Chapter 9: Chapter Nine

As expected, regrowing Mr. Patel's leg was as easy as one, two, three. He was overcome with joy at the return of his limb and I think he might have started dancing if I wasn't there. As it was he pulled me into a friendly hug and insisted that if I ever needed anything he was just a call away. It shocked me how many people offered a favor after paying full price for a wish, but after having confirmed my power didn't do anything retroactively like cancel it if I accepted I'd just given in and stopped fighting it.

Still, the gratitude made me a little uncomfortable so I got out of there as fast as I could. Mr. Patel seemed to have other things he wanted to do now that he was ambulatory again anyway so he didn't really try to push me to stay for dinner or anything. For my part I wanted to get home and test out this Minor Enchanting Skill. I could barely sit still on the bus on the way back to the house.

When I got home I immediately rushed to my room to dig out the ruby with the Might stat point attached. I knew that materials like that could be used for enchanting then I...stopped. I had no legitimate idea how to enchant anything. Did I just stick the rock to it? I knew runes were a thing, but I seemed to have only gotten a few and none of them had to do with Might. I put the gem down, frowning. I considered what to do. I could ask someone from the guild, but anyone I knew well enough to ask knew about my skill setup. It hadn't been long enough for me to pick up enchanting yet.

So my only real option was, of course, to call Zeke. I spun up a call on my scan ring and Zeke's face popped up floating above my hand. "Sweet Revenant kid, what? I can't go ten minutes without a call from you. I do have other duties as a Deacon than holding your hand you know?" I ignored him. My Uncle liked to complain but if he were actually too busy he wouldn't have answered. Candidate or not Zeke didn't deal with anything when he had his head in a project. I remembered him vanishing for days when I was a kid, putting all his attention on one project or another.

When he saw I wasn't impressed he gave up the bluster. "Ok, fine. What is it this time? Keep in mind I'm limited in the amount of information I can give you on cultivation, heroic or otherwise. If this is a question about general system details I can't give any more than I have." The exact limits of what Zeke could and couldn't tell me seemed a bit nebulous to me. Some things he seemed willing to compromise on and others he absolutely would not reveal without a doubt, but enchanting seemed like something he could help with given his field of expertise, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I explained my issue to him. Mentioning that I'd gotten the Minor Enchanting Skill, and that I had a piece of ruby with Might in it, but had no actual runes or techniques to use it. He looked surprised but actually pretty happy. "That I can actually help with. In my capacity as your Uncle and guardian teaching you the main skills of my trade is within the rules. Realistically that's useless to you because you don't make masks, but enchanting is one of the core skills that make up my ability."

That was exactly what I'd been hoping to hear! I grinned at him. "That's awesome! So...teach me. My Minor Enchanting Skill included a few runes but nothing that has to do with Might. Can you give me some Might runes I can use with this thing? The only enchantments I seem to have in my head are a few Minor Vitality runes. I'm not sure exactly what they do though. The guy I got this skill from hasn't used it in years and wasn't very good to start with." The fact that skills could degrade over time was a bit unfortunate but hell I'd take what I could get.

He shook his head. "A few things. First, no. Minor Enchanting creates temporary effects by borrowing the users power. Permanently anchored enchantments are past the threshold of a Lesser ability. You can't use that ruby yet. Secondly you're thinking of this backwards. You don't learn specific runes for enchantments, you decide what you want to do and use the runes to make it happen. There are main runes for every stat and sub runes for modifiers. You pick the effect you want and then decide what stats make it happen."

That...made a lot more sense. I could assume that Vitality was Mr. Patel's main stat then, or at least the first one he got, which was why he learned the runes for that one. Ok, so I'd have to adjust. "So...can you send me a list of the runes for each stat and some of the modifiers? At the very least I can get started on temporary enchantments. Having every stat to start with will probably give me a bit of an advantage at least. How many modifiers are there?"

He actually laughed at that. "More than you could count. But for basic enchantment the modifier runes are pretty straightforward. First is the form rune which can make a simple shape, then the expression rune which activates the power of the stats stored in the item, then the law rune which can create simple conditions or modifications for the previous two. Combined with the six major stat runes that creates a massive amount of options. Also yes, I said six. No one uses Impact for enchanting. The other stats can be imbued and recover, Impact doesn't come back when you put it into something else."

