CHAPTER 4: NOW INTRODUCING GRADED ASSIGNMENTS

Jenna stared at the problem in front of her. Surely the Pyramid didn’t assume this little of her, right?

How many times do two lines with different slopes intersect each other?

Jenna answered with the obvious answer of “once,” only to be corrected.

Incorrect. Insufficient boundary conditions defined.

She realized her mistake. “Assuming that the lines are in a single, flat, two-dimensional plane,” she said, “the two lines will intersect exactly once.”

Congratulations! Next problem: ...

The rest of the hour passed by with more and more rigorous definitions. Jenna was grateful for the mathematics lessons she’d been forced to sit through. It meant that she was at least able to figure out where she was going wrong.

As frustrating as the whole experience was, she still saw the need for all of the lessons. After all, precision was incredibly vital for crafting new Spells. When the time for geometry ended, she saw another alteration to her schedule.

Given your switch of weapon during Combat Practice, recommended change: turn sword practice time into mace practice time. Accept suggestion?

That was an idea she didn’t know how she felt about. Using the mace wasn’t particularly difficult, but maybe there were some hidden forms and techniques that she was missing. “Can I change it for the day and reevaluate after that?”

Suggestion tentatively accepted.

Jenna moved to her second practice of the day. As it turned out, there was a lot that she didn’t know about using a mace. As she thought about the combat training, it made some amount of sense that the Pyramid would only give her suggestions that she was capable of answering. If the same was true here, though, that meant that there was probably far more for her to learn than she was currently capable of executing.

Suggestion: make change in schedule permanent. Accept suggestion?

She accepted the prompt and went to her lesson in formal logic. The rest of the day passed without any unexpected prompts, and she fell asleep completely spent from the day’s exertions. Some small part of her noticed that the room dimmed as she prepared for sleep.

When she awoke, she saw another ping from the Pyramid.

You are again ahead of schedule. Suggestion: move entire schedule forward three minutes. Accept suggestion?

That was strange. She’d had a far more physically and mentally demanding day yesterday than really ever before, and the Pyramid scheduled less sleep than she was used to. Then again, she was sleeping in perfect silence and darkness, at least if her memories of the last few seconds before losing consciousness could be trusted. Maybe that just made her sleep better?

Regardless of the reason, Jenna saw no reason to doubt that she would remain ahead of schedule. After all, the days probably wouldn’t become any harder from here.

“Suggestion accepted.”

Schedule adjusted forward three minutes. You are three minutes ahead of schedule. Adjust schedule forward?

“Just for today,” she said. It was absolutely unsustainable for her to wake up every day a little earlier than the day before. If she woke up at this time tomorrow, Jenna would consider changing the schedule again.

Schedule adjusted for today. Please begin running.

Jenna ran, shocked at how fresh she felt. Each of her joints felt like they were moving better than they had before. Apparently whatever stretching routine the Pyramid had her do before bed worked wonders. When she finished the run, she asked the question that popped into her mind.

“Did I run further today than yesterday?”

Yes.

Jenna hadn’t seen the Pyramid be so terse, and she was a little concerned. What if she’d done something to annoy it? Her morning mace training went well, though she was positive that she would do better if she had more upper body strength. The Pyramid clearly agreed.

Post-Training Report: Progress: Within predicted bounds Primary Impediment: Lack of strength Suggestion: Add strength training to daily schedule. Accept suggestion?

“What would be removed to make room for this?” she asked.

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Second daily mace training would be replaced with strength training. Accept suggestion?

That made some amount of sense.

“Suggestion accepted,” she said. Jenna wondered how much her idiolect would change while she only had the Pyramid to talk to. Hopefully she would still be able to interact with others. Three weeks felt like an unreasonably long amount of time not to interact with another person.

That thought made her consider her plan to climb the Pyramid. In the absolute best case, she would have no one to talk to for an entire year. If she was part of a more average cohort, that would mean she would have no one to speak to for three years.

Shaking the thought aside, Jenna spent the credit to purchase her food for the day. She idly noticed that the food was objectively delicious, but staring at her point balance made her oblivious to the flavor. It just tasted like ash in her mouth.

