By late afternoon, Jonn was exhausted.

After almost two days without sleep, the dark circles under his eyes had grown deeper, and he felt that his [Mana] and [Stamina] regeneration were compromised.

The lack of sleep the night before had weakened him, reminding him that he was still a mortal, despite being at level 1 mage.

But despite the listless look and more lethargic movements, Jonn couldn’t hide the smile on his face as he sat opposite Elia, inside his house, outside the walled area of the village.

Elia had a strange look on her face and couldn’t help but look at the Village Elder with a minor concern. He was visibly fatigued. His smell indicated he needed a bath, but somehow his lips went against all that, holding within them a mystery that she was curious to unravel.

“What made you stay up all night watching animals?” she asked, having already heard from Eliot about the Village Elder’s peculiar behavior all day today.

Jonn had stood by one of the cows for almost eight hours, watching as flies flew over the sleeping animal.

But after the way Jonn had started farming in the village, Elia wouldn’t have assumed that her leader had gone mad.

He had asked Alise to call Elia to him precisely to talk about this matter in question, and he held nothing back. “Something good for the village. Do you remember how I said that the animals seemed interested in the land where I buried the mana crystals?”

“Yes. Urian built the fence around your planting area before we built the second greenhouse.” Elia followed Jonn’s train of thought, trying to understand him.

“Last night I kept two small units of Aether Tears with me after I finished expanding the fields. I let one hen make her wish and this morning I had the result.”

Elia continued with narrowed eyes and thought, what a waste that had been. But she didn’t rush into anything and let the Village Elder finish his explanation.

“I had the chance to taste that hen’s egg this morning. Do you know what happened to it?” he asked with an ever-widening smile.

“No. What happened?” she asked in a sober tone.

“The hen’s new egg, as well as being more nutritious, is tastier! Tomorrow morning she’ll lay a new egg. I want you to try it and be my witness when I go to talk to the elders late tomorrow afternoon.”

I’ll keep the fact that there’s mana in the egg to myself.

Jonn thought to himself, imagining that it would seem absurd for him to say such a thing to his fellow villagers.

The information about its nutritious is easier to prove and show interesting to the village.

“Are you serious?” she asked, imagining the positive implications.

Jonn nodded and said, “After experimenting with the chicken, I let one cow do the same. You must have heard about it. I spent almost the whole day next to the cows.”

“Yes, some members of the village talked about it.”

“I haven’t collected the cow’s milk yet, because Betta had already done it this morning when I went to the cow. But tomorrow morning, I believe we’ll have stronger, more nutritious milk, too!

Get up early in the morning and join Betta and me in collecting the day’s eggs and milk. We’ll discuss the results with the Village Councilors later.”

Elia felt intrigued, trusting Jonn’s words, but eager to prove his words for herself.

“All right. I’ll be by your side at daybreak.” She stood up from the simple wooden chair in Jonn’s residence. “You should rest for the time being. I’m afraid something worse will befall our Village Elder if you don’t rest.”

He smiled at Elia’s lighter tone. “That’s what I intend to do after a bath, haha. I’m sorry about that. I still went to the Limonite mine after working with the animals.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve dealt with work partners in worse states.”

She left soon after, leaving Jonn alone in his house at the start of another night.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

He made his way to the area where a bucket of warm water was already waiting for him, following the ancient personal hygiene ritual of the Eternal Village.

The members of the village didn’t have much, but they tried to keep themselves clean as best as they could, with fresh clothes and teeth cleaned at least twice a day.

Around 8 p.m., the village lost a lot of its activity, and before 9 p.m., most of the torches in the houses were extinguished, as the villagers typically went to sleep. Almost the entire village would wake up with the crowing of the roosters, and the working day would begin as the gloom of night gave way to the day.

The village didn’t have many celebratory events. Apart from the harvest, which was followed by a small feast at the end of the food gathering, there were hardly any special days for these people.

It hadn’t always been like this, though. Tim would occasionally tell Jonn how happy the village was and how full of special days it was. The seasons in their region were very well defined, and in the old days, the locals celebrated the start of summer, spring, fall, and winter in their own way.

But for at least four decades, this had no longer been the reality in the Eternal Village.

Jonn wanted to change that. He wanted to have more moments when he could bring smiles to the faces of his companions. And he was determined to achieve that.

