The return trip to the farm was, as usual, uneventful. Once on his property again John immediately turned his attention to the still grassy portions. It had taken him six days total to clear a fourth of his plot, which meant he could almost complete another fourth in the five days he had before harvest. However, that’d leave him little time to do anything else, and he definitely needed a storage space. With that thought in mind he decided he’d do three days of work on the land to clear some space, and then the next two on some sort of storage.

Course determined John got to work clearing the upper north-eastern corner of his plot. For the next three days he cleared out grass once more, piling it off to the side of his plot where it would be out of the way. He did have to stop to water his crops once but that was a quick affair using the water stones he had previously purchased. During the work however he got four more increases to each strength, constitution, intelligence, and wisdom.

On the fourth day he exited his tent to the distinct smell of ozone in the air. For a moment he thought the promised rains had come, but a quick look at the sky showed it to be free of heavy clouds. With a shrug he went about his business. Looking at the cleared area he decided that he’d build a combination storage area storm shelter. A short bit of googling later told him that he wanted the shelter to be about 12 feet underground. With that in mind, chose a spot near the northwestern end of the cleared space and began to dig using Move Earth.

Between his new regeneration rate, Mana Drawing, Mana Imprinting, and Move Earth it took him 7 hours to fully dig the hole, by which point he had a migraine brewing. But once done it was about 21 feet long, 27 feet wide, and 23 feet deep. Despite his migraine John created a steep ramp along one wall, so that he could walk down into the pit, and then he started creating gravel. According to what he’d read, this would allow for drainage below the foundation of his shelter, allowing him to create drains in case water got inside, say from rain. It took him slightly more than a half hour to create a compact layer of gravel a foot deep, at which point he decided to log out and take lunch slightly early.

Logging back in an hour later John found the migraine had abated and immediately started on the stone foundation for his storage. It took him slightly more than an hour to add in the two feet of stone he’d envisioned. He smoothed out the surface and then made it slant ever so slightly to the south, so that any liquids that got inside would run that way, to where he installed a drain in what would become the landing for the stairs. Next on his agenda were the walls. It took him another hour and a half to raise the walls and the central support pillar, each of which was eight feet high. The central support was two feet by two feet and sat in the precise center of what would be the storage area.

Moving on he worked on the stairs, which he put against the southern wall and made four feet in width. It cost him another hour and a half to extend the southern wall all the way to the top of the hole, add the stairs, and then add a second wall cutting them off from the interior of the storage area along with a sloping roof to go over them. Then he added the roof which, being a foot thick, took him another thirty minutes. Finally he looked at the door he had created as an entrance and, using a bit of twine, measured it several times, adjusting it to be of uniform height and width.

By the time John was done he’d spent over five hours creating stone while using Mana Imprinting and he had a nice headache brewing. Unfortunately he knew he wasn’t done yet, now he had to move all the dirt back into the hole, tamping it down as he went to create a solid plug of soil over the storage. Looking around he realized he had only a few hours of light left, and wouldn’t be able to fully finish today, still, he could easily manage another two and a half hours before the system kicked him, so he got back to work. By the time he logged off for the night he’ managed to move almost a third of the dirt back into the hole.

***

The next morning the smell of Ozone was back, and stronger than ever, it permeated everything, overpowering all other scents. John ignored it, assuming it would go away, just like it had yesterday. But it was annoyingly persistent. Still, he didn’t let it get in the way of his work. He moved back to the shelter and began moving dirt back into the hole once more. Within the first hour he got four very welcome messages.

[Due to constant use of mana you have gained +1 Intelligence]

[Due to continuous regeneration of mana you have gained +1 Wisdom]

[Mana Drawing has Ranked Up due to continued use. Novice à Apprentice]

[Mana Imprinting has Ranked Up due to continued use. Novice à Apprentice]

[250 Leveling Points Banked]

The change in rank was immediately apparent, the strain of holding Mana Imprinting while casting was noticeably lessened by more than half. He could still tell it was taking a toll, but it was now more than manageable. The change in Mana Drawing was just as profound. He could now hold two loops, one down to his navel and one down his right arm. Instead of merely doubling his mana regeneration it now quadrupled it, meaning he could regenerate 66 mana per minute instead of just 33, filling his mana pool (which now sat at 330 mana), in just 5 minutes. Grinning, John got back to work, and had finished filling the hole within only two hours.

By the time John was finished the smell of Ozone still hadn’t gone away, and it was beginning to grate on his nerves. Determined to find the source he began walking all along his plot, checking even the still grassy areas. However, no matter where he went the smell was unchanging. Frustrated he struck out toward town, deciding to see how far the smell persisted. By the time he reached the halfway point he realized the smell wasn’t going to abate at all, and decided that he should go and see if anyone else knew what was causing it.

Walking into town John looked around, expecting to see agitated players yet, to his surprise, everything seemed entirely normal. He walked a short distance, keeping an ear out, but heard no complaints. Finally he zeroed in on Ex’s booth and wandered over.

