Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

"Finally done," Layn muttered, wiping his forehead clean from all the sweat. Even though he was no stranger to hard work, ever since he escaped from his original time, there was hardly any time when he had to put as much effort as he did today. 

"Now, I should still have some time before the meeting," he said softly, taking a quick glance at the position of the sun.

Given how there was no clock or anything else that could allow one to measure the time, Layn had no other choice but to use this most primitive and always accessible method. Obviously, that wasn't the case for him personally, but for everyone in the camp as well. As such, until some kind of clock would be mounted in the camp, there was only one moment of the day that could be set as the meeting time. 

The sunset. 

'I still should have about an hour,' Layn thought, loosely judging the speed of the sun and the distance it has yet to travel before hiding behind the horizon line. 

The archmage then shook his head and took a step back. Given how he only took a glance outside, he could return to his workshop in just a short moment. 

'Still, with no gold whatsoever, it's going to look plain,' Layn thought, pulling out concept art of what he wanted to create. 

For outsiders, it was a simple decoration. A simple bracelet that one could wear only to make himself or herself a bit more beautiful. But for Layn, this kind of item held a much greater value. 

'If I want to properly confess to Irea, it cannot be something average,' Layn thought, troubled over the complete lack of material. 'Wait, what if I tried to make it purely from the stone-dust?' he asked himself, moving his eyes to the spare bag of stones that remained as a surplus from the last trade with the overlord to the north. 'No, that wouldn't work,' Layn thought, shaking his head. 'While turning the crystals into dust is easy, reversing this process would be a pain, even for me,' he thought, giving up on the idea pretty quickly. 

The problem was simple. Some reactions were simply irreversible. Just like burning a piece of wood was easy, turning the crystals into dust was on a similar level of hardship. Yet, when it came to turning a pile of ashes back into a block of wood, it was just as impossible as was turning the stone dust back into a mana crystal of the desired shape. 

'While the stonedust can be used as the greatest part, I still need some kind of decorative agent to glue it all together,' Layn realized when a sudden idea popped in his head. 'Wait... While it's true that we have yet to discover even a single metal deposit in the area, it's not like we don't have any metal whatsoever!' he realized, standing up in one swift move. 

But just as quickly as Layn got excited, his passion died off. 

'No, there is no way for me to ask someone to give up their weapon, just to let me create a wedding bracelet,' he thought, biting his lips in silent despair. 'To think that I would have more troubles coming up with a bracelet than I had back in the past,' he thought, recalling one arduous task that he once fulfilled when he still believed Ortensia to be the love of his life. 

"Dang it!" Layn shouted, unable to hold back his annoyance. 

The entire plan of creating a wedding bracelet was something that he thought of when he saw Irea in bad shape recently. It was at that moment when he realized how easy it would be for him to lose the girl that he felt an urge to create something that would finalize their relationship. Something that he could both give to the girl and keep to himself. Something that would ward off his loneliness in the moments when Irea wasn't near him. 

'Still, I cannot compromise our defenses even by a tiny bit,' Layn thought, gritting his teeth once again. 

"Hey!" A sudden voice intruded on Layn's ears, forcing him out of his current stupor. "The meeting will begin in a moment, brother," Markus put his head inside Layn's workshop. As Layn raised his eyes on his friend's face, he couldn't help but notice the peculiar look in the man's eyes. 

"Ah, sorry," Layn apologized as he stood up before kicking the stone tablet with the concept art of the bracelet away from Markus' eyes. "I will be..." just as he was about to reassure the man, a sudden idea appeared in his head. "Come inside first," Layn suddenly ordered, moving a bit deeper into the workshop to make space for his friends. 

"What's wrong?" Markus' face instantly tensed up. It was the first time for Layn to request a private meeting like that, just as their council was about to start at that!

"Ah, there is no need to be so anxious," Layn said, raising his hands as soon as he noticed the changes on his friend's face. "I just wanted to ask a private question," he added, averting his eyes as a sudden bout of shyness washed over the archmage's soul. 

"Shoot," Markus said, relaxing his facial muscles a bit. The wariness that his eyes were full of just a moment ago gave way to the vivid curiosity that exploded in his pupils. 

"Do you have any gold... by chance?" Layn asked, unable to look at his friend's face at all. Given his relatively traumatic romantic experiences, talking about romance-related stuff still was pretty hard for him. 

"Gold? While I have some, what do you need it for?" Markus asked, his face betraying just how puzzled he was. "It's not like we can make any use of it here. Did you forget that looks are its only good quality?" Markus asked, shaking his head. "No matter if tools or weapons, using gold for those is useless!" 

"I'm aware of that," Layn said before releasing a deep sight. Then, he finally raised his face and looked his old friend deeply in the eyes. "It's the decorative function of the gold that I'm after, after all."