First thing he needed to do was dramatically increase his offensive and defensive abilities. He had a feeling nineteen arrows wouldn’t be nearly enough. He didn’t want to make more arrows though, that had been way too unpleasant an experience to get a finite amount of ammunition. What he really needed was more options than just his bow. The only problem he had was that most of what he had studied so far associated dangerous effects with physical objects. That was compounded by the fact that as an enchanter he worked with physical objects, and wasn’t sure how effectively they would be able to project a spell effect at range.

                Nothing like a bit of dangerous experimenting to brighten your day I suppose. He did have a few ideas to try out, although they weren’t really useful for combat, they would allow him to make sure he still had his ability to enchant. He grabbed the second ring that Sam had given him what felt like an eternity ago. So much has happened since then. He thought idly, as he made his way to the workshop.

                He held the ring in his right palm on a whim, right in the center of the reddish circle, and began to focus on its enchantment. It would push heat, and water in the air, away from him. Only a short distance, and since he might not want it on all the time, or might want to change how much heat or moisture it was moving, he made it so it wouldn’t store mana. Instead it would be like the test sphere and immediately use any mana fed into it, the more mana at once, the stronger the effect. It had distinct limits since trying to use it to create a heat blast would simultaneously drop the temperature near him to crazy low levels.

                As the enchantment started to take hold he felt the familiar bonfire flare up in his chest, bringing with it the intense pain that seemed to accompany it all too often, but as it flowed through his arm towards the ring, he was astonished to realize that as it hit the marks on his elbow, the pain faded. The lines lit up with a faint glow as the mana travelled along them, his arm tingling as it reached the circle on his palm, and then flowed smoothly into the ring.

                He stared at the ring in his hand for a long time. That was, that was, I have no words for what that was. Is that what I did to myself? Somehow make enchanting less painful? It only didn’t hurt where the lines were though, and it can’t just be that it makes enchanting easier. There has to be a drawback, like Owdel said, there’s a price for everything. I suppose I can only hope that it’s a price worth paying.

                He put the ring on, and sent some mana into it. Oh you have got to be kidding. The ring worked, cooling the air around him, and in theory it should push rain away as well. His problem was that it seemed channeling mana into the ring also made the lines on his finger near it light up, the more mana he pushed into the ring, the brighter he glowed. So I know one of the drawbacks now, but surely easier, and I’m guessing pain free enchanting once it spreads to cover everything that is usually touched by mana when I enchant, isn’t going to just make me light up when I use mana? Shit if that’s the only price I pay, I’ll pay it gladly!

                It had gotten rather chilly around him, and he cut the flow of mana to his ring. That was when he noticed that it had taken considerably less out of him to make it, and he couldn’t help but wonder if that was also a result of his impromptu body enchantment, or if it was just because the ring wasn’t enchanted to work constantly and store its own mana to use. Rather belatedly Sebastian remembered what Owdel had said months ago, that typically mages made enchanted items cast spells when mana was channeled into them, so they didn’t have to focus on the spell or chant. Sebastian had been making things that stored mana inside them and activated under specific conditions.

                It seems I’ve been being an idiot after all, doubling the difficulty of basically everything I’ve made so far. He was annoyed at himself for missing something so glaringly obvious. Then he realized that he was probably better off doing things that way anyways, since he couldn’t channel mana all that fast, the traditional method Owdel had mentioned would still leave him casting slower than every other mage. It would take less concentration and effort, but that wouldn’t really help him much if they were slinging blasts of fire at him every few seconds while he was firing back every couple minutes. Admittedly, mages that could cast as frequently as Sarah and Owdel were rare, most were somewhere in between. Still, two spells for one, or three for one, was still a bad trade.

                Continuous effects are pretty easy to maintain though. He thought, channeling a bit of mana into the new ring again, and smiling at the perceptible drop in temperature. I should probably make another one for warmth too. Winter is coming. He shook his head, he had a couple months before the temperature would start to drop, more importantly, he had to build up ways to hurt things and to keep himself from getting hurt.

