While I was trying to get my swarm to get the body to be more humanoid than goblinoid by flattening the protruding belly, Emir came back. He went up to the table and with a wave of his hand cleared the blood, gore and corpses off the table. Then he put some blocks of wood and my tool bag there.

"I have found that the magic in this Era is not that different from the previous." Emir said, "There are a few differences but I cannot tell you those. As telling you about those will make you lose out on a lot of rewards from the System and I might even be wrong in my assumptions and those would cloud your judgement. So, for now, we will do more magic lessons."

But before he could go on more about that I raised my hand and asked him through the telepathic link he re-established, "What does this 'Era' progression and 'new World Law' mean?"

He shook his head and said, "Right! You don't know about those, I will then answer those questions for you. Our World takes a fragment of any new World Law it finds. This happens mostly when an Otherworlder from a previously uncontacted World comes into our World carrying hints of the Laws from their World. That causes our World to integrate some of the Laws of that World. That could mean anything. I mean suddenly you might find that energies around you will act differently, monsters might mutate more or become more aggressive or docile. Anything can happen. When that happens a new 'Era' begins, this way we can keep a record of how many instances of this happened.

And as we don't know what changed the System will choose {Pioneer}s to look into the changes. But one thing that is common with all of them is that the start of a new Era message tells you the theme of the changes of that Era. Now, any more questions?"

I processed that information quickly and said, "How often does this happen? What number of Era did now start? What can you tell me about the previous Eras."

He chuckled and said, "This will be the 76th Era and there is no consistent timetable for a new Era to start. The other things I cannot say, because I am a System faculty and a Teacher. As a System Faculty, I cannot help you with System Quests. And as a Teacher, I cannot help you with any Quests given by Gods, Patrons, Teachers and Mentors.

So let's get to some crafting shall we!" He then sat on one of the chairs and picked up a block. I digested what he said and nodded. I went up to the table and inspected the wooden cubes, they were about 15 cm on all sides.

"So first we will make small rectangular pieces from this cube and then enchant them with various effects. Get started." Then he threw the cube at me. I caught it by reflex and then I put it on the table in front of me. I then opened the bag of tools now that I had enough strength to find an inky blackness in the opening.

I put a hand into it and pulled out a chisel and hammer out of it. They looked like normal mass-produced steel tools of my old world but in my energy senses shown with an energy tether that linked them to something inside the bag. I let that thought go and turned back to the block of wood. I turned to the bag again and brought out a small knife and a ruler. I made a 3cm by 3cm grid by marking with the knife on one side of the cube, keeping the grains of wood in mind.

I turn to ask Emir, "Can I use magic now?" Emir just nodded his head. I put the chisel on one of the score lines and hammer it sharply while guiding it with natura like I used to do with aether. It made a perfect cut in the cube. Then the next line and next. Like that, I made 25 almost identical pieces of wood. I then look at Emir for further instructions to find him nodding with a smile.

"Now we will start enchanting! First, we will do defence or material strengthening! Take one of the pieces and enchant it to enhance its material strength, but remember that this tier 1 material cannot take too much energy so keep that in mind." He told me and then again threw a piece at me.

I caught it and placed it in front of me. "Don't I need some kind of ink or something for the energy to stick to the wood?" I asked. He replied, "No, just apply a bit of mana at the tip of the engraver and engrave the rune, sigil, whatever you want."

I then put my hand into the bag to look for a pencil or marker but couldn't find one. I also didn't find my aetheric motorized engraving pen in the bag. I then turned the bag upside down to see what was inside it. A set of 4 chisels, a small hammer, a bigger hammer, a leather awl, a set of 6 sewing needles, a set of 3 small sharp knives, a mortar and pestle, a set of 4 brushes, a set of 2 engraving pens a 30 cm long wooden ruler, in all of the sets the tools were of various sizes. And at last, was a silver cube about 15 cm in length. The cube was covered in some kind of script that kept changing slightly as I was watching it.

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"Congratulations on your first Soulbound Artifact! Now, do you know how to soulbond?" Emir asked while smiling. I shake my head as I had never seen a Soulbound Artifact before nor how to do that in this World. But from the sound of it, this might be like how people attuned to certain items in my old world. He nodded his head and asked, "Do you wish to bond with this 'Artisan's Heart'?"

