[Flashback] Heavy to Light (Solo)

by **Eridanus** on April 14th, 2012, 6:59 am

Day 39, Spring of 505 AV
MCL 4
After Lunch

Eridanus grunted as he readjusted his grip on a huge wooden carton. The muscles throughout his entire body was getting heavy, since he had been lugging this heavyweight box from the Logistics Office all the way to the underground caverns that was the Toadstool Cluster. Professor Wejerx had asked him to get this object for their next lesson, and so he had gone ahead and done so before the lesson started proper.

Huffing as he brought the box to the lab with the door numbered 'four', he kicked it open with one leg as he readjusted his grip on the box again. The vantha shuffled uncomfortably into the room, his arms and back protesting at the weight of the box. Entering the room proper, he bent his knees first, recalling the Logistics staff's reminder on how to carry heavy objects while minimizing injuries, then released his grip on the box, placing the heavy wooden container on the ground.

Sighing as he did so, he massaged his arms and back, stretching his arms as he involuntarily yawned, noticing that he was the only person in the lab. It seemed that Wejerx had not arrived yet.

The Professor did tell me to set things up if he had not arrived yet...

Shrugging, he proceeded to open the box, curious as to what would be so heavy as to cause him that much grief throughout the carrying process. No wonder Wejerx told him to do it instead, he was pretty sure the Professor would not have the strength and stamina to do do.

It was an interesting thought that though he was older that Wejerx, though his mortal seeming concealed that fact, the benefits of his celestial form negated the usual frailties of age mortals were burdened with, leading to this strange reversal of roles.

by **Eridanus** on April 14th, 2012, 8:09 am

Opening up the wooden crate, he found himself looking at a huge hammer inside the box. There was plenty of cloth and cotton filling up the rest of the empty spaces so that the hammer would remain fixated in place in the box. This hammer made other hammers look weak, and Eridanus knew from illustrations that he had read before that it was the infamous Rock Crusher - a hammer usually deemed too heavy for most individuals for any practical use.

Digging his hand into the cotton that filled the box, the vantha grunted as he lifted up the weapon. Even with both hands the weight seemed unwieldy, though it was much lighter now that the weight of all the cotton and the wooden crate was removed. Placing it on his shoulder, the student imagined himself as a warlord, grinning smugly as he struck a pose.

Swinging the hammer a few times, though he did it cautiously, he found that a huge amount of strength is needed just so that he would not stumble over, and wondered just how strong would one need to be to effective wield this weapon. In comparison, even the combined weight of both his long swords was much lower than the individual weight of a single Rock Crusher.

Eridanus shrugged again, proceeding to lug the heavy weapon over to the marble pedestal, balancing it delicately on the marble pedestal as lightly as he could. He had no idea what the pedestal was made of, but the weight of the hammer conveyed a certain strength to its weight that made the vantha want to be careful around it. Everything else in the lab seemed brittle next to this monster of a weapon.

by **Eridanus** on April 14th, 2012, 8:15 am

Now that the weight was transferred to the pedestal, Eridanus placed both his palms above the weapon, drawing djed out of his body. Pulling on the astral resource within his soul, he coaxed out the material that was the backbone of all magic, pooling it in front of him.

Shaping the immaterial substance in an orb around the hammer, he fixated the shield using the marble pedestal as the supporting hinge, but relying on the hammer to prop itself. That meant that if the hammer was removed the shield would remain where it was, though it would flop down.

The next step was adding a set of instructions to the shield. It mostly involved weaving a pattern from the individual djed threads that was currently formed a messy clump on the shield. He would normally use his hands to manually weave the threads, but that was when he was a beginner. Now he was able to weave simple patterns using his willpower alone, and as such he proceeded to do so.

Mentally programming the shield, he tasked the shield to completely block out sound from the exterior, then added a secondary tasking to absorb djed. That would improve the shield's longevity, for Wejerx did mention that this was going to take a little longer than usual. The environmental djed and any noise absorbed by the shield would sustain it sufficiently.

