Chapter 118

The spear she had passed to me was an interesting artifact, nothing more than a simple ruin at the first glance. Its wooden handle was broken halfway, turning the long weapon into something below two feet in length, the cracks of its head filled with rust even after all the dirt was cleaned carefully. The delicate decorations that were supposed to cover both the handle and head were ruined during the time it had spent underground, dust and dirt seeped deep into its texture so deep that it was impossible to clean it without ruining what was left of it.

Altogether, it was an easy tool to dismiss for anyone without magical sensitivity.

It wasn’t that the enchantments that were embedded on the nature of the spear were in any better condition than its outward appearance. The magical matrix that was supposed to be in one cohesive structure on the core to power its magical functions had fragmented into many smaller pieces, yet, it was as beautiful as a shattered diamond shining under the sunlight, creating rainbows.

The individual pieces of enchantments weren’t as fiddly as I first imagined. Oeyne could easily etch something more complicated, for example, but the sheer number of different parts and how they layered over each other was the real challenge. It was like a mathematical problem that only used first and second-order equations rather than more difficult equations, but with thousands of them at the same time.

And even from the aged fragments, I could see that the spear was created by multiple people, likely through a complicated ritual. Another interesting detail about its creation.

Ultimately, as I examined it, likening it to a diamond made sense. Like a diamond, the function of the main enchantment was deceptively simple despite its impressive potential. I couldn’t exactly identify what it was supposed to store. I had my suspicions, of course, but nothing I could conclusively prove before working on it with Oeyne.

Their desire to use Oeyne to repair it became clear, however. Clearly, the enchantments were not added later to the spear, but forged into its core during the crafting process, a trick that Oeyne was famous for. Interestingly, its nature reminded me of the designs we had created for my weapons —but much more matured than our quick drafts— which were designed for durability and maximum capacity over simple surface enchantments.

“How is it?” Delia asked, pulling me out of my musings. Luckily, the personality I was selling to her was a genius yet socially inept expert, making my focused examination an acceptable part of my disguise. “Do you think you can repair it?”

“Oh, definitely, but it’ll take a lot of time,” I said even as I summoned a piece of paper. “The first problem is the alignment of the fragments...” I started, quickly bursting into a complicated babble of magical terms that I deliberately made even more impenetrable by referring to a bunch of complicated magical theories and other stuff.

“Wow, really,” she exclaimed, looking appropriately fascinated at my explanation, even as she slid closer, brushing her leg against mine. “You’re such a genius? Can you repair it singlehandedly?” she asked.

“P-probably,” I suddenly stammered evasively. “It’s a bit tricky to handle the more menial parts,” I clarified hurriedly. “I’m more involved in the magical aspects and the conceptual design. The actual forging is a more pedestrian part of it, not really my area of interest,” I quickly added. That babble was not pointless. I was essentially telling her that I was overly proud of my own work despite my limited forging skills, and I was feeling self-conscious about that part, using bluster to suppress that sense of inferiority.

Essentially, I was selling the idea that my pride was another great lever to be used to manipulate me against both the headmistress and Oeyne, along with my lust.

“You’re amazing,” Delia said passionately, losing no time before grabbing the exact point of weakness I had presented to her. “I don’t know how many experts we have talked about it, and you’re the only one that could understand its nature in such detail in such a short time,” she said, giving me a pointless compliment. Because I was absolutely sure that she lacked the capability to understand even a tenth of my explanation even if I hadn’t been trying to make it intentionally impenetrable.

“It’s my honor to serve the royal family,” I said, pushing my chest proudly.

“So, how much time do you need to finish repairing the spear.”

“A few days, a week at most,” I started, and her eyes shone with shocked excitement. She suppressed that quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid my notice. “That should be enough to finish the preliminary analysis phase, so that I could start designing the repair procedure. Optimistically, we should be able to start reforging the spear in less than a month.”Điscover new chapters at novelhall.com

“A month,” she murmured, unable to hide the panic in her eyes. I was happy to take a note of it, because it meant that they actually needed the spear for something, and they needed that relatively urgently.

“Yes, a month, unless there’s something unexpected of course,” I added, with a matter-of-fact tone that was very natural.

“Isn’t there a way to quicken the process, maybe using the research we previously conducted on the spear,” she questioned.

This time, I didn’t need to fake the derisive snort I let out. “Yeah, I read those notes, they are not worthy to be used as kindling. I don’t know who was responsible for those, but I would be surprised if they can actually enchant something more complicated than a light crystal.” Not that I needed to work much to break their confidence to their own experts, after all, if they had any hope of actually repairing the spear with their own skill, they wouldn’t have bothered to arrange it with Oeyne in such a complicated manner.

“Is there really no way to make it shorter?” she murmured, her eyes widened in a way that enhanced her vulnerability, her lower lip trembling just the correct amount, creating a paradoxical combination of pitiful and sexy, enough to make a lesser man fall in love at that instant.

“Well, maybe...” I murmured, as I tried to decide the best way to leverage their need.

Precision: 35 Perception: 37

Agility: 35 Manipulation: 40

Speed: 34 Intelligence: 44

Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46

HP: 5370 / 5370 Mana: 6600 / 6600 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Advanced Craft [50/50]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 21/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]