As the pain in his soul slowly faded, Jeb realized how tired he was. Looking out his window, he saw that it was night. The coat of snow on the ground was reflecting the full moon, making it seem far brighter than a normal night.
Jeb was tempted to go outside. Seeing the moonlight glinting off of an empty field of snow was his favorite part of winter. Something about the brightness of a winter’s night was hard for him to resist.
As he tried to stand up, though, he nearly fell over. His vision blurred for a second, and Jeb was forcibly reminded of the fact that, while he had basically recovered from the harvest, his body was going to need the winter to be able to truly push itself again. Resigning himself to that fact, he lay down in bed. Before his head hit the mattress, he was asleep.
In the morning, Jeb called Lesser Shape Water to mind, trying to understand the net of connections. Even after an hour of struggling, he was unable to piece together its meaning. He felt like he understood enough to learn the Glyph, though. “I suppose that’s as good as I’ll be able to get it,” he said, resigning himself to the fact that he would have to start working without fully understanding what he was doing.
He pulled Least Shape Water and Lesser Shape Water to mind. To his relief, despite the fact that there were another ten points in the Lesser Glyph, the other fifteen points that both shared were in the exact same places. Jeb noted the fact that neither Glyph was completely planar, but refused to follow that path. He knew that he would be able to figure out what a perfectly planar Least Shape Water would look like another time.
Jeb dismissed Least Shape Water and called Least Shape Earth to mind. It was slightly harder to slot it on top of the Lesser Shape Water Glyph, since the other points didn’t quite line up. Since the last ten points were shared, though, he made do.
Jeb started redrawing the points of Least Shape Earth, going through the five points that Attuned his Mana to Earth. As it approached the sixth point, he started connecting the sixth point to each of the other points of the web. Remembering his struggle from the night before, Jeb made sure that the connections came as a single branching line, rather than a series of lines.
As he made it to the final ten points of the Glyph, Jeb felt his concentration start to waver. It was harder to hold a Glyph in mind when he didn’t actually know what it would totally look like. He considered the fact that he could have sketched out the shape of Lesser Shape Earth, but quickly dismissed that thought. It was too late for that. He would create this Glyph now.
Once he had connected the points together in the first layer, he could tell that there was a slight adjustment he would need to make. Dismissing Lesser Shape Water, he focused on the difference between the Glyph he was crafting and Least Shape Earth. As he expected, Least Shape Earth had a slightly different shape than he had ended up making. Carefully realigning the points, Jeb managed to align the first five and final ten points with Least Shape Earth.
Since he didn’t need it anymore, he dismissed Least Shape Earth. Though it was not a major reduction on his mental load, it was still helpful to not need to focus on it at all. Gritting his teeth, Jeb began forming the second layer of connections in the Glyph. When he finished, he saw the flow of light in the Glyph start to stabilize. He knew that it wouldn’t last, though, and refocused.
Through the growing headache in his mind, he started adding the third layer of connections. In the third layer, the first point connected to every other point, and he felt his mental load decrease significantly when it had. Still, just like emptying a cart at the end of a long day didn’t make pushing the empty cart easy, the pain in his head continued to grow.
When he connected the final pieces of the third layer of the Glyph, his vision blurred from the sudden lack of pain in his mind. It almost felt like all of the pain had shifted to his soul, but it quickly faded. As he looked at the new Spell Glyph in his Status, Jeb felt something wet on his lip.
He wiped his finger across his lip and looked at what was on it. It took him a moment to register that the red liquid now coating his finger was blood. “I wonder where that could have come from,” he said.
Paying more attention to his body, he felt the steady drip of blood from his nose. “Hmm,” Jeb thought aloud, “I hadn’t realized that intense focus would have actual physical repercussions.” As his mind slowly cleared, that interest slowly shifted to horror. There was no way at all that his nose bleeding from working could be anything but dangerous.
When his nose stopped bleeding, Jeb quickly cast Least Conjure Water to wipe his face off. As his stomach growled, he realized that he hadn’t been downstairs at all since before learning Lesser Shape Water. He walked down the stairs to see a number of his family sitting around the table.
Most were working on some small craft project. A number of them were darning socks or making other small repairs to their clothes. A few were making hats and mittens in preparation for the winter cold.
“Good afternoon,” an uncle called out as Jeb neared the table. “There’s some tea in the pot, and there’s some bread with preserves if you’re looking for a quick bite.”
“Thank you!” Jeb replied, making his way over to the pot that was kept at a constant simmer throughout the winter. Though Jeb had never loved the way that his family brewed tea, he had learned to adapt to it.
