PftA Book 5 - Chapter 24 - Finally a Master

I spent the next week quietly saying goodbye to all of the acquaintances I’d made over the last several years. Most were Epikairos disciples from the Celtor branch that I’d gotten to know over the years.

I hadn’t gotten particularly close with anyone since I knew that my time there was limited, but I’d been friendly enough with several individuals that I felt it would be inappropriate to simply disappear without warning.

I went back and forth on whether or not to tell Garland and the others the truth about who I was, and ultimately decided to come clean during my last visit to the Celtor branch.

The people I’d gotten to know were understandably surprised at my long-term deception, but most understood my reasoning behind hiding my identity. A few seemed upset that I’d shared meals and classes with them for so long without being honest about who I was, but they seemed to be the minority.

“So, you really were the Trinity Mage this whole time?” Garland asked.

“I was,” I said.

“Wow. That’s pretty awesome. I can’t wait to tell everyone that I’ve been hanging out with Trinity Emie—” Garland paused and cleared his throat abruptly. “I’m sorry. I meant to say Elder Momentia.”

I shook my head lightly at the young Alchemist’s correction, but didn’t say anything. Telling the young Tier Three not to worry about such things would only set a bad precedent now that I was no longer in disguise.

After promising everyone that I’d try my best to remain safe once I returned to the dungeon, I bid them all goodbye and teleported to the Enchanters’ Guild branch in Garnet City, Aegeas.

Vice-Guildleader Rhania’Aether was waiting for me when I arrived since I’d warned her that I’d be stopping by.

“Enchanter Emie! I’m so glad you stopped by. I was hoping to discuss your training plans once you return to the dungeon. You’re close to reaching Master Enchanter, yes?”

I smiled at Rhania’s exuberance.

“I think so,” I replied as I followed the elf to her office. “I’d hoped to reach the threshold before returning to the dungeon, but it doesn’t look like I’ll make it.”

Rhania pursed her lips. “That’s unfortunate, but not unexpected. It often takes hundreds of years for an Enchanter to go from Expert to Master Enchanter. It is quite a significant jump, but the results are worth it.”

“Even with the temporary nature of manifested enchantments?” I asked, referencing the most significant advantage that Master Enchanters held over mere experts.

Manifesting enchantments out of nothing but mana and willpower was something that only Master and Grandmaster Enchanters could do. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a skill that could be learned traditionally.

Like many higher-level skills and spells, it could only be ‘learned’ through the system. No amount of studying or training would allow someone to manifest runes or create enchantments out of nothing but mana.

It was a system-exclusive skill, which meant it likely required the system to modify something about the brain or body to work. Regardless, I looked forward to gaining the ability, even if the enchantments didn’t last as long as those that were traditionally crafted.

“Oh, absolutely,” the Vice-Guildleader said without hesitation. “No enchantment is truly permanent, and with most Enchanters not reaching the master level until Tier Eight at the soonest, they normally have sufficient mana density to create manifestations that can rival the longevity of standard enchantments crafted by mid-tier Enchanters.”

“Does the guild have anything that would help me push past the last little bit?” I asked hopefully. “Maybe a series of enchantments that are difficult and known to push Expert Enchanters to their limits?”

Rhania tapped her lips a few times in thought.

“Nothing like what you probably mean, but I do have a few commissions that might be challenging for you. How comfortable are you with adaptive enchantments? Specifically, those pertaining to optimizing plant growth?”

My mind immediately shifted into creative mode, and I started imagining the various types of formations the Vice-Guildleader might be referring to.

“I haven’t done as much work with adaptive enchantments as I probably should have by now, but I’m fairly confident in my runic knowledge,” I replied after a moment.

Rhania sent a commission request to my interface.

“I can send you a blueprint for a similar commission if you’d like,” Rhania offered. “But if you really want to push your skill, I recommend figuring it out on your own. It’s often better to work from scratch anyway since it leads to far more innovation than simply relying on the work of others.

“Can you get it done in a week?” she asked. “I know it’s not much time for a novel creation, but with [Time Dilation], it should be possible. You’re welcome to use one of the workshops here if you need to. We have [Time Dilation] formations built-in to our premium workshops.”

Rhania paused, as if just realizing who she was talking to. Smiling a bit awkwardly, the elf clasped her hands tightly in front of her.

“Then again, I’m sure a Time Mage like yourself probably has no problem crafting or powering such an enchantment,” Rhania added. “Still, the offer is there, if you need it.”

I had Lisa accept the commission for me.

