017 Enchanted Stick

James picked himself up and brushed the sand off his cloths.

[Damn, I must have messed up the ley-lines.]

He brought out his notebook and make some notes on his mistake. He then took out another rune slate and started the process once again. This time he made some changes to the ley-lines.

It took him only 25 minutes to finish this rune. He was slowly getting more comfortable and familiar creating runes.

Once again he set the rune on the ground and channeled his mana into the rune.

He prayed that the rune would not explode like last time. The rune started glowing once again. This time the rune did not break and James heard a notification.

* Ding, a rune was successfully created. Item changed from [Unidentifiable Rune] to [Rune of Minor Power] *

James excitedly opened the rune's description box.

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Rune of Minor Power

Creator: Blaise

Effect: Grants a attack point boost of 1 to their wielder.

Notes: If not attached to an item the rune consumes 10 mana per second from the user.

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James picked up the rune and continued to feed it his mana. He looked at his character sheet once again. He saw that his bonus magic damage increased from 10 to 11. It was a flat increase of power, rather than a percent increase like his teacher's spell. He was not discouraged as it was a successful start.

He had several thoughts on how to increase the efficiency of the rune but first he wanted to see what the rune would do if it was attached to an item. He did not want to add a rune of this quality to his own gear so he looked around for something else to apply the run to.

James walked over to a nearby tree and broke a branch off. He examined the stick to see if it had any attack values.

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Stick

Attack Points: 1

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James held the rune to the surface of the stick and feed mana to the rune and over the stick. The rune assimilated with the stick and he heard a notification.

* Ding, enchantment was successful *

He took another look at the enchanted stick.

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Stick

Attack Points: 2 --- [1 + 1]

Runes: Rune of Minor Power

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He noticed that during the assimilation process a spell matrix formed between the rune and the stick. From what he saw the matrix was very simple. There was a rune that mirrored the rune that was being attaching to the stick. There were also two linking runes and what he assumes is a target rune.

[It seems like attaching a rune to an item prompts a automated spell to be cast. The runes of the spell matrix was nearly similar to what I saw when teacher was casting this spell. It is official; two of the runes do link an effect to a target.]

James paused for a few moments to review his notes before he continued his thoughts, [The 'target' rune of the stick was different than that of the buffing spell. I wonder if the 'target' rune requires a very specific word translation that causes it to focus its effects to the desired person or object. I don't think it is a catch all since they had two different rune translations. I will need to dig deeper into their translations.]

James quickly made another rune to test his theory. This time he further improved the ley-lines, they were uniform in thickness and depth. The resulting rune was still a minor one but this time it the bonus was a percentage instead of a flat amount.

He looked around for another item to enchant. He did not want to use another stick. If his thought process was right the 'target' rune would be different yet again.

He picked up a small rock and examined it. Its original attack points were 2 and after he applied the enchantment it increased by one. The 'target' rune's translation was different than the spell and the stick.

[Bingo, the 'target' of the spell matrix is a specific thing or person. I also learned that if the resulting boost of the rune's effect is less than one it rounds up. Based off that, there are still reasons to use a flat buff over a percentage.]

James continued creating runes and enchanting as many different items as he could. Every different item also had a different 'target'. He made notes of every item's runic translation. His thought process what 'never know when you might need to enchant a rock...'.

Shortly after his last trial he walked over to his teacher and talk about his findings.

"You have done excellent thus far. You have also learned the most basic method of crafting spells. An effect links to a target, it is simple and to the point. The spell formation you learned is a tier one spell matrix. In this spell matrix all the required runes are touching each other."

"Teacher, I noticed that the tier one spell matrices all had low bonus effects and took a considerable amount of mana to channel. Is there a way to improve them?"

"Sadly there is not. If the spell matrix of a tier one spell is made more efficient it breaks into a tier two spell matrix. The result is more efficient mana usage and better effects. I feel confident that you can easily make a tier two matrix. I will give you a hint, the more runes that are touching each other at once the less mana each effective rune receives."

James thanked his teacher and went on his way.

[Effective runes are any rune that does not link runes together. So the tier one spell only has at two effect runes. A double-sided link must be formed between effective runes. So how to I get space between all the runes?]

James spent almost half the day thinking about how to accomplish his goal of creating a tier two spell matrix.

He was lying down on the beach and staring off into space alone with his thoughts when he suddenly sat up.

[That's it!]

He quickly brought out his notes on his teacher's spell. His spell matrix had other runes in it! He was able to space out all the runes in his matrix by adding more! His teacher said that the more runes that are touching at once the worse the rune preforms. He never mentioned that the amount of runes is what makes it preform worse!

He examined the spell matrix again. It had space between the effect rune, target rune, and linking runes. His own matrix had only four runes while his teacher's had seven runes in total!

He was able to determine that the 'target' rune was translated to what he assumes to be 'a living being' then the effect rune translated to power. Unlike his own rune, his teacher's had four linking runes instead of two. The trick to spacing out the spell matrix is adding another rune type to act as a physical spacer.

To make it simple, if you were to take a few steps back and look his spell matrix it would appear as a period or a dot. Then look at his teacher's spell matrix you'd find out that its core looks like an '8'.

Looking into his memory he found that he recognized the extra rune that his teacher added. It roughly translated to 'increase'.

