“Thank you for helping me with this,” I said, truly grateful. “It’s gotten pretty late though and I’m sure you're tired.”

“Kicking me out already?” Trennel said with a smile, putting the ring back on the table.

“Well, I heard princesses need their beauty sleep, don’t they?” I laughed, pressing the button to alert the staff.

“We sure do,” he replied, also laughing.

A few moments later we exited the room and found Iyema, the head maid, bowing in the hallway. “Young Master, Lord Navir. How may I be of assistance?”

“Can you please escort Trennel to his accommodations and have the kitchen on standby for the next few hours?” Turning back to Trennel, I grasped his shoulder. “Get some food in you, and get some rest. We have a meeting in less than eight hours and I have some training to do.”

He nodded, then followed Iyema up the staircase and out of sight.

“Do you think Osiph will be upset that I shaved off two hours from my Crafting practice?” I asked Mel out loud, waiting a few seconds before she popped up in front of me wearing a blue sundress with yellow and orange flowers on it. “Something wrong, miss punctual?”

“I can’t always be at your beck and call at all times you know? I have my own stuff going on.” She said with a harumph.

I smiled at her. “You made me wait on purpose, didn’t you?”

Mel tried to keep a straight face but ultimately cracked as the hint of a smirk started to show through, the small section of obsidian on her jaw shifting slightly.

“I do think you would look pretty cool with a metal jaw like the old man,” Mel said, catching me looking. “We’ll see what the options are when you get there, there is no need to rush a decision.”

Shaking my head I returned to the Enchanter’s room.

“As for if you’ll be scolded? I honestly think it will be fine. Your schedule seems more akin to guidelines than rules. As long as you continue to progress, I can’t see the old man complaining about how you do so.” She said following me in. “Besides, he’s probably watching and would have said something already if he was displeased. If he thought it would jeopardize your chances at advancing to miss two hours of Alchemy in favor of fighting, he would correct it.”

“I could see that, I’m going to have to ask him about that. If he can see what I’m doing at all times, I might need to figure out a way to prevent that so I can use the bathroom and shower in peace.”

I paused, looking around, waiting for him to pop out to say something, but remembered he had said he would be leaving. I had no doubt he could still spy on me, however.

“Pity,” Mel said with a melancholy tone. “You set him up so well for a big entrance. I bet he’s kicking himself right now for not being here.”

“You’re probably right.” I chuckled. “I better get started, I’m already running behind and I need to have a successful craft before we enter the dungeon in the morning.

I decided to forego my meditation for now, as I was confident I would be able to actualize my epiphany, so there was no point in delaying. I walked over to my Enchanters table and sat down pulling out a new Fire crystal and a new iron band. I was ready to finally make a successful craft.

As I set the gem into one of the pits in the table and placed the new ring in the spatial drawer, I picked up the etching rod and tablet and got to work. The most difficult part of the process was easily the Mana manipulation, but a close second was the precision of the Runes. It was important that the lines were perfect, otherwise, the Mana would spill over, destroying the enchantment. The grooves acted as canals to hold the Mana in place, conforming it to a set of rules for the Mana to follow.

I was attempting the simplest enchantment possible, just a single Rune for heat, which would ignite the ring until it got hot enough to destroy the Rune sustaining it, releasing the Mana along with the enchantment. Not particularly useful, but I was not aiming to create gear I could use yet.

Even though it was a simple Rune, I did not drop my focus when etching it onto the two-dimensional surface of the tablet. I pictured the ring in my mind, floating in a void, my lines carving themselves into the metal as I closed the last point on the triangle.

Without taking the rod off of the tablet, I started on the ribbon two-thirds up the right side of the triangle, wrapping it around slowly. It took several minutes longer than Trennel had taken for his entire craft, but I wasn’t about to get competitive and throw my entire project down the drain because of my own pride. So I stayed cautious. Every turn in the carving, measured and taken with great care. I finished it off after about ten minutes, the ribbon resembling a halo around the upper vertex.

