Bookbound Bunny

B2 - Chapter 63 - Potential Commission

After Sylwel finished his taste test, he pulled out a monocle and used it to examine the contents of the bottle. Judging by the tint on the lens, Lily assumed it was probably the same as the spectacles Camilla had used to catch her red-handed.

"I'm surprised this works with so little Mana," the professor admitted, adjusting the monocle a few times.

"That's why it needs to be efficient," Lily explained.

"And that is why it's a triangle?" he asked.

"Yes, among other things," Lily answered. "It's why I put a lot of limiting sigils on my glyphs."

To better illustrate her answer, she pulled out one of her firebolt glyphs and pointed out all the extra sigils present. In a standard glyph, the crest would take up the largest portion of the glyph, as it was the primary focus, but that wasn't the case for Lily's.

"So if you had better resources, you wouldn't need to do this?" Sylwel asked.

Lily shook her head. "I'd probably still add them."

"Really? While I commend the dedication, surely it's overkill?" Professor Ollie asked this time.

"It's not just about decreasing the cost... If cost wasn't a factor, the glyph's produced effect would be strengthened. I could use ten points of Mana to produce a fireball worth fifteen," Lily answered, stealing a bit of Arakil's explanation.

Ollie appeared to be ruminating while Sylwel nodded as if understanding the explanation perfectly.

"It's probably terrible for me to say this as the glyphwork professor, but I hadn't considered that angle," Ollie admitted. "With my work, you use the set amount of Mana required and pray you don't go over even a fraction, as that indicates shoddy workmanship and lowers the enchantment grade."

"You're focused on not wasting any resources, while Lily here is not only squeezing every last drop, but also throwing in a catalyst to empower the effect," Sylwel commented.

"Yes... Although with considerable restrictions," Ollie replied, staring at Lily's glyph.

"I try to keep them within reason, though," Lily quickly said, feeling like she needed to defend her work. "Like I never let my firebolts go beyond twenty meters."

"So you add reasonable restrictions within the parameters of the task," Sylwel said, punctuated with a nod of understanding. "There are similar aspects in alchemy, too; you can concentrate the effect for a shorter period of time. For example, why have a tonic that strengthens your muscles for eight hours, when your work will be over in less than two?"

The two professors continued to chat a bit about the subject, while Lily tried her best to insert her own opinions and understanding where she could. At the end of the discussion, both seemed quite pleased with the outcome and likened Lily's glyphs to tailor-made solutions rather than generic glyphs.

Obviously, there were drawbacks to such limits, such as if Lily's target never came within twenty meters, then she would be in trouble. Her obvious solution was to fall back on her starburst spell, which didn't have such restrictions.

After that, Lily drew a simple glyph to demonstrate and prove that the Fairymoss ink worked. Not wanting to get too fancy, Lily just drew a simple light orb spell and activated it. The glyph shone, creating a floating sphere that brightly illuminated most of the room.

"I'm a bit disappointed it's a sphere," Professor Sylwel joked.

"I imagine it's the most efficient shape?" Ollie asked.

"Prism shapes work too," Lily answered. "Light doesn't seem to care about the shapes too much, so the prisms and spheres are close to the same. But the actual best is probably an icosahedron, but trying to draw one in a glyph is painful..."

"And here I thought you'd pick nothing but the best," Ollie chuckled.

"My alchemy teacher would say time is money. I normally don't agree with her on that, but even I have to admit the benefit is too small for the effort in this case," Lily said with a wry smile.

"Agreed," Sylwel added.

With her demonstration done, Ollie also drew a glyph. It seemed he was also going with a light spell, but without any of the restrictions that Lily had included. He activated the glyph, and while it did work, it faded quite shortly thereafter.

Not deterred, he began another, this time adding a few limiting sigils to it. While it still wasn't as efficient as Lily's, it lasted notably longer, even with only a few additions.

"Perhaps I should start including reasonable limits in more of my work," Ollie muttered while twirling the bristles of his mustache.

"Lily, if I gave you Mana-rich resources, would you be able to brew better glyph ink?" Sylwel suddenly asked.

Lily stared at the professor in shock, not expecting it at all. "I'd certainly be willing to try... but I'd need to do research on suitable solvents or other methods of dissolving it evenly before mixing it into the ink."

"Unfortunately, I must be the bearer of bad news and say that such glyphs would not be usable in a test," Ollie interjected.

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Sylwel stared at his fellow professor, an almost dumbfounded expression on his face as he raised a curious eyebrow. "For the test? I want it for myself."

"You?" Ollie immediately replied. "Why?"

Rather than immediately answering, Sylwel reached into a drawer and pulled out a slate. Lily recognized it as one of the glyphs she'd drawn for him on the weekend.

"I want more of these, but better," he answered simply.

"I see..." Ollie muttered. "Would a permanent enchantment not be better?"

"I don't think Lily can do those yet," he replied, and turned to face her. "Right?"

Lily shook her head. "I've only drawn glyphs with ink. Honestly, even the chalk is still a little new to me; I'm much more comfortable with a pen."

"Even more of a reason then," Sylwel replied. "While I'm a fan of the glyph chalk, it does have the drawback that the user cannot supply enough Mana."

"It shouldn't require that much Mana, though?" Lily asked curiously.

