Cal wasn’t ashamed to say that he spent more than a few minutes watching the golem lob dirt ball after dirt ball until the field was cleared.

  It did more of the same when it moved to clean up the acre of surface layer he dug up in an attempt to modify his trance state.

  Cal turned his attention away and hopped onto his meditation hill. There wasn’t much he could do when it felt like his body yearned to sleep for years.

  I just need to recover my mana and avoid using it for an hour or two.

  He looked around his field with a small smile. As long as he ignored the future uncertainties, he felt proud that he was turning a barren wasteland into a true farm.

  Cal’s eye twitched when the tremendous crash nearby shook his meditation hill. It broke his untroubled mood.

  The novelty of the golem lobbing rock is quickly wearing off. I wanted to get it to use tools anyway. It would be a dream come true if it could upgrade them.

  He slowly looked away from the golem and attempted to block out the sound. However, it was nearly impossible with how loud it was. If it wasn’t for any unnecessary sounds blocked from entering the house, Tavia might have rushed out and tried to set the golem on fire.

  Cal smirked as he imagined a furious Tavia waving her fist at a flaming yet undamaged golem staring back with a dumb expression.

  He heard Nibbles climbing up the meditation hill from the back. She must have gotten tired of staring at the harvested Sunfire Grains.

  “What do you think of that?” Cal asked after seeing that she was content to stare at the golem.

  Nibbles sat down and shrugged her tiny shoulders.

  He raised his eyebrow at her sitting position. Seeing a little rabbit/squirrel-looking creature sitting cross-legged was more amusing than it had any right to be.

  She’s copying me.

  “That golem is going to be my new helper—” Cal paused when he was interrupted by another loud crash. That sounded different.

  He turned to see that the golem had started a new pile. The previous one it was lobbing balls to was already at the height of the old piles of rocks Cal had created.

  This is another sign that it thinks outside my instructions. I’ll have to test how far it can go.

  Nibbles let out a skeptical squeak at his claim. He was coming to understand her with more ease the longer they communicated. At least, he thought he did.

  “Let’s not doubt it already,” Cal chided gently. “I just created the golem and it’s already helping me. Just think of the time—” He sucked in a deep breath when he saw the golem miss a lob for the first time.

  Cal swiftly stood up and launched himself forward, repeating the jump when he landed on the ground to rocket above his house. He slammed his fist into the compacted ball of rock and shattered it into tiny pebbles before his momentum made him land just beyond the back of the house.

  “Stop!” Cal yelled before he sucked in deep breaths like he had run around the Celestial Order’s territory several times over. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees as he kept his eye on the golem.

  Thankfully, it had frozen in place at his command.

  Alright, the golem isn’t perfect. It was about to make a hole in my house… and I'm more exhausted than I thought.

  Cal would remember this the next time he chose to channel so much mana. It felt like his limbs were weighed down by boulders. Even moving his fingers was a chore.

  “Forget it,” he muttered as he sat down with a heavy grunt. “I’ll rest here for a few minutes… or hours.”

  Cal noticed a blur shooting toward the golem. Nibbles had a furious expression as she climbed up the golem, stood on its shoulder, and started to berate it in loud, rapid-fire squeaks. The golem slowly turned its face to her and simply stared.

  He chuckled and lay on his back before closing his eyes, just for a few minutes.

  Nibbles should be given the title of Overseer.

  ***

  “Cal, wake up.”

  He snapped his eyes open when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Tavia’s amused face was over him as she shook him gently.

  Cal quickly took in the dark sky, and his eyes widened in shock. He yelped, “My crops!”

  He shot up from the ground and rushed to check on his crops, his fear dropping rapidly when he saw they were fine. He checked on his pond and saw the water level had gone lower, but it still wasn’t at the point where it was dangerous.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Cal checked the state of his body and saw everything looked normal. He didn’t feel fatigued, and his mana core was full. The unintended nap worked.

  He cast [Rainfall].

  He stared as the heavy rain fell onto the pond and heard Tavia walk up to stand beside him.

  “So you make golems now,” she commented after a few seconds.

  “Apparently,” Cal nodded, though he allowed himself to feel amusement at her confused tone.

  “If the guild doesn’t help someone like you, they are full of idiots,” Tavia declared.

  He shrugged, knowing her confidence in the competency of the guild was misplaced. The more he learned about the guild, the less sense it made with how they operated. He still didn’t understand why someone who was a [Farmer] was almost disregarded.

  Of course, Cal wasn’t talking about himself, but the regular Initiates.

  He couldn't understand why they would undermine themselves when so much fertile land was available in the territory. What was the point of suppressing farmers to the extent that they had to struggle just to survive?

  Even he could see the issue of sabotaging the food supply by only growing low-quality crops because there were no high-ranked farmers.

  “Your expression isn’t giving me confidence,” Tavia said dryly.

  “It wasn’t meant to,” Cal’s response had the same tone. “You’ve been traveling around the guild’s territory. Does it inspire confidence in you?”

  “I—” Tavia tilted her head but couldn’t come up with any examples. She set it aside. “You’re overfilling it.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s going to drown most of the soil in this part of the field if you keep going,” she stated as the water slowly spread.

