by Aleron Kong
Essence
Life Aura (4)
I/III
+1 Damage/5 seconds against Death creatures that come into contact with the enchanted armor
Weaker Death creatures will also be discomforted or turned away by even being near items enchanted with Life Aura
Range: 5 feet
Essence
Earth Resistance (2)
I/II
Increases Earth Resistance by +1%
Forge
Fire Resistance (2)
I/II
Increases Fire Resistance by +1%
Forge
Death Skill (4)
I/I
Increases Death Magic skill by +1
Forge
Defense +2 (10)
STATIC
Increases Defense by +2
Forge
Shockwave (10)
I/I
Increases Spell Strength of Shockwave by +5 (base 5)
Forge
Darkvision (2)
I/I
Provide 10 yards of Darkvision
Forge
Increase Attack Speed (4)
I/II
Increases Attack Speed by 1%
Forge
Increase Movement Speed (4)
I/III
Increases Movement Speed by 1%
Forge
Increase Unarmed Attack Damage (3)
I/I
Increases Unarmed Attack Damage by 5%
Forge
Decay Metal (3)
I/II
+0.1 points of Durability damage to the weapon that strikes this armor per charge expended
Works only against metal weapons
Forge
Slick (2)
I/II
+1% Difficulty holding onto this armor
Essence
Heal (4)
I/I
Restores +1 Health
Essence
Distract (4)
I/II
Looking at this item decreases Concentration by 1%
Forge
Balance (5)
I/I
Increases balance by +1
Forge
GENERAL
Durability (2)
I/III
Increases Durability by +10
Forge
ITEMS
Summon Insects
I/I
Summons 100 stinging insects for one minute
Essence
Briar (4*)
I/I
Allows you to cover the surrounding area in thorns
Increases the density and number of thorns
Increases the duration of enchantment
Increases range and size of enchantment; variable due to item being enchanted
*Macroenchantment Only
Essence
Life’s Radiance (4*)
I/I
Makes Life magic and creatures 1% more powerful
Makes Death magic and creatures 1% less powerful
Increases range and size of enchantment; variable due to item being enchanted
*Macroenchantment Only
Essence
Call for Aid (2*)
I/I
Triggers a signal flare notifying any allies within 100 yards of danger
*Macroenchantment Only
Essence
Heal (3)
I/I
Restore +1 Health
Essence
Plant Growth (3*)
I/I
Increase speed of plant growth by +1%
Increase yield of growing plants by +1%
*Macroenchantment Only
Essence
Whereas once he hadn’t had enough enchantments, now he was swimming in them! He also learned more about his Enchanting Profession. Heal, for instance, had the same effect for armor and items, but the enchantment cost was higher for armor. Some enchantments were better suited to certain mediums. He also learned that macroenchanting was more complicated than he had thought.
Such enchantments were normally done in sections. To enchant the village wall for instance, a functional unit was one hundred cubic feet. Seeing as how the wall was several miles long, the cost in souls would be astronomical. To make it even worse, the asterisks next to the cost meant ten times as many soul points would be required to enchant even that one functional unit. Gloran told him that when Richter delved more into the macroenchanting branch of his Talent tree, he could increase the size of the functional unit and decrease the asterisked costs. The one thing that was clear about macroenchantments was that they, while powerful, were also ungodly expensive.
One unexpected surprise was that his Crafting skill was synergistic with his efforts in the Forge of Heavens. Every skill level he had in Crafting increased the enchantment potential of weapons and armor he worked on by 1%. That meant every forged item could now potentially absorb 25% more soul stuff. It didn’t make the material more resilient, however; iron daggers would still explode if he pushed too much energy into them. But it did mean that high quality weapons made of metals with a high enchanting coefficient could now have 25% stronger enchantments.
While he made major strides in Enchanting, Richter barely progressed in his Crafting skill. Enalise, the dual Professional in Mining and Crafting that he’d freed from the goblins, knew how to make some low-level health rings, which was definitely helpful. The problem was that, unlike enchanting weapons or armor, creating enchanted items required very specific materials. It was more akin to alchemy, where components needed to be put together in a specific order.
There was also a slight holdup when he asked Enalise for the Template to make the health rings. He tried to convince her to share it with him for free but, after she laughed quite loudly in his face, he ended up forking over two gold and three silvers. She assured him that he’d gotten a great price. After he had her sit with Bartle for an hour, the Scholar handed Richter the newly-created magical document. Richter had his very own Template.
You have found:
Template: Ring of Health
Durability: 7/7
Template Class: Common
Template Level: Simple
Weight: 0.3 kg
Traits: This Template allows you to create a Ring of Health
This ring will increase your maximum HP
Max Enchantment Rank/Level: 1/1
Requires:
A copper ring (Item Quality: Above Average or better)
A common gem (Jewel Clarity: Eye Catching or better)
Fortify Health enchantment
Base Crafting Time: 1 hour
Process: …
Enalise told him that the levels of a crafter’s Template were the same as that of a smith’s weapon Schematic. The lowest level was simple. Then came advanced, superior, innovative, groundbreaking, ingenious, cutting edge, state-of-the-art, revolutionary, masterwork and savant. This template was only simple.
