R-S Chapter 17 (Patreon)

The next few weeks were peaceful. After most of the class quit it meant I got even better teaching, which I took even more advantage of this time than I did the first time through. Even the newspaper didn’t cover anything of any real interest. It was the calm before the storm and everyone with a brain was holding their breath expecting the shoe to drop.

It was odd, I was looking out the window as Mr. Rights taught his class when something happening the first time through made me remember the only interesting thing to happen that month. Someone was about to blow themselves up in the next few days in an experiment. I had no idea what the experiment entailed, just that it had something to do with alchemy, or at least that’s what the rumors the first time thought it was, which thinking about it more now meant it most likely had nothing to do with alchemy.

I didn’t have to stop it, it didn’t have anything to do with me… But I thought it was interesting enough to warrant my attention. I might be able to gain something out of it and helping anyone who had enough permission in the academy to cause an explosion might have unseen benefits later on. Over the next few days, I looked into it and narrowed down the list of possible accident creators to three.

My most likely suspect is the person who was attempting to create the next generation of focuses… Foci? The gist I got is he wanted to make golem weaponry that could shift and change while also providing the benefits a familiar bond would provide with the golems being elementally attuned to their owner's preference to allow them to grow stronger along with their weaponry.

It was convenient to find out about the golem-type weapon familiar right after I found out I could make familiar contracts and golem was the recommended type of monster because of their natural earth affinity. The project was perfect for me, I just needed to figure out how to get it after he perfected it but…

It was combining many different fields of study and seemed to be the most likely to fail. He was also the only student working on a special project like this while the other two were graduated students working on projects for the school. The workshop he used was open to the public, so after I finished school I headed there.

I felt out of place here and was questioning why first-year students were even allowed in as I looked around. Shelves and tables full of parts I didn’t have the first idea on what to do with. The room had a musty smell to it. I heard the clanging of metal as someone hammered on a piece, shaping it to form. At first glance it was somewhat comical, the person was thin and sickly, I could tell even with him hammering and working away from me.

That was before you counted his mana cycling though, a weak person could be much stronger if they were cycling mana. Even if he was a mage who only cycled ten mana, his body would be forty or fifty percent stronger than it was without cycling if he was a fourth-year student here. Still, it was impressive. He not only did all his blacksmithing to make the weapon, but also the golem making and it appeared to have alchemy and rune work involved as well.

The giant sword/golem looked wrong, it would be far too heavy to wield for most mages in the shape it was in. He was years off of perfecting it and it got me wondering and I unconsciously asked out loud. “Why make a sword?” The tinking of metal on metal came to a sudden stop as the voice loudly asked. “What was that!?”

I was shocked by the man's loud voice and couldn’t help but chase my train of thought more. “Well… It looks like a lot of what you're doing is to deal with how long and narrow a sword is. I don’t know anything about runes but those look… Off to me for some reason. Like they’d fit better on a wider item but you can’t make it wider because it’s a sword… So why make a sword instead of something more suited for the runes like a… Shield would be better off the top of my head.”

For a brief moment, the skinny man just stood there holding the slowly cooling metal in tongs as he thought about what I just said. The next moment he slams the metal onto the blacksmith's anvil as he starts to scream. “FUCK! Fucking fuck! No! It makes so much sense, how the fuck did I miss this!? A wider surface would allow the circular design to more easily connect.”

He forgot he was mad as he ran over to a chalkboard and began drawing out a design. It was a bunch of squares, circles, and triangles with runes I didn’t understand all linked and interconnected together. As he pieced it together I realized how insane his plan was to attempt to link them on something as thin and short as a sword. I didn’t think even if he widened the piece out to twice its width the design could work.

I got that tugging feeling again as I looked over the design. “Somethings wrong in the top right circle there.” He looked it over again. “Huh? Oh, yeah I put the wrong runic mark here.” He quickly replaced it before getting back to drawing out the design but stopped about halfway through, his chalk slowing and stopping as he slowly turned toward me. He held his hand out for me to shake as he asked. “And you are?”

“Ovar… No surname.” Not having a surname meant I wasn’t part of the nobility or any ancient mage families. He hummed to himself. “Stand above, not a bad thing to name your kid I guess. I’d have gone with Monrak or Baruk for my kids though. To claim victory and to be blessed respectively. So you’re Enduran, that would explain why you know these runes, the runic designs come from the ancient Enduran language.”

“N-no… I don’t know my father’s language… I just feel that they’re wrong.” The man once again went silent as he thought things over before a bit of frustration leaked from him. “I can’t believe your luck. There hasn’t been a Natural enchanter in a hundred years and the Natural enchanter didn’t even come from a prestigious family.”

I was confused but he began laughing small at first but soon it became hysterical again. “Dozens of families attempting to get Enduran blood in their family's lineage and it comes from outside the nobility, it’s just amusing to me.” I had to ask. “The way you said Natural sounded like it means something.” I knocked the chuckling off him again as he asked. “What grade are you in?”

“I just started this year, why?” He began to laugh even louder. “Two months in and he can already spot mistakes and give corrections to one of the best enchanters alive in this country. Alright, so, this is my first time teaching anything so I might make some mistakes.” He collected his thoughts before he began to explain. 

“A Natural is someone who is naturally gifted in something like it comes instinctively to them. The most common Naturals are cyclers. Most animals and about ten percent of people naturally cycle mana through their bodies. Kneaders can naturally use telekinesis and oftentimes get their elemental extra sense before being taught how to use it. Elemental Naturals will be able to control elements but also cast magic, they still need to learn magical spells but some are so powerful they can control the weather. You are an extremely rare type of Natural Enchanter… I don’t even think there is shorthand for the type of Natural you are.”