by Aleron Kong
The chest began to glow. Green metal began to flow up from the floor, continuing until it covered the entire chest. At first it looked like a shell, but then the metal seemed to sink into the chest. The white light that was suffusing the chest pulsed one more time. When it faded, he could see that the bottom of the chest had indeed been melded into the floor. More importantly, the entire chest was now the clear green of elementum!
You have added Heavy Chest to the Forge of Heavens. Current Alteration Points available 81/100. Alteration Points will regenerate at 1/day.
This was something that he hadn’t expected! It seemed that he could change the very structure of his Core building. Even more importantly, the damn thing’s durability was one hundred thousand! It answered a question that had been in the back of his mind. Krom had mentioned that the forge would produce a weapons rack when he needed it. The dwarf must have been spending the points without knowing it, which accounted for the fact that three of the points had already been spent. Richter shook his head, would the wonders of his Core buildings never cease? He examined his new heavy chest.
It was a seamless block of clear green metal. The glasslike material grew clouded closer to the interior until it was completely opaque, hiding any of the contents. As excited as he had initially been, he couldn’t see a way to open it. Hoping it worked, Richter placed his hand on the block and simply willed it to open. Sure enough, a line appeared in the metal and the lid steadily raised until it was standing up at ninety degrees. Inside was Richter’s short sword, his armor and three small burlap bags with the tops cinched shut. He smiled as he took his items out, then he spent the next several minutes loading the chest with the quicksilver, cobalt and moonstone. The high steel ingots he left on the floor for one of the smiths to stack with the rest in the back of the Forge.
“What did ye do now?” Krom asked. Belying his words, his tone was one of wonder not annoyance.
“I’m not exactly sure,” Richter admitted. “A prompt asked me if I wanted to incorporate the chest into the structure of the Forge. Right before that, I had been thinking that we needed a more secure way to protect items here. Your lock was a complete joke, by the way.”
A look of annoyance flashed across the Smith’s face, “Did na make the lock to stop a master thief,” the dwarf grumbled under his breath. “Can ay get into it, now that it be changed?”
“Good point,” Richter said. He willed the chest closed again, and it became a seamless block of elementum.
Krom put his hands on it and pushed up near the top. The lid opened again and the dwarf grinned. The grin widened when he saw that his lord had decided to leave so many ingots of rare metal in the forge. Krom took out one of the small bags and closed the lid again. He called one of the other dwarves over to try and open it, but nothing happened. More than satisfied, the smith clapped Richter on the back saying, “That be a good step up. Ay will admit ay have been worried about storing things of value here.”
Richter nodded. He placed his hand on the chest a final time, bringing up an interface. He gave Sion, Randolphus and Terrod access to the chest as well. He let Krom know, seeing as how this was the smith’s domain, but the dwarf didn’t have any objections. They walked back to the main anvil. The axe was still in the furnace. Krom pulled it out and said, “This be the end. Ye need to be ready, yer lordship.”
Richter nodded. He took out several soul stones and prepared to enchant his first item. After another minute, Krom looked at him and nodded. The dwarf reached into the bag he had retrieved from the chest and took out a handful of shining sand. A quick prompt check showed Richter that this was powdered crystal. Krom sprinkled it onto the still glowing red metal.
A notification appeared in Richter’s vision.
The following weapon is available for enchantment: High Steel Axehead. Damage 16-24. Durability 52/52. Item Class: Common. Quality: Exceptional. Weight: 2.4 kg.
This weapon has 36 enchantment slots (base 15 from weapon quality + 15 from Journeyman rank in Enchanting + 20% for Increase Enchantment Potential I). Available enchantments: Freeze, Increased Damage, Increased Durability. You have seven minutes from the time that this prompt appeared to finish your enchantment.
Richter had already decided to try Freeze, but seeing the others made him wonder. He knew that each enchantment had a cost. Since he had seven minutes, he decided to see what happened when he chose Increased Damage.
