During the ti she spent in her ntal library while asleep, Alice got to thinking.
The problems of Illvaria were indeed nurous, and Alice didnt have a way to interact with many of those problems. After all, she was a researcher, not a [General] or an industrial expert. The bottleneck on production of enchantnts, for example, wasnt one that Alice knew how to fix yet.
At least, that was what she thought at first. But while Alice was asleep, she realized that wasnt entirely true.
The biggest bottleneck on enchantnt production was the number of [Enchanters]. Alice used {Broken Seed} to allow [Enchanters] to get the magic seeds they needed to make system-related enchantnts. Alice could only use {Broken Seed} once every four days.
But what if there was a way to use {Broken Seed} far more frequently? Naturally, Alice was thinking about a particular type of enchantnt that could help.
System enchantnts.
Alice had largely assud that System enchantnts were out of her reach, except for with the aid of System Perks. After all, that was common sense for the people of this dinsion. To make a System enchantnt, one needed to be above level 50 in a production class and then take an appropriate Perk. But Alice realized that she might have a way to sidestep this common sense a bit. After all, the System was just a very complicated enchantnt that helped control mana. If that was the case perhaps Alice could make System enchantnts without the relevant Perks? Alice had already fused {Sciences Mana} and lost access to it, but that didnt an that it was hopeless to make System enchantnts. Alice had even gone through the process of making System enchantnts before, albeit aided by a Perk at the ti.
And System enchantnts were uniquely suited to fixing the limited uses of {Broken Seed} each week. Stat boosts were the most common type of System enchantnt, but System enchantnts could also grant people access to Perks they didnt normally have.
What if Alice could create a System enchantnt that let the wearer use {Broken Seed}?
In that case the number of [Enchanters] with relevant magic seeds would skyrocket. And the biggest bottleneck in enchantnt production would be fixed. After the visit to Cyra, they had more enchanting materials than they could currently make use of. If Alice could raise the number of [Enchanters] to et that need, they might actually make class-fixing enchantnts fast enough to cope with the onset of class-mana poisoning. A few people might fall into temporary madness as a result of their unfiltered mana but the damage could be mitigated by a huge amount. And it wasnt like the people who fell into mana-madness were dead. They lost their mind and their free will, which made Alice incredibly uncomfortable but they could still be restored to their original personality and after the fact. Previously, the amount of class-fixing enchantnts was so hopelessly low that it still barely functioned as a solution. But if Alice got a {Broken Seed} system enchantnt working, the entire problem would beco basically manageable. And from there, Alice would only need to replace the Systems function of creating class seeds, and all of the urgent fires from the collapse of the System would finally be put out. Or, at least, all of the fires Alice was capable of fixing.
With that thought in mind, Alice got to work while still in the midst of her dream library.
She was much less familiar with System enchantnts than she was with normal enchantnts. So Alice spent several minutes first reviewing the few tis she had created a System enchantnt. She hadnt made extensive use of {Sciences Man} before she had combined it with {Seeds of Ambition} to create {Systems Ambition}. But she had still used it a few tis, and she had even gotten so lessons from a [Tailor] to figure out how to use her new Perk. She rembered that System enchantnts relied a lot on doing sothing related to a certain idea while using the Perk. So she started thinking about what it ant to destroy a magic seed without harming the wearer.
As she worked, Alice felt a bit regretful at the fact that her only thod of naturally making a System enchantnt was gone. After all, it might have made things a little bit easier if Alice could try making a few more enchantnts. However, at the end of the day, it wasnt a big deal.
{Sciences Mana} wouldnt have been able to support what Alice was trying to do. The Perk just didnt have enough output to let Alice create a System Enchantnt that let people access a level 35 Perk. If Alice had reached level 80 in [Scientist], and then combined {Sciences Mana} with a [Careful Enchanter] Perk, it might have been able to do what Alice needed. But Alice a long way away from reaching level 80 in [Scientist], and her Perk had already been combined with another one.
