《The Will of the Strong》Enchanting and Cheating
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“Rise and shine, Thorin. You have a lot to learn if you want to become a decent enchanter.” Cynar’s voice rang out in Thorin's head.
“Alright, alright I'm up.” Thorin grumbled as he slowly got up from bed. He scratched his eyes groaning as he stood up he looked around his room, and out the window. The sun was just coming out.
“Couldn’t you have woken me up later, I’ve been through a lot lately and could use some rest.” Thorin complained.
“No get up don't forget that if anyone finds out your necromancer, armies will form to hunt you down. We need you to be as strong as possible in case someone finds out about you.” Cynar said reminding Thorin of the dangerous position he is in.
“Fine, but I'm showering and eating breakfast before anything.” Thorin said as he went down stairs and got a meal. After he finished the meal, he went to the public bathing room at the back of the inn.
He walked in took of his clothes and entered the pool. There was three other men on the other side of the room but they kept to themselves as Thorin scrubbed his now toned body. He could feel the change in his body due to the increase in stats. He felt much stronger than before and want to see how far he could go.
After leaving the pool and rising off, Thorin put his clothes back on.
‘I should try and get more sets of clothing’ Thorin thought as he smelled the odor his current clothes were giving off. He couldn't wash them because they were his only pair.
“Buy clothes cost money, so if you want to buy some new ones I recommend learning enchanting quickly.” Cynar pestered reminding Thorin to hurry up.
Thorin ignored him though and took his time returning to the room. When he did he sat down at the small wooden desk and signaled Cynar to start.
“Alright. Enchanting, the art of imprinting mana into weapons armor or tools. This only works though with metallic substances like iron, steel or gold. Depending on the runes used when enchanting the magic flowing through the object will perform a task or gain attributes.”
“For instance a sword that remains sharp or armor the slowly repairs itself. Those are just some of the basic objects you could create with enchanting. Later as you advance in enchanting you can even start to add multiple runes create stronger and new effects.”
“I will start you off with a basic rune for hardening a material making it more difficult to break. Even though it's a quite common and weak enchantment you could have tripled the price of the dagger you sold yesterday by applying it.”
‘Alright let's do it then’ Thorin said as he pulled out another dagger from his dimensional space. He put it down on the desk and prepared for the mental transfer.
A minor surge of knowledge passed into his head. It was almost unnoticeable compared to learning spells.
He studied the rune. It was a cicular paterrn with characters of an unknown language interwoven through out it. This rune was quite basic looking and left large amounts of space in the circle blank.
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“The enchanting runes aren't complicated it is the fine control of mana which is difficult. Sadly I can't transfer this because it is a skill you must develop for yourself.” Cynar said to Thorin who was surprised at the ease of the transfer.
“Alright what do I have to do?” Thorin said glancing over at the dagger.
“Quite eager aren't you? You won't be touching that dagger for a while often it takes weeks before enchanters even have the ability to inscribe. First you have to learn to channel your mana correctly.”
“First clear your mind and meditate. Then visualize the flow of mana in your body and flow a larger stream of mana from your mana pool to your finger. At that point you should have the mana leave your finger in a controlled rate creating a mana flame. This flame is then used to inscribe the tune.”
‘Alright sounds easy enough.’ Thorin thought as he got into a comfortable position.
Cynar smirk and thought to himself ‘I wonder how long it will take before he makes it.’
Slowly Thorin's mind slipped into a meditative trance and he started to visualize the flow of his mana. It was an intricate system that circulated mana to every part of his body.
He found the path that lead to his right hand’s index finger. He then went to his mana pool and try to gather his mana. Every time he reached out to grab the mana it felt like water slipping through his fingers. The harder he tried to force the mana the fast it would slip away. Realizing this he tried being gentle and just nudge the mana towards the path he wanted. This work but only a small amount of mana moved and slowly fizzed away into nothingness. Frustrated he tried again, with the same results.
He sat there for hours trying to move the mana to his finger with the only results being total failure or a small spark of mana.
Growing frustrated he suddenly felt calm and the image of a pure white skull appeared in his head.
“This is my mana, my power it should heed my commands!” Thorin screamed at his mana pool.
Using his willpower Thorin yelled at his mana to follow his finger. He didn't force the mana, he commanded it, like it was one of his skeletons. The mana surged with his command and a large stream went all the way to his finger and ruptured out into the world.
“Congratulations you produced a mana flame and a quite large one at that, please stop before damaging the room.” Cynar said as Thorin opened his eyes to see a white bonfire exploding from the tip of his finger.
‘Sorry’ Thorin said as he quickly shut off the supply of mana.
“Don’t be that was quite impressive, if you can get that mana under control your enchantments will be quite powerful. Your mana flame is the largest one I have ever seen, but that makes it even harder control.” Cynar explained.
