“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” Jeb replied honestly. “I’ve harvested the Managrass, but that’s all the treatment I’ve done.”
The Weaver looked at him, large eyebrows furrowing. “You grew this yourself?” he asked, tone somewhat disbelieving.
Jeb nodded. “I had an idea for a project to keep me occupied during the term break.”
“Where did you get the Managrass seeds?”
“My grandfather gave them to me before I came to the Academy.”
The conversation stalled out as Jeb tried to piece together what the man was asking. He was clearly trying to get some piece of information out of Jeb, but it was unclear what that information was. After a few minutes of awkward silence, the man suddenly shook his head.
“Right, well, the provenance of your Managrass is hardly any of my concern. As I said, the first step in making Manaweave is normally bleaching, because Mages love their paper to be as white as fresh fallen snow. Since yours already is, I suppose we can skip that step. Now, though Managrass is often used in similar contexts as normal paper, it is prepared very differently. As you might expect from the fact that it is made by Weavers, it is a woven fabric, rather than pressed fibers.”
Jeb nodded, even though he wasn’t entirely sure how normal paper was made. The Weaver continued, “now, as you probably know, fabrics are woven out of thread. So, first we will need to spin thread out of this Managrass fiber.” He rushed over to a side room, calling behind him as he went, “there are a number of ways to spin thread out of fiber, depending on your exact goals. Are you looking to develop the Weaving Skill, something related, or just have Manaweave at the end of the process?” The question came rapidly, and Jeb had to pause and replay the question in his head before he was able to answer.
“I think that learning the Weaving Skill seems useful, unless you can think of a reason that I should aim for a different Skill instead.”
The Weaver shrugged. “Without knowing exactly what your goals in life are, I cannot say for certain whether you would be better served with another Skill. Even with that in mind, though, I will say that Weaving is a fairly senior Skill and-” he cut off, seeing Jeb’s confusion. “What?” he asked.
“What is a senior Skill?” Jeb asked.
The Weaver’s brows drew together again. “Are you familiar with the concept of parent and child Skills?” Seeing Jeb nod, he continued, “take Weaving, for instance. Weaving is a parent Skill, in that it has every material’s Weaving Skill within it. However, there are some incredibly broad Skills, such as Crafting, that it falls within. Of course, there are also Skills it overlaps with, such as Tailoring. Skills are considered senior based on how easily they can act as parent Skills and how hard it is to find parent Skills to them.” He ran a hand through his shaggy black hair, “I’m no Theorycrafter, though, so I have no idea if my explanation even made a lick of sense.”
His entire monologue had continued to go at a pace just on the edge of what Jeb could keep up with. “I think it makes sense,” Jeb replied. “So to answer your earlier question, I would like to develop the Weaving Skill.”
The Weaver nodded. “We don’t need to use the hardest version of this, then,” he said, tossing the object he was holding deeper into the room before picking up a box and turning around. He started walking and nearly ran into Jeb before he got out of his way. Jeb jumped to the side, watching the Weaver deconstruct the box and build a complicated looking apparatus on one of the benches.
“I’ll start processing the first bit,” he said. “The process is fairly simple, and I’m sure you’ll pick it up quickly.”
With no more exposition, he began feeding fiber into the machine. There were teeth and gears that did something, though Jeb wasn’t entirely sure. As the fibers passed through, they were spun and wrapped around a small rod that Jeb recognized from the sewing he used to do as a child. He began nodding. It made sense that Managrass could be turned into thread, since the same was true of cotton or flax. Jeb had always wondered on some level how the thread was made, and now he knew.
After a minute or so of working the machine, the Weaver stood up. “It would be hard for you to do anything too damaging to this equipment,” he said, gesturing for Jeb to sit down, “but please do not take that as a challenge.”
Jeb nodded and tried to mimic what he had seen the Weaver do. It was shockingly easy to turn the Managrass fibers into thread. It was also shockingly slow. Even after spending a full bell working to make thread, he hadn’t even gone through half of the Managrass.
“Not that I mind this taking a while,” Jeb said, “but this seems really slow.”
The Weaver nodded. “There are much faster machines for spinning thread, but they tend to need far more Managrass than you brought. This machine can also run far faster, but then you run a much greater risk of injury, given how green you are.”
Jeb looked down, not seeing anything green on him. Oh, he thought to himself, that was a euphemism for something. Jeb kept working on spinning thread from fiber. As he fed the last tuft in, the bell tolled again.
The Weaver had wandered off as Jeb had worked on spooling the thread, though Jeb couldn’t spare the concentration he needed to see what he had gone off to do. Just as he was about to ask what to do, the Weaver reappeared, taking the spools of thread off of the machine before somehow folding it back into its box. He tossed the box casually back into the room he had taken it from and turned to Jeb, holding out the thread he had spun.