So Alice spent several hours staring at an iron ring and sinking into her mories, while trying to replicate what her Perk had done.
Unsurprisingly, Alices first attempts at making a System enchantnt without a Perk were unsuccessful. Even after Alice started grabbing the System enchantnts she had laying around in storage, her first attempts to create a System enchantnt were disastrous. System enchantnts were complicated. They were way worse than regular enchantnts.
A System enchantnt was attached to basically had a bunch of mana inside of it that operated off of similar rules to the System seeds in her body lots of different kinds of mana were working together to create so sort of effect, and also to communicate with each other and make sure that everything that happened was working correctly. Which ant that Alice needed to sohow make an item accept a huge amount of different types of mana, and have those types of mana communicate with each other
Alice was beginning to understand why having a bunch of different mana types fused together into one magic seed was such a clever idea. With the right Perks or materials, it might let her totally cheat the usual limitations on enchanted items. Sadly, Alices System seed wasnt developed enough yet. She was still missing several mana types, and had no way of replicating exactly what a System enchantnt was doing.
So Alice started getting creative.
If Alice couldnt replicate exactly what the System was doing, at least not right now. But maybe it was possible to approach things from a completely different angle. She didnt need to perfectly copy the System, anyway. She just needed to get a solution that worked and didnt harm the user of her System enchantnts.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
So Alice turned towards artifacts. As far as Alice knew, an artifact was essentially a massive enchantnt that sohow had artificial magic seeds stapled into it sohow. And, if Alice was lucky maybe there was a way to make an artificial magic seed replicate the effects of her [Explorer of Magic] Class. Alice had no idea if that was possible or not, since Alice had very little understanding of artifacts. She had only seen a single artifact during her ti in Illvaria, after all.
So Alice went to ask Ethan whether it was possible to see the artifact controlling the rivers of southern Illvaria again. She wasnt sure if she was actually going in the right direction with her new idea, but it was worth trying. Even if she failed, spending a lot of ti and effort researching artifacts would surely help her level up her enchanting classes and her magic-related classes. If Alice got to level 85 in [Explorer of Magic], she could fuse {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Mana Modelling}, which would make research much easier and help her figure out the right path forward.
Thus, later that day, Alice and Ethan found themselves once again sitting in front of the artifact that controlled Illvarias southern canal system.
The first thing Alice paid attention to was the nature of the artifact itself. When Alice had first observed the artifact that controlled the rivers of southern Illvaria, she had noticed that the way the artifact seed to work was via a set of artificial magic seeds. One was related to water, and the other one was related to dirt. Then, several tendrils extended out of the room under the palace and into the distance, doubtlessly feeding into the canals themselves. The tendrils were made partially out of System mana, and System mana also seed to be sohow responsible for telling the artifact what to do. The artificial magic seeds that the Artifact relied on to function sowhat resembled class seeds. Alice grinned. Hopefully, that ant that she was heading in the right direction with her new line of research.
The System had started collapsing while she was in the middle of studying the artifact the last ti she was here, but without the imminent chaos of the Systems collapse looming over her, Alice found it notably easier to focus.
Alice watched as the artifact worked. Every few seconds, a pulse of System mana traveled through one of the tendrils and towards the large tal pillar that acted as the core of the artifact. Then, the tal pillar sent a pulse of mana back out of the room, through one of the massive mana tendrils, and into the distance.
Alice observed the magic tendrils for a mont, before she grinned.
