You are 6% effective.
I placed the soil covered seed on top of the powder at the bottom of the hole and then reached for the other pouch and scattered the rest of the fine white powder over it evenly.
You are 17% effective.
The easy part was over. Now it was time for the actual challenge. I began carving magical runes into the powder with my finger while reciting the incantation written on the unrolled scroll beside me.
For the first time since arriving, the mana bar in the corner of my vision started to drop. The further it dropped, the worse I felt. But I kept going, speaking the tongue-twisting incantation. It felt like I was pouring my soul into the words, like I was somehow losing part of me with each breath. If I hadn’t been warned about this, I would have stopped. A thumping headache formed and turned into a migraine that left me dizzy.
Still, I pushed on.
It took nearly six minutes to finish reciting the ritual. And by the time the scroll burst into flames, the pain had me slurring my words. The smoke from the scroll didn’t rise. Instead, it poured downwards, filling the hole. The runes I’d carved began to glow.
You are 47% effective.
The spell had taken a staggering 1,000 mana to perform and my mana bar was half full. I reached for the bucket of soil and filled in the hole, spreading the soil loosely.
You are 54% effective.
I picked up the watering can and poured the growth potion into the water, mixed it using the hand that I had placed the seed down with, and then poured it over the dirt.
You are 63% effective.
Ranic handed me a mana potion and I downed it, ignoring the foul medicinal taste. The migraine lessened but came back as I began the incantation on the second scroll. My mana bar stopped growing at 60%, the incantation draining it away as quickly as it filled before dropping once again and nearly bottoming out. Electric shocks ran through my body as I came to the end of the incantation.
I swayed as I stood.
You are 89% effective.
Your heritage seed has been planted.
+10% quality for level 100 field
+5% quality for level 5 crown’s mark
You are 104% effective at planting your heritage seed.
Ranic shoved a smaller mana potion into my hand as the ground began to shake, and I downed it as he pushed me backwards away from the seed. “Did you make it past 100%?”
“Just,” I said, choking on the potion.
A sapling shot out of the ground at Ranic’s feet, growing a foot every second. The old man grabbed it firmly, like you would an eel, and began wrestling with it, training it as it grew, shaping it in the direction he wanted it to develop. Within a matter of seconds, the sapling went from thumb to wrist thickness, growing past his head.
The old man didn’t flinch and his hands never stopped moving as he masterfully caught new branches and trained them in the directions he chose. The farmers in the crowd came forward transfixed as they watched the old man nimbly perform weeks of training in seconds, jumping from one task to another without mistake. He was a true master at work.
In less than two minutes, it was over.
And instead of a huge uncontrollable apple tree, there was a well-trained, eight-foot-tall apple hedge that went three yards in either direction. It was perfectly controlled, the kind of apple tree one might see in a modern industrial orchard. Dozens of cuttings lay scattered across the ground, branches that had tried to do their own thing and had been quickly stopped. Each one held the spark of potential.
Light enveloped me.
Well done, you have successfully planted a heritage seed. Planting a heritage seed qualifies you for your first threshold. Would you like to use this trial as your qualification for ascension? You have 60 seconds to make this decision or the opportunity will be lost.
Yes/No?
Yes. I didn’t let a single second pass.
Well done, you have passed through your first threshold. You may now choose a speciality.
Skilled Farmer
You are a man of the soil. You prefer an honest day’s work to sitting around and giving orders.
-You can now have 2 farmers under you who receive the same benefits of working on a farm as you do. These farmers cannot be other farm managers or skilled farmers.
-Each month, you receive a 10% experience bonus based upon the experience generated by the farmers directly under you.
Or
Farm manager
You are a man of dreams. You prefer to give orders and facilitate others in their work than do the work yourself.
-You can now have 4 farmers under you who receive the same benefits of working on your farm as you do. These farmers cannot be other Farm Mangers, but they can be skilled farmers and have other farmers under them.
-Your promotions now apply to everyone working under you along with yourself, unless otherwise stated. (Identical promotions will default to the highest level promotion.)
-Work performed by farmers under you now applies to your future thresholds.
-Your attribute allotment will change to constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.
The specialisations a farmer could choose weren’t great, but they weren’t terrible. If you never planned to run a huge farm, the skilled farmer was kind of awesome. You received experience from farmers under you and the percentage increased by 10% each time you passed through a threshold. You also gained buffs from the farm manager above you, on top of your own, which could make you a significantly better farmer than them. The tradeoff was having fewer farmers working under you than a farm manager, and none of their work counted towards your thresholds which made acquiring most of the best threshold boons impossible. However, it was a solid choice if you wanted to be a great farmer. A farm manager literally couldn’t compare.
