He stared at the waist-high water he was standing in. The pond had gained even more depth than the last time he tested it.

Cal held one of the large tubs Orrin made for him over the water as he walked around in the pond to see if there was a deeper area. There wasn’t.

Wading into the pool wasn’t in the plans, but it was hard not to do so when he noticed that the pond had contracted slightly. He would have thought some water had evaporated if not for the minutely greater depth at the edges of the pond.

I can only assume the water doesn’t evaporate, and it gets deeper the more water I add.

Cal wished he could sense the ground underneath the pond, but the mana the water contained was like the sun, making him utterly blind from its intense concentration.

I’ll ask Nibbles what it’s like under here when she’s free.

He scooped up enough water to fill the tub before heading to the five thousand square feet patch of loam-covered soil. He had already moved the necessary things nearby.

Fifteen boxes of powdered crystal, the three water-tight tubs he had commissioned from Orrin, and an unused shovel for stirring. He intended to use the handle for the stirring once again since he didn’t know how the metal would react to the powdered crystals.

Since his equipment seemed to experience rapid deterioration when used in mana-intensive tasks, his guess was that the metal parts of the equipment would deteriorate on contact with the powered crystals. It was something to test with one of Orrin’s failed creations later.

Cal transferred the correct portions of water into the other two tubs before mixing the powdered crystals to make the slurry. Three tubs of slurry were enough to cover around a thousand square feet of soil. To finish the entire patch, he would need to repeat this five times.

He picked up the first tub and poured it over the soil carefully, making sure not to overdo it in one spot. Speed wasn’t the answer here. The viscosity of the slurry of powdered crystals and water made it impossible to finish faster, even if he wanted to.

Less than thirty minutes later, all three tubs were empty, and he returned to the pond to get more water. He repeated the same steps four more times before he was finally done covering the patch.

Cal had finally found a task that he disliked. It was too slow and required active monitoring to complete correctly, making it impossible to fall into a trance state.

That, and it took a little over two hours to finish five thousand square feet. He dreaded the thought of doing the same thing over the rest of the field.

I should see if the golem can do this. The small size of it should be due to my mana capacity. The hearthstone can supplement that.

Cal was reminded that Miren was due to return the golem today. He considered just deactivating the golem so he could form a new one with the hearthstone’s help, but he did promise to allow Miren to create replicas of the golem… whatever her reason was for that. It wouldn’t do to accidentally interrupt her work.

He wanted her to come to the field anyway. They still needed to discuss the stone pathways that needed to be built. The golem could be reformed after that—

I need to tell Orrin not to make the baby-sized tools!

“Nibbles!” Cal yelled after he came to the realization. “I’m leaving for a few minutes. Watch over the field!”

He saw Nibbles poke her head out of the soil in the distance before giving him an affirmative squeak. At least, that’s what he took it as.

Cal gave her a small wave as he sped to Mariner’s Rest.

***

“I still don’t believe you.”

Cal could hear Seris’s voice from outside Orrin’s house. He could also hear Orrin's uncharacteristically tense reply.

“I don’t care. Just wait here for Initiate Cal to pick you up and stop distracting me.”

“Hmph, you’re ungrateful. I gave you so much silver, and you don’t even care!”

“… don’t remind me. My heart starts to itch when I think of you getting scammed. Why would you sell something worth a gold coin for fifty silvers?”

“Tsk, what do you know about its used value, Orrin! You just hit your hammer on mental all day. I see the world with Cal!”

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Cal felt a little guilty that he had forgotten he told Orrin to keep Seris in town. In fairness, the issue was fixed almost immediately, so Seris would never have to know.

“She’s right,” Cal said as he walked into the backyard. Orrin was sweatier than usual, but he was more concerned about the new tools he could see hung on the edges of the smithy. Thankfully, they were all normal-sized.

“Initiate Cal!”

“Cal! You’re back!”

Their voices overlapped, and they were both excited for different yet similar reasons. Seris was happy she would get to visit the field, and Orrin was happy she would get to visit the field and stop distracting him.

“So Seris didn’t get scammed?” Orrin asked suspiciously.

Cal was about to defend Seris, then he saw the smug look on her face. He switched tactics a little. “Well, not really. That really was the best price she could have gotten.” Seris was about to float from her ‘I know everything’ look. “But if she asked me to sell it directly, it could have been possible to get forty silver more.”

“What?!” Seris yelped in shock. “Initiate Vaela scammed me!”

“No, she didn’t,” Cal corrected her instantly while feeling satisfied that Vaela was the one to buy the spell booklet. He felt slightly guilty that he did nothing to help her monetary struggles. “Vaela was generous in her offer since you’re not a guild member. She would be in her right to seize the booklet without much consequence.”