“I appreciate it, but I should be fine,” I said. “I’ll get to work on this right away. Hopefully, it will be enough to push me over the edge. I’d love to gain access to the Master library before returning to the dungeon.”

“Break through and I’ll escort you to the guild library on Sira myself,” Rhania promised. “How much time do you have left?”

“A little under three months,” I replied.

“Well, hopefully you’ll manage to reach Master Enchanter soon.”

= = =

Though I’d hoped to spend my last three months relaxing and traveling, the lure of the Master Enchanters’ Library was too much to pass up. And with my ability to teleport pretty much anywhere in the realm, it wasn’t like I couldn’t do both at once.

But before I could delve into the knowledge contained within the library, I had to become a Master Enchanter.

It was something I’d worked toward for years – decades, even. I was close, tantalizingly close, but I wasn’t sure a single challenging commission was going to be enough to push me across the finish line.

Even so, I jumped into the challenge after letting the important people in my life know where I’d be for the next week.

I quickly realized why Rhania had deemed the commission to be challenging enough to give me in my quest to reach Master Enchanter. Had I not taken a few Gardening classes during my time pretending to be a normal disciple, I would have probably struggled to recognize just how difficult the task before me was.

The formation I was to create needed to not only monitor and assess the growth of an entire garden’s worth of flora, but it also needed to selectively manipulate the conditions within to accommodate the specific needs of each plant being grown.

Depending on how the plants were placed, my task could be made easier or harder. If the Gardener or Botanist planted their garden in a manner that allowed the plants to maximize mana flows and create a healthier growing environment by mana type, the formation shouldn’t need to do more than just tweak a few things here and there.

However, if care wasn’t taken with plant placement, the formation would have to do a lot more work to compensate. I’d have to assume the formation needed to be built to accommodate the latter, since the formation would need to work regardless of how well laid out the garden was.

It was a good thing that my demesne’s time dilation was able to extend the week I’d been given to a full twenty weeks, since it took me and Lisa several weeks just to research the optimal conditions for each of the varied flora listed in the commission parameters.

“I see why Rhania gave me this commission,” I muttered as I pushed the enchantment simulator aside while rubbing my forehead.

It was going to take Arcane mana to make the formation work properly, and sources of Arcane mana were few and far between. Aside from a few species of beasts that occasionally manifested an Arcane affinity, mana wells were the most plentiful source of Arcane mana known.

It was little wonder why the Tier Four mana well Ros had originally discovered in the other timeline had been mined to near exhaustion. It was probably a good thing I hadn’t shared the location of the Tier Nine well with anyone yet.

I still needed to share the location with Anya, but I’d probably add in a caveat that the well couldn’t be mined until after I ascended. It would be a shame to have the best resource for improving my affinity get destroyed while I was gaining levels inside the dungeon.

After taking a break to grab some food and clear my mind, I returned to my workstation and reviewed the commission parameters once again.

“It needs to be adaptive,” I reminded myself. “Let the formation figure out what each plant needs instead of trying to program everything in.”

I scribbled a few potential rune combinations that should work as long as the intent imbued was appropriately focused.

“I’ll need to ensure alternate mana types can be used if Arcane mana isn’t available,” I muttered.

In truth, the formation would likely need several types of mana to work, even with my contribution of Arcane mana. Since it was probably better to assume the users wouldn’t have access to another source of Arcane mana, I’d need to incorporate a [Mana Gathering] array to supplement. The other, more common types of mana, could be manually added via user or core.

Eighteen subjective weeks after starting the project, I finally had a design that I felt would meet the requirements of the commission. It took another week and a half to craft the formation, pushing me uncomfortably close to the deadline.

“Alright. The moment of truth,” I said as I set the final piece according to the blueprint I’d designed.

I was using my own personal garden to test the formation. If it worked, I’d craft a second one for my own use.

Holding my breath, I activated the formation.

[Successful creation of a novel formation! Additional experience awarded!]

[Congratulations! Your Enchanting skill has advanced by another stage. Expert → Master.]

Rhania had warned me about the sensation that accompanied gaining true system skills since I’d never reached the Master level in anything before. The feeling of having my brain forcibly modified to accommodate the odd skill was a bit disorienting, but the sensation passed quickly.

Knowledge bloomed in my mind. It felt like something between remembrance and having an epiphany.

“Oh! I understand now. Yeah, no wonder this isn’t something that can be learned,” I mused.

The system’s modifications to my brain had included a change that allowed me to control mana in a new way. It was not something I could put into words, but I knew that the effects of my new skill would extend beyond my Enchanting abilities, and I looked forward to testing it out.