Andy in the Apocalypse [LitRPG System Apocalypse] 3.29 Distinguished

29 – Distinguished

Andy pulled another of Seraphine’s knives from his dinsional ring, concentrated briefly, and then used his Evaluate Material ability:

Material: tempered steel

Enchantnt potential: natural-moderate

Enchantnt capacity: 100/100

Most of the weapons he’d enchanted so far had been “tempered steel,” though so had been much lower quality—the system called them “low-carbon steel” or, in one case, “zinc alloy.” They couldn’t hold as much of an enchantnt, but there were only a few like that. It seed Seraphine had a pretty nice collection on her hands, overall. Well, she did; the weapons were Andy’s now.

He’d enchanted and re-enchanted every weapon in his possession quite a few tis. Every ti, he stood, looked around, and ensured nothing—nobody—was creeping up on him. In a way, he took it as a good sign that the world outside the glass box was stationary; it ant Seraphine had left it sitting sowhere while she, presumably, handled other matters—or looked for a solution to her rather large problem nad Andy.

He took a few minutes to scrawl his Glyph of Fate onto the blade, enchanting it three tis with three different effects, then he cast Strip Enchantnt. He set the now-mundane sword on the stack of other weapons he’d already enchanted and stripped.

Andy had done quite a bit of experintation, and it seed he gained slightly more than one percent of experience when he rotated the weapons rather than just enchanting and stripping the sa one over and over—an activity that often resulted in no change in the “Experience toward next level” value on his status sheet.

After a while, when he was closing in on sixty percent toward his next level, he got bored and pulled out his notebook—the one with all the notes on glyphs he and Lydia had taken. He knew she and Eduardo had gained skills from studying the glyphs; Andy hadn’t, but then, he hadn’t really spent a lot of ti and effort on the subject.

“Maybe this is the right ti?” He figured that if he could gain a new skill, it might be easier to gain Glyphwright experience by practicing it. None of his current abilities seed to be moving the needle very much.

All of that said, Andy found the smallest, sharpest knife among his stash of weapons and then took out one of his spare spears. The spears he used were all similar—long, angular blades made of hard, tempered steel attached in various ways—Lydia was always trying new techniques—to seven- or eight-foot hardwood shafts.

At first, he’d felt a little guilty taking five good spears with him, but the people of the sa were well stocked with weapons made by Lydia, Jas, and the other less-skilled smiths. There were more than a handful of that latter group—people eager to gain skill points as they dabbled with one crafting class or another.

About to carve one of the runes from his notebook, Andy paused as a thought struck him. He’d been hard at work trying to level up his Glyphwright class for what felt like hours. ntally, he reached into his storage ring and took out one of the steaks he’d packed away. He smiled when it ca into existence, resting comfortably in his palm. It was still cold to the touch.

He didn’t know exactly what it ant, but it seed his ring shared at least so of the strange magical properties of the glass box. The steaks were maintaining their chill, and hopefully, they’d stay just as fresh inside his ring as they had in the box. Satisfied that he’d at least learned sothing, he sent the steak back into his ring and then refocused on the task at hand.

Lydia had identified, either from Andy’s earlier notes or her own experintation, a rune that was ant to make sothing dense, and it was that strange, multi-pointed character that Andy first carved into the spear shaft. He took his ti, precisely carving out the shape with his fine-tipped folding knife. It had a very hard, very sharp blade, and Andy found it easy to work the smooth, hard wood with it. In no ti, he had the shape—perfect as far as his eye could tell—carved.

Nothing happened, but he hadn’t really expected it to—not yet. He knew from experience with his Glyph of Fate spell that the spear could hold two low-level enchantnts, so Andy perused the list in his notebook, and when he found a glyph that added shock damage, he carefully carved it into the haft beneath the first one. This rune was more complicated than the first, with a delicate curve at the upper-left corner, so he took his ti to make it perfect.

When he was done, he spent a minute staring around the glass-walled room, ensuring he was still alone, then he gave the two glyphs another pass with the point of his blade, deepening them and smoothing out their edges. Satisfied, he held his palm over his artwork and reached into the center of his being, ntally grabbing hold of the hot mana there and pulling it up, coaxing it into his hand and then thrusting it out into the glyphs.

Andy wasn’t so kind of genius, not that the maneuver would require a genius to figure out. Eduardo had told him about the technique—first discovered by Lydia and then copied by several others in the settlent. Just as the Scholar had promised, the glyphs, carved perfectly to shape the magical effects of the mana, absorbed it easily when Andy pushed it forth. The System took notice:

***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve learned the innate ability, Rune Carving.

Rune Carving – Innate: You can use tools or other ans to carve magical symbols into objects and imbue them with mana to create spell-like effects.***

***Success! You’ve enchanted the mundane spear with density and sparks, creating a Heavywood Spark Spear. This weapon will draw a small amount of mana from its user in order to deliver its magical effects with each strike. If the user does not have mana, it will perform as a mundane spear.***

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Andy smiled, hefting the newly enchanted spear in his hands. He hadn’t been aware that the enchantnt would function differently than those granted by his Glyph of Fate spell; rather than containing a certain charge of mana that would deplete with use, his manually carved enchantnts seed to tap into the user’s mana.

Eagerly, Andy looked at his status sheet at the “Experience toward next level” line: 72%. “Hell yeah!” he crowed, pumping his fist in the air. He’d gained over ten percent toward his next level.

Setting the spear beside him, he searched his ring for sothing else to enchant. He figured he could rotate through his spears, using his Strip Enchantnt spell to reset them one by one, but he wanted to do sothing new; it seed the System appreciated experintation—it certainly awarded experience like it did, anyway. His inner gaze drifted over the large sack full of precious tals, and a thought occurred to him. With a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he withdrew a nice, thick gold ring.

