A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Meeting with Boran was, sadly, a far more laborious task than meeting Pelaros. Eldrian often forgot that Pelaros was a mayor. He felt more like a friend. Eldrian coming and going from his estate as one would from a friend's.

Well, Eldrian didn't have any friends with estates before ANW. But the concept still held.

Of course, this was only possible since Pelaros had been the mayor for a long time and the city had adapted to his lackluster noble style. Boran, on the other hand, has been the lord of Ganalin for only around a year. And while the populace has come to accept him thanks to his feats in pushing back the invading forces, the nobility has not.

They expected the lord to act as a lord. For visitors, they must organize a meeting days before and for most such meetings must not be allowed to take part in private. For this was seen as favoritism or a secret dealing.

Of course, that was nonsense. But, for now, Boran still had to maintain appearances. Having inner conflict during the current circumstances would be the dumbest thing that they could do.

Much like Kynigo, Ganalin had stabilized. However, it wasn't like there was no longer any danger. There was still plenty. They have just contained most of it for the time being. What the future held, no one could claim their defense would last.

After organizing the meeting through Viggo, Eldrian went to visit Solvi. The two discussed smithing for a bit, with the conversation focused on the improved magical cannons. With the current situation, Kynigo could make two to four of these improves cannons each week.

This was naturally much lower than what the dwarves were capable of. Luckily, Eldrian's deal with them ensured Kynigo wasn't forgotten.

After a while, the conversation turned to Crystoi. But sadly, Solvi couldn't answer any of Eldrian's questions. After some more small talk, he asked her to come back to Kynigo.

"You certainly have an insane idea in that head of yours day after day." Solvi mumbled while containing her smile. "Why don't you show me this plan of yours? It's going to use runic magic, correct?"

"Will it be fine? What about my apprenticeship with Boran?"

"Can't believe he didn't agree to dissolve it." Solvi shook her head in disapproval, not understanding what Boran was thinking. No, she had an idea, but she couldn't agree with it.

"There is no problem. The restrictions of such a pact are to protect the secrets that the master will hand down to the apprentice. You aren't obliged to share your discoveries with him, especially if he wasn't a big help in its creation."

"Then what was the point of him declining to dissolve it?" Eldrian asked, his face showing his bewilderment at the topic. Under Boran, he had only formed some basic daggers. Not even having touched adding magic to the process, since he was still learning to feel mana and guide it back then.

"I do not know... maybe he thought to take you in as an apprentice once things slowed down?" Solvi gave Eldrian this excuse, keeping her actual thoughts to herself. This was likely partly true, but with Eldrian's growth. By then, no, even now; he could no longer be called an apprentice.

"Maybe..." Eldrian didn't like that excuse. It would be too late. Luckily, he learned something important through what Solvi had said. He had known it before, but he felt confident now that he could learn from others and teach them without worry.

He simply couldn't form a pact with others, which meant if they thought him their secret techniques, they could not bind him to keep it to himself. Hence, most wouldn't be willing to teach him their true art.

But that was no problem. Eldrian only needed help. He didn't need to be taught everything someone had painstakingly mastered.

"Alright, basically the idea is to use a combination of elemental crystals and one large mana crystal as the base." Eldrian started to explain, taking a piece of paper and drawing his thoughts through mageia onto the A2 page.

It lightly glowed atop the page as he moved his fingers, even morphing and shifting as he listened to Solvi's advice about rune combinations and runes that would give better effects. After a while, the complete magic circle was glowing on the page.

Wishing to print this onto the page, Eldrian sent some fire element through the mageia pattern. Burning a light outline on the page. Controlling it so it wouldn't catch the page on fire and only leave a clear outline.

Solvi whistled, watching the patterns suddenly burning into the page. She assumed it was quite complicated. After watching Eldrian discover runic magic, she had tried it out a few times.

There were many similarities between runic casting and runesmithing, but if she had to say which one was harder. It was with certainty the former.

"Do you think it will work?" Eldrian asked.

"Yes, but to make it... Do you really think you can manage something so complex?" Solvi asked, however, having watched Eldrian draw with mageia and keep the form of everything partly told her that it was entirely possible for Eldrian.

The entire pattern was compacted, yet it was as large as a person's chest. It looked almost perfect for a shield. It would fully cover a viking shield with its intricate pattern.

"Yeah, it's a bit more complicated than anything I've tried before. But we've segmented the circles into elements and enveloped them into the larger structure. Building it from the bottom, it shouldn't be too difficult."

Eldrian's reply came naturally, his words showing just how much confidence he had in being able to create this. Solvi, on the other hand, was struggling to imagine herself even being able to make this.

If she pushed herself, maybe in a few weeks. But Eldrian was clearly planning to hammer this out and start construction on the forts in the next day or two.

So she asked again, and after the third repeat, Eldrian realized where the problem was.

"I see now, you are probably thinking of the normal way that runes are used... Embarrassingly, I do not really know what the normal method of using runes is. Oh, I do have this basic idea! I just never tried it since I found a method that works for me."

Solvi didn't look convinced, but she indicated for Eldrian to continue.

"I think the normal method is to add the runes while forming a bridge between the already existing and soon to be added runes. Like slowly building up a picture until it was finished."

"You bend the metal to your will and engrave it throughout." Solvi corrected. "Altering its magical structure as you add the runes to bring forth the abilities you seek."

"My method is a bit more... like an array." Eldrian struggled to find the words. "You see, instead of altering the metal as I work, I try to envision the end goal and think of a combination of runes that would bring it forth.

"My knowledge of runes is still lacking, so I subconsciously often rely on enchantment... which I was told was how I alter the magical structure." Shaking his head and getting back on topic, Eldrian continued, "In any case, I confine each ability into a circuit.

"You can think of a circuit as a proto of an array. And the larger circuit, or circle, enveloping everything as the formation... Again, I have no idea how those things work. But I think the concept is similar."

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