Chương 8: Magic Crafting

New Guide Entry: Magic Crafting Classification: Universal Discipline Magic crafting encompasses all methods of permanently integrating mana into physical materials. Two primary, foundational disciplines exist. Infusion is the process of channeling personal mana through physical contact into an object, saturating the material and enhancing its inherent properties. Results are greatest when performed during active material transformation, such as forging, shaping, carving, or growth.

Infusion performed on completed objects produces diminished and often temporary results. Enchantment is the process of inscribing or layering mana-conductive patterns into or onto an object's surface, creating magical effects that can be activated. Enchantments are often derived from standard spell forms, but become increasingly distinct as complexity grows. Pattern complexity and material conductivity determine the strength, reliability, and quality of the resulting enchantment.

Both disciplines may be applied to the same object. Material composition significantly affects mana retention capacity. Organic materials, metals, and crystalline structures each interact with mana differently. The Universal Training Guide will codify crafting schemas as they are developed. Codified schemas can be reproduced through simplified invocation, following the same principles as simplified spell casting, but require the physical work to be completed by the mage.

— Enzo read the guide entry several times before leaning back in his chair. Then he reviewed the notifications he'd been putting off since the hospital.

— Eater Eliminated (x3) → Bonus Mana Capacity Provided (+30) Tier 1 Eater Eliminated (x1) → Bonus Mana Capacity Provided (+20) Mana Sense (Level 4) → Mana Sense (Level 5) Mana Absorption (Level 6) → Mana Absorption (Level 7) Attunement (Level 4) → Attunement (Level 5) Bolt (Level 8) → Bolt (Level 9) Spear (Level 2) → Spear (Level 3) — His eyes rested on the second notification. Tier 1. The one that had somehow grown an extra pair of eyes. Used mana to cling to the wall as if gravity were optional.

Gorged itself on— Enzo forced himself to focus on the rest of the notifications. He had to admit that he felt a deep pleasure at his growing magical capabilities. The level-ups felt good. He didn't understand what they indicated, but seeing the progression had its own value, even if he'd never been much of a gamer himself. That was his sister's domain. Something he'd only ever really indulged in when she wanted her big brother's attention. In return, he'd taught her the things he loved. Martial arts. Camping.

Hiking. Climbing… Enzo frowned. She'd changed after his accident. Pursue her studies in occupational therapy and biomechanics with a strange, single-minded focus. He knew why. She believed as he once had. That there was no problem that couldn't be fixed. No challenge insurmountable. He knew better. Had known better, rather. Magic changed the equation. He didn't know how, yet, but it had changed everything else, so it only made sense that it would… maybe… change the one thing that had defeated him.

He shook his head. Living under the constant threat of death these past twenty-four hours had made him melancholic. Enzo turned his attention back to the ring sitting on the table. The graver placed next to it. There'd been no intention, no plan, to engrave spell forms onto the ring he'd been working on. The patterns were not geometric. Not abstract. They were simple nature-focused carvings that would naturally flow into filigree embracing the gem setting.

Previously, the Guide had only provided a new entry after encountering and achieving something. Perhaps it considered even the most basic of chicken scratches an accomplishment in magical crafting. Enzo pushed his chair back, made his way over to the safe, and retrieved a tray of practice pieces. Once back at the table, he sifted through the collection of partially cut stones and discarded rings before picking out a plain, thick titanium band.

He removed the white gold ring from the vise and set it on a square of chamois, well clear of his working area. Then he set the titanium band in its place and adjusted the clamp until it held firm without deforming or marking the metal. Returning the graver to its pocket in the tool roll, he drew out another by feel, two slots further along. The carbide-tipped one. It was harder and heavier in the hand, and ground to a steeper angle for cutting into metals that would eat a standard tool for breakfast.

Titanium demanded it. He leaned back and considered his spells. Lock was out immediately. No constructed form to inscribe. It was free-form mana threading, shaped by intent rather than geometry. Even if he could translate that into a physical pattern, he had no idea where to start. Bolt would be the most useful. A ring that could fire projectiles would be valuable for anyone who couldn't cast the spell themselves. But the form was three-dimensional and intricate.

Engraving it onto a ring as a first attempt at enchantment was begging for failure. Failure taught one to succeed, but only if you were smart enough to begin at the starting line. That left Spear and Shield. Spear was the simplest, but directional. If he messed it up, he'd probably stab himself. Explaining that to the others wouldn't be fun. And it would probably hurt. That left Shield. Still simple, but also, probably, much safer to mess up. The obvious approach was to inscribe a circle onto the flat of the band.

That was simple and direct. Most would probably consider that the right starting point. But spell forms weren't limited to two-dimensional shapes. And the band already formed a natural circle. A single groove, cut at a consistent depth around the full circumference, would turn the ring itself into the form. Elegant. Enzo adjusted the vise, angling it to provide better access for the work he intended, then locked it into place. He set the carbide tip against the metal and began cutting.

