After Axia left, John got to work. He began by rebuilding his house, an easy enough task given that he still had the blueprint for it. That finished he went and checked his cellar. Most everything was still there, though someone had clearly gone through his things. Fortunately it seemed they weren’t interested in his farming equipment, nor the short sword or armor he’d spawned with. Assured that nothing important was missing he walked back up the stairs and sat on a bench he conjured outside his house. Axia had been right about focusing on in-demand crops, he just needed to figure out what those were. He then needed to prepare more garden plots. While his new crop was growing he could dedicate himself to learning Enchanting. Hopefully by the end of the month he’d have a Journeyman ranking under his belt and could build his own Mana Well.

As he contemplated, he saw Grandma Loren come through the hole in his wall. She walked slowly toward him, her gait no longer that of a simple old woman. Where once she had shuffled, now she strode. She walked over and, without waiting for invitation, sat on the bench next to him with a weary sigh.

“I spoke with Commander Helen,” she said after making herself comfortable. “Your farm will be watched, and you’ll be protected if threatened. There’s not much they can do for you if you leave the farm, but it’s better than nothing.”

John looked at the elderly woman and considered for a few moments. “You’re not really a scholar, are you?” he asked finally.

Loren gave him a sad smile. “As a profession? No, not really.” She sighed heavily. “But what, and who, I am is more complicated than I care to get into right now. I’d much prefer to just stay old Grandma Loren. But… needs must, and I’m afraid these needs are great. I’ve neglected things too long, and now problems have arisen that need to be dealt with.”

John looked at her for a few moments, then looked away. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

“It’ll be a few days yet, but yes; and I’m afraid it’s not going to be a short trip either,” she admitted sadly.

John wasn’t sure how to feel. It’s not like the old woman was family to him, but she’d been the first to greet him when he logged in, and a valuable source of help and information. At the very least he would classify her as a friend. He looked down at the ground, contemplatively, this may be his last chance to speak to her. “I’m not sure I can succeed,” he said finally.

Loren looked out over his farm for several silent moments, then spoke. “Sometimes, try as hard as we might, we fall short of our hopes and desires. That said, I wouldn’t give up yet. You’ve got two months of growing time left, though it’ll be cutting it close. And a greenhouse or Heat Ward could see you through the two months of winter you have after that. But you’re going to have to grow something other than wheat, corn, or berries.”

“Axia made a similar suggestion about crops, but I’m not sure what to do. I succeeded in making a magical plant, but it requires soil saturated with Mana Dust to grow, and I just can’t make that much.” John said.

“Mana dust?” asked Loren.

“Mana Stone but made into fine sand,” he explained.

“You grew plants in soil tainted with Mana Stone?” She sounded intrigued. “What were the results?”

“Life Tainted Wheat, but that was only the first few generations. Then I infused the kernels with life magic and it became Life Saturated Wheat. I tried infusing the kernels again after that, but the soil felt wrong for the resulting seeds; I planted them anyway, but didn’t see any results. I was going to grow a whole plot of life saturated wheat but it’d take me something like a year to make that much mana,”

Loren made a thoughtful noise. “Life saturated plants aren’t unheard of, though they usually grow only in areas of highly concentrated life mana. You can simulate such environments with several layers of wards and a Mana Well. I don’t think anyone has tried crushing up Mana Stones for the endeavor though. Then again, most farmers can’t make their own.” She seemed to ponder the idea for a moment more. “I can see how it might be a better choice though. Instead of constantly feeding the enchantments power you could get it all over with at once. You’d need quite a large Mana Well to supply you with the initial cost though, or a very good one I suppose.”

“The initial cost for one of my regular plots is around four hundred fifty-nine million mana,” John said dryly. “I don’t think that’s in anyone’s budget. It probably costs more than just concentrating life mana in an area.”

“You might be right at that,” Loren acquiesced. “Then again, you might be overestimating how much you need. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who could tell you the proper soil to mana stone ratio.”

John nodded, it was a fair point. They lapsed into silence again until Loren finally stood with a sigh. She looked old once more. “Alright, I have to go put the road in town back together, and you need to get started on fixing this mess,” she said.

“Grandma Loren?” John said, and she turned toward him. “Thanks for helping me,” he said with sincere gratitude.

“It was my pleasure John,” she responded with her own sincerity. “Now, when I come back I expect to see a fully-fledged farm!” She waved her cane at him menacingly. “Or else!”

John smiled. “You got it.”

Loren nodded, then walked back toward the knights’ compound.

John watched her go for a few minutes, then opened the Auction. He quickly navigated to see seeds and plants. Axia had suggested cash crops, so he started taking note of what was going for high prices. There were lots of plants that seemed to be flagged for alchemical use, but many of them seemed to be magical, and he couldn’t imagine that his farm (as it currently was) could support those kinds of plants. However, there were a few that were more mundane that he assumed would be used in low level potions. The problem was that he had no idea what to buy, where to plant it, how to plant it, or how to care for it. The farming skill would help with some of that, but only while actually planting the plants.

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Running his fingers through his beard he did a quick search combining the tags alchemy and farming. To his surprise several books came up, but only one of them caught his eye. The Basics of Alchemical Farming seemed to be exactly what he was looking for, however it was a full gold to purchase; obviously someone was re-selling things at a hefty markup. Still, John wasn’t hurting for gold right now so he purchased the book and was soon holding a slim volume.

