Magic Staff

I woke up early the next morning, freshly bathed and ready to build a staff worthy of a god… or an orphan with an inflated ego. The other kids seemed to all be asleep. Which was understandable considering all of them were younger and it was only around 6 am. I stood up and stretched. I felt refreshed and ready to go. Opening the hatch, I slipped myself in.

I found scrap on my desk. Along with a pile of discarded debris, mostly metal and occasional plastic. "You've been busy," I said to Scrap. He nodded and pointed at a sphere to his left. Looking at the sphere, I couldn't tell what was up with it. I looked back at Scrap while projecting a feeling of confusion. He seemed to understand but didn't send anything back.

I was about to ask what was up. When the biggest pulse of information I had ever felt rushed through me. I stumbled a little bit, before righting myself. It was incredible, Scrap had outdone himself this time.

The sphere, it turns out, was a mana generator for lack of a better word. It pulled mana from the void and then stored it. Using the mana only to pull more mana. It was basically an infinite source of mana. There was a drawback though. By pulling so much mana, any void runes in the area would not be able to function. Scrap had linked himself and the others to the sphere in order for them to remain conscious.

With this, I could make a mech without having to worry about mana consumption or I could use it to power an army of constructs. There were so many options the sphere opened up. But for now, I had to set it aside, I had promised myself I was going to build a magical staff and I would stand by my promise.

I stood up from my hunched position. "Alright time to get to work," I said. Scrap began to pull items out of his storage rune. It was quite cool to see the items come out, they seemed to warp almost. Looking away, I started to sort out what I wanted to use and what I wanted to save.

After sorting, I had two piles, one with screws, magnets, gears, and stuff like that. The other pile was full of rods, metal plates, small tungsten rod, and anything else I thought might be useful for a staff.

I first picked up the tungsten rod. This guy was going to be a pain to engrave with runes. I had done some research just before I went to bed. According to my computer, there were four traditional ways to cut or scratch the surface of tungsten: wheel grinding, machining by superhard material, electrolytic machining, and electric discharge machining. Only one of which I had any experience in. I decided that I would be attempting wheel grinding. But to do so I would need a grinding wheel.

I was about to see what I could find when Scrap grabbed my finger and started to pull. I let him drag my hand over to his pile where he dived in and pulled out a little Dremel wheel. It was the right start but to even mar the surface of tungsten we would need something much harder. That being said I did have a Dremel we could use it with.

Thinking about my Dremel. I bet I could increase the speed and torque with the right combination of runes. "Tap, Tap, Tap" I tapped my finger on my desk in thought. Maybe I could make a stronger Dremel wheel.

I looked over at my pile of things. "Maybe" I muttered. Reaching over I grabbed a sheet of steel. Only about an inch in width and length. I flipped it between my fingers.

"Scrap, do you think you could cut this into a circle?" Scrap looked up at me. He gestured for me to hand it over. I gave it to him. He began to flip it around just as I had. It took a few seconds until he nodded and laid it down flat. He began to cut into it with his welding arm. He must have modified it to be able to change between welder and plasma cutter. I sent him an approving thought.

I watched him complete the circle cut. I was about to grab it with tongs before dunking it in water but Scrap shooed me away before running to his pile, grabbing a file, and running back to the circle cut. He bent down and began to file the edge. He did this at extreme speed because, as a golem, he didn't have any exhaustion. He filed it down to a sharp edge, and once it was filed fully, He started to add notches.

Once again Scrap surprised me with his flexible mind, and knack for creating. He had grown exponentially over the last few days. To a point that baffled me, How did he know to add notches? He must have seen it somewhere, "Maybe from my computer or Dremel bits?

It didn't matter. What did was the fact that the Dremel wheel in front of me looked like it was machined by professionals. It was exactly what I was looking for. "Thank you Scrap one more thing, please engrave the rune for defense into the middle" Scrap nodded and switched his enhance rune back on. "O I see that must be how he switches modes."

While the defense rune strengthened the cohesion of the item's atoms. It could in this case be used as a semi-working 'strength' rune of which there was none. But it should make it harder to destroy hopefully enough to cut into the tungsten rod.

I grabbed my Dremel and attached my new bit. "Ok here goes nothing," I said. I mentally sent scrap the runes I wanted to add. He nodded and prepared his torch though I don't think it would do me or him any good. The runes I mentally sent were ones that I had found in the book in the portion of the book labeled "Medium Application" this section described rune formations and their uses.

As the book was functionally infinite I was barely on the tip of what runes and magic could do. Of course just because the book was infinite did not mean the knowledge inside it was, but even so who knew how many millenniums it had been around and written in. I even planned to be one of those people wants I gained enough knowledge.

I lowered the Dremel to the tungsten and began to cut into it. Seconds later, I lifted it only to see it was barely scratched. Then I realized, I hadn't put the enhance rune on the Dremel. The rune should work on the Dremel because it would be enhancing the motor in it. I had Scrap quickly put on the enhance rune, before lowering the Dremel once again.

This time it cut through smoothly. It took a while before it was done, but with Scrap adjusting my every move, It came out perfectly. I backed off and took in my handiwork. The rune formation I used was called amplify It increased Any magic including runes that were used near or on it. I also included the runes for defense, storage, and void though the void rune would be useless when near the sphere.

I hoped that I could use the Amplify formation to make my runes stronger and any magic that I might learn in the future. The rest of the Staff was easy enough to build. I briefly thought of attaching the sphere to it. But in the end, decided that it would be wasted on a mere staff. "Much better in a mech" I muttered.

Finally, It was finished. It looked like a wood walking staff with a sphere on top. I had embedded the Tungston rod inside the wood so I could hold it better. The sphere was a steel ball with runes carved on top of it. The hope was I could carve new runes and spells on top of the sphere and then activate them when I wanted them to be used.

Now I just needed to test it. The only problem was that the room I was in was too small and I couldn't be blasting fire in the middle of the city. I would need to go outside the wall.