Chronicles of the True Wizard

Chapter 198 - Book 15

Felix once again found no one in the workshop but, that was expected. He was still a couple hours early and if anyone was there as early as he was, he was expecting them to be in the design room above him.

Flying around to the stairs, Felix peeked through the window and saw almost everyone there and waiting, other than Krinitor.

I don't think I've ever seen everyone together all at once.

Felix hopped up the stairs and walked into the room in the middle of their conversation.

Nova immediately leapt over and jumped into Aldahn's lap where she started trying to get into his pockets. That seems to have been his intention judging from his smile and the way he was playing with her, so Felix let them be.

Taking the open seat next to Aldahn and slightly separated from the rest of the group, Felix tuned into their conversation to see what was happening.

"So is he the one?" Inorim smirked in Fralyna's direction.

"We've been on one date- well, two… kind of. It's way too early, Inorim." Fralyna crossed her arms.

Looking over at her, Felix finally noticed that she wasn't wearing her normal looking clothes and leathers that could have been protective but rather, a far more revealing small sundress.

Edemari grinned, "Well, at least you like him. Who knows in just a few epochs you could be like Ezaldor here, on your… which kid is this one?"

"17th." Ezaldor nodded politely.

Inorim leaned in a little, "How do you choose?"

Ezaldor shrugged, "Process of elimination. Usually I look for the healthiest eggs then from there it's just about which I feel the most connection with."

"Does she get a say?" Edemari crossed her arms.

"She would, if she were conscious. Laying that many eggs, despite their size, is very taxing. She needs rest and I need to inseminate them as quickly as possible. So usually no, just for practicality reasons."

Edemari seemed satisfied with the answer and just settled a little deeper into her chair.

Fralyna sighed, "I'm not sure if I even want kids yet, you know?"

"Nothing wrong with that. I will say, I was the same as you but now looking back… It was definitely worth it." Inorim smiled.

Fralyna shook her head, "I mean when they're young they're easy. You just deal with them when they cry, feed them and so on. How do you deal with them later, when they start leveling? How do you not explode with anxiety? They are constantly in danger."

Inorim nodded, "Yup. You just have to do your best to teach them and hope that's enough. Not much else you can do. I can't speak for everyone, but I got used to the stress. It does help that they are much stronger than I ever was."

"Really? I feel like that would be worse. The danger's you don't know and all that." Edemari frowned.

Inorim just shrugged.

Fralyna quickly glanced over and noticed Edemari sulking a little then deftly switched the topic of conversation, "So anyways. Who do you think the client is?"

Inorim shrugged and Edemari started to slowly work her way out of her depression as the topic of conversation shifted.

"I mean, we don't even know what the job is yet. How are we supposed to guess the client?" Ezaldor looked over at Aldahn for confirmation.

Aldahn just nodded then went back to playing with Nova who he was currently tossing into the air and catching repeatedly.

"I mean, based on the budget alone, it has to be a god or something right? Also… why us?" Fralyna looked around at the rest of the group looking for an answer.

No one had any and most just shrugged.

The conversation continued for the rest of the couple hours until the appointment time. A few minutes before, Aldahn went to the front door to greet and lead them over to the design room.

None of the meeting rooms were big enough for everyone and Aldahn wanted everyone to hear the specifications of the job.

Felix shifted himself over to the side of the table so the client had a place to stand that wasn't directly behind him and waited. Nova curled up into his robes but he actually stowed Nova in his Soul Space just to be sure. Then, Felix joined the others in subtly peering through the door and window to try and catch the first glimpse of the client.

Just a few short moments later, and a couple minutes early for the allotted meeting time, Aldahn led a very tall and lithe individual that wasn't quite human, but very close, into the design room. They wore a very expensive looking set of short robes with a long coat overtop everything. The one feature that distinguished them from a normal human was their eyes.

Their eyes were both completely black orbs and they didn't seem to have eyelids of any kind. Around their eyes, they had either ritualistic or arcane looking tattoos though Felix had never seen anything even remotely similar before in terms of the lines and shapes. They weren't spell forms as far as he could tell so he just assumed they were likely just decorative.

Aldahn settled into a seat opposite Felix, on the other side of the table, leaving the head of the table empty for the client. They stood behind the chair rather than sitting in it and looked over the group of enchanter's gathered in the room.

[?] Zarus (Lvl ?)

As soon as their eyes darted over Felix, his soul lurched a little, just for a moment. Their eyes left him a moment later and his soul calmed. It was still slightly on edge, similar to how it had been near the tome in The Raven's nest and The Usorium castle ruins before that.

Pushing past the feeling, even though he couldn't see their level or grade, Zarus felt far stronger than anyone Felix had ever met before. It was something about the way they walked and moved, the way they were attentive and aware as well as some kind of presence they had. Standing next to him, he made Aldahn feel like he was as weak as the average integrated Felix had left behind.

The client smiled warmly and offered a slight bow, "My name is Zarus. Thank you for taking the time."

They all gave variations of acknowledgement, nodding, smiling and even waving.

Zarus looked amongst them, at no one in particular as he spoke, "We, the group I work for, have come into possession of something rather dangerous that we would like to transport. Unfortunately, anything that comes into contact with this object is… compromised. As such, we are in need of a container that will allow us to safely store and transport this object, minimizing the risk of a breach."

The enchanters slowly nodded as they started to grasp the contract itself.

Aldahn was the first to speak and break the silence, "You mentioned it would need to be at least an A grade enchantment, possibly more. This object is that volatile."

Zarus nodded once slowly again, almost as if he were bowing his head, "It is. Unfortunately, we cannot control the stability of its transport so the enchantment will also have to keep the object and itself, stable. The container will need to protect us from the object first and foremost while also protecting the object from the environment."

"I have to ask, why us? We aren't exactly creating A grade or higher enchantments… often." Inorim crossed his arms.

Zarus smiled at that, "I come here on a personal recommendation actually. I am not aware of who recommended you but my employer personally requested this shop. After looking into you, we are confident you will be more than capable of handling this."

Inorim nodded in acceptance then Ezaldor tapped a claw on the table, "You mentioned it corrupts everything it comes into contact with. How all encompassing is 'everything' in this circumstance?"

