Bog Standard Isekai

Book 2. Chapter 18

Hogg’s clothes were torn and dripping with water, blood was leaking from his ears, and no doubt he had many more wounds that Brin couldn’t see, but he acted like everything was completely normal. He’d even insisted on taking Brin down to the cellar and telling him everything. There was an intense excitement in his eyes when he related the tale. Brin got the impression that this was less about giving him urgent information, and more about wanting to talk about the awesome day he’d had.

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” said Brin. “Bunnies. You’re talking about bunnies.”

“Evil sentient puppet bunnies, yes,” said Hogg.

“I didn’t even know this world had bunnies.”

“Every world has bunnies,” Hogg answered.

“You know, the fact that you can say something like that with a completely straight face makes me doubt everything else you’ve ever told me,” said Brin.

Hogg laughed, which caused his nose to bleed. He dabbed at it with a handkerchief.

“Alright, so tell me about these bunnies. ‘Major threat’ means you don’t know if you could take them in a fight?” asked Brin.

“If I had fought them back there, I probably would’ve died. But there’s a really good chance I would’ve taken Awnadil down with me, which is why she didn’t want to do it. But that was then.” Hogg tapped his temple. “I logged everything [Inspect] could get with my Li– with an ability I have, and I’ll be going over it bit by bit over the coming days and making a counter-strategy.”

“What’s the summary?”

“Zappo uses gravity magic. I’m thinking he’s like a big guy that moves like a little guy, using gravity magic to ignore things like momentum and friction. I also bet since he’s a stuffed animal that he can compress or expand himself to dodge whatever he wants to dodge or tank hits if he’s acting as tank. He’s got some [Brawler] Skills, so I’d expect he fights with hands and feet. Or paws, as the case may be.

“Basil, on the other hand, has quite the eclectic set of abilities. I think when they come together we’re looking at… short range teleportation, but endlessly repeatable without much of a Mana cost. He could use it to get his [Witch] out of danger, but he’s primarily an offensive weapon. Imagine his coming up against a group of soldiers and then stabbing them all in the back, one by one, in the space of a second. I’m tempted to assume he’d struggle against a single, stronger opponent. A good set of armor should be enough to counter him, but obviously I’m missing something. I’ll know more soon.”

“Oh,” said Brin. “Now I understand why you look so happy. We finally have a good look at our enemy.”

“Exactly!” said Hogg. “To be frank, most of this is bad news. I don’t think Awnadil will attack as long as we stop poking the bear, but that only lasts until she’s got her troops where she wants them. I don’t have any illusions that she means to spare us indefinitely. I don’t know if I can protect the town, should the worst come to pass. But now we know! Not knowing is the hard part.”

“I think watching everyone you know die and then join the army of undead is the hard part,” said Brin drily. “But not knowing is a close second.”

Hogg frowned. “Sure.”

“Another question,” said Brin. “What was the thing Bruna did to escape the tunnel when all the undead jumped out?”

“That was a transformation. [Witches] can transform themselves. They often make themselves more beautiful, or sometimes, hideously ugly. But it doesn’t have to stop there. They can turn themselves into beasts, but there’s a danger in that. Change yourself into something too different for too long, and you won’t be able to go back. Some say that no monsters are natural, that they’re all descended from [Witches] who turned themselves into monsters and couldn’t find a way to return. That’s nonsense, of course. What are the chances that two [Witches] turned themselves into opposite gendered monsters that were able to produce viable offspring? Now, one thing you’ve noticed is that your [Shape Glass] can also move glass.”

“I haven’t been able to do that yet,” said Brin.

“You’ll get there. It’s possible. So it follows that if [Witches] can alter themselves, they should be able to move themselves as well.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t make that logical leap at all, but go on,” said Brin.

Hogg gave Brin a frown and waited. Brin made the motion of zipping his mouth up.

After a moment, Hogg continued. “What Bruna did was like a half-transformation. While in the process of transforming herself into some kind of flying nightmare creature, she also moved herself away from danger, and then reversed it. Transformation is stupidly dangerous to practice on your own, though. Most [Witches] don’t touch it outside of System Skills. Bruna has [Mutating Retreat].”

“Can they transform us? Do they really turn princes into frogs?”

“Yes, but not with something as simple as a breach of hospitality. They need consent. At the very least, they’d need an explicit contract.”

Brin hugged himself. It sounded like a fairy tale, but fairy tales were terrifying when you were living in one.

“Well, I know it won’t help to tell you not to worry about it, but don’t worry about it,” said Hogg. “So how about you? Level fifteen?”

Brin perked up. “Yes! I got [Summon Glass]! Only, I can’t seem to use it, and I can’t evolve into [Illusionist].”

“One thing at a time. You can’t use it?” asked Hogg.

“Yeah. When I use [Shape Glass], I start with glass, and that gives my magic something to latch onto. It’s like the magic is already touching any glass that’s nearby so I just have to push more into it. It’s hard to explain.”

“Intuitive casting is deeply personal,” said Hogg. “That’s why the Language was invented.”

“Wait. The Language was invented?”

“More like discovered.”

