Mythshaper-Chapter 47: Charm
Chapter 47: Charm
The two conditions I gave Mum were easy to follow, so she readily agreed.
The first was about the help she was allowed to give me. She promised her help would be limited to mere hints.
The other one involved all the materials needed for the crafting. I asked Mum not to hand them over to me for free. Of course, I would still work on her materials, but I'd bear whatever they cost. I already had a hundred silver leafs and some savings she’d given me from all the runework and artificing I’d done over the last few months. That was by far not a small sum—not for any common family—but it probably wouldn’t even be close to half by the time I was finished with the project.
Simply obtaining a couple of drops of Dusk Essence would halve my wealth, and there was still so much more I would need to get.
So here I was, doing runework in class while the history lesson went on in the background. I could have split my focus and paid attention to what the teacher was saying, but that portion of my attention was spent on Essence Unification.
The more aether roots and essence threads I accumulated, the stronger and more efficient I would become. Not to mention, it would also increase my influence, weight, and Will. With my recent advancement just a couple of weeks ago, I was twice as impactful as a shaper, so I saw no reason to slow down on Essence Unification. History, on the other hand, didn't hold the same sway. Besides, what Tearcer Caecila was lecturing was merely surface level information.
Having gotten good at multitasking, I could perform two intense activities at once, provided one of them didn’t require my full attention. Essence Unification exhausted my Will faster than anything else, but after practicing it for almost a year, it had become one of my more automated processes. Don’t get me wrong—it still drained my Will as before—but it simply no longer demanded the majority of my attention.
My other work, however, required as much Will as it did my concentration. Charm crafting was as delicate a process as runework, but it also involved the added difficulty of combining essence weaving with runes. The most exhausting part was imprinting my Will onto the charm.
My Will recovered at a far slower pace than my essence, making it particularly arduous to invest in the art of charm creation for longer. It was good practice, but I would craft no more than two charms a day if it weren’t for my immediate need for money.
Mum had suggested she’d lend me the necessary funds if I needed them, but I still wanted to earn a large portion of the leafs required for the process. Besides, this was an essential learning process if I ever wanted to reach Master Artisan rank.
I was currently crafting a water charm, not a combat variant. Combat charms were the most expensive to craft and purchase, so their profit margin wasn’t as large as that of a water charm, which was mostly used for bathing.
After reaching a certain class, most combat charms became pretty useless, however, adventurers or legionaries would still need to bathe when they were on a month-long expedition. Additionally, the creation process was rather simple, and the main ingredients—crystallized ice or water essence—were both inexpensive. The mold for the crystallized essence might have been costly, but since these charms were disposable items, even the cheapest essence mould did the job, leaving the profit margin close to 2 silver leafs.
The creation process didn’t take long, either. Initially, it took me half an hour per charm, but after a dozen successful practices, that time dropped to a quarter of an hour with still room for further improvement. The only caveat was that if I crafted even two charms back-to-back, I wouldn’t have enough Will to complete the third.
After finishing my second, I quietly closed my eyes and slipped into a meditative trance to recover my Will. I hadn’t even entered deep meditation when I felt a small tug on my back. A whisper called from behind me.
“Pshh, Arilyn, Arilyn, how do I solve this?”
It was Eran, of course. I turned slightly to see him pointing to his notebook at a math problem. I blinked. Had history class already ended?
I shifted my gaze forward to find Teacher Caecila sitting quietly in her chair. The middle-aged woman had a fair share of gray hair, though she never bothered to dye it. Wearing thick-framed glasses and presenting a neat appearance, she exuded a scholarly vibe. She taught most of our non-combat classes—mainly math, literature, and history. She was particularly good at the latter two but lacked the ability to explain mathematics to boys and girls our age. Of course, she was a historian through and through and only taught mathematics because there was a gap in our department. She tried her best, but teaching and learning were two very different beasts.
The problem was simple, though unfortunately most of us didn’t have a good grasp of the basics. I, however, had solved similar problems during my homeschooling. There was really nothing to it—you just needed to apply the formula to get the answer.
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I worked out the solution in my notebook and showed it to Eran. He copied it without asking for an explanation, for fear of catching the teacher’s attention. Diana, sitting to his right, abandoned the idea of painstakingly solving the problem herself and copied it as well.
I sighed, looking around at the others in my classroom to find the same thing happening. In one corner, Priam had finished his work and sat with his arms crossed, his notebook open for anyone nearby to copy from, and they did so without a second thought.
Only Priam and a select few seemed to have any interest in learning other subjects. Priam was particularly good at math and other theoretical sciences. I did not know if he had private tutors, though I’m pretty sure his elder sister forced him to study.
