Morning came and Mannat was up with the sun. The sky had grown lighter in shades of blue by the time he walked out of the hut. A night on the hard table had definitely left its marks upon his face and body. There was no helping it, as only the table was clean enough for him to use as a bed. There was eagerness in his joints that he couldn’t explain. They popped like crackers with the tiniest movements, hurrying him to get on with the day.

The birds were up and singing, the cold air was refreshing, and the sight was one to yearn for. A hut, and a garden surrounded by woods and peace. Mannat quite liked the morning. He appreciated the world, but then remembered his plans and ran straight toward the garden.

He planned to see whether ‘Inspect’ could help him solve his little trouble or not.

The tall and sharp iron pole fence couldn’t thwart his excitement as he jumped over them, and dropped straight in the mud. So much for harvesting carrots from the ground, he had planted himself in the garden. His lips twitched. Air was cold and the dirt colder, measuring his ability and calm.

He shook his bare feet to get the wet dirt sticking to his toes; he would have an easier time washing them in water, but who had time for that? Certainly, he didn’t! The mud was not enough to seal his enthusiasm. He snarled and trudged through the garden.

He would have continued forward without hesitation had a crow not taken flight from someone in the garden.

Mannat only heard the loud beating of large wings and his heart started racing. His feet stopped dead in track as the last night and the humbling he had received at the hands of the Witch’s raven flashed through his mind. He worriedly looked around, found the crow in the sky, and sighed in relief. It was flying away, toward the forest, not toward him. Thank god.

Exhaling loudly in relief, he slipped through the garden until he was in front of a lush green carrot. The thin shoot bumbled left and right in the low wind and brushed against his pelvis. It made him itchy -- not an awful feeling though. The shoot had flowered. He caressed the pale yellow flower and chanted: Inspect. A blue sheen instantly grew vibrant in his eyes without any rumbling and tumbling of bells. The world remained quiet, unmoved, uninterested as the result of his inspection magically floated out in front of his eyes. There were almost no surprises. He was goddamn right! The Witch had hidden it well.

[Carrot] [Root plant] [Edible]

[Age: 3 day] [Mana: 3/3] [Status: Healthy]

The translucent words faintly glowed as they floated in front of his face. The words and the glyphs were unreadable to him; their message though was clear in his mind. He was more surprised at the information it provided. Turned out, the carrot that looked weeks old had not been growing for more than a few days. It was amazing and perturbing at the same time!

“No wonder I made a fool of myself yesterday…”

He craned his neck and looked around; almost every growing root looked the same as the one he had inspected. Their differences were negligible. It was impossible to judge whether the carrot was ready for harvesting from the outer growth alone. He wanted to pick one out to see how the stats resulted in the growth of the carrot.

As for that young carrot, he decided to leave it alone for now. Common sense dictated it didn’t have enough time for development. To its direct left, there was one root with comparatively underdeveloped shoot -- its stem was barely a third in size to the previous one. He inspected it next, just to compare the two, not actually hoping to find a solution to his embarrassingly naive problem. He repeated the steps and chanted softly: Inspect. He didn’t have many expectations from this barely sprouted root, but the result surprised, or rather confused him.

[Carrot] [Root plant] [Edible]

[Age: 9 days] [Mana: 1/1] [Status: Healthy]

His lips twitched twice and his brows rose together toward the sky. Suddenly, the wind blew from the east and the plants growing in the garden swirled and clapped their leaves as if amused at his dilemma. Adding salt to his wound was a high-pitched voice that rose from the direction of the hut and slyly asked him, “Did you learn anything new today, or are you still trying your luck?”

The witch had impeccable timing, as always. Made him wonder if she was watching him and waiting for a chance to embarrass him. A smirk grew on Mannat’s face. He was not afraid. He truly had some gains.

“Where were you?” Mannat fired back, not retracting his sight from the floating private message. He wanted to face her, but he suddenly had an idea and lost interest in the Witch.

