บท 7: Pathfinder (Part 2)
Wallace froze for a couple of seconds as something appeared on his mind.
[ Activating Pathfinder Tool... ]
[ Authentication of the User... ]
[ Pathfinder activation completed. The tool will guide the user to achieve the goals you selected. ]
[ Starting complete assimilation... ]
[ Please wait as Pathfinder will analyze the best possible paths for the user based on your current location. ]
[ Counting down, 3... 2... 1... The world environment has been checked. ]
[ User may now select on the options listed.
1. Combat Magician's Path
2. Magic Engineer's Path
3. Mage Doctor's Path
4. Celebrity Idol's Path
5. Emperor's Path
6. Create your own Path ]
[ If the user does not select a Path within 300 seconds, the Pathfinder will instead choose one from options 1 to 5 for you. ]
Wallace then saw a countdown appearing in a corner of his mind. He was, of course, surprised to see all this. He didn't even know where this thing came from. If he were to make a guess, it probably had something to do with the relic he touched in the spaceship. After all, with the events that had occurred like their spaceship being ambushed, sending him somewhere in the universe then merging or probably reincarnating in this body, it all started because of the relic.
He didn't delve too much in his mind as he accepted this another supernatural event. He confirmed that descriptions could be seen on each option and first checked what was this Celebrity Idol thing, he was already aware of what combat magician, magic engineer, and mage doctor's path implied. But this Celebrity Idol seemed to come out of nowhere.
Wallace shook his head after reading on it, he could not imagine performing in the populace, be in entertainment industry or be some expert artist in some field and be a famous celebrity.
'Why is it even in my options?'
He then checked the Emperor's Path description then checked the first 3 options. He was curious about combat magician as supposedly, he wouldn't be qualified on it. He noted as well the 6th path which is creating own path.
[ You have 15 seconds left. ]
The voice in his mind reminded him. After checking the description of each options, he chose his path.
***
Wallace and his classmates were now all in the testing room for practical examination to create the 5th gen artifact. Everyone had an idea of how to do it but some had never tried as pieces of equipment and materials needed were all expensive. Failing to properly inlay magic structure in the artifact could destroy the whole thing. Aside from that, the mana formation and mana array required was a problem as well.
Instructor Garen had prepared the room and was now about to tell them the examination.
"As you can see here, we can only prepare six Artifact Forging Box so this will take some time. You all just need to infuse Flame Mantra created by Weiss Holdings in these accessories."
He then showed 30 bracelets with all the same look. They were all plain silver bracelets without any adornment. Besides these accessories were a bunch of bead sized crystals containing the magic structure. The 4th gen artifact only required 1 magic structure crystal containing all innovation from 1st to 4th gen. But with the 5th gen appearance, they had to use another magic structure crystal for it.
"There are already prepared Array. The Formation is there as well. So you really just have to infuse the magic structure of Blue Flame Mantra."
Their job was indeed lessened. But it wasn't that simple.
The standard process of forging had several steps. First, you needed an Artifact Forging Box which was the main device. It was a 3 feet high machine that they had here in the Academy. This machine had two handles at the side which magicians could hold to channel mana into the machine. This box had a lot of uses depending on the array.
Secondly, you needed a Mana Formation to give a stable source of mana. Magicians don't need to use their own mana pool as it will all come from this formation.
Third would be the Mana Stabilization Array or just Mana Array. It helped the magicians control the infusing process. It would not matter if you had a low or high mana affinity with the array in place.
Fourth would be the materials themselves. In the standard process, the material had to be made in the same Artifact Forging Box for compatibility concerns when completing the forge, though there would be an auxiliary array to be added. But due to demand for mass production, it was being accepted to have a third party mold the material to its desired shape since there was only a very small difference that could not be obviously felt. Only some perfectionists would really press to have it made on the same Artifact Forging Box. This time, the bracelet they had was obviously a mass-produced one.
Once the material was in the forging box, mana formation, and mana array in place, the magician could start the infusing process of the magic structure. This time, there was an already prepared one which was the Blue Flame Mantra, a magic structure made by Weiss Holdings and sold in bulk during the early stage of the 5th gen artifact. The structure contained flame related magic and was really quite simple, the only notable thing about this Blue Flame Mantra was the way to control the heat it produced.
Infusing the magic structure's content in the material was taxing on one's mind. Especially 5th gen which required 2 magic crystal.
Wallace waited for 2 hours before his turn. He was itching to accomplish the task given by the Pathfinder. He was given a task after he chose his path yesterday.
[ As someone who dreams to attain something big, you have to improve yourself.
Mission: Get a high score on practical examination tomorrow.
Mission item: Necklace of Clarity
Mission Reward: Improvement in Mana Affinity
Bonus Reward: If the mission is completed with the highest score in the class, the Necklace of Clarity will be given to the user. ]
Wallace noticed that he was now wearing a thin black thread as a necklace
[ Necklace of Clarity ]
Unfortunately, it didn't have any other description and he could only guess what it was.
Wallace gathered his thoughts and started his artifact forging.
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