026

The next morning, Erick went to the farms immediately. He chose to forgo leveling his billiard ball aura in order to get more [Grow] in the fields. And with that choice, after 6 rounds of apple growth, and a little more, [Grow] hit 10.

 

 

Aurify had hit level 2 somewhere in the first [Grow] cycle yesterday. But he didn’t really care about that until [Grow] itself had hit 10; it’s not like Aurify gave experience.

 

 

And by these powers combined, Erick created a masterpiece, maybe 4 seconds after [Grow] hit 10.

 

 

He could opt out of growing the weeds and grasses, now. He could focus on the trees entirely. He wouldn’t get dirty looks from telekinetic pickers forced to drag their carts through high grasses! His new aura was better than he expected.

Part one of his plan to become the world’s best farmer was complete!

And then came another message from the Script.

 

 

But wait, there’s more!

He had only gone through about 4200 mana by that point in the day. Sure, he was tired, but compared to before, this was nothing. And since he was here in the morning, and since Valok, Apogough, and Krakina had decided that they could amp up production a lot more with more water, they had him [Call Lightning] 3 times in a row.

Rain fell across the farms, far and wide, and larger than the day before, because [Call Lightning] had leveled, too.

 

 

“It might be getting too big,” Apogough said.

Krakina shushed him, “Bah! You’re scared of a little storm like that! I have rounded up thunderheads bigger than Ar’Kendrithyst! This is a little shower at most.”

“Krakina is right,” Valok said. “This isn’t bad. And it’s covering the whole farm.”

“Keeping the water table high,” Krakina said. “Makes bringing up water easier.”

“Production is up.”

“Markets are full.”

“Needs more [Grow] mages, though.”

Erick said, “I’m too tired to keep [Grow]ing today, but [Grow] finally hit 10. Got [Growth Aura] immediately after, too.”

Apogough nodded. “What version did you get? If you can’t designate targets, consider abandoning the spell.”

“I got that one.”

Valok smiled. “Lucky. Took me five tries. Five wasted days. Not a pleasant experience.”

“Do I need to go to Irogh if I don’t like the combined spell I create?”

“Nah.” Apogough said, “Just grab the text box and try crushing it in your mind. But don’t crush your new aura; you might not be able to remake the same one without a lot of trial and error.”

Krakina nodded. “My daughter, bless her soul, did this weird thing with [Stoneshape] and [Telekinesis], trying to get a spell to pull rads out of living monsters. She got the idea from the Mage Guild’s Library, and the spell she made did what she wanted, but it grabbed only the smallest rads. Wasn’t useful on anything past a slime. So she abandoned that spell, then she had to abandon that spell fifty four more times! Nothing she could make was as good as that first attempt. She got powder and fragments every single time!” Krakina lowered her voice, saying to Erick, “Powder isn’t good because all of us have powder inside.” She laughed. “Usually it comes out naturally, though!”

As the rain fizzled out, Valok asked, “You coming back in the afternoon?”

“Sure. Twice a day?”

“For a little while. We’re all pretty enthusiastic about this. We want to see if it’s sustainable.” Valok added, “Thanks for this opportunity, Erick. All of us make much more money here than in many of our homes. A lot of us would prefer to live here permanently, but we can’t because it’s impossible to farm like we normally would.”

Erick looked across the green land. As the rain was stopping, more people were kicking into high gear, casting [Grow] auras and picking plants with [Telekinesis].

Erick asked, “This isn’t normal farming?”

“Heck no!” Krakina said, “We got to gouge those transient adventurers as much as we can! Have you been to the Adventurer’s District lately? I went yesterday. That place is PACKED.”

“Word is getting around that Spur might be a tough life, but it’s getting easier with the rain, and the Headmaster’s call to action has spurred a lot more human visitation.” Apogough smiled. “Even humans from Frontier are coming over to buy our produce. That never happens.”

Erick smiled. That was all really good news. He said, “I’m tapped out. Back in the afternoon?”

“Yes. Same time. Same place.” Valok said.

“See you later.”

