“I knew this would happen, Em. That’s why I don’t use Identify willy nilly.” Lee said nervously as they both made their way toward their wagon camp.

Em waved off all of his complaints. She was nonplussed about being caught snooping. “How was I supposed to know that someone of that level bothered to come here? It’s not my fault. Actually, you should be thanking me for the information.”

Lee couldn’t believe this woman. The audacity of that statement alone silenced him. Hopefully, Annalise was of the benevolent type. Lee was inclined to think so because of her religiousness, but he could be talking nonsense. What he knew of religion didn’t actually translate well to Pallesia. For all he knew, there were cults around evil gods.

When they made it back to camp, Jeremy was giving a pep talk to his squad. He glanced toward Lee, acknowledging his presence, and finished up. “So that’s the plan. Tomorrow, we will delve with an adventurer party to see if we can root out the cause of the statues.”

Lee plonked down on his furs and let Jeremy finish his conversation. He was told previously that they would be going down to help out. It was a part of their duty, but he didn’t expect it to be so soon. Numerous other parties have been investigating, but he hadn’t heard anything that transpired during their delves. This was a several-week-old issue, and to his knowledge, no clues had been gained.

Jeremy walked around and had a private conversation with each squad member. From observation, Lee could see that they were serious talks. It probably had to do with each of their strengths and the roles they would have to play. His longest talk was with Meriah, who fidgeted nervously but nodded along to what Jeremy was saying. When they finished, Jeremy’s confident smile slipped to one of worry.

Lee waved him over and patted the spot next to his furs. Jeremy looked behind him as if Lee was motioning for someone else before coming over and sitting down next to Lee.

While Lee wasn’t going to risk his life below on some random monster invasion, he wasn’t callous enough to let them all go into the trenches without some support. He didn’t actually have any long-lasting buffs or spells to help out from so far away, especially without a line of sight, but he could probably use his healing for some items. He wasn’t sure. “I won't go with you, but tell me if you need something, and I’ll do my best to help out any way I can.”

Jeremy sat in silence for a while, thinking about the offer. “Are you an enchanter, Lee?”

Lee shook his head. “No. I’d like to be, but I don’t know much about it. My ability that lets me talk to Kooco lets me understand all language. That includes the enchanting language. I can read enchantments.”

Lee expected Jeremy to write this information down, but he didn’t. He sat and thought deeply. “I know a little about the process, but you’d need specific tools to get started. I bet there is a novice enchanter around here somewhere. One of the adventures are bound to be learning it.”

Lee looked at Jeremy—really looked at him. “Jeremy, how old are you?”

Seemingly caught off-guard, Jeremy stared a little blankly at Lee and absentmindedly responded. “I’m twenty-one.”

Lee processed that information. Jeremy was younger than him and had a lot of responsibility. Lee wasn’t sure what being a noble entailed, but he was sure it wasn’t as cushy as it was made out to be. When Lee imagined nobles, he thought of the rich and powerful. Those without wants and always having the best of the best. He knew he was wrong, but that was his stereotype from Earth.

“If you can walk me through the process of enchanting and find the tools for me to work with, I’ll try my best to enchant some of your gear. You may have noticed, but i’m not as knowledgeable about the world as most of you are. There are giant holes in my common knowledge, and there are reasons for that. Good reasons. Don’t pry.” Lee said.

Jeremy remained quiet but nodded once. Lee carried on. “I know of a few enchantments and I know that it involved adding glyphs to items using the language of enchantments. I would need to get the skill Mana Infusion, but I don’t think that’s too tall of an order for me. My profession helps me learn skills, and i’m already magically inclined. I’d have to ask about the process to get the skill though. I doubt it’s just adding mana into an item or person.”

Jeremy was nodding along but stilled when Lee mentioned a person. “Person? Where did you get that idea?”

Lee looked confusedly at Jeremy. “That’s how I learned my expert-tier magic. I was mana-infused to begin my magical journey—Dark Elf Neia Sindris of Neldam in the Shadowgrove forest did it to me.”

“What…?” Jeremy said.

Lee just looked at him blankly, now also confused about the conversation. “What?”

“I wasn’t aware that was a thing. Maybe mages would know about it. I never really had to need to know I suppose.” Jeremy said, nodding to himself.

Lee let the topic pass, moving back to the enchanting. “I chose to head to Felispar because you mentioned knowing an enchanter. I’d like to learn it there, from an expert.”

Jeremy smiled fondly at the mention of his family friend. “That is easily done. I don’t see a world in where he would say no.”

“Well, go ahead and find out if anybody has some enchanting tools, and if they can give me a little walkthrough. I’ll try my best to help you out.”

