I wake up and find myself in an unfamiliar bed. The light is blinding – who opened the curtains?

An unfamiliar sky hangs above me – the empty blue is most definitely not my bedroom ceiling.

What…what happened to me? Why am I sore?

It took me an embarrassingly long time to remember yesterday. Embarrassingly long. Standing up I walk over to my garden bed to survey yesterday’s work. It looks sadder in the bright morning light – not the bed! The wooden bed looks beautiful…I will receive no criticisms for the warping. It is the space that is wrong!

No is sad because of how full it is – depressingly empty. I’m going to need three to four times as much dirt to fill this.

And I am definitely not in the mood just yet. My hands are still dirty – did I really go to bed covered in dirt like a savage? I could have at least used some of my water to wash off the worst of it…

Oh…oh no.

Oh we have a problem. Nature calls and she’s very unwelcome right now.

I dance about running over to my status to look for a solution.

Why is toilet paper so expensive! I don’t have any money right now! Like, my current balance is 23 Money which is stick of gum levels of capital!

Fine I will spend 20 money on three tiny looking wipes but you and I are going to have words when I’m done.

Wooorrddss!

I finish threatening the website and grab my supplies.

I then stare about in increasing sadness as I realize I do not own a bathroom.

This…this sucks.

…

I ended up burying my crime in the hole I dug yesterday.

A mound of dirt on top so I can’t see it anymore.

I feel dirty. I need to build a bathroom.

…and a shower.

Those both seem so very far away right now. Attempting to wash my hands with a portion of my drinking water I sigh. Today feels like a wash. Let’s restart…go back to bed and try again tomorrow.

…something looks weird.

I bend down slowly bringing the corner of my bed closer and closer.

Soon I’m lying on my stomach once again, staring under the short structure.

Dairy. He’s made a little nest for himself. Somehow the slime has gathered bits of grass, nails and some of my twigs together dragging them across the field to beneath my bed.

In the center of the nest is a lump of…what looks like cheese.

I look at my hands and decide to wash them a tiny bit more then turn back to the lump.

Carefully I reach out and grab the morsel. It's soft…The outside is slightly crusty but it’s very soft to the touch.

Taking a few steps over to the system panel I open my inventory one-handed and remove my sandy bread.

Let’s see.

Savagely ripping off two chunks – I really need to buy a knife – I make a really messy-looking sandwich then take a bite of dairy’s gift.

Oh…oh that’s good.

Oh that’s really good! I moan slightly taking another bite. It literally melts into my mouth. Day restored! Ruined day ignored!

I scarf down the rest of the cheese then head back to check on dairy. He’s sleeping. Doesn’t seem to have any more gifts for me but you’re a good little milker aren’t you?

I reach out slowly and stroke the top of my first farm animal’s glossy body.

He’s less slimy than I imagined. Cool to the touch and firmer than you might think. Most of the dirt seems to be gone from its insides…did it eat it? Poop it out somewhere? …is that what the cheese was? Or was the cheese like an egg like I was imagining earlier. Was it the slimes baby?

…I’m going to ignore that train of thought.

One of my nails accidentally slices into dairy’s back and he jiggles awake.

I’m sorry! I’ll stop petting you!

Dairy gloms away, retreating to a safe distance and seeming to glare at me.

You’re like a cat aren’t you?

Okay…

Picking up one of my buckets I follow dairy around then jump towards him. Gotcha! Flipping the bucket upright I stare down at him. “It's time to milk you. I think…I think this is fine right?”

Reaching out I try to squish dairy out causing him to jiggle and struggle while a thin thin amount of milk squeezes out. I squeeze a few more times feeling worse and worse as I do – guys? I don’t think I can do this. I’m…not made to be a rancher. Dairy really does look like I’m hurting him – I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I’m sorry.

I stop the milking early and let dairy slide out. The puddle of milk is pathetic but if you could see Dairy’s sad looking face you would understand.

Dairy bolts away glooming along the ground as he escapes.

I’m sorry.

…

I stand up and go to check the market. I hope Dairy forgives me. I think I’ll turn to only collecting the morning eggs. No milk for me – I don’t care how good it tastes or how much it might sell. I can churn out mana stones for both of us.

Anything new today? There’s tons of featured items. Meril stabilizer 120000! Half off!

I couldn’t afford you even if I knew what you were. That’s a lot of money!

