Zach sat there, reading, focusing on the texts that sounded gibberish and yet, interesting. It was a whole new realm when compared to the simple instruction of arcane cooking and the textbooks he once read back on modern Earth. This new knowledge was a part of the law that governed this world and the 'new' that he would be facing. A pity though. He was a jotter at heart when taking notes, and while the paper was there, there was nothing to write with.
He made do with his eyes and his brain, memorizing while reading them. Hours went by and he didn’t even move from where he sat. The experience reminded him of his high school days, cramming through the last night before the eve of the exam. Those days were difficult at best, but it was a choice he made back when he was young, and he doubted he would change even if he returned to that time. It was sort of his character and he understood it well. A bad one at that, and hard to discard.
He chuckled a bit, remembering a time he had a test with the highbrow, a tutor employed by his father for his children. Even when he knew everything about the simple subject, he did pull an all-nighter out of habit.
Smiling, the book was detailed from the beginning till the end. Clear instructions with tips on not to fail. After reading the book more in-depth, he found similarities between the structure of enchantment to the diagram of an electric circuit board. Well, he wasn’t an expert in electrical, but he did learn the basics back in high school. So deep down, he hoped it would be a tad helpful in this endeavor of his.
The excitement in him grew, and he glanced at the weapons hanging on the wall racks. His hands were itching to try it out, but he controlled himself. He restrained the growing urge to try something new right at this instant. He knew the supplies for experimentation were few, and to make sure every attempt was not wasteful, he dove further into his studies, memorizing and understanding the purpose of each instruction and how it related to the next step.
Usually, he would just give it a go, trying his luck. But he adapted with what he had and as tedious as the process might be, he was a man that preferred succeeding over failing.
Hours went by as the lad was lost in the texts of the book. Yet for the first time, his head held up high. The shine in his eyes showed he was ready. But a problem quickly arose the moment the time was right. He remembered that enchanting needed the proper instrument, but no matter where he searched through every nook and cranny of this room, the instrument could not be found. A tool that bore a similar appearance to a quill pen.
Nonetheless, he still going to do it. Despite not having the enchanting tool, there was an old method described by the book before the existence of the tool. A cruder way. One where he only needed his hands and his mana. The probability of success was low though through this method, but he didn’t have much of a choice.
He found a simple lunarite dagger, a perfect start for his experimentation. If he could he would have used the simple lunarite rings as they were plenty. But according to the book, a wider surface area with a rigid flat base was the most suitable for beginners to work with, and among the many armors, clothes, and weapons, the dagger was the best option.
He rubbed his hands together, preparing his mindset before he start. The tip of his finger touched the flat surface of the blade. Mana flowed from his heart as the words of wisdom kept repeating in his mind. Similar to arcane cooking, the flow was painless as the mana reached the tip of his index finger, concentrating at the end with a bright light blue glow. The moment he touched the cold lunarite blade he felt a resistance fighting back against his mana. The blue glow waned as his finger trembled. It was harder than he thought as this experimentation was quick to reach failure. But he persisted.
He drew a line with his mana, following exactly the diagram in the book. His memory did not fail him yet as for now it was exactly according to the drawing on the page. He had memorized it beforehand, lessening the chance of breaking concentration in what he was doing.
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Sweats covered his back and forehead as this was not an easy task. He could feel his mana draining with each second passing by and now came the hardest part. He drew a circle as best as he could close to the cross-guard of the dagger. This circle symbol with another unique symbol inside of it was the entry point of mana to power the enchantment embedded in the object.
“Shit,” he said. Sparks flew and Zach took off his finger from the blade, shaking his hand off with a frown. He failed. Halfway into the circle, his control of mana wavered and the shape was ruined. He felt a bit of pain as he failed, a sign his mana was being rejected as he could no longer proceed with the drawing.
He sighed, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy. He picked up the blade and observed the subtle burnt mark on the dagger. A clear mark of failure. Yet his eyes burned with determination.
Zach continued his enchantment experiments with a stack of failed lunarite daggers growing bigger by his side. But failure did not come without progress. The completion of the enchantment was close to fifty percent and it was far better when compared to Ahm-Nain’s progress rate. Zach was satisfied, but now came another problem. His mana had been depleted completely, and the dread of filling it up made him wince. He subconsciously glanced at the staircase and was reminded of the torturous pain he went through. The revitalizing fountain now looked more like a torture device than a healing object. But he didn’t have much of a choice, did he? He couldn’t just lounge around and wait for his mana to be filled, wasting precious time that was much better of in practicing his enchantment.
Shaking his head, Zach climbed up the stairs with a heavy heart. The fountain greeted him, and he wasn’t smiling. A drop was probably enough to fill his mana points back, but he could not look away from the benefit of gaining the extra mana points and health points through the torturous method. He sat on the dusty ground and stared at the fountain in contemplation. He weighed the benefits that he could gain and after a while, he made his decision. Sighing, he braced himself.
He cupped two handfuls of water and hesitated. But against the comfort of pain-free, Zach downed it all in one gulp.
[Value of Water activated.]
[Consumption effect will triple.]
And here came the pain. His whole body stiffened and then twitched. He fell on the floor and the lad kept jerking as if being electrocuted. Time went by and Zach lay painlessly on the floor.
[The abundance of mana destroys and creates at the same time.]
[Your mana pool has increased forcefully. +200 MP.]
[Your health pool has increased forcefully. +200 HP.]
He got up, wobbling. His feet dragged him back to the enchanting room and he continued his enchanting practice.
Failures piled one after another. Each attempt brought him closer to success and brought along a few minor rewards in his journey.
[Your understanding of Enchanting brought forth a realization of using Mana.]
[Your Intelligence has increased. +1 Intelligence.]
A small reward but it opened him to a broader horizon where attributes could be increased through other methods besides the usual point gain from leveling. Not to mention it was a much-needed point for Intelligence as this specific attribute was the major influence in enchanting success. Along with the minor attribute, perception, was needed for its attention to detail which aided in minimizing mistakes in drawing the enchantment diagram. These two attributes went hand in hand and were the key to increasing the success rate of enchanting, especially for higher-grade enchantment.
This trial he imposed on himself went on. Failures riddled the floor and the tortures of recovery came and went. He lost track of time and little by little he improved. Hours probably went by and perhaps a few days, yet Zach kept his persistence.
Soon five daggers were left, and he was enchanting the fifth one. Dark circles hung under his eyes as sleep was still impossible for the young man. He tried. But the outcome was the same, the nightmare of starvation and thirst plagued his sleep as if it wouldn’t leave him, turning into demons that haunted his much-needed rest. He didn’t understand why he was having these nightmares as it wasn’t particularly scary, considering his current condition which prevented him from being starved or dehydrated. So was it a curse from staying in the white dimension for too long? Or was it something else entirely?
He felt a zap at the end of his finger and again it was a failure. That slight deviation in his concentration to something else brought this inevitable failure and he knew it.
‘I need a time off,’ he thought. The last four daggers were as precious as gold to him right now, and he needed to be in the best state to succeed. So he went away. Far from the enchanting room, the fountain room and the pantheon as his feet brought him venturing through the ruined dungeon.