I focused my will and cast the one-point Enchant Item spell again.

  “Excellent.” He said. “Sixteen points remaining.”

  I then cast my two-point Lesser Harden Weapon spell.

  “Good, good.” He said. “Fourteen casting points remaining.”

  I was about to cast my five-point, Add Five Sockets spell when I looked up at him. “Do I need to cast the one-point Enchant Item spell again before I add sockets?” I asked.

  “Very astute question and best asked before you try it. The answer in the context of this question and your intentions is ‘no.’ No, you do not.” He grinned widely when he said it.

  “I know you like mischief, Master Avatar. And you are also teaching me to ask better questions. So I mean no offense by asking whether my casting the Add Five Sockets spell will harm or disrupt the spells I have already placed in the dagger or put me at risk if I have not primed it with an Enchant Item spell?”

  “I take no offense. You may cast it as planned. Keep in mind that the words I used had meaning. They will not mean anything to you now, but later, they could open a new door for you. But no, go ahead and add the sockets. It is not a stackable spell or a base enchantment like the others. It is its own type of enchantment and subject to different types of restrictions that are of no concern to you today.”

  “Okay, here it goes!” I said with a smile.

  Focusing on the spell and desired effects, I cast the five-point spell called Add Five Sockets. The effort took the wind out of me. I did not stumble, but it took a sizeable chunk of my stamina.

  “Splendid control and focus. Casting more powerful spells will get easier as you practice more. You have nine casting points remaining.”

  I gave myself a minute to recover and then planned to cast my four-point Seal Enchantment spell. I started to call the spell to mind and ask about its use, but then paused, saying, “I need a pearl as a spell component that equals one hundred gold coins per level up to the level of the maximum spell sealed in the enchantment.”

  “Indeed, you do.”

  “But I do not have any pearls.”

  He opened his clenched fist, which had been resting against his hip. In his palm, a single white pearl lay. It was stunning and must have been worth at least five hundred gold standards.

  “Good thing I have this handy.” He said, lifting his hand to emphasize his words.

  I walked over and lifted it off his palm. “Thank you very much.”

  He nodded and motioned for me to continue.

  Casting the fourth arcana spell was tricky, but not as bad as the five-point spell. As soon as the spell was cast, the pearl exploded in a tiny puff of white powder. The pearl was a wyrd that was consumed upon casting the magical sealing spell.

  The dagger glowed brightly, hummed a lot like a metal chime when struck gently, and vibrated in my hand.

  He clapped his hands. “This is as exciting for me as it is for you! Your one thousand golden cognitos cohort has no other enchanters, so this is my only chance to see this in action. The other cognitos will not be anywhere near powerful enough to cast fourth or fifth-level spells when they arrive. You created a work of art, a piece of magical beauty. You should be proud!” He exclaimed.

  I smiled. “I am. I am also tired.” And I chuckled some more.

  “You are not done with your magical creations yet, but you deserve a reward. How about this?” And he pulled out a blue potion vial that was slightly thicker in consistency than the two I had in my belt pouch and was of a somewhat darker hue.

  “What is that, Master Avatar?” I asked.

  “This is your reward, come and take it.” He said.

  I took another deep breath to settle my racing heart and walked over to where he sat on the high roots, his feet dangling merrily over the side.

  As I received it, he said, “This is a major potion of Magical Restoration. It will restore thirty of your thirty-one missing casting points by a happy coincidence. You must drink all of it for the effects to work.”

  I nodded thanks, removed the twist-off top, and drank it deeply.

  “What does it taste like?” He asked curiously.

  I thought about it. “A cross between honeyed mint and grass,” I said.

  He laughed. “What an odd combination. I love it.”

  As soon as I drank the potion, my casting points immediately returned to just one point shy of the maximum. I was at thirty-four of thirty-five casting points. I was still a little tired, but for some reason, the potion must have revived me because my stamina had increased a bit, and I felt better.

  “Well, don’t just stand there; check out your dagger!” He urged.

  I did. It had an even keener edge and felt slightly lighter. I suddenly knew I could use it to produce a dim magical blue light in a seventy-foot radius around me, which I did to good effect, even if it was daytime.

  “I like the bonus light effect,” I said.

