by S Bailey
Sam perked up, “You’re a genius Jen, that’s why you’re the Boss!”
Jen laughed to herself evilly as she thought about how irate he was going to be when she asked to simply copy his Excel app to her onboard after he finished.
At first, Sam decided he would use multi-focus just on building Excel in his onboard so that he could get it done in half the time. He found that he could use multi-focus, but only for about 20 minutes, before he had to drop back down to single focus for about an hour recharge.
Next, he used multi-focus with meditate and realized he could actively work on both his onboard Excel app and his meditation skill simultaneously for at least 3 hours. He only stopped at 3 hours because he had finally finished the app.
Sam discovered that using multi-focus was like driving a car while listening to an audio book at the same time. Your mind is on the road at the same time as it is in a story. Multi-focus was just much more intense. As he leveled-up his multi-focus skill, he realized the higher your multi-focus skill level, and the more competent you are at the separate tasks, the longer you can keep multi-focus engaged.
Sam bragged to Jen, “Nice few hours of work. My meditation skill went to level 5, and my multi-focus is level 2, and now I have an Excel app. Most importantly, I can finally get to these enchantments!”
Chapter 26:
Enchantment Code
Sam looked at the firestarter and entered all the material information as well as the estimated power output into his database, then he started to attack the enchantment with his Words of Understanding skill.
He decrypted the first enchantment on the iron striker by just pushing all his mana to cover the entire striker. Sam realized later that this technique drastically sapped his mana pool, because he didn’t have any other words or context to help decrypt the original language. He focused on what he believed the enchantment could do, which was “create fire.”
The translated enchantment turned out to simply read “start.” His original guess of “create fire” was so far off from “start,” he theorized that it caused a higher rate of drain on his mana pool.
Sam rested and then focused on the “flint” iron’s enchantment, but he wanted to keep trying different methods. According to Joan, the Decks could make anything possible, but it would require a lot of trial and error.
“O.K. Kelly, this time I’m going to direct my mana through the lines of the runes and words only, and I know this part of the enchantment must have something to do with fire, explosion, or heat.” Sam thought as he tried to decrypt the true meaning of the enchantment.
His gut told him he was on the right track, and if he could just get the mana to push through every line of the enchantment… “Success! its true meaning is ‘Fire” he crowed to himself. “This technique is much quicker, and it only took about 10% of the mana as my original technique.”
Sam was able to decrypt the enchantment as fast as he could mana-trace it. He believed it helped that he had already decrypted the true meaning for “start,” which he figured must have been developed by the same crafter who created the fire starter.
Next Sam recorded exactly the original enchantment for each of the words into his Excel database, and in the next cell over, the true meaning of the words. He believed the unrefined hunk of iron was able to withstand repeated use of the mana enchantment, but because it was such a poor conductor, it limited both the amount and flow of mana that could move through it, and as a result it was only a tiny flame instead of a fireball. “I could have made this simple enchantment with my own Words of Power skills, but….baby steps.” Sam sighed to himself.
Next, Sam pulled out the space ring, pushed his words of understanding, and 12 hours and 20 breaks later, he had the following true meaning, which turned out to be similar to computer language code that programmers used.
Now that he could read it, he had to understand it.
// size[] initial size array including
// W capacity of ring
Name[sam] current bond holder
static int Maximum size(int mana[], int n,
// items of size, maximum vector range / sort ‘I’ to retrieve
[channel size (M) mana-infused silver)/channel path*mana volume of (n)
Vector
Vector
The code continued on for hundreds of lines.
Chapter 27:
Enchantment Breakthroughs
Jen took care of all the practical day to day decisions, continued her study of the coms devices, grinded relentlessly on her psych, multi-focus, and mental overclock skills, while Sam spent the next three days in multi-focus learning how the “code” controlled multiple dimensions of the magic within the ring enchantment and the armor enchantments.
Sam said, “Kelly, I’m starting to understand these enchantment runes more each time I work on them. With the space ring and armor enchantments, all the variables have to be defined. This is both good and bad. It’s good, because the code revealed that the silver in my minor space ring has a bit of mana infused into the metal.”
Sam was working with the ring’s code in his onboard trying to add an encryption element to the code for any future rings he tried to make. He didn’t want anyone without the encryption key to be able to open or use the ring.
“What’s really masterful about the design of the ring’s code, is it does not take a massive amount of mana to use. The space ring simply interacts with each of the items being stored and assigns them a unique identifier while storing them. Then it “defines” them as being in a void of space connected to the ring.”
Sam then pulled out Ganjo’s sword and armor. It was ridiculously heavy, but he activated the enchantment and the armor became light as a feather as he hooked his index finger under the shoulder cauldron and easily picked up the chest plate. Sam was amazed at the strength of Ganjo, because he would still have to wear the armor without activating the enchantment. The activation of the enchantment on the armor would only last for about 30 minutes, but that was more than enough for most battles. After the enchantment ran out of mana, the owner would probably have to spend days charging it back up, or even possibly take it to a merchant with a large mana pool to charge the item.
