novelODS Chapter 26 Learning Enchanting
Chapter 26 Learning Enchanting
Back home, Chen Mo placed the four miniature soul stones on the table and sat beside them for a long time.
His gaze darted back and forth between the soulstone and the enchanted dagger.
Stamina Absorption isn't the rarest enchantment, but it's very useful.
Especially for someone wielding a sword to cut people—the longer you cut, the stronger you become.
On the battlefield, that's the difference between being alive and being dead.
It's a valuable weapon.
If you take it to the market, you can get at least a few hundred gold coins.
But Chen Mo never considered selling it.
His gaze fell on Froki's enchanting notebook.
The notebook's cover was made of worn, dark brown leather, with curled edges and yellowed pages.
He took it out of his pocket and turned to the first page.
What comes into view is a densely packed handwritten font, the handwriting is messy but neat, and the ink has faded somewhat.
"Froki's Enchantment Notes - A record of my learning of enchanting magic."
"4E 195, the tenth day of the Morning Star Moon. Today I finally saved up enough money to buy a miniature soulstone. This is the most expensive thing I've ever bought in my life. One stone, sixty-five gold coins. Ten times more expensive than gold of the same weight. Froki, if you don't learn enchanting, you can expect to starve."
Chen Mo smiled and continued flipping through the pages.
"4E 195, the fifteenth day of the Morning Star Moon. My first attempt at enchanting. The target was an iron dagger, with the enchantment effect of fire damage. According to the book, I first fixed the soulstone to the enchanting table, guided the soul power to flow out, and used my willpower to shape it into patterns, engraving them onto the weapon. It sounds simple. The moment the soul power flowed from my fingertips, I completely lost control. It was like an eel, slippery and unpredictable, darting around everywhere. I tried desperately to press it onto the dagger, but it just wouldn't obey. In the end, the soulstone shattered, leaving only a crooked, worm-like mark on the dagger. The enchantment failed. Sixty-five gold coins, gone."
Chen Mo turned to the next page.
"4E 195, the third day of the Rain Hand Month. Another attempt. I bought another miniature soulstone. Sixty gold coins. This time I learned my lesson and didn't use the soulstone first, but drew patterns on paper with ordinary ink. I drew for three whole days, wasting dozens of sheets of paper. Finally, I was able to draw the patterns neatly. But the patterns on paper and the real soul patterns are two different things. Soul patterns are alive; they move, they breathe, they change. You have to catch them in the process of their change and fix them to the weapon. It's like—like catching a bolt of lightning and putting it in a bottle."
"4E 195, the seventh day of the Rain Hand Moon. The second enchantment, still a failure. When the soul power flowed from my fingertips, I saw patterns. Very blurry, like looking at something through frosted glass. I could only see the general shape, not the details. I drew those blurry patterns on the dagger from memory, but I'm sure I drew them wrong in some places. The enchantment was successful—at least the dagger lit up and had a fire effect—but the effect was poor. Only a small part of the blade heated up, and it didn't even leave a scorch mark when it hit wood. The book says that this kind of enchantment has very low 'energy efficiency,' with most of the soul power wasted during the engraving process. Sixty gold coins, bought a dagger that can heat up."
Chen Mo flipped through the pages one by one, finding the notes increasingly interesting.
Froki wasn't a genius; he was an ordinary person, someone who slowly figured things out through sheer hard work and trial and error.
He recorded the details of every failure and the "tips" he discovered in each attempt—though those tips might be insignificant in the eyes of a true enchanting master.
For example, he discovered that soaking the weapon in salt water overnight before enchanting it made the metal more susceptible to absorbing soul patterns.
For example, he discovered that when channeling soul power, it was more stable to use the left hand than the right—because the magic channel in the left hand is closer to the heart.
For example, he found that the energy release speed of the miniature soulstone was too fast for beginners to keep up with, so it was best to use a small spell to "block" half of the soulstone's outlet to slow down the flow of energy.
These tips may not all be correct, but they were obtained by Froki with real money.
The handwriting on the later pages of the notebook became messy, as if it had been written in a hurry.
"4E 198, the twentieth day of the middle month. I've heard there's an ancient runic array in the Wolf Skull Cave, possibly left by the Nord ancestors. If I can figure out its principles, it might allow me to break through my enchanting bottleneck. I'll set off tomorrow."
The last page has only half a line of text.
"I've found the cave. It's more complex than I imagined. There seems to be more than just Nord artifacts inside—it's something older and darker. But I'm starting to get a clue. Give me a little more time, and I'll be able to—"
Then there is nothing.
Chen Mo closed his notebook and remained silent for a long time.
Froki is probably the corpse surrounded by skeletons in the cave, or some forgotten skeleton in a corner.
But what ancient rune sequences are there in the wolf skull cave?
Chen Mo scratched his head.
He and Benjamin left in a hurry and didn't have time to properly explore the cave.
It seems that it might be necessary to go to Wolf Skull again next time.
Sigh, Chen Mo looked at the enchanting notes in his hand.
I couldn't help but sigh.
An ordinary person, in order to learn a skill, spent all his savings, went to a dangerous place to look for some ancient runes, and then died there, with no one even to collect his body.
But his notes survived.
His failures, his trials and errors, and his little tricks have all been preserved.
Chen Mo placed the notebook on the table, his gaze falling once again on the enchanted dagger.
He gritted his teeth.
"Never mind," he said softly, "You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub."
He picked up the dagger and went to the small room on the second floor.
The enchanting table was still there, its stone surface engraved with intricate patterns, exactly the same as when he first saw it.
He placed the dagger on the table.
Then he closed his eyes and recalled what was written in Froki's notes—guiding the power of the soul, feeling the patterns, and engraving them onto the weapon.
But what he's going to do isn't enchanting.
What he needs to do is something more basic and more primitive.
broken.
Place an enchanted weapon on the enchanting table, guide the power of your soul to impact its original patterns, allowing the patterns to "manifest" as they break, and then record them with your own consciousness.
This is the most traditional way to learn enchanting—buying the recipe with money.
An enchanted weapon is a walking recipe book, and the Broken is the way to read that recipe book.
Of course, this meant he had to destroy the dagger.
Chen Mo took a deep breath and placed his hand on the dagger.