“Let's move outside to continue practicing with your absurdly large mana flame.” Cynar suggested.
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‘Right’ Thorin said standing up a stretching his sore muscles. He was incredibly tense due to sitting there for half a day. Grabbing the dagger on the table and munching on some ration to eat as he walked. He quickly went down stairs and left the inn.
He started to head to the gate leaving town, when he noticed a commotion on the other side of the street. He glanced over and saw two guardsmen dragging a beautiful young women with red hair out of a house. She was screaming and struggling to get away, until one of the guards his sword. He held it up to her neck, forcing her to calm down.
Confused and disgusted by what he was seeing he walked up to a farmer who was also watching the spectacle.
“Sir I am new in town could you explain what that young lady did wrong.” Thorin asked hoping to figure out why such drastic measure were being used.
“She did nothing, it just our mayor probably took a fancy to her looks and is forcing her into becoming one of his personal maids. With all of the town's guards on his payroll no one can stop him.” The farmer said with disgust as he spit on the ground.
‘How despicable, should I stop them?’ Thorin wondered.
“No you idiot if you did you would reveal to everyone that you're a necromancer. You're not strong enough to live out in the open yet. Leave her be there are many worse fates than being some nobles plaything.” Cynar said convincing Thorin to keep on moving.
Soon Thorin reached the gate of the palisade and was let out. He continued to walk until he was out of eyesight and found a tree to sit under.
Thorin once again sat down and meditated recreating the events that lead to him creating the flame. Once he did he opened his eyes again and started to examine the flame. It was just as large as before and was clearly out of control. It was warm, but wouldn’t burn anything. Looking at the flame Thorin was mesmerized by its movement and zoned out.
“Focus Thorin, gather the flames into one condensed mana flame an inch long.” Cynar said, snapping Thorin out of his dazed state.
Thorin gather his mind again and commanded the flame to condense. He waited a second, but nothing happened. He tried a couple more times but the flame didn’t show a single change. He tried willing it but was only able to shrink the flame a small amount before the flame burst back to its original size. Just like before he continued to try for a couple hours making little to no progress. It was simply too hard to control. Cynar gave him some tips to help, but even with those the flame was too stubborn and remained a glorious bonfire of mana. He ended telling Thorin it was normal to take a while perfecting this technique and could take him a week or two before succeeding.
‘Only if it was still a part of me, then I could command it like I did before.’ Thorin thought stubbornly, when he suddenly had an amazing idea.
Using his left hand he reached down to his belt and pulled out his dagger. He plunged it into the tip of his finger leaving a cut that started to bleed. He quickly commanded his mana to leave his finger. As he did the mana vaporized the blood and absorbed it. This time the flame was a dark crimson.
“What did you just do?” Cynar asked, surprised by Thorin's actions.
‘I am a blood necromancer, right, so my blood has magical properties and close ties to my power. I was able to channel the mana to my finger so easily using my authority as a lord necromancer, but when it left my body it didn't recognize my commands. If I'm right this flame, fused with my blood, should remain under my control.” Thorin explained as he commanded the flame to condense.
Much to his delight, the large crimson flame started to shrink and grow brighter. Eventually the flame was a single beam of flame giving off a strong energy and a bright light.
(Author note: imagen a wielder or fusion cutter type of flame).
“Well then you were correct.*Sigh* Somehow you invented your own way of cheating the enchanting process. Just to let you know it took me a week to have the control you have right now and my flame was much weaker.” Cynar complained.
Thorin looked around and notice that it was dusk already.
‘Let's try to enchant tomorrow, we need to go back to the inn now.’
He stood up and started to jog back to the town. The guard at the gate remembered him from earlier and let him in without a hassle. He walked back down to the inn and grabbed a meal. This time it was a stew with beef, and miscellaneous vegetables. Thorin downed his food at a fast pace and was happy with his decision to stay at this inn.
Afterwards he quickly went back up to his room. He was mentally exhausted after a day of constant mental exercise.
Before going to bed he check his stats and happy found out that both his intelligence and willpower increased by four due to his training in enchanting.
Happy with his progress today Thorin got in bed and started to sleep. Before falling asleep, he couldn't help but remember and feel bad for the red haired women he didn’t help.
Name: Thorin Black Class: Necromancer Lv 5 12/50 XP Health 240/240 Mana 1390/1390 Stats: Strength: 26 Vitality: 24 Stamina: 16 Endurance: 9 Intelligence: 39 Willpower: 52 Agility: 12 Dexterity: 11 Skills Summon Familar Rank S Summon Skeleton Rank D Life Siphon Rank D Skeletal Refinement Rank D Talents Affinity with Death Dimensional Storage Head Start Magic Reserves Strong Soul Blood Lord Thorin's Forces Skeleton 3
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