Sleep comes fitfully for me once more. Dreams of killing and the terror that was the fall of crystalized Portland cause me to wake up sweaty with my heart racing.

Fortunately, by morning I’m feeling rested regardless. Stats help to make up for the difference.

‘I haven’t tried it but I could probably get only a few hours of sleep no problem, I don’t feel the least bit tired.’

Considering experimenting with just how much sleep I need, as I’ve only gone to sleep due to physical exhaustion lately, I get lost in thought.

While regenerating wounds is possible, boiling my hand several times two days ago exhausted me just as much as spending a day building the wall around the city.

‘Seems like there’s a component of physical exhaustion simply from healing so rapidly all the time, I guess it must draw on my natural stamina.’

Shaking my head, I clear the sleepy ponderings from my mind and get dressed quickly. Walking into the still unenchanted bathroom I mentally groan at the task ahead of me. While I enjoy enchanting, it’s sometimes a tedious process.

Brushing my teeth and finishing any other bathroom business, I walk out into the hall and smell food. Colt comes walking out with a wooden tray stacked with various breakfast foods.

“Awww damnit, I was gonna make you breakfast in bed…” He frowns and walks to the table instead, setting the food down.

“Sorry, gotta be faster I guess.” Winking at him, I move to the table and check out what he made.

It’s a plate of bacon, toast, and eggs. The bacon is slightly redder in color than I’m used to and the egg yolk is red instead of yellow, but it still smells delicious.

“Where’d you get the bread?” The bacon and eggs seem plausible to me to have come from some kind of monster, but I can’t think of a monster that would drop bread.

“You okay, Lucas? You kinda spaced out after asking me about bread.” Colt looks at me with slight concern.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I was thinking about bread monsters.”

He chuckles and guides me to the chair. “It’s from the Construct Shop. It’s a little flavorless so I hope the rest of the food covers that up.

Grabbing a fork I dig into the meal. The bacon has an even richer flavor and it’s pan-fried to perfection. The egg is cooked exactly as I like it, fried on both sides with a runny yolk. Cutting off sections, I sandwich the egg between bread and dip it in the yolk.

It’s more savory than a usual egg, but that’s to be expected, monster drops tend to be more flavorful in general. “What did this egg come from? It’s kinda… spicy without actually being spicy?”

The yolk feels like I’m eating tongues of fire, but somehow not in a painful way.

“Some kind of fire bird monster, one of the people in Portland shot it down and I was given the eggs by them for being a hero.” He shrugs, not knowing the specific details.

“Makes sense then, it kinda feels like I’m eating fire, but not in a bad way.” Offering him a bite, he tries it himself.

“Huh, you’re right. Weird. I removed any of the magic effects so you won’t be experiencing any kind of sudden traits right now.”

Likely sensing food, Becky comes up the stairs looking predatory. Colt rushes back into the kitchen for a moment and comes out with a steaming plate of food for her as well.

Looking sated, she thanks him and digs into the meal looking blissful. Finishing my own meal, I stand up from the table and walk into the kitchen.

Going over to the sink, I scrub the plate down using some Hydromancy and set it to dry on a rack Colt made.

“Hey, Colt, I’m gonna go to Ilmarinen’s house and study the runes on his stuff so I can replicate it, okay? While I’m gone, do you think you could set up some pipes through the house so we can have running water?”

“Sure thing, I’ll get on that once I finish cleaning up.”

Pecking him on the lips quickly, I head downstairs, greeting everyone as I do.

“Hey Adreanell, Cassandra, Mrs. Kaine. Colt’s making breakfast, so get up there before Becky eats all of it!”

Swearing from upstairs indicates Becky heard me.

The three of them head up, but Mrs. Kaine stops next to me momentarily. “Lucas, you can call me Mary, I’d… rather not associate with the name Kaine anymore.”

Realizing her relationship with Colt’s father, I begin to feel embarrassed for calling her that in the first place. “Oh. I’m sorry. I should have realized earlier. I’ll call you Mary from now on.”