  “I don’t plan on going that far.” Cal felt his mana core depleting below the halfway mark. The additional water extended halfway over the channel that connected the pond to the hole that fed the tunnels. At that point, he cut off his mana and allowed the spell to disperse.

  He would have liked to cover the hole, too, but the pond was strange. He didn’t want the water to depress the ground below the hole’s connection to the tunnels.

  Nibbles refused to go too deep into the pond, so if the connection was blocked, opening it back up would require more unneeded work.

  “So, I’m guessing you’ll be working late today?” Tavia asked casually.

  Cal thought about what he had to do and could comfortably say he wouldn’t sleep much tonight. “I’ll be up very late.”

  “Perfect, I have just the spell to help with that,” Tavia said with an impish smile.

  Cal had been ready to go to work, but he couldn’t let her say that without expanding. “You—a mage specializing in the fire element—think you can help me? You do know I’m trying to farm, right?”

  Tavia gained a fiery glint in her eyes. “So you think I don’t have enough control to stop my spell from burning everything to the ground?”

  “That was not a challenge!” Cal cut off any ideas she might be getting.

  “Fine,” Tavia huffed slightly in disappointment. “It won’t be close to your crops, so don’t worry about it.”

  He gave her a distrustful look before letting it be. The only reason he was wary was the memory of her showing Seris a fire spell. Specifically, the look she had when casting the spell. He had labeled Tavia as a nearly unhinged pyromaniac from that point.

  Cal took the plow out of the storage room and got to work on the new five-thousand-square-foot patch, which was almost ready for planting.

  The plow was a problematic tool to upgrade. The initial tests he made with it, combined with the last two patches he had planted, barely gave him any task completions.

  [Uncommon Plow: Good Quality] Upgrade: 166/800 Tasks

  Each task was equivalent to plowing around ten square feet of soil, so the plow was the slowest of the bunch compared to the other tools.

  Cal placed the blade of the plow in the mulch and pushed, slicing through the soil and tilling it in preparation for planting the Sunfire Grain seeds. He was near the end of the patch when the land flashed a bright yellow before quickly dimming to bearable levels.

  He quickly looked up to see a ball of fire floating high above the field. He couldn’t feel any heat from it due to the distance, but it was burning brightly enough to act like a replacement sun in the night.

  “What do you think, Cal!?” Tavia asked with a strained voice, though she had a smile from showing off her new spell.

  “Impressive,” Cal praised with sincerity. The spell’s current use as a light had to only scratch the surface of what it was capable of.

  “It’s—” Tavia was interrupted by Nibbles appearing before her, giving her several praising squeaks. “… What is she trying to say?”

  “Obviously, she’s praising you,” Cal shook his head.

  “Right… obviously,” Tavia gave him a strange look before smiling at Nibbles. “Thank you for the compliment, Nibbles.”

  Nibbles preened before unceremoniously choosing to take that as permission to hop onto Tavia’s shoulder.

  “Cal, look! She likes me!” Tavia exclaimed as she gently patted Nibbles on the head.

  I think Nibbles likes every human.

  “It looks like it,” Cal said, not sharing his suspicions but acting like it was an achievement. He continued his work and pushed the plow until he finished the entire patch.

  The fireball that Tavia conjured was slowly dimming, but it was already impressive that she was able to keep it active for the entire thirty minutes or so that he was plowing the field. It finally disappeared when after he returned the plow to the storage room.

  He was carrying the barrel of Sunfire Grain seeds and the rake when he saw Tavia sitting by herself as she recovered her mana. Nibbles had returned to the golem’s shoulder to lay on her back.

  Cal chuckled at her new lazing spot as he started to plant the seeds. He used the same spacing as he did on the last two and raked the soil over the seeds to finish the job.

  It was a slow process since he had to plant five thousand. Tavia was able to recast her spell several times by the time he had planted over half the seeds. Just as the fireball disappeared again, his interface appeared, and his rake changed in appearance.

  As an Advanced-ranked tool, the rake had a faint, blue aura that pulsed occasionally. It was a subtle thing that didn’t make it stand out too much, but that was no longer the case.

  The rake shimmered a bright gold every time he moved it slightly, making the tool's rank unmistakable.

  Your equipment [Advanced Rake] has been upgraded to [Rare Rake].

  Equipment upgrade has modified its trait.

  Self-Repair—> Progressive Self-Repair.

  [Progressive Self-Repair] - After 24 continuous hours without use, the rake will start to recover its quality in stages. For every additional 48 hours of continuous non-use, the rake's quality will improve by one stage.

  Complete stat sheet in author note (under spoiler tag)

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  Name: Cal Maddox

  Primary Class: Farmer (Special)

  Primary Tier: Apprentice 6

  Secondary Class: Mage

  Secondary Tier: Initiate 7

  Elemental Affinity:

  Lightning (None)

  Water (High)

  Earth (High)

  Skills:

  [Perfect Match: Apprentice 5] - The tools you use are one with you. As you grow, so do they. The more your mastery increases, the faster your tools will grow in relation to your [Tier].

