Just like I suspected, the dagger can't hold more than three enchantments. They don't stay isolated to a single metal of the blade, they diffuse into the rest of blade not long after I do my thing.

BUT!

Self-Repair is weird. And it somehow prevents that from happening. It doesn't let the other enchantments diffuse. so, theoretically, I can put 3 enchantments on each steel type used in a damascus. This one is made of two different ones, so it's got a theoretical maximum of 6.

BUT AGAIN!

I can't enchant only a single type with the Self-Repair, I have to enchant them both.

And that causes explosions.

Somehow, just SOMEHOW, this puts both of the Self-Repair enchantments into overdrive. They become a Mana pump. A really powerful mana pump. And they also become super effective. Effective enough that it repairs the enchantments straight out of itself. Now that was a first!

A repair enchantment so effective that it repairs itself out of it's host!

It's got to do with this mana pump thing. Too much mana equals too much effectiveness. Naturally, the next step was to equip myself with as many mana restriction items I could find and hope it stabilizes.

Guess how I spent my morning then, eh?

Half a dozen peak level mana restriction items. I enchanted it while Jach held it, trying to suck as much mana out of it as he could.

And the results? 3 minutes. And then a boom.

The first ever weapon to ever exist with 5 different enchantments lived for just under 3 minutes. But it lived! And it was stable and more powerful than anthing I've seen. Excess mana equals excess power!

The phantom blade Jach conjured from it reached the edge of our living room. That's ten times the largest blade I've seen before! It... may have also skewered out breakfast and burnt it to a crisp.

Jach is now yelling at me to go do the dishes and make more breakfast for us. He says our breakfast's death is on me.

I say he's just jealous that I got the dagger working. After all, those new runes Seph found haven't worked for him yet. He's obsessed with them! Slept with a drawing of them under his pillow last night. He keeps ramblig about it every time we meet. But he can't get them to work! Too high of a mana requirement he says. 'HAH!', say I!

And also 'Ow.' He threw a banana at me.

I should go now, before this turns to war.

...

Hey! i'm close to figuring the runes out! No need to be so agressive against me in your diary you punk! -- Jach Jafferi

...

RESEARCH NOTES!

Not a diary, these are my research notes! RESEARCH NOTES!

And you better keep your grubby little paws off of them or you'll regret ever sending me cook our breakfast you p.r.i.c.kly Jach-hole!

===

Kyvas woke up. Then stood up. Then went to his kitchen.

Just as he expected, his sister has left him some lunch in the fridge, which he promptly warmed up and plated. He walked about his house, picking at the food while he did so.

It had been a month and a half since he started blacking out randomly. It was an occasion of some concern by now.

Twice already had he pa.s.sed out while walking.

He'd thought it would get better eventually, but things like this rarely go as one thinks it would.

The frequency of these episodes just kept rising. It happened twice during his first week, five times the next, and now it was a daily occurence. He lost his job not long ago, but he didn't care much about that -- perks of being from a well off family.

This last week he had spent countless hours in the office of one doctor or the other. So far nothing any of them suggested had helped. None of the tests had yeilded anything out of the ordinary. And while he was glad that this wasn't due to some tumor or an infection of sorts, it also worried him.

What would happen if this never stopped happening? If he had to live the rest of his life pa.s.sing out randomly? His body had stopped responding to all outside stimuli when he pa.s.sed out now. While earlier he used to be able to wake up when someone shook him, nothing happened from it now.

And he'd always find himself sluggish whenever he woke up, like his body did not want to respond to him anymore. It took him close to an hour now to get his bearings.

What if he-

Oh, the plate has been picked clean. He realized the finished lunch and his still hungry stomach nearly simultaneously.

And then headed to the kitchen to make himself a serving of instant noodles.

===

Cainsworth-12 1232

I am not in a dungeon.

And I won't find myself in the dungeon in the near future.

This, my papery friend, calls for a cake.

It seems like the Queen was impressed by my progress with the dagger during the court proceedings yesterday. And it also seems like the phantom blade destroying one of her precious ancient vases has been overlooked. By her, not by me. That vase was magnificent and I will never forgive myself for destroying it.

So, only a small cake.

Two more cla.s.ses. I've got two more cla.s.ses to teach before I get to go to the lab. Let's see if using stronger versions of the enchantments can drive the mana cost high enough to stabilze the dagger for half an hour.

Jach's reduced the casting time for that summoning spell to about that long. Now it's just the dagger that's holding us up.

Not that long now before we see what happens when a spell with an infinite mana cost meets an infinite mana source.