Syl

Chapter 137: Circles and Spheres

After shifting into a new wardrobe and eating breakfast, I headed towards the Merchant's Guild. While part of me thought it could be fun to rock the boat, I didn't necessarily want to antagonize the man who was going to be teaching me. After all, if our relationship soured, he might still only teach me the bare minimum despite his claim of not wanting his name attached to a failure of an apprentice.

I had thought I was early, but James was already at the Guild and ushered me deeper into the building. Once again, I found myself crossing the imaginary line into the noble section of the building. The room I was led to looked almost like a personal study combined with a tiny laboratory. Multiple large workbenches were loaded with various metal objects forged into strange shapes, while another contained multiple glass spheres. There were all manner of little tools that I couldn't name, ranging from pliers to strange-looking writing implements. There was also a sizable bookcase and a moderately sized chalkboard hung against the wall.

I sat on one of the couches while James offered me some tea as a refreshment; he returned with a large pot and two cups and was soon followed by Gregory.

"Excellent. I'm glad to see you arrived early, Sylvester." Gregory said, taking a seat and pouring himself a cup of tea. He added precise amounts of milk and sugar to his drink before taking a deep sip.

"I thought it prudent to be amicable to my teacher. I found Enchanting fascinating when I came across it, and I'm eager to see what I can learn."

"Of course. To gauge your knowledge, tell me what you know about Enchanting and noncombat classes in general." He requested.

"Very well. Noncombat classes earn experience by fulfilling the class's identity, and a chef levels up by cooking, for example. However, you earn nothing towards Racial levels. I'm also assuming that experience amount is determined by the finished quality or its impact."

"Correct. You can also earn experience by raising your linked class skills. In fact, if you practice and raise your skill while assigned to a different class, when you swap back, you might be accompanied by some surprise level-ups as your class catches up to your new skill level."

"Fascinating. That explains why an acquaintance of mine was working on tailoring and weaving despite not having the class at the time..." I murmured, scratching my chin. "Regarding Enchanting, I know there are two types - permanent and temporary. I've seen someone draw a temporary enchantment with their finger for a quick solution. Still, the primary purpose I know is to permanently enchant equipment, which uses its wielder's natural mana to fuel it."

"A little barebone, but I'm glad you didn't lie or try to pull anything out of your arse," Gregory said, nodding thoughtfully. "You're correct that the general purpose of Enchanting is for equipment; this is why having access to Arcane mana is a minimum requirement, as it needs to be pure to be usable by any client. Imagine buying armor with a protection enchantment that required you to have Fire mana; we'd have a lot of dead guards and adventurers, I can tell you that much."

"Now, the higher tier of Enchanting would be specific enchantments fit for purpose. A device that creates a flame, produces water on demand, or keeps a chest of food frozen and preserved. Even without the user being naturally capable of doing this. For example, in the Adventurer's Guild, a few of their enchanters can create battle items, such as a wand that can shoot out a lightning bolt."

"Now. Before you get all excited, most of those inscriptions are patented, and you'd need to pay a fee to access them. They can be quite... Pricey, but they often end up paying for themselves in the long run. For example, the simple storage enchantment costs fifty gold to procure, but that investment is a nearly endless source of revenue as everyone needs or wants dimensional storage. If you buy access to the patent, I can include it in your curriculum."

"Wow..." I said, barely hiding my excitement. "Do I need to buy a lot of patents, or are those included in this apprenticeship?"

Gregory gave a knowing smirk, "Do not fret. Your gold is safe; most common inscriptions are freely distributed, and my own will be given to you freely. The only exception is the Ice inscription, which Mister Green has already paid the required patent fee on your behalf."

He paused, cleared his throat, and tried to speak as clearly and slowly as possible. "The refrigerator inscription."

"Re..frige..rator?" I asked, stumbling horribly across the unfamiliar words.

"Horrible name, I know," Gregory said with a brief chuckle and a shake of his head. "Some upstart adventurer created it. Wonderful principle, a truly profound design, and absolutely revolutionary in its usage. But, Gods, what an awful naming sense."

