The Spark

The sun was just over the horizon now. Glim was walking back home.

"Why haven't I cleared the quest yet? System? Any advice?"

.....

"You're such a great help."

Once Glim had gone through all the windows the system had to show him he left to harvest herbs. He just continued from where he left off earlier.

It wasn't hard to find some more furem bushes. Soon he had harvested several bunches. His bag had gone from mostly empty to half full, but he never cleared the quest.

He wasn't sure what the system counted, so he tried a few options. He harvested the berries in clumps like he usually did. After forty-five bunches nothing changed in the window.

-Ding!

[Satisfactorily harvest 30 basic herbs]

[Rewards: 30 PP, 1x Basic Seed ticket]

Dismissing the window, Glim figured he might have done something wrong. He switched to harvesting the berries individually. The results were the same. After harvesting so many berries he lost count nothing had changed.

Glim couldn't figure out why he wasn't clearing the quest. His only guess was that maybe the system was counting one whole bush as one herb.

If that was so then Glim figured this would take a bit of time. Looking at the sun he saw that he still had a few hours. Glim started to work faster than he usually did.

He would find smaller bushes and harvest the berries and move on. If the bush was to big then Glim would ignore it. His goal at the moment wasn't to get more berries.

Glim would usually take his time to find the herbs. He was never really in a rush. He would enjoy his walks in the forest. Now he had a reason to pick up the pace.

Soon the sun was getting closer to the horizon. Glim had kept track of the bushes he harvested. He was at Thirty-three now.

Glim opened the missions window hoping that he was done so he could collect the rewards.

-Ding!

[Satisfactorily harvest 30 basic herbs]

[Rewards: 30 PP, 1x Basic Seed ticket]

This is how he started his walk back being no closer to finishing the quest than when he started several hours ago.

Looking at the quest details for any more information he could only guess he hadn't harvested the herbs "Satisfactorily.''

This was the only thing that Glim could think of. Roth had showed him several years how to find and pick the berries, but maybe he had been taught wrong.

Glim put the system's mission off and looked at his bag. It was completely full of furem berries. Even though he had lost a few hours in the middle of the day he was still able to fill his bag.

"At least Roth will appreciate these. If only this System did as well."

Glim got back to the house to find Roth sitting outside on a simple log they used as a seat. He glanced from Glim to the sun that just started to touch the horizon and gave a muffled grumble.

"Well lets see what you got boy."

In response to this Glim gave his bag to Roth to inspect.

"Well, this is quite a good amount of furem berries. There's no way I'm going to need all of these in the next few days, so we'll need to start tonight."

Roth handed Glim his bag back and walked into the house.

"I'll get the pots out so you grab the drying racks."

Glim had done this several times so he already knew what to do. He set the bag down next to the house and went to the shed.

There was a small separate shed Roth had built many years ago. It was full of all the things Roth needed to preserve and store the herbs he used.

Once he was at the shed he found the racks he needed and pulled them out. They were just some simple wood trays. As he was bringing them to the side of the house he saw Roth carrying out three large pots.

Glim was already starting off to get the water when Roth stopped him.

"Wait. Lets have supper first. We can take care of this in a bit, the food is almost ready.

It didn't take much convincing for Glim. He was rather hungry and he smelled what he hoped was roasting meat.

As he followed Roth inside the house he was greeted by the aroma of a chicken roasting over the fire.

Compared to his life as Dex Glim had much less meat in his diet. Most people in this place didn't. Raising animals was expensive and hunting was dangerous for people.

Only experienced hunters were willing to risk running into beasts to hunt animals.

The meal that night was centered on the roasted that Dex very much enjoyed. As he sat there eating his dinner in silence, like they usually did, he thought back on his day.

He was reminded of all his questions about himself, his existence, and the system. He also remembered his supposed mana capacity.

"Roth?"

"Hmm?"

Roth stopped eating his dinner to look over at Glim.

"Umm... do you think you could test me for mana again?

Glim was a bit nervous about asking this. Roth had always told him not to worry about it. That if it was going to happen worrying about it wasn't going to make it happen any faster.

Now that Glim had his memories as Dex he knew that the ability to wield mana was even more special. Magic didn't even exist on earth. No one there was a mage.

Roth could see that Glim was nervous. He was fiddling with his hand and not looking directly at him.

Roth could only sigh at the impatient Glim. He knew the boy just wanted to make him proud and be a mage like him. He had tried to tell him several times that he would be proud of him, mage or not, as long as he was a good person.

Roth put down his food and held out his hand. He would test the kid once again and then they would finish their dinner so they could start working on the berries.

"Okay. After this we have to start preserving the berries though."

"Thank you!"

Glim quickly took Roth's hand and waited. Just like the other times he felt a slight tingling creep up from his hand and then spread over the rest of his body.

This was different though. Usually the process took no more than a few dozen seconds before the tingling retracted back the way it came. This time though it had already taken well over a minute and he was still tingling.

Roth's eyes were closed and he had a look of concentration. After a minute more the tingling retreated back to his hand and disappeared.

