Ambrose rounded off his day by creating six raised stone beds near his house and the pots that contained the papyrus plants.
Said potted plants still had around three weeks to go until they would be ready to harvest, and it was about time that he went about transplanting them into the ground. Through the use of his spell, he shifted the stone pots through the dirt and all the way towards the lake where they would continue to grow. The shin-high stalks of the plant would no longer need his delicate care and would instead soak up all the nutrients and grow.
The wheat only needed a few more days of growing until it would be ready for harvest. The waist-high plants waved gently in the wind and bits of the golden glow started to appear as mere flecks.
Ambrose had forgotten to plant the corn once he became preoccupied with the construction of his house but he made a mental note to plant the seeds once he harvested his first half-acre of wheat. It would show how difficult it would be and also tell him if he could handle growing more at a time. It would also give him a chance to get a large number of seeds so he could expand if he so desired.
After a heavy dose of [Water Manipulation], Ambrose was back to his original task, planting the herb seeds he purchased in Bjora.
[Bleeding Fern Seed
Rarity: (Common)
Description: A seed of a herb that is used to brew (Common) rarity health potions. Is often found and grown in areas that contain natural vitality
Growth Time: Two weeks]
[Messenger’s Supplement Seed
Rarity: (Inferior)
Description: A seed of a herb that is used to brew (Inferior) rarity stamina potions. Is often found and grown in areas that contain natural vitality
Growth Time: Two weeks]
Ambrose had learned that areas that contained natural vitality were natural hotspots for mana gathering. Or areas of abundant life, which luckily, living out in the middle of a barely inhabited forest qualified for the second option. The lake formed a sort of hotspot for every and all animals in the area and allowed a wide array of herbs and plants to grow freely. Ambrose had been collecting herbs near his home since day one.
With the six stone beds raised, Ambrose generated a dozen holes in the bottom of each one to allow for roots and water to be allowed to exit. For three of them, Ambrose made stone rods that stuck out of the ground, since the [Messenger’s Supplement] was a vine-like plant that needed something to climb on. Its end product would produce a sort of miniature gourd herb that would be the necessary ingredient for making the stamina potions.
After making the six stone-raised beds and planting the seeds, three beds to each different herb, Ambrose decided to begin working on his stone path from his cabin to his future dock.
As the sunset behind the mountains, Ambrose reached the end of his task. The road ended up looking similar to those of ancient Rome, cobblestone packed tightly together provided a somewhat stable if bumpy traveling experience. Ambrose went back over a bit to smooth a few things out but made sure to keep the aesthetic of the appearance.
Walking along the newly made road, Ambrose grabbed a few slices of rabbit from the submerged cold storage and brought them inside. After sparking some of the tinder in the fireplace, Ambrose went to frying some meat for dinner.
It had been a bummer to only eat meat these past few days. Ambrose hadn’t even thought about looking for any wild vegetables and had subsisted on whatever was within the arrow shot of his bow. Though the box full of [Grapemelon] that he had harvested the prior days had been a pleasant snack. But Ambrose could only eat so much of a single thing before it started tasting horrid.
Ambrose was also having a problem with a lack of seasoning. Salt shouldn’t be hard to come by since the ocean was simply an hour's walk away, but pepper and other spices would be tougher to get. The Eden version of pepper, [Preprin], was found on a completely different continent across the vast ocean. In addition, spice merchants seldom came to the thousand-person village of Bjora.
Ambrose would either have to inquire about buying some seeds when the merchants came or find something similar in the native lands. Ambrose was leaning towards adventuring for a while and testing out some of the herbs he had gathered. His herb bag was practically overflowing already with the numerous assortment of herbs he was able to gather with his low rank [Herbology]. The skill working that Ambrose had to have at least a certain rank to successfully harvest an herb without destroying it.
As Ambrose greased up the pan over the open fireplace with a bit of animal fat, he thought about his next steps.
With his bought herbs planted, he only needed to wait a while to harvest them to get a general feel about how hard it would be to raise and care for them. Since Ambrose had never had the opportunity to raise plants in the Underground he would have to be extra careful to not let too much go to waste in this learning period.
With his low level of [Alchemy], Ambrose only knew the basic three potions: health, stamina, mana. The other herbs that Ambrose had gathered were basically useless since he had no idea what recipes to use them with. But Ambrose wouldn’t let them go to waste and was keeping them preserved as possible for when he would be able to use them.
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As Ambrose looked around his bare house, he realized that he needed to work on his [Wood Working] and start making the cabin livable. Maybe he would be able to carve out some windows since it was getting so dark…
After finishing his meal and wishing for something besides meat, Ambrose went up the stairs and into his pelt-filled bed.
The next morning Ambrose was out in the fields weeding and caring for his plants. His wheat was just two days from being ready to be harvested and Ambrose was excited for the result. His scythe had already been sharpened and ready to go to work.
As Ambrose looked at his half an acre of crop he felt another problem come up.
Ambrose had expected the growth rate of plants to be similar to the rate of real life on Earth. Yet on Eden, plants grew at an accelerated pace which Ambrose was unprepared for. He had expected there to be some differences, but he had planned to already have multiple structures needed for his farming processes.
He was missing a silo or cellar needed to store the grain in a preservative place. He was also in need of somewhere to begin separating the grain from the wheat stalks, a time-intensive process that would take Ambrose at least a few days.