She smiles slightly at me. “Thank you. And it’s no problem, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Nodding to her, I head into my forge room, opening the portal door to see Ilmarinen and Pasivier. “Hi, Ilmarinen! Good morning, Pasivier.”

“Aye lad, what ye be needin’?” Ilmarinen raises a tentacle in greeting.

“Good morning, young Lucas.” The Fae bows slightly, confusing me, but I ignore his unusually pleasant demeanor.

“Can’t an apprentice just come and visit his master without needing something?” Giving him my most innocent look, he simply stares at me, saying nothing.

“...Okay, I was hoping I could study your enchantments on stuff. I need to enchant my house so I wanted something to base my stuff off of.”

He nods to me. “Yer welcome to look, wash yerself first though. Ye stink and I won’t have ye trudging around me house like that.”

“I can do that.” Sniffing myself, I’m not sure I smell that bad, but I walk to the bathroom anyway.

Turning on the shower, I unequip my clothes and store them in my hold. While washing myself, I examine the enchantments along Ilmarinen’s waterfall shower. ‘Hmmm… this one here is a water generating rune, but it’s not active and the shower is definitely going… Weird.’

Drying myself off with Hydromancy after I step out of the shower, I continue my inspection of the runes. Taking out a notepad and pencil, I begin to scribble down the runes I see.

Right near the spout that the waterfall comes from along the wall, I note several runes with purifying properties. Following these runes, I record some that pull water from a source. Getting an idea of how it works, I check the drain as well.

The drain also has purification runes along its perimeter. Activating my Primordial Perception, I follow the piping of this shower and realize it’s circular.

The rune for generating water is fairly complex, but it seems that it’s only needed to supplement water when enough evaporates over time.

The system is quite simple in the end. Water is pulled from a large tank of water under the bathroom and runs through a series of heating and purification runes to assure cleanliness.

The runes that pull the water through this system are mostly just simple Hydrokinesis runes, only one of them is what appears to be a Hydromancy rune. Not sure I can replicate that one with my current skillset, I’ll simply have to top off the water from time to time.

Checking the sink and the toilet, it’s the same concept just with smaller tanks of water. The sink also has a rune to cool down water though. Curious about the toilet, as I notice more glyphs leading under it to a separate tank with my Primordial Perception, I take out my enchanting book.

The image I have through Primordial Perception is somewhat hazy as I’m simply paying attention to the lack of substance in place of a rune, but I find one that seems right.

‘Deconstruction rune, eh?’ The rune I’m looking at in the enchanting book can apparently convert mass back into mana, which can be used to power enchantments.

‘Oh my god, poop power.’ Allowing myself a moment to laugh, I refocus on my task.

Taking a further look at all of the purification runes, they all lead through pipes to this same waste tank. The purification runes simply pull the impurities out of the water and pipe them to this container instead.

The deconstruction rune then breaks down this mass, converting it to mana to supplement the cost on the enchantments, making it cheaper overall.

Satisfied with my notes on the bathroom, I leave the room and head back to the main room of Ilmarinen’s home. Pasivier is gone now.

“Why was Pasivier here?”

Ilmarinen glances at me before returning to his metalworking. “The bastard keeps bringin’ me more arms to repair. His supply is damn endless, I swear it.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” In my mind, that just means more money for Ilmarinen.

He sighs. “Lad, ye’ve met the man, haven’t ye? Would ye want to interact with him this often?” He gives me a critical stare.

“Oh god, no. Wow, I’m sorry.”

Ilmarinen nods with my commiserating. “Any more inspecting ye need to do lad?”

“Just your kitchen and the forge, we don’t need anything more than that, for now, I don’t think.”

He nods to me, gesturing to the kitchen. “Go ahead.”

Walking into the kitchen, I move to his larder first. The preservation runes are decently complex, but looking through my enchanting book I find some simpler ones that I’ll just have to renew every so often.

The ones Ilmarinen has are more efficient so the enchantment will last longer as a result. In the end, the preservation runes seem to stop the natural decay of matter.

There’s also some complimentary runes that keep microbes from eating away at anything contained within the enchanted object as well.

