Chapter 30 - Natural Enchanter

“Let’s make the stock of the crossbow first. Give me some measurements and that red hologram.”

Logan worked methodically. The sticks morphed into a crossbow stock of solid wood of dark chestnut color. Logan wanted it to be compact, so the stock was only 15 inches. It had a hole on the other end to enable a trigger mechanism as well as a notch to load the string. Logan also “carved” a pathway for the

Next came the bow or the limb. It required but a few sticks, since it needed to be thin and naturally flexible. After consulting with Tumor, they decided it would be a bit thicker than the AI’s initial measurements, because Logan would enchant the bow with flexibility.

The string was the most annoying part. [Transmuting] the vine didn’t take much Numa, but it was frustrating to attach to the bow. Eventually Logan just gave up and used some Numa charge to fuse it into the bow. This however attached the green string in such a way that it would weaken the draw. So Tumor had to show him some new schematics, and Logan wasted a bit more Numa.

[Sub-class Level Up!]

[Transmutation level 12]

[Attribute Level Up!]

[Durability: 6]

The crossbow, being single-handed to use, wasn't large. Which obviously meant it would have a limited amount of firepower, even with Logan’s plans to enchant it. With everything biological having some form of a natural resistance to physical harm, Logan would have to create workarounds.

I could always enchant the bolts with penetrative power, and of course the crossbow itself. But those enchantments are costly. My shield-watch and my scythe-rang both run out of juice fast, and need a recharge. Stuff like my socks on the other hand wear down their enchantments way slower.

But enchantments did wear down nonetheless. Logan thought of something. “Wait a minute, Tumor. Why would we enchant the wood with a flexibility enchantment that needs to be recharged? We could just [Transmute] the properties of the wood to be more flexible. Lets try making the wood like composite material.”

[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 59% Completion]

[Compiling molecular structure analysis…]

[Simulating Numa application…]

[...]

[Based on the information available, there is a 15.28% chance that you will be able to significantly adjust the properties of a material without the use of [Enchanting].]

“Well screw it, it’s worth a try,” Logan said and brought a crystal to his lap. “How should I design the prompt to Numa?

[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 60% Completion]

Tumor went on about the way atoms were stacked and it threw in a bunch of science words. Logan thought he got the jist of it.

Then he placed two fingers on the limb of the crossbow. “Make this limb of the crossbow more flexible using [Transmutation]. No [Enchantment]. Adjust the maximum elastic deformation of the material.

[Transmutation level requirement not met]

[Sub-class Level Up!]

[Transmutation level 12]

[Attribute Level Up!]

[Potency: 11]

Okay, so it had worked, but just barely, was how Logan interpreted that. Indeed the wood had become more soft, and thus bendier. This hadn’t worked exactly like Logan had hoped, but it made sense in hindsight. He couldn’t have the wood be durable AND flexible at the same time. Something had to give if you didn’t augment the material with magic. Logan sighed and resolved to give the limbs both a flexibility and a durability enchantment.

In fact Logan decided to do that right now. He gave both the stock and the string a durability enchantment. On the latter, he got an entirely new prompt.

[Programmed Random Occurrence: Naturally Enchanting]

The crystal Logan was holding glowed brighter for a second, before returning to a soft glow. Nothing else happened. Logan checked the charge. It was at 68%. That didn’t really tell him much.

Logan was intrigued, so he decided to check the crystal charge every time he used [Enchanting]. It was interesting to learn how much Numa each spell used anyway.

He had a lot of enchantments in mind for his new weapon and the bolts. First thing was obviously a durability enchantment on the moving parts of the weapon. Which meant the string and bow especially, but also the trigger mechanism. An accuracy enchantment was a given as well as some potency or force modifier, to make the bolts fly faster than they physically should. He had decided to enchant his bolts with penetrative tips. It should be cost efficient enough, considering the small amount of surface he actually needed to enchant.

I wonder if I should also make the bolts air-resistant and fly straight and spin. I don’t need Tumor to tell me how useful fletching is. But I don’t have…

“Oh… wait a minute I’m super dumb. I don’t need feathers.”

Logan got up and grabbed a handful of leaves.

“Tumor give me some measurements. Include all that aerodynamics, spinny stuff mumbo-jumbo.”

And with that, Logan soon held in his hand little triangles of green plant material. They were glossy and symmetrical. Logan squeezed one. It had some give like a sponge.

The process was two-staged. Produce leaf-fletching and attach them to the bolts. Logan did it enough many times to warrant some progress.

[Sub-class Level Up!]

[Transmutation level 13]

[Attribute Level Up!]

[Durability: 7]

[Efficiency: 12]

[Focus: 10]

With that Logan got to [Enchanting]. This time he wanted to keep an eye on how much the new passive skill actually helped. First Logan enchanted the crossbow with accuracy. That took a full E-grader down to 87%. Then at Tumor’s suggestion he enchanted the draw weight to be lighter. In english that meant that the crossbow’s string was easier to place behind the nock that loaded the weapon. That did it.

[Programmed Random Occurrence: Naturally Enchanting]

There was a sensation akin to the minty, fresh feeling he got when he leveled up. But this was fainter and subtly different. Regardless, the E-grader was still at 87%. If a single enchantment took anywhere between 10-30% Numa charge, this new passive was going to be awesome.

Especially if I keep getting lucky with it like this.

The passive procced one additional time as Logan went through the list of enchantments. It was bound to happen at least once, since Logan was enchanting the heads of the crossbow bolts individually.

[Sub-class Level Up!]

[Enchantment level 16]

[Attribute Level Up!]

[Efficiency: 13]

[Focus: 11]

Eventually he was satisfied, as he had given his new weapon the works. He couldn’t think of an enchantment it didn’t have. Well. Except for one thing he had been saving for last.

There was one last thing Logan wanted to try. He didn’t care if it would suck two full [E-grade Numa Crystals] down. It would turn his simple crossbow into a weapon of mass destruction.

“Make the weapon self-loading. Make the string always return to the nock in the loaded position after firing off a projectile.”

[Enchantment level requirement not met]

“Tsk. Well it was worth a try…”

The light had gradually brightened. It was almost morning. Well, the rest of his ideas were easy to implement. Hopefully he’d get a level or two.

“Oh, I know just the thing I want to do with these rocks! Holy shit, why didn’t I think of this before? Tumor, let's run some simulations.”