Rijana took out her spellbook. "Our time is really limited. I want you to learn at least two spells before we return to Roen's store. The first spell I recommend is Protection from Fire. It's a simple Second-Tier spell that should be easy for you to copy into your spellbook since your skill in Fire magic is already so high. What else would you like to learn?" she asked.

"Is this the place where your workshop is also located?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes, this is my mage tower, which is located within The Elven Nation. I work and sleep here whenever I'm not out on travel," she explained.

"In that case, I want to take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to create magic items from you," I replied. I was amused by the fact that Rijana had put "work" before "sleep" in her explanation. Back in my own world, far too many people prioritized work before sleep as well. I suppose people had similar habits no matter which version of planet Earth they resided in.

My magic instructor chuckled at my ambition. "While I appreciate your enthusiasm in learning my craft, it is not that easy to create magic items. At least not the ones that will last," she explained. "It is not a simple process where you only cast a spell or two. The key to success in magic item creation is your preparation. Think of it as cooking. When you prepare a meal, you need to prepare your ingredients first. And the higher quality ingredients you use, the better the result of your cooking. It is the same process with magic item creation."

"I see." My disappointment seeped into my voice. For whatever reason, I had the impression that one could simply create an item out of thin air. If the process was like cooking, however, this meant that magic item creation was tedious if not boring. Frankly, I wasn't sure I was prepared to spend that much of my time holed up in a laboratory to do so. Not when I will also need to spend time in the library to read about my predecessor, King Merlin, and figure out how he managed to return home. After all, that was the whole ball game in my book--to return home.

"The path of an enchanter is a difficult one. Oftentimes, I am adventuring in order to gather rare ingredients. I am fortunate to have friends like Bjoukia and Bjoukin who have indulged on my whims and are willing to come along. Without their protection, I would need to hire mercenaries and risk getting robbed by them," Rijana continued.

"In addition, the trade is a highly expensive one. For instance, you can enchant an item either temporarily or permanently. The longer the duration of the enchantment, the higher quality the item must be in order to hold the enchantment. And the higher an item's quality, the more costly it will be. The problem, though, is that you will increase your skill level in the General sphere, which controls the success of the spell, only by practicing enchanting items with magic. If you are successful with your ritual, you can use up the enchantment and then re-enchant the item again. However, if your ritual fails, then the item will break and you will need to buy its replacement. That's why this specialty is highly expensive and there are so few enchanters," she explained. "Would you like to devote today's lesson on learning how to create a magic item?" she offered.

"Yes," I nodded. My heart started beating rapidly. OH BOY, OH BOY, OH BOY! I was giddy with happiness at the notion of being able to create my own magic items. To me, this was the ultimate cheat in fantasy gaming!

Rijana smiled at my apparent enthusiasm. Perhaps, she won't relinquish her position as my instructor so soon after all. "Very well," she clapped her hand. "You will need to learn two spells: Enchant Magic Item and Permanency. The former is Fourth-Tier while the latter is Fifth-Tier, which requires you to be at Level 9 in order to unlock access to this tier. In addition, the enchantment that you try to make permanent could require a higher level in your profession. Thus, I suggest you try to learn Protection from Fire and Enchant Magic Item first. Then advance your Character Level to 9 and try to learn Permanency," she suggested. My instructor flipped the pages in her spellbook over to Protection from Fire and placed it on the coffee table in front of us.

I took out my spellbook, quill, and inkwell from my special pouch and placed them on the table. I slide off the sofa and sat on the ground. I dipped my quill into the inkwell and started copying the spell. A half-hour later, I heard dice rolling inside my head. "Read magic SUCCESSFUL. +50 XP. Fire spell LEARNED: Protection from Fire."

"Very good," my teacher said and took back her spellbook. She turned the pages slowly until she found the page for "Enchant Magic Item." She had no doubt that I will learn the protection spell because my Read Magic and Fire sphere skills were fairly high. This next spell may prove tricky, however. "This next spell belongs to the General sphere. What is your current skill level?" she asked.

"4."

Rijana tilted her head. "You should be able to copy the Enchant spell," she said with false confidence. "Good luck!" She placed her spellbook on the table in front of me.

I focused on the two pages of barely decipherable writing in front of me and started copying the spell. An hour later, the dice started rolling inside my head. "Read magic SUCCESSFUL. +100 XP. General spell LEARNED: Enchant Magic Item." I wiped the sweat from my brows and took a deep breath. My mind felt drained from copying the spell. The description was very precise in the words and pronunciations of the enchantment but somewhat ambiguous in terms of what kind of enchantments I could store in the item. I suspected that there were specific recipes available to create specific effects. And those recipes were probably traded between enchanters. When I glanced back at Rijana, I noticed that she had a frown on her face. "What's wrong?" I asked.

