Cal scratched his chin as he left the house when the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. He could hear arrows striking the hardened barriers in the distance. Seris had woken earlier than him by some miracle and was putting the extra time to good use.
He glanced at his field, a smile appearing on his lips at the neatly covered rows where he had planted the Sunfire Grain seeds yesterday. It felt wrong to have his farm be unproductive, even though it wasn’t long.
He walked over to the hole he had dug yesterday, where he had instructed the golem to cast [Rainfall] the entire night.
Cal expected the water to be dirty from the loose soil underneath. He had already seen signs of it yesterday when the golem started its task, the soil muddying the water, but surprisingly, he saw a similar situation to the first pond.
The water slowly filled the hole with surprising clarity, and the compacted soil below held everything in place. He hopped into the hole and stuck to the side so he wouldn’t soak the bottom of his pants and pulled his Rare-ranked Rake out of the storage pouch. He poked at the soil below the water before he nodded to himself.
This second pond might work out after all. I still need to see how it’ll settle after a week.
Cal stored the rake, hopped back to the surface, and glanced at the golem. “Good job! You did exactly what I ordered.”
He thought he saw the golem perk up from his praise, but that couldn’t be true. After all, the golem was incapable of anything that complex.
Cal looked away, feeling a little silly for praising the unemotional golem, but he hoped that reinforcing good behavior would stop the walking pile of rocks from finding loopholes in the future. It would be a miracle, and a direct contradiction to what he thought the golem was capable of, but a few words of praise wouldn’t hurt anybody.
Cal blinked, reminded of what he promised her yesterday. He saw Seris staring at him with excitement, expecting him to say yes. He thought it over for a moment and decided that this would be a perfect time to build up something interesting. It would also serve as practice for the spell that he was trying to create.
Seris smiled widely as he approached her.
“What’s that for?” Seris pointed at a platform that was twenty feet in the air, held up by a thin pillar that was made of the surface layer. “I don’t have a direct line of sight to most of the targets from there.”
“That’s the point. You’re too good at hitting your targets, so I had to make it difficult somehow, and this is one of those ways. Maybe you’ll come up with some interesting solutions to make your shot from there.”
Cal had tried to future proof the archery range he created, while also making the targets a circle to mimic the ranges he remembered in the Central Sanctum. Since Seris could already hit the targets that were nearly five hundred yards away, he extended the range to double that distance, while also creating distinct challenges like poor line of sight and elevated platforms from where to shoot from.
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He couldn’t think of a direct way this would help Seris in the future, but he wouldn’t discount the proficiency that she would likely gain from mastering the range he created. He hoped it would also help her greatly when she could apply mana without risking her life.
“Oh… this looks really hard,” Seris said.
Cal glanced at her, expecting to see a frown from the tone of her voice, but he saw excitement exuding from her expression.
“Well, then you should practice and eventually make it easy.”
Seris nodded, taking a step before freezing. “How am I supposed to get my arrows back if I hit a target that high?”
Cal had overlooked that issue. He made quick work of creating ladders on the pillars of the platforms that were raised high. He motioned to Seris when he was done.
“Thanks, Cal!” Seris grinned before scampering up the twenty-foot-high platform.
She chose the hardest right from the start. Cal watched her take her first shot with a raised brow and smiled when she cursed loudly. The arrow glanced off the barrier that blocked the target behind it.
This would keep her occupied for a few months… hopefully.
Cal relaxed beside the pack leader as he cast another [Rainfall] over the first pond. The golem casting [Rainfall] over the emerging second pond doubled the efficiency.
It was quite a boring task, but he noted that the draw on his mana reserves as he had to power to spells at once was sustainable. He could power two [Rainfalls] all day with little issue, something he didn’t think he could be capable of just a week ago.
He glanced at the sky and estimated that it was just past noon. Tavia still hasn’t returned. She had a habit of taking her own sweet time.
Besides, Overseer Marek had to give him some artifact before the mission. Tavia taking an extra day or two wouldn’t be a problem.
Cal sighed before closing his eyes. “I haven’t seen you move in the past day. Is this extreme laziness your usual state?”
He heard the pack leader huff in disgust before shuffling away a few inches, which he assumed was a confirmation. He grew curious and reached out with his mana tendrils to take account of how much the pack leader grew from the first time he saw the wolf.
Cal wasn’t as surprise as he should be when he sensed that the pack leader was in the middle stages of the Apprentice tier, a drastic change from the early stage the wolf had been in when they met. A short period of being stalled at [Apprentice 8] made Cal envious of the pack leader.
But that was something he looked to resolve by importing different crops and expanding his field. Hopefully, that would give him the increased growth he desired.
His ears perked up when he heard soft steps approaching his farm. It was a single person.
Cal cut off his spell and stood up, looking towards the tree line. His mana tendrils told him it was Bran. He felt a sense of impatience as he waited for the news he would bring. Purchasing magical beasts was one of the many solutions that he hoped would lead him to recapture his growth rate as a [Farmer]. It would let his hires to handle a much larger field, which also meant a much larger harvest.
“Apprentice Cal! There’s an auction starting in the Harvest Union tomorrow! We should leave right now to look,” Bran said as he ran towards him.
Cal ignored the over-the-top exuberance, already having associated that as Bran’s usual state, and recalled what he knew about the Harvest Union. Admittedly, it wasn’t much, just that it was full of farms, and more importantly, Oleg wanted to move into that region.
“Is there another auction that’s in the near future?” Cal was hesitant to leave. It was too close to the preparations for the sinkhole.
Bran’s excitement died. “Um, there should be another one in a month, but they don’t get announced much in advance.”
He came to a conclusion. “Seris!” He yelled, getting her attention from her spot on a platform. “I’m going with Bran to buy some beasts for the farm. If Tavia returns before me, let her know!”
Cal saw Seris move her mouth, but the distance muffled her voice. However, the nod of her head let Cal know she understood.
He turned to Bran and said, “Let’s see what the Harvest Union has to offer.”
Bran grinned as he followed Cal out of the farm.