The next rune I identify on the larger keeps the food clean from any particles in the air, preventing them from passing through an invisible barrier.

‘I guess even if it’s not rotted or anything, no one would want to eat a dusty steak.’

The last rune is a temperature stasis rune. It prevents heat from leaving or entering whatever is put into the larder, keeping the food at the exact temperature it was put in at.

Checking part of the larder, I open a compartment and see a mana crystal that all of the runes are connected to via conduit runes.

‘Hm, needs a battery then, huh? I’ll have to check and see if the Construct Shop has mana crystals. Those are normal items, right?’

Nothing is different about the rune setup for the sink in the kitchen, but I note that the trash can has the same deconstruction runes as the bathroom. ‘Well, if anything, The Construct is great for waste removal.’

Finishing my notes on all the runes in the kitchen, I walk back out to Ilmarinen’s forge.

“All done in there, lad? Yer faster than I expected.” He smiles at me approvingly.

“Yup, I’ll have to do simpler versions of some of the runes and just redo them sometimes, but I get the concepts. Do Construct Shops sell mana crystals? I’ll need one to power our larders.”

“Aye, that they do. Ye may need to replace it more often as they don’t sell ones as high capacity as I have.” He nods to me, confirming my suspicions.

“I figured as much, I’ll just get some extras. Shouldn’t be a problem to just charge them up every so often. Now, I just need to inspect your forge if that’s alright.”

“Be careful with her, she’s been with me since the beginning.” His face is apprehensive, but he allows me to inspect it.

Looking through the runes, they’re what I would expect on a forge. Runes that will increase or decrease temperature to where he needs it, but he also supplements these needs with some red mana stones which I assume are fire-attuned.

Looking closer, I notice a rune so tiny I missed it completely before just now.

“Hey, Ilmarinen, what’s this super tiny rune here? I can barely even make out its shape.” Squinting and getting my face closer doesn’t help.

“Ah, those are me spacial runes, far outside of yer skillset right now, lad.”

“Oh, so are these why your house is so much bigger on the inside than the outside?”

“Aye, lad.”

Looking closer, I notice every single brick of the forge has one of the tiny spacial runes on them. “Wait, Ilmarinen. Every single brick has one of these.” Inspecting the floor, every panel of wood does as well. “And the floor!”

He nods with a pained expression. “Aye, lad.”

“This must have taken forever! Is everything in this house enchanted with that?”

“Aye. Me eight arms compared to yer two helps, but it took me… some time.”

Feeling empathetic pain for how dull that must have been, I turn back to the forge to study it once more. “My condolences on that, I’m not sure I’ll be doing that anytime soon.”

“Wouldn’t recommend it.” His voice is somewhat pained.

Taking the hint that he’s reaching his end of being social, I turn back and inspect the forge more. Toward the top, I note some more purification runes and can sense pipes leading out from the forge to another deconstruction tank.

‘Hm, even the smoke produced is harvested for more mana. Efficient design.’

“Hey, Ilmarinen, could you show me how to do this deconstruction rune? I think I could do it but it would be helpful to have someone show me.”

He smiles and nods, gesturing me to take a seat next to him. Raising an arm, he generates a small stone box and hands it to me.

Wrapping another arm around mine, he guides my hand as I trace out the rune, getting a feel for the depth and form as well as where I have to increase or decrease mana output.

Within fifteen minutes, I complete the inscription, looking at my work.

Deconstruction Box

Quality: Low

Traits: Deconstruction

Description: This box deconstructs matter within it and converts it to mana. This mana is channeled through conduit runes on the box to external sources.

Level up! For working with new runes and furthering your knowledge, your Talent: Fledgling Enchanter has reached (36/50)!

‘Hm, nice!’

Just holding the box makes me slightly fearful while I also have a strange urge to stick my finger in it. “Couldn’t this be… weaponized?”

“Nay, lad. Even the barest of wills can resist this effect. It only works on plants or non-living matter.” He pokes the tip of his arm through the box, pulling it out and showing that it’s unscathed.

