Chapter 11

  After lots of frantic running and some complicated magic, Aster’s head was preserved and then reattached by the school nurse. Without Sgt’s time magic, they had to rely on healing instead of a time rewind. The Spellcraft teacher, being a Fire type, had healing magic but only for themselves, not for others.

  Dying three times in one day. Was the Void Wyrm really inactive? Or was he just incredibly stupid? Who could say?

  Lena helped him sit up from the bed after the nurse applied an astral green salve to his neck. The salve spread over his wound, causing it to close at a visible speed. The sensation was strange—a mix of cool numbness and sharp tingles.

  “So the Mashe family was the one who infected you?” Lena asked gently, careful not to set him off again.

  “That’s what Matter said,” Aster muttered, rolling his shoulders to test his newly reattached head. “I saw another member when the Celestials talked to me. Are they strong?”

  Lena hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “She’s the No.1 contender for the strength ranking in our year. Her great-grandfather is on the Celestial Council, and her family’s influence stretches all over the Archipelago, the Caverns, and the Wilds. They are not to be trifled with.”

  Aster took a moment to process that. He was weak—far too weak. If he had no chance of taking on Ziya right now, he certainly had no hope against the Mashe family itself. He clenched his fists. He needed to become strong. Strong enough to save Anathi. Strong enough to avenge his parents.

  Ziya would be his first goal. If she was expected to be No.1 in the Initiate Tournament, then he would be the one to push her down to No.2. He would take her spot. And he would show the Mesha family that he meant business.

  Seeing Aster grip his blankets, his expression shifting from defeat to determination, Lena knew he had made a decision. The road ahead would be long and treacherous, but she sensed a power in him that gave her hope. He just needed the right guidance.

  “Since we’re stuck here waiting for you to fully heal, why don’t we go through the basics of Spellcraft?” she suggested.

  Aster perked up at that. “Yeah, let’s do it.” He nodded enthusiastically—and his head nearly wobbled off again. The nurse shot him a sharp look and applied another layer of the salve before sighing in exasperation.

  Once he was stabilized, Lena took out a large leather-bound tome, flipping to the first page with a large diagram, consisting of seven overlapping circles filling the page. One circle rests in the center, with six surrounding it.

  “The entire Astral Plane,” Lena begins, her voice calm and measured, “is composed of Elemental Aether—seven primary typings, each with seven subtypings. By absorbing this Aether, we can reconstruct it, allowing us to mimic the natural forces that shape our world.

  "As you saw in Cultivation class, the Aether you absorbed was inert—raw potential adrift like cosmic clouds, filled with possibility but lacking the structure needed to manifest that potential. That structure comes from runes. They are the language of existence, the force that shapes the raw chaos of Aether into the countless forms of life and matter that make up the Astral Plane.

  "You can think of Runes as the fundamental instructions of reality, the built-in code that dictates the laws of the universe. They are the DNA of all existence. Every object, every energy, every living being—everything you see, hear, or touch—is formed and governed by this language.”

  Aster furrows his brow, trying to wrap his head around it. “Wait, so you’re saying the universe has a written set of rules?”

  Lena nods. “Exactly. Aether—the energy that permeates everything—follows instructions, a set of rules embedded in the very fabric of existence. These instructions are encoded through runes, a universal language that dictates how matter behaves, how energy flows, how things grow, change, and interact. By practicing spellcraft, we’re simply learning to speak it—to shape it.”

  Aster exhales, the gears in his mind turning. “So, if we think of the world like a giant program, then the runes are the code that makes everything function?”

  Lena’s lips curl into a slight smile. “That’s exactly it. Think of the Astral Plane as a vast, living system, and runes as the code that dictates how everything within it behaves. They govern everything from the smallest atom to the largest celestial body. They tell energy how to behave, how to form into matter, how to interact with the forces of nature.”

  Aster leans in. “And we can access that language?”

  “That’s where the Spirit typing comes in,” Lena explains. “Each elemental typing has a Spirit subtyping, right? That’s because Spirit Aether isn’t just another form of energy—it’s the very substance from which the universal language of runes is made. When we manipulate the Spirit energy of our typing into the right forms, we’re essentially writing those runes into existence.”

