High Artificer, Ch 7: Establishing a Foundation

Sam reappeared next to Altey and his parents. Rolen was standing behind him, looking around with uncertainty.

“This is Rolen,” he said as he introduced him. He let his voice turn back to the normal human range as he introduced him.

The young man looked a bit dazzled by the swift change in events, but his expression was determined. He was holding onto his student medallion as if he never intended to put it down.

“You two will be new students together,” Sam told him as he pointed at Altey. “You might as well get acquainted now. We’ll discuss your class assignments soon, as well as your subclass. Until then, don’t take one. I have some ideas to improve your options.”

“I still need to complete my class quest first,” Rolen said hesitantly. “I was thinking about a Runecrafter subclass. My options seem to be between that and a melee class to make the most of my primary one.”

“Yes, one or the other,” Sam agreed. “If you take a melee class, you’ll end up being a front-line warrior who can use ice wards, shields, and so on to defend your party. You should also have an attack, but it will probably become a melee attack by your First Evolution.

“If you take a Runecrafter subclass, you’ll be more of a mage who can build defensive wards, enchant buildings and campsites, and protect yourself magically, but if you wait for my help, you should be able to get something even better. 

“Imagine being a warrior who can summon a squad of ice golems to help you attack and defend. It would be like having six of you. Or you could be a mage who is able to overwhelm your enemies with an army of golems, covering the field with so many forces that your opponents are crushed by the sheer weight of them all.”

Rolen’s eyes widened as he heard Sam’s words. His hands shook because he was gripping the amulet so tightly.

“Are golems expensive to build?” he asked carefully. “I’ve only seen a couple of them and they were all special projects. I don’t have much money.”

“Very expensive, unless you have the right class for it,” Sam said with a laugh. “That’s why I need you to wait. I should be able to help you get a subclass that will allow you to create golems more easily. Otherwise, it won’t work so well.”

“But why are you helping me, sir...professor?” Rolen said, as if he couldn’t believe it. “I don’t think I have anything I can offer you.”

“It’s a scholarship, Rolen,” Sam said with a shake of his head. “It is supposed to be given to someone who can make use of it. All I did was take it for you instead of letting it be given to someone who didn’t need it. As for why....”

He nodded at Altey.

“My little sister asked me to help you out. I agree that you have excellent potential. Your classes should have excellent synergy since they both use Ice. It will also be good for you both to have someone to talk to as you start out at the academy. She also traveled a long way from home to come here.”

“Hello.” Altey grinned as she gave Rolen a half wave. She looked a little embarrassed that Sam had singled her out, but she got over it quickly. 

“I thought it would be nice to help you, that’s all. The academy wasn’t being fair. You have just as much right to a scholarship as anyone else.”

Rolen was silent for a moment before he gave her a hesitant smile, as well as a slight bow of his head. 

“Thank you,” he said. “I don’t think I could have spent any longer here. I would have had to go somewhere to find a chance.”

“It’s a single step to correcting the issues the academy has with its balance of students,” Sam said, waving away the formality that was starting to appear. “You’ll do fine. Now, let’s talk about what classes you two are going to take. You need to sign up this week.

“Your basic options come in three variants: combat classes, crafting classes, and survival classes, along with a few required history, politics, and other cultural ones to help you understand how everything works. Combat classes and the rest come in a wide variety, but I’ll leave it to you to pick what you are most interested in.

“The breakdown of those three types is really what is in question. You’re required to take at least one combat and one survival class. If you’re a crafter, sometimes that’s all you have to take each term, but I wouldn’t recommend it, since your level will rise very slowly.

“If possible,” he explained, “you want to keep your level rising steadily at the same time as your crafting, so that you can advance it swiftly and continue to find important materials for your own use. It’s more efficient since the academy won’t provide what you need in endless quantities. A crafter has to work for their department to get a materials stipend, and that will slow you down.

