Chương 110: Improving His Nose Seemed Safer Than His Eyes

By the third day inside Vessa and Orin's workshop, Sieghart had established a routine that worked considerably better than anyone originally expected. He spent several hours charging equipment, organized whatever new disaster appeared inside the warehouse, then used his breaks to study whatever caught his attention. Vessa and Orin had stopped questioning how many completed weapons appeared on the shipment shelves every afternoon.

Their original estimate assumed Sieghart would charge fewer than half that number, even if he possessed enough meditation training to recover mana efficiently between individual pieces. Sieghart deliberately worked far below his actual capacity, yet dozens of swords, shields, staffs, tools, and other enchanted devices still reached full charge every day. Apparently, even his version of pretending to possess normal mana reserves remained somewhat abnormal. Neither craftsman complained.

In fact, Vessa appeared considerably happier after realizing the temporary guild assistant was removing an entire category of work from their schedule. That additional time allowed both of them to concentrate upon repairs and manufacturing instead of repeatedly stopping to restore depleted equipment. During one afternoon break, Vessa entered the warehouse carrying a stack of four thick books beneath one arm.

She placed them beside Sieghart without ceremony, nearly knocking over the cup of water he had been drinking.

"Here." Sieghart looked at the books.

"What are these?"

"Homework."

"I was taking a break."

"Now you can read." Sieghart stared at her for several seconds before pulling the first volume closer. Vessa had already walked away, apparently considering the matter settled now that she had successfully replaced physical work with intellectual work. Orin appeared several minutes later carrying another thinner manual, which he placed on top of the existing pile. Sieghart looked from the additional book toward him with increasing suspicion.

"You too?"

"You wanted to learn."

"That doesn't mean you have to bury me." Orin looked at the stack.

"That's barely anything." Sieghart suspected craftsmen and mages possessed very different definitions of reasonable introductory reading. Nevertheless, he opened the first book and immediately forgot most of his complaints once he saw what filled the pages. The books covered introductory runic engineering rather than Rune Magic itself.

Detailed diagrams showed completed tools beside simplified cross-sections, allowing beginners to see where individual inscriptions, storage components, conductive materials, and activation mechanisms belonged inside practical devices. Several examples were almost embarrassingly simple. One showed how to create a metal plate that warmed when charged with mana, while another explained the necessary rune sequence for producing a stable light from a prepared crystal. Cooling effects appeared only a few chapters later.

Those formations used a slightly more complicated structure to draw heat from one surface and redirect it elsewhere, although the design still looked manageable with enough patience and steady hands. Sieghart found storage circuits particularly interesting because they explained why magical equipment could remain charged long after a mage stopped touching it. The formations did not simply hold mana but circulated it through repeated loops designed to minimize natural leakage.

Another chapter covered charging mechanisms. Those circuits created controlled entry points allowing outside mana to replenish internal storage without passing through delicate effect runes that could become damaged if someone supplied energy too aggressively. Sieghart immediately understood several mistakes he had made during his early Mana Rune experiments.

He had treated mana pathways like simple lines connecting one symbol to another instead of considering pressure, leakage, direction, and conflicting magical effects. On paper, the simpler designs looked almost easy. Anyone capable of maintaining steady hands and controlling a runic engraver should theoretically reproduce them after enough practice, assuming they followed the diagrams exactly and used the correct materials. The problem became obvious once Sieghart reached the later chapters.

Every additional effect multiplied the complexity. A basic light rune required a storage point, activation line, and illumination structure. Adding adjustable brightness introduced several new branches, while allowing the light to activate automatically under certain conditions required an entirely separate control formation. Sieghart turned another page and found a diagram for a temperature-controlled storage box.

The formation covered almost the entire internal wall and combined cooling, sensing, mana regulation, activation, shutdown, and several safety pathways.

"This became ridiculous quickly." Orin looked up from the other side of the workshop.

"That one's still beginner work." Sieghart looked at the diagram again.

"You people are insane."

"Sometimes." Sieghart continued reading anyway. More advanced weapons became considerably worse because their runes needed to function while the item moved, struck targets, received impacts, consumed large amounts of energy, and occasionally interacted with another person's magic. The returning shield, for example, required far more than a simple Wind Rune.

Its circuit recorded the initial wielder's mana signature, monitored direction, adjusted movement after impact, and continuously corrected its return trajectory without destabilizing the shield's reinforcement. The light saber was even more complicated.

Sieghart found only a simplified diagram rather than the complete construction plan, but even that showed several layered formations responsible for creating the blade, containing its shape, regulating length, managing heat, and preventing the concentrated energy from damaging the handle itself. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The books were useful. Extremely useful. They were simply not producing what Sieghart had originally hoped Mira's assignment might provide.

No notification appeared. No new spell unlocked. No new branch emerged. Runic Engineering seemed to be exactly what it looked like: technical knowledge expanding what he could accomplish with Mana Rune rather than a completely new supernatural discipline recognized by the System. Sieghart did not consider that disappointing enough to stop learning.

Understanding magical equipment would become useful eventually, especially once he started designing tools specifically around Infinite Mana instead of ordinary energy limitations. Still, he wanted something else. Perception. That weakness had become increasingly obvious while training Telekinesis and examining magical circuits. Sieghart could manipulate what he understood, but his ability to observe distant objects, tiny structures, and subtle mana movement remained painfully limited.

His Perception parameter was also embarrassingly low. That made the problem feel personal. Sieghart turned another page while wondering whether runic engineers had ever created equipment designed specifically to improve senses. The question received an answer almost immediately when he recognized a familiar pair of protective glasses inside one diagram. They looked almost identical to the layered spectacles Vessa and Orin wore whenever working on delicate inscriptions.