Sam inspected the code on the armor again, “You see these enchantments Kelly. I think these were created using building blocks. A type of one-size fits all code for providing power to enchantments, another block for strength is added, and another block for manipulating gravity. These building blocks are not nearly as mana efficient, but they make it much easier to build an enchantment.”
As Sam looked at the enchantments on the space ring and compared them to the hundreds of lines of code that represent its ‘true meaning,’ he said to Kelly, “Of course, there is no way you can fit hundreds of lines of code on a small ring or sword. The enchanter has to use unique symbols or runes to represent the full intent/code of the enchanter. These symbols or runes can then be placed on the object creating a mana empowered enchantment.”
It was Sam’s Words of Understanding skill that allowed him to decipher the true intent of enchantments and turn them into code. If someone other than the original enchanting developer simply copied the runes directly to another object, it wouldn’t do anything, unless the enchanter copying them knew and understood the intent of the original enchanter that created them.
Sam had so many breakthroughs going through the enchantment code for all the different items, and he learned so much that he felt like his brain was going to explode. If not for simultaneously using meditation with his multi-focus, he knew he would not have been able to stay focused, or make the leaps of comprehension he made during his deciphering of the enchantments.
“The meditation skill allows me to work in a trance-like state, which makes it difficult for me to realize time is passing when I am using my other focus to work on the enchantments.” Sam thought.
That’s when Jen flicke
d some water in his face and said, “That’s enough, go to sleep. Tomorrow we are finally going to the Arc guild. No arguments. I bet you don’t even realize you reached level 10 and that you raised your Words of Understanding skill to 15, Meditation to 10, and multi-focus to 8! Split your ability points from reaching level 10 equally between agility and your stamina regen. I’ve reached level 9 and brought up my psych skill, meditation, and multi-focus skills as well. We can discuss tomorrow what we’ve learned. Last, you need to actually read your system messages instead of just sending them to me.”
“Will do, Boss!” Sam said with every intention of completely ignoring most of the constant annoying messages.
Jen just glared at him when she felt the emotions that accompanied his response.
Chapter 28:
Getting Moving
Sam didn’t actually go to sleep but stayed up and spent several hours building an “enchantment app” in his onboard. He designed it to function in a way that would take “plain text” and turn it into “enchantment code” or take “enchantment code” and turn it into “plain text.”
He then created another function that would allow him to interact with his materials and enchantment database. “Kelly, with this app I would simply do a search for all the ‘enchantment codes’ that I need for a particular enchantment I want to build, and then I can splice them together like the building blocks.”
“Next, with the encryption system I built into my app, the final ‘enchantment code or runes’ will be encrypted to a far more complex encryption than the codes I’ve been stripping off the enchanted rings and other items.” Sam didn’t want anyone decrypting and stealing his enchantments!
His app was still a little rough, but he planned to refine it as he learned more about enchantments in general. Sam looked at the enchantments he already uploaded into his app and thought, “Now, all I need to do is start gathering more enchantments and stripping the codes out of them. I could create unique code from scratch, but for complex enchantments that might take days or weeks depending upon the result needed, and I would need to fully understand the method or raw spell for obtaining the results.”
Sam then prepared a couple of simple charms to take to the Arc guild to possibly impress them or just to sell. Jen had told him the Arc guild was powerful, but also very wealthy from the sale of goods collected by their adventurers and merchants… “bla, bla, bla, so he had to make some charms and try to impress them,” Sam thought.
The only metal Sam had handy was some of the slag metal from their electronic equipment. Sam used a knife to scratch and carve different enchantment runes and symbols into the metal, and then he tried charging the runes, but the metal simply cracked apart destroying the enchantments.
Sam took another look at the armor enchantment before finally realizing the importance of the location of the strengthening enchantment. “Of course, the enchantment doesn’t make the user stronger, but the metal stronger!” Sam then carved the enchantments into the slag metal again, but this time he placed the strengthening enchantment first. Then he made sure to charge the strengthening enchantment building block with his mana before charging the other runes.
“Yes, the enchantments held up! Now let’s find out how well they worked.”
His firestarter enchantment worked fine. The gravity enchantment worked perfectly, except the difference in weight on a five-pound piece of metal was only lightened a half pound at best. Additionally, the “space ring” enchantment he placed on the metal, was limited by the storage capacity. If he made the storage capacity too big, it would disintegrate the metal into dust. As he experimented with decreasing the size of the capacity, he found he could use the storage space, but after a few uses, the metal and enchantments would disintegrate. Finally, through much trial and error, he discovered the exact capacity size that would not erode the integrity of the enchantment or the metal. “Damnit, I guess someone could use it as a small coin purse?”
