The sound of metal on metal rang around the room. It was just Vaunce today at the hideout, so he was determined to shape a knife for himself. He didn’t have to worry about his protection normally, but lately he had been feeling like he had been being watched. Vaunce wasn’t sure by what exactly, but it was there; gazing at him like he was some sort of prey that it was stalking for its next meal. The only place he didn’t feel it these days was in their forest hideout.

Vaunce focused on how the hammer fell on the black copper knife he was forming with his hammer. Black copper was the best metal he was able to melt using the stone forge. It was slightly stronger than iron as well since it had better mana conductivity, but still had the melting point of copper. Vaunce prepared to quench it in a metal barrel filled with water nearby. Quenching it quickly he put it in some specially made sand to further cool it, while drenching it in earth mana to reinforce it. Vaunce sighed and sat down in a chair that was holding his towel he used to wipe down his sweat while he rested.

Next is grinding the blade down and the handle he thought to himself as he rested.

Gulping down some cold water, he heard some crackling from the sand pile, indicating that the blade was at capacity. Springing to his feet, Vaunce carefully pulled the knife out to see it had taken on a dull brownish color.

Perfect he thought, nodding to himself in satisfaction.

Putting the dull edge of the knife up to the sharpening wheel, he began to push down with his foot rhythmically. The wheel slowly began to turn, getting faster and faster with each foot pump, until it reached its maximum safe speed and Vaunce began to grind away at the metal. Layer by layer honing down the edge until it was sharp enough to cut grass just by touching it. Letting the wheel come to a stop, Vaunce inspected the knife satisfied. He looked down its spine to make sure it was straight and, seeing it was beamed in elation.

This is by far the best thing I have ever forged.

Delighted he walked over to the handle he had prepared and placed it around the tang of his knife. Using a bit of fire mana, he sealed the two halves together without a flaw. Taking another look over the knife, he marveled how beautiful it was. The red colored wood made for a stark contrast against the black copper of the blade. It made for an eerie sight when seen under some lighting. Blinking, Vaunce thought he saw the blade turn red for a moment but couldn’t see it again. Walking back to his chair, he took the knife and held it between his hands nervously. Today he was going to try to enchant it so it would be even better. He had been reading books about enchanting and infusing mana into metals for months now, but he didn’t have the confidence nor the mana to try. He had just recently been able to store enough mana to try out the weakest version of what he wanted to do. Plus, multiple of the books encouraged enchanters to make their own items that they wanted to enchant, because they would get higher success rates that way as they were familiar with the items.

Gripping the knife firmly, Vaunce began to imagine what he wanted. He felt his mana start to permeate the knife, and then he felt the devouring of the mana around him begin like it always did when he used too much mana of any type. The image in his mind changed as the devouring took over his mind by force. Vaunce sat frozen while he continued to let the void mana run rampant in and around his body, devouring any speck of mana it could get. After half an hour it subsided, calmed down by being able to restore balance to his mana levels. It normally didn’t take this long, he must have really overexerted himself today.

Gotta be more careful he thought to himself as he inspected the knife, looking for any changes that could have happened from his accidental enchantment. Pricking his pinky finger to test sharpness, he felt the dagger pull at his blood taking some in before he could pull his finger away from it. Staring in slight horror, he put the dagger on the table before checking to see if it was still trying to absorb his blood. Nothing happened once he put it down. Vaunce stood up and sighed in relief, it would be awkward to explain if he suddenly was missing body parts or looked gray from lack of blood. He started to clean up the mess he had made while forging when he heard footsteps coming down the ladder from the entrance area. Hearing the footsteps get louder, he received a notification on his speaker-watch.

Ding. Lilith has connected to the local room.

“Hey Lil” He sent as he walked out into the entrance area and waved at her. Seeing Vaunce she quickly flushed pink and turned around.

“Where’s your shirt?” came the reply causing Vaunce to rush back into the forge area and quickly put his shirt back on.

“Sorry, i was working with the forge and it got hot” He replied, trying to tamper down the embarrassment he felt. The only people who had ever seen him in any state of undress were his parents. Even that didn’t happen anymore since he was 12 now.

“Anyway, what are you doing here? Did you randomly get an extra day off?”

Making sure he had his shirt back on before turning around, second-hand embarrassment still slightly showing on her face, she responded “Yeah, plus my parents want everyone out of the house today so the servants can fully clean everything, so i decided to come hang out here for a few hours”

“Cool, wanna show me some of that cool spell casting you're learning?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Smiling back “Sure just watch what i do and see if you can replicate or get ideas from it” Lilith began to focus and the air became electrified as her lightning mana filled the air with static.

As the Sun began to set, Vaunce and Lilith realized they had stayed longer than they should have and would be late getting home. Vaunce began to speed up until he noticed that Lilith wasn’t speeding up with him. He turned around and motioned that they should hurry, but she just grabbed his hand. He suddenly felt like he could move as fast as he wanted with no limits, that he could soar through the sky and become part of the clouds. Appearing at the gate to his house Vaunce looked at her in awe, and started to type up a question. She waved it away before giving him a beguiling smile and then disappearing again. Dumbstruck, he walked into his house just in time to get ready for dinner and sat down to eat.

When did she learn to do that? He wondered idly, eating his food robotically, as he was exhausted from the day's work. Can I learn to do that?

Flopping into bed, Vaunce shoved the knife, which he had decided to call ‘The Glutton’, under a book on his nightstand. He had thought about putting it under his pillow, like all those fantasy books he had read, but that seemed unsafe. Clara jumped onto the bed next to him and flopped her body onto Vaunce’s face. Laughing he pushed her off and got comfortable on the mattress. He was exhausted and he started falling asleep almost immediately. Clara snuggled on to his chest as he lay there.

