Rowan was determined to expand and improve his farm. He arrived at Scrumble’s shed.

"First of all I'd like a wooden shovel."

"You got the money?"

Rowan groaned. He sold about half his wood. "There you go," he said as he handed back some of the gold and more wood. The transactions felt a little circular, but that's how the goblin wanted to do things.

"Would you be able to help me make a fence around the farm? Wild bugs keep making their way in."

The goblin chuckled. "That may be something you have to deal with for a while. I'll need lots of wood and lots of time. If you want me to undergo that type of project you'll have to upgrade my shed first."

"Okay, remind me what I need to do to make that happen."

"Well, you'll have to recover my toolbox from the kobolds. I'll need 100 gold and 50 more wood..." Now it sounded like the goblin was just making stuff up, adding to the list whatever came to mind, "...and I want 20 potatoes. And an emerald."

It would certainly take time to collect all this. Rowan considered each item on the checklist one by one. Rowan was wary about fighting another wave of monsters if it included kobolds. Just venturing out into the wild meant danger. He had no idea if would run into Santorius or one of his monsters.

As for the gold and wood, it would take a long time to collect that much. He thought about his tool usage and tried to determine if he was experiencing a net gain or a net loss. He could use a wooden ax to chop trees and collect wood, but eventually the tool would break and he’d have to pay for another one. Not to mention the cost of all the other farming tools. If he had access to more durable tools he wouldn’t go through so much wood, and he could save up for the project.

He didn’t know how to get potatoes. He knew how to get tomatoes. And celery. After a couple orders he'd be rewarded with new seeds. That would still take time though. He’d have to cycle through field after field of vegetables to fulfill goblin orders.

Lastly, that emerald that Scrumble seemed to tack on as an afterthought. He had no idea where he would find one of those.

"Hope you enjoy your tiny shed," Rowan said, taking his finished shovel and heading back to his farm. It wasn't two steps before he found another giant roach. Scrumble laughed at him and sat back counting his gold.

Rowan took care of the roach, collecting some XP and insect parts, but unfortunately the encounter brought him down to 4HP.

Rowan was conflicted. He could eat some of his corn to stay at a healthy life total. But at this rate he was not going to complete any orders. He thought back to everything he needed to do to protect his farm, and how much food he needed to consume compared to how much the farm yielded. It didn’t seem like a net gain. He was going nowhere if things continued at this rate. It was painful to have to eat his supply, but he chowed down a couple ears of corn to keep safe from enemies.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He did see a way out of this situation. If he improved his yield, he’d eventually profit. He could do that if he expanded his farm, clearing more squares of land to make them usable. Shovel clenched in his hands, he headed back to the farm.

Rowan went to the weed covered section of his farm. He tested the weeds by pulling them. Still no response. The shovel was definitely the way to go. Rowan dug into the ground and tossed the earth aside.

The roots were thick and difficult to hack through. But Rowan continued to stab the shovel into the grounds in different directions until he could loosen enough dirt to scoop out of the way. With more plant material exposed, he could switch back to hacking at it more directly.

Eventually he could fit the back of the shovel around some roots and move them with a strong tug. He had nearly unearthed the weed when a bizarre screech came out from the ground.

An ugly tangle of messy weeds emerged. Amidst the wild vines of plants Rowan couldn't believe his eyes. He could almost make out a face down there. Out of the dirt jumped a strange little impish creature known as a mandrake.

HP 11/12 HP 10/12 HP 9/12

The creature shrieked again, and Rowan realized the sound was dealing damage. He took out his sword and swung at the creature. He thought it would just take a couple swings to take out the creature. Not the case. Little 1's and 2's appeared as the mandrake writhed around. After his third swing the creature body slammed into him and ran around wildly.

HP 3/12

So turns out it could deal both physical damage and magic damage. Rowan didn't know what else to do. All he had was a sword, so he swung again.

The fourth time you hit a mandrake with a wooden sword you really start to think about your life choices. Should he be working out more? He decided he would have been better off leveling up a few times before he attempted to fight one of these. But he didn't know this would happen just from digging up weeds.

He ducked around a corner behind some of his tall crops. He ate some corn to recover health. Each ear recovered 5 health, which was less than the mandrake did in one hit. He ate a couple ears while hiding from the creature. He was back at full health.

When he poked his head out from the corn, he was disheartened to see it had strangled two other plants. "And they were so close to being ready for harvest," he said sadly. But he charged at the creature and slashed it a couple more times. His sword broke. Crap. He forgot that could happen. The mandrake flailed about more madly than before. It jumped high into the air and shook the ground when it landed. Rowan's ankles crumpled and he fell to the ground taking 7 damage. After fully healing he was already down below half.

Rowan's next tool at hand was his shovel, so he swung that at the creature. It did some damage but not enough. The mandrake attacked again. Rowan had no resistance to it. He didn't have to be a math expert to calculate the outcome of this fight. The mandrake dealt too much damage in a single turn. And Rowan couldn't deal enough back to kill the creature promptly. Meanwhile he was about to have consumed all his healing items.

Rowan ducked behind another plant to eat his last piece of corn. It restored his health too slowly. He tried to down the vegetable as fast as he could in a desperate attempt to get his health back, but he knew it was in vain. He'd be able to hit the mandrake one more time, but after one more hit he would be out of health.

Rowan heard a thump as the mandrake pounded the ground again. The crops he was hiding behind fell over, withered by the predatory weed which then lunged at him.

There was nothing he could do. Rowan blacked out.