[Flashback] Completing the First Chord (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 9, Spring of 505 AV
Late Morning
MCL4

It was already late in the morning, but an exhausted vantha trudged down into the underground caverns that housed the University's array of laboratories specialized for magecrafting. Due to the materials used in the construction and the magical shields in place to protect the rest of the University from accidental arcane discharges, the entire underground estate was eerily quiet.

Eridanus could only hear the dull plod of his footsteps as he headed into the center of the cavern, his tired eyse searching for the door with the large numerical '4' emblazoned on it. He was supposed to meet his professor, a Magecrafter specialized in the Magecrafting Paradigm of Resonant Harmonics at this strange timing in the day.

It was usually earlier in the morning, but his schedule clearly stated a few bells later than usual, which was fortunate as he could grab more sleep. He needed it anyway, due to the rate that he was devouring books the night before.

[Eridanus]

Upon opening the door to the lab the vantha was instantly assaulted by a sudden barrage of noise, which was a stark contrast to the deathly silence earlier. The ruddy-faced professor was pounding a wardrum with one hand while the other held an oversized inspecting glass while he squinted at the marble pedestal. He was shouting various technical terms that Eridanus did not understand while a lanky youngster scribbed into a scroll furiously several paces away.

The cacophany was chaotic, but broken upon his entrance as Wejerx turned to find his newest apprentice standing there awkwardly.

"Don't just stand there! Come over here!" Wejerx exclaimed, gesturing at Eridanus with the comically huge inspecting glass. The student hurried over, and the drumstick was shoved into his hands hurriedly.

"Same as the last time. We want durability. Slow, steady and consistent," Wejerx cried, leaving the job of drumbeating to Eridanus as he scrambled slightly closer to the pedestal. This time, he took another inspecting glass with his other hand, and began to look at the item they were enchanting while alternating between the two glasses. He continued to shout terms to the youth who continued to scribble into his parchment.

[Eridanus]

His heart beating from the adrenaline at suddenly being thrust into an exciting situation, Eridanus fought to calm his senses down in order to introduce a relaxed consistency into the paec of his drum beats. Taking care to strike the drum with measured strength, he recalled Wejerx's rhythmn and tried to approximately follow it.

The harder task was keeping the beat consistent amidst Wejerx's frantic and erratic shouting as well as the professor's ambling and shuffling around the pedestal. This time, a single anvil stood above the marble pedestal.

Eridanus kept his eyes low, forcing himself to only look at the drum as he kept up the rhythmn for watching the professor's infrequent movements messed up his own sense of rhytmn. He kept his mind clear and steady, gradually tuning his other senses out to avoid the clamour of external interference, such as the Professor's own voice.

What was left was his vision of the drum, and the constant strike of the drum that resonated both audibly and within his soul. He was a vantha, the race renowned for their natural aptitude in storyteling and music, no doubt bolstered by the inherent musicality of their native language. Strangely, little by little, drum beat by drum beat, he found himself internally shifting closer to his vantha heritage. It was like music connecting the two distinct versions of himself - his current earthbound celestial personality and his vantha past life.

[Eridanus]

Consistency in the rhythmn was the key in the use of this customized war drum in Magecrafting. This consistency was the unique identifier, the unique characteristic, of Durability enhancements in the Resonant Harmonics paradigm, and was crucial to the success of the entire operation.

He knew that the Professor could have continued like this, but wished to give his newest apprentice more experience and exposure. Thus, allowing Eridanus to be involved directly in Magecrafting while relegating himself to focus on observational and recording work. The vantha appreciated the Magecrafter's unspoken care for his students, and he wondered just how many observed and understood Wejerx's style of teaching.

This went on for a substantial amount of chimes. The blurred external feedback, the semi trance like and meditative state the vantha found himself on, with the only consistency that anchored him to the present the blows that he was raining on the specially designed wardrum.

It took Wejerx several tries at shouting at the vantha to draw his attention, to make him realize that the modification stage was over.

"Eridanus! Hey vantha boy! Stop pounding the damn drums, we're done. We're done!" Wejerx cried, wincing everytime the stick landed on the surface of the drum now that he was no longer focused no Magecrafting.

"For Izurdin's sake. Thomas! Go shake that guy!" Wejerx beckoned to his other apprentice, and the lanky man strode over to shake Eridanus out of his self induced reverie.

"Oh... Oh! Apologies Professor," The vantha quicky apologized, his face slightly downcast to disguise the embarassed blush that was beginning to form.

[Eridanus]

"Nevermind that," Wejerx said dismissively. Placing the magnifying glasses he was holding earlier onto Thomas' arms, he addressed the more experienced student. "Thomas, please double-check my readings with your recordings."

As the youth proceeded to comply, Wejerx switched his attention to his newest apprentice.

"Now, I called you here at this time so that we can finish what we left out the last time. This was where we left off. Remember that blacksmith we were doing the hammer for the last time? This is his anvil, and he wanted us to improve its durability, which was why we used the same methodology as the last time."

"Let us recap the steps for a basic magecrafting operation. Do you mind?" Wejerx stated questioningly.

"We Prime the object, conduct an Initial Push towards a category of enhancement, then customize or specialize the precise enhancement with Further Shaping," Eridanus recited faithfully.