But as someone who didn’t care about farming and never wanted to pick up a hoe again, I selected Farm Manager.
Well done, you have passed through your first threshold and become a Farm Manager. Since you used a heritage seed to achieve this, you have received a threshold boon. Since you were more than 100% effective, you have gained an advanced boon.
There is now a 2% chance that perfect crops grown from apple trees on your farm will produce a heritage seed.
As soon as I dismissed that prompt, another appeared.
Well done, you have passed through your threshold and gained access to your reserve of experience. Your reserve contained enough Farmer experience to increase your level multiple times. For passing through your threshold, you receive a 1 point increase to all of your base attributes instead of your regular attribute allotment.
Class: Farmer
Level: 49
Effects:
+49% to farming ability.
+49% to farming ability while on your farm.
Your Strength has increased by 1
Your Endurance has increased by 1
Your Dexterity has increased by 1
Your Agility has increased by 1
Your Constitution has increased by 13
Your Intelligence has increased by 13
Your Wisdom has increased by 13
Your Charisma has increased by 13
You have 24 unassigned attribute points.
Would you like to assign them?
Yes/No?
When we'd decided to take the loan, Ranic made me consume a few of the smaller experience crystals I’d gathered so I could immediately reach my second threshold after the first. I selected charisma and dumped all 24 unassigned points into it, then immediately felt my body begin to change.
You have promotions available. Would you like to select your promotions?
Yes/No?
This time I selected No.
Congratulations, you have reached level 49 and advanced enough to reach your second threshold. In order to pass this point, you must show your dedication to your class. Any experience you acquire from this point forward will be banked until you have su
cceeded in showing your dedication. Good luck.
I turned to the crowd, a big smile on my face.
“Threshold Party!”
The crowd roared their approval.
Chapter Forty-Four
FINDING BALANCE
The following afternoon, far calmer than the day before, I went to find Ranic for our little chat. My good mood had a lot to do with who I woke up next to and how she woke me up. I hadn’t had a chance to look in a mirror since my jump in charisma, but if her reaction and the reaction of most of the women I had smiled at last night was any indication, I was now basically an underwear model. And I was totally getting laid more.
When I arrived at the house of scholars to talk to Ranic, the architect happily sent me to the orchard. I set off at a light jog which would trouble most galloping horses, finding the pace as effortless as walking, and arrived at the orchard to see Ranic bent over among the trellises taking care of the cuttings, planting them with parental level care.
He talked to the cutting while he worked, encouraging them to grow healthy and vibrant. He had a small smile on his face as if the troubles of the world couldn’t touch him here. I left him to his peace for a few more moments. This conversation would be challenging enough without pointlessly disturbing him. Ranic finished taking care of the cutting and stepped back.
“It’s time we talk about the future of my farm,” I said.
“Hand me the watering can, please,” Ranic said, pointing to it without looking over.
“I’m serious.”
Ranic sighed, straightened, and went to the watering can himself. He picked it up and scowled at me, losing his carefree attitude. “What do you think I’m doing here, Arnold?” His tone was layered with exhaustion, frustration, and patience.
“Planting apple trees.”
“Well I’m not. I’m planting the future of this farm. I’m setting up the first step in what could be a legacy.”
“What’s your problem then?”
Ranic looked at the watering can for a second then met my gaze, aging in seconds. “My problem is you can’t be bothered lifting a watering can to help that legacy along and yet you have the audacity to question my actions and decisions. My problem is you treat this like it’s a game, like the hundreds and thousands of lives you will affect through this farm don’t matter. My problem is you want to make decisions over what goes on, yet you’re not willing to sit down and learn the basics because you don’t like farming. My problem is you’re not qualified to run a farm this size and you don’t want to gain those qualifications. And I’m not talking about actual work. You don’t need to do that, but you need to understand the theory. Or you need to let someone who does understand and knows what they are doing take care of it.”
Ranic gripped the watering can too firmly, buckling the metal handle, as he returned to the newly planted cutting, and began watering it around the base. He shook with visible anger as he worked. He couldn’t even look at me.
How long had he been holding that in?
Too long, by the look of it.
As much as I wanted to yell at him, I didn’t. I had been ready for a difficult discussion when I arrived. The problem was, this wasn’t a difficult discussion. Ranic was just stating facts. And I couldn’t argue with facts.
Everything he said was true. I hadn’t bothered learning anything I didn’t want to. That had been fine when it was just me, but I was now responsible for others. And it wasn’t just a few others; it was going to be hundreds and then maybe thousands. The party last night had been enormous and made up of mostly people who depended on me for their livelihood.
I sighed. “Thank you for being honest. I need to think about what you have said.”