Filtering the store a few times I begin browsing the farming section. This is probably going to start becoming a morning routine. It makes me feel very adult to read off all the entries. There’s really not a lot in this store/auction house/whatever. Some seeds, some basic tools.

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What if I turn magic stuff back on?

Divining rod? Guaranteed to find water? Thousands of money?

I’d have to have water in this world to find.

I’m looking for a way to kill the grass before I plant my seeds. Like a poison that won’t hurt the snow peas…time magic is a thing right? A ‘common’ thing? I wonder if I can cheaply time decay the grass into fertilizer…

I find something that’s basically that. It's fifty thousand monies though – too rich for my broke ass.

Everything’s too expensive for me – I’d have to spend days and days pumping out mana stones to afford anything fun. Why can’t I skip ahead to being rich!

…well no. I don’t actually want to skip to a life of luxury – it's just that I’m still low key salty about the morning war crime. Really, wealth will mean more if I earn it myself – I just didn’t think about the living accommodations when I made all my requests.

Maybe I should gain a new skill and see if it will help? No if I do that I’ll try grinding it and never finish the bed…

Ahhhh!

Oh…here’s something I can do. I can buy dirt…ish. There are bags of fertilizer guaranteed to turn anything organic they coat into more of themselves. Some sort of partial transmutation? Seems like overkill but there’s no kill like overkill!

I hope it doesn’t break my box…999 money for a 8.72kg bag – I think it's being sold in some different unit and my systems just translating it to units I understand…otherwise they’d sell them in much nicer quantities like 10kg. Considering the 999, they definitely also use a base 10 system. Shops are the same the universe over.

That’s…okay! I’ll have to make some mana stones but it’s doable.

I’m still holding the rest of my bread sort of awkwardly – removing my jam I spread it on the last chunk with my fingers like a monster then cap the jam, put it back in my inventory. Next I walk all the way over to my bed and scarf the whole thing down in 2 seconds flat before sipping the small dribble of milk.

…I could have eaten standing up but this felt better.

Sitting on the edge of my bed I focus on my hands. There’s something about them that are magical. I can use my sticky rubbing skill with my fingers and my hands are important for the mana crystal creation. Maybe if I test out moving them about, I can make better stones?

I start the new routine concentrating carefully as I move them back and forth. They feel like lenses or something…the feeling of the mana I’m gathering changes as I move my hands randomly. If I hold them like this a large amount flows through my fingers. If I hold them like this…my hands cramp. If I hold them like this….it feels like the mana I’m concentrating is spinning.

I put aside the stone I made, then start again. This hand position, this one. How about this! Or…mwhahahaa – this! Bet you weren’t expecting that one were you?

A bunch of the sillier ones don’t do anything good or bad…but there’s still a lot I can achieve depending on position or movement. Finally I figure out a specific sort of position where I continue to move my hands in circles sort of grasping the air again and again – it's like there’s an invisible crystal ball between my hands that’s also a stress ball.

The magical stone continues to form…but maybe because of the way I’m trying to do this, or the time of day or something… whatever the case might be it's taking longer than it has been… it's not just the difference between walking and sitting down either! There’s something that feels monumental about my sitting here and squeezing the air together.

Finally a perfect sphere finishes forming in my hands. The clear ball has gorgeous spirals and little speckles throughout its form. It feels better. I know it does. At the very end there I felt something.

Walking carefully over to my status – afraid of dropping it – I place the marble in my inventory.

[‘Small high quality wild raw forged mana pearl.’ -> obtain]

I switch to my status just to confirm.

Yep

Self status (click to expand)

Tier 7.

Status: Healthy.

Skills: 2/3

Listing all my new stones, I decide I’m going to wait yet again. I could gain it right away – and I’m going to do it soon I promise…but I want to finish setting up my first plants first. Otherwise I know I’m going to spend all my time playing with my new ability yet again.

Giddy I make several more pearls – it’s so much easier now – then buy two bags of fertilizer. It’s going to have to be enough.

Sue me – mana stone creation seems lucrative, but it takes ages and it’s just so boring – at least after that feeling of wonder fades and you realize you’ve been sitting staring at your hands for over an hour.

Grabbing the two bags of fertilizer by the handles the moment they pop out of the air, I struggle a few steps away from the inventory spot.

That was not heroic – decidedly pathetic if I do say so myself – I drop the attempt and flip to just dragging one over at a time.

