"I've had students who knew dozens of languages struggle to learn runes. The best one took two weeks, try again." Old Tobias interrupted him as he examined the next sword for flaws.
"Hmm, then it might be the system making it easier to learn? My team has noticed that we've picked up various skills much faster since gaining the system, or perhaps the fact that I've turned the books you gave me into mental books using my mental energy?" Chronos mused as he tried to sort the completed swords.
Old Tobias stomped over and grabbed him by the shoulders, "You What?" He demanded with bloodshot eyes.
"Um, I learned to create mental books to record what I experience or the knowledge I've gained in a comprehensive manner for later review." Chronos muttered under his intense gaze.
"How?" Old Tobias started breathing heavily as he demanded to know more.
"Well, I learned too many skills at once which almost injured me and before I knew it, I was inside my mental space, so I took the time to arrange the skills I'd learned into books. Ever since then I've had no problems creating more books or entering my mental space." Chronos gave a short explanation conveniently skipping over the mysterious voice he had heard at the time.
No matter what you practiced or how powerful you were hearing a mysterious voice was never a good sign. Unless you were a priest, they heard the voice of their god often enough to be considered normal.
"And you don't know how you entered your mental space? Or how to teach others how to do the same?" Old Tobias pressed him.
"Give me a moment to think, I wasn't exactly in the right mind the first time I did it." Returning to his seat, old Tobias waited for an answer.
He worked on the next sword while waiting but Chronos really didn't know how he had done it the first time. Now he entered his mental space by instinct, even after thinking about it he didn't know how to explain entering a mental space.
I mean how did you explain instinct; it was like trying to explain how you lifted your arm after learning how to do it. You just lifted your arm there was no reason for an explanation.
Chronos knew that there were healers and priests that could explain how a person lifted their arm but that relied on an immense amount of knowledge regarding how the human body operated.
Sadly, his understanding of how a mental space worked wasn't nearly enough to explain how to enter one.
"Entering my mental space has already become an instinct so I can't explain how to do it for someone else. The only advice I can give is to read the books the system puts in your mental space more often. If you do that often enough then you might be able to enter your mental space. Why does this matter anyways, old man?" Chronos continued sorting the swords.
He had now separated them into three stacks. One for the swords that had both strength enhancements and aura blade applied, one for speed enhancements and aura blade, and one for durability and sharpness.
All of them had a third enchantment but Chronos didn't recognize what it was. Old Tobias said it involved the secrets of the crucible knights too, so he stopped digging into it.
"It matters because the memory imprinting method can only be mastered by forming a strong image in your mental space then implanting it in the item you're working on. Controlling mental energy is one thing but trying to enter the mental space or creating an image you want to imprint is far more difficult.
Normally people train for years after reaching the fourth rank to learn how to do so but if we can teach them early on it would allow our enchanting arts to advance by leaps and bounds."
That explained his eagerness.
Chronos had looked into the memory imprinting method some on his own. The memory imprinting method could vastly enhance whatever enchantment was applied by implanting an image or memory that reinforced it.
However, if you couldn't form a strong image or memory it would make the enchantment weaker, making the method somewhat like gambling.
On top of that if the image didn't match the enchantment or weapon there was a high chance of the imprint failing or causing unknown effects.
But if someone could already enter their mental space forming a strong mental image or memory was much easier.
If he could teach others how to enter their mental space it would vastly improve the enchanting methods of the Leighla kingdom, maybe even create a unique enchanting art.
"Can you teach me how to use the memory imprinting method?" Chronos asked.
"No, you're already halfway there, you just need to figure out how to move the image from your mind to an item. Each person does this differently so I can't teach you anything. You asked knowing that, didn't you!?" Old Tobias looked at him with annoyance.
Being distracted he hammered a little too hard and cracked a rune. Cursing he noted down that he needed to make a replacement sword before continuing.
"Actually, I didn't know that. Between studying with you, training the kids in the grove, and running scouting missions, I haven't had much time to look into memory imprinting."
Chronos became lost in thought as they continued their work.
He didn't know how to move the image from his mind to a weapon, even forming a strong image was difficult for him right now.
While they were working Chronos split a part of his attention to work in his mental space at the same time. In his mental space he started imagining the swords he was sorting and examining.
Slowly a sword began to form starting with the hilt. The tang, the grip, the pommel, and the cross-guard formed easily but when he started forming the chappe and fuller the image fell apart.
"Hm, I was going a little too fast and lost the image of the hilt from the beginning. I'll slow down and try again." Chronos thought.
Picking up the next sword he began again and once again the hilt formed perfectly then he waited for a few minutes to make sure he remembered it correctly.
He found that trying to hold the image of a hilt was much more tiring than he thought but he had spare energy to use up.
As he waited, he watched as the mental energy floating around his mind was drawn into the hilt until it was almost solid, but when he tried to help the process, the hilt nearly collapsed.
Once it was almost solid, he continued to craft the blade. The chappe, the fuller, the edge, the central ridge, and the point formed correctly but in a lapse of focus he lost the image again and watched as it fell apart once more.
"Ugh, maintaining the entire image is harder than I thought. Forgetting even a tiny part causes the whole image to fall to pieces. I'm going to have to work on this... alot." Chronos lamented the difficulty of the memory imprinting method.
He had chosen to start with swords as they were one of the two weapons he knew best and thought it would be easier to imagine. But he had discovered that even a simple image like a smooth stone couldn't be maintained unless you were able to remember every shine and every curve on it.
Picking up another sword he started over but again it collapsed. He tried three more times before managing to create the perfect image of a sword that didn't collapse.
He stared at it for a few seconds longer to make sure it wouldn't fall apart then started considering how he would move it outside of his mind.
Failing to come up with a solution he decided to just go for it. Until he tried to take it out, he wouldn't know what difficulties he would encounter.
Moving the sword to the edge of his mind he tried to push it out but stopped when that felt wrong. It was a sword you couldn't just push a sword out of a sheath, right? You had to draw it out.
Placing the hilt against the edge of his mind he imagined drawing a sword with his body as a sheath.
In the outside world old Tobias froze as a faint image of a handle emerged from Chronos's body. Slowly it began to leave him until half of the blade was outside, but Chronos was sweating buckets from the effort.
He knew that he was doing it right but the effort of making a thought a reality was placing great strain on both his body and mind. Unfortunately, with a shudder the sword image collapsed once more.
Gasping Chronos turned to old Tobias to ask for advice only to see his face turn red in rage.