My magic instructor took her spellbook back. But instead of turning the pages over to the next spell, she closed the book altogether. "If you're having difficulty learning the Enchant spell, then you won't be able to learn Permanency," she answered honestly.

"Why?" I asked calmly even though I strongly disagreed with her assessment.

"Your skill in the General sphere is too low," she explained slowly. "Even if you are able to copy Permanency somehow, you won't be able to cast it successfully with any degree of frequency. Without casting Permanency, you can still enchant items but they won't be permanent in duration. I was hoping that your high skill in Read Magic will blunt or ameliorate the need for a higher skill in the General sphere. Unfortunately, it appears that I was wrong in this regard."

"So I need to practice casting Enchant in order to raise my skill in the General sphere." I sighed in resignation. I knew there would be a catch to creating my own magic items.

She nodded. "You could spend the rest of this afternoon casting Enchant and Dispel on the same object. While the dispel is only Third-Tier, this will allow you to reuse the same item for the enchantment. It's the most efficient and least expensive method to increase your skill level."

"Okay, I will do as you suggest," I replied with a strong resolve. This was only a minor setback. I WILL exploit this cheat and load up on tons of magic items. It was just going to take a bit longer than expected.

Rijana got off the sofa. "Please put away your spellbook and writing tools and follow me." She walked across the spacious room and reached the staircase. She started climbing.

I hurriedly put away my stuff and ran up the stairs after her.

We actually climbed up two floors. The third floor was apparently the bedroom. The fourth floor was filled with books, tables, and tools. Aha! This was the workshop!

Rijana waited patiently for my arrival. She was standing in front of a desk.

When I reached the desk, I saw that there was a display case and inside were a number of rings.

My teacher opened the display and took out a brass ring. She placed the ring on the table. Next, she opened the drawer under the desk.

I was amazed to see that the drawer was neatly partitioned. There were many slots for tools, glass vials, and opaque bottles. "Did you create the partitions yourself?" I asked.

Rijana chuckled at my silly question. "I'm not a woodworker. I hired one to assist me in the partition," she explained. She opened the side drawer and took out a mortar and pestle set and a piece of cloth. She placed the ring on the table. Next, she took out a scroll from the side drawer and uncurled the paper by pinning two stones over the top and bottom. Then she took out several small bottles and a teaspoon; she placed them on the table next to the ring. "Please read the scroll," she ordered and pulled the lantern on the desk closer to the scroll.

I obeyed and started reading. "Instructions to create a First-Tier Enhance Strength Enchantment. CAUTION: the item to be enchanted must have a value of 25 gold piece or higher. INGREDIENTS: crushed bull horns powder, two vials of distilled water, goji juice, morinda extract, astragalus extract, licorice, privet leaf. INSTRUCTIONS: take two teaspoons of morinda extract, astragalus extract, and licorice and place them in a mortar. Stir them into a paste with the pestle. Add a pinch of crushed bull horns powder and stir again. Add one teaspoon of goji juice and stir. Empty two glass vials of distilled water into the mortar and stir until the mixture is fully dissolved into the water. Soak the privet leaf into the solution for five minutes. Take the leaf and wrap it around the item designated to receive the enchantment. Wipe excess moisture with a cloth and set on a dry surface for a half-hour. Remove the item from the leaf and cast Enchant Magic Item. An ensuing check against the enchanter's General skill will be performed to determine the success of this enchantment. If successful, Permanency may be added to the item and a second check will be performed. If permanency fails, the duration of the enchantment will last 10 per minutes per skill level in the General sphere."

When I was finished reading the scroll, I felt light-headed. The instructions were far more extensive than what I was accustomed to reading from a recipe in a cookbook! Frankly, I wasn't sure if I will be able to follow the scroll and successfully cast the enchantment with just one afternoon of practice. I looked at the jewelry case again. I saw that there were five rings in total. "Is it possible for me to create five magic rings from the same set of ingredients?" I proposed while pointing at the case. It would be much faster than dispelling the enchantment, rewrapping the ring, and waiting for a half-hour to prepare the ring to receive the enchantment again.

Rijana offered a faint smile. "For a simple enchantment like Enhance Strength, the answer is yes as long as you have the mana to cast the spell repeatedly. How much Magic do you have currently?" She originally suggested the enchant-and-dispel method because, even though the process will take longer, he could regenerate the spent mana and avoid drinking mana potions.

I quickly checked my player status screen. "35."

The enchanter shook her head. "The Enchant spell costs 25 mana. Basically, you'll need to drink a mana potion in order to cast the spell again. Are you certain you want to use up your potions in this manner?"

I nodded. "I can buy more potions before we head out to Hleandros' Lair," I replied.

