Will tossed his pencil onto his desk and ran his hand through his hair… He thought about heading over to the stables to take Void out for a ride for the second time that day.

“This shit doesn’t make sense,” Will said feeling like he was studying for a physics final after missing a couple weeks of lecture. Made even worse by the amount of money he was spending to do it… so yeah, it was a lot like college. Pay a good chunk of everything you have just to be confused. Though at the same time it was very different, he could work his way through physics if he needed to, scroll back in the book to find what he missed and do some of the practice problems and as a last resort he could call up his TA or even his professor, or just sign up for a study group. But he didn’t have that there.

His problems had started when he got past the dry introduction to the book. It wasn’t actually that dry but it read strangely. Will had no idea who wrote the tome, but whether it was the system or the tome was just a copy of a real book out there somewhere, the ones responsible should be slapped. It read like a textbook in a way but whoever had written it was both full of themselves and trying to pad the page by stating the same things over and over and throwing in meaningless filler words. One of his favorites was the definition of enchanting:

Through sheer skill at the arcane, divine credence, magical prowess, connection to worlds beyond, a connection with nature, a bond with your people, or through the tainted magics of world! Enchanting can be found in many ways. Through Arcane Enchanting brought by skill. Holy brought by the divine, Mystic through innate magical power….

It seriously went through and listed each and every one from the first sentence in the rest of the first paragraph. Or further down.

… you will use the arcane! Through sheer skill (yeah, it said it again!) you will learn how to imbue powers beyond the capabilities of most mere mortals. You will be able to enhance the greatest creations by true artisans and master craftsmen (Seriously, they’re the same thing) and you will be able to do such on any item. You can imbue power into a sword to make it a mighty weapon for any mortal. Enhance the edge of a blade made by the greatest…

Seriously, screw those people. It sounded like a college freshman trying to write a term paper. Will knew, he’d been there and done that to meet his word count requirement. But as a published tome? That couldn't be acceptable, could it? Will didn't feel like having to skim through everything and as a result, had gone to the general store once again to buy a journal and a couple pencils to start copying the book in a way that actually made sense. For example, he summed up the first two entire pages by saying.

Enchanter- A practitioner of the Enchanting branch of magic.

Arcane Enchanting- The practice of utilizing various methods such as etching, engraving, sewing, or painting specific blueprints using magic gems of proper quality to imbue a mundane object with a magical effect.

Note: Enchantments can be achieved with one of the 7 branches of Enchanting: Arcane, Holy, Mystic, Ethereal, Druidic, Shamanic, and Daemonic. Methods vary by branch.

He’d even defined the other branches. Even though the book shouldn't have anything about them but it was still good information to know.

Mystic- Similar to Arcane but conducted by a being powerful enough to control the flow of magic to create three dimensional blueprints without tools.

Ethereal- Primarily used in necromancy to create more powerful undead. Primarily uses materials from dead organisms to create ‘soul gems’. Gems used to imbue objects through a ritualistic process.

Druidic- Primarily used in the construction of natural wards. Utilizes Druid cultivated magical herbs and plants to imbue objects, land, and structures through a nature inspired meditative state.

Shamanic- Exclusively used to create totems and charms. Uses gem dust paints, carved materials with various properties, and tribal chanting to create area of effect magical items.

Daemonic- Blood rituals used to create magical pigments and dyes. Bonuses provided for unwilling sacrifices.

There, done!

Will shook his head as he looked through his journal, his attempt to translate the text into something that wasn’t stupid. A project in itself but it was the stack of scrap papers, most of which the backs of papers he’d scavenged from around the Mining Office, that was now causing him problems. He’d been attempting to make notes on the real meat of the book once he got past the introduction.

The problem was it simply didn’t make sense… Will picked up one of his more recent additions to his growing stack. It was his attempt to make sense of the different engraving pens in his kit.

Gem

elements

Attributes

Quartz

Hardness Element- Earth/Light

(Also smokey quartz is darkness. )

^stealth not evil. Get! Nope can be used in dark magic but also stealth. Get?

Rose Quartz = scent? Ask.

Hardness

Strength

General? WTF is General?

