Chapter 037 - Engrave

“Anna, time to get up!”

Anna wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep but she was certain it was well past the right time to do so. Not that she really felt guilty about it. Diving so deeply into study like that was invigorating in a way it hadn’t quite been when she was in high school. Doing well had given her a sense of achievement and enjoyment but this was so satisfying. She rubbed her eyes when she realized that she hadn’t awoken on her own. She furrowed her brows and looked over her shoulder towards Catherine. The tan paladin was standing with her arms crossed as she patiently tapped a foot. 

Anna squinted at her, her head still a little fuzzy from sleep. Catherine raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I’m trying to think of where you’d be from if you were from here,” she frowned. “Not here, my world. I think the system is adding stuff.” She tried to concentrate. Shit, I’m tired.

Catherine raised an eyebrow. “It is adding landmasses, yes,” she said patiently. “And you need to wake up.”

Anna rubbed her eyes and let out a groan. “Drills?”

“You are not skipping just because you stayed up,” Catherine said flatly and started up the stairs. “See you upstairs.”

While the grumbling march of the stairs didn’t do much for Anna’s muddled head, the run out to the first flag and back most certainly did. By the time she got back, shivering and gasping for air, she was clear headed enough to realize that she’d been under a blanket when she woke up. That realization was enough to temper her irritation when she returned to find Catherine sitting cross legged once again at the door, her eyes closed. If Anna didn’t know better she would think the woman was sleeping.

A ripple of rainbow light shimmered around Catherine’s body before sinking into her skin. Huh? Was that the essence gathering thing? It looked like how Smart Guy did it. Out of curiosity, Anna tried to use identify on Catherine and was given a surprise.

<Your use of Identify has been blocked.>

Catherine didn’t open her eyes as she continued to meditate or whatever the hell she was doing. “Before you ask, we will discuss aura techniques at a later time.”

Tch, am I that easy to read?

“Yes, you are, when your aura is exposed like that,” Catherine said. Anna’s eyes widened and Catherine actually chuckled. “No, I did not read your mind. Your aura registered an emotional reaction that told me all I needed to know.”

Anna crossed her arms. “Let me guess, advanced interrogation technique for Inquisitors?” she asked irritably.

Catherine opened her eyes and looked up at Anna thoughtfully. “Yes, actually. Good guess. Most folk I arrested did not have enough control to deal with such things.” She got to her feet and called up her sword. “Are you ready to try again?”

Anna frowned at the woman and looked at the sword. She looked back up at Catherine then let out a sigh, shaking her head. “Nope, I’m not good enough to beat you yet,” she said with a great deal of reluctance. “You’ve also obviously leveled up again otherwise you wouldn’t be hiding your level from me. It would be stupid to pick a fight,” she grunted. She rubbed her neck and called up her club. “How about you help me with my form instead? That’s what you really want me to ask for, right?”

The former paladin actually brightened. “After only one day,” she said with a smile. “Activate your proficiency and we will get started.”

Three hours later, Anna was sore to her bones. Catherine had made her go through every single form that was available to her in her proficiency. Over the course of the grueling session, Anna had expressed her frustrations with not advancing the proficiency after so long. Catherine had seemed a little annoyed by the comment but had asked if she had not only mastered the forms but the basic footwork of the style. Anna’s blank expression had earned the extra time in the lobby with the unforgiving taskmaster as she was basically forced to re-learn how to walk.

The reward had been nice, though.

One-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons (Mortal-Common-Low)

You are proficient in the use of single handed weapons that deliver bludgeoning and crushing blows to your targets. +1% Additional damage with associated weapons and abilities.

Earning the next level in her proficiency seemed to be enough to satisfy Catherine who mercifully sent her on her way before sitting back down at the doors and crossing her legs. Anna watched her only for a moment before retreating back downstairs to her beloved books. Her stamina was drained, but a quick half-hour nap and a fresh bottle of water was enough to at least be able to focus on the next steps to earning her profession. She understood the basics of how magic worked now and hoped that was enough to finally move forward.

An Introduction to Engraving was a very basic overview of what engraving was and how it worked. An engraver would etch patterns into objects or materials in order to imbue them with properties related to the engraving. 

More crucial was that the engraver used intent and their understanding of their own magical proficiency-Arcane magic in this case-in order to perform the engraving. That meant that the etchings appeared on engraved objects were actually simulated magic circles and that at the beginning and end of each ‘circle’ was an input and an output mana rune. Each of these engravings was called a ‘Glyph’. This basically made the object behave as a spell in its own right. Apparently this was the basis of how all ‘enchanted’ items worked, even the ones she owned. They had engravings somewhere.

It wasn’t as easy as doing all that though, lines had to be precise, kept short and narrow for space, but also wide enough to allow mana to go through easily. Balancing that was part of the artform of engraving and the difference between a shoddy engraving that degraded the item over a few weeks and a masterful engraving that could last centuries if not millenia without repairing the item.

