Preparing the Gift

1 zect = 1 millimetre

From Lilia, Shui received a pair of goggles to protect his eyes and bandages when he was forging, and he got a handmade bracelet from Kate. Though Kate's bracelet was apparently made out of both of their hairs, he was grateful?

'Okay seriously, who put these ideas into her head?'

He was very suspicious as to who gave Kate the idea to use their hairs for the bracelet, but he still wore it. The sight of him with the bracelet on, put a smile on Lilia's face and an awkward frown on Bartos'. Bartos remembered when he was young, there was a time when Suiri told him that Lilia wanted his hair for a similar bracelet. At that time he was able to get out of the situation with Suiri's help, but he couldn't aid Shui. He didn't know how to properly explain to Lilia how creepy it was to give someone a bracelet made out of hair and didn't want to handle the consequences of doing so. He could only promise to spoil Shui for the suffering he had to endure.

The next day Shui was focused on making the ring for Alice. After determining what metal to use, he asked Yur to buy it for him while he continued refining his ability to forge rings. Naturally, if word of this reached Lilia or Kate there would be trouble so Bartos made sure that no one(Yur) told them anything about it.

Making the ring itself was simple, the extra touches he planned on making were the real troublesome affairs. Within the Primordial Library, Shui had started learning how to do inscriptions. Outside of the main cultivation systems, there were also jobs and auxiliary systems that aided one's strength. A blacksmith who made artifacts was called a forge master, and those who could add effects to items without forging them were known as either runemasters or inscriptionists. The only differences between these two jobs were the difficulty and potential quality, with inscriptionist being the easier and more limited path. Since he didn't have enough time, Shui learnt only the basics of inscriptions so that he could add two to the ring.

Inscriptions and runes were symbols that represented the laws of the world. Though the more complex laws might differ over time or based on the world, the most basic inscriptions and runes were the same universally. While runes only consisted of law symbols that were of at least profound quality, inscriptions included all low-level rules of the world. Due to the importance of the symbols, even a zect of a difference when drawing them would ruin them, so forming them took a lot of concentration. However, as one with a nebula one-star soul how could that stop him?

Though he had already made around ten rings which could accept one inscription each, he practiced inscriptions on special paper he had asked Yur to buy instead. Due to the significance of the symbols, ordinary materials would deteriorate if an inscription was done on them, and so he had no choice but to buy special paper to practice on. Luckily, he could bring the paper with him into the Primordial Library so he had a lot of time to practice.

Since drawing inscriptions took a lot of effort and concentration, there was a limit as to the amount of inscriptions that he could draw per day. With his nebula one-star soul, that limit was around twenty-three, so he could do over ninety-two inscriptions in one Library session. Outside of the Library however, the daily limit went down to twelve. This was the expected result since the Library was a space that was very beneficial to the mind and spirit.

As he got used to drawing inscriptions, Shui tried using his martial intent during the process and found out that it made the process easier and even decreased the drain on his soul. Additionally, since the power of martial intent was a result of resonance between his mastery of the martial arts laws and the natural martial arts laws in the world, the martial intent would only be exhausted if the world itself was running out of power. Therefore, he was confident he would make a great gift for Alice.

Once Yur came back with the ring material he asked for, Shui started practicing his inscriptions on the rings he had made. Since the inscriptions he was using didn't contain much profoundity, failure only resulted in the ring crumbling and wasted effort. Still, the mental damage was no joke.

Through his many failures, he found out that the success rate would increase if he drew the inscription in one go, but so would the difficulty. Unlike his experience with forging, he couldn't rely on a single moment of inspiration to get him through the last stretch; only with pure effort could he get better, so he would try anything he could.

Two weeks after spring came, he had made three rings out of aralite crystal, a solid that could only be found in places with a high concentration of nature energy and tropical climate. There were no deposits of it in the kingdom so it was often imported by eminent merchants and cost quite the amount. However, after the profits from the things he made during winter came in, Shui could casually afford this fee. Even so, he couldn't waste his chances.

Before he tried to inscribe on one of the rings, he continued practicing the two inscriptions he planned to add to them. This would be the first time he had to draw two inscription symbols unto something so he naturally had to be in his best condition. Therefore when the time came, he brought the rings into the Primordial Library.

Though a special brush for inscriptions would have been helpful, those weren't on the open market so Shui refined a rod of spirit iron, the most common artifact material, to serve in its place. He had already mastered the usage of his martial intent to a certain degree, so all of the rings had a harmony effect. The first symbol he tried to inscibe on a ring represented 'alarm'. When someone poured their energy into the ring, it would release an energy signal that only Shui, as the maker, would be able to pick up. Even if someone else could detect the signal, they wouldn't be able to decipher anything from it. Though increasing the difficulty of the project, just so that he could know if she needed help was a bit questionable, he was the one doing it anyway.

"Ahh!"

Just as he almost managed to finish the first symbol, he got too excited and made an error at the end. Since he was frustrated, Shui entered a mediative state before picking up the rod once more. This time, he even turned off all of his other senses besides touch and 'sight'. He could accomplish this since his soul was strong and he could control his body better.

By concentrating and drawing the symbol as slowly as possible, he was able to do the first symbol, but he didn't drop his guard. As if it was a single word, he wrote the next symbol right after the other. This symbol represented 'amplify'. Its role was to increase the harmony effect of the item. Once he finished this symbol, it would be done.

Without even thinking about his progress, Shui serenely completed the second symbol. When he was done, he looked towards the remaining ring for three seconds before shaking his head. Though there was a chance he might create a better product, there was also a high chance of failure so it was better he saved it. He stared at the purple ring in his hand. Besides the engravings on the inside of the ring, it was plain. As he stared at it, he hoped that she would like it.