It was the kind of ring you pictured on a big, hairy knuckled guy who was very proud of the boat he took up to Lake Havasu every spring break and sumr. Andy chuckled; he had no idea where that image had co from, but he thought it was funny, anyway. “Gold’s soft, right?”

Nodding to himself, he used his Evaluate Material ability:

Material: high-purity gold

Enchantnt potential: natural-very high

Enchantnt capacity: 100/100

“Very high!” Andy whistled softly.

He wondered if he ought to try to get three runes carved into the soft tal. Of course, a tiny voice in the back of his mind whispered for him to go for four. He didn’t want to push it, though; he didn’t know what would happen if he enchanted an object or material past its limits. This wasn’t a safe little spell like Glyph of Fate; this was real enchanting. He was carving raw magical language into an object and pouring his mana into it. Maybe instead of just “failing,” it might blow up or sothing!

Thus, deciding on caution, Andy perused his notebook for three suitable candidates. He’d learned the Glyph of Defense as a spell, and he’d copied what it looked like into the notebook. Could he use it with his new Rune Carving skill? He only had a skill level of one—how would that limit him? Maybe there were so runes that were beyond his ability to charge with mana—

“Stop worrying and just try!” he hissed, irritated with himself. It wasn’t like he was sitting comfortably at ho; he was a prisoner with an unknown tir ticking down sowhere.

One rune settled on, he scanned the list further. A rune of light? “Why not?” He ran a finger down the list and settled on a third: a rune of warmth. Biting his lip in concentration, he painstakingly got to carving, using just the very tip of the sharp little knife to scratch grooves into the soft golden ring. At one point, he made a mistake, making a straight line too long, and he thought he’d ruined things, but then he gently used the knife’s edge to scrape away the offending groove, and it seed to him it looked just fine.

He moved on to the second rune, but he carved it before the defensive rune; for so reason, it felt like the “light” rune should go first. It was much simpler than the rune of defense, and he finished it quickly. That done, he stood up to stretch, looking around the room to ensure nothing was amiss before sitting back down to carve the rune of warmth.

Andy took several long minutes to compare his carvings to the patterns in his notebook, and when he was satisfied, he did what he’d done before. The mana coursed up in a warm rush from the center of his being, tingling its way down through his arm, and then out through his palm where he gripped the ring. Chis sounded in his ears—high-pitched and echoing through the glass room. The ring grew hot in his fist, almost to the point where he dropped it, and then it abruptly cooled to a comfortable warmth, and he saw the flesh around the seams of his fingers glowing faintly red.

***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve created a distinguished magical item! Maybe it was luck, or maybe you have a knack for this, but you’ve earned a multiplier to your creation experience. As a result, you’ve advanced to level 7 in your Glyphwright class, earning an Improvent Point and 20 maximum mana!***

***Success! You’ve enchanted the mundane golden ring, creating a Glowing Ring of Frost Defense. Dark, chilly nights will be far more bearable for the wearer of this finely enchanted bit of jewelry.***

Andy smiled, holding the golden ring before his eyes. It glowed with a soft, pale-blue inner light, and it felt warm to the touch. “Nice.”

Eager to see the fruits of his labors, Andy didn’t bask in the success of his enchantnt long. He sent the magical ring into his storage ring, and then he opened his status sheet, focusing on the twelve Improvent Points. At first, nothing happened, and his heart began to hamr as doubt crept into his mind. Had the Codex entry been mistaken? Had it been lying?

Then, with a faint shimr, the line wavered, and a subheading appeared, indented slightly: Evolution Points: 1.

“Oh, hell, yes!” Andy stared at the value, and a small ssage appeared:

***Well done, Andy! You’ve unlocked your first Evolution Point. You can use these points to break through an attribute or ability ceiling, provided you aren’t up against any hard limits. If you have a species limitation or require a certain prerequisite, your Evolution Point application will fail, and you’ll receive a ssage informing you of the limitation. Don’t worry, this won’t waste the point. In order to apply an Evolution Point, focus on the ability or attribute with the intent to do so.***

Andy stared at the ssage for several long monts, aglow with the satisfaction of accomplishnt. It was no small feat to gather twelve Improvent Points! He could have advanced skills or spells, and who could say what kinds of new abilities or even classes he might have unlocked in the process? Still, the prospect of breaking through his ordinary human limits with another attribute felt a lot more monuntal. That said, he turned his attention to his Perception attribute…and then the world outside the glass room seed to tilt.

The bright spot—the ever present light source out there, streaked away, only to be replaced by another that moved through the blurry field of view at a similar pace. Andy knew what was going on: Seraphine had picked up the box—well, soone had. Soone was carrying it sowhere. He didn’t have to wonder why; she’d co up with a plan—so way of dealing with Andy.

Knowing his ti was limited, knowing his gamble on the unknown Codex entry was hopefully within reach, Andy focused on his Perception attribute and applied his Evolution Point.

***Warning! Application of this Evolution Point will permanently remove twelve Improvent Points from your pool. Are you sure?***

Andy grinned, though with his teeth clenched it looked like a mad grimace. “Yes.”

Even before he finished uttering the word, the world exploded with buzzing, flashes of lightning. Andy’s skin erupted with fiery itches, and his brain vibrated in his skull as cascades of tingling prickles rushed through it. It was more than he could take, that assault on his senses, and he felt his consciousness fading away. He had ti for one thought before oblivion took him: I hope this doesn’t last long!