The festival went by quickly, with May and Lila managing to sell all of the goods from their basket of poultices. Caleb and Arthur also kept themselves busy selling relatively cheap enchanted tools.
Oren had even shown up and watched Old Thoms fireworks with Jacob and Sera after the fire dancers had finished their show.
After the show was done, they all made their way back to the Hemlock farm for dinner. May even brought out another chocolate cake with candles in it to celebrate Jacob's birthday early.
After dinner, May put Lila down for the night while everyone else made their way to the back porch to loiter.
May came out and addressed the small crowd, "She was quite tired from the festival. All that dancing with her friends at the end of the night was quite draining for her, I suppose. Shall we head to the greenhouse to show Jacob the herbs and peppers we have been growing all summer?"
There were mumblings of agreement around as everyone shifted their conversations toward the greenhouse, as May led the way, Sera walking to catch up to her. She wanted to help introduce the herbs and peppers with May, since she had put in a lot of work to help them flourish.
Upon entering the greenhouse, the group was assaulted with varying degrees of heat and humidity depending on where they stood. The enchantment Jacob had placed previously worked to facilitate an optimal environment for the individual plants, which prevented any one spot from being the same as another.
They brought the small group to their first set of herbs in the greenhouse, and May started the introductions.
"These are all medicinal herbs," she began, "This one is called shepherd's purse, and it is great for making a poultice that promotes healing damaged skin."
She pointed to a cute little grass-looking herb with bow-tie-shaped leaves and white poofs at the top of it.
"This one is called the pomiferen dwarf shrub, and we can use every part from the bark to the fruit to treat any type of infection. We can even create a salve for eye wounds that our other plants can't treat."
Jacob leaned over to see what looked like a shelf full of small bonsai trees, each one adorned with broad leaves and round green fruits that had a sort of sappy white syrup coating parts of them.
He reached out to touch one, but Sera spoke up before he could, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. That sap on the fruits is hard to get off of skin, and it's really annoying when you get it on you."
Jacob considered trying it anyway and removing the sap with magic, but he refrained as May continued the introductions. She and Sera both introduced several more herbs that they were cultivating to be made into different poultices and salves, as well as teas, all meant to help one ailment or another.
The main thing that Jacob noticed about each of the plants is that they seemed to have a tiny magical field coming off of them, marking them as quasi-magical herbs. Their magical field was not as powerful as the salt-grass sitting in the corner. That was a true magical herb from a dungeon.
But he could tell that they were powerful enough to do more than just help ailments. They were likely cures to the illness they were intended for thanks to the singing that Sera did for them.
Once the introduction to the herbs was done, May stepped to the back corner, opposite from the salt grass. Jacob could see some different colored peppers growing in different sizes, but the brown ones caught his attention for some reason.
May noticed his gaze and smiled, "Yes, these are the chocolate peppers I use to make our cakes and other sweets."
Jacob's mind short-circuited for a moment before he could think to himself, What the fuck?
He looked at his mother with a bit of astonishment plastered on his face as he asked, "Since when does chocolate come from peppers?"
May now looked a little confused, but she soon realized the problem, "Oh, you've never seen me make the chocolate in the kitchen, have you? I guess it's just Caleb that has even been so impatient he wanted to watch the process."
That caused Caleb to chuckle, but Jacob reached out, still a bit astonished, and picked what looked like a ripe pepper.
To her credit, Sera tried to speak up before Jacob could bite into it, but she didn't realize he would put half the pepper into his mouth instead of just take a closer look at it.
"Uh, I wouldn't..."
*Crunch*
The texture was smooth and creamy, like milk chocolate from Earth, and it was already quite sweet on its own, but he could tell his mother had sweetened their chocolate. Then, the violent burst of spice ripped through his mouth, leaving his eyes watering as he started drooling due to how terribly spicy it was.
Arthur could be seen rushing through the doors of the greenhouse as Caleb just pointed and laughed at his younger brother, learning the hard way not to bite into a chocolate pepper.
"Gah!"
He couldn't even speak as his mouth was assaulted with too much spice. It was like a ghost pepper had a baby with a Carolina reaper, and the baby absorbed the spice from both parents and concentrated it into something greater than the sum of its parts.
Jacob still had the presence of mind to heal his mouth with restorative magic to simply fix the problem, but it was only a temporary reprieve as the oils from the pepper were still in his mouth.
He tried water magic, but the water was repelled by the oils instead of solvating them, and he did not have the focus to grab the oils directly with his magic, as that required a bit of finesse since he had never had to try it before.
