43 Enchanting
The essence of enchanting can be simply broken down into this one statement: the casting of various spells and maintaining them with magic circles to imbue an ordinary item with magical properties. There were primarily three steps to this process:
Firstly, Research whichever spell would be necessary to create the desired magical effect in the enchanted items. Not all spells would work together well, and certain spells would synergise together effectively. The selection of which spells would be most appropriate was never clear-cut, especially this early in the process. An inappropriate choice of spells could prematurely doom an otherwise well-thought-out design.
Secondly, Magic circles will then need to be drawn up. There was no one single magic circles that were used for all enchantments. The type being used were vary depending on spell type, spell rank, the amount of mana being injected, enchantment effect, etc. This particular process was where explosions would usually occur, due to a mistake being made and resulting in a volatile reaction.
Third, selection and processing of materials. Magic crystals were the most obvious material required for any type of enchanting. For small items, they would be ground up into dust and incorporated in the crafting of that item. For larger ones, the entire crystal would be embedded. Other materials would then be selected based on the spells the enchanter intended to bestow on the item. Certain materials have certain affinities, and their properties would affect the end product. The magic crystal and other materials would then need to be processed magically. Different materials required different kinds of processing, but it was usually quite straightforward with magic crystals.
An enchanted will usually place the magic crystal in the middle of the magic circle, cast the spells they want to imbue into the magical formation, activate the formation, bind these effects on the crystal that was already processed. While the formation is binding the spell effects on the magic crystal, the enchanted then had to quickly etch certain runic arrays to hold them in place.
"Although 90% of the enchanting process is quite standard, the finishing touches are usually unique to each magic guild." Christoph Waltz explained to Rudeus who was scribbling in his note book. "Our method is special because it can increase the mana flow efficiency by 20%, and spell efficacy by 35%. Of course, the largest guilds probably have methods that is double that enhancement."
"I understand, Guild Master."
It has been a year since Rudeus started learning enchantment and illusion magic from his Guild Master. He turned 9 years old a few weeks ago. In this year, almost all of his time was dedicated to his busy schedule - learning politics from Philip and Sauros, self-studying language, swordsmanship training, learning illusion magic, body guarding duties, continuous development of Magic Sword style, enchanting magic items. If not for regular dosage of Rudeus' self invented Healing Magic that acted like adrenaline shots, he would have already collapsed in exhaustion long ago.
Of course, prolonged usage of this adrenaline Healing Magic risked permanent damage to his internal organs. So he only occasionally used them to keep himself awake once a week or so.
Rudeus had a degree in sports science from his previous life, so he had a good understanding of basic biology. So far, he had yet to discover any major differences in human anatomy between these two worlds. As such, he was also able to accurately locate the adrenal glands in his body and stimulate them with Healing Magic. He did also have a few other ideas on how to tweak the biology in his body such as skeletal or muscle mass, metabolism. But Rudeus deemed these to be too dangerous to experiment without a healer standing next to him to fix any potential damage. A particularly dangerous idea he had was stimulating the neural network and nervous system in his brain in order to improve his reaction time. If electrical impulses were the trains that sent messages from his brain to the rest of his body, what he wanted to do was build better train tracks so the trains moved faster.
But it was all theory. Even if it might look good on paper, Rudeus did not have perfect mastery over his mana. There was no guarantee he wouldn't accidentally snip something important and he would become a brain dead vegetable forever. It was an idea he shelved for now, along with all the others he thought too dangerous to attempt.
But thanks to his Spartan lifestyle, his education as a whole progressed rapidly. Illusion magic was something he found to be particularly interesting, and was able to be incorporated in his Magic Sword style easily.
It was a common misconception, his Guild Master had started by explaining, that illusion magic was a subset of Wind magic. It was actually Melded Magic, involving Wind, Water and Fire magic! Fire magic was used to heat up the air, creating a difference in air density which allowed light to retract. Water magic created tiny crystals in the air which was used to direct the refracted light, and then Wind magic to move the illusions to make it look realistic.
After receiving lessons, Rudeus was able to not only cast Illusion magic, but he could cast it without incantations as well. He incorporated it into his Magic Sword style, and came up with his first Saint-rank Magic Sword technique – [Phantom Blade].
[Phantom Blade] was an umbrella term for the variety of Illusionary spells Rudeus now had in his disposal. He was able to create clones for example, that while illusionary, was indistinguishable from his real body if one only relied on their sight.
Invisibility was another Illusion magic he learned, which can be achieved through the simple refraction of light from hitting his body. And the combination of these two techniques allowed him to hide his real body while creating illusionary clones to confuse the enemy.
Against someone like Ghislaine, the technique was next to useless, since her keen senses was able to see through any illusions. But against a human, who did not have the heightened senses of the Beastmen race, it was more than enough.
His progress in enchantments also rapidly progressed. He took half a year to master basic enchantments which could be learned at Ranoa Magic Academy, and another half to master Christoph Waltz's unique enchantment methods. This was a speed that was considerably faster than the average magician, but nothing as monstrous as his talent in swordsmanship.
Enchantment was pretty straight forward, especially if one was following a step-by-step process outlined in established 'recipes'. As long as Rudeus did not make any mistakes, enchanting was only a matter of patience.