  Aster’s eyes widen as the concept clicks. “So, Spirit Aether is the raw material that makes up runes, and by shaping it into the right characters, we’re recreating the same language that governs the Astral Plane?”

  “Exactly,” Lena affirms. “When you open your gates and draw in the subtypes of your element, you’re pulling in the raw materials that make up the world. The Spirit subtyping acts as the medium through which you tell that raw material what form to take and how to behave.”

  Aster’s expression is one of awe. “And how do we learn this language? How do we know what runes to use, how to write them?”

  “That’s where it gets interesting,” Lena continues, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “We don’t have to start from scratch every time. Since the runes are universal, they already exist everywhere—in nature, in living beings, even in the environment itself. And because this language is woven into reality, we can copy it. There’s a spell that allows us to harvest runes directly from the world around us.”

  Aster frowns. “Harvest? How does that work?”

  Lena smirks knowingly. “We can extract the runes that are embedded in nature. For example, if a creature uses a fire-based attack, we can cast a spell to harvest the specific runes used in shaping that energy. We essentially ‘copy’ the runes that define how that energy behaves, then store them in our Mindpalace for later use.”

  Aster’s jaw drops. “So… we can steal spells from creatures?”

  “Not just from creatures,” Lena corrects. “We can harvest runes from anything—plants, the earth, even nature itself. Anything that follows the universal language of runes. It’s like collecting pre-written code that we can then use to write our own spells.”

  Aster shakes his head, still in disbelief. “That sounds powerful...”

  “It is,” Lena agrees. “But can also be quite dangerous, but it isn’t taking in the runes that’s dangerous—it’s in understanding them. Just because you can steal the ‘code’ doesn’t mean you know how to use it. If you don’t understand how the runes interact, or if you channel the wrong energy into them, they can spiral out of control quickly. So Spellcraft isn’t just about having access to the language—it’s about mastering it. Only once you fully understand the runes of your element will you be able to create your own spells. For now, Initiates like us focus on mimicking what already exists.”

  She raises a hand, and from her palm, a small flower begins to bloom, its petals unfolding as if following an invisible command. “Take this flower. I used my Wood Spirit Aether to create the necessary runes. Then, I arranged those runes and applied them to the Aether from the Growth, Transmutation, and Regeneration subtypings to replicate nature’s processes. The flower is just a manifestation of those runes working together. The more we understand the language, the more precise we can be in our creations.”

  She flips through the tome and stops at a page filled with intricate runes, not one alike. “Each element—each typing—has its own set of runes. These are the runes for Conflagration, a subtype of Wood. Every subtype has its own alphabet of roughly 150 characters.”

  Aster does the math in his head. ‘Thirty-six subtypes, each with 150 runes—that’s an alphabet of roughly fifty-four thousand characters.’ He whistles. “That’s insane.”

  “Yeah, it’s a lot,” Lena admits, “but at our level we luckily don’t have to craft spells from scratch. Instead, we rely on Glyphs—predefined sequences of energy commands bundled under a single action.”

  “Like an app,” Aster says, catching on.

  “Exactly,” Lena confirms. “Just like an app executes a series of pre-coded functions with a single tap, a Glyph is a stabilized formula—a sequence of commands that arranges energy in a specific way to produce a desired effect. The challenge for Initiates like us isn’t in designing new spells, but in learning to replicate and use existing ones correctly. Mastering Glyphs means knowing how to call upon them efficiently, channel the right amount of power into them, and modifying them within safe limits when necessary.”

  Aster takes a deep breath, absorbing everything she’s said. Finally, he looks up, determination in his eyes. “Alright… so where do we start?”

  “First, we need to access your Mind Palace,” Lena said. “Where the spells are crafted and stored. It’s similar to entering your Dantian, but It’s located in your head, near your third eye. Focus your Will and try to find the entrance.”

  Aster closed his eyes, feeling his consciousness drift. He traced along his Astral Vessel, past his Dantian at his stomach, beyond the Void Wyrm’s domain in his chest, and up towards his head. There, he found a distinct space—similar to his Core, yet different. He pushed at the entrance… and suddenly, he was inside a vast, empty void stretching into eternity.

