“I’ve already finished, Matilda.” Nido told at the enchantress at the desk.

“You have finished the batteries already? You can do the glass now.” She commented absentmindedly. She laid her head on top her arms, looking at the door with a tired look. Most probably out of boredom than tiredness.

“No, I have finished the whole order.” The enchanter reiterated.

“It’s alright, you can take all the time you want to finish them.” She continued talking without listening.

Nido approached her menacingly from behind and got close to her ear. “I said, I’M DONE!”

“Ah!” Matilda jumped away from the chair. “You scared the shit out of me! Why would you do that!”

“Because you wouldn’t listen to me, for example?” Nido scoffed.

“Sorry, sorry. Waiting at the counter is so boring I sometimes daydream.” The clerk sighed. “What where you saying anyways?”

“That I have already finished the whole order.”

“How much time did I sleep?” The woman shook her head to wake up.

“Not a lot I think, I just took around four hours to finish.” Nido explained.

“Come again?” She physically recoiled at her coworker’s statement.

“You have already heard me, don’t act all surprised.”

“I need to check one thing.” Matilda walked inside the workshop, only to find twelve enchanter lights assembled with their respective batteries. “For the Divines, you’ve truly did it. How? You were only level ten yesterday!”

“As a matter of fact, I still am.” Nido replied. “It’s just that I got A LOT,” he consciously put emphasis on his wording, “of practice before I leveled up. It’s not like the level ten perk is useful or anything.”

“But how much practice did you get? Even if enchanter lights don’t give a lot of experience, they do give some. You must’ve leveled all the way to ten if you are at this level.”

“I already told you my master was an unorthodox person.” Nido remembered the fact to her. “He taught me everything before I got a single level on Enchanter.” Funny how I haven’t told a single lie in that line.

“I’m beginning to have an image of your master.” Matilda told; her eyes glued to the dozen finished lanterns.

“Trust me, you don’t.” The old enchanter replied confidently.

“Whatever.” Matilda shrugged and inspected the lights more carefully. “I don’t know how you did it, but they are perfectly crafted.”

“Experience makes the master, or something like that.” Nido found himself grinning with the exchange.

“Yeah, then you are free today.” Matilda dismissed him.

“Wait, what?” Now it was Nido’s turn to be surprised. “There isn’t more job to be done?”

“Well, around afternoon some adventurers come to have their loot either evaluated or enchanted, but they are few. This town is peaceful, what can I say.”

Nido was shocked by the lacking amount of work. He had expected to work himself to sleep to gain some coin. At least that’s what he did when he was young.

“So, I’m free?” Nido asked still stupefied.

“You have already heard me, don’t act all surprised.” Matilda used Nido’s line against him with a grin.

“Can I ask you something then?” Even if he had no work, he intended to continue. “Have you some left over materials than you don’t need or use? I really don’t care if it’s just scrap.”

“Why do you want it?” She asked with curiosity.

“I want to enchant a thing and I lack materials, as easy as that.”

“And you will enchant something with waste?” Matilda doubted him greatly.

“Versatility is the key to great enchanting.” Nido told. “I can use anything meanwhile the quantity is enough.”

“I really doubt the outcome of whatever you can enchant with disposal, but sure, give it a try.” Matilda gave him green light. “There’s a tray in the workshop with broken pieces that you can use to do… whatever you are going to do.”

“Thank you, you certainly won’t be disappointed with the outcome.” Nido reassured her.

“I’ll keep my expectations low, either way.” She replied honestly. “You can’t be disappointed if you weren’t expecting nothing to begin with.”

“Bah!” The young enchanter groaned. “You’ll be surprised.” With that, Nido went back to workshop, ready to craft something for the half-elven bard.

The tray was filled with litter. Useable litter. Some blocks of discarded wood, metal scraps, a few small glass panels… There was a plethora of things, and the enchanter’s mind already began grinding his gears in order to make the best product of it.

“This metal thingy is very pointy, it can be useful. And this other oak slate is big enough…” Nido put the enchanted pebble on the workshop table as he meditated. “Hmm… I got an idea!”

He grabbed a metal spike, the wooden slate, and a piece of glass from the tray and prepared himself.

“The pebble wasn’t big enough for multiple enchantments, but if I use the wood and the glass and pin them with the metal… I think I can make a nice brooch out of it.”

His current plan was to encase the pebble in the wood and shift the metal spike into a pin to hold the brooch. He would also carve the casing in floral pattern and add extra enchantments into the glass.

“Common glass has affinity toward Light, Arcane, and Earth. Oak wood has affinity towards Life and Earth. And inert iron towards Earth only.” Common sense would dictate to make an enchantment related to Earth as the pebble was conductive towards Earth-imbued ether. But that element didn’t fulfil the petition of the bard. Earth would enhance the constitution of the body, not its agility.

“Light and Earth are no use, but I can make something out of Life and Arcane.” Not only dexterity was heavily related to Air, but also to Life. “Those two points to Dexterity are guaranteed, but what should I do with the extra enchantments?”

The pebble would work as the core of the item, even if it didn’t give the stats itself. He also wouldn’t enchant the pin, as it would cause more troubles than benefits thanks to the mana interferences.

