20 Enchanting

Teo had needed to rest for several hours before he was back on his feet. His mind and body had been sucked dry by the exhausting practice session with Goliath this morning, and only a few hours of deep sleep could breathe some spirit into him again.

However, the pressure on his mind and body had not lessened one bit. Since Goliath could prevent the leaking of excessive Mana from his body, even while he slept, he could continuously temper his body for 24 hours a day. But he would still need some time to get used to it.

The feeling was hard to describe. It felt a bit like walking around after staying up very late and being incredibly numb and tired, while simultaneously having a light headache. In any case, it was very unpleasant.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

Teo had slept all the way till early afternoon, and after quickly eating something for lunch, he would need to go to the cellars and practice his Enchanting skills with Uncle Thoralv. He was quite lucky that he had told Goliath about it before, who managed to wake him up in time; otherwise, his uncle would probably be furious again.

As Teo ran down the steep stairs leading to the cellars, he went over everything he had learned today again. Theoretically, he should be able to use the same concept that he used to craft a Mana Core, for Enchantments as well, and he was already eager to test his hypothesis.

He slowly made his way through the poorly illuminated path towards the forge, located in the inner reaches of the underground area, until he could see the gentle red glow of burning coals. His granduncle was already waiting for him, standing right next to a slender, black sword.

"Good, you're finally here. Forget the practice materials. We will work on a real Enchantment today. And I want you to help me with it," Thoralv said in his usual, thick voice.

From up close, the sword looked even more impressive. It was utterly black from tip to hilt and had a smooth, shiny surface. One look could tell that it was not made from normal iron, and its overall quality was likely to be on par with its appearance.

"It looks expensive," said Teo slowly, trying to remind his uncle of the possible consequences of his assistance.

"Hahaha! It's made of Blacksteel. I only finished it yesterday, while you were out playing," answered Thoralv, laughing heartily and holding his large belly with both hands. Of course, he noticed the intention behind Teo's words, but that would not suffice to change his mind. He had wanted to give the boy some real practice for weeks now.

After his talk with Goliath this morning, Teo had already begun to suspect that normal elemental Magicians had developed the Enchanting-process after they had gained the necessary control over Mana. It was probably only picked up by ordinary people with a natural Mana Affinity much late.

The two main parts of Enchanting were the Magic Circles, giving the item all the desired properties and effects, and the Energy channels, forming smooth grooves throughout the entire workpiece through which the Energy of the user, or from the surroundings, could flow and power the built-in Magic Circles. Together they functioned as the heart and circulatory system of every Enchanted Item.

The Energy channels were usually laid out very complicated and were impossible to erase; one wrong groove could cause an energy shortcut, ruining the whole item permanently. Worst case scenario, a messed up Magic Circle could even explode, making it somewhat dangerous for unpracticed hands.

However, thanks to Thoralv's unrelenting nature, Teo could only do his best and try not to scrap his uncle's masterpiece. He would just need to assist anyway; his uncle would still do the most difficult parts himself.

The first step for every Enchantment was understanding the layout of Energy channels, Magic Circles, and their intended functions, which Thoralv explained meticulously in great detail. A basic overview would be enough for assisting his uncle, but if Teo wanted to learn something from this experience, he would need to understand every line and smudge on the blueprint.

The Enchantment planned for the Blacksteel sword was rather simple, only utilizing the basic sharpness and lightweight Magic Circles. The ingenious move, however, was the filigree structure of Energy channels, running very close along both edges of the sword, granting it incredible durability and hardness while in use. This effect was primarily due to the natural diffusion of Mana into the surrounding material — it strengthened the weapon exactly where it would be strained the most.

Combining the hair-splitting sharpness of a scalpel, with unusually high durability and low weight, it would make for a fearsome weapon, guaranteed to make short work of conventional iron tools. It was no wonder that his uncle was known for his exquisite and highly detailed works, even when half of his creations had the visible details of a brick; it were the inner values that mattered.

His uncle instructed him on the parts that he should work on first, then it was time for action.

