As Jeb’s Mana ran out, he looked at his Status. His Mental Statistics were finally in line, but his Physical Statistics were lagging horribly behind. Since all of his Physical Statistics were more or less the same value, Jeb did the math and found that his limiting factor would be that his highest Physical Statistic had to be no higher than 53.
He had more than a month with very few obligations, so Jeb had no concerns that he would be able to raise his Statistics to their proper levels. Falling back into the routine he’d started to develop in the summer and fall, Jeb started to stretch his muscles.
It was a little embarassing, to say the least. While he could still touch his toes, it took far more effort than he ever remembered it taking in the past. Note to self, Jeb thought, “even if I’m not going to complete a Quest for stretching, I need to make sure to do some stretching every day.” Thankfully, the pain started to fade as he held the position longer. Jeb felt the tinglings of his Athletics Skill activating. Even though he knew it was a crutch to rely on the Skill, he let himself rely on it for the day.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Athletics First Tier “Stretch” You have improved your Dexterity. Rewards: 1 Dexterity, 19 EXP
The same ended up being true as he went on his run. Jeb knew that he would be in worse condition than he remembered, so he intentionally took the run out slower than normal. Still, just a few minutes in, he realized how much his Endurance had suffered over the winter. He tried to remember what he had occupied himself with during other winters, and realized that he had played around in the snow far more than he did this year. Though he didn’t regret the time that he spent working on songs, it was still a good reminder that he needed to listen to his entire body proactively.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Running First Tier “Run” You have outlasted your Endurance. Rewards: 1 Endurance, 19 EXP
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Athletics Second Tier “Move” You have increased your Vitality. Rewards: 2 Vitality, 39 EXP
After the run, Jeb cast a quick blast of Least Conjure Water -Efficient, noting how much more easily he was able to do so. At first, he just chalked it up to the Spell Glyph being so much more efficient. As he moved into the barn to lift weights, he realized that his vastly higher Statistics probably had just as much to do with it, if not far more.
Thankfully, his muscles had not atrophied anywhere nearly as much as the rest of his body. While it was still a struggle for Jeb to lift the weights, it was much less than he had been preparing himself for.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Lifting First Tier “Lift” You have grown your Strength. Rewards: 1 Strength, 19 EXP
As he finished putting the weights away, Jeb noticed that he was getting a pinging message from his Bound hive. Curious, he made his way back to the structure, curious what they could need. He watched the bees dance, slowly piecing together what they were trying to communicate.
“The hive is too full?” he asked, seeking confirmation. The bees buzzed their agreement.
“I’m not completely sure what that means I’m supposed to do,” Jeb admitted, “but I’ll go ask my aunt right away.” The bees gave their assent, and he rushed off to the brewery, hopeful that his Aunt Esther would be inside. To his relief, she was.
“Happy Spring!” she said, turning a barrel of malt. “What can I help you with, Jeb?”
“The bees told me that their hive was too full,” he said. “I have vague memories of you saying that meant I either need to harvest honey or add another frame, but I don’t really know how to do either.”
His aunt laughed. “Yes, either of those is an appropriate answer. I can come by after I finish toasting this malt if that works for you.”
Jeb nodded and sat down to wait for his aunt to finish what she was working on. Thankfully, it seemed as though she had been mostly done before he had come in, because a few minutes later, she dumped the barrel into an empty container and started walking towards Jeb’s hive.
As they approached, Jeb noticed that she was putting on her protective gear. Seeing Jeb’s confusion, his aunt explained, “I’m not their Beekeeper, so it would be completely normal for your hive to be a little panicked if I start moving things around in their hive. You’re not just in charge of the hive, you’re even Bound to it, so I don’t expect that you’ll have the same issues.”
“What are you planning to do?” Jeb asked in response.
His aunt nodded. “I’m going to open the structure to see whether taking honey out of the hive will be enough to get us through at least the spring, or if we’ll also need to start building another frame. In either case, though, we should harvest some of the honey.”
“That makes sense!” Jeb said. “Where do we put the honey that we’ve harvested.” His aunt paused.
Without another word, she turned around, went back to the brewery and picked up a few glass jars.
