With the fields interspersed with ripe crops ready to be picked, I did a quick stretch and bent down to get started. Picking through the leaves to retrieve the precious source of profit, I was trying to be careful not to hurt the plants themselves. But honestly careful was hard with my mind still buzzing from the walk down to the field, hand in hand, with Mia.

Who knew that dirt could be such a blessing? I asked myself, thinking about how sweaty my palms had been while grabbing for hers not but a few minutes ago. Well, at least it had worked out!

“This is a small mid cycle harvest, but we should get a good dozen coppers at the bare minimum.” Mia said after finishing her quick mental calculations. “All of our bonuses have definitely affected the yields though. We honestly should not have had another harvest until tomorrow. So the fact that we are getting so much today is amazing!” She finished, now trying to re-estimate her season’s profit projections with the new information.

“Well that is good to hear, hopefully we can get the same luck with some monster loot too!” I said with no small amount of enthusiasm showing.

“That is quite possible, we still do not know the full limits of what your domain does.”

Turning to my, now not so little, familiar I couldn’t help but smile. “Do you think that you might be able to eek out some more luck? Maybe talk to your little turtle friends again?”

Rumble twisted his body, seemingly looking up at the sky while thinking, and took a few moments before answering. And then with a kurt nod and a new emoji featuring crossed fingers, the ever diligent familiar threw me a salute before turning to run off into the grass.

“Rumble sure is quite the team player.” Mia said. “Is it because of your familiar bond, or just how he is?”

“Honestly, I am not sure. Rumble is quite friendly with almost everyone though, so I am going to guess with it just being within its own personality.” I said while wiping the sweat from my brow.

Turning fully around to a laughing Mia, I couldn’t help but to raise an eyebrow.

“I hate to say this, but you really should have wiped your hands off onto your pants before your face.” She said, not quite stifling her laugh while explaining.

Rolling my eyes, I shot her a smile. “Well, at least I have been down in the mud working.” I teased back.

“My job is to sell the produce and to reapply my buff on the soil today.”

“Well, here is the first bit of it.” I said laying a few of the crops at her feet.

“I will organize and ship it as soon as you finish. For now I will focus on buffing everything.” Mia said with her eyes not quite hiding her excitement for the harvest.

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And so the morning chores finished up, just in time for lunch. Having collected a solid 14 coppers worth of produce, along with completely weeding the front field.

“So are you ready to head back up for lunch now?” I questioned Mia.

Nodding her head she was quick to respond with “Yup, just finished loading everything into the crate for shipping.”

Waiting for Mia to join me for the walk back up, I started to plan out how to augment our lunch with some of the kiwi fruit that was in our inventory. And so when she arrived by my side, I turned, heading towards the house. Only to be stopped by an audible huff of disappointment.

With Mia standing next to where I had just left, her hand reaching out, my mistake hit me before she even spoke. “I’m sorry Mia, I am still getting used to this.”

“I am too, but I really liked it earlier.” She said softly.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way, I really liked holding your hand too!” I said honestly.

“Good, then let us go eat!” She said closing the distance, slipping her hand into mine before leading the way.

The trip taking only a few minutes was much less nerve wracking than it was before, having already passed this milestone twice today.

Mia speaking up just before we reached the door asked, “Do you think Rumble is okay? I wonder how the hunt is going. Do you think we will have any significant increase in loot?”

Glancing up at the top right of my vision, I say his health and stamina bars almost completely full with the exception of it occasionally flickering down a few percentage points. “If I had to guess, I would say that Rumble is demolishing monsters at quite a quick pace.” I said confidently.

“I am not doubting Rumble’s ability to do so, but what makes you guess that?” Mia asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, his health is bouncing up and down quite rapidly, indicating constant fighting. And on top of that, it's never more than a few percentage points, meaning nothing is really a big challenge for him.

“That makes sense, but if the only targets are minor threats, then loot won’t be super valuable.” Mia stated.

“True, but today Rumble really was thinking about our goal. I think we should give it time and see what loot comes back.”

“That is fair.” Mia said, “So have you decided how we will eat the kiwis? I am super hungry right now.”

“To be honest, no… I was just going to try preparing it in multiple ways, hoping to unlock a recipe or something.” I replied.

“Do you even know if there are recipes?”

“There has to be, otherwise there wouldn’t be chef classes that give bonuses for different meals.”

“That makes sense, I was leaning towards a similar guess. I doubt there will be one just involving kiwis though.” Mia said.

“Well I have an idea, so just wait and see!” I said.

And with that, I set out about the shack trying to figure out what the best approach to fulfilling my idea was while using our limited tools. Having settled on just peeling the very end of a few kiwis, I squeezed them as hard as I could, letting the juices collect in a cup below. After having juiced about a dozen kiwis and filling two cups, I was greeted with a message of triumph.

Congratulations!

You have discovered a new recipe:

Juice (fruit)

Increases stamina recovery rate for a short time.