Chapter 25 : Doing it like a true Arcanist

Nikolaï was in this room. Since he had “discovered” his trashed place he had isolated himself, acting like a paranoiac. It had been two days. Cleaning up the mess had taken a lot more time than he had thought and replacing what had been destroyed, very tedious.

The destruction had been chaotic, his purpose had been to be impressive rather than targeted. That’s why Nikolaï had created decoys before leaving for his night mission. He had lost some old clothes in his skim and his less precious book. The notes left on the desk had although been unimportant, things from former classes with no more value for him.

Right now Nikolaï was pretending to replace those books when in reality he was copying a popular one in order to sell it. Copying book required time and focus so the most wealthy Aspirants would pay other students to do it. If you didn’t know someone to take the job there were at least 2 shops in the open market which could take care of it.

They both had their network of copyists and acted as intermediate. Nikolaï had never required their service, he had always copied his books himself and didn't have the spare time to do it for others, even for money. He did visit the shops but it was because they often buy books and resell them. Before starting to copy one from the library it was a good idea to check if someone hadn’t sold one, if you could afford them.

Nikolaï was currently copying a spellbook from the Incandescent Arcane, containing a tier 1 and tier 2 spell : Spark and Minor Fire Ball. Books with fire spells always sell well and Nikolaï was confident it could fetch some gold pounds.

He had to resolve to do that for coins after he realised that he couldn’t sell Forgerune materials just after being threatened for it. Not that he was going to truly stop but he needed to wait for a little, pretending to be cautious.

He needed the extra money for the Shielder fee. He had posted an announcement anonymously, asking for Shielder names even if Aspirant Soreco had already told him about one. He had done it as part of the masquerade he was playing. That and dozens of little things were part of his act and it was starting to be exhausting.

The next day Nikolaï left his room after locking it carefully. He went to one of the bookstores and tried to sell his spellbook. The negotiation wasn’t easy even if Nikolaï was starting to be better at it. The copy was fresh but the quality of the paper was average and the binding very simple. He still sold it for 9 gold pounds and some silver ones.

If he had argued a bit longer he may have obtained 10 gold pounds for it but he was worried about missing his appointments. He was meeting the Shielder recommended by Aspirant Soreco. She was an Arcanist, freshly became one 2 months ago but she had started her Shielder job when she was already an Aspirant of the 3rd Circle.

As long as you have the money she didn’t care who you are, which was perfect for Nikolaï. He brought her to his room and when they arrived Nikolaï noticed something. The mirror didn’t work anymore. There were still ether residues inside it but the spell had been broken.

Nikolaï smiled slightly. He was sure nobody had entered since he left. He had pinned a small dark thread in the door when he had closed it. When he came back the thread was still there and he was confident that you would only notice it if you knew it was there.

The assistants had dispelled the spying device remotely witch wasn’t very surprising from what Nikolaï had heard about Arcanist Amos Forgerune reputation. She was quite capable and Nikolaï believed that she was probably the one who had created the mirror.

The Shielder started to look around the room explaining what she could do and at what price. Nikolaï had clean everything even if there was still a large smudge on the wall, where the writings used to be.

Nikolaï pretended to only be able to afford the minimum. The mirror being disabled he had lost the chance to have an expert picking at it and finding its source. It was probably why the assistants had destroyed it. Nikolaï wasn’t a Shielder but most of the protection offered by them were, in fact, means to detect arcane implication. Nikolaï already had a more reliable method to do so, thanks to his Third Eye.

In the future, he could simply pretend that the Shielder had put some of its protections without risking exposing his ability.

The Shielder started with the lock and Nikolaï showed a lot of interest in her tools. He asked a few questions about them and how they worked and the Arcanist answered most of them. She didn’t share her “secret” but seemed a little flattered to meet someone curious at such delicate work for once.

In total, she spent almost two hours in Nikolaï room and left after he paid her generously.

***

The next morning, when Nikolaï woke up, he felt as he had never slept so well. He got rid of the surveillance without raising genuine suspicion (in his opinion) and now he could go back to his true training and work.

For days he had thought about a new routine. He was going to keep his morning and evening meditation sessions but split the rest of the day in two. The morning was going to be spell practice and the afternoon Forgerune experimentation and creation.

He could do it without limitation or worried. He was safe from others eyes and could resume his path.