Zarus sighed, "Everything. All matter, aether and anima. Ambient included. The container will need to create a true vacuum within and use force tethers to keep the object centered and suspended at all times. Were the object to come into contact with the container itself… a lot of lives would be terminated prematurely. The enchantment itself will need to be robust as well as the object tends to pull on mana and anima."

Felix immediately frowned, Everything? Including the ambient anima and aether? Pulls on mana and anima? This 'object' sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?

To be fair, we didn't actually get a description of the object from the ravens or Thezan.

Yeah but… that feeling when he looked at me. It was the same. Plus the Usorium enchantments could have totally been destroyed by having the mana 'pulled' out of them.

Could just be an instinctive danger sense though. I suspect Zarus is at least in the high A grade if not S or higher.

Right. Still… Something about this is…

Yeah, something is off.

Tuning back into the conversation, Felix heard Zarus explaining something to Fralyna, "…return in one term with a sample of the object. At that point you will be able to test if your enchantment functions properly with a prototype."

Fralyna nodded.

"In terms of the materials for the container, how resilient must it be and how much is it protecting against?" Edemari frowned.

"Ideally the container is impenetrable from both the inside and out to anything below the S grade. While this requirement is high, hopefully the budget will allow you to acquire the proper materials to accomplish such a feat. Should you need more credits, feel free to stretch the budget well into the SSS range. Ideally it is not necessary however."

A lot of eyes widened at that, a few smirks leaked out but no one spoke for almost a minute as they all digested. Once again, Aldahn was the one to break the silence, "Size of the object and container?"

Zarus nodded, "The object is about the size of this…" Reaching into his coat, Zarus produced a small metal orb and placed it on the table. It was slightly larger than a golf ball and looked to be a completely seamless orb of grey metal to Felix's eye without the use of any skills.

He continued, "This is enchanted to detect anything it comes into contact with and is what we have been using to test various containers, tools and transportation methods. We have many so please take it. It does not have the same… gravity, as the real object but, it can be used to test the vacuum and suspension enchantments. It is very sensitive."

Aldahn reached over and picked up the orb then nodded to Zarus.

Zarus looked around for a few moments to see if anyone else had any questions then bowed once again, "Should you need anything further, feel free to leave a message at The Cavern."

A few of the other enchanter's eyes widened again and they looked amongst themselves with knowing looks that left Felix wondering.

Zarus then smiled then turned and walked out, assuring Aldahn he knew the way out.

Felix turned to Ezaldor next to him, "The Cavern?"

Ezaldor nodded in his direction, "Very high end tavern, inn and so on. Often used for handling business for Gods and Demigods."

Aldahn nodded and rose to his feet, taking Zarus' previous position, standing at the end of the table, "Alright. Given the material requirements, we likely want to order them as soon as possible otherwise, they may not be ready in the two terms we have. In terms of the design, this is what we're going to start with."

Drawing a massive system out on the board, all the other enchanters in the room, including Felix, just tried desperately to follow along. Aldahn had come up with the design so quickly and yet, Felix was completely blown away by the complexity.

Having finished the diagram utilizing all the boards in the room, Aldahn turned to everyone, "Any comments?"

They all skimmed through the rest of the design but no one had anything to say so Aldahn nodded and looked at Inorim, "You're handling the mana computer. Ezaldor you're on the measurement and normalization structure for the computer. Edemari, you'll be working on the defensive enchantments for the the container itself. Fralyna, the suspension and vacuum enchantments. Felix, you're on mana batteries, the mana distribution and normalization."

Everyone nodded as Aldahn assigned them their jobs.

"Every enchantment needs to be reviewed by me and if you need any help, come to me first. I'm going to be floating around to make sure everything is on track and all the enchantments will function properly together. Ideally we have a prototype in a term to test. Any questions?"

No one had any so Aldahn pointed at one section of the board in specific, "I doubt anyone has any concerns and you likely haven't even heard of these materials, but any thoughts on the materials I've initially selected?"

Once again, no one said anything so Aldahn nodded, "Good. Felix should be the only other one who needs to acquire materials right now so Felix, you're with me."

Felix nodded and hopped to his feet then walked over to the door.

Aldahn led him towards the lobby then turned to Felix, "To keep things fast, mind opening a portal to the teleportation hub?"

Felix nodded and did so with the new portal spell form he had just recently finished the mold for. The 5 levels of spell focus he had saved from this spell form made a huge difference not only in the spell's complexity but also in how much mana was required to cast it. Felix pulled the spell form free of the mold then inserted the anchor he had been provided and cast the spell.

Aldahn immediately stepped through followed by Felix right after he stowed the mold.

Arriving in a familiar looking room in the hub, an attendant appeared almost immediately and Aldahn spoke with them briefly before another portal opened and they stepped through.

The shop they walked into, Felix had never seen anything like it before. There was a large circular stage in the middle of the room that may have just been a large table. All along the walls were glass encased shelves that held raw ores, ingots, balls, gasses, liquids and every other form, shape and state of matter.

Just like Raidran's, the shop was otherwise empty. Just a massive open space that held no customers.

A few moments passed and an elven woman drifted into the room on a small circular platform. Her dress billowed unnaturally as she moved and the platform held her just a couple inches off the ground.

[?] Nela (Lvl ?)

"Aldahn, it is a pleasure. You must be Felix." She bowed to both of them then smiled in a very welcoming way, "Shall we begin?"

Aldahn nodded and Felix followed the two of them over to the center of the room where they all stood around a large stage in the middle.

Nela waved her hand over the stage and the top layer disappeared, either too fast for Felix to see or it simply teleported out somehow. Rather than a table or a stage, the top disappeared to reveal a large sandbox. Felix was certain it wasn't actually sand as it was filled with tiny granules each of a slightly different color.

"Now that you've met with the client, you have more information to provide me on what you are looking for?" Nela smiled warmly at Aldahn as her fingers gently came together in front of her.

"Needs to be impenetrable to anything in the A grade. Obviously I'd like to surpass that so lets get it as far into the S grade as possible." Aldahn crossed his arms.

Nela closed her eyes and slightly bowed her head then reopened them and waved her hand gracefully over the sand. The powder then rose up and formed a box, just as Felix had expected based on Mihto's course which seemed to function on a similar concept. The granules here though were much finer and so the box it formed, was difficult to distinguish from an actual object. Mihto's platforms on the other hand were very obviously made of granules.

