Chương 32: Nature's Bounty

Ch. 32 - Nature's Bounty

'So what is it exactly that you want to try?' Wyatt grinned at the little fox, holding his shovel in front of him.

"My new [Grower] Skill — [Till the Earth]! I got it the night before we got caught in that storm, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet." Kit tilted her head to one side, eyeing Wyatt and his shovel dubiously.

'You might not have the right tool for the job there, Wyatt.'

"I know, but I didn't even think to look for any other farm tools when we were at the market." Kit opened her jaws in a laugh.

'Quite short sighted of you.'

"Maybe a little. But let's see if the Skill will work with the shovel. Hmm. Now how would I …" Wyatt walked a short distance away from the farmhouse, into the expansive field of grass. He looked at the patch of ground in front of him critically.

"Kit, do you think I should clear this first? I could use the sickle I guess." Kit had followed and was standing behind him. Whatever she had said earlier, she was watching his actions with interest.' Just try. You'll know soon enough if your Skill won't let you do it.' Wyatt set his shoulders, placing the blade of the shovel into the ground. He set his foot on it, ready to push the tool into the earth.

"Right, here we go. [Till the Earth], oh, fu—" Wyatt stumbled back in surprise as his Skill activated. He'd been expecting something like an aid in turning the soil over, preparing it like he had with the small patch of soil two nights before. What he hadn't expected was for a perfect square of bare earth to appear in front of him, turned and furrowed like a plough had run through it. He stared.

"That has to be …" Kit trotted by Wyatt, sniffing at the exposed soil. She didn't appear all that surprised at what he'd done, just nodding at him.

'Yes, about a hundred square feet.' Wyatt wasn't the best at judging area in that manner, but to him his skill had tilled an area perhaps the size of a standard bedroom. He crouched down, digging his hand into the loose and aerated soil. He discovered that the existing greenery had all been broken up and mixed in with the earth, perhaps a foot deep. Wyatt was a bit unsteady as he got back to his feet. He looked at the square patch of earth, then at his shovel. Then at Kit.

"Did you just see that?" Kit sounded amused.

'Yes?'

"That was a level two Skill! I thought — okay, I didn't really think about it, but I don't think I could get it looking that good if I went over it with multiple different machines!" Kit sat on her haunches, regarding Wyatt steadily.

'That may be true, but it's still only the size of a large garden plot.'

"Yes, but …" Wyatt trailed off. He focused on his Skill, silently getting information about it. After so many passive Skills in a row, he hadn't even thought to check it first.

"Ah. I can use it three more times before it's on cooldown. So … not really enough to prepare an entire field, is it." The two of them turned to regard the rolling fields that extended around the farmhouse, the grass rippling in the light breeze. The thought of using Wyatt's Skill, no matter how useful it was, to prepare that much land was daunting to say the least.' No, not quite. But if you're looking to grow just enough to feed yourself …' Wyatt nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, just enough. But not enough at the same time. Still, it's impressive, right?" Kit gave him a wry look.

'Very. So what were you planning on doing with this spot?'

"Plant it of course." Kit rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

'Yeah, I gathered that much already.' Wyatt smiled at the fox.

"Sorry. To be honest, I'm kind of tempted to use some of the seeds I have from home. But we are leaving tomorrow so I wouldn't feel right about leaving them here untended."' Seeds from your world? What exactly do you have?' Wyatt patted his bag of holding. He didn't need to look at them, he knew the contents by heart.

"All sorts, Kit. Lots of vegetable varieties, heirloom tomatoes, as many herbs as I could track down — I've been tempted to try growing those a few times since I got to this world, let me tell you. And I have some fruit trees as well, but not as many as I would like. Too many varieties don't grow true to seed, and it wasn't exactly feasible to carry cuttings around with me. But I have a few." Kit was listening with interest.

'What kinds do you have?'

"Apricot, cherry, a whole variety of citrus. But my favourite is something called an Antonovka apple. It's one of the few that you can reliably grow from seed. My Gramps had a small orchard of them because they are so hardy." Kit had been licking her chops as Wyatt listed all the fruit.

'Those apples, what do they taste like?' Wyatt grinned expansively at her.

"Not the greatest." Kit blinked at him, and Wyatt just laughed.

"They aren't the best fruit for eating. My Gramps used them to make cider. He really did make the best cider …" Wyatt fell silent, sighing as he remembered.

'So if you don't want to use your seeds from home just yet, what are you going to plant?'

"It's not so much what I want to plant, Kit, it's that I want to level. If I do three more plots, and plant them all, that should get me to at least level three, don't you think?" The silver fox flicked her tail dismissively.