Making Lightbulbs

Sapphire

Element- Water/cold Ice Cold / Lightning/Ice/ Lightning

(Different kinds of Sapphires do different things. Got a water one.)

Note to self, get purple Sapphire-Lightning.

Note of fucking note! Can still do lighning Lightning with the one I got. It’s the basic one. Better water enchantments = blue aquamarine

Better ice= Cloudy Diamond (Not mentioned under diamonds), White Sapphire, or clear Taaffeite.

Cold

Rate of flow

Strength (Compression)

Emerald

Element- Acid/life?

(What the hell is a Trapiche Emerald?= life)

Think I’ve got acid but it looks like a hexagon tip on the end of the pen.

If not get Beryl Emerald or Peridot for acid.

Stay away from Diopside. Gives acid but also Pestilence!

Flexibility

strength (Tension? Maybe Sheer. Might deal with Stats?)

Corrosion (Not effect, makes deeper gouges when applied, follow up with other pens)

Corrosion (Guess it has an effect too. Acid wands sound nasty.)

Ruby

Element- Fire (Shocker!)

Also blood, Lava?, Passion??? and ‘heart’ type rubies.

Note, Passion sounds like what Kate can do. Mind effects.

Heart? No fucking clue, it just mentions it.

Blood is evil, don’t get! Can be evil. Still don’t get. Unless want anti bleeding enchanted bandage- get!

Not sewing enchantment on a bunch of bandages. That’s what tonics are for.

Heat (Convection and Conduction)

Flame (listed in book as separate from heat… might be heat+magical fuel source)

Light (Dimmer than Quartz, also red)

Rate of flow again? (Gotta figure out the difference.) Both do same thing, cant use sapphire for rate of flow on a fire enchantment or vice versa. Have to use both if combined?

Gives idea of using Conduction on edge of a dagger.

Instant cauterization bayonet=Interesting

Diamond

Element- Air.

Black Diamond = death

Apparently only two types of diamonds. Aren’t there blue ones? Red?

Hardness

Purity

Strength(Compression again but different)

Durability

Light (Bright!)

Vitality? (No! Just with Holy enchantments!)

He wasn’t even done with it, the information was scrambled throughout the first few chapters of the book, hence only a few attributes for Sapphire but a lot for the other ones… That was annoying but still not the issue at hand.

Will picked up the sheet and crumpled it into a ball to throw it at the wall…

“How can the same damn thing make a water wand, a damn lightning wand, AND a fucking ice wand! How do you differentiate between the two when engraving if it’s not in the damn blueprint!” Will growled his annoyance at the book and started flipping through it. He paused at the page with a bunch of different lines drawn across it in various patterns… “Oh... that stupid son of a bitch! It is the fucking blueprints!”

Will stood up and after a moment grabbed his notes, straightened them out, and slammed them down on the desk. The enchanter in Fairpoint was an idiot.

It wasn’t the pen that made the effect, it was the pen and the runes in the center of the blueprint that made the damn effect. Will had just found the chart showing him what he needed and it contradicted the pompous asshat! Sure the raw magic imprinting was done with the pen but the man had said the blueprint only changed how it manifested itself. That might be true if each gem pen only had one elemental effect.

It wasn’t just writing with a ruby pen to get it to work, he also needed the runes to pull what elemental power or effect he wanted from the pen while he was writing. The various runes had to be carved with either the gem pen for the desired result or just the Quartz pen for generalized parts of the enchantment, the activation rune for example, or the lines going to the attached crystal. That’s why it had a ‘general’ effect. The book was also an idiot for not pointing that out when talking about quartz. Also while he was at it, his [Enchanting- Basic] knowledge skill sucked too. It only gave him information on how to properly engrave, nothing to do with what to engrave.

He was more than a little mad after spending hours trying to figure out the damn pens, thinking they were the key to everything. He sat back down and grabbed an uncored wand off the side of the desk along with his Quartz, Diamond, and Ruby pens… after a moment he grabbed Sapphire. He was going to make a steam wand. It’d probably help with cleaning and could still be used as a painful weapon if he needed it. Plus he didn’t want to waste one of his five wands on another cigarette lighter...

