As Jeb left the room his grandfather was in, he saw his Uncle Frank walking towards him. Without a word, his uncle handed him a package and kept walking.
Jeb looked down at the bundle of papers in his hands. His uncle had apparently left him a note.
Jeb, I made the Managrass you gave me into Manaweave. I managed to make fifty sheets of Manaweave out of the grass you gave me. If you had concerns about changing some property of the Managrass, I don’t think you need to worry, at least for its use in Manaweave. It was more or less identical to work with, though of course with less bleaching. Your Uncle Frank
The signature at the bottom might not have been strictly necessary, since Jeb watched his uncle hand it to him, but it was still nice. Jeb changed his order of priorities. First, he would fix the field. Then he would play with the Manaweave he had been given. Then he would start testing what happened to Managrass when it was exposed to Elementally Attuned Mana.
A part of Jeb wondered if he should test both base Managrass and his modified variant, but he quieted that voice down. If something particularly strange happened, he could always perform more tests. If, like he mostly expected, nothing happened, then there was no point in doubling his work for the same effect.
Back in his room, Jeb took the first piece of paper. “Now how does this work?” he wondered aloud. It felt just like the pages of his Magic Primers that had Glyphs on them, which seemed like a clue.
Carving a Glyph into wood or etching one into iron made sense to him. Shaping it out of gold even seemed somewhat reasonable. But, what was he supposed to do with paper?
“It has Mana in the name,” he rationalized, trying something ridiculous. He mentally called Least Create Earth to mind, shaping the Glyph in his head. Then, rather than feeding it Mana, he imagined it impressing itself onto the sheet of Manaweave.
To his surprise, it worked. Jeb felt his Mana start to tick down, and the Manaweave suddenly had the Glyph for Least Create Earth appear on it. The Glyph took up the entire sheet of paper, which was a little annoying.
On the next sheet, Jeb tried imprinting the Glyph for Least Create Earth on just a corner of the sheet. To his disappointment, it still filled the entire page. Jeb tried tearing one sheet of Manaweave in half, but quickly learned the issue with doing so.
Try as he might, the torn sheet of Manaweave refused to accept any Mana at all. He opened his Notifications and accepted the two Quest Rewards for Scribing a Glyph.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Glyphmastery First Tier Scribe Chain “Scribe a First Tier Glyph”. You have engraved Least Create Earth onto Manaweave. Rewards: 20 Experience, Mana +5
Seeing them made Jeb pause. It only took seconds and a few Mana to permanently gain five more Mana. Jeb realized that he had a new Quest, so he tried putting Least Create Mud onto a piece of Manaweave.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Glyphmastery Second Tier Scribe Chain “Scribe a Second Tier Glyph”. You have engraved Least Create Mud onto Manaweave. Rewards: 39 Experience, Mana +10, Scribe Chain Third Quest “Scribe a Third Tier Glyph”
Jeb tried to put Least Move Earth (Efficient) onto the Manaweave, since he’d just unlocked that Quest. His Mana flowed out, far more than had the past three times. When the Quest Notification appeared, though, Jeb had a hard time finding an issue with it.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Glyphmastery Third Tier Scribe Chain “Scribe a Third Tier Glyph”. You have engraved Least Move Earth (Efficient) onto Manaweave. Rewards: 59 Experience, Mana +20, Scribe Chain Fourth Quest “Scribe a Fourth Tier Glyph”
That was a lot of Mana. If Jeb filled the rest of the sheets of Manaweave he had, he would gain far more Mana than he had any idea what to do with. Excited, he tried once more placing Least Move Earth (Efficient) onto another piece of Manaweave.
Jeb stopped when he felt Mana Backlash suddenly growing. Apparently there was a limit to how much he could grow his Mana pool from his Scribing Quests. Still, he made a note to make sure that he tried filling at least a sheet of Manaweave every morning to gain the extra Mana for his day.
Jeb made his way back to the bed he’d been using to grow the Managrass. Something about it still looked different from the beds around it, though he couldn’t point out anything in particular. Even the flows of Mana seemed mostly normal.
As he considered what it could be, he noticed that his bees were flying towards his bed. Jeb got an impression of searching for Mana, which was strange. “Do you want me to give the hive some Mana?” he asked.
When all of the bees responded with an immediate agreement, Jeb remembered that he hadn’t been to the hive in a few days. The hive looked the same as it had, with a slightly higher than normal level of Mana inside of it. Rather than question it again, he asked a different question.
“What kind of Mana would you like?”
For once, the hive didn’t seem like a monolith. What were clearly different factions within the hive danced their request for each of the Elementally Attuned Manas that Jeb could make. As he watched, the different groups each seemed to realize that they would not become a majority. Slowly, more and more bees began dancing for his Unaspected Mana.
That was an easy enough request to meet, but Jeb wanted to make sure that the hive was in total agreement. It hurt him on some deep level to see disagreement between the bees in his hive. When they all started dancing for his Unaspected Mana, Jeb started pouring his Mana into the air around the hive, not really seeing a better option.
