317 The grind

Nick was surprised by these two missions popping up but was more than happy to take them on. the first one was obviously going to take quite some time to fulfil since that amount of rings was no simple amount. To put it into perspective he could at the moment make twenty rings of protection before he needed to refill his energy stores. He could also only refill his energy stores three times a day. This meant that if he focused only on making those rings of protection he could make sixty of them per day.-

At that rate it would take him nearly twenty years to complete this mission which was clearly unacceptable to him. Thankfully he had a few options to increase his crafting ability dramatically to shorten that timeframe greatly. He could accept the mission taking two or even three years to complete at his current speed of crafting but twenty was too much. The options he had available to him at the moment was to figure out how to automate the crafting process for the rings so he could churn them out at a much faster pace , the ritual of breath , creating an energy reservoir and generally mastering his style of crafting even further.-

'The first option is too time consuming so that's out for now. I can definitely complete the ritual thanks to Helenas modification of it. Creating a reservoir is also fairly possible but then I would need to convince others to donate mana while also somehow purifying it for my own consumption. As for mastering the style further , that's basically a joke since I already have nearly ninety percent mastery of it and that last ten percent is really only being held back by my lack of power spiritually.' he thought seriously while messing with some of the suns light material in his realm.-

The realm doesn't directly increase his power at all but gave the unique benefit of boosting his understanding of whatever happened or existed within it by stupidly high levels. The downside to this was that this understanding was on the micro scale when focused so he couldn't use this to basically download the entire libraries content into his head at once. The reason for this was that the words written on the pages of books was apparently in the sweet spot of normal perception that the realm didn't cover.-

That said it was perfect for his experiments as it allowed him to figure out what each small change he made did. 'Yeah I think that ritual is probably my best option at the moment.' he thought as he condensed the sun material into a dagger with a smile. The suns light material had a strong proclivity towards weaponry so with the help of his realm Nick had figured out how to change the stuff into other forms besides the arrows , but only other weapons so far. Still progress was progress and he was more than happy with what he was getting.-

Leaving the realm Nick sighed as he found Dumbledore waiting for him in the workshop. The old man was admiring the astral hammer and anvil he had at the moment so he didn't notice Nick return to the real world. "What can I help you with professor?" Nick asked startling the man slightly. "These items here are simply fascinating my boy! Can you tell me where you got them from?" the old man asked curiously. "They came from myself of course , I based them off of a mysterious place I found before school last year." Nick said casually.-

Dumbledore looked enlightened after hearing this "Ah so that was what happened at that time , Nico and I were wondering where the craftsman who entered the astral realm vanished to." the old man said making leaving Nick dumbfounded. "You entered that place shortly after creating your crafting and enchanting method correct?" Dumbledore asked with smile after seeing Nicks expression. "I thought ..." Nick started before Dumbledore finished the statement "that the astral realm was something only you knew about? Sorry to say you are both wrong and right at the same time." he said with a sad sigh.-

"It's a legendary place that all true experts in the crafting community are aware of but has strict requirements to enter. You likely only managed to enter because you created something totally new and the realm acknowledged it. Judging from the time frame you entered I assume you didn't leave an imprint on the realm to return at will?" Dumbledore asked and Nick nodded in confirmation. "A pity but to be expected I suppose , Nico will be quite disheartened by the news. He was very much looking forward to meeting someone else with access to that place you know. If it's not too much trouble could I by chance purchase an item like these two from you? I believe they merit study." the old goat requested.