Only Oren and Jacob had any interest in joining Arthur and Caleb in the barn. The girls all had something or another they thought would be more interesting to attend to in the house, while Mira slipped out the front door and back into the woods without saying goodbye, as was her style.
After entering the barn, the familiar scent of hay and treated leather found its way to Jacob's nose as Arthur lit the oil lamps around the workbench.
Arrayed on the large table were different tools that would be used around the farm, from shovels to billhooks.
Looking at the assortment of different tools, Jacob felt the need to ask about them, "How do we still have more tools to enchant on the farm if we put durability enchantments on nearly everything?"
Arthur looked over at his son as Caleb chuckled a bit.
"Well, son," Arthur replied, "Even with the durability enchantments, tools still wear down and break. But we also sell them to our neighbors for a bit of coin here and there when we need to buy more for practice."
Jacob nodded his head in understanding, but could not, for the life of him, remember ever seeing them trading farm tools with the neighbors.
Arthur passed a sickle to Jacob while the young mage was lost in his own thoughts.
"Take a look, and tell me what you see," Arthur said as he handed over the tool.
Jacob took it into his hands and used his own mana to get a feel for the enchantment.
Looks fairly standard with a sharpness and durability set of runes along the blade, he thought to himself as he looked at the enchantments with his mana, except for this part in the handle, oh. OH! That's a formless enchantment tied to the runes!
He looked up to his father, who was grinning at him, and then to Caleb, who was smiling widely with his teeth.
"You merged the enchantments, intent with runes?!" Jacob blurted out, a bit astonished.
Caleb was nodding his head while Arthur replied, "Well, you can do it, so why can't I?"
Before Jacob could ask as he looked back at his brother, Caleb stated, "I haven't learned how to shape my magic with intent yet, but I have managed to increase how much I can enchant at once."
"Well, this is great news," Jacob said, and then looked back at his father, "I can tell that the enchantments are tied together. Can I see your process?"
Picking up another tool that had yet to be enchanted, Arthur grinned and pulled out his etching tool, "Of course, that's why we came out here, isn't it?"
"I thought you guys wanted to hear what really happened during that attack at the grove," Jacob replied while watching his father begin etching runes.
Without looking up, Arthur nodded his head solemnly.
Oren also fixed his gaze on Jacob instead of the enchantment process as Jacob stated what he left out at the dinner table, "The attack was quite sudden, but the adventurers overseeing the training were fierce. We had mostly gathered together when the weaker Zinthar attackers had broken through the defenses, and we mounted our counteroffensive. Long story short, we started with around eighty or so trainees and ended with close to forty."
That caused Oren to jolt a bit while Arthur furrowed his brows while finishing up the last couple of runes. Caleb's eyes went wide as he realized the implication of that attack, his jaw going a bit slack.
There was silence until Arthur finished up his runes, and he faced his son with a stern gaze, "I'll need to have a few words with that guild master. Exposing you to such danger is too much."
Jacob quickly raised his hands as he explained his own situation, "While that might be the case, I was personally fine. I just used my flight spell and rained fire from above. I was just too slow to help everyone at once."
And before Arthur could reply once more, a soft feminine voice came from somewhere in the shadows of the rafters above their heads, the voice hard to pinpoint as it bounced around the roof of the barn.
"Jacob was never in any real danger, Arthur Hemlock. I made sure of that. A few trainers of the guild had to give their lives fighting as I protected your son."
Jacob had suspected as much, but hearing it spoken out loud was disheartening. He had thought that his ability to fight had been enough, but he also realized that getting lucky by only being hit with arrows that his enchanted armor could tank was too good to be true. Especially when he was facing a battalion from the enemy army.
Arthur was still a bit upset about the danger, but he realized that the guild master really did account for the possible trouble by sending this particularly powerful adventurer with Jacob.
"I still don't like it," Arthur said, "but look at this part of the enchantment," he grumbled as he considered what he could actually do in retaliation against the guild master.
He knew Jacob could use a distraction from his own thoughts, and as his son looked over, Arthur began his Intent Shaping.
The adventurer who was in the rafters seemed content to watch from her perch and maintain her silence, so Jacob focused on his father.
He reached out with his magic to feel the process his father employed in the merging of enchantment methods. There, he watched a similar method to what he himself utilized, but it seemed very smooth, almost mechanical, as if a machine was doing the process guided by a person.
