Magic exploded between Inferna and me—my custom enchantments against her innate draconic power.
"YOUR CREATIONS," she said. "THEY DON'T EXIST IN THE GAME'S CODE."
"I made them exist. That's the point of mastery."
"MASTERY IMPLIES WORKING WITHIN LIMITS. YOU BROKE LIMITS."
"Then I went beyond mastery. I became something new."
"A GOD?"
"A writer. A creator. A being who can rewrite reality."
---
Year 450-750.
Custom enchantments became my focus.
After mastering all vanilla enchantments—and adding custom armor pieces to fill the gaps—I turned my attention to creating entirely new effects.
The process was excruciating.
Each new enchantment required understanding the fundamental concepts it manipulated. [Sharpness] worked because I understood edges and cutting. [Protection] worked because I understood defense and resilience.
What did I understand that the game didn't?
---
Year 500. [Harden].
Concept: Temporary invulnerability. Symbols: Shield + Time + Absolute. Effect: Armor becomes indestructible for 10 seconds. Cost: 500 XP to write, 50 XP to activate. Cooldown: 1 minute.
Attempts: 47 failures. XP wasted: 20,000.
This became my emergency button—a way to survive otherwise lethal attacks. In a world where I couldn't die, it might seem unnecessary. But there were fates worse than death.
Being trapped forever was one of them.
---
Year 180. [Recall].
Concept: Returning thrown items to hand. Symbols: Connection + Return + Object. Effect: Any thrown weapon returns to the thrower's hand. Cost: 100 XP to write, 10 XP per recall. Range: 100 blocks.
Attempts: 12 failures. XP wasted: 1,000.
Simple but essential. Combined with my infinity bow, I could fight at range forever. Combined with my trident, I had a weapon that could be thrown and retrieved at will.
---
Year 570. [Anchor].
Concept: Preventing teleportation. Symbols: Stillness + Area + Denial. Effect: Within a 50-block radius, teleportation is impossible. Cost: 2,000 XP to write, 200 XP per hour of effect.
Attempts: 89 failures. XP wasted: 150,000.
Endermen were annoying. Their teleportation made them hard to hit and harder to predict. This enchantment neutralized that advantage.
It also had strategic applications for area control.
---
Year 220. [Store]. This was the enchantment that made everything else possible.
Concept: Storing XP in physical objects. Symbols: Contain + Power + Vessel. Effect: Crystals can hold 10,000 XP each. Cost: 10,000 XP to create storage crystal.
Attempts: 156 failures. XP wasted: 1,000,000.
This was the game-changer. Before [Store], XP was ephemeral—absorbed or lost, with no middle ground. Now I could save it, accumulate it, prepare for expensive workings.
It made everything else possible.
---
Year 550. [Void Step].
Concept: Short-range teleportation.
Symbols: Position + Transfer + Self.
Effect: Instant movement to any point within 20 blocks.
Cost: 1,000 XP to write, 100 XP per step.
Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Danger: Can teleport into solid objects (instant death, no respawn).
Attempts: 203 failures. XP wasted: 200,000. Deaths during testing: 17.
This was my most dangerous creation. Teleporting into a wall meant death—real death, the kind that didn't respawn. But the mobility advantage was worth the risk.
I practiced until I could [Void Step] blind, by instinct, without error.
---
Year 770. [Soul Bind].
Concept: Bound equipment respawns with the wearer, appearing in their inventory upon reformation.
Symbols: Connection + Spirit + Object + Return.
Effect: Designated items return to the owner after death.
Cost: 25,000 XP per item.
Maximum items: Full armor set + 2 tools.
Attempts: 312 failures. XP wasted: 7,000,000.
This addressed a fear I'd developed: losing my equipment. If I ever found a way out of this world, my armor and weapons would be essential. If I died during the escape attempt, they might be lost.
Not anymore.
[Soul Bind] ensured that my equipment was as immortal as I was.
---
Year 840. [World Breach].
Concept: Opening a portal to another dimension.
Symbols: Reality + Tear + Passage + Outside.
Effect: A portal to a random world.
Cost: 500,000 XP per attempt.
Write time: 6 months.
Success rate: Unknown. Each attempt was a gamble with reality itself.
Attempts: 3 failures before success. XP wasted: 1,500,000.
This was my masterwork. The enchantment that could—maybe, possibly—free me from this world.
It was also the most dangerous enchantment I'd ever created. Opening a portal to reality itself was like tearing a hole in the fabric of existence. The wrong shape, the wrong symbols, the wrong anything—and reality would tear back.
But after 990 years, I was ready to risk everything.
I just needed one more thing.
A key.
A dragon.