Author’s Corner: Here we are again, and this time, with technology in the story! At last!

After recording the methods of cultivating my various types of mana, I went ahead and focused on producing a Seed of Plants. Naturally, I was recording this process as well. Putting my all into focus, I cultivated the plant mana from various herbs that I pulled out of my inventory to create the seed over the course of four and a half hours. With this, I was able to start working on other stuff tomorrow. By now, the sun had already set, and it was time to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, my first move was to go downstairs and have a proper breakfast, purchased from the hotel for a small sum. Thankfully, since this is apparently a tourist city, they had various kinds of food. I was finally able to have bacon again!

Once I had finished eating, I went out to the city and walked around. “Celeste, do they have ship schedules and fees in the guide program?”

The AI appeared above my wrist wearing a casual t-shirt and jeans, smiling as she spoke. “Yup! Every day, they send shuttles up to the orbital station X-23, from which passengers can board ships bound for various destinations. As for the cost, it’s ten silver per passenger on the shuttle, and the fee for outbound travel from the station is between twenty silver to ten gold, depending on the destination. Since you’re still new, you’ll probably want one of the cheaper fares. My recommendation would be to earn money for a while, maybe get a temporary job until you have the funds necessary for travel.”

I nodded my head slightly at that. “Makes sense. I also want to exchange my bow before I leave. Something more advanced would be nice.”

“But, wouldn’t you have wasted the money you spent to get the arrow vine seeds, in that case?” She asked innocently, making me think about it for a moment.

“They grow pretty long, so even if I upgrade to a gun or a bow that doesn’t fire regular arrows, they can still be used as spears.” It’ll just take quite a bit more mana to do…

She nodded her digital head. “Alright, then. I’ll run a search for local job opportunities matching your skill set.” She paused for a few moments before speaking again. “There are a few entry level positions available. I believe the most suitable to you at this time would be as a mechanic. Technomancy is listed as a highly sought skill for that position, and it would give you an opening to find work on a ship in order to reduce the fare.”

I smiled at that, accepting her suggestion. “Okay. After I build up a bit of coin, I’ll do that. I think we should spend about a week here before moving on, that way I can make the money I need and learn the needed skills.”

I was walking towards the enchanter’s shop now, following Celeste’s occasional guidance. I would still take snapshots of any new race I spotted with my Aura Sight and Cybernetic eye, but there was little I could do with a 2D representation of a complex 3D shape. At most, I could store it as a reference image for the future.

When I arrived at the store, I found an old man standing behind the counter, and a few aisles of shelves running through the front of the store. On the shelves were various objects, from glowing dust, wands, ornate staves, even a few assorted spheres like what I planned to sell. As I entered, the old man at the counter looked over to me. “Yes, yes, can I help you lad?”

Unlike most of the people that I had spoken with in the game, this man appeared to be entirely human, with a long white beard and next to no hair atop his head. He wore a black robe with multiple white dots on it arranged like the stars in the sky. Even though he looked frail, my Aura Sight showed me that his magic was far denser than anyone I had met so far.

“Yes, I’m here for two things. First, I was hoping to learn how to enchant objects.” He let out a sigh when I said that, but allowed me to continue. “And second, I wanted to start selling these.” When I held my hand out to display the Seed of Plants, his eyes sparkled slightly.

“Hmmm, the quality is still quite low, but that should be from the Plant Affinity, yes? And since you are bringing it, that likely makes you a druid, or else acting on behalf of one. If it was from wind, I could assume that you received it from one of the magical beasts of this planet.”

I nodded my head. “That’s right, I’m a druid.” There was really no point in hiding it, since he might demand to see my ID before teaching me anyways.

“What elements are you capable of refining seeds for?”

I thought about it, but shrugged. “Any of the primary seven, aside from lightning, and plants.”

He nodded his head a bit at that. “I see, I see. Yes, that would be quite helpful. Lately, all the druids of Hascion are off maintaining their groves, and they have the most efficient means of producing a seed. Though, the ones produced by the local druids would be too high of quality for a beginner to use. You say you want to learn how to enchant, lad?”

“That’s right. I think it would be a good idea in the long run.”

