As it turned out, the Enchantment Jeb had placed around the field worked almost too well. Even before he poured the Firewater onto the growing Managrass, small buds were already shooting up out of the loamy soil. The addition of Mana-filled liquid accelerated that growth even further, to the point that Jeb grew legitimately concerned. After harvesting this set of Managrass, he thought to himself, I need to make sure that I made the Enchantment correctly.
As Jeb harvested the plants, he realized one issue with his plans to make Firegrass. When he created Watergrass, he had been able to rely on the System telling him that he had completed a Quest to produce a new Magical Plant. He still hadn’t gotten the grades back from his courses, though. He couldn’t rely on that method to decide which approach worked best.
After harvesting the Mangrass and separating the seeds from the fibers, Jeb wiped a brow. As he had somewhat expected, each of the four plots produced a more extreme version of what had been planted. There was slightly less variance in each of the non control plots, which confused Jeb a little. Shrugging, he took a moment to decide whether he wanted to subdivide the plot again into sixteen portions, or whether he should just commit to the initial plan.
Jeb thought about the issue for a few minutes, aware that he was delaying the other tasks he needed to go through. Eventually, he nodded. While subdividing the field into fourths again might result in technically better data, he did not think that it was particularly essential. What mattered most was that he kept track of whether intensity of Fire or Fire output was a more important indicator of the plant’s mutation.
Once he had plowed everything but the fibers and seeds back into the soil, Jeb took a long drink from the well and set off to find Dean Aquam. As he had expected, Dean Aquam was just finishing his breakfast when Jeb found him in the cafeteria.
“Good morning, Jeb,” Dean Aquam said, raising a mug in greeting.
“Good morning, Dean,” Jeb replied, taking a seat. “I had a question for you.”
“I assumed as much when you sat down without getting food first. How can I help you?”
“Do you know when I will get my grades back?”
The Dean frowned. “Not exactly, no. I had not expected you to be so anxious about them, however. Is something the matter?”
“In the past,” Jeb replied, “I was able to know when I had successfully overwritten the Mana signature in a plant because the System told me I had. Without the System or Quests, I don’t have a good way to know.”
The Dean’s eyes glowed with understanding. “I think I see the issue. To clarify, you need temporary access to the System, rather than your grades, correct?”
Jeb nodded.
“That is a far easier request for me to grant.” Nothing trembled, though Jeb supposed that there was no liquid nearby, and then the Dean nodded. “You should be able to access any Quests not related to a course you took last term.”
That was more than Jeb had been expecting, and he smiled. “Thank you Dean Aquam!” he replied, standing in a rush to go get food.
“Do let me know how your project turns out,” he replied sedately, “and I will send a message when the term’s grades are in. We can go over them together to make sure that nothing changes your plans for the coming term.”
“Sounds good,” Jeb replied over his shoulder as he piled his plate full of food. Something about having partial access to the System again had made him realize how hungry he was. The morning’s efforts probably didn’t do anything to diminish the feeling either. After eating a large breakfast, Jeb made his way back to the field.
At the field, the Magic density in the ground seemed, if not higher, than much more intense than it had before. “I definitely need to make sure I didn’t make a mistake,” Jeb said aloud, pulling out the book that the Librarian had given him. Pulling up one of the posts that he’d driven into the ground, he compared it to the Enchantment he had tried to copy. It was, as near as he could tell, a perfect match.
“Strange,” Jeb murmured to himself, driving the stake back down into the loose soil. He flipped to a few pages earlier in the book to make sure that he understood the purpose of the Enchantment.
Most readers will, of course, be familiar with the fact that the Magic Density in a region is nearly impossible to change, at least in an appreciable and sustainable way. What is far easier, by contrast, is aligning the Magic within the region. Taking the example of the first Enchantment in this book-
Jeb flipped through, confirming that the Enchantment he’d wrought was the first Enchantment in the book. Seeing that it was, he continued reading.
soil is comprised of a number of elements, many of which are aligned in different and even competing ways. Think of how much the small pockets of trapped air will seek to move, while the earth surrounding it wishes to be staid. The water which nourishes the plant and the decaying matter which yearns to burn fight against themselves. When aligned more properly, the pockets of trapped gas will be aligned to soil, which needs air to give roots space to grow. The earth will accept the changes necessary to support life, and these two Magics, which once fought each other, now work in tandem.
The book waxed more and more poetically about the nature of Magic the longer that Jeb kept reading, and it was only thanks to his Theoretical Enchanting course that he was able to follow it at all.
I guess Professor Bearson’s insistence on reading primary texts did have a purpose, Jeb thought. He had wondered what the purpose was of reading pages after pages of florid language that boiled down into a few sentences. Knowing now that at least some of the materials he would want to consult in his life were the same made the exercises less painful, if only in retrospect. Jeb stood back up and began wandering in the direction of the Stacks. If he was going to try to piece together something coherent in why the Enchantment was causing his plants to grow in moments, he would need some scratch paper and his desk.
At his desk, Jeb was only slightly surprised to see Margaret waiting for him.
“I was just looking for you,” she said. “How is your project going?”