Next, he began fiddling with the actual djed tapestry, weaving a glyph with the individual djed threads in the shield to set up a trigger sigil such that if it was activated the shield's primary tasking - which was the blocking of sound - would be deactivated. Of course, he ensured that the secondary tasking would not be affected by the glyph in any way.

Finally, he specified the trigger to be that of touch, which was the one he did before. He supposed that there would be better ways of doing it, but his understanding of both shielding and glyphing bestowed him with only sufficient knowledge to work out this solution. Glyphing in an way was similar to shielding in terms of tasking, and so he weaved the djed threads in the specific pattern that ordered the glyph to work as he intended.

by **Eridanus** on April 17th, 2012, 10:09 am

The door creaked open, and the professor of Magecrafting, Wejerx, entered the room, surveying the preparations that Eridanus had done and grunting in satisfaction as he ambled leisurely towards the pedestal.

"Good, good... We can begin immediately. Now, this will be a slightly more complex operation than before, but still within your grasp. For now, just understand that we will be doing a structural enhancement, but not that of durability. What do we do next?" The boisterous professor questioned his student. He had the habit of making everything a test, to see if his apprentices kept up with their studies.

Heading towards the desk that kept all the smaller instruments, Eridanus searched through the clutter until he found what he was looking for. A mini-sized wardrum with intricate glyphs painted on all its sides. Taking it, he began to slam into it, before he realized with embarrassment that nothing was going to happen.

Wejerx raised a brow, then glanced at the pedestal for a while before realizing what the shield did. Shaking his head with amusement, he strode over to the pedestal, poking one finger into the shield to disable it.

"You need the first primer before you can do the Initial Push, you know," Wejerx reminded, eliciting an embarrassed grin from his student.

Picking up a deceptively mundane looking tuning fork from the table, he tapped it gently against the desk, causing a beautiful ring to fill the air.

Next, he began to pound the mini wardrum, sending magically charged shock-waves that awoken the various djed pathways within the huge hammer that governed the structural integrity of the weapon.

Several moments later, Wejerx nodded, releasing his finger from the shield and the vantha stopped as well, placing the Initial Pusher back on the table.

by **Eridanus** on April 17th, 2012, 10:28 am

"As you might have guessed, this is a ridiculously heavy weapon. Its owner requested us to reduce its weight, and so we will be going for a weight reduction operation. Now, there are many interesting implications regarding this such as mass and density, but I will leave the theory to be your homework. For today, we will be going into the practical aspects of this. Please retrieve the large drums we used the previous times."

Eridanus went and dragged over the large instrument to a more central area, and carefully placed it on the ground - who knows how expensive it was.

"Good. So remember that the Priming step dictates the category of enhancement, while any Further Shaping narrows the actual enhancement induced. Obviously, the reduction of weight is a structural enhancement, thus your choice of primer is correct. However, this time we are reducing the weight, and not increasing the durability. By using this very same wardrum, how you vary the Further Shaping?"

This was an obvious question, of course, though it might not be so to those who were not musically inclined. That was perhaps one of the reasons why Wejerx welcomed Morwen's Children.

"Rhythm," Eridanus answered simply.

"Precisely. I won't spoon-feed you the rhythm, but instead I will tell you simply what we want. Tell the hammer. Tell it what you want it to do."

W...what? How am I supposed to proceed like this?

Wejerx prodded the shield, thus allowing sound in, and Eridanus tentatively grasped the drum stick. If he was supposed to tell the drum to reduce its weight, perhaps it would be a good idea to show the contrast.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

thud. thud. thud.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

thud. thud. thud.

Alternating simply between these two beats, a crashing wave juxtaposed by light treading, he hoped to portray the difference and effect this change.

Wejerx listened to the rhythm for a while, before shaking his head and releasing his finger from the shield, preventing sound from entering.

