[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 103 – Enchantree

Shrubley spent hours reading his [Enchanting Manual]. There had been so many types of crafting to pick from. Surprisingly, enchanting had felt right as soon as he came across it.

It agreed with his ethos about the world. That all who live in it should strive to leave it better than they found it. What better profession could embody that than an Enchanter?

They didn’t take and transform materials from the world. They took mundane objects and uplifted them. They empowered.

Shrubley, who was already a fast reader thanks to his love of books, finished his [Enchanter’s Manual] before any of the others.

He was immensely proud of the result.

You have successfully learned [Enchanting Proficiency].

[Enchanting Proficiency]

(G-Grade)

The most rudimentary and basic grade proficiency, governing one’s ability and knowledge with enchanting of all kinds. Unlocks the basic capacity to [Enchant]. Grants a minuscule boost to the Arcane and Willpower attributes when using this proficiency.

You have successfully learned [Enchant].

[Enchant]

Cost: Moderate mana

Cooldown: None

Improve that which has lost its purpose, granting life anew to the old and discarded.

Imprint (G-Grade): Utilize your mana to enhance, improve, and apply additional magical effects and properties to a wide variety of items. The amount of mana and time required to enchant varies based upon the enchantment applied.

Shrubley’s many leaves shook with excitement at his new crafting proficiency.

Shrubley knew he was fortunate to have a teacher like the Countess provide him with resources and opportunities. I hope to repay the favor one day, he thought, even though he had already saved her life on multiple occasions.

Besides, Shrubley’s unique monster racial abilities held secrets within that he hadn’t even guessed at until he began reading the [Enchanting Manual]. As a soul shrub, his style of enchanting would turn out to be entirely different from a human’s. In practice, it might align more closely to a wood elf’s.

For instance, he could use [Garden Cultivation] to enchant things instead of just growing plants, he could grow enchantments. All it would take was a few special ingredients, a magical pot, and Shrubley could begin.

[Garden Cultivation]: Grow and shape plants of all kinds with your mana, immensely improving your affinity towards herbalism and alchemical pursuits.

He wanted to try out enchanting his weapon right away, but he knew that planting his sword would take time to grow. With the Dungeon coming up, he had to make sure his weapon was prepared and ready.

I should like to practice anyway, he thought excitedly. That way, I can be especially sure that enchanting my blade shall go exceptionally well the first time around!

Eager to begin, Shrubley turned his attention to creating a magical pot. This was a process that would take the work of multiple different kinds of crafters ordinarily. However, making a magical pot was far simpler for Shrubley to achieve.

At least, in theory.

After performing his healing ministrations on the sick citizens of the town, the Adventurers Guild of Talvar was kind enough to supply Shrubley with baked clay, hempen bags of soil, and canisters of clean water.

They even included a handy starter kit for adventuring. It was relatively similar to the pack that Sel already gave Shrubley, but he appreciated it all the same.

[Adventurers Starter Pack]

(Item)

(Copper Rank) (★ Common)

Contains essential supplies a new initiate Adventurer needs for Questing. Contains rations, a camping set, repair powders and healing tinctures. Just don’t expect any death’s door medicine here. When this pack’s contents are fully consumed, this starter pack transforms into a higher rarity box usable by one’s whole Adventurer party.

Imprint: Impart mana to gain access to this item and its locking magic, which further extends this permission to one’s Adventurer party.

Shrubley literally blew up his first attempt at creating a magical pot. Clay shards flew everywhere, lodging in his bushy body. He tumbled and rolled backwards from the force of impact, bouncing against the wall.

“Ah, my eye!” he squeaked, upside down.

“Shrubley!” Cal cried, rushing over. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Shrubley plucked a piece out of his shrouded face. He blinked his lamplight eyes, finding himself to be relatively unharmed. “Yes. Yes, I believe I am.”

Undeterred, Shrubley went right back into it. He failed a total of 7 more times before persistence finally won out.

It was an odd experience to use his mana in such a way, but as Shrubley’s familiarity increased, he gained a deeper appreciation for mana and its many uses.

Humans, and many of the core races, were not made of mana. Not like most monsters were. Many monsters were initially created from nothing but mana, which made them exceptionally well equipped to manipulate it should they ever get strong enough.

Shrubley was discovering that his capacity to manipulate mana far exceeded his rank and his level. With a little ingenuity and practice, he was able to fold the mana into the materials, solidifying them in a way that even the erudite shrub could not fully articulate.

All he knew was that he could make the disparate materials into an [Enchanting Pot], the vessel by which he would conduct his first attempts at enchanting.

[Enchanting Pot]

(Item)

(Copper Rank) (★★★ Rare)

A brand new clay pot crafted by a novice crafter that serves as an enchanting focus for slowly grown, yet more thorough creations. Lined with Copper aura saturated runes that enhance the crafting process. Applicable with a variety of items, along with seeds, ores and similar mana-rich resources.

Imprint: Plant, water and till to [Enchant] items within this arcane pot. Grants a miniscule boost to Arcane and Willpower attributes when using this item.

Shrubley held up the pot, admiring the glowing script that ran along the outside rim. It was beautiful, and it was the first thing he made by magic.

The other items Shrubley had made were more a part of who he was, but this was a choice. Something he had decided to do and then create. It was incredible.

“That is a handsome-looking pot,” Cal said, sidling over to him. “What are you going to do with it?”

Shrubley set it down gently. “I am going to make more,” he said confidently.

“And then?” Cal pressed.

“I will [Enchant] things with it.”

