Chronicles of the True Wizard

Flying up to Inscripticae’s front door, Felix entered the building and walked straight into the workshop at the back. He didn’t see anyone in at the moment but considering how dark it was outside, he wasn’t surprised.

Before he committed himself to working on anything, he walked over to Aldahn’s office to briefly check in with him.

Felix knocked on the door and almost immediately heard, “Come in!”

Felix opened the door and Aldahn looked up, “Oh, Felix. You’re… a fucking monster. Where the hell were you?”

Felix frowned, “On a job with the guild, I tol-”

Aldahn shook his head, “You more than doubled your class level in what, less than a dekad?”

Felix shrugged, “It’s only been 5 days, right?”

Aldahn scoffed, “My bad, half a dekad.”

Felix frowned, “Wait, you can see my levels separately? Can you see my class, race and profession?”

Aldahn shrugged, “Kinda? I can see human, caster and enchanter. Same thing I see for everyone, it’s based on what I already know. I can’t see individual levels but I just assumed you didn’t increase your profession much which would mean your class had to have at least doubled, right?”

Felix nodded, “I see. Yeah went from 221 to 449.”

Aldahn chuckled, “Just don’t expect that kind of leveling all the time. You’re probably still catching up to your own strength. It will slow down a lot.”

Felix shrugged, “So I’ve heard. Got any new contracts for me to shadow?”

Aldahn nodded, “Actually yeah, we got a job just the other day. I haven’t assigned it yet but I think this job is actually perfect for you. I’ll assign it to Inorim and have you shadow him.”

Felix nodded, “When’s the design meeting?”

Aldahn shook his head, “Won’t be one. It’s a pretty straight forward enchantment. I’ll get him to find you when I give him the details. Just check in at least daily for the next dekad or so if you can.”

Felix nodded, “Sure, no problem.”

“Oh also.” Felix saw a transaction screen appear in front of him in which Aldahn was offering him 500 B, “For the sword you shadowed Fralyna on.”

Felix accepted the transaction, “Gotcha. Thanks.”

Felix left Aldahn to do whatever it was he did in his office and walked back into the workshop.

His first task was to design a proper system of mana channels he could use. He headed up to the design room first and chose a random seat then started meditating. He walked into his Soul Garden and brought up multiple floating whiteboards in the grassy field where he started drawing.

His goal was to accommodate all the organs and cells he had integrated and to provide them with mana of the proper attunement. He started with the requirements and worked backwards from there with the intention of fitting a mana core in his body right at the end. His entire philosophy was, at first, to create something that resembled his circulatory system because that seemed to be the best fit based on all the mana channel systems he had seen.

He only managed to create a basic outline by the time he stopped. Felix had limited himself to working until early morning because he had other things he wanted to do within the city itself.

Coming out of his meditation, Felix headed out into the city. First, he bathed then he found himself a store that specialized in enchantment and magic contraption materials. He ended up spending 100k D on various materials, mostly inlay materials.

He also bought himself a new quill specifically for inlaying along with some low melting point inlay that he could easily fill channels with. He also bought hundreds of thin metal discs he could use to create various spells on the go that were slightly more reusable and larger than the spell tablets. The tablets were a little small to comfortably inscribe spells like portals.

After that, Felix headed over to Mihto’s. He had officially gotten to the point where he had to add in spells to progress further and so before Mihto set him up with anything, he pulled out the spell books he had initially shown to Felix.

Mihto looked across the desk at Felix with a very serious expression, “How many spell slots will you dedicate to this?”

Felix didn’t really want to reveal too many of his secrets, but at the same time he didn’t want to hinder his own progress, “Let’s say infinite. I’m an enchanter and I plan on inscribing the spells. I got lucky with skills that make it so there realistically isn’t much of a spell limit for these kinds of spells.”

Mihto looked at him for a few seconds then nodded seriously and put away one of the books. He turned back to the desk and opened the other, “Longer route or do you want to rush it?”

Felix frowned, “How much longer?”

“Depends on you. Two more terms at most.”

“I can live with two more terms.”

Mihto nodded and flipped the page a few times, “Memorize these 5 spells.”

Felix did as Mihto asked though he thought it was odd he was just memorizing 5 spells. He nodded to Mihto indicating he had finished and Mihto picked up the book and led him back over to the course.

He set up an obstacle course and had Felix run through it a couple dozen times with the spells. He started by having him cast just one spell at a time until he had worked his way up to casting all 5. After that, he created more complicated courses and had Felix use two spells, then three until finally he was using all 5 in the courses.

Mihto had Felix run through a variety of courses using all 5 spells until Felix said he was comfortable with the spells.

They weren’t complicated, just Force spells that pushed his body forwards mostly. Some of them were in large fast bursts, others were slow and some had gradual acceleration. A couple allowed him to maneuver in the air as well. They all seemed to target the core of his body too, dragging his limbs along with his torso.

Once Felix told Mihto he was comfortable, Mihto simply nodded and brought up a new course. It didn’t look any different from the others so he set himself up at the start and leapt into it.

He crouched, jumped and ran across various platforms of sand just as he had before. Felix kicked off a horizontal platform into the air and onto a vertical wall with the aim of running across it using one of the spells that would hold him to the surface. He took just two steps, ducked under a platform and leapt over a wall.

Suddenly he was in the air with no platform around him, the nearest one being a short wall to his right. He looked over and cast the spell meant to maneuver him in the air but it just wasn’t fast enough. He missed the wall along with his chance to regain his footing and ended up flying out of the course.

Had he been using his own spells, he could have easily flown or guided himself over to the wall but when he restricted himself to just the 5 Mihto had given him, he just didn’t see how it would be possible.

He had failed some of the courses before but usually he got them within another couple tries. This time, he tried dozens of times but no matter how he timed it or angled his body, he just couldn’t make it. He frowned after his 25th failed attempt and walked over to Mihto who gave him a curt nod.

Felix shook his head, “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this one. It’s impossible, isn’t it?”

Mihto nodded, “Yes.” Then Mihto opened the book he had been holding and flipped to a page where he pointed at a pair of spells, “Memorize these and replace that one,” He pointed to another, “With them.”

Felix nodded and did so, quickly experimenting with the spells and finding that they both did the same thing as the last, maneuvering in the air, but they had different use cases. One was a fast burst that barely moved him a meter, the other was slower but allowed him to move much further.

This time Felix ran the course and completed it on the first try using the fast burst in place of the old spell. The next course Mihto constructed required Felix to use the short burst many times to rapidly maneuver between objects.

After that, the course required long strides through the air where Felix leaned more on the second spell he had just been taught.

He very quickly realized what Mihto was doing and what he had meant by the longer route. By starting Felix with simple spells then replacing them with more specialized version, he was trying to help Felix build an intuition for which spell was correct in which circumstance. While Felix already had some intuition because he had been using his own spells extensively, the spells Mihto taught him became even more complex and specialized. They didn’t get much more complex in spell form, just in versatility.

Instead of targeting the core of his body, his center of gravity, the spells started to branch outwards and target the balls of his feet, his lower leg, his arms and so on. They also varied in terms of range and speed.

