Jeb woke up before the sun. Every day he felt like he slept a little less.
Four Quests later, the sun still hadn’t risen. His mother had just entered the kitchen when he came back from his run.
“Good morning Jeb,” she said, stoking the fire.
“Good morning!” he replied. “Can I help you get the stove stoked?”
“If you’d like to, be my guest,” she replied, stepping away from the stove.
Moments like this were what Jeb hoped his future would bring. Instead of needing to gently coax a flame from the last dying coals, Jeb just activated his Least Create Flame Glyph. The fire started to take, but it wasn’t even. Again, rather than needing to wait for the flames to even out, stoking and moving around embers, he just cast Least Move Fire. The flames shifted around, burning happily and evenly.
As Jeb cut off the flow of Mana, the logs stayed burning, which made sense to him. After all, the water he summoned to shower off with didn’t disappear when he was clean.
“I’m beginning to see why you were so interested in Glyphs,” his mother said.
“Anything else I can help with?” Jeb asked.
“No, I do really enjoy the time in the morning to collect myself before everyone comes down.” Jeb didn’t miss the subtext in that message.
“See you in a bit then!” he said, returning to his room. Inside his room, Jeb realized that he didn’t have enough time to work on the Song. The first rays of light were starting to break the horizon, and he knew he’d get lost in the Song if he started it.
He had the brief thought of looking in his Bardic Magic book to see if it had any advice for learning Lute Enforcement, but he decided not to. After all, the Bard had told him to try figuring the Song out himself.
As Jeb looked around, he realized that he had an issue. There were still endless tasks that he could work on, but none of them were doable in the time before breakfast.
Then again, he did have the Musician Skill now. Maybe learning a song would be doable before breakfast, especially since he could read music now. Jeb turned to the second song in the book.
It wasn’t familiar, but that was ok. This one had both a vocal and a lute line, which he hoped might give him two Quest Rewards.
He turned on his metronome and started plucking out the notes. Compared to the Song’s pattern, this song was incredibly easy. The same was true for the vocal line. Learning the words took slightly longer than the melody, but he still finished well before breakfast.
Looking at his Notifications, Jeb saw that he did, in fact, get multiple Quest Rewards.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Lute Playing First Tier “Learn a Piece for Lute” Go forth and serenade. Rewards: 1 Charisma, 20 EXP
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Singing First Tier “Learn a song” Go forth and serenade. Rewards: 1 Charisma, 20 EXP
Jeb realized he had never looked at his Musican Skill, so he took the time to do that as he packed up his lute and walked downstairs.
Musician: Synergy Skill (Lute and Singing). By demonstrating proficiency in more than one instrument, you have shown yourself as a Musician. New instruments will come more easily as you continue to learn instruments, and practice at one instrument will carry over to other instruments. Quest: Minor, Make Music (Progressive)
Make Music Minor Quest Third Tier Learn an Instrument What is a Musician without something to play? Learn another way to make music. Minor Quest First Tier Serenade Someone What is a Musician who doesn’t share his music? Share your music with another. Minor Quest Second Tier Learn a Song Even if you aren’t a Bard, knowing something that can help keep your instrument in tune is well worth it. Learn a Bardic Song
It was strange to him that learning an instrument would be a higher Tier Quest than learning a Bardic Song. Then again, he felt like he might be close to learning the Song, and he’d only started working on it the day before. Jeb saw that the sun was high enough that it was nearly breakfast time, so he made his way down the stairs.
At the table, the family was far more subdued than normal. What conversations were happening all revolved around the news of an increased tax.
“Jeb, are you ready to work on Brewing?” his aunt asked him after breakfast.
“I am!”
“Let’s start with malt then,” she said, walking away.
When they got to the roaster, Jeb watched as his aunt started gathering sprouted malt.
“We’ve got another request for a light ale coming up, so we need to prepare more malt. We’re starting to run low on light amber malt,” his aunt said, gesturing to the storage against the wall. Three barrels filled with grain didn’t feel like running low to Jeb, but he knew better than to voice that doubt.
“Your job right now is to spin the wheel and keep the flame burning at the right level. Feel free to use whatever Glyphs you have to make it go better for yourself.” Jeb went over to the log pile and started gathering wood. He knew that he probably wouldn’t have the Mana to rely solely on Least Create Fire, so he wanted to keep an actual fire there. That way he could rely on Least Move Fire to keep the flames even.
“Where’s the kindling, Jeb?” she asked as he started piling logs underneath the kiln.
“I have Create Fire, I don’t need kindling anymore.”
“Great, then start building the fire up. I’ll tell you when it’s high enough.” Jeb started building the fire. Thankfully, his aunt wasn’t asking for a roaring inferno, just something fairly hot. He started to turn the tub as she poured in the malt.
