Before I knew it, I had spent over a week with Gregory, learning the ins and outs of being a basic Enchanter. Once Gregory saw how well I took in his lessons, combined with my gains from [Prodigy] and [Apprentice], it became a relentless pace of nonstop learning. I'd swear he was more excited than I was to learn new things and eager to get me out of [Rune Etching] as quickly as possible.

Despite all that, and even with the multiple stacking bonuses, once we hit level five, it was like we had hit a brick wall, and the push to level six was grueling. Practically every scrap of wood Gregory could come across was eventually laid before me to etch into. The reason for our mad rush was for me to purchase [Rune Carving], which, from the explanation I got, was a tiered skill like Trixie had mentioned to me, meaning I would need to pay upwards of five points to tier up [Rune Etching] into it!

Gregory was similar-minded to me in that he hated to waste points, but after a long discussion, we decided to stop at level six. The benefits were far too great to have early access to [Rune Carving], which would open up many new ways for me to work and learn simultaneously. Not to mention, Gregory had said there were other ways to make up for the points later. When I finally got the notification, both of us cheered so loud that we had some of the guild workers check up on us to ensure that everything was still okay.

<5 Profession Points are now available.>

'Yes!' I had never agreed to a prompt so quickly before.

<[Rune Etching LV 6] becomes [Rune Carving LV 1]. Profession Points Remaining 1.>

And with my remaining point, I was instructed to finally purchase [Rune Framework].

It was nice to finally get a new skill, as I had been sitting on only [Rune Reading] and [Rune Etching] for so long. [Rune Reading] had reached level five in this time, although since I couldn't enchant anything above rank three, it was a little meaningless. [Rune Framework] would allow me to design the complex layouts required to link multiple circles together and would be necessary for our next learning steps as I sold my services to insulate housing for Winter.

My other skills offered by the class were either a little disappointing or something I'd purchase later. [Rune Inspection] would let me judge the quality of individual runes or an inscription as a whole, which might have been useful if I was self-taught. But I had an expert as my master, and I'd grown a little attached to hearing him say "perfect" when judging my work. At level ten, I was offered [Bartering], which was likely when basic enchanters probably started to try earning an income. Level fifteen had offered me [Rune Carving], which felt deliberately taunting.

I also still had [Rune Design] from [Apprentice], which was all about designing custom runes and likely far above my level. Gregory was initially surprised I had been offered that, and one evening, while discussing it, we boiled down the likelihood of it coming from the fact that I had worked on customizing spells. Supposedly, the two were very similar, and judging by how I could almost recognize some of the patterns from my spell constructs and concepts, I could see why. While Gregory applauded my gumption, he recommended holding off until I get [Rune Tracing] as it would be the safest option when experimenting with unknown runes.

One reason we hoarded these early points was the potential to upgrade to [Rune Engraving] early. Ultimately, the decision would be mine to make, but Gregory had said it would speed up my growth tremendously, and he was authorized to throw many more resources my way if I had access to it. I figured this was potentially Johnathan trying to get an earlier return on investment, but I was honestly tempted to do it earlier myself.

While I was enjoying my time as Sylvester, I still had a commitment I refused to abandon as Syl. Realistically, I could throw another month and a half into this before Syl needed to return and head out toward the dungeon. Getting to gold rank, visiting the dwarves, and getting my silver slime core was infinitely more important than potentially getting another white slime core. Realistically, I'd likely abandon Sylvester to the wind if I needed to, and I could slowly piece together the class myself. However, what paused me about that was I'd be completely screwing over Gregory, with whom I'd formed a very amicable master-apprentice relationship. If Sylvester disappeared mid-training, then Gregory would end up in hot water with Johnathan, and there would be skill and level penalties for breaking [Apprentice] as well. I still had plenty of time to consider and reassess it, so I left it alone for now.

My biggest reason for wanting to get [Rune Engraving] as soon as possible was brought about by an errant thought: Could I engrave my own cores? From everything I understood about Enchanting, it seemed likely. In theory, I could try it already with [Rune Carving], but I was a little worried about my cores exploding when the carving reached its lifetime.

"Hey, Gramps! I exploded myself by enchanting my core! Whoops?" Was not a conversation I wanted to have. It was likely an irrational fear; enchantments were relatively safe, but something about it bugged me. I'd maybe test on one of my [Sub-Cores] once I received the basic training on spherical enchantments.

