[Farmer] Mage

Cal frowned when he felt his hand run over a small bump on the left side of his torso. He patted it in confusion before his eyes quickly snapped open. He sat up quickly from the bed and slipped out of his robes before taking a large step away.

It was an instinctive yet unnecessary action. The rock had been in his inner pocket for weeks without issue and was unlikely to cause any sudden problems.

I suppose it’s a good thing I fell asleep with my robes on… It reminded me that the rock was on my person.

Cal picked up the robe and turned it over the dresser so the contents inside would fall out without him needing to touch it. The booklets stayed in the inner pockets due to their size, but the rock and stick that he had got from the merchant, Benin, at the bazaar tumbled out.

Calling it a ‘rock’ and ‘stick’ wasn’t ideal, but Cal couldn’t bear to use what Benin claimed they were.

… Hm. That’s not entirely true. Benin called the rock thing a ‘gem.’ I can make myself believe that since it likely has an actual use, though I don’t know what it does. As for the stick, there’s no way I can make myself call it ‘Dragon Bone’ or whatever Benin claimed it was.

Still, he couldn’t make himself throw the stick away. Not only had he spent multiple gold on it, but there was also a small, tiny, minuscule chance that Benin had told the truth.

Cal felt the urge to poke the ‘gem’ to see if it would do anything now that he was stronger, and that was the sign for him to leave the room. It had to be if he was tempted to do something so reckless.

He glanced out the window and saw that the sun hadn’t risen yet, so he spent a few hours feeding his mana to the hearthstone until the sun was peeking over the horizon.

I’ll give Seris a few more hours to arrive before checking on her.

Cal headed outside to water his crops. He noticed that his [Secondary Tier] didn’t level up when [Rainfall] stopped.

As was expected. The higher a [Tier] level, the more was required to upgrade it.

He wanted to advance it to the next level to see if he could gain a [Skill] from it.

Not that I really expect to get a [Skill] at this level. It’s something I never had in my past life since a regular [Class] supposedly gets a [Skill] choice only on a [Tier] rank upgrade, never in the middle.

Cal moved to the other side of the piles of rocks to move out of his field. He was fairly certain that casting [Earth Barrier} would severely damage the ground, and he had no wish to do that to his poor field with its already terrible soil.

Casting [Earth Barrier] was more involved than he had assumed. In an ideal environment, he needed to know the general composition of the ground, the overall structure, and how well his mana would integrate with it.

Cal pointed his palm to the ground and released a small amount of mana. He kept it connected to his mana core and directed the released mana to sink into the ground before smiling at the result.

I freely admit that I know little about the composition or structure, but the booklet mentioned that my ignorance could be covered by earth element affinity. That, and I think the odd surface layer here likes mana too much to resist.

He quickly calculated the mana required to create a barrier that would completely cover him and estimated it would take around five percent. He released the mana from his core and waited for it to sink into the ground before pulling his hand up.

Cal's brow furrowed as he sensed the ground's stubborn resistance. But only for a heartbeat before it started to tremble. With a smooth motion, his hand sliced through the air, and the ground followed.

A massive wall, ten foot wide wall burst from the soil with a deep rumble, surging upward in a perfect line before it arched overhead, bending to form a protective barrier that wrapped over Cal. Then it stopped.

He could feel it sipping on mana as it drew from his core to sustain itself. An amount negligible enough that it wasn’t worth considering.

Your [Secondary Tier] has increased by 1 level.

Cal glanced at the interface before dismissing it. He reaching the midway point as [Initiate 5]. He was right when he guessed that he wouldn’t get to choose a [Skill]. It was unfortunate, but it wasn’t something he was too disappointed with since it was expected.

He slowly stepped out of the barrier’s protection and stared at its surprising thickness. It seemed to be a foot at a minimum, and combined with its width of ten feet, it was telling that he used too much mana to cast [Earth Barrier].

I didn’t consider the increased density of my mana from [Mage].

Cal was about to cut off the flow of mana to the barrier when he thought about testing it. He moved several dozen feet away before pointing his palm at the barrier.

He narrowed his eyes as he tried to keep the connection to the barrier active while casting [Liquid Core]. It was a strange feeling to have both the water and earth elements active at the same time, but it was frighteningly easy.

It must be because both elements complement each other. I wonder what will happen if I try to use them in one spell… something to consider later.

Cal repeated what was required to make [Liquid Core] a long-range attack and shot the water ball at the barrier. He flinched at the impact.

