John logged in to the smell of ozone. It permeated the small room of his building and he looked outside expecting to see thunder clouds and rain. Oddly, however, the day was bright and clear. Frowning John went and checked on his crops. The wheat had turned a nice golden color and was clearly ready for harvest. The corn was almost fully grown but not quite ready for picking yet. Nodding, he started in on the wheat.

A short while into harvesting John ran into a rude surprise, he didn’t have enough inventory space. He’d been shoving the harvested stocks straight into his inventory, and he now found that every empty space was taken up by a stack of 500 stalks. Groaning in annoyance John paused as he pondered what to do. After a few moments he decided to try grouping stalks in bundles. Letting 500 stalks out of his inventory he started grouping them into handfuls and tying them off to create sheaves. Placing the first couple in his inventory he was glad to see they stacked as a unit, instead of breaking down into individual stalks again. Nodding in satisfaction, he got back to work.

By the time John was finished harvesting he was extremely thankful for his boon, Bigger on the Inside. Without the increase to carrying capacity and the extra slots he’d have had no way to carry all the wheat he’d harvested. It took up 19 storage slots at 500 sheaves per slot, with a few sheaves left over for a 20th slot.

John took a moment to indulge in a long drink of water, and then hose himself down with Create Font, washing all the dirt and other detritus from his hair. He was incredibly grateful that whoever had designed this world hadn’t seen fit to include sweat, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t getting dirty. With a few seconds of Move Water he pulled most of the excess moisture out of his clothes and hair. He then started making his way toward town.

Half way there he remembered he’d need one stone each of air, earth, fire, and water. He had his two full mana stones on him, and a few full water stones. His earth stones were almost all empty however, and he didn’t even own any air stones. John looked back towards his farm, torn between returning to make new stones, and just buying some new ones from the players. Eventually the thought of trying to control the required mana not once, but twice decided him, and he turned towards town and continued walking.

Once in town it was a simple matter to buy an earth stone for a single copper, and an air for two. Fire stones, however, were much harder to get ahold of. Theodore was out, and the least expensive option was five coppers; apparently there were a lot of fire users among the players. With more than a little reluctance john paid the asked for price. He finished up his shopping by buying 30 burlap bags for half a copper each.

Trudging over, he waved to Ellie as he approached her stall. “Hey Ellie, how’s the day?”

“Hey hon, it’s been good. Lots of people buying berries. I hear one of the players has been experimenting with recipes, and it turns out that certain juice blends increase wisdom for a short while. Who’d have thought?” She asked with a knowing smirk.

John grinned at her. “Well now I’m curious about what recipes you know.”

“And take away the joy of exploration? Perish the thought.” She responded as she started disappearing mostly empty baskets.

“You’re not packing up because of me, are you?”

“Hmmm yes, but it’s all good hon, most who were buying already have, and someone needs to show you how to use the thresher properly.” She disappeared the final basket and gestured for John to follow her.

She walked out of the square and towards one of the nearby buildings and led him around back to a large shed. She opened the double doors on it, revealing what looked like an old-time threshing machine. “Here you are hon. Stalks go in this part here, straw comes out the back, seed falls into this side bucket here. It’ll hold about a bushel’s worth, that’s about 60 pounds. If you want you can replace the pan with a bag. If you’re doing a large batch I recommend using bags, it’ll be easier if you can pick them up direct into your inventory. Speaking of, how much wheat did you grow?”

“Ah, about an Acre’s worth,” John said.

Ellie stared at him for a moment. “Sorry hon, did you say an Acre?”

“yeah… what’s wrong?”

Ellie hesitated for a moment. “That’s just… a lot more than you normally see. Normally people plant maybe a fourth that? It depends on the area you live in. Higher population areas might see that much grown in a single batch, but out here there’s just not that many of us.”

John frowned as he digested what she was saying. “So, I’ve grown too much?”

“Probably. But at least you’ll have plenty of seed!”

“Crap… I grew the same amount of corn.”

“Well, all you’ve lost is some time hon. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Let’s get you started and worry about tomorrow later.” Ellie pointed out several slots on the side of the machine. “Your stones go in these slots here, that’ll let you power the machine. This lever here turns it on and off. Alright, let’s get this going.”

John nodded, pulling a bag and several sheaves of wheat out of his inventory. After situating the bag and placing the stones, he pulled the lever. The machine roared to life with a clattering and clanking and he started feeding in the sheaves, untying each one as he went. John watched, fascinated, as the sheaves went in, and out came the kernels, in the back he could see the chaff blowing out, and then the straw was being dropped onto a secondary machine which was pulling it in and compressing it into bales.

