When Jeb had filled all of the sheets of Waterweave that he would need to improve the quality of the crop, he tested one of the sheets of third generation Waterweave, curious how the System would classify it.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Glyphmastery Second Tier Scribe Chain “Scribe a Second Tier Glyph”. You have engraved Attune Water Mana -Efficient onto Waterweave (Quality: Second Degradation). Rewards: 39 Experience, Mana +10
That was more or less what he had expected, but it was good to confirm.
“What was that about?” his grandfather asked, gesturing to the sheet of Waterweave that now held fifty Water Mana.
“The Quest Notification told me that the Waterweave that held one hundred Mana was of ‘Quality: First Degradation’, so I was curious what it would say the Waterweave that only held fifty would be.”
“And?” his grandfather prompted him.
“It’s apparently “Quality: Second Degradation.”” Jeb shrugged. “I am a little curious why the System didn’t distinguish the Waterweave before, though.”
“That’s not too uncommon,” his grandfather said. “There are two leading theories for why Notifications can develop as people learn more. The first is that the System doesn’t give information you don’t already have access to, so until you knew how the quality of Waterweave would decay as a function of generation, it wouldn’t tell you.”
“That makes some amount of sense,” Jeb said.
“It’s generally the most common theory,” his grandfather agreed. “The other claim is that the System itself is limited by your knowledge. That would mean that it wasn’t able to tell that the Waterweave was of lower quality until you did.”
“Huh,” Jeb said, “I thought the System kind of knew everything.”
“Really, this is a snippet of the larger argument of whether we each have a unique and personal System or whether we are each given access to a broad and universal System. There is no good way to test either belief, so both exist together.”
Jeb was not particularly engaged in the conversation, so he tried redirecting it, “should we try improving the quality of Watergrass now?” he asked.
His grandfather smiled, “sorry, I forget sometimes that your interest in Theorycrafting is still fairly minimal. Yes, let’s see whether we can keep Watergrass from continuing to degrade through the generations.”
The two made their way back to the raised gardens. “Oh, I just realized that we never repaired the soil after the last crop,” Jeb said, turning to leave.
“I did it after you left,” his grandfather said, reaching into the bag of Watergrass seed. As Jeb watched his grandfather casually throw the seeds, he was again struck at how nice the Skills that a Ninth Tier Farmer had were. He hadn’t seen anything too flashy yet, it was true, but not needing to worry about planting depth or spacing was worth a lot.
Jeb shook himself out of the thought and began dispensing the Water Mana onto the fields. As each sheet released its Mana, it dissolved and blew away on the breeze. The crops pulled the Mana in quickly, and the sudden pulse of Water Mana seemed to call some of his bees over.
“I’m sorry,” Jeb said, “I’m trying to make sure that the Watergrass gets all of the Mana it needs.” The bees buzzed as though they were saying “we already knew that,” and went to work pollinating the flowers that quickly bloomed.
To Jeb’s surprise, the bees seemed to be increasing the general Mana density as they flew around. He ended up not needing the tenth sheet of Waterweave to finish upgrading the plants, as far as he could tell at least. “Grandfather, it looks like the bees being here means that I only needed nine hundred Mana to upgrade the plot, rather than the thousand we expected.”
His grandfather nodded at the statement. “That makes some amount of sense. If I’m not wrong, those bees are all Water Attuned, are they not?”
Jeb hadn’t noticed. As he looked, though, it was clear that they were. “What difference does that make?”
“Living beings naturally give off some Mana as they move,” his grandfather explained, “and bees’ role in pollination generally shifts Mana around, especially in Magical plants. It’s part of why high Tier Apiarists are so treasured. Being able to manipulate exactly what Mana a Magical plant is exposed to can make the difference between an incredibly potent reagent and one that doesn’t work at all.”
Jeb wondered how his grandfather would know that. Before he could ask, though, he was distracted by his grandfather’s next comment. “You should probably expel the final sheet over the field anyways. Your bees deserve whatever your plants don’t need.”
That made sense to Jeb, so he emptied out the tenth sheet of Waterweave onto the field. The plants made a grab for the Mana, but his bees moved far more quickly. The Mana disappeared, and it seemed like the bees might have grown slightly.
As they harvested the crops, he expected his grandfather to comment on the bees’ sudden growth. When he didn’t, Jeb shrugged and decided that it must have been in his mind. He helped repair the soil, noting that it was still slightly depleted in Mana. By the time that they had finished replacing the nutrients, though, it was nearly repaired.
Back at the hive, Jeb decided to grit his teeth and make it through the next song in the book. At some point in learning it, he decided that it was so ridiculous that it had to be a parody of some sort. Viewing the song in that lens made it more palatable, though he still didn’t love learning it. When he received the Quest Notifications, Jeb felt like it was worth it.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Lute Playing First Tier “Learn a Piece for Lute” Go forth and serenade. Rewards: 1 Charisma, 19 EXP
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Singing First Tier “Learn a song” Go forth and serenade. Rewards: 1 Charisma, 19 EXP
As Jeb accepted the Quests, he saw his grandfather approaching. His grandfather’s grimace made Jeb reconsider whether he should keep learning the songs.
“What prompted learning the Adventurer’s Song?” his grandfather asked, voice strangely empty.
“It was the next song in the Lute Method Book,” Jeb explained.
