The Empires Rise

Deciding that I had no other option than to grab the book about enchanting and read it, I set all my tools on the different work table and started my journey through the book.

Starting with the book's first line begins to explain the nuances of enchanting, from injecting mana to grinding up different materials for the required enchantments. The grinding of materials seems pretty simple to me. What trips me up is the process of mana manipulation and how it affects the enchantment itself. From the description, I must channel my mana into a pattern and activate nodes throughout a pattern that appears during the initial process. However, as Muiress said, it is more of a maze for enchanting. Once you head down a path, you can backtrack, but that will lead to a waste of mana, and the maze changes each time you do the pattern.

One important point I gleaned from the book is that even if you don't have the materials to grind, you can still make the patterns and apply them like a stencil. I can see some issues with this process, but until then, I will have to experiment.

Finishing the relatively small guidebook, I look at the enchanting table and place my hands on the table.

- - Profession check: Passed

Available tools: Available for use.

Would you like to start working on an enchanting diagram or enchanting an item? -

I select the first option, and then, like the book mentioned, several different mazes appear before my eyes. Unlike any mazes I have done back on my homeworld, I see a mana bar at the top corner of the interface with my total mana at the top.

Looking at the different mazes, they each have a name for what they would do.

- Weapon Enchantment: Minimum Success +1 Damage

Armor Enchantment: Minimum Success +1 Defense

Accessory Enchantment: Minimum Success +1 Primary Attribute

Defensive Building Enchantment: Minimum Success +100 Durability or +2 Damage -

Selecting the first option, the maze zooms in, completely different from what I saw. Looking more intently, I notice that even though I know the maze, I only see a portion. Cursing in my head, I start tracing the only path before me. Slowly but surely, the path becomes highlighted with my mana. By the time I reached the first intersection, I had already dropped 34 mana out of my 36. Choosing to go down the left-hand side, seeing multiple intersections visible, I continue.

Going down one section and turning at different intersections has led me to backtrack on several other occasions, causing me to lose the mana I could have spent getting to the node. As I get closer to one more intersection, I stop for a second as a node has become visible. Heading in that direction, I am down to 26 mana. Once I get to the node, there is a moment when I have to inject more mana into it before it becomes active.

After injecting ten mana into the node, I receive a notification.

- You have successfully activated a node of the Weapon Enchantment schematic. +1 Damage when applied to a weapon. Would you like to continue? Yes/No

Note: If you decide to proceed with this attempt, you will lose all your progress and need to restart. -

I select no, and the maze phases out. Before my eyes is a sigil. When I inspect it closer, I see what it does.

- Weapon Enchantment of +1 Damage. Requires two pieces of copper to enchant the item successfully. -

Once I am done inspecting the sigil, I will see that I have gained some experience.

- For the successful completion of an enchantment sigil at a +1, you have received two experience points. -

As I saw my enchanting experience increase for the first time, I looked at my mana pool. It is now resting at 16 of 36. Realizing that just this basic enchantment took 20 mana to obtain the sigil makes me concerned about trying to get more out of it.

Taking a small break to replenish my mana before my next attempt, I glance back at the shelf. There is now a piece of paper on it that wasn't there before. Going towards it and looking at it, I see the pattern I am trying to fill out. Seven different nodes are on it, and one goes off the page.

Confused by this, I look towards Muiress and see that he is deep into a maze, but the difference is that I can see the whole maze he is going through. From what I know, he has already filled out several different nodes. I was curious about how he managed to do that, even though I knew he had less mana than me. I was going to ask him, but then I remembered that we couldn't talk to each other anymore, at least inside the building.

Sighing, I head back to my table and circulate my mana. While doing this, I noticed a difference in how much mana I am getting back. Looking at my mana bar after 15 minutes, I have regenerated ten mana points. Finding that speed a bit ridiculous, I look to see if there are any buffs. I see one icon regarding my status that I hadn't noticed before.

