"I got the cores you wanted, a couple of boxes too. Will this do?"
Frank showed Jacob the gathered materials, and he nodded to the blacksmith before enchanting the boxes one at a time. After working on the higher rank materials, the low-level stuff was just a quick flex of his mana.
His stuff was already loaded up onto his trailer in the boxes he had brought with him, so after finishing up his deal with the blacksmith, Jacob got on his wagon and headed home.
The trip back was uneventful, and he managed to turn a D-rank earth core into an anchored enchantment for his sword. Now he had an Aegis of Earth for his own protection.
After getting back to the farm, he unloaded his boxes into the barn. His brother, Caleb, came along and helped him after he spotted Jacob from across the field as Jacob rode up to the gate on the wagon.
Jacob then headed to the village to grab Bran. They needed to get started on the harvester as soon as they could, and they still had daylight to burn. The trip there was shortened by his flight spell, which he decided he needed to get better acquainted with now.
They had to walk back, but with Bran present, they unloaded and sorted all of the materials that they had picked out together. The blacksmith was quite skilled with custom parts, and it showed with the precision of every piece.
Putting things together was quite easy for Bran, especially with Jacob's mage-hand spell of pure force that he invented while wrangling the pigs. Being able to stand in one spot and lift or move exactly as Bran needed expedited things beyond what they thought possible before starting the process.
Before long, they had the frame and many of the moving parts put together, but Bran had to leave for the day. They decided to meet up in the morning as soon as the sun woke them. In the meantime, Jacob had some things to take care of with his family.
They were already eating when he made it to the house after seeing Bran to the property gate. Caleb was talking with his mouth full while using his hands to illustrate something that had happened that day. Lila was watching him with fascinated eyes, Arthur and May were laughing, and Sera even had a bit of a smile on her face.
She was still quite melancholy since he grandmother had died, but she was slowly coming out of the devastating portion of her grief.
Jacob just grabbed a seat next to Sera, and May passed him a plate. After eating, they all retreated to the hearth as usual, and Jacob had some time to talk to Arthur while they whittled on some split wood.
"You seem to have something on your mind after that trip to Thornhold, son," Arthur said to Jacob as they whittled together near the fire. "Anything new you wanted to tell me?"
Jacob nodded, unsure of how to tell his father about the little adventure he had planned, as well as the matter of accepting a master who had many answers he was unable to find in the village.
"Well," Jacob began, "I met up with Gerald, and he introduced me to the guild master of the adventurers' guild. He ended up being a powerful warrior-mage who took me on as his apprentice after I showed him my magic."
Arthur just nodded to Jacob, so he continued.
"He showed me what I need to work on, and is sending me to boot camp for the next few months. I have a couple of weeks right now to get my affairs in order, but I will be heading to the wilds in the north, past Thornhold."
Arthur nodded again, as he whittled on his stick for a while in contemplation.
"This new master of yours, he knows you are from Ruvka?" Arthur asked without looking up.
Jacob replied, "Yes, he and Gerald both know that I am from this village."
This caused Arthur to think some more as he continued to whittle his stick.
"Then," He began in reply, "I think this master of yours is either quite clever or just bold. I am not sure what his actual intentions are, but he knows that I won't object to this. And you will know why at the end of your trial year. But this is what the trial year is all about, anyway. I thought we would get to have many more experiences on the farm with the magic and engineering you have been up to lately, though it makes more sense that you would leave on an adventure."
Then, Arthur sighed.
"I know it is for the best that you go, and risk some danger, even if I don't like it. I would be a fool of a father if I did. Just remember to stay safe out there. Make some better defensive equipment before you leave, ok?"
Jacob nodded, "Of course, I plan for this training in the wilds to be just that. And, don't tell anyone I told you, but my master is going to send someone to watch out for me. Someone much stronger than normal. Stronger than Carlos was the last time he was here."
That caused Arthur to show visible relief.
"Well, you don't need my permission to go, but you have it. I won't pretend to like the idea of you heading into the wild woods, but I'll talk to your mother in the morning; it will be easier for her to know she has a couple more weeks with you around. But, I suppose you will be quite busy with whatever you and Bran have cooking up in my barn, am I right?"
Jacob nodded with a smile. "I have a feeling that the first harvest and the rest of summer will be much less intense than normal, even with the new fields once they are fully recovered."
