The next day, Jack went to visit Kronli's smithshop, this time familiar enough with the route that he didn't need someone else to guide him. The Blacksmith District, as always, was filled to the brim with sweaty buff dwarves doing sweaty buff dwarf things; like hammering metal, grooming their beards, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. As he passed them by, the dwarves seemed to recognize Jack from a couple of days ago and, perhaps feeling their dwarven pride subtly threatened by the presence of a scrawny human twice their height, proceeded to intentionally flex their brawny muscles at him as they work. Jack could practically smell the testosterone in the air. It smelled faintly of dirt mixed with Axe body spray, if you could imagine that. Trying his best to ignore them, he arrived at the shop to tell the Kronli's about his proposition.

"Hmm, you want to learn enchanting and smithing from us?" Yemi asked after hearing his request.

"Well, it's not impossible," Oren said, brushing his thick unruly beard. "Maybe if you can show us how your unique type of magic work, we'll show you something in return."

Jack could tell how eager the couple was at understanding the inner-workings of his own special type of crafting magic. To them, he was like a unicorn...wait, that analogy wouldn't actually work in a fantasy world, would it? Unicorns are special because they are imaginary to the real world, but maybe in a fantasy world, they might exist and were quite common even. Are there unicorns in this fantasy world? He'd have to check that later on.

"One thing at a time, old timer," Jack replied. "First, you teach me what you know and then I'll teach you mine."

Oren composed himself to a more professional demeanor. "Very well. In that case, you'll have to work in an apprenticeship under us. That's the only way we'll be willing to teach you."

"What does the apprenticeship entail?"

"It's simple, really. You'll basically have to work for your lessons, learning as you go. That means a lot of time working your ass off, either on the etching table or behind the forge."

"And serving us tea." Riti said peppily.

"And cleaning our rooms." Leti added with equal peppiness.

"What am I, your butler?" said Jack. "I'm not doing any of that extra stuff."

"Well, too bad. Being an apprentice means-" Leti said.

"-that you are essentially our servant." Riti said.

"Now bow down to us, servant!" the twins boldly demanded in unison with the cheekiest of grins on their faces.

"Now, now, girls, be nice." Yemi calmly told them off with the most motherly of smiles.

"Yes, mama." the twins groaned while lowering their heads, disappointed in not being able to turn Jack into their personal slave.

Yemi turned to Jack. "I'm sorry for my girls' behavior, but do know that an apprenticeship with us will require you to help out in the shop."

Oren chuckled. "Even without my two girls torturing you to death, learning as an apprentice is still a lot of hard work. It isn't going to be easy, my boy. You gotta give it your all."

"Can't you just simply teach me like how Dingo and the others did it?" Jack asked. "Don't get me wrong---I don't mind the hard work---but since I'm part of the Crimson Flame, just like you guys, don't these lessons come for free?"

"Bah! Who do you take us for?! We might be members of the Crimson Flame but we still have jobs to do and families to feed. We can't simply take time off from work just to teach you. Besides, I find that learning on the job is much more effective than having me lecturing you in a classroom like a bookish professor anyhow. Enchanting and smithing are not skills that you can simply learn just by reading books. You've got to learn by doing, getting your hands dirty and your beard full of sweat and grime. It's simply more efficient that way."

Jack sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll do your apprenticeship or whatever. Just be aware that I will keep my beard free of sweat and grime as best I can." Not that he had much of a beard to begin with. At best, he had a very thin, barely perceptible five o'clock shadow.

"Splendid!"

----------------------------------------

Jack was now brought to a room with a large rectangular table at its center where different sorts of tools and trinkets were scattered about. Sitting by the table opposite to him was Yemi, with the twins warmly accompanying her at her left and right side.

"I assume you've had a basic grasp on the fundamentals of magic already, yes?" Yemi inquired.

"Yeah, Dingo and the others gave me a quick rundown yesterday," Jack said. "So far, I've only learned the basics from six of the seven categories of magic. The seventh one, enchanting magic, is your area of expertise. Or so I'm told."

"That is correct. In that case, I'm sure you are well aware of the fact that all magic, no matter how simple or complex, relies on the usage of mana. While mana is the energy source of magic, that source can come from many different places. When a mage performs a spell, they are typically drawing mana from their own body to power the spell. However, that is not the only source of mana one can draw upon. Aside from drawing mana from within ourselves, one can also utilize mana from external sources. The key to enchanting magic is understanding this external source of mana."

The enchantress took out a wooden box from under the table and opened it, pulling out what appeared to be a chunk of crystal roughly the size of her fist. The crystal was of a brilliant luminous white with a rainbow-like iridescent luster. If Jack didn't know any better, he would have assumed that crystal to be a type of valuable gemstone due to how beautiful it shined.

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"This is manacite. It is mana in its rawest, most natural form and is the basis of all enchantments," Yemi continued to explain as she held the crystal up high, the rainbow-colored shine radiating with magnificent allure. "Normally, it is found through mining, similar to most gemstones, but can also be found in manacite storms where they rain from the sky."

"Wait, what? You're telling me that this hunk of stuff came raining down from the freaking sky?" Jack asked in shocking disbelief.

"Oh, no. Not this one in particular. This came from a cave." She put down the chunk of manacite in her hand before heading to one of the shelves and grabbed what appeared to be a glass jar. Inside the jar were smaller chunks of manacite, most of which range from the size of marbles to the size of golf balls. "These are the ones that typically rain down from the sky during a manacite shower. We've got this particular jar just last month."

"It was pure chaos!" said Leti with exaggerated gestures.

