Chapter 038 - Prerequisites

Anna woke to the sound of knuckles rapping against the wall. Her eyes fluttered and she glanced around groggily at the books and notes set around her in the corner of the room. Her head was pounding again. She sighed and looked to Catherine who was standing at the base of the stairs as always. The ex-paladin looked off and it took a second for Anna’s tired mind to really pick up on it. Her face didn’t seem any different from the usual sternness but her posture was a bit less steady.

“You look tired,” Anna muttered.

“You are projecting,” Catherine said bluntly. “The bags under your eyes are worse.”

Anna frowned and rubbed her eyes. Shit, is that it? She sighed and got to her feet. “I don’t suppose that means I get the morning off, does it?”

“No,” Catherine said and nodded to the stairs. “Come.”

Anna dragged herself to her feet with a grouchy nod and after accessing her inventory she swapped out her comfy robes for the running outfit that Catherine had insisted on. When they got to the top of the stairs Anna paused, glancing around the open space. The ruined shards of desks, computers, and other furniture were gone. “You cleaned?” she asked as she followed the woman towards the lobby.

“I recovered what I could and put it in the storage room,” Catherine said. “I have leveled up enough that I can start putting in mage lights. They will be temporary though.”

Anna crossed her arms. “Can you teach me the spellform?”

Catherine looked her way for a moment before nodding slowly. “Yes, I can. I will write it out while you are on your run. Are you confident in making something to provide permanent illumination?”

Anna thought back to the previous night. She’d managed to create a plate that could produce water with an active input of mana. It was just a rough water glyph but it was something. Figuring out how to put a mana input glyph onto one of the cards in the right position with the right width and depth of the engraving was still a challenge and she’d burned through more tokens than she cared to admit trying. Even so, she knew from her reading that it wasn’t just possible, it was one of the prerequisite achievements to earning the Engraver profession.

If she could do it, she could make simple permanent enchantments on objects. Perhaps even apply a water and heat enchantment to the precinct water heater and reservoir. Initially she had considered creating a water source for every faucet in the building but going to the source itself and making one seemed more efficient. The only problem with doing it that way was, as far as she could tell, until she actually had the profession and learned higher level versions of the glyphs the water would be a little unsafe to use in large amounts.

There’s also the plumbing problem, the water has to go somewhere and this building was severed from the city. She rubbed her neck as she stopped in front of the doors and pulled herself out of her thoughts. “Yeah, I can do it.”

Catherine looked her up and down. “We are working on parries today to make progress on your class ability quest.”

Anna turned to her. “You got your class, right? What is it? Do you have a quest like mine?”

Catherine shrugged. “It is a common warrior-focused class. I am trying to set a foundation for the future. As for my ability quest, I am making progress.”

Anna frowned. “That’s… cryptic.”

“It is considered generally impolite to ask those kinds of questions,” Catherine said with a rare smirk. 

Anna scoffed. “Hey! You asked me-”

“Because you need guidance. I do not,” Catherine said and nodded to the door. “Second flag.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “Second flag? Are you joking? I’m on like three hours of sleep!” She blurted, “You’re out of your mind!”

Catherine set her jaw and crossed her arms. “Second flag, Anna.”

She held the womans stare for a while and ran her fingers through her knotted hair, turning to look at the snowfield beyond the door. Her entire body felt worn out even if her stamina was technically full. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced down the raging inferno within her blood yet again. The defiant fury was harder to quench this time. She clenched her fists and glared at the first flag in the distance.

“Do not stop at the first flag,” Catherine added as if reading her thoughts.

Anna rounded on her and put a finger in the woman’s face. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think-” she began, the roar in her blood blasting through her brain. She wanted to deck this bitch for being such a fucking training maniac. She hesitated, though, when she saw the woman’s eyes. Something in them looked more tired than she was letting on, couple that with the way she was standing and Anna felt… bad? That was weird. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, fighting off the fury. “Fine,” she groused and turned to the door. “I won’t stop running. If I drop dead it's on you, lady.”