“Well, whatever the case, I think that’s what I need. I was going to ask Chamylla if she can help me.”

“That should help. The word for ‘create’ is >. Normally you’d also want to specify what you want to create, but since you can only create one thing it should work.”

“Sumo,” Brin repeated. It took a couple tries, but then he got it. “>”

He felt a pull on his magic, but nothing appeared. He imagined a glass bead appearing on the palm of his hand and tried again. “>”

He felt a stirring, and maybe a bit of dust appeared that wasn’t there before, or maybe it was his eyes playing tricks on him.

“Oh, I think I know what it is,” said Hogg. “These things work off your knowledge and experience. You need to make glass. Ademir always does that part for you, right?”

“That’s right,” said Brin. He felt a little silly. The way he’d learned to start using [Shape Glass] was by practicing it for real, and then using his magic to help.

“As for the second thing… your inner Illusionist already gave you a clue about how to unlock it, right?”

“Yeah. Magic tricks,” said Brin.

“He wants you to practice your magic glass? That doesn’t make sense.”

“No, I mean like…” Rather than explain, he decided it would be easier to demonstrate. He pulled a silver coin from his pocket.

He didn’t know very much magic, but he did know the French Drop, which was the most basic trick a magician ever learned, and one that never failed to impress. He held out his hands, tucked up his sleeves, and showed Hogg the coin. Then, he made a big show of handing the coin from one hand to another, where in reality he let the coin drop and stay in the first hand. He made a show of blowing onto the empty hand, and then opened it up.

Hogg’s eyes narrowed. Brin reached over and pretended to produce the coin from his ear.

“It was in the first hand the whole time,” said Hogg.

“Right,” said Brin. Then he sighed. “I’m guessing that’s not going to work on people here. Your senses are a lot stronger than people on earth.”

“Nah. You forget that you’re literally talking to an ex-[Illusionist]. It’ll work better than you think. It doesn’t matter how good your eyes are if you aren’t watching the right thing.”

After that, Hogg went straight to bed. It was well after dark; Hogg had been in that cave for hours, enough that Brin had started to worry. He’d dutifully waited until a wet and exhausted Hogg had stumbled his way up the tunnel.

It was pretty late after Hogg’s debriefing, but Brin didn’t want to wait to get started. The Prefit had ended up letting him keep three-quarters of his stone, so he brought it all over to the [Rock Crusher’s] shop. Luckily, Gudio was home, and wasn’t offended when Brin arrived at his door at practically the middle of the night. He’d been all-too-delighted to put his Class to practice for a paying customer, and Brin walked out with a hundred pounds of silica sand, and a bit less than fifty pounds divided between chalk dust and washing soda.

The next morning, Davi didn’t show up to their work-out, which was fine because Brin wanted to get an early start at Ademir’s place. He was waiting outside the door when Ademir arrived.

Ademir’s face was covered with stubble; normally he was alone for this part of the day. He probably got the furnace started and then went back to bed. Actually, his face wasn’t the only part growing stubble. He had a thin layer of stubble growing on the bald part of his famous bald ponytail.

“Ademir! You’re looking good! What’s this?” asked Brin, rubbing the front part of his own scalp.

Ademir yawned and smiled. “Something Callisto worked up for me. His new Class can work wonders. So to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I was hoping you’d let me make the glass today. I got [Summon Glass] but it doesn’t really work until I actually do the melting and mixing part as well. I brought some stuff, too! A new recipe I think we should try. This is the stuff they used in my memories.”

Ademir’s tired eyes lit up when he saw the bags of raw materials. “How did you convince the Prefit to increase our allotment?”

“We went down into Neptune’s cave. It’s a long story,” said Brin. “Can we get started?”

“Of course, my young friend,” said Ademir, and led the way inside.

He showed Brin how to fire up the kiln. They used a special wood that was made here to burn especially hot. Apparently Toros used the same stuff, which made sense. Ademir showed him how much to add, how to vent if it got too hot and how to tell when the glass was just right. His Skills gave him the right proportions of silica sand, chalk, and soda, but he let Brin do everything. He mixed it together, put it in and evened it out for a perfect melt.

A lot of the work was right up near the burning Kiln, and he wore leather gloves but barely felt the heat. He was sure he’d get red burns from standing so close if he didn’t have [Heat Resistance] and [Survivor of Travin’s Bog].

Ademir washed up after that and went upstairs. It would be a while before the glass was ready to shape.

While he waited, Brin puttered around with some of the old glass chunks, carving it and trying to change the color. He remembered one thing he’d been meaning to try. One of his memories, a historical show about people in the stone age, had claimed that their obsidian knives and spears were sharper than surgical scalpels, that it was a special property of obsidian because obsidian was a glass. They didn’t sharpen them the way Ademir had taught him, though. They’d done something called “knapping” which was basically just chipping away pieces of the glass to get natural jagged edges.

The documentary had given a demonstration, so Brin didn’t think it would be hard to reproduce it here. He cut out the rough shape of a spear head like normal, and then chipped away at it. He used the rounded edge of a hammer, and the first try ended up shattering it more than he wanted. The demonstration in the documentary, they’d used a stone, but oddly that wasn’t something he could get easily. He tapped more softly the second time.

