Evel was initially saddened by the magical tomato seeds' failures. He was happy they grew and bore wonderful tomatoes of course, but he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed at the result.

That didn't last long, for just the day after, he found a pile of 15 goblin corpses or so neatly placed by the side of his farming field. He asked his mom where all that came from, worried that he'd be stealing someone else's property, but she waved it off, saying that she had a close friend gather them for him.

He gave his mom an extra affectionate hug for the wonderful gift.

He quickly got to work after that, digging the appropriate holes to bury the goblins in. It was a long ardious endavour, and one that fully consumed his afternoon, but he finished it nonetheless. Just as he did months ago, he rolled the corpses into their own holes, buried them, and planted his tomato seeds.

And just as an experiment, he tried planting two normal tomato seeds on one of them, and planting a magical tomato seed on another, just to see what happened.

He watered them, have them their much needed pats, and went to have some dinner, hopes and dreams gently bubbling in the back of his mind.

A couple weeks had gone by since then, and the tomato plants had grown, bearing their magical green tomatoes with pride.

Interestly, the mound with two planted tomatoes still grew four magical tomatoes, though this was split between the two plants, with each growing two magical tomatoes and two normal ones.

The one with the magical tomato seed was much more interesting though! Instead of bearing four magical tomatoes, it bore six! Six spicy and tasty magical tomatoes!

That result was a massive increase, much to both his and mom's delight.

Eager and bouncing with excitement, he grabbed hold of his basket and picked his rewards. And soon, he was left with a basket full of over sixty magical tomatoes, their green skin glistening under the sunlight.

With his spoils in hand, he ran back to his cabin home. Sadly, his mom was out in the village at the time being, so the empty cabin was his only companion in this momentus moment. Placing the basket down on the table, he just stared at it for a few minutes, admiring the strange magical fruit.

Now, his [Knife Mastery] skill was on 20%, and since every tomato gave 10%, he'd need...eight tomatoes to make 100%?

Yep, eight tomatoes it is!

So, with eight tomatoes sitting before him, Evel began to eat.

[Knife Mastery] has gained 10% Exp!

Just like before, that ever familiar notification popped up, and he couldn't help but smile. After all, he was about to get [Knife Mastery] to level 2!

With the first magical tomato eaten and its seed placed in a seperate container, he picked up the second tomato and began to eat, letting the spicy and juicy taste drop onto his tongue once again.

[Knife Mastery] has gained 10% Exp!

Another tomato finished, he collected its seeds and continued to the third one. He took a bite, and cringed slightly. Because, while they tasted wonderful, eating tomatoes over and over again made his tongue somewhat numb. He could simply cook the tomato with other ingredients of course, but he didn't have the [Cooking] skill, and he wasn't willing to turn his magical tomatoes into a pile of messy goo.

[Knife Mastery] has gained 10% Exp!

So he went onto his fourth, then to his fifth, and so on. The taste of each got gradually worse, but he stuck with it, taking water breaks after every magical tomato to clean his mouth.

And just like that,

[Knife Mastery] has gained 50% Exp! Congratulations! Your [Knife Mastery] has leveled up to Level 2!

He was gifted his rewards.

Evel brought up his status, and there was [Knife Mastery], sitting at a wonderful level 2. It was honestly surreal for the boy. He was, after all, just a farmer boy, and he'd somehow gained the second level of a skill like [Knife Mastery].

[Knife Mastery Lv - 2]

[0% towards next level] You have a moderate understanding on how to hold knives. Damage dealt by knives has been increased by 20%.

You have an affinity for knives. All stats gain a +2 increase when a knife is held.

And not only did his damage increase, it also gave him additional stats!

It was genuinely, absolutely, and amazingly the best thing he'd seen in quite some time, aside from him being saved by mister Garnt of course.

He was understandably excited as well, his fingers itching to get a knife in their grasp and trying out what this new level increase would bring for him. Would it allow him to cut wood with just a knife? Maybe he'd be able cut falling leaves like dad used to do? Oh, maybe he'd even be able to throw his knife really accurately!

Well, whatever the answer may be, he'd never find out without trying it out, would he?

Now then, time to find a knife!

Just as he was about to leave the door, Evel stopped as an idea cropped up in his head. After all, he did still have over 50 magical tomatoes left in his basket. Would eating another grant him the same amount of Exp as it did before? He doubted it, but one might as well and try, right?

So he did, munching onto the spicy little thing and watching as the blue notification popped up.

[Knife Mastery] has gained 1% Exp!

As expected, the received Exp reward was miniscule compared to before.

But, oh well. He couldn't have everything in the world.

To say that Deliah was surprised would be a fatal understatement.

She'd calculated the results beforehand of course. She knew that 60 magical tomatoes or so would be produced from the 15 goblin corpses she gathered for her son, but to see the result stacked into one basket was incredible, and very much startling for the woman.

Because her son could build an army with those fruits, and that was both an amusing and terrifying realisation.

That all aside however, she had dinner to make. So she brought out her utensils, prepared the ingredients, and tied a dull grey apron over her chest as she turned to-

And then she stopped, her eyes falling onto the basket of magical tomatoes.

She blinked, stared, blinked again, and an idea sprouted in her mind. They had a surplus of magical skill-giving tomatoes now, and her son could easily grow some more, so there shouldn't be any problem with experimenting slightly, would there?

That, and she had a suspicion she wanted to prove.

So she grabbed herself a couple. Placing them on the cutting board, she cut the two into several smaller slices. Seeing the tomatoes' juices drip onto the cutting board worried her for a moment, but she soon pushed it away. After all, this was the purpose of this experiment, was it not?

She proceeded to roast the slices over the heated pan for a good minute or so, before she moved them to a seperate plate. Cooked and hot, she sprinkled some salt and pepper, and just like that, she was done!

It wasn't the most apetizing thing to look at, and its taste was probably subpar at best, but that was fine.

With a fork in hand, she dug in, cringing slightly at the tomatoes' strange taste. The salt definitely helped distract her, but not enough to completely pull away the off-putting spiciness it held.

Then, a notification appeared.

[Cooking] bonus added! [Knife Mastery] has gained 40% Exp!

And Deliah nearly choked on the water she was drinking.

Dabbing her chin with a napkin, she stared at the notification, then to her status, and then back to the notification. She'd only eaten two magical tomatoes, and it gave 40% instead of 20%.

Her [Cooking] doubled the results.

She couldn't help but wonder if the third level of a skill was special in some way. Evel's [Farming] was level 3, and he could grow skills from monster corpses. Her own [Cooking] skill was level 3 as well, and she was able to cook the magical tomatoes her son grew and double its effect.

Nothing told her about this. Not even her skill description explicitly explained that something like this was a possibility.

Or it was deliberately hidden by the system.

Whatever the case may be, the effect remained the same, and Deliah was very much excited at the possibilities she now could envision.

However, her excitement was quickly dampened when she realised something. Her son was capable of growing magical fruits from monster corpses, and she could then cook them to increase their resulting effect. But that wouldn't mean much if she couldn't get other monster corpses for her son to use, would it?

And it certainly didn't help that the village she lived in was an incredibly safe place, with only the occasional goblin encounter cropping up here and there.

She might've gathered 15 goblin corpses for her son to use, but that required several hours of early morning wandering to gather, and she wasn't keen on doing that anytime soon.

...Perhaps she could go adventuring for a couple days?

She didn't really mind doing that, but that would leave her son alone for a couple days. She knew he'd be fine; Evel was a responsible and wonderful boy, but a mother could only worry over what might happen.

Ah, but first, she had a dinner to make. She didn't want to leave her and her son starving for the night after all.