Sam sighed with frustration while breathing hard at one of the gnats that had snuck its way into the room and was flying around his face. “That’s it!” exclaimed Sam as he reached for the enchanted ‘space ring’ he just made.
Sam modified his enchantment slightly and created a metal charm that could store up to four hours’ worth of a light breeze, and then release it slowly at the wearer’s will. He estimated the breeze charm would burn out after 2 full charges. The wearer could use the charm in intervals, but he figured it was limited to maybe a maximum of 8 hours total for each charge.
The charm would be perfect for someone standing in line, a farmer overheating in the field, etc...
The other simple charms Sam made were hot and cold “store and release” charms. These charms would heat up food or cool down a drink, but would also burn out with about 8 hours continuous use. What made these charms possible in the low-mana environment of the First Deck was they didn’t create the wind, hot, or cold, they just stored and released it.
He placed the breeze charms outside his window to catch the nightly breezes until it filled up, the same with the cold charm. He placed the hot charm near the fireplace.
Of course, he wasn’t going to tell anyone they were store and release charms. Sam wanted them to believe the enchanted charms actually created the wind, heat, and cold.
Last, Sam made a few Minor Mend enchanted charms with the slag metal, but these were good for one use only. Unfortunately, this type of charm burned out immediately because it directed much more mana all at once. Unlike his other charms, the Minor Mend charms actually used the mana to create magic healing. The few minor mend charms he made required him to spend another hour or so to charge them up with mana.
The only additional step Sam had taken before constructing the charms was to encrypt the ‘code’ on all the charms with his newly developed enchantment app.
Sam finally went to sleep as dawn was just rising the next day. Only an hour later, Sam winced as he heard Jen calling him from the other room, “Let’s go, get up! You’ve already sat around for three days playing with your runes.”
Sam groaned as he rolled out of his bed, cleaned up, gathered his charms, and as he headed towards the door replied, “What are you talking about, I’ve been waiting on you!”
His comment earned him an evil eye from Jen, but she was just happy he was finally heading out the door.
Jen brought Sam up to speed as they walked through town. Messaging each other through their onboards was almost second nature to them now.
“While you were ‘away’ in your little trance working on enchantments for the last few days, I set up a safehouse.”
“Nice, you are learning, my little paranoid acolyte!”
Jen rolled her eyes, “Whatever, I’ve hidden a ring stocked with food, money, and weapons in the house. I’m sending you my map to its location now.”
Sam looked confused, and said, “How can you do that?”
“Oh yea, I purchased a cheap map technique scroll for each of us. Tonight, you need to use yours, so you can open my map in your onboard.”
“That’ll make getting around a lot easier. How do you use a technique scroll?
“It’s pretty neat, you don’t even read the scroll, you just place it to your forehead and will the scroll to activate. Then it’s just in your brain. It’s easier than uploading a flash drive onto a computer.”
“That’s awesome! Does the map technique show us each other’s real time location too?”
Jen shook her head, “They have that type of map technique, but the ones we have won’t do that.”
“Too much money were they?”
“Exactly. They were a fortune! I can’t wait to get one though!”
“Stop!” Jen said raising her arm in front of Sam, just as a gambler, apparently holding a stolen tool bag, ran past them and into an alley with a cobbler screaming and running after him.
Jen then tapped her temple with her index finger, “I’ve significantly raised my psych, multi focus, and overc
lock ability. I can’t get my skills any higher without us doing some creative training. Right now, while we are ‘talking,’ I’m also scanning all nearby coms messages, and I’m scanning for any emotional triggers from anyone within about 50 feet.”
Sam gave Jen a surprised look and said, “Nice! How long can you keep the multi-focus going for?”
“Depends on the number of people nearby or how far out I’m trying to scan, but I can keep this passive type scanning going for 3 to 4 hours before I need a break. If I am doing active scanning, searching for specific coms signals, or trying to read all the emotions people are feeling, then only about 45 minutes to an hour.”
Sam whistled and replied, “Your power is a game-changer for our security and safety. I really appreciate you taking care of everything while I worked on my enchantment development.”
Jen perked up at his compliment and bragged, “I can also easily see all of your stats, levels, and titles.”
Sam raised his eyebrow at Jen, and then joked, “I didn’t know you were so good at undressing me with your eyes; I’m feeling a little violated!”
Jen snapped back with laughter, “With what I can see, you should be feeling SHAME, not violated!”
Sam tried his best comeback, “Yeah, Shame for being friends with a pervert who likes to check out people’s stats.”
Jen just shook her head sadly and said, “Old man, you need to learn that a crappy retort like that is way worse than just keeping your mouth shut!”
Sam grumbled a weak reply, “Whatever! I’m just still tired.”
Jen just laughed at him, rubbing in his failed quip. She was cheering for herself inside, because she felt like she rarely got the better of him in their picking on each other.
A few minutes later, Sam didn’t need any psych ability to read Jen’s emotions as she had become unusually silent. He suspected she was about to bring up something she was uncomfortable about.