Jacob walked into the shop that Gerald had set up as a temporary study. The shopkeeper was already used to him coming by once a month, so Jacob just waved as he stepped into the back room.
A pile of open books sat on the floor by his feet, their pages fluttering in the draft from the door. Gerald let out a long, frustrated groan and tossed the tuning fork onto the desk, where it landed with a ring.
"The feedback loop is entirely wrong," Gerald muttered, rubbing his eyes with ink-stained fingers. "The manual says the mana field resonance should be stable, but this thing feels like it's trying to shake a hole in the physical fabric of its localized space."
Jacob cleared his throat, realizing that his mage friend might not have noticed his entry. This provoked an annoyed look from Gerald, before his countenance turned to joy upon seeing his little farmer friend.
"Jacob! You're early! But it is nice to see you," Gerald said as he got up from his seat to shake his friend's hand.
Jacob was a little surprised by the mage's chipper attitude, but shook his hand with a friendly smile.
"It's good to see you too, Gerald," he replied as Gerald motioned for him to sit.
Taking a seat, Jacob continued, "How have things been? Is this crystal giving you trouble?"
"Oh, things have been just fine. This crystal is just a fun little project, an exercise if you will. No need to fret over it. How have you been, though? Have you come early due to a breakthrough?"
"Well, I have had a breakthrough," Jacob began. "But I've been doing quite well with enchanting also. I actually managed to create an automatic seeding mechanism with a tinkerer from the village, and it has had promising field tests. Also, I have figured out how to expand internal spaces quite reliably."
Gerald was nodding his head with a serious expression, but internally, he was freaking out a little.
Expanded spaces! Damnit, how long has he been doing this? I need to get a nice expanded knapsack. Ok. Just stay calm and try to casually ask for one later.
He kept his serious expression up as he listened to Jacob, though.
"And," Jacob continued. "I figured out how to actually use magic. That's why I came a bit early. I wasn't sure where to go after making a few spells and getting them to the power I needed to actually use them."
That piqued Gerald's attention.
He asked, "Oh? You actually managed to create an activation method? Have you figured out density?"
Jacob nodded. "I think so, but I can only get it just powerful enough to harm low-rank monsters. Although I'm not sure if I could get through another dungeon without a C-rank adventurer like last time."
Gerald gave him a weird look. "Another dungeon?"
"Ah!" Jacob began in surprise, looking a bit sheepish. "I forgot to mention that. Yes, that adventurer you mentioned last time, who advanced to B-rank, Carlos, he took me into a dungeon to get the salt grass I needed to revive some fields on my farm."
"What the fuck?" Gerald blurted out. "You not only went into a dungeon, which is supposed to be impossible for someone your age, by the way, but you also pulled out a magical herb and then cultivated it on a mundane farm? I thought you only had one magical breakthrough?"
Now, Jacob was looking at Gerald in confusion. "I didn't know it was a magical herb. Old Thom just said I could use it to fix the salting problem in a field I was using. Is it not normal to cultivate a magical herb on a farm? And what do you mean it's supposed to be impossible for someone my age? Is it because of the system?"
Now Gerald was reeling, a feeling of doom hanging over his head. But the punishment he expected never came.
"Who the hell told you about that? And how? Yes, it's supposed to be impossible for you to even enter a gate because of," he felt a tickle in his throat, "well, you know. You would typically not even be able to enter, much less clear the damned thing. You're lucky such a powerful adventurer took you through it. I bet it was hell, even if you did somehow manage to clear the dungeon."
Gerald then cleared his throat as he tried to regain his posture. "And as for the herb, it requires special magical conditions to even be able to be cultivated. A mundane field wouldn't work unless it's near a source. And last I checked, Ruvka is quite far from one of the six sources in the kingdom."
Jacob thought for a second before replying. "Well, apparently, the system let the adventurers talk about the system while we were inside the gate, so that's how I learned about that. As for those magical conditions, would a greenhouse with a magically expanded interior and weather control work?"
Gerald facepalmed. "Of course, you accidentally created a herbarium. We are getting off topic. You need some help with casting magic, it's obvious that you don't need any help with enchanting."
"Yes," Jacob replied, "I seem to have reached a wall in my self-studies, and I was hoping you could point me in the right direction."
"Alright," Gerald replied as he stood up, "lets go somewhere that you can show me."
He gestured for Jacob to follow him before leaving his study and turning down the hallway that led further into the back of the shop. Eventually, the hall opened into a courtyard with an open ceiling.
There were some trees and a bench along one side, but the other side had a few practice targets for ranged attack practice as well as a couple for sword practice.
Gerald led him over to the targets for ranged practice and had him stand about thirty paces from them.
"Go ahead and show me what you can do," Gerald told him as he pointed at the targets. "Don't worry about damaging them, they are expendible."
Jacob started with his simple fireball, barely causing a burn mark on the target. His wind ruffled the simple clothes a bit since the target was stationary, and the cutting spell barely caused a scratch.
"Then," Jacob said as he summoned his weak fireball once more, "this is what I have figured out for density."
He condensed the ball and then coaxed the core of it to spin with increasing complexity until it had expanded to its original size as a hot ball of bright yellow flame.
Gerald nodded at the result but refrained from saying anything.
Jacob urged the ball to hit the intended target, and the magic complied with a silent explosion at the chest of the target. It caused the wood to char and the ragged clothes to burst into flame, but it was still standing.
Gerald waved his hand and muttered under his breath, causing a fountain of water to put an end to the smoldering of the wood.
"Your control is excellent, and casting is silent at that. How many spells can you cast at the same time?"
Instead of telling Gerald right away, Jacob cast his flight spell, which he had finally managed to master before the trip to Thornhold.
"This spell takes four separate spells to be cast at the same time, with the lightness and force spells being spun up to increase their power."
"This is good," Gerald began in reply as he nodded his head, stroking his chin as he spoke, "being able to multi-cast four spells at once like that is probably good enough. That person I spoke to you about, he can tell you what I cannot. I think you are ready, so lets go meet him."
"Should we fly?" Jacob asked.
Gerald shook his head, "Heavens no! We would be blasted out of the sky! This is Thornhold, the frontier city. Although it's not as big as the interior cities, it is still well defended, and flying within it is prohibited unless it's within a building or courtyard like this."
He motioned for Jacob to follow him back through the door, "Let us walk on foot, we are going to the Adventurers District!"
Jacob's face lit up at that, since the adventurers district had been on the list of things he wanted to see. Getting into that district was supposed to be difficult for him since he was not an adventurer or a merchant that could supply the adventurers, but he was sure a show of magic could get him in.
Now, with Gerald leading the way, he was sure it would be a breeze to walk right in and see what the adventurers area in the frontier town had to offer.