Cal lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. It had only been a night since he returned to the farm, but he was already thinking about how uneventful it was.

The most exciting thing that happened was filling the hearthstone while Tavia pretended to read some spell booklets. Both of them were thinking about the events that occurred in Silverpine.

Even after a decent night's sleep, he couldn’t get over the fact that Oleg seemed so glad to be away from him. It did bring up some uncharitable thoughts about how he had overestimated his friendship, but he knew that was just selfishness speaking.

Oleg had to find his own way, especially since it looked like he had no intention of depending on Cal for future support.

A significant part of him envied how Oleg was eager and willing to distance himself from the Celestial Order. Cal had come to accept that he didn’t wish to do that. At least, not right now.

He was attached to far too many things that he would need to break if he decided to leave the guild’s territory. He would have to abandon his farm, leave behind Seris and Orrin, and start all over somewhere else after he somehow managed to escape the guild’s reach.

The Celestial Order was not a strong guild by any means, but that didn’t mean a simple Apprentice could abandon it without any repercussions.

It was possible to do so; Cal knew it, and the guild likely knew that he knew it. There was a reason why they dangled so many benefits for staying. Only a fool would leave all of this behind.

If only that damned guild hadn’t attacked…

Cal sighed before getting off his bed and leaving the house. He had spent far too much time playing around instead of doing the proper thing and just farm. He shuddered to think how much growth he had given up when he decided to play investigator.

He stood on one of the stone paths and looked over his field. The slurry of water and powdered crystals had settled in. He could start on step three.

Cal dragged the sacks of mulch off the pile one by one and spread them thinly across the field. His practice made the process simple and quick, considering the two acres that he had to cover.

It felt like it had been years since he had done any real work. He had almost forgotten how satisfying it was.

Cal held off on watering the spread mulch to see how much of the field he could cover one time. He tossed the last of the clawed sacks near the motionless golem and stood outside the bounds up his field.

He raised his arm and focused intensely to form a thin rain cloud over the mulch-covered field. Surprisingly, the limitation wasn’t his mana but his control over it. He was able to get the cloud to cover well over an acre before the size truly tested his skill.

Cal wasn’t frustrated. He was excited to find such a limitation. He had found most of his issues related to a lack of mana capacity, which he couldn’t do much about.

Control, however, was trainable. If he couldn’t cover the field with a stable raincloud, it was a skill issue, not a capacity limitation.

He was able to cover half of the field closest to him, while the other half proved stubborn. He was tempted to make it easier for himself by walking onto the field, but there was no challenge to that.

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It wouldn’t increase his control over it.

Cal was surprised to feel a bead of sweat running down his face. He narrowed his eyes and pushed on, the rain cloud expanding over the field—slowly and unevenly, but expanding.

It took longer to cover the field with a single rain cloud than it did to cover it with mulch. The mental strain caused was far more than he had ever expected. And Cal loved it.

He had a broad smile as he stared at his accomplishment. He released his mana and let it flow into the rain cloud.

Forming the rain cloud itself didn’t cause Cal to severely decrease his mana capacity, but fueling it certainly did.

The rain cloud drew on his mana ravenously. It was good that the last step to repair the soil only needed a slight sprinkle since it drew well over three-quarters of the capacity in a few seconds.

Cal cut off the mana flow and looked around the field with a proud smile. This was what he was meant to do.

Who needed to think about plots and subterfuge? What was the point of taking lives? Farming was all that was—

“Cal!”

He was snapped out of his internal manifesto. Tavia was staring at him with her arms crossed, her hair and shoulders slightly wet from the drizzle.

Cal gave her an apologetic smile as he approached. “I didn’t know you were out here.”

Tavia waved off the silent apology. “It’s my fault. I was shocked at how large you made the cloud and was too distracted to think about moving. It almost makes me wish to stay and practice my own spells.”

He narrowed his eyes, only then noticing that she looked ready to leave the farm. And he had a pretty good idea of where she was going. “Silverpine?”

Tavia nodded. At his look, she defended herself. “I need to see Astris get picked up by the guild. I can’t stop thinking about how I listened to her while she must have been laughing at my stupidity.”

Cal almost felt bad that he was satisfied with leaving things be after Oleg’s matter was resolved. He would be extremely happy to return to being a farmer and not worry about anything else. Still, he understood where Tavia was coming from.

“Nibbles!” He only had to wait a few seconds for her to pop up. “Accompany Tavia for the day.”

Tavia gave him a small smile before letting Nibbles climb to her shoulder. “Thank you, Cal. I’ll let you know if anything interesting happens.”

Cal watched her get into the carriage and write out of the farm. He was tempted to go with her but knew it wasn’t a good idea. He might be of some help to Tavia, but it would be better overall if he stayed back and focused on what made him stronger.

Seeing the war hammer utterly unresponsive to his interface was telling. Yes, he could be a monster on the battlefield, but that depended on how strong he already was.

Getting rid of an apprentice class enemy—even if Kaelor was on the weaker end—gave him no increase in any of his [Classes]. He had no benefit in getting involved in a fight unless absolutely necessary.

Cal had already made up his mind on what would make him act. It would have to be a personal threat to him or the people he cared about. As for everything else, it was none of his business.

He looked away from the tree line and went to the pond. He would need to make it much, much larger. It might also make sense to start on the second pond he had planned. It would help significantly in watering the two acres he was about to plant, but more importantly, it would be necessary when he started repairing the extra two acres that were added to the field.

Cal waited for his mana to recover fully before casting [Rainfall] over the pond. He watched the downpour expand the pond slightly before his mana ran out.

He waited patiently for his mana to recover again. This was a tedious chore, but this would be what he intended to do until the field was ready for planting.

***

Cal was breathing deeply several hours later. The pond had expanded considerably, and its borders went well past the bounds of the field.

It’s still not enough.

He glanced at the field and knew it was ready for planting. However, he wasn’t sure if there was enough water to support the crops. If they were regular seeds, he had no doubt the pond was enough, but with [Blessing of the Time-Warped Seed] applied to them, there was a very good chance the pond would be sucked dry, and the majority of the crops would have to be sacrificed.

Cal had no way of supporting two acres by himself.

… I guess I should plant half an acre first.

He nodded to himself and went to the storage room. He would start planting after plowing the part of the field he intended to use.