She went on to explain the importance of a jewel’s clarity and its rarity. Gems apparently had the same rarity scale as items: common, uncommon, unusual, etc. The clarity was more exacting though and directly impacted a gem’s price. For simplicity, she jotted down what she knew about it on a piece of parchment that he provided.
CLARITY
COST CHANGE
Trash
-80%
Poor
-50%
Occluded
-30%
Flawed
-20%
Cheap
-10% cost
Average
No Change
Eye Catching
+10%
Sparkling
+25%
Vibrant
+50%
Glowing
+75%
Brilliant
+100%
Exquisite
+250%
Prismatic
+500%
Radiant
+750%
Heavenly
+1000-10,000%
Flawless/True
+10,000 – 1,000,000%
The list was helpful, but before he even really paid too much attention, his gaze was drawn to the last line. A flawless gem had a ten thousand to a million percent markup? Who would ever pay that much for a pretty rock? Of course, it hadn’t made sense to him why people would spend two month’s pay for a ring back on Earth either. When faced with the decision to buy a badass ’69 Chevy Camaro or a teeny, tiny rock that didn’t even have any color, it was insane to choose the rock, right? For some reason, that entirely rational and well-considered argument had just never seemed to land when he shared it with the women he’d dated.
Shaking his head at how no one understood his brilliance, Richter looked at the piece of paper again. He was actually taken aback by the sheer number of ranks a jewel’s clarity could fall into. It was a more extensive rank system than any other he had learned, including Forging or Alchemy. To his surprise, Enalise told him what she’d written wasn’t even scratching the surface. The color of the gem as well as how it was cut could also be very important for higher level Crafting, or so she had heard. For the simple Template she had sold him, it shouldn’t really matter. To make the low-level ring of health, he could use a jewel cut in any number of ways, but raw gems still wouldn’t work. She told him she could show him how to do a simple square cut provided he could get her some jeweler’s tools.
To his happy surprise, her request generated a prompt. Randolphus had told him that having a large group of Professionals around would generate a great deal more quests and it was great to see the truth of that play out. Richter readily accepted the quest in light of the fact that one of his villagers was now a Professed Jeweler.
The Jeweler was a blue-eyed human named Daven with a spiky mop of brown hair atop his head. His gaze was actually a little intense, like a deer caught in headlights, but Richter plowed on with the request. It turned out that the man had actually been planning to ask the chaos seed for help but hadn’t yet worked up the nerve. He didn’t have a good set of jeweler’s tools either. He told Richter that there was a Talent that would let Daven conjure his own tools, but it cost precious Talent Points that he didn’t want to waste. Instead, after hearing Richter’s request, the Jeweler had generated a quest of his own. That was how Richter had found himself in the smithy discussing the project with Krom.
Richter ended up making three sets of high steel jeweler’s tools, though he messed up several times before he was done. When he was finished he handed over a set, fulfilling the terms of Daven’s quest. It netted him a cool hundred and twenty-five XP, after his bonus from drinking a Potion of Clarity every day kicked in. Basically, it did jack squat to get him to his next level, but it earned him two hundred Relationship Points with Daven. The Jeweler said he would come to Richter in the future with any further needs. It was a not so subtle hint that there would be more quests coming. While the experience the quest had generated meant almost nothing to him, Richter could easily see how his low-level villagers would be grateful. Having these… microquests pop up regularly would be great for his settlement as a whole.
Richter told Daven to start making copper rings and cutting common stones so he could practice his new Template. He was going to say his farewells, but Daven expressed an interest in meeting whomever Richter’s second set of jeweler’s tools were for. The two men walked back over to where Enalise was waiting, and Richter handed over the jeweler’s tools while Daven introduced himself. Finishing the Miner’s quest earned him another one hundred and fifty-six experience and twenty Relationship Points with the female Crafter. A bit more XP, but definitely less Relationship Points. Not surprising, as Enalise had been a bit of a hardass from the very beginning.
The chaos seed handed her a common gem, a pink agate. She promptly started instructing him in how to cut it into a square shape. Enalise hadn’t spoken for more than thirty seconds before Daven started criticizing her. Everything from her teaching technique to the loose grip she had on her tools. Soon Richter was sighing. The two of them were squabbling as only academics and tradesmen could. He had to actually make it a formal command to get them to stop fighting like cats in a sack. While that was annoying, he did benefit from the experience.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Gemcraft. +2% success of cutting gems. +2% value of cut gems.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Jewelry. +2% value of created jewelry. +2% attractiveness of created jewelry.
