Chapter 2
Marcel was awoken by the sun shining through his window and the song of birds. All there was in his room were some rustic furniture, a bed, a closet, and a stool. He arose from his bed and took some clothes from the closet, which were once worn by Tom and a bit too wide for Marcel. He picked a linen shirt, a pair of leather pants and a leather vest. None of these clothes were dyed in any way. From Oliver's memories Marcel learnt that it is rather complicated and expensive to get good dyes in a medieval world. They weren't meant to be wasted on work clothes, so he wasn't bothered by it.
When he entered the kitchen he was greeted by Tom, who already had prepared a breakfast. Ravenous silence encompassed the breakfast. As they finished Tom spoke “One of the ploughs shares from the community plough broke yesterday. I would like you to help me make a new one. We have to determine if you have any compatibility with my craft early on, so that we can decide on your future path.”
After they did the dishes Marcel followed Tom towards a section of the house he hadn't seen yet. The room Marcel saw now seemed kind of out of place with all its gears and simple machines. There were the backside of the waterwheel and its bearing, some automated bellows and a hammer powered by the waterwheel. Tom showed him how the machines had to be handled and together they kindled the forge. When the fire was hot enough Tom shoved a big piece of metal into the flames. While it heated up he told Marcel about the material they would use and what colours it would take when workable.
Almost all of the information were identical with what Marcel learned in Oliver's memories, even the instructions he got to get the metal in the right form. But he quickly learned, that the pure knowledge isn't enough, not even close. His arms weren't strong enough nor precise enough. He tried his best but he couldn't handle more than a rough form. When Tom noticed that, he took over and shortly after he had finished the forming process. Then he explained about the most important part. The tempering. This moment could destroy the work of three hours! If the intern strain is too high the plough share will shatter. But without tempering it won't be resilient enough.
But they succeeded.
“Good work! With training you will definitely become an accomplished smith.” Tom said, “But for today it is enough work for you. Your body simply can't handle more right now. So go outside and play with the other children. I bet that they are eager to meet you.”
Marcel first washed off the sweat and the grime and then he walked towards the village centre. As he heard the sounds of playing children he changed his direction and followed them. He found the children playing at the riverside. When they noticed him they swarmed towards and surrounded him. There were twenty children in total, but only 5 seemed to be around Marcel's age and the others were way younger. They asked him loads of questions, most of which he couldn't answer. Then they introduced themselves. Together they played tag, hide and seek, or climbed trees.
Exhausted Marcel returned home. It was a fun day, but the extra attention he had gotten had been very taxing. Tom awaited him while sitting on a bench in the garden and chatting with their neighbours, a baker and a potter. All the fire hazardous industries had been placed together at the border of the village, which had given birth to such a constellation of neighbours. Marcel greeted them and listened a bit to their conversation, but he quickly grew bored. Luckily, after ten minutes, Tom decided that it was time for their dinner. While eating they talked about the upcoming work and some craft related things and lastly about school. Two days of the week are designated to it and all children have to attend. Tomorrow will be Marcel's first school day. The day came to an end and the next followed.
Early in the morning Marcel was on the way to the school building. He wasn't eager to go to school, as he knew a lot of what probably would be taught already, but he still wanted to go, to learn about the world he was in, not that he had this choice either way.
The school building was just a house like any other in the village, but it didn't have any interior walls and only one big room, in which were a lot of benches and a chalkboard. The room was already filled with children, which were around 12 years old. Marcel knew some of them already from yesterday.
Shortly after a middle aged man entered the room and the children rose and greeted him. Marcel had mimicked them. “Ahh you must be Marcel. My name is Richard and I will be your teacher in the coming year.” said the man, “Up till now I mostly taught reading, writing and simple mathematics, so I would like to test you in these. I need to find out if you need additional lesson. I never taught a worldborn before, so I don't know what you already know.”
With these words half an hour of questioning and testing began. Luckily for Marcel the language here and the one in Oliver's memories were identical. Through that he easily passed the test.
“Very well. I am pleasantly surprised.” The teacher said, “Today we will start with what is considered common sense in the world. Some things you may already know, but I ask you to listen to it nonetheless. It might save you one day. First of all, let us talk about the class categories. Does anybody here know what those are?”
A blonde girl in front of Marcel raised her hand and answered.”There are two categories. The lesser and the supreme classes. But I don't know what separates them.” “That is correct. They are separated by the use of secret or supreme techniques, that are managed and controlled by our king. Without these techniques it is impossible to manipulate big amounts of mana. The only way to acquire them is to serve the kingdom in any way. Be it soldiers, mages, adventurers or whatnot. Only those bound through pledges are allowed to wield this power. Our king for example, would actually be of a lesser class, since he deduced that he has no talent in magic and decided to use his time more wisely. His wise decision closed the social gap that once existed between the the two classes. But I digress” the teacher said. Marcel raised his hand and asked. “How binding are those pledges?” “They are considered unbreakable, as they are rooted in your very soul. To break them means to end ones own existence.” Richard answered. The class continued for almost all day. They learned about the money system, the dangerous creatures and their known habitats around the village and how to read simple maps. Richard was a good teacher, that knew how to teach the kids without boring them.
