Cal had decided long into the return trip that delivering the harvest would be Seris’s job. It would drive him mad if he had to waste a few hours a day just driving a cart back and forth.
Thankfully, they had almost reached the farm.
“Cal, do you sense that?” Tavia narrowed her eyes as she looked past the tree line. Her view was blocked, but that didn’t stop the additional presence from being detected.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” Cal made a calming motion. “I met a beast and came to accord with it... and it’s pack.”
Tavia raised her brow and stayed silent until they passed the tree line.
Cal let out a little laugh when he saw the situation at the western border of the farm.
The leader of the Silvermane wolves lay on the ground, his head resting on his extended legs. He stared at Orrin and Seris trying to be brave.
The two had taken sledgehammers from the storage room and were menacingly staring down the massive wolf. Of course, this would be far more effective if Seris didn’t have to put down the sledgehammer every few seconds.
Cal looked to see what Nibbles was up to and quickly found her lazing around on the golem's head. She was aware of the standoff and looked right at it, but she did nothing to de-escalate it.
“Brave. But stupid,” Tavia chuckled as she stared at the kids. “I’ll assume you don’t need my help here. Have fun, Cal!”
Everyone on the farm was aware of their arrival as they parked the carts near the stable. Tavia went into the house, and Cal headed directly to the one-sided standoff.
“Look, Cal!” Seris said with an excited yet strained voice. “We protected your house!”
Orrin sighed and said, “I keep telling you that we didn’t, Seris. This wolf hasn’t done anything but just sit there the whole time.”
This made much more sense to Cal. It wasn’t like Orrin to do something so silly… unless Seris pulled him into it.
“I’ll have to side with Orrin here, Seris. I invited the wolf here.”
The sledgehammer Seris was holding dropped to the ground. She looked at him with a sheen of sweat on her face. “So we wasted our time?”
“… You showed me your bravery and resolve,” Cal said, using random encouraging words that didn’t fool Orrin, but Seris was satisfied. “I have some business to discuss with this wolf, so excuse us for a moment.”
It felt strange to Cal that he dismissed humans to talk to a beast, but they took it in stride. They returned to the storage room to put back the sledgehammers.
“One moment,” Cal said awkwardly to the wolf. “Nibbles! I need your help!”
She was next to him within a second.
“Ask the wolf what he needs from me. You know how much each tub of powder crystals contains, so explain that to him.”
Cal ignored the following conversation, which consisted of squeaks and growls. He eyed the small figures in the distance and approximated their number.
It’s a smaller number than before. The wolf pack has been reduced to twenty members.
“What happened to the rest of your pack,” Cal interrupted. A moment later, Nibbles got the answer and communicated it by falling limply to the ground. He winced before motioning for her to continue the previous conversation.
The wolf looked like he couldn't care less that over half of the pack had been killed. Then again, Cal was no expert on a wolf’s expression. For all he knew, the wolf could be in its most depressed state.
Nibbles was done with her talk and signaled to Cal.
“Two tubs?” Cal spirits were lifted briefly at the low number before it was quickly reversed. “Wait, two tubs a day!?”
Nibbles nodded, but she didn’t look happy about either.
Cal considered the demand, and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. In fact, it was almost a bargain.
Nibbles wanted two tubs for herself daily, so he should be ecstatic if the wolf pack only needed two.
“… Done. We have a deal,” Cal said with a sigh.
The wolf left to join its pack as soon as they reached an agreement. Cal watched his retreating form for a moment before addressing Nibbles. “I have another job for you. Make tunnels under the new land that the golem cleared, but don’t connect it to the old tunnels. I don't want it to fill with water yet.”
She looked happy to be given new work and quickly left to start on it. Cal didn’t think it was necessary to make those tunnels yet, but he wanted her out of the way so she wouldn’t interfere or distract any other work.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Cal had noticed that Nibbles had a proclivity to make a nuisance of herself when she was bored.
The next order of business was to see why Orrin kept glancing at him the entire time he was dealing with the wolf.
“Where’s Seris?” Cal asked as he approached.
“She went into the house to talk to Initiate Tavia,” Orrin replied as he pulled out a small sketchpad. He looked excited. “I have an idea for the irrigation system. Would you like to take a look?”
Cal took the offered sketchpad and slowly flipped through the designs as Orrin spoke. They were fairly simple but impressive enough for a kid who was supposed to be a blacksmith. This should have been out of his expertise.
“I figured that it would be best to make it as simple as possible, so I looked at how you planted the crops and decided it would be best if the pipes were placed in the spaces between. I asked some of the Initiates in town, and they mentioned that a pump is used on their farms. I don’t know how to make that, but it should be available in the city.”
Cal had been nodding along, but he already saw an issue here. “I remember that you mentioned that the irrigation system would have to be made of voidiron. Have you already succeeded in incorporating that material in your smithing?”
“Enough for the purpose of the irrigation system, but not enough to create equipment.”
Cal tilted his head and wondered if Orrin was confused. “The water that will be running through pipes will have far more mana working towards degrading them.”