I suppose that is one of the differences between system magic and magic used outside of the system, Jacob thought to himself as his father strengthened the wood and metal of the tool through his intent, linking it to the runes already inscribed.
When he was done, Arthur had a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face from his forehead.
"And that's that. Did you see what I did there?" Arthur asked as he sat down in his rickety wooden chair to begin his mana recovery process.
Jacob was about to reply when he noticed a stir in the ambient mana of the world. It seemed to be subtly converging on his father before seemingly being absorbed. So, he pushed his own mana over his dad to see what was going on, only to be surprised to see Arthur's mana slowly but steadily increasing.
There was even a subtle creak from the rafters over their heads as Jacob thought about the implications of what he was witnessing.
I mean, he began to think to himself, I suppose turning my core does significantly increase my mana recovery now, I just haven't really thought about how it is increasing the amount of ambient mana in my body. But his core is completely dormant from what I can tell. This is really weird, but it also makes sense. I suppose our mana has to come from somewhere.
Caleb was the first to speak up, as Arthur was a bit focused on his skill.
"Hey, bro, did you see what you needed to see with his method? I don't get it at all, this intent concept is not really clicking, no matter how many times I see it."
His brother's words brought him out of his own thoughts, and Jacob turned to Caleb to finally reply, "Oh, yes. I was able to see, but I'm not sure how to explain it if you were not able to understand it yet. We can work on it while I'm home.
Caleb smiled, "I would like that. I can also enchant a couple more times per day now. But not as quickly as Dad. It's better if I take a break during lunch to do an enchantment, then I can do one after dinner."
Jacob nodded his head in confirmation. He was interested in figuring out what had changed for Caleb as well to be able to suddenly do an extra enchantment, but he remembered how their previous enchanting that had left them all spent might have been the catalyst, as Old Thom had mentioned previously.
Before he could really get lost in his thoughts, though, his father spoke to the group.
"I think it's about time we turn in, you know what tomorrow is, don't you?
That caused Caleb to grin once more as Jacob had to think about it. Oren stood next to them, looking like a statue without betraying anything on his face.
Then, Jacobs' eyes brightened as he realized. "It's the Harvest Festival!"
"That's right," Arthur replied, "and you will be 12 years old when the bright moon crosses the dark moon at their peak. And you already know what that means. There is a bit of a tradition we Hemlocks follow at that time for a little coming-of-age ceremony, so I suggest we get to sleep early tonight because today will be a long one. Oren, if you're aren't busy tomorrow night, you are also invited to join us here in the barn."
Oren nodded solemnly, still hiding the fact that he had no idea that the next day was the Harvest Festival. "I will be here to support Jacob. I would never miss such an event after being invited."
Jacob smiled brightly at those words and gave his friend a big side hug, while Oren just stood there awkwardly.
Arthur was already extinguishing the lamplight, so they all shuffled out of the barn, careful not to stub their toes on any of the farm equipment.
When they came into the house, May and Sera were putting some things away in the cabinets while Lila was attending to a basket full of vials filled with different colored liquids.
Jacob reached over and picked one up, surprised to feel a slight pulse of magic coming from it.
"What is this?" Jacob asked his little sister.
She looked up at him with her big eyes and stated with confidence, "It's a magical healing potion!"
That caused Caleb to chuckle a bit, and May stepped in, grabbing the vial nicely from Jacob and responding for Lila.
"It's a healing poultice from the herbs we are growing in the greenhouse since we have extra room without needing so much saltgrass anymore. We created them for the festival tomorrow. It's an old recipe left by my mother, passed down from her mother. It's just been a while since I could grow the proper herbs. But Sera here put a special touch on them with her singing."
Sera had stepped next to May and was blushing a little as she responded to the allegations, "It was just a little song to wish them well in their use."
"I think," Jacob started in reply, with a bit of awe in his voice, "that these poultices will work quite well after your song, Sera."
May was the one to respond this time as well, "Oh, we already know they work better than normal. As a matter of fact, they work nearly as well as the healing bandages you left for us."
That caused Jacobs' eyebrows to shoot up in surprise, but May started to push everyone out of the kitchen.
"That's enough dawdling, we all need to get to sleep."
Her insistence was humorous to everyone, but she managed to kiss all the kids on their heads before they were pushed into their own bedrooms.