It was past dark and Jeb was starting to fade. He wasn’t used to feeling so tired after doing so little in a day, but travel was shockingly exhausting. His aunt seemed to notice his exhaustion, and she smiled.
“It’s a shame you’re so tired for your first time in a city,” she said. “We’ll have to make sure to schedule time for you to see the sights before you leave. For now, though, help me get this wood inside.”
Jeb hadn’t really been able to see what a difference doubling his Strength had made. He knew intellectually that he was getting stronger, if the progressively heavier sacks he had been able to pick up were any indication. Then again, he hadn’t ever failed to pick one of them up, so a voice in the back of his head pointed out that he might not have actually grown any stronger.
Carrying wood for his aunt quickly killed that thought. He was barely able to move under the load she gave him. Jeb knew without a doubt that he could not have carried the many logs and planks before he’d gotten his Class.
Now he heard a new voice asking how much stronger he could have been with a Farming Class. Thankfully, Jeb was tired enough to not entertain that line of thinking. After all, there was nothing he could do to change what he was, so why waste time on regrets?
He started Enforcing his lute again, but the dirty looks (and calls) he started getting showed him how different city life was, and he stopped well before his Mana emptied. Jeb collapsed in the bed his Aunt Sue showed him, tired but excited for the next day’s work.
For the first time in as long as Jeb could remember, he was woken up by another person. “Come with me,” his aunt said, shaking his shoulder. Jeb groggily followed.
“We need to get this onto the roof,” she said, gesturing to the large desk in the center of her workshop. For a moment Jeb thought she was joking.
Then she went to one side of the desk and picked it up. Jeb hurried to follow.
On top of the roof, Jeb looked out. The sky was still completely dark. Dawn had yet to arrive.
Now that he was awake, he noticed some differences in the air. There was a tinge of sweat and rot here that he’d never noticed on the farm. Sure, the farm got fragrant during fertilizing seasons, but that was still a scent of growth. This was different somehow.
Jeb was shaken from his thoughts by his aunt pointing to the east. “Look!” she said.
As Jeb looked, he saw the first hints of dawn. Following her finger, he saw that she was pointing towards the desk.
Jeb realized that he wasn’t as awake as he thought he was. As the sky started to brighten, it seemed like the desk was beginning to glow. Though, as the first rays of dawn turned into full dawn, Jeb realized that the glow was real. The majority of the desk began to glow in the bright colors of dawn.
Yellows, reds, and pinks all seemed to swirl about the wood, coming out of the grain. As dawn turned to morning, the desk stopped emitting light, though the colors remained.
“This desk is made of Dawnwood,” his aunt explained, preempting Jeb’s question. “It’s an incredibly easy to work with wood until you expose it to dawnlight. At that point it becomes one of the strongest woods. For that reason,” she paused, “along with how it looks, it’s one of the most expensive woods. This commission is worth more than the rest of the wood in my shop combined, just as a frame of reference.”
Jeb had only seen the shop briefly, but it seemed like it was the size of the brewing barn and filled nearly to the brim with various woods. If this single desk was worth that much, he had one pressing question.
“How do you grow Dawnwood?” he asked.
“Hmm?” his aunt seemed surprised by the question. “Great question. As far as I know, Dawnwood only grows in the personal glades of a Tenth Tier Druid. The Republic doesn’t have any Druids left, let alone at the Tenth Tier, so I suppose there’s none growing here right now.”
“So there’s just no more Dawnwood ever again?” Jeb asked, horrified. The thought that he would never be able to share the experience of watching Dawnwood cure horrified him.
“Oh, no, we just have to trade with other nations for it.” Seeing Jeb’s confusion, his aunt cocked her head. “You know that there are countries other than the Republic, right?”
Jeb nodded unconvincingly.
Either his aunt wasn’t paying attention, or she didn’t want to have a geopolitical lesson that early in the morning.
Jeb quickly asked another question. “Should we move the desk down?” he asked. “Dawn is over now.”
“No, the inlay is all Duskwood,” she said, pointing to the points of the desk that hadn’t glowed. “It cures at dusk, and it’s supposed to be sunny all day. There’s no point in hauling the desk down just to haul it back up in a few hours.”
That made sense to Jeb, so he followed his aunt back inside. After a quick breakfast, Jeb’s aunt led him into the shop. Jeb was finally awake enough to notice the smells of different woods and varnishes.
There were a few other people in the room, all working on different pieces of wood. One had some spinning device that they were using to make what looked like a vase. Another was carefully putting scroll work into an end table. The overall feeling in the room was similar to his grandfather’s forge. There was something in the air, Jeb just couldn’t say what just yet.
He followed his aunt to another room, where there were piles of wood stacked on top of each other. Jeb recognized some of them from the loads he’d carried in the night before.
