“A mushroom cave?”

As they’re laughing I stare at them defiantly before turning to the fungus present. They keep mouthing off as I search the room for harvestable mushrooms. I discard a lot of common inedible ones before I make two promising discoveries. I turn around, showing them what I found.

Name: Nuns blush Rarity: Common Known Effects: None Base chance of cultivation: 3% Edible Name: Capped Bloodgrin Rarity: Uncommon Known Effects: Colours saliva red. Base chance of cultivation: 1.5% Edible Skill increased: Mycology

Dale laughs harder when he sees them. Tiene turns away, blushing slightly.

“What’s with you two? These are both edible. They grow really well in this environment. They require very little maintenance, and they taste good.”

To demonstrate, I take a bite of the bloodgrin. After a few seconds of chewing, I smile at them.

“See?”

I let some saliva drip out of my mouth to make my point. Their expressions make this whole excursion worth it.

“Dear gods, spit it out, you’re bleeding!”

Laughing, I swallow the mouthful. When I explain it to them, Dale insists I give him a few to scare his brother with. Tiene leaves us in a huff, going back towards the central chamber.

“How do you two get anything done? You’re constantly pissing each other off.”

Dale looks a bit perplexed, and I chuckle.

“We’re not really like this. Actually, it’s only when you showed up that she started being so… belligerent?”

I know full well I’m probably the one with the problem here, but I’m not going to admit that to him.

“Let’s search the piles of scrap, see if there’s anything interesting here before we go on.”

He shrugs.

“If you want to continue without her, sure.”

We spend an hour searching the room without finding anything of interest. There was a small pile of papers, but they were all mouldy beyond recovery. I let him do most of the work while I plan out how to set up the grow boxes. I’m going to need logs, dirt, water and spores to make this work. All of which there is an abundance of around us. When Dale has had enough, we leave the room to continue down the corridor.

We follow the path another ten metres before the decline gets steeper, and soon we find a rough cut stairwell going deeper into the ground. I look at him for a moment, and he nods eagerly.

“Lets check it out. I’m sure there’s more loot further down.”

I’m not hard to convince. We stalk down the stairs, descending a good fifteen metres into a new hallway. The smells here are different, more musky. I sneak forward until a larger cavern opens up. The walls are more earthen than above, browner. The supports seem stronger as well. As I raise my torch, the flames light up less than a quarter of the room. Right outside of the radius we see glittering gems. Dale is about to move into the room to investigate, but I stop him.

“Are those things moving around?”

He breathes in deeply as I grab a spare torch. I light it and throw it into the room, revealing large ratlike creatures. They hiss and escape the light. Looking at him, I shake my head.

“I don’t think we have the equipment to deal with all these guys.”

He nods silently, and we turn around to go back upstairs. We meet an agitated Tiene at the mushroom cave.

“You went on without me? Is this place making you both stupider?!”

I’m about to speak, but she interrupts me.

“No, I don’t want to hear it. Back to the central chamber. March!”

We go in silence under her harsh stare. When we get there, Dale climbs up as I turn around to talk to her.

“Look, I’m sorry about going on without you, but we came right back. I’m going to stay here and collect some of the mushrooms here, okay? I need them for a friend.”

She lets out a breath it seems she’d been holding for a while.

“Okay. But don’t stay too long, and don’t stray. I’m going to go back and make sure Dale doesn’t piss off Reynard somehow.”

I give her a quick hug, and she scrambles up the ladder, leaving me alone with the darkness and fungus. I hum a wordless tune as I harvest the mushrooms I can. Soon, I realise I don’t have anything to carry them in, so I go up to fetch some cloths and bags. I spend two hours working in the dark before I go back up.

Skill increased: Mycology Skill increased: Mycology

I find that there’s two ways to look at the mushrooms I gather. Either as individual units of mushroom, or as a collection of mushrooms giving me a report on the average quality of the pile.

Miners Sludge: 121 (Low quality) Nuns blush: 140 (Low quality) Capped bloodgrin: 34 (Low quality) Cave Lichen: 64 (Low quality)

I’m not impressed by the quality, but I guess it’ll get better when I grow these myself. It seems I have to leave these in the sun to harvest spores. Then, from the spores, I can grow more when I prepare the appropriate medium. Poisoned soil for the Sludge, wet rock for the lichen and wood for the mushrooms.

Name:Cave Lichen Rarity: common Known Effects: none Base chance of cultivation: 3% Edible

I climb up topside, dragging my treasures behind me. They’re quite heavy, promising good eating. I’ve already planned a meal for the nuns blush. With an effort I drag it all back to the shed, finding my two companions playing with Reynard. When I clear my throat, they both come to help.

“Looks like the scarecrow did it’s job. And the crop is ready for threshing. Help me laying it out would you?”

I have a large tarp for the process, though a stone floor would be more suitable. I grab a wooden flail in both hands, and Tiene does the same. Dale stands back, more than happy to support us with encouragement for now. Spreading the straws across the tarp, we start wailing on the poor crops.

Ability increased: Endurance Ability increased: Strength

After an hour I take a break. Tiene lasted less than twenty minutes, but she kept working after each break. I count the proceeds as I try to stretch out a little.

Emgrass grain: 2932 Straw: 3000

I look to Dale.

“How much voidsiphon did you bring?”

He casually looks to his own cart.

“One thousand. Cullen said I was to expect two thousand grains back for the batch.”

I nod. That was what we agreed on.

“I’ll throw in another nine hundred if you help Tiene with another batch of grain for threshing. While you two do that, I’ll go and plant the voidsiphon. Deal?”

