CHAPTER 31: TWO STEPS FORWARD, THREE STEPS BACK

Jenna hardly noticed the world going sharp as she worked. Making the pieces of Hardened Glass ceased to even occupy her mind. Holding the increased Magical density in small portions of her body, on the other hand, took up more effort with each pass through her body.

It was strange, but it seemed like her body was increasing the rate that it adapted to the higher concentrations of Magic. She still wasn’t quite at the rate where she could just push her density as a ball through her body, but she was nearly there. Each location required her to stop the movement, even if just a moment.

As she kept making and selling the Hardened Glass, its Grade continued to increase. B’s became B+’s, B+’s slowly added more and more plusses to the end. When she finally made her first Grade A piece of Hardened Glass while forcing her Magical density to increase, she nearly leapt with joy.

Jenna knew that if she asked how long she had been working, her body would catch up to her, and she would need to take a break. Until she did, though, it seemed like she would be able to continue indefinitely. When she was unable to replicate the Grade A piece of Hardened Glass, she became less sure of that idea.

As Jenna slowly watched the plusses disappear from the B Grade Enchanted pieces of glass, she realized that there were other ways she could struggle, even if it was more implicitly. “How long have I been in the rift?”

Time elapsed since entering rift: One Hundred and Forty Seven Hours, Twenty Two Minutes, Fifty Seven Seconds.

She had apparently been working for two continuous days. The wave of exhaustion that hit her made sense, and she was barely able to force the “day’s” worth food down before her eyes shut. With her mind only slightly awake, she remembered that the Pyramid had told her to forcibly empty her Magic before going to sleep. Without any Magic inside of her, Jenna collapsed where she was.

When she woke up, Jenna looked around. Nothing seemed damaged, which was good. Her Magic density had clearly increased a fair amount since she had started the safe room training, and she knew that pulses of her Magic could cause physical damage.

“How long have I been in the rift?”

Time elapsed since entering rift: One Hundred and Sixty Two Hours, Thirty Four Minutes, Forty Seven Seconds.

Fifteen hours of sleep felt like a lot. When she considered that she also needed to completely rebuild her Magic density, though, it made slightly more sense. That, and the fact that she had gone two entire days without a break.

Once more, she started pushing her Magic throughout her body, increasing the depth of each part of herself. When Jenna got into the rhythm that it required, she moved over to the table of glass. Everything was in a state of complete disarray.

“What happened?”

Release of Magic shifted position of materials.

It was nice that the Pyramid wasn’t being difficult right now. Shrugging, Jenna got to work.

The first piece of Hardened Glass she made was only B Grade. Jenna was concerned about that. How much progress had she lost by sleeping? She had been at B+++++ Grade when she went to sleep.

“What’s wrong with this that it doesn’t have any plusses?” she asked the Pyramid.

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Intrarank Grading is reset each break to encourage development.

Well, that was a little frustrating. She had sold all the Hardened Glass she made before sleeping, so Jenna had no idea how this latest piece compared to yesterdays’. “Well, nothing to do but keep working,” she said, picking up the next piece.

As with the day before, the plusses started showing up. When she made her first A Grade piece of the day, Jenna cheered. The next piece being A- grade was cause for another cheer.

As she kept working, fewer and fewer of her Enchantments were B Grade, and fewer and fewer were anything below an A. As she started seeing more and more plusses added to the A Grade Glasses, she felt a dissonance within herself. There was something wrong with the way that she was making Hardened Glass.

Rather than ignore the feeling and hope that it would just go away, Jenna decided to investigate it. Picking up the next piece of glass, she mindlessly overlaid the image of the Spell and began to Enchant it. When the dissonance grew, she paused.

It seemed like there was something wrong with her using the mental overlay. That couldn’t be right, though. How else would she know how to Enchant the glass?

As Jenna thought about it, she considered that mentally overlaying the image herself might be another crutch. Very intentionally not thinking about the specific shape of the Spell and how it would fit onto the piece of glass, she pushed her Magic into what she hoped was the right Spell.

The dissonance faded, which at least let her know she was doing that part right. The Hardened Glass, on the other hand, seemed like a mistake. It was F Grade, and she could see why.

The Pyramid didn’t tell her to do anything differently, though, so Jenna considered the possibility that this might be the next step in her progress. Rather than even pick up the next piece of glass, she just pointed her finger at it and willed the Spell to form. It did, and she saw that it was Graded F+.

Inspired by the progress, Jenna once more sold off her stock of Hardened Glass and bought piles of glass to Enchant. It seemed like at least one of the barriers to S Grade Hardened Glass was removing all crutches from her Enchanting. She would have been frustrated at how long she was spending, but the way that her Magical depth was improving made it hard for her to be mad about it.

After all, even if she wasn’t learning Enchanting as quickly as she’d like, the benefits of increased Magical depth alone would have made up for the time she was spending. The fact that she also got to improve her skills while doing so was just a bonus. At least, that’s what Jenna kept repeating to herself as she made F Grade after F Grade Hardened Glass.

“Am I doing something wrong?” she finally asked.

Query imprecise.

Jenna rolled her eyes. “Am I doing something wrong in how I’m Enchanting the Hardened Glass? I felt an instinct that I should be Enchanting like this, but I went from A Grade to F Grade, and I can’t seem to break out of it.”

Query unclear. Mistakes clearly being made, hence Rank F being assigned to Enchantments. Transition was essential for your mastery of Hardened Glass.

After reading the first sentence of the table, Jenna nearly closed it out of anger. Thankfully, she had more self control than she remembered, and managed to read through the entire reply. Knowing that she was at least on the right path made the pain worth it again.

This time through, rather than waiting for her Hardened Glass quality to start dipping, Jenna was able to recognize the signs that she needed to sleep. Thankfully, she was not particularly hungry, so she was able to save a day’s worth of rations. She moved as far away from the table of glass as she could and released all of her Magic. She was able to force herself to the bed before sleep claimed her.

Jenna’s Status:

Jenna Fredrickson First Year Spells Known: First Tier: Hardened Glass Expected Years Completed: 8 Prediction Confidence: 42% Points: 190 Qualified to Ascend to Next Year? Yes