World Keeper

Chapter 315: Charging for a Craft

The window appeared in front of Ryone, and she gave a small nod towards Jelial that was standing nearby. She hadn’t so much ‘learned’ anything with the skill, merely exchanged a few words with the skill instructor and paid most of her starting coin. “Okay… now what?”

“You thought that it’d be a bit more complicated, huh?” He asked with a knowing nod of his head. “But really, that’s it. Once you have the skill, the magic system functions largely in the same way as the imagination system.”

“If you are able to imagine yourself casting a certain spell, and have both the mana and skill level needed for that type of spell, then the system will allow you to cast it. You can also increase a spell’s power by adding in additional components, such as a casting time or materials. Of course, any additional components have to at least be relevant to the spell.”

“Ooh, ooh, can I try!” Aurivy bounced on her feet, her winged shoes actually carrying her a few feet into the air as her eyes shined brightly.

“Your class was the racer, right?” He looked towards the pink-haired elf. “That class doesn’t have any particular restriction towards learning magic. There’s no real reason why you can’t give it a shot.”

Aurivy gave a quick nod, running up to the skill instructor. “Sir, I have an interest in learning magic!” She spoke up, already anticipating his next lines. “And I am ready to pay to learn!”

Still, he spoke his line, just as he did with Ryone. “Magic is not something that can be taught to just anyone. You must be ready to pay the cost that comes with this knowledge.”

Aurivy pushed her hands out towards him, oval coins cupped in her palms. “Shut up and take my money!”

Jelial simply chuckled as he watched the exchange, Aurivy now getting her own magic, and focused his attention back on Ryone. “Anyways, back to your class abilities. As a binder, you possess the ability to bind the souls of dead creatures to different items through the use of your magic. This is an ability that other classes have to pay far more mana in order to accomplish, making your class a valuable crafter.”

Ryone gave a small nod at that, glancing down to her pen. “I suppose this has something to do with it… and mine is not a class made for the front lines, correct?”

“Hmm? Ah, no, no. Dead souls are uncommon drops from creatures, a crystallized essence of their power. If this server were live, people would bring those essences to you. Then, it would be up to you how you wanted to perform the ‘binding’. In this case, it is more of an art as opposed to a science.”

Ryone listened to the instructions calmly, several different thoughts going through her head. “Different methods would produce different results, right?”

“That’s right. The system grades you on your efficiency, and rewards creativity. Would you like to give it a test? It shouldn’t take too long for me to go grab a few low level essences.”

Once Jelial made the offer, Ryone smiled thankfully towards him. “That would be lovely. Sorry for putting you through all this work. It’s all really interesting, and just so… different than the worlds I’m used to.”

“Yeah, it’s great!” Aurivy chimed in, bringing a hand up to partially cover one eye. Her pupil turned a bloody red as she began to chant. “Come forth, the flames of my soul, and devour those who would stand before me.” Aurivy extended her hand with a wide grin, a black flame flying out from her palm to strike at the stone floor. “Sweet..”

Jelial gave a small chuckle at her antics. As someone who had played these games for a long time, he was able to recognize that she had only cast a basic fireball spell, using a bit of theatrics to change its appearance. In terms of damage, it might do some more than a normal spell, but only because of the additional cast time that she had given it. “Alright, I’ll be back in just a few minutes. Try not to damage the building while I’m gone, or the guards might be summoned.”

Aurivy gave a light yelp at that, looking to her black flame and wishing it away. The last thing that she needed was to be enjoying herself in this new game world, only to spend the rest of her time here inspecting their dungeons. Once she lifted her head, she noticed that Jelial was gone, and looked towards Ryone. “I want one of these places eventually.” She said happily, her body lightly rocking back and forth.

“I’m not surprised.” Ryone grinned back to Aurivy. “This kind of thing seems right up your alley. Though I doubt any of our people have the patience to make something like this.”

“Yeah, I mean, maybe… wasn’t Ashley working on managing a game design team, back before her Earth went kaput?” Aurivy mused out loud. “Though, I guess there’d be a big difference between that and making something like this.”

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one. The guy who made this must have created a ton of different ‘people’. It’s actually more impressive than if they had used a real race as the NPCs. This way requires far more work, but you don’t have the ethical problems of not treating your inhabitants as people. They only have key words and actions that trigger different behaviors.”

“It’s more than that, right?” The pink-haired elf asked, moving over and looking towards the magic instructor. “He’s old. I mean, old old. They let this world grow, which means the people age. I’m guessing that they age, at least. But, that would mean that they have the basic living needs such as food, water, and sleep. Then you also have to take into consideration that they breed. They don’t feel love, so they have to have preset conditions to find a suitable partner, don’t they?”

