Your equipment [Common Pickaxe] has been upgraded to [Uncommon Pickaxe].

Cal glanced at the interface before dismissing it. It wasn’t that big of an achievement since it only needed a hundred swings to get. He was more concerned about the condition of the pickaxe.

It has some visible marks, but the interface hasn’t declared it as degraded in quality. My hope is that the upgrade in rank will give it enough durability. I need a thousand more swings to get the pickaxe to the Advanced rank.

He kicked aside the scattered debris to clear the area before him. Every swing of the pickaxe had thrown up a significant amount of broken ground, and with him having done a hundred swings, there was enough debris that it was becoming a problem.

For such a small area dug up, it’s creating an oversized headache for me.

Cal put the pickaxe on his back and pulled the shovel. He had cleared only a seventy-square-foot area—a fraction of a percent of the cleared field—and the hard surface he had dug up with the pickaxe showed him how big of a problem he would face in the near future.

The hard rock-like surface he was removing would form a pile that would dwarf the stones he had cleared up by many orders of magnitude.

This can’t be solved by simply piling it up and forgetting about it. It’ll be enough to form a small hill I can never ignore. I’ll need to find a way to repurpose it.

Cal shoveled everything he had dug up into one spot to clean up later with the help of the wheelbarrow. Today had been designated as ‘ground break up day’ in his mind, and he wanted to keep his focus on that.

He switched the shovel with the pickaxe to go back to work. Digging up the previous area and shoveling aside the mess took him a little over thirty minutes. He was pacing himself so he wouldn’t exhaust himself, making it sustainable to keep the pace for the rest of the day.

I should be able to dig up around seven hundred square feet today. That’s only about five percent of the field, but it’s something.

Cal toed the soft dirt which was uncovered after removing the hard surface and wondered why it couldn’t support any plants. He didn’t know that for sure, but the guild would have already done it if it was so easy to farm.

He shook his head and moved to the next spot he would dig up.

I can ask Drex when he comes here today. He seems to know more about the conditions here than I do.

CRACK!

Chunks of debris flew at the impact. Cal raised the pickaxe again and brought it down.

CRACK!

It didn’t take him long to zone out, falling into a peaceful trance as he repeated the same actions over and over. He might not have been truthful to the Overseer about why he wanted to be stationed in the Northern Wastes, but there was no lie when he said this wiped away all his worries.

The sharp crack of the pickaxe breaking up the ground was a constant, repeating sound over several hours. Cal didn’t think of anything except swinging the pickaxe—at least until the interface activated.

[Uncommon Pickaxe] has degraded to Good Quality.

Cal wiped the sweat from his brow and flung it off his fingers. He stuck the pickaxe in the newly uncovered soft dirt and leaned on the handle to give himself a little rest.

He had expected the quality to degrade, but the time it took was well beyond his expectations. It was nearly three hours of continuous use before the pickaxe was damaged enough for the interface to finally call it degraded.

Let me see if I made good progress on the tasks. It certainly felt like I did with how much of the field I dug up.

[Uncommon Pickaxe: Good Quality] Upgrade: 649/1000 Tasks

Cal nodded to himself. “Looks right.”

He tapped the pickaxe’s head on the ground to shake the dirt loose before swapping it for the shovel on his back. He could keep digging up the field, but the five hundred square foot area he had done so far was more than enough to experiment with crop seeds.

I’ll continue in my spare time. There’s no point in spending all my time digging up the field when it’s unnecessary.

Cal scooped the plentiful debris to the side, just out of the field’s bounds. It was a good thing he got started with a few hours to spare since cleaning up would take most of that time.

He was nearly done when the shovel suddenly gained a faint blue aura and pulsated slightly. The interface appeared again.

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Your [Tier] has increased by 1 level.

Your skill [Perfect Match] has increased by 1 level.

Your equipment [Uncommon Shovel] has been upgraded to [Advanced Shovel].

Equipment upgrade has activated an ability of [Farmer (Special)].

You will have two options for the [Advanced Shovel]’s trait.

Equipment trait choices available. Choose one

Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the shovel will start to recover to its peak quality state. No matter what its state was at the start, it will take 7 days to regain its status as ‘Excellent Quality. '

Efficient Excavation - The shovel's digging and resource collection speed are 50% faster. It also has a 0.01% chance of unearthing rare minerals or items.

Cal stared for a few seconds before focusing on the shovel.

I knew an Advanced-ranked item could be imbued with mana to give it a trait. I was expecting to have to get that done. The options I have been offered due to my special [Class] dwarf anything I could have planned.

I underestimated the value of my [Class]… even though I thought it was beyond overpowered.

The choices he was given were difficult. He wanted both, and it hurt all the more knowing that after he chose one, it was unlikely the other would be offered again.

The next time an artifact can have another imbued trait is at the next rank—‘Rare’ rank… right, the skill level increase should have affected the equipment upgrade requirements.