I also tried out my theory of using slime to etch, and it worked! Sorta... The etching worked perfectly for about two seconds before the piece of wood violently exploded. My theory was that it had far too much mana for [Rune Etching] to handle, which was why I was super excited to try out [Rune Carving] and eventually [Rune Engraving] with slime! The issue was clearly [Mana Slime], and even when I dropped it down to the minimum density, it was just too much. Perhaps if I evolved away from a blue slime, I'd be able to toggle the trait instead of being all mana slime all the time.

That's not to say my entire life was nothing but enchanting. I still spent my evenings and sometimes mornings working on my magic. I spent a lot of much-needed time consolidating all my spells for each element to each have a basic applicable template.

For Ice, I successfully added the freeze concept to everything and then combined [Chill] into all the spells, greatly enhancing their effects. I also further upgraded [Icicle] to include [Frostbite], and while it was a bit of a mana hog to combine so much into one spell, it is now exceptionally deadly. With one spell, it would deal both Ice and Piercing damage from the initial hit, and then it would permeate both a freezing effect and ice damage over time. I tried to work a little with [Glacial Aura], but Trixie was not joking about its difficulty. I solidly put it on the back burner for now.

For Fire, I replicated what I did with Ice and worked on adding [Combust] to all my damage-related spells, as they already had [Heat] from when I was training with Dewi. Fire was a lot easier to work with, and I wasn't also trying to juggle an advanced ailment concept, so it was almost no effort at all.

Water... Was in an odd place. I didn't have an affliction or ailment for it. Instead, I just kept working on applying more compressed [Torrent] spells together. I had nearly matched the output I had seen from the undine. Since I didn't have any spell combinations to make, I instead investigated my unused [Rain Cloud] spell. Honestly, I almost felt like it was on par with [Glacial Aura] in terms of complexity, which, coming from a basic element, was certainly saying something! My immediate thought was to try to make a fire or acid rain, but without a lot of trial and error in a big open area, I was reluctant to proceed further in case I burnt or melted down the inn!

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Lightning was shockingly fun, pun intended! And my enchanting practice actually helped me out a bit with this one. I would bring some of my pieces of wood enchanted with durability or magic resistance back home with me, and thanks to [Lightning Rod], it became a relatively safe way to test my spells! Well, that was after I learned how to soundproof my room by creating multiple dampening enchantments and covering the floor, walls, and ceiling with them. Before soundproofing my room, I had caused a minor panic when I first cast [Lightningbolt], which I thankfully explained away as an enchanting accident.

Speaking of [Conductive], I finally tested my combination of it and [Lightning Rod] and was most satisfied with the result. However, I received a strange series of notifications once I cast it.

<[Conductive] spell has been registered.>

It was strange; I had definitely cast [Conductive] before but had no prompt to name it or discovery notification. Searching my memories, I noticed this oddity with all of my debuff spells; the debuff had a predetermined name, and I had just copied it for the spell. When I cast my other debuffs once, I received bizarre prompts for all of them.

<[Permable] spell has been registered.>

<[Flammable] spell has been registered.>

<[Frigid] spell has been registered.>

I hoped this meant I gained bonus experience for discovering or creating these spells because I felt I needed any edge to reach level six sooner. The level five wall was no joke.

With debuff and attack spell covered, I naturally started working on an affliction. Lightning was similar to Fire in that it seemed naturally highly compatible with the "damage over time" aspect, which I had previously kept calling poison. It barely took up an evening and a morning to create it before I cast it on one of my pieces of enchanted wood.

I was honestly struggling to think up a name for this one as I stared at the piece of wood sparkle with tiny zaps of lightning coursing through it. The strange behavior was due to [Lightning Rod], which made my lightning affliction stick to something it probably shouldn't be able to.

'I dunno... Call it [Zap]?' I thought with a shrug.

<[Zap] spell has been registered.>

<[Zap] spell has been unregistered.>

'Unregistered!?' I screamed in protest.

<[Electrocute] spell has been registered.>

'... Does this mean Mother hated my name? What's wrong with [Zap]? [Create: Ice Stupid] is fine, but you have issues with [Zap]?' I mentally shouted to the void.

<[Lightning Magic LV 3] spell [Ball Lightning] learned.>

I went silent at the new notifications as the new spell was injected into my mind. Like the name implied, it would make a lightning ball, which would drift in the direction it was cast in until colliding or disappearing. Anything too close to the ball would be shocked by arcs that discharged from the ball. Casting the spell but not releasing it, I could see that empowering it would increase the ball's size and likely the arcs' range.