He flipped through the set of diagrams depicting the runes he needed and studied the example of the combination rune he had to emulate. It was Air, Water, and Life in the depiction, apparently a glorified watering can for a garden, but he could see how they were combined and sketched it out with a pencil on scrap. It was combining the elemental effects not attributes, so it would make it easier. He’d have to figure out attributes later.

Will got to work and started carefully carving the runic center of the enchantment into the wand. He had the basic knowledge of how to make the wands but had been missing how to set the elements he wanted to come out. Now that he had that figured out, Will moved the pens across the wand with [Steady Hands] on like always and [Zoom] to look into his work. The gems etched into the metal a lot easier than he thought they should have and he made quick progress. But stopped, he sighed and flipped open the book. Deciding to use it to look up the information rather than trying to read the entire thing.

“Rate of flow… rate of flow. There’s attributes for the rate of flow but also part of the blueprint…”

Profession Class leveled! Arcane Artificer Level 2

Utility Skill Learned: [Map Sight]-Active

Profession Class leveled! Arcane Artificer Level 3

Utility Skill Learned: [Lesser Mana Recharge]-Active

Dexterity +2

Intelligence +2

Focus +1

An hour, or four, later, Will blinked away the blue screens after reading through them. Then looked down at the three completed wands sitting in front of him. It’d taken a while to make them. He’d had to reference the book repeatedly to figure out how to bring out different attributes, then brainstorm which ones he wanted to use, then figure out if there was a limit on how many an enchanted item could have, then replan… It was a process, so he figured instead of making just one. Make three. Also make three at the same time, going over each part on each wand before moving on. Also, make three that were similar but not the same. That part was mainly due to wanting to play around with the blueprints to try to make different ‘manifestations’ of the spell come out.

Namely, he had made a single steam wand that should… should create a nice solid stream of steam, like what he’d used to get wrinkles out of a shirt. Next, he created two that were far more lopsided when it came to elements. They had more water than heat and a lot more air behind them. It was a pressure washer, hopefully. Or it was a hydraulic cutter… he could use that too. Worse case scenario it was a glorified squirt gun… but that was still something.

Before getting up though, Will opened his status screen.

Name: William Tempest

Race: Human-Variant

Age:19

Class: Prodigious Gunslinger lvl 6

Secondary: Vigilant Bounty Hunter lvl 6

Profession: Arcane Artificer lvl 3

Level: 10

Health: 250/250

Mana: 170/190

Stamina: 128/130

Vitality: 25

Active Effects:

Endurance: 13

Strength: 18

Dexterity: 30

Intelligence: 19

Attributes:

Variant Human: +1 Vitality, +2 Strength

Marskman +2 perception, +1 Dexterity

100+ Bounties: +1 Vitality, +3 Luck

Fear the Hunter: Provides fear effect against bounty targets-Active

Unbreakable: Immune to mental effects

Focus: 10

Perception: 19

Luck: 6

Utility skills:

[Identify] lvl 5

[Tracking] lvl 3

[Animal Processing] lvl 3

[Restraints] lvl 1

[Hunting] lvl 1

[Meditation] lvl 3

[Charm] Level 1

[Lesser Endurance] lvl 1

[Revolver Proficiency] lvl 3

[Rifle Proficiency] lvl 2

[Knife Proficiency] lvl 2

[Cleaning-Basic] lvl 2

Resistances:

Smoke Resistance lvl 1

He focused on his profession class and opened it up.

Profession: Arcane Artificer lvl 3

Arcane Artificer- Rare

An education is one of the most valuable things a person can receive and you far outreach any of your peers in regards to the knowledge and art of design and construction of items of a mundane nature. Alongside basic knowledge of the art of enchanting, the two go hand in hand to form the core of what it is to be an artificer. A mesh of magic and science to create something beyond the capabilities of both. This is your craft.

Dexterity +2

Intelligence +2

Focus +1

Skills:

Active

Passive

Knowledge

[Analyze] lvl 1

[Steady Hands] lvl 3

[Enchanting-Basic] lvl 2

[Map Sight] lvl 1

[Blueprint-Basic] lvl 2

[Lesser Mana Recharge] lvl 1

He decided to take a look at his skills. Something he probably should have done before he started.

