A difficult question for novice enchanters was pitched straight off the bat by Grandmaster Runette, directly drawing out a key piece of the magecraft process. Luca thanked his stupid decision earlier for his newfound knowledge holding the key to correctly responding to this inquiry, "Enchantments, also called inscriptions or runes, are designed to embed a specific property into the object upon which they are inscribed. These can range anywhere from lessening the weight of a particular weapon only to its registered owner, to improving the magical resistance of a shield, and to magically seal away a specific target using an object. The general properties of these enchantments tend to conflict with the forms of items that do not match the enchantment's intention, such as enchanting a pair of blacksmith's goggles with an enchantment to imbue fire properties into each strike of the hammer. Some exceptions to this rule do exist, such as enchanting increased damage or elemental abilities to gauntlets, boots and shields, imbuing the power of sealing into weaponry rather than objects, and such. However, according to the Theory of Improvised Magecraft, anything can be considered as a weapon, therefore anything can be enchanted with weaponry enchantments, though this is still hotly contested fifty years since its proposal in the final year of the Storm Era."
"Hoh, you even know about that theory. An exceptional answer, boy, better than I would have answered when I was just beginning this profession. However, you forgot one part, which will cost you one point," the Wood Elf was mildly impressed by Luca's response, which even brought up a debatably unpopular proposed theory that was often left unknown to most in the profession due to its obscure potential. "You disregarded mentioning Archmage Evander's discovery of wand-making, a craft that can only be achieved by magecraft. This was a critical discovery to the field of magecraft, and therefore should have been included."
Luca's brows furrowed at the mention of wand-making, particularly due to his feelings about what the players referred to as Evander Syndrome causing him to remember that wands would become a hindrance in the future, though he refrained from speaking. His expression, however, did not go unnoticed. He did not clarify his thoughts, allowing the remaining three judges to assume he was disappointed about missing one point.
"No need to be unhappy about your answer, Luca, it was practically perfect." Grandmaster Runette smiled ever so slightly in a comforting manner to the boy before preparing the second question, "Now then, for a much more difficult question, describe the special category of 'unique enchantments' as best you can."
Surprised that she would ask a question that was often untaught until reaching B-grade as an Enchanter, Luca quickly composed himself and prepared his response, "Unique enchantments are special inscriptions designed for only a single item, whether intentionally or not, and are seldom capable of being copied onto other items to full effect. One such enchantment is the 'Endless Berserk' of the A-grade Unique warhammer known as Bonebreaker, which has become considered a forbidden weapon. When held by a Warrior of any level or specialization, a rare feat in and of itself for a unique enchanted item, Bonebreaker forces its wielder into the state of [Berserk], an ability that is considered the signature of the Berserker specialization, increasing damage dealt by the warhammer up to threefold while sacrificing most, if not all, defensive protection. The only known ways to end this ability without killing the wielder is to separate the weapon from the wielder, as, even when unconscious, the constant state of [Berserk] overloads the instinctual part of the mind and body and keeps it going until it eventually kills the wielder. Attempts to copy this enchantment proved unsuccessful, oftentimes leading to the deaths of unfortunate enchanters when such attempts lead to incidents where anyone within the range of the intended object went into a state of [Berserk] and fought everyone else to the death." Wetting his mouth after it had dried up from speaking, the boy concluded, "There are some theories on how these enchantments come into existence, but, to date, there has been nothing solid enough to merit investigation."
Grandmaster Runette had her mild smile once again as she commended the boy, "And it is best you remember not to attempt to recreate such enchantments in the future, as they rarely end well. The only exceptions to this, another demerit for your answer, are the Scales of Justice and its miniature models. This can only be attributed to the Millennium Sage's assistance, along with the Twin Goddesses of Law and Vengeance approving of the intentions. Unless you can rival Sage Archimedes' abilities with magecraft, don't go playing around with unique enchantments." After young Luca nodded in affirmation of her well-meaning warning, the Wood Elf Enchanter asked her final question, "What is the difference between magecraft and magic engineering?"
This query was a good one, as it was also often debated whether or not they were one and the same. With his new knowledge and the wisdom he'd gained from the game, Luca had an easy answer that, oddly enough, had never actually been pitched, though players never understood why. It was probably because the answer was glossed right over, due to being really obvious, or at least that's what some players thought. "Magecraft is the profession of creating enchanted items and runes, requiring little to no knowledge of other professions' abilities. Magic engineering, a pioneering discovery of the Dwarves during the Heroic Era, is actually a special combination profession, requiring one to have the abilities of both an Enchanter and a Blacksmith. By creating machinery using the trade of a Blacksmith, a Magic Engineer then inscribed runes onto each particular piece of the machine according to what is required of it, in order to create a seamless whole that operates with little-to-no assistance from workers aside from the occasional maintenance check. Each part of a machine is vital to its function, therefore becoming yet more critical for magic engineering due to the difficult requirements needed for replacement parts."
A silent pause filled the room for a good two minutes before Grandmaster Runette managed to free herself from her thoughts, "I'd never thought of it that way... incredible. It makes so much sense now. No wonder it's so hard for Enchanters and Blacksmiths alone to create such things. You need to have both to do it in the first place..." The look that the Grandmaster of Magecraft had towards Luca had changed slightly, barely perceptible even to the boy himself, as she said, "You've passed with even better results than with old Edgewick, even solving an ancient debate before even becoming certified as an Enchanter. A genius, through and through." She got up, praising the boy one last time before departing for the Enchanter License testing room in preparation for Luca's third exam.
Coughing to clear his throat, still recovering from his surprise at the brilliant response to Grandmaster Runette's final question, the third judge, Array Specialist Athers did not waste time and went straight into the first question, "An easy question to start off: who is considered the founding father of the Array Specialist profession?"