Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Bokuboy

I went to the classroom that was off to the side of the main construction area and wasn't surprised to only see young men inside the room that were already seated. What was a surprise was that the math teacher was the civil construction teacher, too.

I had seen him in the civil construction workshop covered with sawdust, which apparently made him unrecognizable. Even though they were both called Mage Quintos, I hadn't made the connection that they were the same person until now.

“Mr. Drake, please sit anywhere you like.” Mage Quintos said and pointed to the only empty seat that was right at the front of the classroom. Nearly the entire class laughed at the joke.

I walked over to the seat and sat down without taking out the book from my pack.

“This class requires you to reference the book.” Mage Quintos said and motioned to the other guys in the room that all had their books out.

“You're only giving us an introductory lecture for the first class, unless you expect all of your students to be able to understand any instructions you give for the practical class this afternoon. Then again, I don't know what you're going to have us do. Maybe it's simple enough that even someone that's never made anything with their hands can do it?”

The teacher gave me a bit of a glare. “I'll be the one to dictate what is taught in this class. If your work in the math courses at the beginning of the week is any indication, you'll need to pay attention to what I teach you here in order to build a proper house for your family.”

“I built one for myself back in the marsh where I grew up, restored a mansion for my new family, and rebuilt the dorm where I live.”

Mage Quintos chuckled. “That's different from building a real building.”

“Didn't my course assigner tell you about my army career or where I worked for the entire time I was there?” I asked and he didn't answer. “I was assigned to the maintenance department under the best engineer in the army and I built two garrisons and enough support buildings and housing for three thousand troops. Twice.”

“Not by yourself, surely.” Mage Quintos said, his voice smug.

“No, even though I could.” I responded. “They needed to be done quickly and more hands makes quicker work.”

The teacher nodded. “You still don't have the proper knowledge to...”

“The home I built all by myself in the marsh is 60 feet wide by 60 feet long by 10 feet high at the base, made of solid stone five inches thick. The pitched wooden roof that's a solid ten inches thick is 60 feet high at the peak.” I said and he stared at me. “I had just started to learn basic math when I built it.”

“How did you measure everything if you didn't know any math?” One of the guys asked me.

“I used a stick.” I said and was met with disbelieving looks. “I played around with a boat design and figured out how to read parts of it, found out how long a foot was and made a bunch of sticks the same size, then laid them out to mark off what I wanted.”

“By the Son's Light.” Mage Quintos whispered. “It must be a shoddy death trap if all you knew was...”

“I told you. It's completely solid. I even put bracers and support beams on the inside of the roof, just in case one of the larger creatures got past my wards and landed on it. I don't want to go back there and have to rebuild it.” I said and he didn't say anything back. “What's the task going to be after lunch?”

“Using the proper techniques to measure and cut wood pieces to the right size and then construct a basic box with a handle.”

“Can I do that now?” I asked and a few of the guys laughed.

“The practical part of the class isn't until this afternoon.” Mage Quintos said.

“Can I leave right after I do it?” I asked.

Mage Quintos sighed. “Mr. Drake, you are trying my patience.”

“It's a waste of time for me to sit around for most of the day to do something that I can do in about two minutes.” I said and the entire class burst out laughing.

“You're hilarious!” “That's funny!” “I'd like to see that!” “Ha ha ha!” Most of the guys in the class said at the same time and kept laughing.

Mage Quintos gave me a full glare this time, then he turned around and went behind his desk. He picked up a small canvas bag and a plank. “I brought these with me to show the class what they would be working with today.”

The teacher balanced the plank on his desk and dropped the canvas bag on top of it. He added a saw and a hammer, then walked over to me and handed me a piece of paper with writing on it.

“Here are the dimensions of the wood pieces and the assembly instructions.” Mage Quintos said. “I've changed my mind and I'll let you try, since you already know everything.” He waved at his desk and the supplies there. “Go ahead. I'll even be generous and give you a full three minutes. If you succeed, you won't have to attend the practical class. If you fail, you'll have to do twice as much work as everyone else for the next month.”

I stood up and went to the teacher's desk. Most of the dimensions for the pieces could be cut directly from the plank without having to measure the width. I pushed the hammer and saw aside and tied the canvas bag to my hip, then took out my magic knife and charged it. There were shouts of disbelief and shock as it glowed, then the sounds were cut off as I expertly cut out the pieces with barely a glance.

I took out a vial of number ten potion and dabbed it sparingly to attach the wood together into the bottom and sides of the box and let it set. I opened the canvas bag and dumped out the contents to see what was there. I dug out the two hinges and the handle and used my knife to make four small incisions on the box and the lid.

I slid the hinges inside the wood with a drop of number ten potion and used a drop as I attached the handle. “There. It's built.” I said and complete silence greeted me. “If my counting is right, that was just over two minutes.”

Mage Quintos looked stunned.

“Now that it's assembled, I can add the finishing touches.” I said and used some number ten potion to finish all the edges and the sides to make it smooth, then used some fortifying waterproof potion to treat the wood. It changed the wood to a nice aged look and hardened it to perfection. “Three minutes was plenty of time.”

Everyone stared at me and Mage Quintos looked like he was unable to speak.

“If I had another minute or two, I would have added some nice inlays or carvings, perhaps even some gold filigree.” I said as I picked up the finished box and then I walked over to the teacher to hand it to him. “See you next week.”