I am not this weak I swear! Dying must have done something to me! Atrophied my muscles or something…

After spending over a minute trying to untie the knot – listen whoever tied it must have had a vendetta against nails that’s all I want to say – it finally opens.

Aha! Let’s see what you look like then…

Staring down at a pile of what looks like bright green sawdust I nod. Yes. Green is the proper colour for plant magic.

Taking a few handfuls and throwing them like bird seed I half expect them to start multiplying and growing into a massive mound right away.

Instead…not much happens.

Was I just ripped off?

Throwing more down I can begin to see something happening…it looks kind of like it's melting the grass and dirt around it?

Taking the bottom of the fertilizer and flipping it around I begin to enthusiastically shake the sawdust into my bed.

The magic seems to happen faster the more of the sawdust is there together – like a real spell! I’m a wizard!!!

I mean sure – I bought the material…but its still magic I’m performing right now. Cut a gal some slack. My situation hasn’t sunk in fully yet at all. Magic is exciting.

Finding my shovel – for some reason I brought it all the way back to the inventory area – I stir and stab the ground in the middle of my planting box.

It’s almost like the bottom is cooking the ground below it. I’m a witch with my own pot! Bubble and boil. Toil the soil!

Stirring and bringing soil to the top I realize I could probably do this whole project with the one bag. The only reason I’d need the second is if I wanted the bed to be completely full.

Which I mean kind of…but this is fine. An excuse to make my second bed today.

Slowly the magic continues and the height of my mix expands. it’s not growing…not fully but as the dust ‘converts’ the ground around it the density drops or something…more air in the bed? Sorry I’m not a wizard scientist I don’t know how it works exactly.

Either way the fertilizer grows the grass disappears and then the reaction slows and nearly stops.

Something I wasn’t quite expecting – I worried about it but I didn’t think it would actually happen – was the inside of my wooden bed started to melt a bit. It kind of looks like a chemical burn mixed with wax sculpture being hit by a blow torch. Just a bit of permanent weirdness around the inner edge.

Still the boards were thick bois and they held throughout the whole process.

The reaction seems to have stopped – the mix got more and more dirty looking as the soil was mixed in and then wasn’t converted.

It’s probably safe to stick my seeds in now right?

Hopefully its safe…

Taking the trip over to the inventory I pull out the snowpea seeds spotting several incredibly light balls.

Grabbing my water bottle – I can just buy a fresh one – I walk over and poke each of the peas evenly down one side of the box.

I still have a lot of these seeds so I start another row – stopping close to three quarters of the way through this time.

Oh that’s annoying.

It’s not even…I swear I was moving in a straight line.

Spending a few minutes – yes literal minutes – fixing the spread I move to poking in the poles I bought and stringing a twine back and forth along them.

Shoot…it keeps falling down even if I tie it tightly. Twirling the twine in my fingers for a bit I wait till it feels sticky before continuing to tie knots.

If you have a skill, might as well use it right?

After I’m done gluing all the twine to my poles, I glue a few to the edge of the bed keeping just enough tension to pull them upright.

I water the results making sure each hole gets a nice generous sprinkle of water, then take a moment to stand up and look at the results of my handywork.

Happy enough with my trellis, I stand back and glare at it critically. I love the green fertilizer and how it looks mixed in with the dirt…

But heck it looks less impressive than I was imagining up close.

Ahh! I want to try all my skills.

I need a chair – I feel like I’m going to be sitting a lot.

…

2265 Money! For a simple comfortable looking chair! What????

That would take…ages of pearl making.

Wow what’s the cheapest option?

Well…that stool looks like its made of sticks and badly concealed nails but it is only 100. I think I’ll continue sitting on the grass if I’m being honest.

Resuming the cross-legged-mana-crystal-creation pose (name pending because CLMCC doesn’t role off the tongue) I focus slowly creating a small pearl less than half the size of the last few I’d been making.

There we go!

Walking back over to my pea setup, I pick the corner hole and carefully thumb the pearl in after the pea seed.

I really hope this does something exciting to my plant – if it works, I can put in the work to do it for more.

Now! Time to put in some work for my second bed. Rolling back my sleeves I start gluing the boards together. This time I make sure to stay hydrated and it comes together nicer. Still warped but nicer.

I place the bed about 50cm away from the other and dump my second bag of fertilizer in the area.

I think that’s been enough morning work – time to treat myself!

I wonder what my next skill will be? What’s your guess?