To his surprise, the bees seemed to have learned how to absorb Mana in the air. Jeb could track the path each bee took on its flight by looking at where the Mana concentrations were lower. As he watched, they slowly absorbed all of the Mana that he sent into the air.
Jeb was a little unsure where the Mana they absorbed went. The bees didn’t seem to glow any brighter to his Mana vision when they collected it. The hive didn’t seem much brighter either.
“Where is the Mana going?” he asked, “and I apologize in advance if I’m still unable to understand you.”
Jeb knew it was ridiculous, but it almost seemed like the bees were dancing in an exaggerated and slow dance to try to make it easier for him to understand. The worst part was that it worked. He pieced together that the bees were infusing the pollen on their bodies with Mana and making Mana infused honey. That seemed like it could be a problem, so when Jeb finished talking to the bees he went to find his Aunt Esther.
She was working on pruning and harvesting some hops. “How can I help you Jeb?” she asked.
“My bees are apparently making Mana infused honey,” Jeb said, “and that really seemed like something I should ask you about.”
His aunt froze. When she didn’t move for a full minute, Jeb got concerned, “Aunt Esther, are you alright?”
That seemed to break his aunt out of whatever stupor she was in. “Yes, sorry, I’m fine. How do you know that your bees are making Mana infused honey?”
Jeb explained how he’d gotten Gift of Gab and how it seemed to let him talk with his bees. When he got to his action a few minutes earlier, his aunt interrupted, “just to clarify, the bees said that they wanted Mana, so you gave it to them before asking what they were doing with it?”
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“Yes,” Jeb said, glad that he was telling the story in an understandable manner.
“It didn’t once cross your mind to ask what they were doing with the Mana?”
Jeb considered that. “No, I guess it didn’t. I know what they’re doing with it now, though.”
“Why are you concerned that they’re making Mana infused honey?”
“Will that change how I have to harvest it? I’m worried that Fire infused honey might react badly if I put it in a normal container.”
“Were you planning on harvesting honey from your hive?” his aunt asked, seeming legitimately curious.
“Don’t I need to?”
“It’s fairly common to wait for at least a full season before harvesting from your hive. It’s a way to make sure that the colony you’ve established has the time and resources it needs to stay sufficient through the winter and moving forward. Then again, with how productive the colony they swarmed from was, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re already in a safe space for harvesting. I’ll need to think about how to harvest the Mana infused honey, though. I don’t think we have any of the tools that Magic Beekeepers tend to use, and I’m not sure where we could get it.”
“There are Magic Beekeepers?”
“Of course! Did you think that you were the first person with a Magical Class who was interested in keeping bees? Even ignoring Swarming Druids, having Mana infused honey is apparently a necessary part of some potions. Or, at least, a necessary part if you want it not to taste absolutely revolting.”
Jeb left the conversation even more confused. On the bright side, though, at least he wasn’t the first person to have his bees start collecting Mana. Maybe the Librarian would have a book about it.
“I’m sorry, could you repeat what you’re looking for?”
“I was wondering if there are any resources I could check out about how to handle Magic infused honey,” Jeb repeated. “My bees have started producing it.”
Jeb watched pages flash through the Librarian’s eyes for far longer than he was used to. “I’m sorry Jeb, I don’t think there’s anything in the Archive that I can give to a First Tier Mud Mage. How did your bees start producing Mana infused honey, and how do you know?”
Jeb explained the story again. Like his aunt, the Librarian just stood there after he finished. Unlike his aunt, though, the Librarian recovered quickly.
“I’d just like to confirm something,” he said. Seeing Jeb nod, the Librarian continued, “you had a feeling that your bees might want Mana, so you just gave them Mana without asking what they wanted it for?”
“Yes,” Jeb replied, “Aunt Esther asked the same thing. Is there something wrong with that?”
The Librarian paused, clearly considering how best to phrase what came next. “Jeb, if someone came up to you and asked to borrow a knife, what would you do?”
“Do I know them?”
“Let’s say they’re a member of your extended family that you’ve never met.”
“I’d give them the knife and then ask what they needed it for, if they seemed in a mood for conversation,” Jeb replied, seeing where the conversation was going. “But I have a hard time understanding the bees, and I always feel bad when I ask them a question whose answer I can’t follow.”
The Librarian shook his head, muttering something about “at least you’re consistently like this.”
Jeb didn’t know what to say, so he just stood there as the Librarian muttered. When it didn’t look like the Librarian was going to stop anytime soon, Jeb called out “have a nice day!” and started his walk home.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 4733/100
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Total Statistic Load: 303 Physical Load: 124 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 21 Endurance: 30 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 179 Intelligence: 41 Willpower: 34 Magic Affinity: 51 Mana Depth: 25 Charisma: 28
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Mana: 665
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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 Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water 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)