  Lena appeared beside him, making him jump.

  “Good, you’re in,” she said. “Now, let’s craft a spell. You absorbed the Fluid Aether in Cultivation class, right?”

  Aster nodded.

  “I want you to locate the gate where it entered. This gate now that it has been activated, is able to absorb it’s Aether typing from the surrounding space allowing you to pull it into yourself and storing it into your Mind Palace, the more it opens, the more you can draw from it. Feel the gate, draw from it, the gate will do the rest” Lena instructs.

  Aster nods, as he starts to focus, finding the small gate in his groin where he had absorbed the Fluid Aether. He connects his will to it and feels the energy it contains, grabbing onto the essence flowing from it and pulls it into his Mind Palace, where the Aether forms as a blue mist as it slowly starts to trickle into the connection he formed, lazily drifting around them in the Mindpalace.

  “This Aether will now be stored in your Mindpalace where it will be forming the building blocks for the spellscript to take shape from, now let’s get you a spell,” Lena says as she starts to flip through the heavy tome, her fingers gliding over the worn pages as she searches for a suitable Fluid spell. After a moment, she finds one and turns the book toward Aster.

  "Alright, this is the next step," she explained. "In front of you is a basic Fluid spell. It allows for the fundamental properties of water manipulation—forming a water whip you can use to strike or defend. Now, use your will and try to sense the Glyph imbedded in the page."

  Aster focuses, channelling his will toward the parchment. At first, nothing seemed to jump out at him, but as he sharpened his awareness, he senses a subtle shift occurring at the centre of the page. He probes deeper, his perception homing in on a small spherical shape embedded at the core of the text. Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind and finds it—a Glyph suspended in the centre of the page surrounded by a strange, energy-like membrane.

  A sense of reverence mixed with curiosity swelled in his chest as he guesses the next step and wraps his Will around the sphere. Tentatively, he tugged at the Glyph, testing its boundaries. To his surprise, the sphere responds, shifting ever so slightly under his control. Encouraged, he applies more pressure, drawing the Glyph toward him. The gelatinous aura surrounding it stretched and elongated into a luminous tether that still anchored it to the page’s centre.

  With careful precision, Aster continued pulling, guiding the sphere across the invisible threshold into his Mind Palace.

  The instant the essence fully crosses over, his consciousness is again wrenched into the void once more. Lena is standing beside him as she watches with approval. In front of them, the small glyph hovered, still attached to the book by a nearly invisible strand reaching out into the distance.

  Aster took a cautious step closer, captivated as the sphere’s rune began to swirl, a miniature whirlpool forming at its centre. Slowly, with the grace of the universe breathing life into existence, the sphere elongates, stretching itself into an oblong shape.

  The centre pinches inward, much like the delicate waist of an hourglass, as the Rune and jelly like essence begins to cleave itself in two. Aster gasps as he recognizes the mesmerizing process of mitosis, as each deliberate movement seemingly copies the exact process of division where single cell organisms split from one into two.

  Gradually, two distinct spheres emerge, each a mirror image of the other, pulsating with the shared knowledge and wisdom of the original. As the division completes, a burst of ethereal light marks the birth of the new sphere. The original sphere’s energy, now much diminished but still glowing, is dragged back out of the borderless expanse by the tether still connecting it, leaving only the copy behind.

  Curious, Aster’s consciousness reaches out to the Glyph, as this newly formed sphere, now separate but identical, opens to him with the completed spell prominently projecting from it in a radiant display, an exact copy of the spell that was displayed on the page.

  Lena beamed. "That was flawless!" she praised. "You’ve successfully stored the Glyph. Now, it's time to cast it!"