“Yes, yes it would. A young adventuring druid like yourself, eventually able to make his own equipment and enchant it. If that look in your eye is any indication, you dabble in Technomancy as well. Yes, a very good combination.” The more the man spoke, the more I doubted his sanity. However, he was here and ran the shop, so his skill should be the real thing. “Alright, we have a deal. If you can provide me with one seed of every affinity you possess, I’ll teach you enchanting, and even give you a small bonus. Furthermore, I’ll even compensate you half their value.” The man grinned as he spoke, but this was a pretty good deal for me. I could make the other six seeds today and tomorrow, then come back for his training.

“Alright. I should be able to have the other six ready by tomorrow evening.” After speaking, I placed the seed on the counter in front of it, and he nodded, passing me seventy five copper as the ‘half payment’ for my work. That extra bonus better be worth it..

With that taken care of, I went back to the hotel and began working again. With a not-so-brief experiment, I found that I could actually form two seeds at once, but the time needed would increase roughly by half. Still, that allowed me to finish four more seeds in one day, and the last two were done the day after, before lunch.

Since I had said that I would be there around evening, I decided to wait a bit and cultivate until the time we had planned to meet. After eating a quick lunch provided by the hotel(I never thought I’d be so happy for a burger), I went back to my room and activated my Auto-Pilot program, choosing to cultivate Dark Affinity for four hours. As I finalized my choice, I felt my mind slipping away from me, and it truly did feel as if I had fallen asleep.

Just a moment later, I awoke, thinking something might have failed. However, the sky outside was definitely different than before, and the clock on the counter next to the bed confirmed that four hours had passed. I went to check my status, and was disappointed to find that Dark Affinity did not increase to 8%, even though I felt it was so close after I refined the Seed of Darkness.

Suspicious, I checked my Mana Signatures and Mana Manipulation skills, and neither of them had made the slightest progress either even though they naturally advanced the more in tune I became with the elements. Worried that my four hours had been wasted, I checked my grove, only to find out that it had indeed expanded a bit more. It was with that that I figured it out, since cultivating affinity required me to try to match the element and slowly change my aura to match it, Auto-Pilot would do nothing but pull the mana into my body to feed my grove.

Still, since I had recorded the methods for refining all of the various seeds, I did show a bit of progress in my other affinities. Earth, Water, and Light all increased to 8%, leaving only Dark, Plant, and Fire at 7%. With this, I at least had a bit of improvement to be proud of. Putting the six seeds into my inventory, I moved off back to the old man’s enchanting store.

When I came in, he was rather happy to see me. “Ah, there you are… well, I never really got your name. But names aren’t important anyways, so what does it matter? Did you bring the remaining seeds?” When I nodded, and placed the six pellets on the counter, his smile widened beneath his beard. “Excellent, excellent. As promised, I’ll teach you how to enchant. As for the extra bonus..”

He pulled out a Soft Stick and showed it to me. “This contains the Identify software, allowing your companion to scan the aura of creatures or objects to roughly determine their ability. If you have encountered something before and know its name, the name will be provided as well, naturally. You simply have to use Aura Sight when you wish to Identify something. I’ll assume you know how to do that.”

Thanks to the system treating me like an idiot… I nodded my head to him, indicating that I knew. This software would have a variety of possible uses for me, as it could even help me analyze auras. Holding out my left wrist, he placed the Soft Stick against it, and there was a slight beep of acknowledgement before he pulled it back.

“Alright then, let’s get started! Enchanting really isn’t that hard of a job, it simply requires more control over your magic than a normal starting mage would have, and a more abundant mana reserve than a starting druid. But, naturally, with every obstacle comes a solution.” He lead me to a very familiar looking staff with a black gemstone atop it, much like the one Jacobs had used when enchanting my armor. “This staff contains a low quality mana gem, able to supply an additional thousand mana to its user. However, like all mana gems, it requires nearly a full day to fully recharge.”

I saw where he was going with this, and couldn’t help but sigh. “How much is it…?”

Hearing me, the man’s smile grew a bit more. “It can be yours for just two silver, since it is after all low quality. Also, before we begin, you should go to the terminal in the back of the store and look up the rune language. I assume that your eye has some sort of recording feature, so you should be able to memorize the entire language pretty quick.”

I nodded my head. Since he had mentioned something about my eye the day before, I had looked into a mirror back at the hotel. My previously dark green eye now had lines of red streaking through the iris, with a tiny red dot at the center of my eye. Likely, that was a physical manifestation of my Cybernetic Adaptation spell. I was left wondering if integrating the other senses would give similar features.

Moving back to the room behind the counter, I saw a simple desk with a silver orb sitting at the back of it. Figuring that was his ‘terminal’ I sat down at the desk. Immediately, a holographic keyboard appeared on the desktop, and a blank blue screen of light flashed up above the orb. “Greetings, unregistered user. Please type or state the object of your search.”

I looked curiously at the device, and couldn’t help but extend my Mana Sense towards it. Although I had considered Celeste to be advanced, this device had an aura dozens of times more complicated than hers. It was like the universe was playing connect the dots with every star in the sky at once. “Uhm… rune language, please.”

“One moment.” Soon, a series of strange symbols flashed out on the screen, scrolling almost faster than I could keep track. “Would you like a second language to compare with?”

“Uh… yes. The local elf language, please.” I did not think for a moment that what I was speaking would be English. Likely, I had an instinctive knowledge about both the human and elf languages due to my character’s heritage.

After speaking, the jumbled mass of characters became a neat list, with a single rune labeled next to a word or description. I calculated my mana usage, and sighed slightly. “Scroll down for ten seconds on my mark. Show each page for half a second before moving on.” I then focused mana into my eye to begin the Record process. “Mark.”

The instant I said the word and saw the red glow in front of me, the screen began rapidly scrolling. As I requested, the screen flipped forward every half second, showing me a total of twenty pages before my mana ran out. Since there were roughly twenty words per column, and two columns per page, that meant I had learned eight hundred runes.

Runic Language Completion: 0.001%

I felt my mouth gaping at the absurd number of runes there must be in this language, and then shook my head. I had accurately learned eight hundred runes, and even now could understand the meaning of each of them. However, those were only so few. I decided to do another method after my mana recharged. “Okay, on my mark, continue for another ten seconds. This time, increase the speed to fifty pages per second.” This was only half of the speed that my computer was able to record images, so I hoped that my Cybernetic Adaptation spell was good enough to give me some measure of clarity in this.

Again, I focused the mana into my eye and began to Record again. “Mark.” Again, pages flashed in front of me, though this time dozens of times faster than before. I felt my head starting to hurt from the rapid rush of information, but forced myself to endure it for ten seconds. After it was done, I was left holding my head in a bit of pain as my mana began recovering slowly. This time, I had learned a whopping twenty thousand runes, but my completion of the language had only increased by another 0.025%.

I started to truly believe that there was a rune for every single word, and maybe a few words that didn’t exist normally. About twenty minutes later, I was ready for the next round. “Computer… this time, eliminate all words not necessary for enchanting up to the intermediate level. How many words does that leave?”

“That leaves roughly 15,300 runes, not counting the ones you have already learned. Do you wish to continue at the same speed as before?”

I sighed, knowing I’d regret this. However, it was either get it all over with at once, and deal with a headache while my brain rushed to process the information, or be here all night. “Yes. On my mark…” I began to Record again. “Mark.” The images came just as fast as before, but this time at least it didn’t last as long. By the time I was done, there was a new window waiting for me, this one presented by the game itself.

New Skill Acquired!Runic Language - Intermediate Level 1

Exp: 0%

This knowledge skill marks the progress of the owner in regards to learning the language of magic. After reaching Master level, this skill will be deleted, and the user will be considered fluent in the language.

Author's Basement: Here we are again, at the bottom of the post! We seem to meet here a lot. Now, I'd like to ask everyone to think about something. I'm going to leave the last name Falenel chooses at level 15 up to the community! I won't be making it into a poll, but reply with your choices, and I'll look them over. If one seems to be an obvious favorite, I'll pick it, otherwise will just pick whichever one I think sounds the best.