Chapter 45 – Magical Items Creation Version I (Patreon)

I spent the following day regenerating with a book. In the afternoon, it rained for a while and chased us inside. The cabin was too claustrophobic, so I looked for a solution when the rain stopped. My regular tents were too light and would blow away, the glamping tent was too big for the deck, and my camper was big enough for one person and smaller than the cabin.

I finally took one of my medium tents, asked Ru for permission to hammer a few nails into the deck, secured the lines to the nails, used some of the modular bamboo flooring of the glamping tent to separate us from the wet deck, and covered the whole thing with a carpet. It was much better; the space inside was double, and because it was a tent and not a small room with a tiny window, the feeling inside was much more open. The only downside was that I couldn’t set the poles for the canopy, so we could either sit inside when it rained or get wet.

Ru and his boys kept coming around to see what I was doing, and when the tent was set up completely, they walked around it and admired it.

Ru asked me, “Where did you get this, and how much it cost?”

“I’m from the islands in the south, and I got it there.” I appraised the tent and added, “It costs 37 gold.”

He whistled in admiration and said, “Expensive.”

“Yes, but worth the price.”

“Maybe to some, too rich for us.” He added, “You can examine the barrel if you want.”

“Thanks.”

I went to examine the barrel, and he followed me. I didn’t feel like carrying the barrel to empty it overboard, so I cast Clean and Purify on the water just in case and started filling empty water bottles. When I reached the bottom, I stuck my hand inside and stored the rest in one of my water containers. Ru kept watching me through the whole process. I guessed he was worried about his barrel.

I carried it out to examine it; the pantry was too small. I examined its outside again but didn’t find anything. I cast my light ball and studied it thoroughly inside; there was also nothing. No runes, no magic script, nothing.

I sent my mana into it and tried to locate the magic. It took me a while. I was searching in the barrel's wood, but the magic was in the metal rings inside the barrel, similar to the metal rings that held it together. The magic had a “pure” feel to it. I cast my Purify spell and sensed its flavor. It was the same exact spell; there was no difference in the flavor.

I returned the barrel to the pantry and started filling it up with water bottles. At this point, Ru relaxed and left me alone. After the tenth bottle, I had enough and summoned the water from one of my water tanks.

I misjudged the water quantity, and a lot of water overflowed on the floor. Oops!

I took a duvet to soak it up; it was the most absorbent thing I had. The duvet was soaked, and there was still water. I took out my personal towels to clean the rest and was really happy that Ru left. I cleaned the duvet and towels, but I knew that the Clean spell only cleans dirt. For some strange and inexplicable reason, water was not considered dirt, even if it soaked inconvenient things. I started channeling Heat into the duvet to dry it, but after a second, steam began to rise from it, so I stopped immediately. I didn’t want to turn the pantry into a sauna.

I stored the wet things, went to the railing, squeezed all the water out of the duvet and towels, hung them up to dry, and tied them with rope so they wouldn't fly away. Ru eyed me suspiciously, went into the deckhouse, but didn’t say anything when he came out.

I decided to experiment with what I learned. Since the magic was in metal rings, I took out a cooking knife, cast Purify on it, and examined it with my mana – nothing. It was clean but didn’t have any magic. I cast the spell again and again without success. I had an idea and channeled Restore, split my mind, and cast Purify simultaneously. The Restore cost me only 20 mana. The knife was a bit sharper and squeaky clean, but it still had no magic.

I thought about it for a long time but was out of ideas. It was dark already, so I decided to sleep on it. We ate dinner and went to bed in the tent. It was much more pleasant.

The next day, I decided to brave the Archive again; maybe I could find the answer there.

I opened the Archive and, while scrolling, checked the posts I had an interest in. The discussion about Mend vs. Restore finished without a final conclusion. In the post about the unique Qualities, I now had 173 people calling me a liar, and my lasagna post had some odd comments. I think one was written by the blue guy who wrote the information about Earth.

I continued searching for TWO FULL DAYS! And had to scroll past an unbelievable amount of crap. Travelers are a bored and chatty bunch. Finally, in an article full of self-patting on the back about enchanting and magical items creation, I found the following paragraph with the following comment:

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Tr. NHB

“Instead of using the elegant solution of runes, those barbarians in the low-mana worlds still use the archaic method of melting various materials, such as glass or metal, and casting spells on them repeatedly to imbed the spell in the item. This method is cumbersome, takes an ungodly amount of mana, the spell quality depends on the level the mage managed to progress it, and it fades over time.”

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Tr. KI

You forgot to mention that runes also wear off over time or with heavy use, and need an enchanter to renew them. So, stop being such a blown-up toad. If they don’t have runes or enchanter classes, that’s a great solution.

