Making your own Requitals. It was something that any leader, hell any person in this world, would kill to be able to do.

It might not sound impressive when you considered that Seth, Julius and pretty much anyone with any knowledge towards the runic language could enchant any item they wanted. But that was an apathetic mindset based in a misunderstanding.

There was a serious difference between an enchanted item and a Requital.

An enchanted item, for all intents and purposes, was simply a better version of the base item. It was a sword made sharper, a set of armour made tougher, an arrow made to... you get the point. They were just better versions of the original with very little but their performance to make them stand out.

Sure, sometimes they could reinforce those items with even more runes, such as the Dead Men's bodies. They were enchanted with runes that made their bodies not only more robust, but dispersed their soul energy evenly around their bodies so they didn't explode from the load, as well as allowed them to even possess those bodies in the first place.

It was a complicated enchantment that took a lot of trail and error, both in runic combination and material, to complete to the current level. But at its core, it was still an enchantment. The bodies could do nothing magical beyond that, and even that wasn't all that special.

The most 'magical' effect he could create was levitation, by copying the runes the ship used to float, or something like explosions.

But any idiot could write 'Explode' in the runic language onto a stone and toss it. It took real craftmanship and knowledge to turn basic letters with basic effects, into something truly mystical with unique abilities. Such as an armour that could turn you completely intangible, or a bow that created arrows out of nowhere.

Not to mention their most wonderful and mystical ability. The trait that allowed them to turn themselves into tattoos to be concealed or carried without burden.

After all, even if he made the most complex and magical suit of armour possible with all the different types of mystical abilities that a Requital could offer, it was still an armour that had to be manually put on. Which usually took a few minutes or even some help.

Not good when you needed to equip it in a rush.

It was an incredibly important and profound difference. Importance and profundity that was completely lost on Nixie as she looked down at the cup with a confused, and almost disgusted face.

"It's... just a cup though."

Avoiding the urge to slap himself in the face, Seth instead let out a soft sigh and tilted the crystal goblet up so that she was looking at the very base of it. At his touch, and with a little bit of mana injection, a runic symbol carved into the base lit up with a soft, maroon light.

It was an incredibly complicated rune, considering it was actually multiple smaller ones drawn around a larger one like moons orbiting a planet. The larger one itself was composed of nearly a hundred different lines that had to be carved to perfection, some of them so small it was nearly impossible to see them.

"Oooooh~ It's a magic cup!"

"It's a goblet, not a cup. But yes, It's magic. You're supposed to be taking lessons with your brother on runes, so take a look and tell me if you can figure out what magic it does."

Narrowing her eyes and putting on a very intense concentration face, that looked as if she was a little constipated, as she tried to decipher anything from the mess of glowing lines at the bottom.

"I think I see something about... poison? Do you use it to poison people?"

She looked up with a bright smile, eager to get praise for being so right, only for Seth to shake his head and laugh. He held up the bottle of premium 'El Cheapo' wine, and started to pour it into the goblet.

"Close, but no. It does have something to do with poison, but it's not to poison people. It's to remove it. However... there's an issue. While it does purify poison from the drink inside, it's a little too eager."

Nixie tilted her head curiously, watching as the odd smelling grape juice poured into the goblet and quickly filled it. Beneath the building liquid the runic array glowed brighter as it started to do its job and, before her very eyes, the wine inside the goblet quickly turned itself into pure water.

"You know, there used to be a story of a man who could do this, but in reverse. Although I guess now, it's not as impressive. Especially since it's actually not supposed to do that."

Seth let out another deep sigh, moving to take a swig of the wine before his face twisted in disgust and he stopped mid movement. He had already made that mistake once before, he was not going to make it again.

Unsurprisingly 'El Cheap' tasted like 'El Shit', which might not be proper spanish either but if the bottle wasn't going to try, then why should he?

"The problem comes from specification. Intent is good and all, as it helps form the basis of the enchantment, but there is only so much intent can do. It's a problem with any runic carving, actually.

You can make an armour tougher by adding a toughness rune, but you don't decide how it becomes tough, in what way or by how much. Intent can play a part in a strange way, such as dictating whether an explosion rune leads to a fiery explosion or actually makes the object its carved into explode.

But the specifics of it all, is left completely up in the air. So we need to specify. We want poisonous substances to be cleansed, but wine itself is technically a poison. So it too goes.

To change this, we need to tell the rune to exclude the wine. But what happens then if we use another drink, like whiskey? The effect will take place and turn the whiskey into water, just like it did for the wine. So what do we do then? Do we just add a rune for every alcohol in the world?"

Nixie frowned deeply as she looked into the water, Seth's words worming their way into her brain as her face scrunched with concentration and confusion. She was listing all the different alcohols in her mind and checking the space of the rune at the bottom of the glass.

But the more she thought of, the more complex it became, and there was still more she would have to add. After all, some of the scientists had something called soda.

They said that it rotted your teeth and wasn't too good for you, even if it tasted extra yummy. Would it pick that up as a poison because it wasn't good for you? Would you have to add in the soda's too.

"Maybe... you could try adding in different poisons? No... too much. Ah, I've got it! The poison effects!"

"That's a good girl. It's a good idea, but there is also this to consider..."

Their back and forth continued for most of the journey as Seth ensnared Nixie's curious, overactive and mischievous mind with the problem he was struggling with. Giving her no time or chance to create problems of her own.

Of course, as they both got lost in the fun of problem solving, swapping ideas back and forth, the purpose of their time on the ship simply... slipped their minds. Father like daughter, they were both unfortunately a little scatter brained. Much to the annoyance of Astra, who was still sitting where Seth had left her, clenching her fists from the shocking bouts of pain.

However, the thoughts of kicking his butt and having him grovelling for forgiveness was helping her deal with the pain, although she had a feeling she would crumble at one of those goofy smiles and not give him the chance to grovel.

Through gritted teeth, Astra hissed softly.

"He's lucky he's cute..."

Twenty minutes, depending on who you asked, either passed so fast that it felt like mere moments, or dragged on for an excruciatingly long time that it felt like every single second lasted for a year and every minute was a century.

But regardless of who you asked, the matter of the fact was that twenty minutes did indeed eventually pass, as time is known to do, and soon the ship was slowing itself down.

The autopilot took charge, doing more than just flying in a straight line, as it steered the ship into a stable and safe orbit around the colossal ball of burning gas known as the sun. The fusion reactor at the centre of their solar system.

{Destination reached. Orbit locked}

The ship spoke cheerily, which only annoyed Astra even more as she got another twinge of pain. Gritting her teeth again, she summoned her stats and shifted to the evolutionary requirements, checking one last time that she had everything.

However no matter how many times she checked and double checked, it couldn't remove the gnawing feeling tearing up her stomach and making knots out of her insides.

"I hope this works..."

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