Several thin runes surrounded the frame while tiny enchanted lenses could rotate into place depending upon what the craftsman needed to examine. Sieghart leaned closer. The first effect improved long-distance vision. The second magnified nearby objects. Neither actually strengthened the wearer's eyes permanently. Instead, the glasses manipulated incoming light and magical information before it reached the user, allowing details to become easier to distinguish. That distinction should have ended Sieghart's interest.

Instead, it created a different idea.

"If the tool can improve vision…" Could he produce the effect directly? Magic already reinforced muscles, healed injuries, changed elemental properties, manipulated minds, moved physical objects remotely, and apparently convinced corpses that death was negotiable. Strengthening a sensory organ seemed comparatively reasonable. Sieghart immediately considered his eyes. Then immediately reconsidered. Eyes were fragile. Extremely fragile.

He could heal injuries using First Aid, but experimenting blindly with optic nerves sounded like an excellent method for discovering exactly how much magical healing failed to understand specialized biological structures. Sieghart preferred not to become temporarily blind while hundreds of kilometers away from Lunar Arc. He closed the book and leaned backward. There were safer senses. Hearing seemed moderately dangerous because damaging his inner ears could affect balance.

Taste felt nearly useless for his purposes. Touch already covered his entire body, making focused experimentation inconvenient. That left smell. Sieghart touched his nose thoughtfully. The organ was simple enough compared with his eyes, at least from his limited understanding of anatomy. More importantly, damaging it probably would not prevent him from navigating, fighting, reading, or escaping the workshop if something exploded again.

"My nose might work." Vessa glanced over.

"What?"

"Nothing." Sieghart returned his attention toward the book while pretending he had not just announced plans involving his own nose. Explaining magical experimentation before knowing whether the experiment worked usually invited unnecessary opinions. The idea continued developing. Muscle Reinforcement worked by using White Magic to enhance existing biological structures rather than creating something completely new.

Perhaps a similar principle could strengthen sensory cells and the nerves carrying information toward his brain. Sieghart understood immediately that he did not know enough. That had rarely stopped him before. He gathered the books and returned them carefully to the nearby table before moving toward a relatively clean corner of the warehouse. Experimenting beside charged magical weapons seemed unnecessary even by his standards. The first step was obvious. Protection.

Sieghart cast the spell over himself and reinforced the effect slightly around his head. The familiar layer of White Magic settled across his skin, providing at least some reassurance against whatever extremely avoidable injury he was preparing to cause. He sat cross-legged against the wall and closed his eyes. Smell depended upon the nose, but simply pouring mana into his nostrils would probably accomplish nothing useful.

He needed to reinforce whatever biological structures actually detected scents and transmitted that information inward. His knowledge from First Aid helped slightly. Sieghart could identify damaged tissues well enough to direct healing, and he possessed a general understanding of nerves from both his previous world and magical training. That did not make him anything resembling an expert. He concentrated upon the interior of his nose. Mana gathered slowly. Nothing happened.

Sieghart adjusted the flow and tried imagining the mana strengthening sensitivity rather than repairing damage. Muscle Reinforcement did something similar by enhancing what already existed, though copying that principle onto sensory nerves proved considerably less intuitive. A faint tingling appeared inside his nostrils. Sieghart immediately stopped. He waited several seconds. Nothing worsened.

"That seems promising." It was probably not promising. He continued anyway. The tingling returned when Sieghart supplied mana again, spreading deeper through the nasal cavity before reaching somewhere he could not precisely identify. His perception of the sensation itself became strangely sharper as the mana accumulated. Sieghart inhaled carefully. Dust. Metal. Oil. Old wood. Something burned. That last one could have been the workshop rather than the spell. He increased the mana slightly. The result was immediate.

Every scent intensified. The warehouse suddenly smelled overwhelmingly complicated. Sieghart could distinguish iron from oil, old leather from newer fabric, sweat from cleaning chemicals, and several strange substances he had never consciously noticed before. His eyes opened.

"That actually—" Pain interrupted him. A sharp burning sensation spread through the inside of his nose, far stronger than the earlier tingling. Sieghart immediately cut the mana flow, but whatever he had already done continued irritating the tissue. He grabbed his nose.

"Ow." Warm liquid touched his fingers. Sieghart pulled his hand away and found blood. Of course. Apparently, increasing sensory sensitivity without strengthening the surrounding tissues had consequences. Whatever mana did to the nerves and receptors had also irritated or damaged several small blood vessels inside his nose. Sieghart activated First Aid immediately. The bleeding slowed. The burning remained.

He sat completely still while healing mana moved through the damaged area, repairing whatever tiny structures his experiment had just abused while he reconsidered the intelligence behind his approach. There had been progress. That was the dangerous part. For several seconds before the pain started, his sense of smell had become dramatically stronger. The effect was real enough that Sieghart could still remember individual scents he had never previously distinguished inside the warehouse.

That meant sensory enhancement was possible. Probably. The problem was control. Strengthening perception apparently involved more than simply forcing additional mana through sensory nerves. Biological structures had limits, and exceeding those limits transformed improvement into damage surprisingly quickly. Sieghart wiped the remaining blood from beneath his nose. He stared at it. His first attempt at creating an entirely new sensory ability had lasted less than one minute before causing internal bleeding.

Compared with some of his previous experiments, that was practically successful. Still, trying the same method on his eyes would have been incredibly stupid. Sieghart looked toward the runic glasses again. Starting with his nose had absolutely been the correct decision. Even if it had nearly started leaking.