The kids exclaimed in surprise when a bright green light flashed all around the sky above the garden three times.

“My energy bar is draining!” said Mo.

“Mine, too!” said Kharli.

“Same here,” said Lari.

“Uh-huh, stay calm.” Though I kept my voice even, I also felt a little concerned when my energy bar started to quickly deplete, worried that I might not have enough left to complete today’s task.

“It stopped?” Mo put a hand on her chest and looked relieved. “I still have a fifth of my energy left.”

“Good, good. What about the rest of you?” I asked the others.

They said they also had one-fifth of their energy bar left.

“We have no choice but to chug more soda,” I said. “This will be our last drink for this week, okay?”

They nodded their agreement, and I distributed bottles of [Kola-Kola Soda] and glasses full of ice.

“Cold soda is so good.” Lari frowned at his empty glass. “May I have another?”

Kharli elbowed him. “Teacher just said this bottle is the last one!”

“I love soda,” said Mo. “I wish we could drink it every day.”

“Noooooo. You guys are getting addicted!” I shook my head. “Maybe I should ban soda for the rest of the year.”

We bantered a bit more while I slowly sipped my drink, relishing the sweetness and savoring the effervescent bubbles that danced on my tongue. My energy recovered a little. “Okay, everyone go to your designated spot.”

The level of the layered materials in the raised beds was now much lower than before and it had turned into what looked like crumbly, moist loam with tons of organic stuff in it. We all grabbed a handful and examined it closely.

[Growing Medium:

Made of decomposed organic materials, this growing medium provides an excellent environment for plants. Its porous texture ensures excellent drainage while retaining enough moisture for optimal plant development. Ideal for containers, raised beds, or garden plots.]

I dropped the handful of [Growing Medium]. “Oh good, it doesn’t stink. Everyone, plant your seeds.”

Lari ran over to me. “Wait, Teacher, I have an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Since the [Herb Garden] makes this special [Growing Medium] for us, it must be great for plants. Why don’t we remove it and layer more stuff again? We can use the garden to make more every day.”

“What?” I was taken aback by his suggestion at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he had a point. “That’s… a genius idea. Give me a minute to think about it.”

I mentally weighed the pros and cons while Kharli and Mo congratulated Lari for coming up with an interesting new tactic.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. I believe that there is a good chance it won’t work, and none of us would want to miss out on growing what could potentially be valuable herbs.” I checked their expressions and saw that they agreed with me. “However, there is an extra area that we can use for the experiment. Let's plant the seeds in our allotted spaces and experiment on the fifth, circular space in the middle.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Yes! I want to plant my seeds and grow amazing medicinal herbs!” Mo went back to her place, the eastern side of the garden.

The rest of us did the same. Using the hand-held seeder from the System, I finished in no time at all. Watering the [Growing Medium] was likewise easy. The last step was to carefully place plant markers with labels to identify which seed I had planted.

“I hope I get something good,” I said.

There was a wiki that I could have checked if I were still on Earth, but here, alas, there was no such thing. Yesterday, when we sorted the seeds, we took one of each and put it in a packet that was given a random number which we wrote on the markers so that we would have a record of which seeds produced which herb.

“Teacher, please sit down and relax,” said Lari. “Since it was my idea, I’ll do the work.”

I waved his suggestion away as though it was a gnat. “No, no. Of course, I’ll help.”

We shoveled the [Growing Medium] into buckets which I stored in my inventory and then we once again layered materials in the central raised bed.

“This takes a lot more effort than what we normally do.” Mo was panting slightly from the exertion.

Kharli, on the other hand, seemed full of energy. She poured another bucket of green materials on top of the brown layer. “Do you think it will work?”

“Who knows?” Mo looked down at herself and frowned. “We’re all dirty again.”

“Yes, we’ll have to wash up one more time.” I flicked a bit of manure off my skirt. “Farming can be tough on clothes. I’m glad I don’t have to do the laundry myself.”

There were modern washer-dryer machines in the laundry room which were good enough to use on our work clothes. Fengying and the others liked them though constant use tended to damage the more delicate clothes. The more valuable clothes made of silk, lace, embroidered cloth, etc. all had to be hand-washed, which wasn't too hard since we had large sinks and plenty of hot and cold running water in the house. The weird thing was that a few of the maids said they missed doing the laundry in a river like they used to do in other places.

“Our new summer robes are nice,” said Lari. “I removed all the sleeves on mine. Madam Fengying said it was fine. Anyway, they can be sewn back on if I change my mind.”

“It’s not even that hot yet, but I might do that, too,” said Mo.

Kharli nodded. “I’m shortening my trousers by two inches, too.”

“What?!” I took out a string of pearls from my inventory and clutched them. “How shocking!”

The kids just rolled their eyes or shook their heads. None of them understood the pearl-clutching joke, but I thought it was funny.

“Done. Now we just need to wait for the [Herb Garden] to create the [Growing Medium].” I yawned, accidentally smearing dirt on my face when I used a hand to cover my mouth. “Ew, yuck. Kids, let’s clean ourselves up and meet back here later.”

Lari rubbed his hands together. “I hope it works.”

“Me, too, kid. Me, too.”

***

The next day, after we finished weeding and watering the crops, we returned to the [Herb Garden] to check on its progress.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

“Tsk tsk,” said Kharli.

Mo shook her head. “Ahhh…”

Lari's disappointment was all too easy to read in the downturn of his lips and the dimming of his usually bright gaze. “It didn’t work.”

The layers of materials hadn’t been changed into [Growing Medium].

I patted his back comfortingly. “It’s fine, let’s give it one more day. At least our herbs are growing nicely.”

We watered our herbs, marveling at the different colors and shapes of the stems and cotyledons.

“One of my seeds hasn’t germinated.” Mo frowned down worriedly at a spot in her garden plot that was bare [Growing Medium].

“It’s only been a day, give it time,” said Kharli.

“This is black!” Lari was kneeling on the ground and grinning at a particularly strange seedling. “Could it be one of those mythical demon plants?”

I laughed. “No way! I told you guys, these are mostly just ordinary herbs.”

“It’s so exciting to plant seeds without knowing what it will grow into!” said Mo.

“Yes, it’s like a funny little mystery. I can’t wait to find out what herbs I planted,” said Kharli.

I hummed a little as I inspected my plants and watered them. Unlike the regular fields on the farm, the seeds in the [Herb Garden] were planted very close together. Each of us had chosen 28 seeds, though some of them were the same ones, which made for a total of 100 types of seeds. I was glad that the seedlings didn’t look like the color-swapped graphics in Adventure Incarnate. It would be funny if the dandelions, lavender, rosemary, etc. all looked like a generic plant. The graphics in the game looked like something a child would draw—a plant with a single five-petaled flower and a few oval-shaped leaves growing on a green stem.

Mo was watering her plot when she suddenly froze and stared wide-eyed at a seedling. With a trembling finger, she pointed at something below her. “Everyone, look! There’s a ghost!”