"Size?" She smiled once again.

Aldahn bit his lip in thought for a moment then nodded, "Let's say it's a 1 meter cube."

She waved once again, and the box grew to the exact size Aldahn had specified. They went back and forth on more of the basic requirements and gradually, the projection of a cube disappeared and the form of a very intricate box began to form.

They used different materials for the box itself and the bumpers around the edges. There were multiple layers of various materials, each one serving a slightly different purpose and complementing each-other in their functions.

"For the enchantment layer, we're gonna need some very mana repellant and very strong material. Then we'll inlay something very conductive into it." Aldahn nodded in the direction of the box, his two hands resting on the edge of the sandbox.

She simply nodded and gestured for them to follow as she hovered over to one of the walls and pointed.

"It is an excellent thing your budget is so large this time."

Aldahn nodded, "Yeah, for what they need though, it's fitting."

Looking into the glass box she had pointed towards, Felix saw a solid red chunk of some ore. He was curious how effectively it was and so he reached out with his mana senses and tried to feel at the aether around the ore.

Surprisingly, he found the case full of aether everywhere except, right up against the ore. Almost like it formed a barrier around it, the aether simply refused to approach the ore in any way forming a void around it.

He resolved himself to put it to the test when they bought some and if it was effective, to buy some himself for training purposes. Though it was very expensive, he only needed a small piece to train his mana control so he was hoping after his commission on this job, he would have more than enough.

They continued to discuss various materials, adding and removing from alloys, thickening and thinning the layers until they were both satisfied.

Aldahn paid Nela and she informed them that the box would be complete in 2 dekads. Aldahn bid her farewell and they portaled back to the teleportation hub.

"Over Capacity, right? That's where you have the discount?"

Felix nodded and Aldahn gave the name of the shop to the attendant. Rather than the portal opening directly inside the shop, this one opened right outside the door. Hovering through the portal, Felix opened the door and Aldahn, unable to fly himself, hopped through into the shop.

Menan was at the back serving another customer so they waited while Aldahn looked around and examined the shop with a blank stare.

After waiting a few minutes for the machine to finish, the other customer left and they approached his desk at the back. Menan stretched his arms out in a welcoming gesture as they approached, "Felix, welcome back. Who's this ye brought 'ith ya?"

Felix grinned, "My boss, Aldahn. He happens to also be my wallet for right now."

Aldahn grinned and cocked a brow, "He's not wrong. Since you're the enchanter working on mana supply and distribution, what batteries are we buying?"

Felix nodded and thought about it for a second, "Definitely Instant so it can sustain sudden impacts. As for capacity, I think we can get away with 8 A grade common batteries. One for each corner, right?"

Aldahn nodded, "I agree. It's pushing the original budget a little but we were given permission to do so."

Menan looked at each of them incredulously as a smirk grew on his face. As soon as he realized they were being serious, his smile disappeared and he frowned, "I don't even know if I 'ave the stones ter fill 'at."

"How long will it take you to get them?" Aldahn crossed his arms.

Menan sighed, "I can 'et em fer ya… two to three dekads?"

Aldahn nodded, "That works for us."

Menan sighed and opened his mouth but Aldahn already anticipated what he was gonna say and opened a transaction screen to pay for the batteries.

Menan shook his head and grumbled as he accepted the transaction, "Give a D grade kid a 10% discount and he comes 'ack 'n' buys A grade batteries in less 'an an epoch. Fuckin' …"

Aldahn chuckled a little under his breath as they walked over to the front of the shop.

"Can I just portal directly to Inscripticae?" Felix looked up at Aldahn.

He smirked, "You never tried that?"

Felix shook his head.

"The city redirects all portals back to the hub. There are some exceptions for intra building functions but those are managed by The System."

Felix nodded in understanding then opened a portal to a set of completely random coordinates. As he filled the spell form with mana, he felt it lurch and the destination shift. He had no hope of pulling it to wherever he had pointed it to but pulled on it anyways just to test himself.

To his complete surprise, he wasn't able to shift the destination at all. It wasn't immovable, he did managed to tug on it but he wasn't able to move it more than a few inches from where it was being pulled to.

After a few moments of fighting the city itself, the portal opened to the teleportation hub, despite his best efforts. He sighed and walked through followed by Aldahn who didn't seem to realize what he had been trying to do.

Talking to an attendant, they portaled back to Inscripticae and Aldahn quickly met with each of the other enchanters.

Finding an empty table of his own, Felix sat down on the stool and got to work.

The first step was to design the enchantment and luckily, he had his Soul Garden's time dilation to give him as much time as he needed.

Felix had also done something very similar just a couple dekads ago with the mana battery buttons on the dueling jacket so he already had some experience with the task at hand. What made this one tricky was just that it would have to be able to handle thousands of times more mana, delivered far faster with many times more precision.

He would have to do an initial pass of normalizing the mana, just in case, and some load balancing so that one section of the enchantment didn't starve the rest of it.

As useful as his Soul Garden was, he had no way to test his designs inside so once he had come up with a number of designs, Felix returned to his body and tested them. He didn't have as much mana as even one of the 8 batteries they were going to use but he figured his mana pool was enough for testing purposes.

Instead of inscribing his designs onto a scrap sheet of metal, which would take a long time for each iteration, Felix simply constructed his designs out of mana. He held the enchantment, simulated as a spell form, before him and pushed his entire mana pool through it, reabsorbing the mana back into his pool after it came out.

His task was no doubt the easiest amongst the enchanters of Inscripticae but still, he was surprised when Aldahn simply approved the first design he showed him, "We'll test it in the prototype but I don't think there'll be any problems. Just be ready to redo it if there are. In the meantime, can you help Fralyna?"

Felix nodded and walked over to Fralyna's worktable where she was very carefully inscribing an enchantment into a sheet of metal. Felix waited until she was done so as not to interrupt her.

"Oh, hey Felix. What's up?"

"I finished the mana distribution design. Aldahn told me to come help you?"

"Oh sweet. Yeah I could use it, thanks." Fralyna pointed to a stack of papers, "Can you inscribe those designs onto scrap sheets for me? I need to test all these to see which works the best."

Felix nodded then walked over and looked down at the stack of paper almost an inch tall, which his Scan Literature skill had already scanned and memorized.