“This is where you’ll be spending your time while you’re learning the Skills,” she said. “I’m going to have you learn the most common types of wood in the region, and how you should prepare, shape, and protect them. I’m busier right now than your Aunt Esther was, so I’ll be going faster than she did.” She started lecturing on the first piece of wood, and Jeb tried his hardest to remember everything she said.
His aunt was thorough in her discussion. She talked about the growth cycle for each tree, their harvesting methods, the tools that would shape them best. She discussed the aesthetic pros and cons of each species. When she’d finished discussing a board, she would quickly demonstrate the Woodworking she wanted Jeb to attempt.
First came pine. It was cheap enough that his aunt was willing to let him make mistakes. She pointed him to what looked like the trunk of a pine tree.
“Remember, pine is mostly used for planks,” she explained. “Go ahead,” she gestured to the trunk, “all the tools you should need are in the corner over there.”
Jeb managed to debark the tree, though that took far longer than he thought it should. His Aunt Sue hadn’t told him to save anything, but she also hadn’t said to throw anything out, so Jeb started making piles of each piece as he removed it from the tree.
Once the tree was bare, Jeb moved it over to the portable saw. From a single glance, he knew that it was something that could be powered by a waterwheel. Still, his aunt hadn’t given him one, so he adjusted the blade height to be two fingers thick.
Jeb cut down the length of the tree, then came to his first issue. Was he supposed to flip the saw around or back it up?
Either answer seemed like a waste of energy, but the saw blades weren’t sharp on both sides, right?
In an action that he immediately realized was the wrong way to check, Jeb drew his finger across the back of the saw. Thankfully, it was dull.
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Looking around the space, he felt like it would be more effort than it was worth to try turning the saw and jig around. Instead, he raised the blade a small amount and backed it up.
Once the tree was cut into fingers thick-planks, Jeb went through and evened them all out. That, thankfully, went far faster.
As it turns out, it was easier to cut through thinner wood. That wasn’t surprising, but it was still nice to know for certain.
Jeb looked up from the last plank to see his aunt standing over him.
“Jeb, why didn’t you eat anything today?” she asked, pointing to the multiple covered dishes that were by the door.
“I didn’t notice them,” Jeb replied honestly. He’d been too engrossed in the way that the grain of the pine wood split and appeared to change as he turned the log into planks. Now that he had, though, he was ravenous.
Jeb missed whatever his aunt said, rushing over to the trays and scarfing down the food within. “This is really delicious Aunt Sue, thank you!” he called out between bites.
“Did you hear what I just said?” she asked.
“I did not,” he replied honestly.
“I said that the Duskwood is about to cure, so you should hurry upstairs.”
Food once again forgotten, Jeb sprinted to the roof. The sun was still almost entirely visible, so he was grateful that he hadn’t missed the show. As the sun kept setting, the darker inlay in the board seemed to grow darker.
It slowly sucked in the night, spiraling in blues and purples, like the last traces of the sunset. When the sun had set fully, Jeb realized that he couldn’t see what the desk looked like finished. His aunt was standing behind him with a lamp, and Jeb finally took the chance to really appreciate the desk.
It was a masterwork, to be sure. Each line of the desk was perfectly balanced against every other line. The desk even seemed at first glance to be a simple block of a single wood.
As he kept looking, though, he saw the way that the two woods were worked together. It almost seemed like they’d been woven in certain sections. Despite that, and despite how incredibly eye-catching both woods were, the desk managed to look reserved and regal.
It screamed that whoever was sitting there was powerful, rich, and comfortable with that wealth. The reds and yellows bled into blues and purples in a way that Jeb knew had to have been planned. Even as he became entranced by the appearance, though, his stomach reminded him that it hadn’t been sated.
As he went back down the stairs, he heard his aunt muttering, “I didn’t believe Esther when she said that he was the worst person to get the Meditation Skill.” That stung a little, for all that he couldn’t argue.
As he ate the two meals he’d missed, Jeb made a mental resolution to better schedule his day. Tomorrow, at least, he would try to. His aunt came in as he finished the last bites of what he assumed was dinner.
“Good job with the pine,” she said, “especially for your first attempt. Tomorrow I’ll have you start working it. It’s soft and cheap, which makes it great for learning techniques on. For now, though,” she said, pointing at the bed in the corner of the room, “get some sleep.”
Jeb started to drift off to sleep. Just as the weight on his eyes seemed like it had passed the point of no return, he jolted up. What had happened to his lute?
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 4203/100
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Total Statistic Load: 278 Physical Load: 124 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 21 Endurance: 30 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 154 Intelligence: 25 Willpower: 25 Magic Affinity: 51 Mana Depth: 25 Charisma: 28
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Mana: 585
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Glyph Attunement: 22 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 Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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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 Brewing Distilling Bardic Magic Smithing
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)