Minor Heal

Restores a small amount of Health to a target. Spell structure maintained by 11 Wisdom, 11 Willpower.

Healing: 0.4 times Wisdom and Willpower, excluding structure requirement.

Cost: 500 Mana

Cast Time: 8s, Intentional

Range: Touch

Upkeep: N/A

While I had thought there might be a chance I could learn the spell it still took me by surprise. I had to admit to myself that I had felt from the very beginning that I was just a less competent Mage, who could enchant things. I had planned for so long to become a Mage that the idea was difficult to get rid of. Learning a Cleric spell though, strongly contradicted that and brought my illogical take on the situation into focus. I was not sure I appreciated that.

With a frown of concentration I began casting Minor Heal on myself. I formed the structure between my hands, just like I first cast Fire Burst in the cave with the Unraveling Spirit. It took shape inside a cloud of Mana as more and more of it filled out its structure and made it almost tangible. The long casting time gave me plenty of time to study what happened before the spell completed, and it was very interesting to watch it come together with Sense the Flow. The spell completed and a rush ran through me, making me feel ever so slightly better.

I sat there on the bed, thinking, before calling up Limited Caster.

Limited Caster

You are not a Mage nor a Cleric, while you may learn spells your ability to cast them is limited.

Effect: The Mana cost of all spells is increased to five times.

I was not surprised that the description had changed, I did wonder though, why it had not stated that from the very beginning. Traits and Abilities in a sense always gave new information, was the fact I could cast spells from a yet another class somehow more valuable or secret?

Why did it cost five times as much though? I had the sense that things were not as arbitrary as I had thought when I got my class; I was not a Mage or a Cleric, but I could cast spells. Why should they cost five times more? I did not accept that was somehow a random punishment handed down by the Order, there had to be more to it. What did I do different from a Mage or a Cleric when I cast a spell?

One obvious thing was that I had not used any chants when I cast Minor Heal, unlike what the Scribe and the book in the library had mentioned. I did not know any chants, nor did my understanding of the spell include any. The casting was much the same as when I used Fire Burst, except with a different spell structure.

It was a structure built within Mana and then fueled until it took effect. I recalled using my familiarity with enchanting as somewhat of a crutch in the cave, to cast a spell for the first time. Was that possibly it then? Did I in fact not actually cast a spell but rather enchant without a material? I did also remember, albeit with some difficulty, that the main thing that made me feel casting was different was the lack of connections to something for the spell structure to attach to, making the whole thing feel frail.

I really wanted to know more about how Clerics and Mages cast their spells, to be able to judge the difference.

Another thought that struck me then, was: what about Attributes? Why did my casted spells improve with Attributes when my enchantments had not? Either it had something to do with using Mana instead of a material, or I was mistaken about this.

If it was about using Mana as an anchor, what did that mean for my enchantments? The possibilities were far too many.

The Steel Door and Bars had done massive amounts of damage, so size and material should have some kind of effect, but there had to be more to it than that. I fished out a small bead from the satchel, it was quite a lot smaller than any stone I had used. Would this do even less damage then?

Wanting to find out, I enchanted the iron bead with Fire Burst. As opposed to my all but guaranteed success when enchanting a stone, I fumbled the connection of the structure twice before I managed a successful Enchant. I disliked destroying materials I paid for a lot more than stones picked up off the ground.

Iron bead of Fire Burst

Will explode with a burst of fire when hitting a target.

Damage: 12

Quality: Good

You have created an Iron bead of Fire Burst!

Experience gained: 8

There were several interesting things here, first; I did not get a discovery, which made sense with my reasoning from before. If I was indeed correct about that, it would then mean I had received my discoveries for Fire Burst, using stone, iron, and steel. I still held some hope that each spell had a discovery of its own, otherwise enchanting would not give experience for very long.

The quality of the iron bead was higher, the size was smaller and the damage was the same as a stone. Which was not really what I expected, was quality more important than size then? Or did it have nothing to do with that? The iron scrap from the pen had done two more damage, but been maybe twice the size with lower quality. I fished out some glass beads and continued experimenting.

You have made a discovery!

You have discovered how to create a Glass bead of Fire Burst!

Experience gained: 97

Glass bead of Fire Burst

Will explode with a burst of fire when hitting a target.

Damage: 13

Quality: Good

It took me seven tries to connect the structure this time, and again the damage was slightly different from before. Driven on by the chance at experience I enchanted beads of copper to get a discovery from that as well, since I had many of those.

I hesitated to use either silver, gold, bronze or tin, since I had far fewer of them; I only had five of the gold beads, which might not be enough to have a successful enchant at all. I put off using steel for Fire Burst as well, while it might get me an even better enchantment I did not have quite as many, and I wanted to know more about the other enchantments first.

You have made a discovery!

You have discovered how to create a Copper bead of Fire Burst!

Experience gained: 86

Copper bead of Fire Burst

Will explode with a burst of fire when hitting a target.

