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Land of Irith
Chapter 25 - Complexity

Chapter 25 - Complexity

The next day Aleyn was hard at work reading in the library, the moment the workers had gathered they drew another set of sticks and it was her turn. She took the two books given to her and looked at their titles.

"Enchanting properties."

"Enchanting methods."

Even with just two books there was a lot to take in. The amount of materials that could be used for enchanting was even bigger than the metal alloy department. She had to renew the candles two times before she was done with her first book to the degree where she felt she had understood enough.

When she returned to the workshop the workers looked annoyed, she had spent more than half the day in the library while the others had spent only half a day, letting two people enter the library in a day.

"You took a while. Got problems?" Camedyr asked.

"It took a bit to take it all in, but I feel I get the gist of it."

"Alright then. Show me what you got."

Camedyr handed a plate to her, this time the pattern wasn't as simple as the previous ones. The difficulty of enchanting was determined by the complexity of the design and the materials used so if the pattern wasn't simple the enchanting process would obviously be harder to accomplish.

The pattern she was looking at was still the inward bent square, but this time in each of those inward bent lines there was a circle as well. Just by her own understanding she evaluated that the enchantment she needed to do was five times harder than the others needed to do just because of the extra circles.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at Camedyr who just gave a stupid smirk at her. Aleyn just sighed and gave it a go.

She focused on the idea of enchanting, giving life to an inanimate object through magic. Enchanting had many applications, from making an item have a beneficial effect to actually making an inanimate object move on its own. Scholars loved enchanted scrolls which automatically recorded writing or had other unusual abilities.

Her energy was being absorbed by the pattern which started glowing progressively, the square lit up while the circles showed no change but after a short while they started lighting up one by one. Once the fourth circle lit up the whole pattern shone and sparked once before turning in to a living pattern like seen before.

At this point Aleyn collapsed on her knees on the floor like the others before her but that wasn't unexpected as her task had been more difficult than the other workers. Camedyr took the plate and looked it over in earnest and then did something he had not done before. He put his hand over the plate just like he was going to enchant it and his hand started glowing. To Aleyn it didn't feel like he was enchanting the plate, but she had no real idea what he was doing.

"Good good. Now observe." Camedyr said to everyone.

He took a grip from both ends of the hardened steel plate and started bending it. The moment he did the plate gave in and started bending until the middle of it cracked and it split in two.

"The hell?"

"What?

"Woah"

The workers were confused. Even if Camedyr was a big lump of muscle, he just bent hardened steel like it meant nothing to him.

"Frailty. The easiest enchantment that has very specific uses and is rarely used. You can probably figure out what its effect is." Camedyr claimed.

Frailty does exactly what it says in the name, it weakens the item. The enchantment itself is quite weak, but in this case it allowed Camedyr to break hardened steel. Something he could probably not do so easily even with his colossal muscles.

"Honestly I was setting you to fail there Aleyn and you probably realize that. The more complex the pattern the harder the process. Glad that you raised up to the challenge."

"Yeh I realized. Thanks boss.." Aleyn thanked Camedyr in a sarcastic manner while still resting on the floor.

"Anyway, no time for someone else to go today. Just keep doing the drawing process everyone."

Rest of the workers had gotten to the point where they could do all of the patterns properly and were now doing multiple patterns Aleyn herself only had done two so she had some ways to go.

After her reading session Aleyn had come to realize that these patterns Camedyr was telling people to make actually had very few applications for actual enchanting but it probably wasn't what they were trying to achieve anyway.

Most normal enchanting patterns were complex and any book that taught enchanting only showed you how to enchant the patterns, not to draw them. Of course this wasn't enough for unless you were fine with letting someone else draw the pattern, but that wasn't up to standards in Camedyrs workshop.

With occasional breaks, they spent the day practicing the patterns and at the end of the day all of the workers were very glad to get some shut eye.

After the calm night of sleep, the last person was sent to the library while the rest worked on their patterns. Everyone progressed smoothly and Aleyn eventually got to the point where she could do multiple patterns herself. The last worker returned from the library and showed he understood how the enchanting process worked. At that point Camedyr changed the schedule.

