Chương 435: (428) 6.42. Go With The Flow

"You made an artifact for me?" Vin asked, staring at Shia in awe. While he'd been handed artifacts by plenty of people before as thanks for helping them with different tasks, nobody had ever made him an artifact from scratch, even in all his time here on Edregon.

"Well, I made the start of one," Shia chuckled, poking a hole in the ground and gently placing the seed within, before covering it with dirt.

"To be honest, I'm not even sure if this is going to work. I'm planning to try and use my skill in coaching plants to grow in certain ways to create an artifact from the ground up. You're something of a test run, I've never tried this before."

"Just let me know what you need," Vin said excitedly, eager to witness Shia potentially grow an artifact right in front of him.

"How is this even going to work, though? You were the one who told me that artifacts needed to come from certain materials, like gemstones or magic-dense objects."

"That's half the reason I'm not sure if this is going to work in the first place," Shia admitted, staring at the disturbed ground where she'd planted the seed.

"I've already shoved as much mana as I dared into the seed itself, but that's just the very first step. While I'm coaching the seed to grow the way I want, I need you to imbue your mana into the very fiber of the wood. We're going to make our own magic-dense base for the artifact, while it's actively growing."

"Do you think we even have enough skill to pull something like that off? If turning regular wood into magical wood were easy, wouldn't all druids be wandering around with magic staffs?"

"I never said it was easy, but yes, I think we can do it," Shia said. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she stared hard at him as if running some calculations in her head.

"Your magic attribute has got to be at least around 70 at this point, right? Not to mention you snagged the Mana Well passive as well, so mana shouldn't be a concern. On top of which, your regeneration will factor in as well. I didn't ask if you were doing anything the rest of the day for fun, this is going to be an all-day process. I'm literally going to grow the staff one fiber at a time. We're going to be here for a while."

"It's actually up to 80 now. I just hit level 50 yesterday," Vin admitted, grinning as Shia's jaw fell open and she stared at him in shock.

"Making these bonded artifacts is the right idea then. I can't let you leave me in the dust like this," she grumbled, and Vin's ears perked up.

"Bonded artifact? I've never heard that term before. How does that work?"

"By imbuing your mana into the artifact from start to finish, it should bond the artifact to you. In theory," Shia added after a moment.

"My master had mentioned the concept to me off-handedly at one point, and I caught it while using Relationship Reflection to go back through some of my older lessons I may have forgotten. Then I did some additional research in the floating library, and now I'm fairly confident I can pull it off."

"So what does it do? Bonding an artifact, I mean."

"A couple of things. It should make the artifact stronger than it otherwise would have been, due to the sheer density of mana packed into it during the creation process. On top of that, it should only be usable by you and you alone, and you'll never be able to lose it either. You'll be sort of linked to it, in a way, and will always know where the artifact is."

"Alright, I do like the sound of all that," Vin admitted. Even now he missed his old fire-knife that he'd had taken from him by the rankers the same time he'd lost his staff. Knowing their hatred of weaponized artifacts, the knife had probably been either destroyed or hidden away somewhere. Other than his ring of barkskin, which he had given to Lumel ages ago to help bolster the frail pulmon's defenses, it was the only time he'd ever given up one of his artifacts.

"In that case, we might as well get started," Shia said, rubbing her hands together excitedly.

"For the record, I'm going to be pretty occupied during this entire creation process, so don't bother trying to ask me anything. I'll be utilizing my Split Focus passive heavily, devoting one half of my brain to the aspect of growing the staff, and the other half to keeping the runic formation stable and building upon it as it grows. All I need you to do is pump as much mana as you feel the staff can safely contain as we go, alright?"

"Dump mana into the staff, I got it," Vin nodded, just as eager to get started as she was. He briefly considered informing her that his mana pool was sort of limitless after his latest trip, before deciding against it. From the way Shia spoke, it sounded as if the artifact she'd thoroughly planned for would have its own limits, so his newfound ability didn't matter all that much at the moment. And even if that proved not to be the case, surprising her would be far more entertaining.

"Make sure you're in a comfortable position. We're going to be here a while," Shia said, cracking her neck and closing her eyes as she held her hands out toward the planted seed. Vin watched as delicate yet powerful tendrils of green mana reached out from Shia's core, pressing into the seed and beginning the lengthy process. Beyond the Veil allowed him to monitor exactly what she was doing, and he was so enthralled by the skillful maneuvering of both halves of her mind that he almost forgot about his own task.

Chiding himself for nearly messing things up before they'd even gotten started, Vin leaned forward, staring intently at the packed dirt. After a couple of seconds, a tiny, lone offshoot of wood grew through the dirt, reaching up and touching the air. The moment it appeared, Vin reached out, utilizing the practice he'd had shoving his mana into gemstones to push his mana into the wood right up until the point he could sense any more would cause the wood to crack apart or shatter.

Alright, so far so good, he thought, spotting another sliver of wood growing from the seed and imbuing that one with his mana as well. As the staff continued growing and Shia kept working, he quickly fell into a simple routine. Every few seconds the staff grew ever so slightly, and Vin would instantly fill the newest wooden fibers with his mana, shoving as much into them as they could take.

The lone bits of wood couldn't hold a whole lot of mana on their own, but he was literally imbuing every individual wooden fiber of the staff as it grew. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Calling what they were doing a slow process would be an understatement. Yet despite the fact that after a whole hour barely a few inches of the staff had been finished, Vin remained on the edge of his seat the entire time.