Increased Damage enchant cost increases by 1n. The maximum enchantment you are capable of with Increased Damage is 8 ranks. Final Yield from Increased Damage is 14-15 (base 8 + 48% for enchanting skill + 10% for Increase Enchantment Strength I + 20% for Increase Weapon Enchant Strength I). Do you wish to power this enchantment? Yes or No?
Richter chose ‘No’ and then selected Freeze.
Freeze enchant cost increases by 1.5n. Maximum enchantment with Freeze for this weapon is 7 ranks. Final Yield from Freeze is 12-13 cold damage (base 7 + 48% for enchanting skill + 10% for Increase Enchantment Strength I + 20% for Increase Weapon Enchant Strength I). 7% chance to unleash the secondary enchantment, Freeze. Do you wish to power this enchantment? Yes or No?
Hmmm, Richter thought. So Freeze cost more than just straight increased damage. He supposed it made sense. The question was, did the chance to freeze an opponent make up for one less damage per hit? From what he was reading, it wasn’t even a sure thing that an enemy would be frozen if the secondary enchantment were triggered. Richter thought about it for a moment and decided that it was worth the cost. Even doing this first enchantment had made him understand his Profession better. He selected ‘Yes’.
33 Soul Stone Points are required to make the maximum enchantment. To finalize, expend the appropriate souls.
At his journeyman rank in Enchanting, Richter could use two soul stones on one enchantment. Basic souls gave a max of six soul points and common souls a max of ten. The problem wasn’t just that he didn’t have an unlimited supply of either, but also that common souls only came from monsters. They were much harder to acquire than the basic souls that could be captured from animals. The two hunters he had kindled Life magic in had shown that they could bring in a small but steady supply of basic and weak souls, but it wasn’t enough to enchant truly powerful items. Should he waste a common soul on some random, high steel axe?
Richter could almost hear the seconds ticking by on his seven-minute time limit to finish the enchantment. He quickly checked how many soul stones he had available and ranked them by the soul they contained. Four poor, eight weak, eleven basic, thirty common, seven luminous, three brilliant, three special and one resplendent. Sighing, he came to two decisions. One, he would just try to level his Profession and not to expend any of his more valuable souls. Two, he was going to expend his remaining talent points.
He bought Increase Maximum Number of Soul Stones I allowing him to use three stones per enchantment. It unfortunately brought his available talent points down to six. The Talent increased to level two and showed that another twenty points would be required to upgrade again.
You have unlocked the talent: Increase Maximum Number of Soul Stones I.
You have: 6 Talent Points remaining.
Knowing he didn’t have much time left, Richter arrayed three stones on the anvil. The three basic souls brought the total number of soul points he could access up to 18. He didn’t see any reason to max out the enchantment and waste valuable monster souls on a random axehead. Richter focused and finished the enchantment. All three stones fell to dust and small swirls of rainbow light flowed into the axe. An aura the pure blue of a glacier surrounded the axe blade for just a moment, before disappearing. Looking closely still showed a faint blue sheen to it, though. The weapon was enchanted!
You have enchanted: High Steel Axehead of Freezing. Damage 16-24. Durability 50/50. Item Class: Uncommon. Quality: Exceptional. Weight: 3.1 kg. Traits: +6-7 cold damage per attack. 5% chance to cause Freeze for 5 seconds. +10% damage vs. spell barriers.
Krom raised h
is eyebrows, “Ay was na expecting something so grand, yer lordship. That be a fine bit o’enchanting!
Richter gave a satisfied nod, “Let’s keep going.” Krom dunked the axe head to remove any further heat and handed it to one of the other smiths for binding and affixing to a haft, then got back to work.
As his stores of weaker captured souls was limited, Richter started only using one soul stone per enchantment. Futen was sent off to find the hunters and see if they had any more animal souls to contribute and also with a special message for Sion. Luckily, the hunter Life mages had managed to capture another sixty souls. A few of the soul levels were basic, but most were either weak or poor. The level didn’t matter so much to the chaos seed as the quantity though. He needed to practice his Profession!
