Inside the forge, Jeb’s grandfather went through the safety precautions that the two of them would need to take while Jeb learned Glassblowing. Since he had started the lesson like that the previous times that he had tried to learn, Jeb had no problems following along with what he was explaining.
Jeb carefully gathered a small amount of glass at the end of a hollow rod. Out of thoroughness more than any real sense of hope, he tried blowing into the rod again. As before, something inside of the System blocked the air from coming out.
Shrugging, Jeb called Least Move Air to mind. For a brief moment, he considered visualizing the Mana moving through the Glyph as something else. After all, he reasoned, “doubling the learning that I am doing would mean that I would become twice as efficient.”
As soon as the thought finished forming, though, Jeb discarded it. He knew that learning Glassblowing would be hard enough without adding another barrier. For now, he amended mentally. Hopefully soon Glassblowing would be no more difficult than anything else he was working on.
Refocusing, Jeb watched the river of light run through his Glyph. It lit up and he felt the air in the room begin to respond to his command. He pushed a small stream into the tube and watched as the blob of glass at the end of the rod began to grow.
“You’ll want to push air through that faster,” his grandfather commented. “Notice how it’s already cooled down.”
Jeb looked and saw that the orange glow to the glass had faded almost entirely. There was only a very dim red glow left to it. He watched his grandfather heat up his own piece of glass, paying close attention.
When his grandfather pulled the small orb he had made out of the furnace, Jeb pushed his piece inside. Once he had finished blowing his first bubble, his grandfather showed him how to cut it off of the rod to save or destroy.
“Some people like to keep their first piece of blown glass as a memory of how far they have come,” his grandfather explained. “Personally, I’ve never understood the point of that sentimentality.”
Jeb agreed, and knocked his piece of glass off of the pipe.
“Now that you’ve learned how to make a bubble,” his grandfather said, “I have your first assignment. Continue blowing bubbles until you can make one that is perfectly spherical and has even walls throughout.”
Jeb accepted the challenge and picked up another piece of glass. A voice in his head told him that there were probably molds which would make this process easier, but he shut it down. If this was the way that his grandfather thought that he should learn Glassblowing, then it was the way that he would learn it.
The second orb came out better, though it was still clearly not entirely even or spherical. Orb after orb, Jeb slowly felt himself growing more comfortable. When he took the breaks his grandfather required, he felt himself only leaving the shop physically. Mentally, he was still shaping air within the shop.
Still, the breaks were necessary for him for a few reasons. In part, he did not realize how overheated he had become until he stepped out into the heat of the summer sun. It felt cool against his skin. Even outside of that, though, Jeb only had so much Mana.
He was not using very much, since he was casting Least Move Air with such a limited throughput. What little Mana he used still added up, though. Each break seemed somehow perfectly timed with when he did not have enough Mana to complete another orb.
When Jeb took another break and stepped outside to see a dark sky, he was confused. “Grandfather, when you said take a break, you meant...?” he trailed off, not sure how to finish the question.
“I meant that you should take the standard break of waiting for your Mana to refill or fifteen minutes, whichever takes longer. Why?”
Jeb looked at the starry night, unsure how to broach the topic. His grandfather saw the direction he was looking and spoke again, “with the Statistics that you have, missing a single night of sleep may not be detrimental to your progress. Additionally, it is not uncommon for people trying to learn a Class Restricted Skill to struggle more on their second day of working than the first.”
“Why?” Jeb asked, “I understand if you don’t know the answer, but that seems strange.”
His grandfather nodded, “some theorize that your System updates itself when you sleep. In that theory, it notes the way that you are trying to evade your Class’s restrictions and blocks off that pathway. That is part of the reason that I told you to come up with multiple justifications. Even if it blocks off one of the reasons you have for practicing and learning the Skill, the other reasons will still remain valid, at least in most cases.”
“But if I don’t sleep,” Jeb mused aloud, “then the System doesn’t force new restrictions on me.”
“You’ve got the gist of it,” his grandfather confirmed. “And I can see the progress you are making on the orbs. I wouldn’t be surprised if you can earn Glassblowing before you need to sleep. To help that, though,” he gestured to the forge, “I would recommend that you take your breaks through the other door. It leads to a room that doesn’t showcase the time of day quite as easily.”
Seeing Jeb’s apprehensive look, his grandfather continued, “even if you don’t physically need the sleep, your body will react to the cues that it sees. By seeing day turn to night turn to day, your body will know that it should be asleep.”
