Looking at Luna, I could only shake my head. During the last two months, she had grown over ten centimetres, her body maturing at a rate I couldn’t quite believe. A part of me suspected that the change was driven by the levels she had gained, but I couldn’t be certain and wasn’t about to use other children for experiments. Whatever the reason, she was growing at an insane rate, to the point that she had regularly complained about pain and eaten enough for two, maybe three, adults, simply to keep up with her body’s needs. It was, quite frankly, insane, and if she continued to grow like this, it would take her only a few months to reach my old height, and about two months later my current height. Though hopefully, the change within her body would slow down beforehand, or things might get a little strange. Simply because her mind wasn’t keeping up with her body, her increased attributes were helping her mind along, but it wasn’t enough. Still, I was of two minds regarding her insane rate of growth, on one hand, she was racing to an adult body, giving her much better chances to survive out there, on the other hand, she was racing to an adult body, taking away what little childhood she could have after the change.

Either way, my sweet, little munchkin might only be a munchkin for a few more months, and the change was making me worry. To say nothing about the effect her rapid growth had when we visited the Farm, the people there had been giving her uncomfortable glances, at least when they thought I wasn’t looking. But what to do about those looks, those hostile and suspicious glances, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if I could tear out the eyes of everyone giving my daughter the stinkeye, well, I could, but doing so wouldn’t solve the issue, only exacerbate it.

No, our dealings with Apple Gate Farm were slowly getting more and more tedious, from the way the children were playing with Luna to the attendance of my lessons. There was a growing chasm between those willing to learn from me and those who preferred to look elsewhere. Elsewhere mostly meant to those able to cast divine spells, an ability that had grown quite prevalent over the last two months, and not only in connection with Frigg, as Cassie had been. No, a growing number was somehow able to channel divine power from another deity, one that I didn’t know the name of. They weren’t speaking it, and the power they gained was making me fairly uncomfortable, even if I was only close to the acolytes.

To make matters worse, their power smelled strange to me, not quite like the power I had smelled from divine spellcasters on Mundus, but different in a way I couldn’t quite describe. The best I could come up with was that one was smelling like apple-scented detergent and the other simply smelled like apple. One a fabricated copy, the other the original, only that there were countless olfactory undertones that I couldn’t put a finger on, while trying to use my magical sight was useless, the contrast was too faint for me to see.

And what truly made me uncomfortable was the way these divine spellcasters were looking at my students. Not so much those tending the fields and making sure that the infrastructure the people had put into place was running smoothly, but those I had been training in combat magic. I had even heard some subtle whispers that some arcane spellcasters shouldn’t be trained in combat, as their magic was too important to the settlement, especially those who could conjure water or improve the growth of crops.

So far, the only things I had managed to hear were whispers and even those I could only hear thanks to my fairly powerful senses. What people spoke in the privacy of their rooms, or in the small homes that had been built over the summer, I had no idea. But I wasn’t sure I liked the way the looks I was getting had shifted, the awed respect fading more and more, leaving only unease and fear.

No, I didn’t like the development of Apple Gate Farm but there was not a damned thing I could actually do, or rather, not a thing I could do that would improve the situation. Sure, I was powerful enough to slaughter them all, but that wouldn’t really help me, it would only turn a bad situation into one that was bad in a different way. No, to change the minds conversation was needed and I wasn’t the person to speak, nor were Lia or Luna.

Somehow, within these few months, politics had started to form within the small town I still called a farm in my mind. As people had calmed down from the change the world had suffered, things had become more and more routine and a semblance of order had formed. People started to form into cliques once more, some by common interests, others by profession as those started to emerge.

The Fighters, those venturing out to hunt, those guarding the settlement, they were the first to incorporate into something they amusingly called the Adventurers’ Guild, using the well-used fictional idea. Mark remained their leader and that small desk where I had written down my findings in regards to the Withered had gained its own roof and was permanently manned. For now, it seemed that the purpose of the Guild was to share information, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t last forever, somebody would want to start profiting off that information, it was simply human nature.

Once the Guild was established, the farmers soon followed suit, though I only heard about it second-hand, during one of my talks with Kevin, the teenage Water Mage. He was one of my most attentive students and while his level was fairly lacking, he had made great strides with his Water Magic, to the point that his skill-level with water rivalled mine with Ice. Sure, he only commanded one element, but I was quite impressed by the effort he invested, to the point that he joined us one night on a hunt.

What he told me about the Farmers’ Market, as they had decided to call their collective, was that they mainly focused on planning and logistics. Which fields needed how much water, what feedback did the Nature-mages get from the soil and what was needed to make sure that the crops they grew remained viable without depleting the soil, those were the considerations they primarily considered. But there was another undertone, one that made me wonder how long the farm would remain as it was now, a cashless commune where everyone did what was needed, simply because everyone needed to survive. Food was always a necessity, and the farmers had what was almost a monopoly on fresh food, the crops they grew vital to the community, just as vital as the protection provided by the fighters.

And lastly, there were the crafters, maybe the least important group for now, though that was a matter of opinion. Outside of my students, these were the ones I had the most contact with, as my ability to enchant items was slowly growing and I exchanged crafted goods with them. It was fairly impressive how far they had come in such a short time, at least those who focused on specialised crafting.

There were the masons, the woodcarvers and carpenters, who primarily focused on building more shelter for the farm and frankly, I barely cared about them or their craft. But some were fairly interesting, there were a few trailers, working hard to recreate methods of old from books, spinning yarn and creating cloth. For now, they worked with old fabrics but I had been told that they were looking to expand and create things entirely from freshly harvested materials, as they were interested in what that would change in regards to their product. Similarly, there was a group of metal crafters, experimenting with gathered scrap metal, trying to purify it into something the system recognised and work from there. They wanted to truly forge, not only learning how to make nails and maybe screws. They wanted to replenish what stock was left from before the change, before it ran out but they also wanted to make… interesting tools and weapons. As one might expect from a group who had grown up with anime, some of them wanted to craft swords, while others had a fascination with medieval warfare and were interested in spears and polearms. Weapons, as always, were a fascinating topic and even I was curious what they’d come up with.

All in all, Apple Gate Farm had turned into a true settlement, one that was on its way to becoming a town or maybe even a city, a fairly amusing idea when considering that the city we had all called our home was still there, it was just… broken. The Farm had become a symbol of a new start and, to my knowledge, nobody wanted to permanently return to the city, it was considered almost like a graveyard.

Still, I had no idea what the future would bring or how the farm would continue to grow. Time would tell, even if I was a little uncomfortable with their current direction. As I had learned before the change, I didn’t like people, especially when they gathered in large groups.