Feeling like he was being watched, Vaunce slowly opened his eyes to see Clara staring at him, perched on his chest looking down. She began to purr as he opened his eyes and she hit his nose with her head as he opened his eyes fully. He chuckled and began petting her, feeling significantly better. The feeling of unease had almost disappeared since he started petting Clara. It always calmed him down. Looking around he saw everything else in the room was the same as he had left it before falling asleep.

Where is this feeling coming from? I’ve never been this uneasy and skittish before

After another round of looking around the room, Vaunce put his head back on the pillow and tried to get some rest. Whatever it was wasn’t showing itself.

Ding

Waking up to a message, Vaunce groggily tapped his speaker-watch to see it was from Lilith.

“Vaunce, I have the day off today so if you want to practice magic, I'll be at the hideout for most of the day. I plan on leaving in an hour or so if you want to meet up”

Sitting up, he sent a message saying he would meet up with her. He started to get dressed for the day, thinking about how she had teleported them the day prior. He wanted to be able to do that, although he wasn’t sure how he would be able to since he wasn't used to using void mana and he didn’t have enough of the other types of mana for something like Earth walking. He decided to try to use his void mana at least a bit.

Quickly leaving the house after grabbing some breakfast, Vaunce walked to the meet up spot that they always went to; It was a cafe that was near the gate to the forest they used to go to the hideout.

Seeing Lilith seated at a table eating some eggs and toast, Vaunce waved at her in greeting and sat down to wait for her to finish. She gestured back in greeting, continuing to stuff food into her mouth while reading what looked like news on her speaker-watch. She turned on the holographic display so that he could also see what she was reading.

“Dissent among the commoners spreads” was the title. Looking at the publisher he saw it was an article by ‘Royals United’. They were a newspaper exclusive for The Royalties and a select few businesses that served The Royalties. They went so far as to verify the identity of their customers before sending them any of their newspapers or allowing them to view any of their online articles. His father got it weekly, but he never bothered reading it. He waved it away out of disinterest and started reading where he had left off on his current book that he had gotten scanned so he didn’t have to carry it around titled “Basic Artifice”. There wasn't an author name on the book that he could see, but there was a strange symbol that he didn’t recognize on the spine of the book. It was a rectangle in a circle with a language he did not recognize flowing around the edge of the circle. It was strange but he could not find anything about it on the internet or anywhere else.

“Basic enchantments or enchanting is done by permeating an object in the type of mana and infusing a will into it. This simply means pushing mana into it and imagining the effect you want it to have. The type of mana you push into it will shape the effect of the enchantment, although it is good to note that some enchantments can only be powered by certain types of mana. You can’t start a fire with water mana for example. There are some enchantments that need to have unaligned mana to function as well. These are mostly connector runes or enchantments that connect to multiple types of different mana.

For example if you put a ‘Wave’ enchantment on a weapon, it will send out a wave of mana when you swing it. The type of wave you send out completely depends on what type of mana you made the enchantment with. Fire will send out a wave of fire, Water will send out a wave of water, and so on and so forth. Just because you are able to make a mana type work with an enchantment does not mean it is a good idea however. You should never, for example, make a passive devouring enchantment with air mana for example. You will quickly find that the air within your lungs and probably anyone within 500 meters quickly devoid of breathable air.”

Vaunce snapped back to the world as he felt a poke in his arm. Lilith was waving at him to get his attention and he noticed she had finished eating. They got up and started walking towards the hideout through the forest. Vaunce looked around in the early morning fog that was starting to roll in, touching his skin it felt nice and cooled him down as they were walking.

Getting to the somewhat concealed large tree they used as an entrance, Vaunce began to channel earth mana to reveal the entrance near the roots when Lilith held up her hand. He stopped and she quickly sent a diagram to him. Looking at it he saw that it was a guide on how to do short range walking spells. He opened his eyes wide in fascination as he read it and saw it included void on it. Although the void version made a tunnel rather than actually teleporting or allowing him to ‘walk’ through shadows or something similar. He read it a few times and started to bend his mind towards the task of moving his void mana. The void mana moved slowly, like it was bogged down by something. It never helped that every time he tried to use void mana to form a spell structure it felt greasy, like something had rubbed some sort of oil all over it. It felt gross and forbidden, and he always had issues with it. Focusing even harder he saw the tunnel appear and felt excited when he saw the open area of the hideout show up on the other side. Lilith beamed and jumped through without hesitation, Vaunce following shortly behind. He quickly sent a message to her.

“Where did you get this? It’s amazing”

“I found an old book in the mages library and it had directions on this for it. I was able to discreetly scan it digitally before I had to report it. They have us turning in any knowledge of void mana we find in books. It’s really weird, but this is the only one I’ve found so far”

She smiled happily towards Vaunce. She was obviously pleased with his reaction.

“Wow, thank you so much!” Vaunce frowned as he thought about it “but don’t get yourself in trouble Lil, I’m fine without having to touch my mana or anything. Plus it's not like I can't use other types of mana, it's just more limited.”

She waved him off and walked over to the area that she had taken over in the hideout. She started practicing spells of various types. Vaunce was enthralled and just watched a while, before moving on and trying out various spells and minor enchantments that he had been thinking of. Before either of them knew it, Vaunce’s Speaker-watch alarm was going off, signaling they had to go else they would be late. Sighing, they both teleported out of the hideout into the forest before starting the trek home.