Daniel stared into the bag with a frown on his face. If he didn't know better he'd think this was a prank, because Zolyra had effectively sent him over a bunch of rocks. Not a lot either. Quick Mind put it at about twice his body size, and also helpfully suggested he could lift that much with his attributes. He'd have liked more considering the source had been larger than an aircraft carrier, but word was the mining operation on Marbleview wasn't the fastest in the world and most of the product had gone to Aurus. Considering there weren't too many uses for stone with this property and it wasn't as decorative as marble, he might be lucky to get this much.

Still, he had to be sure.

Stone Eagle Remnant (Material, Nonmagical, Level: 2):

Stone taken from a Monster. Can confer Property: Linked when used in appropriate Formulae: Enchanting.

If Daniel had just been working with stone directly from the main eagle he'd have been screwed, as Analyze Material didn't work on stuff at a higher level than him. Luckily, some of the material he'd gotten had been taken from the minions it had spawned. The man-sized stone birds would've been easier to break up, and it made sense they'd been included in the first shipments. Whether the rock he couldn't identify would provide an advantage in enchanting he wasn't sure, as this was a first for him.

With Padri practically breaking down his door for sending stones, there was little reason to delay. Sorry Hunter, it'll be another day enchanting for me.

Good. Daniel laughed softly at that. Thanks to the simple bone circles the size of his hand he'd enchanted with muffle sound the ringcat didn't hear that. Hunter's previous discomfort at how much time Daniel spent in his room working had dwindled after realizing the opportunity that was giving him. Going hunting. Nothing bad.

Alright, I'll give you Regeneration, Fortitude, Balance, and Graceful Fall. The world shifted slightly as he relinquished benefits he'd otherwise lived most of his true life with. Not like I'm doing anything strenuous. Anything ambushes you let me know and I'll hop over. Otherwise, good luck catching up.

Spend every day sitting down and I won't need it. The aura of the currently bipedal Hunter looked up at him despite the fact that there were several walls in the way. Still, thanks. I am getting used to this. Not what I'd prefer, but it's hard to hunt here without flying.

It's not forever, Daniel assured. The only reason we're staying here is the Arcadian, otherwise I'd be seeing who here's ready to pick up and go. No matter what, we have to find the gods and wake them up. The list of regions still burned in his head. They had no way of knowing what the situation was in each as asking would give up the game. In fact, he hadn't told anyone. So, don't worry. We'll find a region that's flat and open and spend a few weeks there. Promise.

Thanks, Hunter thought back, before he ended the active link. Departing with him was Tak, of course, and Sigron. The formerly dead and marooned on Eido weren't the only ones looking to make up for prolonged downtime. Project Spinner was churning behind them, Alex giving the drider a crash course in music theory while Willow multitasked tending to her and managing her spirits. Wisp was inhabiting the frost wyvern while the sparrow could only look on and try to learn humility while sneaking peeks at the new Pyromancer as she tried out what level 4 had given her.

So much was happening around him. Daniel had clawed his way into more power than he'd ever had before and yet felt more like the closeted Artificer most of his class became. There was no getting around the sheer time required, not without practice, which in itself was a huge time commitment. You couldn't deny he was spending it well, every blow his armor blocked was a testament to that. At the same time, the previously socially inept man would've enjoyed hanging out in town with Evalyn, Thomas, and Shuni. If only to make sure they weren't talking about him.

In the magical silence of his room, Daniel pulled out some evolved wyvern bone and eagle rock. While the remains of the veteran stone eagle weren't magical and thus couldn't be used without an appropriate enabling affix, he still didn't want to add patchwork just in case. In fact, he wouldn't use any affixes for the first time. Everything he added changed the magical makeup of the item. His ultimate goal, after saving the world that was, was to get as good at enchanting as Star was. To accomplish that he'd need to study every formulae intensely, and he wanted as pure of an exposure to the sending stone mana structure as he could get.

So I just… crush this? Daniel could squeeze the level 2 chunk of stone to dust with some effort, but it didn't feel right. He had to trust the intuition his class gave him, at least for the first time. Patchwork's blending together of materials didn't feel right either. Lograve had said something about sacrificing the material itself, but Daniel wasn't sure when that was supposed to happen. He'd tried this formulae before without what was required and failed outright, so it would make sense for it to be at the beginning.