Felix ended up spending almost the entire day with Mihto and by the end, Mihto had introduced him to the most versatile spell yet, a spell that allowed Felix to step or kick off in mid air. Judging from the spell form itself, it was perfectly resisting any force he applied and returning it to him, acting like a solid object.

Felix ran through hundreds of courses with the spell he was dubbing Phantom Step. The spell was so much more versatile than all the others because not only could he create parts of the course himself, replacing missing platforms with the spell, but the combinations were endless.

At first Mihto had limited him to one Phantom Step per course forcing him to use other spells and combine the spell with others, minimizing his reliance on it. While, once again, Felix could simply fly, by being limited to the spells Mihto had given him along with the restrictions of the course, Felix felt like he was starting to build a solid intuition.

It wasn’t always optimal to just fly and utilizing a number of these spells when he flew, he could vastly improve his agility in the air.

Eventually, Felix decided he should check back in at Inscripticae so he thanked and paid Mihto then flew off back to the enchanting shop.

Walking into the workshop, Felix spotted Ezaldor completely engrossed in the same ring he had been examining the first time Felix had met him.

Felix chose an empty desk and pulled out a half dozen of the metal discs he had bought earlier then began inscribing anchors onto them. He then filled the inscription with a semi-permanent inlay material and bathed the entire thing in a chemical bath to fuse the materials together. Now he had less fragile temporary anchors he could pull out whenever he needed them.

With that done, Felix started experimenting with his Mage Armor spell. Now that he had the spell form for Phantom Step, he wanted to dissect and implement some of it into the Mage Armor. Having it be reactive or even just have an additional layer where it could push back against an incoming attack would make it far more effective.

He didn’t get very far into it though before Inorim strolled over towards him, coming from Aldahn’s office. He walked up to Felix’s desk and bowed deeply to him, “It is my great honor to be enchanting with you Mr. Prodigy.”

Felix frowned and cocked a brow then waited for Inorim to say something else. He didn’t, instead he stood up and cocked a wide grin while waggling all of his brows.

Felix sighed, “So what are we making?”

Inorim nodded and his face grew a little more serious though his grin was ever present, “A standard scroll printer. Not a complicated enchantment but I’m sure we can find a way to make it fun.”

Felix frowned, “A scroll printer? How does that work?”

Inorim shrugged, “I was hoping you could tell me.”

Felix shook his head, “I know you’re messing with me. How do you tell it what scroll to print?”

Inorim chuckled, “With a template of course, silly.”

Felix just waited for Inorim to guide him. After a long awkward pause where Inorim just looked at Felix, Inorim finally sighed and gestured for Felix to follow then led him up to the design room.

Inorim hopped into one of the chairs then leaned back and put his feet on the table, “Gimme your best shot at an enchantment.”

Felix frowned, “Can you show me what the templates look like?”

Inorim sighed and dropped his head back, “Nah, more fun this way.”

Felix just sighed and looked at the boards around the room. They all had something written on them and he had no idea which ones he could erase. He looked at them for a few seconds trying to decide then Inorim just pointed at one, “Erase that one.”

Felix contorted his face, “Why that one?”

Inorim smiled crazily again, “It’s Ezaldor’s.”

Felix was tempted to erase one of the other boards because he wasn’t sure Inorim wasn’t messing with him and Ezaldor but he didn’t really have a better reason. He walked over and erased the board then just started drawing out enchantments.

Inorim laughed out loud causing Felix to stop and look at him, “We don’t have enough board space for you to draw out the entire enchantment. Just do a diagram.”

Felix nodded and erased what he had already written then abstracted out the components into sections. He knew there had to be one section that read the template then another that replicated that onto a scroll.

Inorim looked at it and nodded, “A scroll printer can also usually adjust to the size of the scroll.”

Felix nodded and added in a middle section where it would process and transform the input. That section would take in information from a measurement of the scroll itself.

Inorim smiled, “They can also usually repeat a template over a really long scroll or roll of fabric, like a ribbon, to make portable wards for example.”

Felix frowned and looked at the enchantment diagram then expanded out the processing section a bit.

Inorim continued to add and clarify as Felix went until eventually, the diagram started to get really complicated and Felix wasn’t sure it could be enchanted at all.

Inorim furrowed his brows but the smile never left his face, “Half of that diagram is processing. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could bundle that all up somehow?”

Felix frowned and looked at the diagram for a few seconds then almost smacked himself on the forehead. He erased three quarters of the board and replaced it with a single node in the diagram that read, “Mana Computer.”

Felix sighed, “This is why Aldahn said this one would be perfect for me.”

Inorim didn’t respond to that but pointed over towards the input section, “How about we get a little more granular with that. How will it actually read the template? What does the reading that gets sent to the computer look like?”

Felix nodded and expanded the input section. They continued like this with Inorim having Felix redo sections, replace nodes and add in functionality for hours. Inorim ultimately had to add in some things Felix didn’t even know about but in the end, the diagram was pretty thorough. Even without Inorim’s help, Felix was pretty sure with this diagram, he could make a good attempt at making this enchantment himself.

The last step Inorim had him do was outline very detailed specifications for the actual mana flowing in and out of the mana computer on the inside.

With that done, Inorim finally stood up and stretched himself out, “Alright diagram is good. Now we know the exact inputs and output of our computer, shouldn’t be too hard to make it. Let me know when you’ve got the first prototype done.”

Felix frowned but didn’t get a chance to say anything as Inorim scurried out of the room and completely left Inscripticae.

Sighing, Felix walked down to an empty desk and started working. He used scrap materials from the storage room and did his best to create a mana computer that fit the specifications. It was far more complicated than the one he had made for his Pocket Home.

Instead of just looping through items, this one took a large amount of data as input then processed and transformed that data according to settings and readings then output it.

It took him a few hours to get a first prototype at which point he looked up and saw Inorim lying on the large enchantment table at the back.

Felix walked over and presented him with his prototype. Inorim grabbed it, flipped it over once then tossed it over his head, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could reuse the transformation part of the computer for multiple purposes?”

Felix frowned, “What do you mean?”

Inorim just shrugged indicating he had nothing more to say.

Felix sighed and walked back over to the desk where he continued prototyping until he realized he had to change the diagram. While the diagram they had made was functional, it wasn’t elegant or efficient. If he manipulated the inputs and outputs just a little, he could significantly simplify the computer.

When he asked Inorim if he could modify the diagram, Inorim just snorted, “Took you long enough.”

After just a couple iterations, he presented Inorim with a computer and he finally complimented the attempt, “Not bad.” Then promptly tossed it into a pile with the others.

Inorim hopped off the table and walked up to the design room with Felix in tow and erased the diagram entirely. He redrew it and expanded on every aspect, detailing specific enchantment nodes, channels and connections. In doing so, he started writing down numbers for the precision, attunements and variability of the mana between each node. He added some nodes to the connections to dampen the variability or increase the precision then finally drew out the computer in the middle.

The computer itself had very similar inputs and outputs but now, Inorim had detailed the exact specifications of the inputs and outputs. He had the computer transforming the mana slightly to increase its precision or switch its attunement slightly to better fit a node in the output.

