Chương 76: Chapter 73: Influential Artifact

The new piece had similar enchantments to the painting I made for Mum, but instead of Mental Rehabilitation, the painting of the elven woman, Veiled Dream, seemed to confuse the observer within its illusions. Although its power was weak, barely keeping a low-class Awakened imprisoned for a few minutes, it baffled me how this enchantment came to be. Mum's words came to mind, that an artisan's emotions and mood played a great role in shaping their craft.

It usually never happened to me while crafting common fabricators, and yet the two paintings I had made possessed a function I hadn't even intended for.

"I have studied it all my life and am still not proficient in channelling it," Mum said, patting my head. Her eyes darted to the new painting, considering.

"Is this Saint Irielle you drew?" Instead of answering, I asked, "Who is Saint Irielle?" Magus Prisca was bemused at my question.

"You don't know who Saint Irielle is, so how did you draw her?" I could only shrug, unsure if the elven woman I had drawn was even the saint they were pointing at. Thankfully, there was someone to answer my question. Surprisingly, it was my father. According to him, Saint Irielle was a legendary figure who led the war against the Dreadlords two thousand years ago. Back then, the fairies used to walk the earth with humans, and fought together for the future of our race, the future we are living now.

"I have seen grand statues of her," Father had said.

"All of them possessed that regal aloofness typical of the faires, a demeanour far removed from the warm, homely feel of your painting, which was why I wasn't even sure if it was Saint Irielle you drew." Is she alive? I wondered, though I could already guess the answer. A legendary figure's lifespan stretched to around five centuries, unless she'd advanced to Mythic class... The very thought sent a quivering ache through my chest.

"Well, it still is a fine piece," said Magus Prisca.

"Isn't that right, Iris?" Her apprentice nodded along. I had made the painting with the thought of giving it to Iris, but now I wasn't quite sure about parting with it. I gave her excuse after excuse: that the image was unsettling to look at, it wasn't good enough, or that I'd paint her something finer. She didn't seem to mind at all, which made it worse. It was my idea to offer her a gift. But whether she needed my art or not mattered little compared to what they really came for.

Primarily, the Dreamweaver's goal was to have Mother craft something that would allow Iris to see, if possible. She could already see, in a way, just that it was more than what folks normally see. She could peer into the weaves and all the mysteries of essence, perhaps as clearly as I could. But what she needed wasn't some mythical, heaven-piercing eyes, but ordinary sight, the plain, mundane vision mortals were born with. Magus Prisca hadn't held much hope.

She was well over a hundred years old and, while not a crafter, she had heard things, seen things, and had a good idea what was possible and what wasn't. They say, with Aether, the possibilities were boundless. I wasn't quite sure if that was merely a lie or if it was the limit of human potential that kept us from approaching the infinite. Mum surely thought it was the latter. So she wasn't dismissive about the proposal, even though she didn't have a solution for it yet.

Her answer was simply,"I need to study more." It might be solved within days, if lucky. It could have taken months, or even seasons, she wasn't sure. But one thing she was sure of was that it wasn't as hopeless as the old woman thought it to be.

"Well, in the meantime, Iris can train her Influence to be sharper than the eyes," the old crone said, as though trying to console herself.

"Her sight will recover if she manages to reach the Fabled class. But that's going to take years." She let out a weary sigh, wrinkled face full of regret. Her apprentice, however, showed only the barest flicker of emotion, as if they were discussing someone else's business. Perhaps she'd already given up. After all, one sought specialist healers for cases like this, not crafters. They had come to Mum as a last resort, having exhausted all viable options.

According to Magus Prisca, the earlier healings had worked fine for a time, allowing Iris to see. But the darkness returned, worse each time, until no treatments were enough. The toll it had taken on the girl's mind I could barely imagine. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. A look of tenderness came to Mum's eyes as she crouched beside Iris, cupping the girl's hands.

"I will do my best to find a solution for you. For now..." She paused, and a stream of essence flowed from the gemmed bracelet on her wrist. A moment later, an object shimmered into view.

"For now, you can have this." It was a thick-rimmed monocle with a silver chain and a blue-tinted glass.

"It won't restore your sight, but it can amplify your Influence to a Fabled-class Shaper's domain." Iris put it over her left eye, tentatively trying to awaken its power.

"I used to have it on forever when I was in the prestigious class. Just connect a few of your essence threads and allow your Influence to flourish through it." While Iris figured out its mechanism, I took a closer look at the object. It wasn't a top-tier artifact, not even to my [Band of Protection] level, but the craftsmanship required to shape something so delicate, so compact, was mindboggling. It held sixty-four essences, woven through with a barely visible rune carved along its silver chain.

