According to what he read; there were two acknowledged paths for enchanting. The first was known as alchemic enchanting. It was the method of carving runes on an item and filling said carvings with an alchemic solution made from grinded elemental stones, magic stones and some other things he couldn’t even pronounce. This path was followed mostly by alchemists who had no real magic talent themselves. It was more widespread, but the end result was easier to destroy by damaging the runes.

The second path was known as infusion enchanting and one must have a good concentration ability and magical talent for it to work. It required either an elemental stone or a material with close ties to said element as a component. The few exceptions were the occult ones that used esoteric materials, or some of the arcane ones that used a material aptly called arcanite. Infusion enchanters fused the elemental stones and other materials directly into the items while creating the runes in their mind and melding them into the object. Items enchanted with this method still had visible runes on them, but the power resided in the actual objects themselves. This method was rarer and more expensive, but the enchantments could only be damaged by breaking the items.

Arcane craftsmen used a mixture of lesser and greater enchantments that further split into three sections. These were the offensive, defensive and utility enchantments. Taveran noted down one greater enchantment of all three types and two lesser runes. Sadly, all of these charms needed some kind of additional resource. Seeing that, the young dark elf sighed dejected.

“What’s wrong?” Bray turned his head towards him.

“I’ve found some enchantments to strengthen the staff, but I don’t have any of the materials it asks for.”

“What do you need?”

“Copper or earth elemental stones,” he said. “Two of the enchantments need copper bars or ‘waste’ quality earth elemental stones for their first level. It says that I would need three or four bars of the stuff.”

“Hah,” Bray chuckled. “If that’s all you need, look no further.”

As he said that, the elderly man stood up and walked over to the tarp covered crates on the left side of the hideout.

“I’ve helped clean out a lot of junk and useless wares from a nearby shop a few days ago in exchange of some food. If I remember correctly, there should be a few bars of copper as well among the junk I’ve dragged down here with me.”

“Well, that’s awfully convenient, but I don’t have anything to trade for them?” Regis stated as he watched Bray pull out several reddish ingots from one of the tarp covered crates.

“Copper is a cheap material and these ones were tossed out with the rest of the junk. I can’t make use of these since I’m no metal worker and no one around here wants to buy them. Now take them and try that enchantment thing you’ve found.”

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t be offering the damn thing if I wasn’t. Now stop gawking!” Bray scoffed with a mock anger.

“Thank you!” Regis said as he put the copper bars aside and he re-read the description.

After spending a few minutes interpreting Taveran’s scribbles, he placed the copper bars in a line and put the magic staff on top of them. He then sat down and put his hands on the staff. The infusion method he tried to use was quite unique as he had to meditate while imagining the rune he wanted to fuse into his staff. His weapon would slowly absorb both the copper and the arcana from his surroundings, forming the enchantment he chose. His thoughts were hazy as he meditated for what felt like an eternity, trying to imagine his first lesser enchantment. After some time, the outlines of the rune of durability appeared in front of his mind’s eye. It slowly turned from a faint shadow into a greyly glowing symbol as he retraced it several times. When the rune became solid in his mind, he felt the staff turn hot beneath his touch for a moment. He fell out of his trance and opened his eyes to find a bright coppery coloured staff lying on the ground beneath his hand. ‘Oh.’ He thought as he looked at the five copper bars that had less than half of their original size left.

“This…” He tried to speak, but his throat went dry.

“It was quite a show,” Bray clapped his hands with an aged smile. “You’ve barely meditated for a few minutes before those copper bars melted under your staff like ice beneath the sun. So, what did it do?”

Regis cast the familiar spell on the staff and noticed a few changes besides the difference in its colour.

{Soulbound sunstone staff}

{Item rarity: ???}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Greater enchantments: 0}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 110/110}

{Damage: ???}

“It repaired my staff and increased its durability by 10 points.” The youth answered as he stared at the metallic sheen of the staff that still had a wooden texture on its surface.

“That does sound somewhat useful, but you won’t get far with just a slightly sturdier weapon.”