While May was rubbing his back, telling him it would be ok, Arthur rushed into the barn with a glass of what looked to be milk. He placed it in Jacob's hands, whose eyes were clouded with tears, and told him to drink it.
"This will neutralize the spice, just drink it," he told Jacob.
The young mage was ready to try anything, so he took a deep swig and swished it around his mouth. It really did start neutralizing the spice, so he continued to drink the glass of what he assumed to be milk.
When he was done, he looked at the glass, and sure enough, he was drinking milk. He looked at his dad with a questioning look, and Arthur answered the unspoken question.
"It's goat's milk," he said with a bit of a chuckle. "This is unprocessed, as your mother and Sera already portioned the good stuff to make the chocolate cake."
Jacob was confused as to why that was a point, but he took another swig to make sure the taste was out of his mouth and swallowed this time to make sure he wouldn't get an upset stomach. As soon as he did, his stomach flopped and started cramping.
"Don't heal it yet. It needs to run its course for a couple of minutes to neutralize anything you swallowed." May said before he could try healing himself, "It might suck now, but it's much better than what you will have to deal with later otherwise."
Jacob doubled over with his hands across his abdomen as he nodded his head, and when May said it should be fine, he finally used his restorative magic to fix his stomach cramps. It was instant relief, but it brought up more questions.
"Why does it hurt like that?" he asked his parents, but this time it was Caleb who answered.
"You don't know this, but we feed them bullyweed. If you tried chewing some of that rough grass, it would do the same thing, but it's ten times worse."
Jacob looked at his brother as he gave out the answer with a bit of melancholy in his voice, and Jacob could tell he didn't want to talk about it. At this point, he was not giggling at Jacobs' plight, but seemed to be sympathetic.
Standing up, Jacob addressed his family and friends, "Lets take this to the barn. I think I'm done with these plants for now."
Without waiting for the group, Jacob walked out of the warm greenhouse into the chilly fall air and over to the barn.
Since he was the first to arrive at the workbench, he lit the lamp himself and started looking at the tools that were already set out. Some were enchanted, but most lacked the touch of magic.
Caleb stepped up next to him and took a small hammer into his hands, etching tool already out.
"Let me show you what I can do now," Caleb said as he began his work on the hammer.
Behind them, Jacob could hear some chatter from his parents as well as Oren and Sera. They were all interested in seeing what Caleb and Jacob could do with their magic.
When he looked back to his older brother, he could see a bead of sweat forming on his forehead, but he also noticed that most of the first set of runes were nearly completed. This surprised Jacob, but he quickly realized the reason.
Even with the increase in harvests, they still have extra free time since one person can harvest all the fields by using an ox or the mule and switching animals out as needed.
As he watched, Caleb quickly managed to finish the strengthening and durability enchantment he wanted for the hammer.
He handed the hammer to Jacob for his younger brother to check the magical enchantment with his own magic.
Jacob took it, already knowing the result as he watched the runes stick around and shimmer before seemingly sinking into the material of the hammer itself, and probed it with his own mana. He felt a steady flow from the runes into the hammer, covering every corner of the material, feeding it with the magic that strengthened and enhanced it.
"It's amazing, Caleb," Jacob honestly praised, "This hammer will probably never break as long as you don't try to kill monsters with it."
His joke went over well, as there were chuckles around, and he handed the hammer back to his older brother.
"Now," Caleb said with the hammer in his hands, "lets see what our mighty tier 1 mage can do."
He said that last part with a smile and a wink as he backed up next to the others.
Jacob gave a small nod and grabbed a mallet before turning to show everyone what he would do.
He pulled out his nice mithril etching tool but held it with his magic rather than his own hand, then he started inscribing the runes with the tool as he channeled his intent through the material at the same time.
With his current level of power, it was easy to accomplish the binding process between the different techniques, and he managed to solidify the runes as they were written through his intent while strengthening the material of the tool.
As this was his first time enchanting since he turned his core, he quickly noticed a problem. He had been trying to enchant as he had previously, but the amount of power he had with the same volume of magic was basically doubled.
This, in turn, resulted in an overload soon after he finished the second rune. The runes were still stable; they had a fixed amount of power for their upper limit, but his intent shaping seemed to be able to pour more mana into the field of the material than it could hold.
Thus, without any warning, the hammer exploded into a multitude of fragments that shot in every direction. Oren was quick to cross his arms in front of his own body as he stepped in front of Arthur, May, and Sera.
