Netherease 397.
Within the Capital City of the Kingdom of Netheril.
Inside a magic laboratory that could not be called shabby, yet was indeed somewhat untidy.
A man who looked fairly young, though years of staying up late had left him sickly and covered in unshaven stubble, was intently and carefully engraving intricate, precise patterns onto a piece of ink-green stone.
They were special spell incantations!
The entire stone contained twenty-one layers, inside and out!
The number of incantations exceeded two hundred thousand!
The size and spacing errors of each incantation had to remain within one-fortieth of the diameter of a hair!
One had to know.
There was no precision mechanical processing here, much less any assistance from lathes.
There was only pure handcraft...
Thus, engraving at this level had directly surpassed the limits of what an ordinary human should be capable of.
While carving it, he had to cast several enhancement spells upon himself to improve his eyesight, stamina, and agility, then keep them cycling without interruption.
Therefore.
Even excluding the cost of materials, the expense of this project was unquestionably immense!
Despite being a fairly capable Arcanist, the craftsman had still spent a full three years on it...
It was a veritable killer of time, enough to make anyone go bald!
Besides that.
Every day, in order to better focus his mind, he had to drink special potions to assist his work...
It harmed the body, drained the mind, and emptied the purse.
Taking drugs was hardly any worse...
Congelio Ioun was this man's name.
Within the Kingdom of Netheril, many people called him the most outstanding individual of the past few decades.
Even compared with many Arcanists who had lived for more than a century, his breadth of knowledge was more exceptional!
Without question, that was a