Inscribing all the enchantments would have been a waste of time, for Felix, so instead he did exactly what he had done with his own designs and simulated the designs as spell forms.

As he ran through the designs, he noted any flaws or issues then circled them on their respective pages. There were a few that didn't seem to have any issues so those, he inscribed onto sheets so Fralyna could compare them herself.

Once she had finished with her test sheet, Fralyna looked through the stack and nodded along as she read through the issues Felix had pointed out.

"Enchantment simulation skill?" She didn't even look up from the papers.

"Something like that."

"Makes a lot of sense how you were done so fast. Sweet, I haven't actually ever worked with anima or aether warding nodes before so that skill is gonna be super useful."

"Happy to help." Felix smiled.

Working with Fralyna on the suspension and vacuum enchantments was far more interesting than his own task had been. By far the most interesting part to Felix were the nodes. He had never seen nodes that acted specifically on the aether or ambient anima. He had adapted nodes himself to affect the aether but never heard of nodes like these.

Together, Felix and Fralyna fine tuned the enchantments until they were both satisfied with the effect. They had to make arrays of the nodes, minimize wasted mana in the overlap while ensuring the space between nodes weren't weak points. They tuned the arrangement, size and shaping of the nodes until they couldn't come up with any further iterations.

To test it, Felix himself pushed against the nodes with his mana control and found he couldn't push mana through which meant he was satisfied. For Fralyna's testing, they physically tried to push mana into the wards. It wasn't impossible if they pushed with all their strength and used some Force spells but they didn't have any leads on how to make it stronger anyways.

It also came as a complete shock to Felix that he actually had almost twice Fralyna's strength, despite the fact that she was a much higher level and almost two grades up.

"When you neglect a stat, it ends up being very far behind. I probably have higher main stats though. Also, rarity is… well everything. Being an exile, I suspect you have a much higher rarity race, class and profession." Fralyna shrugged.

Considering we have the same main stats and how stupidly high my Intelligence and Dexterity are…

"I guess. Still, I thought the grades made more of a difference." Felix shrugged.

Fralyna nodded, "That depends on rarity too. You get a huge surplus of stats when you evolve but the amount is highly dependent on the rarity of the race you choose."

"Gotcha. Just… didn't expect it is all."

"If you ever end up hanging out with higher rarity people, you'll notice the difference." Fralyna sighed out of her nose but smiled, like she wasn't necessarily happy with the fact but she'd come to accept it.

Felix frowned, "Can't you make up for the stats later?"

"Sure, it becomes harder and harder as you level though. Let's say you've got a Legendary E grade everything and keep the same rarity in D grade. Your E grade stats would be contributing maybe 5% of your total stats. A common race, class or profession in E grade then, doesn't make that much of a difference. Let's say you were common everything for E and D grade then you lucked out and got Legendary everything for C grade. At the end of C grade, you'd be about 80% of the way there on stats compared to having Legendary everything throughout."

Felix scoffed, "That's not bad at all."

Fralyna smiled knowingly, "No, it's not. Issue is, it becomes harder and harder to upgrade rarity. You need to accomplish things, kill high level creatures and be amongst the best. You need to qualify for the race. While you're in the E or D grade and stuck with Common everything, it's nearly impossible to accomplish things worthy of upgrading. You're stats alone are much lower then, there are the skills."

Felix winced, "You're stuck with buying high rarity skills which are super expensive or inventing them?"

"Which is very difficult unless you're a genius, yup." She shrugged, "It's not like it matters that much though. You can live a great life off of a Common profession for example, if you work hard enough. It only really matters if you want to be a god or something. The vast majority of us don't care. Take Inorim or Ezaldor for example, both have partners and kids and I bet you they're completely satisfied with their lives. I want something similar, if I can find the right partner, and so it doesn't matter to me much."

"There are a lot more people just… being normal? Than I would have expected considering, this is all new to me."

"Sure. I'm sure a lot of people from your planet were super motivated to change their lives, seeing the integration as the perfect opportunity to finally start over and to get strong. That'll die out pretty fast. The initial burst of motivation is often attributed as one of the reasons a higher percentage of integrateds hit high levels and rarities compared to the rest of the multiverse. That difference is maybe 5-10% more people in Uncommon or Rare rarities though, not hugely significant."

"So you just have to be lucky out here then?"

"Sort of, yes and no. It's worse for integrateds because on the other end, there are significantly less Epic or higher rarities, almost half as much. It's harder to accomplish feats and qualify for the classes, races and professions. Out here, you get to that rarity most often by being born into it or pledging your loyalty to a god early on."

"Oh… not the luck I meant."

"I know. You can get super lucky and do it yourself, find the right feats to accomplish and get ahead of the curve, it happens. Just… not often. It's a lot easier to just start out with a Legendary class, profession, race and full roster of skills along with weapons, armor, spells and protective items."

"Wouldn't the feats mean less then?"

"Yeah but, you can take on bigger feats and riskier fights with the armor and protective equipment. With an infinite pile of escape items alone, you could retry a fight an infinite number of times until you got it. You can also train in perfect safety against the best of the best. Ignoring all of that, just being taught great skills can make seemingly impossible feats, easy."

Felix winced, "That seems… rough."

Fralyna shrugged and giggled a little, "Again, only if you care about being super strong. It matters little to us. Edemari's husband, my brother, probably would've lived if he was stronger but… that situation is so rare and honestly… he was kind of an idiot putting himself in way too much danger. Was that way his whole life, ever since he was a kid."

Felix nodded, "I see."

"In the meantime, people like you and Aldahn can help us out with your simulation skills and high strength scores. Why would I need high strength myself when I can just get you to lift things for me?" She looked at him with a mischievous smile.

Showing their design to Aldahn, he immediately had a huge list of notes for them. Most of them were minor but he also showed them a much tighter array that alternated the shapes and sizes of the nodes resulting in a much stronger enchantment overall.

They quickly went back to the drawing board and tested Aldahn's grid then iterated from there. Aldahn's wasn't actually better, it was much less efficient but it did point them in a new direction. They ended up pointing each node in the grid at a slightly different, and precisely calculated, angle which made the field it produced much thicker.

They went back to him for approval and Aldahn gave them a small list of minor changes. He conditionally approved the enchantment as soon as those were done and got them to start working on the components for the prototype.

