Len started the next day running a test with Christina and casting a spell that would mimic the effects of the enchantment on the mouth of the pipe that fed into the engine.
It took a few minutes before Christina yelled stop from where she had her head against the engine housing.
Len climbed out of the boiler to see Christina's smile. "Engine is working."
"Alright, well then I guess should clean up the pipes in here so we can get to the one we need," Len looked back into the boiler's guts.
Len he drew his sword and nearly wedged it against the highest pipe before activating its mana blade enchantment.
The steel turned a deep blue as he cut through the pipes running through the boiler with ease.
His blade left clean edges where it passed through.
He worked methodically through the maze of pipes, clearing everything except the main pressure pipe that ran along the top. That one he cut into sections, making each progressive piece longer than the last as it moved from firebox to nose.
Christina gathered the largest pieces of pipe he'd removed, taking them to her work area. She cut them apart with her own mana blade enchanted knife and modified them into collars that would fit over the cuts Len made along the main pressure pipe.
Len created his mana blueprints and marked notations on each section for the different gradients of temperature and pressure.
He put the first blueprint around the first section of the pipe and had it engrave the metal.
The confined space made it impossible to use traditional tools, his mana capacity was high enough to carve the enchantment directly into the metal.
He moved from section to section, the morning's sun warming up the boiler though he barely felt the change.
Christina got up onto the side of the train and climbed into the boiler too, fitting the collars around the pipe.
She fused them back together to create an airtight seal without actually joining to the pipe sections Len had enchanted. The collars would keep the pressurized air contained while still allowing each section to work independently.
Len checked the last section of pipe and the runes carved into it. He ran his hand over it.
"Now we just have to see if it works," Len kept his voice down, the boiler echoing as he walked towards the opening in the boiler.
"Just got one collar to go," Christina said.
"Alright, I'm going to check on the weight reduction enchantments. Then I'll look at turning the engine into a mana battery," he lifted himself out of the square opening Christina had cut into the boiler, blinking against the sun.
"I see the convoy!" The engineer on watch called out.
Or maybe I can wait a bit.
Len got out and squinted to the west. The convoy were on the dirt track on the other side of the tracks.
Rick wandered from down the line of train cars where he had been working on the latest platform.
He was working on the third platform.
Most of his time had been spent growing up the tres that had been smashed underneath the train to support the train and make sure it didn't slide down the hill and make it ready to lift back upright.
"Made a fucking maze out of the place," Rick commented as he reached the scattered pipes that littered the ground. He and Christina had been tossing them out of the boiler to get room to work.
"Yeah, have to clean that all up," Len said.
Looking down at himself, Len grimaced at the coal dust coating his clothes and skin. He cast a quick cleansing spell, watching the black particles fall away. That spell really is worth its weight in gold.
"Guess spells don't really weigh anything though.
"What you say?" Rick asked.
"Just atlking to myself.
"First signs of losing your mental stability, you start talking to yourself." Rick crossed his arms and nodded as if a sage on the matter.
"You would know wouldn't you? Cursing out the trees to get them to grow," Len said.
"They were being obstinate buggers, not growing the way I wanted to them!"
"They're plants," Len said.
"And?" Rick asked.
"They're not exactly known to be the best communicators?" Len said.
"That's their problem, they know what I mean!"
"Crazy as a bucket of bolts you are!"
"People keep using that saying and I have no idea why the hell someone is crazy like a bucket of bolts, is it because they're all disorganized?"
"You know that this conversation makes no sense?" Len asked as he looked for a place to drop down that wasn't covered in pipes.
"You don't make any sense!"
Len lowered himself down and moved pipes out of the way with his foot, making a place for Christina to drop down when she was finished in the guts of the train.
The carts crossed over the rail road.
"Joe got all the cars disconnected," Rick continued. "He and the others are working on growing trees under the cars themselves."
"How much longer you think?" Len asked, studying the progress.
Rick shrugged. "Shouldn't take us long to finish up at this rate. Day or two? I'm going to shift over making the platforms to others and start on making some wooden rails."
The convoy consisted of fifteen carts, each loaded with supplies and personnel. Engineers, workers, and soldiers filed out, stretching after the long journey.
Len and Rick walked forward as Edward released the modified harness that allowed him to pull the lead cart.
His eyes were focused on the train, its just strewn across the ground while it lay on its side.
"Not as bad as it looks," Len promised. "We've got most of the preliminary work done already."
"Good to see you lad," He smiled and hugged him. "So, where do you want the carts?"