Caleb flinched and hastily put his hands in front of his face.
Jacob just sighed. He had improved his reflexes during training, and employing a shield of pure force took shape before he even fully formed the thought. All of the fragments of wood and metal flying at everyone stopped dead in their tracks before dropping to the floor.
"Sorry, everyone. It seems my method of enchanting will have to wait until I have more sturdy materials."
Arthur walked up and patted his son on the back while everyone took time to adjust to the quick series of events.
They were surprised both that he managed to cause a hammer to explode in such a fashion and that he managed to stop it from hurting everyone and making a huge mess in the barn.
"It's alright, Jacob," Arthur said as he patted him on the back, "You'll need some time to get used to your own power. Let me give it a try."
Jacob stepped aside as Arthur pulled out his own enchanting tool and grabbed a small hand rake that might be used in the greenhouse.
He inscribed the runes for sharpness for the points of the rake, and the runes to increase the durability of the material. He then integrated the runes into a greater enchantment through intent, further increasing the durability of the materials and the sharpness of the points on the rake.
Jacob was always amazed to see someone else use his enchantment method, and, as Arthur sat down to rest after completing the enchantment, he voiced his thoughts.
"I think I need to see if you can put a core into these enchantments. I wonder if Intent Shaping would allow you to do that."
Arthur scratched his chin, but before he could respond, his gaze was caught by something at the barn door.
"Oh, it's almost time. We should all head outside."
Jacob looked over at the barn door as he started walking to the exit with everyone else, but he was unable to see what his father was talking about.
They positioned themselves around the porch where May and Arthur took their places in their rocking chairs.
"Now, Jacob, you don't need to do this, but we always have the child experiencing the awakening stand directly in the moonlight. But you can stand under the porch with us if you want."
Jacob stepped out into the dim light cast by the light moon and looked up to see it covering the dark moon. It was actually nearly fully covering the dark moon already, which made it hard to see the outline of the second moon, but he could tell that they were about to overlap completely.
Without looking back at his family, he replied, "I think I'll stand out here after all."
He could feel with his magic that Arthur was already recovering his magic with his new skill, so he decided to focus on his own magic and see if he could feel anything from the system as he turned 12 under the moonlight.
Suddenly, the dim light cast by the light moon seemed to brighten, as if covering the dark moon caused its own brightness to increase for some reason.
Jacob was now officially 12 years old. They all looked at him with expectant gazes, looking for the typical blue glow of the system energy descending on a newly awakened child.
Jacob was not sure what to expect, but he closed his eyes in case it was painful like the time he awakened his memories. Instead of an overwhelming deluge of information, though, he felt a soft knock or nudge on his personal magic.
Realization dawned on him that his own magical power was too dense for the system to integrate normally. It had to request his permission to become a part of his power.
Jacob answered the knock by letting the slightest sliver of foreign energy in, and the energy formed words visible in his mind's eye.
Communication Channel: Established successfully.
Message: System requests integration.
Confirm Integration: Yes or No?
Jacob's breath caught in his chest for a moment. He had the choice here. He could go without the system and develop his magic without needing to worry about the guardrails the system puts in place that he had witnessed on the magic his own father utilized.
Without the system, at least I wouldn't have to worry about that stupid geas.
System Notice: Geas was implemented for protection of non-integrated lifeforms. Analysis suggests fewer early deaths occur with utilization of geas.
Ok, Jacob thought to himself once more, I guess 'Communication Channel' meant a two-way process. This thing is really in my head.
And just to confirm, the system responded once again.
System Acknowledgement: Confirmed. Communication Channel is established for integration purposes. Accept or Refuse integration.
His friends and family looked on as a distorted version of the blue light they were accustomed to hovered around Jacob instead of directly being absorbed by him, but they could see that it was doing something. They were just not sure what.
During this time, Arthur was steadily refilling his mana with his skill, trying to figure out how it worked as Jacob awakened his own system.
As Jacob considered whether to integrate the system or not, he finally remembered the last thing about the system he had learned from that old man in the white space.
That old man said the system is just a crutch, and to truly master magic, I will need to get my own 'feel' for it. I think I have already started that process, so the system probably won't get in the way in that case.
System Response: Affirmative. System integration will no longer interfere with magical growth.
System Suggestion: Confirm integration to access additional benefits.
With his options on the table and the understanding that integrating the system would likely only bring about benefits, Jacob now had to make his choice.
Do I integrate, or do I figure everything out on my own?