The second try ended up looking pretty good, and it was moderately sharp, but he realized the documentary had been focused on making a spearhead that looked nice, but not necessarily focusing on making something that they’d actually use as a tool.

For his third try, Brin focused on making edges that were as ragged and sharp as possible. He knew this was working when he accidentally cut his palm trying to hold it for the finishing touches. The cut was like a papercut for how thin it was and how much it stung, but it was nearly a quarter inch deep.

He was onto something. He bandaged his palm, put on leather gloves, and then kept working. When he was done, he had a jagged, fierce-looking spearhead. Inspect called it a [Good Quality Spearhead].

Alert! [Shape Glass] leveled up! 8->10

Two levels to his Skill in one go! Interesting that his Class hadn’t leveled, but he supposed his Class had outstripped his Skills enough that he shouldn’t expect them to level at the same rate.

Ademir came back down soon after, shaved and looking much tidier and more awake. The molten glass still wasn’t ready yet, so Ademir showed Brin the results of his first experiment with the tin-bed oven.

“In short, it was a mess,” Ademir explained. “The glass didn’t separate as easily from the tin as you described. I don’t think I would’ve gotten it off at all without my [Crafter] Skills. And then… well, see for yourself.”

Ademir held up a sheet of glass. It was perfectly smooth and even, but that was all you could say for it. Dark burns ran across its center, and the rest of it was so foggy he didn’t think much light would get through. There were bubbles visible throughout. Basically, it was about as bad a piece of glass as Brin had ever seen.

He slumped. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be! This gave me all sorts of ideas on what I can try next. I’m already trying the second experiment,” Ademir said with a smile.

“That’s kind of you,” said Brin. He should’ve known it wouldn’t be this easy to use the knowledge of modern America in what was basically a medieval world.

“Hey, don’t look so down. I have a good feeling about this. And, oh, look at that. The glass is ready.”

As if waiting for Ademir’s permission, the System gave Brin a notification.

Alert! [Summon Glass] leveled up! 1->4

Brin froze.

“What’s wrong?”

Brin couldn’t make out the words.

“Say something, lad!”

“T–three. Three levels.”

“Three,” Ademir said, as if not comprehending. He stared at the furnace as if it’d grown wings. “I suppose… you could get that many levels if you made a large breakthrough with the creation of glass. Let me?”

Brin nodded.

Ademir approached the furnace like a worshiper approaching a shrine. He carefully reached in with his blowpipe, and pulled out a glob of glass. The perfect amount on the first try, of course.

He spun, and began to blow. The glass didn’t look much different in its glowing, molten state, but as it cooled and Ademir blew it into a bottle, the difference between it and their previous bottles began to be impossible to miss.

Ademir cut it off the blowpipe, and picked it up with leather gloves to put it in the cooling kiln. Still, he hesitated. The glass was still hot to touch, but it was hard not to stare.

One brilliantly pure, absolutely clear glass bottle.

Bog Standard Bottle

“I want to try!” said Brin, and Ademir was already turning to put the bottle away and start another. They worked in a frenzy after that. Caught up in the moment, they knocked out one bottle after another, again and again. Brin worked side-by-side with Ademir until the [Crafter] got wise and started making glass panels. The foggy bottles they’d made before were good enough, but clearness was important in windows. They would sell for a pretty penny. Brin stopped his own work only long enough to lend a hand when Ademir needed help, but other than that worked without ceasing. Gone was the careful rationing of the glass. They blew through the entire supply, unceasing and untiring. One beautiful, golden moment of pure creation.

It didn’t feel like any time had passed at all, just streams of sweat, an ache beginning to form in his arms, soreness in his feet. The only measure was the ever-diminishing supply of glass.

When it was finally out, Brin blinked and looked around. Hours had passed. Dozens of bottles and windows now sat in the cooling kiln, and the System had something to say about it.

Alert! [Summon Glass] leveled up! 4->8

Alert! [Shape Glass] leveled up! 10->13

Level up! Level 15 -> 16

+2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Mental Control, +1 Will, +2 free attributes.

You still have 1 free general Skill.

“That…” started Brin. He didn’t know what to say.

Ademir nodded. “A good day. It’s always like this when you make a breakthrough. A new technique, a new ingredient, and the levels pour like rain. Do you see? This isn’t so bad a life.”

“It really isn’t,” Brin agreed.

“I think I’m ready to start my second try with the tin oven. Would you care to watch?” Ademir offered.

“I really, really do,” said Brin. “But it’s getting close to the time that Davi’s going to play in the tavern for the first time. I promised I’d be there.”

“Ah, then go and wash up. I’ll take care of clean-up. No, go on, go! I don’t think I need to tell you how grateful I am for today. I can clean my own shop for once.”

“Thanks,” said Brin. On a whim, he decided to [Inspect] Ademir to see if he’d leveled up as well, but the [Crafter] didn’t have his levels visible.

He left the washup to Ademir and went back home to change his clothes and get ready for Davi’s show.