"Set it down before the engine," Len pointed to a space before the train.
"Make sure they're fifty meters forward, I need space for the rails," Rick said as he walked forward."Simmons!"
The man jogged over to him and they started talking, Rick pointing to positions around the train.
Soldiers were organized and set as sentries.
"Well I guess camp first," We're making wooden platforms up and down for the cars to drop onto once we right them. Then we're going to need that steel sheet you have to seal up the boiler again.
"What about all of the pipes?" Edward asked.
"Well we've got a plan for that," Len winked.
"More carts than space, I'll get them to halt before the engine, get them out of the way of where the wooden tracks will let us connect to the tracks again," Rick said, moving forward. "Simmons!" The officer move over to meet him.
He began pointing out sentry positions and outlining where the camp could go.
"We weren't expecting you until tonight," Len said.
"We pushed on faster than expected. Those of us with a higher level in body took over pulling the carts and sped up the process," His father said. "An Landen engine huh?"
"What remains of it," Len grinned.
"What have you been doing?" Edward asked.
"I'll leave that to Christina to talk on, I just offered some ideas," Len said.
Soldiers moved to their assigned positions and started moving carts to where they were going to set up their camp. Sergeants and a few engineers started marking the ground with sticks they stabbed into the ground.
The remaining engineers moved over to where Len was.
"Young Master Isendia said that you knew where we were going?" An engineer asked.
"Engineers with Captain Sam, you'll be making platforms and wood housing under the cars. Those of you with the Xintas, you'll be working with Christina on the engine, or you'll be checking out the different cars to make sure that they'll be ready to move when needed. Enchanters you're with me," He said spotting Gretchen among the people.
"Talk to you later," Edward patted him on the shoulder and went back to his cart to gather his gear.
Gretchen and four others moved up closer to Len, Gretchen being really hesistant.
"Well I have to work on an enchantment to decrease the weight of the trains, want to learn?"
"Yeah," Gretchen nearly lurched forward as if speaking faster and louder was the way to win.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"Alright, this way," Len walked down the length of the engine cars and picked up two planks of wood.
Len set the planks down and turned to face the small group of enchanters. "Before we start, let's get introductions out of the way. I'm Len."
A gray-haired man with callused hands stepped forward first. "Wilbur. Been a carpenter most my life before the screens and skills came. Then I started learning about the enchanting. Thought that it might let me do something in my later years." His weathered face showed years of hard work.
"Harold," said a stocky man with a neatly trimmed brown beard, probably in his forties. "I used to manage a tool store, I moved to Goran for the protection of my family and heard that there were jobs to be found. I joined one of the schools liked letters and numbers the best. Then I saw an enchantment while working on a project. I got curious and I've been learning ever since."
The youngest practically bounced on his feet, reminding Len of an eager puppy. His blonde hair stuck up in all directions as if he'd been running his hands through it constantly. "I'm Peter! I've been studying your work on the farming equipment. Helped my dad put it in!"
"Yorkin's kid?" Len asked.
"Yeah, you know my dad?"
"Yeah, you're from the Dell too."
"Yeah!" Len smiled, the lads excitement was infectious. Though I bet after a time it started to wear.
"Good to see you again Gretchen." Len smiled.
She bobbed her head and smiled, holding a pad of paper against her stomach and a pencil between her fingers.
"So what do you know about enchanting so far?" Len looked over them all.
"Got the heating rod to work!" Peter blurted out, then looked embarrassed at his outburst.
"We've been copying the designs from the farming equipment mainly and figuring out how they work by comparing them against the diagrams in the books we received," Wilbur said.
Gretchen cleared her throat. "We were able to find that there are three main components to enchanting - power, direction, and purpose. There power and direction are geometric and purpose is done in runes."
Len mentally chastised himself.
"I'll start from the beginning then," He waved to the stumps around him.
Len sat down on a fallen log, gesturing for the others to join him.
He pulled out his utility knife and picked up a small piece of wood.
"Enchantments are like spells, but with more structure and permanence," Len sent a spell into the wood, smoothing it down before he carved a simple circle into the wood. "You need three main components - power, direction, and effect."
He traced lines through the circle, creating sections. "The power source determines how long the enchantment lasts and how strong it is. Could be mana pieces, cores, or even ambient mana."
Len pointed to the connecting lines. "Direction tells the power where to go and how to flow. Like channels in a pipe system." He carved flowing curves between the sections. "Get this wrong and the power either stalls or explodes out."
