Moving In

"I don't know. I don't think it's as simple as just copying the use of Arcanum, plus even if it was, I don't know what Arcanum's properties are, nor how to recreate the substance." I replied

"The question was rhetorical, messing with higher powers never goes well. The power given by gods sounds great but we don't even have gods here." Dandle Dorf said while chuckling

"What about High Priestess Teala and Pope Ruin, don't they have gods?" I asked

"Oh don't get me started, Teala doesn't believe in a god, the title of High Priestess is just tacked on nowadays, none of the Illagers believe in a god anymore. For Ruin? Don't ask him if his gods exist, just don't. They have been trying to contact them for hundreds of years, longer than Urbs Inferni has even been around and they STILL don't have definite proof of their existence. Still hasn't deterred them from finding out whether their gods exist though, they call it god's trial or whatever." Dandle Dorf explained

"Moving away from religion I heard you are moving into the greenhouse! I have a housewarming gift for you, I had one of my nodes packed up and moved into the greenhouse so that you could use the focal manipulator that was put in there."

"Focal manipulator and a node? What for?" I asked

"You are the first human here in around 50 years, the last one tried to commit genocide so having one that can speak our language and isnt hostile is quite a boon. Plus because you are human your comfortable temperature range is much lower than ours, which is great!" Dandle Dorf responded

"It's because of the sub-zero zone isn't it." I stated flatly

"Now not exc- yeah it's because of the sub-zero zone. Enderman have the lowest comfortable temperature and even then it's still not that low sitting somewhere around 10-15C (50-59F)." Dandle Dorf replied

"I've heard a little about the sub-zero but how far below zero does it go because although humans have quite the range of temperatures if it's something crazy like -90C (-130F) then it's not happening." I said

"Dear heavens no, it should only be around -10C to -12C (14 to 10.4F) that's what we have recorded. It might get colder the further you go in but you would report that to us first." Dandle Dorf said "Your lab should be ready about now."

"Wait what? That fast, why was it so quick!?" I exclaimed

"You have no idea how much people hate greenhouse duty, as soon as Teala said that nobody had to do greenhouse duty if we expanded it to put a lab inside everyone was on board. They worked all night without a break to finish it. They might have cut corners so watch out for that too." Dandle Dorf explained while showing me to the door. "Thank you for coming to talk if you ever need something, swing on by, and if I'm here I'll help out."

I walked out of Dandle Dorf's library and made my way to my new lab, while I was heading there I watched the Wisps fly around, they were rather curious-looking creatures. They were much smaller compared to every other race present, even compared to me they were small just under a meter in size (3'3") they were ethereal in the sense that you could literally see through them and with the small iridescent wings that they had they closely reminded me of the fairies from storybooks I had read. Maybe the storybooks were based on these creatures? Thoughts for later.

After my short walk, I had made it to the greenhouse and saw Priestess Teala standing in front of the door.

"About fucking time you got here, here this key allows access into your lab if you don't have a key you can't get in, you will have to man the storefront but you do get to keep the money made." Priestess Teala said before walking off

I made my way into the lab using the key Priestess Teala had given me, it was a shiny gold key that fit perfectly into the lock.

The inside was nice and cool, the main part was the trays full of crops but past that was all my equipment! There were also a few smaller rooms that I could sleep and wash up in but that was less important.

I spent a few hours moving my stuff into my new place and making golems to automate the harvesting of crops, I guess they never came up with golems or they would have done the same.

Now that I had a place I could finally research in peace I decided to explore the new tools I could work with!

I had a basic understanding of the brewing stand, so I moved to the next object the enchanting table. It was a large obsidian pedestal with a red cloth draped over it, the upwards facing corners were caped with diamond while a book filled with incomprehensible runes floated above it.

Luckily it came with a guide. The enchanting table requires a few different things to function; an object to enchant lapis and most importantly EXP. EXP or Experience is an interesting substance, it glows a bright green with spots of yellow in between. Its most common use is as a drug for the Illagers, they 'consume' EXP and in exchange can use foci and the enchanting table.

I tried it myself and I didn't feel the high that all the accounts say they do, maybe it's my body or it could be something else, after all, excelia and EXP are rather similar. They both can be gained from killing monsters, although EXPcan be gathered by squeezing it out of lapis. I will have to do more research into the connection, because if they are similar then I might have a way to boost my status without killing things!

Enchanting tables could be further improved by surrounding them with other magical objects or by using books. The effects applied when enchanting are random but you will always know the first effect. Most effects ranged from 1 to 5 in strength and the effects themselves were rather varied; sharpness, unbreaking, protection, looting, mending to name a few.

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Word Count: 1052

Stella finally gets a lab to work in! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!