Book 6. Chapter 36 |
Brin was lucky enough to get both Hogg and Lumina together in Lumina’s apartment for dinner that night, but no Master of Magic. When he mentioned he wanted to start thinking about work on his staff, they quickly cleared the table and then Lumina brought out paper to sketch some diagrams and four new books on theory.
Marksi was completely nonplussed that they ended dinner early, and followed the food to where the servants took it, to the kitchen. Brin kept an Invisible Eye on him, but the cook didn’t seem to mind and was happy to let him finish off the scraps before curling up in front of the oven.
Lumina asked, “What would you like your staff to do? The majority of the enchantment should be for improving your strongest abilities. You could scribe enchantments that improve [Summon Light through Glass], [Shape Glass], and perhaps [Summon Flame through Glass]. Or would you rather it focus on elemental enhancement? In that case we can simplify it to glass and fire. Also, most [Mages] have a few other spells imbued. Ease of living, or weapons of last resort.”
“I’d like something that uses Air and something with Water, since those are the two elements I don’t have access to. As for the decision between Skill enhancement or element enhancement, I’m not sure if I understand the difference well enough to answer,” said Brin.
“That was a test. You were supposed to say elements,” said Hogg.
“It’s not as simple as that. Improving your Skills directly may be the right decision if your Class and Skills are going to stay static for a long time,” said Lumina.
As they talked, she quickly sketched out some major pieces. The focus, the modifiers, the batteries, the catalyst, the amplifier, and of course the shaft, all recognizable pieces of her own staff now that he knew what to look for. Next she started scribing in the member elements of each of the pieces, telling him which books to reference when she went through.
Even though it was just a broad overview, it was an overwhelming amount of information and he understood barely any of it. He realized he’d jumped into this too fast. He’d just wanted a crafting project to have something to practice all the new things he was learning on. He’d wanted a paper airplane, and someone had handed him the specifications to an F-35.
Even Lumina noticed his suddenly downcast look. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, that’s all. A [Mage’s] staff isn’t something that you build once and then it’s complete. It’s something that grows with you over a lifetime,” said Lumina. “For the shaft, I’ll have you draw any enchantments on with paint. We’ll wait to inscribe it until you find the rune pattern that resonates with you best. For everything else…”
“It’s not that hard.” Hogg stepped forward and pointed at the different parts. “Ruby. Silver. Fire Jelly Core. Powdered ruby again, or maybe rutilated quartz?”
“Ruby for ruby, no need to reinvent the wheel,” said Lumina, also touching "catalyst" on her diagram.
“Then straight up ordinary glass here,” said Hogg, touching “amplifier”.
“Oh! That’s clever!” said Lumina.
“Right? Thought of it just now,” said Hogg. “And lastly, Cyprus of Aberfu for the shaft.”
“You should be able to purchase most of those things straight from the workshops in the Circle of Earth. They’ll also be able to help you put them together,” said Lumina.
“It’s that easy?” asked Brin.
“Not at all,” said Hogg. “The first thing you should do is start practicing transmuting all of those materials to glass.”
“I’m having a little trouble with that,” said Brin.
“What have you tried?” asked Lumina.
“The Skill says it needs the application of heat and light, so I’ve been shining a laser on things. I was able to transmute the dirt on the road, random bits of trash like paper, that kind of thing. I got a good amount of initial levels from that, but then it stalled. Back in the workshop in the City House, I was able to transmute this and that. But the results were always terrible; it's this really foggy glass that’s so dark it’s nearly black. Weak, too, and if it carries anything from the element I transmuted it from it’s not in a way I can see. The only good glass I made was when I transmuted my silica sand mixture after heating it in the furnace. But that’s no different from making glass manually.”
“I see. And when you were transmuting things in the workshop, did you also shine a laser on the subject matter, or did you allow the furnace to supply the heat?” asked Lumina.
“I let the furnace heat it,” said Brin.
“Then we know that you don’t actually need to supply the heat yourself in order for the transmutation to succeed. That’s a good sign. That means I can perhaps help you,” said Lumina.
