As the morning light broke into the shack through the large hole in the would be roof, Rumble started to stir and spread his branches. Normally I could sleep through anything, but the whip like motion of green branches spreading out forcefully gave me a sore face. Having at some point in the night moved to use him as a pillow, Rumble had turned into a face punch waiting to happen… which it did.
“Ow!” I screamed. Bursting onto my feet ready to do battle, I quickly came to figure out the situation. With Mia startled awake not to far away, I quickly started to explain what happen in an attempt to de escalate the now crazy moment. “Sorry for waking you up, Rumble must’ve accidentally hit me in the face as the sun came up. I need to build him a planter or something because I can’t survive with that becoming a regular thing.”
“HA HA HA!” Mia started to laugh uncontrollably upon seeing my face. “You have a huge red mark across your face! I can definitely see his handiwork. So all jokes aside, did he do that yesterday too? Is that how he eats or does he need to consume other stuff too?”
“Um, I’m really not quite sure.” I embarrassingly replied. “He did spread out yesterday morning wanting to soak up some sunshine while I ate breakfast, but I really haven’t noticed too much more about his eating habits. I'm sure he would tell me if he needed anything more.
At that moment the top right of my vision lit up with a flashing smile emoji. Upon clicking on it I was greeted by a new message and previously hidden portion of my menu. It turned out to be a nourishment tab. It was dominated by a mostly empty circle that had what appeared to be liquified sunshine sloshing around at the bottom along with a 8 / 100 marking with the words “Accumulated Sunshine”.
“Apparently Rumble has a Sunshine pool that he needs to refill for nourishment”; I told Mia. “There is more to the page, but it is mostly grayed out and not available to select. There seems to be more that needs discovered, hopefully that will come with time.”
“Well, at least you now know this much. I wonder if there are any more tabs to be unlocked. Heck, there seems to be a near infinite amount of hidden tabs. I unlocked one yesterday when I renamed my farm. It even gave me a reward for it, and gave me a bin for selling things I produce on my farm. It was pretty great, it almost immediately synchronized with my merchant class and started allowing me to set my own prices, within reason that is.”
“Wait, what!?” I exclaimed. “Just renaming your farm did all that!? I gotta rename mine right now! I can’t believe something so important is hidden away.
“Settle down Brad, its not like you are that far behind. We’ve been here for a total of 2 days. Besides, even if you had money from selling something yesterday, what would you buy? Your fields are full of monsters and tall grass, so seeds wouldn’t even be useful yet. The best thing would be to settle down, figure out a good name, and start planning out what you will be doing with your farm. You probably already have a plan right? I personally am looking to be a mostly merchant farmer that goes around offering my enrichment services to other farmers. Sure I will have decent soil for good plants, but I wouldn’t be able to compete with a more self-serving farmer that was also purchasing my services.”
Stunned into silence it took me a moment to respond. “Wow Mia, you plan quite far ahead. I mean you are level 1 Stone rank and you are already planning on running a farming service company? I haven’t even figured out what I’m gonna grow, or how to do it.”
“Well I would suggest making use of your name to stand apart from the others. Something catchy and meaningful, something like “Rumble’s Domain”.
“I’m gonna have to pass on that suggestion. I like Rumble, but I am not going to name the land after him. Ugh, these past few days have been too crazy. I swear that ever since the first menu opened up that my life has been full of exhaustion and crazy situations. I really hope this farm turns out to be my calm oasis in the world.:
“Then why don’t you call it “Pandora Estate” or just “Pandora” for short? I mean it fits with what you just asked for. Crazy on the outside, with your future hopes contained within. As for what to do next, I have a proposition. You are not a dedicated farmer and will probably not grow the absolute best produce, but you will most likely have a consistent harvest while protected by Rumble. So my idea is this, you two help me clear my fields too, we grow both sets of fields together and then use my merchant skills to sell everything for a higher price.”
“As great as that sounds, we just met each other Mia, I’m not sure that's the best idea for new acquaintances.”
“Normally I would agree”; she went on to say. “But we are both poor with nothing to lose and equally weak prospects alone when considering produce quality. I can sell my stuff for more, but I will most likely spend it all fighting off monsters. Whereas you will be selling produce for market rates without any kind of boost that others would have, be it merchant, rancher, or herbalist secondary classes. So at the very least let's try a single season's worth of cooperation. If you don’t like it, then we split what we made and go for it alone from then on out.”
“ I mean, I am not entirely opposed to it… I just don’t want it to go south and risk us now continuing to be friends. We just got here and haven’t met many people yet, but I have a feeling that after that first impression we made in town, we might have limited options without moving.”
