Chapter 68: 68 Making Spell Scrolls

Chapter 68: Crafting Spell Scrolls

Originally, Ronin had planned to handle the calculations for this payment himself, but after hearing reports from Wilson and Chahar, he changed his mind and handed the task over to Chahar.

This manservant who had followed him from Fort Ushan knew the circumstances of everyone best, making him perfectly suited for this duty.

For Ronin, tomorrow would simply involve collecting money and distributing it.

But thinking about tomorrow, Ronin still felt a headache creeping in—there was too much to do.

Pay out wages, meet with village heads and team leaders, inspect the construction of squat toilets, verify the effectiveness of the curved plough, and then visit William the carpenter to check the progress on ironwood shields and such.

Further thoughts on implementing ridge farming and issues with fertilizer production made Ronin wish he could just collapse into bed and sleep, forgetting all these troubles once asleep.

But he couldn’t do that—the Wind Blade spell scroll hadn’t been drawn yet. How could he sleep? How could he possibly fall asleep?

So after sending off Wilson and Chahar, Ronin asked Bella to pour him a cup of tea, calming his mind before pulling out beast hide and spell ink.

Cutting the beast hide into five pieces, he took one and laid it flat on the table, securing the four corners.

Ronin retrieved the quill he had obtained from Pedro.

This quill, like the one gifted by Hook, was made from feathers of the magical swallowbird, perfectly suited for crafting spell scrolls.

He carefully filled the entire bottle of spell ink into the quill’s shaft, then focused his mind, slowly adjusting his breath, preparing to begin.

Regarding how to craft spell scrolls, Ronin had already learned much from the book gifted by Hook: "From Beginner to Expert: Spell Scroll Crafting."

"First, one must plan the distribution area of the spell patterns on the beast hide; too large means the hide cannot accommodate them, too small fails to meet scroll requirements."

Cutting the beast hide into five pieces suited the drawing of second-tier scrolls, so Ronin didn’t need to worry about that.

Now, he had to estimate the placement of each spell node of the Wind Blade spell pattern on the hide and then draw them with the quill.

Inhaling, exhaling slowly, Ronin raised his hand, and the quill began leaving marks on the hide.

At this moment, Ronin’s mental energy, magical power, and the spell ink at the quill’s tip interacted, emitting a faint halo—utterly magical.

"The spell pattern of Wind Blade consists entirely of horizontal, vertical, and angular strokes, with eight spell nodes."

Ronin recalled the Wind Blade spell pattern in his mind while drawing with divine inspiration on the hide.

This was his first time crafting a spell scroll, feeling somewhat wondrous.

"The consumption of mental energy and magical power is greater than merely casting the Wind Blade spell."

"And while drawing, the interaction between the quill, spell ink, magical power, and mental energy creates a different sensation for the mage than when simply casting spells, easily causing ripples."

"And then, the precise depiction of the spell pattern..."

Simply put, this was like a beginner trying to imitate Wang Xizhi’s authentic calligraphy. Even though there were only horizontal, vertical, slanting, pressing, and angular strokes, and one could trace them, the actual effect depended on personal skill.

During his journey back, besides studying that book, Ronin practiced controlling his brush strokes, aiming for straight horizontals and verticals.

But practice was one thing; actual execution was another.

Particularly due to the new tactile sensations brought by the interaction of multiple magical mediums, even a slight lapse of attention caused a stumbling sensation at the brush tip.

With just this small oversight, the magical ink at the brush tip ignited like flames, corroding the hide, leaving and spreading into black spots as large as thumb nails.

Ruined.

"No wonder Pedro said crafting spell scrolls demands high stability in a mage’s output. Now, firsthand experience confirms it."

A tiny distraction or mistake leads to failure in one crafting attempt.

Though reluctant to waste this hide, Ronin had no choice. Damaged hide couldn’t be used for spell scroll crafting again; he had to take a new hide and continue his second attempt.

This time, Ronin was even more cautious, concentrating fully to draw from one node of the spell pattern to the next, and then to another.

Breathing steady, brush speed steady, mental and magical output steady, lines steady...

Finally, three minutes later, as the last node of Wind Blade was drawn, Ronin swiftly lifted his brush.

He successfully completed his first spell scroll, finally able to breathe aloud!

Meanwhile, the spell pattern on the hide began transforming.

The originally dark red spell ink now emitted a magical cyan glow. Above the spell pattern, airflow abruptly changed, accompanied by whistling winds; elemental winds from the world were drawn into the spell pattern on the hide, its lines sprouting fine branches like aged tree roots.

In a blink, what remained of Wind Blade’s spell pattern?

Ronin watched the scroll with startled uncertainty. If the spell pattern he drew was a slender maiden, the pattern on the scroll now looked like a woman swollen by a hundred pounds, fierce and clawing.

"This change comes from absorbing wind elements."

Ronin also noticed that upon completing the drawing, his mental energy and magical power surged like floodwaters into the spell pattern on the hide.

Thus, when a spell scroll is completed, it not only absorbs magical elements from the world but also part of the mage’s mental energy and magical power, more than doubling the consumption compared to normal spellcasting.

Nevertheless, Ronin succeeded in his second attempt crafting a spell scroll—a praiseworthy achievement.

He rolled up the hide and tied it securely with fine hemp rope.

Though it looked somewhat crude, lacking the elegant packaging of sold scrolls, it was a genuine Wind Blade spell scroll, equally effective.

Packaging could be left to Silva Magical Energy Guild.

Ronin checked his mental and magical state; though capable of crafting a second scroll, considering he needed reserve for learning Fireball, Ronin put away the quill.

Recently, his main focus had been on practicing Wind Blade. Though he had started learning Fireball, succeeding two out of three times, achieving full success still lacked much refinement.

He went to the window and began learning Fireball against the night sky.

Soon, servants in the castle witnessed an interesting sight—the lord’s window occasionally spit out bursts of fire.

If not for glimpsing the lord’s figure behind the flames, guards on the watchtower would surely have thought the lord was in danger, signaling for aid.

Ronin remained serene, while Elron grew silent.

The ever-vigorous light attribute mage now dragged his weary body to bed, exhausted as if emptied.

Just moments ago, he attempted crafting Healing spell scrolls twice, but both failed.

Not only that, two failures left him without magical power for a third attempt.

Elron rubbed his forehead, sighing, "Wasting eighteen gold coins in one go, without crafting a single scroll—how to explain to the lord tomorrow?"

On the second try, success seemed near, but a stiff wrist at the final spell node caused failure—it was truly difficult.

"No, can’t sleep now. I must meditate to refine magical power, wake early tomorrow to try again!"

Thanks to Mao Xiang’s reward~ Thanks to handsome Dawei, autumn of Bliuo, meteors under the abyss, and all lords with long names for voting~

(End of chapter)