Better days will come!

He lay on his hard bed, imagining recovering some of his people’s lost culture with the passage of time and the development of his work.

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Jonn opened his eyes after closing them the night before, waking up to the crowing of roosters.

He rubbed his face for a moment before drinking some water, feeling as if Elia had just left home and it was suddenly daylight.

I was exhausted. I didn’t dream about anything tonight. It was as if I’d just blinked and it was daylight.

He looked through the cracks in his house, seeing that it was already bright outside.

As he washed his face, he couldn’t help but think of the dreams he constantly had of a green land, full of life and natural beauty. Months had passed since his grandfather died, but at least 80% of the time he had the same dream, sometimes being able to explore more of that beautiful space that he wished one day he could transform the Barren Hills of Deepshadow.

He finished dressing and set off, narrowing his eyes as he faced the bright daylight outside his house.

When he was greeted by Ice, waiting for him at the door of his house, Jonn followed the wolf towards the animal area.

He could hear the low voices of the first men moving around the walled area of the village, while Betta and Elia were already waiting for him at the entrance to the animal area.

Elia was dressed as usual, in hunting trousers and a skirt that went down to her thighs. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, the most common female hairstyle in the Eternal Village.

Next to the young woman with the flushed face and captivating smile was Betta, watching as Elia massaged the large brown-furred animal in front of them.

The horse she was caring for was the one she normally rode when the hunters weren’t using it.

But even though the animal had a certain familiarity with Elia, it had no problem ignoring her and approaching Jonn as soon as he got close to the fence.

Jonn couldn’t help but laugh internally when he glimpsed the expression on the horse’s face. All the creatures in the village were showing him a bit of extra favor ever since the experiments from the past couple of days.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I really missed the timetable,” Jonn said as he walked, not looking at the animals following him.

Besides Ice and the horse, the cows and the bull quickly stood near the fence, looking at him with big shiny black eyes. This was especially true for the cow that had consumed the second mana crystal yesterday, who now looked bigger than her sister cow and also healthier.

“Moooo!” The creature opened her mouth and begged Jonn.

Jonn didn’t know the exact meaning of what the cow said to him, but he more or less knew what it was.

I even wish I could give you Aether Tears. It would help me gain 32 attribute points and possibly take me to level 2… Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do to speed that up.

“The animals seem to like you more now… What have you done with them, Village Elder?” Betta asked curiously.

She didn’t know what Jonn had done and looked at him with a smile, jokingly unaware that he had actually done something.

Elia knew the answer to Betta’s question, but said nothing about it.

“Let’s move on. The village must be starving, Jonn.”

He agreed, joking with Betta on the way to the milk collection site.

“We’ll collect the eggs, Betta. Milk the cows in the meantime,” he said as he led Elia to the henhouse.

Betta followed with a silver bucket to the place where there was a small wooden bench and the cows’ food.

The creatures were interested in Jonn, but when they felt they could eat something Betta would give them, they followed the woman.

Jonn and Elia entered the chicken coop in the meantime, where the two promptly found a peculiar situation.

The henhouse was more organized than ever, while the three roosters stood around a hen with yellow feathers and a few white feathers, the only one like that among these animals.

“That…” Elia muttered, while Jonn’s forehead wrinkled.

She’s taken over the chicken coop? There really are consequences that go beyond the benefits. I’ll try to observe Annabelle's and Mimosa’s behavior.

When he advanced to take Annabelle’s egg, the roosters didn’t seem to like what Jonn wanted to do. But after a cry from the special hen, the three animals made way, allowing the human to collect the egg of this domain’s queen.

Elia collected the other 20 eggs in the area, all of them more or less similar.

When they left the henhouse to wash the eggs, she saw the difference between Annabelle’s egg and those of the other hens. But she saved her conclusions for later and soon followed Jonn to where Betta was starting to milk Mimosa.

As usual, Jonn took out his magnifying glass and observed the results of Betta’s work.

When the middle-aged woman finished her work a few minutes later, Jonn said to them, “Shall we try some of Mimosa’s milk? I have a feeling it tastes better today.”

Betta did not know what Jonn had in mind, but she felt the same way. “Indeed. Her milk looks better this morning. It’s more alluring.”

Gulp!

She swallowed her saliva in desire before the three made their way to Jonn’s house, the closest residence to where they were.