"You must be Henry. Henry Smythe, correct?" Gandalf inquired, patting the dust off my shoulders with a smile.
"That's me, sir. I'm dreadfully sorry for that - I wasn't paying attention to my footing," I said, cheeks pink from embarrassment. What a first impression on one of the most powerful entities on the face of the continent, Henry! "You're Gandalf, right? You're responsible for all of these beautiful pyrotechnics?"
"Indeed I am, though I'll admit I only had a small part in the creation of the individual pieces," Gandalf grinned under his beard. "You have a heavy hand in tonights atmosphere, as well, I heard I had the pleasure of tasting this dish of yours - the label read Jollof Rice. Quite lovely, if a bit spicy for my tastes. Lovely with the fine ale of the Hobbits."
"I'm quite proud of that one," I nodded with a prideful smirk. "I'd never cooked it before a couple weeks ago - took a while to get the recipe just right using what I had. The herbs in these lands are so different from what I'm used to, but they have many properties that enhance a dish even further than I thought possible. The subtle chemistry a Kingsfoil root has when mixed with tomato and salt is simply wonderful."
"Yes, the plants and herbs of Middle Earth are a boon upon any cook willing to seek them out," Gandalf chuckled. "The pots the food were held in - I saw the runes along their rims. I've seen runic magic in the past, and yet I don't recognize them in the slightest. What do they do?"
"Those around the rim form a ward over the top of the pot, trapping heat within and cooling the very edge so the heat doesn't injure a drunk Hobbit," I explained happily. "There are more at the bottom, which take in ambient magical energies and convert it into thermal energy and spread it through the bottom of the pot. I doubt the food will remain long enough for this to be of any good use, but I figured it would make a good test, more than anything."
"Fascinating," Gandalf nodded sagely. "I'm a practitioner of magic, myself; it is my touch in each of these pyrotechnics."
"Wonderful enchantments, I've noticed," I looked up at the sky alight with colors. "How do you direct the powder as it goes? Wind currents? Barriers?"
"Vacuums," Gandalf answered with a twinkle in his eye. "Each charge contains an enchantment to create a vacuum in the direction it has momentum towards, which guides the sparks. The big one I brought has something special in that regard."
"Amazing!" I mulled over the concept for a moment. "Ingenious use of Bernoulli's Principle to control the flow of such small particles! It would've taken me months to figure that out in theory alone, and I doubt I could perform it with my current enchanting level."
"Magic is an art - cultivate it just like any other skill, and you will become capable of a great many things in the future, dear boy," Gandalf said. "Would you like to help me light the big one?"
"It would be an honor, sir," I grinned at him. We rounded the wagon and came upon a large rocket with small wings on the side, a fuse dropping out of the bottom. He checked it over with his sharp eyes before nodding to me. I made use of the
Ten seconds passed, and then a shriek unlike any other filled the air. The Hobbits immediately knew the main show had arrived and cheered as the rocket flew up high into the sky with a trail of white fire in its wake. Small pops exploded within the trail as it wove an intricate pattern through the air, giving the illusion of stars within reach. It did a few loops, likely guided by a similar vacuum to the ones we had discussed before flying straight up into the air and exploding with such a bright light that I winced. When the afterimage faded, I witnessed countless jets of sparks curling and twisting through the air like a hibiscus flower had opened in the air high above.
The sparks changed from white to a multitude of colors as they slowly fell to the ground, showering the crowd of Hobbits in a flower-scented light that would surely linger in the field until the next rain. I immediately realized what the 'special' aspect of this firework was; the vacuums guiding the sparks had curved and bent to create the masterful illusion we had seen. Gandalf wore a grandfatherly smile as he watched my expression of wonder and awe. I noticed his gaze and grinned. "Beautiful work, master wizard! This will be talked about until next Spring! It's given me a few ideas of enchantments I can work on; truly wondrous!"
"I'm but a humble artisan,"Gandalf said. "Always happy to please."
"Please you did, sir!" I laughed.
"Care for a drink, master Smythe?" Gandalf pulled open a drawer on the cart to reveal a bottle of whiskey and a pair of glasses. "I'd love to share a drink with you, and discuss our crafts further. I do so love a good conversation."
"I'd love to, sir-"
"My friends call me Gandalf," he raised a hand.
"I'd love to, Gandalf."
And so, the Maiar and I spent the night sipping from our glasses as he inquired about my skills. I ended up getting a bit too deep into the specifics of rune scripting, but he didn't mind. He was actually rather interested in the subject, offering helpful advice I wrote down in a journal for future reference. My cheeks grew redder as the evening turned to night, and woke up the next morning in my own bed, likely placed there by the wizard after passing out as the festivities died down. All in all, it was the best summer celebration I had been to in the Shire, and it would be the best for years to come. I had made a new friend in Gandalf the Grey, and learned a great deal from him during our lengthy conversation.
Feeling inspired, I decided to up the ante with my creations. I was able to start work the very next day, unlike many thousands of Hobbits, because I could cure a hangover after several uses of the
I made a large version of the magic-electric generator I invented, capable of outputting 50MW every day, which was 1000x what a large household uses daily in the US. In other words, I could easily power the entire Shire with this generator - though it had cost a good 200,000 credits in materials and a week of labor. The next few weeks I spent wiring electricity into my home and property, using crude lightbulbs to illuminate everything even during the night time.
Now, instead of using enchantments for my freezer and heaters, I simply wired it so runic arrays on the devices would receive electricity and convert it back into magic to fuel the runes that created the cold or heat. This also allowed me to wire up another project of mine - an automatic hammer. It consisted of two blocks of steel, one which remained stationary at working level while the other would be lifted and slammed down on top of the other with ten times the mass of a hammer, five times a second.
Forging had never been easier.
My magic throughput was slowly getting better, too, allowing me to enchant ten times every day, which combined with my new automatic hammer allowed me to crank out 3,000 credits every day. I now felt comfortable spending more on magic abilities, leading me to have the following skill set:
[Magic]
_-Attack-_
{
_-Crafting-_
{
_-Defense-_
{
_-Magic-_
{
_-Psychic Magics-_
{
_-Support-_
{
_-Throughput-_
{
_-Utility-_
{
I had added a number of ice and fire spells to my repertoire, if only to get access to those I cared more about. I upgraded
My daily credit grind rose to 4.000, and took even less time.
Finally, I unlocked the ability to brew potions using