Introduction to Enchanting

Asher sat in the starry ocean as more stars joined into space with him. Over his time doing this, he had gotten the hang of manipulating the stars. The violet ones were illusion essence, and they were cold and sinister. They had to be led to the pool with a firm and steady hand. Alchemic essence was timid. If you acted too fast, it would run away before you could grasp it. The others hand their quicks, but Asher just adapted how he approached it.

Like the enchanting essence was curious but skittish, You had to treat it like a wounded dog and let it come to you before it would accept being held. Asher let the hours slip by and focused on just finishing his mediation. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the familiar sight of Cynthia sipping on tea in the afternoon sun. This system chimed, signaling the official end of his mediation.

[Congratulations! you have completed the requirements for the quest 'Complete the Core']

[Your quest has been updated.]

To be honest, this sence has occurred almost every evening since he started studying magic under Cynthia. During the evenings, he would mediate while Cynthia cleaned and closed the shop. When he would open his eyes Cynthia would be sitting in the same place sipping on tea from her tea set. Asher got up and joined her. Like aways, he joined Cynthia as she poured a cup for him.

"You should be just about finished with collecting aetheric essence. I will admit you made great progress." Cynthia congratulated Asher. Cynthia had to admit she never hand much of an interest into nobles, but this boy was always so earnist in his studys of magic. She could not help but find it endearing.

Most noble were so entitled that they would have complained about the level of difficulty, but Asher never so much as said a bad word about some of the lessons. Cynthia had to admit that some of the lessons where quite boring especially the early ones. She even remembers when she went through the same lesson and how much see complained about it. This boy had an amazing amount of disapline.

"I couldn't have had that amount of success without such an amazing teacher." Cynthia felt like squealling at Asher's comment. Not only is her student well-behaved but he is a such a gentleman. She must have won the student lottery.

"Oh you are way too sweet." Cynthia place a wrapped gift in front of Asher. "This is a congratulations gift for making it through the first phase of your magic lessons."

Asher unwrapped the leather bound gift to find a plane wooden box. When he opened the box, he found a beautiful pen sitting on a velvet pillow like it was a crown jewel. The pen looked like a feather quill with a metal grip but seemed to shine in a beautiful blue color like someone took the sea itself and shaped it. The feather was like it was made out of crystal yet looked like it had just fallen off a bird with the softest feathers.

"Is this?" Asher had a sneaking suspension as to what his teacher had given him.

"An enchanting stylus. Water-element to be specific." Cynthia smiled Asher wide eyes definitely told her he had figured out what was in front of him. "I made it out of the advance core you gave me when you first should up. I thought it would be a good gift to congrate you." Cynthia reach up with her slinder hand and picked up the stylus, and grab Asher's hand. In one move, Cynthia stabbed Asher's finger with the sharp tip of the stylus.

Asher was not expecting the attack so he tried to flinch, but Cynthia's grib was too strong for him to move. She let the tip soak in his blood till the tip was dripping in Asher's blood. A emerald green light formed on her thump as she rubbed Asher finger. When he examined his finger, there was not so much as mark.

Asher turned his attention to the stylus. His eyes watched in awe as the blood seem to finish inside the stylus like it had been sucked into it. His questions only grew as his system chimed.

[You have bloodbonded to 'Water echantment Stylus']

"What just happened?" Asher's mouth was practically on the floor. He did not have the slightest clue what Cynthia had just done with the stylus or what bloodbonded meant. Was it like a blood contract that made someone a servant in those stories?

"It was blood magic." Cynthia said with non-chilance as if it was no big deal. Meanwhile, Asher had gone completely pale.

"There is blood element magic!!!" Asher spoke with shock and awe. Asher only thought there were 30 types of elements, but now this woman was telling him that there was another.

Asher's outburst caused Cynthia to pause before laughing. "No. No. There is no such thing as a blood element." Asher sat back down. His eyes pleading with Cynthia to tell him he was not cursed or something. "You see mana has something like a semi-consiousness. It can identify familiar energies. Blood magic is an old trick that someone made to take advantage of this because they didn't like to share. By fusing your blood with a Mana Cystral, you can make it so the mana cystral will not respond to anyone but you. Think of putting a lock on a door."

Asher finally could breath again. "So it means that no one else could use this stylus not even you?"

"Not even me. It sounds more sinsiter than it is. You just infuse blood in the mana crystal and it is yours forever. Enchanters took this process and made it common practice because of how expensive stylus are. An enchanter needs an element specific stylus for any element he doesn't already have, and a cheap one is 5 gold. The one in front of you probably would be worth 30." Cynthia explained in her teaching voice.

"30," Asher cursed internally. A while ago, he estimated that about 50 silver a month could pay for an townhouse in the city that would have been worth $700 a month. Based on that, this pen was worth over $40,000. In his old life, he spent most of it slaving away at odd jobs for that in an entire year. It wasn't like he had a family he could rely on.