Let's just try it and hope for the best. I'm not using too much bone. Daniel poked the magically charged bone, briefly enduring the kickback for touching a higher level material while keeping the image of what he wanted to make in his head. Quick Mind was engaged from the start, running in the background to analyze what he was feeling to hopefully offer insights later on. For other projects he'd begun trying to train it to improve his aim while enchanting, though that was mostly when the level disparity between material level and item level was so high he couldn't feel out the patterns of what he was doing. The high level material just washed everything out, like the heliorite had done for everything he'd initially made.

This time, there was enough traction for it to grip onto. A lot, actually. Right at the beginning, Daniel hit the wall he'd come to before and knew failure was imminent. He could hold on for ten seconds at best, and the smallest possible sending stone would take close to an hour. With his other hand holding the eagle stone, Daniel felt what he'd been waiting for. Following the instincts of his crafting power, he allowed the active mana flow within him that was sustaining the active enchantment to intrude into the material. As soon as he did, it turned to dust.

Woah. Something from it entered his mana, running alongside it. The obstacle in front of him diminished, but there was enough degradation that he still wouldn't make it. Thinking quickly, Daniel grabbed a section of level 5 stone from his bag of holding. It didn't hurt to hold as it wasn't magically active, but its level did count for something as the baseball-sized chunk only lost a quarter of its mass. The mana within him was humming along now, giving him the magical equivalent of relieved congestion.

It doesn't feel like the level of the stone matters, he thought after feeling out the process. With patchwork, the average level of the material he used counted assuming he kept the mass distribution roughly even. Rather than contribute to the enchantment's difficulty, it seemed all level did for secondary material was reduce the amount he needed to use. Makes sense in a way, the stronger the magic the stronger the property I need to use. I wish I could've asked Star about this. I still don't know if this is a strange type of affix or if some items just need more than I can give them myself. But I don't instantly fail if I try to make a sending stone alone, so that wouldn't make sense.

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As the first few minutes went by, it became clear that Daniel would not struggle with this setup. It was comforting in a way that he'd reached the point where he needed material on the level of the item to feel challenged. Before, this would've been an impossible task. While he did want to learn the formulae in more depth, he wasn't about to cancel the enchantment and waste what he'd put into it. Switching gears, Daniel began tossing a dagger again at a self-repairing target he'd kept permanently hovering in his room. Standing up to retrieve it rather than using Telekinetic Reach was a bit annoying, but tolerable so long as he kept the piece of bone within his line of vision.

That's another thing, he thought, mind still on Star and the secrets of enchanting. Why does whether I look at it or not matter? It should be just mana. There's that saying that eyes are the window to the soul, but does that mean blind people can't enchant? What if… Daniel locked the image of the table in his mind and then closed his eyes. The enchanting process didn't fail, though he'd done this before by either reading or resting his eyes for a minute or two. Every time he'd tried to turn his head away from what he was enchanting, however, the difficulty had ramped up to become unbeatable and instantly turned whatever it was on the table to dust.

Now, Daniel had an idea of what might have gone wrong. In fairness, he wouldn't have been ready for what he was attempting now back in Hagain. Slowly, he turned in place while keeping that image fixed in his mind and, more importantly, using all of his other senses to track where the bone was. Scent and his seventh sense were primarily aiding him, the threads of mana coming from his hands all leading to where it rested.

His back was fully turned and there was no cloud of dust on his table where a developing sending stone should be. Well this is bullshit. He repeated the process a few times, the active enchantment growing close to when he'd need to shape the final product. Over that time he solidified his theory. I have to keep some amount of focus on the material at all times, and know where it is. Which is easy if I'm always facing it, but I don't have to be all the time. It was a relatively minor revelation when compared to the other secrets he'd learned, and with there still being a limit on how far he could go from the material it didn't give him that much more mobility. Then again, expanding the range limit on my enchanting would be a good way to train it too.

It did bring up the question of why Arpan had set up his enchanting basement with all the couches pointed toward the plinth, but that had a far easier answer. The bastard of an Artificer was lazy. Closing his door behind him, Daniel beamed down into the open living area of the main house. A full door was behind him and yet the sending stone was still chugging along. The mana flowing to it went straight through the wood of the wall no problem, but he imagined something magically resistant like coinage would provide a more difficult barrier.

His thoughts were interrupted by an Arcanist. Taking a break?

Still going actually.

…what? Lograve appeared out from under the banister as he walked out of the library. The Arcanist appraised Daniel with his power-enhanced magical senses and smiled. Well, I imagine you're rather pleased with yourself. How?

Seventh sense. Daniel explained his findings and Lograve cursed.

Hidebound Artificers. If Arpan had told me more about his class I could have guided you better in the beginning.