"Stop, stop."

by **Eridanus** on April 17th, 2012, 10:32 am

"Eridanus. That is the right direction to go to. But you need something to differentiate between the two rhythms. With a consistent beat between your two beats, there will be a fifty percent chance that the weapon might actually become heavier, and we wouldn't want that, do we?" Wejerx chuckled, his eyes crinkling in amusement.

A light of comprehension dawned on the vantha's face as he realized what needed to be done, and it was not lost on the observant professor.

"Let us try again," He suggested, prodding the shield again.

This time, Eridanus needed to differentiate between the two. Speed is generally assigned to the more desired characteristic, and he decided to use it to portray a sense of urgency, to assign a status of purpose to the rhythm.

BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...

thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...

thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

Beating the drum gently but quickly, then alternating to heavy and powerful but slow beats, he kept the rhythm going, and with Wejerx focusing on observing the item's aura he could tell that this was the right direction to go.

The slow but powerful beats signified the current heavy weight the item was at. The light beats signified the weight he wished the item to be at, while the quickened pace showed the urgency and one-way direction for the transformation. That left no doubt as to the result of the enchantment; the item could only get lighter, not heavier.

by **Eridanus** on April 17th, 2012, 12:10 pm

It was difficult maintaining the speeds of both alternating rhythm, for it was much harder than simply maintaining a single consistent beat like the last time. He had to internalize both rhythms, and switch between the two effectively without compromising the other. As such it required intense concentration, and it was what Eridanus gave to the whole thing. Not thinking of anything else besides these two rhythms.

The powerful beats sent sonic waves that standardized the current weight of the item, while the hurried taps on the drum coaxed the internal djed pathways of the weapon to convert into ways that would not occur naturally. That was the beauty of magecraft, the use and customization of djed - the very core essence of an item's structure - to fit an artificial purpose.

Chimes passed by, and soon it was over when Wejerx released his finger from the shield. The exhausted vantha placed the stick on the drum as his shoulders sunk in relief, though the exhaustion was also largely due to the highly physical task of hauling the huge crate from the Logistics Office to the Toadstool Cluster.

"That's it. The first MC step," Wejerx said, striding over to Eridanus as he searched through the table that held the little instruments.

"The order is for a MC2 Weight reduction, but with our current resources we will have to wait for about a day and a half before we can proceed with the next step. Go read up and tell me why in the next lesson."

Wejerx picked up another tuning fork that looked similar to the first one, except that it had a different design of glyphs from the tuning fork that was used as a Primer for Resonant Harmonics.

"This is the Transitioner. Often magecraft operations cannot be completed in a single sitting. In order to allow the newly formed pathways to stabilize and to off-set the vibration variables in the item, we need this to settle the item and prime it for the next session. It works the same way as the Primer. Try it."

by **Eridanus** on April 17th, 2012, 12:15 pm

Wejerx strode over to prod the shield again to allow sound in, and Eridanus apprehensively tapped the desk with the tuning fork. This time, there the shrill ring was different. While the previous one was bright and clear, this had a lower tone and had a heavier tonal quality.

Wejerx placed a finger on his lips, and the two of them waited until the Transitioner stopped vibrating. When the ringing finally ceased, Wejerx released his finger on the shield, and nodded.

"That's it. Stabilization is not a trivial issue, as such remember to always allow the Transitioner sufficient time to do its job. Meet here... in two days' time, but early in the morning. Say... one bell after Syna rises. Dismissed."

With that, it meant more homework and reading up on materials related to the questions that Wejerx asked him for the next session.

Just another day as a student in Zeltiva University.

by **Paragon** on April 21st, 2012, 7:54 am

Eridanus' Loot :

Great solo as always. I know you're looking for 4's/5's, but the fact of the matter is, I only award 4 + for MUCH longer, in depth threads. At the same time, I don't want you to start writing lengthy threads just for xp, since this thread itself was perfect, and I can't fault it. You see where I'm conflicted? Anyway, great job - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.