38. Developing Technique

It turned out that Ferth was a very patient and kind teacher. At first Castus attempted to perform the inscription with a chisel he formed from obsidian steel but failed. The rough edges of the chisel created a number of issues. Ferth frowned at Castus' attempts but did not interfere and would only offer advice or suggestions after a complete failure. Ferth explained that innovation never came from people correcting each other of the smallest of details.

The second attempt Castus tried to craft a stamp. Unfortunately, Castus was far too weak to press the stamp into the solid steel knife. Ferth helped out, only to discover that it would shatter the blade. Castus swore in his mind, wishing he would just use his blessing to morph the metal, surely that would be easier. He looked at Ferth for a second, remembering his blessing. "Ferth, can I waste some of this liquid?" Ferth looked over from a beaker that was boiling. "Sure Castus, that's all low-quality inscription material anyway. It's mostly for practice, go ahead." Castus looked over at a vial and dumped the fluid into his hand analyzing it.

Processed Casivalligor Blood: Blood that has been processed to remove impurities and contains or conducts magic well.

Castus reeled for a second realizing that he was using the blood of a creature for this but regained himself remembering the dead hog bleeding out right now. 'This explains why Ferth is gutting animals at least.' Castus then got back to work. He produced some blood. It was a little mana draining to perform, but the material was nowhere near as expensive as that elder treant materials had been. It was manageable. Once he had the material, he began to copy the symbol that Ferth had showed him. He used his blessing to move the fluid on the surface of the knife and perfectly recreated the image that Ferth had. The only difference was his was above the surface and Ferth's was below. Ferth came over the inspect the product. Castus took a minute to try to regain some expended mana. That simple process still took almost 30 percent of his total mana. 'I really wish I could get more mana and soon. Draining myself this often has gotten tiresome.' Ferth's two tentacle eyes moved around the blade looking at the enchantment. "Castus, while this is the correct symbol, its far to raised over the blades edge. You'll have to find a way to cut into the metal." Castus looked defeated and sat down on a stool that was near the table. His hand placed on his chin as he tried to process what he needed to do to actually be able to inscribe.

He sat there for almost an entire hour before he came to a solution. These knives were steel, steel that he had already analyzed. He would simply carve away the portion of the knife that he needed to have the sigil in, then fill it with material he made so he could manipulate it. Standing Castus grabbed his third knife and formed another chisel. This time larger with a flatter end. Ferth looked up again from a glowing green potion and stared curiously at Castus. With a considerable effect Castus carved out a section of the blade. He then formed the steel, which was cheap fortunately. He slowly formed it. The process was slow as the liquid blood had been easy to form and change due to its liquid nature, metal was far tougher and required more mana to form in the way he wanted to. Over time the shape was formed. It wasn't a perfect copy, but the shape was very close. Castus felt proud of it. He had realized that his increase in intelligence had helped him form the metal easier and faster. He waited a moment, letting his mana recharge, before he began making more blood to fill the grooves in the metal. This part was far easier. Once he was done, the blood hardened and Castus looked at it in delight. Surprisingly the blood sigil and metal plate that he had inserted into the knife came up as a blueprint. Castus choose not to keep it, but remembered to make a blueprint that he could insert into knives like this for the next one. If he could make most of the sigil an insert into a knife it would speed up the process and save on mana.

Ferth took the knife and both eye tendrils came out and looked at the sigil. They scanned up and down before retracting into Ferth's mouths and Ferth spoke. "Very good Castus. You will get better with time. This is excellent though." Ferth then took the knife Castus made and the one Ferth made and set them down in front of Castus. "I'm going to show you rendering. Rendering is a simple process where the sigil is charged with mana to activate the sigil for the first time. Depending on the quality of material and the amount of mana used to render the sigil determines how effective the enchantment will be as well as sometimes can cause additional effects. A good example is the sharpening enchantment will also produce wind slices when used if the quality and mana level exceeds certain thresholds." Ferth then placed on hand over the sigil of the knife it made and a glow began to emanate from the hand. "This is a low level sharpening enchantment so it won't require much mana. Pour mana in until you feel satisfied. Note there is no way to tell if the process was successful or a failure until after reinforcement." Ferth pulled the hand away after a few moments and showed the knife to Castus. The originally purple blood had now taken a more translucent color. "Now Castus give it a try."

Castus nodded and place his hand over the knife he made and pushed the mana into his hand using his mind, but nothing occurred. It wasn't for a few minutes until Ferth spoke up. "Castus, have you never expelled raw mana before?" Castus looked up with an embarrassed look. "Uh, no, no I never have had to do that before. The most I've done with magic and mana is cast a spell to reduce the effects of heat on myself." Ferth cocked the double mouth heat on its shoulders to the side and seemed to be in contemplation.

"That feeling you got when you completed the spell, try to replicate it, but this time without the sigil and focus on the part of your body that you want to produce it from." Castus nodded and placed his hand on the knife once more. For a bit, nothing happened, but as Castus fell deeper into focus he started to feel something change. It was similar to when he was creating materials. He was losing mana. He focused on this for as long as he could. He started to feel a burning sensation in his chest as he focused on it. The burning was growing. It reminded him of the home he lost, the family he lost, and lastly being cast into this damn world. The burning felt like when he was in that inky abyss for the first time. Rage came over Castus. He felt so mad, mad at that weird corporation, mad at the church. Anger that had long since been suppressed by Castus' want to do better overtook him and he pushed harder and harder. It was all he could focus on.

Castus suddenly shot awake. He was laying on the floor with a rough blanket covering him. Ferth was cleaning up the area where the hog had been. Ferth sensed the movement and an eye tendril shot out and looked to Castus. "So, your awake. You over drew your mana and passed out. You need to be careful about doing that. Especially with enchantments. If you aren't careful with your mana usage you could have some... unforeseen consequences." Ferth placed a large hand on Castus' head and felt him. The eye stalk searched his body up and down. Looking content Ferth finally backed away from him.

Castus looked at Ferth. "Was the rendering successful?" His voice was hoarse as he spoke. Ferth looked surprised that he remembered. Looking at Castus, Ferth spoke, sympathy was deeply rooted in the words. "Well yes, but you need to understand if you use that much mana on every enchantment you'll be dead in a year." Castus pushed himself to a standing position. He felt weak, but he was eager to see the results. Freth placed the dagger gingerly into Castus' hands and he looked at the sigil.

It was completely transparent now. It had a light bluish hue as well. Freth spoke again. "The render looks to be top tier. The finesse of adding mana to the enchantments is a talent, not a skill. I have to say your talent is very good. We won't be sure though until we reinforce and test it."

Freth took the dagger back and hesitated. "You've been asleep for an entire day you know. Perhaps it would be best to let you rest and continue tomorrow." Castus shook his head no. He knew if he tried to sleep and rest now that anger and rage he had unearthed earlier would bubble back up. Considering he didn't have an opportunity to escape currently the best way to settle that fire was to continue learning and to put all his energy into it. "I'm ready to continue now Freth." The purple monster seemed worried. But it relented and lumbered over to the large table. "Come along then."