Cirdor sent a car for just her.

The driver's window rolled down as she walked out of the warehouse. The green Elf behind the wheel pointed his thumb towards the back half of the black SUV without saying a word. It was impossible to tell the color of his eyes behind the dark sunglasses, which only served to increase her reservation about going to see the Elf Caster alone.

The silent trip ended a few minutes later when the vehicle pulled into the parking lot of a large school.

"We're here." The driver announced as the SUV came to a stop in front of the large double doors.

Penelope took in the long building. She'd expected it to be two or more stories high, like most other buildings, but it was all one floor. A track was to her left on the other side of the parking lot. To her right, the building stretched down past the parking lot, leading into a large yard that was wrapped by a stone fence.

"Where…" Penelope sighed as the SUV drove away without giving her any instructions on where to go.

"Doran doesn't care much for Humans." Jeru grumbled. "Most Elves tend to be elitists, but he takes it even further than that."

So what? He's expecting me to wander around until I find where I'm supposed to go?

"Admissions is the first door on the right." Jeru floated over to the front doors. "And while I know where you're going to end up, it would be smart to at least go through the motions so someone doesn't get suspicious."

So while I understand that I need facilities to get started, won't it be better for me to go off and do my own thing after a couple loops? Because didn't you say that the highest level anyone had in anything was in the thirties? The doors slid into the stone walls as Penelope approached the building. She paused as she looked into the bare hallways. Where is everyone?

"School is out for the moment while they figure out what is going on with the incursion." Jeru shrugged as he floated in front of her. "And yes, after a while, you're going to be better than a lot of the masters, but that's going to take you thousands of hours, which is a lot of resets."

Joy. Penelope walked through the open door on her right.

Inside the office on the left side of the room was a desk with an empty chair behind it. A row of leather seats along the right wall led all the way to the door on the back wall. That door was open and the light was on.

"Hello?" Penelope paused at the door.

"You're here. Good." Cirdor called through the open door. "I'll be out there in a moment."

A few moments later, the orange man walked out of the office, closing the door behind him. He tugged on his gray robe as he brushed past her. "Follow."

The two of them traveled through the empty school until they reached a lab. Cirdor walked in and clapped his hands to turn on the lights.

Magic lights illuminated the room. Six tables were evenly spaced around the room. The walls were plain white. It was an interior room, so there weren't any windows or another exit. Each table had three double cabinet doors on the long sides.

He turned around to face her. "I don't have long, so let's get this started." He pointed at her left hand. "Your ring."

Penelope looked down at the Light Ring. It was one of her worst pieces of gear stat-wise, but considering that it boosted her Magic by three and her overall light damage, it was also one of her best pieces of gear. She pulled the item off her finger and handed it over to the orange man.

"Basic principle of enchanting is that you can only successfully work on items of the same Tier or lower than the Tier of your job." He held up the ring to the overhead lights, then turned to her. "So don't try to do this on any gear that isn't Tier Zero until you've raised your enchanting to the next Tier."

"What happens if I try to work on something that is higher Tier than my level?" Penelope watched as he walked over to the closest table.

"At best, you waste the mana and any reagents that you put in." He reached under the cabinet and pulled out a small silver basin. "At worst, you destroy the item."

Penelope nodded. So I don't want to try enchanting something that I can use right now.

"If you break it, you can just reset." Jeru laughed.

I don't want the ability to reset to be a crutch that I lean on so I don't learn proper techniques. Penelope watched as the orange Elf pulled a vial out of the pocket of his robe. "What's that?"

"Maned Gator Essence." Cirdor poured the blue liquid into the silver pan.

That was a level 29 Magic monster. Penelope wrinkled her brow. "Only the Shadows drop essences."

"And when you mix them with Shadow Essence while running mana through it, you get yourself a Magic Elixir." He dropped the ring into the silver basin and gripped the sides of it with both hands. "For someone who has been enchanting items, this is a fairly simple process and nowhere near as difficult as inscribing an enchantment on someone."

"Wouldn't it be better to just drink the elixir?" Penelope watched as a soft blue glow covered the orange Elf's hands.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It would be easiest to just strip the enchantment off another piece of gear and then apply it to this ring, but I have a limited amount of gear to work with and while our outfitters are busy making new gear, this is the simplest way to teach you the basics." Cirdor took a deep breath. "Now, pay attention. Since I added a Speed Elixir, I'm going to be adding three points of Speed to your ring. First, you need to add your mana to the basin."

The blue glow spread over the blue liquid, filling the basin.

"How much mana does that take?" Penelope looked down at her hands.

"Twice as much if you keep interrupting me." He growled. "Now pay attention." He closed his eyes. "You need your mana to permeate all of the liquid as well as the item itself, then you need to draw your mana into the item, along with the elixir."

The glowing liquid receded as the white ring soaked it up like a hungry sponge.

"You have to maintain your control, because if you move too quickly, then the item will overload and break, but if you go too slowly, then the enchantment won't take effect." Cirdor gripped the basin tighter as the absorption slowed. "The closer you get to the end, the more difficult it will be to control and the easier it will be to fail, but at this point, I could stop and it would have two points of Speed added to it."

"What about the rarity?" Penelope watched the process with anticipation. "Is it going to increase my light damage even more?"

"This will increase the rarity of the ring, but not the damage modifier." The orange man closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. "You'll have to enchant it again to raise the damage modifier to the maximum and another time to put either a skill or passive on it depending on how much this enchantment fortifies the ring."

Cirdor opened his yellow eyes and looked at Penelope as the last bits of liquid soaked into the ring. "And… there." He reached into the basin and pulled out the ring, then held it out for Penelope to take.

She scanned the ring with her menu as she took it from him.

Light Ring

Magic +3

Speed +3

Light Damage +5%

"That's cool." She slipped the ring on her finger, then replaced her gray glove. "I'm guessing you don't have a lot of elixir for me to practice on."

"I've got enough for you to use for a few days until I can show you how to make your own." Cirdor reached under the table and pulled out a metal box by the handle on top. He unclipped the latches on the one-square-foot-wide container, then took the top off, revealing 144 vials. There were two rows of each of the six colors. He reached under the table and pulled out another box the same size. When he took the lid off the second one, it revealed a tray full of rings and necklaces.

"This is most of the accessories from the first floor." The orange Elf gestured at the container. "You can work on enchanting them while I take care of things in the office." His voice hardened. "Don't go wandering around. I can see you on our security system, so I'll know if you go anywhere beside here and my office."

"When can we get the other Casters to work on enchanting?" Penelope picked up one of the rings.

"I've got everyone on the council clamoring for me to give private lessons. You're lucky I'm doing this much for you." He sighed. "Once I get things fixed up, we'll be able to get an assembly line worked out, but you're going to have this room full of personal picks from the council, so…" Cirdor stopped at the door. "Get a head start while you can."

Penelope watched him leave. I've still got a lot of questions.

"And he's super busy." Jeru sat down on the table. "He did you a service by getting these items for you."

Except he didn't really show me how to do anything. Penelope picked up one of the yellow vials and poured it into the basin. Once she emptied its contents, she tossed in the ring. Her mana flared as she gripped the edge of the container and pushed mana into the liquid.

The ring shattered.

She dumped the ruined contents of the basin in the trashcan by the door.

"Too fast." Jeru sighed. "You've got some mana control, but it's still too unrefined." He snapped his fingers. "Make one of your knives."

<Knives Out> was simple enough to cast. Four knives appeared on the table.

"Great! Now take one of the knives and scratch this pattern in the table." Jeru waved his hand and a pattern of three circles inside a larger circle appeared on the table.

Cirdor isn't going to like me defacing the table. Penelope glanced at the door.

"He should have shown you how to do this before he left." Jeru rolled his eyes. "It's being passive-aggressive to just throw you in the deep end and not give you any tools."

Okay… Penelope took one of the knives and began scratching out the pattern. Once she finished, she set the knife down and inspected her work. The shallow gouge wasn't deep and the lines weren't very smooth, but she had the pattern on the table.

"Good. Now pour one of the magic ones on it and once the liquid fills up the pattern, cast <Light Bolt> on it and flatten it out parallel to the table. It's going to hit the liquid like a magnet attracting iron dust, so hold the spell and keep feeding it mana until I tell you to stop."

Penelope closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Changing the shape of a light spell was easier than the other elements, but it wasn't something she could do without practice. She put a <Light Ball> near the ceiling, then cast the spell going down towards the table, fanning it out as it zigzagged down.

The spell shot down like a hungry predator. The solid streak split into smaller ones, sending dozens of tiny bolts at the pattern etched into the table.

The spell was meant to be a single cast, so turning it into a beam-type spell required changing a second aspect of the spell. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she focused on holding the spell, trusting Jeru to tell her when she'd done enough.

"You're good."

Penelope released the spell, sucking air into her lungs as she realized that she'd stopped breathing while she'd been focusing on the spell.

The soft blue pattern pulsed softly on the metal table. Out of curiosity, she touched it. She'd expected it to be hot, but instead, it was cool to the touch. The gouge itself had been filled in, leaving a smooth finish on the table like the pattern had been a part of the table all along.

"Put the basin in the center." Jeru pointed at the circle. "Put your mana into this. It will help you regulate how much you put into the basin, like the knob on a water faucet."

That's… helpful. Penelope placed the basin in the middle of the circle, then added a new vial and tossed in another ring. This time, she was able to hold back how much mana she let go into the basin. It was like filling a water jug, but this time instead of using a hose, she was using a spigot from a cooler.

The ring changed from gray to blue as the enchantment took hold.

"Well." Penelope picked up the ring. "Let's see how much experience I can get out of this."

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