Patrick was an unsurprising choice — he was both talented and very easy to work with. “What about Roland?”
Sera made an ugly scowl. “He had ‘other obligations’.”
Huh. That would be interesting if I actually cared.
This was giving me an idea, though. “You ask any physical fighters yet?”
She shook her head.
“Okay, you sold me. I’ll join your team... if you let me bring a friend.”
She drew back and crossed her arms. “Who said I want you?”
I gave her a knowing look. “I’m not going to beg.”
“Fine, fine. You can join us. And you can pick someone. But get Jin, too, yeah?”
She wants Jin on the team? That was interesting. I would have expected her to go with any of the other students we’d known for years.
“I think I can sell him on the idea. Where do I sign up?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it. I’ve known how to forge your signature for years.”
“Knowledge is distinct from mastery. If your idea of my signature is anything like your homages to the great artists of—”
“I was six when I drew those, Corin. Six! Are you never going to let that go?”
“Not if you keep giving me such perfect reactions.”
“Ugh.”
We made our way to the shops without any further incidents, and she helped me pick out some of the items I needed. Fortunately, I’d just gotten my weekly stipend that morning; otherwise I’d have been begging Sera for a loan. I was only going to make one or two items immediately, but I picked up a handful of mundane accessories for future enchantments for myself, as well as the next few things Jin was going to need.
I had a lot of options in mind for my first item, even with my relatively limited resources.
In terms of function, I had a few main things I wanted to focus on.
First, I needed to make sure I stayed intact. My shield sigil was a good start for this, especially because I could recharge it myself, but eventually I wanted something that was stronger and wouldn’t require any upkeep from my side.
It also had a clear weakness to kinetic energy. Most shielding spells seemed to dampen the force of physical attacks, but failed to stop them entirely. I’d need to research how to counter that. Maybe a transference-based shield spell?
I also needed more raw offensive power. When Professor Orden had broken into my room, her tunic had been able to effortlessly absorb my dueling cane’s blasts. Maybe she wasn’t a fair bar to set. I couldn’t expect to beat opponents with Emerald-level enchantments that caught me by surprise in a fair fight, but even my own humble shield sigil was capable of soaking about fifteen hits from a standard dueling cane before failing.
Presumably, that was why Lord Teft had felt comfortable letting us throw spells at each other on our first day of class. The sigil defenses were more than capable of stopping anything your average student could have produced. Sera’s summoning-based attack spell might have broken through a shield, but I really had no idea. It was visually impressive, but I didn’t know how much punch those shards of ice had.
If I couldn’t break a simple shield, I couldn’t be expected to handle any monster of significant power, either. My sword might have done the job, but I still didn’t know exactly how it worked, and I wasn’t going to get into close range with anything threatening if I could avoid it. I had just enough sword training to know that there were plenty of people who were better.
Information gathering was another high priority. I still had access to multiple items that I couldn’t even properly identify, which meant that I couldn’t use them to the height of their capabilities. Besides identifying items, I also wanted anything that would help give me clues on how to solve the multitude of puzzles inside the tower, or otherwise help me make my way through. Maybe I could eventually find spells to locate other people? I’d need to do some research on that. I knew practically nothing about the capabilities and limitations of divination.
Finally, I wanted some items to improve my mobility. Things that would let me safely traverse tower rooms with gaping chasms and spinning blades. Teleportation was the most obvious choice, followed by things that would simply increase my speed or agility. Flight could be useful, too, if I could manage it.
From those broad options, I came up with a short list of things I could actually make. A better shield sigil was an option, and there were types listed in the Advanced Artifice book — which I probably needed to return to the library at some point — that were designed to stop kinetic attacks. They were all listed as at least “Carnelian” level, but they didn’t look difficult.
In terms of firepower, there were a lot of options. Mages, unsurprisingly, loved researching new and exciting ways to explode things just as much as anyone else. I found a lot of runes dedicated to variations on dueling canes — ones that fired elemental bolts instead of gray mana, for example, or that had specialized enhancements for attacks. Bolts that homed in on enemies, for example, or blasted through basic shielding.
A lot of these options were probably within my capabilities, but they were also common, and that meant there would be accessible defenses against them. They’d still be perfectly viable in the tower, but I wanted something I could use if I was attacked by another human that was potentially more experienced than I was. That meant something less obvious... maybe an enchanted ring?
I shelved that idea for the moment, looking at the other categories.