They used materials for the prototype that Aldahn had gone out and bought. The materials he provided were much nicer than the testing materials they used but still no where near the level of the final materials they had bought.

Felix worked on and finished the 8 mana distribution components for the prototype before helping Fralyna again. He only ended up inscribing 1 of the 6 sides of her enchantment but that had still taken almost a day.

The other enchanters were also done with their components of the prototype so they started to piece things together and correct the kinks they found. Making enchantments work by themselves was one thing, making sure they worked perfectly together was another.

Aldan had given them precise numbers for their inputs and outputs so the process was relatively smooth but there were still some hiccups they encountered. Most of them had to do with slight alignment issues and once corrected, the pieces fit together fairly easily.

The end result of their prototype looked nothing like a finished product. Inorim's computer was not in the box at all but rather inscribed out onto a stack of metal plates that sat next to the box. There were long strips of inscribed metal ribbons and mana conductive wiring attaching the two.

Felix's mana distribution sections looked like they were glued onto the corners but overall, it was functional.

Aldahn had already picked up both the final box and the batteries for the final product. For the prototype though, they used much smaller batteries that they had in storage. Aldahn also used a small amount of the final materials, extra he had paid for, to create a small inert enchantment just to test if the material choice would function while in contact with the object.

With just a couple days left until the prototype was put to the test, they rigorously tested it and corrected any mistakes they found. They used the testing orb Zarus had given them initially but the vacuum and suspension runes easily passed that test after some minor tweaks. More challenging, was trying to make everything as strong as possible.

Just because the orb was suspended, didn't mean the enchantments would function when the object inside was actively fighting against them. They simulated that as best they could with enchanted balls, discs and even just spells right up until the day came to test the prototype.

Even before he had knocked on the door, Felix knew Zarus was there.

His soul immediately tensed more than it ever had in the Usorium castle ruins. Felix immediately collapsed in the middle of the workshop floor, his entire body screaming in pain.

With his soul suffusing his body, he felt everything tensing and compressing.

Forcing his eyes open, through the tears, he saw his every vein bulging with each heart beat as he was squeezed like a balloon. A very similar experience to the one he had with the only dish he didn't finish at Jozusto. An simultaneous feeling of nothingness and infinite pressure all around him, trying to consume him from every direction washed over him. He knew it wasn't real, he knew it was a memory or flashback but even then, it was nearly impossible to push back against.

He could feel the others in the shop around him, trying to help, see what was wrong but all he could do was push back and try to forcefully calm himself. He heard someone enter the lobby in the back of his mind and felt one of the presences around him disappear but nothing more than that.

Pushing back against his instincts, Felix finally managed to wrestle some control from it after a minute that had felt like an eternity. He climbed his way to his feet using the tables around him and used the table closest to him to hold himself up.

His body was still tight and being attacked by his own soul but the pain gradually lessened to a bearable degree as he learned to fight back. He was still hovering at under half of his maximum health as his soul twitched and tightened counteracting his natural regeneration.

Looking around him, Fralyna was standing closest and looked like she wanted to help him physically but was worried to touch him. Edemari was a little further back and just seemed stunned while Ezaldor and Inorim were either confused or angry, he couldn't quite tell.

He assured them he was fine as he continued to push back and slowly regain control.

Across the workshop floor, Felix saw Zarus walking in with Aldahn. They both walked over to him and it was actually Zarus who approached him first.

"I apologize. I know even a sample of the object can have serious effects on some and it seems you are particularly sensitive." Zarus reached forwards and produced a vial in their hand which Felix was immediately wary of.

He carefully took it though and Zarus shared with him the identification which made him much more comfortable.

Felix drank the liquid and felt it immediately calm him down until he was no longer losing health. His soul was still tight and on edge but it was manageable and no longer painful. The liquid was the same thing they had drank at Jozusto but instead of a casual drink, it was more of an elixir with a much stronger effect.

"I always keep some of this on me just in case. You eventually get used to it but… I apologize, I should have warned you all further. You have just had the most serious reaction I have ever seen." Zarus stood back up and inspected everyone else to see if they needed supplements to calm them down as well.

He quickly decided the rest of them were fine and Felix reassured them all by standing on his own and generally returning to his normal stance.

"As you can see, our containers are completely insufficient for holding even a sample of the object within them. We are hoping a specially designed container will produce different results but unfortunately, it may not be possible to completely contain it."

"How are you going to transfer it into the prototype and keep things safe?" Aldahn looked concerned after Felix's dramatic reaction. On top of that, he and every other enchanter in the room looked to be reacting to it in different ways.

Felix's reaction was the most dramatic by far but the others each reacted in their own ways as well. Some shifted uncomfortably, others scowled, some twitched and Inorim was fighting a constant wince that was gradually beginning to win more often than not.

"I have tools we've devised to move it safely. Especially a sample this small, shouldn't be a problem. If you'd like to stand back, I can perform the tests myself." Looking directly at Felix, "Taking it out of its current temporary container is going to be much worse, would you like to leave for now and come back afterwards?"

Felix shook his head, "No thank you. I want to get used to it as much as possible, can't have something like this happen in the future."

Aldahn didn't seem to agree but didn't have a chance to argue as Zarus nodded and with a flourish of his hand, produced a small box just a few inches across, almost like a jewelry box.

They prepared the prototype along with the sample of final materials on the table then Zarus set himself up and stood behind the box.

As they prepared, Felix managed to wrestle almost complete control of his soul back. He could still feel that it was on edge but it was no longer controlling him. Now, it was more like a feeling or instinct that he was aware of along with goose bumps across his entire soul. He knew this was going to be worse but was hoping his calming his soul down now would help lessen the impact.

Zarus briefly looked around the room to ensure everyone was prepared then produced a long stick that was somewhere between a high tech screwdriver and a wand. He carefully brought the tip of it over to the small box and with his other hand, pressed the latch on the box.

Opening his eyes Felix looked around and found himself in small and dark room on a soft bed that was much too large for him. He briefly checked over his entire body and his status screen and found nothing wrong, in fact, he seemed entirely healthy.

Before he had a chance to check on his soul bonded companions, he heard Grim's voice in his head, You're awake.

Felix instinctively nodded as he rubbed at his eyes, What happened. Where am I?

