285. ENCHANTING: WIREMU
We finally did it! It wasn’t pretty, and it did crack James’ Class, causing spiritual damage. Still, Mayakku's snap decision to draw out the Spiritual energy as well as the class instead of letting it disperse and trying another refinement meant we had our first success. James will take some time to recover, but we didn’t shatter anything. We definitely need to keep refining the flavour, or we will either keep cracking classes, or worse, we will shatter them, or we will keep wasting Monster cores, and we can’t afford to do either.
Mayakku’s base Enchanting Class has moved to the master level, but more importantly, so has her Spiritual Sensitivity Skill. It has opened her up to more nuances in the flavour, which will help us refine the runes even more to mimic the flavour. My Sense Spiritual is now at the top of the journeyman level, but I don’t even have the sensitivity Skill.
The Colonel was there to see our success, and it was just as well he was. The slave Master that came with these two is Lucas, and he was so excited that it worked he would not shut up. Mayakku said, “But James is injured.”
Lucas responded, “That happens in about one in five cases anyway. The Spiritual Damage will heal, and he is now free.”
Mayakku and I were not aware of the statistics, but it made sense with how close you had to come to the edge of shattering it. We knew that with this setup, it would happen in almost every case, so we had to do better, but we were almost there.
The problem was Lucas would not shut up. The Colonel had to put him under house arrest essentially, but that would only last until the last slave was freed. This could go public at any time. I used my Copy skill to copy the latest version, and we sent them out to the same three people as before with instructions and a warning that this version of the Ilaiya Formation would likely cause Spiritual damage, but it worked. We think the person running it had to have at least a Journeyman Level Spiritual Sense and an Interrogate Status Skill, but this was also yet to be tested. This ensured the work would not be trapped here or destroyed if we were.
Mayakku was working double time because she was convinced the key to carrying out the ritual without the expensive monster cores and enchanting materials was in Flesh Enchanting. She had already translated the energy into runes to take energy from the person. The control runes were not needed as the person could control energy flow and strength. The key difficulty was the flavour runes and the controlling of the energy after the flavour was changed, as the energy no longer belonged to the person. At this stage, she was thinking of using the cactus silk and needles from the current setup.
I volunteered to be the flesh she could experiment on. The first problem we had was whether the Flesh Enchanting remained after the use of my Skills like Snakeskin, Granite Armour and Lava Body. Mayakku enchanted the Revitalise runes on my shoulder as an experiment. The first thing about Flesh Enchanting I noticed was that it was painful. It was not like tattooing and marking the skin. It was enchanting the flesh underneath the skin. I have a very high pain resistance, and it was still very painful.
The second thing Mayakku informed me about was that the best places for enchantments were where there was plenty of flesh. Her enchantment of the claws worked but was very inefficient. The enchantment on the skin of her hands was better, but still, there was not a lot of flesh there. She was modifying how it worked as her knowledge grew. The Revitalise Runes were carved into the flesh of my shoulder muscles to maximise it.
I was expecting the Ilaiya Formation to fit on my arm or something, but there was not a lot of flesh there, and it would reduce the efficiency. It would have to go on my torso, preferably the front.
Before we get to that, we have to test the one rune. Snakeskin changed the top layer of my skin, and the Flesh Enchantment was underneath that and still worked. Granite Armour also went over the top of my skin, and I could have Snakeskin on underneath it, so that still worked. The real test is Lava Body as that changes the flesh.
I stripped off and activated Lava Body. I could sense the change in the Rune. It was still there. That made sense, as wounds also remain when I convert to lava. However, I could not activate the rune in this form. I tried different ways, but it would not work. I guess it is not technically flesh but molten rock.
I changed back, and the rune was still there and could be used. That was successful, but there is another potential problem. What happens if the flesh gets cut or damaged? I have many scars from the damage I have taken. Most of them were more than skin deep. The second question is what happens if my Regeneration Skill repairs the damage. Do I get original flesh or enchanted flesh?
