Mythshaper-Chapter 37: First Creation

Chapter 37: First Creation

"Why a flask?" I asked.

"Why not a flask?" Mum cocked an eyebrow.

"But a flask is simple," I said. "It only needs a couple of elementary runes, and that’s it."

"Which makes it perfect for your first creation, wouldn't you say?" she argued, and I saw valid reason in that.

For my first attempt at creating a Fabricator, I wanted it to be more useful, something more creative. But I guessed Mum was concerned with the likelihood of my success and failure and had decided on something simpler, which would give me a greater chance of success.

I looked at Diana for support, but the blonde-haired girl was too unfamiliar with our dynamics to share her opinions. She remained a step aside, watching us negotiate.

"A flask is great," Mum said. "It stores clean water and keeps it warm. Do you know how many people die from not getting healthy water?"

Well, there was nothing to say against that. I sighed, surrendering to her.

"So, do I have to make the container too," I asked, "or only the runes and threads?"

"Do you have any training in blacksmithing or even pottery?" she asked, shaking her head.

Between the time spent on meditation, swordsmanship, rune engraving, and my new shaper training, I barely had time to breathe, let alone take up another hobby. But of course, since I was delving into the path of runesmithing, I did need to pick up smithing. Rather, Essence Smithing, where I could mould metal and ore simply with intense fire shaping and telekinesis. Unfortunately, my fire wasn’t nearly strong enough.

"Go to your desk and make a design," Mum commanded. "I’ll do the smithing part for your creations for now."

Finding no point in sulking anymore, I trudged the few steps towards the desk in the workshop and opened a sheet of paper. With a flap of my essence threads, I picked up the Aetherbound Quillpen and spun it along my fingers while I mulled over the design in my mind—a habit I picked up from Mum.

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With the in-depth study I did on designs, I could map out one for a flask within a few minutes. That would be too easy, and I didn’t want that for my first attempt. Well, Mum asked for a flask design, but she didn’t mention it had to be the simplest.

A conventional flask required two elementary runes: Preservation and Heat. Not a fire conjuration rune, but simply Heat, which was in part both easier and harder to make than its superior counterpart. Even a simple fire rune was too much for a flask.

As it turned out, filtering the intensity of a rune was more difficult than people gave it credit for. Preservation runes too could be difficult, but the one we’d be using here was a simple elementary form that locked temperature from escaping. And finally, to put a cherry on top, I decided to add a Purification rune. There was no elementary version of it, so I had to make do with the intermediate form, which practically combined nine octagonal forms—one in the middle and the other eight surrounding its octagonal form.

By the time I put all that into the design, there was still half the room left to add more runes. I wondered what else I could add when a voice chimed from behind me.

"Where are you going to put the external core?" Diana asked, peeking at my work from over my shoulder.

I turned to her as though I hadn’t heard her.

"The flask," she repeated, "it would require an external core, wouldn’t it?"

"It will," I said, finally remembering why. Without an external core to power the runes, only Awakened like us shapers would be able to use the flask and its functions. A flask was a common object, so it was typical to make it utilitarian for everyone’s use. In my attempt to make it greater, the simple fact has slipped off my mind.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to scrap my schema. The flask had space enough to put all the runes I had already designed twice over, so there wouldn’t be a problem adding an external core at the bottom. All in all, it barely took a few minutes, but I still made sure all of it was completely in order before giving it to Mum.

"Not bad," she said and smiled lightly. "Looks like I can’t stop you from adding your flairs into the designs."

Giving a playful click of her tongue, she began her work of smithing the metal flask for me.

"Since it’s a simple fabricator, we only need a shard of essence core for it."

Saying that, she brought out a couple of metal ingots and a tiny white essence gem from her supplies. "Stand back and watch closely."

She didn’t even have to turn on the hearth for the smithing work, simply utilising her fire shaping to do the heavy lifting. Under Diana’s fascinated gaze and my more subdued one, her essence flame melted the metal in mere seconds, while she kept it all aloft using her telekinesis before moulding it into the shape of my design. The metal flattened under her control before joining into a cylindric form.

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No anvil or hammering was required. All of it barely took a couple of minutes.

"When were you able to do that?" Diana asked, envy crossing her face.

I wondered the same, though I feared it would take me at least a year. I could conjure fire, to threatening in degree, but it wouldn’t be able to heat metals to their melting point. And then there was the task of moulding the melted metal into shape, which looked far harder, to be honest.

Sixteen threads of essence weren’t nearly powerful enough to mimic what Mum had just shown me. She did it with sixty-four, though it should be possible with less.

"It’s easier than it looks," Mum said. "People have done it since ancient times. It merely requires some professional training and some more Weight."

"Can I do it too?" Diana asked, surprised.

Mum craned her neck towards her. "Well, since you don’t have transformation-type essence, you’d need a different method to conjure fire. It is difficult but very much possible. That is, after you’ve mastered the basics."

