A New Kind Of Grind

"Finally, we address Mystic Artificer," the proctor said. "Where Alchemist focused on the altering of a material's properties, whether it be the refinement of metals or the brewing of potions, and Blacksmith focused on the reshaping of physical form to produce personal equipment, Mystic Artificer instead focuses on permanently imbuing an object with specific magical properties. Sometimes, that means the production of armor that mystically toughens the wearer. Sometimes, that means a sword is blessed to produce fire or lightning when swung. And sometimes, that means the creation of a house which is bigger on the inside than the outside. For our final three projects today, your tasks are simple: first, enchant your gloves you made earlier to grant a bonus to your Dexterity. Next, enchant your knife to never rust or dull. And for your final project, you may once again do whatsoever it is you like, but I strongly recommend that you enchant your final Blacksmith project to perform whatever magical function you had in mind for it."

Luckily, this time I had anticipated this, and knew exactly what I was going to be doing.

"Now... begin!"

Mystic Artificer, unlike Blacksmith and Alchemist, didn't really need any tools. Oh, there were tools that would help, but they were complicated, bulky, required a lot of personal preparation, and just generally weren't practical for this classroom environment. All we really needed was a good Magic Capacity, and the ability to channel it into what we were enchanting.

Naturally, how much magic we were willing to expend did have an effect on the strength of the end product.

The gloves, I enchanted in a very cursory manner, giving only exactly enough magic to produce the barest of Dexterity bonuses, as I well and truly did not need another Dex-boosting item. My knife, I put a bit more effort into, giving it not only rust-prevention and self-sharpening but also self-repair; the blade didn't get perilously thin where the hook was, but it was a bit less thin than I'd like, and adding in an enchantment to remove stresses and microfractures from that weak spot gave me a lot of peace of mind.

Still, that was over and done with quite quickly, and I was onto my third and final project quite swiftly. The one thing that all of my machine tools lacked, which was quite vital for their operation, was a motor, and while I could have, hypothetically, used Blacksmith to fabricate some AC motors for them, that would've just kicked the can down the road, as I would now be on the hook with creating a source of AC electricity- something that is most simply done with a rotary dynamo, and if I was going to be using magic to make something spin, I might as well do it directly on the machines.

So, I did. I enchanted a series of magical motors and power reservoirs, letting me charge them up directly with my magic, turn them on, and start using them just like mundane machine tools. Which, admittedly, I didn't actually know how to use, just how to build- god bless Dave Gingery's home-built machine shop books- but I'd figure it out.

But, well, even though working out that series of enchantments took me a bit longer, I did still have plenty of time, as well as- checking Box B3 from the Blacksmith final project- a lot of silk thread. So... after a test to ensure they worked, I put my machine tools away in my inventory, pulled out my textile machines, and got to work. First I had to spin a few threads together into a thicker yarn that the knitting machine could work with, then I had to knit that thread into actual knit fabric- a process that I briefly considered needlessly complicating by adding cabling to it, and then discarded in favor of a far more straightforward flat knit- and then, the most actually challenging part, lay out and cut the fabric into the pieces for a well-made garment that would look good, and finally, at long last, sew the pieces together into...

...a keyhole turtleneck sweater dress, made from black silk. With a matching pair of thigh-highs

Look. I'm a transgender lesbian. I'm allowed to be horny. Yes, I'm aware that it wouldn't look particularly good on me, given my lack of boobs. It's not for me.

Look. We just talked about this: I am allowed to be horny.

Anyhow. With my magic pool having refilled most of the way to full after enchanting the motors, but only ten minutes left to work out the enchantments, I started working out what enchantments I'd want on this thing, and then, with a minute to spare, drank my last recharge potion and laid the enchantment with the entirety of my full magic pool: a significant boost to Social Affinity, taking half of the magic I'd spent, paired with some lesser- but still noticeable- boosts to Presence, Manipulation, and Composure, the other three Social Stats. Whomsoever donned this here tit-window sweater would find their social performance much enhanced, both by magic and by the sweater itself. Which, using my last scrap of magic, was enchanted to resize itself to fit the wearer perfectly, as well as cling very snugly without wrinkling. In fact, with the drop of magic that regenerated before time ran out, I put a similar enchantment on the socks- a bit cheaper, as the legs had less parameters to consider than "the body from neck to mid-thigh" -and let loose a sigh of relief.

"Aaaaaaand the time is up!" the proctor announced as the magic wore off. I hastily stashed the sweater and socks in my inventory, along with- at a far more sedate pace- my textile machines, pulling out my machine tools to replace them. "Let's see what everyone made..."

Veronica- or Nicky as Akane and Akane alone called her- had enchanted her orichalcum sword to boost her Strength and Dexterity, as well as to maintain a razor's edge. Akane, meanwhile...

"You two know each other, don't you?" the proctor asked, looking between Akane and myself. "Well. I can't say I'm not impressed by what you've managed. Through cunning and planning, you've used all three crafting classes in sequence to produce a tremendous aid to your future crafting."

"What did you-" I began.

