"Chris! Get your ass in here!"

Chris groaned at his uncle's commanding voice. Getting up from bed, he dragged himself into the storefront in his nightclothes. He had been up all night experimenting with enchantments and trying to create a new one. Despite his low mana capacity, Chris had always managed to be quite handy with enchantments, seemingly making them with no sacrifice to his stored mana. Fondling the quartz-studded orichalcum circlet on his right hand, he staggered through the doorway to the shop. Still half groggy, it took a little while for his eyes to adjust. In front of him were his uncle and a cloaked figure. At first glance, the hooded stranger seemed nothing more than a mysterious woman with her eyes covered.

Shaking his head, Sebastian Taber made the loudest facepalm Chris had ever heard. He jolted at the sound of the slap, instantly curing his sleepiness. "This fine customer has asked that we create a special item for them, though I don't know all the details..." Putting her left hand up as if to hush his uncle, the woman used her right to take off the brown hood. She was a beautiful woman, no older than 25 with small freckles dotting her face, emphasized by her long snow-white hair and pale skin. Two locks of her silky hair dropped onto her breast as the hood fell. However, that wasn't the most obvious thing about her; that prize belonged to the xanthium crown that donned her head.

Immediately dropping to their knees, Chris and his guardian bowed before the Enchanted Queen. Chuckling, she shook her head. "There's no need for that. I'm simply here as a customer, nothing more." The pair rose, uneasy in the presence of Gilaria's absolute monarch. Because of her policies as queen, Chris was subjected to prejudice every day just based on his disability to cast magic. He didn't hate the Enchanted Queen, but he didn't like her either.

Obviously sensing his discomfort, she sighed. "You're a Touchless, right? I have no hate for you or others like you. In fact, I came here because I received word from Lady Orghae that this shop has the finest enchantments she's ever seen. Her husband is a Q-Class wizard, and you somehow have bested him in enchanting!" Taken aback, Chris stared at her with disbelief. Him? Besting a Q-Class Wizard? For a Touchless to even have the same skills as a wizard to begin with was unheard of, but this?

The queen slowly walked toward him, studying him closely. "How is it even possible for you to be able to enchant in the first place?" Shrugging, he froze as she was within an inch of his face, staring into his eyes. "Something's off about you... I just can't put my finger on it..." Audibly gulping, Chris inched away from her. He knew exactly what she was referring to. For some unknown reason, he was able to enchant and fill crystals with mana seemingly out of thin air. Even if he had a maximum of 512 mana, he had filled an amethyst with four times that in one go. She was right; there was something off about him.

"Umm, is there something you need to be enchanted?" Blinking rapidly as she anchored herself back to reality, the matriarch laughed nervously. "Sorry... yes, there is. I have a custom request for you, Chris Taber. How do you feel about creating a protection charm for me?" Cocking his head, he thought for a moment. "I thought that you already had plenty of charms, your Majesty?"

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Nodding, she sighed. "Please, Anya will do. With skills like yours, you can call me by name." Sebastian stared at Chris with a worried gaze. I better be careful not to call her that unless there's no one else around... the Royal Court would have my head for saying her name! Taking off a ring from her left index finger, Anya handed it to Chris. "This was a ring that my father had made for me a few years before he died. I never got around to getting it enchanted, so I thought maybe I should see for myself how amazing your work is. Think of it like a test. I'll pay you 10 platinum coins tax-free to enchant this with a spell that makes me immune to disease or poison. For some reason, I've never had one of those."

Sebastian gasped. That was worth more than what he made in a month! Chris stared wide-eyed at the ring, inspecting it upon receiving it from its owner. It was a platinum ring about a quarter of an inch thick with a sapphire embedded on top. He rolled it around in his hand a few times before turning his back and walking back to his room. Once he had a task, Chris had a habit of focusing on it and ignoring his surroundings. Mr. Taber stammered at his insolence and turned to the queen, bowing in apology. Her Highness simply smiled kindly. "It's all right, Mr. Taber. As long as he finishes it, I have no qualms about anything about that boy. He's a very peculiar one, isn't he?" Scratching his head, Sebastian stood up straight. "That, he is."

Sitting at his desk, Chris snaps his fingers. The light-crystal lamp on the ceiling lit up the room with a flash. He stared at the ring for a long time, making intricate measurements. After about an hour, he reached over to his bookshelf and looked for the Common-to-Zakirzah dictionary. The ring only had room for about 20 or so characters to be etched into the band, so Chris had to keep his instructions short and simple.

To enchant an item, Chris needed to etch a command in Zakirzah, the language of magic, into the ring and pour some mana into it. Since the gemstone worked as a capacitor and the metal of the ring as a conduit, the command worked as a program in order for the "circuit" to do its job correctly. Flipping through the pages, Chris worked for over 3 hours to find a combination to do what he wanted, eventually settling on a rather simple one. Grabbing the chisel, Chris began to work on inscribing the words.

Kratch oft gru jhalo — Kill dangerous foreign entities. Chris sighed and wiped his brow. The hard part was done. With his right index finger touching the stone, he took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he focused, channeling his mana into the stone. C'mon almost done...

It took almost 15 minutes to properly fill up the stone. When he had finished, Chris wiped the sweat off his brow. Although he wasn't doing any physical work, giving up a portion of your mana was still technically using up your energy. He was literally draining himself doing so.

Chris stood up and walked over to his uncle, who was now standing alone in the shop. "Hey uncle, you got a ring box?" he asked. Sebastian turned to him with a jewelers loupe in his right hand. "Uhh, I think we have one in the back. Before you grab one though, take one of these amethysts and add a locking enchantment to it." Sebastien opened his left hand and revealed a dozen small amethyst crystals. "We don't want anyone but Her Highness opening it, do we?"

Chris snatched one from his uncle's hand and ran to go grab a box. It's gonna be a long night.