“Hey John.” Ex said.

“HI JOHN!” Sally exclaimed.

“Calm down Sally.” Ex made a lowering motion with his hand.

“Hey guys. Do either of you smell that?” John jumped straight to the topic that’d brought him into town.

“Smell what?” Ex asked as Sally began sniffing the air industriously.

“Ozone. It’s overpowering everything and has been all day. It’s literally all I can smell!” John exclaimed, agitated.

“Weird, I don’t smell anything like that,” Ex said, giving an experimental sniff of his own.

“Nope! But I can smell dirt, it’s all over you!” Sally chimed in cheerfully.

“Well yeah, I’ve been moving dirt all morning, I just finished my storage area,” John admitted, agitated.

“Maybe it’s something on you?” Excelsior considered.

Sally leaned in close to John and took a deep sniff. “Nope, or at least not that I can smell.”

“Maybe ask Grandma Loren? She knows all kinds of esoteric stuff, doesn’t she? Maybe this is something magical.” Ex leaned on the counter and grinned as he spoke.

“Hey! There’s Grandma Loren! HEY OVER HERE!” Sally jumped and waved her arms about.

Loren, for her part, had been about to sit down when she heard her name and then turned to see the exuberant draconid. She eyed Sally, then her seat, then Sally again, and wondered how willing the girl would be to accept an ‘I’m sorry I didn’t hear you.’ She then tossed that idea aside as Sally started waving harder, clearly having seen Loren looking. With a sigh she started trudging over to the stand.

“What can I do for you dear?” the elderly woman said as she drew near.

“Not me! John! He’s having smelling problems!” Sally ‘explained’.

“Well tell him to take a bath then!”

John sighed. “No, my problem is that I can’t smell anything except ozone!”

“What’s ozone?” Loren asked, looking mildly annoyed and perplexed.

“The smell after a thunder storm!” Sally interjected before either John or Ex could open their mouths.

Loren froze and then looked at John intently. “John, how long have you been smelling this… ozone?”

“Well I caught a whiff of it yesterday morning, but it faded pretty quickly. But it’s been constant all throughout today.”

“Is it getting stronger?” she inquired.

“No, at least I don’t think so. It’s really hard to tell.”

“Right, I want you to imagine a powerful lightning storm, can you do that?” Loren instructed while Ex and Sally watched on, mildly interested.

“Sure, now what?”

“Now I want you to imagine it happening tomorrow.”

John immediately got a feeling that something was wrong with the image and the word “no” popped out of his mouth.

“And the day after?” Loren asked.

This time the feeling was right and something clicked.

[Basajaun Racial Prognostication Successful!]

[Impending Natural Disaster Predicted]

[Time until natural disaster: 47 hours, 52 minutes, 12 seconds.]

The smell of ozone fled John’s nostrils as his eyes popped open. “It’s a storm, an extreme one. The system says it’ll happen in 47 hours and 52 minutes,” he explained without preamble.

“Wait! John can tell the future?! TELL MY FUTURE JOHN!” Sally said, grabbing John by the shoulders and shaking him.

“Cut it out Sally!” Ex exclaimed while giving the draconid a swat on the arm.

“Ow,” John complained as Sally stopped.

Loren shook her head at the foolishness. “John is a Basajaun, they’re able to predict natural disasters, as you’ve just seen. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll spread the word a storm is coming.”

John watched as Loren shuffled off towards the produce stalls, no doubt in his mind that the news would be all over town by the end of the day.

“So what was that about?” Ex asked.

“John saw the future! DUH!” Sally exclaimed.

“It’s one of my racial traits… I think he called it… uh,” he paused to check his sheet, “Disaster Prognosticator.”

“So it lets you know when natural disasters are going to happen? That’s pretty handy.”

“Super awesome you mean!” Sally grinned widely, then her grin faltered. “Wait, what does that mean for players?”

“Huh?” John asked eloquently.

“Well if storms happen out here regularly then the locals probably have storm cellars or something right? Well, where are the players all going to stay? Should we just not log in?” Sally looked between John and Ex, her reptilian face somehow conveying a worried expression.

“Uh… that’s actually a really good question,” Ex responded after a moment.

“Ah crap, I’m going to lose almost half my wheat,” John muttered. “As for what to do, you’re welcome to come wait out the storm on my farm, I just built a storm cellar.”

“Well that’s convenient,” Ex said, eyeing John speculatively.

“Not really, Frank and Ellie both warned me we get storms out here, so I knew I’d want one at some point. Come to think of it, Ellie said we’d be expecting rains any day now, so this isn’t all the unexpected either,” John mused.

“Well, I think I’m gonna just wait out the storm,” Ex replied.

“Yeah, I’ve got some schoolwork I could do,” Sally said glumly.

“Alright then. Anyway, I should get back to work, my crop might be dry enough to begin harvesting, so I should get as much of it out as possible.”

“Bye!” Sally said.

“Later,” said Ex.

With that, John headed back to the farm.