Kaleb watched the small gnome doing his best to fight back against the magical pressure coming from the black Mana Stone. The magical pressure in the room was almost stifling. Kaleb felt himself practically choking on the sour stench growing in the air. While he could feel the Magical energy in the room, he could do nothing to help, magically at least.

“Get more salt water, damn it!” Daivor shouted, snapping Kaleb out of his stupor.

Kaleb cleared his head and ignored the smell, heading into the kitchen he grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with water. Back in the garage he dumped the salt into the water and grabbed at the gray-black Mana Stone. Overcome with the gross and corrupt power of the stone he almost dropped back on the table. Gathering his willpower Kaleb jammed the stone down into the cup.

An inch from the cup’s rim his hand jerked to a hard stop. He could feel the stone fighting against the pressure of his hand. Kaleb used his robotic arm to help, but the dark stone proved almost immobile. Glancing at Daivor, Kaleb noticed that the Gnome seemed more relaxed than he had before. He had clearly taken the burden off Daivor. But now he had to deal with a floating black spot of evil in his garage.

“Now what?” Kaleb asked still fighting against the floating stone.

“Push, boss. Use your magic if you can.” Daivor said still maintaining his own spells.

Kaleb focused hard on his own hands, willing them to be heavier. He tried to conjure an image of strength in his mind as he stood up on his toes and bared down. Kaleb saw an aura of his yellow Mana shroud both of his hands and the stone sank abruptly. The sudden shift took both Kaleb and the stone by surprise. As stone touched the surface of the salt water Kaleb thought he heard an ungodly shriek.

Daivor seemed to be the only one in control of himself as he ran forward and slid under Kaleb’s outstretched arms. The Gnome quickly picked up the previous glass’ silk covering and swatted Kaleb arms aside. More from surprise than the Gnome strength, Kaleb moved his arms and allowed the Gnome to cover the new cup. Daivor held on and chanted a spell as the stone feeble bounded against the silk covering.

Kaleb breathed a sigh of relief as the dark stone’s struggling seemed to die down. As he watched, he realized his arms still held the weird yellow glow. His arms felt invigorated which was a strange feeling. Everything from his elbow up felt energized, he could almost feel his arms vibrating.

The stone’s struggling ceased and Daivor finished his chanting. Looking up to Kaleb studying his arms the Gnome nodded at his glowing arms and asked.

“What’s that one then?”

Kaleb shook his head as the glow around his hands vanished. Then he remembered his spell book in his character menu. Opening it up he scanned through the pages for any new spells. There was the telekinesis spell he had used to call Daivor’s cup into the garage. Several more pages over was the spell Kaleb had just used. It was a 60 second strength-buff spell called Boost (Low).

Apparently the spell only affected the chosen limb, arms, legs, head, tail etcetera. But he couldn’t use it on weapons. The spell entry was scarce, showcasing Kaleb’s own lack of understanding. As he went over the other entries, he realized that the information he had was limited. He guessed he would have to study up on the spells to get the full picture of what they did.

Glancing back down at Daivor, Kaleb answered. “Strength spell. Doesn’t last long but it could prove useful.”

Daivor nodded absently as he watched the plastic cup. Kaleb eyed the cup warily for a few seconds before he went into the kitchen. Grabbing a towel he cleaned off his workbench and made sure nothing was damaged. An Enchantment Glove had gotten a little wet but Daivor assured him it would be fine.

As he cleaned Kaleb checked his current MP. He was down to 40 MP. His spell book’s entry had said Boost (Low) was a 10 MP spell. Kaleb kept his eye on his Mana as he cleaned, wanting to get an idea of its recovery rate. It seemed to come back faster than his HP, almost like his stamina. Sure enough, after watching his MP he found that it came back at 5 MP a minute, the same as his stamina.

Kaleb glanced up at the clock and saw it was approaching noon. Deciding to break for lunch, he and Daivor collected the cups and entered the kitchen to eat. As they ate, rested, and kept an eye on the purifying Mana Stones, Daivor asked about their next projects.

“After the wand and Foci, what’s next?”

“I still need something for Mass, and D34d–I.” Kaleb answered as he bit into his sandwich.

Daivor nodded. “Any ideas?”

Kaleb chewed as he thought about the pair. “Mass is easy. Maybe make leather hand wraps with bone plates on certain areas for protection. D34d–I will be trickier, he uses guns. I don’t know what I could do for him.”

“Make him a gun?” Daivor asked.

“Out of what? All we have are claws, skin, bones, sinew, and other bits of Ifrit.”

Daivor shook his head. “Those claws and bones are stronger than some metals. All you have to do is make the parts. That will be the real pain in the ass, But your Magic should help with the finer points.”

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Kaleb mulled it over, taking another bite from his sandwich. “What about bullets? Could we use the bone to cap a standard cartridge?”

Daivor nodded sipping at his water. “Yeah, but the entire cartridge would have to be custom. You would have to increase the yield of the primer to even get the bullet out of the barrel.”

“We save that for the end of the day then. For now, it’s back to work on Vivienne’s wand and Varlin’s Foci.” Kaleb said picking up his plate.

“Have you thought of the setting you want for the Foci? Is it going to be a necklace? An earring?” Daivor waggled his eyebrows. “A ring?”

Kaleb snorted a laugh as he set the dishes in his sink. “Let's go with a necklace for now.”

Kaleb glanced at the 6 cups of salt water. The first couple of glasses had stopped bubbling, Kaleb wondered if that meant the Mana Stones were purified. Holding one up to the light he saw that the black stone had gone white. Almost like a crystal. Daivor must have seen him looking at the glass because the Gnome said.