She walked to a bookshelf, overflowing with text and random notebooks stashed in every available space. Idly, she touched a book, then tugged a notebook, then tapped another one, taking none of them out. Apparently deciding she didn’t need any of them, she walked to the door leading to the kitchens and servants areas. She went through, then reappeared a second later and waved. “Come.”
Lumina led them down a short hall, past the kitchens and cleaning closet, to a bedroom-sized space with rough wooden floors and a scorched iron table in the center. Only two small shelves hugged the walls of this room, and while they were also stacked with papers and notebooks, the edges of many of the papers were scorched.
“A small practice room, for when an idea hits me in the middle of the night,” Lumina explained. “So I have a theory. I believe you transmuted neither dirt nor paper. What it sounds like you’ve done, is scorched the organic elements in the dirt into carbon, and then transmuted that. The same with paper. Let’s try it like this."
She hadn’t bothered to bring her staff with her to the practice room, and she didn’t need it. She spoke three spells, talking out loud in the Language. One for heat, one to protect the rest of the room from heat, and a last one to remove all the air from the heated area on top of the iron table.
She tore an edge off a piece of paper from the bookshelf and handed it to Brin. “Go ahead.”
Brin dropped the piece of paper into the heat field, and rather than burn, it melted. Lumina caught it with a bit of wordless magic, leaving it to float in the air. The paper steamed, and the white turned gray. As soon as Brin felt that the magic could take hold, he transmuted it.
The gray color didn’t change, but it took on a small bit of gloss. Lumina cooled it with another spell and let it drop to the table where it landed with a tap. It was less than half the size of the original paper.
“Still no level,” said Brin.
“You may have to supply the heat yourself,” said Lumina.
Hogg picked up the bit of glass. He tried to bend it, and it seemed to have at least a bit of strength. “I honestly don’t know what this is good for. How can we tell if it kept any of the properties of the paper?”
“It was graphite, I think. Even without air, it seemed that superheating the paper transformed it into something else.” Lumina held out her hand. “Allow me.”
Hogg dropped the pieces of glass into her palm, but it didn’t land. She let it hang in the air, and then cast a long and complicated spell, taking nearly a minute of speaking the Language to get it all out. The spell she summoned wasn’t powerful, or at least it wasn’t Mana-intensive. He didn’t feel a big outpouring of energy, or anything at all really.
Lumina frowned, and then tossed the piece of glass on the table and moved to a shelf where she retrieved a half-filled notebook. She found a fresh page and started writing with a pencil.
“So?” asked Brin.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Lumina looked up, then widened her eyes as if remembering that he and Hogg were still there. “Oh! I’m sorry! I just wanted to write down my impressions while they are still fresh. Yes, I believe that piece of glass will react to magic as if it were really graphite. At least twenty-five percent as well. We should see if we can improve that number!”
They tried another piece of paper, only this time, Lumina spoke the words of her heating spell without casting it. “” Now you try.”
It took a half hour for Brin to get the spell right. Lumina had to coach him on the correct insight he’d need on each of the words. He’d cast it and fail one word, and then after she helped him fix it, his next cast would expose something else he was doing wrong.
Learning the Language was always frustrating, but it was valuable nonetheless.
Through training, you have increased the following attribute:
Magic +1
On his fifth attempt, he was able to cast the spell correctly. He dropped another bit of paper into the slot, and activated [Transmute to Glass]. At some point, Marksi had meandered into the practice room, so he was a witness when Brin finally got it to work.
Transmute to Glass leveled up! 11 -> 12
Summon Flame through Glass leveled up! 5 -> 6
“So I don’t have to use my own heat for the Skill to work, but I do have to provide it if I want it to count for levels,” said Brin.
“At this stage, at least. I’m sure those will peter out and then the System will expect something else for levels,” said Hogg.
Lumina analyzed it again, and found that it wasn’t any better at having the attributes of graphite.
“I should add light,” said Brin. “My Skill says heat and light.”
Hogg said, “Try this. ”
Brin needed to use [Multithreading] to cast them both at once, but the time delay that created didn’t provide an issue. To Hogg and Lumina it would just sound like Brin was speaking a bit slower.