Richter quickly paid the hunters the bonus he had agreed to give them and got back to work. Despite the fact that his enchantments failed twice, in a relatively small amount of time, he finished his quest, Practice Makes Perfect I. He greatly welcomed the five talent points, but seeing the experience penalty he now had to deal with was a bit disconcerting.
You have: 11 Talent Points remaining.
The quest gave a base experience boost of one hundred, but with his penalty of experience being 100% harder to obtain, it meant he needed to get twice as much experience as he would otherwise. This decreased the earned experience to fifty. Luckily, his Potion of Clarity still worked and the final experience he earned was sixty-three. He didn’t let it distract him long though, especially since finishing the quest had unlocked the next quest in the chain.
You have unlocked the Quest: Practice Makes Perfect II. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Practice your new Profession and honor who you are. Will you enchant 50 items? Yes or No? Reward: 10 Talent Points.
Richter took the quest almost as a personal challenge. He got back to enchanting with a vengeance. At his direction, Krom and one of the other smiths started working on round, metal shields for the guards and each finished project gained +1 or +2 defense depending on what stone he used. The third started churning out daggers for Richter to enchant. The chaos seed teased the smiths, asking if the dwarves could work faster or were they going to come up short? That earned more than a few choice words from the bearded smiths, but they started swinging their hammers with renewed vigor and with smiles in their beards.
The change in production wasn’t just to give them something else to work on, but also because Richter had an idea of how to make his guards more effective. During the recent fights with the war party, Richter had noticed that his band had assumed a wedge formation to better play to their strengths. It made him realize that he was missing a possible game-changing strategy: military formations. Now he was no historian, but he had seen 300 and thought he got the basic idea. His guards and future soldiers needed to fight as a unit, each man protecting the one beside him. Richter didn’t know if he could actually get this to work, but decided to try anyway. Worst case scenario, his guards would have strong shields.
While Richter helped the smiths with enchantments, he kept funneling his MPs into paying the mana cost for his Weak Sonic Wail enchantment. The increase to his Wisdom had greatly improved his mana regeneration, to the point that he was regenerating four and a half points every ten seconds, and with his Ring of Flowing Thought, that improved to five point four every ten seconds! It took a little over an hour and ten minutes for him to pay the remaining twenty-two hundred. He was rewarded with a prompt:.
Congratulations! You have learned the enchantment: Sonic Damage.
You have unlocked the enchantment: Improved Sonic Damage. You are currently at 0/270,000 for the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
That little part of his mind that held his available enchantments lit up further with a small green ball of light. Focusing on the enchantment he found that it added direct sonic damage just as the Freeze enchantment did, but it also had a secondary effect called “reverberation”. The effect gave a chance to knock something out of an opponent’s hand.
The fact that he could level the enchantment was something he didn’t expect. The fact that the next level cost one hundred times as much was something he could do without, but he wasn’t complaining. Richter did a quick calculation and realized that even with his increased Wisdom, it would take him nearly one hundred and forty hours of uninterrupted mana allocation to unlock the next level of the enchantment. If only he could channel his mana without actively thinking about it, he lamented, looking around at the smithy.
Then he paused. Why couldn’t he do that? Using his mana was a mental exercise akin to moving his arm. He didn’t think about channeling electroneural energy to stimulate a series of muscles to work together in just the right way to pick up a cup. He just willed it, and the rest happened on a subconscious level. Maybe he just needed to flex a new mental “muscle.” Richter closed his eyes focused on his mana pool. He willed it to go into the mana cost and his MPs dropped while the cost was paid. He stopped actively willing it, and the flow stopped. So the question was, how to will his mana to flow without having to consciously will it. It sounded like a bad SAT problem.
Not willing to give up, Richter cleared his mind and thought about it. What he was really trying to do was to make the mana flow not just in the current moment, but also in the future. That was when it came to him. It wasn’t the flow of his existing mana pool he needed to direct. It was the flow of his mana regeneration. No sooner did he have that thought than a prompt appeared.
