Simon had long since mentally separated the farmland into three cone shaped zones, for rice paddies, cornfields, and wheatfields respectively.

And so, he quickly distributed the various materials that he had prepared to each of the three sections, adding or removing extra dirt, fertilizers, and water where they were appropriate.

Soon enough, three distinct growing environments formed and the compositions of the dirt in all three sections were sufficient to grow each of the crops in optimal conditions.

Then, he temporarily paused his work on the farm to gather the resources on his island after toggling the resource gathering setting.

After all, it was beneficial for him to harvest the resources as often as possible. As a result, pausing on a project to maintain the maximum resource output was easily worth it.

Boom!

Riiiip!

In the process of harvesting the replenishing resources on the island, Simon also noticed that the resources in the area were considerably more dense than before.

‘Mm, this is likely due to me having cleared one half of the island already, so the rest of the island probably gets more resources to make up for it!’ he thought with a nod, as he ripped a few bushes from the ground.

Still, though this part of the island had more resources than before, clearing the top layer off of half the island lowered the overall production of resources. But that was only to be expected.

Simon then processed his newly obtained wood into thin planks before bringing them to his plot of farmland. After which, he used the wooden planks to separate the three sections of farmland, creating wooden barriers that extended underground.

This was to make sure that the differing environments didn’t mix with each other.

Then, he finally began tilling all of the dirt in his plot of farmland.

Each plot of land required a different method of preparation, which included a different method of preparing the dirt - but it was a breeze for Simon, who was executing the tilling flawlessly. After all, he was more than sufficient in both the magic knowledge and farming knowledge aspects for this task.

Very soon, rows of split dirt formed in the field under the influence of [Matter Sovereign]...

After tilling all of the soil, he gently and emotionally sowed the three seeds that he had into the ground.

‘My farm begins here!’ he thought in a weary, yet proud manner.

Then he took a break, stopping to stare at his surroundings.

By now, darkness had overtaken the majority of the sky above his island.

Indeed, the starry sky was as marvelous as he expected... In this silent and vast world of empty skies, he felt incomparably tranquil - like a calm ocean.

There was no moonlight to shine down upon him, but the sun beneath the horizon allowed light to reflect off the clouds and onto his island, which covered the island in a strange, purple glow - even when the skies above were completely dark.

Combined with the countless sparkling stars in the sky, it was surreal to say the least.

‘Wow…’

He didn’t have words to say, for he was already impressed too many times in this game...

‘Enough distractions!’ he finally thought, tearing his gaze away from the beautiful starry sky.

Then, Simon took a deep breath and channeled the mana within his body, readying himself the final hurdle, which also happened to be the most difficult.

He suddenly broke out into yet another series of movements, and the world seemed to follow his beck and call once again.

The temperatures of each of the three sections and the amount of sunlight received by each section of farmland began gradually changing. If any other mage were here, they would instantly know what was going on...

Indeed, Simon was imbuing the three plots of farmland with light, dark, hot, and cold magic!

This was a vital step to growing the best produce, as one environment would not grow each of the various crops perfectly.

This process took quite a while as the initial activation of these enchantments took a lot of mana, forcing him to stop and gather ambient mana several times in the process.

Without a doubt, no typical one star core mages would be able to pull this off. After all, placing down enchantments which could affect such a large area constantly were no easy tasks to execute. Naturally, for Simon who still had no star cores, it was somewhat arduous - though thankfully, he could still manage.

After Simon finished up the enchantments, he gazed at the field of farmland in satisfaction and further cast a plant vitalization spell, which would increase the rate of growth and health of his future crops.

‘It ain’t much, but it’s honest work...’ he thought, with a weary, yet bright smile.

Though his clothes were soaked in sweat and his skin was deathly pale, he was still immensely satisfied.

After all, it had been years since he had felt this close to his roots as a farmer; his farm was finally truly ready to grow crops which were worthy of a farming genius’s care.

He then turned to the remainder of the island, which was once again filled with bushes, trees, and grass.

It has to be known that replenishable resources respawn every roughly 30 minutes, which was about the time that Simon took to finish up the enchantments on the farm.

And so, as usual, Simon quickly harvested the rest of the berries and ripped out the trees before processing them and storing them within his island core.

However, after storing the last pile of planks within a corner of his cabin, he felt his vision growing blurry.

