Of the various things inside, Daniel had been most interested in the enchanting material. There had been some more mundane, non-magically charged wood and stone as well that the Craftsmen were no doubt thrilled for, but it was the stuff he could enchant with that he valued.
It is kind of odd that I can use normal bone but not stuff like iron for enchanting, Daniel reflected as he checked the materials he’d been allotted. After the meeting with Zolyra, Soraso had given the enchanting materials a ten-way split. Four for Aurus’ use, four for the other Artificers in the region, and two for Daniel as a finder’s fee. It wasn’t quite as much as the bounty of wolf material, even when considering the cut Aurus had taken from that, but he’d still gotten dozens of bars or planks of processed magical material.
As for what specifically he received? Five different materials in total, three types of wood and two of metal. Analyze Material could only work on one, meaning the rest were higher level. Most were level 3, though the wood with an almost transparent quality to it was level 4. It was also the most precious of the bunch, which made sense. He’d get analysis on the rest as part of the deal but had already seen the details of the red wood.
Emberwreath Wood (Magical, Element: Fire, Level: 2)
A sample of magically charged wood suitable for Enchanting. When used with appropriate Formulae, this Material can add bonus Damage: Fire or Damage Resistance: Fire. Additional bonus effects may manifest when used with specific formulae.
It was, well, a little underwhelming considering Daniel could slap the fire affix on any enchantment, though the level 2 material he’d acquired still had value in that it gave bonus fire damage no matter what he did with it. Or fire resistance if he used it with armor or shields, though neither the ruins nor Threst had many fire creatures to worry about save for the odd ludegrund.
Its best use would be for the slugs of his ammunition, while the stockpile of wolf bone could be used to keep making jackets. Combining lightning and fire damage would only make his attacks better, only the newly acquired Elemental Onslaught power threw a wrench in that plan. Either way, the different variations of ammunition he could make were beginning to grow unwieldy.
Good thing high intelligence helps me keep track of it, I’d probably need a spreadsheet or something otherwise. And that’s not counting whatever the other stuff does. One thing is for sure, Daniel thought as he stood in front of where Padri’s letter had asked him to go the next day. He’s not getting any of it.
…
The somewhat short letter Sigron had delivered what felt like ages ago boiled down to a few things. Padri had had some kind of breakthrough but had also hit a setback at the same time, and he was open to further discussion on the matter. The actual text didn’t put it in many more words.
The Craftsman had made improving the gliders of Threst seem like an effort critical to the region’s defense. That had been the reason, well, one of the reasons Daniel had shared the patchwork affix with the Craftsman. Losing a monopoly on it would hurt his chances of making money based solely on the affix, but then again if he cared about that he would have made dozens of lightning wings instead of bags of holding and sold them as Arpan had suggested months ago.
No, money wasn’t a huge concern for him. It wasn’t clear how long economy as a concept would continue functioning before everything reverted to a Thormundz-like state of rationing. It wasn’t like the coinage could be used for enchanting either. Plus, if Padri could somehow make him a fighter jet someday it would be completely worth it.
That the Craftsman’s workshop was just a large shed attached to a house cast doubts on that future, but Daniel decided to be optimistic. They were kind of close to the edge of Aurus, maybe there was a hidden underground hanger. One could hope.
He was about to knock on the door when a square panel beside the door caught his eye. His finger almost reflexively reached out to push it, but he felt the barest trace of magic through his seventh sense and identified it first.
Pressure Plate (Trap, Variant: Alarm, Domain: Enchantment, Quality: Standard, Level: 1)
A Crafted item that provokes a Magical response when force is applied to the surface. This specific item will give a mental alert to the one who crafted it so long as they are within a short radius.
Creative, Daniel thought. Though I’m definitely paranoid about the inside of his house now. Also, too bad this is a Craftsman formulae, we could use these in the ruins. It didn’t take long for the Craftsman to appear. Padri opened the door and only gave him a mild look of surprise with a raised eyebrow.
“You. Identified the alarm? I see. Thank you for coming.”
“Yeah, sorry I was, oh ok.” Daniel didn’t have time for greetings as Padri turned, gesturing to him to follow. “You said you had a breakthrough?”
“Better to explain it once I can demonstrate.” It wasn’t lost on Daniel that from the front door of Padri’s house, there was a straight shot to where the shed was down a hallway. He’d caught a brief glance of the rest of the household, and from the look of things the only point of intersection between work and home was the front landing. It might be a healthy way to keep things separate, but the Craftsman was a little thinner than the last time Daniel had seen him. It had only been a couple of weeks.
“Is everything alright? I know you lost your job.”
“I have what I need.” Padri reached for an inconspicuous part of the wall halfway down the corridor and pressed to reveal a hidden lever, which he then pulled the rest of the way out, rotated, and replaced.
