A whirlwind of blue energy shot out of the opened book, forming into glowing slabs swirling around the room.
“Now let's see here,” Freia said, swiping with her index finger, causing the swirl of slabs to rotate. “Aha, this one should do nicely to start.”
She snatched a slab out of the air and walked over to Ray. He was stunned by the spectacle that had exploded out of the book and finally snapped out of it, seeing Freia walking in his direction.
“Will start ya off with a simple artificer task to see how ya like it.”
Ray took the slab from her. His eyes widened as a 3D model of a small wind-up box appeared before him.
“Pretty nifty, ay. Built this baby myself with a little help from a former student.” She said, patting the now closed book placed in a perfectly sized pocket sewn onto the side of her shirt.
“Let me show ya how to work that thing.”
She showed Ray a few hand gestures to examine different parts of the model. He could now deconstruct it, look at the smallest parts, and learn how they were meant to fit together.
“Now that ya got the hang of it, ya should be able to find the parts needed on the workbench over there.” She said, pointing to one of the cluttered tables.
Ray gulped, walking over to the large mess of parts.
“How am I supposed to find them in all this mess?” He asked.
“Ahh, forgot to show ya that, did I?” she said, walking over. “A few of my other students had complaints about that as well, for some reason. So I added a find feature in my notebook. Simply say, Locate in a firm voice and it will show ya what ya need.”
“Ok, Locate,” Ray said, holding the glowing slab of energy.
His eyebrows creased, and a frown formed on his lips before several lines of energy shot out and highlighted parts within the massive pile.
“There ya go. Now try puttin’ that thing together and show me the result once ya are done.”
“Got it.”
Ray said while collecting the parts that he needed. He then sat down and constructed the wind-up box piece by piece. A trance-like state came over him as his hand moved almost without input. Two minutes later, he was shocked to see the finished windup box in his hand. He quickly compared it to the instructions and found that it was a near-perfect replica.
Hmm, guess there is nothing left but to test it out.
He wound the crank and a musical melody came from the small device. A Crashing sound caused him to stop as Freia Rushed out of the back room at the sound. She looked down at the completed box and then up at Ray. She repeated the motion a few times before grabbing the device and examining it. Her eyes widened the farther she got, and she turned back to Ray with a stunned expression.
“How did ya make that so quickly?”
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“I don't know. It just felt like I've been doing this for years.” Ray responded.
Freia started muttering to herself while pacing back and forth and holding her chin in thought.
“Hmm, high int? Maybe, but that would not fully explain it.” Her eyes lit up. She turned to face Ray and brought her fist down into her hand while exclaiming.
“Ma gave ya access to the Draconic library, didn’t she!”
“Umm, yes, but how does that explain it?” Ray asked.
“Well, it's not a library in the traditional sense. It's more like a collection of all the knowledge that we scale kin have ever gained. What level did she give ya access to?”
“Only the first.”
“Makes sense. Ma would rarely give it to an outsider at all, so I doubted she would give ya anythin’ deeper than that.”
“Ok, but you still haven't explained how that correlates to me being able to build that music box so quickly.”
“Oh right, sorry, I got a bit sidetracked there. Like I said, it is a collection of all of our knowledge, but for ya to understand, I am goin’ to have to tell ya the story of the first scale monarch. Follow me. This tale may take a while, so we might as well get comfortable.”
Ray followed her into the back room, where he saw a forge that was still smoldering next to a large anvil. They went towards another door located at the end of the forge room. The door opened to reveal a small room containing three comfortable armchairs and a table cluttered with blueprint papers.
“Have a seat.”
Freia said, gesturing to one chair and taking a seat on her own. Ray obliged, making himself comfortable for the story to come. Seeing that Ray was ready, Freia took a deep breath and began.
“Long ago, there was a lizard named Echo. He lived inside a large underground house and had many humans takin’ care of his every want and need. His favorite was a woman named Lizzy. Lizzy would always have extra snacks for him whenever she was around, which Echo appreciated. One day when Lizzy came to visit, she gave Echo a new gift that she called a spark. She said that he would be among the first to receive one and that he could do great things with it. After the integration, Echo gained a large amount of intelligence and learned how to speak. He enjoyed long conversations with Lizzy and her friends, but one day they stopped visitin’, leavin’ Echo alone. He made his way out of the underground facility and out into the world. Eventually, he broke through to the first tier of ascension and evolved into the first scale kin. He continued on his path but remained lonely until one day he made it to the second tier and created a legendary skill. This skill gave his same gift to all lizard kind, evolvin’ them into scale kin and grantin’ them a spark like his. He took on a leadin’ role with his newfound brethren and became the first scale monarch. Echo led like that for a few hundred years before humans again appeared. He tried to reach out to them but was sad to find that they had regressed to a large degree. Humans had forgotten most of the knowledge needed to create wonders, like Lizzy's gift to him. Saddened by this realization, he wanted to ensure his kind wouldn't suffer the same fate, so he secluded himself for 50 years before completin’ his greatest gift to my kind. Echo created a second legendary skill in the Draconic Library. A way for all scale kin to access the knowledge of our past, allowin’ us to progress on already threaded paths with staggerin’ speed. Sadly, Echo paid a price for this creation. The library's creation cost Echo his soul, now he must organize all the incomin’ information to prevent the skill from bein’ overloaded and causin' all scale kin to lose access to his gift”
A sad expression accompanied Freia's ending to the tale. The pair remained silent for a brief period while Ray composed his thoughts.
“So I can craft it like I have done it before because the memories from you and any other scale kin that has made one in the past help guide me?”
“Yeah, since ya only have access to the first layer at the moment, it will only help ya with basic projects and questions, but not to worry. I'm sure Ma will grant ya more once yer further along in ya trainin’, and even if she doesn’t gettin’ to the first level of ascension will grant ya full access regardless. Anywho let's get you started on the next project shall we"