The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 162

Chapter 162 – Crafting Plans

The day after my trip to the University of Tokyo Hospital to get my sister some exposure, as well as giving her an idea on where to get started in her research, I was back at Athelian Arms, working with my students. There were plenty of commissions for custom work waiting on us, after all. Indeed, my recent bout of publicity, running around the world and unleashing the seals, had only increased the number of people who knew about Athelian Arms.

Which is not to say that my crafters were unable to produce any works of their own. Whether they were practice pieces good enough to sell to the public, but not the masterworks that had been commissioned, or just something they thought of in the moment, and had to make, there were more than a few pieces that had already been sold through our online store. Actually, each of my students had a signature item that was always sure to sell, in addition to their custom work.

Eto Shiro, my woodworker, was quite proud of his Perfect Kotatsu. From a layperson’s perspective, it looked like a normal kotatsu table, though a well-made one. However, there were three kanji engraved into the surface. If you touched the ‘heat’ symbol and said the word, the table drew in the ambient mana to heat the area under the tabletop to a perfect 30C temperature, drawing less or more mana as needed to maintain that setting. On the other hand, if you pressed the ‘cool’ symbol, the kotatsu started cooling the air, trying to keep the temperature to a comfortable 28C. Without the blanket used during the winter to keep the heat in, the table would act as an air conditioner that ran off ambient mana without needing electricity. The final symbol, of course, was ‘off’, and was self-explanatory.

To some, that would sound like a waste of a master craftsman’s time. However, with the self-repair and strengthening enchantments placed on it and the quality of the woodworking itself, that table was something that could be handed down through a family for generations, and still serve its purpose. And, unless someone went out of their way to break it, that table would outlast any commercially available heater or air-conditioner, and almost never need maintenance. That made it desirable to many people.

Dennis Kant, my blacksmith, had taken a similar approach to making a signature piece. His thoughts had turned straight to the kitchen, creating hand-forged chef’s knives that were self-cleaning, self-repairing, and self-sharpening. A full set of his knives sold for half a million yen! Yes, they were simple, and the only enchantments on them were to maintain their usefulness, but they were quality, and people knew it.

The Karasus had made a name for themselves with their jewelry. A bracelet made by Karasu Sawao fetched a high price, even though they always had a simple, solid shape, thanks to his detailed engravings. He typically sold the bracelets in pairs, with one producing an armor effect, protecting the wearer, while the other gave resistance to illness and disease. His wife, Kinu, on the other hand, was known for her earrings, which, aside from the exquisite workmanship, carried enchantments to make the wearer feel cool and comfortable, no matter the temperature, which was an instant success with women everywhere who either hated the cold, or didn’t want to be drenched in sweat in the summer.

Fani Gera, my Greek leatherworker, had found success in an area she hadn’t considered before. One of her early commission pieces was a leather collar for fetish play, with basic enchantments to help make bruises or other injuries fade faster, and to keep the wearer from suffering due to exposure in the cold. To her deep chagrin, that piece had gotten instantly famous in those circles, and now she was selling the collars, and other such gear, as fast as she could make them.

In contrast, my glassblower, Fujii Shihi, had his best success from something seemingly mundane. He had managed to create crystal orbs the size of a baseball, in sets of eight, which linked to a ninth, larger orb, roughly the size of a basketball, all of them enchanted to be incredibly sturdy and hard to damage. The trick of these orbs was that the master orb could connect to one of the eight other orbs, allowing those in the room with the master orb to see the view from that orb’s location, and listen to things as though they were there. Changing the view (or turning it off) required running mana through the master orb, but after that it simply ran off the ambient mana. People with large homes or small children loved them, since it allowed them to easily keep track of things.

As for Watabe Kazuko, my tailor? Well, she was making traditional kimonos that not only had mending and self-cleaning enchantments on them, but they were also imbued with a touch of Life magic, causing those who wore her clothes to actually have slightly better overall health, but dramatically better skin and other such features, making people look years younger, even without makeup, when they wore them enough. Needless to say, they sold as fast as she could make them, no matter the price.

Really, I was so proud of all of them, and their focus on items that did not inherently have a connection to combat. Some of that was a bias on my part, admittedly. Most people didn’t think of chainmail, swords, and the like when they thought of warfare. They thought of bulletproof vests, guns, and combat-focused CADs. But the world I had been summoned to was one where the focus very much was on ‘medieval’ arms and armor, rather than modern fare.

My people’s work with the British had proven to me that modern weapons had their place, but, as people awoke their mana and began truly adapting to this new world of magic, the old ways were going to make a resurgence. Oh, sure, it was probably another twenty, thirty years before the machine gun faded into obsolescence, and swords regained their fame, but that time was coming.

I spent the first hour or so of the day checking up on my students individually, and answering any questions they had about some of the commissions that had come in. However, that didn’t mean I didn’t have work to do, myself. Several of the new heroes needed some items made to properly interact with the world, after their transformations. Fortunately, Sawao and Fani had just finished projects, which meant that I could task them with the less serious problems.