“I know,” he nodded. “That’s where the second enchantment comes in.”

He took another look at the description written by Taveran before he put the staff back on the remains of the copper bars. His next rune was a greater enchantment referred to as the ‘weapon-shift’ rune and it required him to imagine a weapon with his staff as the base. There were small drawings in the journal that resembled melee weapons, including a bladestaff, a halberd, a spear, and a polearm. Weapons like the scythe and the giant axe were out of the question for someone with his stature. The magic staff was already at least a head taller than him, yet he still picked the bladestaff form.

Regis imagined a wide blade to surround the root covered crystal and protrude forward as if a short sword would have been attached to the staff. Once he had the base idea of the weapon’s looks, he began to meditate in earnest. This rune was recorded as a greater enchantment and rightly so. He had to draw three circles in his mind that were connected by lines to form an ‘L’ shape. Once that was formed, a partial rune had to be etched inside each of the circles. When he redid all of this about a dozen times, the circle in the middle began to pull the closest symbol toward itself. The two circles merged and the lines that made up the two incomplete runes reshaped themselves. As the process slowed down, the third circle merged into it as well. In the end, only a new, bright grey rune stayed that drained the energy of the fused circles. Regis felt his palm heat up for a moment before his fingers touched the ground beneath the staff. When he opened his weary eyes, the remaining copper was gone, but the staff didn’t look any different besides having the new rune on it. The weariness he felt was a sure sign of the loss of arcana, but he was too angry at himself due to the possibility of his failure to rest.

“I don’t get it,” his fingers turned pale as he clutched the weapon. “It should have turned into a bladestaff.”

“Is it always meant to be like that,” Bray looked at him. “Or do you have to turn it into a bladestaff yourself?”

Regis looked at the elderly man and back at the staff, scratching his head. He focused on the top part of the staff that began to bleed copper out if its spiralling roots. The liquid copper ran along the root covered crystal and reached forward, shaping into a blade that was a bit wider than his palm and about as long as his forearm. He wanted to call it a spearhead, maybe even a short sword, but it was more accurate to call it a finger thick copper sheet that had its edges grinded sharp. It seemed to be crudely made, but it should be able to get the job done.

“That’s much better,” the grey haired elder admired the makeshift weapon. “Now you not only have a decent long ranged melee weapon, but most folks will also be unable to tell that you’re an apprentice wizard. That should save you some trouble. Still, a copper blade isn’t very durable. You won’t be able to make much use of it, even if it repairs itself over time.”

“It’s understandable,” Regis let out a stale breath with his eyes lingering on the grey runes beneath the glowing crystal. “The journal mentioned that these are only the ‘waste’ rank versions of the enchantments. I’ll need to increase their levels with better materials. First I have to use copper, then bronze and iron. As for the other enchantments; I doubt that your merchant friend threw out elemental stones too. This should be enough enchanting for the time being anyway. Now I just need to get myself a few good spells.”

The young elf returned to the journal with his attention split between healing his fingers, meditating with open eyes and reading while doing the previous two. He read along the scrawled lines with a troubled mind. Taveran left him the crystal catalyst, but that was unusable for now and a single bladestaff was surely not enough to survive the harsh world Bray described him. Turning the pages of the journal, he found something that got his attention. It was a pair of spells, related to said catalyst. One was referred to as ‘grow cluster’ while the other one was ‘quartz shot’. The first spell was simple enough as it was meant to be used to practice crystal magic.

As the name implied, it let him grow small quartz clusters. It sounded useless at first, but quartz itself was a common material used in magical crafts and jewellery, so it could serve as a source of income if needed. Quartz shot on the other hand was an actual combat spell that created quartz stone shards, only to shoot them forward like a bullet. It’s only downside according to Taveran’s side notes was that it burnt through his arcana reserves with two shots. He didn’t know how large were the dead neophyte’s reserves originally, but he doubted that he was better than the man was. Still, having a saving card was good, so he decided to try it out. With the carved crystal hanging from his right wrist, he held his hand up in a gun shape and began to chant the spell. He felt a warm current run along his arm as a faint white glow twinkled on the quartz of the bracelet.