In the end, Felix felt all his frustration at Inorim wash away. Inorim nodded and pointed at the computer then led Felix down to a desk where he had Felix make the computer but he watched over and scrutinized every step. He pointed out flaws and had Felix redo sections. He detailed techniques and pointed out the correct quills for Felix to use until they ended up with a much sleeker and elegant design.

Inorim nodded, “Great, now let’s test it.”

He led Felix over to the storage room where he handed him a number of materials and had him carry them over to the large table in the corner.

Together, they laid out and inscribed materials to form a large mess of metal plates connected by ribbons and all surrounding the prototype computer they had just made. They used an old quill as the writing head and constructed a small box of metal to feed scrolls through.

Inorim finally showed Felix what a template looked like and they ran the enchantments through a test run.

Felix watched and marveled at the jankiest magical contraption he had ever seen. Though it was a mess, it did exactly what it was supposed to as the quill drew out a spell onto a scroll.

It took a few minutes for the contraption to finish at which point Felix examined the scroll and realized it was a mess. The spell was recognizable but it looked like it had been drawn by a child on a boat in a storm with a crayon.

Inorim looked over his shoulder and nodded, “Looks good to me.”

Felix raised a brow and pushed mana into the scroll but Inorim quickly snatched the scroll from him before he could finish, “What the hell are you doing? Don’t try and cast this garbage, it might explode.”

Inorim sighed and continued, “It should be fine once we use the right materials. This mess of a prototype just has low precision.”

Felix nodded, “How do you know this is just from the materials and whatnot?”

Inorim shrugged, “Experience.”

Inorim gave Felix a shopping list and they split up, each of them buying half of the required materials. This time Felix decided to just buy them himself and ask for reimbursement later.

He only had to visit a couple shops for all the materials since he only had to buy enchantment materials. Inorim had assigned himself the housing along with the more complicated bits and pieces.

They met back up in the workshop where Inorim had Felix draw out the enchantments on each piece in pencil while he slept.

The next morning, Inorim adjusted the sketches and they continued. They spent days together carefully enchanting each piece. The part that took the longest, by far, was the computer. Inorim had Felix do the entire thing himself but stood by and made sure there was no chance Felix could mess it up. They used pencil then scratched the enchantment in then carefully inscribed it.

For the first time since he had gotten the skill, Felix noticed Quill Precision at work. He felt it guiding him and correcting imperfections in his lines. At the level he was working at, his heartbeat, circulatory system and breaths noticeably moved the quill but the skill adjusted for that.

Had he not had the skill, it wouldn’t have been possible for him to enchant the computer. He could have slowed or stopped the blood flow to his fingers but even then, it was too complicated. If he wasn’t restricted to such a small size or if he had been able to use his mana control somehow, it would have been doable. With a quill though, he just didn’t have the raw dexterity.

Though it would add 100s of levels of complexity, Felix couldn’t help but wonder about putting mana computers into spells. It would allow him to cast all kinds of ridiculous spells that had unique effects per target, tracked targets by predicting their path of movement and even measuring their defenses and adapting to them.

He wasn’t even close to that point yet though.

They completed and assembled the entire printer without issue and from their initial tests, it seemed to work flawlessly. Aldahn gave his approval after looking it over for just a couple minutes and they had Ezaldor and Krinitor look it over as well.

Once complete, they placed it in a room and left it. Inorim ordered food and ate it with Felix in the workshop where they talked about mana computers and enchantments mostly. After that Inorim scurried off and Felix talked to Aldahn about another job. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any at the moment so Felix decided to work on some of his own projects.

All in all, Felix had gained 42 profession levels just from working on the mana printer job with Inorim. After that, Felix spent a dekad working with Mihto, designing mana channels and tuning up his Mage Armor.

With Mihto, they had split even more of the spells and Felix had over 20 of them that he had to switch between. They had gotten increasingly specific as he trained to the point where they targeted specific points on his body in specific ways. Their versatility though only increased. The combinations of multiple spells in quick succession, or in Felix’s case at once, only multiplied the possibilities.

He felt like he was getting close to a completed set of mana channels as well but then again, he had felt that way a few times now. He had a complete design but before he was willing to modify even his Persona’s body, he thoroughly checked it over. The past few times he had arrived at this same point, he had scrapped the whole thing and started over. He was just hoping he had finally designed a system he was willing to implement.

Lastly, Felix hadn’t really gotten anywhere with his Mage Armor. He had toyed and tinkered with secondary layers that reacted to incoming attacks but he gradually realized over the dekad that it wasn’t worth combining the two spells. Instead, he was better off creating a whole new spell.

In between all of that, Felix spent any extra focus he had on improving his matter senses. They weren’t precise but he was getting to the point where a pebble was a fuzzy object and he could differentiate it from the desk beneath it.

Just a few days in, Felix had gotten paid 10 B for the scroll printer job which was much less than the other job and in terms of time taken, far less worth it, but in terms of experience, it had been equally as valuable.

He fully intended to keep working on all three of those things in the future but Aldahn had finally assigned him another job shadowing Ezaldor this time.

Though Inorim had pushed Felix to do most of the job himself, Ezaldor was more inclined to have Felix watch and learn through questions and observation. They worked together to craft a forge that could move it’s internal temperature by up to 500 degrees in under a second.

At first Felix had thought they would use a mana computer to calculate and adjust the heat being input instantly but Ezaldor seemed to prefer using raw enchantments. Though it was complex, he wove together a massive enchantment that measured and adjusted based on the change in temperature over time.

Though Felix hadn’t touched a quill once during his shadowing of the forge, he had learned as much as he had on all of the other jobs, if not more. Ezaldor’s obsession with precision resulted in obscure knowledge that continually impressed Felix. From the enchantment nodes they used to their sizes to the channels connecting them all the way to the pressure used on specific quills and the inlay material.

In the end, Felix knew for a fact that all the precautions they had taken were complete overkill but it was impressive to watch nonetheless.

He had learned a ton from Ezaldor but in Felix’s opinion, Ezaldor was too slow and meticulous. Ezaldor had taken two dekads to complete the forge and in Felix’s opinion, they could have been just as careful with half the time. He appreciated the insight though and didn’t complain once. Though he didn’t see himself implementing anything he had learned any time soon, he could see himself doing so in the future, albeit the distant future.

While Felix had been watching, jotting notes and asking the occasional question, the entirety of his focus was never solely on the enchanting. Simply observing would never have been enough for that so, at the same time he had kept up his training. He switched every 12 hours between training his casting speed, mana control, range and his matter senses.

Though he hadn’t been able to increase his spell focus by another level, he felt like he was marginally faster and the range of his mana control had definitively improved.

Even with all the progress he was making, Felix couldn’t help but feel relieved when the project was finally complete. It netted him the most of any project yet, except his mission with Shade’s Wrath, at 1k B.

After the job he checked in with Aldahn but he didn’t have any jobs at the moment meaning Felix had some time to himself.

The first thing he did was start working on a whole new enchantment to replace his Mage Armor, or rather to supplement it. His Mage Armor had issues and he wanted to implement something at least somewhat reactive. He would keep his Mage Armor around but ultimately, it was felt clunky so he would only really be activating it when he really needed it.

