Zephyr started working on the items and very quickly lost himself in the work. He was fully immersed in what he was doing. He didn't even realize how much he missed this. It was something he did basically every day for the last eight years.
Mistress Alyra had left him to his work, thankfully without any reproval. He'd been unnecessarily cheeky with her, again to his surprise. Over and over again, he kept doing this. Maybe this went to show how much of himself he didn't know.
He overlaid an activation rune between two stabilization runes, carefully inscribing with precise and steady mana flow from the inscription pen. He pressed carefully to keep the level of output steady.
'In some ways, this is actually like processing a spell model, the focus and steady flow,' he thought.
'Should I also try infusing my own mana into this?'
"Whoa—" He caught himself quickly, almost breaking the flow as he tried to infuse his own mana into the rune.
'That was way too close, and this is my test too. I shouldn't be experimenting here.' He breathed out slowly, locking in.
He continued working. At this point, he could do most things on autopilot, so as he worked, his mind wandered again. He thought back to the spellcasting class and his extremely slow processing. Even just now, there was a clear delay between his intention and the execution in trying to infuse his mana into inscribing. Everything just took an unnecessarily longer time to work.
'Man, I hope it gets better at tier two... At least then, I'd have two mana nodes to work with.' He had just finished the first item, the bracer. He even replaced some unnecessary runes, added some where there should have been, for better flow. Basically, he'd reworked the whole thing, not just finished it up, and all under an hour. Light work.
He picked up the next item, a metal whip. Now this was harder to work with. The whip itself was narrow and round, so it required a high level of precision.
He started to work on it, focusing as he carefully inscribed.
He had to say though, his level of dexterity had increased after that 'nanite symbiosis' he went through. Same with his mental acuity. He thought faster and just felt overall sharper than his previous self.
'Maybe it's related to why I'm acting out these days?'
By the way, he hadn't even checked his stats for a while. He mentally prodded Aegis, willing his intention to bring up his stats.
Attributes:
Strength 3.5 (+0.5)
Speed 3
Agility 4.5 (+0.5)
Endurance 4
Acuity 5
Dexterity 4
Healing 10
---
Perks:
Nano-Resilience – Increased resilience to toxins, diseases and foreign substances.
Regenerative Burst – Rapid healing with a surge of nanites over a short period of time.
Enhanced Metabolism – Improved energy utilisation.
Pain Suppression – Reduces perception of pain, allowing continued function despite injuries.
Memory Enhancement – Improved memory capability, leading to better information storage and recall.
'Oh? It seems Strength and Agility increased by 0.5 each.'
He couldn't think of what could've increased them so fast though. He sent a thought to Aegis in inquiry.
Host's nanites are slowly getting acclimated to your now mana-suffused body, increasing your total output. You taxed your strength and agility recently, hence the increase. Other stats also increased slightly but not by the minimum amount of 0.5, hence they are not displayed.
'Alright.'
... There are a few points of suggestion for the host to take note of in regards to mana nodes. Should I make them known?
'Huh? Yes, of course.' Zephyr almost lost control of his work again.
Some parts of this require higher user privileges but I'll try to explain with the minimum I can.
In regards to host's mana nodes, from the knowledge gained from classes earlier today, it's safe to say I have a method that might help in easing the load on your mana nodes.
"Oh?!" Zephyr slipped, making a mistake and actually ruining the work, much to his dismay.
'Damn! I actually went and failed. After all that talk too.'
"Your mind was elsewhere the whole time." He heard Mistress Alyra from the end of the staircase.
She just watched him with a ticked-off look, walking to collect her whip. She looked it over, frowning slightly.
"I'm sorry for ruining your item," Zephyr was actually very distressed. This was a mistake beneath him. He had just lost focus way too much, his mind was totally on what Aegis had said.
"I can compensate you for it," he said.
She looked him over, about to dismiss his statement, then she tilted her head, asking,
"Do you kn—"
"You likely don't anyways."
"This is worth a lot more than you can afford, unless you decide to use your mana crystal to pay... But I'd be cheating you then," she sighed, waving her hand.
"Forget it, I don't use this anyways."
Zephyr was still not comfortable with letting it go like that. She saw this and offered, "Well, if you're still bothered about it, how about I deduct it from what I would have paid you instead."
"So, now you'll be working with me without pay."
Zephyr was confused. "Huh, you were gonna pay me? And I still passed the test?"
"The test was basically useless after I watched you finish the first item." She picked up the bracer, examining it with a nod of respect.
"And of course I'd have paid you. You're underplaying your skill level way too much. I don't think I can teach you anything much. Rather, I'd like to learn some things from you instead."
Zephyr thought about it for a while, then accepted eventually. He at least could feel better this way.
"Great. There's not much to do right now, so I'd like to ask you some questions about this," she raised the bracer up.
They started talking about runes, techniques, and his reasons for doing some things a certain way, using the bracer as a reference. They continued until past eight.
"I think I should release you now," she said, glancing at the clock.
Zephyr didn't really mind. It was nice to talk about runes with someone that understood what he was talking about, although he was starting to get hungry, and his mind had occasionally drifted back to what Aegis said earlier.
"Yeah. This was great though. Same time tomorrow?"
"Yes." She nodded, packing up her box as Zephyr tidied his tools, putting them in his bag and stood up.
She just waved him goodbye and he saw himself out.
Their conversation had made him drop his guard. It made it seem like a house visit instead. Stepping out, it settled in that he had just been discussing with a Ryvelin so casually.
'Phew, at least she's not stuck up.'
More importantly though,
'Aegis, what were you talking about earlier?'