“If you drop dead then that is as far as you go,” Catherine said mercilessly. “This is not your comfortable world and life. This is the multiverse.”

Anna exhaled and looked down at her feet. “Yeah, you’re right about that,” she grumbled and pushed out into the bitter cold and wind, breaking out into a run down the path that had begun to form between the layers of snow on either side. She forced herself not to look at her stamina, her eyes fixed on the distant flag as she took slow breaths. The cold air burned and the wind battered against her face as her muscles worked to propel her forward. I need a distraction, she thought irritably as she passed the first flag. My legs are gonna kill me.

She focused on going through what she’d learned, over and over, the few spellforms she knew popping into her head one at a time. From there she moved over to glyphs, they were different from spellforms in some ways and similar in others. The biggest difference, of course, was taking into account the permanent nature of an engraving. She tried to think about what felt so familiar about engravings. Mana passes through the pathways created by the engraving, if the glyph is properly carved and it reaches the necessary energy level it activates. She mulled it over as her legs pumped. The textbook said that the input engraving needs to be set ‘before’ the glyph. What does that even mean? Does position really matter? It’s not a spellform.

She frowned. I need context, a different perspective. I keep feeling like I’m going to hit a roadblock. She scratched at her head and kept mulling it over before glancing up and frowning at the distant flag. Ugh, how long have I been running? I thought these things were equidistant.

She picked up her pace a little and steadied her breathing again. Fuck it’s so cold. I’d kill for a sweater or something. A mug of hot coffee would be nice too. She sighed, It’s too bad there’s no electricity-

She nearly stumbled over herself as the realization hit her like a brick. Circuits! The medium of an engraving is a circuit board! There’s an input, the connections have different ‘resistances’ depending on the depth and width, it’s magic fucking electronics!

She barked out a laugh and slid to a stop at the flag, glancing back to the previous flag and starting to run. If I think of a glyph like the functional part of a circuit then it all makes sense. That also means it might be possible to open and close the circuit. I wonder if there’s a chapter on that. She grinned, I need to get back!

Her head drifted between ideas ranging from the nonsensical to the mundane as she considered the implications of her revelation. It was funny to think about enchantments as nothing more than attaching electronics to a mundane object but in the end, that was exactly what it was. She grinned to herself as she passed a flag and squinted ahead over the snow drifts. Almost there… huh?

Another flag waited for her in the distance and she could only barely see the dark shape of the precinct past it. She nearly stopped but forced herself to keep moving. Did I… go to the third flag? She looked down at herself. I don’t feel all that tired come to think of it, what the hell?

She kept running regardles, passing the last flag and making for the precinct. About half-way between the flag and the building she felt buzzing spring up in the back of her head and she checked her notifications.

New Abilities Acquired!

Basic Physical Conditioning (Mortal-Common-Base)
You have endured physical training that has given you greater control over your stamina. Your Endurance and Vitality are increased by +1. Your stamina consumption for normal movement has been reduced by 30%. 

Temperature Tolerance Training (Mortal-Uncommon-Base)
You have experienced physical hardship in environments with hostile temperatures. Your resistance to extreme temperatures is increased.

Anna stared in wonder at the notifications. What the fuck? She blinked and looked around. I get building a cold resistance but heat? Where did I… she closed her eyes and groaned. The boiling hot lobby of the dungeon. For fucks sake. She glowered at the door and the figure sitting behind the glass. Are you kidding me? Did she know this was going to happen?

She slid to a stop at the door and dismissed the notification, leaning against her legs and panting. They were sore and her chest hurt but it wasn’t as bad as she was thinking it was going to be when she got back. What’s more she’d overdone it. She shot a hesitant look towards Catherine who was watching her patiently from her meditative pose. Anna wiped her lip and pushed through the door. “I got Basic Physical Conditioning and Temperature Tolerance Training.”

Catherine raised an eyebrow and nodded. “You were gone for a bit longer than I had expected, you overdid it?”

Anna crossed her arms. “I think it’s becoming a habit,” she grumbled. “Did you know that was going to happen?”