“Looks like that one’s done. Wand or Foci?”

Kaleb poured out the salt water and held the small stone in his hand. “Let's go with the wand first.”

Daivor nodded. “I’ve got an idea about the wand.”

After moving everything back into the garage Daivor looked for something on the workbench as Kaleb picked up Vivienne’s wand. He quickly finished wrapping the handle and set the white Mana Stone into his prepared setting. Daivor said once Kaleb added his Mana the stone would sit more firmly in the wand.

As Kaleb moved back over to the workbench, he saw Daivor rolling the Ifrit’s heart over to him. Kaleb raised an eyebrow and the Gnome just smiled. Daivor pulled out a small knife and chanted as he moved around the heart. Black lines of heart skin less than an inch wide fell to the workbench. Kaleb watched as Daivor circled the heart three times pulling three strips of heart skin from the heart.

Once done, Daivor ran a hand across his forehead and looked up at Kaleb. “Wrap this heart skin around the wand. Then pour your magic into it.”

Seeing the Gnome’s look of smug satisfaction with his idea Kaleb said. “You know I had this idea a while ago.”

“Sure, Sure.”

Deciding not to worry about who came up with the idea first, Kaleb rolled his eyes and followed the Gnome’s instructions. He carefully wrapped the three thin pieces of skin around the bone white wand. Once he finished he looked at the Gnome for any other instructions. When none were forthcoming, he placed his hand over the wand and forced his Mana down into it.

Unlike imprinting the wand didn’t tug at his Mana. He felt like he was forcing something down into a drawer which was already too full. As he kept an eye on his MP, Kaleb noticed the wand shake and the strips of heart skin seemed to tighten around the surface of the wand. At about 25 MP the wand slowed its shaking and the heart skin had become embedded into the wand.

“I think you are done, boss.” Daivor said, going over the wand with a critical eye.

Kaleb rubbed his temples, exhausted. He had gotten most of his MP back over lunch, but now it was mostly gone again. He needed to Magically workout or something. As he relaxed against his worktable, he thought of ways to exercise his Magic. As he was thinking about Magical training equipment Daivor gave a whistle of pride.

“That’s good work, boss. The stone upped the quality, but I think you lost on Mana storage capacity.”

Kaleb moved over to the wand and went to pick it up. As he did, the system asked him to name his creation. Kaleb smiled as he typed his name in and checked the wand’s stats.

*Wand of The Ifrit*

Mana Efficacy: 92%

Mana Channeling: A

Mana Stone: Yes

Mana Capacity: 30 MP

Maker Mark: Auto

Abilities: 15% more damage on fire spells

Kaleb realized he had no frame of reference for how good the wand was. Daivor seemed impressed though, maybe Vivienne would too. The Gnome had said he had lost Mana Capacity though. Kaleb wondered if he could maintain a few stones as a back-up Mana supply. Would they have to be put into equipment first or could he carry them around?

As Kaleb was thinking things over Daivor beamed up at him. “That’s one down boss. I’ll find a good setting for the Foci if you want to check the leather.”

Kaleb nodded absently before he thought to ask the Gnome his questions about the Mana Stones.

“It’s really up to your preference. Some say it is easier to gauge Mana Capacity once they set it into equipment. You could carry them around but there’s no telling how much Mana they are holding.” Daivor answered Kaleb’s question.

Kaleb mulled that over as he checked the drying leather pieces. They were still wet here and there so he repositioned them and would check them again later. He also noted that leather was rough against his skin. He would have to soften it somehow before Jar-lock wore it. Otherwise the big Warlock would probably get scratched up by his own armor.

Kaleb went back to his lab and checked what Daivor had collected for Varlin’s Foci. The Gnome had found a small 2-inch square of metal. He had somehow bent the sides in so they held the Mana Stone. It impressed Kaleb with how quick the Gnome worked. The setting was a little plain though; it was a white stone on a silver metal.

“Anything else we can do for the Foci?” Kaleb asked.

Daivor shook his head. “Not really. If we had Ifrit blood that would be different. But…”

*SMACK*

Daivor stopped talking as Kaleb slapped himself in the face. Kaleb darted around his Lab trying to remember where he had put the vial of Enchanted Ifirt blood. Eventually he found it on a nearby worktable next to his 3 other vials of Ifrit blood he had collected. He returned to Daivor panting and holding out the small vial of blood.

Kaleb smiled wide. “We have a bunch more. We drained some blood from the Ifrit before Derana took it. I have to figure out where Roy put the rest though.”

Daivor sniffed at the vial in Kaleb’s hand. “This one’s no good. Someone already enchanted it, pretty badly too. No Runes or Imprinting, he poured magic into it and hoped it held. If this wasn’t a magically creature, the magic would have gone inert a long time ago.”

Kaleb rolled his eyes and grabbed another vial of Ifrit blood. Daivor took it and stared at it with a critical eye. After judging the blood satisfactory the Gnome smiled and uncapped the vial.

“Ok, I will pour a drop of this onto the Mana Stone while you channel your magic into it. Keep the flow of your Mana steady. I like my beard on my face.”

Kaleb checked his Mana and grimaced. He was only at 50 MP; he didn’t want to chance something going wrong if he didn’t have enough Mana. He was about to tell Daivor they would have to wait when he heard his doorbell ring. Daivor set the vial of blood down as Kaleb stuck his head out of his garage door.

Seeing his favorite Magical Trio, Kaleb grinned. “Ha! You guys are just in time!”