Analyze- lvl 1

Provides the ability to see magic in it’s pure form although the type is not always clear. Higher level increases focus and range. Upgrade possible.

Current range: 5 feet

Map Sight- lvl 1

An enchanter’s best friend. Allows for quick and easy identification of various pathways used in Arcane Enchanting. Higher level increases clarity and depth perception.

Current range: 2 feet

Will closed them both and tried them out. He used [Analyze] on the wand with a core and could see the magic contained in the crystal and where it leached out and flowed to the activation rune of the blueprint. It generally followed the blueprint but he could see a bleed effect leaving the carved areas. A few worse than others and he made a mental note to look into that later.

Next, he switched to [Map Sight] and he could see the carved pathways across the wand glowing in his vision very faintly. Will picked up the wand and looked to where the mana was bleeding out before and noticed a burr of metal in one spot while the other had a small crack. There wasn’t anything he could do with the crack but he took a moment to smooth out the burr.

After he moved to what he was sure were fairly useless skills.

Enchanting-Basic- lvl 2

Provides basic understanding of Enchanting operational principles. Higher levels award more knowledge on basic principles. Upgrade possible.

Current concepts: Pathway Depth, Pathway Joints

Blueprint-Basic- lvl 2

Provides basics of Enchanting blueprints. Higher Levels award more knowledge on basic principles. Upgrade Possible.

Current concepts: Elemental wands, Enchanted Crossbow, Durable boots

Will closed them out and shook his head. He’d still have to learn the bulk of enchanting himself, they were just giving him a small leg up in the process. Or possibly teaching him the right way to do it after he’d already done it the slightly wrong way.

Though he did notice he now had a blueprint that he could actually use. A durability enchantment that would work exactly how Kate wanted. He hadn’t paid attention when he got the information upload when it leveled.

Finally, Will moved to his last active skill.

Lesser Mana Recharge- lvl 1

Gives an enchanter the ability to pour mana into a spent lesser mana crystal. Also pull from a charged lesser mana crystal. Rate of conversion dependent on level. Increased level improves conversion rate. Upgrade possible.

Current rate: 100/20

Range: Touch

“Well, that doesn’t seem worth it. Put in a hundred Mana to get twenty?” Will said but he figured it couldn’t hurt to grind it a bit. See how much it improved, “Whatever. Now the wands…”

Will closed down the screens and grabbed his wands to head out back. He sorted the wands quickly and set down all but the steam one and pointed it at the fence. Then peeked over it quickly to make sure no one was on the other side before getting back in position.

“Alright, here it goes,” Will said and pushed mana into the coreless wand. No sooner than he did, a burst of steam erupted from the business end of the thing. It billowed out in a wide cloud two feet in diameter and only flew three feet in front of him. Will held his hand up near the very wide cone of steam and could feel the heat coming off it in the air. He stopped pushing mana and nodded in approval. It wasn’t the most powerful but neither was he. He’d have to see what Kate could do with it when she came to town, she was a [Sorceress], so it stood to reason that she’d likely be able to push a lot more mana through it. Will took a moment to check his mana quickly, a small blue box appearing in front of his face with his three stats. He didn’t know he could do that.

Health: 250/250

Mana: 153/190

Stamina: 128/130

He reminded himself that the mana used was only about twenty, he’d just leveled after all and it hadn’t been full.

“Pressure washer time,” Will said and grabbed the unaltered hot water wand. It was cored and he pointed it at the fence and let loose. A solid beam of water came out of the wand, holding a tight form for… Well, Will, didn’t know. It held a tight stream until it hit the fence. It had some decent pressure and the fence shook with the impact. Which was strange considering he felt nothing in his hand. He’d expected some recoil.

Will deactivated it then crossed his brows with his jaw sagging below. He walked up to the old wooden fence and bent over slightly to peak through a new hole in the panel. Will could see a line of wet ground on the outside and he was privately happy that he’d pointed it away from his only neighbor… though he was pretty sure that building was empty. Still.

“Okay, we’ll mark that one down as a hydraulic cutter,” Will said to himself and returned to his other wands, carefully setting the dangerous one down in favor of one that could be even more fatal but for different reasons. It was the one he’d messed around with and altered to see what would happen.