During his “break” he had also decided to master a tier 0 and 1 spell from each arcane. Contrary to most Aspirants who required months to handle a spell, Nikolaï had proven to be able to do it in a week or two. Of course, he had limited himself to low-tier spells, it wouldn’t be the same with tier 2 spells. The main reason was his lack of raw power, quantitatively speaking. With his eye, he was able to perceive the “right way” to handle a spell but he still needed to cast them dozens of time to be familiar with their Sigil and flux. All of that required energy that he couldn’t supply if he was learning higher tier spells. At least for now.

His decision to learn spells from each arcane was a way to expand his foundations through diversity. By tackling them with practice he could address their concepts and use his eye to understand better how each arcane were not as separated from each other as a beginner in the field may think.

A more down to earth motivation was that Nikolaï had this fantasy of a true Arcanist being someone capable of doing all of his daily chores using only his Ether. He had selected several “useless” spells that would better fit this purpose. Sure he wouldn’t mind learning how to throw a fireball but his affinity was still handicapping him at his level.

One day maybe he would have grown enough to make his affinity meaningless but for now, it wasn’t the case. He had chosen spells that would maybe not make him stronger but would enhance his possibilities as an Aspirant.

For his first day, Nikolaï started with Minor Drying and practised on some waterweed he had procured after his breakfast. It was a tier 0 spell from the Ground Arcane and it was capable of acting against matter density. The effects were very weak, it was the initial approach of an Arcanist when he was developing a more powerful spell capable of turning rock into sand.

The tier 0 spell was too weak to meaningfully alter matter but it had the side effect of getting rid of part of the moisture, squeezing it out without compressing the target. The spell was considered useless but was still taught because it could be a good approach to more powerful spells with similar structure.

That’s why Nikolaï had chosen it and also, even if some Arcanists believe it was beneath them, Nikolaï didn’t mind knowing a spell that could dry some greenwood when fall would be here.

The spell required continuous casting but it only made the effects longer, not more powerful. If the spell had belonged to the Incandescent Arcane the point would have been to gather heat on the target, so the longer it was used the hotter the target would be. Minor Drying didn’t work that way, its effects were more subtle even if the result would be the same. They were on a small scale, doing something only arcane could do rather than trying to mimic a simple furnace.

Nikolaï practised on the waterweeds all morning and at the end of it, they were crunchy as if they spent an entire day under a blazing summer sun.

After he came back from lunch Nikolaï ground the waterweeds into a powder and blended it with the fish oil that Aspirant Bourquet had extracted for him. He was going to mix it with a wax that would be used for the two Moist Mirror boxes that had been ordered via Aspirant Maxwell.

He was using the fish eyes in the boxes to gather water elementium rather than runic coins. It would improve significantly the quality of the spell but it made the creation more difficult.

Nikolaï was following a recipe for the wax even if had adapted it to what he had. Its point was to make it easier for water elementium to go through and also filter the other elementiums. The attach-glyph was still going to be imprinted on a runic coin (using acid etching) so the wax required sufficient conductivity between the coin and the eye, which would be its source of power.

Nikolaï spent most of his afternoon creating his two mirror box.

When he had finished he was still motivated so he took out the rocks that he had kept for a while. The one from the mongoose and used Dissipation on them. He didn’t have a lot of energy left after his practice and intense work but it had enough to make sure that the rocks hadn’t tainted themselves while he was stocking them.

On top of that, he was glad to be able to use Dissipation freely again. After cleansing the rocks he immersed them in all kinds of compounds that would protect them from elementium. Something that Nikolaï should have done a long time ago while he was still unclear on how he was going to use them.

Turning the rocks into Racking Stones capable of measuring the ether density of someone was not easy. Nikolaï had researched a bit more on the subject since the exam and the task wasn’t small. The main problem was resistance. They were not just talismans that you powered but something where you had to force your ether into. Before even measuring ether the object and glyph had to support the charge.

The ones used by the Tower were very well made because they were used for Arcanist too. Nikolaï was aiming at a model for Aspirant only so the maximum it needed to handle was lower but even with that, the project seemed too ambitious for him.

He still had a few things to do anyway.

