SeekingSerendipity
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[Farmer] Mage 2 - Chapter 49
🕑 Added 2025-09-30 17:09:03 +0000 UTCAN: 2 more chapters by the end of the day. Done with them but haven't had the chance to edit.
Cal had plenty of time on his hands, but that didn’t mean he liked to spend it doing something so unrewarding.
He would happily break up the surface layer, plow the soil, shovel up debris, or do really any other farm work. However, covering the soil in this slurry of powdered crystals and pond water was not the same.
The biggest reason he enjoyed farm work was his ability to fall into a meditative state. That simply wasn’t possible as he covered the soil with the slurry.
There were too many things that he had to pay attention to. The slurry needed to have the right viscosity, and each batch was always different because of the minute differences that were inherently there in the powdered crystals. The sheer area that he had to cover only exacerbated his dislike.
Of course, Cal didn’t show his displeasure on his face. He kept it to himself and continued on with little sign of complaint. He couldn’t be seen grumbling by his hires or the mortals that were still loading up the harvest.
Cal occupied his time by snooping. He continued to work on covering the entire field with a slurry of powdered crystals and pond water, but he also monitored his hires, who cast spells on the Sunfire Grain with surprising frequency.
Even though he no longer had [Mana Sense], he could still infer purely from sight that the spells were all minor. Still, they were all Initiates, and their mana reserves would be strained from their casting. The level of commitment they put into their experimentation was impressive.
When Cal got bored with marveling at his productive hires, he switched his attention to Drex and his workers. The level of disorganization was almost impressive, and he assumed this could only be for two reasons: Drex has new workers or, more likely, Drex found the correct way to handle Sunfire Grains.
It could be possible that Drex thought it more important to handle the harvest correctly since the contract might be dissolved, all to extract the max value from it.
Cal continued to think idle thoughts as he did his best to keep himself entertained. Covering the field with slurry would usually have taken him an hour or two at maximum. It took him several more as he paced himself, keeping his weakened state in mind.
There was no need to risk a flare-up when there was nothing else important to do. No mana reserves meant there was no filling up the pond, practicing magic or meditation. He realized it left him with a lot of time and nothing to fill it with.
A few hours in, Cal saw Drex had finally calmed down, and the Initiates took that as an opportunity to speak with him. He found it curious that the hires were overly polite, with Drex trying to match or even exceed that politeness.
A handshake sealed the agreement before Bran approached him. “Apprentice Cal. Drex agreed to help, and you were right about us having more success if we’re not at the farm. Plus, one of us can always accompany Drex to make sure some of the more… irritable guild members wouldn’t harass him.”
Cal gave him an approving look. It was the right thing to do, and it would leave his farm free of curious eyes, which made the decision even better. “Take your time, and I wish you luck.”
“Thank you, Apprentice Cal,” Bran straightened with a proud look.
A stray thought fixated in Cal’s mind as Bran turned to leave. “Wait, besides the materials that you’re trying to find, I also have a few things that I’m trying to find a source for. Wait here.”
Cal set aside the tub of slurry and went to the storage room. He would have brought Bran along, but there was no reason to risk the discovery of his [Rare Wheelbarrow] after going through the effort of hiding it so well.
He picked out a Voidiron pellet and one of the two earth crystals he possessed, the latter he did very reluctantly. However, letting go of these may allow him to find a source for many, many more.
Cal returned to Bran and handed him the materials. “The larger one is called an Earth Crystal, and the pellet is made of Voidiron. If you can find me a source where I can buy them routinely, I’ll reward you all greatly.”
“No need for that, Apprentice Cal! We’ll do our best to find these. And if we can’t get it ourselves, we’ll try to get information of where it could be.” Bran, true to his nature, happily ran off to his fellow hires, holding two materials given close to his body as if they were treasures.
Cal sent off all the visitors, including his hires, with a merry wave as the many carts left his farm. He had gained almost twenty-one guildmarks from the harvest—a sharp increase attributed to the guild waving their cut—a much-needed relief before he embarked on the journey to empty his funds.
He returned to his task right after the last cart disappeared. He had little left to do, and he finished covering the entire field with the slurry in less than half an hour.
Cal didn’t toss the tub as he usually did onto one of the many debris hills. Instead, he packed debris into the tub and carried it back to the storage room. The farm might not have any visitors, but it was still safer to test out the [Rare Wheelbarrow] where eyes couldn’t snoop.
He pulled the wheelbarrow out of the hiding place and tipped the tub to let the debris fall into the bucket.
Cal tossed aside the empty tub and stared at the wheelbarrow. He realized he didn’t know how to use any of its functions.
“Uh, make bricks,” Cal said to the inanimate tool. He expected nothing to happen.
[Connection established.]
[Current compaction form: Brick. Is this correct?]
“Yes.” Cal couldn’t believe it worked. He stared at the wheelbarrow, waiting for the bucket to spit a brick at him, but after several seconds of inactivity, he knew there was a problem.
The interface soon confirmed his guess.
[Wheelbarrow unable to compact material. No mana supplied.]
“… Of course,” Cal muttered in disappointment. He re-hid the wheelbarrow and left the storage room.
It should have been obvious from the start that the tool would draw on his mana reserves so it could function. It had to come from somewhere, and it certainly wouldn’t be from the scarce ambient mana.
Cal looked around the farm and suddenly felt lonely. He eyed the wolf pack and the large cats, but when they cowered away in fear when they noticed his gaze, he left them alone out of pity and walked to his golem.
If the pack leader were here, he would have slept in his usual spot by the pond. Without the pack leader’s presence, he gave his golem some company… and he also felt a little guilty that it couldn’t function until he got his mana reserves back.
Cal patted the golem’s knee, which was nearly at his chest level. “It won’t be that long. Soon you can go back to your usual ways… finding loopholes in my orders.”
He gave the golem a suspicious look. The golem originated from a [Trait], and from his gallivanting in the sinkhole, he had concluded that all his [Traits] came from the higher powers. [Lightning Aura] and [Mist Walker] had extraordinary powers, so it would be strange if [Harvest Guardian] was an exception.
Cal suspected he had greatly underestimated the intelligence of the golem. He gave the golem’s knee another pat with a silent promise to treat the dumb, yet possibly intelligent thing, better.
The ground around the second pond wasn’t as grassy as it was around the first, but it was getting there. It was good enough to act as a comfortable resting spot, at least for a short time. He lay down and closed his eyes, waiting for enough time to pass until it was time to cover the field with mulch.
He could use the time a little wiser, but the fieldwork put a beating on his already struggling body. This rest would give him more than enough time to recover and allow him to finish with the field by the end of the day.
Cal used his meager techniques learned during meditation to empty his mind and focus on nothing in particular. He quickly sank into a blank state, and time passed quickly.
His ears twitched when he heard several carts approaching the farm again. With Drex’s job already finished, this left only another who caused such a racket: Miren and her band of builders.
Cal stood in excitement, noting the rest had lasted several hours at least, and his body recovered as expected. With Miren on the way, the construction of the smithy and the additional structures he wanted built could finally begin.
