CHAPTER 6: GRADE INFLATION IS REAL

When geometry had ended, Jenna’s head was spinning. She hadn’t had to visualize in more than three dimensions before, and it took a lot of effort to even start to consider it. She couldn’t really think of a use for it, either, since Spells existed in the real world, which was only three dimensional.

“Why was I asked to visualize in more than three dimensions?”

All Spells above the Sixth Tier do not exist solely in the Material Realm. In order to learn them, Mages must be able to visualize the flow of Magic as it traces into the other dimensional planes.

That was a shockingly straightforward answer. Still, if she wouldn’t need the ability until Seventh Tier, it seemed a little strange that she was being asked to learn it now. Next up was lifting, which she was excited for.

Please proceed to marked location for Weight Training.

She followed the markings on the ground. They led her to a door right next to the door for combat training.

Jenna was positive that there hadn’t been a door there before. “There wasn’t a door here before, was there?”

Query imprecise. Location has had numerous doors over years.

That was on her. “Was there a door here before I was scheduled for weight training?” she asked.

Door existed in superposition until needed.

Apparently she’d used up her quota for straightforward answers. Jenna didn’t want to fall further behind, so she opened the door and stepped through.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but a room filled with bars and loose weights wasn’t it. She had done some strength training before entering the Pyramid, but it had never been her focus. In her mind, she was an Enchanter, so physical strength wouldn’t be necessary.

Her teachers had cautioned her against deemphasizing her physical training, and now she knew why. At Higher Tiers, maybe she wouldn’t need to directly fight, using Spells and Enchanted items to clear the rifts for her. But, she wasn’t at a Higher Tier yet. She didn’t know a single Spell, at least if her Status was to be trusted.

The Pyramid was a fantastic physical trainer, which Jenna supposed made sense. It knew exactly where her physical limits were, and it was able to rewrite reality to bring her to those limits. It would have been far easier to just stop lifting, rather than trusting the Pyramid that she could do another rep. With each rep, though, she reminded herself of her goal.

Jenna was going to be a Mage who fought with her mind. She wouldn’t, couldn’t give up before her body did. When the Pyramid announced that it was time for her next activity, she nearly collapsed from relief. That night, she fell asleep the second that the lights began to dim.

In the morning, she woke up and stretched a little, curious about the lack of soreness she had. From her memories of lifting, there was no reason that she should feel this good after weight training.

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

“Suggestion accepted for today.” It was still strange that she was needing less sleep every day, though at least the rate was slowing. She considered asking the Pyramid why she was sleeping less and less, but she wasn’t sure if she actually wanted to know the answer.

During Enchanting practice, she debated between starting a new Hardened Glass or finishing the one she’d begun the day before. Ultimately, she decided to start fresh. Restarting a project seemed like it would be a likely source of error. It was almost certainly a skill that she would need to develop in the future, but that was something she didn’t want to worry about yet.

As she was about to start carving, Jenna realized that she hadn’t ever analyzed the second piece of Hardened Glass she’d made to see what was wrong with it.

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?

That was the same message she’d gotten from her first piece, which made some amount of sense. She had improved, apparently, though the F+ rank was a little confusing. It didn’t affect the price, but it may have been a way for the Pyramid to motivate her to keep trying, or a way to show that she was making progress.

In any case, she hoped to see at least a D grade on her newest carving. She activated the etching tool and began carving slowly. Jenna realized that the faster she moved, the smoother the etching was, at least to a point.

She kept moving, smoothly gliding between the different strokes as she felt her Magic slowly drain away. The drain felt smoother than it had even from just the day before. As she kept carving the lines, it more and more felt like she was unable to make a mistake except for carving depth.

When she finished the carving, she inspected the piece of Hardened Glass she had made.

Analyzing.

She waited, hoping to see that she had made more progress.

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

Seeing the message, Jenna felt her spirits fall. “No, I wouldn’t like to sell it right now.”

As she looked at the two pieces, she thought that the new one was more evenly carved. She asked a question, not really expecting an answer “is there really no difference between these two pieces of Hardened Glass?”

Quality difference, while present, is not sufficient to bridge gap between Grades. Query: Would you prefer more granular Grading of Hardened Glass?

“Yes”

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

“Will you just continue adding plusses to the end of the Rank until I break into D Tier?”

Query imprecise. Best guess query: Presuming incremental improvement, will more plusses be added until Grade reaches D? Accept guess?

Jenna thought about it. That was more or less the question she had asked, though without the implicit assumption that she would continue improving. “Guess accepted.”

Yes.

“Is fixing the etching depth the only thing keeping me from making D Tier Glass?”

Yes.

The single word responses were starting to get annoying. “Do you have any advice for how to make my etching depth more consistent?”

Somehow she got the impression the Pyramid was smirking.

Yes.

“How can I make my etching depth more consistent?”

Recommendation: Practice Enchanting more. Secondary Recommendation: Not advisable due to current control over Magic. Query again after producing E Grade Hardened Glass.

That was incredibly annoying. The Pyramid wouldn’t give her advice on how to make a D Grade piece of Hardened Glass until she was already capable of doing so. Still, there was apparently nothing to be done except practice. Jenna took the next piece of glass and started draining her Magic again.

It didn’t feel like she had done as well on this carving, and the Pyramid clearly agreed.

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

She still had Magic left inside of her, and it felt like it would be enough to finish another piece of glass. She placed her etching tool down and focused on making each stroke absolutely perfect. It made the carving more difficult than it had been.

No longer was she concerned just with the individual placement of a line, but also with how it connected to the strokes before and after. Rather than carving a series of etchings into a piece of glass, Jenna saw the Spell and Enchanted it. Her dedication showed when the Pyramid analyzed the Hardened Glass.

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

Jenna considered that. If she could make five E grade pieces of Hardened Glass, it would be worth saving them to get the sixth point out of them. More to the point, it wasn’t like converting her Enchantments to points needed to happen right away. As long as she converted them all before the rift opened, it wouldn’t matter when she did so.

That thought made her stop. She only had eighteen more days to not only earn the points she needed to enter the rift, but also to rent a mace. Jenna looked at her current balance.

She had sixty eight points. Including the four pieces of Hardened Glass she had, that meant she was at seventy two points. She’d need one hundred and twenty at a minimum to enter the rift, which meant she needed forty eight more points. Quickly going through the math in her head, that was slightly less than three points a day.

Jenna relaxed slightly when she finished her calculations. Unless Enchanting the glass suddenly got far more Magic draining, she should be able to make that amount with no issue. “What about if I wanted to buy the mace, rather than rent it?” she considered.

That would require a little over four points a day. Assuming that her Magic pool would keep getting deeper, even that should be affordable. The six points a day she’d need to buy a mace Enchanted with Hardness were probably out of reach, but it motivated her all the more to increase her proficiency with the Spell. Even just raising her ability to D Grade would be enough to make her an extra point with every two stones.

Jenna was able to add a few more strokes to the Spell she’d started yesterday before her Mana drained. She started walking before the Pyramid notified her.

Congratulations! You have emptied your Magic Pool! Suggestion: use the extra time for Combat Training. Accept suggestion?

“Suggestion accepted,” she replied, opening the door to the combat room.

Jenna’s Status:

Jenna Fredrickson First Year Spells Known: Expected Years Completed: 6 Prediction Confidence: 35% Points: 68 Qualified to Ascend to Next Year? No