"Excellent. So what is left is the Cooldown stage. I know it sounds relaxed, but it is as equally important as the other stages. Mess this stage up and you waste all the effort you have done prior. Come, let us take a closer look."

[Eridanus]

Leading his student closer to the item on the pedestal, Wejerx grabbed another magnifying glass, this time a square-shaped one and placed it before Eri's face.

"Take a look, tell me what you see."

The anvil on the pedestal seemed like a normal one to the naked eye, but with the aid of this magic instrument everything suddenly seemed brighter. The anvil was now bustling with activity, with glowing dust-motes hovering around while pulsing lines snaked throughout the steel object.

Eridanus tapped into his djed curiously, tuning his view into one of magical sight. With Auristics, he viewed the magical object through the inspecting glass, and was pleasantly surprised. It seemed that the inspecting glass somehow had a weak version of Auristics that magnified certain aspects of the item's aura, allowing users to view the relevant parts without tapping into the magic.

What he saw now was the rest of the item's aura that was not amplified by the square-shaped glass. It was like high definition, and even the pulsing lines that snaked throughout the steel anvil began to become too bright. He could read details of the item's creation, understanding the notion of durability that the aura portrayed. The anvil had a strong aura unlike normal items, as if it was a tiny sentient djed on its own. This was of course, the result of magecrafting - the discipline that can potentially create immensely powerful items.

"Dust motes... and glowing lines," Eridanus stated, shutting down his djed, but continuing to view the item through the square-shaped glass.

"Yes, this is the aftermath of the operation, and must be cooled down to stabilize and keep the magecraft permanent. We do so by sinking the entire item into a special djed-charged liquid, in this case we'll be using water."

[Eridanus]

Taking a huge unwieldy tong from the bottom drawer of a nearby table that was cluttered with various tools, Wejerx grunted as he lifted the entire steel anvil using only the prongs. It looked extremely unlikely, but somehow the prongs was able to lift the heavy steel anvil, making the object look like it was made out of leather or cloth.

"Magecrafted prongs. These lift items based on their active djed weight, not their actual weight. Doesn't interfere with post-operation emissions, or djed radiation," Wejerx grunted as he hauled the anvil with the prongs.

Eridanus grabbed the upper portion of the tongs, helping to distribute the weight more evenly and aiding the Professor in bringing the anvil to the corner of the lab where a large square-shaped container stood. Placing the tongs over the container, Wejerx tapped the tongs for Eridanus to release his hands, and the Magecrafter released the anvil into the container.

There was a ploop as the anvil sunk into the water, and a loud hissing followed by a low buzz as the djed charged water began to do its job in stabilizing the fresh djed pathways in the anvil.

"And that's all there is to it," Wejerx grinned, dusting his hands.

[Eridanus]

"Oh one more thing... try pushing that container around," Wejerx motioned to the large bucket that held the water and the anvil, and Eridanus swiveled the table that the bucket was on around. It was fortunate that the table had wheels attached to its legs.

This side of the bucket was translucent, and he could see the anvil releasing plenty of steam and bubbles in the water.

"We must periodically make inspections to ensure that the magecrafting is a total success. Sometimes we might run into problems we do not know until the Cooldown stage, but as it is I doubt we'll run into issues this time. Another lesson for another day, eh?"

With that, Wejerx returned to discuss more technical details with his other student, leaving the vantha to look curiously at the anvil. He noticed that there was a slight distortion at the side of the anvil, and tapped into his auristics again, tuning out the item's aura to focus on that area of distortion.

A shield!

It was still there even despite after the operation. It seemed that he could not see the shield normally, only being able to do so with the aid of Auristics, which probably meant that it was a high level shield that his current expertise cannot determine. He did see that it was beginning to deteriorate due to the rapid djed emissions from the anvil, and it was not tasked for this.

He suspected that its task was something more related for use during the actual operation. Shrugging, he shutdown the flow to his eyes again, since he already knew what he was looking for.

[Eridanus]

Pooling djed through his body, Eridanus did a final favor to Wejerx, allowing the intangible cloud of djed to float through the bucket and to surround the anvil. Pushing the djed into the existing shield, he imagined shaping his djed such that it was integrated into the shield rather than replacing it.

Instead of having the shield block djed, instead he programmed the instructions of his shield to absorb djed, fully focusing the entire tasking to absorb djed that was coming from the item itself. That would strengthen the shield and prevent excess djed from leaking out, which he knew was dangerous. Djed must always be controlled, never allowed to wander freely.

He shaped the shield once more to ensure that no djed could leak out from any loopholes from the anvil, then finalized the instructions, nodding to himself as he finished the shield.

Wejerx glanced over there and acknowledged what Eri did with a friendly wave, and the vantha grinned in reply.

"Next time, Professor, Thomas," Eridanus said cheerfully, heading back out of the lab.

Who knows what kind of strange new knowledge he would obtain next?

[Cascade]

Adventurer's Loot Eridanus's Loot : Eridanus Skill XP Reward Auristics +1 Instrument: War Drums +2 Magecraft +3 Shielding +1 Lore: Magecraft: Cooldown Magecraft: Fault Inspection Once again, entertaining thread! Keep 'em coming! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!