I hunched over a small stone tablet–a Sending Stone. I couldn’t use mana to engrave it, which meant I had to do it a bit more cleverly than a normal mage. I mixed together several common plants, including rowan, in a mortar and pestle. Once the mixture was a fine powder, I added in a final pair of ingredients: fairy dust and bat’s blood. Bats were creatures of the night, but they were relatively neutral in the grand scheme of things, neither good nor evil. Fairies were a special kind of faerie, and their dust was something that they naturally created. The dust mixed with the blood for a goopy consistency, and then together the mixture touched the plants. Each plant used was a fey repellant of some kind, and the mixtures opposed one another. I swirled them around until they were one, and I’d created a small acidic sludge.

I dipped a stylus into the mixture and drew my spell formula into the stone. It hissed as the acid ate into the stone, but stopped once the mixture dried. It wouldn’t be the prettiest item ever created, but it’d get the job done. I had a plan for solving the issue in the future, anyways.

Three hours in and I’d engraved three of my new stones. They were an item I’d invented a long time ago after 400 years of research and planning. When I’d once been a wizard approaching godhood, my schemes and plans had required perfect communication not just between me and my subordinates, but between individuals without the skill to perform long-range communication spells or teleportation. These had been the result.

Another three hours, and I’d created three more of these and two of a different, much more complex stone. Two of the sending stones I marked with subtle engravings that only I would notice. These stones had the engravings that would draw power from the world rather than the caster. It wouldn’t do to spread that around yet, especially not since I couldn’t defend myself. They wouldn’t be given away.

After six hours total, I was done with the engravings. I traced through them with the clay I’d purchased, special clay that would channel mana very well, and then placed a small gemstone foci into each stone: a sapphire. Finished, I slumped against the desk and set the stones out to dry before drifting off to sleep.

In the morning, I awoke to an empty house and a note in front of my face.

Gone to perform duties. Please take care of yourself - Siegfried.

A good man, Siegfried. As soon as he returned with the meeting details, I could be much richer. For now, I was missing a dear friend of mine. I needed to be stronger in order to summon him. Technically I could summon him now, but doing so would be like inviting a lot of things that didn’t like me right to my front doorstep. It was time to go get a little something that would help me. Not quite the cannon that a normal fifth circle mage could use, but protection nonetheless.

My hair was askew after sleeping so oddly. I’d need to shower in order to make myself presentable–my first shower since waking up in this body. I pushed the chair back, scraping against the wood, and made my way to the washroom. The washroom was pretty bare-bones. The whole thing was posh to the extreme, but without all the amenities I’d come to expect at the height of my power. The shower was simple: a slate section of the floor with an enchantment formation on the ceiling. Activating the formation through a mana connection on the wall generated a rain cloud on the ceiling. The only problem was that I couldn’t activate the formation. I had zero mana in my body, or at least no way to access what was there. It was the same reason I had to use advanced formations that pulled mana from the air. And now that it was inhibiting my personal hygiene, it was a problem that I really needed to solve.

I sighed and slipped on a robe to cover my naked body, returning to my desk. I pulled out a piece of parchment and a pen to begin sketching a design for my next tool. I started off by drawing out a magical formation. It was tier 3, the limit of how far my gold could stretch and the restrictions of my leatherworking abilities.

The first circle had three cells in it. I placed in the design the perfected rune for absorption, a perfected rune for storage, and a perfected rune for control. This design couldn’t just take in mana and activate a formation, though. It needed a lot more refinement than that. I added in the second circle with five cells relating to refinement of the mana and boosting the storage capacity.

The third circle had seven cells. In these cells, I placed additional runes for varied levels of output and two perfect healing runes that would use negligible amounts of ambient mana. It was a necessary addition given my plans for this object. Three perfect storage runes, two perfect absorption runes, and two perfect healing runes in the third circle; three imperfect refinement runes and two perfect storage runes in the second circle; a perfect control rune, a perfect absorption rune, and a perfect storage rune in the first circle–it was done.

I toyed with the design a bit more, but ultimately I was satisfied with the design. If it worked the way I intended, it would solve many of my issues with magic items and casting magic in general. Now it was time to work on the additions, all ll I’d designed so far was the hand to wield the tools. It was time for the tools.

Five small designs came to life in the next hour. They were incredibly simple, just singular runes that did nothing on their own. It was, in all honesty, crude work. I’d have to test them out soon, but for now they were good enough to carve. I got dressed and went to the market to grab my supplies. Within a half hour, I returned and got to work.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My purchased leatherworking kit lay open on the table beside me. I grabbed a carving tool–I didn’t know what it was called–and set to work. The tool carved into the leather glove easily, and I meticulously recreated the drawings from earlier on the fine leather. This was finely made leather: hardy but flexible. Each push of the carving knife brought me closer to the goal, and I could practically feel the approach of my salvation.