- Enchanter's Hut: Increase the mana recovered while using meditative techniques by 1000% -

Shocked at this discovery, I look again at Muiress and see that he has stopped his attempt. Thinking about this, I also head to my next attempt since I have enough mana now and want to try to get the armor enchantment in my repertoire.

Following the same process as before, I start the maze and follow it slowly at first. Completing one intersection at a time and finally finding the node to push mana inside it. Once I have finished it, I will look at my mana reserves. There are only two points left.

Finishing the enchantment, I inspect the sigil.

- Armor Enchantment of +1 Defense. Requires two shield flowers to enchant the item successfully. -

Glancing at the shelves again, I see a second piece of paper holding the sigil. I also received two more experience points for my enchanting profession.

Sitting down to circulate my mana again, I took 45 minutes to fill my mana pool before I attempted to get the accessory enchantment. This time, though, I will use every drop of mana to see if I can't get a better enchantment.

As I am circulating my mana through my veins, I notice that some smaller veins are shooting off from the main ones in my head. I start to clear them out; they head towards my eyes once I am done.

During those 45 minutes, I can clear one of my eyes enough to see the mana flow better in Muiress' enchantment. I am still baffled about how he can keep going while I have to stop after every enchantment.

When I got up to start the accessory enchantment, two hours had passed since I entered the enchanter's hut. It is getting late, and I need to wrap this up and eat something before I head to bed since I want to get an early start tomorrow.

After going through the process again to select the accessory enchantment, I filled out the maze. As I start, there is one big difference: I can feel the mana flow behind my right eye that was cleared and see further along the maze than before.

Right away, I can see a path to a node. Heading towards it, I quickly get there and fill it up. Finding that I still had 22 mana remaining since I didn't have to backtrack like I did with the other two, I decided to continue. From where I am in the maze, I can see another node again, but I can't see any immediate path to the new node. After several intersections, I was able to find the path to the next one. Quickly getting to it, I filled it up again and saw that my mana had dropped to five left.

I chose to complete the maze at this point, and I received a notification.

- For the successful completion of an enchantment sigil at a +2, you have received five experience points. -

One more sigil appeared on the shelf. Pumping my fist into the air at my accomplishment, I looked back and saw that, at some point, Muiress had left the building, and Eleanor was hovering close by. I jumped in shock right as she spoke.

"Hello, Drake. I can see you are working hard on your craft, though I am confused about why your mana control is lacking."

Feeling like she is making a slight toward me, I retort with sarcasm: "Well, it's not like I had any sense of mana back on my home planet."

"Oh, well, that makes more sense then." She states, completely ignoring my sarcasm. "It would be best if you could get your mana more under control then. Have you been practicing the mana circulation that Laxreal has spoken of?"

"Yes, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference other than increasing my mana regeneration and working on clearing out my mana veins." I shrug with a defeated sigh.

"That makes—" she cuts herself off. What do you mean, clear out your mana veins?"

"Well," I offer, figuring there is no harm in her knowing. "Since I have gotten to this world, I have been working on clearing them out since they were still developing on my home planet but were viewed as a detriment to my health. On several occasions, I have had to get a lump removed from near my heart."

"Wait, wait, wait." She holds up her hands. "You also have a mana heart?"

"Yes," I say with a glimmer in my eyes since this might be a time to get more information. "What does that mean?"

"Typically, those with mana hearts have incredible mana reserves and higher combat effectiveness due to the greater damage their spells can cause. There isn't more than one in a billion chance of them occurring, at least in our world, which has an abundance of mana. I couldn't think of what could have occurred if your planet had developed someone like you."

"Well, I can think of one potential option." As I wave my hands around to symbolize this world.

"That is one option. I am curious how you will turn out."

As she finished saying that, I got another notification telling me we couldn't talk anymore. It isn't very pleasant, but I sigh and think about what she has said initially. How can I get better control over my mana, and what would that do in the long run for my enchanting?