"I have to agree..." I said with a nod, still trying to pronounce the unfamiliar word subconsciously.

"So. Any other questions?" Gregory asked.

"When can we begin?" I said with a smile.

Gregory gave a friendly chortle and stroked down his massive beard. "Good. I'm glad you're eager. I just need to give you my Emblem, and you need to swap your class." He then raised his hand and pointed a finger at me. "I nominate you, Sylvester, as my next apprentice."

I was slightly worried about that declaration; how strict was the name requirement? But thankfully, two notifications appeared before me.

Do you accept?>

<>

While under the direct tutelage of your master, you will receive bonus experience towards your class and skill progression.

Bonus experience is limited to the class for which your master has earned the [Apprenticeship] skill.

Upon reaching satisfactory completion of the [Apprentice] emblem, your gains will be finalized, and your master will be rewarded with class experience and a level in [Apprenticeship].

Should the [Apprentice] emblem be revoked by either party, the [Apprentice] will receive an experience penalty to earned levels, and the master will lose a level in [Apprenticeship] and forfeit the projected class experience.>

"Wow... That's quite the Emblem..." I muttered, reading the description.

"Indeed, it's why those of us with the skill are quite picky with who we choose. You could accept it, reject it immediately after, and I'd lose an extremely valuable level in my [Apprenticeship] skill."

"I have to assume it's more than just pride that stops someone from grabbing a bunch of apprentices and graduating them in a day?"

"Quite right. Firstly, [Apprentice] only works on one individual; there is an upgrade that removes that restriction, but it requires one to also take up a teaching profession first. Secondly, the system is cognizant of the individual's standards and will not allow me to graduate you verbatim unless you've met my standards."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but Gregory held out his index finger to pause me. "I bet you're thinking, what if you have a master with low standards? Well, if their standards are too low, they will not qualify to get the [Apprenticeship] skill. Furthermore, the value and effectiveness of their [Apprentice] emblem will also be lowered. My standards are high; therefore, my requirements are strict but of exceptional value."

"Thank you," I said, giving a polite nod, and then I accepted the [Apprentice] emblem.

Swap now?>

'Yes.'

I frowned deeply. "First class? Also, did I just lose all my saved points!?"

"Heavens, no." Gregory immediately replied. "While you can only have one class equipped at a time, the two are almost entirely separate. Otherwise, we would have retired adventurers immediately becoming master artisans or a tailor suddenly becoming a master swordsman."

"Well... That's a relief. Things might have gone ugly if I'd just lost my savings." I said, shaking my head. At the same time, I confirmed that my profile was showing my new class and Emblem correctly, which would have been a horrible oversight.

Gregory chuckled. "I can imagine, although I don't know why you'd save your points. Anyway, spend your first point on [Rune Reading]. We can get you some easy levels through some simple lecture rather than you attempting to level up by making chicken scratchings."

I nodded and bought the skill.

"Excellent." Gregory moved towards the blackboard and produced a thin piece of chalk. He proceeded to draw a perfect circle with efficient and well-practiced ease. "Now, this is the most important and basis of all enchanting." He poked the board with his piece of chalk for added emphasis.

"A circle?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Circles and Spheres. The shapes of infinite and uniformed perfection." He proceeded to draw another one, this time adding simple glyphs inside of it. "The basis of every enchantment or inscription starts here."

"Now. The most common question on this reveal is, 'But what about an enchanted sword or armor that isn't in a circle?'" He paused and drew a simple sword, then started filling the inside with a detailed structure, almost like a tree with circular fruit hanging from it.

"The answer to that is frameworks. Which links multiple circles together, but that is an advanced topic we will cover in actual detail later and is a rather crude solution." He placed his chalk down, pulled out what looked like a pen, and started drawing on the air.

He started drawing sigils and glyphs in a very strict pattern, and it looked impressive how it all interlinked into one grand pattern. Then, off to the side, he drew a simple armor shape and overlayed it with his drawing, which matched up almost perfectly. Finally, he drew a sphere and also overlayed it, now revealing that the entire grand pattern was contained within it.