“Later!” Krakina said.

Apogough just nodded, and walked away with Valok.

 

– – – –

 

Erick got his quests validated, took lunch in a dragonkin cafe, then headed home for a nap. He had gone through 4575 mana by then. Just enough left on his 5250 daily limit to exhaustion to finish up three more rains in the afternoon. He was doing a lot more magic than before; without Clarity X cutting all costs by 50% and Favored Spell cutting [Call Lightning] by another 25%, he’d be in a heap of hurt.

He almost overslept, missing the afternoon rains, but he didn’t; Poi knocked on the door to his room. In minutes they were out of the apartment, on the way to the farms.

Valok and Apogough were waiting for him when he got to the farms.

Three more [Call Lightning]s and the day was done!

 

 

Erick was near his limit. This was a good thing, because by tomorrow afternoon, after casting [Call Lightning] 6 more times, the spell would hit 10. Then he could try making an aura with both [Call Lightning] and [Grow].

Wouldn’t that be a sight to see!

 

– – – –

 

The next morning, Erick arrived at the farms on time for a morning rain.

[Call Lightning]

wait 8 minutes…

[Call Lightning]

wait 8 minutes…

[Call Lightning]

Erick sat on a stone seat someone else had made, under someone else’s weather [Ward]; Valok, Apogough, and Krakina, sat beside him, each in their own seats. Poi stood to the side, ever ready. The seats and [Ward] were there when Erick got there. There were many similar bubbles all over the farm, where people took a break while the rain came down around them, the sky crackling with faint lightning, far above.

Erick said, “[Call Lightning] is going to hit 10 this afternoon, but I need to experiment with it as an Aura to see what I’m working with.” Erick said, “I want to try it out in the desert somewhere. Maybe even get it to 10 right now and see about making a [Grow Rain], or something.”

Poi nodded.

Valok, Apogough, and Krakina looked at each other.

Apogough said, “Ask him, Valok.”

Poi took extreme notice.

Erick, suddenly a bit more wary, said, “Ask me what?”

Valok said, “The Council has been talking among ourselves and our people about our future plans. We came to a preliminary decision last night. We want to try opening some farm land north west of this farm. There’s no water table over there, though. So we’re considering cattle and other livestock, and we need a pasture to feed them. But all of that relies on your participation.”

Oh? That’s all? That was great! That fell pretty much exactly in line with Erick’s plans.

“I accept.” Erick quickly added some caveats. “But I want a cut.”

“Of course you get a cut!” Krakina said, “I’m going to demand a cut, too, when I take back my job.”

“How much money are we talking?” Erick asked, “What’s the plan?”

Valok said, “Your 10 gold a day for the rain will turn into 15. You will be offered a job as an official employee of the City, like Krakina and Al, for example. But your only duty will be the rain. We’ll work out a proper schedule later, but if you keep coming out to the farm like this, then we can work with you instead of assigning a time to cast the rain.”

Apogough said, “We’re thinking of bringing my father in to start the farm. He’s been a cattle rancher for decades, and he already has a connection here in Spur. His plan is 50 cattle to start, and he already has a stock able to arrive as soon as we’re ready. Spur is a very high-mana area, so the cattle’ll grow faster than normal. If they become monstrous, which we think they will, each cow will sell for 300 to 400 gold and reach maturity in three months. If they don’t, then it’s a 10 month timetable, and only 40G to 60G per head. We’re offering you 5% of the profit on meat sales. Meaning anywhere between 2 to 17 gold per cow, for you. Best case scenario, with 50 herd of cattle, you pull in an extra 10G per day.”

Valok said, “The cows will eat a lot of food if they become monstrous. If you can make a [Grow Rain Aura] then we’ll need to recalculate costs, and you will get a bigger cut. Either from meat profits, or from your role as an employee of Spur. Potentially up to 20 gold per day, for now.”

Krakina said, “This is all talk and speculation! We do this proper in the Courthouse under a truthstone if you want to go forward.”

“If the cattle become monstrous, then we can also start selling off the kill rights.” Apogough said, “Monstrous cattle can be anywhere from level 10 to 25.”