Now that she had managed to create a half-baked System seed, she could see how so parts of the System mana were feeding information to the artifact. Math mana, pure mana, and a few mystery mana types were constantly feeding packets of data to the core of the artifact. They delivered information about things like the location of each canal, the soil near it, and a bunch of geological information that Alice didnt really know how to make sense of. As far as she could tell, the artifact was actually doing a lot more than she had first thought. It didnt just maintain the shapes of the canals in southern Illvaria. It sohow monitored the soil composition of the entire region, then used the canal system to send needed nutrients to the soil anywhere they were needed. It was an all-in-one soil managent enchantnt that covered the entire southern region. Alice wasnt quite sure where the canal system got those nutrients. Since the artifact didnt need any sort of external input, the artifact must be making them sohow but the exact chanics of how this worked werent imdiately obvious to her. In all honestly, Alice didnt care very much, either. Alice was already pretty sure that magic didnt obey conservation of energy, so creating matter just didnt seem that important to her anymore.
Still, even though Alice was glad that she could understand more about how the System tendrils worked now, she was struggling to figure out how she would create an artificial magic seed and thus expand the use of {Broken Seed}. There was just too much going on that Alice didnt understand here.
Alice sighed, before turning to the artificial magic seeds. In any case, Alice was very interested in artificial magic seeds for other reasons. The System clearly had so way of creating a magic seed so that people could have Classes. Perhaps Alice could finally get the class-creation of the System working again if she stared at the artifact for long enough?
After ten more minutes of trying and failing to learn anything new, Alice finally gave up. She turned to her side.
Ethan, who created this artifact? asked Alice.
If she couldnt recreate an artifact on her own, the easiest way to fix things was just to ask the creator of the artifact. In any case, Alice was perfectly happy to work with soone else while fixing the collapse of the System. Shed been shown, ti and ti again, that she couldnt fix everything on her own.
It was created by Demor, an [Enchanter] from one of the other Shil Confederacy mber-nations. Hes not from Illvaria none of the Immortals of Illvaria are capable of creating an artifact, said Ethan. While there are five larger nations in the Shil Confederacy that kind of run the confederacy, that doesnt an that none of the smaller nations have any noteworthy strength or Immortals. And most of those nations are eager to forge alliances with the larger mber-nations and keep themselves safe. After all, the Shil Confederacy might work together against outside threats, but most nations in the confederacy are also perfectly happy to invade their neighbors if given the opportunity. This creates a rather byzantine web of smaller alliances that the mber states take part it but anyway. I digress. The point is, at the ti, Illvaria and a smaller mber nation by the na of Morendia were allied, and the Illvarian [King] of the ti was rather invested in the creation of long-term magic artifacts. Since the Illvarian south was perfectly intact at the ti, and also one of the wealthier parts of the country, the Illvarian [King] felt it was a good idea to cent its food supply, since it needed a lot of imports from the north to survive on its own. So he hired so outside help. Ethan shrugged. Well, I think Doll worked on so parts of it too, but most of the work wasnt done by her.
Alice sighed. Of course it wasnt that easy.
Is it possible to contact Demor and ask him a bit about the theory behind artifacts? asked Alice. Im trying to see if theres a way to give other people access to the {Broken Seed} Perk I have access to. Making an artifact might be a solution to the problem.
Ethan paused, before he nodded. Its probably possible. The alliance between Illvaria and Morendia isnt as strong as it used to be, but the general reasons for the alliance are still valid. Morendia has Immortals who are capable and willing to help Illvaria in so things that Illvarias Immortals just dont specialize in. Their military is also pretty strong for a small nation. Illvaria and Morendia also sowhat distant from each other, so they dont have any territory that both nations dispute the ownership of. But theyre still close enough to help fight other Shil Confederacy nations.
Alice nodded. So we can invite him over here?
Ethan frowned.
Well that might be a bit more difficult. You see, the collapse of the System is almost certainly being felt by every nation on the planet right now. Nations that are weaker are more likely to turtle up and hide in their territory which makes it more likely that [Enchanters] and other non-combat oriented Immortals just wont leave their safe spots. Youre a bit of an exception, but Ethan shrugged.
Alice grimaced.
Ill send a few letters by the fastest [ssengers] we have available, but how do you feel about travelling to another country? asked Ethan.
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