"Yeah, the design is exquisite, and the advance core were rare. So it's only natural this will sell for a premium." Cynthia spoke so casually about so much money that Asher felt like kick his former reincarnation for not learn to make more. "Now it is time I teach you how to make an enchantment."

"But wait didn't you say I could not use magic till I formed my core. I don't believe I have done that yet." Asher felt confused by his teacher's decision especially since she told him it could be potential fatial.

"Yes, but I am leaving for the week because I have some business in a nearby town. I will teach you what you need to know now and see your progress in a week. This should be a good test for you. You have to stay motivated in your study even if I am not around." Cynthia encouraged Asher to do his best while she was away. She did not want to go during the early stage of Asher's development, but there was nothing she could do to avoid it.

Asher nodded and pull out an ink well quill and notebook to write down his newest lesson. Cynthia was always impressed how organized Asher was, but it was Asher old life that caused him to do this. He had always been very studious when it came to something he wanted to learn. And right now he really wanted to learn magic.

"For an enchantment, you need three things: source, conduit, and expression." Once Cynthia saw Asher was ready she began her lesson. "The source is any container of mana. For people, it's the mana pool. For magic items, the mana cystral. A conduit is the connector of the spiritual body throughout the physical body that mana passes through. In other word, they are your mana curciet. Magic item have them to. And finally the expression is final result of how the mana is displayed. It is how the spell is cast."

Cynthia watched as Asher scribbled away on his notebook. She paused so she could take a sip of tea allowing him to get caught up before continuing. "There are three forms of expression. The first you are familiar with: Circle casting. The magic circle is a visual expression of non visual information. It is the easiest to learn and the simplest to cast. The downside is that it is not flexible. If you wanted to cast a fireball spell 5 feet or 20 feet, you would have to memorize two spereate circles."

Asher nodded as he continue writing in a fast pace. "The second is incanctation. This is the verbal word giving form." Cynthia pointed her finger to the sky.

Oh devorior, lord of ash and ember.

I offer all that is for your consumption.

Reach thy hand and render thine asunder.

Fireball.

They word were chanted perfectly as energy formed at the end of her finger. Suddenly, a sphere of flames formed and shot into the sky before disappearing. "The advantage of this one is flexibility and power. You only have to visualize what you want to do within the confines of the spell. The downside is that it is a mouthful. And magic item with this expression also suffer as they have a charge time from when activated to the actual casting. The general rule is that more powerful the longer it will take."

Asher scratched his chin. "Inchanting doesn't seem that useful to be honest."

Cynthia smiled. "You are partly right. In close combat, it is worthless as it will take to much time to fire the spell. But the spell is almost always much more powerful than the other two forms of casting. It makes it prefect for long range spell casting and ritual magic items. Dispite this, it is not very popular since some spells are over 20 lines long."

Cynthia returned to her lecture. "The final expression is socercy. This is the hardest and most difficult to master. Magic items that use this usual can only be used by those who have a deep familiarity with the item. Unlike the other forms, it visualization of the action only." She held up her hand for a demonstration. Without warning, a fireball formed in her hand. It moved and shifted taking the shape of a small robin bird.

"This form requires a lot of practice and familiarity with the nature of the element you wish to use. Because of that, it is for the most part a lost art form." Asher watched the bird transfixed. He watched as it sat on Cynthia's hand as if it was supposed to be there. He reach out his hand to touch it only to get his finger burned. "The advantage is freedom. Unlike the other form, there is no set spells or abilities. As long as you can clear visualize it and have control over your mana, you can do what ever you want, and that concludes introduction to enchanting"

Asher looked over all his notes. Something was bothering him. The three forms had different uses and applications, yet something she had said about the magic items stuck with him. "Tell me can anything be use as a magic items power source not just mana crystals."

"So you noticed. Yes. Those are call channeling items. They use cannablize the mana of the user to fuel the enchantment. The only difference is that the circuits would go towards the handle were the user grabs it rather than a mana crystal." Cynthia happily explained. It was fantastic having someone who was so intuitive as a student of hers.

"Now for you assignment this week. You will have three. First you must finish forming your core. You should have the aetheric essence to do so. Now you have to find out how to make it." Asher opened his mouth to ask a question, but Cynthia replied before he could answer. "No I will not tell you how. You have to figure that part on your own. Second, brew a notice level potion with ingredient from the surround area. There are several you can make easy. Finally, learn one full length incantation."

Asher felt like he was about to break into a cold sweat. Sure he was really good in theory, but up till now all his studying had been in a book. The incantation will be the easiest to learn as it would just be memorization while he didn't even know were to start with forming the core. At the very least, he knew he had reached the minimum requirements. "So, how will be able to learn any of this with you gone?"

Cynthia had begun to put away the tea and pulled out a silver key and handed it to Asher. "I also want you check on the shop from time to time. You can feel free to use the books and labs at your convenience while I am gone."

As Cynthia got up with the tea tray, Asher got up and bowed, "Thank you, Teacher." Cynthia smiled happily at her adorable student. She pondered how many years it had been since she had last enjoyed teaching a student.