Farmer Mage

Chapter 96: Surprise Discovery

Cal knew the stone paths would come in handy, but this was practically like he saw a future issue and made a solution before he ever knew he would need it.

He sometimes felt his genius was hidden far too well.

The stone paths separated his field into eight parts. Each was fifty feet wide and four hundred feet long, which conveniently happened to be half an acre.

Cal smiled as he pulled the plow out of the soil. It had been upgraded in the middle of his session, but he had been in no rush to select a trait, so he waited until the end.

Your equipment [Uncommon Plow] has been upgraded to [Advanced Plow].

Equipment upgrade has activated an ability of [Farmer (Special)].

You will have two options for the [Advanced Plow]’s trait.

Equipment trait choices available. Choose one

Residue Reclamation – The plow absorbs residual nutrients from previous crop remains and redistributes them evenly, enhancing soil fertility and resulting in a 10% better yield.

That was why Cal chose to wait until he was done to pick a trait. If ‘Self-Repair’ was an option, he would’ve picked it and moved on, but that wasn’t the case.

Cal crossed his arms and tapped his finger on his forearm in thought. He wanted to free up time for other things, so choosing ‘Automated Teller’ should’ve been the runaway favorite.

However, there were two problems in choosing that. The first was the issue of repairing the equipment. All this would accomplish was a similar ending to using the golem and giving it tools. The plow would be destroyed in short order from overuse.

Even if that wasn’t the case, dismissing a trait that would give him a 10% greater yield would be misguided at best and idiotic at worst.

Cal sighed and knew he would decline the second automation trait offered to him after some equipment had been upgraded. He had hoped that delaying until the end would make him find a reason to choose ‘Automated Tiller,’ but it remained impossible.

He tapped ‘Residue Reclamation’ and picked up the plow. He returned it to the storage room and took out the barrel of seeds.

Cal put it down next to the tilled part of the field and glanced at the golem. Sometimes, he wished that he kept the tiny version of it. It would be far less of a headache to deal with, and he would be far less capable of random acts of destruction.

Plus, he could ask a tiny version of the golem to plant the seeds… eventually… after much practice.

Cal pushed away the thoughts of dissolving this version of the golem and re-creating the tiny one. Orrin was making him the multi-bladed plow. The golem should come in handy, then.

He opened the barrel and glanced at the seeds inside. There should be enough to cover half an acre.

Cal estimated that each barrel contained around twenty-five thousand seeds, give or take a few thousand. With six thousand five hundred seeds used up in the previous plantings, it would cut it close for the twenty thousand needed for half an acre.

He grabbed a fistful of seeds and got started. It wasn't a big deal even if the barrel wasn’t enough. He could just open up another if needed.

It was a tedious process, as Cal had known. He dug a small hole with his foot and dropped a seed before moving one foot further and doing the same. He had to do it twenty thousand times.

Cal zoned out as he steadily completed the planting. He was near the end when he saw that the barrel had indeed emptied. There hadn’t been enough seeds left inside.

He only needed around five hundred more to complete the planting.

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Cal threw the empty barrel next to the compacted wooden ball the golem made and took another barrel out of the storage room.

He finished seeding, removed his rake from the storage pouch, and covered the seeds. It took the remaining hours of the day.

[Rare Rake] has degraded to Poor Quality.

Cal stored the rake and didn’t intend to take it back out until he returned to ‘excellent quality.’ He checked the number of tasks that had been completed.

[Rare Rake: Poor Quality] Upgrade:

1. Tasks Required:

- 8452/20000 Tasks

2. Materials Required:

- 0/5 Earth Crystals

- 0/10 Dragonite Scales

- 0/500 Voidiron Pellets

The significant jump in the tasks completed confirmed to him that this was no longer the main obstacle in upgrading his equipment. He hadn’t done much research into the materials needed since he had been preoccupied with unfortunate matters, but he intended to start soon.

Cal raised his arm and cast [Rainfall]. Creating rain clouds to cover half an acre was much easier than having to make one to cover two. He let a drizzle fall onto the soil before cutting off the mana flow.