Will turned and pointed it at the fence but after a moment aimed it at the ground instead. He activated it and saw a blade of water spread out from the wand.

“Shit!” Will turned his hand due to the fact the blade was coming out almost vertically causing it to spray up and over the fence. It didn’t get much better as it sprayed into the dirt, leaving his fence filthy. He swept it up the fence, ready to point it at the ground again but was happy to see it didn’t blast the wood apart. It had just as much power behind it as the solid stream but it also had a lot more area to cover.

“Not bad,” Will moved it up and down the fence and was happy to see the decrepit gray wood regain some color and life. The top layer of rot and grime disintegrated against his new pressure washer. But Will had a sudden realization, “Why am I washing the fence?”

It was a good question, it wasn’t like anyone saw the back yard and even if they did, with the pile of broken crap he’d pulled out of the building, it was already a mess. After making a decision, Will shut it off before walking around to the front of the building. He stepped back and pointed it at the stone facade that ran from the foundation up to just below the windows and reactivated it. He had to move a bit closer but the dirty gray stones quickly brightened as he ran the blade of water over them. Years of dust and grime was quickly removed. And anywhere he ran it across the decking, it lost its dull gray coloration, turning a nice brown. So as soon as he was done with the stones he started working on the deck, going from the wall to the street. But before he could finish, the wand stopped.

“Dammit,” Will said and looked at the wand in his hand with [Analyze]. It wasn’t quite bone dry of mana but it apparently didn’t have enough to use it anymore. In total it’d only lasted at most five minutes and he probably only needed another thirty seconds to get the deck clean, “Well, a hundred and fifty mana would give me something.”

Will activated [Lesser Mana Recharge] and pushed mana directly into the stone. He would have tried pushing it through the wand but the stone acted like a buffer and increased the flow of mana to a point that Will couldn’t match. Plus the blueprint wasn’t designed for that. He’d have to reconsider future versions, maybe see if he could figure out a way to swap out the crystals or install a crystal onto an uncored wand.

Will kept at it until he started feeling lightheaded and stopped, quickly pulling up his basic stats.

Health: 250/250

Mana: 18/190

Stamina: 128/130

He wasn’t empty yet, so Will tried pushing more in but he again felt lightheaded. Deciding that it was a warning of sorts for when he was under 10%, Will just left it and started blasting the deck again. Luckily he even had a little more left to clean the windows. He stepped back and started cleaning at range, not wanting to risk shattering the glass that remained. As soon as he was done he shut it off rather than getting one clean patch above the window only to have it die again.

“Will?” A familiar voice came behind him and Will turned.

“Oh…” His sight was filled with what was likely every working girl in town, along with a number of early suppertime patrons standing outside the saloon watching him, with a few more townsfolk standing down the street alongside the Sheriff and Mayor.

“I trust that’s not a weapon,” Sheriff Teddy stepped forward to ask and pointed to the wand in Will’s hand.

“Ah, no. It's just a pressure washer. I was just cleaning the shop,” Will said and gestured to his newly cleaned decking, stones, and windows. They practically shined compared to the other nearby structures and he didn’t even get the chance to clean the rest of it.

“Yup, that’s what it looked like to me… Folk came runnin’ saying you were takin’ a wand to your own buildin’. Don’t think they realized what you were doin’ at first,” Teddy explained and looked over at the building, “Looks nice.”

“Thanks… Still got a little ways to go,” Will offered, “Maybe once I’m done I can take it over to the Jail. Show Jakob or Skunk how to use it, let them get the outside cleaned up.”

It was just a nice gesture and it wasn’t just for the Sheriff. Skunk, Jakob, Victor, and more than likely the Mayor would like it as well. The latter was actually staring at the wand in Will’s hand with a studious look on his face as he scratched at his mustache.

“I’d like that, get the old place looking new again,” Teddy cracked a smile and shook his head, “Just make sure you inform someone ‘fore you start doin’ anymore cleanin’. Though I don’t think anyone will come runnin’ next time.”

“I will,” Will gave his word.

