Volume 5, Chapter 28 – Staff of Stone Shooting – Modified

However, since the wooden board had exploded, it meant that her steps were not wrong. The ink had been mixed just right, and there were no mistakes in drawing the magic circle. All that was left was to choose a material that could withstand the power of the magic circle.

Realizing this, Fia opened the storage box she had brought from the carriage and took out an uncarved silver staff with a light blue gem inlaid at its tip. This metal staff was also something she had brought from Blossom. This type of metal staff with gentle lines had relatively good magic conductivity and was not inscribed with any magic, making it very suitable for forgers like her who started with learning magic spells and were not yet skilled in forging magic components.

It was worth noting that general forgers all started with forging magic components because it was more cost-effective. A semi-finished staff like the one in Fia’s hand would cost several gold coins outside. To use it for practice was simply a waste. Not to mention a wealthy upper-class noble, one couldn’t afford this consumption.

This was where it really began.

Calming down, Fia used [Telekinesis] to move the staff aside, then covered the tabletop with something like a glass plate. Drawing a magic circle on a wooden board was just to let people grasp what a magic circle was. What she had to do now was to scale down the magic circle and inscribe it on the gem at the tip of the staff.

Except for some extremely special magic circles, most would integrate themselves into the gem once they were successfully inscribed. Unless the gem was destroyed, the magic circle inside would always exist. It sounded wonderful, but to inscribe a magic circle the size of a basketball onto a gem smaller than a fingernail, the lines of the magic circle would almost inevitably intersect due to being too close, thus ruining the entire circle. Therefore, some auxiliary measures were needed at this point, such as a magic item called a Transcription Plate.

The function of the Transcription Plate was very simple. To avoid frequent drawing errors due to the pattern being too small, magic forgers invented this item that allowed them to draw the magic circle on paper first and then transfer it into the magic gem, greatly reducing the difficulty of forging magic weapons.

That being said, Transcription Plates of different qualities could also cause problems. A good Transcription Plate rarely had transcription failures, while a poor one could have pattern misalignment or even complete transcription failure, making one lament the hardships of a novice forger’s start.

The glass plate Fia had just taken out was a Transcription Plate of good quality. After she gently placed the metal staff on it, the plate emitted a white light similar to an electronic screen, which was a signal that she could start drawing the magic circle. Then, following her experience from before, she first covered the plate with a special paper for making magic scrolls and then began to draw the magic circle with a pen.

It should be noted that if Fia adjusted the ink configuration a bit and removed the plate, she could directly use this paper to make a magic scroll. This was also one of the reasons why Fia chose the magic circle style; learning one would benefit the others.

She drew slowly and steadily.

Time passed minute by minute, and the only sound in the room was Fia’s breathing.

With her first experience, this time Fia only took five minutes to complete the drawing. She then pressed her palm on the plate to inject magic power. The paper on the tabletop quickly heated up and gave off a burnt smell, and finally, with a “poof,” it burst into flames and burned.

Correspondingly, the silver staff on the table began to tremble continuously, as if an invisible carving knife were inscribing a magic circle on it. The harsh buzzing sound made one frown. At the same time, the glass plate consumed a large amount of magic power. It wasn’t until an amount of magic equivalent to a Second-Tier spell was used that the silver staff gradually stopped trembling, and the light blue gem at its tip began to glow faintly like a firefly.

Success.

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Fia let out a sigh of relief. She picked up the magic staff and injected magic power into it.

In less than a second, the staff began to vibrate violently. The buzzing sound, accompanied by a tremor that made one’s palm numb, was reminiscent of Laevateinn after using [Overload], as if a grand spell was about to appear.

However, it had to be said that even if Fia continuously injected magic power into this staff for a whole day, it would not have any reaction other than vibration, because the effect of the magic circle she had inscribed was Vibration itself. Although the book said the most suitable magic circle for beginners was Drying, the formula for Drying was not beautiful enough, so Fia had chosen the more artistic Vibration.

“Hmm…”

Holding this constantly vibrating metal staff, Fia couldn’t help but have a strange thought. If she made this staff smaller and its appearance softer, it could probably be sold as a product to noblewomen in need, becoming a hot commodity in high society.

The reason Fia thought this was because, in order to teach Claire a lesson in Blossom—mainly because she was not convinced of her loss in Aurora City—she had secretly investigated similar devices. It seemed that because magic had a high status in this world, and sex was not something that could be openly discussed, even in the magic-revering Blossom, no one had connected the two. Therefore, there were no magic-driven sex toys.

