John left Phillip’s store and headed for the square. He still needed to speak with Frank and Ellie about pesticides, and now he wanted to see the golems. Fortunately, none of the people he wanted to see were hard to find. Frank and Ellie could clearly be seen at their stalls, and it wasn’t at all hard to pick out PrinceOfAmber’s stall, it was after all the only one with tiny knights having a tiny duel.

John wandered over in that direction and paused to watch as the two wooden miniatures fought a tiny battle for dominance. The two golems weren’t anything like fluid in their motions, in fact they seemed stiff, almost robotic, and they were clearly replaying a simple pattern of strikes over and over again. Still, there was something endearing about the tiny constructs.

“Ah! Welcome!” came a smooth, baritone voice. “I see you’ve been entranced by my fine wares!”

John looked up to see a surprisingly small man behind the booth. He was maybe five feet tall and more slender than not. “Oh, uh, yeah, they’re pretty eye catching,” John admitted, slightly embarrassed that he’d ignored the man in favor of watching.

“They are, aren’t they? With a few more ranks in Golemcraft I should be able to make them even more lifelike. Of course, they’ll also have a higher mana cost, but that’s the cost of quality,” Amber explained.

“Still pretty neat, sorry for ignoring you there, I was just thinking that I have a problem these little guys might be able to help with, depending on how autonomous they are,” John explained.

“Mostly? It depends on what I write into their creation,” the golemancer replied.

“Write into their creation?” John echoed, uncertainly.

“Oh yeah, golem creation in this game is pretty old school!” Amber responded enthusiastically. “You have to write a golem contract and imbue it into the construct. It’s also super complicated, you have to have alchemically treated inks and parchment, and the golem’s body has to have the ‘Phrase of Life’ written on it somewhere, which is just a fancy way of saying it needs an enchantment that’ll draw in mana from a source, then finally you’ve got to perform a ritual to bind the contract to it.”

“Are you doing all that yourself?” John asked, surprised.

“Ha, no, I’m buying the necessary bits from the other crafters now, it does mean my golems cost more though. That said, the cost for something this small isn’t exactly going to break the bank; after all, most of us don’t have access to The Auction yet, so pretty much we’re paying in coppers and silvers.” Amber explained.

“Alright, so, say I wanted a golem that could pull weeds, could you do that?” John inquired.

“To be honest? Probably not at this rank. The problem isn’t getting them to pull plants out of the ground, the problem is getting them to pull the right plants out of the ground. You’d need to be able to tell the golem what plants not to pull, and they’d need to be able to distinguish them from any kind of weed which would likely mean you have to show them what the plant looks like at each stage of life….” Amber trailed off as he considered the problem.

“So, not really possible.” John surmised.

“Well... I mean… I guess it depends on how precisely you’ve seeded your garden? If the garden was laid out in a grid pattern, we could write specific instructions not to pull any plants at the grid intersections, but to pull all other plants. Any golem like that would be essentially locked into one pattern though, you’d never be able to plant outside those intersections if you wanted to keep using the golem,” Amber offered.

“So I’d have to buy a new one if I wanted to plant anything else,” John said with a nod. “I don’t think that’ll work for me, sorry.”

“Yeah,” Amber said with a sigh. “Golems really aren’t working for anyone to be honest. I went into the trials thinking ‘Golems are cool! Everyone will want a golem!’ And then I completed all three trials, not easy mind you, and got some great gear and a book on golemancy, and found I could only make three-inch-tall little men that sort of follow really basic instructions.”

John winced. “I know that feeling, I came into this game expecting to set up on some pre-cleared land and immediately start growing crops for sale, here I am two months later and I’ve only just got something that might earn cash growing.”

“Oh! You’re the farmer guy… uh.., Joe?” Amber asked.

“John,” John replied with a smile.

“Right, That’s it! Guess that explains the whole weeding thing, I probably should have put that together faster. I’m PrinceOfAmber by the way!” Amber said, sticking his hand out and receiving a brief shake for his trouble. “Sorry I’m not more help, I’m hoping that once I hit Journeyman I’ll be able to give them more flexible instructions.”

“It’s fine, sometimes the only solution is the mundane one, I was just hoping to get out of weeding,” John replied with a dismissive wave. “Speaking of solutions, I have to go and talk to Frank and Ellie about a bug problem, I’ll see you around.”

“Good luck with your bugs,” Amber said as John turned to depart.

Heading away from the golemancer’s stall, John threaded his way through the various groups in the square and made his way to Frank’s stall.

“Hey Frank,” he said by way of greeting.

“Son, what brings you my way today? Not more carving work I hope,” Frank said.

“No, I was actually wondering what to do about bugs on my crops,” John admitted.

Frank shook his head. “Son, it ever occur to you that you only show up when you need somethin? You never just stop to say hi, or chat about the weather, have a drink or any of the other neighborly things that make a community work.”

John opened his mouth and then paused in thought. Frank was actually right; he couldn’t think of any time he’d just stopped in to have casual conversation. It would be really easy to blame his time limit for that problem, he wouldn’t have a lot of time to socialize until he had an income. But the bigger issue was that he had been so very focused on what he was doing that he’d pretty much neglected everything else. Even his relationship with Ex and Sally was more about business than any kind of actual friendship. He blew out a slow breath.

