The long-nosed farmer walked down the dirt road and stopped a few steps away from Tanuki. He looked down at the boy, a mop of wet, disappointed spaghetti noodles. His eyes lifelessly stared a thousand yards.

The NPC spoke with a nasal voice.

“Good morning!”

Tanuki snapped back into reality with two blinks of the eye and quickly stood up to greet his guest.

“Ah, sorry,” he took the villager’s hand with two and quickly shook it, “Hi! My name is Hachiro Tanuki. I’m the owner of this realm.”

“Pleasure to meet you, my Liege.”

“Liege?” Tanuki cocked his head in confusion, still shaking the villager’s hand.

“Indeed. Should I call you Master?”

“Oh, no no no! Liege is fine.”

They awkwardly stared for a few seconds, then Tanuki spoke.

“So, who are you?”

“Can you let go of my hand?”

“Oh,” Tanuki eased his grip and the villager quickly pulled away.

“I work in agriculture.”

“Like a farmer, right?”

“Hmmm. No, I don’t do animals.”

“Ah, I see.” Tanuki looked away then back. “Hey, sorry, but I think I forgot your name.”

“Hmmm, I didn’t tell you.”

“Yeah.”

He waited for a few more agonizing seconds. The farmer did not say a thing. This was quickly becoming the worst conversation of his entire life.

“Will you tell me your name?”

Instead of answering, he turned his head to observe the small island, “Hmmm. Where is the allotment?”

Tanuki blinked twice in confusion. “The what?”

“The place. Where I can sow. The seeds.”

“Well, I got some land on the side of the road——”

“Hmmm, that won’t do,” he said, walking closer to the crystal, “Enemies walk down this road. Mindless, uncaring soldiers who never worked the field in their entire life. They would trample the plants without guilt. Some might even find joy in destroying my hard work.”

He turned to face Tanuki.

“The emphasis is on would. I will not put my crops in harm’s way.”

Tanuki could not argue with his reasoning. Not twenty-four hours ago he had to fight a living meat wall off the side of the road, and with all the destruction caused by monsters and magic, a fragile plant would not have stood a chance for survival.

He nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. So, what do you think I should do?”

“Hmmm.” Instead of scratching his chin or head as a sign of thinking, he crossed his arms so that both hands and lower arms went elbow-deep into the tunic’s opposite handhole. He turned to face to the left of the Gaia Core, towards the opposite side of the forest grid. “I need some land that way.”

“Oh, I can help with that,” Tanuki smiled and opened the crystal’s interface, but the farmer quickly stopped him.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Wait! Before you do anything, I need to be sure of something.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Where do you get your water from?”

“I got no water.” Immediately, the first problem presented itself. Plants need water, quite a lot.

Their only liquid source presented itself in the form of apple juice, which would not work for obvious reasons. Furthermore, there were not even clouds that would send the occasional rainfall. In its current state, this world could be considered dry.

This was a puzzle. Tanuki explained it to the man and the two brains worked together for a possible solution.

The farmer thought of the first possible solution, “Hmmm. We could dig a well.”

It was a genius idea and Tanuki got really excited about it. Though they did not have shovels, he could try to work something out. Also, the acid spell could help with loosening the dry soil.

And then he had a thought that left him surprised he had not done it before. Up to this point, he never bothered to look down on the side of the island to see how much digging space he had.

It was not much. Holding onto the grass with shaking hands as he looked down into the dark abyss, he saw that the floor was about a meter thick.

“Forget it. There is no chance we would find a water source in such a tiny layer of dirt,” the farmer sighed.

Tanuki crawled back from the edge and let go of his own relieved sigh.

“Welp. Maybe we just have to be patient.”

“What’s that supposed to mean,” asked the farmer while studying the ground.

“I just finished off my first boss and there are a lot of rewards I still need to redeem. Maybe there is something in there that will help us out?”

“Hmmm. Alright. However, I would ask we return to the topic of expansion. I do not wish to idly sit around while you make water appear. Though the soil may be inhospitable for plant life, I could still begin digging the holes. But I need someplace safe for that.”

Tanuki nodded and made a little thumbs up. “I get it, you want me to put some fields to the opposite side of the forest.”

“Not just that. I want some sort of natural defence line. One that also works as a border between the garden and the outside world. I prefer to work alone in peace. I do not want anyone overstepping that line besides you, my Liege.”

“Okay,” Tanuki said with slight hesitation, “And what ideas have you got?”

“Hmmm. I want a hill between the crystal and my crops.”

He could do that.

Tanuki opened the expansion menu, but once again, he stopped when he remembered one of the rewards from the ‘First Set Rewards Box’. It was something called a Grid Token that seemingly granted him new types of grids to place. Perhaps this would solve their water issues. If yes, that would greatly change how he places new land.

Unfortunately, this led him nowhere. The grid token was a larger blank token that did not respond to his pestering.

There was some sort of mechanic to this item, but he had yet to figure it out.

Thus, he returned to the expansion menu. It looked the same as last time with the difference of more points. This time, he had six.

“One field costs one expansion point, forests and hills cost two. If I place a hill to the south of the Gaia Core, opposite to the forest, I will have four more points to spend, meaning four fields. The question is, how should I place them?”

He turned to the farmer sitting nearby, chewing on a long piece of barley.

“Where did you get that?”

The man did not look up. “I always keep some on my person.”

Tanuki wondered what he was looking at in the distance. There was nothing, just that endless crystal sea and the sun above. Perhaps this sight was new to him; Tanuki could not deny he spent a good chunk of his first day silently gazing at the dreamlike horizon. He promised to let the man be so he could enjoy the view, but only after this last question.

“Should I place the fields in a line or as a two-by-two rectangle?”

The farmer chuckled. For the first time, he smiled.

“Do the latter. It will make something happen. You can thank me later.”

Thus, he did as he was asked. A small hill about the size of a two-storey house appeared next to the Gaia Core. It was climbable without any difficulty, but even then, it was a tiring task.

Next, Tanuki placed the four fields in a two-by-two pattern. He felt a bit sad that the hill was in the way of seeing the landfall that put grids into place, and he felt even less happy to know that if his island reached a certain size, he would no longer see these magical events because they will happen too far from the crystal.

He shook his head, maybe this should not have been his biggest worry. If the Gaia Core continues growing at this rate, he might need to build a tower around it. Then he will see everything from up there.

A notification pulled him out of his daydreams as something wholly new revealed itself to him.

The farmer was right. This was the way to place grids.

[ New Grid Unlocked: Fields ]

[ Requirements: 2x2 Plains ]

A new type of grid.

[ Fields ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Modifier: Rich Soil ]

[ Rich Soil increases the growth and size of Green-type plants. ]

This was exactly what he needed, but that was not the only thing that got him smiling like crazy. If he could do this with the ‘Plains’ grid, could he do the same with the ‘Forest’ and ‘Hills’? If so, what would he get? Jungles and mountains? Deep forests and mineral-rich volcanoes? Perhaps he could even unlock new types of upgrades just for the land?

“How did you know that would happen,” he turned to the farmer with admiration.

He lay down in the grass with a chuckle and pulled the straw hat onto his eyes. “My name’s Edgar. A pleasure to meet you, my Liege.”