Rituals class was cut short due to the circumstances. With no replacement professor available, the students were assigned a final test to complete by the end of the semester, essentially guaranteeing a passing grade. All they had to do was design and activate a ritual of their own using materials provided during the course.
Bastion created a ritual that simply increased mana regeneration for ten minutes. It was clearly subpar, but it was enough to pass the class.
Magic Smithing, meanwhile, concluded with the successful creation of a sword enchanted for sharpness and flexibility. Their professor, a dwarf with very particular standards, was less than impressed with Bastion's base sword. Even so, the enchantments worked as intended, and since this was Magic Smithing, that was enough to earn a passing grade.
Lastly, Enchanting class ended with a necklace that supposedly warded off evil spirits. Bastion had no idea if it actually worked, but the professor gave him a passing grade, so he took the win.
For the next semester, Bastion returned to the more scientific side of magic, enrolling in courses like Advanced Magic Circles, Magical Materials, and Theoretical Mana Physics. The classes were demanding and focused heavily on rote memorization rather than practical application. He wasn't particularly excited about them, but the knowledge was genuinely useful, so he pushed himself through it while Lilia excelled with ease.
Meanwhile, their regular dungeon dives had begun to yield diminishing returns. After surpassing level 50, progress slowed to a crawl. Bastion estimated it would take the rest of the year just to reach level 70. Only then did he truly grasp how extraordinary his mother was to have graduated at Rank 1.
After running the numbers, Bastion concluded that she had probably leveled up before entering the academy. It was the only way to explain her rapid advancement without any external support. That gave her five years at most, which was still an impressive feat considering she had done it all as a commoner with low starting stats.
Rather than increase their pace any further, Bastion chose to slow down. Seraphina assured him she had the whole Demon Lord situation under control, so he pushed it to the back of his mind.
Instead, Bastion turned his attention to fixing a critical flaw in his Class. The diamonds within his body had a natural frequency, and when exposed to sounds at or near that frequency, they began to resonate. This resonance caused the diamonds to vibrate violently within his flesh, tearing through muscle and tissue from the inside.
Curious how she had discovered that frequency, Bastion asked Seraphina. She explained that she had used a Banshee Scream potion, carefully calibrated using a strand of his hair. Since a significant amount of the diamonds in his body was concentrated in his hair, the potion had triggered a precise resonance effect.
To counteract this, Bastion needed to generate an opposing frequency that would cancel out the vibrations through destructive interference.
He began by isolating the exact frequency that triggered resonance in the diamonds embedded throughout his body. With Seraphina's help, he recreated the effects of the Banshee Scream potion under controlled conditions, using soundproof barriers and mana-sensitive recording runes.
When the resonance appeared, Bastion used a magical oscilloscope he had borrowed from a wind mage professor who specialized in sound to visualize the vibrational pattern. The diamonds reacted most violently to a sharp, high-pitched frequency around 11,340 Hz, amplified by harmonic overtones unique to the crystalline structure of his diamond-infused hair. These vibrations induced internal stress and damage, enough to compromise his body in combat.
To solve this, Bastion forged a resonance core capable of emitting counter-frequencies with precision. He used skyglass, a rare Rank 1 mana-conductive crystal known for its sensitivity to sound, and layered it with quartz rings enchanted for micro-frequency tuning.
This core was small enough to embed in jewelry and durable enough to survive combat, taking the form of a compact, crystal-clear shard of blue glass encased in concentric quartz rings, each etched with fine tuning runes that shimmered faintly with latent mana.
He then crafted a thin silver hoop earring and embedded the resonance core on it.
To activate it, he had to channel a precise amount of mana into the quartz rings, causing the skyglass to vibrate and emit a sound tuned to counteract the resonant frequency.
When he tested it under controlled exposure to the Banshee Scream potion, the diamonds in his body no longer reacted. As long as he focused and maintained the counter-wave, the vibration was neutralized before it could take hold.
It was an active defense that required awareness, timing, and mana discipline. But Bastion preferred it that way. He had full control over it, and more importantly, it was not a flaw waiting to be exploited.