It reminded Daniel of Arpan’s trapped hallway, although it seemed more mechanical to him than magical, whatever it was. “That didn’t look like a Builder trick”
“No power behind it, but it approximates one. There are reasons I chose not to evolve my class. Well, until recently.” There were no other hidden levers on the way to the door, though Daniel couldn’t be sure there weren’t pressure plates they’d stepped on as they traveled. He was trying to hold back questions on what was in the walls since Padri was so focused on whatever was in the workshop. Even so, the use of complicated mechanisms was a surprise. He hadn’t encountered anything as intricate as a watch, for example, but Aurus did make use of waterwheels at the Shattered Falls so it wasn’t a completely foreign concept. Daniel supposed magic was just easier to use in most cases.
The inside of the workshop made that clear. More than what immediately drew Daniel’s eye was within but it was hard not to focus on the item floating above the central workbench. “What is that?” His voice sounded louder than normal and it took him a moment to remember Padri had a power that could enchant a workspace.
Padri closed the door and locked it, saying, “Identify it, easier to start that way. You have my permission to view its full effects.”
Daniel passed a skeptical look from the door to the center of the room. The object was, by simple description, a wooden puzzle cube. That neglected to mention the fact that each side was as long as his forearm, and it looked like it could either destroy the city or solve world hunger depending on how it was solved. A few magical runes were carved in places, at least one on each major piece that intricately fit with each other.
It made no sense. Daniel had given Padri a few materials prepped with the patchwork affix for his testing, but none of them had been made of wood. Also, what the hell was this?
Modular Core (Core, Variant: Padri Cutter, Domain: Enchantment, Quality: Extreme, Level: 3)
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An Engineered and Enchanted construction core housing Blueprint: Padri Cutter. A modular core allows for retroactive revision of the construction, although the core is still constrained by its initial Mass Limit.
Added affixes:
- Patchwork
Special Interaction: Use of Affix: Patchwork in this Modular Core enables the addition of other engineered and/or enchanted Items to the main construction up to the level of the core. The amount of mass each item contributes to the mass limit scales exponentially with level, and items of a level above the core cannot be added.
There was no Moment of Clarity triggered as Daniel looked at his phone, he just stared at it for a full minute as he processed the information. Before saying anything he identified Padri, who had clearly anticipated that.
Padri Tiltfeather - (Avianoid, Engineer - 3)
“Engineer?” Daniel asked a little breathlessly. That was a fucking option?
“Indeed. An unexpected change when I pushed for level 3. I am not certain if it is due to the nature of my work or the world, but it is both helpful and problematic.” Padri clicked his beak and walked over to one of the walls where wood carved in the shape of swept wings were hung. Each had a semi-circular depression on the side. “Help me with this. You should witness the final construction before we discuss.”
Daniel grabbed a section that mirrored Padri’s and watched as the Craftsman, no, the Engineer held up his section with a grimace. “Level disparity to strength,” he said with a strained voice. “Inconvenient, but worth the level.”
“Hey I get it, strength’s my lowest attribute too.” Well, tied with charisma. Can’t believe they’re still at 21. Saying that, Daniel had no issue holding up the piece with two hands. As the depression neared the puzzle box there was a faint magnetic-like attraction that took over and it set into place. He identified the core again out of curiosity but nothing had changed in its description, and the wings themselves were mundane.
The final product looked like a scaled down version of a Bekali glider, about three meters across and two long. You could ride on it but there wasn’t much room to fight, and that was if it could support that much weight. “This is the prototype,” Padri said with some pride. “I finished it the day I sent you that letter. Since then I have split my time between attempts to replicate the core and experiment with its functionality.” He turned to look straight at Daniel. “Do you understand how revolutionary this is?”
“Because of your class, right?” Daniel asked, still fixated on that. “I know people were getting some new ones.”
“No.” There was a hint of frustration in Padri’s voice that surprised him. “That is the issue. I would have preferred this to have been possible with the standard Craftsman class. This core, in addition to the affix you discovered, will change how anything magical that is larger than a sword is made. Or it would if it were not chained to this damned class!”
“Oh. You’re thinking about making this tech mainstream?”
Padri’s brows furrowed for a moment before he nodded. “Water metaphor. Yes. Currently, if one desires modifications to an existing Bekali platform they will need a new platform. This considerably simpler device only capable of levitating itself is already superior in that regard.”
“Is it that novel though? Let me show you something.” Daniel slowly pulled out his blast bow and laid it on the table in a way that couldn’t be construed as hostile. Interest sparkled in Padri’s eyes as he walked closer to it.
“You finished it. May I?” Daniel took a step back and gave a thumbs up, confident that the Engineer couldn’t do anything dangerous with the weapon unloaded. It wasn’t as if he had a reason to worry as Padri made a careful approach, putting on his spectacles as he did so. He caught a strong sense of magic from them, suggesting that the avianoid was still able to bind them as a Focus in his new class.
After investigating the slide mechanism, trigger, and point where the barrel met the receiver, Padri placed it back down. “Interesting design. A ranged weapon, clearly, using some nonstandard form of propulsion. Another new formulae?”
“Yes, and no. I have an ammunition type that explodes when exposed to lightning, or another element if I give it that affix,” Daniel explained. “The box in the center, the receiver, is like a blast chamber. I can load a container of ammunition on the bottom, which isn’t a problem since the rest of the ammunition is insulated while a round is loaded. Basically, I make an explosion with level 1 ammunition molded behind level 2 ammunition that doesn’t explode, and that gets fired out the front.”