He wasn't sure what it was, but something about what they were doing called to him. It was almost like the mana itself seemed excited about what was happening, and that blanket excitement soaked into him as well. Vin couldn't shake the feeling that they were creating something incredibly special, and he was determined not to be the one to mess it up. One hour passed after another, and the sun slowly rose in the sky overhead before beginning to set, but Vin didn't even notice.

Every single one of his 80 points in focus were devoted entirely to the staff before him, ensuring the eager mana flowed flawlessly into the individual wood fibers. A fanger could have climbed over to him and started gnawing on his leg and he probably wouldn't have realized what was happening. The more time that passed, the more excited the mana seemed to become, and Vin's tunnel vision became something more.

Despite the fact that he wasn't using Introspection, the rest of the world seemed to fade into an endless black, as if only the growing staff before him was of any real importance. More… the staff called to him, magic pulsing from the tips of its roots up through the wooden grain, promising him it could take anything he had to give. More! Without even hesitating, Vin obeyed the staff, shoving even more mana into the countless fibers.

Some tiny, logical portion in the back of his brain screamed at him that he was going beyond what was safe, but the mana ordered it to be silent, promising him everything would be okay. It wasn't long before he nearly ran his mana pool dry, and yet still the staff called to him, crying for more. Who was he to disobey his newfound friend?

Almost without thinking, Vin began drawing on the mana surrounding him, pulling it straight from the Sacred Forest to replenish his own mana pool and continue dumping mana into the staff. He'd become little more than a conduit at this point, sucking in mana and filtering it within himself before carefully flooding it into the rapidly growing staff.

The smell of the dirt around him and the colorful spread of trees growing in the forest brushed against his mind as he borrowed their mana, but Vin was far too focused on his one and only task to stop what he was doing. Stronger… harder… the staff called, and Vin felt the mana searching for something. Something to turn it from an exceptional work of magic, to an absolute masterpiece.

He had finally satisfied its cravings for mana, but the staff was displeased with the very fibers it was being grown from at this point. He could almost sense the mana prodding him in the side, and Vin nearly lost his focus for the first time when he realized what it was trying to do. Beyond curious as to what was going to happen, Vin silently cast a specific spell, giving the mana what it wanted before returning his full efforts to the task at hand.

The world fell away once again and time seemed to blitz forward as he, Shia, and the mana itself worked in unison to create something unlike anything the universe had ever seen. The staff practically erupted from the ground before his very eyes as time lost all meaning and Vin lost himself in the constant cycle of breathing in mana from his surroundings and passing it straight on to the staff as it grew. And then, all of a sudden, it was done.

Vin gasped, snapping out of the trance he'd been all but trapped in for the last who-knew how many hours. Even with his incredible endurance attribute, his body was shaking and his chest felt raw, and he nearly fell to the side. To his shock, it was a gentle, wooden hand that caught him, and he glanced up to find Erik smiling down at him.

"Congratulations," Erik said softly, holding Shia steady as well with a hand on her shoulder as he beamed at the two of them.

"How do you feel?"

"Tired," Vin croaked. He reached for his enchanted waterskin and brought it up to his lips, only to drop it onto the ground and get water all over himself as he stared with wide eyes at the staff standing before him. Still firmly planted in the ground and reaching up what looked like almost six feet in length, was a long, beautiful quarterstaff that looked like a miniature version of the Tree of Ancients.

It appeared to contain hundreds of different types of wood spiraling up its form, each sliver a different color and texture, just like the countless trees scattered throughout the Sacred Forest. The staff radiated power almost unlike anything Vin had ever felt before, and he stared at the wood in awe as he accepted Erik's help getting to his feet.

"I've been watching the two of you work almost since the beginning," Erik admitted, his own eyes drawn to the staff standing proud before them.

"Though I didn't lift so much as a finger to help, for the record. This was all you."

"Wow…" Shia muttered. Trying to get to her feet, she stumbled, nearly falling over before Erik caught her. Holding a hand against the side of her head, she grunted.

"Gah, my head… I think I need to go sleep for a week after that. Even so, this alone just bumped me up almost two entire levels, so I think it's safe to assume I was right about what I needed to do. That said…" Shia turned to him, almost glaring at Vin as she thrust a finger at his chest.

"What did you do during the process? I was a little distracted with my portion of the growth, but I could tell you were doing something weird. You altered the wood somehow? And where in the world did you get that level of mana?! This thing is practically glowing!" In fact, that staff was glowing slightly, each spiraling ring of wood gently lighting up one after another as mana traveled from the base up to the top of the staff before starting the process all over again.

With the dark of night surrounding them, it was a mesmerizing display of power.

"I just did what the mana asked me to do," Vin admitted sheepishly, happy he hadn't let down his new friend.

"As to the wood and appearance, I may have borrowed a bit of mana from the surrounding forest, which would explain the look… and I gave up my petrified elderwood door." Sure enough, a lone, metal doorknob now lay in the ground, the only remaining piece of the door Vin had been carrying around within his Dimensional Sheath all this time. The seemingly indestructible wood was nowhere to be found, but Vin had a pretty good idea of what had happened to it.

Reaching out a tentative hand, he wrapped his fingers around the glowing staff, gasping at the spark of warmth and familiarity he felt wash through him as he lifted it. The staff released itself from the ground the moment he willed it, and Vin raised the staff, unable to believe how right it felt sitting in his hands. He didn't have any idea what it was capable of just yet… but he was excited to find out. Major arcane discovery! 20, 000 exp gained. New grand artifact discovered!