Currently you are allocating 0% of your mana regeneration to purchasing Improved Sonic Damage? Do you wish to increase this? Current mana pool regen rate is 5.4 mana:10 seconds. Yes or No?
Smiling, Richter chose ‘Yes’ and willed the percentage to increase to 10%.
Currently you are allocating 10% of your mana regeneration to purchasing Improved Sonic Damage. Current mana pool regen rate is 4.86 mana:10 seconds.
Richter decided to try one more thing. A bit of mental flexing later and he got what he needed. He let out a satisfied “ahhh” of satisfaction while he read the prompt.
Currently you are allocating 10% of your mana regeneration up to 500 mana points to purchasing Improved Sonic Damage. Current mana pool regen rate is 4.85 mana:10 seconds if you mana pool contains between 0-500 mana points. Currently you are allocating 100% of your mana regeneration above 500 mana points to purchasing Improved Sonic Damage.
His mana wouldn’t go to waste again, Richter thought with satisfaction.
After he was done playing with his new capabilities, he was eager to test out his new enchantment. There was something else to be done first though. He had only been able to enchant eleven more objects since he got his new quest. If he was going to make his new project as awesome as he wanted it to be though, he needed the ten talent points finishing it would bring. The problem was the smiths could only make items so quickly. “Can’t you go any faster, Krom?” Richter complained.
The dwarf slammed his hammer down on the anvil and affixed Richter with a fierce glare, “Ay’ll not go about sacrificing the quality of me work just because ye want to play with yer new Profession. If ye be so eager to enchant things, just enchant the daggers and spears we already done made!” Krom turned his attention back to his work, shutting Richter out of his mind.
Richter was going to protest that he couldn’t just enchant weapons that had already been made, but then he realized that was no longer true. He knew an enchantment now. Also, since he had advanced to initiate rank in his Enchanting skill, he did indeed have the ability to enchant already completed objects, albeit with a heavy penalty to the enchantment’s final effectiveness. He rushed almost gleefully back to the rack of finished spears, arrows, maces and swords. Digging his hand in the canvas sack that held the low level soul gems he was using, he got to work.
Ultimately, Richter had to use almost every one of the basic, weak and poor level soul stones he had. Enchanting already completed items increased the fail rate of his encha
ntments precipitously, but he still completed the quest! His pool of talent points increased by ten, and his experience got a small bump, again with a penalty. It didn’t bother him though because he happily purchased his next talent, Increase Soul Stone Yield I, leaving him with eleven points in reserve. Each soul stone would now give 25% more soul points before disappearing. He also dismissed the prompt that described the next link in the quest chain.
You have unlocked the Quest: Practice Makes Perfect III. Dedicate yourself to your new Profession. Honor who you are. Will you enchant 500 items? Yes or No? Reward: 20 Talent Points.
Now that he had obtained his new talent, Richter told Krom that soon they needed to make another short sword. This had been his goal all day. He hadn’t forgotten the perk from leveling up his Small Blades skill that made dual wielding more manageable. Sion had already come by with what Richter had requested. The sprite also thankfully had the Quicksilver Collar of Submission. Richter had felt a moment of panic when he saw that it wasn’t in his bag upon waking, but luckily his bud had come through. Sion walked off saying he had some hunting to do, but that he’d see Richter later. Richter placed both items in his bag. Then he walked over to the chest and removed an ingot of elementum.
Bringing it back to the main anvil, Krom raised one eyebrow when he saw it, “Are ye sure, yer lordship? If we use this ingot, only eight will be left.”
The dwarf had a point, but the green metal was a tool to be used, not a treasure to be hidden away. Richter told him he was sure, so Krom took the ingot and called out to the other dwarves that the fire in the furnace needed to be hotter. A dark-colored wood was brought over and fed into the flames. As soon as it started burning, the heat coming out of the furnace increased dramatically. The dwarves stoked the flames for several minutes until Richter’s face felt like it was burning, and still they didn’t stop. By the time Krom seemed satisfied and placed the ingot in the furnace, Richter was sure he could smell his hair smouldering.