"I drank those potions you gave me," Akane began. "Gave me a bigger magic pool and filled it to the brim. And then, before the Magic Capacity stat booster wore off, I spent all of that magic to enchant this central pendant here with another Magic Capacity stat booster!"

"And because it is an enchantment, it is permanent," the proctor said. "Congratulations are in order; even if you do not win one of the starter sets, I imagine you'll still walk out of this class satisfied with yourself."

"I'm very happy with this, yes," Akane said, nodding.

Compared to Akane's little gambit, my own product was once more met with "practical, but I'm not all that impressed," and I had the feeling that even if I'd shown off the (carefully folded to conceal its true design) sweater, it still wouldn't have beaten Akane's necklace. It wasn't just that Akane had made a stat-boosting item- we all made a stat-boosting item. What Akane had made was a Magic Capacity stat-boosting item, which would enable her to make even stronger enchantments, which she could, conceivably, use to keep repeating the process, re-enchanting her necklace to make it grant a higher and higher Magic Capacity bonus.

It wasn't a positive feedback loop, admittedly. As the stat boost rose linearly, the magic cost to grant that stat boost rose exponentially. There was a point of diminishing returns, that Akane really couldn't move past without leveling up first.

Still, it was, ultimately, still a damn nice piece of gear, and I was pretty sure I knew, now, that Akane was going to pick-

"I think I'm going to pick Mystic Artificer," Akane said, interrupting my internal monologue. "I know, I get it for free at Level 5, but even if I take it now, I'll get the class slot refunded when I hit Level 5, so it's not like I'm really losing anything."

"It would most certainly be very useful before we reach Level 5," Veronica said, nodding. "I, myself, do not intend to neglect Mystic Artificer when I, too, unlock it, but I do believe that I will be taking Blacksmith for now."

"And since we need intra-party balance, and also I'm apparently pretty good at it, I suppose I'll be taking Alchemist," I said. "Still looking forward to getting Mystic Artificer myself, but I made a bunch of tools that'll let me make complicated stuff without taking Blacksmith, so..." I shrugged.

"Alright," the proctor said, returning to the front of the room and clapping her hands. "You've got two sheets in front of you, now. One of these is the feedback form for Mystic Artificer, and the other is which of the three classes you intend to take, which you do want to write your name on. Once all those are in, I'll be handing out prizes."

We all started hastily filling out the forms- I noted that Mystic Artificer's two hours had a lot of dead time, during which I could literally knit a sweater and two socks, and suggested that there be some more instruction to fill that time, alongside some provided recharge potions so that we could confidently dump our entire magic pools into each project- and tapping the wax seal at the bottom to submit them.

Finally, after what felt like agonizing hours but which I knew to be only five minutes- thanks to the big, gaudy wristwatch of the girl in front of me- all of the forms were in, and the proctor had read over all of them.

"Alright," the proctor said. "Of the thirty students present, fifteen chose Alchemist, eleven chose Blacksmith, and the remaining four chose Mystic Artificer. Going in reverse order, then... Akane Sakurai, for your cunning and hardnosed pursuit of excellence, I declare you the most impressive Mystic Artificer in this classroom, and award you the Mystic Artificer Starter Set- an enchanting altar, several magic capacitors, and a potion engine."

A small wooden box painted with a wand symbol appeared on Akane's table, and we all politely applauded her, with me punctuating that with a pat on the shoulder.

"Next, Blacksmith," the proctor continued. "Veronica Vega, you faced stiffer competition, yet came out no less on top for it. Your orichalcum sword demonstrated a craftsmanship I didn't see anywhere else, and for managing to work such a high-level material with nothing more than the tools before you and the strength of your arm, I award you the title of the most impressive Blacksmith in this classroom, along with a Blacksmith Starter Set, including a hammer, an anvil, an enchanted forge, and a self-replenishing supply of iron and charcoal."

Another identical wooden box, this time marked with an anvil, appeared on Veronica's worktable, and the applause was a bit stronger this time- there had been more Blacksmiths to compete with, and apparently, an orichalcum-inlaid sword really was just that much more impressive.

"Finally, Alchemist," the proctor said. "Fully half of you chose to become Alchemists. Many of you produced impressive works. And yet, for her bullheaded stubbornness and genuine alchemical excellence in the face of adversity, as demonstrated by being only mildly inconvenienced in the process of following eight precursor paths just to brew a single potion that I tried very hard to make it impossible to brew, I must name Roxanne Updyke as the most impressive Alchemist in this room. To you, Roxanne, I award the Alchemist Starter Set, containing every alchemical apparatus you'll need, a comprehensive set of alchemical herbs, an enchanted planter for the growing of more herbs, and a self-replenishing supply of lead, salt, and quicksilver."

Oh, huh.

This time, the box appeared on my table, marked with a flask.

The applause was loudest for me, and despite the fact I could come up with reasons why- we'd gotten warmed up; everyone was ready to leave; it was sarcastic; the half of the class that took Alchemist was applauding my masochism- I still couldn't make sense of it.

Wordlessly, I put the box into my Inventory, and waited until it was time to leave.