I decided I needed Ruku’s help and possibly Astrids. Ruku’s reply to my question was one of his own, “How do you think Regeneration reforms limbs?”
I hadn’t thought about it. When a healer regrows a limb, there are months of regrowing muscles and nerves and retraining muscle memory. Often, this involves more trips to the healers to correct things. This is not the case in Regeneration. It might take a while to reform, but it is very close to what you lost. This only happens at the Master Level. “I don’t know,” I said unhelpfully.
“Regeneration is building an image or template of the body as it levels. This image is completed at the Master Level. However, you can add to that image as your body changes. Take Modrica, for example. From her bond, she can now generate claws, as the skill levels she could choose for these to be permanent, like Mayakku. This would then be added to the template Regeneration is building, but the changes to your body don’t stop at the Master Level. Therefore, things can be added to the template. This takes time and a conscious effort on your part, too.”
“How much time and effort?”
“For this, I have no idea, but it is only a change to flesh, not a tail or gills or anything. I will wait for you to tell me.”
That was and wasn’t helpful. I felt the Skill, and it seemed like I sort of knew how to do it. For the one Rune, it would take several days. More would take longer, so I held off. I would do it all at once, eventually.
We were insanely busy. Mayakku was making more variations to try and get a better result and her Flesh Enchanting. The rest of us were making preparations to leave as soon as the last slave was freed. Tabitha was the busiest in sorting her businesses, legal and illegal. The Famous Five were back, and everything was being prepared at the Quarry, in the secret storage areas Tabitha had me make.
We didn’t tell the Colonel, but it was pretty hard to hide. We were buying supplies and shoeing horses and shutting down the menagerie in town. I didn’t know what the Colonel might do. Would he just let us leave?
We had a session with the final slave, Evonne. Mayakku could have gone all the way, but she decided to make some more changes first. Those changes were some minor variations to the flavour, but mostly, it was time to carve my flesh. We wanted to test the Flesh Enchanting, so this was it. If an average enchanter does this ritual with a 1 in 5 injury rate, we estimate we might get 1 in 3.
Judging from the cores we have used, we also estimate the energy levels required. The estimate is that there is a base cost of around 50 for the ritual and then a cost of about 10 per level. This meant a Level 1 Slave was 60, an Apprentice level (5) was 100, and Journeyman was 150.
My Spiritual Energy is a cumulation of the three Spiritual Attributes. So I had a maximum of 152 in energy, but I could not let this get to zero, or I would die. Because of our bonds, I could share energy with Tāoke and Puia, and that also helped with regenerating the energy. I figured that if it was the only thing I did in a day, I could free five or six Apprentice level slaves or maybe two Journeyman level Slaves. I do have some free attributes I could spend.
It is time for some pain.
Wiremu Hunter
Level
Physical
Mental
Spiritual
Totals
Free
Str
Agi
Per
Str
Agi
Per
Str
Agi
Per
Base Attributes
9
12
11
9
12
11
10
8
10
92
Earned Attributes
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11
5
2
12
3
1
3
2
5
44
Hunter
B
12
2
14
24
5
2
2
6
5
60
0
Monster Hunter
S
6
6
6 6
6
5
29
1
Scout
S
8
8
3
8
1
6
10
36
4
Assassin
S
4
1
4
5
5
1
16
0
Bond Master
S
6
2 6
6
6
1
21
3
Stone Shaper
B
10
20 10 10
40
0
Prospecting
S
6
6
1
2
3
3
7
22
2
Spy
B
11
1
4
3
11
15
10
11
55
0
Forger
S
3
3
3
3
3
12
0
Warrior
B
7
14 8 11
2
35
0
Metal Shaper
B
6
6
2
6
3
5
22
2
Totals
72
45
54
62
52
47
64
43
45
484
12
Constitution
171
161
152