Chapter 50 - From Ho-Hum to Hoe-Down Farming Levels
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The next day, after dreaming of playing with a dragon child, I woke up to the sun streaming through my bedroom window. The morning air was cool and lightly scented by the roses outside. I hadn't needed to turn on the air conditioning that night.
Summer was almost over.
I washed my face, then made myself a cup of coffee. The others preferred tea, so I often had mine in my house. When the coffee was ready, I sat down on a comfortable armchair, enjoying a few moments of silence and solitude. After finishing the drink, I took a quick shower and changed into work clothes, but this time I chose much better ones compared to the crude farmer’s outfit I had worn yesterday. Using items from the Cash Shop, I assembled a reasonably fetching ensemble consisting of sturdy, practical black cotton pants, a navy blue shirt, and a wide-brimmed straw hat.
Shuye and Prince Baiyu were nowhere to be seen. I guess they didn’t plan to watch us every single day. The System allowed players exactly two weeks to harvest their crops, followed by another two weeks to plant new ones.
Today, we finished harvesting in an hour, then rested for a few hours before meeting up at the outer courtyard for lunch. When I arrived at the main house, I found that Deming had spread out one of each vegetable on a large table.
Everyone was already there, so he started identifying each crop when I sat down. He pointed at each item and said its name.
“Alabaster Spirit Potato, Hundred Treasure Spirit Corn, Mystic Summer Squash, Celestial Spirit Spinach, Ardent Aromatic Garlic, Pure Fragrance Ginger, Purple Amaranthine Eggplant, Crimson Fire Chili Peppers, Refreshing Honeydew Melon, Starry Sweet Potato, Mystic Moonshine Carrots, Spellbinding Onions, Miraculous Taro Root, Jade-Skinned Cucumber, Rainbow Bell Peppers, Radiant Ivory Jicama, Floating Lace Cauliflower, Phantasmal Beans, Beguiling Spirit Basil, Golden-Gilded Parsnip, Flaming Fire Radish, Ruby Blood Tomato, Luminous Sunbeam Daikon, Brightroot Turnip, Vibrant Verdant Bok Choy, Immortal Bitter Melon, Summer Meadow Leeks, Summer Nectar Pineapple, Sunburst Sui Choy, and Radiant Purple Moon Ube.”
Wow! I couldn’t believe these humble vegetables had such fancy names. Everyone was raising their hands to clap when the Demon Chef added, “All low grade.”
“Low-grade! How can these be low-grade?” Lari grabbed an eggplant and shook it in Deming’s direction. “Look at this perfect shape, this deep purple color! It even glows in the dark.”
I kicked him under the table and said, “Thank you for the evaluation. I look forward to all the delicious dishes you'll be cooking with these.”
The Demon Chef nodded coolly to me, and his assistants gathered vegetables. They all trooped to the kitchen, and when they were out of sight I scolded my wayward apprentice.
“Are you totally insane? Don’t you know that you should never piss off a chef, much less this particular chef? My goodness!” I put a hand on my chest at the thought of Deming taking offense at Lari’s attitude.
“What are you afraid of?” asked Lari.
I shook my head. “I’m teaching you common sense. Don’t ever quarrel with someone who prepares your food. I’m sure if you think about it a little more, you'll figure out why.”
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“Teacher, are all of our vegetables really low-grade?” asked Kharli. “They look really, really wonderful to me.”
“Yes, but you’re not a professional chef. Besides, you know this is just the farm’s second harvest. We still have a long way to go,” I said.
“When will we have high grade crops?” asked Lari.
I was about to answer when Mo spoke up first.
“How can you complain about that? You’re so ungrateful. Don’t you remember that just a few months ago we were at the orphanage and no one wanted to hire us or take us in as apprentices?” Mo’s expression was fierce, and this was quite a long speech from her.
“Now, now, children. We had a nice harvest today, but we still have a long way to go before we can produce high grade spirit crops. It’s normal for a person to take years before they reach the peak of their profession. Let’s not quarrel. I don’t want to get indigestion,” I said, nodding in the direction of the kitchen door where the first of the Demon Chef’s assistants was emerging with a large platter. When he placed it on the table, I saw that it was a dish of roast demon pork and bean curd with assorted vegetables. “Eat up to replenish your energy.”
We had brought in the harvest yesterday, and we would eat the fruit of our labor today at lunch.
Was there anything better than eating a meal made of demonic meat and freshly-picked spiritual vegetables that one had grown on their own farm?
After a long, leisurely lunch, I returned to my ranch house and changed into more comfortable clothes: a plain white T-shirt, cut-off jean shorts, and flip-flops. Of course, I ended up doing herblaw as usual, but I got bored after a while and went out the back door to browse the Cash Shop again for something interesting to place in my backyard.
The front of the house had the rose garden, gazebo, and swing. Behind the house, however, was just a small expanse of grass and clover. My first thought had been to place a tiny swimming pool or hot tub, but summer was basically over, and I didn’t think I would use those items during the autumn. The space was too small for a maze, and it wasn’t cold enough for a fire pit yet.
A Summer Party Package caught my eye. The picture showed a small group of people gathered around a barbecue full of steaks and corn. Maybe if I placed that in my house, I would get a grill full of meat?!
Alas, I did get an awesome-looking grill and a nice set of tables and chairs, but no steaks.
I kept on browsing the shop, and my eyes started to glaze over after the first hundred or so items. Adventure Incarnate released dozens of new Cash Shop items every Sunday, and the game had been running for years, so there were tons of things that I had never paid much attention to.
In the end, I opted for a boring but practical idea. Herblaw was my current passion, so it would be nice to have an outdoor space where I could train it. I simply put down a traditional white pole tent and placed a large work table and comfortable chair under it. Of course, it would still be cozier to work on my skills inside my comfortable house, but I wouldn't mind a change of scenery now and then. I spruced up the backyard with some pretty shrubs and potted plants, then sat down on the chair and continued training herblaw.
The next ten days followed the same routine. I harvested my crops in the morning and trained herblaw the rest of the day. By the time we finished, we had all leveled up quite a bit.
[Player Name: Violet
Farming Skills:
Farming Level 15, Fishing Level 9, Woodcutting Level 15, Cooking Level 1, Herblaw Level 13, Foraging Level 4, Hunting Level 3, Mining Level 1]
At level 15 farming I would normally unlock the third building slot, but not this time because the previous quest had already unlocked it.
As for my apprentices, they were over the moon at their progress.
[Apprentice Name: Kharli
Farming Skills:
Farming Level 10, Fishing Level 3, Woodcutting Level 8, Cooking Level 2, Herblaw Level 1, Foraging Level 3, Hunting Level 2]
Kharli and Lari both reached the level 10 farming milestone. Unlike me, this didn’t unlock any special abilities, but they seemed happy anyway.
[Apprentice Name: Lari
Farming Skills:
Farming Level 10, Fishing Level 6, Woodcutting Level 8, Cooking Level 1, Herblaw Level 1, Foraging Level 1, Hunting Level 5]
Mo did even better than them. It seems that she had a particular gift for farming because she got more exp compared to her fellow apprentices.
[Apprentice Name: Mo
Farming Skills:
Farming Level 11, Fishing Level 1, Woodcutting Level 8, Cooking Level 2, Herblaw Level 1, Foraging Level 6, Hunting Level 1]
There were still two days left of the harvest season, so I decided that we should celebrate by going to the city to shop.