Yet more rain greeted John as he left the cellar the next morning. It was stronger than a drizzle but nothing like the torrential downpour that’d occurred a few days earlier. Still, it was annoying and he was forced to carry around the slab of stone he called an umbrella again. As usual the first four hours were taken up with tree duty, and once more he tried to impress upon it the need to grow in specific ways. Once more he wasn’t sure it even noticed, or cared.

The bodies for the chookers were a little later than usual, but he busied himself with cleaning out their straw, refilling their water, and collecting the eggs while he waited. He was thankful that people were still willing to bring bodies though the goo collection had seemingly come to a halt. He suspected that the players who’d been gathering it had out-leveled the herb slime areas.

With the chookers settled, John turned his eyes to the plots he’d planted yesterday. He could see the little sprouts coming up in near-perfect rows, but there appeared to be a few sprouts that weren’t in the rows he’d planted. It took him a moment to figure out what they were, and then he remembered he could just Inspect them.

[Name: Crabgrass, Common]

[Quality: N/A]

[Description: A hardy (and hard to get rid of) grass that grows quickly to maturity where it remains until the end of the fall season, when it produces thousands of seeds and then dies.]

John made a vexed sound. He hadn’t had to deal with weeds up until this point. The dense way he’d seeded his previous plots had precluded the growth of other plants; they’d simply been strangled by lack of room. Now, however, with his neat, orderly, and well-spaced rows there was plenty of room for them to grow in. To be honest, it was surprising he didn’t have things like crabgrass popping up all over his cleared land. Perhaps it was some kind of game mechanic? After all, the regular plants on the plains didn’t seem to be perpetually growing and dying in an accelerated cycle; perhaps designating something as a plot of land to be cultivated triggered some fast growth mechanism.

Whatever the case may be, it didn’t solve the current problem, which was weeds in his gardens. Unfortunately the only solution for that, currently, was to go and pluck them out one by one. While weeding wasn’t a difficult process, consisting of little more than bending over and an application of move earth to eject the offending sprout from the soil, it was tedious and time consuming. Over all, weeding the four plots he’d already seeded cost him nearly two hours of his day, and he swore that finding a better way was going to be a priority. However, as if the game were trying to make up for the inconvenience, he did gain another point in each constitution, intelligence, and wisdom.

The rest of the morning was spent planting the last two plots, which was a severely unpleasant task in the rain. By the time he was done John’s ankles were thoroughly caked in mud and despite the umbrella (Which he’d had to physically hold more than once while he regenerated mana) he was somehow drenched. Taken all together, the experience had been thoroughly exhausting; mentally, if not physically, and he was more than ready to log out and have lunch.

One hour (and a lunch) later saw John sitting in his storm cellar considering his options for the next few hours. The current set of bodies wouldn’t be ready for composting for another four hours or so, which meant he had some time. There were several things he could do, but very few of them could be done without going back out into the rain. Finally, he settled on expanding his domain, as it was both something he needed to do and didn’t require going outside.

Once again, he sunk into the connection with his land and started feeding it mana. Once the process was going he let his consciousness surface enough that he could watch some movies while he worked. Once again it was nice to sit and relax without feeling like he was wasting time. However, all too soon it was over and time to get back to work.

Emerging from the cellar, John found it just as wet as earlier. This, however, did not deter him from heading out to the cleansing ritual and begin the process of moving the bodies over to the plots. Once finished he set about decaying the remains and mixing them into the soil of the remaining six gardens. By the time he finished it was dark enough that he had to conjure a flame in order to see, putting further strain on his already taxed mana pool and regeneration.

While John hadn’t yet fully tested the limits of Mana Manipulation, he was currently fueling two separate spells and low-key Mana Drawing, and was beginning to feel the strain. He figured that, in a pinch, he could control up to six different strands of mana, be it for spell or skill, but he didn’t want to test that unless he had to. Beyond that, it was maybe two hours before he had to get off for the night anyway, and he couldn’t see getting any real work done before then. With that in mind, he decided to log off early and get some extra sleep.

By the next morning the rain had turned into more of a drizzle than a downfall, but it was still more than enough to make the day unpleasant. As he went about his morning tasks, John idly wondered if he could find an actual umbrella in town. He only needed one hand free to cast spells, which meant it would be far more efficient than his magic umbrella.

After dealing with the chookers (who were vocally unhappy about the extended rain), he made his way over to check on the plots he’d already planted. To his dismay there were more weeds to be pulled. The first four plots had maybe half the weeds of the preceding day, so instead of the two hours it’d taken him last time, it only cost him about an hour. Plots five and six though had enough weeds between them to cost him another hour of time. This meant that by the time he could start planting, he only had about an hour and a half left before lunch.

John planted right up until lunch time when he took the obligatory hour-long break. He then continued on to spend several more hours seeding the plots, pausing only briefly to feed the chookers. By the time he was finished it had grown dark once more and he was in no mood to continue any outdoor activities, given his wet and muddy state. With that in mind he retreated to the cellar, and spent the last few hours pushing mana into his land.