"It looks pretty," Lilia commented.
"It's functional," Bastion replied defensively.
"It's fashionable," Seraphina added with a grin.
The three of them sat in Theoretical Mana Physics, bored out of their minds, passing the time by admiring Bastion's new accessory.
"Since you can make jewelry now, I could use some stamina-enhancing rings," Seraphina said.
"I could use one for mana regeneration," Lilia added shyly.
"Sure, those are easy enough with my improved forging skills," Bastion replied.
Magic smithing wasn't as complex as full enchantment work, but it excelled at practical crafts. Unlike his defensive earring, which required intricate runework to control mana flow, crafting enhancement rings was far simpler and more forgiving.
That night, Bastion set out to design a ring that could meet all their needs at once. Meaning, the ring would grant health, stamina, and mana regeneration at the same time.
While magic smithing allowed him to infuse metal with mana, he was limited to embedding no more than two simple effects during the forging process. To overcome this, he would enchant each effect to a specialized material separately before combining them into a single piece.
The next day, he purchased Rank 1 Blood Iron for health regeneration, Rank 1 Wood Iron for stamina regeneration, and Rank 1 Starlight Silver for mana regeneration.
Blood Iron was metal saturated with blood over decades, giving it a deep crimson hue and regenerative properties when properly enchanted. Wood Iron, a rare organic-metal hybrid, came from a special tree that absorbed metal, creating a material with both flexibility and resilience. Starlight Silver, prized for its mana conductivity, gleamed faintly even in the dark and was rumored to have fallen from the stars.
He melted each metal in its own crucible, then molded them into thin rods. Once cooled, he hammered each rod while channeling mana infused with a corresponding enchantment. After ensuring the enchantments had fully settled into each material, he braided the strands together and hammered them into uniform 6mm-wide strips. These were cut to size, shaped into rings, and heat-fused at the ends for a seamless finish.
The final rings were understated yet elegant, with a twisted tri-metal design of red, brown-gold, and pale silver. Each offered minor but consistent boosts to health, stamina, and mana regeneration, making them both functional and fashionable.
He presented the finished rings a week later, only to receive a mixed reaction.
"The effects are on the weaker side compared to dedicated rings," Lilia noted critically.
"But it looks pretty," Seraphina said, admiring the subtle shimmer of the twisted metals on her finger.
"If you wore two of them, the effects would match a dedicated ring," Lilia added thoughtfully.
"I might as well make a bracelet instead," Bastion replied. "That would give me more material to work with and room to strengthen the enchantments."
In theory, there was no limit to the number of magic items a person could wear. However, the strength of the enchantment was tied directly to the quality and quantity of the material used. A single ring had limited capacity, but a larger item like a bracelet or full suit of armor could hold much more potent effects. For instance, armor enchanted solely for health regeneration could restore health every second, while Bastion's rings only managed a modest boost per hour.
Of course, that wouldn't save someone from a lethal blow like a beheading, hence why most people enhanced their gear for combat effectiveness rather than passive recovery.
Still, the rings were practical. They reduced downtime between battles and made recovery less of a burden. And as Lilia pointed out, nothing was stopping them from wearing more.
A week later, as Bastion was considering what other trinkets to add to their arsenal, Seraphina intercepted him with a serious look on her face. She had been skipping their shared classes again, which wasn't unusual since she often did whenever she had work to do.
"Bastion, I need your help," she said, her tone unusually grave.
"Oh? With what?" he replied casually, assuming it was another request for enchanted gear.
"I need help taking down a demon worshiper hideout."
Bastion stopped in his tracks, caught off guard by the weight of the request. It had been a year and a half since he promised to help her in the fight against the Demon Lord. The only time she asked for help before was during the ruins expedition.
Looking back, it was clear she could have handled it on her own. He had only come along because she wanted to give him golems, which would not have made any difference against the Demon Lord.
But this time felt different.
She was truly including him in her plans.
-----
Support me on Patreon
patreon/babywrath