This new layer was more of an enchantment that activated a spell or a ward, but Felix was hoping it would fill the gap of keeping him safe even when he wasn’t aware of the danger.

He was mostly performing research in the sense that he was testing the best defensive spells, detection spells and seeing how they all interacted with each-other. This one he planned on inscribing into his robes or cloak, he wasn’t sure which yet, so he also accounted for how they fared when contorted and folded like cloth tended to do.

After a couple days of experimentation, Felix went back to looking at mana channels.

His first design that he thought was complete but ultimately scrapped was just a replica of his circulatory system with some minor modifications. The issue with that though was that his circularly system wasn’t designed to deliver mana to the places he needed it most and it was difficult for him to adjust how much went where in his body. The amount of mana it distributed was uniform, which was not what he wanted.

It also circulated blood which wasn’t necessary for Felix, he just needed to deliver not retrieve mana. Lastly, it held residual mana in the channels which limited how quickly he could swap between the attunements.

His second attempt was a high pressure version of the first where the channels themselves were thinner and therefore mana flowed through them at higher pressures. This meant there was less mana in the channels so he could switch faster and theoretically he could just increase the flow rate to a specific organ when necessary.

Unfortunately, the high pressure system did not seem safe and he was not willing to put it in his body at all.

The design he finally settled on was more akin to a networking system with a separate channel for each of the muscles and organs he had that required mana. He knew that this required a lot of space in his body but it was the best he could come up with. It also still had the issue of not switching very quickly between attunements if he wanted to switch between buffing his Agility, Strength and Endurance on the fly.

His initial tests indicated it would take him about a second to fully switch between the buffs but the best part was that once he activated the transition, everything else was unconscious. In his Persona body, he implanted organs that produced attunements as close as he could get them and had them surround his core.

His muscles and organs could draw mana from the core as needed meaning all he had to do was push himself harder and his muscles would pull whatever they needed. Lastly, his core which was within his mana pool itself was simply routed in where an animals core would go using squishy mana tubes.

He hadn’t tested it much yet, just what he could do in his Pocket Home but he was already fairly happy with the result. He already saw areas he could improve but he didn’t have solutions to those problems yet so he didn’t worry about them.

Once he had the channels fully implemented he started looking towards other projects. Aldahn still didn’t have a job for him to shadow so he started thinking about what else he could work on.

Elric popped by again to feed Felix more concoctions but unfortunately, he hadn’t come up with anything particularly interesting. Most of the new poisons he fed Felix were stronger versions of the last poisons and synergistic combinations. Felix gave his feedback which was that they were much stronger now but he didn’t mention that they were still similarly useless on him.

Elric’s visit did give Felix something to do though. Once Elric had left, Felix decided to finally start adding a layer to his actual soul. The experiment with suffusing his body with a soul layer had gone so well on his Persona, that he was ready to implement it on his real body.

Given he cared a lot more about his real body and soul compared to his Persona though, Felix decided to do things a little differently. Instead of just lightly affinizing the anima to his soul Felix wanted to completely affinize the anima this time around. He also didn’t want to dilute his soul as much as he could avoid it so he planned on making the layer as dense as possible, instead of just settling for good enough this time.

He started by simply taking all of the scraps in his soul ring, anything left behind that was filled with emotions, experiences and instincts and pulled it all into his Soul Space.

As expected, the souls were instantly obliterated and simply became a part of the ambient anima floating around. There was simply nothing left, it was completely blank other than being slightly affinized to Felix through proximity alone.

He continued to fill his Soul Space with all the scraps he had left over in the ring. He had already used a lot of it when he had done the same thing with his Persona but he still had Damoth and the Leviathan’s soul left over which was enough to start experimenting with.

The next step in his plan was to fully affinize the anima he had collected in his Soul Space. Having affinized Starmetal before and having talked to Aldahn when he affinized the greatsword, Felix had a decent idea of what he wanted to do.

Taking the anima within his Soul Space and manipulating it, Felix found, even in his Soul Space, he didn’t really have great control over it. He could move it around easily but he didn’t have any fine grained control. It was like trying to remove all the water from a pond with his hands.

He took as much of it as he could though and pulled it through his actual soul, running it along the outside of his core soul while exerting his will onto it as much as he could. He had no idea if his exertion did anything, but it seemed right so he did it anyways.

He took that anima and dragged it around until it felt just as much like his soul as the second layer did. Then, he repeated the process with another piece.

This process took a lot of time especially considering Felix could only move a small amount at a time but it was progress. Once he had fully affinized all the anima in his Soul Space, Felix started experimenting with the next step.

He took all the fully affinized anima, which was much easier to control now, and started to compress it down. His ultimate goal was for it to be as dense as his core soul was but he wasn’t even sure if that was possible. If it was, he wanted to see if he could compress his core soul further but it wasn’t something he would even consider trying for a long while.

Felix managed to compress the anima down to same density as his second layer but found he couldn’t really push it any further than that. In the end, he figured he had enough anima for about a tenth of a percent of what he would need to complete the layer.

From there, he compressed the vast majority of his third layer because it wasn’t doing anything for him but that only got him another tenth of a percent or so. What he really needed was to go slay hundreds of thousands of creatures to harvest their souls. It didn’t really matter how strong they were because the difference in soul quantity was low between high rarity or level and low rarity or level creatures.

The anima around him, and everywhere he had ever felt it, was as thin as the air he breathed. He didn’t even attempt to collect the ambient anima because it was just a waste of time. Even some of the weakest souls he had harvested would account for multiple cubic kilometers of ambient anima, creature’s souls were just so much denser. Even if he could somehow collect the ambient anima across a vast area, it would never be worth it because he could simply harvest a few E grade creatures instead.

Before he had a chance to portal to some random planet though, Felix checked in with Aldahn who had a new job for him to shadow. Felix was assigned to Fralyna again and they were enchanting a suit of armor.

Apparently, Aldahn normally assigned weapons and armor to Edemari but recently, she had been heavily focused on adventuring so instead, the job was assigned to Fralyna.

Felix started to suspect, and once asked Aldahn confirmed, that each of the enchanters had a specialty. Ezaldor’s was precision which typically landed him jobs involving highly specialized tools and equipment for crafting and professions. Inorim specialized in mana computers, Edemari focused on combat equipment and Fralyna, like Aldahn, didn’t really have a specialty or preference.

Krinitor apparently didn’t really take jobs from Aldahn. Felix had found it odd that he hadn’t seen Krinitor in the shop much but apparently his specialty was clothes and he got jobs from a massive personal client list. A huge set of people went to him specifically for jobs. Apparently he also had some kind of deal but Aldahn told Felix he would have to ask Krinitor about it.

The job he was shadowing Fralyna on was a large belt. Fralyna already had the specifications and she was waiting for him in the design room already.

Felix found Fralyna lying on the table in the design room with a large leather belt on the table held just over her head. The belt was massive and looked like it might have fit his Persona and probably could have fit round any two of the enchanters in the shop at once. On top of that, the leather itself was cut into a thick band that could have covered the majority of Felix’s torso.

On the belt there was a large metal buckle that depicted the screaming face of a creature that resembled a gorilla with large bull horns. The buckle was made entirely of a dark red metal and the leather itself was a light grey.