Nap room in Inscripticae I think. I only see through your senses though so you're going to have to confirm.

I take it… Zarus opened the box and I just…

Again, I can only see what you see from in here. I couldn't even feel it myself.

Right.

Felix hopped to his feet and opened the door next to him and found that he was in fact, in Inscripticae's nap room. He looked over into the lobby and saw no one so he headed back into the workshop where he saw everyone toiling away at their enchantments. Zarus was nowhere to be seen but the prototype had been completely disassembled so Felix assumed some time had to have passed.

Aldahn was the first to notice Felix enter the workshop and rushed over to him, the others occupied with their enchanting.

"Are you ok?" Aldahn placed a hand on Felix's shoulder and looked him over with concern.

"I feel fine. How long was I out for?"

"A couple days now. We gave you another tranquility elixir immediately and Zarus left another three with us in case you need them." Aldahn reached his hand forwards and offered Felix three vials.

Felix looked down at them then reached forwards and stowed them all, "Thanks."

"If you still aren't feeling well, I can inscribe your enchantments."

Felix shook his head quickly, "No, I feel great actually. How'd the test go?"

"Well, all things considered. The box managed to hold the object, which I couldn't identify by the way, for a few seconds before it pulled the enchantments free and one of the enchantments exploded. Zarus was ready though and quickly removed it. When we tested it on the final materials though, no such effect. The final product should work just fine. He seemed pleased with… well something so… that's good."

"What did it look like?"

Aldahn frowned, "The object?"

"Yeah."

"It's less of an object… it just looked like a tiny droplet of completely black liquid."

"I see. Annoying I didn't get to see it for myself."

Aldahn shook his head, "Yours was the most severe reaction but we all felt it too. Inorim and Edemari collapsed and curled up into balls on the floor, Fralyna barely caught herself on the desk and Ezaldor very quickly left the room."

"But you managed to get the necessary testing done? See how everything reacts and whatnot?"

"Yeah, took a few hours for us all to get over our own reactions after moving you."

Felix nodded, "Alright well, I better get started on inscribing then, make up for lost time."

Aldahn smirked a little, "Sure. You need to make a template first and have at least three of us approve it, one of which has to be me. These materials are too expensive to just wing it. If you haven't done one before, see if you can help Fralyna for a day or two to get an idea."

"Sure, sounds good."

Felix walked over to Fralyna's desk and waited for her to look up from her work.

"Oh Felix, how are you feeling?"

"Much better, thanks. I've never done templates before and Aldahn told me to help you for a bit to get an idea?"

"Sure. I'm working on mine right now."

Felix ended up spending two days with Fralyna less because he needed the experience with templates and more because he wanted to help. Her enchantment was the largest in size and required the most actual labor.

Templates were rather simple, just the enchantment cutout of a thin sheet of some material that reminded Felix of ceramic. They needed it to have a very high melting point and insulating properties. Due to the final process they were using to enchant the box, the template would first be used to melt the same pattern into the final piece.

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They would then stack the sheet of the final material onto another, with no holes melted through it, and fill the channel they had created with mana conductive material. Finally they add the last layer of another unmarred sheet, creating an enchantment sandwich, then fuse them all together at a high temperature. Effectively, they were perfectly embedding the inlay and enchantment within the sheet and in the end, the sheet would seem like one solid sheet instead of a stack of sheets.

Felix's enchantment wasn't actually a sheet though and wasn't anywhere close to the object itself so his was less stringent. For his, he would have to use much thicker and stronger channels with more mana conductive material because his enchantment actually handled the most mana at all times.

Moving onto his own template, he only had to make one small one that he could simply use 8 times so it only took him a fraction of the time it was taking Fralyna. His enchantment was also much less complex. Aldahn had him widen the channels in the template a few times but apparently, his enchantment didn't have any issues when they tested the prototype so he didn't need to change anything.

HIs enchantment was also the least complex, smallest and furthest from the object, but he was still happy it had worked flawlessly.

Before using the templates, Aldahn had him float around to help the other enchanters finish their templates, first Fralyna then Edemari. Once he helped them both finish theirs, Aldahn had already helped the other two finish as well and they collectively reviewed each-others templates.

No one actually had any issues but they were all being as cautious as possible so they pointed out every miniscule thing they saw. They did end up fixing a few of them but for almost everything someone pointed out, they all agreed it wouldn't matter or was fixable in the final enchantment.

They marked every flaw that was pointed out with a special quill that essentially highlighted the area in red then Aldahn handed out the materials they would be enchanting for the final product.

Felix immediately got to work on his own section after Aldahn demonstrated specific quirks of the material and templates to all of them. He wasn't actually enchanting any of the mana repelling material but he was going to have to coat his enchantment in it.

Though he tried to focus on the enchantment itself, once it became clear he was going to finish with plenty of time to spare, he let himself get a little distracted. The first corner, he focused on but every one after that was just cloning the first and so he toyed around with the materials a little.

He didn't compromise anything but he used the materials, while he still had access to them, to push his mana control to the limit. At no point was he able to beat the material but he was able to push mana closer to it.

With one corner done, he also tested pulling on the mana in the channels, the same way the object would, but that was like trying to lift a building. He didn't feel like it was actually moving at all.

With his section done, Aldahn retrieved the batteries they had ordered.

[A - Common] Mana Battery (100,000,000/100,000,000)

[Normal][Instant]

A battery containing mana.

The capacity was completely insane and Felix had to hold himself back from gawking at the batteries as they were slotted into the enchanted section he had made.

They briefly tested everything as much as they could just to catch any issues ahead of time then they both split off to help other enchanters with their larger sections.

Over the course of another two dekads, the box was slowly assembled, each piece forming a more complete picture of the final product. They fused each one together once everything was aligned properly and conducted progressively more extensive testing before they committed to fusing the materials together permanently.

Luckily, they didn't find anything to cause them alarm and none of it had to be disassembled so, all together, they performed the final fusing process followed by many chemical baths and a few layered coatings on the outside.

[A - Arcane] Containment Cell

[Enchanted]

A box designed to contain a very specific object and prevent it from coming in contact with anything else.

Felix was initially disappointed but Aldahn and everyone else's excitement caused him to be confused, "I thought we wanted to hit S grade if possible?"

