Hearing the sound of the system, Nora opened her eyes and looked in front of her, feeling a little shocked.
Floating at her eye level was a pair of human-sized hands; they glowed a faint, purple hue. Nora felt as if they were extensions of herself. Just a simple thought would move the hands. She moved over to the wall of tools, and her surprise, was able to pick up a hammer with ease.
Nora, now filled with confidence, immediately began taking apart the music box. She did it carefully, taking extensive mental notes on how she took it apart so she would be able to recreate it later.
All the time she had spent in the library greatly improved her memory, and she was making the most of that training now.
After completely taking apart the music box, she began to look around the room for the materials needed to recreate it.
She noticed that within the music box, there were a few distinctive parts: first, there was the physical box that contained all their parts, next, there was a sound cube, (although the sound cube was less of a cube and more like a cylinder with ridges on it) finally, there was a tooth comb, which was placed against the sound cube.
When the cube was turned, the comb would hit each of the ridges, and that was what would make the sound.
After taking apart the music box, Nora noticed some issues. First off, there was no tooth comb and no sound cube. The tooth comb would be easy to make; she just needed to get a sheet of metal and shape it into a comb shape.
'The sound cube is gonna be difficult, I'm not confident in my manufacturing skills just yet, plus I've only just got these new hands, I shouldn't do anything implicated like that. However…' Nora thought, looking back at her system interface, 'I do have a new ability, if I make a sound cube, it should stay around long enough for me to pass this trial…'
'It's worth a try…' Nora figured, getting started on her plan.
The rest of the building process was rather simple. Nora struggled a little bit with the gear ratios within the music box, but the tooth comb and the outer box part were rather simple.
Her newly condensed hands made the process so much easier, and Nora thanked the witch profusely in her head for her notes.
Finally, it was time to condense the sound cube. Nora positioned herself in the middle of the space and decided to try out her new skill.
To her surprise, the skill made the entire process much easier; she didn't even need to enter a meditative state. She formed the cylinder out of mana with ease.
After forming the cylinder, she needed to make the little ridges that would form the music.
Nora spent some time experimenting, changing around the ridges to create different notes. Eventually, she felt that she had figured out a good score for her box, and she now had to choose a song.
She decided on a somber melody, a waltz from a famous composer in her old world. She felt that it replicated the original feel from the artificer's music box, but it gave her a melody she recognized. A piece of home.
With great care, she placed the sound cube within the rest of the box, after screwing it in and making sure that everything was positioned correctly.
She then condensed a simple hand crank, which she plugged into the sound cube. This was to test that everything worked properly one last time before she made the final crank system.
As she turned the crank, the somber melody played throughout the room. Nora was instantly brought back to a memory of hers, it was her and Ethan, dancing in a ballroom to this exact song. The memory filled Nora with a sense of melancholy; she remembered the exact dress she was wearing. A Victorian-style red dress.
Ethan was wearing a matching vest. In her memory, she looked up at him as they danced, and he smiled down at her, a tender, loving smile.
The thought brought Nora to tears, well, if she could cry, it would have, for a moment, she cursed her stupid crow body. She stopped playing the music; her hands couldn't move the crank anymore, though she longed to keep playing it, anything to feel like she was back in his arms again.
Nora sat in silence for a long time, reliving memories. After a long while, she stirred, a slight determination in her.
'If I can't play the song myself, I'll get a way to move it automatically.'Nora deliberated, 'I still have knowledge from my old world, I could make something.'
Nora stood next to the music box, drawing plans in her mind. She realized that if she could treat mana like energy, then she should be able to make a circuit. Using the ancient language, she should be able to harness the mana from the air and use it to power her music box.
Searching through her mind, she found the words that she needed. Her theory was that if she combined condense, collect, and flow together, she should be able to create a mana battery, and from there, direct it to turn some gears, which would power the music box.
Nora spent the next few hours tinkering with this idea. Being a programmer in her past life, she had some basic knowledge of circuits. Her determination kept her going; she felt like she needed to hear the song completed.
.
.
.
She took a clear crystal that she had found within the storage room. Its description said that it could naturally hold mana.
Nora was planning on using this crystal as a battery. She drew some words onto the crystal and felt a jolt when she realized that it was collecting energy.
She felt some hope, feeling motivated to continue with her plan.
With the battery in place, she next tried to use some metal, fashioned into wires, to direct the mana towards the mini motor that she had created using some gears.
The wire did nothing, so Nora was back to the drawing board.
Eventually, Nora realized that the words themselves carried meaning, and etching the word flow onto the wires caused the mana to travel along the wires, through the words themselves.
Nora pumped a wing in the air and quickly connected everything, adding an on-off switch, powered by mana. Nora stepped back and tried to test her creation.
After a few hours in this timeless plane, Nora had successfully made a music box.
Nora smiled internally in satisfaction as the music began to play again, this time, powered only by the surrounding mana.
She felt herself being transported back to that ballroom, and, for a few minutes, she danced with her lover once more.
When the song was over, Nora opened her eyes again, hearing a ding from her system. She knew that the second trial was complete.
Ding!
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Nora's Music box has been added to inventory.
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Trial Two complete, workshop unlocked
Do you wish to proceed?
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Once again, Nora hesitated. She decided that she wanted to look at the music box first. This was the first thing that she had created, and it had her name on it. It felt like the very first time that she had something that was entirely her own, not taken from someone else, completely hers.
Ding!
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Nora's music box
Description: the first creation of Nora, a traveler from another world, created in memory of her lover. Any music played on this music box will transport anyone around to a memory they hold dear. Since the sound cube is made out of mana originating from Nora, it can be changed to any tune with just a simple thought from her.
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Nora smiled at the description, feeling satisfaction rise in her chest. She carefully stored the music box back into her inventory. Then she took a deep breath before accepting the third and final trial.
The room once again shifted, and Nora found herself in a forest made entirely out of glass.
Ding!
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Trial 3: The collector
Description: You stand amidst a forest of glass, a recreation of the forest that the great collector, Rhess Talfin, found the everturn dial in. Rhess was not a mage, but a thief of memories. With the Everturn Dial always at his side, he roamed the world, collecting "moments that mattered." He recorded people's last words before they said them, hosted parties that no one remembered attending. He used the Dial to delay death, repeat perfect conversations, and relive stolen kisses, but over time, he began forgetting more than he remembered. In desperation, he created this forest, an attempt to keep his memory alive, but it could not delay the inevitable, and he eventually disappeared amongst the collection of himself.
Task: Collect the fragments of a broken man's mind. Inside each, you will find a piece of a map. The map will lead you to the collector's vault of forgotten things.
Map pieces: 0/7
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