“Thought not,” Frank said with a small chuckle. “You need to slow down and take some time to get to know the people around you. I know you’re on a time limit and all that, but keep in mind there’s more to life, or this ‘game’ if you prefer to think of it that way, than just work.”

“My dad told me something similar not long ago,” John admitted ruefully.

“Sounds like a smart man, you should listen,” Frank said with a nod. “Now you said you need to know what to do about bugs?”

John nodded. “Yeah, looks like aphids and beetles mostly, but there could be other pests I haven’t noticed or don’t know about.”

“Well, your options mostly depend on what you’re growing. There are a few solutions our budding alchemists could probably whip up. Other than that I know Ellie uses a ritual, not sure which one, but it has to encompass whatever garden she’s growing in at the time, I guess you’re still doing large batches?” Frank looked to John, who nodded. “In that case you’re probably not going to go the ritual route. Other than that, sulfur is a fair choice, or a blessing on your field from Ira.”

“I don’t suppose there are any spells?” John asked.

“Well of course there are spells son, the trick is not killing your crops with them. For someone with good Mana Manipulation you might be able to exclude your plants from the spell, but you’d be walking a mighty fine line,” Frank explained.

“So alchemical solutions are probably my best bet, are there any plants I shouldn’t use them on?” John inquired.

“Not usually, the only one I’ve ever had a bad reaction with is alchemist’s sponge, it absorbed the solution and tainted the entire crop,” Frank said.

“Wait, it absorbed the solution?” John asked, certain that this related to his earlier feelings that the herb was a magical plant.

“Apparently the plant is just as capable of absorbing magic before processing as after,” the older man explained with a nod.

“Thanks, I’m actually growing alchemist’s sponge, ruining this batch would have been a disaster, will active spells affect them as well?” John wondered.

“Not so far as I know, but I’ve never tested a direct spell on them, it’s not often that I grow alchemical plants these days.”

John nodded. “Well, that’s really helpful, thanks.”

“No problem son, make sure to stop by for somethin more than questions in the future. Also, if you feel up to it, lots of us spend the evenings in the tavern, you’re welcome to join,” Frank offered.

“I… can probably visit occasionally,” John said noncommittally. “I’m just… having a hard time finding the time to do everything I need as it is.”

Frank nodded. “I’m sure you’ll get there, just think on it, son. Just think on it.”

“I will,” John said, the walked away with a wave.

Mindful of the conversation he’d just had with frank, John stopped by Ellie’s stall as well and spent a few moments talking with the woman. They had a short conversation about the weather (the near constant rain was normal, apparently), how her garden was doing, and a few bits and bobs about village life. It was actually more relaxing than he’d expected. Eventually they said their farewells, and John started back toward his farm.

A short walk later saw him at the entrance, which was still a hole in the wall that he opened and closed at need. He’d forgotten about that when he was ordering doors and he vowed he’d ask Phillip about it when he came to install the ones for the barn.

John started with the chooker coop. A quick use of Move Earth and a tug saw the door on the coop come free, and he put it directly into his inventory, revealing a mass of angry chookers on the other side. The reptiles made their displeasure at the missing door vocally clear, right up until John installed the new one.

Finished with the coop, John headed to the house and installed the three outer doors. One to the front entrance, one to the kitchen, and one to the lab space. He then proceeded to slot the four interior doors as well, making the shelter an actual building.

Finished with the doors, a quick glance outside showed that the light was beginning to fade and he had maybe an hour before it got truly dark. Despite the impending gloom, he didn’t want to leave his plants to the pests for more time than he had to, and decided that the best time to take care of them would be now.

Given his lack of plant-based oils, and the inability to use alchemical solutions on the alchemist’s sponge, John resigned himself to using sulfur. There wasn’t anything wrong with sulfur, per se, it’d been used as an insecticide and fungicide for a very, very long time. However, it just wasn’t as effective as some other, more modern solutions. Also, it tended to smell and the rain would wash it off regularly. Still, it was what it was.

Moving to the first plot John invoked Create Earth, focusing on the specific material he wanted. As he’d expected, the spell fought against him, though it was only a little more difficult than creating quartz. Sulfur was very abundant after all, and one of the few elements that could be found pure in nature.

A few moments later he’d generated a small pile of fine sulfur on the ground. It was, he judged, no more than a few pounds. Each acre of crops required between 10 and 30 pounds of sulfur when dusting it; given that each of his plots was around one eighteenth of an acre, thus he only needed around a pound or two per plot.

With another gesture John took control of the sulfur and dispersed the fine powder, which he then began guiding through the plot, being sure to finely coat all the plants. It was a difficult process, and he actually had to stop and make more sulfur. Just because the amount needed was only a couple pounds didn’t mean he was actually capable of applying it with perfect coverage.

Having finished the first plot, John darted a look at the sky. It had taken him maybe half an hour of work, but he felt that he could now do it in maybe fifteen minutes. Quickly he got to work on the next plot, and showed that yes, he could make it in just about fifteen. A little under three hours later saw him finished with all the plots. However, he’d had to finish the last few in the dark, so he wasn’t sure he’d gotten full coverage on those.

Finished with his crop dusting, John retreated to the cellar where he gathered up his bedroll, then took the stairs up into his new house. Spreading the bedroll out onto the raised sleeping platform he’d made, he laid down, got comfortable, and spent the last hour or so pushing mana into the land.