“Speaking of plants, can plants be enchanted? Our house is a tree after all…”

“Ye may have to push a little harder with yer mana, but ye shouldn’t have too many issues. Too many enchantments may affect the growth though.” He shrugs, showing that he’s not absolutely sure on the plant growth part.

“Thanks, Ilmarinen. You’ve been a great help. I’m gonna go enchant my house now, I’ll see you later, okay?” Beginning to walk away, the octopus man nods to me.

“Aye, lad. See ye later.” The phrase “see you later” feels awkward coming from him, like a parent trying to seem hip, but I wave him off and walk back to the door.

Catching him sigh with relief just before I close the door, I chuckle. ‘He’s so antisocial…’

‘Well, time to get to work.’ Finding Colt, I tell him everything I learned after checking out Ilmarinen’s runes

“So, I think it might be better if we just have one big, general deconstruction tank below the house and a water tank too. It won’t be so enchantment-heavy for me to do that. If we have the water tank at least partially under my forge, I can pipe some of the heat there to save on mana too.”

“I already laid a lot of the groundwork for the pipes in the walls, so the tank below the house works well for me.” Nodding to me, Colt and I walk outside.

He summons up a large amount of stone from the ground and carves it to shape quickly with his Geomancy. One more wave of his hand and the stone polishes to a smooth, flat surface. Perfect for enchanting.

The larger size alongside not having Ilmarinen’s help makes this process take a while, but eventually, I finish the enchantment and all the conduits we’ll need.

In this time, Colt guts the house of all the pipes, laying them out on the lawn for me. I’ll need to draw conduits along them to bring power from the deconstruction box to all the enchantments in the house.

Sending Adreanell with some of my coin, I have her go to the Construct Shop to buy some mana crystals with instructions to get the highest quality they have.

Once I finish enchanting all the pipes, I move on to the water tank, keeping my momentum going before motivation runs dry.

The water tank needs some basic waterproofing runes as well as Hydrokinesis runes to pump water through the various outputs. The pipes I enchanted already have the proper conduits to send these signals to “request” water from the tank.

The purification runes take me the longest time as they’re the most complex, but soon the swirled, geometric designs adorn the tank.

Unsure of what the pipes in Ilmarinen’s house use to pipe waste through, I think on my feet and use some Aerokinesis runes with a vortex intent rune to pull things through the pipes.

Using a modification of the rune from the larder, I change it to block water from entering any of the waste channels, and another modified set to prevent anything but water from flowing through the pipes that lead to the water tank.

This creates an easy system of separation to make sure no contamination happens. Realizing I forgot a step, I go back and enchant each part with runes that will allow us to charge the enchantments with mana crystals.

My plans include enchanting just about everything so that a small portion of our passive regen will keep the crystals charged while we’re in the house.

A certain level of ambient mana can keep enchantments sustained, so some of the simpler ones won’t need this complex process and I omit adding the charging enchantments to them.

With the water tank, deconstruction tank and pipes finally done, I move on to all of the water sources in the house. Going for the kitchen and alchemy room first, I enchant the sinks in each room to pull from the water tank.

Once again, the purification runes take me a while to draw out, but I’m getting faster and faster at them every time.

Eventually, the sinks are finished. Moving upstairs, I do the same for both bathrooms and the toilets. In the shower, I have to enchant the full waterfall effect as well, making it pull enough water from the tank to cascade properly.

Adding in all of the temperature control runes takes some time as well, they’re more complex than simple elemental runes but not as complex as the purification runes.

So far I’ve been grinding away normally, hoping for a bigger Fledgling Enchanter level payout by ignoring Rapid Inscription or Schematic Mind. Wanting to have a pleasant surprise at the end, I keep my focus on not receiving any notifications currently.

With the bathrooms upstairs complete as well, I finish up the downstairs bathroom as well, following the same process. Moving back into the kitchen, I apply the same kinds of enchantments that were on Ilmarinen’s forge to a simple stone brick oven that Colt constructed.

There are three ovens total, stovetops included, which Colt assures me will be wholly necessary if he’s going to run a restaurant. Apparently, this is on the lighter side for the number of ovens a restaurant should have and he’ll expand as necessary.

