Dog 22, Year 8690 Of the Grand Wulin Era, Alexander Grandstar

I’d learned about 10 of the 22 basic medicines in about 3 months, so I figured it was time for a brief break from Alchemy while I focused on enchanting. I’d kept up with my other training, of course, making decent progress there: I’d grasped the basics of each of the Elemental Punches and Kicks in the Five Element Martial Arts, for example, but needed to work on the palm attacks and other moves, my Versatile Warmage Body had only reached the peak of Misty Sea’s 4th stage due to needing enchanting knowledge to go any farther, I’d become proficient enough to actually fight with the Military Spear Technique, I’d even grasped the basics of the movement technique in the Existence Sutra, the Vanishing Step, which would eventually allow instantaneous movement within a certain radius. At the moment, it just made it way easier to dodge things by hiding in the gaps between molecules for a split second, which would consume a lot of energy if it wasn’t used sparingly.Good in combat, not so great for moving long distances. I would pick up a Movement Technique that was suitable for that later, but now, it was time to learn Enchanting from Dad, then once I’d gained some proficiency in it juggle it and Alchemy as I progressed in my cultivation.

Through my research, I’d learned that Enchanting relied on Primordial Runes, which depending on their purpose and what they were going on, were either directly carved into the object, stitched in, or inked in, or applied using an enchantment scroll. In the case that they were applied to bodies, they were either tattooed on or raw mana was used to create the rune pattern without damaging the flesh. Primordial Runes could be considered physical manifestation of Dao, and also pretty similar to written versions of spells, and would similarly be strengthened by higher mana input , relevant dao insights of the enchanter, and relevant Dao Insights of the user.

Dad had told me that , before I’d be allowed to learn Enchanting properly, I’d practice single runes on paper with normal ink until I could make them up to a certain standard, upon which i’d be allowed to use special, prepared scrolls and magic ink to start making enchantment scrolls.

I’d practiced drawing the runes in my spare time until they were as perfect as I could currently achieve, and today would be my first attempt at making an actual enchantment scroll. All enchantments were made up of one or more runes, linked together to create specific effects.

Today, i’d be creating a Perpetual Sharpness enchantment, specifically one intended for a sword. It was made from a Sword Rune, to represent the weapon, 2 Sharpness Runes to make it sharper , and a Samsara Rune that, representing the cycle life and death,creation and destruction, would allow the sword to condense energy into matter to repair its edge. Higher grade Perpetual Sharpness runes would be made of more runes and have more features, such as being customized to synergize better with a particular Dao beyond basic weapon Dao, or repairing more of the sword or make it sharper than the rune could currently achieve, but I wasn’t ready to make those yet.

I left my courtyard and walked to the Enchanter’s Pavillion. Dad was waiting for me at the entrance, and led me past the shopfront to a back room. I entered the backroom, and saw the prepared scrolls and ink. Dad demonstrated the Perpetual Sharpness rune. He infused mana into the ink as he drew the runes, and when he was done, there was a bright flash of light that quickly disappeared, turning the scroll into a completed enchantment scroll.The runes continued to glow with a soft white light, much less intense than the initial flash. Enchantment scrolls had the advantage of being cheap and easy to mass produce, and being usable by those who didn’t know enchanting (And one could even inscribe a spell pattern on them to create a one or multi-use spell scroll), but the enchantment, once applied, would eventually fade, whereas Enchantments enchanted into an item or person in other ways would last until the rune was destroyed.

I began my first attempt. I took two small rocks from my pocket and used them to hold down the ends of the scroll. I then opened the bottle of ink, grabbed a quill pen, and began to scrawl the first sword rune while carefully infusing small amounts of mana into the ink.I carefully monitored the rune that was beginning to form with Divine Sense.

I’d drawn the rune perfectly, but right as I made the last stroke the rune exploded with, for some reason, the sound a sword makes when cutting air. There was a small hole in the scroll where I’d been drawing the rune, and a scroll with a ruined rune would reject anything else being drawn on it. I’d read before that it took as many resources, if not more, to train a competent enchanter than it did an Alchemist, and I was beginning to understand why. If, even with the sheer amount of resources I had, as well control over energy,dexterity, and sharp senses I developed due to cultivation, I failed despite so much preparation, it must be even harder for most people.