He pulled out both the carrots to see that whether he was right or not. The young carrot cried silent tears that day. Mannat lied to her, betrayed, and violated her without mercy. However, her sacrifice was not in vain. Both the carrots were as long as his pinky, the same size despite their age difference. It was not a great harvest, but Mannat stood straight and smiled.

Mana was the answer to his problem.

The carrots were showing a disproportionate amount of growth because of mana! There was abundant mana in the Witch’s garden. The tree --it had stopped glowing in rainbow shades since the sun was up and shining-- was the reason behind the out-of-season vegetable and flowers growing in the Witch’s garden.

His results were confirmed when bells rang in his mind and another blue, ethereal glowing box floated out in front of his eyes.

[Analyze has risen to level 8] [Your Wisdom has increased by one point.]

[Inspect has risen to level 5] [Your Intelligence has increased by one point.]

Just like that, Mannat drew one step closer to the job he needed to save his mother from eternal damnation.

He unknowingly looked at the Witch. She was frowning and it made him smile, which made her irritated.

“You got the message?” She said. Her voice lingered, like an echo. Perhaps, it was his imagination, but he didn’t like how it distorted her voice and made her sound demonic.

“I did,” he answered smugly. He was surprised at how easy it was. He hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, but the Witch’s grumbling was enough to curb his appetite for the time being. He relaxed, thinking, he wouldn’t have to listen to the old hag’s taunts anymore.

He was wrong.

The Witch swayed. “Are you happy now?” She said forgivingly.

“Very happy,”

She smirked. “Then will you stop destroying my garden?”

That’s right. His smile faded. He had almost forgotten about that problem.

Mannat glanced at the lively garden. He had managed to link the reason and chaos contributing to the carrot’s growth, but he hadn’t controlled it yet. Mana was not the only factor driving their growth, after all. There was also the length of the carrot shoots and their age. Unfortunately, his tier-1 skill only revealed those few attributes. They were all he had to work with.

Truthfully, he was still no better than yesterday.

“Oh, don’t worry.” said the Witch. Her voice was smug and droning beside his ears, like a bee inspecting a flower to milk honey from its marrow. “I’m sure you’ll learn to do it right, eventually. Until then, here--” Mannat looked and saw her throwing a small brown handbag at him. It fell somewhere in the middle of the roots. Neither did she have the strength to throw it to him, and nor could he catch it even if he wanted. However, the Witch didn’t seem to realize that. She spoke on as if Mannat had already caught the bag.

“Bow the seeds in the empty slots when you are done. I don’t want to lose my garden to your infestation.” She said, picked her staff, and prodded back into the hut. Mannat wanted to refuse, but the Witch was gone. He helplessly picked up the small jute bag, pulled the string, saw the small seeds inside, and then closed it again. He made up his mind. Fun and games aside -- the Witch wanted to see results so he would show her results!

He stared at the hut and made a proud fist. The glowing message had long faded from his sight, but he had already reached out with a hand and plucked a star from the sea of knowledge. Gradually, he would gain a foothold under the Witch, learning from her, improving himself, and one day surely, he will wake his mother.

After playing for an hour in the cold wet garden, Mannat had amassed a treasure consisting of two plum red carrots. The pot he was using to carry the goods almost weighted a few kilograms. Of course, he didn’t forget to gather the seeds from the ripened carrots. There were only two in the whole garden; one was over a month old, while the other was barely a week old. It didn’t make sense, but he was starting to get used to it –not the mystery, but the absurdness of it all.

He bowed the seeds while the pot boiled. The sun was already up in the sky and shining light upon a new day by the time he was half done. The wind was starting to calm down and grow warm. He was working hard in the garden when he heard the sound of a carriage rolling down on the lone empty road. He was focused enough to ignore the birds and his thought, but that familiar crunching of dirt under the wheels pulled him back into reality.

He raised his head above the carrot tops and saw the dark brown shadow slowly hover out of the tree shadow and plod toward the Witch’s farm.