There was no punishment or immediate consequence for skipping these classes, which gave the pupils the idea that they could simply ignore everything except physical education. Folks simply didn’t care about any skills beyond those they awakened, so much so that they almost convinced me to pay less attention to them. But mathematics was important, at least geometry was instrumental in fabricator design.
During my first week, I solved every problem zealously—even those the teacher didn’t assign—just to get ahead and earn a bit of praise. In the end, however, the institution was a place where nothing but your awakening skills mattered.
I still did my part so that I could move on to Essence Unification and my other practices. After recovering a bit of my Will, I worked on another Water Charm while waiting for class to end. By the time I finished, my Will was depleted to less than a tenth. I was definitely going to empower my Will the next time I advanced. But on the bright side,
[Congratulations! Way of Artificing II (25/25) is complete.]
[+4 Unallocated Points]
[Way of Artificing III (25/50) is now accessible.]
The class was soon dismissed, with the teacher noting it in all our notebooks. She didn’t even bother reprimanding those who couldn't solve the problem, telling us that we would go through the same process again.
Now, on to physical education. Most of us were far more eager for that class. It was held outdoors today since the upperclassmen were using the indoor facility.
As usual, I did some hurdle running and archery, though I refrained from using my essence threads in any practice.
The combat instructor was late today, not for the first time. Half an hour later, Instructor Delric arrived along with another person, a member of the local guild. He was among the crew that had gone on an expedition with Father. The instructor sent us to spar with one another and continued to bicker with the other man about some heated topic we were not privy to.
I was watching Eran demonstrate the fourth form when Priam appeared, demanding a duel. He had healed well, even though it had taken him a whole week to return to his grove. His father, the Lord Magistratus, had expended all his resources to secure a good healer as soon as possible to travel to Karmel, but even then, Priam had not been in fighting shape since the last time I fought and defeated him.
“Sorry, I’m practicing with Eran,” I told him. “How about we duel tomorrow?”
Priam's expression turned ugly. “I’m going to tell the instructor.”
I tilted my head. “Tell on what exactly?”
Impatient, Priam turned to the instructor too quickly.
“Master Delric, Arilyn is lazing around.”
The young instructor turned to us, a frown creasing his brow. “No slacking off,” he barked. “If you don’t want to spar, go through the drills.” With that, he left everything to the assistant instructor and returned to his discussion with the guildsman.
“If you want,” Eran offered, “I can spar with you.”
Priam shot him a look and snorted. “As if there’s any fun in defeating someone as impaired as you.”
That immediately deflated Eran’s expression. I bit back a retort and turned away from Priam. Eran didn’t need me to protect him; he was a fine fighter even without his Gift. Unfortunately, all they saw in him was a kid with an impaired Gift.
The best course of action was to refuse to spar with Priam. He was used to everyone listening to him, almost becoming subservient to his whims.
Honestly, I would have enjoyed a good spar with the boy even if he were growing more irate, however, my Will had barely recovered, and sparring with him would have consumed it all, leaving me empty for my artificing practice back home.
Instead, I chose to practice the fourth form with Eran. Priam grumbled for a bit before finally calling me a coward and every synonym he could think of, before ultimately seeking someone else to spar with.
“You alright?” I asked my friend.
Eran shook off his negativity. “You want to spar?”
“Always,” I said, grinning. “But make sure to go easy on me, I have a lot of work to do.”
“How about unarmed combat then?”
We didn’t delay, though it was more of a friendly spar than a full-blown duel.
“So what are you going to make today?” Eran asked, throwing a punch toward my ribs.
I blocked as he stepped back before my kick could land on his lower body. “It’s a secret.”
Eran snorted, thrusting at me once again.
"Well, I can tell you it's about giving finishing touch to an item I had been preparing for a week."
The shield I was preparing for him was mostly complete. I merely needed to make it shine more and apply a mold over the rune formation so that it would protect the runes from eroding. Sheilds required repairs faster than any other fabricators. They bear the full brunt of the attacks, which even a high-quality mold was useless against after a while.
Honestly, I would have liked to wait for a good occasion—like his birthday—to give it to him as a gift, but that was still a couple of seasons away. I guess I could make him something else then.
"Something taking you a week?" Eran didn't cease his attack. "Must be something pretty."
“It is!" I grinned, avoiding his fist. "How about I show you what I made later in the evening? Trust me, you’re going to love it.”
“Is it a sword?” he asked between gasps. “A bow? It’s not one of your water flasks, is it?”
I had to force myself from spilling the beans, though a big grin crept across my face, imagining the face he'd make when I give it to him.
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