Logging in the next morning, John stepped out of the shelter and surveyed the area once more. Fortunately, no unpleasant surprises had cropped up in the night, and he found it as he left it. Stepping out onto the now much firmer dirt he made his way to the road and then turned around to face the empty and blasted expanse.

“Alright,” he muttered, “let’s see if this works.”

With a thought he opened the Blueprint Module and opened the new file ‘Farm_01’. With a few moments of wrangling he projected it over his original 270,400 square foot section, creating ghostly outlines of two buildings, and 12 clearly separated garden plots. The first building was obviously a house, if bigger than the one he’d had before. The second was clearly a barn, a large structure at 40 feet by 80 feet, with a secondary attached building about a third that size.

The house was in roughly the same spot as the original, but its new footprint was several times larger and looked more like a proper house than the shack he’d been living in. The barn was set not too far off, and butted up against the very edge of the property. The garden plots at first appeared to be simple fenced boxes each 80 feet to a side. However, looking more carefully one would notice the runes and sigils on the interior lining of the walls.

Much of John’s time last night had been painstakingly putting together an enchanting schema that produced a gentle mist that would slowly water a given plot over the course of a couple hours. Each plot would need at least a dozen water stones in order to function. Initially he had wanted to add in a function to speed the growth of crops, but he’d been unable to think of the proper rune sequence, meaning it was probably out of the grasp of his enchanting abilities.

Taking careful stock of his new designs, John ran his fingers through his beard as he considered them. After a few moments he nodded. It would be more than a little work, but it would be better to spend the time building it all up now, rather than the slapdash manner he’d been doing before. Walking back onto the property John took out his wand and began flattening the ground once more.

Smoothing over the ripples and filling in the crater took him almost an hour, as he took his time to get the ground as level as he could. He then moved over to the remnants of his shack and began to add the battered stone into a single large boulder. As he did, he uncovered the broken remains of the items he’d left inside the hut, all of it mangled or torn beyond repair. With a shake of his head he picked up the scraps, the blacksmith could probably use the metal for something, if he wasn’t getting too much from the adventurers already.

Stone set aside, he started working on the foundation. Digging out around the old one, creating a new hole with a length and width of 45 feet for a total area of 2,025 feet. Then he extended the hold down another yard, creating a total depth of six feet, instead of the original three. With an effort of will he started filling it with stone, only to get two welcome surprises.

[Move Earth has Ranked Up due to continued use. Apprentice à Journeyman]

[Name: Move Earth]

[Description: A simple spell used to move dirt or stone.]

[Current Rank: Journeyman]

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

[Mana Cost: 10/CF/second]

[Create Earth has Ranked Up due to continued use. Novice à Apprentice]

[Name: Create Earth]

[Description: Create a brick, pile, or mound of dirt/stone/clay/sand/gravel of a type dependent upon the environment. Amount depends on the rank of the spell.]

[Current Rank: Apprentice]

[Current Amount: V = (2*L)­­­3 ft3]

[Mana Cost: 10/CF/second]

How long had it been since he’d last increased Move Earth? Thinking back he’d been in game for 23 days now, and he’d gotten the first rank increase at about day three hadn’t he? He hadn’t been using the spell constantly, but it was the one he used most frequently. So how long was it supposed to take to level a spell to Journeyman? A quick trip to the forums netted him the answers. One week, a single week of continuous use gained a person journeyman rank. This of course assumed you never slept, ate, or took any other kind of break. John shook his head and was quite happy he’d been buying skill ranks instead of grinding them out the hard way.

Looking back to his work, John started filling in the hole again, a task that took almost half a minute and drained over 24 thousand mana from the well. Foundation completed john stepped out onto the smooth granite surface and began to raise walls in the locations the overlay showed. Soon he had partitioned the area into a large kitchen, a workroom, a den, a bedroom, a storage room, and a wash room (sans toilet, as that didn’t appear to be an in-game issue).

Each of the rooms he created was quite spacious, with the kitchen clocking in at a good 20 by 10 feet, the workshop at 25 by 10, the den at 45 by 20, the bedroom wash room at each at 10 by 15, and the storage room at 25 by 15. This time he’d included the doorways and the windows in his design, so there were no leftover slabs of stone, and he’d made sure to use the large boulder that he’d had left over from the last building.

With some effort he filled in the windows with the same clear quartz he’d used last time. He then set about adding details. In the den went a large fireplace, big enough to lay down in. The kitchen got granite countertops, shelves, and cabinets (sans doors), along with a large oven, a wash basin, and in the center a large island countertop with more storage beneath. The workshop gained several tables he grew out of the walls and floor. The storage room was all shelving while the washroom mostly consisted of a large basin, big enough for him to lay down in, as well as a grated floor which lead to the same drainage system the kitchen and basin used. Finally, the bedroom got another raised sleeping platform.

Satisfied with his work John inaugurated the wash room by cleaning himself and his clothes, getting rid of dried mud that had gotten all over him yesterday. Feeling miles better John looked around at what’d he’d built and felt good about it. There were still ghostly overlays, telling him where runes would go, and where light plates should be socketed, but he ignored those for now, he could deal with them later. Looking at the empty doors, he decided it was time to take another trip to town. He needed wood for doors and cabinets, and he’d just eaten his last meal bar.

John stepped out of his new house and began the trek toward town. Along the way he used earth stones to flatten the road once more, and then finished extending it all the way to the town road. The flagrant used of magic turned a few heads as he arrived, but most people ignored it, excepting the curious few who seemed to wonder where the new road went.