“You should both take at least one crafting profession,” he added seriously. “Rolen, you’re already planning on it, I think, and Altey, you will find it very useful as well. Most warriors have at least one to repair or maintain their equipment, and mages often have several. Do either of you have any idea what you would like to study in more depth, now that you have your classes?”

“Spell scrolls, enchanting, and runes for me,” Altey said immediately. “Those are your areas, and I know how powerful they are. Maybe alchemy too. Siwaha uses that.”

“It should be possible for you to get variants that focus on your Ice or Lunar affinity,” Sam agreed. “Ice Enchanter, for example, or Lunar Scribe. Those will be stronger and more focused than the base version. You need to consider what will best augment your classes and your fighting style. Fortunately, professions are forgiving and can be changed out. Just make sure to look for ones that apply some experience to your class.”

He turned to look at Rolen.

“How about you?”

“I’d like to do Runecrafting as a profession too,” Rolen said quickly. “Scrolls are useful, but if I’m making golems...something with them? I think I’d rather be a mage than a melee warrior. If I can really make golems to fight, I’ll do it.”

“Alright, we’ll work on those,” Sam said. “You have six free class spots in your schedule for the first term. Sign up for three crafting ones with me, two combat ones that seem interesting, and one survival class. Those are level-based, so it doesn’t matter much right now. That will take up about 80% of your time, while the rest will be required classes.

“After the first term, you can perhaps drop some crafting classes with me and do more combat or survival ones, but I want to help you get a strong foundation in those first, so that you can stay on a good track.” 

He didn’t trust anyone else to teach them crafting, but it would be convenient for them to have combat classes and the rest with other people. 

They would always have a guard close by.

He glanced at the golem that was floating by his sister’s shoulder in its book form. Technically, the golem’s full name was the Compendium of the Aurora, but Cora was easier to say. 

The golem was up to level 535 after his latest boost to it. It would be able to look after both of them if they stuck together. 

He would have to add a protective rune to Rolen, to make sure the boy could communicate with Altey and didn’t get killed randomly, but that wouldn’t take long.

He glanced around the area to see how much longer things would go on for, but the scholarship discussion was still happening on the other side of the field. It looked like it would take a while for them to finish. 

His avatar had disappeared with the rest of the faculty who weren’t running it, so now only his main body was present. He could hide his duplicates easily enough by bending space or using an illusion, but there was no reason to have the avatar around unless he needed it. 

Most people would never even notice there was more than one of him.

“The class sign up will be in the main hall,” he said as he pointed toward the academy doors. “Make sure to look around and then you’ll have the rest of the week to get ready. 

“Altey, your time is yours, since you already know what to do. 

“Rolen, don’t complete your Class Quest yet. I want to help you get a few accomplishments first. Once you finish looking around, send me a message and I’ll see what we can do about that and your subclass. I’ll also set up a place for you to stay.”

A flare of silver light resolved into a rune in front of him, which he flicked toward Rolen. It floated across the distance and stuck to the boy’s hand. 

“Use that to call me when you’re ready.”

A wave of his hand also summoned a spatial ring into the air, which he stocked with some basic supplies and a little spending money. He wove a quick enchantment to attune it to Rolen alone and then handed it to him.

“This is yours now,” he said. “Consider it a starting gift. The academy is supposed to provide room and board, but I’ll give this to you in advance. You can collect your stipend at the finance office by showing them your medallion and then again at the beginning of every month. Your medallion will show you how to get there..”

He paused for a moment before a slight smile appeared on his face.

“That should be all for now, so you two get acquainted and then go look at things. Have fun, but make sure to show up at the main hall tomorrow morning. There will be a couple of interesting duels for you to watch. The other faculty want to see how strong my golems are. It should be good for you to see it too.”

With that, he gave them both a wink and then waved to his parents before he disappeared. He had a feeling they would want to talk to Rolen and figure out his background, and then the boy and his sister needed some time to get to know one another, but they could do that on their own.

