Riwall went straight from the forge to the new woodworking room, which was conveniently built very close to Theoda's Forge.
As soon as he entered the new building, the pleasant smell of freshly cut wood made him feel relaxed and lower his guard.
[Snap out of its Riwall!]
Friday's outburst broke him from his trance, and he realized he had been standing in place for over a minute.
{What the hell?}
Tsk!
A feeble old man clicked his tongue when he noticed that Riwall escaped his spell. His posture was as straight as a soldier's, but his receding white hair, thin arms, wrinkles all over his face and crepey arms were a testament of his longevity. Since coming back into this world, Riwall had not seen anyone who seemed to be as old as the man in front of him.
"You must be the so-called prodigy that made my superiors order me to come here, right? Do you know how much garnecs I will lose by coming here every day?"
{Garnecs?}
[It's the currency used in the Azure Kingdom, the name is a homage to King Garnec the Brave.]
"Sorry, sir! I did not know that my request would be a hassle to the family. My name is Riwall Madec. I will work hard to compensate you in the future!"
The boy's readiness and enthusiasm made the old man regret his harsh words a little bit, but what he said was the truth.
"You will have the honor of being taught by the best woodworker in these lands! My name is Hobb Farsteel. Who is the drolling fool beside you? Is he the boy Gregory?"
Only now did Riwall notice his friend trapped in the same trance he found himself some moments ago, but Greg had droll running from his open mouth. He was about to slap the sh!t out of Greg, but Hobb intervened by holding Riwall by the wrist of his raised hand.
"What do you think you are doing to your friend?"
"I was... uhhh.. going to give him a weak slap to wake him up."
Hobb said in a disappointed tone.
"And you think slapping a hypnotized friend is something a friend should do?"
"No, sir." He answered downcasted.
"Now, let me teach you how to break a FRIEND from a hypnotic trance properly."
Hobb had a mischievous smile that sent shivers down Riwall's spine. He said a silent prayer for Greg and followed the excentric master with his eyes. The old man got some ink from his drawer and painted all Greg's face. Then, he cast some water magic to wet the poor boy's pants as if he had wet himself. To top it all off, he used wind magic to cut Greg's hair in a mohawk.
{Dam! That's too much overkill! Poor Greg.}
He ordered Riwall to stay in the room, looking over Greg while he went out to get some other things. As soon as he closed the door, Greg woke up confused.
The boy looked around confused, felt his the wetness on his pants, looked down, saw all his hair on the ground, felt his mohawk, touched his face in surprise, felt something on his hand and finally noticed he had paint all over his face. He saw Riwall there and threw him an accusatory glance. Before he could say anything, the door opened, and an old man with a gentle face walked in.
"Hello my new students, my name is Hobb Farsteel, and I will be your BY THE GODS! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU??"
Greg got red all over his face, at least the parts that could be seen, before excusing himself and running to the baths to clean himself.
{We have been tricked, we have been backstabbed, and we have been quite possibly, bamboozled.}
Riwall was not mad, just amazed.
[He is good, I will give him that.]
Hobb was laughing out loud by now. Riwall could not help but laugh too.
"You are good, Master Hobb." He said amidst his laughs. "But you know Greg will take at least an hour before coming back. IF he comes back."
After laughing for a few more seconds, he got a hold of himself.
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"Worry not; this class was only for us to get to know each other. I needed to test each of you before starting our lessons. I specialize in the crafting of magic bows and arrows. You have no idea how much mind resilience is required to keep your focus in this craft. This statement holds true to all crafts, but is even more important when you are woodworking."
"And why is that?" Neither Theodas, the smithing master, nor Hector gave any warning to Riwall on this matter.
"Because the wood we work with was once part of a living being that developed small tricks to survive in the woods. Some trees develop hypnotizing charms, others a repulsive aura, and some create an illusion field around itself. Both lumberjacks and woodworkers need to be mentally resilient to resist these powers. The older the tree, the stronger their defense mechanism will be. The act of striking the wood is enough to activate these effects, regardless if the tree is alive or not."
"That is very impressive! I had never heard about it before."
"You only get to experience these things when you get to work on expensive wood, it takes a very skilled lumberjack to down an old tree, and even our family have just half a dozen in our ranks."
Hobb continued.
"Go do our things, you are dismissed for today. I will explain these things to Greg when he comes back. Have a nice day!" Before Riwall could even thank him for the lesson, Hobb was already working in a wood bracelet and ignoring his student.
{I still have a couple of hours before the next training, I will go back to the room and read Theoda's books.}
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In just one hour, Riwall and Friday had already compiled new books on crafting pathways and ores.
{So, do you think you can improve on these designs? They are excessively straightforward, in my opinion. Look at this one meant to make a blade sharper; it's literally only one patch running over the length of it!}
[I have been running simulations of each of them, and they are indeed too amateur. The mana efficiency is abysmal, and the desired effect is many times weaker than it should be.]
