[Farmer] Mage

Cal grumbled as he gently pulled the stubborn root from the soil. Finishing the harvest was taking much longer than he estimated.

He had already cast [Rainfall] once over the pond in the middle of the harvest. His mana core took around thirty minutes to fill to capacity, and he pulled less than half of the crops.

The problem was the new way the crops were being watered. It was definitely more convenient to have the crops draw water from the tunnels when needed, but the depths at which the roots were burrowed into the soil were a pain to extract.

He continued to uproot the Sunfire Grains until he completed the harvest a little over thirty minutes later. He pulled a little under eight hundred Sunfire Grains from the soil, and of those, a little under four hundred were of the red gem variants.

Your skill [Green Thumb] has increased by 5 levels.

Your [Primary Tier] has increased by 1 level.

He checked the rest of his stats and saw that the increased level of [Green Thumb] didn’t show any secondary effects. Then again, [Perfect Match] only showed such an effect after it had risen in rank to Apprentice.

Cal quickly shifted all of them onto the undisturbed surface layer on the other side of the rock hills. They would be ready for transport by tomorrow.

He returned to the pond and once again cast [Rainfall].

Cal stepped back after his mana was depleted and returned to the house. He could hear the golem working on breaking the surface layer behind the house as he entered.

“—try to control the search, but that isn’t always an option.”

Cal saw Tavia… teaching. Seris had a spell booklet that he didn’t recognize open in her lap. It must have come from Tavia.

“What are you doing?”

Tavia and Seris looked up at Cal. Tavia replied, “Seris was interested in the fire wall that I cast. It’s a shame that she doesn’t have an interface. She’s absorbing this like a sponge.”

Seris beamed at Tavia’s praise. Cal saw that more as a general encouragement, but he saw no need to break the mood.

“I see. Well, don’t mind me. I’ll be going in and out of the house to do some errands.”

They took his words to heart and immediately proceeded to ignore him. Cal chuckled as he walked into his room.

He went to his dresser and tapped the storage pouch on the gem and the stick. He checked the interface, curious about what it would say about the stick.

Basic Storage Pouch: 9/20

Inventory:

8 Unknown Gems

1 Stick

That confirmed the stick was indeed just a stick, so he took it out and tossed it back on the dresser. He couldn’t say he was disappointed since he never expected it to be a dragon bone.

He noticed that every item he stored inside the storage pouch took up a precious capacity allocation. He wondered if this also applied to a coin.

Cal took out his coin pouch and emptied it onto his dresser. He then proceeded to try to store everything but the guildmarks in the storage pouch.

Basic Storage Pouch: 9/20

Inventory:

8 Unknown Gems

127 Copper, 83 Silver, 12 Gold

He put the guildmarks in the storage pouch after he saw that the capacity wasn’t impacted by more than one.

If the coins only take up one of the allocations, what about the barrel of seeds.

Cal quickly made his way to the storage room, ignoring the glances Tavia and Seris gave him. He chose a barrel that hadn’t been opened and tried to pull it into the storage pouch.

The Basic Storage Pouch does not have enough capacity to store this object.

Cal sighed but accepted it readily. There had to be close to ten thousand seeds inside the barrel, so it would be ridiculous if the storage pouch just took one allocation for all that.

He needed to store a tool purely for secrecy. He pulled the Rare-ranked Rake into the storage pouch and glanced at the interface again.

Basic Storage Pouch: 10/20

Inventory:

8 Unknown Gems

127 Copper, 83 Silver, 12 Gold, 2 Guildmarks

1 Rake (Rare)

He looked around but didn’t see the need to use up more of the precious capacity.

Cal returned to the house and again ignored the looks he got when he moved the rug to uncover the hearthstone and sat beside it.

“What you doing?” Seris asked curiously.

“I’m filling this with mana,” Cal pointed at the hearthstone. When Seris still looked confused, he added, “I have nothing else to do for the day. As I said before, don’t mind me.”

Tavia laughed lightly before she resumed explaining far too detailed theories about the fire element to an attentive Seris.

***

The workers outside were nearly finished building the stone paths on the field. He had filled the Hearthstone ten times. The sun was setting in the sky.

Tavia and Seris were still having the same discussion from over five hours ago.

Cal had long lost his amusement at Seris trying to learn about the fire element. He accepted that Seris was some sort of savant at understanding it.

Concepts that were hard for him to grasp were simple for Seris, and Tavia seemed to understand more about the subjects as she taught them. Seris asked questions that forced Tavia to expand on a topic, and Cal had been told in his past life that one of the best ways to learn was to have a student who asked relevant questions.

Of course, that was told to him in an attempt to help other guild members, so he had never tried it.

Cal had to agree with Tavia’s lament that Seris didn't have an interface. The girl would’ve been a fantastic [Caster] or [Mage].

“Seris, did you read the spell booklets I gave you?” Cal asked when there was a lull in their conversation.

“… I did,” Seris looked guilty. “Should I not have done that?”

“Those were your gifts. You could have done whatever you wanted,” Cal said impatiently. “How much of it did you understand?”

“All of it. They were fairly easy. Especially ‘Rainfall.’ Reading that booklet first would’ve made learning ‘Liquid Core’ much easier, now that I think about it.”

Cal was doubting everything he knew at the moment, and looking at Tavia’s expression, she felt the same.

“Run through the steps required to cast ‘Liquid Core.’ Then explain why the spell will let you draw water out of the air even when you’re in the desert.”

He should never been surprised since Seris claimed she understood everything, but when she recited the steps almost word for word, he couldn’t help but stare at her in amazement.