‘F*ck! This body is so weak!’ he cursed inwardly as he made his way to his cot, collapsing in exhaustion.

By now, he was getting unbearably tired, even after he ate the berries - mainly due to the fact that he had to maintain several enchantments in each section of farmland, which drained his mana and concentration constantly.

Plus, uprooting trees and ripping out bushes with one’s bare hands was not sustainable without sufficient food, even to someone with unparalleled strength! Such actions also took a similarly unparalleled amount of energy to complete, after all.

In this case, mana could only help so much; he was still a human, and needed proper food and nutrients to maintain peak condition.

However, all this pain and exhaustion was not for naught. His star core had progressed a few percentage points further within the last few hours, and he had gotten a lot of work done as well.

But now, Simon finally had to address his food issue.

At the end of the day, berries simply were not enough; if he were to continue down this path, he might just starve to death!

And so, he regretfully decided to sell some wood to buy six slices of bread for 30 coppers in total.

Ding!

[Received 6x [Slices of Bread]]

Six slices of suspiciously hard and dry slices of bread suddenly appeared on his desk.

After retrieving the slices of bread, his brows furrowed and he reluctantly took a bite out of a slice...

Puh!

He immediately spat the half chewed piece of bread out.

“Are you f*cking kidding me?! This is store bought bread and still tastes like crap!” he exclaimed with a dark expression.

The bread looked like cardboard, had the texture of cardboard and even tasted like cardboard!

Simon shook his head in disgust, and quickly made a new batch of jam in order to make jam sandwiches.

...

A few moments later...

Taking a bite of his newly created sandwich, Simon still found it quite disgusting, but it was at least barely palatable now.

“Gosh, the system really can’t make bread for sh*t, huh!” he complained while scrunching his face.

However, out of the blue, Simon suddenly heard a system notification sound within his mind.

[You’re the one with a lack of food. Who are you to complain? If you insult my culinary skills one more time, you will be permanently banned.]

“...”

‘F*ck!’

Simon cursed inwardly, and his face darkened once again.

He then continued eating in silence, unable to refute the system. After all, he didn’t wish to get banned and the system had a point...

Indeed, buying bread from the store felt kind of cheap, but what else could he have done? Eat dirt? Bullying him like that was simply uncalled for!

He was essentially forced to eat pieces of nutritious cardboard. Was he truly wrong to be indignant?

‘Whatever man…’

After finishing a few disgusting cardboard sandwiches, he felt some energy returning, and was just about to head out again.

‘Oh wait! I forgot to check the upgrade conditions of my cabin, let me see…’ Simon suddenly thought, before appraising the cabin.

-----

[Island Core](Lv. 1)

Age: ???

It has mysterious properties and an infinite potential to grow.

Upgrade Conditions: 0/1 Gold Coin, 4.3/250 Cubic Meters of Wood Planks, 1.2/250 Cubic Meters of Stone, 0/25 Essence Crystals.

-----

‘Sh*t, that’s a lot of materials!’ Simon thought, startled.

He did not expect it to be that expensive at all.

But with further thought, he realized that it was perfectly reasonable. Finishing every upgrade within a day would just be ridiculous. Not to mention, other people without magic would take even longer than him, so he didn’t actually have it too bad.

...

Meanwhile, on the web…

P1: {Are you kidding me? I grinded my *ss off to level up once and now I need a gold coin for the next one?! F*ck, I may as well uninstall right now!}

P2: {Bro think of how long it would take to get all the wood and stone too…}

P1: {Stop adding to my depression :’(}

P3: {You’re lucky to even level up already! Think of us, the noobs, who are starving to death. The official data says that 15% are at risk of dehydration, 20% have already rage quit.}

...

Indeed, Simon’s thoughts were correct; other people had it worse than him… However, he was still unaware of the exact situation.

Simon then thought of his new priorities after cancelling [Appraisal].

‘It would be nice if I could make arrays to control the conditions of my farmland without interference. But that is impossible without certain materials...’ Simon thought as he headed out the cabin door.

He felt that it was rather unfortunate, as the enchantments that he cast drained him constantly, making him feel like a cripple. It was like dragging a toddler around everywhere he went; it was extremely draining, both mentally, and physically.

There was no question that magical arrays were definitely a priority, but it was impossible for him to set one up anytime soon.

That being said, he really couldn’t do much but to harvest materials, expand his farm, and level up.

And so, that was exactly what he did!