  Aster exits his Mindpalace as he returns to his body so he can continue with the next step.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Since you can’t naturally access the energy of this spells typing, you’ll need a core to power the Glyph,” Lena explains, producing a small, round pearl that shimmered with the same deep hue as the Aether Aster had stored in his Mindpalace, “an F minus grade Fluid-Mouse Core, because of your Spirit typing you’ll be able to craft the spell, but without the Actual Fluid Aether you wouldn’t be able to power it, this is where this core comes in, being of the typing you need to power the spell, it will form a gate which you can channel faith into, creating the needed energy for the spell in the process”

  “Wow, who would have thought I would need to spend money to cast spells while other just naturally are able to” Aster mumbles sarcastically but attempts what she asks.

  Locating the Faith spell easily enough again, he connects it to the pearl and feels the familiar pull of his Faith surging into the pearl as it began to glow and hum with energy.

  “Good, now channel that energy into your Glyph.”

  Aster does what she says as he drags the converted faith’s path to his Mindpalace and connects it to the newly formed Spell.

  The moment the energy connects, the Rune starts to hum as it suddenly draws in all the Fluid Aether Aster had been able to store at that point. The Rune begins to darken and shine as a pressure suddenly radiated out from it, suffocating Aster and causing him to feel like it was going to explode in his head. He barely held it together, gripping the Glyph with only his sheer Will.

  “Move the spell out of your Mind Palace and into your palm. Then, let go while aiming it at that wall.” She points at the wall across from them.

  Aster complied. As he draws the Glyph’s explosive power towards his palm, creating an opening and allowing the power that was threatening to overwhelm him to be released.

  The instant he releases it; a deafening roar fills the room. A torrent of water erupted from his palm, slamming into the far wall. The force so overwhelming, that Aster lets out a yelp as the pressure knocked him off his feet, sending him skidding backward towards the back wall. Panicked, he extended his other palm, creating a second outlet for the Glyph and unleashing a second stream.

  For thirty seconds, he was pinned between his own power and the wall before the spell finally ran dry.

  Lena rushed over. “I didn’t expect that to be that strong!” she exclaimed.

  Aster just lay there, breathless, a manic grin spreading across his face. “That… was insane,” he whispered. “I just cast my first spell!”

  And then he promptly passed out, forcing the nurse to rush over once again.

  _________________________________________________________________________________

  Aster finished the rest of his lesson under the watchful gaze of the nurse. Not that it mattered much—his gate had already absorbed all the Aether it could, and he needed time to build up enough again before casting another spell. Still, the knowledge that the glyph was now stored in his Mindpalace made him feel like he had taken another step forward.

  He had already decided—he would decipher the Runic Alphabet as quickly as possible. The thought of understanding the very foundation of the Astral Plane was too tempting to pass up.

  With the basics covered, Lena left Aster to rest, waiting for the bell to ring and signal his next class—Artificing. For the first time since Matter’s death, he found himself with a moment of quiet.

  Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the ring and the letter he had been given.

  The letter was written on ordinary paper, free of any magical presence. As he unfolded it, his eyes traced the handwriting—the same as the note he had found weeks ago. His heart clenched. Swallowing hard, he began to read.

  Dear Aster,

  If you’re reading this, then I have unfortunately passed on. For you, our time together may feel brief and unfamiliar, but for me—who has watched over you from the shadows since you were a baby—every moment spent with you was a gift I never thought I would have.

  You have your father’s strength and your mother’s determination, and I see them both alive within you. So strongly, in fact, that being around you felt like standing beside them once more. They would be endlessly proud—not just of what you have endured, but of how you have risen despite it.

  A long journey lies ahead of you. The suffering you’ve faced has tempered you for what’s to come, and the burden you now carry is like no other. But you do not bear it alone. Though your family lost everything on the Material Plane, they were able to seal away your inheritance within the Astral Plane—a dimensional rift housing your father’s family treasures, the foundation from which you may rebuild what was lost.

  Yet, it will not be handed to you freely. Each level of your inheritance is locked behind trials meant to shape you, to forge you like steel through fire, force, and extremes. Only by overcoming them will you truly be worthy of what lies within.

  To start your first trial, you must learn to see what you’ve lost. Only by looking to the past will you be able to grasp the future. If you wish to reclaim what was taken, you must start where all things began. Some doors can only be opened by the hands that once belonged there.

  With much love,

  Matter

  By the time he reached the end, Aster was crying freely.