The pond would take over from here.

He returned the barrel to the storage room before sitting by the pond. It was already getting dark, and the sun would set in a few minutes.

Cal had noticed that Seris hadn’t visited the farm but was mostly happy about it. There was no Nibbles or Tavia to keep her occupied, and he had no work for her to do.

That reminds me. I must tell her to take over hiring the carts to transport the crops.

He waited for his mana core to refill before casting [Rainfall]. He intended to do this until he felt exhaustion seep into his bones… or till Tavia returned.

Cal felt the silvermane wolves prowling in the distance, a little closer than ever before, but he dismissed it as unimportant.

***

It was well into the night, with only the moonlight illuminating the ground.

Cal measured the decrease in the pond's water level. He had double-checked it many times, and he came to the surprising conclusion that it would last around seven days if he didn’t bother to refill the pond.

He didn’t intend to let that happen, but it let him know that if he could not maintain the pond for whatever reason, his crops would not die from thirst.

However, this also meant that the pond would only sustain two acres of his accelerated seeds for less than a day.

Cal wanted to declare this would be a huge problem, but he had to remember that this would only occur when the seeds he planted used the reward [Blessing of the Time-Warped Seed]. Without that, the size of this pond would be enough to water 2 acres of crops for around ten days.

Still, he wanted to have resources in place so that even the most extreme situations would be easy to deal with.

Cal cast [Rainfall] again. The pond was getting a little too unwieldy. He kept moving the area where he cast the spell, making the pond expand out of the fields bordered more and more.

He had started getting ideas for making the pond into a large lake. He liked the image of that beside his farm. Not only would it look good, it would also be utilitarian.

Cal figured he would be here for a while. He lay back, his hands acting as a pillow for his head, and closed his eyes.

The next several hours were spent with Cal casting [Rainfall] lazily from his sleeping position.

However, he wasn’t all at ease. Tavia still had come back. If it weren’t for Nibbles accompanying her, he would’ve left for Silverpine long ago.

The most likely scenario was that Tavia had chosen to stay at Silverpine for the night. For what reason, Cal did not know.

His ears perked up when he heard soft growls in the wolf pack's direction. It wasn’t all that different from their usual sounds, so he couldn’t be bothered to open his eyes and check.

When Cal heard a far deeper growl, he knew this might need his attention. The snarl that followed almost immediately demanded his focus.

He opened his eyes and turned to see what the commotion was about.

The wolf pack was surrounding a group of three. The pack leader was also involved, snarling ferociously as he curled back his lips to expose his sharp teeth.

That got Cal’s full attention. When a beast of the pack leader’s level showed extreme aggressiveness, even he would be slightly wary.

He could see the expressions of the three people surrounded by the wolves. They had no fear whatsoever.

Cal appeared next to the pack leader with a stern expression. His speed didn’t shock the three intruders. The more he looked at it, the more he concluded that they announced their arrival by revealing themselves to the wolf pack.

“Who are you?” Cal asked as he signaled the pack leader to tone down the noise.

“That should be our question. Who are you?” The man snapped his fingers at the companion to his right.

A dirtied body appeared on the ground between them and Cal.

It took all he had not to reveal a flash of recognition. “… Why are you bringing a body to my farm?”

“Uncle, he’s still acting stupid. Let me kick him around a little bit, and maybe that’ll make him remember.”

The one who spoke was the girl who stood to the man's left.

“And what?” The man said harshly. “Lose more of my blood to this farmer?”

Cal was doing all he could to think of a way out. He had no idea why they were so sure he had killed Kaelor. But the fact that they somehow dug up his body and brought it here meant that there probably wouldn’t be a peaceful end to this meeting.

“I’m not sure what any of you are talking about, but you have the wrong man. I’m sorry about your loss, but your time would be better spent finding the true culprit.” Cal put on his best apologetic expression. It didn’t work.

“Niece, maybe you had a good idea. I should kick him around and see what he says after that.”

Cal’s eyes sharpened as he quickly fell back into a survival mindset. Three more bodies might be added to his count before he turned in for the night.