Colton reached towards the wall of yeast, and a doorway suddenly manifested. He looked back at Jeb, clearly expecting some sort of reaction. Jeb, who had started to miss the Academy and it’s completely fluid floor plan, smiled and waved when Colton turned to him. Colton sighed and stepped through the doorway.
Jeb felt the tell tale signs of space rearranging around himself as he followed the Brewer. When the world stabilized around him, he found himself in a room that seemed identical to the one he had just left. The same wall of yeast was there, each drawer labeled the same, at least at a first glance. Baskets and barrels of ingredients were arranged throughout the space.
Unlike the room he had just left, however, the Magic in the room was anything but relaxed. Different Reagents pulled in Mana while others expelled it. Even though they were all surrounded by their containers, Jeb knew immediately where the Fireleaf was. It only took him a few more minutes to find the other Reagents he had worked with as a young student.
“This is fantastic!” he said, opening the container of Fireleaf.
Jeb lifted it to his nose and breathed in deeply, noticing just how much more potent it smelled than anything he had used at the Academy. More than that, though, its scent had a complexity leagues more complex than what he had used there. The Academy’s Fireleaf, and even the Fireleaf he had grown smelled entirely of fire. The leaf in Jeb’s hand smelled like a fire with friends on a crisp autumn night, basking under the glow of a waxing moon.
“I take it that you have some familiarity with Fireleaf,” Colton commented, seeing Jeb immediately start to create a fermenter for himself.
Jeb paused, realizing that he had been moving on complete instinct. He saw a perfect ingredient and simply had to see what it would do to his Brews. He looked up at Colton, ready to apologize, but the Brewer smiled and waved the apology off.
“Don’t feel bad, I was just as bad my first time in the space.”
He paused, looking around the space, then turned back to Jeb.
“Before you start, though, I would recommend exploring the other ingredients.” With that, he turned and left the room, leaving Jeb alone to explore the Alchemical and Druidic Reagents.
Jeb felt a smile blossom on his face. It was clear that the Circle of the Field had, at least on some level, created Farming Magics like he had dreamed of as a young Mud Mage. Given how much more complex the Fireleaf was than the barley, however, Jeb had the growing suspicion that they, like all of the other Magics he had seen even slightly tangentially focused on the field, worked primarily on Magical plants. Jeb made a note to himself to ask to watch them in the fields as well.
He put the note aside and let himself be drawn back into the fugue of Brewing. Barrels opened seemingly of their own accord, and Jeb smelled each batch of Fireleaf. Given how specific the scent had been in the first crate, Jeb was unsurprised to learn that each crate had its own unique profile. Knowing that the flavors remained unchanged regardless of whether the Magical effects took hold, Jeb flicked his fingers, creating dozens of tiny fermenters.
He ran through the doorway, picking up a few barrels of a lightly roasted malt. Eschewing a container, he simply willed water to float and heat in the air as he tossed handfuls of malt into it. When it had extracted, he twirled, each small jar he had made filling with the exact same amount of wort. The spent malt found itself teleported beside his bees, who quickly distributed it on fields around them.
Each fermenter started boiling rapidly as he added a single Fireleaf into them. He reached through his bag into the cache of yeast he had taken with him from the Academy. After sprinkling a few grains into each jar, he added the tiniest drop of Yeast Energizer into them.
The smell of freshly Brewed beer filled the chamber, and Jeb found himself back in his skin. Unlike when he had lost himself to his Class, though, he did not have any difficulty recalling what had just happened. He had been completely in the flow of Brewing, not dancing to the whims of the System.
He looked at the group of jars in front of him and debated bottling the beers. After a moment of consideration, though, Jeb discarded the idea. It took at least as much beer as each contained to determine the full flavor profile of the beer. Glancing quickly at his Status, Jeb did a few quick calculations, confirming that he would not be too inebriated after drinking the few dozen Brews.
As he did, he saw that he had a new Notification. Wincing slightly, he forced himself to close his Status before he could read what it said. The odds were high that he was going to be distracted when he opened it, and he did not trust himself to remember which beer had which exact leaf.
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After forcing a slight carbonation into each jar, Jeb started to drink. He began with the Fireleaf that he had first smelt. As he had expected, the flavor profile changed upon Brewing. It was no less complex, simply altered.