It had taken me around ten minutes but I had finally finished the Rune. Not the most efficient, but if I made a mistake and had to start over, that would take even longer. With the Rune done, I placed my tools off to the side and out of the way while I began to focus all my energy on the transference process.

Taking a deep breath I steadied my breath and placed my palms on the table, directing my Mana into the Fire gem. My Mana left my nodes and began running down the channels built into the table, suffusing the crimson gem with my yellow Mana, creating a dim orange glow. Letting out a breath I connected my Mana to the spatial drawer that held the ring. This was the simplest step, as the drawer already had its own enchantment to facilitate these connections better, allowing the enchanter to focus on their Mana manipulation.

I concentrated on my link to the ring sitting in its void. I pictured my Mana being pulled into the item, feeling it held within the Rune I had etched. Grabbing control over it, and enforcing my will and intent upon it, I strengthened the connection between the Mana in my body and the Mana I had infused into the ring.

I thought of what I had seen observing Trennel while he had given me a demonstration. His Mana had flowed up from his connection to the drawer, almost grasping towards the crystal, rather than originating from the crystal down to the ring. Based on the textbooks Mel and I had read, I had been following the instructions clearly, and none of them mentioned this method. All that was said about the actual manipulation of the Mana was; that it needed to be pushed into the channels inlaid in the table.

Following Trennel's lead, I reached out with my control of the Mana in the ring, a small tendril of yellow Mana extending millimeters away from the void in which the ring sat. My Mana bar started dropping steadily as I tried to push it a bit further. It felt like digging through wet sand after being fully buried. The density of the channel I was attempting to forge was downright laughable compared to the space between the gem and the ring. I pushed more Mana into the ring, blocking out all of my peripheral senses, solely focused on this one task; just make it slightly longer.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

A minute passed and I had thought I had been able to start extending the vine of Mana, only for me to notice a few moments later, that it had been just a trick of my eyes from staring so intently without blinking for so long. I continued to exert my will upon the connection, urging it forward. By the time my Mana had reached less than ten percent, I had finally felt some give and pushed with as much force as I could muster.

The tendril wriggled in a spiral pattern, digging through the space between, creating a cavity that I could sense, even as my Mana faltered and retracted from the ring. I stared at the table, feeling with my Mana the section my Mana had occupied, now a clear tunnel about an inch and a half long. Downing a Mana potion I waited the full minute for my bar to tick back up. Focusing once more I repeated the process, my Mana sliding effortlessly into the space it had excavated. This time I made it two inches further before my Mana had bottomed out. I estimated I would have to push my Mana the equivalent of several feet in the metaphysical plane the ring was held in, to make the link to the Fire crystal.

Drinking another potion as soon as the cooldown lifted, I continued. My entire concentration centered on my singular task, as I blocked out the world around me. Hours passed by with attempt after attempt, inching me closer to my goal. I was six hours into my craft when I had felt the link solidify, as my Mana tendril broke through the space the ring was held in, and had connected with the channels the table had embedded in it. The Mana surged, finally released from the pressure I was using to force it through. It followed the channels in a concentric ring around the table, suffusing it with the yellow Mana from my Core. It wound around at a slow speed, seemingly made of a viscous liquid rather than its usual misty form.

It made its way to the gem, reaching it seconds later, as the dim orange Mana particles that came from my Mana mixing with the gem in the first place, began sticking to the Mana I had tunneled up from the ring. My tendril passed through the gaseous Mana from the crystal, the orange particulates clinging to the surface of liquid Mana, as though the tendril was coated in a thick tar. Within moments I could feel the Mana had made a full connection between the ring, the gem, and myself. It had made a fully linked array, similar to the magic arrays I had seen, but rather than focal points that had predetermined links before they were placed, I was creating one on the fly. Typically, for the rituals, you would use a minimum of three objects of similar affinity, inside a specific magic circle, creating the desired effect. I was using my own Core as a focal point to link the two other objects that had no affinity in common. This was not the typical practice employed by enchanters but was rather a high Novice tier concept for Arrays that I hadn’t explored much yet, as Arrays were something I planned on learning from someone with experience at the Academy, not wanting to cause an explosion and level the building on top of my head if I made a mistake.