  “Yes, that feature comes standard on all magical weapons. It saves the hassle of torches during long trudges through deep dungeons.” He said it with a grin and a flash of his teeth. “That was one of my better contributions. It makes dungeon crawls a lot more fun and will take adventurers far deeper than they would have if they had to carry all those torches. Creates far more chances for dangerous encounters!”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I see the benefits,” I said, making a point to be mindful of exceptionally long dungeon dives in my future.

  I willed the light to turn itself off.

  The gnome guide settled back onto his favorite root, and his legs swung casually once more. “You have five sockets, and you need to start filling them. Choose a magical 7pt gem from my hand. You will earn it by pulling out a power of my choosing.”

  I was unsure what he meant by that, but I approached and looked at his open palm, where he poured out the gems. He picked out the metal rings to make my inspection of the gems easier. When he was done, he said, “There, choose your gem.”

  Suddenly, my knowledge of gems as a prodigy lapidarist shot forward into my mind. In his palm, there was a diamond, emerald, topaz, ruby, sapphire, tourmaline, black opal, amethyst, spinel, peridot, turquoise, citrine, amber, and a rare tanzanite. I knew every gem but did not know what magical properties they might possess. Without that specialty knowledge, I would have to choose based on instinct.

  “Well, they are all beautiful. But since I can choose only one, I will choose the purity of the diamond, " I said.

  “An excellent choice given your future options.” He said mysteriously.

  I had no idea what he meant, but I picked it up and held it toward the day orbs to judge its clarity.

  He interrupted my inspection. “Now,” he began, “you will need to look deeply into it and use a casting point in your mind to search out the powers remaining dormant in the gemstone.

  I stared into it and let my mind travel along its surface facets and marveled as I always did at the lustrous reflections and refractions. After a few moments, I exerted my will and used a casting point. Suddenly, instead of marveling at its surface qualities, my mind dove into the gem, and I saw that the gem held the ability for me to insert up to seven casting points, which I could call upon later. Additionally, I could choose one power among seven possible options to call forth and present magical effects. Two common effects were Holy Light and Holybolt. An uncommon effect was Locate Undead. A rare effect was to summon a lesser Spirit of Protection. A very rare effect was a Wizard Armor spell, an extremely rare effect was a cleric Heal Self spell, and an extraordinarily rare effect was a paladin Complete Parry skill.

  He giggled, once more excited. “In the coming days, you will not have trouble locating undead, and Holybolt is a one-time spell. I would like you to pull forward the Holy Light cleric spell ability so that when you insert it into the magical silver dagger, this is the power that you can call upon once per day. There are rarer options, but this will be helpful for you.”

  I focused on the Holy Light option, and it snapped into place as easily as thinking about it.

  He clapped again. “Well done, oh well done!”

  I flashed outside the gem and found I was still standing before him.

  “Well, go ahead and place it in the dagger.” He urged.

  I looked at the dagger. There was a socket on the bottom of its hilt, and then two others on either side of the wide part of its handle.

  Since it was the first gem to be placed, I set it at the bottom of the hilt.

  The dagger glowed again briefly, and just holding it, I knew I could summon the first circle, or first level, cleric spell Holy Light on command.

  “Excellent. Now, place five of your casting points into it for later use.” He directed. “I know it can hold up to seven, but I want to see you insert five using deliberate and careful control.”

  I did so without any difficulty by merely willing them into it.

  “Perfection.” He said. “You have twenty-eight casting points remaining in you and five more that you can call upon from the gem. The casting points will remain available to you as long as the dagger remains on your person. You will not have access to its abilities if it is in your backpack or other magically created dimensional space or out of reach.” He explained.

  I knew I could call upon the casting points placed into the diamond to cast any spell I would typically use my own points to accomplish. It was a way to augment castings, like carrying around spare batteries. I had a feeling these would be important later. As long as the diamond stayed on my body and not in my backpack, I could use the stored casting points at will.

  “Now, all that is left for you to accomplish in the orientation is to create a Single Use spell. What would you like to create?”

  He held open his hand, and a copper, silver, and gold ring was in the center of his tiny palm.

  “I am torn between creating a copper SUS ring for a 5pt Mage Blast I spell, which I can use to defend myself, or a gold ring that stores an Add Five Sockets spell, which I could use later and save the casting.”

  He nodded. “Both good options. Which do you prefer?”