“Ingenious, considering there is no parallel to this I am aware of.” Padri took the weapon back and held it as if to fire, playing with the slide again. “If you designed the loading case as I would…” he murmured, frowning. “Problematic.”
“What is?”
“The explosion. I would have to see a demonstration to know for certain, but doubtlessly you see the issues in removing this part of the design.”
“You mean make it an automatic?” Daniel laughed, thinking of Khare. “I can barely make enough ammunition as it is.”
“Increasing rate of fire seems the first obvious improvement to make from a design perspective. If supply is an issue, scale up. The effect your formulae produces is hardly unique, even if it itself is in its entirety. Discover a comparable Smith or Craftsman item that can approximate the effect and you will increase your production a hundredfold. If we could find an item that nondestructively generates propulsion that would solve the issue entirely and negate your need to enchant individual propellant per round. Though I imagine that would result in lower force relative to level.” Padri handed the weapon back to the Artificer. “I digress. Fascinating, but I am too taxed by my project to offer more than passing advice.”
“Alright.” Daniel would have pressed Padri on how likely it was such an item existed considering he might still be a pariah among Craftsmen as a whole, but the Engineer’s hyperfocus had shifted back and he sensed he wouldn’t have luck changing that. “My real question was that my blast bow uses a modular design too. I have a splitting form of my ammunition that produces an area attack, and I take off the barrel for that.”
“That process, in itself, is not new,” Padri answered dismissively. “You are of course familiar with the standard practice of Artificers enchanting the blades or cutting edges of weapons and allowing Craftsmen or Smiths to finish the product. Crafted material can be less durable than enchanted items, especially in the case of a Knight abusing the Focus-Material anomaly. Retroactive changes to single or multi-crafter works are not new. Change in functionality is, at least in terms of collaborative effort.” He nodded to the boots Daniel was wearing. “Any meaningful change made to those would require both of us, specifically, to work on them. Alone, neither of us could do anything. At that point a new item might as well be made. This?” He removed a wing from the core and leaned it against the table. “You could enchant a copy of this wing, add an effect, and as long as it does not exceed the core’s limits it can be added. You or any other Artificer, and anyone could attach it to the core.”
“Oh.” Breakthrough and setback. Now Daniel fully understood what Padri had meant. “Could you make another core using my affix and something a Craftsman has worked on? Make it a crafted-enchanted-engineered product.”
“Perhaps, it is unclear. The wood used was a product of the Craftsman powers I retained upon my evolution. I still have the ability to craft items such as the doorbell, but it did not count as a contribution in this case.” A talon poked the half of the core that was now exposed and Daniel could see the wood shifted from Padri’s touch. “Perhaps if a modification is added, or it may require a third party. Still I am, afraid,” he confessed after a brief pause. “If this cannot be extended beyond the grasp of rare classes, which I fear mine to be, it will severely limit the good this discovery can do.”
“The new Collapse did unlock a bunch, maybe people just need to know it’s an option,” Daniel said reassuringly, though he was harsher in his mind. Like me, Spoke. You can give Hunter restricted races but couldn’t throw me a restricted class when I got here? It was painfully clear that it was too late for him to change things, and that wasn’t the point of why he was here. Actually, “Why did you ask for me? I’m not exactly popular with the Craftsmen if that’s what you need.”
“I would like to continue our partnership,” Padri explained, like it was obvious. “You are the unique source of Patchwork and while I would strongly urge you preserve that affix in a form others can learn from should you perish on a hunt, I won’t ask you to share it if you are unwilling. As you have also shown an ability to generate alarmingly useful magical concepts, I also wanted to ask if you’d discovered anything new since we’d last met.”
“Kind of?” Padri listened as he listed the few he’d gotten since leaving Aurus. It didn’t seem like a lot as he listed them out, only four formulae really. It sucked that the projections didn’t give him anything, but it would be a fair trade if their encounters dropped enchanting material instead. There was clear disinterest in the Engineer’s eyes at first until he mentioned a formulae that he hadn’t found a good use for yet.
“Pathfinder? Repeat that description for me again, please.”
Daniel pulled out his phone. “Let me just read what the Encyclopedia says.”
Pathfinder (Formulae: Enchanting, Item, Domain: Knowledge/Enchanting, Quality: Standard, Level: -)
This item allows the wielder to locate north, the nearest Settlement, or a location designated by the user while the item is present. Creation of this item requires no special materials or components.
You’d think the Engineer was exaggerating his response to what was basically a compass. The map on Daniel’s phone and the relatively open landscape of Threst made it unnecessary. Even in the ruins now since he had a map of that, though making one or two for his team that were bound to a room with a claimed rift might be useful in a worst-case scenario.
Daniel had been unimpressed. Padri, though? “Give me that formulae.” There was no hesitation, or social mindfulness, to his request. His eyes were wide, mind already working on whatever idea he was…
The core caught his eye. “There’s no way it would work like that.”
“Only one way to find out.”