The stone creaked as a colourless drop of liquid formed on its tip. It floated in front of his index finger, where it grew into a horse bean sized crystal shard. Regis moved his hand slowly, trying to keep his concentration as he watched the crystal follow his movement. With a though, it was let loose and it burst forward with a whiz. It struck the stone wall not far ahead, leaving a scratch mark. A moment later the world started spinning as Regis fell back on his ass.

“Okay,” he wheezed. “Not going to use this until I have enough juice to stay standing.”

“Careful with that,” Bray chided. “Carelessly using magic is a fast way to get a pitchfork in your guts.”

“Do they hate magic that much around here?”

“They do,” the old man nodded before he bit down on a piece of cooked rat meat. “The church mostly uses light magic to fight the corruption of the darkness and to heal the sick and wounded. Any other magic is frowned upon by the common folk.”

“In other words; people like magic when it’s useful for them, but hate it when others use it. Figures.”

The elderly man frowned as he saw the youth roll his eyes, swallowing his food before speaking up once more.

“Don’t forget what I’ve said about the situation our kingdom is in. It was the wizards that caused the chaos, the plague and the tide of the undead and other horrors that forced the people to flee from their homes. They might tolerate you because they need wizards to keep the evil at bay, but you’ll look like a typical dark elf to them, so no one will bat an eye if you get killed on the middle of the street after using magic. The people are desperate and as such, they’ll take any opportunity to lash out at anyone they can.”

“Shit,” Regis cursed. “Looks like I really am in deep shit for being a dark elf, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” Bray finally chuckled. “Yes, you are.”

“Good to know. Remind me later to use light magic publicly as soon as I can and flaunt it whenever I can! Seeing a dark elf with all that light would confuse the hell out of the masses.”

“It sure would.” The old man laughed once more before he picked up the remains of his roasted rat.

“By the way, do you have any injuries? I know some basic healing magic.”

“I’m hale and hearty besides being old, so there’s no need for you to worry about me. You should rather spend your time healing your own wounds while you can.”

“Any other bright suggestions while at it?” The youth asked with a snarky tone, earning a calm answer.

“I would spend some time practicing with that staff in your place. Having a weapon and being able to use it are two different thigs after all.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He admitted as he sat back down, covering his left hand with his right. He then spent the next hour and a half with a repeated cycle of casting lesser healing and meditating. After a few more times of casting the spell, a strange sensation bloomed in his mind which he thought to be a sign of gaining mastery of the spell for the second time. He remembered having a similar, if weaker sensation while reading and healing, but he was too busy to care at that time. With each spell cast, his missing fingers grew just a bit longer until he cast it for about another two dozen times.

When his new fingers finally grew to be indistinguishable from the rest, a warm current rushed through his tired body. ‘I guess that was my debuff being erased.’ He thought as he raised his fixed hand towards the old man, earning a firm nod. He then healed his leg and elbow completely as well, not even any scars behind except for a faint line beneath his new fingers. Regis then rested a bit before grabbing the bladestaff and taking up a simple fighting stance. He practiced switching its forms that seemed to take a solid three seconds, making the weapon ideal for slashing and smashing. After about an hour of repeated blocking, smashing, stabbing and swinging in all directions, Regis leaned on the weapon to catch his breath a bit.

“I guess it’s time for me to go,” he panted, pulling his knapsack on. “Thank you for your hospitality Bray! I’ll try to repay it if I get the chance.”

“Don’t mention it,” the elderly man waved with his left hand. “This land is cruel and dark. I just did my part to make it a little better.”

“Oh the cringe.” The young elf shuddered as he mumbled to himself.

“Take care of yourself lad! Oh, and push the stone slab back into place once you’re outside to close the door.”

“Aren’t you worried that others would find this place with such an obvious lock?”

“No one comes to this part of the alley. You’ll see it when you’re out there. Now go and do some good work!”