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AFTER finishing lunch with Rose and returning to the shop, Olivia picked up the things she’d left on the second floor and went to Harrison’s workroom on the third.
“Hello, Mr. Harrison,” she greeted him after knocking.
“Ah, you’re here. You don’t have to knock in the future. Feel free to come right in.”
“All right,” she replied, feeling nervous.
Harrison gave a kind nod and gestured to a largish table in the corner of the room. “You can use that desk when you’re here. Set your things down and come over here with your magic toolkit. I’ll explain what we’ll be doing.”
“Sure thing.” Olivia did as she was told and brought her toolkit over to the central worktable where Harrison was. “Thank you for teaching me, Mr. Harrison.”
“Shall we begin? First…” Harrison opened a large wooden box on the worktable. “Do you know what these are?”
“Uh, magic stones and…claws of some sort?”
The box was crammed full of red gemstones nearly as big as her fist and large, red claw-like objects as long as her index finger.
“You’re right about the magic stones; they’re red agate. I acquired them at a discount from a merchant I regularly work with, as they’re not ideal in size. The claws are phoenix talons; they haven’t been used in a while.”
According to him, phoenix talons had been incredibly valuable a while ago, but another more effective material was discovered, rendering them nearly antiquated.
“I suppose that’s just what happens with the changing times,” he murmured before looking at Olivia. “I heard your specialization is magic jewelry. Have you made anything else?”
“I’ve made lamps.”
“Right, it’s safe to assume you’ve never made a large core, is that correct?”
Olivia nodded.
Large magic cores were used in larger magic items—and uncharted territory for her as they required different techniques from the small cores used in magic jewelry.
Harrison pointed to the magic stoves and heaters in the corner of the room. “As you can see, my specialty is in large magic items. Obviously, that means I often deal with large cores. That’s why I’d like to have you make them.”
“All right,” she answered, thinking this must be what Gordon meant for her to expand her horizons.
Harrison took a piece of paper with a magic circle already drawn from a shelf and placed it on the worktable. “First, I’d like to see what you can do. It’s all right if it doesn’t work well. Just go ahead and try making a core using these stones and talons.”
She hadn’t expected the sudden hands-on task, but she picked up the paper anyway. “This core is for…an oven?”
“Yep. It’s a simple one that only heats. They were popular more than a decade ago. This type lost out to newer kinds that came along later, but it’s perfect for practice.”
Olivia sat down and took her quill, compass, protractor, and other tools from her toolkit. She poured mana through her quill as she began drawing the circle on a magic plate while referencing the paper example.
I see… You use more mana for larger magic stones and materials. It’s going to be hard to control my mana.
Harrison quietly watched over Olivia’s shoulder as she analyzed the makeup of the circle she drew. Once finished, she sent a small jolt of mana through the plate to test it, turned around, and asked, “May I try it?”
“Of course.”
She stood, placed a stone and a talon on the plate, and held her hands over them.
“Activate magic circle.”
The circle glowed as her mana poured out and enveloped the talon and stone. She let out a sharp breath because the actual trial was about to start and closed her eyes as she intoned, “Extract effect. Imbue effect.”
Her mana grew more powerful as red-colored mana was drawn from the talon to flow into the magic stone. Usually, she would be done once there was no more mana inside the talon, but this time…
Ack! It’s too abnormal!
She struggled with everything she had but was having a hard time drawing the mana out of the material well. Even when she finally did extract it, she couldn’t get it to flow smoothly into the stone.
Beads of sweat stood on her brow as she wrestled for control of the mana. Even the magic circle—which was normally an ally to her—wasn’t doing what she wanted it to.
She somehow managed to imbue the mana into the stone at long last, but the core that resulted was a horribly crude piece riddled with uneven strips.
This…this is bad.
Her shoulders slumped in disappointment. It would be just about usable, but calling that a core would only cause annoyance as it couldn’t maintain steady heat output or activation.
“I’m sorry,” she uttered. “It turned out horribly.”
She held it out to Harrison, who looked at it in shock. He inspected it without a word, then grinned with surprise. “Wow. I can’t believe you got it to work.”
“What?”
“No one’s ever made a core that works on their first go. I mean, there were a lot of problems with your process, but you can improve—and you’ve got a knack for it. I feel like it’s safe to think of you as already ready to fight…”
Olivia cocked her head as he muttered to himself. Did that mean it wasn’t bad for her first attempt?
Harrison rolled up his sleeves and said, “Right, I’ll do it now. Watch closely.”
He sat at the worktable and opened his own toolkit. He passed mana into his well-used quill and quickly drew out the magic circle without using a compass or protractor.
Wow! He’s so fast!
Olivia’s jaw dropped. How much experience did someone need to have to be able to draw such a neat magic circle without even using a compass?
While his hand raced across the plate, he explained, “The larger the magic stone, the stronger its peculiarities. If you want to control those, you can’t only use the magic circle as it is, or it won’t go well. There’s a variety of methods, but I usually directly draw the circle to match the stone’s features.”
As Harrison walked her through the process, he pulsed mana through the stone to reveal the stats and then drew commands that weren’t on the example sheet. She admired his technique and finesse as she watched—stared, really—while he worked.
Once the magic circle was complete, he stood. “Activate magic circle.”
The circle glowed as his mana coursed through before enveloping the talon and stone. Olivia’s eyes went round. She’d never imagined someone would use such powerful mana.
Quietly, Harrison recited, “Extract effect. Imbue effect.”
Growing even more powerful, the pure-red mana from the glowing talon flowed out in one swoop.
Olivia was flabbergasted, but Harrison’s expression was calm as he explained, “Materials like this have so much mana that you have to draw it out in one pull, or you end up in a sort of tug-of-war. Same with the magic stone. It’s easier to imbue it evenly if you do it in one go.”
As he spoke, the mana drawn from the talon poured quickly into the magic stone.
And then it was done: a beautiful core with uniform color and mana quality.
W-wow!
She was shaking from how incredible it was. Obviously, there were some tricks to handling large magic stones, and you needed experience, but what really wowed her was Harrison’s delicate yet bold manipulation of mana. In that area, he was likely even better than her father had been.
Harrison smiled. “It’s just a matter of repeated practice. Once you can make one type of large core, you can adapt that to others. And we’ve got plenty of magic stones and materials for you to practice. Use as many as you need to.”
“I will!”
Olivia looked at him with respect. What an incredible artificer he was.
He smiled sheepishly. “Well, give it another go. I’ll watch.”
“All right!”