Mythshaper

Chapter 69: Levitating

My levitation boots were almost complete. It had taken more than a week, and a great deal of help from Mum, mostly because I had no experience in crafting shoes. Their build wasn’t entirely like alloyed combat boots. I had used high-reinforced leathers, referencing Mum’s old designs.

As it turned out, studying her old designs not only solved most of the problems I was facing, but even eradicated the issues I failed to consider, such as making the rune formation two-layered and separating the output into different sections. The two-layered formation simply made it easier to generate more kinetic force, while the separation was mainly important for making the kinetic force release more impactful.

Other than spending a good amount of silver Leafs on the leather, the most costly component was a high-functioning essence cell. I got myself two cells with a capacity of 64 standard essence units for both boots. It cost twenty-five gold Leafs—or 500 silver leafs—nearly halving my budget. But of course, if I wanted to fly for a longer period, I would need a lot of essence. The two cells, at full charge, would last a little less than an hour when the rune formation was at full capacity, and a great deal longer for simple flights.

Then again, it was never a waste to buy high-capacity essence cells, because even if these levitation boots didn’t come to fruition the way I wanted, the cells could still be repurposed.

Now that all the preparation was done, all that was left was to put the fabricator together. With Mum supervising me, I began carving the runes directly into the pieces of leather.

The formation itself was the most complex endeavour I had worked on to date, although after a thorough review of Mum’s design, it looked more like a replication. Other than the large number of Intermediate runes that invoked kinetic forces, the levitation formation involved all four kinds of infallible runes. For the fabricator to be a lasting property—something I could use for a longer period—it needed all four, be it Transformation, Amplification, Acceleration, or Restoration.

Only Restoration didn’t play any role in the flight, but it was most needed to raise the durability of the boots. Considering how high-functioning the formation needed to be, the leather would have withered no matter how highly reinforced it was. Transformation was pretty much a given, since it was required of all fabricators to transform the essence into an effect, while the last two were to boost the speed.

I could have tried some wind runes, but these five types of runes had already achieved so much that there was no need.

Despite putting in a great deal of practice before the actual carving, my dexterous palm still worked at a relatively slow pace. Considering the complexity and high cost at play, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Pieces of leather moved from one part of the table to another. With the carving pen in my palm, my hand worked at mechanical efficiency. Minutes flew by, and unknowingly, I entered a flow state. The speed at which I was carving the runes rose exponentially. Their shapes and formations remained as perfect as before.

[Congratulations! Rune Engraving VII (1001/1000) is complete.]