Equipment:

[Uncommon Pickaxe: Good Quality] Upgrade: 649/950 Tasks

[Uncommon Sledgehammer: Excellent Quality] Upgrade: 32/950 Tasks

[Advanced Shovel: Good Quality] Upgrade: 0/4750 Tasks

[Uncommon Wheelbarrow: Excellent Quality] Upgrade: 0/950 Tasks

A five percent decrease in required tasks. If every skill level increase reduces it by that much, some legendary ranks will be reachable. That makes the equipment trait more obvious, as long as that assumption holds true.

The [Advanced Shovel] was already out of reach for Orrin to repair, at least for now. This would continue as he upgraded the tools far faster than Orrin could train himself to work on higher-rank tools.

The other option would be to depend on a Master Blacksmith to do the repair work, but that would defeat the purpose of intending to have an independent life apart from significant guild figures. Of course, this was assuming that he would find such a blacksmith. They certainly didn’t exist inside the Celestial Order’s territory.

Picking Efficient Excavation as the shovel’s trait would be a mistake. It would definitely help, and the discovery chance is impressive, even with the low percentage. Finding such an item once every ten thousand uses is mind-blowing. Still, I have to pass on it.

What’s the point of the shovel having that trait if its quality has fallen to an unusable state?

Cal reached out and tapped on Self-Repair. He felt no regret as the interface disappeared.

A self-healing tool that will eventually be of a legendary rank is nothing to scoff at.

The shovel stopped pulsing in his hand, but it retained the faint blue glow.

I’ll definitely need to come up with a satisfactory explanation for the Overseer. This skill will get increasingly ostentatious.

Cal quickly finished shoveling the remaining debris into the massive pile to the side. It had grown to a size that matched the rubble near the dirt path.

Perhaps this can be repurposed to build something rudimentary… somehow. I’ll have to ask the people the Overseer is sending at the end of the day.

He looked at his day’s work with satisfaction before putting the shovel on his back. Using the shoulder strap to hang his tools was becoming second nature.

Cal rolled his shoulder and walked back to his shed. He could still work for hours without issue since the [Tier] increase gave him more than extra stamina. Still, he had no intention of exhausting himself. He was sure another [Tier] increase was outside reach for the day.

I don’t want the little beast to catch me by surprise tonight. It appeared two nights in a row. There will likely be a third. I finally have comfortable bedding. I might as well enjoy it while I wait for the visitors to arrive.

“Boss! I’m baaaaack!”

He froze in place as his lips twitched.

Or I guess I’ll forget about resting… Seris has perfect timing.

Cal plastered a smile on his face as he turned to them. He saw Drex’s thin form skulking behind Seris, almost making him look sinister. He might have acted if he hadn’t known Drex’s true nature.

“Initiate Cal,” Drex greeted when he got closer. His eyes were scanning the surroundings, mainly focusing on the recently dug-up part of the field. “You’ve been hard at work.”

“I did say I was serious. Now you know,” Cal paused before saying. “Welcome to my field, Drex.”

“What about me, boss?” Seris looked insulted that she wasn’t included in the greeting.

“I see you every morning. Is it really necessary to welcome you every time?” Cal asked with a raised brow.

“… Well, it would be nice,” Seris muttered.

Cal hid his smile as he ignored her. “Drex, let’s not waste time. The Overseer is sending some people over for reconstruction shortly.”

“I had the same thought. I would prefer to leave within the hour. How much of the… field do you expect to use for farming?”

“All the places where I removed the stones dotting the land.” Cal waved his hand vaguely at the field surrounding him.

“Hm, so fourteen or fifteen thousand square feet of land,” Drex said after glancing at the stone-free area. “A normal crop will need one barrel of seeds, but you will need more with Sunfire Grains. You will need it naturally since they are larger than regular crop seeds, but I would recommend more since I expect multiple failures while attempting to plant them.”

“I don’t like that you are not telling me a number,” Cal replied with a frown. “It’s making me assume it’s a large one.”

“Smart. It is large. I recommend five barrels at the minimum,” Drex revealed without mercy. “... No, what I truly recommend is to abandon this foolish idea.”

That’s twenty-five gold. Two guildmarks and five gold. The money the Overseer gave me immediately came in handy.

“It looks like you are still being stubborn,” Drex sighed when Cal didn’t look discouraged. “Look, I don’t want to care about such a pointless endeavor, but Seris talked my ear off on the way here about you. I’ll help you make a plan that might give you some level of success. If this somehow works, remember my name when the guild promotes you.”

I wanted to pick his brain about this anyway. Seris was of help again.

With the proud smile she was directing at him, she was well aware that she was owed thanks.

Cal gave her a slight nod in acknowledgment, letting her know it was noted before looking at Drex. “I will be endlessly thankful for your help.”

“Alright,” Drex looked—and sounded—resigned. “Let’s get started.”