Presents (3)

After being presented with his birthday gifts Jien stayed in the dining room with his father, Runa, Mark and Emily for a while longer enjoying tea and casual conversation. While he was definitely excited to go and see the rest of Runa's gift, he was not willing to ignore those that had given him such excellent presents.

Still, it wasn't more than a half hour before his excitement got the better of him. With another genuine smile he thanked everyone once again before excusing himself. He speed-walked out of the room and everyone was easily able to see the energy behind his actions, leaving them all satisfied.

Jien made it to his room in no time at all and opened the wooden door quickly entering and shutting it behind him. What he saw in front of him left him a little stupefied. There, sitting in the middle of the room was a large brass cauldron, roughly half as tall as himself and three feet in diameter. Its surface was polished to the point that the reflections of the room around it reflected perfectly off its surface. Underneath it was what looked like a large iron slab, with several golden lines that could be seen around the bottom edge of the cauldron.

Alongside the wall not far from his cauldron was a large cabinet with glass doors. From within the cabinet Jien could make out numerous glass jars filled with varied substances, most of which appeared to be plants, though there also appeared to be jars containing what appeared to be parts of animals, likely magical beasts. These jars had thin blue lines running through their glass representing arcane formations likely meant for preservation of materials. Each jar and container had a label that clearly wrote the name of the ingredient and some basic information regarding it.

Next to the new cabinet stood a decently sized wooden chest with the words 'Smithing Materials' clearly inscribed on its front. Over the chest was a wall rack on which several tools made of what looked like a slightly darker version of iron hung. One with no knowledge would wonder where he was supposed to blacksmith without an anvil or hearth and those people would be right for the most part. However, Jien was a bit more well informed on the topic since he spent a lot of his time reading in the manor library. It was likely that Runa felt that he would likely use the method known as 'formation smithing' which would use the smiths mana and the power of a formation to shape what one wanted. That being said, if Jien wanted to perform traditional blacksmithing the city of Afrem had a perfectly good smithy that would be happy to have him.

However, at this moment Jien was more focused on the cauldron and the metal plate behind it along with the cabinet of ingredients. He didn't hesitate to rush over to the cabinet and open the glass doors, immediately releasing a strong mix of medicinal scents into the room along with a blend of earthy aromas. The scent was almost a little too powerful for his sense of smell and only now did he register that the cabinet itself must have been designed to contain the aroma now invading the room.

Though the aroma was abrupt and powerful Jien didn't react poorly to it. He instead walked calmly to his bedroom window and opened it before circulating a small part of his mana with precision to activate a wind element spell that swept the room and cleared out the scent, funneling it outside and slightly away from the manor.

Jien then went back to the cabinet and began to inspect the various ingredients stored within. As he dug deeper into the cabinet, he started to see rarer ingredients, whether they be plants or beast parts. At a certain point when he saw some a few jars in the back he was truly shocked. He really didn't have any idea how Runa would be able to get a hold of these ingredients, their total value was absolutely astonishing, and this was only the materials for alchemy. He was almost a little scared to take a look at what Runa had supplied him for blacksmithing.

He understood that Runa found it important for him to spend at least a bit of his time to get familiar with these three professions, but he was a bit concerned about her financial situation after acquiring all of this for him. Runa was by no means poor as she was the head of the staff for the manor and was personally being trained in various fields by Lord Losler himself, but all of this would have even put his father's pocketbook in a bit of a pinch and he was well known for being excellent with his finances.

What Jien didn't know was that Runa had not only been working on this gift for many years she had also gathered a number of these materials with her own two hands, saving the effort of finding them and purchasing them. There were even some of the rarer ingredients that she had taken a loan from Earl for and repaid with her efforts after securing them. The pieces that she had paid for more or less were the cauldron, the array plate beneath it that would control its temperature, the jars (including those with arrays imbued in them) and cabinet itself.

The chest for the smithing supplies was an ordinary chest that she had words inscribed on and the tools hanging above were the quality of average tools for a craftsman thus not overly expensive. The items within the chest that he had yet to open were also gathered by her own hand mostly, though Jien's father assisted in the process where he could. It could be said that though Runa was the one that provided this gift and had gone the extra mile to find the best introductory books that she could, the gifts themselves were a joint project over a span of years by those Jien considered his family.