“Alex, you infused too much mana infused on that last stroke.”Dad said, his tone stern and teacher-like.

“Thanks, Dad, will do. Sorry about wasting materials.”

Dad shrugged, and I was pretty sure that meant he’d expected this. Yeesh, without the support I currently have, it’d be ten to a hundred times harder to learn one of the two occupations I was learning, much less both! Man, I made thousands of attempts when learning to make those medicines in the different ways, and I had many more ahead of me if I wanted to learn the rest, of just the basic medicines, let alone making them in pill form or making more complex medicines. I really hoped Enchanting would be a little easier, I hated to waste resources other people could be using.I made a mental note to try to do something about that later, when I had more skill and influence myself. After all, if I have things easy, I should try to make them easier for others, right? With that in mind, I figured I should start attempt two, so I did.

I finished the first sword rune fine this time, and even got halfway through the sharpness rune, carefully controlling my mana output, when I felt the connection between myself and the rune break. Damn, what was it this time? Too much mana? Had I gotten distracted? Drawn a line in the rune wrong?

“Too little mana in that stroke, Alex.Nice improvement though, I think you might be able to make a working one within a few days. Took me a few attempts to get that first rune right,and I had a much better teacher than I am.”

“Really? Thanks, Dad. Attempt three, I guess.”

This time, I almost finished the first sharpness rune. I’d screwed up the shape of a line, I could see that myself without needing Dad’s help. Ugh. Attempt 4, I guess. I didn’t know it at the time, but failed runes drain about 10 times the energy of successful ones due to the backlash of the connection being cut involuntarily, and cause much more mental stress, so I was tiring pretty quickly. I could feel that my mana was down by about 40 percent, though, and my brain felt a bit scattered and foggy.I sat down to cultivate, intending to solve both of those problems, as well as think about what I’d done wrong, and how to improve.

***

About a week, 50 attempts, a patient Father-Teacher, and one extremely frustrated fledgling Enchanter later, I produced my first Perpetual Sharpness enchantment scroll. As the bright light flashed and then settled into a gentle glow, I was ecstatic. I ran to show Dad, who tested it on a spare sword he had laying around. The scroll collapsed into dust, and the rune appeared on the sword. The sword seemed sharper, and when he casually swung it, it sliced through a 3-inch thick wooden board with him using about the same strength an average mortal would for an all-out strike. I had suceeded,and suceeded pretty well! My next goal was well, to do it better and do it consistently.

In another week, and about 100 more attempts, I had a 50% success rate. Within a month, and about 500 total attempts, I would achieve a 95% success rate. I figured I shouldn’t get an overinflated ego over it, though, it was a really basic enchantment, and if I couldn’t accomplish at least this much with my talent, the resources at my disposal, and the amount of effort I put in, I should probably give up.Dad told me I was allowed to sell the successful scrolls, but that, until I started to buy materials myself or purchase them from the sect with contribution points, I’d have to give 70% of the earned money to the Sect.I could also earn contribution points by donating finished product to the sect. By the way, I had a similar deal with the products of my Alchemy. I figured this was pretty fair, since I didn’t work for a living and the sect was supplying me with materials.

Dad also said I had to get 10 basic enchantments to the standard I had for the Perpetual Sharpness enchantment before I’d be allowed to practice on equipment, much less myself, so I had a lot of work ahead of me.It was exciting!I’d decided to work on the basic Elemental Infusion enchantments next, then ones that would allow someone to manipulate the weight of their weapon.After that, probably some defense based stuff, then enchantments designed to be used on the body. I would have to learn a lot of basic runes for these, but it’d be worth it. Plus, I had heard Mingzhou was working on weapons to get to a level where they’d be worth engraving enchantments on, so I was looking forward to working with her. Neither of us were quite sure what Avarius was up to, but we both suspected it was something interesting.