"Mother, I'm back!"

Ian's mother was in the kitchen preparing the family dinner. She looked up from the dough she was kneading and smiled nervously.

"How was your Selection, Ian?" She asked gently.

"Something really weird happened! The mage said that I was a Farmer class like Father, but my status page says that I'm a Magical Botanist."

His mother's face contorted strangely. "Magical Botanist?"

"Yes! And I have five skills too, Farming and Manual Labor just like Father and Byren, but then these three skills I'd never heard of before! Magical Gardening, Magical Botany, and Magical Crossbreeding, have you ever heard of them?"

Ian's mother sighed. "Ian, I know that you've always wanted to be an adventurer, but you're at the age where it's time to grow up. There's nothing wrong with being a farmer, and after Byren inherits the farm you'll have to start your own. You can't keep pretending to be a hero. Besides, you know that mages are never wrong when it comes to the Selection."

Ian's heart dropped. He thought that his mother, the one who had always supported his ambitions, would believe him. Turns out she was just like the rest of the townspeople, thinking that he simply couldn't accept his Farmer fate. Ian shouldn’t have mentioned his number of skills; it was so high that his mother was right to be skeptical. Not for the first or last time, Ian desperately wished that he could show others his status screen.

"What's with all the long faces?" Ian's father and brother walked in. "Ian, how'd it go."

Seeing Ian about to talk, his mother cut him off. "He's a Farmer, just like you." Her quick side glare at Ian left no room for argument.

Neither Ian's father nor Brian appeared very surprised, simply nodding. Ian's heart dropped even further. He knew that his mother was the one that was the most likely to believe him. If she didn't, nobody in his family would accept the truth.

"Carson and his wife passed by the fields earlier today, they just got back from the capitol visiting their son. Remember? Their son's been working on the Alchemy Guild farm. He seems to be doing well for himself."

Brenas, the capitol of the Nitusha Empire, had the largest Alchemy Guilds in the three kingdoms. Their demands for special herbs and materials was simply so high that they supplemented buying with growing their own crops. At this, Ian opened his eyes in realization. If anyone knew anything about magical plants, it had to be the Alchemy Guild in Brenas.

"Do you know if the Alchemy Guild farms need any more helpers?" Ian hesitatingly asked.

"Oh, you're interested? Carson did mention that they were expanding and needed more help."

Ian jumped at his father's statement. "Do you think you could ask Carson if they'd take me? I know that I just got my class, but higher level farmers wouldn't want to leave their own farms."

His father hesitated. "Ian we still need you around to help with the farm. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we don’t have enough time for you to go to the capitol and come back if you don’t get accepted."

Ian was surprised when his mother spoke up. “Why don’t we ask Carson to send a letter to his son asking if they’ll take Ian in? In the meantime, Ian can keep working on the farm. If they’re not hiring, then there’ll have been no time lost.”

“Hmm, that could work. Ian, are you sure you want to do this? What’s wrong with staying at our farm?”

“I’m no longer a child, and I’d need to go out and start my own farm after Byren comes of age anyways. This could be a good way for me to go out and earn some extra money for that to happen.” Ian looked at his mother who smiled lightly.

His father ruffled Ian’s head. “I guess you are all grown up now. Well, you’ve better work extra hard in the fields until we receive a letter back, you hear me?”

Ian knew that this was his father’s way of saying yes. His sister came down from her room at this moment, signalling the end of the conversation. The family sat down and ate dinner as usual, and the conversation gradually steered itself away from Ian and onto gossip Ian’s mother had heard from the neighbors. Tomorrow, Ian told himself, tomorrow I’ll figure out how my class works, and then I'll go to Brenas and show the Alchemy Guild what I can do.

The next day, Ian woke up early, ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the fields. He had purposefully asked to work in the pea field while his father and brother continued to work in the wheat fields; Ian did not want them to see him experimenting with his abilities and have them question what he was doing.

As peas sprouted early, the field was already tinged a light green even though it was still early spring. Baby green sprouts curled around the stakes in the field which Ian had previously set up. Ian was supposed to be here to apply fertilizer and ensure that the peas were properly growing upwards. But first, Ian checked his skills again.

Magical Botany (Lvl 1 0%)

The trademark skill of a magical botanist. Regular and mystical plants fall within your understanding and thrive beneath your care. With enough understanding, your mana can be used to both create and enhance magical plants. Rare magical plants will grant you great rewards.