[D - Uncommon] Belt

[Belt]

The signature belt of a particularly stubborn warrior enchanted to make the wielder run faster.

Fralyna tilted her head back against the table to look at Felix, upside down, as he walked in then dropped back to a resting position, “What did Aldahn tell you about the job?”

“Not much. I take we have to enchant this belt?”

“Yup. I wrote out the requirements on the board. Any questions?”

Felix looked up at the board near her feet and read through the requirements. The job was to remove the old enchantment and replace it with one that would fit in the upper echelon of C grade enchantments, low B grade if possible. No visible changes or damage to the belt itself, despite its D grade materials. Budget was 2000 B.

Felix frowned, “What do they want enchanted onto it though? Like what effect?”

Fralyna shrugged, “He told me to surprise him.”

Felix sighed, “Do you at least know how he fights?”

She chuckled, “Yeah. He loaned me some memory crystals.” She reached into a pocket and tossed Felix a memory crystal which he easily caught.

Felix chose a seat at the table then slowly allowed his consciousness to drift into the gem. He made sure to keep himself only partially immersed in the memory though because he didn’t want to completely lose himself like he had before.

The memory started somewhere in some kind of arena. Felix’s viewpoint was from the inside of the fighting area but whoever had originally had the memory, was sitting back and leaning against the wall.

In the center of the arena a massive behemoth of a man stood off against a party of adventurers. The massive man wore a very familiar looking belt and was very far from human. They had massive rippling muscles beneath tanned leathery skin with claws for hands and a gorilla like face.

The man in the memory turned to his left and Felix saw the rest of the client’s party standing there with him, completely uninterested in participating.

The client leaned forwards and roared into his enemy’s faces which echoed throughout the arena then, he pounced. They scattered but his claw caught the edge of one of their cloaks as he swiped. No damage had been done but the cloak had caused the individual to trip and fall to the ground.

Surprisingly to Felix, the client ignored them, seemingly unwilling to hit someone that was already down and instead they dug their claws into the stone ground beneath them. The rest of the party began launching arrows, throwing hand axes and firing spells at the client but none of them seemed to do much against his skin.

The client flexed all their muscles for a second then yanked backwards and launched themselves at an archer. The archer didn’t move nearly fast enough and the client barreled into them like a cross between a cannon ball and a raging bull.

The archer was instantly knocked out and the client bounced themselves off the wall and into the air where they soared in the direction of the caster.

The caster constructed a shield in front of them then cast some kind of illusory double and going invisible themselves, which the original memory had instantly seen through. The client however, just didn’t really seem to care. They curled their body up and smashed through the shield then swiped through the illusion.

As soon as they realized it was an illusion, they punched out to the left and the caster’s body smacked against the wall of the arena.

With just two members left, the client seemed to be having fun. They leapt and launched themselves around the arena in an attempt to crush their opponents with their body. They were airborne for the majority of the time and the gorilla face on the belt started to make a lot of sense to Felix.

The client easily beat down the last two party members then the memory ended.

Felix tossed the crystal back to Fralyna who caught and pocketed it.

Felix nodded despite the fact that he was outside of Fralyna’s field of vision, “So what’s the plan”

She shrugged, “I don’t know, you tell me. What enchantment would you give him?”

“What do you mean, you’re the experienced enchanter here.”

“Yeah yeah, I know what I would give him. What would you give him?”

“I don’t know. He seems to have the whole force thing covered so maybe surround him in fire? Give him the option to slightly redirect in the air?”

She shrugged, “Sure. Sounds good to me. What’s the first step?”

Felix sighed when he realized Fralyna was likely going to treat him the same way Inorim had, “Probably paying a crafter to reinforce the belt. I know we’re just enchanters but it would be a waste to try and enchant the materials to survive high C or low B grade.”

She nodded, “Fair enough, what else?”

“Probably want to plan out and infuse the enchantment before that though. We could probably get the enchantment to be embedded within the materials. Given they don’t wear much of anything else, there’s little worry about enchantment interference so we could realistically add a bunch of functions to it too. Probably need to embed some big mana gems in the buckle though.”

She shook her head, “No need. They’re a librarian and get a ton of Intelligence from that. They’re totally happy powering it entirely themselves.”

Felix nodded, “Well in that case, we could probably surround their body in fire considering the resiliency of their skin, redirect their flight in the air and maybe give them some way to slow they’re enemies down? What effects would you add?”

She rolled over onto her side and propped her head up on her arm as she looked over at Felix, “I like the fire and redirecting flight thing. I was thinking we could also make his roaring a legitimate attack. On the whole slowing people down thing, we could make him impacting the ground actually dangerous.”

“So those four then? Along with some standard durability enchantments?”

She nodded, “Yup, sounds good. Wanna draw me a plan on the board?”

He nodded and walked over then began planning out the enchantment. After his first few attempts, Fralyna provided him with a small list of nodes she thought were appropriate for this level of enchantment and Felix worked them into the design.

She guided and directed him mostly by giving him a general shape and having him fill in the blanks as opposed to Inorim who seemed to enjoy watching Felix erase the board.

Once the basic design was finalized Fralyna guided him through choosing the appropriate materials from a number of menus she had. They detailed the properties of various proprietary materials from crafters she trusted and they reminded Felix of takeout menus.

With the appropriate materials for reinforcement selected, they carefully picked out inlay materials and despite having a skill to identify them, Fralyna showed him things he had never considered. Realistically he hadn’t had any need to consider them until now but it was still fascinating to him.

The next step was completely novel to Felix. They took a thin film and essentially used it to create a template. The material for the film was solid enough for them to inlay into it but at the same time, when it was heated, it would sublimate and evaporate leaving behind just the inlay material.

The crafter could then sandwich the film between two materials and heat it which would transfer the inlay to the materials around it. The film was also mixed in with the same chemicals they used to fuse inlay materials so when it evaporated, the inlay would also fuse the materials together.

Then, all they had to do was use a very high melting point inlay material so it retained its shape when it was fused. They also had to use different materials for the leather and the buckle but the majority of the enchantment was on the buckle anyways. All the enchantment nodes and channels on the belt itself were mostly for balance and support.

Together, Fralyna and Felix delivered the film they had enchanted to their crafter of choice. Instead of heading to a forge or leatherworker specifically, Fralyna had chosen a crafter that was a pacifist and was apparently an expert in both professions.

They didn’t have to wait long because Fralyna had already talked to them ahead of time and they had ordered and prepared all the materials. They both watched for an hour or so as the crafter fused parts and pieces they had already forged onto the belt along with coating it, treating it and making sure it looked exactly as it had originally. They also did the work of sanding off the old enchantment which had the added benefit of allowing them to replace more of the low grade materials.

Once the crafter was finished with the belt, they brought it back to the shop where they placed it in a meeting room for whenever the client showed up. They had ended up getting the belt to C grade Epic, mostly because Fralyna had stopped them from making it any stronger than that. She assured Felix anything higher than that and the client wouldn’t have enough mana to use it. The only way it they could have it hit B grade was if the enchantment was incredibly complex.