At the hive, Jeb explained what they were going to do, and the bees accepted the proposal. “They want us to take the Fire Honey,” Jeb said to his aunt. “Apparently that was the easiest to condense over the winter time.”
His aunt muttered something that sounded like “Of course the hive is so alert this early in the season. They had a heater inside of their hive.”
The bees started buzzing their confusion, so Jeb reassured them that his Aunt Esther knew what she was doing. With the lid open, his aunt nodded and started explaining.
“If we take most of the Fire Honey,” she said, “I think that we can make it through at least the middle of summer before we’ll need to expand the hive. Though, I am a little worried about how much Mana is in the honey. You’ll need to find a use for it as soon as possible.”
“What about making mead?” Jeb suggested. “Or is that a bad idea?”
His aunt thought about it. “A low strength mead could be a good choice,” she confirmed. “Though that will mean that you need to make some fermenting vessel fireproof so the Mana doesn’t do anything to it.”
“Don’t we have glass and metal fermenting vessels?” Jeb asked, confused.
“It would be incredible if Fire Mana made sense like that,” his aunt said. “Unfortunately, unused Mana finds a way to be used. Since the Mana in that honey is so fully aspected to FIre, it will manifest in Fire.”
“How can I fireproof a fermenter?” Jeb asked.
“Historically, people would use wood that had been Elementally Attuned to whatever element they wanted to store, but for obvious reasons, that’s no longer quite as doable.”
Jeb brightened at that. “I can make a barrel that does that!” he exclaimed.
“Do you think that you can make Fire Attuned Wood while there’s mead fermenting in the container?”
“Absolutely,” Jeb replied. His aunt finished collecting the honey, and Jeb told the bees about his plan. They all seemed comfortable with the plan, so he followed his aunt back.
Inside the brewery, Jeb’s aunt walked him through the process of making a weak mead.
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“Adding nutrients is still important, but obviously less so,” she said. Jeb looked at the list of nutrient requirements that his aunt had pulled up in a book and felt Brewing activate. He mentally rejected the Skill’s assistance, remembering his conversation with his grandfather.
Doing the small amount of calculations that it would take to figure out how much of what to add when was easier than he would need his Skill for. He poured the water and honey into a barrel his aunt had set aside for him, mixed it thouroughly, and measured its density. Jeb added the appropriate amount of nutrients and then turned to his aunt.
“Am I going to wild ferment this?” he asked.
His aunt shrugged. “If you want. I would recommend using a known yeast, though, especially since it’s your first time brewing from scratch.” She pointed to the yeast collection. “I think item sixty seven E should have the best yeast for this situation.”
Jeb walked over and pulled out the appropriate drawer. He grabbed a scoop, and as he went to take up some of the dried yeast, his aunt stopped him.
“I can tell that you aren’t using your Brewing Skill right now. That’s fine for measuring ingredients, but not collecting yeast. I don’t want to take the risk of infecting the master or not pitching an appropriate amount.”
Jeb nodded. Both of those sounded like tasks that he would need the Skill for, especially if he kept Brewing at higher Tiers. He felt the Skill start to guide his actions as he took a scoop of yeast and mixed it into the must.
When he went to seal the container, he felt his Skill push back. His aunt agreed with his Skill, so Jeb started thinking about how to carve an intentionally inefficient Attune Fire Mana Glyph into the barrel. To his surprise, his mind supplied an answer immediately.
“Is there an extra barrel I can practice on to make sure I have the Glyph done correctly?” he asked. His aunt tossed him a barrel and he quickly etched lines of Mana into it. When he flowed Mana through, the barrel glowed a dull red and emitted a smokey trail.
Excited, he quickly carved the same path into the barrel he was fermenting. Once he had carved it, he started pouring Mana in. He stopped when his Mana was empty and started talking to his aunt about options for what to do with the Fire Mead he was about to have.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 9611/100
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Total Statistic Load: 484 ->489 Physical Load: 139 ->144 Strength: 33 ->34 Dexterity: 26 ->27 Endurance: 35 ->36 Vitality: 41 ->43 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 345 Intelligence: 68 Willpower: 75 Magic Affinity: 74 Mana Depth: 64 Charisma: 64
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Mana: 1755
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Glyph Attunement: 31 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 (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Water (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 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 (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient (Modified) 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 Glyph Specializer
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)