Suddenly dismayed, Erick said, “Level 25… cows?”

“Yeah. I once saw a level 30 cow. That thing was terrifying. They let it live for way too long.” Apogough said, “If we start selling the kill rights, then that’s even more money. You’d get 5% of that, too.”

Erick joked, “I could start my own farm and grind out experience all on my own!”

Krakina laughed, but Apogough and Valok frowned.

Valok asked, “Are you interested in that sort of thing? Would you like to be a cattle rancher? That is another option, but we didn’t know how you felt.”

“Heck no!” Erick laughed again. “I’ll get paid by the city and take some profit from being the only one in the world with this magic, and thus the only way you’re ever going to get this operation off of the ground.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He let that sink in a bit.

Krakina smiled. Valok and Apogough’s frowns vanished, in a business sort of way.

“So let’s make this profitable for everyone because I sure as hell ain’t gonna start a monster ranch on my own.” Erick said, “But I want access to the books to make sure I’m not getting bent over by some big business.”

Valok and Apogough smiled. Krakina laughed.

Apogough said, “We’ll agree to that.”

Erick smiled, adding, “I might want to get in on that monstrous cattle slaying, too. I could use another level 30 kill. That’s what the shadowcats were, right?”

Valok and Apogough looked at him like he had said something strange.

Krakina said, “Participation percentage on your own raised monsters is not great. Very low. Better to sell the rights to the freshly matriculated. Oh! I know.” She pointed toward the desert with a long grey wing feather. “I take you out and you zappy zappy a crystal mimic or three! Can you fly yet?”

“Not yet. But I was—”

“Bah! Making storms before you can fly! Terrible, terrible! Such bad discipline! What is Al doing with you! Do you even have the spells to make a [Fly]?”

Erick smiled to himself, waiting for his turn to speak. When it came, he said, “I was joking about killing the cows. I’ll eat it and participate in their growth, but actually killing them? I can leave that to the kids.” Erick asked, “Where does the participation percentage come from, anyway?”

Valok nodded, saying, “The God of Death doesn’t like people killing monsters they raise, so he drops the participation to 1%. He drops the participation to 1% anytime anyone kills a monster too easily. Even when we sell the kill rights for a monster cow, the buyer has the option to enter a battle ring and kill the cow that way for a chance at a higher percentage.”

Apogough said, “I’ve seen people die in those rings before. Not pretty.”

“A god decides Participation?” Erick said, “I didn’t know that.”

Then he remembered Bacci saying that she got 2% Participation from killing the Sewerhouse intruders.

A sudden spike of dread shot through Erick. Another question came to him, and he almost didn’t want to ask what he needed to know. “Some god in charge is actively choosing that number? That’s horrifying. Do they decide the experience granted by killing people, too? Are people just walking bags of experience?”

Erick looked at Poi. Poi looked rather normal; he didn’t look suddenly wary. If someone asked a question like that around Erick, it would be setting off all sorts of red flags. Alarms would be blaring.

But. Apparently. Erick was the only one feeling a chill in the air.

Krakina chuckled.

Apogough shook his head.

Valok said, “If someone were to attack you first with the intent to kill, then there might be some Participation awarded, if you won. But…” Valok frowned. “No. People aren’t walking ‘bags of experience’.”

Apogough said, “There’s duels. Those grant 100% experience.” He added, “Dueling is illegal in Spur.”

Poi joined the conversation, “There is another exception to this rule. While Phagar, the God of Death, decides the vast majority of Participation, the Abyssal Legion and the Celestial Choir determine the Participation of any fight between a human and an incani.”

Cold welled inside Erick’s chest.

Krakina added, “You’re a Planar though. No Angelic prod at your back, telling you that killing any incani would give you 100% Participation.” She looked toward Spur. “I hope those humans in town are gonna be okay.”

Apogough said, “Silverite had a lock down on Human/Incani fighting for hundreds of years before the Great Purge. Not sure how she managed to do that, but she knows what she’s doing.”