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I decided to experiment and started thinking of a solution how to melt some metal. I read once that the aluminum melting point was much lower than iron, so I removed my cast iron potjie pot, put a small aluminum pot inside, and started channeling Heat. After a while, I began to feel lightheaded. I checked my mana: 120/7200, and the aluminum pot was misshapen but not melted. I stored the whole thing quickly so I wouldn’t lose the heat I already channeled and sat down to regenerate.

It took me three whole days to regenerate to full mana. By the second day, we reached the tributary, and Jul and Rin navigated us into it with the oars. I just sat, regenerated, and enjoyed the view. Stretch napped most of the time or wanted petting and ear scratching. I asked him how he felt about a smaller boat and got a short tail wag and a feeling of mild approval.

After I regenerated fully, I continued my melting process. It took me over 1500 mana to melt the damn thing, but finally, it was in liquid form. I cast Purify on it again and again until it cooled and solidified. I checked with my mana, and the spell was inside the metal.

YES!

I tied a rope to a bucket, lowered the bucket into the river, scooped some water, and dropped the aluminum blob inside. I sat there monitoring the water with my mana and felt no change.

Maybe it needs more time?

I waited for over an hour and rechecked the water; Still no change. I thought for a while and got an idea. I touched the blob with a finger and channeled mana into it. I cast nothing; I channeled mana and monitored the water. In less than two seconds, the water was purified. It was a partial success. I created a magical item that channels a spell, but the barrel did it automatically.

What am I missing?

I returned to the barrel, touched it, and examined the metal rings with my mana. Initially, I could feel only the Purify spell; it was very obvious to me from familiarity, but slowly, I started to distinguish between other types of mana with different flavors. One was “absorption” or “suction,” and the other one was “release.”

I examined the absorption for a few hours, with Ru checking on me to ensure his barrel was safe until I felt I “knew” the flavor. Then I went out and tried to channel my mana with that flavor. I had to return to the barrel repeatedly to get the nuances. I had to give up after a while; it was the middle of the night, and I was wiped.

The next day, I continued to examine the barrel until I had it. It was an exact duplicate. I cast a spell with this flavor of mana and got the red light.

You have learned the spell [Absorb Mana]

Woo! Hoo!

I wanted to get up and dance, but I refrained and only pumped my fist in the air.

I cast the spell a few times in the air but didn’t feel any difference. I got an idea and opened my Profile to see my mana and cast it on myself. The Absorb cost me ten mana, and my mana started to tick up fast without active regeneration. After two minutes, I felt slight itching in the mana channels in my arms and feet. The itching got worse and worse, and by the fourth minute, it became pins and needles. I had no idea how to stop a cast spell, only a channeled one. I was beginning to get worried, but the spell ended after five minutes. I was relieved.

I checked my mana channels, and they looked okay, but another surprise awaited me. When I examined my mana system on Earth, the three orbs of energy in my body were the same size. Now, the one behind my diaphragm was the biggest, about 20% bigger than its original size; the one in my abdomen was the next in size and about 10-15% bigger, and the one in my head looked the same. I thought about it briefly, and it made sense; my mana increased, so the orbs grew. What didn’t make sense was that I STILL didn’t know how my mana grew.

I activated my Luck again, still in the same direction, but the feeling of “take your time” was gone. Good – Answers on the horizon.

I decided to stop for today to enjoy my achievement and spend time with Stretch.

After lunch, I took my guitar out and sang quietly with Stretch howl-singing. I even gave him a beer. I ignored him lately during my experimentation; he deserved it.

Jul approached and asked shyly, “Can I sit and listen to the music, or do you want me to leave?”

“Please join us; I’ll even teach you a song.”

I taught him the song Sailing Away, which I translated, and he loved it. Rin joined us at some point, and I played the song a few times until they learned it.

I searched in my songbooks for another sailing song and found “Boat on the River” by Styx, which was a perfect fit for the situation. I translated the song while learning the chords, they learned it with me, and Stretch was our backup singer. We had a lot of fun.

“Take me back to my boat, on the river
I need to go down, I need to come down..."

I invited them for dinner, took out three of my precious pasta dishes, and offered them beers, they looked old enough. Stretch tried to weasel another beer from me, but I wasn’t having it; he had to settle for a tomahawk steak and looked mollified.

Ru came over and told Jul, “You had a good rest; go replace me on the wheel.”

Jul thanked me and left, and I told Ru, “Please join me for dinner.”

I took out another pasta dish and a beer. He thanked me, and we sat quietly, enjoying the evening and the beer.