The belt ended up with the four features they had planned out. Encasing the wearer in fire which exploded outwards when they suddenly decelerated. It could also slightly redirect the client mid flight but not by much without wasting a ton of mana. His roar was also amplified through an enchantment that Felix found fascinating because rather than measuring and conditionally amplifying his voice when it was loud enough, it simply always amplified his voice.

The amplification of his voice though was exponential. Anything lower than a roar and the effect was filtered out naturally through the imperfections of the enchantment. When they roared, the mana would overcome the minor resistance and amplify the roar many times over.

Lastly, whenever they landed on the ground with enough force, they could choose to charge up and release a shockwave of force, wind and sound that could easily knock down their enemies.

The two of them were happy with the result though their tests paled in comparison to what the client would do with the belt. Both Felix and Fralyna were excited to see how it worked for the client but they wouldn’t be around till morning.

In the meantime, Fralyna insisted on dinner once again but this time, she decided they would order food to the shop directly which Felix was much happier with.

The only other people in the shop were Aldahn and Krinitor who surprisingly, both joined them. Fralyna chose the restaurant and wrote down everyone’s orders then pushed mana into the sheet and before Felix had a chance to ask about it, it vanished.

Just a short half hour later, someone showed up at the shop with the food which was transported in a spatial storage item that seemed to have been crafted specifically for that purpose. The spatial storage item reminded Felix of a short and stout microwave.

They all helped carry in food and set themselves up at the large table in the workshop because there wasn’t enough space at the table in the design room for all the food they had ordered.

They all stood around the table in the workshop and filled their individual plates whenever they felt the need making it feel a bit like a party to Felix, despite there only being 4 of them. Fralyna had mentioned the style of food they ate but Felix hadn’t been paying attention and realistically, it wouldn’t have meant anything to him anyways.

The food mostly consisted of large vegetables that had been either hollowed out and filled with or covered in meat in some way or another. After taking his food, Felix walked over to one of the enchantment tables to borrow it’s stool and Aldahn walked over to stand next to him.

Aldahn took a few bites then looked up at Felix, “Good job with the belt. I’ve been hearing only good things from the enchanters I assign you to so far which is great.”

Felix finished his bite before responding, “Good.”

Aldahn smiled, “I’ve been thinking I’ll start assigning you to some reverse shadow jobs. You lead the enchantment but we have someone more experience there for you to ask questions and just to verify everything.”

Felix nodded, “Sounds good to me.”

At that point Fralyna walked over and joined them, “I figure it’ll be just a couple more terms before you can take solo clients.”

Aldahn chuckled, “Maybe. If the right job comes along at that point…”

Fralyna smirked, “You’ll be the fastest enchanter to have gotten a solo client here, at least since I’ve been here.”

Aldahn nodded, “Yup, fastest I’ve heard of.”

Felix shrugged, “Well, hopefully all goes well then.”

Krinitor finally joined them with a plate full of food and nodded to Felix, “I haven’t seen you work firsthand but I have approved a couple of the items you worked on. I’m impressed to say the least.”

Felix just smiled in response.

Fralyna turned to Krinitor, “How’s Felix’s outfit coming along.”

Aldahn laughed and covered his mouth full of food with his hand, “Krinitor convinced you to let him make you something?”

Felix nodded, “Yup. Looked good to me.”

Aldahn nodded, “Well if you liked the design then there’s nothing to worry about. Krinitor’s work is top notch.”

Felix smiled, “Good.”

Fralyna gestured at Krinitor with a tilt of her head, “You know why he has so many individual clients?”

Felix shook his head.

Fralyna looked at Krinitor instead of answering herself and he nodded, “My parents are somewhat well known tailors.”

Aldahn chuckled and Fralyna shook her head, “They are very well known. Very famous, very desirable work and,” She leaned in and whispered louder than she had been talking, “very rich.”

Felix looked to Krinitor, “Why’d you decide to become an enchanter then instead of following in their footsteps?”

Aldahn chuckled a little again as he took another bite while Krinitor shook his head, “I did. I’m a pacifist, I’m both a tailor and an enchanter.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Do you also work at their shop then?”

Krinitor nodded, “Yup. I work here and there. That’s where most of my jobs and clients come in. Someone commissions something from my parents and they pay us and me to enchant it, well… most of the time. Anything higher than B grade Epic goes to a specialist on clothing enchantments. I’m not quite there yet.”

Felix frowned, “Why offer to make me and before that, Edemari and Fralyna, outfits then? And why not to charge us for the labor?”

Krinitor shrugged, “I like designing outfits for people. I don’t get to do it much. Usually I’m just crafting the designs my parents or their designers create. Design is more of a hobby for me at the moment.”

Felix held the food just outside his mouth while he asked, “Do they usually choose the materials then?”

Krinitor chewed, swallowed then answered, “Yeah usually. Then it’s my job to work with the material no matter how difficult or stubborn it is.”

“Like what?”

Krinitor shrugged, “Colossal turtle and wyvern leather is a pain in the ass to shape because its naturally so heat resistant. Some cloth made from plants need to be woven in a specific way, almost sculpted because the threads have shape memory.”

“Have you decided what materials to use for my outfit?”

Krinitor nodded, “Almost definitely a combination of infused arachnid silk, regenerative plant fibers and some kind of metal alloy threads. I haven’t quite decided which as I’m still sourcing materials.”

Aldahn raised a brow at that causing Felix to look at him, “Is that not a good choice?”

Aldahn shook his head, “It’s excessive, that’s all. Depending on what alloy is used and the type of arachnid silk, it could cost you well in excess of 100 million mana to regenerate the robes. I just don’t think its necessary for a caster to spend so much on their clothes. Scrolls, spells, wands are much more valuable.”

Krinitor nodded, “I wouldn’t use anything that expensive to regenerate but I figure he shouldn’t have to do it very often.”

Aldahn nodded, “While that’s true, I found it ridiculously useful in my adventuring days to be able to regenerate my armor in the middle of a job.”

Felix cut in, “You don’t have to worry about the mana cost of anything. I have a lot of skills to deal with all that.”

While 100 million was a lot for him at the moment, he figured he would get there at some point, possibly even in the C grade.

Aldahn shrugged, “Fair enough but what about weight? You’re a caster so your strength nor endurance are going to be very high. You don’t want to run out of energy just carrying it around.”

Felix frowned, “It’s cloth, will that ever be a concern?”

Krinitor nodded, “Depends on the alloy. We could go all the way and make it as defensive as most plate armor with the right alloy but that would come at the cost of it weighing a similar amount as plate armor or it would cost twice as much.”

Felix shook his head again, “Not a concern for me either, racial stuff.”

Krinitor looked at him with a curious expression for a few seconds before shrugging, “In that case, we could go with the highest defense possible which may or may not be heavy, depending on what I can find. The robe would be thick and use mostly alloy threads while the shirt would mostly be arachnid silk for comfort and mobility. Pants and cloak would be interwoven alloys and an arachnid silk combination, multi-layered of course.”

Felix looked between Krinitor and Aldahn, “How do you enchant it?”

Aldahn smiled, “Actually, very easily. Infused arachnid silk has an interesting property. You can simply draw out an enchantment with mana and it’ll stick.”

