The fight ended in less than 5 seconds. Tomulo, a member of a nimble species whose most impressive trait was their highly developed wings that allowed for a level of maneuverability on par with hummingbirds when in flight, stood no chance in the wrestling arena—where flying was banned in its entirety. Mister Potatoes won the fight with a simple swipe of the dull side of its mandibles that had easily launched Tomulo off the plate and nearly off the table.

“What did you expect?” asked Midday. “Was that supposed to be some sort of training exercise?”

“Well… My goal was to show you that even though your body is weak right now, you can still stand a chance against opponents much stronger than yourself and then, from there, I was going to segue into the idea that you ought to start learning martial arts… But damn. Mister Potatoes is strong. So, uh, maybe you can interpret this as a sign that you ought to start working to increase your level because, at the end of the day, raw power always plays a major role in the outcomes of battles?”

“Okay then, Romulo. Whatever you say.” Midday picked up his beetle—who was incapable of flight due to his bulk—and stood up on his toes to reach for the ceiling, where Mister Potatoes usually liked to hang out. The beetle then proceeded to climb off his hand and walk to its favorite spot in the cabin: the spot on the ceiling just above where Midday slept. “I’m going to have my soup now, I guess.”

Midday got himself a bowl of oatmeal, sat down with it, was threatened into adding Devil Peppercorn to it, and was then subsequently threatened into eating it. Immediately upon finishing his bowl, he was reminded of just how hellish the ingredient really was, and he barely made it to his bed before the awful taste reached the point where it overwhelmed his other senses.

As he laid there in peppercorn-induced hell, Midday started warming up to the idea of having a ‘Tongue Jelly’ inside of his mouth—though he still detested the idea a great deal and resolved to have Mister Potatoes get the procedure before even beginning to seriously consider having the surgery done on himself.

♦

Midday woke up to the 30-minutes-before-sunrise bell, went through his standard morning routine—which included talking to Glauster about the executions of the previous night—and set out for work an hour after being forced into having a Peppercorn-infused breakfast. The bleeding on his leg had stopped by then, thankfully, and the wound on his finger had reclosed for the most part—though it still had yet to heal even slightly. Moreover, he was starting to feel ever so slightly healthier as a result of his experiences with the peppercorn. He wasn’t sure he actually was healthier, but he liked to believe there was more to it than simply wanting to believe he was making progress so badly that he had tricked himself into thinking that had.

After about grueling 12 hours in the fields—during which he had nearly, but not quite, collapsed on two separate occasions—his quota was done for the day. All in all, not bad, he thought. His left hand had still hurt like hell throughout the entire workday, but he was getting used to that by now, and he soldiered through it more easily than before.

While exiting the fields, he pondered his next course of action. He could either A) grab Mister Potatoes and then head straight to Netari or B) go straight to the Devil Peppercorn vines and pick his first harvest. Either way, he reckoned, it would be best to do both—and so he ended up choosing the latter of the two, hoping that he could experiment with feeding Mister Potatoes Devil Peppercorn-infused food immediately following the surgery or maybe even get an appraisal from of his crops from Netari, someone who probably knew a great deal about the plant.

And so with that thought in mind, he set out for the forest.

♦

45 minutes later, he had arrived and could now for the first time view his Devil Peppercorn vine under the light of day. It was pretty marvelous, he decided, that he had achieved 6 years of growth in just two days, and he excitedly reached up to one of the branches and pulled a clump containing maybe a hundred shiny red berries off the drooping cluster that held them all together. A hundred beads per cluster seemed to be the average size, and there were 5 clusters in total as things currently stood. 500 Devil Peppercorn beads in 2 days, huh? A soft chuckle escaped his lips. That ought to be worth something!

He picked a single bead off the clump he was holding in his hands and popped it into his mouth just because he could. Seeing as there was no food to absorb into, the inert bead was completely flavorless and went down without a problem. He grinned. It was true that eating the beads on their own, without mixing them into any food, achieved absolutely nothing, but Midday still found it incredibly satisfying to do so—for his ability to do so without having to worry about wasting his supply was proof of how far he’d come. For all intents and purposes, he had an infinite number of beads at his disposal. So many, in fact, that he decided not to use the Elvanerean Ring on the Devil Peppercorn plant that day. There were already enough beads present on the tree to last him quite some time, and he figured that his 3 charges for the day would be better spent elsewhere.

He turned his attention to a blackberry bush he had once considered using the ring on and pointed his pinky finger—on which the ring already resided—at the plant. After waiting for the 15-second charge-up to finish, it released its signature green bolt of energy, which crashed dead-on into the bush.

For 30 seconds the bush grew larger and then larger still, with new blackberries forming along its branches with incredible speed. By the time he was done, the bush—which had already been fully mature to begin with—was covered in delicious-looking blackberries. Without thinking, Midday walked over to the bush and picked a few to see how they tasted.

Like ambrosia, it turned out. After having only eaten Devil Peppercorn-infested food for a few days, regular food now seemed to taste like heaven itself. He almost wanted to cry tears of joy, such was the extent of his delight, but Midday instead proceeded to ruin the sanctity of the moment by gorging himself like a ravenous animal, stuffing incredible amounts of food into his mouth until his stomach felt as though it were about to pop.

He sat down beside the bush, which still had several pounds of unharvested blackberries ready to be eaten on the next day, and enjoyed a deep breath of relief. As bad as his life might be, he thought, at least he would never have to go hungry again. Midday sat there with a relaxed smile, feeling reassured that his life was only just beginning now.

Still got 2 charges… Hmm… Midday looked around the area for something to use the ring on. Using 3 charges per day, he knew, was essential—for it would be a waste to use anything less. I’ve got my peppercorn and my food taken care of, so what else is there? He thought about it for only a few seconds before finding his answer. Security. He pointed his finger at the underbrush and allowed the ring to start charging. This place is obvious as fuck at the moment. Some unsuspecting person foraging for food will definitely find it soon if I don’t do anything about it. Midday grinned. It was a good thing that the ring allowed him to do exactly that. By increasing the size of the underbrush surrounding the area, he could deter people from accidentally stumbling into what was now becoming a garden of sorts. I think that, from now on, if I can’t think of anything to use my charges for the day on, they should go towards building up a wall of plants surrounding this little garden of mine. The place should be all but impenetrable in a few weeks, I reckon.

A bolt of light flew out and landed on a small but thorny shrub. It swelled in size for the next 30 seconds until it had gone from being about as tall as his knees to something that reached up to his chest. The plant had gotten bulkier too, and it did a decent job of blocking the path. Even so, Midday still thought there was more room for improvement and so he used his third charge on the same plant. By the time it had finished growing, it was taller than he was and very thick too. Its leaves did well to block anyone from peering through, and he reckoned that anyone besides Romulo—who was still far taller than the plant—would find it impossible to see past the mighty shrub.

Not half bad! He stared at the plant for a while, still amazed at the power he wielded at his fingertips. It would still be a long time before the area was completely enclosed—with the thorny shrub still not quite wide enough to cover the gap between the two trees it was nestled between, but it was a decent start by all means. Time to get going, I suppose. Midday ended up only taking about 30 beads of Devil Peppercorn with him, which were small enough to hide in his pockets with ease. He felt a little sad to leave the garden but, as he buried the ring, he couldn’t help but be a little curious about his upcoming meeting with Netari. Guess I ought to go back and grab Mister Potatoes before I go.

With his business in the garden finished for the day, he left for the cabin.