If she were to make it, she would probably be given the friendly title of Friend of Women by the noblewomen. Vibration consumed very little magic power. As long as one had a little magic, they could use it. People could even continuously increase their magic power while using this staff, treating it as a self-improvement device.

Unfortunately, she was an elf princess and was not short of money. Otherwise, she would definitely promote this product to earn a steady stream of profits. Selling this idea to the Magician’s Association would be a good idea. Anyway, this item was harmless and could make people happy. Of course, putting aside the fact that she probably wouldn’t go, even if she did, it wouldn’t be as Dofilia.

“With [Telekinesis], this thing is useless to me… hmm?”

Just as Fia was about to stop the staff’s vibration, she suddenly noticed that it had become much hotter. This was not due to her body temperature rising from her fanciful thoughts, but the staff itself starting to heat up. And the closer it was to the gem, the hotter it got. It was obvious that the heat was being transferred from the gem.

It even has a heating function…

No, that’s not it.

If she wasn’t holding the staff, Fia would have wanted to slap herself.

What on earth am I thinking?

What she was thinking was why the staff was heating up on its own. She was the one who had inscribed the magic in it, so she knew better than anyone that it only had Vibration. There was no heating magic. In that case, this heat was strange.

As a soul from the Human Alliance, she naturally thought of this heat as energy loss. For example, magic flowed through the magic circle, and the staff that carried it did not have good magic conductivity. Therefore, some magic was lost in the process of circulation. This lost magic did not disappear into thin air, but was consumed in the form of heat, which was why she could feel the staff heating up.

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If magic really had this property, her problem of being afraid of the cold could be easily solved, especially when sitting in a carriage where fire magic could not be used. For example, she could paste a material with poor magic conductivity on the inside of the carriage and let magic flow through it. The lost magic would quickly warm the entire carriage. She could even use a wind-attribute-based magic circle with springs to make a simple suspension system.

For example, she could use monster materials to make a partition with good air tightness at the bottom of the carriage, and at the same time, inscribe a magic circle that could adjust the wind force on it. As long as she outputs magic power to the partition, the magic would circulate throughout the carriage, heating it and cushioning the impact from the road, reducing bumps, killing two birds with one stone.

However, this was just a concept. There would surely be various problems in practice. Putting aside the more complex suspension system for now, she should start with heating the carriage—no, since she could use magic to heat the carriage, why not just use magic to push it, so she wouldn’t even need horses.

“I’ll think about it after I learn to forge magic components.”

Continuing to imagine would be endless. Her homework for tonight was to make a presentable magic item. If she didn’t make something proper, the scene would become very awkward when her companions asked about it tomorrow.

Taking a new semi-finished staff from the wooden box, Fia began her second attempt.

◇

As expected, Fia achieved her desired result—a staff inscribed with a total of three magic circles.

Generally, the staves of the World Tree Continent would have two essential magic circles. One was [Magic Intensification], which increased the efficiency of magic circulation and reduced the loss of magic in the process. The other was [Elemental Affinity], which slightly amplified the power of magic. These two spells were almost universal, so they could be found on every magic staff.

After them came the active spells that were added to the staff, such as [Fireball], [Lesser Magic Shield], and [Heal]. In the hands of some more extreme forgers, a staff would even completely abandon active spells and have all the inscribable spots filled with magic circles that enhanced magic power and increased magic circulation efficiency, maximizing the power of the magic caster themselves.

However, the disadvantage of strengthening a single aspect was very obvious. It would cause the magic caster to lose the ability to deal with complex environments. Not everyone was proficient in all attributes like Fia.

For an ordinary person, it was impossible to spare the energy to learn mental or holy magic after learning elemental magic. Even with elemental magic, it was difficult to have time to learn water element magic after learning fire element magic. Most magic casters were considered remarkable if they could master two elemental magics. More people would often choose one path to the end until they became a famous figure in that field.

Therefore, if a magic caster couldn’t make up for their shortcomings with magic weapons and items, they would often face devastating consequences when disaster struck.

On this point, Fia chose the complete opposite direction.

She gave up on strengthening the magic caster’s own power and instead chose to combine various magics, eventually turning a spell with insufficient power into a lethal one. Fia’s staff was a product of this concept.

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The magic inscribed on the staff were [Rock Creation], [Acceleration I], and [Tiny Spatial Jump]. For example, if Tilulu held this staff and used the magic in the order above, the rock created, which was only the size of a fist, would first have its initial velocity increased by [Acceleration I], then pass through the [Tiny Spatial Jump] with a teleportation effect, and finally land instantly where Tilulu wanted it to. Both the speed and the power were considerable. The latter, in particular, was comparable to an old era anti-materiel rifle.