“Hey Krinitor, you said you were sourcing materials, any chance I could see samples of the fabric or materials ahead of time?”

Krinitor nodded, “Of course. You can come visit my parents shop. We have sample sizes of every material we’ve ever worked with.”

Felix nodded, “Perfect.”

Fralyna just shook her head, “Where are you getting enough creds to afford this?”

Felix shrugged, “Adventuring job from maybe a god.”

Fralyna snorted, “Damn. You are one lucky kid.”

Aldahn nodded, “Oh yeah.”

Felix looked over at Aldahn, “By the way, I’m probably gonna need to go on a job for another day in the near future.”

Aldahn shrugged, “No problem. We don’t really have any jobs for you to lead on anyways.”

Felix nodded, “Perfect.”

They continued to chit chat about work and life while they finished up with the food. Aldahn was the first to disappear back to his office shortly followed by Fralyna who went home to sleep.

Krinitor turned to Felix, “Would you like to visit my parents store now?”

Felix shrugged, “Sure, are they open?”

Krinitor smirked, “They’re always open.”

Felix followed Krinitor down to the parking area below the building where he hopped onto what looked like a futuristic motorcycle. He gestured for Felix to hop onto the only other seat which really seemed like more of a cargo area than anything.

Krinitor hit some sort of button and suddenly the vehicle soundlessly popped up a meter into the air. He turned himself towards the exit and launched them faster than Felix had ever traveled before.

He gripped the metal bars below him as hard as he could though it quickly became evident it wasn’t necessary. The vehicle flew faster than Felix could actually see, looking around everything was a blur, which made him worry as to Krinitor’s ability to navigate. They made use of multiple portal spires and Felix was only able to keep track of their location by bringing up his map.

Despite the ridiculous speed at which they traveled, the ride was perfectly comfortable. Felix didn’t feel his stomach dropping, he didn’t even feel himself being pulled outwards when they made a sharp turn. It felt to him like it was all an illusion because there was just nothing.

Once he realized how smooth the flight was, Felix calmed down enough to focus in on the mana flowing through the vehicle.

Not only was this the most complicated vehicle Felix had flown in to date, but it also had by far the most mana flowing through it’s channels. Felix tried to make sense of any of it but all he got was a general idea of the mana flowing out of the batteries and into all the nodes in the vehicle.

They arrived in just a few short minutes, cutting Felix’s analysis short, at a building that looked like a giant rock. Surprisingly to Felix, instead of heading for the bottom of the building, Krinitor flew straight at one of the doors on the side of the building that was easily big enough to fit any vehicle Felix had ever seen.

The door slid out of the way as Krinitor approached and flew them over to an empty space in what looked like a massive open garage. Inside, there were no other vehicles though the space could have easily fit a hundred.

Mostly because of the complexity and speed of the vehicle they had flown in on, Felix identified it as they hopped off.

[B - Epic] Valenos Cycle S3

[Vehicle]

A cycle designed to be as fast as possible without sacrificing the comfort and luxury of a higher end vehicle.

The only other item in the garage area was a portal frame on one of the walls. Felix had never seen one before but just looking over, it was immediately obvious what it was for and his identification confirmed it.

[A - Rare] Caranor Reality Piercer L

[Portal Frame]

A portal frame that can open a portal to any anchor in the database, activated by intent.

He didn’t get a chance to examine it though as Krinitor led him towards the only other door in the area.

Felix followed him into a massive open room which looked more like a minimalist billionaires apartment than a store. There was a small sitting area, a circular platform in the middle and a couple of tables around that.

The entire inside of the shop was made of some kind of slate stone with subtle ore veins and minerals that were just barely visible at the right angles. The walls were flat and held no decorations or shelves, the floor was mostly empty and the furniture itself looked elegant but not necessarily comfortable.

Krinitor walked over to the sitting area and gestured for Felix to sit across from him.

“So this is your parents shop?”

Krinitor nodded, “This is Raidran’s.” Then Krinitor looked over to the left just a second before a door sized section of the wall vanished to reveal two Drakene, “And these are my parents, Kordran and Rainoth.”

[A] Rainoth (Lvl ?)

[A] Kordran (Lvl ?)

Rainoth was a feminine Drakene with larger smooth scales that had a light blue color covering a slender figure all wrapped up in a loose shirt and tight pants. Kordran was a larger Drakene with sharp and rough scales that gave his entire body a lot of texture on top of a large manly body. His scales were a metallic black and he wore a very simple white shirt and brown pants.

Rainoth walked over to them and lightly tilted her head in Felix’s direction then turned to Krinitor, “Krin, who’s this?”

Krinitor stood up and hugged his mother then grasped forearms with his father before gesturing towards Felix with a tilt of his head, “This is Felix. He’s the newest enchanter at Inscripticae.”

Kordran walked over and Felix stood to grasp forearms with him, the same way Krinitor had, “Felix, a pleasure.”

His scales were sharp and dug into his hand a little as he squeezed but just enough to make an imprint, not enough to cause any damage. He politely squeezed firmly but with no real force which Felix greatly appreciated considering he was in the A grade.

Krinitor took a breath and puffed up his chest a little bit as he stood just a touch taller then looked towards his parents, “Felix has agreed to purchase an outfit of my design.”

Rainoth smiled lightly, giving nothing away, “Wonderful.” Her voice was perfectly polite and joyful though Felix got the impression, just instinctually, that she was hiding her true feelings on the matter.

She looked over to Kordran who nodded then walked over to the front of the shop. Felix didn’t get a chance to see what he was doing as Krinitor and Rainoth led him over to the circular platform in the middle of the room.

By the time he stepped up onto it and walked to the center, Kordran had already joined them.

The platform itself turned so Felix was facing them then Rainoth nodded in Felix’s direction, “Could you please remove your clothes for me?”

Felix nodded and stowed the Kraken set right off his body leaving him completely naked. The three Drakene looked him over, Rainoth circling around the platform and Kordran visually measuring him from a distance.

Rainoth made a full circle then rejoined Kordran at Krinitor’s side, “Krin, can you show us the design?”

Krinitor nodded and pulled a sketchbook out of nowhere. This book was much larger than the one Felix had originally seen the outfit in. He flipped to one of the first pages and handed it to his mother. Kordran looked over her arm and examined it with her then looked up at Felix, “Pugilist?”

Felix shook his head, “Caster actually.”

He nodded, “You’ve done well to keep your body from falling too far behind then.”

Felix just nodded in acknowledgement.

Rainoth frowned at the drawing then walked towards and behind the stage Felix was standing on. After a few seconds, a wall descended from the ceiling just a couple meters behind the stage then Krinitor’s sketch appeared on the wall.

The drawing was slightly different from Krinitor’s original sketch of the outfit but the general form and shape was the same. It was both more and less refined. The drawing itself had more detail but the outfit had also been dissected and Krinitor had made notes on various sections about materials, weave, fabrics, textures, density, thread thickness and even color.

Rainoth looked at Felix, “You like this design?”

Felix nodded, “I think it looks good.”

She nodded in acknowledgement, once again giving nothing away and turned back to the outfit, “Krin, you sure about these materials?”

