B4 - Chapter 39 - Crafters and More

Next up on the tour was the alchemy section, which was relatively close to the smiths. This might have been to keep all the flame-related professions close by, or it might have been a coincidence; either way, Lily and Lotte were excited to see what Tresnia was willing to show off.

Yet as they walked through and saw the various alchemy buildings, most of which looked like tiny ateliers, both felt this was, in a weird way, too peaceful. There were no sudden explosions, or pots suddenly boiling over, and certainly no spontaneous ingredient transmutation. Every alchemist followed the recipes by the book and used only the approved ingredients, of which there was surprisingly little variety.

Lily and Lotte whispered to each other about it, trying not to disturb the demonstration, the explanation, or the students who might have been watching. They quickly concluded that the crazy variety of ingredients came from the dungeon or Professor Sylwel's transmutation magic, and even Tresnia couldn't compete.

Not only that, but the lack of experimentation felt disappointing, even if letting first-year students dabble might not have been the best idea. This felt almost like it was suffocating creativity, and both Lily and Lotte wondered if that was why their crazy professor had fallen out with Tresnia and the alchemy community.

Yet one area they definitely excelled at was equipment, and the pair gawked at all sorts of contraptions and enchantments that aided the alchemists. Lily had never seen so many kinds of cauldrons, ladles, and even bottles, plus enchanted burners that gave ample control over their flames without needing to redraw a glyph.

It's impressive, but I bet it costs a lot. Sure, my glyphs require more effort, but it's far more affordable!

Lily hadn't missed that there were only a few truly magnificent enchanted burners, and at most one per building, if at all. Not only that, but none of them were idle, and were always occupied by a senior student. It made sense; an expensive device should probably be used by the most qualified, but it also made Lily feel better about her own glyphs, which she was more than willing to share.

After alchemy, their next stop was the tailors, which was a bit of a surprise since the goods being made weren't entirely magical. On display were effectively super tailors, who used magic to enhance the process, rather than create a magical item itself. It reminded Lily of Professor Melina's class, and by the look on Thomas' face, he probably felt the same.

However, one tailor was demonstrating how to use rare spider silk to fashion a cloak that had taken on shadow-like properties from its monstrous source. While it was interesting, compared to the smithing and alchemy, it felt a little lackluster, and judging by their next tour destination, that was on purpose.

Next up was enchanting, where many of these goods were sent for magical improvements, but before that they stopped somewhere for lunch, another chance for Tresnia to show off. Yes, they had magical chefs too, and this time the comparison to Professor Melina was obvious, but Lily still felt a sensation similar to the food she had enjoyed at the Velvet Hearth.

Lily couldn't understand why they tasted similar; the ingredients were clearly different, and even when she suspected Mana had something to do with it, her Magesight revealed nothing. Only when she gave up trying to solve it did Arakil finally chime in and reveal the meal had indeed been infused during cooking.

While cooking with a magical flame alone wasn't enough to transfer anything to the meal, and the same went for anything boiled in conjured water, a special cooking process gradually let Mana seep into the ingredients. Arakil only briefly described it, since while it was related to magic, it wasn't something he had intentionally investigated more than a curious dabble, and from his explanation it sounded vaguely like alchemy.

The key difference was that you couldn't let the ingredients become saturated with Mana, only "drizzled," per Arakil's words. Any more and you risked causing a reaction similar to alchemy at worst, or at the very least ruining the taste. It was a tricky balance, since while you would think Mana was flavorless, it was almost like a fingerprint, and everyone's had their own subtle nuances. Arakil even revealed that some creatures, or, in rare cases, people, had particularly delicious Mana, which usually drew constant attention from dangerous monsters or even predators.

{Please tell me my Mana is not delicious.}

Arakil couldn't stop himself from chuckling. [You are safe in that regard. If I had to describe the taste or feeling I get from your Mana, it's pure and warming, almost calming. You won't have to worry about any troublesome fey creature trying to drain you dry, as they target more addictive qualities.]

Lily sighed in relief, though it also meant she had little chance of a magical chef career, since calming wasn't exactly a taste people sought when eating; they preferred something wilder and more tantalizing. Not that she particularly wanted to, just that she thought it was somewhat interesting after experiencing this sensation twice now.

The meal was very enjoyable, though it brought Lily's stalker back into her awareness. She had tried her best to ignore the Cetacia girl and had been doing a good job until their eyes crossed again from across the room. The girl smiled and even gave a small flourishing finger wave, as if trying to say hello. Lily returned the gesture, earning a dazzling smile back before the girl eagerly resumed her meal.

Does she just want to be friends? I really don't know what kind of game she's playing…

Lily had half a mind to confront the girl, or at least properly introduce herself, so maybe this weird routine would stop. The problem was that even though they were traveling together with the Abwany students, they were being kept strictly apart. Most likely because of the upcoming competition, there appeared to be an unspoken rule for them not to mingle, with Alice and her Abwany counterpart keeping the peace.

Would they really go so far as to scope out the competition? Or even try to sabotage the other side?

With suspicions about Clarissa's loyalty spreading among the students, some must have genuinely feared foul play. Lily personally doubted people would go that far, but she was willing to admit she might just not have understood the prestige that came with being declared the top school that year.

