Chapter 42:

Congratulations on your inscribing success. Enchanting has now been added to your profession’s tab.

Alice looked down at the block of metal that sat on the table before her. Thin lines were engraved throughout it, and when she fed mana into a particular part of it, it grew slightly warmer. It was a [Lesser Heat Stone of Inferior Quality]. It was frustrating that it had taken her so long to make it, not because it was difficult but because the instructional video didn't have a 2x or 3x speed option. The weird red alien lady spoke as if she were a 90-year-old senior living resident with dementia.

Alice frequently spent five minutes just dozing off or staring into space while her supposed teacher prattled on, repeating everything long after the next set of patterns were inscribed. The pauses for someone to actually do the work assigned were entirely too long. Unfortunately, she didn't have her bag with her, having left it with Titus in his inventory, so she didn't have a laptop to pull out to do anything on the side. When she attempted to remove any of the extra materials from one of the other desks, she found that all their drawers were empty.

She was tempted to start scratching the desks to test out some of the variations of the patterns she had been taught, but she was holding off for now. Instead, she doodled with her finger on the table after breathing hard on it to fog it up. Her little circuitry drawings of ideas reminded her that enchanting was like programming, but not quite like regular programming. It was more like hardware programming, something she had maybe dabbled in. It was interesting and something she could get behind, seeing its potential usefulness. But it didn't tell her everything.

She had hoped to learn some of these patterns and map them onto the paths the mana took as it circulated through her body, but they didn't seem correlated. The enchanting involved harsh lines and graceful curves, while the stuff in her body was incomprehensible swirls. Maybe at some level of zooming in or out, they might appear the same, but it was the difference between a machine and a biological brain. Still, there might be some sort of similarity she could draw upon.

When she finally finished, she got up, stretched, put the heating stone in her pocket, and left, not waiting for the NPC lady manning the desk to come get her. She walked out front and ran into the NPC lady as she was walking back towards her room. The NPC didn't respond as Alice moved past her and went to open the door.

Really? Alice thought. It doesn't recognize me? It seemed more responsive earlier. Perhaps there's just a quirk in the programming.

Alice slipped out to the front and found that Titus wasn't yet done with his lesson. At least if he was, he wasn't waiting for her, and she wasn't about to go outside without him yet. Best to stick with the buddy system. She picked a table and plopped the [Lesser Heat Stone of Inferior Quality] down on it. It made a satisfying thud of metal hitting wood. She flipped the block over a few times before balancing it on one of the long ends and pushing it over as if it were a domino. She had kept the inscribing pen, and when she used her [System Identification] skill on it, it just said [Novice Inscribing Pen].

Idly, she began scratching at the table, just a series of logic gates. It wouldn't make it do anything very interesting. Nearly two hours passed before Titus came out from behind the NPC woman who had been waiting by the desk silently the whole time. Alice looked up from her drawing and waved slightly. He gave her a toothy smile before striding over.

He looked down at the table and frowned. "What happened to that?"

She tucked the pen behind her ear and gave him a smile.

"Watch this," she said, pressing her thumb down in the center of the design and pushing some mana in. Wood wasn't the best conductor of sound, so the song that started playing was a little muffled as the birthday cake spun in the air.

"That was what they had you do? They had you make a little birthday song?" Titus asked.

She shook her head. "No. They had me make this." She indicated the stone of inferior quality off to the side. "It's a hand warmer, essentially," she said. "Pretty useless."

"Huh," Titus said.

"How did it go for you?" she asked when he didn't say anything more.

"Uh, not bad," he said, holding out a small vial of blue liquid. Alice identified it as a [Lesser Mana Recovery Potion of Inferior Quality].

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She plucked it out of his hand and looked at it closely. "Hmm," she said, examining it and uncorking it to sniff the faintly blueberry-scented liquid. Titus, in the meantime, was rolling the stone through his hand.

"Ah," he said, "it is kind of warm. Must be nice on a ski trip or something."

"It's fucking useless, Titus," she said. The stone disappeared in Titus's hand, presumably into his [Inventory].