"But also lots of fun!" said Riti with equal exaggerations.

"It's as if the sky itself is falling! Dozens of tiny crystals pelting us every second!"

"Yeah, yeah! You gotta remember to bring good protective headgear if you're going!"

"We should bring you with us next time a storm comes."

"You can carry our load for us."

"Like a pack mule!" they said together with excited grins. Just when Jack thought he wasn't going to be treated like a servant by these two gremlins, there it goes again.

"Jokes aside, many of the common folk generally regard manacite storms as no different from any other natural disaster and it's not difficult to see why," Yemi explained. "They cause damage to buildings and crops and people are often injured by them. However, manacite harvesters, both amateur and professional, will actively seek out manacite storms in order to gather as much manacite as they can so they can sell them later. Manacite storms are just as unpredictable as any other weather phenomena, so most harvesters will typically hire an oracle who uses divination magic to predict when and where the next manacite storm will take place. It is quite a large industry; much bigger than you might expect. Out of all the manacite gathered, I'd say roughly a third of them came from manacite storms."

Jack grabbed a handful of manacite chunks from the jar and examined each of them closely. "Damn, that is crazy. I can't imagine having thousands of these dropping on you to be a pleasant experience, though I suppose this is sort of similar to hailstorms, huh."

"Oh, most certainly. Harvesting manacite from a storm can definitely get hectic and dangerous but can also be quite profitable if you know what you're doing. Anyway, we're not here to discuss manacite specifically; we're here to discuss enchanting magic, of which manacite is the key main ingredient. The purpose of enchanting---as the name implies---is to improve your weapons, armor, and tools with enchantments so that they can be more effective for their specific purposes."

Yemi pulled out another box from under the table, this time containing just regular-looking stones, each having roughly the same flat round shape and was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. These stones kind of reminded Jack of skipping stones, the type where he and his grandpa would pick out from a river bank in order to do some stone-skipping.

"Back in the primitive times, people would apply enchantments by simply using chucks of manacite to carve runic symbols and patterns into various objects---made of materials such as wood, stone, and ivory---in order to produce various magical effects," she continued explaining as she picked up one of the flat stones. "What effects they have are dependent on the pattern of the runes. As time goes on, the runic patterns became more intricate and the tools that were used to make them became more sophisticated." She picked up a tool from the table that resembled a metallic pencil with a glowing rainbow tip. Jack remembered her using that exact same tool when he first arrived at the shop. "This here is a rune-etching pencil. The tip of this is made of refined manacite. By using this to etch patterns onto an item---like this stone, for instance---you can imbue the item with all sorts of magical effects."

Using the pencil, Yemi proceeded to etch a pattern onto the stone, the pattern of which glowed a faint rainbow color just like the tooltip it's drawn with. As she worked the stone with her tool, the tip seemed to produce barely noticeable rainbow sparks of friction as it grinded against the stone's surface. "Bear in mind that, when etching the pattern, you have to make it look as neat as possible. Generally, the neater the pattern is, the more effective the rune is as it will be less likely to malfunction."

After she's done, she placed the stone on the table and tapped her finger at its center, which contained a segment of the pattern that resembled a small circle. Once she tapped the circle, the entire pattern lit up and the stone suddenly levitated a couple centimeters off the table, hovering in mid-air. She tapped it again and the rune deactivated itself, causing the glowing pattern to dim in brightness and the stone to drop back down onto the table.

"Woah..." Jack was astounded by the process of it all. No matter how many times he saw real magic happing in front of him with his own eyes, he still couldn't get enough of it.

"And there you have it; it is as simple as that," Yemi said with a smile. "This one in particular is a simple earth-levitation rune. It should be easy enough for a beginner like you to make." She handed him the etching pencil and another piece of blank stone. "Go on. Now you give it a go. Try copying the rune I'd just showed you. Take your time to focus on the details. Don't try to rush it. Enchanting is a skill that takes a lot of practice and patience to master so don't feel too bad if you can't get it on your first try."

Jack steadied the pencil in his hand and began etching the stone, studying the original in front of him he went. He carefully examined every precise detail of the pattern---every straightened line, every curve, every dot---in order to mimic it as perfectly as possible onto his own stone. The characteristics of the pattern felt intriguingly strange to him. There were certain isolated symbols on it, separated by lines and circles in an organized manner. It felt as though they were not merely decorative but were instead part of a systematic language, one that was made of geometric shapes and lines in addition to letters and symbols.

When he was finally done, he placed the stone on the table. The final product was remarkably similar to that of the original---much to the surprise of Yemi, the twins, and even Jack himself. In an attempt to test it out, he tapped the center of his stone with his finger, causing it to levitate just like the original did. Yemi and the twins observed with impressed fascination.

"Ooh, so pretty!" Riti said with sparkling eyes, grabbing the stone to take a closer look.

"The markings are so perfectly neat!" Leti said with equal sparkle to her eyes, snatching the stone from Riti to examine it herself.

"My, oh my, this...this is incredible," Yemi remarked as she grabbed the stone from Leti, her gaze transfixed at it. "I didn't know you have such a talent in you, young man."

"Yeah, I've done plenty of arts and crafts stuff with my grandma when I was little," Jack told her, scratching the back of his head. "She was a jewelry maker and would teach me some of her skills just for the fun of it." Even so, he was a bit surprised himself at how good he was if he's being completely honest, considering that he hadn't been doing it for so long that he thought he might be out of practice.

"Oh, how nice. Your grandma seems like a sweet person."

"That she is."

"How about we try a different rune? Something a little more advanced? Let's see how you're able to handle it."

"Sounds good."