"Alright then! That's enough of doing stick figures."

He had brought a backpack to the shop today. It didn't look heavy but it did look full. He dug in to the backpack and took out the contents.

"I've brought you all a batch of scrolls. From this point on you will be entering the point of trial and error. You will draw these patterns and then enchant them. Before that you will want to understand what these enchantments do."

He handed four scrolls to each of the workers and then continued.

"The first enchantment: Endurance, a common enchantment. It enhances the objects durability."

"The second Enchantment: Fortitude, another common enchantment. It makes the object enhance your own physical endurance. "

"The third enchantment: Agility, yet another common enchantment. It makes the object enhance your speed. "

"And finally the Fourth enchantment: Haste,  amongst the common enchantments as well. It enhances the objects speed."

Aleyn opened up the scrolls as Camedyr called out their name and effect. To her horror the patterns were a massive step up from the patterns they had been drawing until now, it felt as though she had been wasting her time learning them.

"So again. Your task is to learn to make these patterns and enchant them in less than five minutes. Once you have achieved this, you can consider taking the final test. Realize this will be the hardest thing you've probably ever had to learn. I suggest you master one of the patterns first by breaking it in to smaller patterns. At that point it should become easier to do the next ones."

All of the workers kept quiet and stared at Camedyr.

"Thats enough out of me. If you have any questions feel free to consult me."

At that moment they all started working.

Aleyn started with the fourth enchantment, Haste. Enchantment complexity had some variance based on their effect. For example, an enchantment that enhanced the item which it was drawn on would always be simpler than the enchantment that was drawn on an item and its effect was to enhance the wielders attributes. Due to this the fourth enchantment pattern was simpler than the second or the third. The first enchantment looked way more complex than the fourth so the choice for her was obvious.

Camedyr was walking around among the workers and took a look at what they were doing. Once he noticed Aleyn and her choice he shook his head.

"It's not always best to start with the easiest you know."

"Normally I would agree with you, but when I look at the other patterns I really want to crawl in to a corner and cry myself to sleep." Aleyn declared.

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"Why?"

"Because I find drawing these patterns hard enough as it is."

Camedyr looked at her uncomfortable expression.

"You really do don't ya?"

"Yes, I really do.." Aleyn said with a low voice.

"What if I told you that by doing that Second enchant you would do the rest with ease?"

Aleyn turned to look at Camedyr who had a serious expression on, no smile no frown. Without saying another word he moved on.

She couldn't help but look at the fourth scroll and the second scroll. They were pretty much on different levels, but looking closely at the second scroll you could see some of the fourth scrolls patterns in it. She knew exactly what Camedyr meant, but she was very reluctant. It was probably the first time in her life when she had felt a strong reluctance over something.

After coming to terms with what was ahead of her she took the scroll she had already drawn on and crumbled it in to a ball which she threw at the back of Camedyrs head as an act of rebellion. The impact of a soft ball of course rose his curiosity and he turned around only to see a ball of paper on the floor and Aleyn picking up a new scroll to draw on. He just shook his head and continued observing everyone.

She started deconstructing the second enchantment in to smaller portions. It turned out to be quite a task, she either had to make more than 15 small patterns which she would have to build in to the final product or she could make less than five small but more complex patterns. She of course chose to make her patterns a little bit more complex to limit the amount of paper work to remember.

It took her some time but she made exactly five scrolls that by first glance you could think were separate enchantments them self, however she and the workers had enough knowledge to understand these patterns meant nothing on their own.

With nothing else left to do she started trying to draw the patterns on some plates. By the end of the day she couldn't even draw the pattern from her first scroll properly not to mention the rest. She had a long road ahead of her.

Nicholas sat amongst the students in a full class room. The whole year was having their first written exam in neurosciences and it had been going for half an hour already. The questions were mostly regarding the procedures and processes that a Link did in cooperation with the human brain while working its magic.

To Nicholas the questions didn't feel too hard, Even if he had been putting a lot of work in to blacksmithing in game it didn't mean he was slacking in his assignments and studies. In fact you could say he was matching the amount of effort he spent in game.