"The effect..." Len carved symbols in the final section. "That's what you actually want the enchantment to do. Lift weight, create light, purify water - anything you can imagine, as long as you can describe it precisely in magical terms."
"So knowing what to write out to create the effect is the hardest part?" Wilbur said.
"There are libraries on runes that you can use. that's what most of the information on enchanting that came from the forgotten library is going to be about. Though you can simply write in what you want it to do. Runes are compressed words and instructions linked together. Why use five words when you can use one rune? It makes it more power efficient and takes up less space. Though the larger the thing you're creating is, the more runes, lettering or words you want to maintain stability."
"So you could create power designs, then direction and then put in the effect grow and it would grow?" Wilbur frowned.
"That's very simplistic but yes. The more specific you get the stronger the effect is going to be," Len said. "The tricky part is balancing all three components. Too much power without proper direction wastes energy. Poor effect definition leads to unexpected results. That's why we use geometric patterns and repeated symbols - they help maintain structure."
He injected mana slowly into the piece of wood. "The mana is drawn in," It ran through the runes. "The effect is activated," Then it moved through more geometric lines. "And a direction is given."
A little wind pushed out of the wood that he turned around to them, blowing on their clothes.
"So you have designs that draw in power from different sources you have a library of runes that allow you different effects and design geometrics for direction. If you get those right and balance them out you have an enchantment?" Harold summarized.
"That's right," Len said. "In a simple way. You're going to have to balance out how much mana can the material take, so how big is the effect."
Len created a blueprint enchantment from his mana in midair.
So I've got all the power lines on the outside because they're going to draw matter in from the surrounding area to power with the enchantment. The direction is actually going to be taking the overall size of the board and then pushing down that means I'll have to add in quite a few directional lines to spread the load.
As he talked the lines appeared in the blueprint.
"Now we're going to have to use some rather strong runic lettering because we want to have the greatest effect with the least amount of mana being utilized."
"Could you just say in the runic that you want the object that is attached to weigh less?" Harold asked.
"You could but that's more akin to a wish than it is magic. You need to strike a balance between reality and what you can bend with magic. The less you bend reality with magic the greater the effect you will. Though the inverse is true, if you change something in reality to a huge degree and it can only affect a small thing. Now these things are equal. You could have a cooling spell lets say, or you could have another that removes thermal energy. The second is going to be much smaller, but the effect could be equal or greater to the larger area of effect cooling spell." Len smiled. "This is where enchanting starts to shine, it is not about what you do it is about how you do it. You can use all kinds of effects, you hit on the right one for the right situation, you'll conserve the mana you use and you'll get a stronger effect."
"Do you have an example?" Wilbur asked.
"Ah," Len coughed and cleared his throat. "Yeah I have a few enchantments that I've thought on over the years tinkering with the runes to create a different effect."
Just telling them that he’d focused on enchantments that worked to blow stuff up might be a little—much.
"Now this enchantment here is focusing on reducing the load of the train. My first idea was to create an air cushion between the train and the ground, so that the pressure from the wind pushing against the ground would spread the weight under the footprint of the board. Now I'm wondering if I can increase the air pressure underneath the train that it would do the same thing, but the mana draw wouldn't be as hard as it is just trying to contain the air under the train, not force the air against the ground."
"Is there another force that is acting upon it that you can reduce?" Wilbur asked.
"Gravity?" Harold threw out.
"That could be possible," the enchantment started changing, the runes, then the direction. "It is a real pain in the ass with mana consumption but this is an uncommon material so you can have two enchantments, so can have the second one focused on drawing in mana from the surrounding area and if its moving then it would be better as its passing through a new space."
Len rubbed his face. "Change the direction to affect the train itself, to reduce the force that it is applying on the ground?" He looked at the different parts. "As you get stronger in skills you start noticing things because of the enlightenment you've been given. Some people say its because you become more in tune with the world that the world starts to obey what you're thinking of and trying to enact."
He grabbed up a plank of wood, and altered the enchantment.
"What I do know is that you should always test out and enchantment before you make a bigger version of it. Also make sure that it works off of the mana that you put into it instead of ambient mana. That is one way to lead to lots of problems."
The blueprint altered as he talked.
"You're changing the input runes," Gretchen said.
"Right," Len held up the plank and the enchantment shrunk down to fit on it. He had it alter the wood, creating runes and channels in its surface.
"How did you do that?" Harold asked.
"I used a spell to alter wood in the form of the blueprint, easier to make it hotter or to remove the material that it touches, allows you to make an outline. If you have the mana to waste or want to do something quick you can use the blueprint to carve into the material you're using."