The next school day started with an announcement that excited everyone, today they would learn how to cast lesser magic and if they had any potential with it. Many kids dreamed about being a mage or an adventurer and today could mark the day that their glorious career begins. In the morning they had continued their common sense class, but finally after lunch the magic lessons began.
Some people might think that it is irresponsible to teach a kid to wield magic, but in this case it really isn't, lesser magic is very limited, without extensive studies the most one could manage was to create a small light or throw a rock as hard as one could with ones own hands. Even flames were hard to create, although it was rather easy to boil water.
The teacher began this lesson with instructions on how to achieve a state of mind that allowed one to use magic and to sense it. Marcel quickly noticed that those were almost identical to the techniques Oliver developed. He came to the conclusion that magic is the same as the manipulation of the world Oliver had practised. As such he easily entered this state of mind and looked at the world with his soul. To his surprise he saw that the teacher used his soul to write a sentence in the air. “Who sees this please raise a part of your soul out of your body.” Marcel did as he was asked to and the teacher gave him an acknowledging nod and move towards him. “You are the first one.” he said. “I will now show you the structure needed to create a small light, it is one of the easiest spells and all I am allowed to teach you.” Marcel quickly memorized the shown three dimensional structure woven from soul tendrils and begun to copy it as the teacher returned to the chalkboard.
After three minutes he finished it and began to activate it. He absorbed the warmth of the room moved the energies through his soul and converted it into light. He knew, from Oliver's memories, that this process is way more complicated in its fundamental physical energy conversations. But he didn't care about that in the moment, first of all it works either way! If you know how it works or not it doesn't matter! And secondly he did MAGIC! He was excited like everyone else, probably even more so. A small spherical light appeared in front of him, but he couldn't keep it up for long. A searing pain filled his soul, it wasn't capable of manipulating and guiding energy for an extensive period of time yet. To ease his pain he begun to slowly absorb the soul mist that naturally existed around him like Oliver had done when he lived and researched his soul.
Richard was impressed with this little worldborn. Not only did he quickly grasp how to see with the soul and how to create a light, but he also seemingly instinctively begun to strengthen his soul. “Sadly he probably won't ever be a mage, only few have the possibility to learn at the magic academies and most of the lucky ones have a big family backing them.” he thought. At the end of the lesson Marcel was the only one that could cast the light, but two thirds of the class had managed to at least see with their soul.
Five days working together with Tom in the morning and playing with the other children in the afternoon and two days of school, like that forty weeks passed. In this time Marcel trained a lot, lately he has even begun to restructure his muscles, like he had learned in Oliver's memories, and integrated a better protein in his cells. It allowed them to exert more force once contracted. Through that it was easier for him to smith together with his father, which he enjoyed a lot. Working together and talking about their work brought them very close together. They both shared the same passion for their craft.
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From time to time he experimented with spells and he got really good with that he could create more complex spells and channel more energy, but it was still far from what someone with a supreme technique could use. But his latest discovery far outstripped his other achievements. He discovered that it is possible to form the soul mist that is bound to a material into spells, effectively allowing him to enchant items, something he never even had heard about.
He had discovered that when he tried to cast a spell underwater. It was as easy as when he was surrounded by air. When this had succeeded he tried weather he could cast a spell when his soul is stuck into metal. To his surprise it left behind an imprint in the soul mist of the material.
He used this knowledge to improve the tools in the village secretly. He inscribed shovels, hoes, axes, knives, and every other type of cutting tools in a way that increased the hardness and form of the cutting edge, even giving them the ability to reform and repair themselves as long as the intern structures of the enchantment weren't broken. The enchantments were so effective that one had to be careful about where one leans ones tools against! When questioned about the leap in quality Tom , who was involved in his sons research long ago, only said that they found a new tempering and sharpening method.
The rather monotonous village life was interrupted when one evening a group of adventurers that had taken on a task to search for rare alchemical ingredients in the nearby forest arrived at the village. That is a rather common task in the area and as such the local inn was well prepared to host them. Many adults casually drank in the bar room when they entered. Many heads turned towards them and whispers travelled through the room. But it wasn't the first time adventurers had arrived in Orsten, so the room quickly calmed down.
The four adventurers walked to the bar to get their rooms. All except a red haired woman then went to pack away their luggage. Mumbling something about idiots and having to stand them for another week she ordered a beer. “Hey Sarah I double checked there aren't any spiders up there.” One of the adventurers, a black haired male, shouted over the whole room. She had enough. With one swift move she grabbed a knife behind the bar and threw it towards her companion. This knife was a gift for the big birthday of the innkeeper and it had been enchanted to the limit, it is so sharp and stable that a special cutting board is required to use it without cutting through the table beneath. The edge is monomolecular and harder than diamond.