The first half of the next day went much as that of the previous. After sitting with the tree and dealing with the chookers John found himself weeding right up until lunch and then another half hour after that. As if to further complicate things, he found that several of the plants were showing signs of insect activity.

The problem was that he didn’t have a lot of good ways to deal with insects at the moment. Most natural insecticides required plant products in quantities he probably wouldn’t have much access to for a while yet. The most common of course would be insecticidal soap, which usually used plant oils, such as olive oil, coconut oil, or linseed oil; the first two wouldn’t grow in this climate, though flax would. There were some mineral options, but mostly he wouldn’t be able to get his hands on those; all but sulfur were rare enough that he probably couldn’t just conjure them.

John paused and then shook his head. He was thinking too mundane. In a world of magic there were going to be magical solutions to problems; possibly in the form of actual alchemical solutions. Other possibilities involved rituals, enchantments, and even perhaps a spell that targeted bugs specifically. What he really needed to do was ask Frank or Ellie what they did for pests. He decided he’d take care of that when he went to pick up his doors from Phillip; it had been over a week since he’d ordered them, so they were probably ready.

Checking on the chookers one last time, John headed for the road only to pause as he heard voices coming from the shrine. This wasn’t actually as unusual as it had once been; people had been coming for days to try their luck at the trials. However, those people usually showed up in ones or twos, with only the occasional larger group showing up. What caught his attention was the larger than average composition of the group, and the fact that they were coming out of a portal set in one of the arches.

A quick look was all it took to figure out who these newcomers were; their cloaks gave them away as Knights Magi. John spent a few minutes watching them come through the portal and exit the shrine. He wasn’t sure how he felt. The last batch of knights hadn’t endeared themselves to him, though Helen and Axia had treated him well, and Tet didn’t seem to care either way. After watching them a few more moments he turned and headed for town. Hopefully these new knights were going to be different, but he wouldn’t count on it.

As he walked, John was once again thankful for the construction of the road. Not only did it speed up travel, but it also had the virtue of being made of stone, which meant no mud. John was thoroughly sick of being soggy and dirty up to his ankles, and once again promised to find time to set up stone walkways around his farm. Unfortunately, he wasn’t certain when he’d find time for that, if ever.

He arrived in town to find that the few booths that normally existed had proliferated, with many of them gaining signs as well. There were signs for alchemy, enchanting, and even a couple for ritual services. The enchanting and alchemy booths were seeing a fair bit of traffic, and John could see that some of the booths were also purchasing plants from their would-be customers.

Weaving between the people wandering the streets, he made his way to Phillip’s shop and entered. The small bell above the door gave a little tinkle and the short proprietor came out from the back room.

“Ah! John!” he said with a smile. “I was wondering when I might be seeing you. Your doors have been ready for a couple of days now. Not the barn doors though, those I’m taking my time with.” The small gnome like man gestured for John to follow him into the back.

“Here we are,” Phillip said, gesturing to several doors leaning against the back wall. A quick count affirmed that there were four lacquered doors and three plain.

“Perfect,” John said. “How much do I owe you?”

“Five silvers and fifty coppers,” the short man rattled off.

John produced the required money and passed it over, he then started lifting the doors (complete with frames) off the ground and disappearing them into his inventory. It was amazing how light the doors felt, even though he knew they were of solid construction; obviously having a high strength stat was showing dividends.

“The barn doors will be done in a few more days, call it three,” Phillip said from where he now perched on a tall stool. His hands were working at another tiny figurine, this time of a princess complete with ball gown and coronet.

John glanced around the room, it was large, but clearly not big enough for ten foot tall and wide doors. “Where are you making them at?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s over there,” Phillip responded, taking a moment to gesture at a tarp covered pile off to one side. “I’m actually carving four doors for each side, two upper and two lower, and I’m going to have to deliver the pieces and help you install the frames once they’re done; they’d be too unwieldy to pick up and pop in your inventory.”

John nodded, eyeing the tarp covered pieces. “So… what design did you go with?” he asked curiously.

“Ha! None of that now! I’ll reveal it when it’s done!” the older man said with a grin. “Now, away with you! I have things to work on. Oh! Right, I’m supposed to help with some advertising. There’s a player, Amber; well, his name is actually PrinceOfAmber but that sounds weird when you smoosh it together and it’s unwieldy besides, so we all just call him Amber. Anyway, he’s taken up Golemancy, you can find his stall in the square, go to him for all your golem needs.”

John’s brow rose. “Golems?”

“That’s what I said!” Phillip responded.

“Like, large creatures made of inanimate materials that follow orders autonomously?” John asked, clearly seeking confirmation that he had the idea right.

“Well large is quite a big stretch, but other than that, you’re basically correct,” Phillip responded.

“I might take a look, I could use some extra labor,” John said as he headed for the door.

“Good luck, I’ll see you in, let’s call it three days? Early afternoon?” the gnome-like man asked.

“Sounds good!” John called back, then he exited the store.