I dip my pen into the ink container, my UV sight ready. Now, it is time to begin. And by 'begin,' I mean tracing. After all, it is about working smarter, not harder. So why not utilize some AI assistance?
"Sapphire, load the Sharpness enchantment blueprint," I command through my thoughts.
Having already scanned the Enchantment Codex and all the advanced blueprints in the library, I have all the possible enchantments stored in Sapphire's memory.
"Project an AR hologram of that enchantment for me."
Before my eyes, the Arcanum letters appear and hover in space, glowing like hieroglyphic writing. It is a mental hologram, visible only to me. Sophia can't see it.
"Sophia, wanna place a bet?" I smirk.
"Huh? Bet on what? What are you up to?"
"Well, how many Sharpness enchantments do you think I can put on the dagger?"
"Haha, one! Two if you are really good!"
"What if I say that I can do three?"
"Three!? No way, that's impossible! And please focus on your enchantment, Jack. Once you start, you cannot talk!"
"Well, we'll see!"
It isn't impossible, it is just incredibly hard. Arcanum is the language of gods; its power of creation is literally limitless. However, enchanting isn't without its limitations. It is impossible to stack thousands of enchantments on a single item to make it overpowered, due to the limit of enchantment points. These points indicate the upper threshold of how much an item can be enchanted.
A Sharpness enchantment typically eats up eight to twenty points, varying with the enchanter's skill and the quality of the ink. Better skills and higher-quality ink reduce the number of points consumed. This weapon has twenty-six points. Theoretically, it could be enchanted three times, but each enchantment has to be flawless. There is no room for even the smallest error, and that is humanly impossible.
Sophia's two Sharpness enchantments consumed twenty-four, and that was already incredibly good.
Good… when viewing under human's standard.
But for someone with the most advanced AI helping him out secretly?
I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than perfection!
So, I drag the AR hologram over the dagger, arranging enough space for three Sharpness enchantments. There is a lot of space to write, so I don't have to stack any letters. I steady my hand, hold my breath, and heighten my focus to the max. Then, following the hologram's guidance, I trace the lines with ink.
The UV ink pulses with each completed letter, the first enchantment slowly taking form.
Sophia watches silently, her eyes following the movements of my pen.
However…
"AAAAAA! Darn it!!!"
The enchantment limit, if exceeded even by just one point, would instantly destroy the item!
The dagger glows, cracks, and then boom!
Explodes into tiny bits.
Seeing that, Sophia laughs at my face with a smug expression.
"Hahahaha!!! Three enchantments? I told you! It's humanly impossible!"
"But…"
I am speechless, unable to respond.
I had done the enchantments perfectly. There should not have been any error! Then how? How did an enchantment take nine points instead of eight? Theoretically, there was a twenty-six-point limit, enough for three eight-point enchantments!
Then, what did I do wrong? I cannot understand this.
"Well," Sophia, still grinning with a smug face, starts lecturing. "A Sharpness enchantment taking up eight points is just a theory on paper, a hypothetical number calculated based on the precondition that you did everything perfectly, or in other words, you are a god. But, you know, there's no perfection in life. We are not gods, we are not perfect in every way. It's just the way things are, Jack."
"Hmmm…"
I am not happy with what she says, but it makes perfect sense. There's no way a human could compete with gods.
Take a circle, for example. What humans see as a circle is, in reality, just countless straight lines put together. To write a perfect enchantment is like drawing a perfect circle by hand. It is humanly impossible. And that means, an eight-point Sharpness enchantment would never exist.
With this, I am already about to accept that reality.
However, in that very moment, something sparks inside my mind, an invisible flame ablaze within my heart.
"No, Sophia," I counter. "It's only humanly impossible. It's not actually impossible..."
Sophia is confused. "What? I- I don't understand what you are saying…"
"Well, exactly what I said. Only humanly impossible."
And human… what is a human? And what is a god?
The man named Jack Saunder has already abandoned being a human years ago.