“That makes sense,” Jeb said, but his grandfather had not finished speaking.
“Then again,” he muttered, “given how often you’ve been out in the fields when you stayed out too long, maybe you’ve already broken that mind body connection.”
“What did you say?” Jeb asked.
“Nothing,” his grandfather said, shaking his head, “just talking myself through some things.”
“Ok!” Jeb said. The two waited in silence for Jeb’s Mana to refill, and then they returned to the shop to begin blowing orbs again. By the time that he took his next break, he was able to make orbs that were perfect spheres, at least as far as Jeb was able to see. Matching thickness across the entire size came next.
One thing that Jeb quickly learned was that working more smoothly and quickly generally resulted in a better product. He couldn’t rush, of course, but working on the faster edge of comfortable ended up producing better orbs. His grandfather had left him alone in the shop, trusting that he would take breaks as needed. So, when Jeb made the first orb that he thought met both of his grandfather’s requirements, he put it in the annealer to slowly cool.
“What should I do now?” he asked himself. Shrugging, he went back to work making more spheres. When his grandfather came in, the annealers were all filled with orbs. They were all perfect spheres with equal surface thickness across.
“Great job Jeb,” his grandfather said without any preamble. “For your next task, make ten perfect spheres, but make all of them the same size.” He paused for a moment. “Actually,” he amended, “make ten perfect spheres of the same size in a row. I want to start building good habits, and that includes reproducibility from piece to piece.”
Jeb nodded. The orbs he’d been annealing had served their purpose, so they all went into the waste pile. His grandfather left and he picked up a blob of molten glass.
Jeb felt his stomach growling when he had his ten orbs lined up next to each other in the annealer. Each was slightly smaller than his fist. His grandfather came in, as though on a cue.
“Grandfather,” Jeb said, “would it be possible for me to get something to eat?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
His grandfather looked at him, then clearly ticked off the time that they had been working. “Jeb, what have you had to eat and drink since starting training?”
Jeb thought about it. “I’ve been making water with Least Conjure Water during most of my breaks,” he said, “it only takes a few seconds to regain the Mana that it costs me.”
“That’s a relief, at least,” his grandfather said. “Yes, let me go get you something to eat.” When he returned, Jeb ate a large meal and stood behind his grandfather as he judged the orbs he had made.
“Next,” his grandfather said, “you should learn how to make windows. There are techniques that allow you to make perfectly transparent sheets with next to no effort. We will not be using those.”
“Why not?”
“Three reasons. First, we do not own the equipment we would need for that. Second, once you have a well trained Glassblowing Skill, you do not need the equipment. Third, aids make it harder to gain a Skill.”
Jeb looked at his grandfather dubiously. His grandfather coughed. “All three of those reasons are true,” he amended, “but my lack of need for the equipment is why we don’t have it. Aids do make Skills more difficult, but that is only if you are willing to persevere through the difficulties.”
That sounded truer to Jeb, and he nodded.
“The easiest way to make a pane of glass with the skills you have now is to make crown glass.” His grandfather quickly blew an orb of glass and then set it back in the furnace to heat. He carefully transferred it to another rod and opened a hole in it.
As he spun the rod, the orb deformed more and more, shaping into a circle. “Now,” his grandfather said, “you should not expect your glass to come out this clear. The technique is the same with or without a Skill, though.”
“I’m confused,” Jeb said, “that makes a circular pane of glass. Most of our windows are rectangular.”
“There are other ways to make sheets of glass,” his grandfather agreed, “but if you wanted a rectangular sheet from this, you could cut it to size.” He grabbed an etching tool and quickly demonstrated for Jeb. The edges of the circle fell away and there was a smaller rectangle in the middle.
“You won’t have perfectly clear glass all the way through,” his grandfather reiterated, “but I think you should be able to make a ten inch circle that is at least mostly transparent. Work towards that goal.”
Jeb picked up his rod and got to work.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 6457/100
----------------------------------------
Total Statistic Load: 352 Physical Load: 127 Strength: 29 Dexterity: 22 Endurance: 31 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
----------------------------------------
Mental Load: 225 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 52 Magic Affinity: 55 Mana Depth: 37 Charisma: 34
----------------------------------------
Mana: 1070
----------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------
Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
----------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------
Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
----------------------------------------
Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)