The sun was setting as Lee stared at Neia’s bloody knife in his grasp. His first test was successful, but he couldn’t abuse his Healer’s Touch ability right now, or people would have questions. Without a tent, he was out in the open. While he could use his mana to heal his wounds, he also needed his mana to cast Anesthesilosurge. Without an easy way to hide himself from others, he put his leveling on hold.

Lee stored Neia’s knife as Jeremy strode into camp, flustered and weary. He gave Lee a hesitant and pitying smile as he placed a small, delicately crafted wooden box down in front of Lee.

“What is this?” Lee asked as he lifted the small wooden box. Carved into the box were numerous words, such as Element, Fire, Smoke, Repair, Strength, and Mana. The words repeated themselves over the box in what Lee would call random positions. They were not spaced or placed in some sort of artistic manner at all.

“Enchanting tools. They’re yours to keep.” Jeremy said with a slightly forced smile.

Lee opened the box and found two long items on an indented purple cushion. One was a simple-looking silver rod with a slight hook toward the end. Very similar to a fancy crocheting tool.

The other made Lee laugh as soon as he laid his eyes upon it.

Lee would readily admit that he wasn’t as knowledgeable regarding fantasy stuff as others from Earth. Yes, he had heard of goblins, elves, minotaurs, and the like, but many others would be much more informed than he was. But this item? Everyone knew this item. A child could tell you what it was.

A magic wand.

The wand was made from both metal and wood. The handle was silver, with etched lines along the surface to give it some grip, and the simple wooden shaft extended outwards to a rounded tip. It didn’t look very magical, and that’s probably because it wasn’t, but it was still a momentous occasion.

Lee scoffed as he picked up the wand. “I never thought I’d see the day. A wand.”

Enchanting Wand - (Common): A simple beginner wand for enchanting. It helps in focusing base mana.

Enchanting Hook - (Common): A simple beginner hook for enchanting. It helps with infusing mana into objects.

Jeremy raised a brow at Lee’s response but ignored the situation's oddity. “I know you said you wanted to help out, but with everything that happened today, I would understand if you’re not up to the task…”

Lee waved the wand around like a child and cut Jeremy off. “I’m okay. Em helped me through the worst of it. Ready to give me a walkthrough? Also, where did you get this?”

Lee could physically see some of the stress leave Jeremy’s body. He loosened up and eased like a hundred-pound weight had just fallen from his shoulders. “I bought it off an adventurer. They apparently had moved on from the basic tools and upgraded.”

Jeremy sat beside Lee as he began his small lesson with a smile. “While I am not an enchanter, I know some of the basics. To start with, you need to know an enchantment to inscribe.”

Seeing Lee’s non-worried face, he continued on. “Next, you use your mana and write the enchantments glyph into an item. From what I was told, you use the wand to focus your mana to write with and use the hook to etch it into the item itself. I’m sure skills, such as Mana Infusion, are involved somewhere in the process, but I don’t know much else.”

It was a simple explanation, but Lee got the gist of it. It would take a lot of trial and error on his part, but he was confident in figuring it out. He just hoped it would be soon, as they were going into the cavern full of statues tomorrow.

Lee didn’t know too many enchantments. He knew a few, but none of them were very useful for combat, other than maybe Self-Repair. So, Lee took the easy way out. He quickly got up and walked to the nearest camp.

It took him less than a minute to arrive, and once he did, he politely nodded toward a woman dressed in full leather who was cutting some vegetables up for dinner. She looked up at him curiously---Obviously not expecting his presence.

Lee gave her a smile and made his sales pitch. “Sorry for the intrusion, but I was wondering if you happened to have any enchanted weapons or armor I could get a quick look at? I can read enchantments, so I can tell you what enchantments are on them in case you don’t know. I just wanted to test it on items that weren’t mine.” He finished by pointing at his Robe of the Genesis.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The woman stopped cutting and leaned forward, her hands resting underneath her chin. Her eyes focused on his robes for a moment, then she raised an eyebrow in surprise. She hummed. “Weird request, but okay. We found an amulet a few months back, tell me what it is and I’ll let you look at my dagger.”

She got up and rummaged through the back of their wagon before pulling out a small satchel. Deftly, she picked out a small iron amulet and held it up for Lee to see. The amulet was made of interlocking rings of iron, but had a small blue gemstone within the solid centerpiece. Lee used Identify.

