Cat With a Raygun

Joe heard from Ferrite over the SACT that they were going to Telknock to turn in the bounty directly. He opened a portal to the other location to see if the first group were done yet. Ferric and Melanie came through immediately, each dragging a frost bear corpse. Joe used Levitate to grab the other corpses on the other side of the portal while everyone else started walking through. Belstak had an arm in his mouth, obviously from a bear that was missing its arms with clean cuts.

After everyone from the first group was back in Rust's Edge they worked to remove the heads from all the bears to turn in for the bounty before Joe started harvesting the rest of each body. Harvest got to level 11 finally after all the bears were processed.

Ferric himself went back to Trenos via a portal to turn in the bounty with a satchel of Extra Storage filled with frost bear heads. While both groups were collecting their rewards Joe reflected on the training he had done during the intervening hours waiting for them. He didn't cast spells or otherwise use anything that cost mana, so he instead did things like cut himself to work on his Regeneration while he continually moved water around himself with the Move Water spell that instead cost stamina.

His Regeneration and Move Water both improved by one level. He stayed outside the whole time, so his Cold Tolerance did as well. Joe's Spell Conduit skill didn't go up through casting the Move Water while the groups were gone, but it did finally level up when casting Harvest, as all his spells were boosted by his spell conduit armor. All of Joe's statistics were quite strong, despite only having his CGS for slightly over 14 months, which Joe learned isn't quite a year, which lasts 15 months.

Name: Joseph Pinkerton

Age: 18

Race: Felinoid

Class: Mage 11

Profession Arcane Gadgeteer 7

Hit Points: 1000

Stamina: 1442

Mana: 1862

Strength: 465

Agility: 227

Vitality: 500

Toughness: 221

Intelligence: 931

Wisdom: 451

After a few hours he brought Ferric back from Trenos and shortly afterward was contacted by Ferrite that they were back at the rendezvous location, so they came back as well. Both groups had done very well with no major injuries and lots of combat experience, both esoteric and CWEST, to go around. Joe was glad to learn there were new spells available among the townspeople. It was kind of a joke at this point that Joe was trying to learn every spell there was, but he had a very practical reason for doing so, as they helped him in his arcane inventions.

Shape Stone (Level 1). This spell allows the caster to reshape an area of stone equal to 1 cubic meter per spell level. The stone can be connected to other stone not affected by the spell, or it can be a separate object all on its own. The spell requires five minutes to cast.

Mana cost: 50 mana

Melanie had gained a new spell in her Arcane Knight class which was a good compliment to her Channel Fire spell.

Channel Lightning (Level 1). The spell allows the caster to add lightning damage to his weapon attacks. The extra damage is equal to the caster's Intelligence multiplied by the spell's level. At the current level the spell adds lightning damage to all attacks made within ten seconds.

Mana cost: 5 mana per casting.

Finally Eleanor gained an unusual new spell. It was unusual in that it was gained through her Scout class, which doesn't use mana, yet it was fueled by mana rather than stamina. It was a very useful spell, though, so its unusual nature could easily be overlooked.

Compress Time (Level 1). This spell creates a small pocket of accelerated time around the caster. The pocket can be up to a 1 meter radius around the caster, but if any other significant animals or monsters are in the area the spell will fail. The spell compresses 1 minute per spell level into 5 seconds of time.

Mana cost: 250 mana

Eleanor just barely had enough mana to cast the spell as she didn't have any Intelligence based skills other than her Alchemy.

Later Joe took Kerras down to the mana diamond to rank up his Sense Manachlorians ability and finally unlock Meditation. Kerras was quite eager to practice his Meditation and get as good at Joe at replenishing his mana and stamina pools.

Now that the bounties were taken care of, Joe could finally get to working on the new smithing hammers for himself, Melanie, and Davis. It wasn't too hard to come up with the patterns needed to enhance the Imbue Metallic Object spell since Joe had the spell himself, but he wasn't quite sure how to work them into the hammer. A mold might work, but the quality of iron he needed to use for that kind of hammer didn't take to molds well.