They both returned to whittling their sticks for a while before tossing them into the fire and heading to bed.
Jacob did not go straight to sleep, though; he had a date with a sturdy dagger. He sat at his small wooden desk with an earth core and that dagger old Thom had given him several months ago.
I can finally pass this test and start enchanting things that Thom will actually find useful. I wonder what he will pay me, considering the level those items I enchanted for Gerald are at...
He grabbed his etching tool, the mithril glowing a bit as it passively breathed the ambient mana.
Then he replicated the process he went through with Gerald. First, he grabbed a C-rank earth core with Gentle Hand, provided by Gerald as part of his payment, after boosting it to the third enhancement.
It feels like I could actually push for a fourth enhancement this time if I could get the spin-geometry right, but why try to push it if I know this will work with the third enhancement? I can just try the fourth later.
Then he placed the core into the dagger. The difficulty was as hard as the wand, but with his previous experience, he did it with one hand this time while readying his etching tool by also boosting the small pseudo-core inside of it to the third enhancement.
With the core in place and the earth magic holding itself within the core of the dagger, he placed his runes.
This time, I should be able to place more enchantments, considering the sheer power the wand gave off last time. I bet I can do up to a fifth enchantment, if I do this right!
He created five three-dimensional enchantments this time. One for sharpness, one for durability, another for self-mending, then one that could be activated by the wielder to heal themselves by drawing on the power of the core as long as they were close to the ground, and then the fifth one that was constantly active to enhance the strength of the user.
Now, I just need to pull it all together.
And that is exactly where he started to see the error of his ways. The fifth enchantment proved to be a bit much for the balance of the earth core, and it started to push back. He could tell that it would work if he could get the connections to hold, but they did not want to stay in place for him any longer.
He had to draw on the full might of his power and focus each strand running through the dagger to the enchantments they were meant to power. Once he had them in place, he used a burst of intent with the last of his magic by running it through the empowered pseudo-core of his mithril etching tool, and it all clicked into place.
The dagger buzzed with the barely-contained power it now possessed as it drew in energy from the surroundings. Jacob was still unable to feel this elusive world-energy, but he could feel how his own magic that had filled the room during the enchanting process was being pushed around.
It seemed like he was nearing the cusp of understanding the way this strange energy operated, but the dagger finished filling up with power before the runes on the blade and hilt glowed brightly and then settled, seeming to become a dead piece of metal once again.
But Jacob could feel that faint connection he had with all of his enchanted gear, and he could tell it was the most powerful thing he had created up to this point. Then he couldn't feel it anymore. He couldn't even feel his own magic anymore.
His body was drenched in sweat, he was breathing heavily, and his vision was starting to go black.
Huh, so that's what it feels like to run out of magic...
With those thoughts, he fell back onto his bed and instantly started snoring. He had managed to fall asleep during the fall.
"Jacob."
He could hear a distant voice, pulling him from his darkness.
"Hey, Jacob, are you ok?"
He cracked an eyelid, and he found Bran standing in his doorway.
"Bran? Is it morning already?"
That caused the young tinkerer to laugh a bit.
"No, it's way past morning, it's actually time for lunch already."
Jacob's head was swimming, but he sat up, which instantly cleared his head, and he found the mental capacity to understand what was going on.
"Why didn't anyone wake me up?"
Bran shook his head, "We tried, believe me, but you just murmured something about a few more minutes. So we left you be, and Caleb helped me finish the harvester. We just need you to do the enchantments after lunch."
Jacob was taken by surprise. "Caleb helped?"
Bran nodded, "Yeah, he was surprisingly eager to help out in the barn, and Arthur said it was to help the farm anyway, so we got to it. Everyone is waiting for you in the dining room now. You should come eat."
Jacob nodded, "Yeah, alright, just let me clean up and get some clean clothes on."
With that, Bran headed to the dining room for lunch.
Geez, I can't believe I slept so long, but what's up with this sudden mental clarity?
He could now think much more clearly and even recall the small details of his experiments from the night before with more insight than when he was actively enchanting the materials. He could tell what he did right and where he needed to improve.
Then, he flexed his magical power, and it hugged him tightly like a heavy coat. But he could tell it was denser than usual, like it had grown.
Hmm, that's a nice surprise. I wonder why that happened. Well, I can probably ask Gerald or Master later. I gotta focus on this harvester and getting the dagger back to old Thom.
