It was about three weeks after the first plant had sprouted that the stench eased and in a while it was completely gone. The air was now instead filled with a sweet aroma, and finally the levels of trust and faith of the monsters began stabilising. I lowered the number of monsters appointed at the farm.

The entire time Kiara stayed with me. She had made a good acquaintance with the villagers in the time being and she was popular with the children. However her holiday was drawing to a close, and she was undecided if she should go back to the real world at all.

“Well, I would not force you to stay here,” I said to her one night, “though I would only be happy if you did.”

“But the job…”

I let out a laugh to lighten the mood.

“If you do not want to leave your job, then you don’t have to!” I said. “You can always come to the game world after work hours … and then…”

“We sleep together in your leaf bed?” Kiara said.

“Well, they are making me a new home,” I said, “Nora and Nadir said they were making furniture for us the last time I met them. Nora seems to have a new knack for making beds.”

Nora and Nadir and many builders had not returned to the village for days. My new residence, large enough to be called a palace, had enough rooms now that they could stay and work in it.

Finally a month passed and Kiara went back to the real world, but she continued to stay with me every night and leave in the morning. On Sundays, she would remain the whole day. Meanwhile, the Evil Crops kept growing taller.

The zombie was more or less impressed with the progress. He kept a far stricter eye on the crops than any guard at the farm. He would be quick to pluck bugs crawling their way up the stems. The plants renounced their sweet fragrance. The Zombie informed me that the crops were reaching adulthood, and that it was only a matter of time before we would be able to extract evilese produced by the fruits of the plants.

And finally the day came when the zombie pronounced the crops ready for harvest. It was a weekend, so Kiara was present too.

“You can extract the evilese if you want,” the zombie said.

“How is it done?” I asked. All the evil crops now bore a single balloon-like fruit each. The fruits appeared as if filled with air. It was probably not the case, for the evilese element was a liquid.

“It’s simple,” the zombie said. He removed the fruit of one of the plants with such tenderness as though he was dealing with a day old infant. Picking up a small pointed stick from the ground the Zombie held the fruit above his head and was about to puncture the fruit. Suddenly, a Skhite cried out, pointing at the sky and the next moment a great shape descended, snatched the fruit from the hands of the zombie who was thrown down, and flapping its wings the aerial being flew away.

Everyone was dumbstruck. The zombie was especially bitter.

The creature that had stolen the fruit rested on a tree branch. It was an odd bird. Its body resembled a vulture’s, though its head was a miniature replica of a human head. My brain struggled to process the image I was seeing.

The man-bird bit into the fruit and a gas escaped from the rupture. The man-bird sucked at this gas.

“More coming!” another guard cried in alarm, pointing at a different direction in the sky. I peered along the line of his finger and saw that at least ten man-birds were swooping down for the farm.

“Save the fruits!” the zombie cried.

The monsters hefted stones from the ground and hurled them at the man-birds. This scattered the creatures and they were scared enough that they didn’t fly towards the farm again. But they flew over to the tree where the first man-bird perched, and ogled the evil fruits.

“Bloody Mantures!” the Zombie held his fist up in indignation, referring to the man-birds. “My fault. I should have known. This is the season when they migrate to this part of the world. The last time they attacked our farms we could sleep in peace only after they left. Quick! Pluck and take the fruits inside the village!”

With great care the fruits were transported to the village. The Mantures kept leering at us till the last fruits had been taken inside, and with fallen faces they flew away.

So that was how the harvest of the Evil Crops went. Despite losing one of the precious fruits, we were able to keep the remaining nineteen of them. The Zombie said that ultimately it was from his hands that the manture had snatched away the first fruit, and that he would report to Queen Dieana that we had taken the utmost care of the Crops. He further added that we were now eligible to fetch more seeds from the zombies.

The only bad outcome of the endeavour was that none of the plants could bear seeds. The Evil Crops needed to be tended with extreme care because only a very small number of them possessed reproductive abilities.

When I pointed out to the Zombie that evilese was a liquid but the fruit stolen by the manture had released a gas instead, he explained that the Evilese derived from the Evil Crop could be consumed both in the form of gas and liquid, unlike the evilese obtained by killing players which was only available as liquid. The evilese condensed within seconds after coming in contact with air.

The result of the successful harvest was that the village’s declining store of evilese was replenished. The nineteen evil fruits were enough to sustain the village for weeks on end. Comparatively, dead players gave far lesser amounts of evilese.

Another consequence of the success of the farm was that I received a new ability: Sight. Concentrate on any creature or player and know their stats.

Kiara too was awarded with a unique spell. She could now create sounds of very low frequency that would drive away small creatures from a chosen location for a number of hours to as much as a few days, depending on the mana usage.

She told me brightly that she could use the spell if we set up a new farm, and the guards wouldn’t have to stand there day and night. Immediately I began to imagine all the different ways in which her skill could be utilised. It was certainly a very beneficial spell that the game world had awarded her and I felt it was a sign that we were moving in the right direction.