The morning sun cast long shadows across Nyx Shadowbrook's new farm. He stood in front of his old, beaten-up house, feeling both excited and a little scared. Today was the day he would start making his dreams come true.
Nyx took a deep breath and called his two clones. In a blink, two copies of himself appeared next to him. It was still weird to see himself like this, but Nyx was getting used to it.
"Well," Nyx said, breaking the quiet, "what do you think?"
The clones looked around, then at each other. The first one spoke up. "It's going to be tough, but I think we can do it. Let's start by cleaning up that old mess near the house."
The second clone nodded. "And we should check the dirt in different spots. Some places might be better for certain herbs than others."
Nyx grinned, feeling happy and thankful. "You're right, both of you. And... I just wanted to say thanks. For everything. We've come a long way together."
The three Nyxes shared a moment of understanding, their matching purple eyes showing the same hope and determination. "We're going to make our family proud," Nyx said softly, and his clones nodded together.
Suddenly, one of the clones bent down and grabbed a handful of soil. He let it run through his fingers, feeling its texture. "This is our dirt," he said, his voice full of wonder.
The other clone looked around, his eyes shining with excitement. "This is our land," he added, spreading his arms wide.
All three of them burst out laughing. There was something so freeing about it all. Here, on their own piece of land, they didn't have to worry about grades or quizzes. There was no passing or failing in real life, just learning and growing.
Nyx felt a weight lift off his shoulders. For so long, he had been trying to meet other people's expectations. But now, he was free to set his own goals and learn in his own way.
"You know what?" Nyx said, grinning at his clones. "I think we're going to have fun here."
The clones nodded, matching grins on their faces. They knew they had a lot of hard work ahead of them, but it was work they were excited to do.
After writing down a list of things they needed and asking his clones if they wanted anything, Nyx headed into the village. "I'll get some food for us too," he called over his shoulder, still feeling light and happy.
While Nyx was away, his clones worked hard. They cleared away weeds and branches, got water from the well, and started cleaning up the old, dirty house. By the time Nyx came back with supplies and food, they had done a lot of work.
The three Nyx sat down to enjoy their meal together, talking about plans for the coming days. They decided to start the next morning by planting certain plants to cut down later and use as fertilizer. They also planned to set up a way to rotate crops and build a place to make potions.
As they worked over the next few days, Nyx found that doing things with his own hands was teaching him even more than the books had. Every problem they solved, every challenge they faced, added to his growing knowledge.
There was something special about actually doing the work instead of just reading about it. Nyx loved how the soil felt in his hands as he dug into the earth. It was cool and crumbly, full of life. He could see worms wiggling and tiny bugs scurrying about. No book could really describe that feeling.
Cutting down old, dead trees was hard work, but Nyx enjoyed it. The sound of his axe biting into wood, the satisfying crack as a tree finally fell, even the smell of fresh sawdust it all made him feel strong and capable.
They set up burn piles for the branches and weeds they cleared. Nyx learned how to stack the piles just right so they would burn safely and completely. The warmth of the fire on his face and the crackle of burning wood became familiar and comforting sounds.
Setting up his own Alchemical furnace was a big challenge. Nyx had to figure out how to put all the pieces together, making sure everything was lined up perfectly. When he finally got it working, the soft hum of magic and the glow of the runes made him feel proud and excited.
One day, Nyx and his clones discovered an old root cellar hidden under some bushes. They spent hours digging it out, clearing away years of dirt and leaves. Inside, it was cool and dark. Nyx could almost imagine the shelves full of vegetables and potions he would store there someday.
All of these experiences taught things he could never have learned from just reading. He understood now why the soil needed to be prepared in certain ways, how to use tools efficiently, and how to plan and organize big projects.
"You know," Nyx said to his clones one evening as they sat around a small fire, "I think I've learned more in these few days than I did in a whole year at school."
His clones nodded in agreement. One of them added, "And it's way more fun than sitting in a classroom all day!"
Nyx laughed. "That's for sure. I never thought I'd enjoy getting dirty and sweaty this much."
As the days passed, Nyx noticed big changes in himself. He looked in the small, cracked mirror in the farmhouse and barely recognized the person staring back at him.
The dark circles under his eyes, which had been there, were gone. His face looked brighter and more alive. The constant pain and headaches that used to bother after a lesson at Aria’s disappeared. Best of all, he no longer needed to drink a yucky recovery potion just to get through the day.