“So, what is the plan, Boss?” Fani asked, as we found a section of the workshop to speak.

“The new heroes of Death are, naturally, a species of undead. Unfortunately, they have two main problems that must be dealt with if they are to be deemed safe for mortals to be near them. First, the method by which they feed is through skin contact, and is a passive ability, one that they cannot willingly turn off. Second, they have an aura, much like my own, which frightens and unnerves living creatures in their presence. If they are to remain sane in the long-term, it is best that they be able to interact with mortals more casually.”

“I think I understand,” Sawao said. “You mean to create items for them to wear, both to suppress their aura, as you do, and to make them ‘safe’ to be around, right?”

“I mean for you two to make them, yes,” I said, before reaching into my pocket dimension to pull a few sheets of paper I’d marked up with basic formulae, which I handed to them. “I am thinking two pieces for each of the two heroes. A ring, to suppress their aura, and another piece, which will require them to actively channel mana through it in order to ‘unlock’ their feeding ability while it is worn. Then, I want a series of amulets or talismans that they can give to close friends and loved ones, enchanted with a ward against Death magic, just in case. Say, twenty talismans in all? These papers have the basic spell designs, but I will leave the fine tuning and tailoring them to the individual items to you.”

Fani nodded slowly as she looked through my notes. “I think amulets or necklaces are the way to go for the ‘just in case’ items. This ward scheme doesn’t look particularly powerful, though. It looks to be dependent on the wearer’s mana to function, beyond just a base level of protection.”

“Well spotted, Gera,” I nodded. “And you’re right. For most people, the ward will not be terribly powerful. However, it will be enough to keep one of the young heroes from accidentally feeding on those who are important to them. If they purposefully set out to overpower the ward, then that’s no longer ‘accidental’.”

“Amazing,” Sawao said, looking at the diagram of the enchantment on my ring. “According to this, the ring channels the mana in a wearer’s aura into an inverse wave? Essentially canceling out the aura with destructive interference. Did you come up with this, buchō, or was this something the other world had already discovered?”

I smiled at the question, and allowed a bit of well-deserved pride into my voice. “It is my own creation, Karasu-san, and the rune for it is in the books I gave you. It was the rune that made my teacher acknowledge me as a Master Enchanter. It was my first foray into combining basic principles I knew from science classes in this world with the magic of the other world. Fitting that its first replication in this world should be in a ring to protect heroes. But, do you see the danger in this rune, yet?”

“I do,” Fani said, a frown on her face. “This enchantment, if it was reworked slightly, could go from simply dampening a person’s magic to sealing it completely, using their own mana to block their abilities. If it were placed on some kind of restraints or handcuffs…” she trailed off, eyes wide as she realized the kind of damage such a thing could do in the wrong hands.

I nodded, gravely. “Then the person would not be able to do more than routing mana within their own body for body reinforcement or other effects, yes. Not quite powerless, but it would be a heavy blow to any mage, for certain. Well, unless they are able to overpower the mana capacity of the item.”

Fani nodded, understanding. “Like hooking up a wire to current far too high for it. The wire may hold on, for a while, but it will quickly burn out, and fail catastrophically?”

“Precisely. However, unless the unfortunate wearer knows about that ‘defect’, and has the power to overwhelm it, they would be stuck, until the item was removed. Of course, it also does not prevent the person from gathering or cultivating mana, which is why it is less useful for anything but a short-term solution. Keeping a prisoner under control until their trial, for instance, after which time they can be fitted with proper sealing gear.”

“I will ensure that the runes are properly obfuscated,” Sawao said. “Though, once the basics of enchanting get out in the world, someone is going to try and find ways to counter mages.”

“Karasu-san, if you believe that there aren’t governments all around the world already looking for ways to counter mages like me, then you are hopelessly naïve,” I grinned. “But this kind of method is too personal for widespread use. To be able to actually counter someone in the field with destructive interference, you would first have to either have a recording of a target’s mana frequency, or be able to read it while they’re actively fighting, and then be able to project that frequency with power to match theirs. It is possible, but hardly practical, for most cases. More likely to be used against assets gone rogue, or an escaped prisoner than on the battlefield.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this, buchō.”

“My situation in the other world forced me to consider how every spell or enchantment put out there could be used against me. I was rather unwilling to experience a slave collar again, after all.”

“So, Boss,” Fani said, clearly trying to change the subject. “While we make all these rings and do-dads for the heroes and their friends, what will you be doing?”

“Well,” I smiled, “the Heroes of Fire got turned into birds, with no way to easily turn back. I promised that, once the seals were dealt with, I would craft something to help them. But, since I don’t want shapechanging enchantments to get out in the world just yet, for obvious reasons, I’m going to need to handle those pieces personally.”