That made sense. It also made sense that enchanting wasn't just some unlimited thing you could do non stop. If I thought of each stat as a mana pool like in a game it made it easier to visualize. Despite the limitations though I was excited as Zeke sent over an email with nine runes in it, there were so many possibilities with just those nine factors I couldn't imagine it. Once he saw I'd gotten it he nodded. "Though Impact isn't imbued into enchantments it's still important to the process. Impact is what lets your power effect the world. The general rule of thumb is you can engrave one rune per day per point of impact. You can try some enchanting if you want, but it's going to be a while before you see results."

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As disappointing as that was to hear it made sense. It explained why it took crafters so long to break out of I rank and why the high ranking ones were so prized. I smiled ruefully. "I get it. I'll work slow, still I appreciate the info and it'll be a good start for me going forward. I'll try to start with something simple and straightforward. I'll let you know when I have something to show you." I was burning with excitement and curiosity towards this new subject, and I said my goodbyes quickly so I could get started on my first project.

Zeke wasn't insulted, and honestly seemed kind of proud that I was so interested, telling me he looked forward to what I came up with before ending the call. I pulled up the email and read over the basic runes. They were all pretty straightforward, simple and graceful looking, but I could vaguely sense something weird about the way they were laid out. It was like I was looking at more lines than there were on the screen. I really wanted to try engraving one, but I held back. I wanted to plan out my first enchantment completely before I actually started it.

First thing I had to figure out was what I wanted to do. I'd told Zeke I wanted something simple and straightforward and I was definitely not changing that. I could tell that even basic enchanting was insanely complex, so I should get my feet under me before doing something fancy. I decided on a simple burst of force. I had an old baseball bat lying around so I'd use that since it would be easy to engrave. Once I had an idea of what I next had to focus on how.

I knew Creation was an important stat in enchanting, so I'd start with that. The Creation rune would create the force, while a Might rune would give it the actual energy. I'd need a form rune to shape the enchantment into what I wanted it to be and an expression rune to trigger it, but since it was such a straightforward use of power I should be able to get away with leaving out the law rune, bringing me to a total of four. It would take me two days to get it done but I still wasn't sure which order to do them in.

I had the impression from looking that the form rune was normally the most complicated, but this particular enchantment was just going to be a trigger on impact force burst. The form would just be to guide the Might and Creation into the existing force from the blow to amplify it. The biggest hassle for this one would probably be the actual stat runes. I decided I would do the form and Creation runes first since I only had one point of Creation, then the Might and expression runes I'd finish up tomorrow.

After I mapped the layout it was time to start the enchanting process. I grabbed a carving knife from Zeke's workroom to use for the engraving and sat down, taking a long deep breath, then I began to carve. I pressed the knife to the wood and as I started to carve I felt my body start to become heavier. I pushed through it, and in order to force myself to move I had to resonate my point of Creation, my Minor Enchanting Skill, and a point of Impact.

The Creation symbol was small and simplistic, only a few lines, but somehow my body felt like I was engraving a hundred symbols at once, all superimposed on top of each other. It was like there were a hundred of me doing different complicated designs and the effort had been smashed onto my brain and muscles all at the same time. Even with the necessary attributes the mental strain of this would probably crush the willpower of most people, and I was barely able to hang on.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour but according to the time on my scan ring had been four minutes, I finished, and slumped bonelessly to the ground, shaking and covered in sweat. I groaned, and I could understand why Impact was only good for one rune per point per day, because I could feel a sense of unreality as one of the two points of Impact that gave me my fundamental identity became...unavailable. It wasn't gone, but it was hollow somehow.

It took me about twenty minutes to get back to my feet and another twenty to try again, but I managed it. I got back in the chair and forced myself to carve out the expression rune. This one was much easier, in the way that lifting an engine block is easier than lifting a car off of your child. Still exhausting and painful but not beyond the realm of reason. When I was done I staggered over to my bed, leaving the bat on my desk, and fell fully clothed onto my mattress. I was unconscious by the time my head hit the pillow.

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