Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Information gathering was another high priority. I still had access to multiple items that I couldn’t even properly identify, which meant that I couldn’t use them to the height of their capabilities. Besides identifying items, I also wanted anything that would help give me clues on how to solve the multitude of puzzles inside the tower, or otherwise help me make my way through. Maybe I could eventually find spells to locate other people? I’d need to do some research on that. I knew practically nothing about the capabilities and limitations of divination.

Finally, I wanted some items to improve my mobility. Things that would let me safely traverse tower rooms with gaping chasms and spinning blades. Teleportation was the most obvious choice, followed by things that would simply increase my speed or agility. Flight could be useful, too, if I could manage it.

From those broad options, I came up with a short list of things I could actually make. A better shield sigil was an option, and there were types listed in the Advanced Artifice book — which I probably needed to return to the library at some point — that were designed to stop kinetic attacks. They were all listed as at least “Carnelian” level, but they didn’t look difficult.

In terms of firepower, there were a lot of options. Mages, unsurprisingly, loved researching new and exciting ways to explode things just as much as anyone else. I found a lot of runes dedicated to variations on dueling canes — ones that fired elemental bolts instead of gray mana, for example, or that had specialized enhancements for attacks. Bolts that homed in on enemies, for example, or blasted through basic shielding.

A lot of these options were probably within my capabilities, but they were also common, and that meant there would be accessible defenses against them. They’d still be perfectly viable in the tower, but I wanted something I could use if I was attacked by another human that was potentially more experienced than I was. That meant something less obvious… maybe an enchanted ring?

I shelved that idea for the moment, looking at the other categories.

For information gathering, I found several enchantments for interfacing with other enchantments, like how my sigil detected other projectiles. I found very few detection spells that could be used on their own, though. Most of the divination enchantments I’d looked up for Jin were only useful in specific situations — things like seeing in the dark, detecting ambient mana, and seeing through walls. I really wanted something that would give me information about magical items, but I didn’t find anything like that in my books. I’d have to ask a more experienced Enchanter about it later.

Mobility was almost entirely out of my reach. I could make an enchantment to increase the height I could jump, but not a lot else. Even increasing my running speed would require several runes I didn’t have listed in my books. Apparently, just adding mobility by itself would add force to my motions without any stability, so I’d basically be blasting myself forward with each step. Hilarious, but impractical.

So, all in all, blowing things up seemed best.

I’d picked up a couple cheap rings, but a bit of study told me they wouldn’t work on their own. An item’s mana capacity was based on its size and materials, and a simple metal band couldn’t hold much of anything.

Gems could hold a great deal, but there were two problems with that. One, I couldn’t afford any decent gems. Two, I didn’t know how to inscribe them with runes properly. Etching metal was easy. Drawing on the surface of a diamond? I wasn’t sure, but that sounded a lot harder.

So, what else was easily concealed and potentially a good source for directing attack magic? Necklaces had the same problems as rings, and also the magic would emanate directly from the item. I couldn’t aim my neck very well. Really, that last part meant I needed either something hand-held or something on my hand. I was back to dueling canes…or maybe a glove?

Standard cloth and leather gloves had terrible mana capacities, too, as it turned out. There were specialized types of materials that could hold a lot of mana, but they were well outside my price range.

Gauntlets, on the other hand? Those could hold a fair bit of mana, and I could easily afford a pair. I was worried that a traditional gauntlet would impede my ability to manipulate anything with my hands, though, so I settled on a demi-gauntlet that I’d wear with a leather glove underneath.

“So, whatcha doing?”

I’d made the mistake of asking Sera to watch me work on this enchantment, since it was technically Carnelian-level and I wasn’t precisely allowed to be trying it yet. There was only a tiny chance I’d detonate the gauntlet in the process, and I was pretty sure my shield would save me. Probably.

I sat on the floor, laying the gauntlet down flat on my “enchanting tile”, a square of wood that I used to center whatever I was working on. I laid down my enchanting book on the left side of the tile and my measuring implements on the right.

The exact size of a rune wasn’t important. You could make a tiny rune on the side of a jewel if you knew how. The proportions and angles of lines on each symbol were supposedly relevant to the function, though, so I’d have to measure those. I didn’t know how exact I needed to be, but I was going to take my time on this one.

Before I started, I used four clamps to attach the demi-gauntlet to the wooden board. It moved a little if I lifted the wood, but it was pretty steady once I put it down.

“I’m making a gauntlet that will serve as an emergency weapon. I don’t know what I’m calling it yet. Blasting gauntlet, maybe? Power glove?”

Sera snorted. “Power glove sounds pretty bad.”

“I’ll think of something better. Anyway, I’m going to try to give it two different functions: raw mana projection and kinetic energy projection. In theory, I’ll be able to use one at a time or both at once. This is going to make the enchanting process a bit complicated.”

“Okay.” She sat down across from me. “And I’m here to…?”

“Go get help if I explode?”

“Oh, got it. Can I laugh at you first?”

“Heh. You’ve never asked for permission before.”

“Right you are. Okay, let the fireworks begin.”

I rolled my eyes. It comforted me to have Sera around in case this went badly, even if she’d never let me forget about it. Bringing a Mender would have probably been more logical, but I didn’t know any of them very well yet. In retrospect, maybe “healing” should have been on my list of things to consider for enchantments, but I was committed by that point.

“All right, first thing I’m doing is setting up capacity runes for each type of mana. These prevent the gauntlet from containing more than a certain amount of mana of that type.”

I opened up a container of paint and dipped my brush in it. I’d write the runes out in paint first, verify the dimensions, and then etch into the metal using my other tools if the rune had been drawn correctly. More experienced Enchanters could jump straight to etching, but I was working with runes I’d only practiced on paper — the risk was too great.

I drew three capacity runes: one for gray mana; one for transference; and one for mind. I checked them, wiped the mind one, and redid it twice more before I was satisfied.

“What’s the third one for?”

I pointed at the mind one. “This one is going to connect to a rune that detects when I want the gauntlet to activate. If it was like a cane, it’d just activate whenever I was in contact with an activation rune. Which would be all the time, since I’m going to be wearing it.”