"What does this do? And what will happen if I bond with it?" I asked him. "This here is a variant of the well-known 'Equipment Core' that can connect to a limited number of armour, clothes, weapons, tools, bags etc to maintain and power, that people bind with. The 'Artisan's Heart' variant is a specialized version of that. It specializes in tools with a higher link capacity, cleaning and repairing features. Normally these cores are just manabound to power them and identify the user.

But this one soul binds and that means that this will grow alongside you like a familiar and this one even connects to your Domain Core to help channel Skill or Ability to your tools better!" He said excitedly.

I had to think about this as if I wanted to go into crafts then I would need tools and I already knew what a pain it was to keep my tools clean, but I also didn't know if I cut the soulbind off so I asked Emir that. "Yes, you can but not easily, as unbinding a soul link can damage the soul so until maybe tier 2 unbinding might be hazardous." He said.

After thinking about it I told him I would like to bind with the Artisan's Heart. He smiled and snapped his fingers. Just then a 3d multilayered sphere of runic circles manifested around the cube. Looking at them I knew that I could only see them through my energy senses, not the mundane ones. If I had a jaw to drop to the floor, I would most likely need healing to strap it back after seeing that complex runic script manifest that quickly and that there is no inefficiency that might cause light to be created.

"Now you need to complete the Ritual. Give it some of your nanaites and mana, then Name it. You can do some additions if you want as you have the {Grand Ritualist} Achievement." Emir happily explained to me. Hearing him took me out of awe from seeing him make the Ritual circle. I then had to think about if I wanted to add anything to it and didn't find anything. So I the name some thought as that might hold an effect like it did with Noctaru.

Thinking of him, I try to get a feel of where he is and find that I couldn't feel his connection in any direction. I panic a bit but then I hear "Ok...Death....Sleepy...." From our connection and calm down a little. It seemed that Noctaru died somehow and is recuperating? Going to have to ask Emir about this. But first going to have to Bond with this Core.

I asked Emir if I could add another Ritual circle on the table or not, but he gave me the OK. I then had a portion of the nanites a circle around the cube with an equilateral triangle inside. Then I wrote the Divine Symbols of the God of Technology (gear), the God of Crafts (hammer) and the Watcher (eye) on the sides of the triangle. Then I started the Ritual. Almost instantly the symbols took in the mana and natura to create an aura related to their respective Gods. I again felt the almost tingling sensation as it felt like somehow the symbols of the Gods weren't right. It felt like the Watcher's Symbol was interfering. I removed it and felt it stabilize but now it felt incomplete. I thought of which God might compliment this and got to the God of Magic. I quickly drew the esoteric sigil-like Symbol and felt the Ritual almost become more Real. But I still felt like the Watcher should be present. Then an inspiration struck me and I made the eye shape using the circle as the pupil. Again the Ritual became more. Then I started chanting,

"I, the Lost Child of Unknown,

By stars and void, by craft and throne,

Call forth the ancient, hidden ties,

In mystic depths, where magic lies.

Father of Machines, hear my plea,

With gears and cogs, align with me,

Bestow upon this heart your might,

To weave through metal, day and night.

ArcArtificer, master of craft,

Guide my hands, steady my path,

With hammers' ring and anvils' song,

Let Mantrakrit in skill grow strong.

ArchMagic, sovereign of the arcane,

Through written runes, through mystic flame,

Infuse this core with arcane power,

In twilight's hush, at witching hour.

Watcher, Void God, silent and deep,

Your vigil o'er this bond we keep,

Witness the rite, as worlds entwine,

In shadows dark, let fates align.

By runes inscribed and rites performed,

Let Mantrakrit be thus transformed,

A heart of craft, of magic, of lore,

Bound to my soul forevermore."

As I chanted the magic around us pulsed with power. The Symbols started to emit another kind of energy that the Ritual took in, I felt like we were SEEN. Then I felt something leak out of my core and into the Ritual as I said the last part. Then the Ritual was completed and the part that had leaked out snapped back into me. I saw that the nanites that I had used in the Ritual all crumbled to dust and got swept away by an unseen wind. Then I also noticed that the runes on the silver cube were now golden in colour. Then I saw the icon of the Quest tab light up in the corner of my vision.

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> [Soulbound Quest—

>

> 1. Worthy Vessel!

>

> Objective: Build a worthy Vessel for the God-blessed Artisan's Heart

>

> Reward: Full Soulbinding of the Artisan's Heart.]