“D-did the enchantment work?”

  “Yes, it did, but…”

  “But what? What did you mean by ‘ten percent’?”

  “Ehh, it’s technical, but it’s the trouble with Enchanting. The sword’s Enchanted, sure, and it’s about average compared to other Enchanted swords, but the efficiency is only about ten percent of the theoretical maximum for the Enchantment.”

  “Theoretical maximum?” James had never heard that term before.

  “Yes. Well, I can’t tell you what this particular Enchantment is, but as an example, if it were a [Haste] Enchantment, which it’s not mind you, but if it were, the pattern might have had a theoretical maximum efficiency of five hundred percent, let’s say. So someone using the sword could move five times faster than normal.”

  “F-f-five times?!” James shouted. That was an unbelievable amount of speed.

  “Well, you couldn’t get a [Haste] enchantment that good with just the Air element, but it’s just an example. Which, again, this sword is not enchanted with [Haste], so don’t go talking about the sword regardless. Enchantments are to be kept secret, and for good reason.”

  James nodded, keeping his mouth shut.

  “Good boy. Anyway, that’s the theoretical maximum. But that assumes perfect compatibility between the Enchantment Design, the material of the item to be enchanted, no impurities in the mana substrate, and perfect application of mana material and Aqua Magia. Now not to brag, but I’m very good at applying mana material and Aqua Magia. And this design is also very robust. You can apply it to almost any sword shaped material and not lose too much efficiency. And I can’t fault the Smith too much, but… If he were an Enchanter, he’d be able to see how just these little flaws in his etching, well you can’t see them anymore, but they impede the mana flow through the enchantment, dropping the efficiency. Just that’s enough to drop the efficiency from 100% to, I’d estimate 60%, but the bigger problem here is the mana substrate. I can’t expect much better in a backwater barony like this-”

  At this point Meridox’s face paled and he rounded on James, looking him directly in the eye and grabbing his shoulders.

  “Do. Not. Tell. Anyone. I. Said. That.” he hissed at James. “I mean it, not a word.”

  “Of, of course. Not a word.” James said nervously.

  The Enchanter stood up straight again. “Ahem, of course. I meant to say, in a barony so far from the capital, it’s understandable that, ahem, resources might be lacking, so to speak.” He looked sideways at James. “In the capital, there are companies where Smiths and Enchanters work together, which can improve efficiencies as high as twenty-five percent at the highest. But that’s very expensive, and only the largest and best companies can afford to do it.”

  “Only twenty-five percent?” James asked. That seemed so low!

  “’Only,’ he says. Twenty-five is incredibly high! Your father is a Farmer, no? So you should know at least a little about Farming. Imagine if you had to Farm yourself, without a Class, blindfolded, while your father gave you directions. If you didn’t kill each other out of frustration, the work would take five times longer and only be a fifth as productive.”

  James’ head spun. He’d watched his father do Farmwork before. He always knew exactly where and how deep to plant his seeds, and how to keep weeds out of the fields, and how to keep pests off the plants while they were growing, and nobody harvested faster and with less waste than his father. James had tried his hand at it when he was little and it never turned out nearly as good as his father’s, even when he was working twice as hard.

  Meridox continued. “Going back to my example, the average for enchanting efficiency is usually between ten and fifteen percent. In the case of this sword’s enchantment, it’s about ten percent. A ten percent efficient [Haste] enchantment with a theoretical maximum of five hundred percent [Haste] works out to a fifty percent [Haste] in the end.”

  “Is… is that good?” James asked. He didn’t trust his own instincts at this point in the conversation, especially with all the numbers they were talking about.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “From an Enchanter’s perspective, it’s adequate.” Meridox declared. “It certainly meets the terms of this particular commission, although this isn’t a [Haste] enchantment. More importantly, from the end user’s perspective, in this case a Swordsman or a Knight, it’s fantastic. Neither of us is a Swordsman, so it’s a bit hard to imagine, but the ability to move even just half again as fast during a fight can make a huge difference. Even a Swordsman with very little mana, who could only boost his speed for just a moment, well that moment could be what decides life and death for him. Timing is, apparently, very important for swordsplay.”

  James’ mind was blown. He hadn’t given it much thought, but this sword was going to be used by a Swordsman in the future. It didn’t exist just for the Smith, or the Enchanter, who worked on it. The work done on it now was a matter of life and death for someone in the future.