After another hour of brainstorming the simple answer came to him and Joe couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it sooner. He still had enough time in the day for a first attempt. He got everything together that he'd need, then started smelting some magisteel and some high quality steel. He cast three Imbuing spells: Metallic Object, Wooden Object, and Spell Conduit.

After he had the head of the hammer formed and solid he cast Transmute Material to turn it into Bopa Tree wood. Next he activated Miniaturization and cast Illusory Rendering over the magnified section that appeared above the now wooden hammer. He applied his carving tools to the projected area and it started carving into the actual wood in miniature. He put 4 identical Imbue Metallic Object Patterns into each of the two long sides of the hammer head. The short ends each got one, two for the bottom of the head, and another four on the top. He had to recast his spells a few times to keep them going long enough to complete the carvings and then he gouged out a space for the handle of the hammer.

The handle would have a steel core with a hollowed out wooden covering made of oak, but again Transmuted to Bopa Tree wood to hollow out, as the wood would soften the vibrations of striking the hammer repeatedly against the material being forged, but he still wanted the strength of a steel core inside so it wouldn't break. After the hammer and handle were complete it was time to add the magisteel inlay to the carved sections. Normally he would use magisteel wire, but the new patterns were too small for wire, so instead he melted the magisteel down in a crucible and poured it into the patterns, using Miniaturization to ensure he didn't miss any sections, as well as to clean up the excess magisteel. Shortly before midnight he finished the first hammer.

Strengthened Smithing Hammer of Enhanced Imbuing. (Legendary) This hammer will multiply the amount of mana fed into an Imbue Metallic Object spell by 16 times, greatly improving the result of the enchantment made while forging the item.

- - - - -

After Joe made the other two hammers the next day he gained another level in his Arcane Gadgeteer profession, as well as a level in Smithing and several of his spells: Transmute Material, Imbue Metallic Object, Imbue Wooden Object, Illusory Rendering, and Imbue Spell Conduit.

One thing about his Transmute Material spell, it seems that each level provides a new option of a transmutable material, in addition to the improved duration of the spell. Instead of an entire category of material like the softwoods he could transmute things into with the first level, now he could also transmute things into latex or rubber. Joe wasn't entirely sure what good that would do, but it did intrigue him enough to decide to devote time into leveling the spell in the future to see what else it could do.

Melanie loved her new hammer. She didn't have nearly the mana capacity nor Mana Channeling that Joe had, so this would greatly improve the quality of the magic enchantments she could make, which would help level both her class and profession quicker.

Back in Trenos Davis was quite shocked that Joe was able to produce such a hammer so quickly. “You made this?” Joe nodded affirmatively. “I have never seen the like of these patterns before. What do they mean?”

“That's the pattern the manachlorians form when someone casts Imbue Metallic Object,” Joe answered.

“Wait, you can see manachlorians?” Davis asked in awe.

“That's right. It's an ability of mine. It's what allows me to make all of my arcane devices. Rather than rely on enchantments built by a spell, I can shape the patterns physically into an object, making them stronger and able to be powered without an enchantment.”

“Do you think knowing those patterns could make me a better Enchanted Smith?”

“It certainly couldn't hurt. We can try with a basic one and see if it helps you at all. Do you know the Extra Effort enchantment for weapons?”

Davis shook his head, “No, never learned that one. What does it do?”

“It adds extra damage to a weapon attack, but unlike a Strikes enchantment, it's not elemental, just pure additional damage.”

Joe tore a page out of his sketch book and started drawing out a larger version of the pattern and included additional symbols and words indicating the direction of the energy flow.

“Here you go, Davis. Even if you don't incorporate this into any weapon designs, just seeing this should be able to help you get this result with a weapon enchantment of your own.”

“Thanks, Joe. Now about the price for the hammer. How about 50,000 gold? And another 500 for this enchantment pattern.”

Joe nodded, “That sounds more than reasonable, thank you. When do you want me to meet you at the bank?”

“We can go now. I have no outstanding jobs at the moment, so I can close for a bit,” Davis said.

A short time later Joe returned to Rust's Edge with more money than ever before. His new life was going well.