Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 31: Magecrafting

After leaving Wind on the first floor, I headed up to the second floor of the <Crafting Hall> to find a [Magecrafting] station so I could start my weapon-crafting project. I was a bit nervous about leaving my big brother downstairs since this was our first time working on our crafts in a separate area. I was already used to being separated from since we go to different schools in real life, but not in <Isekai Online>. He did say I had to learn some independence since he wasn't always going to be there to help me, but I felt like I wasn't ready to go alone at the time. Then again, he might've just wanted me to be brave and not rely on others so much, for my own sake. For now, I decided to start getting used to being alone for now and work on my magical gear.

I eventually managed to find a station a few meters away from the stairs. The station had several things one could find in a magic lair, such as a black cauldron to make potions, several wands in multiple sizes, some chalk, and some runes and magical circles spread around the bordered small walls and table. Compared to my previous station before, it was somewhat flashy and magical, which didn't surprise me considering that it was a station for [Magecrafting] instead of [Alchemy]. And unlike my usual [Alchemy] tool kit, I had to use several extra tools for this [Mastery], which meant that I might've had to spend more money than I usually did at the general store.

[Beginner Enchantment Kit]

[A toolkit that provides several stones, magical potions, and a magical circle board to any aspiring magician.

Quality: 10]

[Beginner Rune Tome]

[A book that contains information on any basic runes. It is recommended to any aspiring magician who wants to create their very own magical gear.

Quality: 10]

[Beginner Magical Guide]

[A special spellbook that contains special spells for enchantment and magic creation. It is recommended to any aspiring magician who wants to create their very own magical gear.

Quality: 10]

I felt a bit guilty that I had to use some of my allowances to buy these tools, but since we were going to try [Masteries] that we'd never tried out before, I felt it was a small sacrifice to pay to upgrade our equipment. Besides, Wind was currently working on his new bow with his [Woodcrafting] skill, so I wouldn't be surprised if he did the same with his crafting tools.

However, the biggest dilemma on my mind was how different [Magecrafting] was to other [Masteries]. While most of them relied a lot on real-life experiences such as [Blacksmithing], [Woodcutting], and [Cooking] as well as [Alchemy], the latter of which was simply making medicine like the people did in the olden days, which I think the fantasy novels managed to popularize by putting their spin on it or combining it with real-life alchemy like this game. But for [Magecrafting], I had no clue on how I was going to make a staff or a grimoire out of these tools and materials I had on hand since this was the only [Mastery] so far that had no real-life reference on how to create them. Even as I looked around the floor after settling into my station, I saw far more tailors and leather makers than magecrafters in here. And while I had managed to find some in other stations, I saw that they had only embedded magical stones in their stand, and used the crafting menu with half of their process while the others used the menu for their entire crafting process.

I guessed that because of its vague description in the official site and wiki, no one was able to use [Magecrafting] without the aid of a crafting menu. Just looking at these magecrafters made me worry over how I was going to make my magical gear. But I also didn't want my playthrough to be plain and easy in my very first VRMMO. I wanted to make my experience feel a bit realistic and similar to the heroes of Seraph! Giving up wasn't going to help me improve my skills and abilities as a magician.