He finished the heat zone, and then the light appeared. From this side, it looked like a black orb, but he could feel from the inside that it was a dazzlingly bright light. He dropped one last piece of paper inside, and transmuted it.
Transmute to Glass leveled up! 12 -> 13
The levels alone told him they were on the right track. After Lumina cooled the new piece, he saw that it was still charcoal gray, but this time it felt more natural, like it was supposed to look like graphite because that’s what it sort of was. It didn’t look like failed, foggy glass at all, but a natural mix between the two.
Lumina analyzed it again, and confirmed that they’d improved it. Now, magic would treat it as if it were 50% graphite, while also accepting it as 100% glass. And this was their first time trying it. It really did pay off to include an [Archmage] in the research and development phase.
Sadly, she couldn’t stay any longer, so Brin and Hogg headed back to the city house, where Brin promptly resumed his experiments in his workshop. He quickly saw that Lumina’s spell to remove the air had been a large reason for his success. Anything that could burn just created a smoky mess and poor quality glass again.
When he asked Hogg about it, the old guy had suggested that maybe the spell to remove air from an area should be the first thing he added to his new staff.
Brin agreed. Next, he tried transmuting glass with his silica sand mixture again, but this time while heating it with Lumina’s spell and shining light with Hogg’s inverted sun.
Transmute to Glass leveled up! 13 -> 14
Summon Flame through Glass leveled up! 6 -> 7
It was a success. This time, the glass was as good as he ever made in his kiln. It was fairly wasteful on Mana, especially since [Summon Flame through Glass] was pretty inefficient, but he was glad to know he could make good quality glass quickly if he ever needed to.
He spent the rest of his evening melting different types of metal from around the house that Marksi and Tonin fetched for him. The dragonling watched every one of Brin’s experiments with rapt interest, and for once their bond failed to tell Brin exactly what Marksi found so fascinating about it. He just knew that Marksi was interested.
As for the metals, he had much better results. The room grew blisteringly hot, even with Brin’s [Heat Resistance], because he didn’t have an easy way for keeping the heat spell from warming the room, but an open window kept him from killing himself.
Lead was first, and it transmuted easily, netting Brin his first bit of metallic glass. Though, that wasn’t quite true. Metallic glass was actual metal in an amorphous structure. This was metal-aspect glass. It acted like regular glass and shattered when he smashed it rather than denting or deforming like metal would, which was a bad sign for ever turning it into a weapon. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a way to make metal-aspect glass that had physical properties of metal. It just meant he hadn’t found it yet.
He melted and transmuted aluminum and tin. Then he tried silver, and really had to push to get it hot enough. Iron was, unfortunately, still beyond him. He’d have to try ruby another time, because he was pushing how late he could stay up and still function.
Right at the end, when Brin was cleaning up, Marksi was staring at the piece of iron that Brin had failed to melt, and he got the feeling that Marksi was going to try something. But then the dragonling snorted and turned away to go to bed. Brin followed suit.
Transmute to Glass leveled up! 14 -> 17
Summon Flame through Glass leveled up! 7 -> 8
The next day when he got to the Tower, he found Sancha waiting for him just outside of the carriage drop-off.
“Bia hath returned!” she said without preamble.
“What?”
“Didst thou not hear? She, who departed from thy sight, is now returned,” said Sancha.
“How do you know?”
“It is known. All presently speak of it, and Gyromia hath seen her.”
Brin put a hand to his chin. Bia was back. What did that mean? The Shadow Pact and Hogg both had verified that Cobol was pulling all his people back, keeping his army standing despite the massive expense, and calling in all favors and debts. And now… Bia was back here? Armies needed [Scouts]. They always needed more [Scouts]. So did Bia’s return mean he was calling off the rebellion, or did it just mean that whatever she was spying on here was more important?
He’d have to make a trip to the cult this afternoon, and ask Hogg what he thought. There wasn’t much to do about it now, though.
He nodded and said, “Interesting.”
“Interesting. Is that all?”