'Come to think of it, it's kind of like my [Voltaic Slime] when it's overloaded. I bet this would go well with [Lightning Rod].'

Even with [Lightning Rod] and soundproofing, I dared not cast even a tiny version of this spell inside.

[Corrosion Magic] and [Arcane Magic] had unfortunately taken a backseat during this time, even if I wasn't currently an Elementalist [Elemental Shift] made it so much easier to work with elemental mana in general. I still wanted to create a poison debuff, but other than that, I felt like I was in a relatively good spot with [Corrosion Magic] as I had already added damage over time to [Acid Dart].

I didn't have a good excuse with [Arcane Magic]. It certainly wasn't as exciting as my other magic when I first got it. When I initially ran into the hurdle of trying to create an affliction or debuff, I abandoned it for easier solutions. However, with Enchanting and all my gains on my other forms of magic, I felt like I was on the edge for my next level in [Mana Manipulation]. I promised myself I'd give it some much-needed attention as soon as I got that long-awaited and glorious notification.

Speaking of gains, the newly formed cores had almost caught up, having reached level four and likely soon to hit that horrible wall that was level five. I was tempted to grab one more [Sub-Core] for an even ten, but after my stolen trait points and my level debt, I decided to save those precious few points.

The evening I got [Rune Carving], Gregory even took me out to Moonsong for dinner to celebrate. It was an unexpected surprise and made me even more determined to impress him tomorrow. Regrettably, I was forced to wear a suit, which made me feel strangely uncomfortable after wearing mimicked slime clothes for so long. If the suit wasn't a rental, I would have eaten and copied it on the spot.

Oh well. At least the food was amazing.

Name: Sylvester [Apprentice]

Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 1 (-8)

Class: Enchanter LV 20

Status: Healthy

Mana: Overflowing

Emblems:

[Experiment]

[Apex Hunter]

[Elven Legacy]

[Dungeoneer]

[Nature's Bane]

[Manhunter]

[Apprentice]*

Traits:

Slime:

[Mana Slime LV 11]

[Acid Slime LV 7]

[Poison Slime LV 6]

[Blaze Slime LV 6]

[Cryo Slime LV 5]

[Voltaic Slime LV 6]

[Morph Slime LV 7]

[Pseudopod LV 7]

[Slime Shot LV 7]

[Slime Burst LV 6]

[Vaporize Slime]

Core:

[Core Collective LV 8]

[Core Storage LV 6]

[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Zeta LV 4]

[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]

[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 4]

[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 4]

[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 4]

Mimic:

[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]

[Chroma Shift LV MAX]

[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]

Mana:

[Mana Circulation LV 7]

[Mana Reinforcement LV 7]

[Mana Infusion]

Attributes/Other:

[Soul Mastery LV 7]

[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]

[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 5]

[Curse Resistance LV 1]

[Illusion Resistance LV 1]

[Prodigy]

Senses:

[Olfactory Sense]

[Dark Vision LV MAX]

[Mana Conception LV 6]

[Life Sight LV 3]

[Thermal Vision LV MAX]

[Eagle Vision LV 3]

[EM Field LV 2]

Trait Points remaining: 3

Skills:

General:

[Universal Language]

[Equipment Swap]

[Dissection LV 6]

[Mapping LV 5]

[Tracking LV 2]

[Identify LV 5]

[Multitasking LV 5]

[Perception LV 4]

[Aerial Finesse LV 4]

Combat:

[Tranquil Flow LV 5]

[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 7]

[Affliction Mastery LV 5]

[Exploit Weakness LV 3]

Magic:

[Water Magic LV 5]

[Fire Magic LV 5]

[Corrosion Magic LV 5]

[Ice Magic LV 5]

[Arcane Magic LV 2]

[Lightning Magic LV 3]

[Mana Manipulation LV 5]

[Magic Efficiency LV 4]

[Counter Magic LV 3]

[Elemental Shift LV 4]

[Elemental Adaptation]

[Ritual Casting]

[Mana Suppression]

[Meditate]

Sneaky:

[Vanish LV 6]

[Sneak Attack LV 6]

[Identity Fabrication LV 6]

[Acting LV 4]

[Rogue Expertise LV 4]

[Magical Subterfuge LV 3]

[Subtle Afflictions]

Skill Points remaining: 14

Profession:

Enchanting:

[Rune Reading LV 5]

[Rune Carving LV 1]

[Rune Framework LV 1]

Profession Points Remaining: 0