Honestly, I think I could've used less guidance. Daniel waved a hand slowly and watched in his mind as the mana threads moved in the air. It was having a noticeable effect on the enchanting process, but not a significant one. The Encyclopedia caused so many problems because I just listened to what it said rather than think for myself.

Fair enough. There's no denying you have grown. He pulled his set of ice blue wyvern wings, Daniel had barely had to adjust the hue for Lograve, halfway out of his bag of holding for emphasis. I imagine most in your position would have advanced to level 3 already.

It would let me do a lot more, Daniel admitted. But I don't want to leave people behind. Besides, all of my other attributes are at 24. He still had the one advancement potential from the wyvern fight burning a hole in his pocket, as well as the one he'd kept in reserve for an emergency level up. It'd be a long crawl to get them to 30 with the penalty from a higher level. I'm already advancing slower than the rest of the team.

It can be like that, Lograve commiserated. To his knowledge, the Arcanist hadn't gotten any more potential since coming back to Earth. He hadn't hunted at all, spending most of his days working on various rituals. Earth's knowledge of chemistry had only gone so far. He could replicate chemical structures with ice just fine, but the Arcanist had reported that it wasn't that easy. There was a magical element to the process that still required time to develop.

There was a ping in his head as the mana infusion finished. Starting now the durability of his enchantment would decay until he began the final process, and while it hadn't been too difficult, he'd lost some of it by maintaining the mana flow while outside his room. Have to dip back, but I can keep talking if you'd like, Daniel thought as he turned away. You don't happen to know anything about magical frequencies, do you?

The process to make sending stones were special in more ways than one. As he finalized the item, it was time to attune it to a frequency that would link it up with all others in that band. In the case of sending stones there were hundreds, but not thousands, of options to choose from. Padri had already rapidly devoured one sending stone, and Daniel was now drawing on the 'feel' of that one to link the sending stone in front of him.

Ah yes, magical resonance theory, Lograve began, his aura leisurely taking a seat on the floor below Daniel and putting his feet up. Sending stones are hardly the only magical item to make use of this, you know. Take your boots for example. They are two distinct items, and yet they function as an individual unit.

So they're putting off a radio signal? That doesn't sound right.

What? No, no. Lograve's aura shook his head. Daniel watched in bemusement as some ice slipped under the door and reformed into a wagging finger. I can see the mistake you've made considering your background. Now, given what we've just talked about you should take what I say with a grain of salt, but my understanding is that in these circumstances magical items are intrinsically linked. It's rather similar to quantum entanglement from your world.

Alright, Daniel said, trying not to let on to the fact that he'd just finished the sending stone. He liked it when Lograve got like this. That makes sense for the boots, but sending stones are enchanted one at a time. It feels like there shouldn't be a limit on frequencies either if that's how it worked.

That's fair, but consider this. When that frozen bastard trying to steal my style gave you more than a cold shoulder, the sending stone Janice held froze due to the magical energy that bombarded it through the connection. If your sending stone was acting like a radio tower, it should have frozen everything between you and her. The chunk of ice in his room split into two spheres with lines twisting between them. The connections slowly broke away and faded into the spheres in a far more dramatic fashion than necessary. However, as both had the same resonance, when one became overwhelmed the other did as well. Regional boundaries can block this effect, of course. If you ever happen to speak to a god again I'm very curious about those, by the way.

Might as well write a book of questions at this point, Daniel replied in commiseration. He gave the issue some thought after hearing Lograve's explanation and came to a conclusion after a quick process of elimination. It has to be the formulae itself that's the limit. Someone developed it, and they probably ran into the issue of too many people having the same frequency. They added enough until it wasn't a problem on their side and no one expanded after that.

It's an interesting proposition. I myself am unsure, having no direct experience. Perhaps if you learn the formulae enough you could put some work into it.

That's the plan! Daniel thought brightly. He still had the ability to prototype new formulae and consolidate them through his Encyclopedia, but after the blast bow he'd begun to move away from that method. Ultimately it was another crutch. A necessary one in the past, but still a crutch. While True Enchanting was a far distant goal, could he make alterations to formulae by taking things slow and deliberately changing parts of the mana pattern? It was another project that would require a mountain of time, but it'd help his understanding of the process. Alright, I'm ready. Would you mind reaching out to Padri? I think we're ready to test if he is.

Oh, I did that the moment we started talking. Look out your window. Daniel turned his head and was startled to find that in the week he'd been here, Padri had been harder at work than he had. Zolyra had called what he was making a golem, but looking at the construction that would have towered over both Murdon and Khiat, there was only one Daniel could use. Mech.

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