“It’s been almost three weeks, not two weeks!” Sam grumbled as he was finally heading into his research room, instead of heading to the front store.

“Sir, I’m so sorry I couldn’t satisfy all your demands, my esteemed Master Enchanter.” Jen said exaggerating the “Sir” and “master” as she watched Sam hurry into his workroom and shut the door. She had learned that Sam hated being called “Sir” or when customers or people called him a “Master Enchanter,” he would get awkward and uncomfortable, and… she was getting payback.

“Efficient Code and High-Quality Mana Infusion” Sam said to himself as he tried to narrow down the essence of building enchantments. Of course, there was a lot more to it than that, but if you didn’t satisfy these components of an enchantment, you would not be successful. He was sure of this basic concept after having repaired hundreds of enchantments. Admittedly, many of the enchantments he fixed were simple or copies of other enchantments he fixed.

Sam spoke to Kelly as he reviewed the principles of enchantments and laid out all his materials in his workshop. “Kelly, the “High-quality infusion” is based on the amount and efficiency in which the material could use mana. A person could supply the power directly from their mana pool, but the amount of power would be limited by the size of their mana pool and mana regen ability.”

“What can mana be infused in? That’s a good question Kelly”

“I believe mana can be infused into anything. Electronics react violently to mana and melt down. Paper will hold mana just long enough for a very weak enchantment to be cast before it disintegrates. Iron is a very poor conductor of mana, and as a result the mana will slowly drain out of it to the point where there is just ambient mana remaining. Forged steel is strong, and enchantments carved into forged steel will last for many years. Steel is a poor man’s power conductor for enchantments. Mana infused steel mixed with monster core dust can conduct and hold the power for years and can withstand being recharged many, many times, so long as they are not completely used up or damaged.”

“Yes, you’re right Kelly there is also Mana-infused thorium or mana-infused titanium, well…with those, you can create true powerhouse weapons.” Sam had not been able to afford these materials, but he had re-charged or repaired some that were imbedded in weapons under close observation by the Arc Guild. He knew they could hold significantly more power than the normal items he had recharged.

“I know spell scrolls are one-time use item and use special mana infused ink and paper to hold the power until activated, but the activation destroys the ink and paper, and most importantly, I haven’t been able to figure out the trick for creating paper or ink that can hold the amount of mana necessary,” Sam continued to himself as he organized his tools as a way to stall before continuing.

“It’s simple Kelly, if I can’t solve the power problem, there is no need for the enchantment!” Sam already decided to work on the power issue first but had just wanted to go through the mental steps and process one last time before diving in.

Sam looked down at his arm, and he could see how his mana channels interacted with his body. “Fuck this shit hurts!” Sam screamed quietly as he started to carve the shortest mana containment rune he knew into his arm and then tie it into a breeze, initiator, and direction rune. This was a slow painful process, and Sam was physically and mentally drained after carving into his arm all day.

The containment rune didn’t make his arm contain mana, but would contain the mana within a certain area on his arm. If his experiment failed, he didn’t want his entire body to disintegrate or burst into flames like some of the different types of papers and materials he had tried in the past. Sam also had water next to him as well as a very expensive healing enchantment he engraved into a rod made of mana-infused steel and monster core shavings.

Sam used his minor mend spell on his arm leaving a scar where he had carved the rune. Next, he cleaned up all the blood on the table and equipment. “O.K. Kelly, if this works, my arm should store the mana power like a battery, and when I’m ready, the initiator rune should activate the breeze rune in the path dictated by the direction rune,” Sam said.

He was doing everything possible NOT to get his hopes up, but he wanted this to work so badly, so they could start Deck jumping and get Kelly back!

“Kelly, maybe I should rest tonight and try it out in the morning when I’m fresh?” Sam thought, but he knew he was just making excuses because he was afraid of failure. “Quit being a little bitch and do it,” he berated himself.

“Jen, would you come in here for a minute,” Sam called to her as she was closing the shop up for the night. He really didn’t want her to see him fail, but he wasn’t going to be that stupid, prideful person, who kills themself because they were afraid to ask their best friend for help.

“What the shit happened in here!” Jen exclaimed, when she saw the blood-soaked towels and the nasty rune scars all down his forearm.

Jen’s eyes kept getting wider and wider as Sam explained what he was trying to accomplish and how he needed her to be ready in case his arm caught on fire or even completely disintegrated. “Throw water on my arm or tourniquet it if necessary, and then start the enchanted healing rod,” Sam finished.

“No, No I won’t. You’re a fucking idiot! No wonder you wouldn’t tell me what your plans were for the last few weeks. I thought you had something so great, you wanted it to be a surprise. But no, you had thought of something so stupid! You were embarrassed! You moron!” Jen ranted for several minutes before running out of breath just shaking her head at Sam.

Sam had kept quiet during her rant. He knew she might think he was stupid, but he didn’t expect her to be upset like this. “It’s not that big a deal; It might take all our savings, but we could travel to Slot City and hire some of the guild healers to grow my arm back if it’s that bad,” Sam unsuccessfully tried to explain as Jen went off on another five-minute rant about how insane he was.

Sam and Jen argued for a while, when Jen finally said, “I’m the boss, and I’m giving you a direct order not to do anything until we finish this conversation. I’m going out to think about how insane you are, and I will be back in a few hours to finish this conversation.”

“Don’t tell Tamako! At least not the details. Her oath may require her to tell the City Lord about a new weapon in the city,” Sam explained as quickly as possible.

Jen paused, and then nodded her head in agreement before heading out.