Thinking deeper James determined that his teacher funneled the spell's effect to a rune that modifies the linked effect. Finally it passes that modified effect to the spell's target. It appears simple on paper but the key to creating spells lays in the ability to visualize how runes connect together.

Without [Magical Eyes] one would not be able to bridge the gap between that of a [Rune Master] and that of a [Spell Weaver].

[Rune Masters] are stuck to simply creating runes one at a time to add to items. Every object that can be enchanted has a limit to how many runes can be applied. At the end of the day [Rune Masters] cannot hold a candle to a [Spell Weaver].

The only thing James has done until now is create runes. His deductions came from watching how the runes would imprint themselves onto their target item. He has yet to attempt to actually create a spell.

It was time to ask his teacher to demonstrate another spell.

"Teacher, I think I am ready to view another spell."

"Okay, do you want to see the same spell as last time or a different one?"

"I want to make a cheeky request. I want to forfeit the final viewing of the buffing spell to see you weave the next spell into the air slowly."

"Does that mean you are ready to draw out your first spell?"

James nodded his head affirmatively, "I believe so."

"We will follow your request. Now what type of spell do you wish to see?"

"I would like to see a spell that puts a debuff on a target."

His teacher had a large smile, "I take it you either figured something out or want to test what you currently know. I will start now; pay attention and don't miss anything."

James activated his [Magical Eyes] and followed his teacher's every move.

To start his teacher gathered mana into the tips of his fingers. Once his teacher had his hands in the air he started to write rune symbol into the air. It was as if his teacher's fingers were a brush and the air his canvas. Every wave of his hand created lines of mana in the space in front of his person. Slowly a rune was completed; its rough translation was once again power. Once the rune rune symbol was finished his teacher drew a hexagon around the symbol and the rune started to shrink. Once the rune floated above his head his teacher continued, this time he used two hands.

Using both hands halved the amount of time it took to draw the remaining runes.

His teacher drew four linking runes into the air one after another. The runes above his teacher's head did not instantly join together like he thought they would.

James had to make an educated guess on the last two runes. One should translate to 'decrease' and the final rune was a 'target'rune. He knew that there was still much to learn.

The runes floated back down in front of his teacher. He proceeded to move the runes around to their respective places. The eight runes that James was familiar with made of the core of the spell matrix. They resembled the shape of an '8', while the rest of the runes branched off in different places but eventually connected back to the 'target' rune.

"Teacher, I know that there is a 'target' rune that is unique to any item or being you wish to affect. But when the spell is directed at a person I cannot find a precise translation for it. Could you maybe explain that aspect of the spell matrix?"

"When a rune's target it a person or monster that rune translates to soul. Even the reanimated have a soul."

"Thank you Teacher! I think I understand the basics of buffs and debuffs. Could you show me an attack spell?"

"I can but you will have to comprehend the spell matrix on your own. I will not be manually writing the spell matrix this time. Once you write a matrix once you no longer need to long-hand it."

His teacher brought out another small chest, "Before you start writing spell matrices you will me a medium to control your mana with. [Spell Weavers] do not use wands, staffs, grimoires, or orbs of power. Instead we use a type of magical glove."

His teacher continued to explain the gloves, "On each glove you can find spots to attached magic gems. They are the same gems you can find on magic jewelry. The better quality of the glove the more gems can be inserted. The highest quality glove can have nine gems, four on the back of the hand and one above each knuckled of the hand. Each gem increases the power of the glove"

"Two gloves can be worn at a time meaning a total of 18 gems can be used. There are ways around the limit; for example you can wear other magical accessories like bracelets or if you only have a single glove you can wear rings on the other hand. There are limits thought, you cannot wear both a glove and rings on the same hand."

"The most important thing is that a [Spell Weaver] must wield at least one glove to create and cast their spells."

"Teacher, when you showed me spell weaving and when you casted a spell you did not have any gloves nor accessories."

His teacher did not show any signs of annoyance when he answered James's question, "That is because I have had several eras to explore the world of spell weaving. Once you reach a certain strength you no longer require such things."

James looked very excited, [Teacher must be stronger than I first thought. To live through multiple eras is a hard feat]

His teacher opened the chest and took out a single glove, "I was not able to preserve much thanks to the decay of time. Only the strongest items managed to survive but they still decayed in strength. This is a glove that my master once used. You might be able to return it to its former glory."

James reached out and took the glove and put it on. He quickly examined the item's description.

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Glove of the Originator

Grade: Epic (Growth)

Description: A magic glove created by the first Spell Weaver. Its power has decayed due to the passing of time.

Attack Power: 20

Open Gem Slots: 1 of 9.

Number of Seals: 5

Soul Bound: Item can never be dropped, traded, nor destroyed.

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James stood there speechless for a long time.

"I cannot accept this; it is too precious. It is a glove that the first [Spell Weaver] used! Where did you even get it?!"

His teacher looked sad and depressed, "He was my master, he had taught me everything I know. He left me this glove in hopes that I could one day find him. He disappeared when 'they' attacked."

Speechless once again, it took James a while to make words leave his mouth, "The Originator was your TEACHER? Even he could not defeat 'them'?!"

His teacher continued with great melancholy, "Yes he was; he and his comrades came together to fight 'them'. In the end all they could do is seal them away. My teacher and his friends all disappeared in the process."