  He had never truly had people who cared for him before now—not like this. The love and warmth in Matter’s words made his heart ache in a way he wasn’t used to, like an old wound reopening under a gentler touch.

  Sniffing, he wiped his tears and took out the ring, pressing his will into it.

  Nothing. No pulse, no energy, no threshold. It was just… a ring.

  Frowning, he read the last paragraph again.

  Something about it felt intentional, like Matter was trying to tell him something—but he couldn’t quite grasp it yet.

  One thing was certain, though. He had to find his family’s inheritance. He would orient himself to this new world, and then, as soon as he was able, he would begin his search.

  _________________________________________________________________________________

  Aster rushed through the last mirror, weaving through the corridors in a desperate attempt to make it to class on time. The Nurse had initially refused to let him leave, arguing that the spell hadn’t finished its healing process yet. But after some persistent arguing on Aster’s part, she had finally relented, applying another layer of healing salve before sending him off.

  Just as the second bell rang, he slipped through the door, breathless but victorious. His eyes swept the room and quickly landed on Yani, who waved him over to a table at the back. It was cluttered with bubbling glass tubes and an assortment of equipment he had never seen before. As he approached, he was once again struck by just how short she actually was—more than a head shorter than him, petite and unassuming. It was still difficult to reconcile this small, friendly girl with the same person who had crushed Larson beneath layers of stone armor.

  "Congrats on the victory against Larson. That fight was something else," he ventured nervously.

  Yani’s face immediately lit up at the praise. "That was nothing! I was holding back by quite a bit. No point in stacking the odds too much in your favor—it makes the winnings I get from betting on myself that much larger!" she admitted proudly. “Are you staring to believe the Spirit typing wasn’t as weak as you first thought?”

  He couldn’t help but nod vigorously. Yani laughed.

  "Most of the strength I get from Spirit Typing comes from the artifacts I use. It’s not the only way to gain power, but it’s certainly an effective one. You did the basics of spellcraft with Lena, right? I’m assuming you used a core to perform the spells?"

  Aster confirmed with another nod.

  “Good, so you should understand some of the foundation we’ll be working with, let’s begin.” She turns to the worktable they were sharing filled with a collection of different equipment and materials laid out over it “An artifact is more than just a weapon—it’s an entity, something between the physical and the metaphysical fused into a piece of equipment that can be wielded through your combat scripture. Short-term, it's one of the most effective ways to gain power. The downside is that unless you have a self-cultivating artifact—which is rarer than chicken teeth—you’ll need to constantly upgrade and refine new equipment.”

  "Now, an artifact consists of four main components: the spirit, the material, the script, and the core." She pointed to various items on the table— an ethereal dagger shimmering like mist, a claw made from magma, a runic diagram on a parchment, and a small burnt-orange core. "Each part has a thousand different preparation methods, and each method affects the artifact’s strength and quality. Today, I’ll show you how to prepare the material, inscribe the spirit, and connect everything through the core. That should give you a foundation to study the rest on your own."

  “Now let’s start with the most important aspect of an artefact, it’s spirit. Most people gloss over the spirit in favour for the material, you can just purchase spirits while materials are much more expensive and difficult to come by, but without a deeper understanding of spirit, you’ll never be able to progress Artificing to Artefact crafting past the B grade” she pauses to make sure she has his attention.

  "Have you ever heard of the term coined by Plato called the 'Realm of Forms?'" she asked.

  Aster tilted his head. "The idea that everything we see is just a shadow of something more perfect? Some idealized version of itself?"

  “Yes that’s correct, but it’s also more than that." Yani’s voice took on a reverence as she continued. "The Realm of Forms isn’t just an abstract idea—it’s a type of Node, like a vast conceptual archive existing in the Noospheric Tether, a kind of internet of human consciousness that overlays both the Astral and Material planes. Every object, every concept, is linked to this node. Every time we create something, we create a tether connecting that item to its ideal form—that tether compels the object to strive toward its ideal state, but never quite reaching it. This struggle, this process of trying to bridge the gap between reality and the ideal, is the spark which creates an artefact spirit."