“I’m not sure I can disagree with that sadly, but think of this as a potential to become better friends.” And worst case, we won’t be too attached if things do go south in our partnership.” she added matter of factly.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Fine, let's do this and hope for the best.” I stated.
Just then a message popped up outlining our deal and asking if both parties agreed. As I saw Mia’s signature box glow green with a checkmark I hit decline.
Puzzled Mia asked; “What’s wrong?”
“I have got to change the name of my farm first, I don’t know how changing it later would affect things in the agreement.” I explained.
Flipping through the menus I found the section for changing the name of the farm. Entering the name “Pandora Estate” I was greeted with a confirmation window that I quickly affirmed my decision with. Following that change I was greeted with an expected window, with an unexpected addition.
Congratulations Achievement Earned
“This is my land to name”
Produce sales Bin unlocked
Your druid class has upgraded this achievements benefit
Your land is now considered a druids domain
Assert your love for the land you control and your dominance over all within in order to unlock further awards
“Well, my druid class upgraded my land into a druid's domain. Not sure what that means, but it probably will be giving me some awesome boosts to crop growth. Hopefully it will help make our first season here more lucrative. I really want a house with a chimney instead of a shack full of tetanus covered loose nails with a hole in the roof.”
“Thats great! Maybe it will boost Rumble or ward off random monsters.” Mia pondered aloud.
“Well, I guess we should get back to the agreement, lets see what we can figure out together and split the results 50/50. If we like the outcome, then we will continue it another season. If we don’t, we try our hands independently of one another. Agreed?”
“Agreed”;Mia consented as the deal appeared and we both applied our signatures.
So with the deal set and the day just begun, we went about eating a breakfast full of discussing our seasonal plan. We would start of by clearing as much of my field as possible and get it started growing first. Mia would also be staying on my farm this season in order to help facilitate the best growth. We knew that we couldn’t get all 80 acres of a single farm until we were both of the next tier, the stamina and equipment just wasn’t present for us.
Having been given permission to use my produce bin by the deal, Mia went about selling the monster loot from the days prior. The plan was to get the coin by early next morning, leaving today open for clearing the fields and learning what quantity of seed we need for tomorrow when we would actually have coins in the bank from the monster loot sale.
Picking weeds by hand and moving rocks when encountered, I was able to clear a decent patch of dirt by the time Mia arrived back from the produce bin. Having toggled with all the pricing, she would be able to squeeze out a slightly higher margin than if we hadn’t done anything but put them in the bin.
“Where is Rumble?” Mia asked. “Is he not going to help clear the land?”
“No, there isn’t enough cleared space and way too much tall grass. I am hoping he can keep anything from jumping out of the nearby weeds and attacking one of us. Sure we could take a Lasher or two, but I am worried we will get seriously hurt.”
“You are right, it would be better for him to play interceptor for now. Maybe once we either get a little stronger ourselves, or we get it so we can actually see them coming first. Besides, if we can get the extra loot before midnight, we will have more coin to use come tomorrow’s trip back into town.”
“Agreed. Who knows, maybe Rumble will level my familiar skill a few more times today!” I added hopefully.
As noon arrived, we started to eat lunch while discussing the best route for the rest of the day. Mia, having remembered something that we had both forgot about, made a very good point.
“I had forgotten that I started with a few seeds! Did you get any?” She exclaimed and asked hurriedly.
“Thats right! I do have a few, I say we plant those in the morning once we have enough land cleared.” I responded.
“I think we can do better. You continue clearing the soil, I will run home and empty out my cabinets to bring here. Then tomorrow I will still do a purchase run in the city to buy more seeds using our coin. That way we can plant a second day in a row with a larger yield when it comes time for harvest.” She suggested.
“Thinking it over, I agree. But I am worried about how much I can actually do tomorrow without your help, much less today while you are gone grabbing the stuff. If you buy more seed then it might take 3 or 4 days to plant everything. Will we be able to grow and harvest everything if we wait until the 6th day to plant some of the crops? I’m guessing Spring capable crops don't handle the heat of Summer very well.”
“You may be right… How about we use some of the coin to purchase a crop guide or something similar in function? Does that sound fine with you?” she asked.
“Sounds like a plan.” I agreed.
So with the next few days mapped out, we finished our lunch and set off and got back to our tasks. One thing was for sure, the next few days were going to be miserable with all the work that had to be done. But in all honesty, I was glad that I had a friend to do it with.