“The water?” Orrin looked taken aback as he glanced at the pond. “I only considered the degradation the pipes would have from being placed in the Northern Wastes. If the water has any mana, the pipes will fail quickly even if it was completely made out of voidiron.”
Cal sighed and handed the sketchpad back. “Then, unfortunately, this won’t work. It would’ve been a great idea at a normal farm, but nothing about my farm is normal.”
Orrin didn’t look disheartened by the setback. Instead, he looked even more motivated to find a solution. “I know nothing that could replace voidiron as material for the pipes, but there must be an answer. I won’t give up, Apprentice Cal.”
Cal smiled at Orrin’s determination. He made sure to mention that it wasn’t an urgency. “Do it only when you have nothing else to work on.”
Orrin nodded slowly, thinking of any options he might’ve missed. “… I’ll take my leave. Seris wants to stay here longer than I’m comfortable. I need to get back to my smithy.”
Cal said his farewells to the kid and checked his crops after Orrin left his farm. Both batches that he was currently growing looked normal to him. He then checked the pond, noticing a minute decrease in the water level.
He cast [Rainfall] at the pond's outer edge, near the farm's boundary. Even if the water level had decreased, he would’ve cast a spell to expand the size of the pond.
I should start another pond in the newly cleared-up portion of the farm. But only after I get word from Overseer Marek.
Cal maintained the spell until all of his mana was spent. He intended to continue after his mana recovered to capacity. In the meantime, he had to deal with the idle golem.
He stood before the massive buried body and stared into the featureless face of the golem. “You’re not allowed to throw anything from now on unless I specify it.” He waited as if the golem was going to respond. It didn’t. “Step out of the rubble.”
Cal put some distance to avoid getting rained on by rocks as the golem made a mess by taking itself out of the rocks that covered his body. He stared at the scattered rocks and sighed.
“Clean that up,” Cal ordered. He watched the golem scoop up the rocks and dump them to the side to make a new rock pile. It did not throw anything.
He quickly went to the storage room and took out one of the new pickaxes that Orrin just delivered. He returned to the golem and waited a few minutes for it to finish cleaning up the rocks. The main thing he wanted to make sure was that the golem wouldn’t continue ‘working’ after it was done cleaning.
That was how it ended up buried in rock in the first place.
Thankfully, the golem stopped moving when every rock was in one neat pile.
“Take this,” Cal handed a pickaxe to the golem. “Handle it carefully. I want you to break up the surface layer on the west side of the newly cleared ground.”
He was thinking of additional orders to give, but the golem had already started to make its way to its new worksite. He decided to stay silent and wait to see how the golem would handle its task.
Cal stood at a reasonable distance and watched the golem use a very familiar motion to swing the pickaxe at the surface layer. It was copying precisely what he would do.
I didn’t think something made out of rock could move so smoothly.
He waited for the interface to appear after the golem used the pickaxe for the first time. Although the golem was already on his third swing, the interface still hadn't shown.
Cal sighed as an avenue to crank out upgraded equipment was abruptly taken away from him. On the bright side, the golem was doing the work that he assigned it.
He watched for a few seconds when a thought appeared in his mind. He quickly went back to the storage room and took out his primary pickaxe.
[Advanced Pickaxe: Average Quality] Upgrade: 1295/4000 Tasks
Cal went to the golem and ordered it to use his primary pickaxe. After the golem completed a few swings, he rechecked the interface.
[Advanced Pickaxe: Average Quality] Upgrade: 1295/4000 Tasks
He finally gave up the hope of using the golem to upgrade his equipment. However, he still allowed the golem to use his primary pickaxe since it had the self-repair trait.
It would be better for the golem to use a tool that could repair itself than a brand-new tool, which would degrade permanently.
Cal felt his mana core refill to capacity and immediately chose to use [Rainfall] over the pond. He had noticed that his second batch of crops—planted in the one thousand square feet area—was nearly ready for harvest.
Pulling all those Sunfire Grains out of the soil would take some time.
Cal estimated that his mana core would be refilled once or twice during that time. He would make sure to cast [Rainfall] in those times. It was becoming more apparent that he would need to increase his water supply massively to keep up with the coming demand.
He lowered his arm as his mana depleted and moved to stand by the crops that were almost ready for harvest.
Cal remembered that these were the crops that dried to dangerous levels. He had resigned himself to another lousy yield, but the initial signs showed otherwise.
The Sunfire Grains moved into the rapid growth phase. Over fifty percent withered and died in the last batch and failed in this phase. This time, well over seventy percent continued to full maturity. To his shock, fifty percent of the ones that reached maturity started to grow red grains on their surface.
Cal narrowed his eyes as he quickly thought about what it would mean if he was able to produce this level of yield with every harvest.
He quickly shook his head to eliminate the hopeful thoughts. He would need to see the same result on the next batch, planted over five thousand square feet, to have confidence in this yield rate.
Cal waited for a few minutes for the crops to settle before walking onto the soil. It was time for the second harvest, and more importantly, it was time to see what would happen after [Green Thumb] was upgraded.