Putting his wand away John headed toward Theodore’s, giving Sally and Ex a wave as he passed. Once inside the store he made a beeline for the back, only to find that the meal cakes were almost all gone. Picking up the last ten John headed for the claim spikes where he grabbed four of the stakes, then over to the bedrolls which, strangely, there were still plenty of. Finally, he made his way to the counter where he found, to his surprise, he was the only customer.

“Hey Theodore, how’s business?” John asked as he set the cakes on the counter and got out the requisite 24 coppers.

“Slow today,” Theodore rumbled. “Hear your farm blew up.” The ursine man eyed John.

“Yeah, lightning hit my mana well and did a number. Fortunately I didn’t have much for it to destroy. Are storms like that common?”

“No, those happen maybe once er twice a year, git some lesser storms throughout, and should see more rain now.” Theodore made the coins disappear.

“Good to know. Hey, who do I talk to about getting some doors made? I need some for my house, barn, and cabinets…”

“That’d be Phillip, he’s tha only woodworker we’ve got. Don’t have a lot of wood though.”

“Yeah, I was noticing that, I may have to grow my own timber. Thanks for the help,” John said, and headed for the door. Theodore just grunted in reply.

John exited the store and looked around the square. He hadn’t asked for directions, so he was unsure where to go. After a moment he decided he’d just look around, the village wasn’t very big after all, how hard could it been to find the only woodworker. The answer, unsurprisingly, turned out to be ‘very easy’. It took him all of five minutes to find a sign that indicated a wood worker and he poked his head into the shop to find several display pieces along with some sturdy, no nonsense furniture. A small bell tinkled as he entered and a voice called from the back. “Just a minute!”

Content to look around he almost didn’t notice when a short older man came out of the back room. Had he failed to, however, the man’s comment certainly would have grabbed his attention. “Hey! You’re the guy whose farm exploded!”

John blinked. “Yeah, that’s me, does everyone know about that?”

“Oh yes, it was quite loud! I heard you had a mana well get struck by lightning, nasty that. But you look okay. Didn’t lose anything valuable I hope, I mean, other than the well?” The man chattered on.

“Not really, it knocked down my house, but that was more of a temporary shelter anyway.”

“Well that’s good, but you didn’t come her to talk about you farm… Or did you? I’ll be honest, I haven’t got a lot to do what with the dearth of wood around these parts, so any conversation is welcome. Oh right, I’m Phillip a pleasure to meet you, John.” Phillip stuck out his hand and John shook it, mildly bemused.

“Already know my name too, huh?”

“Well you are the one who predicted the storm, so word got around. Most of the folks are mighty pleased to have a Basajuan around, gave us more than enough time to get everything secured. No one lost anything but a few crops, shutters, and roof tiles, and those are easily replaced.”

“Glad I could help, I’ll be honest I didn’t think that racial perk would ever even be relevant out here,” John admitted.

“Oh yes, we get a storm like that once or twice a year, usually someone loses more than one animal or some unsecured piece of hardware to it. We’ve even had a tornado once before, that one was nasty, Frank lost half his cows. Sorry, I keep running us off on tangents. What did you say you were here for?” Phillip inquired.

“Ah, yeah, I need doors for my house, cabinets, and barn, so I’m looking to get a quote on what that’d cost, and figure out how much wood I’ll need.”

“Hmm, not a small order. Well, I’ll need to see the doorways, take some measurements, I can come out and do that this evening. I take it your farm is at the end of the new road that people are buzzing about?”

“Yeah, I got tired of wading through grass,” John admitted. “Though to be honest wading through mud was even worse, so I’ll probably redo the rode with stone at some point.”

“I suppose that makes sense, we don’t have very many people with earth magic about, or really the knowledge required to make proper roads. Though I suppose that might have changed what with the influx of players. If you know how to build them, we could probably take up a collection to pay you for your time and effort.” Phillip ran a hand over his balding pate as he considered.

“That’s actually not a bad offer, I’ll need to think about it. I have some general idea of how a road is built, but I’d like to do some more research on the subject before I go tearing up the dirt and start trying to install stone,” John admitted.

Phillip nodded. “Sensible, sensible. Oh, uh, wood, right you came about doors. Let’s see, you’re going to need wood, usually that means importing it. Unless you’d like to grow some? I know that some farmers have fancy spells for speeding up growth time.”

“I don’t, though it’s on my list. How long does it take to grow a tree? I think Ellie said a few months to a year?”

“That’s pretty normal, yes, we’ve got a few maturing nearby, most of them even survived the storm. A few trees can take longer, a good redwood for instance can take as much as five years before it’s a good size for harvesting, four or five more if you want to get as much wood out of it as you can,” Phillip informed him.

“Good to know. What would you suggest?” John asked.

“Oak is popular, it doesn’t take too long to grow, three to four months. You’ll probably want to plant three or four trees well away from each other so that you can maximize yield,” Phillip suggested.

“Alright, I don’t suppose you know where I can get some acorns?”

“Sure, I sell a bundle of five for a copper.” Phillip grinned at him.

“Alright, I’ll take it,” John agreed, with a smile of his own.

“Just a moment then.” Phillip disappeared into the back of the shop and returned a few moments later with a small bag, which he handed to John. John handed him a copper piece.

“Well, I won’t keep you any longer. Don’t be a stranger though!” Phillip exclaimed.

“I won’t, it was nice meeting you!” John replied as he left the store.

Leaving the shop behind John started back toward his farm.