“Faster! We need to keep all the malt at the same temperature, so that we don’t have uneven browning.” Jeb started to spin faster.
“Hold it at that rate.” Jeb saw that the flames were starting to grow a little larger than she’d asked, so he stopped casting Create Flames. The fire immediately died down.
Then it died down too much, and Jeb had to add another log to the fire. Every three or so minutes, his aunt pulled a few kernels from the tub and showed them to Jeb.
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“Do these look done to you?” she asked, handing him one to taste.
“I don’t think so,” Jeb replied, noticing how the flavor changed each time.
“Good answer. Keep spinning and add another log next time we check.” Finally, after Jeb felt the sweat completely soak through his clothes, she called it to a stop.
“Great job. The malt is done, and now we just have to let it cool.”
“Aunt Esther, how do you normally cook the malt? Do you spin and heat and check it all at once?”
“Normally I just connect the tub to the water wheel. It spins at the rate I need, and then I just have to watch the fire and add logs to it every so often.” She saw that Jeb was about to speak, so continued, “before you ask, because getting Skills requires working hard, even and especially when there’s a more efficient method you can use that doesn’t result in work.” That was familiar from his time working on Animal Handling.
He helped her empty the tub into a second one, which had water circulating around it to cool it down.
“Once we cool this down, it’s on to grinding.”
Jeb helped wheel the tub of malt to the small grain mill they used for malt. “Do I need to turn the wheel for this one too?”
“Good instinct. Start turning.” His aunt smiled at him, and Jeb could tell he’d volunteered wisely. He started turning the mill as she poured the grains in. It came out as a rough grind, far too coarse for flour.
“Off to go prepare the wort. How much water can you make with your Glyph?”
“I haven’t tried in a while, why?”
“The water you make doesn’t have any bacteria in it, and it doesn’t have any minerals either. Personally, I like being able to control how much of what is in my brew, so I often have to steam collect water to get the starting liquid. With you here, though,” she trailed off.
“I’ll see how much I can do.” They came to the large basin where the wort making would take place.
“Start filling it,” she said, and Jeb cast his Create Water. He’d gotten better at the Glyph from using it every day, and it was nowhere near as mentally taxing as it used to be. He directed the water to go onto the pile of roughly ground malt and watched as the water leached color out of the malt. Compared to the struggle to get his Mana to do what he wanted in the Song, it was nice to have his Mana just respond instantly to his desires.
“I’m running out of Mana,” he said a few minutes in, “I can probably keep filling it for another minute or so.” It was incredible how much longer his Mana lasted now that he had much more of it.
“That’s fine, don’t exhaust yourself,” she replied. “I’ll start filling the tub with the distilled water.”
He watched as she turned a dial. He saw the water start pouring down from a spout he hadn’t seen. The water filled up much faster than his casting, and Jeb was reminded again of how little his Magic could really do.
“Now we need to heat this to the point that the enzymes will start making the sugar, and we’ll hold it there for about half an hour. After that, we’ll drain off the liquid and give the spent wort over to your uncle for feeding the pigs. Start building the fire.” Jeb was beginning to regret his choice as he stood in front of another fire, this time building it far higher. After all, they had to heat all of the water in addition to the grains this time.
Though, without the need to turn a basin constantly, the work went far more easily. His aunt gave the direction, and he turned the knob at the bottom of the basin, draining the liquid into another pot that had also been heating. They boiled it for ten minutes, to make sure anything inside was dead, before she added in the hops.
“I really should have had you pick these hops, but there’s only so much time in the day. Next batch you’ll need to do that for sure.” She showed him how to quickly cool down the basin, which had the side effect of warming the water they needed for other uses in the building. When the wort had cooled, Jeb added in the yeast cake that she directed him to use.
“This will ferment fairly quickly, and it gives a fair amount of flavor. With as little malt as this beer has, it’s important that it has some taste, not just water.” She showed him how to measure the density, and then they closed the fermenter and walked away.
Jeb wasn’t surprised that it was well after dark, but it certainly helped justify how tired he was. He went to his room and fell straight asleep, barely remembering to wash off first.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 2864/100
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Total Statistic Load: 207 Physical Load: 119 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 20 Endurance: 29 Vitality: 39 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 88 Intelligence: 25 Willpower: 20 Magic Affinity: 25 Mana Depth: 3 Charisma: 15
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Mana: 570
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Glyph Attunement: 18 Least Conjure Water Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient Tier 3 Spell Least Move Air Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud Tier 2 Spell Least Shape Water Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire Tier 1 Spell
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Skills: Least Mud Magic Meditation Mana Manipulation Spell Glyphing Improved Glyph Groking Gift of Gab Running Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lifting Athletics Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)