Ryone stared, wide-eyed at Aurivy. “You… are giving this a lot more thought than I expected.”

“I was going to be a nerd for my next incarnation if Dale didn’t need me for the Fyor stuff.” Aurivy laughed lightly, shaking her head. “Was thinking about being born on either Desbar or Earth, and making games. But I don’t think I’d ever be able to make something like this. Like you said, I’m not that patient.”

Ryone was just about to speak up when she turned her head, noticing Jelial walking back. “Sorry for the wait. The drop rates were either lower than I expected, or I just got unlucky. Either way, I got some essences from a couple low level monsters in the surroundings.”

Jelial did the same motion as Ryone and Aurivy had done to retrieve their items from their inventories, and suddenly held two small, green stones in his hand. The girls could feel a faint magical energy leaking out from the growing rocks, a light dust sprinkling our around them. “One of these is from a wild charger, and the other from a goblin. Think you can do something with them?”

Ryone took the two stones gently, nodding her head. “I think I can manage something. Rivy, dear, can I borrow your shoes? If I’m going to do ths, I need something that I can bind the souls to.”

Aurivy nodded without hesitation, reaching down and taking the winged shoes off of her feet before passing them over. “Sure thing. I kinda wanna see what you can do with them too.”

When Ryone took the shoes, she was able to inspect them, and noticed that they had an option to increase movement speed. She allowed herself to sink into thought for a moment, before putting one of the stones away. The one that she kept, the system had told her was the stone for a level three wild charger.

Hopefully, such a small level gap could be overlooked by the system. Otherwise, it would take ages for crafters to get anywhere at the starting levels. “Alright… I need a mortar and pestle, a handful of berries, preferably the type that the charger would eat, and a small cup of water.”

Jelial raised an eyebrow, looking amused by her recipe. “Alright. Normally, we’d make players get their own ingredients. But you two aren’t going to be here for that long, and you have me curious.”

He closed his eyes for a few moments, and objects began to appear in front of him. First was a small, wooden table. After that, a stone mortar and pestle appeared on the table, already filled with pink berries. Next to the mortar and pestle as a large cup of water.

“If you can just spawn things in, why’d you have to go hunt for the essences?” Aurivy couldn’t help but question while Ryone moved to the table, emptying the berries out of the mortar.

“Essences are souls.” Jelial said with a small shrug. “Can’t just spawn in fresh souls without spending points. But we have a lot of assets like these that we can just move around. Worst that will happen is an alchemist puts in an order for some new tools and a couple of early level quests pop up.”

Aurivy gave a small nod at that, while Ryone placed the essence inside the mortar. “Soften.” She whispered, her hand hovering over the essence. Afterwards, she grabbed the pestle and began to grind the essence down, her earlier word having been part of a magic to assist her in breaking the stone.

Only once it was reduced to a fine powder did Ryone begin adding in the berries, crushing them as well. The dust from the soul essence mixed with the juice of the berries to create a glittering mush, which was further distilled when she began to pour a bit of water into the mix. Now, she was using the pestle to gently stir the three ingredients, before she did something that Jelial hadn’t been expecting.

Ryone brought her left hand up over the mixture, using a bit of magic to give herself a small cut on her finger. She allowed just a few drops of blood to drip in, keeping her hand in place. “Now stir. With my own blood as the catalyst, I bind it.”

The mixture began to swirl beneath her hand, the blood darkening the pink berries to create a darker red fluid. After a few moments, she grabbed her pen, moving it up over the substance. “Now that I have the ink… absorb.”

The ‘ink’ lifted up in a thin strand from the mortar, flowing into the empty pen. She waited patiently, until the pen had been entirely filled, before entering into a blur of motion. Now, she was in her element. Her pen drew long lines across the table, forming a familiar enchantment diagram, the same sort that she would be using if this were Earth.

While she filled in the outer circles of the enchantment with the effects that she wanted to imbue the boots, Jelial watched off from the side with Aurivy. “She’s your magic goddess, isn’t she?” He guessed, seeing how devoted she clearly was to her craft. She seemed to be entirely absorbed in the process of drawing out even a low level enchantment that she was drowning out everything else.

“Yup! Magic, merchants, and wealth.” Aurivy answered without concern, simply watching Ryone work with growing enthusiasm.

Once the diagram had been completed, Ryone went over it again, making sure that everything was in its correct place. Only then did she place the boots in the center of the diagram. Afterwards, she waited for her mana to recharge after her earlier spell casts, before triggering the enchantment diagram.