To find a way into this world, to have even a tiny chance of finding her, I had to work tirelessly, learning physics, biology, computer science—everything I could. There was no time to rest, not a single second wasted. I had to min-max my life to the point of not sleeping or resting even one second more than necessary, even food intake had to be optimized to the last micronutrients. And that was how I was able to achieve vast knowledge and become the best I could be.
But graduating from every higher education degree possible is just the beginning.
I remember the first time I had an AI chip implanted into my brain. It was a pain worse than death. Every second felt like my skull was about to crack. Simply thinking the most basic thoughts paralyzed my body. Yet, I endured that torturing, soul shattering pain for three days and three nights. And not only that, I immediately jailbroke and overclocked the AI right afterward to slow down time so I could study even more. And then, in the state of constant temporal distortion, twenty years felt like a hundred years, dancing with pain and the scythe of Death. But only because of that, I was able to replace my bones with titanium, cultivate microfibers into muscles, upgrade the AI into Sapphire. And also thanks to that, I was finally able to track down and break the unbreakable barrier to come here.
So, was it possible for any human being on Earth to do all of that?
No.
But was I able to do it?
YES!
That proves the point!
Humanly impossible is NOT impossible!
With that, I take out another dagger and repeat the enchantment process again and again.
"Sapphire, load the Sharpness enchantment blueprint."
…
Failed.
…
"Sapphire, load the Sharpness enchantment blueprint."
…
Failed.
…
…
"Sapphire, one more time, load the Sharpness enchantment blueprint!"
I command the AI for the tenth time. The past nine daggers are all failures. But I will not give up!
UV vision activates, the ink glows once more.
"Huh? You're still trying? I told you, it's impossible!"
Sophia does not believe in me. In her mind, I'm sure I'm now looking like a complete insane person.
But that's fine. I have never needed anyone to believe in me in the first place. As long as I believe in myself, it is enough.
And with that, the key to a perfect enchantment is already in my hand.
"Sophia, what is rule number one of speaking Arcanum?" I then ask.
"Huh? Why are you asking that now?"
"Just say it."
"Well, alright. It's 'Arcanum has to be spoken with intention.'"
"Exactly."
In this state of mind, I finally understand the true meaning of that rule.
Arcanum has to be spoken with intention. And in this language, intention has many interpretable meanings. It can be intent, it can be emotions, or it can even be… belief.
Believe that a fireball can be manifested out of thin air.
Believe that a blade can be sharp enough to slice through titanium and diamond.
And in this case…
BELIEVE THAT I AM NOT A HUMAN! BUT A GOD!
And as a god…
THERE CANNOT BE ANY IMPERFECTION!
[Steel dagger]
- Weapon Rating: 92 (up by 68)
- Weight: 512 grams
Attributes:
- Sharpness: 40
- Durability: 144/145
Special Ability:
- None
Enchantment:
- Sharpness + 10
- Sharpness + 10
- Sharpness + 10
Enchantment points: 2 (decreased by 24)
"WHAAAAAAAAT!?" Sophia gasps in shock as she sees the result of my godlike work. Her face looks like her soul has just left her body.
But why stop there?
I take out a few other swords with 32 enchantment points each.
Four perfect enchantments every time, heck yeah!!!
"Jack… I can't believe anything anymore…" Sophia mutters, now sitting in a corner, laughing somewhat hysterically to herself. "Perfect enchantment every time? Am I dreaming?"
"Told you," I smile, satisfied with the results. "Now you know that it's not impossible, you can do it too!"
Hearing that, Sophia lifts her head, looking at me with disbelief. "Huh? I can… too?" she murmurs.
"Of course!" I assure her.
That seems to motivate her a bit. Sophia then tries to aim for perfect enchantments, with my instruction on how to do it. Together, we enchant over a hundred other blank pieces of equipment.
And in the end, it is not until the 126th dagger that it happens.
"I did it!" Sophia gasps, the immense joy reflected in her sparkling eyes."Jack, I DID IT!"
- Sharpness + 10
- Sharpness + 9
- Sharpness + 9
Enchantment points: 0 (decreased by 26)
"Congratulations!" I proudly say.
Sophia takes out that dagger, beaming as she raises it high.
And at that moment, for some reason, the world seems to brighten with her radiant smile.