Iron Amulet - (Rare): This iron amulet, centered with sapphire, was handcrafted by a father for the one they so dearly loved. Enchanted with Bane: Rust.

Lee read the description and gave her a warm smile. “Easy enough. It’s enchanted with something called bane. Specifically, bane rust. I assume it’s rustproof.”

The woman gave Lee a slight defeated frown and placed it back into her small satchel. “Damn. I was hoping it was something special. Could have been worth a lot of money.”

That was understandable. Not knowing what you have until it’s appropriately appraised would cause a lot of hope. Out of curiosity, Lee asked. “What do you see when it comes to the enchantment part of the Identify?”

The woman looked at him a little funny but explained nonetheless. “A bunch of that damn enchanting language. Lots of squiggly lines and symbols. Just like everyone else.”

She sighed, drew her dagger, then held it out for Lee to see. She shrugged. “Fair is fair.”

Wrawclast Dagger - (Epic): This beautiful dagger was crafted by an expert blacksmith for Paulina Redguard. Wrought from Wrawclast and sharpened to a fine point. Enchanted with Sharpness and Self-Repair.

And as easy as that, Lee had what he wanted. Sharpness would be the one he would use. He nodded in thanks as he turned back to his camp. “Thanks, Paulina.”

“No problem,” Paulina said as she sat back down to cut vegetables.

Lee sat on his furs and withdrew his traveling knife. He remembered from the book of enchanting from The Consortium of Magical Scholars that only some items could hold enchantments. The higher an item's quality, the more or higher quality enchantments an item could hold.

While his little traveling knife from the general store wasn’t anything special, he hoped it could hold a simple enchantment. Lee wasn’t actually sure if Sharpness was a simple enchantment, but the book he read in Neldam said the more advanced enchantments provided stat buffs. Hopefully, Sharpness wasn’t pushing his luck.

Lee grabbed both the enchanting hook and wand and then started his attempt. He channeled base mana into the wand and used Mana Manipulation to draw out the word Sharpness. With the hook, he used Mana Manipulation and Mana Infusion to pull the thin mana letters downward, scraping against the knife’s blade.

It took Lee several minutes of trial and error to actually get the mana to infuse into the knife’s blade, and when he was finished, the result was… scribbles.

Lee used Identify.

Belt-Knife - (Common): A knife with an unsuccessful enchantment. S𐍆𐌸𐌰ne𐍃'𐌰

Well, if we’re looking on the bright side. At least it has an Identify text now… Is that what enchanting language is supposed to look like? Lee thought.

Since he failed, he guessed that his Language Comprehension ability failed to recognize his attempt as a language. Lee thought it was valid, but another question soon dawned on him. He paused and slowly lowered his tools.

If I can’t choose to hear, write, or communicate in another language… How am I writing in the enchanting language? Did I just…?

Lee sat there, baffled at what had just transpired. Before his attempt, he didn’t even think about how he was writing in the enchanting language; he just did it. As a test, Lee waved Jeremy over toward him.

Jeremy broke away from his quiet conversation with Em and approached.

“Jeremy, how many languages do you know?” Lee asked.

Jeremy, not expecting this question, looked confused and nervous. “Just Barrusian. Why?”

Lee mentally filed away that they were speaking Barrusian and made a ‘gimme’ gesture with an outstretched hand. “I need to write something down for a test. I may be onto something here. Paper and pen, please.”

“Pen?” Jeremy asked.

Lee froze for a second. “Quill, sorry.”

Jeremy reached into his uniform, pulled out his notebook and quill, and handed it over. Lee thought about writing in English and mentally affirmed that English was what he was writing in. He wrote out a simple phrase. ‘My name is Lee Barnes.’

Once finished, he showed the notebook to Jeremy and asked. “Can you read this?”

Jeremy grabbed the notebook and gave it a simple glance. “No.”

He squinted his eyes and looked very curious. “What language is this?”

“Not important. One more test.” Lee said as he closed his eyes and now focused on speaking English.

He opened his eyes, looked up at Jeremy, and confidently spoke. “Can you understand me?”

Jeremy looked at him blankly. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Lee smiled at his success. Too bad it only lasted about half a second before Jeremy answered. “Of course I can. Is this some kind of joke?”

Lee’s smile shattered and was replaced with embarrassment. “Sorry. I was testing my ability. I just discovered some interesting uses. I’ll get back to enchanting…”