Aldahn chuckled, "We did, in a sense. It will never read S grade on the identification unless the majority of the materials are S grade. On the other hand, Arcane is one of the rarities that sits outside the standard rarity progression. I doesn't necessarily mean it's better than A grade, but considering the enchantment we put on it and some of the materials we used, we can be fairly sure that is what it means in this case."

Felix shrugged as he thought through the implications of this knowledge on everything else he knew of using the Arcane rarity, "Oh, sweet."

Aldahn walked over to stand in front of and address all the enchanters, "I will go personally deliver the box but two days from now, we can do a dinner. I figure you want to spend some time with your families and whatnot, this was a long one with a lot of late nights. We'll figure out where later but… great work everyone."

I think I'm actually looking forward to this one. I don't love dinners or hanging out with people but… that enchantment was fun and… I don't mind celebrating it I think.

It helps that they are all still better and more experienced enchanters than you, so you can talk to them and have an interesting conversation.

Yeah but still, I also appreciate them all being so helpful and patient with teaching me.

Are you starting to actually care for them?

Maybe. I'm not sure.

The enchanters left one by one followed by Aldahn, who brought the box with him, and Felix just behind him. For the first time Felix had ever seen, Aldahn actually locked the door to Inscripticae as it was empty.

Felix waved goodbye to the others as they parted ways and he headed straight for the Adventurers guild. First he wanted to see if there were any credits waiting for him or messages because they were supposed to debrief with Dogran. After that he had to go pick up his new outfit. He still had just over 5 days until he had to be at Eramith, according to the library, so he figured he would kill time training or in the library.

He also wanted to do some re

Felix smiled and nodded to Grim then finished casting the portal. They all stepped through into a completely pitch black cavern filled with coral pillars.

Once through, Felix immediately started funneling mana into the portal once again and this time, finally input his actual destination, Telviras.

He had almost expected his portal to be resisted but all he got was the standard slight alignment of the anchor multiplexor as he opened the portal back to Telviras and stepped through.

He was immediately greeted by an attendant who, when presented with his registration, frowned deeply at their pad for a few moments.

"It says you were… I guess it's a mistake."

Felix shrugged, preferring not to offer an explanation.

"Clothes are mandatory in Telviras though."

Felix nodded, "I'm on my way to pick up a new outfit right now. My other one was just destroyed… completely."

The attendant nodded and handed Felix a very basic E grade robe which he donned just before being released.

Bummer, I was kind of hoping to use the Kraken leather for something else. Even selling it would have probably netted me a decent amount.

Felix could tell Grim was still hesitant as he spoke, It was… infected?

Yeah, couldn't save it. Wasn't suffused with my soul. Maybe if it was I could have tried. Without that, it was eaten almost instantly. Weren't you there for that?

That was about when I started to feel… it for the first time and I… wasn't paying attention.

Felix's first stop was Raidran's and he didn't bother teleporting there, preferring to exert his freedom by flying himself. He was late but he needed clothes and a few more hours wasn't going to change the fact that he was already a couple days late.

He held Grim under one arm and Nova held herself to his back with her claws as neither of them wanted in his Soul Space at the moment.

While Felix didn't blame them, he also knew their fears were unfounded. In his Soul Space, he could easily ensure they would be kept separate.

Flying in through the employee entrance, Felix let himself into the shop and immediately realized he was interrupting when he saw Rainoth and Kordran talking with someone. He waited off to the side but when he realized who they were meeting with, he shot over.

"Aldahn, you're alive?"

"Felix?" Aldahn looked at Felix incredulously, clearly doubting his actually being there for a few moments.

Felix pushed through and ignored his disbelief, offering no proof that he was real, "I take it the others…"

Aldahn sighed and bowed his head, "Everyone else… Well, except Krinitor who was busy. Everyone who worked on the box."

Felix winced, "I think that was my fault. I'm… sorry."

Aldahn looked at Felix with a cocked brow.

"They also killed everyone in Shade's Wrath an-"

Aldahn shook his head along with both Rainoth and Kordran, "It isn't your fault Felix, even if you connected the two groups. That was a God, one of the stronger ones and… It's no one's fault."

Both Rainoth and Kordran nodded in agreement.

"I heard them mention Plague as if they were an individual, is that a god."

They all looked at each-other, Kordran pursing his lips and Rainoth sighing. Aldahn nodded solemnly, "Yeah, they're a neutral god."

Rainoth frowned and crossed her arms, "How'd you get out anyways?"

"They used me like a compass to find what they were looking for then transported me with it. It was so… loud? That I managed to cast a portal and slip out once I came to."

Aldahn chuckled, "Bet they didn't think some random D grade kid could cast a fucking portal. Smart thinking."

"Think they're gonna hunt you down?" Rainoth looked between both of them but her eyes ultimately settled on Felix.

"They could…" Aldahn scratched at his chin.

"I doubt it… There was… an incident right as I got out. The object… broke free." Felix winced.

The others didn't seem to have context so they looked at each-other with growing confusion before Felix elaborated, "They're dead."

They all looked very confused with that statement but Felix shrugged, "I was lucky to get out when I did. I saw it through the portal right as I closed it. It consumed them completely."

Though they still evidently doubted Felix's story, they were less confused and somewhat accepting.

"Anyways, any chance I could get some clothes?" Felix looked at Rainoth with a smile.

She nodded and chuckled as she finally realized what he was wearing, "Come on, follow me."

Walking into the backroom with her, Felix immediately caught sight of his finished set of robes. They didn't perfectly match the drawings Krinitor had shown him, the outer cloak or coat was more grey than white and there was no arcane blue pattern adorning it. The style and cut were slightly different too but Felix didn't know or care why.

[C - Legendary] Robes of the Exiled Prodigy

[Regenerative]

A set of robes custom designed and tailored for use by The Exile of the 256th Integration. Designed to be enchanted and disenchanted with ease and crafted with the highest quality materials, this set of robes is of peak quality in the C grade without enchantments.

Supply the robes with mana to regenerate portions of it and destroying any severed pieces. Enchantments inscribed into the fabric will also be remembered, as a function of the Memory Crystal threads.

I don't love the name but… I don't know that I can really complain.

As if Rainoth had read his thoughts, "The name will change when you affinize to it. This is just based on what we know about you."