The past day and a half inside of the Pyramid made it feel like everything she did to try to advance just drove her further from being able to afford the opportunities she needed to progress. It was a feeling that she had grown familiar with before entering the Pyramid. Then, at least, she had shown enough promise that people had been willing to extend loans, predatory though they were.

Jenna knew that if she didn’t reach at least the Seventh Tier, she would die deeper in debt than she was right now. She wasn’t sure why her thoughts were flowing from dark to darker today, but she hoped that Enchanting practice might help. She forced herself to finish the meal, taking no time to savor the flavors, then moved over to her workstation.

You are ahead of schedule. Suggestion: Shift schedule forward. Accept suggestion?

“Suggestion accepted for today,” she said.

Jenna looked at the piece of glass she had failed to enchant the day before. A reminder of her failure helped her to center her mind. After all, she’d already made a mistake once. At this point, her best case scenario was just not making another mistake. Although, since points were on her mind, she felt compelled to ask.

“How much is a piece of Hardened Glass worth?”

First Tier Hardened Glass has a variable price based on size and quality. For the size of glass that you are working with, prices are as follows: F Grade: 1 credit E Grade: 1 credit D Grade: 1 credit C Grade: 2 credits B Grade: 2 credits A Grade: 3 credits S Grade: 5 credits Please note that prices listed are for a single piece. Partial credit values are discarded in purchasing or selling while within the training grounds.

“How much are ten pieces of Hardened Glass worth?”

First Tier Hardened Glass has a variable price based on size and quality. For the size of glass that you are working with, prices are as follows: F Grade: 10 credits E Grade: 12 credits D Grade: 15 credits C Grade: 20 credits B Grade: 26 credits A Grade: 36 credits S Grade: 50 credits Please note that prices listed are for a ten pieces. Partial credit values are discarded in purchasing or selling while within the training grounds.

It was nice to know that there was a monetary benefit for work between F and D grade glass. Jenna laughed at herself. She hadn’t even made a successful piece of Hardened Glass yet, and she was already considering how to optimize her sales.

Sighing, she turned to the piece of glass. So that the feeling wouldn’t shock her again, Jenna carefully activated the etching tool. The feeling of her Magic draining still felt strange and uncomfortable, but at least she hadn’t wasted another piece of glass yet.

She carefully traced the Glyph that the Pyramid overlaid on the piece of glass. As she carved, she noticed how different it felt to work on a Spell that hadn’t broken before it had really had a chance to begin. Each stroke felt harder than the last.

No, harder was the wrong word. Each stroke felt more real than the one before. At first, other than the draining sensation, it felt no different than using a sharp tool to etch a spiral into a piece of glass. By the time that she had finished carving the rune, however, it felt like she was carving a furrow into relatively soft stone surrounded by diamond. It was more difficult, but she also had to focus less and less to keep her line from falling off of the marked location.

When she’d finished, Jenna was shocked to realize that she still had Mana left inside of her.

“How did I do?” she asked aloud, hoping that the Pyramid would be willing to tell her.

Analyzing Hardened Glass.

A few seconds later, she saw that the Pyramid had judged her work.

First Tier Hardened Glass. Rank: F Value: 1 point Would you like to sell your Hardened Glass?

Jenna was a little disappointed by the result. “What was wrong with it that it was only Rank F?” she asked.

Analysis of Hardened Glass Primary Flaw: Inconsistent etching depth. Other Flaws would not improve quality of product without fixing Primary Flaw. Would you still like to see the other flaws?

“No, that’s ok. Oh, I would also like to sell the piece of glass.”

The Hardened Glass disappeared and Jenna tried again. She felt like she still had about half of her Mana, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue to Enchant another piece of glass. Or, at least, she hoped that it wouldn’t be.

Jenna’s Status:

Jenna Fredrickson First Year Spells Known: Expected Years Completed: 6 Prediction Confidence: 35% Points: 69 Qualified to Ascend to Next Year? No