That wasn’t a lie, though there weren’t many opportunities for a guild member to do so. Most mortals with things that could interest the guild members usually had backing in the guild, which would just cause trouble.

“… Boss, could you tell me that before I throw away money next time?” Seris looked miserable at the thought of losing so much.

I would have if I remembered it would be like this. I forgot since the silver wouldn’t make much of a difference to me.

Cal cleared his throat awkwardly and nodded. “Next time. Orrin, I hope you didn’t get started on making the half-sized tools.”

“Not yet. I was planning on it today.”

“Don’t. My plans have changed. Instead, just make them normal-sized,” Cal instructed with a sense of relief. It wouldn’t have been a significant issue even if they were made, but it would be a shame to make equipment that nobody could use.

“I’ll have all of them ready by tomorrow, Initiate Cal,” Orrin said with a firm nod.

“Good! I’ll have to cut this visit short, but send the tools with Seris tomorrow,” Cal was about to tell Seris to follow him back but remembered Nibbles was still cranky. It would be better not to introduce an irritant at the moment. “Seris, take this.”

Seris stared at the spell booklet that was shoved into her hands.

“It’s a spell called ‘Earth Barrier.’ I have a mission for you. If you can sell this for sixty silver, I’ll give you a reward.”

Seris blinked before asking, “But you can get more if you sell it yourself, right? Why would you give it to me?”

“Practice. Think of it as training for the future. I’ll be able to hand off more things of value if you know how to sell them for me,” Cal was coming up with this on the spot, but the more words that spewed out of his mouth, the more he liked it.

“Do I get to keep the silver?” Seris asked with sparkling eyes.

“No,” Cal’s denial was immediate, and it killed the sparkle. He couldn’t be too generous, or Seris would lose the value of money.

“… Alright, Boss Cal.”

Cal raised an eyebrow at her sullen acceptance before giving Orrin a farewell nod.

***

He stepped onto his field less than ten minutes later, and the whole trip took less than thirty minutes.

Ha! I’m faster than any train or carriage!

Cal allowed himself to feel the smugness that came from an accomplishment, even if he had little idea how it happened. Not that it lasted long.

He could see Tavia’s carriage parked in front of the stables with her two horses relaxing under the shade. The smugness he felt changed into anticipation.

It looks like I will be going back to town. It’ll be interesting to see if anything in the bazaar would interest Tavia.

Cal could see Tavia standing at the back of the house, looking out with her arms crossed. “You’re late,” he commented as he approached her.

Tavia glanced at him but didn’t do anything else in response. She continued staring into the back of the field when he stood beside her. She asked, “What’s that?”

Cal saw Nibbles pop her head out of the ground before looking around for something. She then proceeded to dive back down and appear elsewhere. It looked to him like she was testing the tunnels' connections, which gave him hope that they were almost finished.

… Wait, I don’t think Tavia had ever met Nibbles before.

“Er, this is your first time seeing her, isn’t it?” Cal got a soft hum in reply. “That’s Nibbles, a… friend that appeared weeks ago. A smart one too. Sometimes I think Seris might not be able to outthink her.”

Tavia kept staring before a small smile appeared on her lips. “She’s cute. What is she?”

“I have no idea. I have never seen anything like her and haven’t gone out of my way to find out.”

She looked tempted to approach Nibbles but changed her mind at the last moment. “She looks busy. I’ll introduce myself later.”

Cal finally caught on to the strange mood she had. While Tavia wasn’t the endless stream of cheerfulness that was Seris, she was a generally happy person. Right now, it looked like she reverted to the time when they were Trainees.

“I’m going to rest for the day,” Tavia finally faced him, letting him notice her weary look. “We might have to miss the bazaar this time around.”

“The bazaar isn’t a one-time event. It isn’t that important. Recover quickly, Tavia.”

She gave him a half-smile before heading into the house. Cal stood there with a peculiar look as he stared at the closed front door.

I find it strange that I am not disappointed about the canceled trip. I’m more worried about what caused this drastic change in Tavia. Something must have happened on the trip.

There wasn’t much that could threaten Tavia inside the territory other than the Celestial Order itself. And that was an issue in his view. He could help with most things, but his hands would most likely be tied if the guild was involved.

Overseer Marek was the only one he would be willing to approach, but the man was probably restricted by the guildmaster at the moment.

Cal could only hope that he was jumping to conclusions, and Tavia was just tired in a more general sense—not that he really believed that.

He needed to take his mind off this matter. At least until Tavia was willing to talk about it. With his field having no work available for several hours, that meant he needed to work on his spells to pass the time. Offense-focused spells would be ideal to blow off some steam.