After leaving the class room he head for the cafeteria since it was lunch time by the time he finished his writing. While buying his food he noticed Ken and Elle who were sitting at a table and talking.

He head for their table and took a seat.

"Finallly done eh Nic?" Ken asked.

"Yup, how did it go you two?."

"Easy." Ken answered.

"I probably passed." Elle followed.

"Yeah it wasn't particularly hard I guess."

Since the exam was too dull of a subject they instead started talking about LoI.

"I literally made a killing a few days ago. Some idiot set up a small tent to sell the crap he got from  his few days in the wilderness. Me being the merchant I am, I couldn't help but look around his stuff. He had plenty of mid grade items in his pile of junk but I noticed something amazing among them." Ken said excitedly

"And what was that?" Elle asked.

"There was this one gauntlet. It was massive, like really massive. I could probably put it on my head but that's not the main point. The point is he had no idea what it was made of, but I sure did. The whole glove was made of some high grade crystal.

"What crystal?" Nicholas asked.

"I don't know quite yet, but regardless of what it is made of paying 50 gold for it will in every case be worth it. If its something rare I could probably retire if I wanted to.

"So you swindled some unknowing fellow?" Elle stated.

"I took advantage of someone else's lack of knowledge. Sue me." Ken said confidently.

"If you put it like that Elle it sounds evil. But really if that guy had put in some effort to try and figure it out himself then he would be the one hitting the jackpot." Nicholas argued.

Elle just sighed.

"Anyway. Hows that blacksmithing thing going for ya Nic?" Elle asked.

"Good good. I'm currently learning Enchanting and once I've accomplished that I'll be done with all the teachings."

Both Ken and Elle turned their heads to Nic.

"Wait..Enchanting? Since when has blacksmithing taught enchanting?" Ken asked.

"Beats me. But really its an important part of blacksmithing"

"You know what. Now that you mentioned it, they say Camedyr Tin-flame is one of the best enchanters known to society as well as the greatest blacksmith. So it probably is true. " Elle stated.

"Oh yeah, now that guy is a legend. You should try and become his apprentice once you're done where ever you're working at right now. I hear he has a workshop in Dvalfgar in fact. He would probably have a thing or two to teach you." Ken said.

"Well yeah, he definitely does. I work there."

"Oh thats good then you wont even have to go look for.. wait what ?" Ken said confusedly

"Yeh I'm studying under Camedyr right now."

"You.. you're studying under the best known blacksmith and enchanter." Elle said unsurely.

"Yes. I've been with him for a month or two. He's a nice guy."

"And you're not bullshitting us ?" Ken said sternly.

"Why would I do that?"

Ken and Elle looked at each other for a moment then turned back to Nicholas.

"Well you're right. You're not the bullshitting type." Ken stated

"You're studying blacksmithing under the famous Camedyr Tin-flame and you've never thought to mention that?" Elle said with her eye brows raised.

"I didn't feel that was important. Sure he is famous but I'm not interested in rumors. Only thing that matters is if he is capable."

"I for one thought you were just learning from some random guy." Ken stated.

"Well at first I was, but it turns out that random guy was a former student of Camedyr and he recommended me to him."

"Ooh so that's why you left your starter town. I see."Ken said.

Ken and Elle asked eagerly about his days at the workshop from Nicholas. It turns out the subject was very exiting to them. Once they ran out of things to ask about Camedyr it was almost time for lunch to be over, but they still kept talking.

"So whats the plan after you're done with enchanting?" Elle asked.

"Don't really have one."

"You could become a millionaire by selling equipment. I know a certain merchant who could help you with that." Ken said slyly.

"I don't need massive amounts of money. Maybe I'll travel to another city and figure it out from there."

"Then you have to travel to Keittwell and we can hang out." Ken declared.

"Hmm, you know what... Maybe." Nicholas smiled.

The two didn't notice but Elle had been very uncomfortable ever since they mentioned Keittwell and meeting up.  And the moment they were about to notice ,she hid her discomfort behind a smile. Never bringing up a reason as if there was none.

At this point the lunch time was over and their class was starting so they picked up their things and left for the next lesson.