No one said a word as I walked out of the classroom.

I quickly walked over to the main classroom building and went inside to check and see if Mage Marks was in her classroom. She was and it looked like she was teaching a class. I saw the number 2 on everyone's academy coats that were hung on the back of their chairs. They had just started the class and the teacher was talking about the need of keeping the more volatile potions limited to a smaller pot, that way if anything went wrong, there wouldn't be as much damage.

I thought about sneaking in and trying to stay unnoticed, then realized that might piss Mage Marks off. I knocked when she paused in her talk and she turned her head to look at the door. She saw my face in the window and her own face seemed to turn sad.

Mage Marks walked over to the door and opened it. “Mr. Drake, I'm sorry about how the secretary handled your interaction this morning.” She apologized and it seemed to be genuine. “I've reprimanded her for her behavior and reminded her of the proper procedure when a student comes and asks for the help of a teacher. I assure you that she won't be repeating her mistake.”

I reached out and took her hand, bent over it, and brushed my lips over her knuckles. “Thank you.”

Mage Marks' face flushed red and a few of the girls in the class made 'aww' sounds as the guys made 'ooo' sounds. Thankfully, they were too constrained by social protocols to shout and holler like the work crews would. She would have been really embarrassed if that had happened.

“Please, take the crates you need.” Mage Marks said as she took her hand back and waved at the side of the room.

“I'll only take three crates of vials and will keep reusing them, even though I need a lot more than that to store what I've made.” I said and entered the classroom. “If I make anything else, can I come back and get more?”

“Of course.” Mage Marks said. “I'm sorry that I wasn't here. I was...”

I held a hand up to stop her from continuing. “I think part of what the secretary said was correct. I don't have the right to know where you are when not in class. That's your private time and I didn't want to disturb you, which is why I didn't press the matter or asked for someone with more authority to handle my request.”

Everyone started mumbling and chatting in whispers.

I picked up three crates of empty vials and turned back to her. “Thank you, Mage Marks.” I said and bowed with respect, then walked over to the door and used my elbow to close the door behind me.

“Did that just happen?” One of the guys asked. “I thought he was a marsh rat! How did he know how to...”

“That's enough.” Mage Marks said with a very good imitation command voice. “If I hear you speaking like that again, you'll be spending the rest of the afternoon in detention. That goes for all of you.”

There were no responses.

“Now, back to the lesson. As I was saying...”

I walked away with a bit of a smile on my face, because it was a bit comforting to know that she wasn't only enforcing that in my own class like I thought. I left the building and walked back to my dorm mansion. I went inside and up to my potion room, then filled out all three cases of vials. I still had three pots of fortifying waterproof potion and most of the pot of fortifying potion left to crate up. I left there and went all the way back to the student administration building and up to the third floor.

“Ah, David. Back so soon?” Eludora asked and then she saw what I carried. “Oh, my.”

“I have three more crates worth back at the dorm.” I said and her face showed a lot of happiness.

“That's wonderful! I'll start working on the others while you go to class.”

“I'm off for the rest of the day, so I'm here to work.” I said as I put the crates on her desk and she beamed a smile at me.

“Is there something better than wonderful? Stupendous, maybe?” Eludora laughed and stood up. “You're so efficient that we might just get that side of the room cleared up today.”

“It'll be close. The smaller ones will take more time, because of the many cuts and adjustments needed.”

Eludora nodded. “Yes, the people that did them didn't have a single standard size that they all used and everything is a mess.”

I thought about that for a minute. “Well, we could check them all first and see what the biggest of the smaller ones are, then I can make the frames the same size as that and they'll all stack properly.”

Eludora looked surprised for a moment and then she laughed. “You're going to make this old lady fall in love with you.”

“You're not old. Diane is older than you.” I said and she laughed a bit more.

“We're both almost twice your age, and yet...” Eludora shook her head. “No, I won't question it. Let's get to work and implement your fantastic idea.”

That's what we did. For the entire afternoon, I made exact sized frames to mount the different sized maps and treated them. As each one was completed, Eludora's mood improved and she nearly giggled by the time we had finished one side of the room and emptied the shelves there. We had actually completed it much quicker than she thought we could, or so she said, and then she asked me to remove some of the shelves so that we could stack the treated maps on them.

“If we put them on their sides like books instead of stacking them, we can write on the sides like the spines of books and you can easily pull them out without potentially knocking the stacks over.” I said.

Eludora gave me a look I couldn't decipher. “David, what other ideas do you have to make this room better?”

“Um... let me think.” I said and stood there for a few minutes as I considered it. “If I go and get my enchanting tools, I can add weight enchantments to the larger frames to make them easier for you to handle. They would barely use any magic, since the wood isn't nearly as heavy as a kracken tube projectile.”

Eludora stared at me with shock on her face. “Y-yes, I... I think that would be very beneficial for me.” She said and touched my face. “Thank you, David. Thank you very much.”

Before she could do anything else, the bell rang.

“If I come up with anything else, I'll let you know.” I packed up what I had used and cleaned up the area, then put the wood pieces back into the hand cart by the doorway. “I'll leave the crate of empty vials here for now.”

Eludora nodded and I left the library to go to detention. It would be my last one for the week.