Thus far, he had managed to craft a number of magic items using the resources acquired by Waltz Magical Emporium. These magic items weren't too impressive, but were still genuine magic items that held magical effects. A simple ring that boosted the strength of its wearer was worth around 50 Asura Gold Coins. The cost of production? 10 Gold Coins.
It was safe to say that magic item production was the best money making ability Rudeus could engage in now.
The Magic Guild helped Rudeus sell his products, in exchange for the fee. But even if he gave 5 Gold Coins to Christoph, he still profited 35 gold coins from crafting a simple magic item that didn't take a full day of work.
Christoph had commented about the absurdity of it. A normal magician who specialized in enchantment expended their mana when creating just a single magic item that was relatively simple. For more complicated magic items, they would need more time. Highly intricate magic items, like the breast plate Rudeus had once seen in the armour shop, took months.
Half of the time was spent drawing up magic circles and engraving runic arrays. The other half was spent pouring their mana into the magic crystal catalyst. It took a day or two for normal magicians to recover from mana exhaustion.
Rudeus was an abnormality. Even after pouring in the required mana to craft a magic item, he hardly felt the expenditure. He felt like if he could hasten the efficiency in producing magic items, he could become a one man factory that churned out a dozen magic items a day.
Not all the items he created were sold. He had created some that were commissioned by the Boreas family, and he had given them a few as gifts as well.
Magic items focusing on survivability was what he prioritised when he enchanted items. Philip and Hilda both held a Ring of Healing, that contained a single Advanced Healing spell, and a Ring of Protection each. They had commissioned Rudeus to craft these rings when they found out about his talent in enchantment. He sold it to them at a discounted market price.
In addition, he had also given them an offensive magic item as gifts. Philip wore a bracelet that could release a deadly, Advance-rank Wind magic, [Whirlwind Scythe]. Hilda was given a necklace that could shoot out a torrent of Intermediate-rank Water magic, [Icicle Stream].
Sauros received a pair of luxurious leather gloves that enhanced his already robust strength, as well as the standard Ring of Healing. Instead of a Ring of Protection that would create Advanced-rank Barrier magic, Sauros requested a defensive spell that was more offense oriented as well. As such, Rudeus made an item with the effects of Advanced-rank Water magic [Frozen Armour].
The commissioned items would have been extremely costly even for a noble family to afford. Advanced-rank magic items were crazily expensive to produce in the first place, so the selling price would similarly be extravagant. If Rudeus had sold them at market price, 150 Asura Gold Coins would be the average price for each.
Of course, the effort put into making them was similarly exhausting. Each magic item took roughly three days each to produce. Thankfully, the recipes for creating them could be acquired from Waltz Magical Emporium. Rudeus just needed to follow the steps to make them. With Christoph Waltz' guidance and the success enhancement effect from the workshop, he did not encounter too much difficulty aside from the laborious process.
His decision to learn enchanting was not a mistake, Rudeus concluded.
Aside from Philip, Hilda and Sauros, Rudeus also made magic items for Eris and Ghislaine.
Like her parents, Eris was given a Ring of Healing and Ring of Protection. As her bodyguard, Eris' safety was Rudeus' highest priority. He spared no expense, and created rings that were of the highest quality he was capable of.
For some reason, Eris looked extremely bashful when receiving the rings from Rudeus.
'Could she be… Huh. Well, Eris is a growing young lady after all. She must be embarrassed to receive something like a ring from a boy.'
In addition, he also enchanted a pair of boots for her that was imbued with his [Earthen Dash] spell. This was something she had absolutely demanded after he started enchanting magic items. As a result, she could now utilize Intermediate Magic Sword technique, [Earthen Dash] in addition to her [Fireball] sword.
Ghislaine rejected any magic items from him. She stated that she did not like neither offensive nor defensive magic items since they would cause her to be overly reliant on their abilities. She preferred to depend on her own sword. She only accepted a single Ring of Healing from Rudeus after his insistence.
Even though he had to dip into his savings to afford the cost of producing all these magic items, he still made a windfall from selling the rest of his created items. His savings exceeded a whopping 1000 Gold Asura Coins through the sale of his magic items.
And this was only his earnings as he enchanted magic items on the side while spending nearly all of his time training swordsmanship, protecting Eris, learning politics and illusion magic. One could only imagine how many gold coins he could accumulate if he spent a year or two focusing solely on the production of magic items.
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[IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT]
A/N: We are about to reach the mana calamity arc. As the author, I find myself in a dilemma, which is that I don't know where Rudeus and Eris should be teleported to. Hence, I will open it up to the readers. Comment on option 1 or 2 to vote. Please don't vote more than once. Results will be tallied after a few days, which will decide the direction of this story.
1) Follow canon, teleport to Demon Continent and they meet Ruijerd. Will not strictly follow canon, but there will inevitably be some similarities.
Pro: Easy to write. Familiar for readers.
Con: Too familiar. Might be boring to read.
2) Fuck canon, teleport to somewhere else.
Pro: More world building. Author gets to flex his creative muscles.
Con: Harder to write without guide posts for author.