Rather than tasting of the fire itself, Jeb tasted sitting beside the fire. He was warm both from the flickering tongues that darted off of the-
Jeb frowned, taking another sip. He knew he could identify what wood was burning in front of him, if he only tried. After a few moments, he nodded, falling back into the sensation.
-the apple wood burning in font of him, as well as the warm glow from sitting around his friends. The moon shone down on them, and Jeb felt a pang of loss as he finished the jar. A part of him desperately cried out for more, and Jeb quickly pulled out a sheet of paper, making a note to himself never to Brew a beer with only that Fireleaf. Creating something addicting was not his goal, after all.
Each beer took Jeb somewhere else as he drank it. After the fifth or sixth glass, he started planning what combinations he could mix. The friends beside an apple fire would pair well with the darker notes of the final pieces of fat burning as he staved off the chill of an endless winter. He had hurried to the end of that glass, feeling himself grow colder with each sip.
When Jeb finally finished drinking each of the Brews, he looked at the sheaf of notes in front of him, nodded, and used a few of the cantrips and other small Magics that the Librarians had taught him. The pages neatly ordered themselves, his handwriting grew slightly more regular, and they bound themselves together. He did not bother with a full cover, as these were simply initial research notes.
Jeb placed the book into his bag and pulled up his Status.
Minor Quest Fifth Tier Druidic Brewing You have learned the first portions of the Art of Druidic Brewing. Using this knowledge, Brew something using only your Mana as fuel for the yeast.
Jeb blinked in surprise. It had been so long since he had seen Quests on his Status. Shrugging, he took two Fireleaves that he thought would mix well, tossed them into the air, where they fell into the bubble of boiling water he had Conjured, and then strained the infused water into a new pot. Since the Quest called for no other fermentables, Jeb was able to skip the relatively long process of extracting the sugars from malt. Instead, he reached into his pouch and hesitated.
He wasn’t sure whether any yeast would work with the technique he had learned. Not wanting to risk failure, he looked back at the wall of yeasts and picked a mild yeast. He carefully added a few grains into the jar and immediately wrapped them with his Mana. Lacking any food of their own, the yeast started to devour the cocoon he had placed them in.
Jeb kept pouring more and more Mana into the shell, feeling himself grow emptier than he had in ages. Just as his Mana fell into the single digits, the yeast stopped their pull. Jeb frowned, withdrawing the shell and inspecting the beer.
It seemed normal, at least at a first glance. Looking more carefully, however, Jeb saw why the pull had ceased. The yeast had created too much alcohol, killing itself into the process.
Jeb hesitantly lifted the jar to his mouth so he could take a sip of the concoction. He could not force himself to think of it as beer, because it lacked malt. As the first drops touched his lips, Jeb nodded in satisfaction.
The two Fireleaves he had added did a wonderful job balancing each other. Jeb did not feel the fear of endless cold nor the yearning to return to his friends. As the flavor of Fireleaf faded, Jeb tasted the small notes from the yeast. Despite the fact that he had pushed to its limit, Mana was apparently a fantastic way to prevent yeast from growing stressed. There were no off flavors in the Brew at all.
Underneath the flavor of yeast, however, there was nothing until the burn of alcohol. Jeb sighed.
It wasn’t that the Brew tasted bad. No, it was a perfectly neutral way to experience the flavors of Brewed Fireleaf and the flavors that the yeast produced. But, Jeb actually enjoyed the taste of malt. Dissatisfied with himself, Jeb collected the Quest Reward.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Fifth Tier Minor Quest “Druidic Brewing” You have Brewed with Magic alone. Rewards: 50 Mana, 98 EXP, Minor Quest: Druidic Brewing
Jeb felt the almost foreign tug as his Mana well grew deeper. With a start, he realized that it had not expanded since his third term in the Academy. Rereading the rewards, however, he frowned. Why did completing the Quest reward him with itself again.
Minor Quest Fifth Tier Druidic Brewing You have demonstrated the first piece of the Art of Druidic Brewing. Advance your knowledge. Brew something using your Mana as the only source of energy, imbuing it with flavor from your Mana.
It was clearly a far more difficult task, and Jeb found himself slightly annoyed at the fact that it was still Fifth Tier. Then again, given that he had just completed the first Quest in a matter of minutes, Jeb supposed he could not complain too much. He carefully cleaned out the jar and prepared to Brew again.