Working outside under the warm sun had given Nyx's skin a healthy glow. He was no longer as pale as a ghost, like he had been when he spent all his time indoors studying. Now, he had a light tan that made him look stronger more toned, and healthy.
But the changes weren't just on the outside. Nyx felt different on the inside too. His mind felt clearer and sharper than ever before. He found himself solving problems faster and coming up with clever ideas all the time.
A lot of this improvement came from an unexpected place his clones. Every night, when Nyx dismissed his clones, he got all their memories from the day. It was like he had lived three lives in one day! He saw how each clone approached different tasks around the farm, learning from their successes and mistakes.
One evening, as Nyx sat on the porch of his farmhouse, he thought about all he had learned. He remembered how his first clone had figured out a better way to plant the herbs in neat rows. His second clone had discovered a trick to make the well pump work more smoothly. All these little bits of knowledge added up, making Nyx better at everything he did.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"It's like I'm getting better at super speed," Nyx said to himself, grinning. He flexed his arms, feeling the new muscles he had built from all the farm work. "I bet my family wouldn't even recognize me now!"
Nyx felt proud of how far he had come. He was no longer the tired, struggling student he had been in the city. Now, he was a strong, healthy farmer with a growing business. And he was just getting started.
During this time, Nyx also had to move his stuff out of his old apartment. On his last day there, he stood in the doorway, looking at the now empty room. It felt strange to see the place so bare after living there for so long.
In the middle of the room sat the baby Mana tree in its pot. The little tree looked small and lonely in the empty space. Nyx felt a mix of happy and sad feelings as he thought about all the time he had spent here.
"Well, little guy," Nyx said to the Mana tree, "it's time to say goodbye to this place."
He remembered all the nights he had spent studying at his desk, the meals he had eaten by the window, and the dreams he had in this tiny apartment. It had been a place he called home for years.
But now, looking at the bare walls and empty floor, Nyx knew it was time to move on. He had new bigger dreams now, ones that couldn't fit in this small space anymore.
Nyx walked over and picked up the pot with the Mana tree. He held it carefully, like it was a precious treasure.
"Let's get you to your new home," Nyx said softly to the tree. "You'll be safe there, and you'll have lots of room to grow big and strong."
As he turned to leave, Nyx took one last look around the apartment. He felt a little sad, but mostly he felt excited. He was leaving his old life behind, but he was taking the most important parts with him his knowledge, dreams, and little Mana tree.
"Goodbye, old apartment," Nyx said. "Thanks for everything."
With that, Nyx stepped out and closed the door behind him.
As Nyx and his clones unpacked everything into the farm house from his apartment. He was shocked by how many books he had collected over the years. Looking at them, he tried to remember bits of knowledge from each, but found his memories frustratingly fuzzy.
Nyx decided to read all his old textbooks again. He thought about selling them but knew that the Mage Guild didn't like that. They saw it as a sign that someone was giving up on the magic path. It was hard to accept, knowing that he had about 2,000 gold pieces worth of books just sitting there.
After working on the farm, at night he would begin to read his old basic magic tomes from school again. With his better memory, Nyx found himself understanding magical theory on a whole new level. The basics, which had once seemed boring and hard, now showed themselves as the important building blocks of all higher magic ideas.
Nyx thought about how adding and subtracting are the building blocks of harder math. In the same way, these basic magic ideas were the foundation of all the complex spells and theories he had struggled with for years.
"Wow," Nyx said to himself, "why didn't the teachers explain it like this before?"
But then he realized something. When he was just starting to learn magic, he might not have understood these connections. Now that he knew more advanced ideas in alchemy, the basic magic concepts made a lot more sense.
Nyx looked around his farm and saw examples of this idea everywhere. He thought about the burn pit they had dug for getting rid of branches and weeds. Sure, they could have just set the piles on fire without digging a pit. But then the whole forest might have caught fire.
"It's just like some of the patterns I've seen in potion recipes," Nyx realized. "You need certain ingredients to keep the potion stable, or the whole thing might explode!"
He remembered building the new outhouse. They had to drive wooden posts into the ground first to make a frame. Without that frame, there wouldn't be anything to nail the wooden planks into. It would just be a pile of planks on the ground.
"This is like the structure inside plants and animals," Nyx thought. He remembered learning about the insides of magical herbs and the mana cores of magical creatures. "Everything needs a good foundation to work properly."