He had examined the boy’s history in more depth than Rolen might ever understand. He’d scanned the boy’s emotions, read the impressions his aura left on the world and the inn where he’d worked, and he’d even sent an avatar to teleport to Whispering Dawn, the world Rolen was from.

Shortly, he’d know everything else there was to know about that situation.

His assessment told him Rolen had a solid character, was loyal, and had a good head on his shoulders, which was enough to take him as a student. Unless something happened to change the boy, he would do well enough now that he’d been given a chance. 

The deeper look wasn’t completely necessary, but he didn’t like leaving such an obvious loose end. If he was going to take the boy as a personal student, he wanted to know everything about him.

For now, there was no reason to worry about his conduct with Altey. His family and Cora were both there, an avatar was keeping constant watch over them, and his sister was far more formidable than Rolen. 

She would probably always be, although the future looked good for the new Icerune Warder.

For now, they could do the slow greeting dance of two teenagers meeting for the first time, while he had other things to do.

There was a workshop to set up and a duel to prepare for, plus some classes to design. If he was going to be a professor, he was going to do it in style.

He wasn’t going to tear the veil off just yet, but he also wasn’t going to work in a hole in the ground. 

The academy had a great number of halls that no doubt seemed ornate to the students, but if he was going to be the Professor of Artificing and Enchanting, he wanted a proper workshop and somewhere to put an astral forge.

A Titan Hall.

The academy had been built well after the Titans departed, so it had never had a Titan in residence. As far as he was concerned, that meant the entire place was now his to do as he liked.

It might give away a few things if anyone recognized an astral flame or put together the old stories of the Titans as builders, but that just made it more fun.

Fortunately, one thing the academy didn’t lack was size. 

He grinned as he reappeared in an old hall. It was about a thousand feet long and two hundred feet wide, and its location was good, right next to the other main halls of the academy, but according to the records, it had been closed for a while. 

It used to be the main combat training hall, but the academy did most of their training outdoors now and it had fallen out of use. The last time it was opened was over 3,000 years ago, and that was only to host a special event.

If the academy had been less prestigious or in need of money, they might have done something else with it, but they weren’t and they didn’t, so it was just known as the ‘Old Training Hall.’

It would work.

He raised his hand and a bright silver portal opened in the air beside him. A dozen avatars stepped out, each of them a copy of himself in different clothes. Runes shimmered around them as they spread out across the hall. 

Their auras were so powerful that they warped the space around them, creating condensed ripples in the air that twisted the stones, so his domain spread out, calming the area as he concealed their presence.

Then he got to work, working more than a dozen times faster than he could have done alone.

A wave of astral flame swept through the hall, purifying everything as he poured his aura into, and he wove a dimensional stabilization field that linked into the school’s structure, making it so nothing outside would even shake as he changed this place.

Then he reached up and tore the roof off.

Thousands of pounds of stone shattered into dust, disintegrating under the force of his will. Wards shattered like a thousand stars, exploding into an array of colors and chaotic energies that washed against his wards. Their force dissolved more of the stone, sending secondary and tertiary explosions all along the hall.

As they disintegrated, higher-level embedded enchantments that belonged to the academy and the old training hall erupted next, trying to preserve the structure. Some of them were at the Fifth and Sixth Evolution, their force powerful enough to shatter half the world.

“Obey.”

The word rolled out of Sam’s mouth as he surrounded the enchantments in his domain and seized control of them.

He felt it as the wards shuddered and then bowed toward his command, falling under the sway of his Fifth Star ability, Sovereign of Primal Runes, and the power he held.

As they came to him, he rewove them, fusing them into an exterior layer of enchantments that surrounded his hall but didn’t touch it. When he was done, the space inside was completely his own.

Dimensional energy poured off of him and bent space more deeply, now that nothing was in his way. The remaining stone in the hall disintegrated, pouring away from the floor and the walls until there was nothing but an empty black field surrounded by the exterior ward. He paused to survey the area, studying the earth below and then the open sky above. Some time had passed and the day was over now. The stars glittered in the night, revealing the majesty of the Void. 