***

A few days later, Nikolaï was practising a new spell : Deoxidation. He was using it on his sword. The tier 0 spell belonged to the Mettalic Arcane and removed rust from an object as if it was just sticky dust on its surface. Nikolaï had been surprised by its efficiency for a low-tier spell. Thanks to his sight he had been able to cast the spell with a very little flaw but even with that, Nikolaï hadn’t expected this level of alteration.

What really lined up with being a tier 0 spell was its area of effect. Despise some tests from Nikolaï, he couldn’t expend it and was around half the size of his palm. He didn’t mind much because the point was to practice and he didn’t want to hunt for rusty objects to do so. For now, he had enough of them with his equipment and tools.

Nikolaï had become very serious about his possible career as a Forgerune and even with his advantage, there were still things he needed to learn that his eye couldn’t compensate for. Attaching a sigil to a glyph was the critical part of creating talismans but it wasn’t the only part that affected their global quality. Prepping materials correctly or just having the proper tools could make a difference in the end. That was why Nikolaï chose Deoxidation.

First, it was to help him restore used Runic Coins. Dissipation was enough to purge them for elementiums but they still required to be clean and such before. Since now, Nikolaï had done it with chemicals but he was tired of constantly ventilating his room. Acid etching was still his go-to method to imprint glyphs on coins but except for this, he wanted to use alternatives.

His decision wasn’t just motivated by having more comfort for his sense of smell, there was a practical interest in using a spell too. Each time Nikolaï was using Deoxydation he was tainting the target but once he had finished he could get rid of it with Dissipation, which he was already going to use. The results were not better than if they were done by chemicals but they were more uniform.

Plus, the spell wasn’t limited to metal only. It was easier to notice the effect on something metallic but Nikolaï knew it could be used on leather and such.

Before coming to the Tower Nikolaï knew the name of the Arcanes and, like many, had a simplistic interpretation of them. Metallic Arcane was focused on using the metal elementium so most people assumed that its point was to reinforce metal things or bend them but it was so much more. For the same material, each elementium would have a different reaction on it but all of them had one.

For example, it was possible to turn water into steam using spells for the Aqueous Arcane, Incandescent Arcane or the Ground Arcane. The three of them had their own way to do so but the final result would be the same.

Deoxidation used metal elementium and worked better on objects that already had a certain quantity of it in them but the spell would still affect matter with other elementium in them.

In the future, Nikolaï would use the spell on leather and every other matter that react to air.

Nikolaï finished his practice and stored away his sword. For now, he had limited himself to casting the tier 0 spells only 10 times per session. He didn’t have unlimited energy and using too much of it could prevent him from doing other things the rest of the day. Regularity and consistent effort were more important than the actual number of times he had cast the spell. It was only useful for keeping track of it and creating a schedule.

After lunch, Nikolaï started to prepare himself for a bit of Forgerune. He had already honoured his orders even if he didn’t deliver them all. He had resumed his official activity after the passage of the Shielder but he was still hiding his capacities. He had some mirrors ready to be sold but he was fencing one at the time, creating the illusion that he had to work a long time on each.

In reality, he was using this time to test other things and read about more advanced methods. Today was a day to experiment on. Nikolaï was trying a shot at the Ranking Stone.

After many hours Nikolaï was nowhere. The glyph didn’t hold and after having broken 3 rocks he recognized that the project was above his current capacities and that his eye didn’t see everything.

Rather than wasting time and resources, Nikolaï decided to push the project to a later date. He didn’t know when but being obsessed by just one project wouldn’t do him any good. He believed that he needed to learn more about how to enhance material before going back to the stones. Same for creating safeguards and such on talisman before trying something depending so much on it.

In this spirit, Nikolaï focused on a new spell the next day : Minor Elementium Filter. The tier 0 spell belonged to the Subjugation Arcane and was used to repulse one kind of elementium. Its area was limited, barely the volume of a mug but its effect was very interesting for a Forgerune.

Nikolaï made an exception to his 10 times rules and cast the spell 20 times. The spell would be used for making talismans only and he wanted to try it soon. Getting used to a spell would affect the speed of its casting but Nikolaï didn’t need to be fast when using Minor Elementium Filter.

In the middle of the afternoon, Nikolaï delivered some mirrors and bought materials, including a new acid kit. He had used a lot of it on the failed stones. With all of that, he went back to his room and made few tests with the Filter.