After breakfast, his grandfather and aunt took him to one of the sheds. “We keep most of the seeds that we don’t need often here,” his grandfather said, “so you may end up coming here more often than the rest of us since you’ll probably need magical plants.” After unlocking the door, his grandfather reached in and grabbed a small sack.
“That should be more than enough seeds for you,” he said, “but feel free to come get me if you need more.” He walked away, leaving Jeb with his aunt.
“Let’s get you a plot,” she said, and started walking over to the raised beds that his family kept. Jeb didn’t hear her, so focused on the seeds in front of him. It was a fairly large shed, and it was filled with seeds in small containers.
There was a ledger in the front of the room listing the seeds, the last time they’d been planted, and how often they needed to be refreshed. Jeb scanned the list to find Managrass. Apparently Managrass seeds lasted three decades between planting.
As he kept reading through the list, he found very few familiar names. Shrugging, Jeb started looking to see if any needed to be planted right now. He was roused out of his search by his aunt turning him around.
“Jeb, it’s time to plant the Managrass.” She led him to the raised beds, and this time Jeb actually followed. He saw that there were a number of empty beds, which made sense.
They usually kept a fair number of the plots empty. Some were to let the soil rest and others were to test ideas that the Farmers might have. Jeb supposed that he was testing an idea now. It was strange to realize that he was going to be developing some new breed of Managrass, though he still wasn’t sure what color he would try for.
“Since you’ve got Soil Savvy and Fertilizing, I’ll leave you to this,” his aunt said, “though I will be more explicit with your grandfather’s advice.”
Jeb listened, eager for any wisdom.
“Managrass loves Mana, and a few people have reported faster growth when they feed their plots Mana. The major downside to speeding the growth is that it allegedly increases the mutation rate, but that’s not a negative for you, now is it?” She walked away, leaving Jeb to start planting the seeds in the soil.
Before he planted any seeds, he took a handful of dirt to see if there was anything he needed to do to ready the soil for his Managrass. Jeb felt the influence of Soil Savvy, and he noticed that the soil was incredibly healthy. It would be good for a number of crops, though he couldn’t say how good it would be for Managrass. After all, he had no idea what nutrients and conditions Managrass needed.
Jeb carefully turned the soil over, loosening it to make it easier for the Managrass’ roots to settle. He followed the directions on the bag of seed, placing the seeds every few inches. Once they were in the soil, Jeb carefully watered them and stepped back.
His family had suggested that Mana would help, so Jeb tried to empty his Mana onto the field. Try being the operative word.
Jeb realized that he had never tried just pouring his Mana out without a shape. He had always constrained it either into a Glyph or a Song.
Still, after a few minutes of struggling, Jeb realized that he moved his Mana in the same way when starting either a Glyph or Song, and managed to simply pour his Mana out.
It wasn’t at all like using a Glyph, where the Mana seemed to stop being his and start being something partially through. It also wasn’t like his Song, where his Mana clearly had a direction. He had to force it into the soil, and it seemed like it mostly just sat there. Still, he trusted his aunt, so Jeb kept pouring Mana in until he ran out.
While he waited for his Mana to recover, Jeb walked over to get a wheelbarrow of fertilizer and a bucket of water, in case he ended up needing either. He was shocked to see some small shoots coming up by the time that he returned.
Then again, if the whole life cycle was only a few days, maybe an hour or so to start sprouting made sense. His Mana had refilled, so he poured it into the field again. This time, Jeb didn’t struggle to force his Mana into the soil. Instead, small shoots greedily sucked in the Mana he gave them.
At a glance, Jeb noticed that the ground was starting to dry out. Given how quickly the plants had grown, that made sense. He poured out the water he’d brought, watching as it flowed into the soil, darkening it.
It was as if he was watching a sped up reality. The crops grew as he watched them. More and more shoots poked out of the ground and started to grow thicker and taller. He needed to keep pouring more water onto the ground to keep up with their growth.
As he was running back and forth, Jeb saw that a few of the plants were even starting to bud and flower. He felt his Pollinating Skill working as he instinctively knew how to pollinate the flowers so the Managrass would bloom correctly. He’d need to touch one flower to another to spread the pollen
If he’d been thinking about it, he might have brought the bees over. Then again, he was trying to selectively breed in a trait, so having control over what plants reproduced was in his best interest.
Jeb saw a diversity of colors, mostly in shades of grey, though there were some hints of other colors. He thought about what color Managrass he’d try to breed. Grey wouldn’t really be an option, since that was the color they started out as. He didn’t really see enough of any color to make him confident in breeding something like red or blue into the Managrass, at least so far.