"This is where we find perfection, creating our sphere where no one thought possible." He said proudly. "Of course, there are other ways; some inscriptions are malleable enough to allow creatively overlaying your circle or sphere. If you recall the device from yesterday, it was egg-shaped, and the..."

He paused. "Refrigerator inscription is two separate but interlocking circles overlayed over the bottom and top hemispheres."

"So a good enchanter must find where they can make a circle or sphere or otherwise resort to the framework solution?" I asked.

"Precisely. Now, let's go over reading some of the basic inscriptions." He said, grabbing a large book and placing it before me. "This is yours to keep unless you flunk out. It should make some good bedtime reading in your evenings."

When I opened the book to the first page, I was welcomed to a simple circle with one glyph inside. Despite the page title labeling it a "Rank 1 Strengthening Inscription," I could actually read and understand the glyph.

"Now. Assuming you didn't lie about following my instructions, can you tell me what this does?" Gregory asked in a stern tone.

"It's called a strengthening inscription, but it actually reinforces the overall durability," I answered.

"Excellent. Yes. Anything with this would receive an extremely minor durability reinforcement. Good for common tools, and it's simple enough that you can easily miniaturize it to place at the bottom of a handle, for example."

He flipped through the book until he stopped at the page labeled "Rank 2 Strengthening Inscription," which contained the previous rune I recognized and an additional new one. "The number of runes, sigils, or glyphs within an inscription determine its rank, but you can't just slap a bunch together. They must be carefully selected from compatibility or offset enough to enter an equilibrium."

"Now, if you look here..."

***

"I think that is enough for one day." Gregory finally announced, sitting down with a satisfied look on his face.

It had been a blur of going from page to page, with him first having me try to explain the rune myself before he would help or explain its concept. It was almost like learning an entirely new language or alphabet, except greatly enhanced via [Rune Reading] and [Apprentice].

I hope you gained at least one level in reading?" Gregory asked.

I looked over my notifications eagerly.

"Level three in [Rune Reading] and level four in my class," I eagerly answered.

Gregory looked slightly taken aback. He blinked and stared at me several times, possibly using [Identify].

"I know my skill ranked up after my last [Apprentice], but this seems a little excessive..." Gregory muttered in confusion.

I knew the likely source and decided I better be open about it, "Oh. I have the [Prodigy] trait. It gives me a-"

"[Prodigy]!? Yes, yes, I know what it does." Gregory interrupted and started tugging at his beard. "I think you've all but confirmed that you're someone's bastard son at this point... This is an unexpected surprise. I'll need to readjust my lesson plan to consider that; this is remarkable and truly wonderful. I wonder if I'll get any bonus from [Apprenticeship], there was that one rumor... What luck! Ha!"

I let Greg go on with his ramblings as I awkwardly ran my fingers along the spine of my new book. My memory was really good thanks to [Soul Mastery], but I wondered if I could have my [Sub-Cores] also read and memorize them. I was sure a big part of my education would require me to memorize the contents of this book and possibly others. Could I even order my [Sub-Cores] to read while I slept? Now, that was an idea worth exploring.

"Ah. I got carried away; please forgive me, Sylvester. I suggest you grab [Rune Etching]; perhaps tomorrow, we can try having you draw your first circle. Please do review what we covered today in your book." Gregory said, now looking almost as eager as I did this morning. "I apologize, but I need to run off and redraft... Almost everything. If I'm a little late tomorrow, please forgive me."

We shared a very brief goodbye before he practically stormed off. I left the Guild after storing my book and waved farewell to James. It was already evening, so I rushed to the inn, ate my meal, and went straight to my room.

"Alright... Let's see what we can do." I said eagerly, plopping the book on my bed and bringing my [Sub-Cores] to attention. "Oh, right, I should buy that new skill..."

"Wait..." I said, frowning deeply while looking at the notification in more detail. "I was distracted at the time, but Profession Points? Also, shouldn't I have two remaining? I'm level four?"

While slightly distraught about the missing points, I knew I could question Gregory about it tomorrow, and rather than worrying about it, put it in the back of my mind while perusing through my book.