I walked away, weaving my way through the trellises. It wasn’t long before I realised Ranic had planted out the whole field. Every spot was taken. The old man had been working while I slept the day away. The king’s words to Jeric came to mind with that thought.
“Honoured watchman who stood guard while I slept, your duty is done. Now take your rest.”
The words were deceptively simple.
And yet so applicable to my situation.
Ranic wanted me to either take the farm seriously, investing my time and effort into learning what that involved, or give the responsibility to someone else more suited to it. It was a fair and reasonable position to have, considering the circumstances.
It meant I had a question to answer.
Did I want to give up control of my farm and let another more skilled individual take my place, or did I want to be in charge? Not in charge in name, but in action. And not fruitless action either. Because right now, any decision I made could be fruitless. I didn’t know the basics beyond what I had read, and most of that had to do with individual skills, not running a major farm. I could easily make a mistake through ignorance. And that was what was frustrating Ranic.
It was frustrating me too because I kept seeing things done in my name that I knew nothing about.
Sure, I’d never wanted to run a farm. My aspirations had only been for the bare minimum to get me through my thresholds. A simple orchard with a few hundred fields that Ranic could teach those under me to produce exceptional crops on was the height of my ambition. In that scenario, I’d be a small part of the village while I leveled to 100.
That wasn’t possible now. Not at all. Yes, I could still step back, but the things done in my name would no longer be small. I was a landlord. I owned the vast majority of an overpriced village. And I hadn’t put much effort into finding out what that involved. I’d just handed it off to Ranic. I’d gained the Woods’ Master title without even knowing it.
And then, like a child, I’d gotten annoyed when he didn’t tell me I had, but I could have discovered that for myself at any point in time. I’d actively chosen not to.
Right now, all that was history.
The question that mattered going forward was: did I want to be in charge? Not in the day-to-day monotony of farmwork, but in the big picture. Or was I perfectly happy playing in my barn and killing monsters?
It was a hell of a question.
Thoughts bounced around my skull until I found myself beside the apple tree that had grown from the heritage seed. The wood and leaves had a lively glow to them, making me think that the tree was more than the sum of its part. There was a feeling to it unlike anything from home that I could only describe as magic.
I reached out and touched the trunk expecting to feel something other than wood. I didn’t. Smooth bark met my fingertips.
A prompt appeared.
Congratulations, your heritage seed has grown into a Heritage Tough Apple tree. For planting a heritage seed on your farm, you receive 1000 farming points.
Heritage Tree Type: Tough Apple
Level: 0
You can plant 1 field with cuttings from this tree. The trees grown from these cuttings will reach full maturity in a month rather than a year. Crops grown from these trees will give experience to this tree to help it gain levels.
I dismissed the prompt.
Well done, by correctly planting the heritage seed through the use of magic and reagents you have accelerated its growth. Your heritage tree has gained a level. For leveling your heritage tree, you gain 1000 farming points.
Heritage Tree Type: Tough Apple
Level: 1
You can plant up to 10 fields with cuttings from this tree. The trees grown from these cuttings will reach full maturity in a month rather than a year. Crops grown from these trees will give experience to this tree to help it gain levels.
Effect:
+1 farming points per day.
+10 stamina regeneration from consuming a tough apple rather than a common apple.
I stared at the prompt.
All I’d wanted to do was plant the stupid seed and get through my threshold, so I didn’t have to do the work on my farm myself. Ranic was the one who’d pressured me into doing it correctly. If I hadn’t listened to
him, the tree wouldn’t have leveled and it would only be a tenth as good. I hadn’t considered the longterm consequences of my actions, but he had. Learning the ritual hadn’t even been that hard. It had only taken a week. Waiting for the spell components to arrive had been the biggest hurdle.
If I had done things my way then the farm would now be…less. That’s what Ranic was angry about, I realised. He’d taken an oath to do his best, and I was getting in the way of that, making his life harder than it needed to be. I’d be angry too in that situation. The restraints oaths put on you were not pleasant.
I let go of the tree and dismissed the prompt.
I’d let the giant take all of my attention. I hadn’t thought beyond it. So maybe I needed to. What did I want from the future other than killing the giant? What did I want from my farm when all this was done?
It occurred to me that the extra charisma was changing me in more than the purely physical sense because I’d never been this introspective before. Or this reasonable. And I had the memory to know that for a fact. There was none of the self-doubt and inflation of problems that I’d had in the past. I wasn’t running away either. Maybe this was what it felt like to be an emotionally stable individual? Was this what it was like to look at your problems objectively?
I could see why people with that ability were happier.
I took a seat on the grass beside the tree, lay back, and began to think through my actions and desires. I thought about the farm and what it needed, and tried to see how I fit into that picture. Then I thought about the village and how I fit into that picture.
Oh Great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer Page 50