Leafing through the book John found that it contained information on dozens of commonly grown alchemical herbs. Many of them needed specific environmental factors to improve their quality or even grow at all; environmental factors he currently couldn’t replicate, as he’d already surmised. However, he did find several options, and one in particular jumped out at him. Alchemist’s Sponge (a large, flowering herb) was a plant used in every alchemical recipe. When distilled, the sap from the plant absorbed magical energy like, well, a sponge, and helped different types of energy bind together.

John considered it, the book had a pricing guide, and it indicated that Alchemist’s Sponge was actually very cheap, probably because it was so easy to grow and in such demand. That said, it was required in massive quantities by most alchemists, as it apparently only distilled down into an ounce of liquid per quality ranking. This, combined with the fact that it could be planted just about anywhere, meant it would be quite easy for him to farm, and possibly bring in some cash; actual cash, if he could get the quality high enough.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Every player who wanted to be an alchemist would be buying the herb in bulk, and despite the low price (only a silver per pound) the cost would add up quickly. According to the book, the plant produced one pound (and thus one ounce) of usable material per quality ranking above Trash. Depending on the potion you were making, the number of ounces required ranged from one to eight.

John considered for a long moment, then decided that he’d plant a few beds of alchemist’s sponge. While adventuring players might be able to afford the exorbitant cost of Mana Stones, crafters in games were always famously in need of supplies as crafting rarely showed a return in the early days. Surely if he sold multiple pounds for a low price, say ten pounds a dollar, he’d entice some of those players to purchase. After all, that same dollar only became a single silver in game.

Standing, John stretched and looked around. The chookers were coming in through the fence hole, and he could see Kodi cautiously following along behind them. The drake was giving the ursakin the side eye and chooking menacingly. Standing, John decided he’d deal with the chookers, and then take an early evening.

A half hour later John had received his shipment of dead rodents from Kodi along with another twenty urns of Herb Slime. He’d fed the chookers, replaced their water, and then logged out. Now he was laying in his bed staring at the ceiling. Despite having a plan he still felt despondent as doubts plagued him. What if people wouldn’t buy the herbs for money? What if someone destroyed his farm again? What if he couldn’t grow enough crops? What if, what if, what if?

He let out a long sigh and stood up, then proceeded to perform his nightly routine. Once finished with that he wandered out toward the kitchenette where he found his father already halfway through a meal of his own.

“Ah, the sleeper awakens!” Derrick said. “Most of the time you’re still in game well after I go to bed. And by ‘most’ I mean ‘all’.” His tone was light, but John could hear an undercurrent of worry.

John shrugged as he got out his own meal. “I didn’t get the option to purchase pre-cleared land like I’d hoped. So, I’ve had to do everything myself. It’s taken more effort than I’d care to admit, and that doesn’t even involve what happened today.” He said, slightly glumly.

“What happened?” His father asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Someone burned my crops and destroyed one of my buildings, all because I wouldn’t give up something they wanted,” He explained.

Derrick made a contemplative noise. “Honestly, if that’s the worst that’s happened so far, you’re lucky. I would have expected that you’d need to be fending off griefers and player killers from day one.”

“We’ve… actually we’ve been pretty good about not getting that kind of person out where I am. Or maybe I’m just not interesting enough for them to bother with. Until recently it was an hour long walk from town to reach me, so I can’t imagine there was much incentive to make the trip.” John explained.

Derrick nodded and ate another bite of his pre-packaged meal. He chewed for a few moments, then swallowed. “So they burned your crops,” he said. “What are you doing next, I don’t imagine you’re giving up with four months left?”

John shook his head. “I… there’s a group that’s willing to protect my farm from further attacks, and I’m going to try and plant a crop I can sell for cash. Then I need to figure out some other things. I need to figure out enchanting so that I can change parts of my farm to environments that’ll better suit certain types of crops; but that’s going to take at least twelve days of work all on its own, that’s without interruptions,” he explained as he popped his own meal into the microwave.

“So you’re in the ‘raise your skills manually and hoard your points’ camp?” his father asked. John gave him a curious look and Derrick chuckled. “Just because I don’t play games anymore doesn’t mean I forgot how forums work.”

John gave a nod. “It’s what one of the NPCs I know suggested, so I’ve stuck with it. I managed to eke out six feats, so it’s working pretty well for me.”

“That’s pretty good, almost amazing really; the average for the first wave players is around one from what I’ve read. What level are you now?” Derrick asked.

“Still level six, I was hoping to increase it after my next harvest but…” John trailed off and shrugged.

“But some people can’t be happy without ruining things for everyone else,” Derrick finished for him.

John just nodded and took his now heated meal out of the microwave.

“Well, I’ll be honest, two months without any return isn’t looking good, especially with the amount of time you’ve been putting into it. So I hope this new venture pans out. And hey, try to find some time to do something other than work, okay? I can tell you from personal experience that you’re going to burn out at this rate, so take the time to do, or learn, something fun. Delve a dungeon, go on an adventure, take a few days off. I know you have a deadline, and it seems like you’ve got to push to get everything done, but you still need to take time for you. Got it?” Derrick asked, looking at his son intently.

John nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got it. I’ll try not to burn myself out.”

“Do or do not, there is no try,” Derrick said in a truly horrendous imitation of Yoda.

“Yoda was senile! That sentence doesn’t even make sense! You can’t do something without trying it!” John responded in good humor as his father laughed.