She was probably talking about Spellforging, but according to her, it was barely possible even at Noble class.

"Well, my work is finished," she finally said, stepping away for me to take centre stage. "Let’s see how you do on your first attempt."

The first task was to carve the essence veins. Although the flask had taken shape, it was still in its plasmic form, held together by Mum’s delicate essence control.

Bracing myself, I drew my essence threads quickly and guided them into the flask. My essence barely entered the plasmic metal before the high firepower burned it away, causing my eyes to widen sharply.

"You thought it would be as easy as eating a pie?" Mum grinned at me. "Try again."

I did, and found that no matter how much Weight I enforced, I could barely channel an inch of essence into the metal before it dissolved. After a few more failures, I turned to Mum. She watched me silently and didn't seem to be in the mood to provide even a hint.

Ultimately, she didn’t have to. I had seen her do the work countless times and figured out the way. I gave up on utilising the single threads to carve the veins and instead braided eight threads together to form two superior essence threads with my sixteen threads of essence.

This approach worked much better than my earlier tries. I reckoned it was because I could implement my Weight more evenly in the braided threads. But while the braided essence threads made the endeavour plausible, they also made it slow.

Thankfully, even after all my modifications, the design was simple enough that I merely had to carve straight lines into the metal. The first vein was the slowest, but once the second and third passed, I picked up pace, finishing all twenty-four essence veins in a matter of a quarter of an hour. After making sure they were equidistant and perfectly symmetrical with my fractal sight, I moved on to the next phase.

Mum held the flask steady while I drew the rune formation on small stencil papers. I could have directly engraved the runes on the flask but decided to play it safe for my first time. It wasn’t that there was a huge quality difference between directly engraving and using stencil papers. Perhaps it mattered for a weapon which required intense essence transfer, but the flask was definitely not one such fabricator. Too much transference of essence would literally melt the metal.

The runes from the stencil paper integrated into the flask's form almost perfectly as I wrapped it around the cylinder and infused my essence. Where they didn’t, I used my engraving pen to correct them, and then finally fine-tuned the twenty-four synapses between the essence veins and runes to finish the product.

[A new way is accessible: Artificing I (1/10)]

"Is it complete?" Diana asked, and seemed to hold the same anticipation before I even began. "Did it succeed?"

"Of course, it did," Mum said, her voice filled with pride.

The whole process took a bit of time, more than half an hour, but it was rather simple. Then again, if I’d done the smithing part, it would have taken me at least two hours.

"Now the question is, how much will it sell for?" I asked.

"Hmm," Mum hummed. "I would give fifteen silver leafs for it." Saying so, she caught her purse with telekinesis and handed me the money.

I gave her a questioning look, confused as to why she deemed it necessary to give me the coins.

"I think you’re at the age where you’ll need some pocket money of your own spending."

I looked at the coins in my hand and thought about the books I could buy with them—not that I spent much time reading anymore, not with my Shaper training taking more time to progress. Still, it felt surreal to earn that much with barely half an hour of work. A common worker had to labour all day and still wouldn’t earn even half of what I’d just received.

"Besides, weren’t you thinking of making something for Emi and Rose? These coins will help. Just don’t spend it all on some whims."

While I stored away the wealth in my pocket, Mum turned her gaze towards the clock.

"Looks like we still have time for another fabricator," she said before shooting a meaningful look in my direction. "Hmm, perhaps something tailored to your liking?"

"Something like a sword?" I asked, hope lighting up in my eyes. Maybe I could make a real magical sword for Eran, but I didn’t think his parents would appreciate my work. We were not of the age to wield real weapons, after all.

"You could," she replied, "though the ones you’d make now wouldn’t be… efficient."

She explained that artisans are advised to start with easier, more utilitarian projects—objects that have great demand—before moving on to more difficult creations. Weapons were usually a difficult project since merely elementary runes didn't cut it.

Mum hesitated then finally added something that made me pause.

"And there’s also the question about the philosophy of creating a weapon."

"What philosophy?"

Mum’s eyes grew serious as she looked into mine. "Pumpkin, you need to understand that, unlike this water flask, a sword can do both good and harm. A good person can protect others with it, but an evil one can cause more damage than you can imagine." Her expression grew more grave. "Life would be easier if, as the creator of the weapons, you didn’t have to care about what others do with it. But you will care, at some point. I’m sure of it."

My brows furrowed as her concern sank in. I had never thought about this perspective before. But I had never created a weapon before either. Perhaps Mum had deep scars from her experiences, prompting her to share such things with me early on, but that didn’t mean I could dismiss what she said.

Someday, I might not want to sell my creations to others. But someday, I might have to, for one reason or another.

"It has always been a constant negotiation with myself." Mum rested on a chair, exhaling briefly. "I guess that’s the constant battle we artists face every day."