The world and all of its problems fell away again. Slipping into a deeply focused state had always been easy when it came to his work. Even for something as simple as carving a single channel, he gave himself fully to his task. Each sweep of the graver carried away fine curls of metal. Minutes later, he loosened the vise, rotated the ring, then locked it back into place before continuing. When the groove was complete, he loosened the vise and pulled the ring free.

Then he slipped it onto his index finger and held his hand out. Nothing happened. He waved it a few times. Nothing happened. He frowned, then activated Mana Sense. Drawing a thread of mana from his mind, he pushed it into the ring. Nothing happened. Enzo tried filling the channel itself, layering the thread into the groove with the same fine control he exercised when creating Lock or any of his other spells. The mana dissipated the moment he stopped feeding it. No catch. No hold.

It was like pouring water into a sieve. Enzo pulled the ring off and turned it in his fingers. He leaned over and grabbed the optical visor, slipping it over his eyes. He studied the groove. The work was clean. The form was right. Not that he'd really had any doubt it would be. A circle was a circle, and the channel wrapped around the band without deviation. Something else was wrong. He removed the visor and pulled up the Guide entry again, reading through it slowly. Infusion. Enchantment.

Both disciplines applicable to the same object. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Codification gave him pause. Even if it required physically crafting the item, something still bothered him about the Guide offering free reproduction of the work. There had to be a catch there, even if he couldn't see it now. But that was a paranoia for later. Then he read the last line under the enchantment description again. Mana conductivity.

Enzo set the ring on the bench and leaned back. The mana needed a medium to flow through. Not air in a groove. That was an embarrassing thing to overlook, though easily justifiable. The Guide awarded the entry for just scraping flakes of metal away, after all. Mana was naturally absorbed. He'd noticed it even within himself when he'd evaluate his mana upon arrival at the hospital. It became a certainty when clearing the Eaters on the upper floors. Roughly one unit every five minutes, bleeding into his reserves.

Perhaps the flows seen using Mana Sense was ambient mana attached to the very air they breathed. Maybe they could even absorb ambient mana from wherever else it settled. Because the Guide was clear on that. Mana seeped into people. Materials. Even the engineers at the hospital had proven it, using science. They'd determined it was disrupting electrical current, which they'd countered by increasing voltage just to keep their systems running temporarily.

If mana were being absorbed into everything, then perhaps it was settling within the very scaffolding of all materials. The crystal lattice of atoms, ions, and molecules. It would explain the power grid's steady decline, phones dying, and both gasoline and gunpowder being less combustible. But if that were true, then the very thing that allowed mana to kill technology would also be exactly what made a material more or less useful for enchanting.

Silver was the best electrical conductor in existence for the same reason. And a spool of it was sitting in his safe. Enzo retrieved it and returned to the bench, then cut a length, eyeballing the measurement, and set it aside. Then he picked up the ring and clamped it back in the vise. The existing V-shaped groove wouldn't hold an inlay. It would require an undercut, wider at the base than the opening, creating a dovetail that would lock the silver wire in place mechanically once pressed.

He selected a different graver from the roll, one with a shorter, angled tip suited for undercutting, and retraced the channel. The second pass was slower, more deliberate, angling the blade to widen the base of the groove without disturbing the clean edges at the surface. Titanium fought the tool harder at this angle, but the carbide tip held up. When he was satisfied with the profile, he laid the silver wire into the channel and reached for a burnisher.

The polished steel head was made for exactly this kind of work. He pressed the wire down into the groove with firm, even strokes, and the soft silver deformed under pressure, spreading into the undercut and locking itself against the harder titanium walls. Pass by pass, he worked his way around the ring, seating the wire flush with the surface until the inlay was complete. A band of silver now traced the outside of the ring, bright against the darker titanium.

Enzo grabbed the ring from the vise and slipped it back onto his finger. This time, he activated Mana Sense and threaded mana into the silver channel the same way he had with the empty groove. The difference was immediate. The silver accepted the mana, held it, let it flow along the channel in a way the bare titanium hadn't. He could feel it circulating through the inlay, the energy following the path of least resistance, the same way current followed a wire. Then he stopped feeding it, and the mana bled out.

Slower than before, the silver retaining traces for a few seconds longer than the empty groove had, but the result was the same. It faded to nothing. The results were better, but something was obviously still missing. He removed the ring and held it up, turning it in the fading afternoon light. The silver conducted mana. That much was confirmed. But conducting and holding were different things. A wire carried current from one end to the other. It didn't store it.

The mana flowed through and dissipated because nothing was telling it to stay. Enzo frowned. He'd encountered this problem before. It was the same principle as creating a spell form. Mana threads could carry intent. Purpose. It shifted them from the thinner, more ephemeral, to something denser. He slipped the ring back on. Closed his eyes. And instead of simply pushing mana at the silver, he fed it through slowly. Deliberately. Holding the concept of Shield in his mind as he did. Protection. Barrier.

A wall that held firm against whatever tried to pass. The mana responded. He could feel it thickening as intent compressed it, each unit carrying more weight than the last. It entered the silver channel and settled instead of flowing through. Bonding with the metal the way it bonded with his own mind when absorbed. He worked his way around, slowly threading it into a complete circuit, maintaining a steady pace, knowing that delicate work required patience. That rush meant ruin.

