Starting with the sentries on the frontier

Chapter 94 Enchantment

"You can enchant? How come I didn't know that?"

Snowball looked completely incredulous.

Instead of explaining, Zag tried to recall the enchanting "knowledge" he had "learned".

It's hardly knowledge; it's more like a series of rigid steps. For example, [Consecration Enchantment], one of the most common ritual enchantments, has very precise and clear requirements for the enchanting ritual and each step. And [Stone Enchantment], a typical rune enchantment, forcibly stuffs a bunch of runes into Zag's brain that he has no idea what they mean. He just needs to draw these runes according to them and then complete the enchanting ritual step by step to get the enchanted product.

Yes, although he does know these common enchantments, he is still in a state of knowing how but not why. He can say he knows them, but he doesn't understand the underlying principles, let alone use his divergent thinking to learn other enchantments.

After thinking it over carefully, Zag finally decided that he only knew six enchantments, of which only [Consecration Enchantment] was a ritual enchantment, and the remaining five were rune enchantments.

That's right, there are actually two types of enchanting magic. One is "ritual enchanting," which usually requires the enchanter to draw a small number of runes pointing to the holy spirit (demon) being invoked through specific steps, and then perform a supplication ritual to complete the enchantment. Its essence is to pray to the holy spirit (demon) for blessings, so ritual enchanting has lower requirements for spirituality and is more common. On the market, including the black market, almost all enchanted items are made using ritual enchanting.

Another type is called "rune enchanting." As the name suggests, it involves drawing runes and performing a ritual—not a ritual to pray to the Holy Spirit (demon), but a special ritual whose principles are unknown even to Jaggi, to complete the enchanting process.

The latter's products command a higher premium because they also require a higher level of spirituality from the enchanter.

At the same time, items enchanted by runes are more stable and will not be easily disenchanted due to the loss of their blessing.

In fact, the earliest meaning of the word "enchantment" was "being cursed by demons," which is completely different from the "enchantment" in the game in the modern society before Zag's time travel. However, later, with the redemption of some demon gods and the establishment of the Nine Holy Spirits, many "being cursed by demons" naturally transformed into "being blessed by the Holy Spirits." The true concept of "enchantment" was then proposed and officially became a new occult subject: enchanting studies.

Enchanting has only been formally incorporated into the official curriculum for a few thousand years, and the Kingdom of Lunaran reportedly excludes it to this day, considering this occult subject a risky and opportunistic endeavor with virtually no technical skill involved.

This is certainly not true. Ritual enchanting may not be very technical, but rune enchanting is almost as profound as magic circle enchanting. In fact, many runes are derived from magic circle enchanting and then studied for use. Therefore, these two mystical subjects are often inseparable.

In short, with high value, low effort, and connections, is there anything easier to make money than this?

However, not just any item can be enchanted.

First, the enchanted item must have sufficient magic resistance—a potato certainly won't do.

Secondly, the enchanted item must possess sufficient stability—stability in the context of mysticism. Otherwise, it may become corrupted into something unspeakable due to insufficient stability, becoming a source of contamination. This is the most dangerous aspect of the discipline of enchanting.

Generally, the stronger the enchantment, the higher the requirements for the stability and magic resistance of the enchanted item, so metals mixed with mithril are the best choice.

Just like most magical items are made with some mithril to help improve stability and magic resistance, most enchanted items in enchanting are also made of mithril.

What's interesting is that rune-enchanted items made by engraving runes can, in a sense, be considered magical items.

In a narrow sense, magical items only include special effect items that are actually made from scratch using mystical methods. However, in a broader sense, magical items also include enchanted items.

These were just some common knowledge that Rowan had mentioned casually when he was learning alchemy, but beyond that, Zag was completely clueless.

"Mithril alloy is very expensive... Is there any alternative material...?"

He paced back and forth, muttering to himself.

Snowball expressed utter distrust of Zag's excitement and casually replied, "Yes, glass. In the field of mysticism, glass's stability is second only to mithril. Of course, there's a significant difference, but it's still much better than others!"

"Glass?"

Zag was taken aback.

Although he didn't really know this, Snowball was, after all, an "old thing" over three thousand years old, and his knowledge of occultism was certainly reliable enough—at most, his knowledge base wasn't updated in real time, and many of his knowledge versions were outdated.

Glass is excellent, inexpensive, and if made into various small gadgets, it would be low-cost and highly effective, and would definitely sell very well. But the problem is...

"What I'm good at is weapon enchanting!"

Zag was starting to lose his composure.

No matter how you look at it, making weapons out of glass is a very abstract idea, isn't it?

This isn't the world of The Elder Scrolls V!

Even if you add the [Solidify] enchantment to glass, it only increases the glass's hardness—glass is already very hard, so this action is completely meaningless. Its real disadvantage is that it is "brittle"!

A glass sword might be able to cut through an iron casing, but it can be easily broken with a bit of force. This is due to the properties of glass, and adding any amount of [Solid Stone Enchantment] won't help!

At most, it went from being able to be easily broken with a little force to being able to be broken even with a lot of effort!

Snowball finally finished licking the fur on its belly, then switched to a standard squatting position to lick its paws, and suggested, "Oh, well, there's no other way. Or, aren't you learning alchemy from Rowan? You could make some alchemical potions to sell!"

Zag slumped back onto the bed, somewhat dejected. "All I've learned are basic alchemical potions, and Rowan taught me those with very expensive materials. I've calculated that if I sell them at market price, after deducting the cost of materials—even if I buy those materials on the black market—I won't make much. Especially since you have to find buyers; the more expensive the alchemical potion, the harder it is to sell!"

"Move aside... or what if we just sell it to those black market dealers?"

As Snowball spoke, it nudged Zag with its kitten paw—because Zag was crowding it, and it didn't want to move, so it chose to move Zag instead.

Zag shifted his position slightly to the side and replied helplessly, "Then I'm afraid I'll lose money!"

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【"Magical items"】: Sometimes easily confused with enchanted items, but most of the time, their effects are indeed very similar. If one had to point out the difference between the two—

Enchanted items may become ineffective at certain times, or their effects may diminish as runes and blessings wear down, but magical items will not.

Because the magical effects of magical items are not brought about by runes or blessings, but are inherent to the item itself.