Tristan

It was hard to ignore the awkwardness hanging between himself and Tempy. She stood only a few paces away, working on her own projects, as he tried to do the same. With less than a handful of days until the voyage ended, Tristan mostly wanted to keep his head down and fully devote himself to his work. He'd gotten pretty good at ignoring everything other than the rhythm of his own hammer, or the pulse of the magic as he moved it from one source into whichever rune he was working on, but still, she was right there.

Thankfully, she seemed content to leave him to his own devices, if only he could do the same.

He grunted, trying to refocus again. He'd never fallen to embarrassment before, and he certainly wouldn't let it win out now.

Once he found his groove, trying to grind out and perfect more runes wasn't just fun, it was also a great source of experience. Tristan had pages and pages of new runes to try thanks to Tempy, and he really was serious about learning as many as he could. It needed to be one of his top priorities while he had access to such discounted materials. Not that he'd stop after the Ark.

For now, he returned to making charms. Eventually he hoped to turn them into proper gear, like pendants. He'd already decided he wanted to replace his [Simple Necklace], and this would hopefully give him a few good options to choose from.

He went down the list of offensive runes and circled five that he thought would make for good experiments. None looked especially difficult--not when compared to what he'd done to make his own rune--but they were clearly a step up in complexity from what he'd been learning as a fledgling enchanter.

He started with the three elemental Minor Runes he'd seen back in Garrow's shop: Chilling, Flaming, and Sparking. They were extremely common runes, which Tristan soon learned was because they struck a good balance between power and simplicity. The most impressive-looking of the designs was Sparking, which had several fluid curves throughout its structure that all ended in fine points. He suspected the rounded lines would make this the most difficult of the runes to work on, so decided to save that rune for last.

After half a day, he had learned the first two runes well enough to be able to craft several successes in a row. He'd even managed to improve the efficiency of his magical conversions by enough that he could use his previous charms as his Sources for the most part, only needing to add a bit of extra dust at the end of each attempt.

He mastered [Minor Rune: Sparking] in another half a day, too. He'd been right that the curved lines were the hardest elements of the design. He was quickly learning just how much of enchanting was an artform. He had enjoyed finding the similarities between the three runes, despite the stark differences required by their respective elements. He wondered what embellishments he could make in the future to enhance their effects. He also considered if he might be able to change the elements used and create runes for those that weren't already represented. If he could switch fire for earth, or possibly even light, well... That would be an interesting project for later.

His next tests taught him that these elemental runes really couldn't do anything on their own. Even when Tristan tried to convert them to necklaces, the runes refused to apply their effects on any weapons he wielded.

I guess they really do have to be incorporated directly into a weapon to work properly.

Next he tried working on more general combat boosting runes. Learning and successfully creating each took him hours of attempts and a lot more essences and dust than he'd have believed, as they were each at least one step up on Tempy's "Magical Essence" scale. He had to run down to buy more from the Central Market before he even finished the first! However, in the end, he crafted two more acceptable charms.

[Minor Rune: Targeting] Your weapons critically strike 4% more often.

[Minor Rune: Piercing] Your weapons pierce 3.5% of armor.

Converting them both into necklaces kept the effects this time, with neither suffering any loss to its effectiveness. The pendants weren't bad, but at common rarity, they weren't great either. Either was an improvement over the +2 armor his current [Simple Necklace] provided, though, so the [Pendant of Lesser Targeting] quickly replaced it.

Yet there was still that nagging inside him that felt like it wasn't good enough, like he would be settling if he continued wearing something so simple.

Despite that, he'd earned some praise from Tempy for completing the five charms. She was his teacher, after all, and could see his improvement just as well as he could. And while he certainly appreciated that, it didn't make it any less awkward.

He tried to put on his best smile as he thanked her for the compliment. Then he went back to work.

While a part of him was glad to have learned as much as he had, he felt bad that he hadn't been able to [Imbue] any of the charms well enough to get their maximum effects. He really wanted to be able to achieve that on at least three or four runes before he advanced to the next tier, if not earlier. With the new goal in mind, Tristan was determined not to stop until he achieved it.

