The day of the Party

I’ve spent the entire lead-up to Leigh’s birthday hidden away in the basement pouring over draft after draft of my gift to her. I’d initially planned on a brooch, but when father provided me with a silver chain, the obvious solution was a pendant. At this point I must have carved nearly a dozen of the damn things. No matter what I make, or how carefully I form it, I’m just never satisfied with my efforts. Nothing’s good enough, and I only want to give Leigh the best. I only make the best.

I’ve had to restock my supply of wood several times now. After my second request for assistance, dad refused to chop any more for me and instead showed me how to do it myself. Exhausting work, chopping wood. At times I find myself so tired from a day’s work that I fall asleep in the cellar, tools still in hand. It will all be worth it though, once I have something to give to Leigh that I can truly be proud of.

I was initially worried that I’d have to hide my efforts from her rather consistently, but her own insistence on gaining experience before her system unlock has guaranteed that we only see each other occasionally at meal times. A regrettable circumstance since I’d prefer to see her more often, but a necessary evil to make the impact I want.

Which brings me to the next big hurdle. [Mana Crafting]. The skill itself wasn’t difficult to activate, but making anything worthwhile certainly was.

The first time I activated mana crafting, it was a bit like opening an eye I didn’t know I had. Similar to [Mana Sight] the skill made me more aware of the energy in the world around me, but specifically the connections they formed. If [Mana Sight] let me see the mana outside my body and [Mana Command] gave me knowledge of my interior mana, then [Mana Crafting] showed me how to let these two pools flow into each other.

Everything in the world contains energy, what we call mana, without exception. When I activate the skill, I can feel the threads of reality humming around me. Present, but just barely noticeable with the level 1 skill. From there, whenever I start crafting an object, I can direct the flow of mana in my body, through my tools, and into the piece—effectively creating very low level magical enchantments. I’ve tried to do this to other objects, but the skill doesn’t seem to find purchase unless I’m modifying the target in some way. The finer and more detailed my modification, for example, wood carving, the more detailed control I have over the item’s interior mana.

To place a framework inside an object I haven’t created or modified, I suspect I’ll need genuine enchantment skills. An issue for my future classes, I don’t have the slots to spare at the moment.

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It does make me wonder though. If I were to carve designs into the individual bones of a skeleton before animating it, could I then supply enchantments to the minion directly? The idea took me completely, so in order to return focus to my crafting endeavors I slid out the journal father gave me and jotted down a few notes on the subject.

Can mana crafting integrate enchantments directly into constructed minions? Can bone wolf be modified without dissipating his animation?

Note to self: Name bone wolf

Note to note to self: teach bone wolf his name

I had a few thoughts percolating about how to best utilize my sole minion. He’d been languishing in idle unuse down here in the cellar ever since Leigh’s father was run out of town, only coming out to join me on my patrols with father. I felt bad having to hide him away, but once the party is over I’ll be able to return my full attention to magical experiments. Hopefully.

With my attention refocused, I was able to turn back to carving Leigh’s gift. The simplest step is creating a small set of loops on either side of the pendant to hold it to the silver chain. Then came the actual artistry. With small chisels and knives, engraving and detailing the design into the small slab of wood. I’ve experimented with several design ideas at this point, but I think I’ve decided to stick with a small anvil and Leigh’s initials carved in the middle. Simple enough to repeat dozens of times, but complex enough to carry a meaning.

The small size of such an item imposed an artificial ceiling on how complex an enchantment, and how many enchantments, I would place into it with [Mana Crafting]. I’ve tried several small ideas, like a self repairing shield or barrier, a temperature regulator, and none of them worked. Rather, the enchantment forms worked just fine, but [Mana Crafting] isn’t a high enough level to fit such a complex enchantment into a small item. Instead, I’ve chosen a basic cleansing spell. The spellform will be enchanted into the item, and then Leigh can activate it with only a few points of mana.

I’ve seen how tired she is after a day in the forge, and her exhaustion often leads to her refusing a bath and falling asleep while covered in soot and grime. Hopefully a minor cleanse will come in handy and be appreciated. I can’t think of much else she’d use that I can fit into the amulet with my current skills. Anything too complex and she’s likely to squander it.

I spent a few days carving out the best pendants I could, eventually finding a few shapes I was happy with and adding the finishing details to the one I thought looked the best. Then I practiced the [Mana Crafting] on several of the lackluster amulets. It felt a bit like trying to wrestle a spider web, the strands of magic kept slipping out of my grasp the harder I squeezed down on them. It took a purposefully light touch to manage the skill, and after a few days of practice I got it down rather well, I think.

I was working on a few modifications to the final enchanting form when there was a knock on the cellar door. Father came down without waiting for my response, and left a small parcel of bread on the stool for me. “The party is today bud, if you’re not done by now you really need to wrap it up” he encouraged me. I’d really only have time for a few more passes, but I wanted to make sure everything was as perfect as I could manage.

I spent the next hour or so doing one last final practice run on Leigh’s amulet before I began enchanting the real deal. I’d be cutting it close on time, but if I ran from the basement straight into town, I probably wouldn’t miss too much of the party. Hopefully.

The extra few minutes might also help me refine this enchant a bit more.