“Ah.” His grandfather’s voice hadn’t returned to its normal inflection. “Here’s the Waterweave. Let me know what it says,” he said, turning to leave.
Jeb wanted to ask where he was going, but given the speed that his grandfather started walking off, he decided against it. It was an easy choice what Spell Glyph he was going to inscribe in the Waterweave to test its density.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Glyphmastery Second Tier Scribe Chain “Scribe a Second Tier Glyph”. You have engraved Attune Water Mana -Efficient onto Waterweave (Quality: First Degradation). Rewards: 39 Experience, Mana +10
After filling the sheets of Waterweave, Jeb’s soul was growing strained. He decided to fill his lute again as soon as his Mana refilled. Until it did, he passed the time by lying down beside the hive and watching the bees and clouds drift by.
A few bees came and landed on him. He could feel their Mana, which was a little strange. It almost felt like his, though he couldn’t say why.
They must have felt something similar, because more and more bees started landing on him. Idly, Jeb noticed that his Mana was refilling more quickly as more bees covered him. “You aren’t pollinating me, are you?” he asked, half joking.
Bees that had been about to land on him started dancing. They danced something about the hive being stronger when it moved together. Jeb wasn’t entirely sure how that related to them resting on him, but he decided not to question it.
When he was about to begin filling the lute again, he did a double take at his Mana. He hadn’t noticed that his maximum had broken one thousand. Looking through his Quest Logs, he realized that he had been too distracted by filling the sheets of Waterweave.
Stolen story; please report.
As he started to spin up the Song, Jeb considered whether it might be worth trying to use the Efficient form of one of his Glyphs to Enforce his lute. It was at least ten percent more efficient when casting it raw, so maybe it would be better for filling his lute as well. When he tried, though, he realized that he lacked the Mana manipulation skills he would need to make a higher Tier Glyph with the thread of the song.
Shaping the overall Glyph was easy, even when he accounted for the curve. It was adding the second and third levels of the Glyph that eluded him. After all, the way that he formed Glyphs in his song was by forcing the strand of Magic to move as it proceeded forward. He couldn’t force his own mental image of the Song’s thread to change enough to do what he wanted, try as he might.
After wasting a few hundred Mana trying to use Attune Water Mana -Efficient, Jeb gave up and just poured unattuned Mana into the lute. He noted idly that the Mana levels somehow seemed to have evened out between his last time filling the lute. As he watched, the unattuned Mana added some depth to each of the Attuned Elements, though only a slight amount. In the seven hundred Mana that he poured into the lute, no more than ten points went into any of the Elements.
As the last pieces of Jeb’s Mana drained out of him, he nearly didn’t notice. He was so connected to the lute that it just felt like he was reinforcing some part of himself with Mana. The feeling of connection faded as the end of the strand flowed into the lute.
Even as the feeling faded, though, Jeb was thinking. Could he reinforce himself? More to the point, which adult in his life should he ask for advice on Enforcing his own body? The three obvious choices were the Librarian, the Bard, and his grandfather.
Of the three, he’d spoken to the Bard the least recently. That seemed like as good of a reason as any to go ask him, and Jeb started walking to the Inn.
Halfway there, he realized that the Bard had told him to come back when the lute was Bound to him. It still wasn’t though he certainly felt like it was whenever he played Lute Enforcement. The music flowed out of the lute without the slightest effort from him anymore.
“Maybe the Bard will be able to tell me how close I am to Binding the lute,” Jeb reasoned, “and while I’m there, I might as well just ask how to Enforce myself.” Nodding at his plan, he resumed his walk to the Inn.
As he drew near, Jeb heard the strains of music, though it did not sound like a lute. Opening the door, he was surprised to see the Bard on stage playing a flute. When he saw Jeb, he finished the song with a flourish and stepped off the stage.
“Good afternoon Jeb,” he said, “what can I help you with now?”
“First, thank you for the flute,” Jeb said, “I haven’t trained my control with Least Move Air enough to play it yet, but I’m looking forward to when I can.” He hurried on before the Bard tried to interject, “I was wondering if you could help me figure out how close I am to Binding my lute.”
“Oh, I thought that you had changed your mind about Binding it,” the Bard said conversationally. Jeb couldn’t remember whether or not he had told the Bard that he was giving up on Binding his lute, but realized that the Librarian or anyone in his family could have told him just as easily. “It looks like you’re most of the way there. Given how much Mana I feel in it, I’m honestly surprised that it isn’t bound yet. What is your maximum Mana now?”
Jeb quickly checked. “One thousand and seventy,” he said, “why does that make a difference?”
“I’m not going to ask how you have so much Mana at First Tier,” the Bard said, “but the amount of Mana that it takes to Bind something is related to how much Mana you have. If you didn’t keep increasing your Mana capacity, I’m sure that the lute would have been Bound to you already.”
“Thank you!” Jeb said, making his way out of the Inn. He was halfway home before he realized that he’d forgotten to ask about Enforcing himself.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 6457/100
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Total Statistic Load: 350 ->352 Physical Load: 127 Strength: 29 Dexterity: 22 Endurance: 31 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 223 ->225 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 52 Magic Affinity: 55 Mana Depth: 37 Charisma: 32 ->34
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Mana: 1050 ->1070
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Glyph Attunement: 26 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 Water Mana - Efficient Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient Tier 2 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 Soil Improvement Enchanting
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)