Jeb idly noticed that, even though there had been four spools of thread on the machine when the Weaver had taken them off, there were only three in his hand. “What happened to the fourth spool?” he asked.
The Weaver froze, suddenly growing larger. After a tense moment, he asked “what do you mean?”
Understanding dawned in Jeb’s mind. “Oh right! I forgot that I had said I didn’t need all of the Managrass. I assume the fourth spool is the extra that I won’t need for making some Manaweave.”
The Weaver seemed to deflate slightly and began chucking nervously. “Yes, that is what we agreed upon, is it not?” he asked. Something about his tone made the question seem less rhetorical than it should have been, and Jeb wasn’t sure how to respond.
As though sensing Jeb’s hesitance, the Weaver clapped his hands, once more moving just at the edge of Jeb’s ability to follow. “So then, you now have Manathread. Although I am certain that there are uses for it outside of creating Manaweave, none have ever concerned me, and none concern us now. There are, as I am sure you are aware, at least as many ways of making Manaweave as there are people who make it. Despite that, most fall into one of two main philosophies. The first says that Manaweave is a luxury product made from luxury product and only in small quantity. As such, it should be woven in the most intricate and elaborate way possible, so that the customer feels that they have not been cheated. The other says that Manaweave functions the same regardless of how it is woven, within certain tolerances, and so the fastest working pattern should be used, so that the Weaver can get back to crafts where skill actually matters.”
“Which philosophy do you take?” Jeb asked.
The Weaver’s eyes danced mischievously, prior nervousness already forgotten. “That would be telling, wouldn’t it? Which philosophy speaks more to you?”
Jeb considered the question. “I obviously see the merits in either method,” he said, thinking aloud. “I assume that if I asked to be taught in the first philosophy that I would need to learn far more about Weaving before I was able to produce Manaweave?”
The Weaver shrugged. “I would not have you waste Manathread, that is correct.”
Jeb nodded. “Then I think that, for now, at least, I would like to learn whatever way you can teach me that would result in Manaweave fastest.”
The Weaver’s eyes brightened further, as though Jeb had said something secretly correct. “Then come with me young Wizard,” he said, and Jeb had a moment to question how the Weaver had known his Class. That thought was quickly wiped away as he watched the Weaver set up the loom before tearing it apart again. “And now you try,” he said, handing Jeb some simple thread that smelled vaguely of roses.
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Jeb set the loom up and got an approving nod from the Weaver. “What now?” Jeb asked.
“Now you weave,” the Weaver said, gently moving Jeb aside to begin working on the loom. At first, everything moved far faster than Jeb could follow, threads moving in a blur. Then, the Weaver muttered something under his breath and started slowing down. When he started moving slowly enough that Jeb was able to follow what was happening, if only just, the Weaver once more began speeding up. Jeb was only able to keep up by the smallest of margins, and that remained true until there was a long bolt of fabric at the output of the loom.
“Understand?” the Weaver asked, stopping his work.
Jeb nodded hesitantly.
“Now you try,” he said, once more dismantling the loom.
Jeb threaded it with the strange rose scented thread again and began to work. Unlike the Weaver, his movements did not feel as though they were part of a dance. Each line of weaving took conscious effort on Jeb’s behalf, and the fabric came out almost painfully slowly.
Still, as each line passed, Jeb grew more and more confident in his actions. The tolling of the bells passed by him as though they were muffled. When he ran out of thread on one of the spools, he turned, expecting a direction from the Weaver. As he looked around, though, Jeb could not see or hear any trace of the Weaver.
Strange, Jeb thought, I wonder what I should do now? With nothing better to occupy himself, Jeb ran his hand down the fabric he had made. It was a dense weave, almost resembling Manaweave. The scent of roses had shifted as he worked, slowly going from the smell of a fresh bouquet to the scent of dried rose, something almost medicinal.
Just as Jeb was starting to question what the fabric was, the Weaver came bouncing back into the room.
“A satisfactory job,” he said, tone bright enough that Jeb took it as a compliment. “Now, then, why don’t you try to make a piece of Manaweave?”
Jeb excitedly unthreaded and rethreaded the loom, the Manathread he had made and getting ready. As he finished preparing the loom, he heard the bells toll out the hour.
That’s strange, Jeb thought as the tolling stopped at three, has it really been nearly a full day of work? He thought about the number of bells he had heard and shrugged. Maybe it had been. Regardless, he was finally ready to do what he had come here for. He was going to Weave Manaweave.
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: 642 ->842 Physical Load: 228 ->278 Strength: 52 Dexterity: 53 Endurance: 54 Vitality: 55 Presence: 14 ->64
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Mental Load: 414 ->564 Intelligence: 88 ->118 Willpower: 89 ->119 Magic Affinity: 89 ->119 Mana Depth: 74 ->104 Charisma: 74 ->104
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Mana: 1775 ->1975
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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 Gift of Gab Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing 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)