She tried not to think too hard about possibly living that long.

It didn’t take long for her to get through the first few chapters before finally finding the chapter on basic practice techniques. “Practice plates and you,” She read aloud, “Practice plates allow a newly initiated engraver to practice their skills without wasting precious resources. They are often found in the workshops of masters who…” She trailed off and glanced towards the practice plates in the boxes next to her. She grabbed one of the heavy ‘easy’ plates. “Got it. What next?”

“Begin by directing mana into a point on the surface of the plate while maintaining your focus…” she narrowed her eyes. “That’s a thing?” she blurted and looked down at the plate in confusion. She shrugged. “Sounds easy enough.”

It was not easy.

The moment she concentrated on the card-sized plate of steel she felt absolutely nothing. Even when she tried using the same process she used to activate her gauntlets to use the built-in ability. It took over an hour of frustrating experimentation to finally get some kind of reaction out of the material. She ended up using her fingertip as a stylus, pressing it against the surface of the metal and concentrating as hard as she could. Still nothing.

Piece of shit! She fumed and blasted the infuriating thing with her presence. She was about to toss it when she noticed the change in feeling. It had been very brief, but she had ‘felt’ the interior of the metal. Like a limb separate from herself, her awareness within the material. She groaned and clapped her hand over her face. “How was I supposed to get that out of ‘maintaining your focus’?” She grumbled, knowing full well that the text likely hadn’t been written for a newly integrated loser who’d been kicked out of the tutorial.

She put her irritation aside. “Alright let’s try this again.”

Maintaining her concentration with her presence wasn’t hard. She’d practiced it plenty during her time in the Forest of Blood. She dialed herself up to ‘medium’ and tried again. This time, she felt as if a portion of her awareness was inside the metal. It was strange, like she had a tiny finger full of sensation that was just beneath the surface. Mana came next and she tried once more to use her finger as a stylus. As soon as she applied the smallest amount of concentration the finger pressed down and she quite literally carved into the material. She’d been so surprised at the abrupt change that she’d sliced the damn thing in half. 

That happened about a dozen more times and at one point she frustratedly threw the ripped metal to the ground. She turned back to her books to read some more to get away from the awful things only to come right back in a petulant unwillingness to be beaten by sheet metal. Fuckin thing! She grunted as she pulled another one out and took a deep breath, fixing her eyes on the card and pressing her lips together in a thin line as she tried again to draw a simple line only to shred this one into four even sections. She groaned and threw her head back, “The fuck am I doing wrong?” She complained to the textbook and started flipping pages.

“Gotta be something here,” She muttered, flipping through what she had started calling ‘An Idiots Guide to Engraving’ and finding herself back at the practice section. The paragraph about the plates was just as uninformative as the last few times she read it. She sighed and scratched her head, messy black hair falling around her face as she poured over the rest of the chapter. When she got to the end she spotted a small note in the margins written in the same hand as the foreword.

Early stages of practice can be difficult without a formal teacher, there is a section that may be useful in ‘Chapter 12: Engraving Tools’.

She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose before flipping through the pages again. It didn’t take long to find the chapter and she began reading. There was a section about training styluses, one of which looked a hell of a lot like the damn thing in the tool set she’d been given. That wasn’t the most relevant section, though, as she soon discovered.

“New Engravers may struggle with getting used to the practice of engraving materials, leading to the destruction of numerous practice plates. While low-tier practice plates are inexpensive, it can prove troublesome to make more and more for a woefully inexperienced student,” Ouch, rude, she thought and continued.

“Using magnifying lenses or focusing spectacles can assist such a student in getting used to the feeling of the skill, Towermaster Argent suggested once that an array of multi-strength lenses in conjunction with a trainee stylus is best for gradually working towards free engraving. The Towermaster ultimately developed a set of spectacles for this purpose that have become popular in recent years,” She read aloud and shut the book with a groan, turning to look at the pile of tools she’d been given. She grabbed the  magic wand looking stylus and sifted through the rest. A small case that looked intended for glasses was near the bottom of the pile.

Trainee Engraver’s Stylus (Mortal-Uncommon)
A stylus with a depleted essence crystal tip used to assist an inexperienced Engraver in concentrating mana to a single point.

Trainee Engraver’s Spectacles (Mortal-Uncommon)
These spectacles have a number of lenses attached on movable arms to allow the wearer to focus on small details while working. They are used by many professions but were originally developed by Engravers to assist trainees in developing their Engraving skill.

Her lip twitched, “Right. Gotcha.”

A few minutes later she was sitting at the counter with a box of steel plates and the heavy metal glasses fixed on her face. With all of the lenses turned inward she could get a very intimate view of the surface of the metal. She touched it with her stylus, pushed out her presence, and felt her focus slide into it again. This time, though, with her eyes focused on a single point on the surface with as much detail as possible, her mind was able to relax a little more as she let out a steady breath and slowly moved the card across her line of sight rather than moving her point of focus herself. 

