"Yeah, we're trying to avoid getting involved with nobles." Chronos said.
The other three nodded in agreement.
"Hehehe, no matter how much you try to avoid them you're going to be involved with the nobles. You've done too much in this war and discovering the Beklaedning clan's hidden bloodline is going to draw even more attention. I suggest you prepare yourselves while you can." Magnus smirked at them.
As they began to dread the future, they heard someone stomping towards them from outside.
Step, stomp, step, stomp, step, stomp! Bang!
The door flew open as an old man with a leg made of metal stomped inside.
"Which one of you brats wants to learn enchanting?" He growled.
"Ah, old man Tobias. Chronos here wants to learn how to enchant. Do you mind teaching him?" Magnus greeted the old man.
Old Tobias glared at Chronos looking him up and down before nodding.
"Alright, he at least seems like he'll take my lessons seriously. But first I want to know, why are you studying enchanting kid?" Old Tobias asked.
"My clan recently awakened our bloodline power, and I can't help wanting to learn how to use it better. I believe that enchanting will allow me to make full use of my bloodline power." Chronos answered straight forwardly.
Old Tobias glared at him.
"Are you learning for your clan or yourself?"
"Myself, my clan just benefits from my knowledge."
Old Tobias glared at him even harder. After several minutes he couldn't find any lie in Chronos's eyes.
"Good, learning for your clan isn't bad but learning for yourself is always better. Now come with me." With that statement old Tobias turned around and stomped back towards the airship.
"Sorry Magnus, looks like I can't show you around." Getting up he followed old Tobias back out into the storm.
"No worries, I'll have Gregory show me around. Now let's go meet the matron." Magnus walked out of the tree house following the bridge towards the center of the grove along with the others.
As he followed old Tobias Chronos was able to take a better look at him once they entered the ship.
The old man was short, barely reaching 5 feet and balding on top with hair on the sides of his head. He was covered in old scars but many of them didn't look like they were from combat. His left leg was missing and had been replaced with a leg made of metal and earlier he had seen that his left eye was covered in runes.
"The left leg and left eye are probably enchanted items or artifacts, and those scars might be from enchanting gone wrong? I'm looking forward to learning so much from him." Chronos thought.
Old Tobias took him down into the hold to an area that had been completely reinforced with metal. Opening a metal door, they walked into a room filled with tables and runes written on all manner of materials from cloth to metal to bone to something Chronos could only identify as ooze.
On the central table was a stylus, a compass, a hammer, and a number of lenses Chronos assumed were for inspecting runes.
Off to one side was a lattice made of rods and wires with a rack next to it. Above them were magic crystals filled with different elemental spirit powers waiting for a rune to be placed in.
"Now how much do you know about runes?" Old Tobias asked as he sat down in a spinning chair.
"Ooh, nice chair." Old Tobias glared at him to hurry up. "I know nothing. I've only seen an enchanting room in the merfolk camp and their methods are so different from ours that I couldn't make sense of anything." Chronos confessed.
"Good. That means I don't have to fix any wrong habits you have. Now sit down, it's going to take me a while to teach you everything."
Chronos sat down on the floor as there was no other chair.
"To start with, enchanting is actually a lot simpler than most people think. They see all of the equipment and the specialty gear needed for advanced enchanting and get the wrong idea.
However, the truth is that as long as you know the runes for a technique or spell then you can create an enchanted equipment that has the same effect as the technique or spell. All you have to do is carve the runes into the piece of gear with the right depth and in the right order."
"So, anybody can be an enchanter? All they have to do is know how to write a rune?" Chronos interrupted.
"Yes, but they'd be a very poor enchanter, now don't interrupt again. Where was I? Ah, yes, carving the runes is called rune enchanting and is the simplest form of enchanting there is. The bigger issue comes in the lack of knowledge concerning material durability.
Depending on the quality of the material used the enchantment will last a different amount of time as power drains from the material. Cloth material will only last a few hours, wood lasts days, bone lasts weeks, and metal can last for months or even years.
Naturally special materials like veyrite or concordite can have permanent enchantments placed on them but those materials can be hard to work with. And if the enchantment is not perfect or gets damaged there is a chance that it will run wild.
This slow draining of power is why enchanters need to reapply enchantments on a regular basis and why military enchanters exist.
The next big issue enchanters face is resonance. If the material you're working on is not compatible with the runes or power you are placing inside of it the rune will fail and the item might explode during testing."
He paused to take a breath after saying all of that, rubbing one of his scars. Chronos wondered if the many scars that covered his body and the reinforced room were the result of failed experiments.
If resonance mattered so much then he was going to face some major issues. The spatial element had very few materials that would resonate with it but maybe he could get around material limits like how he could make item bags without any knowledge by placing the space inside of another.
"The resonance can be confirmed through the simple method of charging it with power, but the item might explode if you do that. For new enchanters they usually rely on their master's knowledge and once they are skilled enough, start researching on their own. I'll provide you with my records for your work.
In addition to this enchanters will use a sigil compass to measure the curves, rune spacing, and harmony between the runes and the material before charging the enchantment. But it's not always accurate and accidents happen, especially with new or unusual materials." He held up the strange compass on the table to show what he meant.
"For more advanced rune arrangements we use an inscription lens to assist with the depth of the rune and in locating minute flaws in the runes and flow of power." He gestured at the set of lens' on the table.
"Next we need to discuss tolerance." Old Tobias continued, "Tolerance refers to the amount of power a material or rune can contain. A higher tier material can hold more power, but a skilled enchanter can apply better runes or a better arrangement of runes that would allow more power to flow through a weaker material.
The best example of this is a pair of cloth hand wraps. If you were to write runes on cloth wraps and activate them, they might not even last an hour. However, if I write the runes, I would be able to write a superior arrangement allowing the wraps to stay enchanted for weeks. Well beyond the natural limits of the material.
If I was to use memory imprinting, which is one of the most advanced forms of enchanting, there is a chance I could turn them into a pair of artifacts. Do you understand everything so far?" He said with a glimmer in his eyes.
"I think so."
"Repeat what I said in your own words." Old Tobias demanded.
"To enchant an item, you must write the runes in the correct order and depth on a material suitable for them. Once you are satisfied with the arrangement you then test it to confirm that nothing is wrong and if nothing is wrong you charge it with power to activate the enchantment. A better arrangement or material allows you to create more powerful enchantments." Chronos summarized.
"That's a very simple description but it's not wrong." He nodded with a small smile of approval.
"Now you'll learn about some of the specifics of runes. One of the worst problems for enchanters is our lack of an element, even if you know the rune without the proper elemental power you can't charge the enchantment. If you try to charge a rune with the wrong element it will either fizzle out making the item useless or it will explode."