{So? Can you improve them or not?}
[Easy peasy. But to make use of my designs you really need to improve your finesse. The mana output relies too much on intent, and I can't influence your brain to help you because it's too invasive, my protocols won't allow me.]
{Nah, don't worry, you keep working on these designs and simulations to help me train my crafting skills. I will deal with the mana-maze.}
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Just as he was getting ready for combat training, Greg came back to the room, and he was still sporting the mohawk Hobb gave him. He looked directly into Riwall's eyes and beamed him a mischievous smile. That, combined with his mohawk, scared him a little.
"Hey man, how are you? You know I was not the one that pranked you, right? That old man is shameless; he planned it all to put the blame on me."
"He told me you would say that. You got me well this time, but revenge is a dish best served cold. Keep your guard up, will you?" Greg winked and went on to change to his combat training attire.
{I should not have let him stay alone with the old imp. Greg can hold a grudge, and he is very patient. Whatever he is cooking up for me, I know for a fact it won't be funny.}
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A few hours later, it was time for Riwall's enchanting class. The new building was placed close to the magic training court where Hector ministered his lessons and training.
The place was evenly divided into three rooms. One had two large drawing tables and was fully stocked with high-quality parchments, bottles of ink of different colors, and quill pens of various sizes.
The farthest room was full of racks meant for storing the drawings, while the last one was similar to a magic training court. Riwall theorized it was the place where they would test the final products.
There was a woman hunched over one of the drawing tables. Her hands were moving all over the place as she was making some kind of complex geometrical drawing. Every now and then she would change the quill pen or the ink bottle, but Riwall could not make any sense of why she was doing things this way.
He did not want to bother the focused woman, so he just waited by the door and watched her. After a few minutes, she stopped drawing, using one of her sleeves to wipe some sweat on her forehead. She looked over to the stranger by the door and locked eyes with Riwall. He froze.
{I will be dammed, she is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen!}
The woman had a very fair triangular face, which reminded Riwall of his mother, a pitch-black long, wavy hair parted to the side, her nose was small and elegant, her skin was very fair, and her eyes were of a bright purple that he did not know humans could have.
"Nice to meet you! You must be my new student, Riwall Madec, right? My name is Lilacoris Farsteel, but you can call me Master Lila" She did a slight bow by the end of her introduction.
He remained with his mouth opened and with a dumb look staring at her. It took a few awkward seconds for him to control himself.
"So... Sorry! My name is Riwall Madec, nice to meet you, Master Lila! I promise you I will work hard. You will not regret taking me as your student!" He rushed through all his introduction, making Lila giggle before getting to her lessons.
"I checked your schedule and see that you have already met Theodas and Hobb. Theodas is a gentle but very demanding smith, if you are not up to his expectations, soon he will go back to the family land and send one of his apprentices to be your teacher. As for Hobb, trust him only on matters regarding woodworking, don't grow comfortable around him, he is a master of both woodworking and pranking."
"Yeah, Robb pulled a prank on a friend of mine and put the blame on me."
"That is him alright. You will all get over it in no time, and his pranks always seem to be designed to provoke a reaction to help the victim fixing a bad behavior or habit. He can read people like few."
She beckoned him over to one of the design tables where a parchment, some bottles of ink and a quill pen waited for him.
"I want to see the depth of your
"Will do!" He gave her a mocking salute making her chuckle all the way over to her table.
Riwall did not even have to think too much. He already knew what he wanted to draw. Friday did not share his opinion but helped him to the best of her capacity.
---------------------------
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--Skill Branch Level Up--
-Arts Branch - Level 8-> 10
--Skill Levell Up--
-------------------------
{It took me almost an hour, but I think this is my best work to date, I even capped my skill in one go!}
Friday thought something was wrong but could not detect anything different in the picture.
He called his master, and she came over to check her student's work.
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Lila was almost done with her work when her student called.
'Done already? I asked him to show me the full extent of his skills, and he thinks only one hour is enough?'
'I may have been too trusting when reading Eleanor's reports. According to her, this boy has unbelievable potential, so much that she threatened to leave her post as a Commander of the Marsastor family if her father did not send their best crafters to teach him.'
She was getting closer to Riwall's table while the boy had a bright smile stamped on his face.
'I will have to make up an excuse to stop teaching him. Maybe I can try reasoning with Edward, although he is as fond of the kid as his sister. Hmm, maybe Hector will do som...'
Her train of thought derailed when her eyes landed upon his drawing.
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Riwall was looking expectantly to his master. The truth is, he knew some things about her. Edward loved to tell stories about the Farsteel family, but it was always about the combat-oriented personnel.
There was only one crafter who he ever shared a story about. An enchanter who received a title that all adventurers can only dream of getting: The Dragon-Slayer Lilacoris