The result was a card with a neat, clean cross shaped engraving on the surface. More importantly, it didn’t fall apart.

She threw her hands up into the air, “Woop! That’s one!”

Even with the new tools, the process of gradually getting used to engraving skill took more time than she had expected. This wasn’t helped by the fact that she could only sit there and stare through a magnifying glass for so long before it grew tiresome even for her knowledge-hungry mind. She pulled herself away from working with the practice plates to divy up her time with something unrelated to engraving in order to break up the monotony: mace training.

Unlike the original bludgeoning weapons proficiency that only seemed to guide her by notifying her of her errors, the more focused skill provided significantly more information. Every time she took a swing she felt as if the muscle tension was urging her to move in new ways compared to the initial forms. It wasn’t hard to figure out that it was teaching her more advanced attack patterns.

After some training, a short nap to clear out the mana she had built up during her practice, and her seventh food pill she moved back to the counter to resume working with the training plates. She went through nearly thirty of the damn things before she was finally comfortable with pulling back one of the lenses and repeating the process until she was proficient again. She knew the stylus itself was a crutch for the process but she wanted to get a handle on doing it without lenses before she went back and did it without the tool.

Instead of dragging it out for days, though, the trick to what was called ‘free engraving’ had come by accident and had completely changed her perspective on the process.

She had been going from plate to plate, engraving them with only two lenses left when she’d run out of plates in the box she had within reach. Only one left in her hand. Looking away for a moment, Anna grabbed the next box and pulled it over while going over the next pattern she was going to try out in her head. Without even thinking, her mind going through the process she’d repeated hundreds of times at this point, she looked back and found that the plate was engraved before she even started.

That had been a game changer and after some trial and error she was able to shift entirely to just closing her eyes and engraving without even looking at the plate. She knew she’d achieved the goal of the practice when she felt a buzz at the back of her mind. 

“Finally,” She sighed, hands on her hips as she regarded the pile of used practice plates as well as the delightful notification that was waiting for her.

New Skill Acquired!

Engrave (Mortal-Common-Base)
Use your will alone to engrave, carve, and alter the surface of an object with a small amount of mana. Utilizing knowledge from a magical proficiency can allow one to turn engravings into enchantments. Presence and Intelligence increase the efficiency of this skill.

She sighed with satisfaction at the piles and piles of ruined metal and imperfect plates. There was a lot of waste in this early stage, but she’d managed. “On to the next step.”

–

Catherine twisted the handle on the tool, watching the can spin. It only took a few twists for the lid to come off and she took a breath of the protein-packed beans inside. It wasn’t a spectacular meal but it was certainly something she was familiar with. At least the people of this world had a similar developmental path to Matai. Her lip twisted wrly, And they were humanoids. She held the can opener up and turned it over. Most of their household tools are intuitive enough to understand. She set it aside and grabbed the can and a spoon before leaning against the counter in the small kitchenette. 

I’m still unsure what exactly they used to power most of their appliances if it wasn’t mana. There are cables affixing some things to outlets in the wall. She took a bite of the beans and savored the smoky flavor. Sugary, very sugary, she narrowed her eyes and examined the can again. This ingredients list does not have specific measurements. What are grams? She shrugged and took another bite, it is better than field rations.

Her tired thoughts drifted back to when canned food was introduced a few years ahead of the war. It seemed so novel then. She thought with mild amusement before glancing towards what she assumed was the cooler. Most of the food inside is rotten. I will have to figure out how to dispose of it while I clean up the rest of the damage to this building. She rubbed her eyes. An extra pair of hands would be nice but at this point the little liege needs to focus on the routine. Establishing a regular habit is crucial at this stage, otherwise I would have let her sleep.

She finished her meal and made her way down the stairs to check on the girl who she found passed out in a corner under the blanket she had given her the previous night. Catherine walked over to the counter and picked up one of the metal cards that had been engraved.

Pathetic Water Plate (Mortal-Mundane)
This metal token has been engraved with a simple glyph that produces water from mana. The conversion rate is inefficient and the small amount of water produced will have a trace amount of mana taint within it.

Catherine’s eyebrows rose and she glanced back at the sleeping girl before walking over to one of the cupboards set into the wall around Anna’s workstation. She pulled out a bucket and held the plate over it, passing a little mana through it. Water began to pour from the underside of the plate until she stopped passing mana.

In two days, she shook her head and reached inside to run her finger through the water. She glanced at her resources after about a minute and saw her Mana Tolerance had ticked up five points. Serviceable. I wouldn’t want to shower under it though. She smiled and put the bucket away, returning the plate to where she’d found it before looking at the scribed notes. I was going to start setting up magelights tonight but perhaps I should just-

The alarm sounded in her head and she looked up to the steps with a frown. They’re here early.

She sighed. Back to work.