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                First things first, defense. I’m sure that since I glow like a lantern whenever I use an item now, I’ll draw attacks like crazy in a fight. Since the ring had been successful, he forgot about the other things he had been planning on making. He grabbed his old bracer that he wore whenever he was shooting, it was made out of hardened leather with a thin metal plate on the inside of his arm to protect it from the impact of the bowstring. This is probably stupid to do a second enchantment so soon after the ring, but I have plenty of mana still, and it’s not too complicated of an enchantment.

                All he wanted it to do was project a kinetic barrier around him when it was activated. Then as he thought it over, he changed it to be about two feet from the ground when his arm was raised to chest height, and only halfway around him angled to the left slightly. It would let things through from his side, so he could be protected while continuing to attack. He also decided to make it glow a bit, just enough to make the thing visible so he knew when it was on, but not enough to make it hard to see what he was fighting. It would absorb kinetic energy, and release it in every direction, which should effectively render attacks harmless. After all, most things were dangerous because they applied a lot of force over a concentrated point.

                When the enchantment took hold in it, Sebastian was left gasping, it had ended up being far more complicated than he intended, due to his last second refinements. His chest was still burning, although he was happy to confirm that the patterns on his arm somehow eliminated the pain, leaving only his chest hurting this time. He wasn’t sure how he felt about them spreading a little bit further up his arm though. He shrugged, then winced when it made the pain spike a bit, and stretched briefly in an effort to work out some of the pain.

                He strapped the bracer to his left arm and activated it with his arm out in front of him. He wasn’t sure what it would do to something that struck the edge of it, and didn’t really want to test that with the floor of the workshop. A shimmering, faintly glowing barrier sprung up in front of him, it moved with his bracer, so when he was holding a bow, it would cover most of his left side, and directly in front of him. He also noted that it emitted a faint thrumming sound when he moved it, likely due to absorbing kinetic energy from the air that struck the outside as it moved. He moved his arm all around to make sure he couldn’t hit himself with it accidentally, careful not to hit the floor, walls, or any furniture while he did so.

                He deactivated it and checked how much mana it had used. It hadn’t used much, but he was sure that it would use a lot more when it was actually hit by things. Now to make sure it will let things through from my side without affecting them. He went outside and got a couple rocks, and on a whim, he also grabbed a stick. He activated the bracer with his arm bent in front of him a bit, angling the barrier to be directly in front of him and a bit to each side, then he tossed a rock through it. The rock just flew like normal. He tossed the rest of the rocks in different directions through it, and still got nothing.

                Well it looks like a success. Only one more thing to find out, what happens if something gets on both sides of it? He figured the only way that would happen, is if he hit something with the side of it by turning or moving his arm, and if something was partway through when he activated it. So, he stuck the stick through it then tried to pull it back. The barrier let out a louder thrum than it had when he just moved it, and the stick just stuck there, it would go out easily, but flat out refused to come back his way. He pulled harder, and the stick broke. What interested him though, was the fact that it broke cleanly, as if cut right where the barrier crossed it.

                Well that has some potential, a few tweaks and I bet I can make something dangerous out of that effect. The other implications it had weren’t so great though. It meant that it he activated the bracer late, or an attack came from the edge, depending on the amount of force involved, the barrier would cut off anything still outside it, which was good, but getting hit with the pointy half of an arrow going a little slower than it had been wasn’t much better than getting hit by the whole arrow. Or should it be a melee attack, severing their arm would be good, but not if it meant he was still going to get clobbered by the weapon that got launched his direction in the process.

                Problems for later. It works, and I just have to make sure I pay attention to anything that hits the edges of it. The important problem to solve now is food. He was starving after the double round of enchanting and went inside to the kitchen looking for something to fill the void in his stomach. He found some sausages first, and threw together a sandwich. He ate quickly, lost in thought and not really paying attention to the food. Force blades? No, I don’t want to have to get any closer than I have to, and the power it takes to extend the effect from an item would get unmanageable pretty quickly. Force arrows? I could set up a barrier like my bracer, only enclosed in the shape of an arrow, and coming to a point, it should function like a regular arrow only sharper. Still the same problem with range though.

                Once he was finished eating he went to the library, he couldn’t do any more enchanting today, and he wanted to jot down a few ideas on ways to use this effect he had discovered. As well as figuring out how to use it at range.