'You're level two, it might get you more than that. The first five are always fast. And everything that you've been doing already today … you would have banked quite a bit of experience in all your classes.' Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"Yeah, that's what I figured. So I'm going to do two plots of wheat; I can easily collect the seed for that with my Skill. And for the other two, I thought I'd see if it's possible to plant those dungeon fruit shrubs. There are some down by the water, and we need to collect a fair few for both Lera and Isaek anyway." Kit nodded rapidly at hearing that.

'Yes, we should definitely collect more fruit.' Wyatt grinned at her.

"Yeah, I thought you'd like that. And while we are down by the water, we can also see about dinner.

'Fish?'

"Nope! Crayfish!" It was a bit disconcerting to Wyatt with just how easily the plots of tilled land from [Till the Earth] lined up. He didn't even have to be exact; he just walked up the edge of the first square, placed the blade of his shovel into the untilled ground, and activated his skill. Another hundred foot square plot of tilled soil appeared, seamlessly placed next to the original.

For reasons that were purely aesthetic, he placed the second two plots a short distance away from the first two, giving him two 'fields'.

'Do you have enough wheat seeds?' Kit called out from where she was watching, her demeanour slightly indulgent. Wyatt had given her a few strips of jerky, and she was absently snacking on them.

"Nope, I'm going to get some now." Wyatt took out the small sickle, took a handful of the grass around the plots of earth, and cut. [Not Just the Root, But the Seed] activated, and a handful of seeds appeared in his hand. Unfortunately, it was a mixture of the wild wheat as well as regular grass seeds; apparently his skill didn't differentiate between them. This meant that Wyatt had to go slower, picking out the stalks of wheat, sometimes cutting them one at a time.

It was also slightly awkward to catch hold of the seeds as they appeared, his skill not having been intended for mass harvesting. Eventually though, Wyatt reckoned he had enough. It was a simple matter to sow the seeds into the already prepared furrows, close the earth over it, then water. Wyatt emptied his water-skins to do so, but since they were heading down to the stream after, he figured it was fine. Wyatt wiped at his brow as he looked upon his first proper planting.

He felt inordinately pleased with himself, even though he knew they would be leaving the next day. Wyatt didn't really want to, but he'd promised Lera, and he could also do with some more gold and supplies. However he'd already promised himself that he would be back; it was hard to consider more exploration when he'd already found such a perfect spot.

"Come on, Kit, let's head down to the stream. I want the traps in the water for at least a few hours before sundown." Kit got to her feet with good grace, bolting down the last of the jerky.' Traps? I didn't realise you'd purchased any.' Wyatt smiled at her.

"I didn't. I'm going to make some." Down at the stream, Wyatt stealthily peered into the water. Sure enough, there were a number of large crayfish making their way along the bottom. They stuck close to the banks, and he doubted his ability to grab one before they vanished into the burrows under the overhang. It was perfect for what he had in mind though. Wyatt started by spearing one of the trout. The fish hadn't yet become accustomed to the threat his presence indicated, so it was still fairly easy.

After taking a few choice cuts of its flesh, he offered the rest to Kit. The silver fox took it eagerly, but she didn't gorge herself on it this time, instead eating almost daintily. When Wyatt commented on it, she just sniffed at him.

'Rude. But in truth, the food here is so rich in mana that it's satiating me far more than anything else. How are you going to catch the crayfish?'" There's a trick to it, but it's been years since I tried. Here, watch." Wyatt started by cutting some of the long-stemmed fibrous reeds that lined the waterway. He split them, then peeled the outer layer off into long strips. Then he swiftly and dextrously twisted the strips into a rough cordage.

The tricky part was binding each end together to form a longer line, but Wyatt had done it enough when he was younger that it didn't take him too long. Soon enough he had the length that he needed; it wasn't something that would hold out long term, but it would suit his purposes for today. Kit was watching on, impressed.

'You made short work of that. You're pretty good with your hands.' Wyatt laughed softly as he started to cut bundles of the grasses around them. Seeds appeared, but he let them fall to the ground, not needing them at the moment.

"You sound surprised." Kit sat up primly, then opened her jaws in a silent laugh.

'You can hardly blame me. Tell you what, you keep acting competent for, I don't know, another few weeks, and I'll start taking it on faith that you know what you're doing.' Wyatt raised an eyebrow at her.

"Gee, thanks. I guess I'll look forward to it." Kit nodded regally.

'As you should.' Wyatt shook his head at her, amused, and then got back to work. He kept cutting bundles of grass, laying them down on the bank. When he had enough, he started to construct the traps. Wyatt placed some of the meat from the fish into the centre of a grass bundle, folding it in over itself until it was in the centre. Then, using some of the cordage, he tightly wrapped it into a lengthways parcel, adding some river stones in order to weigh it down.

Wyatt held up the rough construction of vegetation proudly to Kit.