  Aster frowned in thought. "So... because we're shaping a dagger, it naturally forms a connection to the ideal version of what a dagger should be, giving it a form of identity?"

  "Yes, but it doesn't stop there," Yani said as she lifts the spirit dagger, holding it between her fingers. "the ideal Form isn’t just a distant, unreachable perfection—it’s the blueprint, the very essence, like the DNA of what a thing is meant to be, this dagger isn’t merely striving to become its perfect self—it’s also shaping its identity in its own way, growing, adapting, and forging its own path toward an ideal shaped not just by its nature, but by its material, its wielder, and the world around it. It isn’t just chasing its predecessor, it has become its contender, the spirit seeking to surpass the very idea that birthed it. Over time, this creates something akin to a consciousness—a persona. But that’s not something you need to worry about now."

  Aster was silent for a moment. "So... crafting a dagger doesn’t just mimic the ideal—it connects to it. But instead of becoming only a copy, it grows into its own thing, shaped by how it’s used, not just following a blueprint... but becoming something new?"

  “Exactly, the materials used, it’s wielders intentions alongside thousands of other factors help to shape an entirely unique identity when that initial spark is incorporated into the rest of the Artefact, this spark is referred to as the artifact spirit.”

  She moves to the next item, the Talon. The surface of the talon shimmered faintly under the workshop's enchanted lights, shifting between molten red and obsidian black. It looked as though it had been frozen mid-swipe, still carrying the lethal intent of the monster it once belonged to. “Now that we’ve gone over the spirit, let’s discus the body” she picked up the claw, turning it in her hands. "This came from an F-grade Magma Lizard. It had a powerful magma slash technique, which we’ll imprint into the dagger using this parchment, alongside a Magma Core harvested from a Magma Toad. The toad had a larger energy reserve, which means, with the right preparation, we should be able to craft an E+ grade dagger. With your lack of experience, you’d be lucky if you can get an F+ artifact."

  "Next is the script." Yani picked up the blank parchments. “Are you aware of how runes and glyphs can be found all around us in nature and that we can see and copy them through the right spells?” Aster nods recalling Lena’s explanation not an hour ago. "This is one of those spells, it allows us to harvest a Glyph imbedded into the Material we’re working with. This will allow us to seal it onto this page and imprint it into the artefact spirit allowing it to unleash attacks by its user in an instant. It’s called Runic Scribing, and it allows us to pull a spell directly from a monster’s remains, translating it into something we can store, modify, and transfer. For lower grade artefacts a script only translates into an attack or two, but if you can learn how to write your own script, you can program incredibly complex functions inside an artefact, resulting on something more akin to my Rock Fortress artefact I use myself.

  Now for the last part, the very heart of the artifact, the fuel and power needed to drive it, the core."

  She picked up the burnt-orange orb, rolling it between her fingers. "A monster core is its heart—its center of power, the source of its energy and will. It’s the crystallization of everything that made the creature strong, condensed into pure Aether. When we fuse a core into an artifact, we’re giving it a power source, something to draw from so it can activate its spell. The stronger the core, the stronger the artifact. But if the core and material aren’t properly aligned, the artifact won’t function efficiently, or worse, it’ll collapse under its own instability."

  Aster studied the core carefully. "So, everything works together like a living system. The material is the body, the script is the function, the spirit is the soul, and the core is the heart."

  "Exactly," Yani said, satisfaction in her tone. "And how well these items are fused determines how powerful and stable the artifact becomes. Today, we’re working with an F-grade Magma Lizard claw and an E-grade Magma Toad core. If we do everything right, we’ll end up with a weapon stronger than the sum of its parts."

  Aster nodded, glancing at the components laid out before him.

  She led him over to a large spherical machine with glyphs etched into its sides. The device pulsed faintly, reacting to the presence of Aether.

  "The first step is material preparation. The claw is organic, meaning it will decay over time. To prevent that and to make it more conductive to energy input, we’re going to anneal it in pure Magma Aether."