  “In that case, why didn’t you work with Jared from the start? Wouldn’t the Enchantment on the sword have been much better if you could have adjusted the design and been involved in the forging?”

  “Well, for one, I’m specialized in applying Enchantments. Designing Enchantments is a tricky business. It’s much easier to just take a standard design and apply it, even if you lose efficiency by not adapting it to the particulars of the mana substrate. Frankly, I’d probably just mess up the Enchantment more by trying to make changes when it’s already so optimized.”

  James thought for a moment. He guessed that made sense. Although Jared seemed to be pretty good at adjusting his forging to meet a customer’s particular needs.

  “For another,” Meridox continued, “I’m only here for the one day. It’s costly enough to have an Enchanter make the trip out here to apply an Enchantment. To have one stay out here for the entire process of forging as well would be far too expensive, even if the efficiency were improved thereby. There’s also the issue of leaking information. If the Smith works too closely with the Enchanter, they’re more likely to figure out what the Enchantment is. Not really a problem in the big companies, but in general it’s better for the particulars of an Enchantment to remain a secret. They act as more of a trump card that way. An unexpected application of [Haste] in a swordfight, even if it’s only a fifty percent [Haste], is more valuable than a one hundred percent Haste that the opponent knows about.”

  James wasn’t sure about that. He thought that it’d be better to be able to go faster, since if he was fast enough, it wouldn’t matter if the person he was fighting knew he could go that fast. Like how if someone was twice as strong, it didn’t matter if you knew about it, you’d never beat them in a fight.

  “Heh, I can see you don’t believe me. Well, the important thing is that I was commissioned to apply a particular enchantment, which I did, according to the terms of the contract. The rest is frankly none of my business.”

  After that, Meridox explained the intricacies of applying enchantments to James until mid-afternoon. When James’ father arrived to take James home, Meridox handed James a small bundle of papers bound with string. “Here, take this. It’s some designs for beginner Enchantments. You should be able to take an Enchanter class if you want because you watched me do an Enchantment and I explained it to you, but these will give you more specialization options if you study them.”

  “Oh, sir, my family couldn’t possibly afford…”

  “Do not worry, this is a trifle for me. I have apprentices make copies of these designs as part of their training, so I have plenty more.”

  “As you will, sir.” James’ father bowed his head deeply, and James followed suit.

  “Yes, thank you so much, sir.”

  For the rest of the week before his birthday, James would wake up, study the enchantment booklet in the morning, visit the forge during the day and assist Jared, and in the evening return to study the booklet more. The night before his birthday, at dinner, his father asked, “So, have you decided? You want to be an Enchanter? Or will you be a Smith?”

  “Both seem like good options…” James replied.

  “Well you can only choose one.” His father said.

  “That’s right,” his mother said, “more importantly, have you decided on your combat class?”

  “More importantly?” his father interjected.

  “Well, whether he’s a Smith or an Enchanter, James will be more than fine. There’s always plenty of work for Smiths, and the Lord offered him a job if he becomes an Enchanter, no? So it doesn’t really matter. But if James does choose Enchanter, he should definitely take Brawler as his combat class. No point in Hammer Warrior if you’re an Enchanter, right?”

  “Oh, that’s true…” James murmured.

  Before last week, he’d been sure he’d take the Smith class, and then whichever of Brawler or Hammer Warrior he felt like at the time. But now, he couldn’t get the thought out of his head. A mere ten percent? And that was considered adequate? He looked down at his plate, currently almost full of barely touched roast, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. He quickly at a few bites as his parents continued discussing Classes, until he’d finished a tenth of the food, and looked at the rest. What a waste it would be to throw away all that was left! And that was considered ‘adequate’! Another few bites, and a quarter of his plate was emptied. And that was as good as it got for Enchanting. A paltry twenty-five percent efficiency rate.

  It was at this point that an insidious thought took root in Jason’s heart. Why not both? Why not be a Smith and Enchanter? Wouldn’t he be able to produce wondrous items with Enchantments far better than anyone else? The Lord of his village had been satisfied with a sword with only ten percent efficiency. Surely he could do better. Naive to the realities of the world, he forgot the wise advice of his parents.