"Very well. I will permit you to attempt to enchant all five rings one time. Afterward, if any attempt is successful, I will cast Permanency on one ring and allow you to keep it as a memento of your first success in enchanting an item," she said. "Now, look at all the bottles on the table. Each one is labeled with the ingredient inside. Here is a crucial tip: avoid contamination of the ingredients. By that I mean if you withdraw an ingredient from a bottle and you find that you took out too much, DO NOT put the excess material back inside the bottle. You might have a residue of another ingredient on your fingers. If you return the material back into the bottle, the contents of the container will be contaminated. It could be disastrous if you attempt to use the ingredient again in the future and the contamination could result in the enchantment backfiring."

I recalled the time in high school when one of my classmates in chemistry lab caused an explosion. I nodded quickly in understanding.

"Proceed," she ordered.

Fortunately, I was fairly competent in following instructions when it came to mixing chemicals. In fact, my grade was B+ in chem lab in high school. Brimming with confidence, I slowly took the ingredients out of the bottles, measured them carefully with the teaspoon, and poured them into the small bowl. I used the pestle to mix the morinda, astragalus, and licorice extracts together. Then I took a small pinch of bull horns powder from the bottle, added it into the mortar, and stirred again. I added the goji juice and stirred, and then emptied the two vials of distilled water into the bowl and stirred until the mixture was fully dissolved into the water. Since there were five rings, I took five privet leaves and soaked them in the water. As I counted the passage of time in my head, I took out the remaining rings from the display case and placed them on the table. After five minutes had passed, I slowly took out each privet, one at a time, and wrapped it around a ring. I used the cloth liberally to wipe the excess water from the wrappings.

My instructor surprised me by producing a paper fan and holding it before me. "Use it to make the rings dry faster," she said.

I took the fan and spent the next half-hour fanning the rings manually. Again, I was counting the passage of time inside my head. Every five minutes, I switched hand and continued to fan the rings.

During this period, Rijana stepped away from the work desk. She returned exactly thirty minutes later. "Before you start casting your enchantments, you should take out your mana potions so that they will be within easy reach," she suggested.

I pulled out four mana potions. Each potion will replenish 50 points of mana. However, I could hold only 35 points in my pool, meaning that the excess mana recovery will be wasted. As I thought about this, I remembered that I could advance my character level. If I advanced enough to push my mana pool to over 50 points, then that would allow me to cast two Enchant spells before I needed to consume a mana potion. "Should I advance my character level?" I asked.

My instructor looked at me as if I had asked a foolish question. "You would rather save two or three mana potions over keeping extra chances to learn new spells?"

Well, if she was putting it that way . . . I shook my head. I opened my spellbook to the page where I had copied the Enchant Magic Item spell and placed it on the table. I held a wrapped ring in my right hand and started reciting the words of the spell. The leaf slowly warmed and then turned hot to the touch.

When I finished casting the spell, Rijana said, "Remove the leaf."

I slowly unwrapped the privet leaf. When the ring was completely unwrapped, I received a pop-up message: "Enchant magic item SUCCESSFUL. +100 XP. +2 Strength. DURATION: 30 minutes." I looked up at my teacher and smiled.

"Congratulations," she smiled back. "What is the increase in strength?" she asked.

"+2."

"Drink a mana potion and continue to cast the enchantment. If you're lucky, you may be able to get a +3 Strength," Rijana said.

I drank a mana potion, held the second ring and cast the enchantment. However, the pop-up message said, "Enchant magic item FAILED." I sighed and put the ring aside.

I repeated the process thrice. The next two attempts were also failures. On my final attempt, I received this notification: "Enchant magic item SUCCESSFUL. Level 5, +100 XP. +1 Strength. DURATION: 50 minutes." Lady Luck must be laughing at me.

"Two successes out of five attempts isn't bad," Rijana complimented me. She took the first ring from me and walked over to another desk. "I'm going to cast Permanency on your ring. You can observe me silently or take a nap. It will take two hours to complete the casting," she warned.

I decided to watch her. I saw Rijana inscribe a rune on a parchment. She then placed the temporary Brass Ring of +2 Strength on top of the rune. The enchanter held out both hands over the ring and closed her eyes. She started chanting the magic words.

To my astonishment, she repeated the words continuously for the next two hours!

When the ritual was finally completed, a soft golden light bathed the ring. Rijana opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "It's done," she announced. She took the ring off the table and handed it to me.

I accepted the gift and bowed deeply to her.

"It's getting late. Let's return to the signmaker shop," Rijana said and stood up. She reached out with her left hand and grabbed my arm. She pulled out her necklace and spoke a word of power.

We were instantly teleported back to the second floor of the signmaker shop.

"Welcome back, master." Her catlike eyes glowing, Bila greeted me with a smile.