He even creates a large stone structure that will work like a giant dishwasher, which reminds me that we’ll need a washer and dryer as well, so I set him to the task of making those while I keep enchanting.

The whole enchanting project becomes a big group effort as Cassandra, Becky, and Mary join in helping. Becky is helping Colt cut stone to shape for new appliances while Cassandra and Mary help clean up from all the messes Colt and I are leaving everywhere.

Finishing enchanting the ovens, Colt returns to tell me that the washer and dryer are finished and that Adreanell is back.

I give her a suspicious look when she tells me that she used up the two gleams I gave her buying mana crystals, but she gives me the full supply and they’re all of High quality, so I take her word for it.

The palm-sized blue crystals gleam with energy in my hands. Looking at them with my Mage’s Eyes, I can see the mana they contain held within some kind of matrix. Moving on, I go to hook them up to the full system of the house.

Colt creates a centralized spot for me to insert the mana crystals and connect them to the rest of the house. Pipes run through this area, so the crystals will attach to a box connected to the pipes, running mana through the whole house.

Finishing up those enchantments, the lines begin to glow with power as mana finally flows through them. Colt continues to open and close walls, floors, and ceilings as he sets up the entire piping system.

A miniscule pull on my mana pool tells me the passive charging runes are working.

Moving on to the washer, the enchantments are quite similar to the shower as it requires hot and cold settings as well as purification runes to clean off the clothes.

Once I finish the washer, I set to work enchanting the dryer. It uses a mix of the Aerokinesis, vortex, and heat runes to quick-dry clothes we put into them.

With that finished, Colt indicates to me that I still need to enchant the larder. As that’s definitely the most complex piece of enchanting, I’ve been putting it off and elect to do so once more by going to enchant my forge.

Unfortunately, I can’t waste too much time as the enchantments for the forge are actually quite simple aside from the purification runes. I’m already used to doing those runes though, so even they don’t take me as long anymore.

With settings for increasing intensities of heat, Aerokinesis runes for proper bellows function, and purification runes to get rid of any smoke or other air contaminants, my forge is finished and ready to smelt metal.

Sighing, I return to the kitchen where Colt has assembled a larder made of the same wood as the house. Fortunately, it’s detached as well so I won’t have to expend any more mana than necessary enchanting a living plant.

My mana pool is already dipping quite low from so much constant enchanting for hours on end.

The larder takes me two more hours, leading to night time by the time I finish the enchantments. It requires the barrier runes to keep out any air particles, the temperature stasis runes, and lastly the preservation runes.

All three of these are quite complex and I messed up multiple times, having to start over from scratch.

Slumping to the floor after declaring it a finished product, I finally allow myself to observe Construct notifications.

Level up! For toiling, struggling, and creatively using many new runes, your Talent: Fledgling Enchanter has reached (49/50)!

For reaching your eighth Talent milestone in Fledgling Enchanter, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Intelligence, Attunement, Willpower, Insight, and + 240 XP. In addition, you have been granted the Perk: Inscriber’s Might

For reaching your ninth Talent milestone in Fledgling Enchanter, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Intelligence, Attunement, Willpower, Insight, and + 270 XP.

‘Guess I’m hitting that point where a lot of perk fusions are coalescing. And jeez, so many level ups today.’ My assumption is that the perk fusions are likely different seeing as I obtained a perk normally from the first milestone but not the second.

Perks:

Inscriber’s Might

Description: Your inscriptions are stronger than average. The marks you leave on the world will have an increased quality above what you would normally be capable of, making your enchantments last longer and have more power overall. Intelligence and Willpower increased by 1. +1 Intelligence and Willpower per level up.

‘Well that explains why my enchantments suddenly started feeling more powerful halfway into the day…’

Feeling a small second wind as I remember another idea I had, I move to do one more enchantment that should help power the runes in the house as well. Looking through my book to remind me of it, I find the runes I need.

It’s a fairly quick rune setup, but I do it in each room of the house, connecting conduit runes to the power source relays we’ve set up in the walls.