With that, he finished getting ready and headed to the dining room to eat with his family.
Lunch was already on the table by the time they got there.
May took one look at him and sighed, but then gave him a playful smile. "Well, there he is. We were starting to wonder if we'd have to drag you outside and toss you into the pond."
"I was tired," Jacob said.
Caleb involuntarily let out a laugh from his seat. "Tired? Bran and I built half your machine while you were dead to the world."
"More than half," Bran corrected, as he buttered some toast.
Arthur looked amused over the rim of his cup. "You pushed yourself too far, I could tell from the way you slept."
Jacob sat down and accepted the bowl May set in front of him. "Maybe a little, but it was worth it."
Sera studied him quietly from across the table, then tilted her head. "You look better than someone who just slept through half the day should."
That caused Jacob to smile widely, "I know, it's the weirdest thing. I have no idea why, but I feel amazing now."
Arthur nodded like he knew something they didn't, and Caleb was confused, but Bran was just focused on his toast. Lila, though, had to give her peace of mind.
"Well, I really wish I could sleep all day like that. But mom says it's unladylike!"
This elicited laughter from around the table, and Lila gave everyone a big smile on top.
When they were done eating, Lila, Sera, and May took up the dishes as the boys, and Arthur headed out to the barn.
They looked on at the newly-built harvester. A solid frame with many moving parts, all where they belonged, hooked up to a large wagon that Bran had brought over after his father had built it as a custom order.
It cost more than Jacob's entire armor set, including all of his swords, but he thought it would more than pay for itself in the months to come, especially after he enchanted some rods to speed up the growth factor in the fields.
He rubbed his hands together and was the first to speak.
"Alright, lets get this thing started. Caleb, you can put a strengthening line of runes on that length of the frame. Dad, what do you want to try?"
Caleb moved to the back where Jacob had pointed and got to work as Arthur replied.
"Well, I think I can handle doing a couple more enchantments than Caleb. Just let me know what you need, and I can handle it."
Jacob nodded, "In that case, I could use some lightness enchantments on the frame, but I need four different patterns on the four beams. Can you take care of that?"
Arthur replied, "Yeah, I should be able to get it done by the time Caleb gets his portion finished."
Then he moved to the side of the harvester to get to work.
Jacob pulled an E-rank earth core out of a pouch on his belt and got to work.
The front end, where the harvesting work would be done, was enchanted with the earth core, and he affixed it with three-dimensional runes to handle the strain the work would put on the mechanical parts while working with the earth to keep alignment. He was even going to utilize the natural affinity it had with gravity to keep the rollers as light or heavy as they needed to be.
After connecting the core to the enchantments with but a flex of his power, he pulled out an E-rank core to handle the sorting on the back end. The mechanics on this part that led into the wagon would separate wheat from chaff, and the mechanisms needed to flow smoothly.
When he was finished, he tied everything together with overlaying enchantments of intent to make sure the timing of everything would work properly, and it would all work together without exploding in a magical conflagration.
As he finished, Caleb and Arthur were also both done, and the enchantments all snapped together. The entire process lasted barely more than an hour. But all three of the enchanters were dripping in sweat. Jacob was less than Caleb and Arthur, but they had all pushed themselves in their own way.
Bran was already circling the machine with excitement in his eyes. He touched one section, then another, then looked back at Jacob with an expression that was half disbelief and half triumph.
"It took," Bran said.
Jacob tiredly smiled. "Yeah. I could feel it, and it didn't explode at all."
And this time, when he looked at what he had made, it didn't feel like luck.
It felt like he actually understood exactly how everything worked.
"Well," Arthur said from the side, "How about we take this thing for a test run? We have a field of salt grass that needs to be prepped for the growing season. It's the last field that is ready; the bulbs are already dying, just need to be sorted before we plant."
Jacob and Bran smiled widely as they shuffled to get Barnaby and his harness ready.
The test run was largely uneventful. They noticed a few adjustments that needed to be made to the enchantments to smooth out the harvesting process, and they had not managed to figure everything out at once, so Bran and Jacob decided to meet up throughout the week to get things working perfectly for the real harvests.
But it had worked for the most part.
Caleb and Arthur left to get some of the work for the day out of the way, leaving Jacob and Bran to put Barnaby in his pen with some fresh provender and the harvester in the barn.