Evel liked farming.

No one seemed to understand that. The villagers would always ask if he wanted to leave, the other kids would always mock him for staying back, and his mom always told him not to be burdened by dad's promise. He'd told them that he liked farming countless times, but they never listened, so he gave up on doing so.

But, again, Evel liked farming. Very much so.

He liked every part of it, from buying the seeds to planting them, then nurturing before finally reaping their results. It always made him giddy when he saw the crops he worked for finally bear fruit.

Of course, since he'd spent most of his life farming, he hardly had any skills in fighting, unlike the other boys in the village. He didn't really mind, he wasn't planning on becoming a knight or an adventurer or whatever, but he always wondered what it'd feel like to be able to run really fast or swing a sword.

And so he went on his days, working from dawn to dusk, and heading to the village to sell some of his reaped rewards when the season came.

However, on one unassuming day, a goblin appeared.

He was working on the field like he always did, his hoe stabbing into the dirt to plow some land for future crops when he heard a low growl come from the nearby forest. He dismissed the noise at first, but when it sounded again, he couldn't quite hold back his curiosity and ventured off into the woods.

As he walked along the trees, he shivered slightly. He'd always found the woods to be rather eerie, but the forest at that day was even more so. There were no noises, and the crunching of dirt and leaves from his foot was easily heard. The forest seemed to grow colder with every step, and he tightly gripped his hoe as a semblance of safety as he ventured on.

The growl sounded again, louder this time, closer, and Evel walked faster.

Soon, he came upon a bush, the growl sounding from right behind it. Slowly, he tiptoed his way there, careful to not agitate the animal that was hiding behind it.

He reached to the bush, pulled it apart, and looked.

Was it a wolf? Was it just a dog? Maybe some other animal?

It was none of them.

"Hya!?" He quickly backed away, his arms flailing as the bush was cut apart by the goblin hiding inside it. It looked to him and grinned, teeth clearly showing, and Evel felt his heart jump to his throat. Had he been any slower or leaned any farther, the knife would've caught his face, and...

Evel shook the thought away and quickly gripped his hoe.

The goblin launched forward with a manic cry, and he swung his hoe towards the goblin's head.

He missed. And made himself lose balance.

"Oof!" He groaned as he fell onto the earth, his hoe clattering away from his hand. Miraculously, tripping had saved him from the goblin's knife, but now that he was on the ground and his hoe fallen from his hand, his chances of survival was truly gone.

So Evel shut his eyes and waited.

And waited.

But nothing came, and so the boy opened his eyes to see a large man reaching his hand out to him, a kind smile on his face. "You okay, boy?" The man asked, and Evel nodded dumbly, blinking as he looked around to see where the goblin was.

"Woah..." He gaped at what became of the goblin, its head completely severed from its child-like body. "Did you do that, mister?"

The man grinned. "Sure did!" He said, hefting the large sword onto his shoulder. Evel gaped again, idly wondered just how strong the man must be to be able to carry such a huge sword with no effort. Could the man be a knight of the kingdom? The clothes he wore didn't really match, but his mom always told him to never judge someone by their looks alone.

"You must be really strong, mister!" He cheered, eyes sparkling at the huge weapon he carried. "Are you a knight, mister? Or an adventurer?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I'm none of those." He casually said. "Retired a while back. I'm just a wandering mercenary." He then looked to the sky with a small frown. "We should probably get you home kid."

"Oh. Yeah. Mom's probably really worried." Saying that, Evel stood up and picked up his hoe. He went over to the dead goblin and picked up the goblin's decapitated body as well, dragging it across the dirt.

The man eyed him oddly. "What're you going to do with that, kid?"

"Hmm? Oh! I'm going to use him as fertilizer!" The man kept looking at him strangely, and so Evel began to explain. "Well, I read in a book once that animal corpses can be used as fertilizers to make plants grow better, so a goblin should work as well, right?"

"Guess so. Never really tried growing stuff, so I'm not too sure if it'll work or not." He scratched his chin for a moment, eyes closed as he tried to remember. "Well, you do you kid."

"Mm!"

And so they went out of the forest, heading towards the small cabin he and his mom stayed in. Of course, he didn't want his mom to faint by showing the goblin corpse he'd been dragging, so he left the dead goblin at his farm before he went home.