“Should there be more?”
“Most certainly! Surely doth thy heart whirl twixt hope and dread. Her departure was a wound, and her return a riddle. Willst thou not go to her?”
Brin frowned at her from the side. “That's what everyone is doing now. If she gives an explanation, I'll hear it through the grapevine. Let me ask you something. Why do you think I care if Bia stays or goes, more than any other girl here?”
Sancha replied with a surprised sound that came out like a hiccup. “I decline to answer. On another note, hath a rumor found its way to thine ears that in our Tower, a certain soothsayer holds her court? [Weaver] Taxia, is known to whisper counsel sharp as a needle’s point on matters of the heart. Perhaps thou shouldst pose thy question unto her.”
Brin sighed. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with yet another [Weaver]. But it sounded like this one had been giving people weird ideas about Brin’s love life, and he needed to shut that down. Yet another task for the to-do list.
“I was wondering if you could guide me through the Circle of Earth today? I need to get in as an initiate,” said Brin.
“I can, and most gladly,” said Sancha.
After their morning classes, she guided him to the homeroom for the Earth Track. Brin’s first impression of the room was clean. The Earth Track favored light-colored wood, cream carpets, and white plaster walls, and all of it was completely spotless.
It was an odd choice for people who were famous for throwing dirt around. Or, maybe that’s why they were so fastidious, to deny the reputation.
The moment he and Sancha entered, a level 50 [Grand Magus of the Shadowed Depths] named Alanso approached. “I knew you’d come! I saw your duel. A fine showing! Nice to see someone fight with Earth! People say that Earth loses to Fire, Air, or Water because we’re slower, but I didn’t see anything slow in that duel, that’s for sure. You have Fire as well, and you didn’t even need to use it. I have some as well, but I can tell that you’re like me, an Earth mage through and through! And before you ask, [Shadowed Depths] is from fighting the undead underground last year. You likely know more about that than I do. Nice little spot of experience points, and I got a Title out of it! Underground is exactly where an Earth mage belongs, although perhaps not you if you can only use glass. Not that I’m complaining! You made a fine showing, like I said…”
It took Brin a full five minutes before he could interrupt Alanso and explain that he wasn’t actually here for duelling tips; he wanted to join the Circle of Earth.
“Of course you are! Ha ha! You can’t use our dueling rings until you’re a member, can you? Come now, I’ll show you the facilities.”
Alanso gave Brin, and Sancha by association, a guided tour of the first level facilities of the Circle of Earth. They had sparring rings as well, which were large circles surrounding patches of earth and stone. He saw one duelist get slammed down hard into the ground, and when he was exiting the ring, a referee flicked his finger and all the dirt flew off the duelist's clothes and back into the ring. Now it was starting to make sense. Keeping things clean must be a lot easier for [Earth Mages].
Alanso didn’t spend as much time as Brin would’ve liked on the crafting sections, but what he saw was enough to get him excited. There were chemistry set-ups, alchemy stations, enchanting stations, and that was just for starters. He saw a table with welding torches, a table with tools that emitted electricity, and he even saw one man etching patterns in a steel gauntlet using acid.
And like Lumina had said, there was a store. A [Merchant] stood in front of a wall with thousands of little boxes, each of them holding a small bit of reagents. Everything from common iron to shells of beetles. And yes, a bit of Fire Jelly Core was there among a hundred other monster cores.
“Of course, the nicer stations are on higher levels and are for full Circle Members only. You can use these ones as long as you promise to abide by the safety standards. Speaking of which…” Alanso handed Brin a textbook.
Brin wondered if the safety standards were inside. No, the entire 90-page textbook was all safety standards.
Brin looked at Sancha. “Did you read all this?”
“Aye, and I passed the test as well,” said Sancha.
“A mere two-hundred questions. And if you get at least 90%, then you only have to retake the questions that you missed,” said Alanso.
Brin looked between Sancha and Alanso, both of them gazing at him with full confidence. He thought about how much he dearly did not want to read pages and pages of safety documents. He thought about creating an enchantment that removes air. He nodded. “Bring it on.”