He poured a small mug and slathered a piece of bread with butter and preserves. Walking back to the table, he idly watched his family work. By the time he had finished his piece of bread, another of his uncles noticed him watching.
“Would you like to learn how to crochet?” he asked, holding up the single hook that he was using to make a hat.
At that offer, one of his aunts spoke up as well, “or would you like to learn how to knit?”
A few other family members called out their own offers to teach some sort of yarn work. Jeb almost refused, since he knew that he needed to make the most of the winter time to set himself up for a successful second year as a Classholder. Thinking about the blood that had just come from his work, though, he reconsidered. Maybe taking a break wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
“Which should I learn?” he asked. With the way that the room erupted, that was clearly the wrong question to ask. Each of his family members had their own strong opinion about which craft was best to learn, both in general and especially first.
Finally, though, the knitting contingent won. “So you’ll need two needles,” his aunt instructed, handing Jeb a pair of matching sticks. “The way you first put yarn on a needle is known as casting on.”
She demonstrated the technique a few times, and Jeb felt like he understood. He took the stick when it was offered and tried to put the yarn on it like his aunt had shown him. It was much harder than he had expected. When he finally figured it out, his aunt shook her head and tsked.
“It’s my fault for not telling you,” she said, undoing his work, “but you also need to watch your tension while casting on. If you cast on with too much tension, it will be almost impossible for you to get the next row of stitches in.” She demonstrated a few more times, and Jeb noted that the yarn seemed much looser around the needle than it had when he had cast on.
Handing him back the needle, Jeb tried casting on again. By the time that his soul and mind felt totally recovered, he still hadn’t learned to cast on to the satisfaction of his surrounding family members. A few of them suggested other methods for casting on, but his aunt silenced them.
“It’s better for him to learn a single technique first. Once he’s gotten that well learned, you can teach him whichever other method you’d rather.”
“I think I need to get back to work,” Jeb said, “but thank you so much for teaching me!”
“Absolutely,” his aunt said, “whenever you need a break again, just come down. We’ll be working here all winter.”
Jeb nodded and walked back to his room. Inside his room, he realized that he hadn’t ever accepted the Quest Reward for making a Third Tier Glyph.
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Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Glyphmastery Fifth Tier Glyph Chain “Create a Third Tier Glyph”. Like a true Glyphmaster, you were not bound by others’ Glyphs. Rewards: 97 Experience, Mana Depth +8, Willpower +8, Mana +50, Unlock Glyph Chain Fourth Tier Glyph
The sudden influx of Statistics nearly brought Jeb to his knees. Maybe I’ll just lie down for a moment, he thought to himself, moving over to his bed. Once inside his bed, he watched the world slowly spin around him. Somehow, it wasn’t disorienting at all.
As he watched the shadows slowly move around the room from the setting sun, Jeb felt his mind and body start to reequilibrate. He walked back down the stairs and saw his grandfather.
“Are you alright, Jeb?” his grandfather asked, seeming concerned.
“I think so?” Jeb replied, confused. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just the way you’re carrying yourself,” his grandfather replied cryptically. “Did you manage to create a Third Tier Glyph?”
“I did!” Jeb replied happily.
“So then Magic Affinity is no longer your highest Statistic?”
Jeb looked at his Status. “No, I suppose that it isn’t.”
“That explains it, then,” his grandfather started nodding. Before Jeb could ask what it explained, his grandfather continued, “when your highest Statistic changes, it can cause some disorientation in your soul. Compared to the overall disorientation of getting a new Class, it’s hardly anything, but you’ve had your Class long enough that your body, mind, and soul were all starting to mesh together. How long was Magic Affinity your highest Statistic?”
Jeb looked through his Quest log. “While I was learning Brewing it overtook my other Statistics,” Jeb replied. “I think that it’s been the highest since then.”
“That would make it even more disorienting,” his grandfather replied. “Thankfully, it shouldn’t be this bad if your top Statistic changes again soon.”
Jeb nodded and turned to his aunt. “I’m ready to try knitting again.”
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 8443/100
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Total Statistic Load: 385 ->402 Physical Load: 139 Strength: 33 Dexterity: 26 Endurance: 35 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 246 ->263 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 54 ->62 Magic Affinity: 58 ->59 Mana Depth: 39 ->47 Charisma: 48
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Mana: 1580 ->1630
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Glyph Attunement: 30 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 Lesser Shape Earth Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water - Efficient Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Water Tier 3 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Water 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 Glassblowing
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)