Ep. 1009 City Life Part 6 (Patreon)

This time there is no pain and I don't feel like anything went wrong with the spell. When Lin casts the detection spell on me, I don't feel anything, but she starts laughing.

"What's so funny?"

Lin says "You are glowing! Your form didn't waver, but you have this green glow around you."

"Well, that is definitely a problem, but it is better than the other two spells. This one at least shows promise."

Lin says "Do you plan to use it?"

"No, but I will use the same method in a new spell. Before that, let's have some lunch."

Lin agrees and we ring the bell in the room to summon a servant so that we can order lunch. After a delicious lunch we return to the library and I have Lin introduce me to the librarians. That way if I need more books I don't have to keep bugging Lin to get them for me.

After that Lin returns to her work and I sit down to redesign the shapeshifting spell again. This time I use everything that I learned from creating the last three spells. I also use what I learned from testing the spells to try and avoid similar problems.

For the first three spells I kept them as simple as possible just to see if the idea worked. This time I am taking my time and properly designing the spell to do everything I want it to. It takes me about two hours to design the spell and then another hour to double check it.

I find and fix a couple of mistakes, but then I have to fix the problems the changes cause. In the end, it is almost time for dinner before the spell is done and I can't find any other problems. After once last check, I hand the spell over to Lin for her to look through it as well.

Lin says "This is a lot more complex than the last three. It also doesn't look much like the other spells. Why is it so different?"

"Well, it is based on the same idea as the third spell, but I used what I learned from all three spells."

Lin says "This is quite the jump. If the other three spells were level ones, this spell would be level five. That is a huge difference and you skipped a lot of the steps in between. Are you sure this is what you want?"

"I am pretty sure, yes. I am also fairly confident that it is going to work."

Lin says "Well, I can't find anything wrong with the spell. Do you want to go test it out now?"

"It can wait until we get hungry and you want to stop for dinner."

Lin says "What are you going to work on next?"

"The weapon enchantments, but I want your help deciding something."

Lin says "What do you need to decide?"

"How much knowledge I should risk letting the humans learn. Anything I use of our knowledge will eventually be figured out by people studying the weapons. So I am worried about how much to let them have."

Lin says "Well, you definitely shouldn't use what the dragon taught us. Only use the language that they already know. Other than that I would say use your own method of enchanting and recreate the spell from scratch. That should be confusing enough to anyone trying to study it to keep them from learning much."

"In other words make it as complicated as I can and if someone is smart enough to learn from it just let them?"

Lin says "Yeah, pretty much."

"You aren't worried about what they might do?"

Lin says "Not really. With the rate that you learn, by the time anyone figures anything out you will have advanced a lot further."

"I guess that is true. Besides, anything they learn they are more likely to use against each other rather than coming to the peninsula. Alright, I will do it that way."

Lin says "Since the goal is to make money, I would suggest two enchantments. A common one for mass produced weapons and a good one for weapons that can be auctioned."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I will do that."

Lin says "Do you want any help?"

"Nah. I can make the enchantments easily enough. I will just have you check them when I am done. I should be able to finish both before you are ready to eat."

Lin nods as she goes back to her work, leaving me to start working on the enchantments. Although, first I read through the book about their current enchantments. I already figured them out from looking at the weapons, but it is better to double check.

As expected, I don't learn anything new from the book, so I let the book return to its place. Then I start working on the enchantments, first I work on the better one. Once that is done it should be easy enough to simplify it for the other one.

Luckily, I have gotten good at creating new enchantments so it ends up being easy. The enchantment ends up being about five times as effective as the original one. After checking it I work on simplifying it, I am aiming for about half the effect.

Simplifying the enchantment actually ends up being harder than creating the new one was. The hardest part is making it simple enough to be easily cast so I can enchant a lot of weapons. I actually don't manage to finish it before Lin tells me that she is ready for dinner.

So I put my work aside for the time being and return to the suite with Lin. We order and eat dinner first, then once we are done eating I test out my new shapeshift spell. The spell works and I shapeshift without any problems or pain, in fact it feels good.

"Alright, test it."

When Lin casts the detection spell it passes over me and I don't feel a thing. There is no residue left on my body, and Lin isn't laughing, so it looks like it worked.

"Anything?"

Lin says "No, nothing happened. You look exactly like you are supposed to. Nothing changed."

"Great. I guess it works then."

Lin says "How did it feel? Was there any pain?"

"Nope. If anything, it felt good. It is definitely better than the old spell I used to use."

Lin says "That's good! So, what are you going to do now?"

"For now, go back to work on the enchantment. Later, I will teach the new version to the kids in the soulscape."

Lin says "You are not going to try to further refine the spell?"

"No. Do I need to?"

Lin says "No, I was just curious. A lot of mages have trouble leaving things alone."

"If it works, why fix it?"

Lin says "True, but a lot of mages won't stop until something is perfect."

"I have too much to do to spend time chasing perfection. If at some point there is a problem with the spell, then I will work on it again. Until then, I will spend my time on other things."