Among those in the supreme classes there are some classes that can enhance their body and although the thrower was able to she didn't enhance her body to retaliate for some teasing words. Nonetheless the knife was embedded in the wall. If it hadn't been for the handle it probably would have gone right through the wall. Impressed Sarah walked towards the knife and the cowering man next to it. She gently tried to pull the knife out and to her astonishing it slid down a bit and easily left a clean cut in the wooden wall. She enhanced the defence of her arm with an aura created through mana and tested the knife. Sure enough she drew blood, it wasn't as easy as cutting the wall, but still better than any weapon without the infusion of mana from the owner should be capable of. She turned around to the now silent bar room, while holding up the bloody knife, and asked one question: “Who made this?”
The next morning, the news about the adventurers hadn't reached them yet, Marcel heard knocking from their door. He put away the piece he was working on just now and went to open the door, as he had done the last months, to let Tom continue his work unimpeded. To his surprise there were people that he never had seen before at their door. And one woman among them was holding a knife that he knew very well. “Hello travellers, what brings you to our smithy and why do you have this?” he greets them. “We would like to speak with your father, the smith of this knife here.” Sarah responded. “Actually he didn't work on this, I did, but I should get him anyway.” Marcel said while turning around to bring his father the news.
“He created this?” Sarah though while waiting for his return, “So young and yet he created something of this degree...” As she was reliant on her equipment she knew much more about metallurgy than most of the villagers. She understood the impossibility of this knife. Steel simply shouldn't be able to support such an edge. The edge should have been broken from the simple cutting motion when it was first used, but it didn't. Even after it had been thrown against a wooden wall it didn't have the slightest imperfection.
“So how can we help you?” Tom asked as the two smiths returned. “Can you create a weapon with the same properties as this knife? And if you can what would it cost me?” she asked. “50 gold, so the doubled prize of a standard steel weapon. And yes we can make you one. But it would be best if you come inside to discuss the details.” he answered. “50 gold for something that has properties like a weapon forged from a magical alloy, that can't be bought with money. I don't think he understands what he is selling. But I sure as hell won't tell him.” Sarah thought.
In the kitchen they discussed the detail of Sarah's order. She wants a two handed sword. Tom took a quick measurement from here and calculated the optimal length. Since Sarah would only stay here for five days and then her group would move back they decided to immediately get to work. But when Sarah was about to leave, she suddenly heard Marcel ask her something and turned around. “You are an adventurer right? So I have to ask you whether you infuse your sword with a spell when you use it.” “Yes I do.” she answered rather confused by this question. The boy gave her a small knife and asked her to try infusing it. At first nothing happened, which was rather strange since there should appear an aura like film on the metal and then it exploded in a cloud of tiny metal fragments!
“As I though. The current refining stands in conflict with spells. But don't worry we will find a way.” Marcel says to the perplexed woman. He returns to the forge, leaving behind a confused woman with a knife's hilt in her right hand.
The problem with the current enchantment is that it takes in any ambient energy to power the spells. So if someone were to give it additional energy the spells overclock and instead of holding the atoms in place to form a nearly indestructible edge the system oversteers and the atoms begin to swing in a harmonic way leading to a resonance catastrophe shattering the enchanted object. Marcel quickly came up with a fix for that problem. He just had to change the source of the energy to be the wielder, close the system from any outer influences, like the aura and add a buffer to the sword. The best buffers are mono-crystals. Coincidently one of Marcel's training regimes had consisted of the creation of small diamonds, which are pretty much worthless in this world.
Four days later Sarah returns to the forge, after she and her companions had finished their rather boring quest. They didn't encounter any beasts and had to search all day for the herbs they had come for. As such she still hadn't vented her annoyance. In fact it had even grown as she had to be near those idiots all day. They were funny, but idiots nonetheless. Filled with expectations she knocked at the door and shortly after Marcel opened it, greeted her, and signalled her to follow him. On a table in the forging area lay the ordered weapon. It looked …. completely normal. Sarah though that it was kind of anticlimactic.
“So, do you want to give it a try? But please not in here.” Marcel said, while sheathing the two handed sword and giving it to her. “The weight of the weapons is just right.” she thought. In the backyard she unsheathed her new weapon and when she held it she felt a tiny pull at her soul. The sword was taking energy from her! Not much, but a steady tiny stream was escaping her body. “What exactly did the boy do with this sword?” She thought.
Then she started the real test. She pushed her soul into the weapon and formed the arrays for the reinforcement in it and then send out her energy. It flowed so easily. She noticed that there actually existed channels in the soul structure of the sword, which now were flooded with energy. This flow could compare to magic alloys. “How did they do this?” She once again thought.
She paid the 50 gold and as she left, she said that if they ever would want to open shop in one of the cities they should send her a message and she would make them popular in one night.
This evening Marcel extensively talked with his father about his future, he wanted to go to one of the magic academies to further his magical studies, but for that he would need a lot of money or influence, the fee for the entrance fee alone is 200 gold an amount that is equivalent to 5 years of living expenses of a villager in Orsten. It wasn't an unreachable amount but still a very discouraging one.
Marcel planned to go with Sarah towards the nearest city and set up shop there to earn the necessary money. Reluctantly Tom allowed it and Marcel darted of to inform Sarah.