He surveyed the stars of the galaxy, and then nodded in approval. 

It was a good view.

Council had two moons, one less than Aster Fall, but they were both out tonight. One was large and silver-hued, while the other was about half the size and a serene blue color. They drifted among misty night clouds and glowed with the reflected light of the sun.

Past the moons, the stars were brilliant, shining in his mind with embedded meaning. 

Many of them were nodes in the Path of Stars, their essence enhancing the power of the greatest enchantment ever woven in the galaxy.

Others belonged to distant worlds, some of the Titan worlds and others not, and they hummed with information and the energy of the cultures that lived in their light. The astral threads that connected him to everything in the Void sang with power.

He felt himself relax as the starlight poured over him. 

Then he looked back down and began to build his hall.

Massive currents of astral energy formed in the air, branching out from him and his avatars. They howled across the empty space like the chaos winds of the Deep Wild, filling the area with elemental energy and essence. If the dimensional ward hadn’t been in place, they would have exploded outward and shredded the academy, tearing its buildings away to nothing.

But this space was his and with every moment, the space inside began to expand. The dimensional ward held the exterior stable as the inside grew larger, pushing outward as he formed a new realm inside.

The original thousand feet stretched out, turning into a mile and then ten miles, a hundred, and finally a thousand miles. The sides expanded at the same time, also moving out until they reached a thousand miles.

When he was done, there was a perfect sphere of that distance stretching across everything, its border marked only by the enchantment. The Void filled the sky above and elemental essence flowed into the space below his feet, creating new land.

A flat plain of smooth stone appeared, covering the ground in every direction. Beneath it, elemental fire and stone created bedrock and magma, laying the foundation of a miniature world.

On the surface, in the distance, mountains and rolling hills filled with trees began to form as elemental Stone and Wood merged, some of them carrying fruit and others blossoms, but he kept them on the edges, so they didn’t interfere with his workspace.

In the center, astral stone began to appear in shining white columns, each of them a hundred feet tall. They marched down the center of the hall in a double row, rising into the night.

At one end, a silver flame ignited, creating the heart of his forge, while his avatars worked to weave the supporting enchantments that were useful for creating artifacts and golems.

On the other end, a giant hearth and an array of stone tables and seats appeared. Normally, that was where he hosted guests, but this time it would be where the students rested. 

A low dais appeared in the middle of the hall between them with a chair at the center. Usually, he had a seat there to study the stars and rest, but this time it was a bit simpler, more a lecture seat to speak from.

Work tables took shape around the dais, each of them with enchanting diagrams and other things that were useful for new enchanters and artificers, including safety wards.

Then shining veins of silvery astral crystal wove through all the stone, shining with a pure and translucent light that gave the hall a sense of calm focus.

He studied it as he let his avatars finish working on the enchantments to stabilize everything.

“That should work,” he said as a smile tugged at his lips. 

He turned to the side and created a gate at the edge of the hall, aligning it with the dimensional space where the entrance had been to the old training hall.

When the students came in, they would arrive there, and then they could find a seat or a work table for themselves.

Then he assigned his avatars to the more complex task of separating this dimensional space from the world and anchoring it in the Void outside of Council. It required a bit of finesse to do it without shaking the academy to pieces.

Before long, only a slice of space that filled the thousand feet of the original hall remained in contact with the world, taking the place of the hall that was once there. The edge of that space was like a permanent portal, maintaining contact between the two locations.

The rest of the workshop was halfway between Council and its sun.

He could have created a realm like this and then opened a regular portal to the academy that was placed in any random doorway, but doing it this way felt more appropriate, like he’d taken a piece of the academy for himself. 

No one could argue that he wasn’t teaching there.

More importantly, his main class was the Lord of Silver Realms. Having this much of a workshop was a requirement.