Honestly, he didn't mind being a bit of a stickler for the quality of his crafts. Since he could only wear things he made himself, he'd just have to keep pushing himself to make better equipment! And after he managed to make an uncommon or better pendant, well, maybe then he'd get to updating his rings. Maybe. Enchanting definitely added a new complexity and challenge to his crafting process that he appreciated, but Tristan was already getting kind of tired of making jewelry again.

For his sixth charm, he chose to take another small step up in complexity and work on [Minor Rune: Slashing]. In addition to increasing damage of that type, it also gave a ridiculously small chance to slow opponents when struck, and it was that second part that seemed to be the source of the extra complexity. Not to mention that this rune was listed as a level 5 "Magical Essence" on Tempy's list of runes. It would take a much larger amount of magic to create. Thankfully, he now had money to spare.

He settled down in front of the design, rotated his neck, cracked his knuckles, and smiled. This was going to be hard, but fun--which made it the best kind of work.

A full day later, Tristan finally leaned back and let out a sigh of victory... and exhaustion. He hadn't rested in so long his fingers were partially numb, his neck ached, and his arms in general felt drained. But he couldn't just stop! It was now day 25, which meant it was almost the end of his time on the Ark. He had to keep pushing as long and as hard as he could to make the most use of Inspiration Jack's incredible aura.

As if in agreement--and obviously thanks to the rune he'd just completed--a rush of energy filled him as another Ding! sounded through the Foundry.

Congratulations! The enchanter Class has reached LEVEL 9!

Skills Earned:

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[Endurance Up I], already known, so upgraded:

[Endurance Up II] A passive skill that grants the user a 20% increase to Endurance. Skills that scale exclusively off of Endurance receive double this bonus.

It was another awesome skill upgrade for Tristan, and for arguably his most important stat. With it, his Endurance was now up to 87, which put it just below Strength! It was like his two top stats were racing to see which would grow faster, and he kind of loved it.

"Hey, Tristan?" came Sophie's voice from nearby. As he turned to acknowledge her, she visibly brightened.

"Hey Sophie! Hey Poof! What's going on?"

"Oh, thank the gods. I was worried I'd have to wait here for hours to talk to you again. I was just--" She stopped herself, glancing toward where Tempy had clearly slowed her usual rhythm, perhaps to listen in. "Are you able to take a little break? I'd like to talk to you..."

She was snuggling Poof, and she pulled the puffball tighter as she left her thought unfinished.

Poof had also perked up as soon as Tristan called her name and had been meeping cheerily ever since, almost drowning out what Sophie was saying.

"Sure," he replied, checking his [Clock] skill. "Let's take a walk. Up to High Dining? Have you eaten yet? I'm starving."

Both Sophie and Poof seemed agreeable, so he led them toward the stairs. Once they were far enough away that the background clanging of hammers likely covered their conversation, Sophie resumed speaking.

"So, I wanted to talk to you because it's almost the end of the trip, you know?"

"Yeah, it's crazy how time has just flown by."

"Yeah," she agreed, "and that means all our hard work will finally pay off."

"You're telling me! It's been days since I handed over my newest sword for the Tier 2 Primary contest. It's a shame you didn't get to see it."

"Yeah," Sophie said. "And then--"

"Oh, and then of course there's your Farewell Ball. That will obviously be tons of fun. There's going to be food, right?"

Sophie actually stopped in the middle of the stairs and stared at him, causing a woman walking up behind them to nearly bump into Tristan. "Seriously? Of course there will be food. It's on all the fliers! But... Tristan, come on. Don't make me ask."

He stepped back down the single step to be on her level. "Ask what now?"

"You're going to the Farewell Ball, aren't you?"

"Yeah, obviously. You planned it out, so obviously I'm going. I can't wait to see how spectacular it is!"

"Yeah." Her expression hardened.

Silence hung in the air as a few more stair climbers walked around them.

Tristan scratched the back of his neck. "Is... Is something wrong?"

Poof's eyes narrowed. "Meep meep-meep, meep meep mee-MEEP me-meep!" She even turned slightly away from him, clearly upset about something.

"You really don't know?" Sophie asked, tilting her head.

"Don't know what?" Tristan asked, trying not to sound too exasperated. "I don't know what I don't know!"

"When were you going to ask me to the ball, Tristan?"