It took several hours to complete all the grain he’d brought, and he had to run and get new fire, air, and earth stones twice. When it was finished, however, he had a little more than 21 bushels of wheat and a veritable pile of bales.

Ellie had stayed with him for the first hour or so of the process, until she was sure he knew what he was doing, and then had left him to his own devices. John turned off the machine and retrieved his mostly empty stones. He then pulled the last partial bushel and bales into his inventory. He took a moment to look around, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, then headed back out into the village square. Looking around he didn’t see anyone he knew, so he started the long trek home.

Once back on his farm John looked around and considered. If what Ellie had said was true then he was overproducing. This of course meant that he could divide up the current fields into smaller patches of different types and his mind was abuzz with thoughts of doing just that. Though the details of exactly what he’d grow would have to be left for later.

After checking on his corn he moved over to sit on his rock and think. The moment he sat down he got a notification.

[Congratulations on increasing your level! 3 à 4]

[You have received 1,000 Leveling Points, please distribute them now]

John grinned. He’d been hoping he’d get a level up for his harvest, and it looked like he’d been right. He still wasn’t sure about the number of points he was getting, but he was glad to have them all the same. He took a moment to consider, breaking down what he wanted against what he needed. He wanted better Mana Manipulation, that was proving immensely useful, he wanted to increase Enchanting as well, since he’d be doing more of that in the future. Finally, he wanted to increase Mana Imprinting, it was going to be essential for making mana stones.

Now, what did he need? Certainly the three things he wanted were useful, but Farming was languishing, as were his spells, specifically Hasten Decay. He needed to till the hay back into the soil and then… Did he have to decay it? In a game world it might break down instantly… He shook his head.

Assume it has to decay until told otherwise, he thought to himself.

So, Hasten Decay from apprentice to journeyman, that’d cost 300 points. Mana Imprinting from novice to apprentice would cost 200. That left 500 points, he could increase either Mana Manipulation to expert for 400, or he could increase Enchanting to journeyman for 300. Or he could increase Mana Imprinting again for another 300… that last one seemed the most useful. But what to do with the final 200 points? He pulled up his sheet and checked his spells and skills.

[Name: Johnathan]

[Race: Basajuan]

[Level: 3]

[Mana: 300]

[MRegen: 10/minute]

[Leveling Points: 0]

[Attributes]

Strength: 23 Constitution: 23 Dexterity 10 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 30

[Skills]

Engineering – Novice Farming – Apprentice Light Armor – Novice Swordplay – Novice Meditation – Novice Mana Manipulation – Journeyman Mana Sight – Journeyman Enchanting – Apprentice Inspect – Novice Mana Imprint – Apprentice

[Spells]

Move Earth – Apprentice Create Font – Apprentice Create Earth – Novice Move Water – Novice Hasten Decay – Apprentice Create Mud – Novice Create Mana Stone – Novice

[Boons]

Mana Stone Maker Bigger on the Inside Master Builder

After a moment of consideration he narrowed his options to Meditation or Engineering, and after due consideration he chose engineering.

“Increase Hasten Decay from Apprentice to Journeyman for 300 points, Mana Imprint to Journeyman for 500 points, and Engineering to Apprentice for 200 points.”

[Hasten Decay rank up purchased: 300 points.]

[Mana Imprint rank up x2 purchased: 500 points.]

[Engineering rank up purchased: 200 points.]

With a thought John opened the description for Hasten Decay.

[Name: Hasten Decay]

[Description: This spell speeds the aging process of all things, dealing decay-based damage to whatever it is targeted at.]

[Current Rank: Journeyman]

[Current Amount: 4 creatures, V = (4*L)3 ft3]

[Current Rate: 1 month per second]

[Mana Cost: 15/CF/second]

John nodded, pleased with the upgrade. Finished with his leveling he went back to thinking on what to do next. The first thing he needed to do was finish his storage area, that’d come immediately after harvesting the corn. The second thing he needed was, as usual, more mana. He was doing pretty well with the well he’d built, but it wasn’t enough.

Pulling open the calculator again John crunched some numbers. A square mana stone a foot to a side would provide almost six times the mana capacity of his current well. It’d also be easy to pick up and walk off with, but he could burn that bridge when he came to it. The real problem was the cost. At ten times the total capacity of the stone it would take him 60 days to create, assuming he spent all the Well’s mana on just the single stone. It simply wasn’t reasonable to devote that much time to it, not when he needed the mana for just about everything else. Still, it seemed likely he was going to run into the limits of the well sooner rather than later.

Sighing John took a moment to gauge the time. He determined he had a few hours of light left and decided it’d be a good idea to take care of the bales of straw. With little effort he divested them from his inventory and began breaking them up, scattering the straw across the now barren earth, tilling it under as he went. Having finished his task, john went to bed.