain drew interested onlookers. It took a while for Kali Kik to extract most of the metal with her only stopping so they could keep pace with the rear of the marching train. If it wasn’t for her, he might have lost an eye. Six borrowed her tweezers and picked out the last few shards as he walked. It hurt but he didn’t want those things left in there and he was afraid his skin might envelope them completely.
Kali explained that success was a range and the enchantment would have most likely set, his mistake lie in pushing past the safe mana limits of the enchantment and material constraints. His mind immediately went to the mix maxing opportunities of walking the line of catastrophic failure and the stat returns of a maximally overclocked piece of gear.
Six could see how something like enchantment would be incredibly resource dependent. He had but eleven mana cores and now after those two attempts he only had nine, with nothing to show for it.
Did he have the affinity for it? He must have because he learned the skill easily enough. He was just fucking it up. He needed to leave it alone for a bit. That explosion pissed him off and he was too emotional to focus properly. He needed to get his mind off of that particular failure. “What are you all about?” he asked Kali Kik. “How’s being a soldier?”
“I hesitate to call myself that during these troubled times. I find life as fluid as usual.” She smiled. “It is not bad. I am but a simple druid. I care for the people and for our animals. What of you? Alison has called you a drifter who knows the way.”
“Me? I’m living the dream, and drifter would be more accurate than not I suppose.”
“Hmm, and you did not ask for compensation?”
“I already took more from them than I feel comfortable with.”
“Ah yes, Alison told us of that too. Even still, good on you for not taking and going on your own path.”
“I am on my own path, it just happens to be the same way they want to go.”
She shrugged. “It is nice to see nonetheless. I think you should continue to help these people.”
“Is that why you helped me with enchanting? If you think I’m gonna pass it on, sure, but I would have rather just paid you.”
“My help comes with no obligation attached.”
“Then you can help them. I don’t know how much time I’ll have for charity in the near future.”
She shook her head. “Me and my friends will not always be here. There needs to be competent people who can protect and guide, you have been such a figure in the protection of this group and I think you should continue doing as such. It’s nice.”
“Look lady, I ain’t doing it to be nice. I know I have a duty to my fellow folk and I’ll help if it’s not gonna kill me but me and these people? We are just crossing paths. What are you soldiers even doing here if youre just gonna immediately fuck off?”
“I can’t tell you that. I can only tell you that soon, most of us will be departing and these people will still need protection.”
“They can figure it out when that time comes.”
Kali Kik pursed her lips in disapproval but nodded.
“Why’d you become a soldier?” Six asked, genuinely curious.
“I sought to leave my old life behind and become someone new.”
“Mind if I ask who you used to be?”
She smiled and shook her head. “I used to be a caretaker at the Arkorjian Menagerie. I could no longer do that so I left Arkorjia and joined the legions.”
Six could recognize purposeful vagueness and didn’t pry any further into her reasoning. “Arkorjia was your home?”
She nodded. “It is home to us frilled Vrill. A lovely lush place deep in the jungles to the south east, far away from here,” she said wistfully.
“Sounds nice.”
“It’s very nice.”
“Frilled Vrill imply the existence of other types of Vrill.”
She nodded. “There are the horned Vrill of Salazhar. They were far more accepting of outsiders than my people.”
“Were?”
“War has a tendency to make people angry and mistrustful.”
“That’s what I’ve heard. Never had to deal with it personally though.”
“Consider yourself lucky.”
“I do.”
They continued like this until it was time to camp. A bit more enchanting knowledge was exchanged but it was mostly small chit chat. Six bid Kali Kik goodbye and left to assemble his tent.
He finished with his set up and found an isolated area where he could still be monitored by the settlers in case the thing exploded again. Six considered practicing on a stick but instead pulled out another dagger and mana core then attempted the enchantment once more.
You are attempting to enchant a Common Mundane Iron Dagger with a Minor Aura of Force. This will require 100 mana and one Mundane Common Mana Core to complete. No suitable reagent detected. Would you like to begin this enchantment now? Yes/No?
He selected yes and began feeding the instant draw on his mana. He stilled himself and just focused on the smooth pouring of the energies but it was not enough. He could not overfill this item. He split his focus and the pour trembled and warbled, it oscillated. But he felt the object hum with power, a building resonance as he filled it with energies, there was a minimum threshold and a maximum limit to that resonance, a threshold he must achieve and a limit he could not exceed.
He had to pay attention to both aspects and with the splitting of focus came a reduction in quality in either. His pouring of his mana became uneven and created ripples, and he felt lost in the crescendo of pitch he felt emanating from the dagger.
But he persisted and pushed through the doubt.
Enchantment successful.
You have successfully enchanted a Common Mundane Iron Dagger with a Minor Aura of Force with an efficiency rating of 10% creating a,
- Iron Dagger of Force -
Rank: Mundane
Rarity: Unusual
Weight - 0.4 KG
Durability 86/86
Traits: 10% chance to apply +1 force damage, 20/20 charges, one charge expended when effect activated
Skill increase: Enchantment - Initiate - 2
He had done it. “Yeeeeeaaaa BUDDAAAAAY!” The entire process lasted maybe three to five minutes of slow deliberate channeling. One hundred and eleven mana was used, more than what was reported by the prompt.
This was just swell. Just golly great. Fucking awesome.
Charles came over. “What are you shouting about Six?”
“Oh hey Charles, how was the rest of your day with Denny?”
The kid grimaced. “He sure likes to lead people into traps.”
“What did we learn?” Six asked in his best Denny voice.
Charles shook his head in frustration but smiled nonetheless. “He did show me some slight corrections on my archery stance.”
“You hunted?”
Charles nodded.
“Got any Mana Cores you wanna sell?”
“Why?” the young man asked it matter of factly.
“Check this out buddy, my first enchanted dagger.” Six passed it over for the kid to inspect and explained its properties.
“This is quite basic but still very impressive,” Charles laughed. “Its no where near the quality of a royal enchanter but considering you just learned to do this in a forest, very good.”
“Is it? I don’t care! It was my first successful attempt! I will only grow from here on out.”
“Is this what you were shouting about? How many tries did it take to succeed? Ten?”
“Yes and pshhh only two.”
Charles nodded. “I have 5 Mundane Mana Cores.”
“How much you want for them?”
“Two gold?”
“You don’t sound too sure.”
“It is a fair market rate, I just don’t…”
“You don’t what?”
“Want to offend you?”
“Nah man, s’all good. I hate bartering for the most part and you had my back so two gold it is.”
Six passed the kid two more gold and with the five extra mana cores it brought him up to 13 cores to practice with.
He wanted to smoke weed and practice but he held off for now. Practicing as perfectly as he could was necessary for proper growth so he didn’t want the formative steps tainted by hazed practice. Maybe once he gained some confidence and competence first.
He was still learning.
He brought out several weapons and laid them before him, he inspected them all for durability wear and discovered that a spear and his glaive had been reduced quite significantly. Both had almost hit zero.
He would need those repaired as soon as possible. He looked about for Gatbark but in scanning the camp he saw another familiar face working away at a makeshift workshop. He approached and waved at her. “Hey Ravna, how’s it going?”