“I’m not totally sure,” Jeb replied honestly. “My system was locked until just before I ate breakfast, and that’s the only way I know to tell if I’ve made Firegrass.” Something about constantly repeating the same explanation was starting to feel redundant to Jeb. Maybe if I just kept a record of what I do in a day, I could just hand them to people when they ask, he thought idly as Margaret processed his response.
“Why are you in the Stacks if you have not succeeded?” she asked.
Jeb frowned. “Why did you ask me how my project was going if you thought I was already done with it?”
A book titled “Ms. Manner’s Guide to Polite Conversation,” dropped onto Jeb’s head. When he picked it up, he read the page it had landed on.
A lady does not presume that anyone is competent at their tasks. As a result, one must always ask how an activity that should be completed is progressing. This remains true until confirmation that it has been satisfactorily completed.
“Um,” Jeb replied, lost for words. After playing through a few potential responses in his mind, he settled for simply answering her question. “Librarian Kaitlyn gave me a book which I thought was supposed to increase the Magic Density in the soil I was working. It was much more effective than I thought it would be, and I wanted to make sure that I haven’t done anything wrong.”
She nodded. “A responsible approach. I will leave you to your studies.” Margaret walked into the Stacks, seeming to move more than her legs suggested that she should with each step. Jeb watched her leave, eyes trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
When she had completely left his vision, he shook himself out of the thoughts and began piecing meaning out of the text. A few hours later, his head was throbbing from the effort, but he had an answer. The Enchantment had been designed to create Druidic Groves, which he knew. What Kaitlyn had neglected to mention, however, was that the goal was to establish Groves in places that had been permanently scarred by Magic. There was even an aside mentioning that placing the Enchantment in a standard field would likely result in the Magic almost resonating with itself.
Jeb didn’t see anything which suggested that this resonance would be dangerous. Shrugging, he set the book down and moved back to the field. If the Enchantment made his Managrass grow more quickly, who was he to complain?
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Before planting the third generation of seeds, Jeb tested the soil quality, confirming what he had expected: the soil was starting to grow depleted. The Magic, of course, was not, thanks to the Enchantment he had placed in it. Some of the nutrients, however, were starting to grow lacking. A quick request to the Academy later, Jeb found fertilizers lining the walls of the small building it had given him beside the field.
Unlike on his farm, these fertilizers were not clearly recognizable as coming from something living. Instead, Jeb saw the purified forms of nearly every nutrient that he could name, and plenty more that he could not. He carefully worked a small amount of the depleted nutrients into the field, being overly careful not to overdo it. The only thing worse than nutrient deprivation, after all, was nutrient overload.
When the field felt replenished and he had another pail of Firewater, Jeb planted the next generation of seeds. They grew even faster than the last set had, and Jeb had the momentary question of whether he was also breeding faster growing into the plants, or if the soil’s Magic was just still becoming that much more aligned. In either case, when Jeb harvested this crop of Managrass, he did not need the System to tell him that all three of the non-control fields had become Firegrass. The air around the field seemed to shimmer with heat, for all that he could hold his hand there without feeling anything warm. Each fiber seemed less like a tuft of something cottony and more like a small tongue of flame that had somehow found itself bound to physical form. Jeb still checked his Status to be certain and was rewarded with a few Quest Notifications.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Soil Identification First Tier “Fix the Plant” You have identified what is wrong with the growing conditions for a plant. Rewards: 1 Intelligence
Jeb was a little unsure why he was not receiving any Experience for completing that Quest, but set the question aside as he opened the next Quest.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Pollinate Fourth Tier “Create a New Magical Plant” A Wizard is not bound by the tools they are given. Instead, they create the tools they need. You have created the Magical Plant ‘White Firegrass’ Rewards: 77 EXP, 4 Intelligence, 4 Willpower, 20 Mana
Jeb noticed that the field itself seemed somewhat Attuned to Fire after growing all the Firegrass. As he separated the fibers from the seeds, he packaged up the Firegrass seeds that felt strongest, setting the rest aside to be disposed of later. While he worked, he noticed the field’s Attunement slowly but surely fading. By the time that he had finished, the field was back to seeming like a field that would be great for growing anything Magical.
“Well,” Jeb mused aloud, “I suppose that I might as well get started on making Airgrass.” When he went to plant seeds of Managrass, though, he stopped. He had only brought enough to plant two fields.
“Ok,” he amended. “First, I grow a plot of Managrass to replenish my seed stock. Then I work on making Airgrass.”
When he was not trying to Aspect it, Jeb found that White Managrass grew without depleting the soil at all. He made a note of which nutrients the Firegrass had sapped from the soil, vague hypotheses forming in his mind as he finished plowing the field under the rising moon. After it was ready to grow his first attempt at Airgrass, he nodded and went back to his dormitory to sleep.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Humdrum Human Age: 16 Class: Wizard Level: 3 Experience: 1092/204
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Total Statistic Load: 633 ->642 Physical Load: 228 Strength: 52 Dexterity: 53 Endurance: 54 Vitality: 55 Presence: 14
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Mental Load: 405 ->414 Intelligence: 83 ->88 Willpower: 85 ->89 Magic Affinity: 89 Mana Depth: 74 Charisma: 74
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Mana: 1755 ->1775
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Glyph Attunement: 31 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Water (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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Skills: Meditation Spell Glyphing Gift of Gab Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Smithing Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Glassblowing Magic
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic Glyph Specializer
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)