"There, you see?" Kit eyed his 'trap' dubiously.

'What's that supposed to do exactly?'

"It's better than it looks, I promise. See, the trick is that the crayfish burrow into the middle of the bundle to get at the meat, but they get caught and tangled in all the strands of grass. It's not enough to trap them inside, but it slows them down long enough that they don't have time to escape when you pull the whole thing out of the water!" Kit's tail swished through the air faster as she looked at Wyatt's crafting with renewed interest.

'I'm impressed — if it works as well as you say. Those crayfish are quite large. Wouldn't they just tear the trap apart?' Wyatt shrugged.

"They might. If they do, we'll have fish for dinner again. But you see how it's open on both ends? It's pretty easy for them to burrow into the fibres instead of ripping it apart."

'I can see how it would work in theory.' Wyatt started work on the rest of the traps, having collected enough material for another six.

"I have to admit I'm enjoying this. I used to make snares and traps like this all the time when I was a kid. I got pretty good at it." Wyatt finished the rest of the traps in short order. He then walked along the bank of the stream, placing them carefully down in front of various overhangs where he'd seen the crayfish. The water was clear enough that he could easily see the traps laying on the bottom, but he still pushed sticks into the earth at each location to mark them.

Once done, Wyatt refilled his water-skins, then made ready to start harvesting the dungeon fruit.

"Alright, Kit — let's see how many we can get! We need a fair amount." Wyatt walked along the banks of the stream, chatting idly with Kit, and enjoying the warm sunshine on his back. He let himself relax, losing himself in the moment, just enjoying the sheer indulgent pleasure of where he was and what he was doing. It honestly felt like he was in a paradise, so different from anything he had known growing up. Wyatt harvested the dungeon fruit, being careful not to strip the withered shrubs completely.

His Skill [I Procure Only the Very Best] ensured that he only picked perfect fruits, and Wyatt quietly wondered if they would command an even better price from Isaek than last time. Getting the seeds from the fruit was a little harder though, even with his [Forager] Skill. The seeds were tiny, almost like black dust when they appeared in Wyatt's hand. He had to be quick so that they didn't blow away immediately, and he carefully wrapped them up within a small piece of cloth that he kept in his pocket.

The dungeon fruit bushes were quite spaced out along the waterway, and Kit and Wyatt had wandered a far distance from the farmhouse by the time they decided to call it a day. They had collected seventy-two fruit all told, and with [Nature's Bounty] adding to it, that brought their total haul to eighty-six. Wyatt knew the number would drop a bit by the time that Kit and Lera had had their fill, but it would still be far more than the forty fruits he had initially sold to Isaek.

By the time they made it back to the farmhouse, the wheat that Wyatt had planted hours earlier had already started to sprout. The fresh green shoots had broken through the earth and lined the soil in neat rows. He shook his head, still not quite over the novelty of them germinating so fast. Wyatt remembered what Kit had said about swift growth leeching nutrients from the soil, and resolved to look into some fertiliser when they got back to Skalholm.

Enthused by the sight of the wheat, Wyatt wasted no time in planting the dungeon fruit seeds. He spaced them out as evenly as he could, giving them as much room as he could manage in the two plots of tilled earth. He decided on eighteen plants, marking the location of the near-invisible seeds with sticks. Then he watered them carefully, nodding in satisfaction when he was done. It was late afternoon at this point, and the sun was beginning to sink on the horizon, the shadows lengthening across the fields of grass.

Wyatt turned to Kit, more than happy about how he'd spent the day.

"Ready to go check the traps, Kit? I don't know about you, but I've definitely worked up an appetite. Going to sleep well tonight!" The silver fox appeared to be thinking something over. Her tail was twitching as she looked at him.

'Actually, about that …' Wyatt stopped, looking at Kit curiously.

"What?"

'It's about your Skill. [A Safe Place to Rest] … have you tried using it yet?' Wyatt blinked. It had completely slipped his mind.

"Hang on, let me just try it." Wyatt muttered the Skill under his breath, expecting it to activate immediately. However, instead of getting the feeling he was already there, his felt a pulling from his Skill towards somewhere in the distance.

'Did it work?' Wyatt shook his head, concentrating.

"Wait, I'm going to try again …" It was the same result, a sensation that was directing Wyatt to another place. He shook his head, gritting his teeth. Wyatt said his Skill for a third time, this time straining and focusing as hard as he could. There was a long pause … and then his Skill activated, yet again providing directions to another spot away from the farmhouse. Wyatt couldn't try again, the Skill was now on cooldown. He sagged.

"It didn't work." Kit sighed as she joined Wyatt in looking across the surrounding vista.

'I should have thought of this earlier. We've been here too long. We aren't under the protection of your Skill anymore.'