  Taking the claw, she placed it into a floating glass chamber at the center of the machine. It hovered in place, suspended by an unseen force. From her Dantian, she retrieved a bottle of condensed cloud made from burnt-orange Aether, placing it into a slot in the machine. With a twist of a valve, the Aether whooshed into the sphere, engulfing the claw in a thick, roiling mist.

  Aster watched, mesmerized, as Yani pressed her hands against the glyphs, activating her Veneration spell. Faith burned away, fueling the process, and the mist churned violently, arcs of energy sparking within. Aether wasn’t just changing the claw—it was rewriting its very nature. The thick mist thinned gradually, revealing the claw—transformed into a crystalline burnt-orange structure, its edges now glinting like volcanic glass. The air vibrated with residual energy as the last tendrils of mist were absorbed into the claw, leaving behind a perfectly structured energy conduit.

  "This is similar to carbonizing on the Material Plane—where organic matter is heated without oxygen, leaving behind pure carbon. Here, Aether plays the role of the carbon, crystallizing and replacing the organic parts, leaving behind a spell-conductive lattice perfectly structured for energy absorption. An added benefit is that any typings other than the one used in the Aether remain intact, meaning the artifact retains structural strength while gaining conductive properties."

  She placed the claw onto a crystalline plate etched with sigils before moving to the blank parchment. "Now, for the second step—inscription. We’re going to extract the Magma Slash spellscript from the claw."

  Placing the parchment on another sigil-engraved plate connected by a thin copper strip, she pressed her hands onto the glyphs. The machine hummed to life as the claw floated into the air, glowing faintly. Aster watched in amazement as runes slowly began etching themselves onto the parchment, drawn by some unseen force. The symbols burned themselves into the page in deep crimson lines, pulsating like living embers, growing brighter and brighter till finally just as the last rune is copied, they all drag to a single point and is absorbed into a large angry orange glyph in the centre of the page.

  "This doesn’t just allow you to transcribe the glyph onto a weapon, but you can also actually store this in your mind palace to cast yourself, this is called a spell-scroll. Unlike a spellbook, this spell can only be used once though—unless inscribed onto a spirit, which is our next step."

  Turning her attention to the ethereal dagger, she placed it between the claw, the script, and the open slot for the core. Activating another glyph, a golden mist surrounded the dagger. As Faith poured into it, the spirit absorbed the energy, glowing brighter. The runes from the parchment lifted into the air, drifting toward the dagger until they wrapped around it, integrating seamlessly. The weapon trembled as if coming to life, its blade forming sharper edges while the mist-like aura surrounding it condensed into something more tangible.

  Yani, now visibly sweating, wiped her forehead. "The hard part is done. Now we just fuse the spirit with the claw and connect the core."

  Aster hesitated. "What about the hilt? Shaping it?"

  She smirked. "The Ideal form tethered to the artefact spirit will allow it to see itself as a dagger and take its proper form. We’re giving it the building blocks—it’s assembling itself."

  Yani positioned the spirit, claw, and core on a tri-linked glyph. The final process began. The components melted, flowing into the center like molten ore drawn by an unseen forge. The air trembled slightly, the energy coalescing into a single point. The molten form pulsed, shifting as if responding to an unseen command. Then, after thirty minutes, the artifact materialized—a sleek, 9-inch curved dagger. The blade was pristine white, razor-thin, and covered in runes, while the hilt was blackened with glowing orange cracks resembling magma.

  Yani held it up, inspecting it. "E- grade. Not bad, but the equipment here is clunky compared to my family's workshop." She handed it to Aster, who grasped it carefully, feeling the power thrumming beneath its surface.

  He stared at the dagger, the weight of what he had just witnessed sinking in. Artifact crafting wasn’t just a mechanical process—it was an art, a science, and a form of magic all at once.

  She handed the dagger to Aster. "Here. That’s about R100K worth of Faith and materials. Sale price? Around R350K."

  Aster’s eyes widened.

  She smirked. "Don’t get too excited. Your first twenty attempts will likely match the grade of your weakest material. You’ll only make about R50K profit per piece."

  Aster forced a sigh, feigning dejection. "Damn."

  Inside, he was already plotting. Making R50K a day just to practice? And later, five times that? He could work with that.