Damage: 17

Quality: Good

It was clear that I would need more and different materials if I wanted to keep experimenting. And so I decided to enchant a glass bead with Light, to see if it had potential as a source of income, as I had thought of in the inn.

Nine glass beads and some Mana regeneration later I got my result.

You have made a discovery!

You have discovered how to create a Glass bead of Light!

Experience gained: 172

Glass bead of Light

A moderate light source

Duration: Permanent

Quality: Good

Congratulations! You have advanced the Skill: Enchanting!

This experience was very good, and a bit strange, seeing it was twice as much as the previous discovery.

The fact that the Glass Bead of Light was permanent was both a mystery and a bother. Mage Lights lasted years due to the amount of Mana they held, according to what I had been told. But my Light enchantment was permanent, which would set it apart as something quite obviously different, which might not be a good thing at all for me.

I held up the small glass bead and concentrated for a moment, and the thing flared to light. It was about as bright as an ordinary lantern and gave off a soft and warm light. To my surprise, I could feel a slight shifting of Mana around the bead. It was actually drawing in Mana from around itself, was that how it was permanent then? It could support itself with ambient Mana?

Why then did the stones of Fire Burst fall apart when used?

I set to enchanting iron, copper and even steel with Light as well. They all came out permanent, but with slightly different hues to their light, and the discoveries netted me 491 experience. I sat there with four glowing beads, cross legged on my bed, as I thought about what to do.

I needed to find out if it would cause problems for me if I tried to sell these. I wondered if I should ask Charles. He would no doubt talk to Stravos about it though, so maybe ask Stravos directly? I was useful to them at this point, so that might not cause any problems, even if it set me apart. I did not appreciate the uncertainty though, and I would think some more on this and see what I could come up with.

I put my musings on hold and instead made an enchantment of each spell and material combination I had in abundance, so glass, iron, and copper.

**

The results were a mix of surprises and not, as I gradually increased my skill as the day went on, until I finished the last Ice Lance enchant, and the Order insisted on my attention.

Congratulations! You have completed the Skill: Enchanting!

Congratulations! You have advanced the tier of the Skill: Enchanting!

Enchanting, tier 2

You have begun to be able to strengthen your enchantments.

Skill: 1/10

Effect: 2% increase to enchantment strength per skill level.

Congratulations! You have advanced to level 9!

You have unallocated Attributes! You may choose a new Trait or Ability!

Which brought up a new interesting question, was this skill a representation of what I could do, or was it something external, that was added to me? I ate some bread and fruit as I pondered.

Minor Heal, Acid Splash and Ice Lance had netted me a bit above four-hundred experience each, whereas Minor Shield was just about half of that, something I found interesting. That put Minor Shield and Fire Burst on the same level, approximately, and all the other spells at about twice as much. Combined, the experience gained from the discoveries had been enough to get me to level 9.

Damage and effects varied quite a bit too, Ice Lance was the most surprising, where Copper bead of Ice Lance came out at twenty-three damage and the iron version was at fifteen.

The Minor Shield enchants only absorbed two damage for all the materials, it did not seem to have a duration though, something which I wanted to experiment with. Minor Heal came out at three Health for glass and iron, and five for copper.

I grinned, as I finished the last of my pilfered food. I was not about to pick a Trait or Ability yet, but I placed my Attributes in Wisdom, reaching nineteen.

I had not even tried enchanting gold, bronze, tin or silver yet, and I had only enchanted Light in steel. That still left me with a fair few discoveries I could make, but right now I felt it was better to make sure I had a good supply of my new spells and to pack them properly in my satchel.

I set to enchanting once again.

**

I confirmed that experience gained was tied to the material and not the spell. As I got more proficient with a material, the experience dropped accordingly, while my success rate went up, no matter which spell I was using at the time.

I advanced my new skill three times which should mean a modest improvement to the effects of what I made, and it did open the door to the idea that there were things I could do to make my enchantments stronger, which I would also have to experiment with further.

I used copper beads for Ice Lance and Acid Splash, making quite a good amount of both, despite the fair amount of failures while I learned how to anchor them.

Copper bead of Acid Splash

Creates a small splash of acid in front of the user.

Damage: 6 per second

Quality: Good

The word change on the Acid Splash enchantment was interesting, and yet another thing I needed to figure out the meaning of.

I got sidetracked at this point though, as I activated a Minor Shield to see how it worked; the enchantment started drawing in Mana and did not fall apart as Fire Burst did, instead it stayed intact the way the Light enchantment had done. The air around me looked slightly hazy as I could feel the shield around me with Sense the Flow. Being curious, I picked up another Minor Shield and activated that.

I could feel the shield around me intensifying, which was really fascinating. I wanted to see if this kept happening and so took both the activated enchantments in the same hand in order to pick up a third, but as I did that, the shield started flickering as the beads fell to dust, and about a minute later the shield faded completely. This was very interesting! I started considering the implications of this, but I was interrupted as the door banged open, showing a harried looking Charles.

He stared at me for a moment, before reaching for the door and slamming it closed again, with him on the other side. Curious.