Side Chapter: Luna's Btrithday

Luna looked at the crafting table from all sides with interest. A solid block of wood stood before her eyes, adored with various tools that couldn't even be removed – judging by the way they were half hidden inside the wood.

She didn't come across enchanted things that were not created in the traditional ways of wix often. The girl poked at the wooden cube with her finger, looking for hidden runes and buttons that could explain the work of the cube, but she found nothing. So how did it work then?

Finally, she returned her gaze to the top of the crafting table. The leather bedding that was placed on the wood was divided into nine small squares with clear lines between each one.

Seeing this, Luna asked what had been bothering her from the very beginning. She knew that the thing was enchanted, otherwise Danil wouldn't be showing it to her.

"Is this a very fancy tic-tac-toe field? Did I get it right?" The girl looked at Dan, but he just shook his head.

"No," he ignored her pout, "this is what I call a crafting table. This is an artifact that can be used to instantly create different things, depending on your materials. Look."

Danil took out three sticks and two coils of string from his backpack and put them on the table. It was obvious that he was putting each item on the specific squares for some odd reason, as if the artifact would refuse to work without it. A second later, a new, but rather simple fishing rod was already lying in their place.

"Huh." Luna took the fishing rod in her hands and swung it around a bit. "A couple of Finite won't be able to wrap it back?"

"No, this fishing rod will forever remain a fishing rod. Even if-" Danil didn't have time to finish his speech, as he had to dodge a fishing hook flying in his face. "Hey!"

Luna stared at the rod with shock in her eyes as the hook hit the book that lay on the nearby table, immediately piercing the hard skin and digging inward, as if an invisible hand controlled the metal hook to force it inside.

Danil immediately wrapped his hands around her much smaller ones, forcing the fishing rod to stop. "It's not a toy, Luna, be careful."

The girl nodded in response, afraid to even blink, letting go of the fishing rod, she allowed Danil to take it from her hands. In one motion, the monster boy swung it back, causing the book to jump off the table and land into his waiting palm, the hook crawled itself out of the skin, not even leaving a trace of its presence on the old tome.

"Danil... did you use an enchanted item to create another enchanted item?" Luna asked slowly, still not blinking.

This… behavior was simply absent from normal items. As Luna sent the hook flying, she felt an almost imperceptible flow of magic that the fishing rod used to control it. It was definitely an enchanted item.

"Yeah, some things come out a little bit magical, not all of them though. My axe, for example, is just an axe, nothing more."

The girl looked at her friend's face, then at the fishing rod, and only then her eyes fell on the crafting table. Luna clenched her small hands into fists and almost squealed with happiness.

"Oh, I have so many questions! Is it possible to enchant already crafted items with Ancient Runes? What can't be crafted using this table? If this thing has no limits, then there are so many possibilities! This is the perfect birthday present!" The girl was already reaching for the sticks in his backpack, also wanting to try to make something.

Danil choked on the air and coughed. Did he hear her correctly?

"Luna? Is today your birthday?" He was able to squeeze out.

Standing up to her full height, the girl put a few sticks on the crafting table and turned to Danil with a look of confusion.

"Yeah, my birthday is today, I thought that's why you called me here." She tilted her head, tapping her chin with her index finger. "Though I don't remember if I told you about my birthday. Did you hear about it from the Nargles? I know they sometimes whisper things to people."

Shrugging, she returned to the sticks and began laying them out in various shapes, hoping for some sort of result. But little could be done with only seven sticks.

"You don't- never mind." He interrupted himself, making a note of Luna's birthday so he wouldn't forget about it in the future.

"Danil, look, I made a ladder!" The girl exclaimed, holding a brand new, but very short ladder in her hands.

Well. That's one theory down.