Magical Gardening (PASSIVE) (Lvl 1 0%)

Gardening differs greatly from the mass crops of farming. Individually taking care of magical plants will increase their effectiveness and quicken growth. Increases chance of plant evolution and increased rarity.

Magical Crossbreeding (Lvl 1 0%)

Rare strains of magical plants can be produced through crossbreeding plants with this skill. Increases chance of successful crossbreeding. Increases chance of obtaining additional attributes in resulting breeds.

Ian had thought about these three skills all night, but he still had no idea how to use them. It was common knowledge that passive skills like Farming and Manual Labour would be slowly raised while doing regular work. Veteran farmers would have levels in Farming of at least level 5, whilst the highest Farming level Ian had ever seen was level 9. That’d probably be how the Magical Gardening passive worked, Ian concluded. The other two skills were complete mysteries.

Ian bent down and touched a pea sprout. “Magical Botany!” Ian half shouted, hoping that something would happen. Ian thought he felt a small tingling through his body, but wasn't sure if he was just imagining it.

Five seconds passed, and the pea sprout still looked the exact same. Ian looked around, hoping that nobody saw him make a fool of himself. How did he make this work?

Ian took a closer look at the pea sprout. Was it not working because the plant wasn’t right? Did he have to do anything to it first? Suddenly a window popped up, half-scaring Ian to death.

Status

Species

Pea

Age

2 weeks

Essence

2

Evolution

0.1%

A young pea sprout. High in nutritious vitamins and minerals.

(Raise Magical Botany to see more information)

Interesting! Ian had never heard of being able to view the statuses of plants before. He tried focusing in a neighboring pea plant to try to activate the ability again.

Status

Species

Pea

Age

2 weeks

Essence

0

Evolution

0%

A young pea sprout. High in nutritious vitamins and minerals.

(Raise Magical Botany to see more information)

The information seemed mostly the same, but Essence and Evolution were both at zero. Ian suddenly had a curious thought.

Ian grabbed the first pea sprout again and chanted Magical Botany over and over again. The tingling that he had felt before returned, and this time Ian knew that he wasn't just imagining it. After five repetitions, Ian inspected the pea sprout again.

Status

Species

Pea

Age

2 weeks

Essence

12

Evolution

0.6%

A young pea sprout. High in nutritious vitamins and minerals.

(Raise Magical Botany to see more information)

Ian's theory was correct. When he had invoked the Magical Botany spell, the Essence and Evolution stats went up. What would happen once Evolution reached 100%? Would the pea evolve to a magical plant? Ian was excited to find out, and immediately proceeded to repeat Magical Botany.

As Ian continued to cast Magical Botany, the pea sprout seemed to grow slightly under Ian's hand. Something special seemed to increase about it as well; an indescribable property that raised Ian's alertness towards it. This must be the effects of increasing the plants Essence!

Suddenly, Ian felt a slight headache coming on and stopped casting Magical Botany. The headache was weird - it didn't feel like a regular headache that one got from being sick or dehydrated. Ian checked his status.

Status Name Ian Age 18 Class Magical Botanist HP 100 MP 10/123 STR 105 DEX 104 INT 122 WIS 116 Skills Farming (PASSIVE) 1 Manual Labor (PASSIVE) 1 Magical Gardening (PASSIVE) 1 Magical Botany 1 (6.34%) Magical Crossbreeding 1

The headache must have been caused by his mana running low, Ian concluded. Ian regretted using his skills so rashly – he should have kept better track of mana consumption and recovery rates for future reference. It seemed like his Magical Botany skill had increased a bit though, which was a win in Ian’s eyes.

Ian checked the position of the sun, estimating that it was around 9 o’clock. Sighing, Ian went and got his wheelbarrow of manure. No matter how excited he was, he’d have to wait for his mana to regenerate first to keep testing out his abilities. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long, since his WIS was higher than average. From what Ian knew, WIS increased mana regeneration and capacity, while INT increased the effectiveness of spells. Ian started to spread the manure around the crops, wrinkling his nose at the smell - he’d never quite gotten used to the stench, and was once again reminded why he didn’t want to stay a farmer. Filled with newfound determination, Ian shoveled the manure as quickly as he could. For the umpteenth time, Ian swore to himself – there was no way, NO WAY that he would let himself stay a farmer.