It collided with the barrier in less than a blink of an eye. It was loud enough to send a slight tremor through the ground and left deep, spider-webbed cracks across the surface of the barrier. Chunks of the barrier fell to the ground, but it remained standing, showing that it was capable of taking the full force of [Liquid Core].

Cal felt the sharp rise in the mana draw from [Earth Barrier] at the moment of impact. It took well over fifty percent of his mana capacity to sustain the barrier during the attack.

The barrier is functional, but against attacks from someone at the Apprentice rank, it would be better to just dodge instead of trying to block. The depletion of mana would make it nearly impossible to counterattack.

He stared at the damaged barrier briefly before lifting his hand again. Another water ball was launched at the barrier.

Cal grunted at the moment of impact. Not from the sound or tremors, but his mana dropping immediately to near zero capacity. A massive hole was blown out in the barrier. Though it was still standing, he would be severely injured if he was behind that.

The barrier sipped on the last bit of his mana before he had nothing left. The barrier immediately crumbled to the ground in pieces, the loss of mana supply doing what the water ball attacks couldn’t do.

Your [Secondary Tier] has increased by 1 level.

Cal dismissed the interface. He should be at the Apprentice level in a few days at this rate, but he was also aware that it wouldn’t be so easy.

The initial casting of a spell had a large contribution towards [Tier] growth, but there was a hefty penalty for every repeated recast. Still, it promoted learning or creating new spells, the latter of which he intended to take advantage of in the future.

Cal left the crumbled barrier behind and hopped up to the peak of his meditation hill before looking toward the tree line. He could hear multiple carts heading towards his field.

That must be Drex with the supplies. Good. I can start repairing the rest of the field.

He hopped down to his field and leisurely went to his house to await delivery. He knew that he was trying to ignore how all of this might have to be given up if he really needed to leave the Celestial Order’s territory, but that really was the best choice at the moment.

Even if Cal had to leave, that didn’t mean he could stop working on his field just to spite the guild. That would be more harmful to him than the guild. In fact, the guild wouldn’t care since the Northern Wastes had never produced anything in the past anyway.

The extra effort he intended to put into his field would not only help his [Tier] growth but also lull the guild—or whoever was interested in him—into a belief that he intended to integrate fully. In the meantime, he would need to gather information about the territory's surrounding area quickly and discreetly.

Cal had intended to let Seris deal with it, but that wasn’t the best idea now. It was a good thing she had avoided the topic entirely in an attempt to hope he had forgotten. He would let her believe that while getting the information elsewhere.

I will have to think about what to do about Seris and Tavia. Maybe Orrin too. Nibbles will follow me, but the others…

He shook his head to rid himself of thoughts without an immediate solution and observed the carts appear at the tree line.

Cal waved at the lead cart and motioned for the driver to head towards him. He wanted the supplies out of the way, as he intended to repair the whole field. The best place was near the house.

“Er, delivery for Initiate Cal?” The driver of the car spoke nervously.

“That’s me. Unload all the supplies by that wall,” Cal pointed at the wall between the front door and the storage room. “Where’s Drex?”

“H-He told us to make the delivery,” the driver spat out with a terrified stutter. “I-I can tell him you expected him when I return.”

Cal frowned at the man's fear, which did not help calm the man down. He forced a slight smile on his lips and said, “There’s no need. It’s not anything important.”

He stepped away to let the men do their jobs and wondered what Drex had told that driver. They quickly finished their work before the carts left his field in an orderly fashion.

Cal tallied the amount of loam and mulch delivered, of which the loam was the majority, and calculated that he could repair about five thousand square feet of soil. This was a good number, but still only about five percent of the field available.

I expect another delivery soon.

He debated picking up a tub of loam and starting on step one of the repair process but eventually decided not to. He likely wouldn’t stop the work for hours, so it was better to find out what Seris was doing beforehand.

Besides, I urgently need to commission more tools from Orrin. I might as well use this trip to do that.

Cal was about to leave for the town when he remembered the ‘gem’ that was openly lying on his dresser. He had been carrying it around since he wanted to prevent the attack on the guild, but that was no longer an option after seeing the guildmaster.

He wasn’t certain that the ‘gem’ caused the drastic change he saw in the guildmaster in his first life, but since he wasn’t sure it was safe, it would be better to keep it away from him. He wanted to save the Celestial Order if possible, but not at a detriment to himself.

In fact, Cal wanted the ‘gem’ out of the Northern Wastes and as far from him as it could be.

He was still thinking about how to make it happen when he heard a welcome voice.

“Cal! Did Initiate Tavia get more furniture again?!”