บท 303: Enchanting Subject

Not long after Malyn had left, Michael was in attendance for Sergius Turrianus's lecture on Enchanting and the fundamentals of creating unique enchantments. To be honest, this was only the second lecture by the man that Michael had been to... Not because he'd missed some, but because he was the Master that was the least interested in actually teaching.

His lectures were few and far apart, and the man seemingly only gave them when they were related with his current subject of interest, or when the Arch-Mage 'persuades' him to. It was kind of disappointing considering that Enchanting was one of the most interesting schools of magic to him.

He probably needed someone to personally tutor him since all of his attempts to enchant something either didn't work at all or had disastrous effects. His attempts to enchant a sword to maintain the sharpness of its blade for longer only made it blunter, and let's not even mention what happened when he tried to create a flame sword...

Though, he was beginning to see where he'd gone wrong now that he was listening to Master Sergius... Apparently, unique self-created enchantments were incredibly hard to do and needed weeks or sometimes months of research before you should even attempt a single one.

The main method for beginners to learn Enchanting was to, essentially, copy someone else's work. Disenchanting an object and memorizing how said Enchantment felt before applying it to another. This, while still incredibly difficult, was far easier than creating your own.

Indeed, Michael's past attempts at Enchanting were essentially, 'Believing hard enough to make it real'... Which obviously didn't work. Man he was dumb, he wasn't Peter Pan so believing in Fairies didn't do shit!

With this new information, Michael leaves the lecture halfway through and heads to the library, having Urag pull up information on the subject. Fortunately, you weren't required to memorize the enchantments if you didn't want to... Instead, you could inscribe it onto a scroll and memorize that when you wanted to enchant something.

Not long after, Michael finds himself standing over an enchanting table with Chillrend in hand, the shimmering blue glass blade making him somewhat nervous to go forward with this. It was one of the most powerful enchantments in Skyrim, so making a mistake would be a serious loss...

Regardless, while he was shit at enchanting, disenchanting looked to be fairly easy. He rests a scroll atop the enchanting table and begins. Instantly, the magic within the blade flairs to life, freezing the wall and floor next to Michael, but leaving him unharmed due to his earlier preparations.

After that, the blade begins turning to dust in his hand, the ice shards around him growing larger the more the blade disappears. Soon enough, a pile of dust in left on the scroll, and Michael allows the enchantment to pass through him and into the scroll.

The dust sinks into the scroll, forming many intricate patterns and formations... There was so much that even the back of the scroll was covered, and Michael was forced to scramble for another scroll just so he could catch everything.

In the end, Chillrend had turned to dust, and Michael was left with a couple scrolls that detailed exactly how to mimic Chillrend's enchantment on something else. He stows them away into his inventory as if his life depended on it, refusing to allow even the chance of them getting damaged.

All that was left now was to try enchanting something with it... Yeah, not anytime soon, he wanted to try enchanting an ebony sword, or maybe try enchanting Derflinger, but first, he wanted to practice on scrap pieces of metal.

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Two days later :

Michael, Charlotte, and Tiffania were shooting in a triangle, each blocking with a ward while maintaining their own stream of fire. It was more for practice in swapping hands to cast spells than anything else, but it was challenging enough to help them improve.

Unlike in the game, swapping spells from one hand to another was a bit more tricky then you'd think. It was like trying to repeat a tongue twister, in that you had to hold two sets of spell formations in your mind and swap them... Doing this fast enough to block spells was very, very difficult.

They'd been at it for around ten minutes and Tiffania's ward was starting to tremble a bit, showing that she was nearing the end of her endurance.

"Keep at it Tiff." he encourages, but soon enough her ward peters out and forces her to duck away to avoid the flames. Michael turns his fire onto Charlotte, both of them simultaneously firing flames and blocking at the same time.

Michael had the advantage in this as he had a far greater affinity with fire than she did, but the odds evened out since her mana pool was larger than his own... At least, for now it was.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to finish the exercise as a voice from the Courtyard caught their attention...

"I'm telling you! THEY JUST STOOD UP AND WALKED AWAY!"

"Now, now, Jarl. While this does sound like quite the disaster, why would you immediately accuse us of it?" The Arch-Mage says just as the trio lean over the roof to see what was happening...

Jarl Korir was standing red-faced opposite the Arch-Mage, his hands balled into fists as if he were about to throw a punch. "THE WINTERHOLD GRAVEYARD WALKS AWAY AND YOU THINK I WOULDN'T KNOW WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE!? WHO ELSE COULD IT BE!?" he roars, spittle flying from his mouth.

...

"The graveyard walked away?" Michael parrots, glancing to the others, "Obviously a Necromancer but, you think whoever it is is just trying to cause trouble for the College?"

Tiffania shrugs her shoulders, "Someone from here might have done it, an Apprentice doesn't have to be sanctioned to do it..." she says, leaving Michael and Charlotte to nod.

"Yeah, sounds likely..." he says while turning his attention back to the Jarl and Arch-Mage.