Admittedly, that was the downside of the chalk compared to imbued ink. While you could still draw the glyphs beforehand, unlike the ink, they didn't have their own stores of Mana and were effectively an empty vessel waiting to be fueled and activated at the same time.

There was another downside, although Lily assumed that Sylwel wouldn't know of it yet—glyphs drawn in chalk were always one-use only. No matter what adjustments she made, how little Mana was involved, or the number of off switches she included, the chalk would not stop disintegrating.

This had no effect on spells after they manifested, as the instructions in the glyph were literally part of the spell, but this meant you couldn't reuse them. Miss Camilla had made sure to have ample stocks of blood glyphs that she could turn on and off to extend their lifespan.

Lily wasn't averse to giving Professor Sylwel similar treatment, although what really concerned her was the lack of any switch sigils in her glyphwork book. Lily had no idea if they were known or not, and was concerned about revealing them if they weren't.

"Yes, but what if I want bigger ones? Stronger ones? A flame to rival dragonbreath?" Sylwel asked. "Even bringing it down a notch, my assistants would run low on Mana after dozens of activations in one afternoon."

How many glyphs does he expect me to draw!?

"So, bearing that in mind, I assume you can understand why I'd prefer inked glyphs over chalk?"

Lily cautiously nodded. "I can... but I still can't guarantee that I won't waste some resources in trying to figure out the recipe. There will probably be a lot of trial and error."

"That won't be an issue," Sylwel casually replied. "I'm perfectly alright for resources to be spent in pursuit of this research. Furthermore, once the glyphs are tested and refined, I can consider getting a permanent enchantment."

Lily opened her mouth, but Professor Ollie quickly hushed her with a raised finger.

"Don't agree to this madman's request so readily. He's effectively asking you to not only do commission work but also handle all the research and development. Even if he is supplying all of the resources, this is a tall order with significant time investment."

While Ollie was pointing at Sylwel like he'd revealed an evil plot, Sylwel merely shrugged.

"I was planning on putting it through the proper channels... I'd ask the headmaster to draft some documents and work out a fair deal. From the alchemy side, there's probably patent rights to be considered at the bare minimum if a successful formula is discovered. After that, frankly, I have no clue about the whole enchanting side of the business."

Ollie groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "There's a lot... but I suppose it's pointless if it hinges on the ink recipes succeeding first."

Sylwel nodded.

"The biggest issue, which I feel I need to remind you of again, is that she's unlicensed," Ollie hissed.

Lily was silently glancing between the two professors as they went back and forth. Sylwel only paused for a few moments to gather his thoughts.

"It can be under my name as her benefactor until Lily earns her license."

"That's..." Ollie paused. "Honestly, not a bad idea. Although it's risky on your part, you'd be liable for anything that goes wrong."

Sylwel chuckled. "I think it's far more likely that one of my own experiments would go wrong well before then."

"That's not something you should be proud of! Gods... this is why I hate working with you," Ollie grumbled.

"Well, don't answer yet," Sylwel said, finally returning his attention to Lily. "But before I spend the time leaving my lab to wrangle the headmaster, is this something you're interested in?"

Lily didn't even need to consult with Arakil on this one. This was something both of them had wanted from the very start, and one of the reasons why she was even attending alchemy lessons in the first place. Arakil and Lily wanted access to better ingredients and resources, and now they are being offered these opportunities.

"Yes, I'm very interested in making better glyph ink," Lily answered.

"Excellent," Sylwel replied. "Sadly, you probably won't be allowed to use said ink in tests, but nothing is stopping you from using it when you get free rein of the dungeon!"

"Speaking of which..." Ollie interjected, sounding a little defeated. "I've confirmed that your glyphs are indeed made by you, with your own resources. I'll inform Alice that you have my blessing."

"Oh right, I completely forgot that was why you were here," Sylwel bluntly admitted and turned to face Ollie. "Can you tell her I give my blessing? I can confirm the Fairymoss ink was successfully produced by her own hands."

Ollie sighed but agreed, which actually made Lily feel relieved. She couldn't help but imagine that if Sylwel went to Alice, he'd somehow get her permission revoked through his crazy antics or eccentric bluntness.

Lily thanked the two professors and then asked permission to leave. This had gone on far longer than she expected, and she was desperate to grab dinner before the cafeteria closed.

They didn't seem to have any further questions for her, although it looked like they still wanted to hash out details between themselves and the headmaster.

Lily packed her stuff away and left, shortly after she heard Professor Ollie's voice echoing up the stairs. His tone was harsh, and he seemed to be berating Sylwel for trying to corrupt and exploit Lily.

Well... I'm sure together with the headmaster, they can work something out.

With the two professors as witnesses that she could craft the ink and glyphs by herself, Lily had gotten her desired outcome. With their word as proof, nobody would need to check all of her glyph preparations, meaning she could safely use her own imbued ink without anyone scrutinizing everything she did.

Even if someone did request an assessment of her glyphs, she wasn't too worried. After all, the actual differences between the two inks were so identical that you couldn't tell them apart except under some extremely close examination. Lily's imbuing process used pure and raw Mana, not unlike the Fairymoss.

Funnily enough, Sylwel would probably be one of the only ones who would likely be able to tell the difference between the two. If he tasted the two glyphs, then he might realize they aren't the same, since one would lack the slight minty tang of the Fairymoss.

Thankfully, he only seems to lick or drink liquids; if he stuffed one of my talismans into his mouth, I'd probably get caught.