It was worth noting that if she had just copied [Rock Creation] and [Acceleration I] from the book, the effect of the staff would not have been so powerful. The reason it became so was because after making the initial version, Fia felt that its power was not as strong as she had imagined. She then thought about whether she could use [Hyper-computation] to optimize the magic circle, and finally came up with this result. [Acceleration I] increased the speed by 150%, and the [Tiny Spatial Jump], which could originally only travel ten meters, was extended to one hundred meters.

Unfortunately, after [Rock Creation] was enhanced by [Hyper-computation], its volume would become so large, with a diameter of nearly two meters, that it exceeded the tolerance limit of the [Tiny Spatial Jump] and could not be teleported. And for [Acceleration I] to accelerate an object of this size would cause a drastic consumption of magic power, equivalent to using a normal [Thunder Spear], so Fia had no choice but to keep [Rock Creation] as it was.

However, even so, this was still a staff of considerable power. By outputting an amount of magic equivalent to two or three fireballs, one could create a spell that threatened a Third-Tier warrior. It could undoubtedly be sold for a high price. And for a forger whose purpose was to study the magic circle inscribed in the staff, this price would be absolutely staggering. Fia planned to have Nagg and the others bring a replica of this staff back to the Elf Tower to strengthen Silvar’s national power.

For those who had long been immersed in magic research, a new idea often meant opening a new path. The value was not in the magic circle itself, but in the ingenuity and method of its construction.

As soon as the sky began to brighten, Fia eagerly pulled Tilulu and Anastasia along and headed straight for the empty ruin where they had trained last night.

Since the Snake-folk were unwilling to come out and move around after the weather turned cold, there was no one on the streets now. Thanks to this, Fia didn’t have to worry about being seen. The snow-covered open space made one feel much more cheerful.

“Your Highness, you’re out so early…?”

Compared to the sleepy Tilulu, Anastasia looked exceptionally energetic. She was an early riser, and getting up at this time was a normal thing for her.

Holding the Staff of Stone Shooting – Modified—a name Fia had given it—Fia gave a wry smile.

“Sorry, I wanted to ask you to cooperate with me in testing some magic items, and also train Tilulu a bit more.”

“Test magic items? Are they the ones you made in the basement last night, Your Highness?”

“Huh? How did you know, Anastasia?”

“When I returned to my room last night, I heard some noise from the basement, so I went to check. It just so happened that I saw you holding a staff and deep in thought. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I didn’t make a sound.”

“I see…”

She probably saw me holding that vibrating magic staff. Fia’s expression stiffened slightly. Fortunately, she hadn’t tried it out last night, or she would have followed in Anastasia’s footsteps.

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Feeling fortunate, Fia pretended that nothing had happened and handed the staff to the yawning Tilulu. Because she had just been dragged out of bed, Tilulu’s ears still felt warm.

“Tilulu, take this.”

“Teacher, what is this…?”

“You’ll know once you inject magic power into it. Use the ground over there as a target, so Anastasia can get a basic understanding of the staff’s power.”

Although a Third-Tier spell couldn’t possibly threaten Anastasia, there was always a chance of an accident. It was better to be cautious.

“Alright…”

Because Tilulu’s voice was weak and her long gray hair was a mess, Fia couldn’t help but ask with a smile.

“Tilulu, you don’t resent me for dragging you out of bed so early, do you?”

“Eh-eh?” Tilulu, rubbing her eyes, was stunned for a moment, then instantly woke up. “H-how could I! I couldn’t be happier that teacher is teaching me magic! How could I resent you? I just wasn’t fully awake! Let’s start now!”

As if making a declaration, Tilulu tensed her entire body and gripped the staff with both hands, exceptionally serious.

Then, as an earthy-yellow magic circle appeared on the blue gem at the tip of the staff, a black rock, larger than her fist, condensed in front of her. The next moment, before she could react, the [Acceleration I] inscribed in the staff took effect. The instant a greenish-blue light covered the rock, it shot out with an explosive sound, finally plunging diagonally into a snowdrift.

Bang!

Like a splash of water, snowflakes mixed with dirt and rubble flew four or five meters high. The loud noise startled the birds nearby, and their cawing and flapping of wings echoed in the silent snow, leaving only a deep, glaring crater to remind everyone of the violent impact that had just occurred.

Translator Note

this chapter…. im now an expert magic crafter! hmph-