  My hand hovered over the gold ring, but as I considered the two options, I knew that both spells would cost me five casting points regardless of which one I chose. Having the attack spell could save my life, while the enchantment was more for convenience, with a potential future spell.

  I moved and picked up the copper ring. “Copper is my special favorite, and I will use it to create a useful ring should I face another threat.”

  “Good choice and perhaps the wisest of your two stated options.” He replied as he dropped the other blank rings back in his little bag.

  “You will need to cast your Single Use Spell, known by enchanters as their SUS spell, and follow it up with a 5pt Mage Blast I spell. You do not need to use your Enchant Item or Seal Item spells on SUS spells. The SUS spell has a built-in Enchant Item feature, and sealing it is just a waste of casting points, although it would protect it against tampering.

  “Thank you for that information. I would have used both the Enchant Item and Seal Item spells had you not told me they were unnecessary, Master Avatar.”

  I focused my will and cast the two spells in their proper order. I looked up at him expectantly.

  “You have twenty-two casting points remaining.” He said and then stared at me.

  Again, after about ten seconds, he sighed and said, a little louder than etiquette might suggest, “Well, put it on!”

  I slid the ring onto a finger and suddenly understood the spell and its abilities. A question leaped into my mind. “Master, if I put on a ring like this with a cleric spell or a warrior skill, will I also have complete knowledge of its functions, or are they just mage spells that work?”

  “Knowledge of any chosen skill or spell feature, yes. Wisdom, experience, and strategy on how to best use it in any given situation, no.” He answered. “And I like that you picked up on the fact that you can also insert skills into a SUS ring. The ‘spell’ part of the ‘Single Use Spell ring’ is your enchantment, not a limitation that only spells may be placed inside it, mage or otherwise. You will gain the necessary knowledge of the spell or skill that you place into the SUS ring and be able to use it. In fact, anyone who puts on the ring gets that knowledge regardless of being magically sensitive or not.”

  “A magical sensitive?” I asked.

  “A spell caster. Someone who has magical ability and casting points.”

  Seeing my understanding, he pulled out another potion. This new potion was one I had never seen before. It was the same size as the ones I carried, but it was a rich brown color. He handed it to me. “You are expected to arrive fully healed and charged, so drink this potion and fill back up.”

  I hated to waste magic, but I did as he directed.

  I was immediately fully healed and fully charged with casting points. As a result of my orientation, I had a one-use magical ring, a pretty cool magical silver dagger with an additional five casting points for later use, and a cleric Holy Light spell as a bonus effect that I could use without using any of my casting points.

  Changing the subject, he asked, “What did the potion taste like?” He had a genuine interest in his eyes once again.

  I thought about it for a moment. “It sort of tasted like a liquid version of a powdered cinnamon donut. It even had a little bit of sugar, grit, and crunch.”

  “Potions are often distasteful with peculiar aftertastes. At least, as far as I am aware.” He added. “You seem to have been getting more pleasant flavors. That’s a good sign.”

  He didn’t explain why he thought it was a good sign, but I was curious about what he had given me that both healed and filled my casting points. As I handed him back the empty vial, I asked, “What potion was that?”

  “It was a Lesser Rejuvenation potion that acts like a Lesser Heal, Lesser Magical Restoration, and Lesser Skill Recovery potion wrapped into one. There are other varieties that just combine two of the three core adventurers' potions, but this one is more powerful and highly sought after. It functions at level three, a full level above the others, even though the magical power needed to make it is no different. Despite its higher level, it still gets the title of “Lesser, " which drives the OCD alchemists crazy.”

  I smiled. Being a bit OCD myself, I understood their frustration.

  “You shared your wisdom and more than was strictly required. I deeply appreciate you and hope for a parting friendship as well.” I added, extending my hand to the gnome avatar.

  He tilted his head and stared at me before reaching out and shaking hands. “We shall meet again, young enchanter.”

  “I hope so, Master Avatar,” I said, meaning every word.

  He waved around me. “You may explore this area for as long as you wish. There are hidden quests here that could offer slight amusement and distraction, but there is one that is worth more. I give it to you now as a parting gift.”

  He waved his hand, but nothing happened.

  Looking at me and bowing slightly, he said, “The exit will be made available to you by touching the tree.” With those last words, he faded away in a pretty cool special effect where every pixel in his body seemed to drift apart.