"Yeah, kinda. But still, clearly, you've got some idea of what you're doing," he said, gesturing to the birthday cake. As the song finished, it faded away.

"Yeah, it's not that difficult. Light and sound are just different forms of energy you can control. Those are rather basic. Having it do anything actually magical is a little weird."

"Something like adding heat or light or sound is relatively easy, but with something like teleporting it, it's not." Titus summarized.

"I don't understand how teleportation works, so mimicking that effect isn't possible yet. I think I can make a pretty decent computer with a large enough piece of metal, or I could maybe even make something that does kinetic force. Making something that returns to your hand like your pilum does wouldn't be impossible."

"Yeah, that reminds me," Titus said. "I was messing with my inventory and looking at the details of items. Did you know that even though the pilum was supposed to be something for E-grade, the enchantments are actually only F-grade on it?"

"Hmm. I wonder what made the item E-grade worthy?" Alice asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's the material it's made of, but it's not a great enchantment. Maybe you could do something about that," Titus suggested.

Alice shrugged. "Maybe. I still have no idea what I'm doing in terms of that sort of thing, but I can take a look at it, maybe."

Titus pulled out the pilum and plunked it down on the table in front of her. She picked it up and was able to see where the enchantment was done. The entire piece wasn't enchanted; it was just a small bit where the blade connected to the haft. She examined it but was frustrated as some of it seemed hidden from her.

"Hmm," she said and handed it back. "I think I have to take it apart to fully understand it, and I don't have much confidence in my ability to put it back together."

"Yeah, that might be a problem," Titus said. "I'd rather not lose this now."

"No, you wouldn't. It's a good thing your skill makes up for the weak enchantment, though. Being able to duplicate it in the air as many times as you want—"

"That's not exactly how my skill works," Titus interjected, but she continued.

"—Clearly makes it a formidable weapon."

"If upgrading our gear is off the table, what do you want to do? Level up some, go shopping, take a more advanced class?" Titus asked.

"It's not entirely off the table, but I would like to experiment more first." Alice shrugged. "Definitely not take a class. I would rather just read a book. My instructor was terrible."

"Huh, mine wasn't that bad," Titus said.

"Yeah?" Alice laughed. "Well, we can maybe get the tools of the trade," she said, tapping the pen behind her ear. "Buy some ingredients or materials, make some stuff, and then go to some safe location where we can make whatever we need."

Titus nodded. "We can do that. But I think we should come back here. I am not some sort of prodigy like you are. I'm going to need several more lessons. I would have no idea where to even start with the whole ant-repellent thing."

"Well, I suppose that's fine too. You want to see when the next ones are?" Alice asked.

Titus tapped the brochure that suddenly appeared in his hand from his inventory. "Yeah, later tonight, there's a class I want to take."

Alice nodded and looked at the schedule. She could take the intermediate class but probably needed to take the beginner class first. Stupid prereqs. Alice just shook her head. It wasn't going to be worthwhile. She'd just get a book; she was better at book learning anyway.

"Alright, back to the shop?" she asked, and Titus nodded.

"Well, actually," he said, shaking his head, "I think we should level up a little bit first."

"Really?"

"Yeah, while you were looking for stuff earlier, I took a quick look at the weapons. I'm a little bit short on getting a better actual spear rather than just the shovel," he said, the shovel appearing in his hand and tapping against the floor. It disappeared just as quickly. "I think this is going to break soon."

"Can I just gift you some of the money, and we can get it and then level up?" Alice asked.

Titus cocked his head at her. "I suppose, but don't you want to get a wand or something so you can channel your mana bolt into more than that? Or maybe even use attacks that aren't just skills?"

Alice frowned. "I guess I do want to learn how to do more spells than just mana bolt or life drain. I feel like I should be able to cast spells without them being a skill.

"But then, what's the difference between a skill and a spell?"

Alice shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Well, back to the shop first, get you a new spear, and then we go kill things, and I get some sort of wand?" Alice asked.

Titus nodded. "Sure. I'll pay you back, though."