Though, with Ambrose’s spells, it wouldn’t take that long to construct a storage cellar to keep the mold and deterioration from reaching his crops.
After finishing taking care of his fields, Ambrose started to get to work on a cellar. Contrary to common cellars, this one was going to be under the mountain.
Ambrose didn’t want to keep all his crop yields directly under his house as he would rather keep preservatives and foodstuffs in there instead. The basement would soon run out of room if he kept stuffing grain or corn in there in large amounts.
So Ambrose got to work on manipulating a tunnel into the mountain behind his house. To the left side of his cabin, he felt the stone melt away and reinforced the sides to keep its shape. After about five meters inwards, he started making a ramp going down.
Since his grain field was three acres away from the storage site, it would be a bit of trouble transporting it all from one place to another. Ambrose would eventually get some sort of pack mule or beast to help him, along with a cart for transportation. But since he was just building at the moment Ambrose only made a ramp for the eventually wheeled vehicle that would be rolled down here, filled with grain.
When Ambrose reached a point where the air felt cool and dry, he heaved with a mental shove as he created a large hole off to the side that was led down by another ramp.
Ambrose’s plan was to create a sort of underground silo that would store the grain or other harvests and make it easy for said foods to be slid down until they stacked upon each other.
It was primitive in its contraption and Ambrose would have to revisit it later with a more updated approach, but for a quick notice, it was enough for now.
As Ambrose walked out of the manmade tunnel, he pondered upon his current situation. His skill level of [Wood Working] could use some more practice as Ambrose wanted more decorations inside his home, its bare interior was rubbing against his need for a cozy atmosphere.
Getting more items made out of metal would be difficult unless those with a [Smith] skill had already set up shop in the developing settlement. That would also have to include finding a source of iron or silver to make them. Ambrose had yet to see any hint of metal near his land, though that could have been due to his skills not having the ability to be used to find such things.
“With my [Earth Manipulation] how hard could it be to mine up some metal fragments from the ground?” Ambrose thought to himself as he walked along the edge of his property.
Delving into the spell’s mental sense, he scoured the earth for any brush of metallic tinge. After a while, Ambrose even sat on the ground to extend his range. His lips curved downwards and his brow scrunched up.
Ambrose hadn’t felt any sort of iron in the ground.
Instead of delving into the ground this time, Ambrose delved into the feeling of his spell. He soon found out the reason why he wasn’t able to control metal when the skill shouted out the reinforcement of it only being able to manipulate the earth.
Ambrose had been able to manipulate dirt, dust, stone, and other miscellaneous things from the ground, but metal seemed to be out of reach for the spell.
While Ambrose was a bit disappointed, he didn’t let himself forget that [Earth Manipulation] was extremely useful by itself.
As he finished his loop around his land, Ambrose entered his house once more and thought about how to go creating his cellar.
The easiest way would be to connect a portion of his back house to the mountain and then create another sort of steps that led down underneath the house. That way it wouldn’t take up any room for making something that needed a ladder to access. There was also no way Ambrose was going to haul things down to the basement without a stair system of some kind.
After making the necessary marks, Ambrose started carving away at his leftover wooden planks and also sawing into the left portion of the back wall closest to the mountain. The door would be under the stairs but it would enter into a stone hallway that sealed off the outside completely.
It took hours for Ambrose to manipulate the stone to the desired effect and he didn’t stop until he had a sizable chunk of space underneath his house.
The floor room was completely cleared out but what would keep his valuables would be the numerous layered stone shelves carved out into the walls. It didn’t take long for the image of an ancient burial crypt to enter his mind, flashed of the undead ready to feast upon his living flesh.
As far as Ambrose knew Norsege Isles had been uninhabited for thousands of Eden years so the likelihood of him encountering any sort of unholy abomination was slim. That risk increased if he ever entered an actual crypt full of the sleepless dead.
Ambrose was about fifteen yards down, and the chilly air caused a breath of fog to escape his lungs. He was glad that he wouldn’t be spending much time down here, even with his [Cold Resistance] negating most of the freezing effect.
Stumbling in the dark, Ambrose cursed the lack of light. It had been hard to make the underground silo, but it hadn’t been that bad since the sunlight could still bounce through the gate. The cellar was a completely different story since Ambrose’s makeshift torch had decided to go out at the perfect moment.
Muttering obscenities under his breath as he crawled up the stone stairs, Ambrose was soon greeted by the flickering light and warmth of his fireplace. He sighed in relief as he took a seat on his wobbly chair. He was mentally tired from the day of using his mana but couldn’t help but look forward to the eventual increase in his attributes tomorrow.
With no windows yet, Ambrose took a peek outside to see if there was any light left to work with. Only the starlight greeted his gaze and for a moment Ambrose stood there motionless.
Ambrose had been so occupied with getting the fields ready and building his cabin that he had forgotten to sit back and enjoy an aspect of life that had been wrung from the hands of humanity. Smog had clouded the sky and polluted the air, so even if one’s eyes were good enough to see far enough it didn’t mean that the stars would be seen.
Ambrose leaned against his wooden log walls and stared until his eyes got teary. And then he stared some more, burning the sight into his mind as if it could be taken away at any moment.