Jeb stared at the locked door, hoping that it would suddenly unlock. Every few minutes, he would try the door again. It remained locked. After what must have been a few hours of waiting, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Jeb, what are you doing here?” Margaret asked.
“I was trying to learn about how Druids teleported,” Jeb said. “The Stacks led me here, but I can’t get through the door.”
Margaret let out a short sigh. “Jeb, what do you know about Druids?”
He shrugged. “Honestly, not that much. I keep seeing and hearing references to them, but they’re usually oblique at best.”
“There’s a reason for that.” A book flew towards the Librarian, and she quickly skimmed the open page. “I know that you’ve been offered Druid as a Class before. Did the System give you any warnings?”
“It said something about the Class being forbidden,” Jeb replied.
Margaret nodded. “Druidic Magic the Skill is equally forbidden. Given the chances that someone,” she gave Jeb a meaningful look, “could gain the Skill from book study alone, we keep the materials most likely to allow one to gain the Skill segregated from the general Stacks. If there is a particular snippet of a work you are interested in, however, I could likely procure a copy of that segment for you.”
“No, that’s ok,” Jeb said. “I don’t really need the primary sources, I was just getting a little frustrated with reading secondary and tertiary sources. I’d rather be safe, though.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
With that, the Librarian gestured for Jeb to leave, and he followed her back to his desk at the Stacks. A few more books were present on the desk than when he had left. Glancing quickly at the titles, he saw that most were general discussions of Druidic Magic framed in their relation with different Schools which were not forbidden in the Republic. A glance at Margaret confirmed that she had put the books there.
When he was finished working for the day, Jeb returned to the fire pit to continue his work on Weaving. The fire turned to thread more easily with each passing day, and Jeb was beginning to wonder what he would do with all of the thread that he was collecting. Over the next few weeks, he fell more and more into the routine of research and Weaving fire.
One day, he accidentally absorbed a Glyph. When he went to remove it, Jeb noticed a massive change in his soul. The vast majority of his being was still centered and reliant on Magic, the fundamental Skill of his Class. Other Skills that he had earned pulled their own eddies within the greater flow of himself.
As the Glyph was consumed by Magic, Jeb finally saw what had changed. Weaving, while still distinct, appeared to be drawing closer and closer into Magic, even as he watched. It almost seemed like what had happened to each of his Glyphs was slowly happening to the Skill. Like all of his Schools of Magic, Jeb thought that Weaving was likely to be consumed by his Class Skill when he next raised his Tier.
Pulling back out of his soul, Jeb felt something inside of him resonate with the idea of Weaving being consumed by Magic. He was, after all, a Wizard. He had chosen multiple times to refuse other Classes which might offer more flexibility. Jeb knew on some fundamental level that his Class would be best if his Skills were all in resonance with his Class.
He thought back to the conversation that he had with his grandfather while trying to unlock Smithing. Jeb did not need to be able to do everything by himself. His time in the Academy had helped Jeb to internalize that truth. He no longer even malted most of his grains, let alone growing them. Even if consuming his Skills meant that he would lose some element of the Skill, it was worth it to focus himself.
Although, Jeb realized with a chuckle, having his Magic Skill consume more and more different Skills did not really narrow his efforts significantly. With that in mind, he opened his Status.
Jeb Humdrum Human Class: Wizard Level: 8 Experience: 12/429
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Total Statistic Load: 1888 Physical Load: 388 Strength: 52 Dexterity: 53 Endurance: 54 Vitality: 55 Presence: 174
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Mental Load: 1500 Intelligence: 310 Willpower: 311 Magic Affinity: 303 Mana Depth: 288 Charisma: 288
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Mana: 2515
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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 Weaving
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic Glyph Specializer Academy Student
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)
Weaving was simple enough to combine. Jeb would just redouble his efforts to make Weaving something Magical.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Meditation was similarly easy. Jeb only ever tried to focus when relating to his Magic.
No, that’s not quite right, he thought, reflecting on his explorations of his soul. Then again, if I only have Magic as a Skill, then I would only ever need to Meditate on Magic, at least in part.
He jotted down a quick note to start working on reframing Meditation as a way for him to become more attuned to Magic, rather than simply as a way to focus himself.
Looking at Gift of Gab, Jeb was reminded about his Major Quest. He saw that there was an update on the Quest, which made sense. He had, after all, graduated from the Academy.