After he gained the skill, Richter went on with the rest of his day. Enalise and Daven started arguing again before he was even ten feet away. He decided he didn’t care. What mattered was that he finally had a Template to practice his Crafting skill on, even if it couldn’t accommodate more than a level one, rank one enchantment. There was still one more stumbling block though: he didn’t know a Fortify Health enchantment. Fortunately, his Specialty allowed for a simple solution.
Unfortunately, that simple solution was expensive as hell. Now that he had reached skill level sixteen in Life Magic he was eligible to learn the level fifteen spell, Weak Fortify Health. Sumiko was more than happy to teach him the spell… for eight-and-a-half gold. Anyone who thought paying that didn’t set him grumbling would be wrong.
When he asked her what she even wanted the gold for, wood sprites normally being naturally hippie-dippie communists, the Life mage just told him not to worry his pretty head about it. Though he hated forking money over, Richter still didn’t complain too much. She had given him a 50% discount as she had sworn fealty. His Trade skill gave him another 8% off. It was also a useful spell.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Weak Fortify Health. Casting this spell increases your maximum Health by +50. This is a spell of Life Magic, level 15. Cost: 182 mana. Duration: 30 min. Range: 100 feet. Cast Time: 3 seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Now that he knew the spell, he could use his Essence Specialty to convert it into an enchantment. The cost to do that hurt Richter way more than handing over some gold. It cost fifteen precious Talent Points. Now that he was leveling again, he was extremely hesitant to use Talent Point Conversion to turn his XP into TPs. It was exceedingly useful, but it ground his personal progression to a standstill. The fact that he could also gain Chaos Points when he leveled almost made his mouth water. So instead he dipped into his limited supply of TPs and converted the spell.
You have: 90 Talent Points remaining.
Once he unlocked the enchantment, he chose “Items” as the medium he wanted to learn and started funneling his mana. The overall cost was fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty MP to convert the spell into an enchantment. With his high mana regen of more than thirty MP/min, it took less than eight hours before he was rewarded with another prompt.
Congratulations! You have learned the enchantment Fortify Health, Level I
Enchantment Type: Items
Enchantment Size: 3
Enchantment School: Life
Effect 1: Increase Maximum Health – Each rank gives +5 Health.
It was a modest increase, but what was important was that it let him practice his Crafting skill. His subskill Unconventional Materials, that he’d paid for so dearly, hadn’t really manifested itself yet except for a faint niggling in the back of his mind while he worked. As no one else in the village had even heard of the subskill, he was on his own.
Richter began making enchanted rings as quickly as he could. Devan was able to make the rings by the dozen and a copper vein had been found months ago in the iron mine. It hadn’t been overly large, but it was more than enough to make hundreds of simple bands. The low-level gems were a slight problem, but not really. The local iron mine had been worked for months and gems had been found periodically. After Randolphus had instituted procedures to ensure that the miners didn’t “accidentally” forget to hand the gems over, the village had started building a small stockpile of cheap jewels.
Most weren’t worth more than a few silvers, and until now there had been no obvious
utility to them. They couldn’t even be traded since the village was way out in the middle of nowhere. Now he was going to put them to good use. Which was a good thing, given the fact that Richter wasn’t willing to sacrifice the more expensive gems he owned just to fuel his Crafting skill. The only downside was that he couldn’t advance the rank of his enchantments that worked on items. The Forge of Heavens let him reach higher ranks of weapon and armor enchantments just by practice. With item enchantments, he was stuck at rank one unless he could get someone to teach him.
After he had made several rings, he found there was another factor he had to face: the quality of the base materials. His forty-nine skill levels in Enchanting increased the +5 health boost of his enchantment to a maximum of +7-8. He found that if Devan made the rings too fast though, the best quality the man could manage was well crafted or, worse, above average. That seemed to limit the health each ring could provide to +3-4.
If Richter let him take his time though, Devan made exceptional or superb rings; Richter could then make rings that gave a +5-6 buff. Always before, the quality of a weapon had only affected the amount of soul stuff Richter could use to power his enchantment. If he used more, the enchantment would be stronger. With item creation, it was apparently more nuanced, and he understood why Enalise had called it more Art than Science. After that discovery, Richter told the Jeweler to focus on quality rather than quantity. When he asked the Crafter why he still wasn’t reaching the enchantment’s full potential every time, she examined his rings and pointed out places where the script written on the inside of the ring wasn’t quite perfect.
Richter had to hold back a massive sigh. Instead, he just reminded himself that there was a large difference between expertise and skill. He had artificially increased his Crafting skill by reading the Unconventional Materials skillbook. It had let him leapfrog possibly years of toil, but that didn’t mean he actually had the years of experience he had seen while living those memories. It was the difference between downloading knowledge of an MMA fighter and practicing the moves for years. He still lacked the instincts and muscle memory that would have come from earning the skills the old-fashioned way. Richter was pretty sure the mental pathways to make items perfectly had been laid out in his mind, but he still needed to use them to turn them into easily-used grooves. This wasn’t a game where everything came easily. This was The Land.