“Alright, I forced the pebble with Air affinity, the wood can provide Life to ensure a great boon towards Dexterity, and I can put some magic into the glass thanks to Arcane.” The enchanter grinned devilishly. “I wonder if I could force a perk into the item.”

Most of the time making the brooch was spent making the casing. He needed to be precise with the wood as the details were as small as possible to make the interferences minimal. As he carved the floral pattern in the oak slate, the enchanter wove tendrils of ether to boost the life energies of the wood.

After working four hours with glass, the small fragment was a joke. Even more because Arcane was the most stable element when enchanting. It wasn’t called the element of order for nothing. The end rune was engraved with needle so thin, that the wording couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. While working, Nido had forgone his sense of sight and guided himself with the mana imbued into the glass.

Having now access to an array to infinitely superior tools, the enchanter reworked the pebble a bit. He still maintained the small stone as the core of the item because it amused him, but added mana conducting runes, and also tied loose ends of ether with the ones at the wood casing.

The end result was very amusing.

Crafting complete! You have leveled up! You have leveled up!

You have reached level 3 on Voidborn! +5 Constitution, +1 Attunement!

You have reached level 11 on Enchanter! +2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity!

The item was incredible, considering the materials it was made of. And he was impatient to see the bard’s reaction upon seeing it. But to Nido, the nine attribute points were more important.

“The Arcane Records are totally absurd, I mean, what is this?” The enchanter looked at his Status sheet. “It can easily increase my mana limit. That’s supposed to be soft-capped at birth! Yet I now have almost triple mana as yesterday. And let’s not talk about health, that’s just purely non-sensical.” Nido took another glance at his health resources.

Health: 165/165

Health Regeneration: 750/M

Nido couldn’t hold his laughter. “I’m regenerating my total health pool over four times per minute.” This was thanks to the Tenet of Immortality and not the Records, but the result was still amusing to him. “Someone could chop my leg off and I would regenerate it in minutes!” Once again, a normal person couldn’t just regenerate their legs, no matter how much healing magic they applied. This was a byproduct of the coiled ring.

“Is everything okay?” Matilda cried from the guild hall. “I heard you shouting!”

“Yeah! One minute!” Nido tied up the workshop table. Between the sawdust, the glass fragments, the tools, and the other unused litter from the tray, he had left the place dirty. The enchanter knew better than leave someone else’s workshop in a bad state.

“What happened over there, then?” Matilda asked him once Nido came out of the workshop five minutes later.

“Oh, nothing. I have leveled up and gained a lot of attributes.” He explained.

“I understand that feeling, it’s ecstatic, isn’t it?” The enchantress added with joy.

For the first time, a theory about the Arcane Records being a drug to limit mortals formed inside the ancient enchanter’s head. Divines are weird, this would actually be one of the most normal things they’ve done. It still was strange that the gods were gifting power to mortals.

“Anyway, can you show me what you crafted?” Matilda asked after she recomposed.

“Here it is.” Nido showed her the brooch.

Her first reaction was priceless. “Is that a stone inside the item?” Her voice cracked, elevating several pitches higher.

Nido laughed his ass off. “Yes. Yes, it is. But you shouldn’t value a book by its cover. Come on, look at the enchantments.”

“Too bothersome, let me use Evaluate.” Once again, the Records put emphasis on her words. He guessed it was some kind of perk. Whatever she did, her jaw dropped when she saw what did the brooch. “HOW?” More than curiosity, the question was born out of exasperation. “How did you craft that with junk?”

“Knowledge.” Nido shrugged. “I told you yesterday I wasn’t a rookie. It just so happens that I hadn’t shown any combat item to the Records.”

“You have to tell me how you did it in such small amount of time.” Like a good enchanter, Matilda doubted more of Nido’s skill to pull of the stunt in such amount of time, rather than the worthless materials he used. In the end, most enchanted items were composed of iron and wood.

“Studying a lot, I’m afraid.” He replied condescendingly. “No matter how much you practice, if you don’t have a solid foundation, there’s so much you can do.” Oops, I have maybe shown too much of my old self. “Either way, it took me some hours to make the brooch.”

“I surrender.” She threw her hands at the air. “You are clearly better than you look like.”

“Thank you.” Nido bowed before the compliments.

“And before I forget, here’s your pay from the lights’ commission.” Matilda handed him a bag full of coins.

“Wow, how many are in there?” He weighted the sack in his hand.

“Two gold in silver.” She replied. “Now you can present yourself tomorrow with some shoes.”

“Shoes? I’m going to come full dressed!” The enchanter floated in joy at the idea of finally getting decent clothes. “How is it that the commission paid so well?”

“I told you at the morning, it’s a commission from the nobles, and the materials aren’t exactly cheap either. The lights are made with good glass and pure iron, you know?”

“Yes, yes. I could tell while enchanting them. It’s just… It’s so much money.” In reality, this low amount was unperceivable for his old self. But the current penniless Nido felt rich at this moment.

“It’s the regard for your job, enjoy it.” She told with pure honesty.

“Do you mind if I sign out already? I would one to buy some clothes, like, right now.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Matilda affirmed. “You already have taken a huge load off my shoulders, and you must be tired after enchanting for that many hours in a row. I think you’ve earned some rest.”

“Thank you.” He bowed at her. “And see you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow.” The enchantress waved him a goodbye.”