The spell reorganised what I detected and promptly translated it into simpler terms: Artifact: Monocle of Influence Grade: Fabled Durability: 98/125 Description: A monocle designed to channel the high consciousness of a higher-class Shaper. Enchantments: Life Sense: Detects life forms within the wearer's immediate surroundings. Influence Domain: Elevates a Shaper's influence into a sensory field where the wearer is omniscient. Domain Expansion: Increases the radius of influence by 40%.

Restoration: Restores damage at the expense of essence. My eyes bulged at the functions. To think it could boost one of the very fundamental abilities of the Shapers. It further confirmed my ideas of not investing more points into Influence. But of course, all was not sunshine and rainbows. Such high function would also require a high cost, and it wasn't merely essence in all cases. I was certain the monocle drew tirelessly on the Will for the domain function to work.

Still, this was arguably the most ingenious piece of craftsmanship I had glimpsed in my short life. As I finished examining it, Iris's eyes fluttered open, her pearly irises gleaming faintly as her Influence spread outwards. She gasped, her palm trembling as it reached for her mentor's, a single teardrop slid from the corner of her eye.

"Grandma," she reached out towards her wrinkly face. The elder woman pulled the little girl into her arms. She knew it wasn't quite exactly like her eyesight returning, but more like a distinctive skill which let her detect things in her surroundings in fine detail, perhaps even more than a normal set of eyes could. And yet, it wasn't like seeing through your own eyes, feeling every shade of colour, the light reflecting off objects.

While the monocle was no miracle cure, it was enough to transform how she perceived the world. But such an artifact had to be wielded with care. Once Magus Prisca set her free, Iris turned to Mum.

"Thank you," she said.

"Thank you."

"Give me some time, and I'll remodel it to look like common glasses, so it won't look weird to go around wearing it." Mum smiled and pinched Iris's cheeks, which weren't as chubby as mine, not that I was feeling jealous. Iris was as skinny as a stick.

"This already solves half our problem," said the Dreamweaver, clearly more at ease.

"Shall we draw the same contract for it as with the bell?" Mum agreed readily.

"Now, that leaves me with another thing," the woman said, her gaze flicking to the gemmed bracelet nestled on Mum's wrist.

"Can you make more of those storage devices? I've wanted to get one for ages, but those shrewd businessmen always put me on the waiting list." Mum tilted her head.

"I'm actually surprised you don't have one."

"Well, it's like one of those things," Magus Prisca sighed.

"When I had a dire need for it, I couldn't afford it. And now that I can, it's not as important. But not long ago, I chanced upon a piece of Blessed stone while clearing out my late husband's stuff. Can you believe it? That old bloke had a sizeable piece of one of the rarest, most sought-after materials, and thought it was merely a strange purple stone." Saying that, she reached into the folds of her gown and fished out an uncut purple gem as big as her thumb. Mum's expression changed.

She took the gem, studying it with undivided attention.

"Not the highest grade I've seen, but you could buy ten farms with it and still have wealth to spend."

"See how crucial education is?" said the old crone, a grin lighting up her dreary face.

"Never neglect your studies, Iris." The girl nodded along, though she was more interested in the new monocle. There seemed to be something special in the purple gem that obstructed my Fractal sight from perceiving its inner composition. Well, I knew about Blessed stone and its uses, though I had never had the fortune of experimenting on it before. With a focused push of my Influence and a set of essence threads, my eyes pierced into the stone. Inside, it was pure darkness.

Unlike Father's sword, which incessantly drained my spirituality, the stone had no such reaction, and even the void within seemed limited. Blessed stone wasn't a versatile material like Hollow stones, but that didn't make it any less valuable. The value came from its rarity, and it was the only proven material that could be used in the creation of storage devices with vastly expansive inner space. Like the tiny purple shards tucked into Mum's bracelet, within it was stored several cubic metres of space.

Moreover, forging a storage device from one of these stones was simpler than crafting a full-fledged artifact, though both were still beyond my current capabilities.

"This should be enough to make two or three storage devices, correct?" the Magus asked.

"I only need one with a sizeable space. You can keep the rest as payment." Well, as far as I knew, it wasn't quite that simple, but neither I nor Mum corrected her. After all, it was rare to come across Blessed stones, let alone someone offering one as payment. Seeing Mum stow away the gem, she asked, "So when can I expect the delivery?" Mum considered for a moment.

"Stay the night. You'll have both your storage device and the glasses for Iris by morning." It was already late afternoon, anyway. Without flying all the way back, they'd find no other option for making a return journey at this hour.