Jacob looked at his blue-tipped pen with amazement before he remembered something important.
'hmm, it seems like the color is different than the silvery-blue hue that my father used earlier. I wonder what that is?'
Sure enough, his father revealed the source of that hue which he used earlier as he pulled up a small trowel for his son to etch.
"Here, son, do the inscribing on this small shovel. It should only take a couple of the symbols from earlier. Besides drawing the symbols perfectly, you also need to put your intent into them. For the first symbol I used earlier, that was for strength. Think of something very sturdy and put that intent in the tip of the tool as you draw the symbol. The second symbol I used was for sharpness, so just do the same thing for something you think is very sharp when you draw that symbol."
Arthur thought for a second before he asked: "Can you remember how I drew those shapes?"
Jacob responded by starting to perfectly etch the shapes into the edge of the trowel.
'if I remember correctly, this one was first at the closest part of the edge in a row around the entire blade of the shovel. . .for something strong. . . I think a diamond should do the trick. . . hehehe, yes. Diamons are very hard so that should make it very strong. . . then this one fits in above the row of the first one between the spaces they make. . . I need something sharp here. . .hmmm. . . I remember that internet video of extremely thin piano wire made of titanium slicing through steel beams. . . that should do the trick. . .'
The tip of the etching tool was brightly glowing with the intent that Jake was putting into his enchantments, a detail that he missed due to his concentration.
Arthur was now greatly impressed with how quickly his son was learning the enchanting process. In no time at all, without destroying the small shovel, Jacob had finished the enchantment.
When he finished, he held the shovel up to his father with big curious eyes.
"Dad, I think I did it! Does it look right?"
Arthur had to smile once again.
"Here, let me take a closer look."
He reached out and gently grabbed the small shovel from his excited son and took a close look at the newly enchanted tool.
'The shapes are perfect indeed. . .and the symbols are still glowing with power. . .I wonder how powerful he managed to make them on his first try. . .'
The symbols eventually faded, seemingly sinking into the metal, after Arthur got a good look at them. With the enchantment officially set, he looked back at his son and gave him a look of pride.
"Well, son, it looks like it was a success. Let's go see how well it can dig up some soil."
He set the shovel on his work bench and then let Jake off of his leg, where the small child had been sitting. Then he picked the shovel back up and headed outside the shed with his son.
They found a good patch of solid soil to try the trowel on, and Arthur handed Jacob the small shovel again.
"Ok, son, let's see how you did. Give it a try and see if it seems harder than usual or not."
Jake nodded and bent down, stabbing the shovel right into the dirt. It went through the soil with no resistance, so he scooped the dirt, bringing up a good patch with it.
"Dad, it was so easy! It went right in and let me scoop out dirt like it was snow!"
Arthur had a serious look on his face, and Jake noticed as he looked up at his father. His father was still looking in the hole and Jake followed his gaze to a rock that had been cleanly sliced through.
"Jacob, turn that shovel over onto the flat ground here."
Jake did as instructed, and when he turned the dirt onto the ground there was part of a rock that was revealed in the dirt. His enchanted trowel had sliced clean through a rock with zero effort from the ten-year-old.
Jake gasped as he dropped the trowel, which promptly buried its shovel end straight into the dirt.
Arthur began laughing.
"Wow! It looks like you got the blessing for both control and power! Maybe you could get yourself a sponsor for a magical academy after all!"
Then Arthur leaned over and pulled the trowel out of the ground with no effort.
"This is a truly enchanted item. Nothing like what we have on the farm here. Those are just stronger tools, merely inscribed items."
He turned the enchanted trowel over in his hand, careful not to touch anything with the blade of the shovel.
"This is a weapon now, not just a gardening shovel that your mother would want to use."
Jacob was looking a little awkward as his father was excitedly talking about the shovel.
"Dad, will we still be able to do something with the shovel? I would hate to have ruined a good tool."
Arthur looked away from the shovel at his son's words, a bit shocked. Then he laughed again.
"Haha, no son, we can't really use this. But that does not mean it is not useful to us. We can sell it, I already have a buyer in mind, and then we can get even better tools to practice inscribing on. If that is ok with you?"
Jacob brimmed with joy. "Of course, that is ok with me! I thought I ruined it for a second there!"
Arthur leaned over and rubbed his cute son's hair, mussing it up again.
"Well, then, go get your brother and we will take a wagon over to the village to see what we can get."
Jacob smiled big.
"Alright, I'll go get him right now!"
Then he took off toward the chicken coop, where his older brother was usually working at this point in the morning.
Arthur just watched his son run off with a faint smile before finding a hand to help him get the wagon ready with supplies to trade.
He placed the trowel-turned-weapon into a wooden box and stashed it where he could keep eyes on it during the trip.