Once they’re complete and I activate them, the house cools down, freeing us from the intense summer heat. The runes glow with power as they convert heat into mana.

The cost of pulling the heat in is only slightly offset by the amount of mana received from it, but it helps to supplement the overall enchantment costs of the house in general.

Hearing sighs of relief downstairs, I can tell everyone else is enjoying the simulated air conditioning just as much as I am. Sighing in exhaustion, I hope the dull headache forming from such intense focus all day will go away soon.

Level up! For continuing to use the runes at your disposal in a new fashion, your Talent: Fledgling Enchanter has reached (50/50)! Talent upgrade will now occur!

Congratulations, Lucas Creo! Your Talent: Fledgling Enchanter has evolved into Adept Enchanter (1/50)! For reaching the Adept Talent Tier, you have been granted 5 unused stat points, double the original stat points given upon Talent milestones, and appropriate Perk power has been attained. Perk fusion in progress!

The Perks: Inscriber’s Depth, Inscriber’s Might, and Inscriber’s Precision are now fusing.

Fusion Perk granted: Inscriber’s Elegance

‘Damn, nice, I reached Adept Enchanter finally. Perks.’

Perks:

Inscriber’s Elegance

Description: Having gained several Inscriber’s perks, your attunement to this art has reached elegance. The perks: Inscriber’s Depth, Might, and Precision have fused to form this new perk. Your inscriptions inspire, your enchantments enthrall, and your runes ravish. Your enchantments are empowered further, integrating themselves even deeper into the items you enchant, their power is stronger and lasting, and your inscriptions have become even more precise. Bonuses from the original perks have tripled. Dexterity, Intelligence, and Attunement increased by 3. Willpower increased by 9. +3 Dexterity, Intelligence, Attunement, and +9 Willpower per level up.

‘Wow, that’s a pretty nice boost to Willpower. The other stats don’t hurt to have either.’

Walking back downstairs, everyone is chatting and enjoying the cool air.

“Lucas, this warm, humid air was killer on my hair. Thank you.” Becky actually grabs my hands, getting weirdly emotional for a second over her hair. She immediately realizes what she’s doing and steps back, trying to regain her normal guarded facade.

“I have to agree, Lucas. Stats do a lot to help with the heat, but it doesn’t mean it’s comfortable.” Mary sips on a glass of water, having tested our new sink most likely.

Sensing under us, I notice the pipes from below us pulling up groundwater, helping to supplement our otherwise lacking supply. ‘That explains those extra pipes Colt gave me… good idea.’

We ended up adding more, smaller water tanks near the water sources in the house to supplement water flow until it can travel up from the bigger tank below the house.

Adreanell approaches me, stroking her own hair, which looks just slightly less poofy than usual. “I uh, share the same sentiment as Becky, my hair was frizzing like crazy and I can’t find anti-frizz shampoo anywhere. So, thank you for giving us the gift of air conditioning.”

“Funny thing, it’s actually helping to power the house. The heat is being converted into mana.”

“Really? Doesn’t that break the laws of entropy?” She gives me a questioning look as if I’ll have more answers than she does.

“...That’s a good point. Well, the ‘mancy’ Skills already break the laws of conservation of mass and energy, so I guess thermodynamics is just out the window here too.” Shrugging, I wonder what other laws of physics magic breaks.

“That’s kinda scary. Good though, I guess. No more inevitable heat death of the universe with the power of air conditioning!” Adreanell smiles cheerfully, turning and walking back to talk with Cassandra.

With that dark thought on my mind, Colt finally calls us up for a late dinner. It’s a big roast that he cooked with his new oven. Digging in, the flavor is divine. The meat is savory and the sauce he drizzled it in is just sweet enough to really compliment the roast without overpowering it.

After a filling dinner, Colt and I head to bed, we’re both exhausted. Laying down next to each other, Colt turns to me, looking slightly guilty. “What?”

“So uh, I’m gonna need you to do all that enchanting for Adreanell and Cassandra’s house, my mom’s house, and Becky’s house…”

“God. Fucking. Damnit.”