Chapter 70 (1/2)

Chapter 70: Link’s Matchstick Wand (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The Syndicate had covered their tracks well. Even after three days of thorough searching by General Anderson and the militia, their lair had still not been smoked out yet. There was nothing Link could do about it, so he decided to just wait patiently.

As for Princess Annie, she was ordered to report to the king in Springs City, so on the second day, she reluctantly left River Cove town. With no one left to disturb him, Link could finally dive back into his studies peacefully.

He was no longer staying in the inn attic but was staying in the cabin that the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries had bought instead. There were people tending to his needs here and the food that the cook that they hired at a high price had prepared was delicious too. Most importantly, no one would disturb him here while he studied, so he settled down in the cabin contentedly.

Within three days, Link had finished reading three books on enchantment. From these books, he had developed a deep understanding on the subject. The opening of the book Introduction to Magic enchantments had very neatly encapsulated the concept of enchantment in a single sentence.

enchantment is the process of fixing spells onto a certain object.

Theoretically speaking, as long as the proper method was employed, any spell could be fixed onto an object, including Fireball, Protective Armor, Flying Blades, Hidden Power, and so on. The method and skills involved in fixing these spells fell under the field of enchantments.

Take the wand for example. The wand was, in fact, an object where Mana could be stably fixed on. According to folklore 500 years ago, Magicians used to cast spells without using wands. Therefore, there were two steps involved in their spellcasting – the first was to compress their own Mana into magic aura and then using this magic aura to release the spell that they intended to release. This made it much harder for the Magicians at that time to advance their skills compared to the present where Magicians used wands to cast their spells.

Having read the three books, Link turned his attention to writing letters. He had two of them to write: the first was to Moira, where he would write down all the questions he had concerning the contents of the textbooks and the second was a letter to Eliard.

Eliard shared many similar interests with him, and their intelligence was on roughly the same level as well so Link enjoyed talking to him about anything. Link would write to Eliard often, regardless of whether there was anything important to inform him on. They would often discuss their thoughts and comments on subjects about magic, or they would only share news and gossip they had come across. Whatever it was, they both enjoyed hearing from each other very much.

Link would have a lot of free time while waiting for the replies to his letters and he would spend it by conducting enchantment experiments in his room based on the theoretical and practical knowledge that he had just gleaned from the books.

The most commonly used metal in enchantment was Mithril because it was highly conductive for Mana. By molding Mithril into different configurations through various methods, a stable and long-term Mana storage device could be built. And through changing the structure of Mithril, the structure of Mana could be altered too, enabling the casting of different spells.

Those were the theories, anyway. In practice, though, one had to pay attention to numerous other details that would eventually affect the outcome, which was why Link wanted to conduct these experiments.

He didn’t have any Mithril on hand, but that was fine because he could get some of it by breaking the New Moon wand apart. Although the wand wasn’t of the highest quality, it did contain a decent amount of Mithril. In fact, Link managed to obtain a pound of Mithril after dismantling the wand.

What a waste, the 1000 gold coins’ price was all spent on the Mithril in the wand. Was this supposed to be crafted by a master wandmaker? thought Link. He wondered if the wandmaker’s reputation had been grossly exaggerated.

Once he’d obtained the Mithril, Link spent 20 Omni Points to purchase a transformation spell necessary for enchantment – Shapeshifter.

Shapeshifter

Level-2 Spell

Mana Consumption: 0.2 points per second

Effects: Once cast on a certain object, the object’s physical shape will alter and change according to the spellcaster’s wishes.

(Note: This is a necessary spell for low-level enchantments.)

After quickly learning this spell, Link immediately used it on the Mithril on the table.

The spell didn’t require any special Mana focusing skills, so even a Magician’s Apprentices’ spellcasting skills were sufficient. As the Mana in Link’s body got agitated and was arranged into a specific spell structure, a special force field would emerge.

This force field was almost invisible. If it didn’t slightly bend the light that passed through it where it was concentrated in the palm of Link’s hand, he wouldn’t have noticed its existence at all.

Link knew that the force was known in transformation spells as the ‘Higgs Force Field’.

This force field was discovered by a Magician called Higgs more than six hundred years ago and he was also the one who pioneered the field of transformation spells. His discovery had changed the enchantment skills from something that only high-level Magicians could do to something any average Magician could easily learn.

The Higgs Force Field had a strange property where it could transform any non-living objects’ shape and properties. As long as your skill was developed enough, you could change metal to water, or even stone to gold.

But of course, the skills that were needed were very, very difficult to develop, and there was also another constraint – the huge Mana consumption rate.

The more properties of the object that was to be transformed, the higher the Mana consumption rate. For example, the ability to transform rock into gold at first glance might seem like an enticing idea that would enable one’s fortune to grow infinitely. But in fact, it would take all of the Mana that a Level-6 Magician possessed just to transform a palm-sized cobblestone into gold of the same size and weight.

Nothing could be more precious to a Magician than his Mana, so no Magician in their right mind would ever waste all of their Mana for a mere palm-sized lump of gold. And so, no Magician has ever bothered to learn to transform rocks into gold.

As the adage went, there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Now back to Link.

Link guided the transparent force field with his mind to wrap around the thumb-sized pile of Mithril on the table. Then he imagined the structure of the spell, Glass Orb in his head.

Link possessed an especially active imagination, so he could easily visualize things in his mind down to their smallest details. This skill worked in his favor when learning enchantment.