Jeremy smiled as he got up off Lee’s furs. “I’ll get right to it. Thank you.”

As Jeremy walked off, Lee thought about how to learn the skill Mana Infusion. He didn’t know much about it, but apparently more than Jeremy. That was to be expected, as Jeremy didn’t have access to magic. His Jackalope fur was probably mana-infused by Neia. While originally, he had thought that it was just a rare item from looting, he was more than likely wrong.

He was only told about how Mana Infusion works to give people access to magic they otherwise might have never had. He was never told about any of the other applications. The only reason he even knew about its uses in enchanting was because he read it from a book in the Consortium of Magical Scholars.

With nothing else to do, he decided to give it a try. He knew that when you mana infused another person, you inserted your mana into them to force-feed them a link to magic. It was a rough explanation, but it was what he was given. His fur was infused as well and has stayed that way for well over two months now. So he knew it was possible to do it to items; he just needed to figure out how.

Lee looked through his Hidden Cache to find an item to experiment on. For a second, he had forgotten how much useless garbage he actually had inside of it. All of Em’s stuff was piled up neatly in a faraway corner, separate from his meager but useful items.

He could try experimenting on another piece of fur, as he knew it worked with those, but he had something else in mind. He hoped she didn’t mind, but Lee brought out Em’s enormous chunk of raw iron. It appeared in front of his hand and immediately dropped to the ground. The deep thump of its impact made several of the others look over toward him, including Em.

Em scuttled up to her treasure and rubbed a hand over it. All while giving Lee a narrowed eye glare. Lee sheepishly looked away and began his explanation with a little bit of flattery mixed in. “So… I want to try to mana infuse your chunk of iron. It’s one of your more valuable treasures, and I thought it would be even better if it were magical. Thoughts?”

Em’s glare shifted into a giddy and haughty façade. His flattery worked, and it appeared that she decided to bring back her regal tone for this conversation. “Ahh. I see. It is indeed one of my more extravagant pieces. It would do well for it to be magical, as is deserving of a queen.”

Lee simply nodded along with a slight forced smile. Then, he asked a question that he had been wondering. “That’s great. By the way, are you really a queen?”

Em nodded with all seriousness. “Yes. In my heart and to the spiders in Breye.”

Lee thinned his lips and nodded again. “Well, let me try to appease you, Your Majesty.”

Lee placed a hand upon the enormous hunk of raw iron ore and tried to force base mana into it. As soon as he did so, it felt like his mana hit a brick wall. The mana rebounded off with no effect and faded away into wisps of blue in the air.

Seeing as that didn’t work, he tried Glacial mana. Hoping that the expert tier would do the job. It also failed. There were no changes.

Next, he tried Earth mana. If he was working with a chunk of iron, he figured that Earth mana might have stood a chance. He closed his eyes and tried again. This time, he actually noticed a little bit of give. Instead of a brick wall blocking his path, he felt a thick membrane. Some of his mana entered inside, but most of it was still being bounced off and wasted.

He swapped his approach. Instead of forcing the mana within, he was going to slowly trickle it inside. He thinned his mana output to as low as he could manage, utilizing Mana Manipulation to add to the effect. The thin stream of Earth mana trickled inside, and Lee only stopped once he felt that the iron ore couldn’t hold anymore.

Opening his eyes, he looked down at the chunk of iron to find it glowing a faint earthy brown. It was barely noticeable, and it might have been just because he had Mana Sense, but there were immediate effects.

Em squealed like a kid on Christmas and heaved the heavy chunk of raw metal up into her clutches. She inspected it inch by inch, with a grin growing on her face. Once finished with her inspection, she gently placed it on the ground and turned to face Lee. “It’s perfect!”

Lee wiped a small bead of sweat from his brow as he checked on his mana.

MP: 64/475

Lee nearly gasped at how much mana it actually took. Yes, it was a large item, and yes it was his first try, but that was a lot of mana to use for a simple test.

Next, Lee used Identify on the infused ore.

Lee looked at Em as she scuttled around in circles over her new prize. “Can you use this?”

Em nodded quickly. “I can! I will be glorious.”

Completely lost but happy for his friend, Lee left her to it. He got what he wanted and perhaps found another way of making some money. He didn’t have much, but he didn’t spend much either. Someday, he will want a place to settle down. Thinking about the future and preparing for it now was better than waiting until the moment arrived.

Lee was about to sit back down on his furs when Annalise stormed into their camp. She was quick, but not as fast as Em. Lee immediately sprung upwards and snapped his fingers at Em. Who also noticed her coming.

Before he could speak a word of warning, Annalise spoke loudly with concern flittering through her voice. “Lee, your services are needed! Come quickly!”