When the thread completed the circle, connecting back to where it had started, something changed. The mana locked into place, the circuit closing itself, and the ring suddenly carried the faintest warmth that hadn't been there before. Maybe. It was possible he was fooling himself into thinking he'd succeeded. Enzo opened his eyes. The silver inlay glowed. It was barely visible in the afternoon light, but the slowly fading purple glow settling into the metal ring was unmistakable. He pulled up the notifications.

— Enchanting (Level 1) Learned Mana Control (Level 4) → Mana Control (Level 6) Mana Sense (Level 5) → Mana Sense (Level 6) — Enchantment Codified: Barrier Description: Creates a barrier of condensed mana that blocks physical and magical attacks. — Notification First enchantment creation detected. The Universal Training Guide has analyzed and recorded the achievement. Codified enchantments are added to your personal record and can be accessed through your status interface.

Simplified Enchanting: Codified enchantments can be invoked verbally by speaking the enchantment name, prefaced with 'Schema.' This method reproduces the recorded effect without requiring manual mana control, allowing for faster and more reliable crafting. Note: Simplified Enchanting can only reproduce mana effects. Materials must be supplied and appropriately prepared. — Enzo read the notifications carefully.

It was about what he expected, though he was curious about the lack of a level indicator and mana type information in the enchantment's description. It didn't matter for the time being, with him still unable to convert mana, but he wondered how the enchantment might change if a different mana type was used. Something to test later. When he figured out conversion. He pulled up his Status.

— Status | Name: Lorenzo Locke | Class: Wizard | Mana Perception: 16 meters | Spell Range: 8 meters | Mana Capacity: 320 (170 | 150) units Skills | Mana Sense (Level 6) | Mana Absorption (Level 7) | Mana Control (Level 6) | Spell Forms (Level 2) | Attunement (Level 5) | Enchanting (Level 1) Spells | Lock (Level 2) | Shield (Level 3) | Bolt (Level 9) | Spear (Level 3) Techniques | None Schema | Barrier — Enzo stared for a long moment, noting the new section, then dismissed it and looked down at the ring on his finger.

The silver inlay had almost completely lost the purple glow, still slowly fading. Time to see what it actually did. He activated Mana Sense and pushed a thin thread of mana toward the silver. The moment it made contact, the enchantment responded, pulling the mana inward as if the circuit had its own gravity. More mana flowed from his reserves, and the purple glow intensified again, flaring along the full circumference of the ring. A barrier materialized. A spherical barrier.

Roughly a foot in diameter, centered at the ring, and encasing his hand entirely. Enzo kept feeding mana into it and held it up. Waved his hand left and right. The bubble moved with him, maintaining its shape and position relative to the ring. He poked it with his other hand. It looked and felt like the same condensed mana as Shield. He cut the mana feed. The barrier collapsed, the silver's glow fading again. Then he tested it again, this time channeling the bare minimum required to activate the barrier.

It vanished quickly. But it worked. And it was basically useless to him. Shield appeared where he wanted it, the position determined by his intent at the moment of casting. It could be angled. Channeled or released immediately. He even suspected the size and shape could be adjusted with practice. The ring produced a fixed sphere around his hand. No directional control. No positioning. Just a bubble.

And activating it required feeding mana into the ring, which meant concentrating on Mana Sense rather than on whatever was trying to kill him. Invoking Shield took a fraction of the time. He studied the ring. Spells also provided information. Descriptions. Levels. Mana types. Then he tried focusing on it, willing the Guide to provide details about it. What it did exactly. How much mana it cost. How strong the barrier would be. Nothing. He tried again. Concentrated harder.

Surely the Guide had to provide insight into magic items. Then he tried framing it differently.

'Inspect,' 'Analyze,', 'Identify.' All while pushing mana into it and focusing on the desire to understand its properties. The barrier activated again. Enzo clicked his tongue and dismissed it. Not being able to see any information about a magic item felt like a gap in the system. The Guide already tracked personal development. Skills. Spells. Now schemas. It even had a section for techniques, despite not being a sorcerer. Cultivator. Whatever. But nothing about his personally crafted magic item.

No way to query its properties or compare the quality of it. There was a section in the original information provided by the Guide. Something about it expanding as society adapted. Perhaps that meant it would unlock new features or evolve on its own. Or maybe it meant he had to develop a spell that did it for him. Another problem for the future. Enzo leaned back in the chair, tapping the ring against the bench in a slow rhythm.

While the enchantment wasn't useful for him, it might turn out to be very useful for someone who couldn't cast spells at all. Someone who had to fight at close range, with nothing other than their fists, a hard head, and techniques. A person who had no ranged options or defensive abilities. Assuming she could feed mana into it. He paused at that. But the answer had already been given. Cultivators could definitely expel mana. Val's Burst Fist did it. Rick's Reinforce.

They just couldn't manipulate it once free of their bodies. Enzo turned the ring over. Titanium and silver. Built using a practice band because he'd been experimenting. Val deserved better than a prototype, but it might keep her alive long enough for him to craft something better. He set the ring aside and reached for the tray of practice pieces.