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Chapter 89: Cast versus Casted

"I suspect it is because you managed to resize all the nodes. You did, right?" Dave answered Eldrian\'s question, bringing him back from his thoughts.

"I did? Yes, I did manage to grow them all to their correct size. But how does that change anything?" Eldrian could not understand why this was a successful cast while all those before had been failures. They had also used his mana and he had even felt the effect of the spell from time to time.How was this time different? He questioned himself, finding no answer.

"It changes things in that instead of just releasing mana, the spell was now cast through mana instead."

Seeing that Eldrian still did not understand, Dave continued, "You see, before the magical crystal always pulled your mana out of you. In this way you lost mana even when the spell was not cast. You are probably confused since the effect of the spell appeared a few times."

"This was not because you cast the spell correctly, but because mana always searches for a stable form to be when leaving a person\'s body. As such, it often formed into the equivalent of what it would be if the spell had been cast and thus changed the mana. Yet you never truly cast the spell, the mana simply decided to form into a comfortable form."

"This time instead, I believe that as soon as you completed the spell module by correcting its nodes to their normal form, the mana did not simply form into a comfortable form. Rather it was changed into the appropriate form."

"That... Makes some sense," Eldrian replied, still lost in many ways. This lost feeling was soon drowned out by the happiness of finally having succeeded, which had been slowly overcoming his confusion.

"What is next?" Eldrian asked excitedly, hoping he would soon be able to move on to more spells. Hopefully he might even manage to reach Tier 1 by the weekend.

"I guess next is for you to learn to cast magic outside of the dungeon. I think we can come here tomorrow again to see if you are able to cast the spell again. If you are, then you have to tap into what you have learned and what you feel here. From this you will need to learn how to cast a spell without the Magic Crystal\'s help."

Eldrian nodded, agreeing with what Dave said. He did not know if this had been a fluke, he needed to first make sure of that before getting ahead of himself.

"You are off to Boran\'s now, right?" Dave asked just as Eldrian wanted to leave. Both back on the ground floor of the magic tower.

"Yes."

"Tell him of this, he will likely give you some new tasks to prep for when you can fully use magic."

Smiling widely Eldrian thanked Dave and headed off, on the way he bought himself a nice breakfast. Due to his daily task he was making money steadily, leading to him being more carefree when buying stuff to enjoy. Especially since he knew eating here would not affect his real body. This allowed him to cheat in-game and follow a stricter diet IRL.

He had actually made large progress in losing weight, but due to how absorbed he had been in other things this had simply slipped past him.

Instead of directly heading to the shared forge area, he first headed to Boran\'s room.

"Who! Oh... It is you," Boran calmed down quickly after seeing that it was Eldrian. He was just about to get started with a costly and difficult order. Losing his concentration would cost almost a hundred gold.

"Sorry to disturb you Boran. I just wanted to tell you that I had managed to cast my first spell today. I still don\'t know if it was a fluke or..."

"That\'s amazing! I was wondering when you would make progress." Boran interrupted him, clasping his shoulder in a form of support.

"How long until you get total control over magic?"

"I have no idea."

"Bah! Won\'t be too long now. I guess we need to boost your tasks. Let\'s see... Yes, instead of forming standard ingots, you should now aim for great quality ingots."

"Also, from now on you should, if you can, form a dagger. Here let me show you how and what to focus on."

Eldrian read the system message as he followed Boran back to his forge.

[Daily Task: Form 5 Ingots]

[1 Great Quality, 2 Good Quality, 3 Standard Quality.]

[Optional: Form a Dagger]

[Task rank: ZZZ -> Z]

[Ingots formed: 0]

[Backlog 26 Standard, 10 Good, 4 Great]

[Dagger formed: 0, No backlog allowed]

[Daily Task Reward: 300XP + 50XP, 1 Silver]

[Time limit: 16 Hours 26 Minutes]

Eldrian was happy to see the extra 100XP he would gain every day, as well as the optional 50 he could gain too. He wondered if he shouldn\'t have just handed in his backlog during the weekend. It would have netted him an extra 400XP.

Regretting that he had not and determined to do so in the future, he observed Boran as he took an ingot and formed a handle first. This clearly was going to be the hilt of the dagger. After a few measurements, ensuring the handle was a comfortable size, Boran then moved on to the blade. Showing Eldrian what to focus on when forming it, also informing him on what to watch out for and how to ensure the blade would form nicely.

After the forging process, Boran showed Eldrian how to treat the weapon. Starting with the sharpening and tempering, finally ending with the cleaning. In just half an hour a good looking dagger was made.

Curious Eldrian asked, "What quality is this dagger?"

"The ingot was simply of Good Quality, so the dagger is Tier 3. Not really worth much."

Hearing Boran\'s thoughts of what players see as almost top tier item, left Eldrian a bit uncomfortable. That dagger would sell for more than 10 silver. Thinking of this Eldrian wondered what would happen with the daggers he formed. Which he promptly asked Boran.

"What happens to the daggers I make?"

"We sell them of course." Boran laughed after saying this.

"Don\'t worry you get twenty percent of the sold value. In other words you get paid for every fifth one you make. But it does depend if you can make one good enough, as we don\'t sell things under Tier 3 in the shop. Which means all your standard ingots will be too bad to even make the cut."

"Use them first as training. Ensure you can get each and everyone to be Tier 2, only then move to your better ingots."

"Alright," Eldrian nodded while replying, looking forward to being able to make quite a lot from his blacksmithing. It certainly did not take too long, he now felt even more motivated.

"Of you go now." Boran dismissed Eldrian as he started readying himself for his craft. He was asked to form a Tier 6 sword, each failure would cost him around 70 gold. Due to him doing it for a friend, he would be breaking even, even if he only failed once. Thus he needed to do his best and absolutely could not be disturbed.

Eldrian left Boran and spent the rest of his day making ingots again, when there were around 2 hours left of his normal smithing time, he decided to try and make a dagger.

It took him much longer than it had taken Boran, making the hilt alone had cost him half an hour. Having needed to repeatedly reform it when he failed to make it the perfect size. He spent even longer on the blade, afraid that he might cause it to break.

After two hours he had a shabby, none finished dagger. Having only managed to form it, not sharpen, temper and clean. Yet he was happy with the end result. The dagger certainly did not hold a candle to Boran\'s, but it was decent for his first attempt at forming something more than a simple ingot.

Curious on its grade Eldrian equipped the dagger, this requiring little more than him holding it and using it with the intent of its designed use.

Well, at least it isn\'t Tier 0. He sighed as he looked at the terrible stats the dagger had. Only 3 attack damage and 180 durability. It would not last long in combat, especially since Eldrian had heard weapons can lose more than 1 durability in certain situations. He felt certain this dagger would often have this happen to it.

It can work as a knife though. Eldrian thought in a more cheerful manner, storing the dagger inside his inventory. While storing it he saw the body of the Alpha still inside his inventory.

I completely forgot to tell Boran about it! Eldrian headed to Boran\'s door, freezing in front of it.

Is he still busy? He did not want to interrupt Boran. Asking one of the ladies who worked the counter he learned that Boran had not left his room once.

He is likely still busy. Should I go in?