He seems to consider it, clearly not enthused about the idea. I look to Tiene, who rolls her eyes at me and undoes a few buttons on her shirt.

“It’s really hot work. Are you sure you can’t help?”

It’s such an obvious play, nobody in their right mind could fall for it.

“Fine, you have a deal. Help yourself in the cart.”

He removes his own shirt, revealing a lithe form with scars across his chest and back. I feel a tinge of regret at leaving them alone as I move to his cart to retrieve the voidsiphon. I find two large sacks, each of them containing five hundred golf ball sized bulbs. Once again I start dragging, heading towards the field with the sound of Dale working hard, and Tiene fawning over him.

Am I jealous?

I shake off the feeling as I get to the field.

Opening the interface shows me the details I need to know and I start preparing the field. This time, I have to dig little holes for each of the bulbs. I manage to get six hundred spaces prepared in the available soil. When I’m done, I select voidsiphon as the crop to plant.

Current chance of cultivation: 61.25% - Base chance: 10% - Skill modifier: 6.25% - Racial bonus: 10% - Seed bonus: 10% - Soil modifier: 0% - Field prep modifier: +25%

A good base chance for the this crop, considering the emgrass only had 5%. The skill modifier was also good to know about. My herbalism skill is 5 at the moment, which means the skill modifier is 1.25 times the skill, up from 1 before. Maybe another bonus from improving my farmer level. Some times I hate that the game gives so little information. I confirm the plant and start working, placing each bulb in a hole. When I’m done, the coloured grid shows me a greenish yellow across the board.

Field 1: small (100x100) Current crop: Voidsiphon(600) Soil quality: Slightly depleted (high mineral content) Growing cycle: Planted (0) Average health: 84% Needs: None.

Not too shabby at all. Now I just need to reposition the scarecrow and we’re set for the night, at least for this part. I go back to rejoin the others, who have managed another batch of seeds.

Emgrass grain: 6534 (-2900) Straw: 6000

I collect the grain I owe Dale in a separate sack and join them for the rest of the job, releasing Tiene to move the scarecrow back to it’s post. Studying his technique, I try to improve the way I thresh. It seems like no time has passed at all when the acrid smell of burning plant matter fills my nose. Luckily, we’re finished already, so I run to save the poor mushrooms Tiene is trying to cook. During the meal, Dale shares a drink he’s brought which fills us with warmth as we enjoy the night. Handing him the seeds, I invite him to stay the night in our tent as we’re using the shed, and he accepts. Before going to bed, I count up the resulting goods.

Emgrass grain: 6900 Straw: 10 000 Skill discovered: Threshing

Not terrible I guess, but less than I’d hoped. At least I’m confident I can make more on the next harvest. I only wish I could use the full field. Before I fall asleep, I edit and upload some more videos. I start from the earliest farming experiences, showcasing the hardships I face. The trip to the keep for more supplies. A scene with the harsh shopkeeper forcing me to put Reynard up as collateral. Our small successes with plants, the crows and the scarecrow. I avoid showing Grimguard, but make sure the barons demands are visible, showing the desperation we’re facing. I cut out the part where I meet Vlyk, focusing on Cullen instead. I stop there, to save some for the next upload, and check the stats. A rush goes through my body when I see my numbers have nearly doubled. Maybe we can actually make this work after all.

Sleep takes me soon after, and the world shifts to one of shadows and movement. I’m running through a cave, wet with damp and filled with monsters. I attack the ones I meet, but there’s always another. I realise I’m following a voice through the caverns, running faster by the moment. There’s no way I can reach her, and the thing in the dark is going to feed on her again. By the time I’m close enough to see her red hair, her blood is cold.

I sit up with a start. Everything is darkness around me, and I realise it’s still the middle of the night. Tiene is sleeping on a pile of straw, one of the results of our threshing. I’m on the other side of the room, near the door, on my own little pile. Unable to get back to sleep I get up, going outside in the deep night to calm my nerves. The dreams are getting worse every night. I go to the field to check up on the plants, carefully weeding a little where necessary. They seem to enjoy it, growing slightly healthier. I haven’t lost any yet, which is good. By my count, at least two hundred will die by morning. Oh well. I look towards the forest. Dark and foreboding under the light of Paraton, with green Elaph strangely bright. I walk towards the trees, welcoming the emptiness embracing me. Soon, I feel the familiar tingle heralding her arrival. I turn my sense of smell up, and can tell exactly where she is.

“This is an unusual time to come visit me, halfbreed.”

I turn towards her, and she seems disappointed that I didn’t startle this time. I tilt my head as I look at her.

“I couldn’t sleep. Dreams are haunting me. I don’t know if dryads sleep, but I thought I’d take a gamble, maybe you were up for a conversation.”

She saunters towards me, the vines covering her body tightening around her form. A sign of uncertainty camouflaged as an advance.

“Conversation is it? Are you sure it’s not something more vigorous you’re after?”

Laying an arm on my side, she moves mine to her waist. She’s going to push this all the way if I let her, but I can’t see what her endgame is. I pull her closer, exposing my throat to her sharp teeth.

“I know how dangerous you are, Leona Cethi. For a traveller, death is just another kind of sleep. If you want to send me there, you can.”

Her body shows signs of uncertainty. She pushes me away far enough to see my face. Her eyes are emerald green with a blue tint, shining in the moonlight.

“I don’t understand.”

Her voice is different. The haughty lady of the forest is gone. A lost girl in the woods is in her place. I smile at her, and for a moment, her eyes go white. Afterwards, she nods.

“Okay, I think I get it now. You can sleep here if you wish. Your dreams won’t bother you tonight.”