I always thought that Seris was a happy little fool. I’ve wronged her. She’s a happy little fool who is strangely proficient at learning how spells work.

The strangest part was that Seris could easily understand the fundamentals and intricacies of both the fire and water elements.

Cal hadn’t just been sitting here and blocking out all of Tavia’s lecture. He had been trying to understand what she was teaching along with Seris.

It wasn’t like he understood nothing, but he felt like a fool compared to Seris.

His experience with the water and earth elements compared to the fire element made it evident that affinity played a significant role.

That raised the question of why Seris—a mortal with no affinity—could learn this so easily.

“I have another gift for you,” Cal said, taking out the booklet for ‘Earth barrier’ and handing it to Seris. “Take a few minutes to look through it, then tell me what you understood.”

Cal exchanged looks with Tavia as they stared at Seris flipping through the booklet at an alarming speed—similar to how fast he had gone through the booklet himself.

“Done!” Seris hugged the spell booklet to her body as if to prevent Cal from asking for it back.

He hadn't intended to.

“All right, tell me about it,” Cal motioned for her to speak.

Seris didn’t disappoint. She was able to point out exactly how the spell would work best, and most surprisingly, she pointed out something that Cal had missed.

“Wait,” Cal raised his hand to stop Seris from continuing. “Repeat that.”

“Uh, okay? The barrier should be able to take at least ten attacks from someone who has the same strength as the caster. The barrier just needs the right amount of stuff inside.”

“Lend me that for a moment,” Cal took the spell booklet back from a pouting Seris and quickly left the house.

He flipped through the pages as he went to the other side of the rock hills and put a good distance between him and the harvested Sunfire grains that were drying on the ground.

Cal closed the booklet after he confirmed nothing in it matched Seris's claim. She had gotten that from understanding the rest of the steps in great detail—and from what it looks like, in greater detail than him.

… I should go back and get the spell booklets that Seris picked out in the shop.

He shook his head, knowing he was jumping to conclusions. He had to test this out first.

Cal thrust his arm out as his hand clenched into a claw. Unlike the previous time he cast the spell, he took the time to shift the material underneath the ground and gather as much of it as it could into the area that would be lifted up to form a barrier.

In an emergency situation, this would been highly impractical since there would’ve been too much time given for any attackers to strike his body. However, as with everything, Cal expected this could be cut down with practice.

With a small grunt, Cal swept his arm up, and the ground followed his motion to form a similar barrier, at least in appearance.

He stepped out of the barrier's protection, and just like before, he moved a short distance away and pointed his palm at it. He cast [Liquid Core].

Cal didn’t blink as the water ball slammed into the barrier. It felt even more powerful compared to the last time he did this, but there was a severe difference in how the barrier drew on his mana core. There was no change besides the minimum draw, which was purely for the connection to the spell.

He took a deep breath as he prevented himself from getting too excited. He cast [Liquid Core] again.

Cal’s hair fluttered slightly from the shockwave of the second impact. The barrier stood strong, and his mana core experienced no extra draw.

He repeated this again and again, the barrier only showing signs of deterioration by the sixth time he cast [Liquid Core]. By the eleventh cast, the barrier was on its last legs, and the impact finally drew on his mana core.

Cal flinched when his mana core depleted as a barrier tried to keep itself active. He didn’t have enough to sustain it, so the barrier crumbled immediately.

He lowered his arm slowly as he slowly came to accept what just happened.

Seris might be a genius. A silly genius, but a genius.

Cal returned to his farm, still thinking about that realization. The workers building the stone paths were waiting for him.

“Initiate Cal, we have completed your request,” one of the workers said with a slight bow of the head.

He glanced at the small walking stone paths and saw that they were satisfactory. “Thank you for the help.”

The workers looked lost on what to say to his thanks before they quickly decided to just give him a deeper bow and leave the farm quickly.

Cal didn’t have the mind to care about their odd actions and entered the house to see Seris waiting for him.

“Can I have my book back?” Seris asked, her eyes locked to where the inner pocket was on his coat.

He didn’t tease her and simply handed the spell booklet back. “Let me give you the same challenge as before, but with a clear reward. If you can sell this for sixty silver, I’ll give you another spell booklet.”

“You better have that ready, Cal!” Seris accepted the challenge confidently.

“Good,” Cal nodded. Not for the first time, he felt a deep regret that he rejected [Benevolent Mentor] in favor of [Master Negotiator]. He felt he had been doing far more mentoring than he had ever assumed. “It’s about time for you to head back to town. It’s getting late, so I’m going to send Nibbles back with you.”

Tavia and Seris said their farewells as Cal stopped Nibbles with her current task of making tunnels. The little creature was reluctant, but she eventually accepted the task of babysitting Seris.

As they watched the two leave the farm, Cal and Tavia were both clearly thinking of similar things.

“You need to get her into the core guild's library,” Tavia stated after Seris’s figure disappeared.

He knew that was the best thing to expand Seris’s knowledge, but he didn’t want to put her in a place where a simple mistake by a mortal could be fatal.

I would rather buy her any necessary material than send her to the core guild.

“We’ll see,” Cal said noncommittally as he reentered the house.

“I’m guessing you’re going to feed the hearthstone?”

“Yeah. I had to empty it to make that golem,” Cal gave an explanation of why he was doing so.

“I’ll help. You might be an Apprentice, but your mana capacity shouldn’t be much larger than mine. I should be able to double the speed.”

He wondered if this was a good time to mention that he was also a [Mage].

“I appreciate the offer. But I need the mana in the hearthstone to only come from me. I’m planning to use a spell that requires purity.”

Tavia accepted it since it made sense to her. She gave him company as she sat on the couch and reviewed her reading material.