“The abilities? I was expecting you to pick up at least one of them tomorrow,” Catherine said and got to her feet. “You must have spent a great deal of time in that lobby. Did you practice your proficiency there?”

Anna nodded and Catherine nodded as well. “That clarifies things then. How do you feel? About to drop dead?”

Anna scowled and looked away. “No,” she grunted and rubbed her neck. “I feel fine. This was about learning to use stamina efficiently right? I was thinking too hard about getting tired and my body while I was moving before.”

The former paladin inclined her head. “Yes. It is not something that can be taught with words. You have to figure it out on your own. I can only streamline the process. Once you are able to comfortably reach the last flag and return at your level you will have likely reached middle-rank of the ability.”

Anna clicked her tongue and looked out the doors again. That smoother warmth in her blood urging her to tackle the challenge right then and there. She pushed it aside and turned back to Catherine. “So… parries?”

Catherine smiled.

–

Anna groaned as she sat back down in her chair and stared blankly at the progress bar for her class ability quest.

Contingency

Parry 250 attacks. (50/250)

Reward: Contingency Unlocked, Next Class Skill Quest

Everything hurt. Catherine didn’t hold back when Anna screwed up trying to block one of her swings and she had bruises everywhere to remind her of her mistakes. A sip of her medicinal water had soothed the pain a little but she wasn’t looking forward to going out and running the next day as excited as she was to see even more progress on her character sheet. She slumped in her chair and reached lazily for the textbook on Engraving. The past few days have really driven home that some skills and abilities have specific requirements. I wonder if…

She flipped through the book, mumbling as she read different paragraphs in search of a particular piece of information. It was near the very back of the book.

“The prerequisites to unlocking the Engraving Profession can vary from person to person depending on their innate potential and talents,” she read aloud, rubbing her temple. “The following list of requirements is based on extensive research and comparison between students and should be considered a generalization.”

She pursed her lips and started to read and got another notification for her trouble. “Fucking. Finally,” she groaned and set the book down. “Stupid-ass system making shit hard for me.”

New Quest Alert!

Profession: Engraver

The Engraving Profession is the pursuit of utilizing magical knowledge to apply new effects to physical objects and create tools and equipment capable of providing convenience to the user. You have started the road towards becoming an engraver and met some of the prerequisites. Continue your path to unlock the profession.

Acquire the Engraving skill (1/1)
Reach the Low grade of the Engraving skill (0/1)
Acquire the Deconstruction skill (0/1)
Reach the Low grade of the Deconstruction skill (0/1)
Know at least 5 Basic spells (4/5)
Craft at least 10 functional reusable Engravings (1/10)
Create a simple multi-step engraving and apply it to an object (0/1)

Reward: Engraver Profession Unlocked

She quickly wrote it all down and dug through the drawers around her to find a push pin, stabbing it into the wall of her workspace. Now that she had an actual set of guidelines to work with she felt like she was actually making progress. Earning her skill was great and all but knowing just how close she was made it even better. 

She rubbed her hands together and considered her next step. The training plates are for increasing my skill. I’m pretty alright with the metal ones, maybe I can try the gold one’s next. I’ll make functional engravings while I’m at it. She glanced at the piles of plates she’d already gone through and frowned. I’m surprised only one counted, maybe it needs to be of a certain quality level. She picked up the water plate she’d made before going to read in her corner the previous night. It’s Mundane-grade.

She picked up another complete plate.

Flawed Heat Plate (Mortal-Flawed)
This metal token has been engraved with a simple glyph that produces heat from mana. Errors in the engraving make this token all but useless.

Her lips formed a line. Alright, I get it, this one was shit. She sighed and set it aside before stubbornly grabbing another metal plate. I’ll get it right this time-

KRRAAAHHH!

The sound shocked Anna out of her thoughts. She whipped her head towards the stairs and heard the stomping of feet moving across the building towards the lobby. It thought she said there weren’t any monsters, that definitely sounded like undead! She hopped out of her seat and opened her inventory as her blood began to boil. She grinned. Finally something to hit. Looks like I’ll at least be making progress towards leveling up today!