I took breaks as my muscles cramped from performing the intricate work on the leather gauntlet. I’d chosen the item carefully. It was thin enough that I could wear it whenever I wanted without attracting attention, but thick enough that I wouldn’t have to worry about it falling apart or being injured by rocks or whatever else might happen. It was primed to be alchemically treated once I was done engraving, so I could let it sit in a particular mixture for the night and it would be much tougher to be destroyed.

After nearly two hours of engraving, I was finished with all parts of the glove. I’d severed the fingertips from the glove, leaving me with 5 fingertips unattached to the rest of the glove. Each one had one of the solitary symbols I’d drawn from before. A skinny leather cord connected each fingertip to a thin metal disk that fit on the back of my hand. The disk had three simple runes for absorption and adhesion to it, and the glove had a small, hollow fang on the inside that would press into my hand.

I set the glove into the alchemical solution and pissed away the rest of the day at the market, haggling and subtly collecting information to help me teach my students. Over the course of my time there, I’d learned some valuable information: the forest leading into Avalon, where I’d come in, was relatively empty in the immediate area surrounding the road. Going deeper into the woods, though, would find the occupant meeting all sorts of mean and nasty beasties. I’d be making a trip there shortly, it seemed.

Returning to my apartment, I paused before going inside. I felt goosebumps on my arm, and I placed a hand on the holster of my flintlock pistol before bursting inside. I saw a shadowy figure rise up from the floor and move towards me. I put a hand out as though ready to cast some arcane spell before drawing the gun and pointing it at my assailant.

The figure resolved itself into something resembling a pentagram, and I pulled the hammer back of my pistol.

“Move and you die, fool,” I said in a grave voice, hoping to threaten the thing. As I spoke, the top point clarified into a pointed hat, the sides into arms and the bottoms into legs. Merlin stood before me wearing his signature starry robe, his eyes twinkling as he looked at the gun pointed at me.

“Pardon the intrusion, professor, but I was hoping to have a discussion with you. I’d left a message to trigger once your wards were nearby, but I suppose you’ve managed to suppress them…” He left off the accusation, giving me an out. It was a trap.

“Actually, I’ve been slacking on my wards recently. Too comfortable in a position of safety, I suppose,” I said amicably. He smiled.

“Oh, always best to keep them up, isn’t it? Never know when there’s a serpent in your midst,” he advised, “Feel free to cast them now, why don’t you.” It wasn’t a question, but I couldn’t follow the order, obviously.

“That’s quite alright, I’m comfortable around you,” I said evenly. Merlin cocked his head.

“You’re sure, then? And if I was a doppelganger?” He asked.

“Doppelganger’s shadows don’t quite match up with their actions. Yours does,” I said with finality.

“And if I was an enemy who had drunk a polymorph potion?” He questioned now. I rolled my eyes.

“If you were someone able to use a Shadow Gate spell and take Merlin’s hairs, I’m sure it wouldn’t matter which wards I set up. So, could you tell me the real meaning of your visit?” I needed to get rid of this line of questioning. Merlin nodded and gestured for the two of us to sit–Presumptuous given that this was my apartment, but I wasn’t going to throw a fit.

After sitting, Merlin peered at me over his spectacles.

“I wish to know at what point you became a wizard and how,” He said. The air was thick with tension, and I felt a prickling between my shoulder blades. Mages were people that used mana to do things. Wizards, though, were people that bent the Laws of magic and became absorbed into its stream. To be considered a wizard was neither good nor bad, in most realms, but I had no idea what the stigma here might be. Given that he was wearing a pointed wizard hat, though, I didn’t think I was at risk of imminent death.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the magic of the world that we didn’t understand,” I began.

“It looks to me like you do understand it, though,” Merlin accused gently. I took a breath.

“I’ve always found that my magic reacts to intent and belief. As mages, we’ve always been taught that the will of the caster can influence the spell. Will and intent give a spell form just as much as the spell formation and runes do. I simply thought to ask whether or not will, intent, and belief were enough to do things without the traditional spellcasting,” I shrugged.

Merlin looked at me.

“And your… belief… that a phoenix, one that was never born and that never died, was in your bullet was so strong that it became true?” Merlin gave me a piercing gaze.

“There was a phoenix in that bullet,” I shrugged again, and Merlin spit on the floor.

“Bah, you’ll have to teach me that one, you know. It’s not often I meet a wizard who knows more than me, and never one that is two circles below!” He chuckled.

“Perhaps I’ll sponsor you for the next Assembly,” He mused, “But I’ll leave you for now. I expect great things from you, Professor.”

Merlin stood up and swept his robes to the side. His form turned to blackness as he cast the Shadow Gate spell. I remained silent.

“Oh, and Professor? I do hope that you start engaging with the other faculty, soon. I know how much they love to interact with new teachers,” He said, a final twinkle in his eye as he finally turned to shadow and vanished into the floor.

I sighed. The man was dangerous, and I had a feeling he knew far more about me than he was letting on.

Oh well. It was time to test out my new glove.