Cal opened his mouth to ask what that meant, but he could tell Shrubley was already in the zone again. The little guy was locked in, completely focused on making another pot, so Cal decided to leave him to it.

He watched for a while, along with Smudge and Slyrox, because the process was beautiful in its own way.

Tiny clumps of material pulled away from their respective ingredient piles. One by one the materials accreted at the center and spun out like Shrubley was using an invisible pottery wheel.

The interior of the pot widened, and the stepped design of a typical planter pot took shape. Cal had seen many such pots made of terracotta and various clays, but none that looked so beautiful and polished as Shrubley’s.

Runes and sigils alighted on the rim, glowing a faint coppery gold as if Shrubley was putting a little bit of his aura into each of the pots.

He probably is, Cal reasoned. Since Cal wasn’t yet at Copper, he lacked an aura of his own. He still had another essence to go until he was ready to advance, but he liked to believe he could just barely feel the Coppery strength of Shrubley’s aura.

Cal returned to his own manual, intent on finishing it before they ventured into the Dungeon. Each page of jewelcrafting took time for him to absorb. He wasn’t as fast a reader as Shrubley, and he lacked a scroll which gave all its secrets in one go, but he still managed to finish second overall.

Smudge, surprisingly, was finished immediately after him. The little slime seemed to understand how to use alchemy much better than Cal understood jewelcrafting. Smudge immediately rolled over to a bunch of “ingredients” scattered over the table.

Inside the pink slime’s translucent body, the alchemy process began. It was fascinating to watch. The materials transmuted before Cal’s very eyes, shifting and shining with inner light as they morphed from one form to the next.

Smudge had taken a page from Shrubley’s book and decided he also wanted to make pots. Instead of using mana like Shrubley, he absorbed the various plates and cutlery that were set out for the next meal and transmuted them into slightly lopsided pots of unknown material.

That is, Cal knew what went into creating the pot, but what came out didn’t look quite like what went in.

Tiny flecks of steel cutlery created a dazzling display across the pot. The slime ejected the pot from its body right next to Shrubley, who looked over with surprise and patted the slime affectionately.

“Very good, Smudge. You may be better at this than I am.”

That was high praise indeed for the pink slime, who seemed to inflate three sizes from Shrubley’s words alone.

Slyrox mumbled to herself. “Is difficult.”

“What is?” Cal asked, sidling closer to her. Without any jewels or gems of any kind, he would struggle to practice his craft.

He could only hope that the Dungeon would have riches and jewels for him to practice on. Like enchanting, jewelcrafting would allow Cal to impart special effects and magic. The downside was jewelcrafting—as the name implied—required gems and various precious stones.

No jewels, no crafting, Cal thought to himself.

“Reading book but not reading book,” Slyrox said. “Muchly strange.”

“It is,” Cal agreed. “You want some help?”

“Cal can do hand-lending to Slyrox?”

“I can try.”

“Thankings, please!” Slyrox held the manual out for Cal.

The first thing he noticed, though he didn’t know if that would make any difference, was that the manual was upside down.

Once that was fixed, he tried instructing Slyrox on how he read his manual. Which was to say, not actually reading it. Trying to do that would only cause a headache–as he learned the hard way–and it would slow down the process.

“You need to look at the page, but also look through the page,” he told her. “As if you’re looking through a stained-glass window. You want to see what’s through it, but not on it. Does that make sense?”

Slyrox nodded. “No.”

Cal sighed. “All right, think of it like this. You want your mind to process the page, but you don’t want to focus on any of the strange floaty letters or symbols, okay? Just look at it and let your eyes unfocus.”

Whether Slyrox actually did as she was told was anybody’s guess. With her smoky lenses returned on her mask, it was impossible to see what her eyes were doing. Cal had to hope she took his advice to heart.

After a few stalled moments, Cal watched as the pages of her manual faded into a hazy light with rapidly increasing speed.

Slyrox managed to finish her manual just as the door opened and the Countess walked in with a letter in her hand.

“They’ve found the Dungeon and confirmed it’s real, but there’s a bit of a problem.”

“What’s that?” Cal asked. “Is it a bone stealing necromancer? Oh, it is, isn’t it? I knew this day would come!”

“Stop that,” the Countess commanded. “No, it’s not a necromancer, but there is something strange about the area. The adventurers couldn’t get close. There’s a miasma around the Dungeon. I gather it’s because I did not give them the key.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not stupid, Cal.”

“Right, right, obviously.”

“Once you’re all done, it’s time to go,” Miranda said. “The adventurers thought there might be something in the miasma, but they couldn’t go further in. Once they tried, they got turned around and spit out exactly where they came from. I’m guessing only those who hold the key can make it through.”

“Do we… want to do that?” Cal asked. He held up his skeletal hands when the Countess turned her glare on him. “Only asking! Never hurts to make sure.”

The Countess turned to Shrubley. “You’re awfully quiet.”

“Making pots,” the shrub replied without taking his lamplight eyes off the process.

“That is… good,” the Countess said, watching with interest. It wasn’t everyday you saw somebody with such a natural knack for mana control. No wonder he was able to hit Copper so soon and quickly move up through the rank at that. All on his own as well.

With some proper training, and in an environment rich in mana, he could go very far. Just how far was the question. Did Mistress Ceasewane impart some secret for advancement to him?

It was hard to think that the old bat would trust Shrubley with a secret she had trusted to nobody else. And yet, Shrubley’s startling rise through Copper in a matter of a few weeks was impossible to deny. If he wasn’t already knocking on Bronze, Miranda was a vegan.