As tempted as he was to see how Gift of Gab might be even more improved, he resisted the urge to accept the Quest Notification. It was bound to tell him that he needed to leave the Academy, and Jeb had no intentions of doing so.
Shaking his head, Jeb focused on Gift of Gab again. It seemed Magical by its very nature, since it allowed him to communicate without knowing the language that others spoke. With a start, he realized that he had never really tried to understand how the Skill worked. He had simply accepted that he could talk to his bees, and everyone else around him spoke Republic Standard. Or, at least, Jeb thought that everyone around him did.
After making another note to explore Gift of Gab more fully in the future, Jeb moved on. Identify was a Skill that he had worked hard to not only obtain, but to grow. Thinking about the fact that he had consumed Glyphs into Magic, Jeb idly wondered whether he would be able to make Identify consume its Subskills. There was, after all, almost no way that Jeb could think of turning Soil Savvy or Wood Identification into something Magically oriented without destroying most of what made the Skill useful. Delving into his soul, Jeb found the places where the System had demarcated different Skills.
Now that he was focusing on the Subskills of Identify, Jeb saw that they were not truly separate from their Parent Skill. Instead, the System seemed like a wall that severed the Skill into three completely distinct pieces. Jeb attempted to lift the wall, but could not get a grip on it. Trying to bore through it, however, Jeb was able to make a small hole in the divider between Soil Savvy and Identify.
Like water through a burst dam, the Skill started pouring through the hole. Jeb was mesmerized by the sight, and it took him a few minutes to realize the analogy wasn’t quite right. It was as though water moving through a burst dam from both directions. Identify flowed into Soil Savvy just as Soil Savvy flowed into Identify. Both torrents tore the gap in the wall wider and wider until it disappeared beneath the roiling mass of his Skill.
Jeb felt the lancing pain of a major modification to his soul or Status but ignored it. He looked at the other wall, which kept Wood Identification separated. Moving more slowly from the sharp pain, Jeb noticed roots spreading between it and Woodworking. Far smaller, Jeb saw the roots stretch to Magic.
Pushing on those roots slightly, Jeb was reminded of the time that he had Attuned wood to Water. As he broke the new wall, he tried his best to keep the roots from severing. Whether it was that effort or the fact that breaking two Subskills was fundamentally the same as breaking one, the pain in Jeb’s soul did not increase. If anything, it seemed to recede slightly.
After he pulled back from his soul, Jeb once again looked at his Status. The two Subskills were gone. Before he was able to continue Theorycrafting ways to consume his Skills, the exertion of the day caught up to Jeb, and he fell asleep.
The next morning, Jeb pointedly set aside his research notes. He rationalized that a single day off every so often was probably beneficial to his overall work. Even if it wasn’t helpful, it wasn’t as though Jeb was on any real timeline for his doctoral thesis.
Musician, Brewing, and Distilling were all simple enough for Jeb to think of in Magical terms. The fact that Magic had tried to consume two of them already made him think that it would take very little effort to make it happen again at his next Tier increase. Looking at his soul, his suspicions were confirmed.
All three Skills were still recognizable, though it was clear that he was actively holding them out of Magic. When Jeb released his grip on them, they fell into Magic and started to dissolve. He was honestly unsure if they would even make it to his next Tier increase.
Fertilizing and Pollination both felt like something Jeb could force into Soil Improvement. Soil Improvement reminded Jeb of his efforts to automate growing Alchemical herbs, and he felt a sharp lance of panic. When the panic subsided, he decided to try to combine those Skills with Magic last.
Smithing and Woodworking felt similar to Weaving to Jeb, at least at first. As he thought about the fact that he could not imagine Smithing fire or somehow working wood made of fire, however, Jeb came to the conclusion that it might be slightly more difficult than he had first imagined. Still, seeing their connections to Magic made Jeb at least hopeful that he would be able to do so.
That left Animal Handling. Jeb remembered why he had gotten the Skill, even if it no longer seemed like something he needed. The only animals he dealt with regularly were the bees in the Swarm, which were Bound to him. That fact made Jeb consider how Gift of Gab might be able to consume the Skill, and he made a note to consider it as he worked on understanding the Skill. Satisfied with his work, Jeb returned to the fire pit to turn fire into thread.