Glim hoped that since this time took longer that he was ready to start to learn magic.

Roth let go of Glim's hand and stared at the boy. He looked him up and down a few times before looking him in the eye.

....

"So? ....do I have the spark Roth?"

Roth didn't answer right away.

"Yes. Congratulations Glim. You have the spark."

"YES!"

Glim pumped his fist as he jumped up. He had been waiting for this for years, and now the day was here! He would be a mage!

Roth soon dampened his mood a bit though.

"I know you are excited, but remember you only have a spark. If you want to be a strong mage you are going to need to practice and grow. Only then will you be a mage and not a random person with a spark of mana."

Glim calmed down a bit and looked at Roth. "When can we start training then? I'll train as hard as I can."

Roth could see the glint in Glim's eyes as he stared at him.

"Not tonight that's for sure. We can start with the basics tomorrow though."

"Alright!"

Glim finished his dinner with renewed vigor and then headed out of the house to get started on the berries.

Roth was left alone with his slowly cooling dinner.

'Strange. Last time I checked him a few weeks ago his body was very much in flux. There was the tithe of mana as there is almost every living being. It was nowhere near as calm as it is now though. What happened to make it settle so fast?'

After a bit if thinking Roth still had no idea so he just counted the kid as very lucky and finished his dinner. He would have the extra headache of teaching the kid about controlling his mana now.

Roth knew that with the parents Glim had there was almost no way he wouldn't be able to use mana. Because of this he had been preparing for a few years to teach Glim.

While it was not one hundred percent guaranteed, mages that have kids are much more likely to produce magical offspring. This gave Glim an advantage.

There was still a small chance that glim wound never gain the spark. Every now and then the child of mages would never gain the spark.

No one knew exactly why. They just chucked it up to fate and pitied the pour soul born into a magical house with no magic of their own.

Roth put these things in the back of his mind. He knew that Glim would be very anxious now to learn magic. He would have to deal with much more pestering from Glim now.

Soon Roth finished his dinner and went outside to find Glim. He was right outside tending to a small fire below one of the pots he brought out earlier.

There were three pots in total. All of them were full of fresh water that Glim had gotten. One of these pots was over the new small fire while the other two were next to it.

Once the fire was going Glim grabbed his bag and started to pull out the berries. Roth set aside a small portion that he could give to people in the net few days.

Then he went to help Glim start cleaning the berries. This was the first step in the process. The small bunches of berries were plucked from the remnants of their former branches and put in the first pot.

The twigs were discarded and the process was repeated until no berries were left in the bag.

Roth did find several handfuls of berries at the bottom of the bag. He had taught Glim long ago that it was just easier and cleaner to pick the small bunches than each berry by itself.

Because of this Glim almost never brought them back in any form other than the bundles. Roth gave Glim a glance from the side of his eyes.

Glim was just sitting there with a smile plastered on his face. The news of having the spark obviously still bosting his mood.

Roth just let the boy be. He didn't want to ruin his mood. Glim was usually a very serious kid and didn't often smile like this.

This gave Roth a bit of regret. He had promised to give Glim a happy and peaceful life. He wasn't so sure that he was meeting the first. And now that he was going to start training to be a mage he might not be able to promise the second either.

If he had a large potential as a mage then he would certainly gain the attention of powerful families and their politics. He had been there. There was no happiness to be had for a good person in all that mess.

That wouldn't come to pass for years so he still had some time to teach Glim the dangers of politics. For now he focused at the task at hand.

Now that all the berries were removed Glim cleaned them in the water while Roth went to check on the pot over the fire. It was just starting to bubble.

Soon it was at a full boil and Glim scooped several handfuls of clean berries out of the first pot and dump them into the boiling pot. Roth would then wait several seconds and then quickly scoop them out of the pot with a ladle and dup them in the third and final pot.

There the berries would cool in the cold water to prevent them from cooking. Once this process was complete Roth inspected the berries.

The color was a bit brighter and the skin was split open like it was supposed to be. Roth gestured to Glim and they repeated this process until all the berries were in the final pot.

The second pot was taken off the fire to cool and Roth and Glim got to work on the final step.

The berries were drained of most of the water then spread out on the racks on a sheet. Once they were all spread out so into a single thin layer another thin white sheet was places directly overtop.

The racks were already placed in a spot that would get sun all day long off and off the ground so all that was needed was to wait a few days and check on them every day or so.

Glim used the water from the pots to put the fire out and then duped out the rest of the water out and took the pots back inside.

Once Roth followed Glim inside he was greeted by a pair of anxious eyes staring a him waiting for something.

"Don't look at me like that. I said we would start tomorrow. There is no point in starting anything tonight. Just get some sleep and get up before I have to beat you out of bed tomorrow."

Glim's smile dropped a degree or two.

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning then"

Roth watched Glim head to his room.

'Kids. They are always so impatient.'

Glim tried to go to bed but his mind was way to occupied. Thoughts of magic training, the system, the mission, his past as Dex, and others filled his head and made it so sleep didn't some to him for several hours.