Then Jeb thought about what Managrass was used for. White paper was nicer to write on than the off-white paper he tended to use. That settled it. He would try to breed Managrass to grow white.
He started pollinating the lighter flowers with each other while he pinched darker buds off. Hopefully that would help the next generation’s seeds to be brighter than this one. Jeb was hopeful that it wouldn’t take too many generations to breed the new color into the plants. He could already see that the soil’s nutrients were being depleted
By the time that he had finished going down the plot pinching and pollinating flowers, he turned around to see that more flowers had sprouted. Eventually, the flowers stopped blooming. Jeb saw that his Mana had filled up a fair amount, so he poured it back out onto the field.
This time it was even more dramatic to watch the change. The buds he’d pinched off faded and wilted. The flowers he’d pollinated opened into cloudy tufts.
Thankfully, the tufts that came from the flowers were similarly colored to the flowers themselves. In retrospect, that was something he should have confirmed first. Still, Jeb almost felt like he was staring down from above the clouds at the light colored tufts. He went to go find his aunt, hopeful that she could tell him when and how to harvest the plant.
He found her in the kitchen. “How do I harvest the Managrass?” Jeb asked without preamble.
“There’s no way they’re already grown,” she said, though she started to walk to the plot with him.
When they had made their way back to the plot, Jeb was relieved to see that there hadn’t been much change since he’d left. The tufts looked a little more solid, but that was really it.
“Huh,” his aunt said simply.
Jeb waited a few moments for her to elaborate, but she didn’t.
“Huh what?” he asked.
“Whoever said putting Mana into the crops undersold how much it sped up their growth,” she said. “If these were a normal field of Managrass, I’d say you have about an hour left before you could harvest them. As it is, I may as well stick around to watch.” She sat down.
Jeb’s Mana had refilled ever so slightly in the time it took to find his aunt, so he poured it into the crops and watched them grow even more solid.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Did you just put more Mana into the field?” she asked.
“I did, was I not supposed to?” Jeb responded, worried that he’d made a mistake.
“No, that’s great. You can harvest them now.” She showed him how to pluck the tufts, and Jeb was careful to keep the lighter seeds separate from the darker ones. Even though he’d tried to only pollinate the lighter seeds, some of the darker ones had still grown, and some of the flowers hadn’t been the same color as their fibers.
After they had finished harvesting the field, Jeb called the Glyph for Least Create Fire to mind. The remainder of the plants caught quickly, which he was glad for. The quick growth had drained a lot of nutrients from the field, and Jeb was hoping that burning the stalks could return some of them back. He knew he’d still have to make the most of his Fertilizing Skill, but he hoped to minimize how much fertilizer he needed.
His aunt led Jeb through the process of separating the fibers from the seeds, and Jeb collected enough of the light seeds to replant the field. He still separated the rest, putting the remainder of the seeds back into the bag his grandfather had given him, at his aunt’s recommendation.
“How does this become Manaweave?” he asked.
“We boil it in lye, break it down with a mortar, and then put it on frames to dry. Your Uncle Frank is a Papermaker, so we normally leave it to him. I can go bring the fiber to him if you’d like,” she said.
“That would be incredible, thank you!” Jeb was excited to see what Manaweave would be like, though he was mostly excited to get back to the bed to grow the next generation of Managrass.
As his aunt started to walk away, Jeb finally caught up to the answer she’d given him. “Wait, why do we need to boil it in lye?” Jeb asked.
“I’ll try to find your uncle to see if he wants to teach you Papermaking if you’d like,” his aunt replied, “but I don’t know anything more than what I told you. I’ve always left making the paper and weaves to him.”
“Doesn’t Uncle Frank also do most of the weaving in the family?”
“He does,” his aunt said, clearly confused.
“Why would a Papermaker weave?”
His aunt said nothing for a moment, as though Jeb should notice something absurd about the question. When it was clear that he wouldn’t, she spoke. “Jeb, could you remind me of your Class again?”
“That’s not what I meant!” Jeb quickly said, “I was just wondering if Papermaking and weaving were at all related.”
“Not generally, though both are activities that don’t require much interaction with others. They’re also repetitive and understated, at least the way your uncle does them.”
Jeb thought about that. His Uncle Frank had always been one of the quietest members of his family. He was never unfriendly to Jeb, but he also never tried to prolong conversations any longer than necessary.
“Do you think that I have time to grow another patch of Managrass today?” Jeb asked as his aunt walked away.
“Fix the soil first,” his aunt said. “Then come find me. Probably not, though. Growing the plants that quickly drained the soil quite a bit.”
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 4262/100
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Total Statistic Load: 282 Physical Load: 124 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 21 Endurance: 30 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 158 Intelligence: 29 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 Wood Identification Woodworking
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)