With lunch over, they finally went to what Lily had been waiting for, and her excitement must have been contagious because Arakil showed the same anticipation. Unlike the previous areas they had visited, the enchanting section was smaller, but considering they mostly worked on finished products, that was to be expected.

The tour this time was split into two parts, metals and fabrics, so that two different methods of enchanting could be displayed. One of the earlier outfits they had seen sewn in the air was now having a golden thread interwoven into it. The thread came from some kind of woolly monster, which was shaven, spun, and then soaked in an alchemical solution before finally being ready for use.

However, that was the easy part; the next would require both tailoring and enchanting to apply it successfully to the garment. It required an extremely steady hand, and while nothing was stopping you from using a reference, it was better to have memorized the required pattern to avoid distractions. Lily found the process extremely interesting, but because of its nature, it was also extremely slow, so they had no chance of seeing the finished product on such a short tour.

Next up was forging, and this greatly attracted the attention of the students since it was far more involved than the calm and collected enchanted weaving. In fact, Tresnia must have known the students would prefer this, since they had two demonstrations here, though neither was shown to completion.

The first demonstration was using a sword that was clearly created using the infusing method from before, as it almost looked enchanted already. From there, the student took out what looked almost like large needles and began scraping into the blade, carving out the required markings.

James revealed this was the preferred process, using goods already considered magical, and even noted that the cloak they had seen earlier would have fallen under this category. While it didn't require additional materials, it required a lot of infusion on the enchanter's part, and when Lily took a closer look at the needles with her Magesight, she saw they were burning hot with infused Mana.

After that, they were taken to the final enchanting exhibit, this time a large slab where metal parts were being hammered into it. James explained that the parts were cast to make the process easier, but another method was to carve out grooves and then recast the item with molten metal.

The metal itself being used here wasn't revealed, although Arakil suggested it was most likely orichalcum while also besmirching their method of using premade casts to simplify the process. He outright stated that doing so would lower the efficacy of the enchantments severalfold, and it was only good for common mass-produced goods.

[Honestly, none of their methods are what I would use. I would've designed a fit-for-purpose inscription that could directly apply the enchantment to the item. It requires vastly more Mana, enough to quite literally leave its mark on the item, but it's well worth it.]

Lily imagined Arakil's method almost like a branding iron, and wondered how much Mana would be needed to literally reshape metal. It sounded like she didn't have enough to do something like this, but that could also likely be solved with creative uses of glyphs. With enough auxiliary glyphs for storage, one could keep depositing Mana long enough to meet the criteria.

The only downside of Arakil's approach was that if the item wasn't inherently magical, then the enchantment would eventually degrade if it wasn't routinely maintained. He also fully admitted that in the current age, the maintenance would need to be more frequent thanks to the lack of ambient Mana to passively feed off.

As for the item itself, it was simple enough that they almost saw it to completion, since the premade parts simply combined into a final product. In this case, it was a relatively common slab that would produce a flame for alchemy, although in this case the control of the flame would need to be entirely handled by the alchemist or their assistant.

I know Arakil doesn't like it, but I still think it's neat how they managed to mass-produce something like this. I always wondered if I could make some kind of stamp to quickly make cheap talismans, and this is almost like that.

Unfortunately for Lily, even the allure of an enchanted sword didn't entice her friends, and the repeated displays of focus and concentration, while constantly doling out Mana, were a hard sell. In almost desperation, Lily turned to her stalker, only to find the girl completely uninterested in anything being shown. She even yawned, as if bored, which shocked Lily to the core. Even more frustrating, she wasn't the only one; the Abwany students as a whole looked entirely uninterested.

Is it because their gods let them do those lazy glyphs? If so, I'm starting to see why Arakil had so many issues with them!

With enchanting over and done with, they had only a few stops left on the tour. With several types of manufacturing shown off, the only thing realistically left to show off was their raw goods. In this case, they left the city and were taken to the gardens. Herbs of all sorts grew here, but even with the wide variety, it couldn't match what could be harvested from the dungeon.

Arakil couldn't see them, but he sensed their quality was lower, which made sense since they weren't grown in a Mana-rich environment. Even though the dungeon Mana was considered tainted, it still benefited plants, and in most cases the dungeon actively purified it of harmful effects. After all, it wanted people to have a reason to enter its domain and stay as long as possible.

There was also a large amount of farmland, and this was where Tresnia probably had an advantage over Regarth. While the dungeon provided plenty of monsters, harvesting directly from them was a process few could take advantage of. Meanwhile, Tresnia had plenty of domesticated creatures that routinely provided materials.

Of course Regarth had its own Beast Handling division, but its stables were tiny compared to these rolling fields. Land wise, Tresnia had a clear advantage, and it could expand as it pleased, whereas Regarth was restricted to the dungeon. They probably could've expanded away from the school, but to what end, especially when the dungeon below was far more lucrative.

With that, their tour came to an end. Tresnia clearly had plenty more, since they had avoided large sections of the city, but they weren't willing to show off every little detail. Regarth had its secrets, and it would be foolish to think Tresnia didn't as well.

The groups thanked James for the tour, then split off and returned to their respective inns for the evening. Lily's stalker sent one final glance her way, and Lily saw no reason not to at least wave goodbye to the strange girl.

What a day… Enjoyable, but weird…