For the span of two breaths, Tristan's mind blanked. The question had seemingly come out of nowhere. He still wasn't sure what was happening or where it had come from. "W-what?" he finally managed to ask. "I didn't... Did you really want me to? Like that?"

Suddenly he was thinking back to all their interactions, reviewing them for any hint of feelings or things of that nature. Honestly, he'd never even considered Sophie in that light before. She was so young, after all. She was only...

And suddenly the conversation he'd had with Tempy came back to him in a whole new light. Gods among us, I am a fool.

Meanwhile, Sophie had actually blanched. "What? No! I'm not being romantic or anything here. Gods. But... Who else was I going to go with, Tristan?"

She looked genuinely let down, and in that moment, Tristan realized that she might actually have been hurt by his thoughtlessness. She's put so much time and effort into making this ball, and here I wasn't even considering how she'd feel about it.

"Wow, I am really sorry," he began. "I wasn't even thinking--I wasn't being very considerate at all. Can I make it up to you? Please?"

Sophie pursed her lips slightly. "...Yes."

He folded his hands before him and, bowing slightly, asked, "Might I please have the honor of escorting the two of you to the Farewell Ball at the end of this luxurious cruise?"

From her perch in Sophie's arms, Poof gave a long, rising and falling, "Me-eee-eeeep."

Sophie looked at the astral and winked. "Yeah, that was a little over the top, wasn't it?" Then she returned her gaze to Tristan, her posture straightening. She gave a very formal curtsy. "We'd both be delighted to accompany you, good sir."

Tristan laughed. "Oh good. For a moment there I wasn't sure you'd say 'yes' after all."

"Poof nearly didn't," Sophie admitted.

"Meep meep!" the puffball confirmed, nodding fiercely with each word.

"So, what time shall I, uh, pick you up?"

Sophie practically gasped. "More importantly, you should be asking about our attire for the ball, especially what colors we'll be wearing!"

"Sh-should I?"

"Gods, Tristan! We'll have to match, for starters, and that's not negotiable. So you've truly never been to a real ball?"

"I suppose not," he said with a little consideration. "Woodsedge had some formal events, but nothing like that."

Sophie shook her head. "Well, we've only got a few days, and I'm going to be absolutely swamped tomorrow. So I guess, after we eat--no, better start as we eat--we'll need to discuss proper etiquette."

Tristan was suddenly very worried he'd gotten himself in over his head.

Then Sophie did something curious, and she walked briskly off the stairs and over to a part of the wall Tristan hadn't ever paid much attention to before. She pushed a button that suddenly lit up in response.

"Wait, I thought we were going upstairs to eat," he said. "What's that?"

Both Sophie and Poof laughed a bit--until Sophie worked to calm herself. "Wait, you're serious?"

Tristan shrugged. "Yeah?"

"It's the elevator."

"This ship has an elevator?!"

Poof rammed her head slowly into Sophie's chest twice. "Meep meep? Meep meep-meep? Meeeep?"

Sophie patted her head. "No, he's--you're joking, right?"

"I've been taking the stairs up and down everywhere I went for weeks!"

Sophie hid her mouth behind her hand, clearly trying to hold back her laughter. "I thought you just liked the extra steps!"

"Up and down, up and down, dozens of floors worth of steps! Even when I've been exhausted?"

Sophie couldn't hold it back any longer. Laughter burst out of her like sparkling wine after a popped cork.

"It's not funny!" he said, crossing his arms.

"Oh, it's a little funny."

Poof started cooing gently, condescendingly, in his direction.

Somewhere nearby, a small bell rang, and the wall beside the button split open, revealing the interior of a surprisingly large, glass elevator.

"Shall we?" Sophie managed to choke out between fits of laughter.

"I'm not sure I want to eat with you two any more," Tristan grumbled, begrudgingly stepping in.

That comment made Sophie stiffen right up. "Oh, that is not an option, mister. You've got way too much to learn, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that can teach it in the amount of time we have left. I will not be seen in the company of unsophisticated riff-raff at my very first ball as hostess!"

As the doors slid closed, Tristan was now certain he was in well over his head. In fact, he might be drowning.

At least I've got two days to learn.

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