Chapter 196

“Dungeon crafting?” Professor Vilethorn raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Well that’s quite the leap from our last lesson, what prompted the change?”

“Need” Ajax answered. He also continued when he saw the gaze that invited him to. “The cost of the potions I will need in the future is something I most likely can’t afford. But if I am able to make them inside the dungeon using the abundance of materials in there that changes things.”

“It takes a lot of time and wasted resources for any crafter when they start crafting inside the dungeons.” the professor challenged. “More so for alchemists, will you have the resources for that, let alone the time to study it during your delves?”

“From what I read on the matter, learning to craft inside the dungeon works almost like a completely separate skill.” Ajax said. “While doing so increases the difficulty and speeds up skill growth, once someone gets the hang of it their success tends to remain consistent. So if I learn how to do it while I am still at the beginning of learning alchemy the materials should be cheap and most are in abundance provided by the Academy.”

“And what will you do about time?” the teaching assistant asked. “With you having the normal amount of classes on top of being a hybrid fighter and spending your free part of the cycle delving at an appropriate level you’ll never find the time for it.”

“That would be true.” Ajax admitted. “But I happen to have a whole part of the cycle dedicated to delving way below my level. I checked and there is nothing stopping a teaching assistant from practicing his crafting profession while assisting with a class delve.”

That statement surprised both the professor and her assistant. Both had been thinking of Ajax as just another student with a few specialties so they didn’t consider the free time he could carve out for himself while on the class delve.

“Well now…” Professor Vilethorn said as she stroked her chin and a smirk broke out on her face. “That could work out well for you.”

With that she went over to her desk and started to go through her drawers one at a time ruffling through the books, loose sheets of paper and scrolls that were there while muttering something about ‘where the hell did I put that?’.

“As precise as she is when it comes to brewing a potion, she has to be the most disorganized person I know.” the teaching assistant shook his head in defeat as he watched his teacher tear the desk apart.

“Aha! Here they are.” Professor Vilethorn said triumphantly as she held a few pieces of paper and then proceeded to place them on the desk and write something on each of them before bringing them over and handing them to Ajax. “These are the recipes for some basic potions that should help the most with raising your skill level as well as getting you accustomed to crafting inside the dungeon.”

Ajax gratefully accepted the recipes and took a quick glance over them. The list of ingredients matched the style of the first recipe she handed out in the class's first alchemy class with one simple exception, on the left side of the ingredient the amount required looked to be crossed out in such a way that you couldn’t tell what was written there before.

“Why are the quantities crossed out?” Ajax asked.

“Crafting inside the dungeon, especially when working with low levels of [Alchemy] is best done by experimentation and substitution.” the professor explained. “Once you have managed to create all three of these recipes the next ones I will provide you with will contain the amounts required but not of the plant but of the effect the plant has.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“You will be sure to find that while crafting deeper in the dungeons trying to brew recipes as they are written down will be impossible due to the affinity of the mana present on the specific floor. Starting by learning like this will have you prepared to improvise and adapt even if it might mean it takes you a bit longer to rise through the low levels.” she added on. “Come by my room the morning before you depart for the delve to collect the ingredients.”

With that Ajax headed for the door ready to go to his next class when he noticed the teaching assistant following him. “For this first cycle I’ll prepare the ingredients for you but for every time after that I suggest you show up a day early to prepare them yourself, that will save you time in the dungeon.”

“Thank you.” Ajax said as he dipped his head. He was a little angry at himself for not thinking about that, he also didn’t know why he had somehow expected the ingredients to be already prepared for him.

The rest of the classes for the day passed quickly much like they did the previous cycle, unlike with alchemy Ajax chose to keep his focus on only one crafting profession only learn the others through his classes at the academy.

The next change in how the cycle played from the previous one was when they got to the afternoon practice. The prince had joined the physically focused part of the training meaning they already had an even number and he would make it odd.

“Ajax if you would join us this time around.” the magic instructor asked.

Ajax simply nodded and joined the casters. There were a more casters than physical fighters but that didn’t seem to disturb the teacher.

“Now, while last week I was content to simply have you go through you spells while working on having everyone get at least acceptable with their aim.” everyone turned to a single student at that remark, clearly he had been a weak link for a while. “Now we will work on your control of magic in a different way.”

“Will we finally get a chance to duel each other?” one of the students asked.

“Not just yet” the instructor denied. “Unlike physical combat, starting magical sparring too early is very likely to lead you into forming bad habits that are hard to break later on.”

The wave of disappointed groans was silence with a single glare from the instructor before he continued. “Now, while you were all practicing your aim during the last week I observed the form of your spells for each one of you, well with one exception.” he turned his gaze on Ajax after that statement.

“Sorry.” Ajax said, aware that he might have focused a little too much on physical training. He couldn’t help it though as his spars with Benedict had been very fun, for the first time in a while he was on the backfoot in terms of skill but not in terms of stats.

“That however won’t be an issue.” the instructor continued. “Now that we can control where our spell is going we need to control how the spell is formed.”

“Isn’t that what the incantation is for?” one of the lower ranked nobles asked.

“No, the incantation simply gives you a mold.” the instructor explained. “Now while the general idea has been known for a while it is our current headmaster that has not only come up with an enticing theory as to why but has taken great steps in proving it to be true.”

“Luxim” the instructor chanted and a regular ball of light sprung up from his palm.

“This is the base spell, you all know it and this is the result most people will get if they cast it without any intent behind it.” he said as he waved his hand through the orb and dissipated it.

“Now the headmaster’s theory states that the chants we use only for a base idea for a spell. In the case of the previous spell that idea is ‘ball of light’. As we get better with our intent you will find that we can change the output of the same incantation.” he continued.

“Luxim. Luxim. Luxim.” he chanted once again.

The first time he chanted a ball much bigger and brighter than the previous one was summoned. The second time there were three orbs and all were dimmer and smaller than the first one. The third one however was exactly the same size and brightness as the first only instead of it being a bright white light it was a bright blue light.

“All four of the spells took the same amount of mana.” the instructor said. “The first sacrificed duration to become bigger and brighter. The second exemplifies that a spell doesn’t usually restrict the amount of replications it generates, this is however sometimes limited with stronger spells that have a longer chant.”

“What about the third one?” that one had been the most interesting as quite a few of the students hadn’t seen a color variation of the spell.

“As I said, all the spells cost the same.” the instructor answered. “If mana input was to be increased you could replicate the first spell. The second however requires a change in intent, the third requires you to possess and add [Light Aspect Mana] to your intent in order to change the color of the light.”

This was a massive revelation to Ajax, chiefly for the effect this could have on his use of fire. Ethanol fire not only could not be put out by water, but as long as the are was well lit it would burn invisible to the naked eye.