Teo's first task was carving a wide Energy channel in the center of the sword, functioning as the backbone of the Energy circulatory system, from which smaller branches would occasionally split off.

These branches would be the second part of his job, carving the subtle capillary channels, which made this layout so brilliant, all the way up to the edge of the sword. Much to Teo's dismay, his uncle would only tackle the more complex Magic Circles, located along the large artery that ran through the center of the sword, leaving him to shape the highly complicated network of channels by himself.

Luckily, Teo already had an idea of how he could speed up the process of creating the main channel quite a bit.

He slowly absorbed some of the Mana in the room, bringing the pressure inside him up to a level he could work with. Then he began to braid a few unusually thick Mana strands into a thin rope, further compressing the Mana as much as he could in a short amount of time.

Teo was not too worried that his uncle would notice the changes he went through. He had always glowed like a torch under Mana Vision, and the details inside one's body where only tangible for oneself. Also, it was considered normal for the Mana Density of a young boy to grow together with his body; Teo's only grew a few paces faster than usual.

After weaving a rope as thick as a worm and as long as the whole sword, he slowly began to insert it into the weapon starting from the hilt, while gently rotating it around its axis. Slowly but steadily, it sunk into the tool and worked its way forward like a drill.

Carving Energy channels could not be taken literally in this context, as the material was not damaged, and both its surface and innards would stay intact without any visible grooves, but it was hard work nonetheless.

Teo would need to change the inherent structure of the material to make it a better conductor for Energy, which can be accomplished by repeatedly flushing Mana, or any other Element, through a small and highly specific path over and over again.

With time and sufficient exposure to compressed and rapidly flowing Mana, the chosen path would become an increasingly stronger conductor for Magic and would thus become able to deliver the user's Energy all over the tool, powering all of its Magic Circles. It was just like flowing water, slowly carving a canyon through a mountain.

The process required exquisite control over Mana, high sensitivity to the material properties, and lots of patience. It required strict concentration during the whole process and large quantities of willpower.

In the nature of Energy channels also lay the reason why it was very beneficial to be an Arcane when it came to becoming an Enchanter. Every Element could be used to carve a channel, but all of them would only conduct Elemental threads of the same kind, or its closest neighbors, making the Artifact useless for anyone practicing the wrong Element. Only pure Mana could create Channels capable of conducting all Elements equally.

Teo's hard work and ingenuity paid off, though, as he managed to finish the main channel in barely half the time he would have taken using standard techniques, making quite the impression on his uncle.

The first step accomplished, Teo downgraded to a smaller thread and began to work on the narrower branches, winding through the whole item. Quickly he noticed, that his control over the Mana he guided had improved significantly from a few days ago. His sensitivity to the flow of it had heightened, and he could not only move it faster but also with much higher precision. Teo wondered, if this was a side effect of his newly formed Mana Core, but had no real information to work with.

He finished the intermediate channels quickly and without much trouble. Barely an hour had passed since he started his work on the sword, and he was making rapid progress. His uncle was now almost finished with the Magic Circles, only polishing some rough edges, and would pay increasingly more attention to how Teo was doing, as he was approaching the most challenging part now.

Slowly he began to work on the much shorter and narrower channels, stretching throughout the sword like a filigree network of hairs. This task required absolute concentration because even pulling a thread through a wrong path once, would lower the quality of that specific channel and possibly the whole item.

From time to time, Teo would mess up on one of the narrower channels but managed to keep the situation in check, minimizing the damage. Fortunately, he had not hit one of the larger channels and caused an unwanted shortcut or the collision of opposite flows, so no real harm was done. He was using his full concentration to carve hair-thin channels through perfectly pre-calculated paths with no room for errors; it was taxing on his mind and body alike.

He was at it now for over 2, maybe 3 hours, and his focus was beginning to decline. Fresh sweat covered his forehead, and he would not be able to continue for long. To his great relief, however, he was almost done.

A few minutes later, he finally finished his work on the first real tool he had ever worked with. Not a metal rod, but a real sword! Of exceptional quality even.