He’d rebuilt the nagas’ entire home world in three days and created the Fallen Abyss on Aster Fall with more than 600 individual realms in it, so building a single thousand-mile wide realm wasn’t very difficult.

As for what people thought when they saw this workshop, he left it up to their own imagination. Most of them would probably just think it was an illusion with some small dimensional warping to make the space larger.

Now that he’d created this place and stabilized it, he decided that it would be the basis for a private dimensional realm, one that could travel around the settled galaxy.

The Demon of Shattered Skies had a realm like that, one she could send her forces from to anywhere on Aster Fall or other locations that she could reach via portal. He’d demolished her realm when he found it, but he’d learned a lot about how to do the same himself.

The Outsiders liked to travel around in these little bubble realms, protected from everything outside, while they could host an entire civilization in the interior.

He might as well try it out. It would be nice to have a mobile hall for once, rather than having to build it again every time.

His fortress of Silverguard was something similar, but it occupied real space. This was a bit easier to drag around. He could basically carry the entire dimension in his pocket, pulling it around like a soap bubble.

Once he added a few more enchantments, he could even travel while inside of it. He would just have to improve it a bit more first. He set his avatars to working on that while he turned his attention back to the task at hand.

In the distant mountains, he shaped enormous caverns to produce golems, swiftly adding the necessary enchantments to condense astral ice, stone, and other materials. Then he added precision enchantments to forge their cores and shape their outer structures.

He’d had a lot of practice in creating golem chambers, so the enchantments sprang to mind instantly and were carved into the mountains with the force of his domain. It was like a wave of light covering the space and changing everything around it.

Outside the realm, he wove an enchantment to gather free energy from the chaos winds and the Void, which was then channeled down into the chambers and into the supporting structure of the realm. The winds of the settled galaxy were lighter than those on the other half of the Great Divide, but they were still present.

Before too long, the golem chambers were complete and he let the enchantment begin filling their reserves. It would take a little while for the realm to gather enough energy on its own, so he accelerated it in person, pouring in vast amounts of elemental energy and astral quintessence.

Then he set the chambers to crafting the first set of golems that would guard this place. It would take a few days to form them, but before long, there would be hundreds of astral assault golems and defensive golems ready to call out.

In not much longer, he would have thousands of them, all around Level 475 or higher. It was difficult to push a golem past Level 500, even for him, but the strongest ones here would be around Level 525 or a bit higher once they were finished.

Then they could level up more on their own, if the opportunity arose.

When the instructions were set, he called out more elemental essence and began shaping some elementals to manage things, imbuing with them purpose from his Level 550 ability, Elemental Creation. 

They were translucent wind elementals, bodies of flame, and green-hued spirits of the wood, their shapes flowing like air as they spun and danced through the space. 

They were only around Level 100, but he set them to maintaining the realm, supporting the enchantments, and overseeing the golem creation. 

As elementals, they would never tire of their tasks. 

In time, they might develop more of their own personalities and their strength would rise. There were elementals on Aster Fall that had become World Spirits, and their strengths were well into the Fourth or Fifth Evolution. 

There were even more elementals out in the Void that formed naturally, born wherever there was a high enough density of elemental essence and other energy to spark life. 

His ability relied on his Elemental Mastery to do the same thing directly. It also allowed him to give them instructions and a sense of purpose, so his elementals were much better behaved.

When he was done, he looked over everything with a critical eye, checking for potential flaws. Then he summoned a new portal and sent his avatars back to Aster Fall to keep an eye on things there.

As he headed to the gate, his academy robe brushed across the stone floor, making a sound like the wind sweeping across a plain.

His work had taken all night, so Rolen and Altey should be well rested by now. That meant it was time to see about the duels he’d promised the faculty.

He wondered what they would think if they realized the extent to which he’d just moved into the academy. He stopped at the entrance to his hall and looked over his shoulder, giving the distant mountains a slight smile.

It should be a fun day.

After that, he would take care of Rolen’s subclass.