Master Of None

Chapter 244 - 244.Watering

The rest of the party had nearly finished all of their planting and Remey had started to mix some fertilizer in to the solid around the strawberry rows. He was a bit embarrassed at this but realized that there were small drops of sweat running down his face. His hair was soaked and so were his clothes. He had not even noticed the entire time he focused on the water that the sun had been beating down directly on him. He was so focused that he had not even noticed Midnight and Onyx who were resting by the now sprouted dragon fruit plants. 

"Well that was a pretty good speed, you only needed thirty minutes to finish that single bucket. I thought you would have passed out after the first try." Jane laughed a bit, she had clearly known that the water would try to take all his mana so that it could evaporate away in to the air. "The trick is to let the smallest amount possible each time, if you give it another shot you may be able to do it in about twenty minutes. I will do the other barrel since you will be low on mana by then." The two of them each took a barrel.

Walker used his previous strategy and only placed one single finger in, however he was shocked to see that Jane had placed both hands right in to the water without fear. Walker watched as the water became clearer almost instantly, she was much faster than he had been. Not wanting to lose too badly he started to focus and allow mana in to the water. At a much slower pace than Jane the water started to become clear. He knew that she had already finished but was waiting for him so he let a little more mana in to the water. The reaction was instant, the water gained a slight glow of mana and he knew he needed to start pulling back. In his haste he had almost just evaporated most of it like the first time.

Ten more minutes passed and he had finally finished his second barrel. 

' The skill water activation has been taken from the farmers system. The user has learned the skill water activation through their actions.

Water activation- 3 mana cost per gallon

The minerals in water are not always easy for plants to absorb. By adding additional mana they gain a more easily absorb able structure allowing plants to take it in at a faster rate.'

"Done it's done!" Walker sat down where he was standing breathing heavily. The sun had started to get to him and he needed to rest to regain his mana.

"That was much faster, I take it you got the water activation skill right? Now that you have it you will be much faster and can add mana to larger amounts of water at once. You will have a huge difference in plants grown with regular water of mana infused water. Mostly in growing size and speed."Jane nodded with each benefit she spoke of. "If we keep up with the mana infused water then tend to them properly we will have flowers on the plants before the bees even show up to pollinate them. That will be where you wind elemental manipulation come in handy. I have a skill that makes pollination have a higher chance of happening but I can not bring the pollen to the flower without physically doing it. So your wind magic can make a little pollen tornado so they all will bare fruit later." She had already planned out weeks in advance. This was how the mind of a farmer truly worked.

"Sounds like a plan, but right now I think I am going to lay here and just relax." Walker was still tired but his breath had returned to him. 

"Relax? That's a good one, Gil you're team leader has some good jokes!" She yelled over to Gil who could barely hear what she was calling for. "We have to start watering the seedlings that are starting to sprout, they won't last long without the nutrients in the water. We are starting the, much too early, but since the first shouldn't come we are getting a head start." This made Walker want to cry, she already made hi, use up all his mana and she expected more, farmers might just be evil.

Since Gil had finished up his planting he jumped in to the other rows with Su who was just about at the end as well. Remey had just placed her final bit of fertilizer down and looked to find another bucket. Jane had refused to let them use the last barrel of water saying that she was sure that they would need it later. She looked like she was expecting something. 

The one and a half barrels were absorbed quicker in to the soil than they all had expected. By the time they had started to pour the infused water on to the places where they had planted it was evident that the soil was very dry. The burst of growth to get the seeds from a dormant state to a grown seedling state had consumed much more of the moisture in the soil than any could have guessed. The soil had just been muddy only a short time earlier.

Jane roamed about pointing out the spots that still needed some water or seedlings that had grown improperly and needed to be plucked. "See this one right here, it has a double leave but no secondary leaves starting, if we leave it it will grow sideways. Now how would it get sunlight like that? We would have a bunch of half grown strawberries not fit for eating at all." 

The only one that was not impressed by her ability to pick these tiny details in each barely developed seedling was Gil. With his mother constantly pointing these things out and his system's support there was no wondering why his eyesight was so good. This was its own kind of training, since it was not taking up any of his mana and could be utilized with his heightened senses from his gear Walker trained asking as many questions as possible to find those that were also growing improperly. 

The oozing vines were all perfect, not a single one had grown in a strange way. Jane mentioned that vine plants are often very flexible so they would almost never grow in a bad way. The thing that had the most problems was the strawberry row. Apparently these plants were temperamental when it came to the way they grew. If they had just a little too much resistance when sprouting it changed the entire way the leaves would grow. Comparing this to the spirit lily that was now at the bottom of the training pond, Walker could not imagine how it was even possible that it could grow.

"Mom, can you show them that skill? You still need to use some skills on the weeping willow, and you save the water for it right?"  Gil was looking at the tiny weeping willow sapling that Jane had been working on in between helping all of them. Was this skill that Gil had mentioned what  she was waiting for?

"That skill huh? Well I haven't used it this month so I guess I can use it this time." This got Su's attention.

"Do you happen to have a skill with a time restriction?" Su had heard of some skills being limited to only a certain amount of uses in a lifetime or within a certain time period. These skills were often high level skills or mastery skills. She had never seen one though since she had never been able to afford to pay a healer with one such skill.

"That is exactly it, my mastery skill can only be used once a month. Gil always gets so excited when I use it. You should have seen his face when I first showed it to him, he talked about it for weeks afterwards." Gil was not at all embarrassed by this though and instead seemed to be getting even more excited. 

"I will get some more fertilizer over there and get the sapling ready." Gil started to rush off grabbing a shovel. "Walker get that barrel over here too we will need all the water for mom to use her skill." Su and Remey needed to help Water move the whole barrel but between them it was an easier task. "Alright pour it all out here, right on top of the fertilizer. The more mud the better." Gil had tossed five buckets of fertilizer all around the sapling. The pile was just about taller than the sapling now.

Gil's mother came over and started to evaluate the work they had done to prepare. "Alight everything is looking good. Pour out the water right here and stand back. Things will get a bit busy."

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