"Okay," Harold nodded sitting back. Len could see the other thoughts moving behind the man's eyes.
"I took the quick method to test this out and so that we can speed things up." Len picked up another plank and the runes shifted into the air pressure version.
Then he held a plank in either hand. "What I'm going to do is increase the mana to each the same amount and test which one is more effective."
He did so the gravity reduction taking the strain off of his arm to the point holding it up didn't feel like any strain while the one with the air pressure built up over time and then started pushing him up.
"Push a plank under these ones if you could?" Peter picked up a plank and moved it under the air pressure plank.
"That feels weird," Peter said.
"Turn it on its side and sweep it through," Len asked.
Peter did as he was told, making the plank in Len's hand dip forward where he'd swiped the plank through.
"Could you do the same on the other side?" Len asked.
Peter did so, the plank in his hands dropping down as he quickly released it.
"Okay so anything that passes under this gets flattened," Len said.
"The other one the plank dipped too," Peter said.
"It took time fore the pressure to build up and when you slapped through it I think you took out some of the air that had been built up and it needed to build up again," Len removed his mana from the enchantments then snapped the boards in half, sending a spell through the boards.
"Why did you do that?" Wilbur asked.
"Enchantments are powerful things, lots of people are going to try and steal them, or they'll used them incorrectly. Enchanters should know how to hide what they are working on and make sure that no one is able to take their ideas or information," Len said. "Now based on the testing we're going with the enchantment that will reduce the gravity acting upon the train."
“That’s why it was so hard to understand them and why there were different stages that were isolated adding in different parts,” Gretchen said. “You didn’t want someone else to steal your enchantment.”
“Yes, hiding what your enchantment does is useful. If you have a sword that has all the effect upon the blade, it kind of tells everyone what its going to do,” Len said. He pushed himself to standing. "We're going to be making two enchantments here. The first will turn the train and tender into a mana battery to power the engine. The second will reduce the weight of the cars."
Len divided the group with a practiced efficiency born from years of leading troops. "Wilbur, Peter - you'll handle the gravity reduction enchantment for the cars. Watch closely."
He formed a mana blueprint in the air.
"You need to match it to what you're working with." He increased the size so that it matched the underside of the car.
"A mana blueprint is one of the most used tools of an enchanter, The blueprint is one of the most important tools an enchanter has. It lets you plan, adjust, and transfer complex patterns without risking mistakes in the final product." He pressed it against the wood underside. "You can put it against what you're working with and cast a spell in the form of the blueprint to remove the material."
The wood moved around the enchantment, he exerted more mana carving the whole enchantment into the bottom of the train. "This takes a lot of mana and can strain even someone with a large mana pool," Len said with a strained voice.
He released the blueprint once it was deep enough into the wood and drew it back out.
"Though that can be too big to work with."
He sized it down, created an earth moving spell and pressed it into the ground, creating a blueprint in the ground.
"This doesn't have the activation lines that will be needed to make it work completely. Fill this with your mana. Once you're comfortable with the smaller version, scale it up and press it against the undercarriage. Use a spell to carve out the wood to make your form. Then use your chisels or more spells to deepen the enchantment."
"Wilbur stepped forward, mana spread through the blueprint and he raised it out of the ground. The lines weren't as crisp as Len's, but the basic structure held true.
"Good. Now you have four more cars to go," Len said.
"Alright," Come on Peter, grab those chisels and hammers, I'll be teaching you how to work with the wood," Wilbur said, walking down the cars.
Len turned to Gretchen and Harold. "You two are with me. We'll be converting the engine and tender car into a mana battery." He led them toward the locomotive. "Going to take a good amount of math to figure out how much mana we can store in the material without it starting to fail."
Harold pulled out a notebook while Gretchen readied her pencil, both looking eager despite the complexity ahead of them. Len smiled inwardly - it was good to work with people who understood the importance of getting the math right.
"Let's start with the base power capacity calculations," Len said, and reached over to Gretchen's pencil and paper.
She handed it over and Len held it between them all as he sketched out the initial formulas they'd need.
"How do you know all of this?" Harold asked.
Len kept writing out formula as he talked. "When you get enlightenment, it dumps a lot of information into your mind. When you go through the apprentice enlightenment all of the information that you've learned about enchanting, it comes to the surface easier. Its like all of the memories you have become sharper, easier to recall. Reading is going to be a big part of your future. The higher your grade of enchantment the easier it is to recall things and complex things make more sense." Len finished his formula. "Skills are powerful because they give you great enhancements to what you already know.