His mom still fainted anyways when the man told her that he'd almost been killed by a goblin. The man had laughed at that, but Evel was certainly not pleased. So he bonked the man's head using the back of his hoe, huffing angrily as he carried his mother onto her bed.

Still, the man was his savior, and so he gifted him some fruits and berries he'd growed.

"These are pretty good." He said as he munched on one of the berries. "Has a nice tinge of bitterness as well. Where'd you get the seeds for this?"

"Well, there was this merchant that passed by a few months ago, and he sold me some of those seeds." Evel explained with a smile. "They were pretty cheap, so I bought them."

"You should keep growing these. They taste pretty good." He said, and Evel easily nodded at the suggestion. "They'd sell for some pretty good silver too."

"Maybe..." Evel wasn't really sure though. Not a lot of people in his village liked buying berries, so he wasn't sure if he could sell these to anyone. Foreign merchants would probably accept them, but they don't come around his village all that often.

"Hmm, I should probably go. It's noon already." The man said with a sigh.

Evel blinked. "Oh, are you needed somewhere else, mister?"

"Yep." He nodded. "A baron hired me a while back, asked me to get rid of some monsters bothering his city. I was actually on my way there when I heard your scream."

"O-Oh..." So if he hadn't screamed, he wouldn't have been found? That was a bitter thought to realise for the farmer boy, especially since the entire situation was mostly his own fault. Still, the man had saved him, and he was alive now, so he was very thankful for the man.

"Anyways, I'm going to go now. See you kid-"

"W-Wait!" The man stopped and turned to him. Evel stuttered. "U-Um, what's your name, mister? I don't think I've heard it at all."

"Oh, yeah, I guess I haven't introduced myself." He said, rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. "The name's Garnt. What about you?"

"I'm Evel!" He greeted back, and Garnt smiled as he playfully ruffled his hair. "H-Hey!"

"See you around, Evel." And saying that, the man turned and left, sword in one hand and a basket of fruits and berries in the other. Evel smiled as he watched the man leave, before he went back to his cabin to check on his mom. Thankfully, his mom didn't injure herself from falling, so that was good.

Stupid Garnt.

With that over, Evel picked up his hoe and returned to the fields, smiling as he saw the goblin's corpse still lying haphazardly on the ground. Placing his hoe down, he picked up a nearby shovel and began digging a small hole, just enough for the goblin's body to fit. He then pushed the goblin into it, closed it with the dirt he dug up, and went over to the bucket where he stored all his seeds.

"Hmm...Which to pick..." There were a lot he could use. He could go for a radish, a spinach, or even some of those berries Garnt liked.

In the end, he decided to use the standard tomato.

With his trusty hoe, he tilled the land over the buried goblin and planted his seed. Stuck firmly in the tilled dirt, Evel grabbed some water from a nearby pool and watered the patch. Finally, just like always, he gave the watered soil some gentle pats like his dad taught him to.

"It'll make sure they'll grow good!" He'd always say, and though he doubted the act made any substansial difference, he still did it in his dad's honor.

And so Evel went back for the day, plans for lunch and dinner floating in his head as he headed back.

----------------------------------------

A couple weeks had gone by since then, the tomato he planted had sproted into a proud little thing and Evel couldn't be any happier. It looked great, taller and bigger than any of the previous tomatoes he'd ever planted, and the tomatoes it bore was far larger than normal as well.

Except the tomatoes were oddly green. He thought they were just unripe at first, but a week had gone by, and that green color still remained.

It wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever seen. He'd heard that some plants had the tendency to be different from usual, and that it didn't really change all that much from the original.

Still, this was a new thing he'd grown on his fields, and as normal, anything new he'd grown must be tasted by him. His dad said that it made sure the fruit wasn't defective or the sort, and it was also a nice way to fill his stomach. So he plucked out one of the green tomatoes, gave it a good lookover and took a bite.

And it was...odd. It didn't taste bad, but the usual tangy sweetness was dulled, instead overtaken by an almost spicy aftertaste.

You have gained the skill [Knife Mastery]!

Oh, and there's that too.

...

"Wait, what?"