  [Master Negotiator: Initiate 2] - You might be a [Farmer], but you feel at home while trading. You will have an easier chance of getting discounts, but that chance increases and decreases depending on the skill of the person you are negotiating with. As your mastery increases, the skill of others matters little.

  [Green Thumb: Initiate 1] - Your crops grow 10% faster and are more resistant to diseases and pests. Your harvest will always yield more than expected. As your mastery increases, the faster your crops grow.

  Traits:

  [Lightning Aura] - You are surrounded by an aura of lightning that matches the strength of your [Tier] level. It is possible to manipulate the aura within five feet of your body. Limit 1 use per day. Duration of the trait is 30 minutes.

  [Mist Walker] - You can create a mist around yourself, covering up to 10 acres depending on its intended purpose. The benefits of the trait range from cooling to complete control over the created mist domain. Limit 1 use per week. The duration of the trait is 1 hour, regardless of the mana used. Warning: Activation of this trait will bar access to mana for 1 week.

  [Harvest Guardian] - Summon a golem made of earth and stone to assist you. This golem can help with heavy lifting, protect your fields from intruders, and fight alongside you in battles. Duration of the trait is until destruction. Limited to 1 active golem.

  Rewards:

  [Blessing of the Time-Warped Seed] - You may apply this reward to one type of crop seed (Limit 1 barrel). They will grow and mature at a 10x accelerated rate, allowing you to harvest crops in a fraction of the usual time. After 2 uses, this reward will expire.

  Primary Equipment:

  1. [Advanced Pickaxe: Average Quality] Upgrade: 1295/4000 Tasks

  - Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the pickaxe will start to recover to its peak quality state. No matter what its state was at the start, it will take 7 days to regain its status as ‘Excellent Quality. '

  2. [Advanced Sledgehammer: Good Quality] Upgrade: 2/4000 Tasks

  - Weight Adjustable - This sledgehammer has an adjustable weight mechanism, enabling you to customize the weight for different tasks, from light tapping to heavy-duty smashing. You are limited by the mana you can supply to the sledgehammer.

  3. [Advanced Shovel: Average Quality] Upgrade: 3762/4000 Tasks

  - Geode Seeker - The shovel can sense hidden geodes or precious minerals under the surface being dug. The shovel’s blade will glow softly on detection. The detection range depends on your [Tier], capping out at a maximum of five hundred feet.

  4. [Advanced Wheelbarrow: Excellent Quality] Upgrade: 2331/4000 Tasks

  - Enlarged Bucket - The bucket of the wheelbarrow can hold more than it appears, allowing it to carry larger quantities without increasing in size. The capacity depends on your [Tier], with the minimum being two times the capacity and the maximum being ten times.

  5. [Uncommon Plow: Good Quality] Upgrade: 671/800 Tasks

  6. [Rare Rake: Average Quality] Upgrade: 0/20000 Tasks |

  - Progressive Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the rake will start to recover to its quality in stages. For every additional 48 hours of continuous non-use, the rake's quality will improve by one stage.

  Alternate Equipment:

  1. [Advanced Sledgehammer: Good Quality] Upgrade: 0/4000 Tasks

  - Groundbreaker - The sledgehammer has the potential to penetrate and break through materials that would normally be impervious, such as reinforced stone, metal, and magical barriers.

  2. [Advanced Shovel: Good Quality] Upgrade: 2038/4000 Tasks (In repair) (With Orrin)

  - Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the shovel will start to recover to its peak quality state. No matter what its state was at the start, it will take 7 days to regain its status as ‘Excellent Quality. '

  3. [Advanced Shovel: Good Quality] Upgrade: 1821/4000 Tasks (Second alternate)

  - Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the shovel will start to recover to its peak quality state. No matter what its state was at the start, it will take 7 days to regain its status as ‘Excellent Quality. '

  4. [Advanced Pickaxe: Average Quality] Upgrade: 1125/4000 Tasks

  - Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the pickaxe will start to recover to its peak quality state. No matter what its state was at the start, it will take 7 days to regain its status as ‘Excellent Quality. '

  5. [Advanced Pickaxe: Average Quality] Upgrade: 678/4000 Tasks (Second alternate)

  - Self-Repair - After 24 continuous hours without use, the pickaxe will start to recover to its peak quality state. No matter what its state was at the start, it will take 7 days to regain its status as ‘Excellent Quality. '

  6. [Uncommon Shovel: Excellent Quality] Upgrade: 142/800 Tasks (Third alternate)

  Spells:

  Rainfall

  Description: Summons a localized rain shower.

  Effect: Causes a gentle rain to fall in a small area, useful for watering a garden or creating a soothing ambiance.

  Warning: Requires a high water element affinity to use.

  Liquid Core

  Description: Create a ball of water. The size can range from a marble to the limit of what your mana can handle.

  Effect: Can be manipulated for various purposes. The most common being a blunt weapon.

  Earth Barrier

  Description: Create a barrier of earth around an area.

  Effect: Pulls the earth from the ground to make a temporary barrier.

  Warning: Requires continuous use of mana to sustain

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