Felix smiled in relief and nodded to Rainoth then walked up to the mannequin wearing the robes and lightly touched them, "You haven't affinized them yet, right?"

"Correct. There are also boots there but they aren't fabric, just high quality leather."

Looking down, Felix saw the boots and nodded appreciatively, "Thanks."

[C - Epic] Wyvern Leather Boots

[Regenerative]

A simple set of high quality boots crafted from C-Grade Wyvern Leather.

Felix turned to Rainoth, "To affinize the robes, am I replacing the soul in the memory crystal threading or just affinizing that anima to myself?"

Rainoth shrugged, "Can do either. Replacing it is better but harder because you need to make sure the anima you replace it with is imbued with the right intent. You want it to memorize and attune, so to speak, itself to the shape. You don't want it to try and hold the robes solid but you do want it to be able to recreate the shape when it's regenerating."

To make it easier on himself, Felix pulled some of the anima from the robes right to the surface and reached into it. Feeling out the intentions already in the robes, Felix summoned some of the anima from his Soul Space and matched it as closely as he could then forcefully replaced all the anima in the robes. He made sure to compress the anima he pushed in to at least the density of his outer soul layers first and surprisingly, found he could have compressed it much further.

Before, his limit was the density of the layer suffusing his body, his body layer as he was dubbing it. Now, it felt like he could go much further and make everything much denser.

His assumption was that it was because of his time fighting the object but he wasn't entirely sure. He made a mental note to revisit his soul layers and compress them later on now that he could.

With the robes affinized and suffused with his own soul, he could actually feel them like an extension of his body. Not that he was completely aware of them, he couldn't feel through them like he could his own skin, they were more like hair or nails but still, they felt like they were his.

Donning the robes and boots, Felix was completely unsurprised to find that they were definitely the most comfortable clothing he had ever worn. They were a little looser than he would have liked, more wizard like and less tight but he couldn't really complain. Realistically they shouldn't ever get in the way, Rainoth knew what she was doing and had specifically tailored them not to. Still, it was instinctual to him that loose and baggy could potentially interfere or get caught on something.

The boots were comfortable, just as comfortable as his last boots but otherwise, didn't really stand out in comparison to the robes. To complete the wizarding look, Felix pulled out the hat that had been cowering his in Soul Space and placed it on his head.

Once he had the robes all equipped and adjusted, Rainoth looked at him and nodded, her face painted with indecision more than pride.

She looked him up and down then stepped closer, "As for the other thing…" She reached forwards and a pair of shorts appeared in her hands that Felix quickly stowed.

He didn't have much time to look them over but from the brief bit he saw, he was more than satisfied. All he cared about was that they wouldn't be destroyed like his last ones had been.

Heading back into the main shop, Aldahn looked Felix over and nodded in approval, "Very nice. I assume you'll move the enchantment over to these?"

Felix had no idea if he would. Theoretically he could feed the coat to his Reaper's Mantle skill and it would be fine, in reality, he was hesitant to do so. He figured he would play around with the skill a bit first and see if he could better understand it before he made any final decisions.

Just to keep things simple, Felix nodded, "Yeah I will, just gotta find the time."

Aldahn's eyes widened, "Oh right, you had somewhere to be, right?"

Felix sighed, "Yeah, I'm almost 2 days late now."

"How urgent is it? I'm sure whatever it is… I mean you were kidnapped…" Aldahn frowned.

Felix shrugged, "No idea. I'll see you guys later though. I may not be back for a while, we'll see."

Aldahn was completely understanding but Rainoth didn't look happy. She didn't comment either way though.

Aldahn bore a wide and proud smile, "Well then Felix, it's been a pleasure. I hope to see you back at the shop at some point. You are the most senior enchanter other than me now."

Felix winced at the dark humor, "Yeah… damn."

Aldahn sighed, "I told you before, you just need to accept these things happen and you… you learn to deal with them."

Felix nodded, "I guess."

Shaking Aldahn's hand then bidding Rainoth farewell, Felix headed into the employee garage then opened a portal back to Telviras.

Stepping into the teleportation hub room, Felix waited for an attendant to appear.

"Where to?"

"Eramith." Felix said with more confidence than he felt.

The attendant immediately frowned, "Do you… have an invitation?"

Felix nodded and pulled out the coin he had received so long ago then held it up in front of the attendant.

Their eyes immediately went wide as they scrambled back through the door they had come from, "One moment please."

Felix was worried something was wrong but his fears were abated a few moments later when another attendant appeared along with the first, this one without a metal plate.

"May I see your invitation please?"

Felix nodded and held it up but they didn't reach for it. Instead they briefly examined it in his hand then nodded and smiled, "Please, follow me."

The, clearly more senior, attendant led Felix and his original attendant down a series of hallways and through multiple seamless portals that Felix could only detect because of the changes in the aether. They finally arrived a few minutes later in a much larger room than Felix was expecting that was otherwise similar to the ones he was used to.

The room was made of the same whitish materials with green inscriptions except larger and sitting in the middle of the room was a large portal frame.

Tapping briefly at a particular spot on the wall, the senior attendant entered something that was unclear to Felix then turned and nodded to him as the portal frame blinked to life.

The portal spell that filled the frame was surprisingly, an actual spell, unlike all the other portals Felix had stepped through in the teleportation hub. Unfortunately, he had no hope of mapping it. It was easily the most complicated spell he had ever examined.

Not only were the channels intricate and nodes diverse, but the enchantment seemed to actually be actively moving. Felix had no idea what was happening and just tried to map as much of it as he could. Unfortunately, nothing he memorized made any sense as the enchantment was in a constant state of flux, shifting in form and function, patterns and nodes moving around constantly. Some parts of it appeared then disappeared and he had no frame of reference to try and understand it from.

The enchantment only did this for a second or two at most then the frame filled with a portal as the enchantment or inscribed spell, as Felix was starting to believe, completely solidified.

Felix briefly looked through the portal and saw a large empty room with stone or concrete walls and a tiled floor. It wasn't particularly unique or interesting, nothing stood out as extraordinary.

This time, Felix knew he would be coming back to Telviras eventually, he wasn't actually leaving anything behind and so, he had no reservations.

With Grim under one arm and Nova happily searching through his new robes, Felix stepped through the portal to The Eramith Academy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .