“Isn’t that cheating?”

“No, you are cheating? Right?”

“Nonono! The [Artificer] class have like five abilities, and the other two I use constantly. I mean, what are you guys’ [Proto-Mage] levels?”

“Seven.” “Sixteen.”

“See, Hilde has more levels than me in that class! How about [Pack Leader(non-beast)]?”

“I only have [Proto-Mage]” Eivind says, to Hilde’s fierce nodding.

“Oh, right. Actually, that’s pretty good, If I unequip the other two I’ll be…” Mental math! “Thirty nine.”

“Can you teach us the [Artificer] class?” Hilde asks. It is a reasonable request…

“But muh monopoly! Ehh, should be fine, but I’ll only tell you how to unlock it and which abilities you should get to do that.”

“Unlock what?” Asks Stian, who just arrived.

“The [Artificer] class.” Answers the magician girl.

“Get [Imbuement] from putting mana into and object, and then get [Woodcarving] or [Mana Crafting]. [Mana Crafting] is from using mana to cut and whatnot. Basically use magic instead of tools.

To actually unlock the class, make an artifice object, like a wand, and give it power. Imbue it, in this case. You could also use [Enchantment] and your aspects.

Hai-hai, that’s it for today’s class. Extra lessons are two-hundred Crowns per hour.

Now, Hilde, can you tell me how you want your wand and show me your materials?”

“By the way, why is there a copper rod stuck in the ground?”

Wordlessly, I stand up and demonstrate with a small lightning bolt that makes sharp cracking sound.

“Let’s get start with the discussion. Future planning for the party. Lars, you said you had some plans?”

“Ahh, yes, my get-rich-eventually plan. It is mostly about me, but I suppose it’s possible to scale it up. How many of you have seen ‘5 minutes about the [System]’?”

Stian have not seen it, so we show him.

“What about it?”

“Click the Patreon link in the description.” He does as instructed. “That is my patreon and my video. I intend to do regular vlogs on my adventures and crafting and such, with the occasional tip here and there.

The real money, though, will lie in tutoring and crafting equipment.” I wave Hilde’s unfinished wand to empathise. Actually, if you guys can help me with two of my videos…”

After explaining my ‘open letter’ videos and how those things would benefit us all, I pack up and show the way into my apartment.

“Why is there nothing in your living room?”

“It’s my VR space, see those small boxes in each corner? Besides, I do have a short table. But I eat in the kitchen, anyway. Or by my computer.” I point to the computer, on the other side of the room.

“Do you even live here? There’s nothing but the bare necessities here. Do you even have that?”

“Hey, I moved in late this winter. Besides, I don’t need that many material goods. Or didn’t need, until I started crafting and stuff.”

We go over my drafts and change them here and there. One of the biggest changes is to demonstrate some abilities(flashy and/or powerful ones) and if possible, a video of a live monster, maybe even in combat.

The demonstration will be in the forest, obviously. We have decided to call it ‘Forest of Mist’ because of the mist covering it since the Upheaval, as well as the various creatures and plants themed to fog and mist in the area. It’s a kinda chicken-or-egg-problem.

We will also check out the insect dungeon. After more training, that is. Specifically, we want everyone to be able to use {Mana Bolts} and an aspect form for mobility.

I show off some of the aspect forms I have learned. I elected not to show the water form in my apartment, beyond making my body semi-transparent.

The response was a kind of morbid curiosity, as expected.

We all agree that the Stonekin form is so-so, but if the defence is anything like that of the basilisk, it’s a great tanking ability.

As for the static form, this time Stian was the one to be (mildly) shocked.

We discuss my upcoming meeting with the military while eating a simple lunch of bread.

None of us know that much about the military operates, our nordic home is rather peaceful and have a small population, after all, but since they wanted me to come to describe my quest and my ideas for magic guns, we discuss how that can be done.

I open by quickly going over the ideas I currently have.

First off, you can make the bullets magical somehow, maybe enchant them or whatever. This is possibly the easiest thing to do, and can use existing firearms. I can’t work without one, though, so not something I can do as a civilian.

However, what I really want is to make a gun that operates on magic. I see two variants of this. One is an automated spell-caster, in some games and settings called a {Autocaster}. It’s basically preprogrammed to cast a spell when the user does something, like pulling a trigger.

It is the most likely to be flexible, but also the most complex to make, I reckon. Of course, each {Autocaster} will probably only do one spell, maybe with some tweaking available.

You could also have a gun that works like a normal gun, but launches the projectiles using magic. It could make an explosion, shoot the projectile with air pressure, or propel it using electromagnetism. In short, a normal gun, but magic.

With this type one can likely make practical railguns/coilguns that does not need to be literally mounted on a power plant.

After I go through the ideas, I ask the others what they think. Eivind speaks first:

“Why not combine the first and last idea? Magical bullets fired using magic?”

“Ah.” I didn’t actually think of that.

He continues: “You already have [Force Magic], right? If you can make the gun use that, you already have a gun. For the bullets, you could make mana stones that do something on impact? Like explode.”

“Honestly, I didn’t even think of that. If you guys help me, I could probably make a version that launches marbles. Low powered and non-exploding, I don’t think I should make anything powerful in a residential area, and mana stones have crazy high energy density.

With just the mana from a marble-sized stone I think I can fuel two or three {Mana Spikes}. I should bring up the topic with the military, I should be able to use one of their firing ranges for testing.

That way I have a proof-of-concept to demonstrate, which alway helps. Also, you might get the [Artificer] class, or at least some of the abilities.”

So the agenda today is to make an Autocaster, or at least a tool that let’s you cast a pre-specified spell by only applying your mana. The spell in question is a push using [Force Magic].

We brainstorm on how to do that, and decide to try a few different things. We split in two pairs, with Stian working with me. We also set a time-limit of fifteen minutes. I suggested ten, but the others pointed out they don’t have the abilities yet. I used about ten minutes to learn each crafting ability, so I’m not sure how much help those five minutes will be.

Fifteen minutes later, we show what we have made. Spoiler alert: It’s not much.

I magically carved a wood rod with lines along the sides, and made one end pointed, like a stake, then enchanted it with force magic. Stian looked on with interest, but when I asked him if he wanted to try he said he didn’t need to.

On the non-pointy end, I attached a low-mana mana stone by way of tape. I told you it’s not much.

When I demonstrate it on a stone(of the mundane kind), it doesn’t work. That is, until I touch the stone with the pointy end, at which point it’s pushed about a meter. At least it can do touch magic.

The other group have a plain wooden rod with paper wrapped around one end. I can’t make out the details, but there is some sort of symbols going around it, circling from the start point one whole round, and then a little bit more. Above and below the symbols are lines, also going around the paper.

Hilde demonstrates by inserting mana, and the Testing Stone™ is pushed a hand’s length or so.

It works at a distance, but seems less efficient than the stake I made. When I grab it and look closer at the symbols…

“Did you just write ‘Push what I point at using [Force Magic]’ on this?” I ask Hilde.

“Yes. On the site you recommended, I read that you can use [Rune Carving] with any kind of symbols. The important part is your intention, and that you insert magic while making the symbols.”

“I feel like you cheat the hell out of that ability. While infinitely better than mine that handwriting is by no means runes, and you didn’t even carve it.”

“Actually, when you write, the pencil make tiny carvings in the paper. That’s why erasing over and over doesn’t work very well.”

I do a half-nod, half-shrug movement. “I guess. Still not runes, though. It should be [Symbol Carving].”

With that comment I get a tickling feeling in the back of my head. With a thought, I again bring up the feeling of my abilities and-

“And now mine is called [Symbol Carving]. Apparently these things are fluid in both name and use. I wonder if that means you can combine certain abilities? Ah, that would lower your level, wouldn’t it?”

While we discuss the possibility of renaming and/or merging other abilities, I augment the ‘Force Rod’ to use mana from a mana stone. Of course, since the ‘Force Stake’ seem to always be active(until I removed the mana stone), I add a simple switch-like symbol on it.

The symbol is one circle with the electrical symbol for a switch, connected with a line to a circle that has a poor rendition of a finger print. Only when the user has a finger on that circle should it let the mana flow.

Only after trying it with my own mana to ensure it works, do I install the mana stone itself.

“Done and done.” I hand it to Hilde, who inspects my additions.

We both agree that it seems less efficient than the stake, but you can replace the paper to change its function. So we decide to test the hypothesis by making it touch only.

We swap the paper for one that is has a symbolic representation of the rod, then the rod touching a circle with a question mark in it, and then the circle with movement lines and an arrow away from itself. ‘When rod touches something, push that something.’

Upon testing, it seems to be almost as efficient as the stake was. We discuss whether it has to do with materials or which skills are used and their levels, but in the end we can’t conclude anything unless we try more different things.

As I glance over the broom, I realize one way I might make it into a flying broom, and mentally note it before returning to the draft I’m making. Specifically, we’re talking about what I should say to the military tomorrow.

Well, we’re also each making a copy of a very simple symbol on paper. The symbol is a four pointed star, and we’re drawing it based on a picture we found on the internet.

When we’re all done I close the blinds and we all take turns activating each symbol. It seems that who makes the symbol makes a difference. It might be a difference in intention, though we talked about what to imagine, so that should be similar. And our drawings are almost copies, though with slightly differing proportions.

The clear difference, though, seems to come from the abilities, specifically, the skill level. The light is unstable for those who just got the skill, Stian and Eivind. There is also a difference in who activates it, but we all have quite decent [Mana Manipulation], except for Stian.

The power level likely doesn’t matter in this case because it doesn’t use much mana and is very simple.

After that we wrap up and the others prepare to leave. I ask Hilde to stay to talk a bit about magic, and she agrees. I pretend to not notice the look given by Eivind.