chapter 2

By the end of my first month of school I had officially become a second rank acolyte, having become a first rank on the airship over. Enchanting as it turns out is usually hit or miss, the chance of even the most basic attack artifact is pretty low.

For instance my first attempt was to create a shield that would defend against low level spells, nothing too powerful only acolyte spells at most. I had all the ingredients lined up in a ritual circle that was drawn impeccably because of the A.I. chip, first was the base which was a ingot of magically treated silver.

Onto that I had to add a mixture of reactionary potions and liquid gold that would be used to draw the runes for protection and defense against elements. Then to bind them together in the spell matrix I would use the spirit of a defeated rank 3 acolyte Montez supplied for me.

The result should have been a liquid metal that would sit on my arm and for a physical shield to defend me when I needed it. The spirit however put up too much of a fight for me as a second rank and the result was a resounding failure.

It did help me in many ways though, I now knew not to waste my time on anything that needed souls until I achieved acolyte rank 3, it also taught me to beef up my rituals for extra power.

The idea for the shield came from Bosain Lilytells metallic artifact, his could become anything he wanted from wings to swords and shields. I was able to salvage the silver and some of the gold but the the entire potion was wasted, 250 crystal coins worth down the drain.

My second attempt was much more successful, I managed to create a ring that could use the rank 0 spell "Umbras Hand" 3 times a day. Turns out simple little artifacts like this are rare, they usually take too much effort to be worthwhile.

The ring was only sold to the academy for 50 coins and cost me 20 to make. My A.I. chip managed to create a modified ritual circle that could produce about 5 rings at once which would net me a profit of 150 coins.

My schedule became me going to every free lesson then making spell rings which thankfully didnt take much time, then I was preparing for my more powerful artifacts. My current project was to create an enchanted suit of armor and turn it into a golem creature to defend me, I was planning to make it out of the same liquid metal as the previous shield. I would wear the armor normally and then when needed it would seperate from me and fight on its own.

I estimated that it would take about 4 months to get all of the materials ready plus advance into rank 3 acolyte. All told my schedule was pretty full, every now and then Dorotte gave me private lessons with Jayden about shadow and darkness spells and energies. When time came for me to try and make my enchanted armor Marb Lillytell somehow found out and wanted to be there to see my attempt.

Pretty sure he will make me an offer I cant refuse for it once its done, my armor should be a middle classs artifact and those are useful for 1st and 2nd rank magus. Marb and his grandson Bosain use metallic shape changing artifacts and their meditation technique turns them into living metal.

Unsuprisingly Marb came with bosain. I had thought to fake a failure just so that they couldnt force me to sell my artifact, but then another thought came to me as headmaster Siley came through the doors. Marb and Siley dislike eachother, Siley dislikes Marb because he makes things difficult for him, and Marb hates Siley because Siley became the headmaster over him as well as a rank 2 magus.

If push came to shove I would rather give the artifact to Siley than be forced to sell it to Marb or his shitstain little master grandson. With everyone gathered it was time to begin the enchanting, my artifact needed several ingredients that were quite difficult to get.

The easier ingredients to procure were several ingots of alchemical silver, about 40 oz of liquid gold, not molten gold. Liquid gold was a special solution mixing a potion with gold to create

runes that would ensure certain effects. The most difficult ingredients needed were the soul of a 3rd rank acolyte, a heart of a 3rd rank acolyte beast, and a special spell model designed to animate objects.

Luckily the spell model was an acolyte spell or this would have to wait until my advancement to official magus. I decided to beef up my ritual this time with additional runic circles and control schemas. When the artifacts form first came into being in front of us it looked like a helmed horror from D&D, upon the silver taking shape into the actual armor the liquid gold started flowing around it in beautiful patterns that eventually formed into exotic looking runes that began glowing with power.

When the runes came into being the chest of the armor opened up and the heart melted into it causing pulsing lines or veins of magic to be visible on the surface of the armor for a few seconds. Finally the final part of the ritual was needed, enslaving the soul with the spell model into the armor to give it basic sentience.

When the ritual finished my guests watched in silent amazement and the armor walked to me and melded onto me, from there the basic demonstration of simple forms such as wings on the back, a powerful shield and sword as well as several other features were shown by me.

Marb congratulated me and Montez and then made his inevitable offer for the suit, Siley luckily spoke in my defense, citing that as this was my first successful middle grade artifact and I already had thousands of crystal coins I had no reason to sell it. This in turn gave me cause to turn his offer down and keep it myself, Marb left looking quite constipated. With a quick pass of several hundred crystal coins into Sileys hand to show my thanks my master and I got to work testing out the armor again.