“Good… I’ll see ya later [Bounty Hunter],” Teddy said and turned to walk away.

“Yeah, see ya Sheriff,” Will said back and noticed the Mayor taking a step forward. He looked at his building and sighed.

“Ah, Mister Tempest. A word,” Will could have called it, the mayor walked up to him, though still kept his distance, “Just wondering if that there wand can clean off old paint?”

“Ah…” Will had expected the man to offer to buy the wand or something, not a product demo. Guess he didn’t call it. Will looked at his building. If there had ever been any paint on it, he had no clue. He looked back to the Mayor and shrugged, “It should.”

Will looked around for a place to test it on and spotted an old sign. He pointed to his neighbor’s, an abandoned lawyer/undertaker's office. A faded sign painted along the front displayed their services including trial defense, wills, caskets, and grave digging. Will pointed up at the sign and looked to the mayor, “Can I try it on that?”

“Go ahead, please. The former owner of that particular business ended up having to use his own services years ago,” the Mayor said and Will cringed. It was pointless information and the Mayor didn’t have to point out the guy died. Will had cringed because it sounded like he meant it to be funny, it wasn’t.

“Alright,” Will said and walked up to the signage and pointed the wand. He activated it and then quickly had to turn it again to get the right orientation. He made another mental note to get something in place to prevent that in the future. Maybe bend the wand so it had a pistol grip.

He mindlessly blasted the sign moving from one side to another. It was a bit harder than the old wood but it came off and by the time the wand sputtered out, the legal mortician was only offering trial defense, last wills, and caskets.

“The mana stone needs to recharge,” Will explained why he stopped.

“Marvelous!” Will looked back at Mrs Abdey. He looked back at the sign, it didn’t look that good. Cleaner, sure but it was far from marvelous.

“It’s a shame, just a bit longer and it would have made that a new storefront… How long does it take to recharge?” Mayor Abdey asked.

“I’m not sure, I didn’t ask,” Will admitted.

“Most of ‘em take about half a day, Mister Mayor,” both the Mayor and Will turned to the owner of the General Store, “We’ve got quality lesser crystals like that in stock. Takes about half a day for them to recharge.”

“Oh, good!” The Mayor exclaimed and turned to Will.

“It’s not for sale, Mister Mayor,” Will informed him. He probably could sell it but it was one of his first creations. He figured he’d keep it around.

“Would you be interested in doin’ some work around town with it?” Mayor Abdey asked but Will didn’t exactly like that idea of power washing all of Main street. It must have shown on his face because the Mayor quickly changed his idea, “Or perhaps lending it to the town, for a small fee. As you said with the jailhouse, we could have one of the deputies or one of the young men take up the task. Say, fifty cents a day? And a couple bits for whoever is doin’ the work.”

That Will could be willing to do. Not only would it make the town look nicer without him having to do anything, but he’d also make some money with it. It wasn’t much but it would keep him fed and take out a bit of the cost of stabling Void. Will nodded, “Just let me finish up mine and you have a deal. Jailhouse first though, already promised that.”

“Marvelous!” Mrs Abdey said again and Will stepped back as the owners of the town's few businesses stepped forward to talk with the Mayor. Likely to request theirs be done first.

Will let them deal with it and headed back inside… Not only did he have clearer information on enchanting to put in his journal, but he was also going to look into physical aspects of wand construction. He wasn’t sure if that was in the book but he could sketch it out. Something simple. A slightly bent rod with a formed pistol grip, maybe more swept back like an ancient breechloader. That should provide enough tactile feedback to ensure you're holding it right. And a way to switch out mana crystals so it could be reloaded. Especially for anything that worked like a too.

Also, try enchanting other materials. Could he turn a rock into a showerhead by putting basically the same thing as the wands he created by making a cone of low pressure hot water? Relatively low pressure compared to the ones that would peel his skin off. Or would the rock be too brittle to hold the blueprint? Maybe it was a poor conductor of mana.

Thinking of other materials, Will stopped and looked down at his feet, “Should also look into if etching leather’s different.”

He could probably start sketching out the durability enchantment for boots and see if he could switch anything up. Maybe add a bit of a cooling effect. Leather got hot and didn’t breathe that well, after all.