Chapter 686 Intermission: Keeping Up With Eldrian

The news had finally reached them and now Eldrian's shift in focus made sense. For the past few days, Eldrian had stopped focusing solely on new tests, instead, he started making pieces of a larger construction.

Myropsis had decided not to ask him why, assuming that he might simply want to sharpen his craft. After all, they had very little experience with forming metal and even less with carving runes onto them. Working with magic metals however made both these jobs far easier, at least this was true once they had mastered the required spells.

Myropsis still could not understand how Eldrian had learned them in just a few minutes. The more complex ones required to mold Rank 2 materials took him some more time, but the spells for Rank 1 materials had come so easy she had almost not believed it. All she could do was say, 'That's Eldrian for you...'

Then there was another 'that Eldrian for you' fact, Eldrian's method of adding these runes was just abnormal. He called his completed carvings 'circuits' but Myropsis didn't quite understand why. Eldrian had once tried to explain to her that it was like a river, that mana would flow from one part to the next. That had made more sense but she still did not understand the point. As long as you consciously activated them in order upon completion then the mana would flow as required.

She understood that he saw these circuits as mini-arrays or formations even. However, that still did not help her understand why. The reason arrays had their rilpai (paths) was because arrays generally covered too large an area and forming the mental image of their completed state was simply too difficult. Thus, accidentally activating the protii (nodes) in the wrong order was too high a possibility.

Regardless, she had taken to following his method. After all, thus far Eldrian's instincts in these things had always proven to be right. While the results weren't always predictable, something new always came from it.

On another note, Myropsis was now able to manipulate all spells below Tier 5 to some degree. Tier 0 spells she could even have danced in a similar manner to Eldrian. She had also succeeded with taking control of mageia-formed runes. A few more months and she felt she should be able to take control of even Tier 5 and 6 spells.

Even so, she did not think that would make her equal to or stronger than Eldrian. His control seems so natural-- like the spells were simply following his thoughts. For her, it was a conscious struggle, with training to control Tier 4 spells often leaving her covered in sweat after just a few minutes.

"We're starting on a second memorial artifact." Eldrian said as if this was a normal jump to go to after hearing that they had repulsed the orcs. The normal reaction would have been to jump in joy, to take a deep breath of relief, or to pray to the gods in thanks.

Eldrian instead focused entirely on the lives that had been lost, it seems that the fact that he could not save them weighed on them. Seeing his state Myrospis recalled the events of Diades and suspected that Eldrian was also recalling it.

"You knew?" Myropsis asked, eyeing Eldrian curiously.

"I saw on my map the orcs attacking and followed the events. The fight actually ended a few days ago already."

'As I thought, right when he switched from temporary to permanent runes on ideas he had already confirmed.' Myropsis did not share her thoughts, instead she asked how she could help.

"I've made the more complex designs already. I need some help forming the leaves and memory beads, they can follow the same design as the first. I'll be focusing on the flowers." His reply came so casually that Myropsis almost missed his usages of a plural.

"Flowers?" She tilted her head while containing the stir in her heart, plural meant two Mov Flowers. Two of those strange artifact realms that he talked so often about. Was that even possible?

"Yeah, I plan to finish them by tonight. I'll be working through the night, I want it done by tomorrow."

Myropsis wanted to ask why, why he was in such a rush. She did not. His tone was heavy, filled with sadness. Asking him would only hurt more.

"How many do you need?"

"I'm thinking of using the flowers representing life and death, I want to merge the two. To showcase that death is part of life, something we can't escape. But at the same time that life is still beautiful and worth celebrating. Please design the leaves to represent this."

'That's not an answer!' Myropsis wanted to shout but kept to herself and instead wracked her brain on just how leaves were supposed to tell you all that. Recalling the two flowers, the Mortem Chrysanthemum and Vita Daffodil she couldn't imagine the two merging. The flowers could simply be placed next to one another, but the stem and leaves. Just how was she supposed to make that fit?

With such thoughts, she tried to think of something, experimenting with some cheap celestial ore she threw it in the fire and molded it with the appropriate spell for the metal. Forming the basic forms of the two flowers from roots to bloom.

'Perhaps I shall have the daffodil- No, I need to merge them.' She quickly discarded the idea to have one form the base and let the other grow from there. That was not merging, that was simply superposing.

'Life and death is a constant struggle.' A daffodil had roots of a bulb while a chrysanthemum had roots that spread. 'Perhaps... From there I will have the roots of the chrysanthemum break from the bulb, as if death is ripping through life. As it has done for all of us...'

The thought brought her much sadness. She had lost many friends in Kynigo.

Pushing past the pain, Myropsis confirmed first what Eldrian had already done. It seemed that the stem would be quite plain as this was where most of the important 'circuits' were. The leaves were basically just decorations.

Even knowing that she was doing what might be considered busy work, Myropsis did not complain. She understood that, unlike Eldrian, she couldn't form a rune because she wanted. His unnatural connection with mana and magic allowed him to force the issue into a process similar to enhancement- even though he had not once learned enhancement or tried to use it properly.

'Perhaps I should mention this to him. If I recall he hasn't actively tried to use enhancement yet?'

Regardless, because she couldn't rely on such unnatural happenings she was happy to practice on 'busy work'. While the family smith had complained at the start, he soon ended up stunned as he watched Eldrian basically force the issue onto everything he touched.

Even the parts that made up the stem were made in a similar fashion, and using [Mana Inspection] would allow one to see the effects of Eldrain's forcing. Though the complex network of mana was such that not even their family smith could understand it. This quickly caused him to start revering Eldrian as a god of smithing.

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