Nyx felt excited as he made these connections. He realized that understanding these basic ideas could help him become an even better at alchemy. He could use this knowledge to create new potions or make better potions.
"I can't wait to try out some new ideas," Nyx said, grinning as he closed his old textbook. He felt like he had just unlocked a secret that would make all his magic stronger and better.
As he walked out back of his farmhouse, Nyx looked at everything with new eyes. He saw the basic structures in the trees, the herbs he was growing, and even in the magical creatures that sometimes peeked out from the Whispering Woods. Everything in nature seemed to follow these same basic rules.
"Magic isn't so different from farming after all," Nyx thought. "It's all about understanding how things work from the ground up."
Over the next week, Nyx and his clones got busy. They were ready to start gathering magical herbs and making their first potions. Nyx pulled out the map they had made, covered with little marks showing where different magical plants grew.
"Okay, team," Nyx said to his clones, "let's see what we can find!"
Every day, they would head out to different spots on their map. Recovering all sorts of magical plants some with glowing leaves, others with rainbow-colored flowers, and even a few that seemed to dance in the wind. By the end of each day, they would come back with bags full of dozens of magical plants.
Nyx had a plan for all these plants. The smaller ones, he carefully planted in his small field. Day by day, the once-empty field started to fill up with colorful, magical plants. It was like watching a rainbow grow from the ground!
"Look at that," one of Nyx's clones said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Our farm is really coming to life!"
In the center of the field, Nyx had planted the baby Mana tree. He made sure it had the best spot, right where it could soak up the most sunlight and magic.
"Grow big and strong," Nyx told the little tree.
But Nyx didn't plant all the herbs they found. The bigger, mature plants were perfect for making potions right away. Nyx and his clones would work together in their makeshift alchemy lab, carefully following recipes to make lesser healing potions.
It wasn't always easy. Sometimes the potions would bubble over or turn the wrong color. Once, they even made a potion that smelled like old socks!
"Whew!" Nyx said, holding his nose. "I don't think anyone would want to drink that!"
But they kept trying, and soon they were making good, useful potions. Each little glass bottle of healing potion felt like a big win to Nyx.
"We did it!" Nyx cheered, holding up a perfectly made potion. Its light pink color seemed to glow in the sunlight. "Our very first batch of real, working potions!"
His clones high-fived each other, grinning from ear to ear. They all knew this was just the beginning. With their map of herb locations, their growing farm, and their new potion-making skills, they were on their way to something big.
As Nyx carefully packed the potions into a box, ready to sell, he couldn't help but feel proud. He looked out at his small but growing farm, with its colorful plants and the tiny Mana tree in the center.
Each potion was worth 10 gold pieces, and the Adventurers Guild often posted rank D quests asking for sets of five basic potions for 50 gold. Nyx found he could make a set of ten potions pretty easily, thanks to his clones and his unusually high levels of focus.
His farm's progress was amazingly fast, and his potion-making process was working better than he ever dreamed. Nyx discovered he could now make between 50 and 200 gold pieces a day, depending on what people wanted. With 10 to 20 such postings usually available at the guild, the sky seemed to be the limit on profits.
As Nyx bottled another batch of potions, he paused to check his status:
Level: 10
HP: 250
MP: 2,400
Strength: 17
Vitality: 21
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 50
Ability: Mental Clone (Level 6)
- Create up to six mental clones during meditation
- Increases mana regeneration rate by 25% per active clone
Ability: Physical Clone (Level 2)
- Create up to two physical clones
- Divides current mana pool when active
Skill: Mana Meditation (Level 7)
- Increases mana regeneration rate by 35% while meditating
Skill: Enhanced Magical Sensitivity (Level 6)
- Exceptionally increases ability to detect and analyze magical energies
Skill: Advanced Herbalism (Level 5)
- Master-level knowledge of herb identification, gathering, and cultivation techniques
Skill: Advanced Alchemy (Level 4)
- Expert understanding of alchemical principles and complex potion brewing
Skill: Intermediate Farming (Level 3)
- Advanced knowledge of crop cultivation, land management, and magical agriculture
Nyx's eyes widened as he took in the numbers. His progress was amazing, but he knew this was just the beginning. As he corked the last potion bottle, his mind was already racing with plans for growing the farm and making it better.