A passage from an introductory Novice textbook on Array formation came to the forefront of my mind.

…When channeling a link between two focal points, one must find the common frequency and density of Mana in which the two Mana signatures coincide. This is a crucial step before configuring the Formation Runes at each Focal point as described in Chapter 42. In the event these frequencies are not matched closely enough or are not dense enough, they will never break through the void between. It is recommended you find a suitable alternative for the Array, as connecting the link between the two will be inefficient and energy consuming…

No wonder this was a pain in the ass.

“Well, this is the closest you have come to succeeding since you began. I’m sure it’s fine.” Mel said, popping up across the table from me. She was wearing a purple robe over a red pantsuit with black pinstripes running vertically. Sitting on top of her head was a pink bow, holding her short wheat-brown hair back and away from her eyes. She smiled, before scolding me. “Plenty of time to discuss Arrays after you complete the craft. You’re not done yet.”

I nodded, recentering my thoughts, and focused back on the task at hand. The Mana from the tunnel worked as though it had a mind of its own, simply seeking out any foreign Mana to consume. It was directionless, a primal necessity to consume energy. I pushed my will back upon it, urging it deeper into the crystal's structure, to the Mana within. It resisted, continuing to devour the Mana radiating from the gem, changing the mist around it to a liquid like itself, before absorbing it into the vine. I pressed harder, my Mana dropping considerably before the wisps of the tail end of the tendril made contact with the outer layer of the Fire crystal. It dug in through the sides of the gem, swirling the Mana inside before it exploded back down the vine towards the ring.

I felt the rush of energy escape the gem in a backdraft, coursing down the path I had dug out for hours, leading directly back to the Rune. I held the connection in place, as the Mana infused the Rune, mixing further with my pure yellow Mana, the dim orange coloration turned a brilliant tangerine as it swirled into the etching in the ring.

I saw how the Array technique worked using the two items as focal points. When I had been pushing it from the other side, my Mana had mixed with the Mana in the crystal, staying in a gaseous form. This gave it no substance to tunnel through the space between them. I had to use my pure Mana to create the channel from the ring’s side, as I could shape it, and give it density directly. Once the two mixed and balanced their respective states of energy, they flowed as one seamlessly into the enchantment.

Ring of Karmic Burning

(Uncommon)

Type>Item>Ring

+10 Armor

(Beginner)

Enchantment: Creates increasing heat upon the item until the Mana stored within burns out. Touches upon the Karmic Affinity.

Affinity: Karmic

Ding!

Experience earned!

You have increased your level!

Current Level: 38

Stat Points allocated

+6 Free Points

Ding!

Title Earned! Foundational Runesmith.

(Common)

You have gained the most basic understanding of Enchanting.

All Runes are slightly more Mana efficient.

Success!

“Well done, you managed an Uncommon rarity item on your first craft.” Mel congratulated.

“I’m more curious about the Karmic connection.”

“Will you ask the old man about it?”

“I have a feeling he will not be very forthcoming, but I’ll ask. He obviously knows something about it. I’m surprised we haven’t found anything on it yet.”

“That could just be because it’s extremely niche. I agree that he knows more about it. Why wouldn’t he want to pass down knowledge of your path early on? It would help you master some of the principles early.”

“It’s worth the ask, but I don’t expect Osiph to give me all the answers. If he was going to, he would have already. It would have saved me weeks of research in the Library and a week of training in the real world.”

“Probably has something to do with it being more meaningful if you discover it yourself, or something to that effect.”

“It would be more meaningful if I had all the information to start with.”

“Not going to argue that,” she said. “You haven’t decided if you want to continue?”

“No, I don’t think I will finish another craft before it’s time to leave.”

“To the Hall then?”

I nodded, sitting on the floor in a cross-legged pose, descending into the Library.