Krinitor nodded, “I am.”

She frowned, “What about the Anlyth, isn’t that a little heavy for a caster?”

Kordran shook his head, “He can handle it. He’s got the strength to spare.”

She nodded, “That may be but why not something a little lighter like, Rhanium? That way the cost to regenerate isn’t quite so high either.”

Krinitor shook his head, “Too soft and that’s not a concern for Felix.”

“Soft? Aren’t you both enchanters?”

Krinitor nodded, “Yes. Which is why I don’t want him to have to waste precious enchantment space fixing flaws in the material.”

She frowned, “Fine.” She sighed, “We have a lot of extra Eldrathil in the back from you know who, use that.”

Krinitor shook his head quickly and looked at her with eyes that seemed to communicate everything, “Mom.”

She nodded, “Krin, it’s ok.”

Kordran smiled wide for some reason and Krinitor looked taken aback, “Are you sure?”

She sighed again and nodded, “Yes.”

Krinitor frowned, “How sure?”

She furrowed her brow, “Do you want me to change my mind?”

Krinitor looked at her with wide eyes then nodded, “I’ll need to adjust the design in that case.”

Kordran walked forwards and clapped Krinitor’s shoulder, “We’ll help and follow your lead.”

Krinitor looked up at his father and smiled then over at his mother who nodded reluctantly.

They spent almost 4 hours with Felix completely naked discussing the design of the outfit. At first, Krinitor’s mother pushed back on the design itself. Krinitor defended himself for the most part, acquiescing occasionally when she had a good suggestion.

They manipulated and moved the drawing on the wall until the shape of each and every piece was completely locked down. The outfit looked largely the same at the end to Felix. It was evidently different with the points, angles, lengths and lines moved around but it had the same general shape and looked just as good as it had before to Felix.

After that, they started talking through materials.

“So infused arachnid silk, Eldrathil and a plant fiber for regeneration?” Rainoth paced back and forth in the large open space.

Krinitor nodded, “With different ratios for each piece of course.”

She nodded, “What about a memory crystal thread instead of the plant fiber?”

Krinitor frowned, “Isn’t that a little… overkill?”

She shrugged, “Maybe. It would help with defense more as well. Would allow him to affinize to it too.”

Krinitor frowned, “He’s in the D grade. This is meant to last him through the C grade.”

Kordran looked over at Felix, “We should use it anyways.”

Krinitor shrugged, “Ok. What about the infused arachnid silk then?”

Rainoth nodded, “I like that. What were you thinking Krinitor?”

“Keayaren Arachnids.”

Kordran shook his head, “Morix or Lukan.”

Rainoth shook her head, “No. Aetoren.”

Both Krinitor and Kordran looked at each-other with confused frowns. Kordran was the first to speak, “Seriously?”

She nodded, “Do you disagree?”

Kordran shook his head, “I had thought of it too just… you’re right. It’s worth it.”

Krinitor just looked between them with a frown and scratched at his head, “Mom, what’s going on?”

She looked over at Krinitor, “Can you go get the materials from the back? We’ll make a sample and go from there.”

Krinitor sighed and nodded then walked towards one of the blank walls where a door shaped hole suddenly appeared and he walked through.

As soon as the door closed behind Krinitor, Rainoth turned to Felix, “You haven’t told him?”

Felix frowned, “About what?”

Kordran crossed his arms, “You’re an integrated, exile I suspect?”

Rainoth explained before Felix could ask, “We’ve been around for a while.”

Kordran nodded, “Lots of identification skills. None of them failed specifically but what they say and what I see are too incongruous.”

Rainoth sighed, “Don’t tell him if you don’t want to but know that is the only reason this is happening. Remember that.”

Krinitor walked back in at that moment carrying a dozen spools of thread, which he please on one of the tables next to the platform. Rainoth walked over and tapped at something on the table causing the top to open up. She reached over and placed 8 spools of thread in one by one then tapped at something else on the table.

She closed the panel that had opened then Felix heard a loud noise for a few seconds then she opened the panel back up and reached in. She pulled out a small square of off white, light grey fabric which she examined for a few seconds before handing it to Kordran who nodded approvingly and handed it to Krinitor.

Krinitor stretched and poked it for a bit then, looked at it with confusion then shook his head and handed it to Felix.

Felix felt a little bad because clearly they had used impressive materials. To him though, it felt like fabric. It was impressively soft and had a slight luster that came from a combination of the metal threads and memory crystal dulled by a layer of arachnid silk overtop of it all. The fabric was soft but not slick like silk, it was more like just a very high quality technical or synthetic fabric. It was relatively thick too, thicker than a normal shirt but nowhere near the leather he was wearing or even thicker fabrics from back on earth.

Surprisingly, Felix found it felt extraordinarily light, much lighter than he expected, “I thought this would be heavier with metal threads and all that.”

Krinitor shook his head, “Eldrathil is very light. That’s not Aetoren arachnid silk, we’ll have to find a source for some but it’s close enough. Memory crystal threading is probably the heaviest aspect of that cloth and there isn’t much of it in there.”

Felix nodded then pulled and poked at the fabric. It seemed more durable than standard cloth but it was hard to tell without violence. There was no stretch in the threads themselves but the weave itself had a small amount of give to it. Felix also pulled out a Starmetal ingot and morphed it into a scalpel like shape then tried to cut through the fabric. He didn’t even scratch it, not that it meant much considering the force he was applying and the tool he was using.

Felix handed it back to Krinitor, “It seems great to me.”

Krinitor nodded, “Perfect.”

“Do I need to worry about it being flammable, particularly weak to a specific element or physical attack?”

Rainoth shook her head, “Nothing you’ll have to worry about for a while. If you get to the point where it’s failing you like that, you’re almost definitely already dead.”

Felix nodded, “Good to know.”

Kordran looked at Felix, “I take it you’ll just wear this everywhere?”

Felix nodded, “That’s what I do with my kraken leather set currently.”

Krinitor looked towards his mother for confirmation as he spoke to Felix, “We’ll use variations of that material, maybe even a different material entirely for the robes and shirt but I think we can proceed with this?”

Rainoth shrugged and nodded to him. Kordran walked over and clapped Felix on the shoulder, “We’ll get this done as soon as possible. If we need more measurements or if we need to test your body against a fabric, we’ll get Krinitor to bring you down.”

Felix nodded and slightly bowed to all of them, “Thank you.”

He quickly dressed and took his leave through the front door instead of the garage this time while Krinitor stayed behind and spoke to his parents who seemed eager for a conversation.

That was a little… odd?

Grim mentally nodded, Yeah. I’m sure there’s a lot more going on that we didn’t catch.

Yeah. If I’m right, I think they just upgraded everything. Not sure why they would be willing to do that though.

There must be more to being integrated than we know. Kind of annoying that they figured it out like that. Might want to look into hiding it better if you can.

Felix nodded, Yeah, maybe I can change what my class and race hide themselves as to something with a higher rarity. I’m glad we found out it was so obvious now with Krinitor’s parents instead of with someone dangerous.

Considering it was currently the middle of the night, Felix headed back to Inscripticae and continued researching different nodes and enchantment patterns he could use for his cloak enchantment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .