Blazing orange, green, blue, and violet lines singed themselves across the gravel, dirt, grass, and solid stone in front of Walter. His hands were held out palms down as if he was invoking a devil to come forth and do his bidding. The spell sigil was unlike anything Isaac or Lenna had ever seen. Usually sigils were formed in circular rings with their colors being simple expressions of the colors of mana involved which sometimes caused spell sigils, especially of low level spells, to become almost prismatic as too many colors of mana were forced to overlay themselves onto a singular circle. The rectangle inside of a rectangle with runic words written between them and an 'X' in the middle was entirely unexpected. The fact that a fourth level spell only had two 'rings' only compounded on top of the strange geometric expression of magic.
A red stone, black iron banded trunk that was four feet wide, two and a half feet deep and tall, was raised out of the ground. The outside edges of the chest fit perfectly in line with the inner rectangle of the spell sigil that maintained full glow even once the chest had finished rising from nowhere. As it was rising, Walter's hands raised in perfect time with it as if he was manually directing the summoning of his 'impedimenta'. Once it was finished, Walter dropped his right hand and closed his left save for two fingers pointing forwards. He turned his palm up while making a hooking twist in the air with his outstretched fingers. The lid of the chest swung open at his gesture.
Walter relaxed his hand and turned it around so his palm was facing the chest. He made a quick shoving motion and the lid disconnected and fell free only to vanish entirely. He walked the two steps it took him to reach the side of the chest, blatantly stepping on the glowing spell sigil that still hadn't died out, and tapped his hand on the top rim. In a matter of three seconds a strange box was raised up out of the chest. The floor of the chest had risen up to the height of the top rim which brought its contents to the surface for all to see.
The contents of Walter's strange magic box was another even stranger magic box. The new box was just a frame made of iron bands and braces. Inside of it there were a few braces made of corded steel wire that could be adjusted to hold whatever was inside. He reached into his saddlebag, which he had thrown over his shoulder earlier, and pulled out one of the throwing spikes that Isaac and Lenna had given him. He placed the spike inside of the strange open air box and locked it into place with the steel corded braces so it wouldn't be able to move around with even slight jostling. He then glanced over at Isaac and Lenna. "Swear on scouts' honor that this stays between us?" He asked Isaac.
Isaac's head instantly started to pound. "I will if you at least try not to give me a headache." Isaac promised him.
"What is 'scouts' honor'?" Lenna questioned.
"A 'scout' in this case refers to a sort of club that's also a school to teach young boys how to fend for themselves in the event that they get lost in the wilderness and/or wish to live or work in said wilderness. They teach things like honor and being an upstanding person in addition to everything they need in order to survive. There's more to it but that's the gist." Walter easily explained. "This enhanced memory from Rei is really something sometimes." He added offhandedly. "So, scouts' honor?"
Isaac nodded. His fresh headache had wound down from a migraine to a dull ache after Walter had filled in most of the blanks around the phrase. "Sure, scouts' honor we won't tell anyone until a time when other people have already found out, because I get the feeling you can't keep a secret from the first person who asks." Isaac told him flatly.
"Hey, I can keep a secret." Walter defended himself. "Like-" What Walter said next will remain unwritten for fear of actual repercussions against said artificer and/or everyone who has or will ever read this.
Isaac and Lenna stared dumbfounded at Walter. "I want to take this as proof that you can't keep a secret, but if I tell anyone… well…" Isaac's voice trailed off.
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Walter's smug smile said it all. "Exactly. So, the secret is still kept as no one who knows it'll speak of it." He grinned. "Now, I'm gonna get back to work."
Walter reached into his overcoat and pulled out a stone slate with runic enchantments carved into it. The runes were inverted and absolutely perfectly clean like someone had undone the stone in that specific pattern and then meticulously removed any tiny bit of stone dust that might've remained. The enchantment was a simple hardening one and he carefully slotted the slate into place facing inwards. It fit perfectly into the iron frame of the box. He then pulled out a 'sharpening' version of the same slate and placed it diagonally across from the first one. After that, he withdrew slates of quartz that had their own unique enchantments engraved into them in pure platinum. He slotted them in behind the stone slates and then withdrew a pouch of gold dust and a measuring spoon. He measured out two perfect scoops and dumped them into the bottom of the box under the spike.
Walter next pulled out a strange contraption that was basically twelve metal rods with downwards facing tips that each swung freely of each other. There were some mechanics to it in the center that allowed the free swinging but its purpose was soon made clear. Walter split the arms into two halves and set the tips of each half on top of the quartz slates. Mana was sent through the metal contraption from Walter's hand and into both slates. Both quartz slates started softly glowing and Walter packed up the weird metal arms and stuffed them entirely back inside of a hidden pocket inside of his overcoat. He tapped the side of the chest again and the magic box was lowered back inside.
"Walter, wasn't your coat inside your saddlebags at one point?" Isaac asked the artificer with a mixture of confusion and concern.
"Hm?" Walter grunted and looked over at Isaac. "Yeah, why?" He then stepped back away from the chest.
"Don't bottomless things inside of bottomless things cause like a rift or get sent into the 'in between' or something?" Isaac questioned.
"Yeah, they do." Walter confirmed. "That's why I don't use the common 'Bottomless' enchantment. I use a tweaked version of the 'Demi-dimension' one. You can have a demi-dimension inside of a demi-dimension if you do it right. The new one just has to be coded to the 'real space' frequency of the old one as well as the 'real space' frequency of Primatia. Since Primatia is basically just a multi-deity scaled demi-dimension it works perfectly fine."
"It's a what?" Isaac couldn't help but ask. If Walter didn't stop dropping forbidden knowledge and crazy conspiracy theories on him, Isaac was going to start getting paranoid about the ground he was standing on and the air he was breathing.
"The original deities created Primatia, Gia herself is even the physical foundation." Walter explained. "I follow the stars, Primatia is actually the center of the universe. The sun is actually the size that it is supposed to be but it orbits us in perfect time with the moon that is also the size that it is supposed to be while we spin in place like an off kilter top. Everything in the sky is perfectly stationary in relation to itself and also orbits us. Hells, I don't even know if the stars are real or just a very pretty painting done by a deity with a love of beauty."
"Are you serious?" Isaac questioned Walter.
Walter smirked and then snorted. "No, I'm not freaking serious. I sure had you going though." He laughed. "I started making things up around the part when I mentioned the sun orbiting us. Demi-dimensions are just that, real but tiny and incomplete dimensions." He got a bit more serious as he started talking magic for real again. "That's why you can put one inside the other. The main downside is that it causes the enchantments of the main one to degrade at eighty nine times the speed, because it has to be open the entire time and the second anchor point stresses the integrity of the original's space."
Isaac needed a minute to recover from the mental whiplash and just put out his hands to forestall Walter. Walter proceeded to then do all of the hand motions he had done at the beginning but in perfect reverse. The lid of the chest reappeared as if from nowhere and reattached itself. It then closed and the box slid back down into the sigil before the sigil finally faded away.
"Okay, why don't we use demi-dimensions to transport things instead of bottomless bags and boxes?" Isaac wondered.
Walter seemed to brighten a bit as Isaac continued to ask questions about things that he knew the answers to. "Bottomless is an easier and cheaper enchantment that requires less power, can be used by anyone, and if it breaks or gets worn out completely it just ejects the contents everywhere. Demi-dimensions require a specific carrier and are attuned to that person's mana signature and if the enchantment is ruined for any reason the demi-dimension becomes unmoored and will need to be recovered by someone that knows what they are doing. It all comes down to using a longbow to cut a thin rope from a hundred feet away or just walking over and using a common knife." He explained. His analogy was a bit off but it was close enough for Isaac to get the gist.
"Being around you makes my brain work more in a day than it usually does in a week." Isaac told him and rubbed his temples. "I think you were lying when you said you know a little about a lot. It sure seems like a lot about a lot."
Walter shrugged. "I've been around a while." He replied. Walter looked around. It had taken him a whole five minutes to set up the first throwing spike and he had an hour to kill before it would be finished and then another hour to wait for it to properly set before he could remove it and start on the second one. "Well, I've got two hours to kill. Why don't you tell me about your travels?" He asked and then brightened. "Actually, you should totally start from the beginning. How'd you die?"
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