NOVEL WEB Chapter 23: Harvest
At the start of this sunny day, Jonn, Arber, and Dreue stood in front of the village greenhouses, each dressed in aprons and gloves, holding large straw baskets.
They wore hats on their heads and had small farming tools in the pockets of their aprons, but it was the broad smiles on their faces that stood out most at this moment.
Facing the two greenhouses, about 40 meters apart, they greeted each other before Arber and Dreue headed to Hewet’s greenhouse, while Jonn went to his own.
Given the greater presence of plants and the larger yield of fruits and vegetables to be harvested in the oldest planting structure, there was more work for the two farmers than for Jonn on his plot.
Jonn made his way inside the area he had built and soon laid eyes on the tomatoes he had first planted.
The first generation of fruit always delivers smaller quantities than later generations. Even so, this single tomato plant yielded 44 tomatoes in its first generation.
Jonn picked the fruits, each as big as his hands, and gently stacked them in one corner of his basket. After harvesting everything from that tomato plant, he checked the state of the plant and the mana crystal beneath it with his magnifying glass.
Good. I’ll be able to expand the plantation and carry out my experiment with a chicken in another seven days.
He moved on to the area with carrots, onions, and lettuce. Calmly and carefully, he collected the results of months of care, getting large, vibrantly colored produce that was clearly rich in nutrients.
He cleaned one leaf in his basket with a little of his mana and chewed a piece, savoring the soft, refreshing taste as his teeth crunched the crisp leaf.
The food in the village differed from what he had gotten from Acelin. The merchant’s food served its purpose, but after eating a good quantity, one would still feel unsatisfied. This was not the case with the food grown in the village.
The leaf Jonn ate made him feel refreshed, momentarily curbing his appetite.
But Jonn wasn’t surprised. He had already thoroughly analyzed the village’s food and compared it with the results of the analysis of the outside food.
The village’s food contained almost three times as many macronutrients and micronutrients as the imported food!
Soon, he had a basket full of food and hadn’t even harvested half of what was available today. He went to a wagon, which was waiting for the farmers, and placed his basket alongside the ones Arber and Dreue had already left.
He returned to his greenhouse with a sense of fulfillment, leaving Petyr to wait in front of the wagon that was gradually becoming colorful with the bounty from the harvest.
Unfortunately, the quantity, although enough to put smiles on the faces of those involved, was far from ideal. The village was still rationing its portions. But with today’s harvest, Petyr already imagined that the situation would improve in another four months.
‘The next big harvest will have even the most time-consuming foods ready for us to harvest and in much greater numbers than we have now,’ the red-haired man thought silently next to enough food to feed his people well for a few days.
Meanwhile, Jonn finished harvesting his quota, having also analyzed each plant in his greenhouse before returning to meet his people.
“We’ll have a few more plants ready for harvest next time. We’ll be back here in seven days. I’ll also start working on expanding the planting area at that time,” he said to Arber and Dreue.
The two agreed before heading back to the walled area of the village with Petyr, leaving Jonn alone to analyze the situation of the plants in Hewet’s greenhouse.
He spent the next few minutes studying the behavior of the plants, the state of the pots, the soil, the village worms, the fertilizer, and, most importantly, the Aether Tears.
I need books on agriculture. My time studying the forge with Tim proved particularly successful. If I can study other areas, I’ll improve a few points for the tribe quickly.
The weapons Jonn and Tim had crafted using the new metal alloy proved to be extremely efficient. The village now had six new weapons made from it, and in Jonn’s opinion, they were even better than those Acelin had presented to him.
They were now focused on continuing to produce tools and weapons with the new metal alloy, planning to sell some of them the next time the merchant passed near the village. This should happen in less than three months, providing ample time to develop many tools.
With the walled area of the village nearing completion in the next few days, all the metal produced from the local mines would be used to produce these weapons and tools or be kept as reserves for the future. They intended to manufacture a significant number of weapons for trade to prepare for the coming winter.
After finishing his day of harvesting and analyzing the plants, Jonn looked at his current status, reflecting on the progress made and the tasks ahead.
{Name: Jonn Irondoom}
{Age: 17}
{Level: 1 (54%)}
{Reputation: Level 4 “Elder of the Eternal Village!”}
{Stats:
[Health: 169] [Mana: 154 (184)] [Stamina: 148]}
{Attributes:
[Strenght: 14.7] [Agility: 14] [Dexterity: 13.8]
[Constitution: 16.9] [Endurance: 14.8] [Intelligence: 15.4 (18.4)]
[Wisdom: 14.3 (17.3)] [Charisma: 10.4 (13.4)] [Luck: 10 (12)]}
{Resistances: None}
{Skill: [Analysis]; [Essence of Life].}
{Artifacts: [Wildheart Talisman].}
Next to [Mana], which was grayed out at the moment, there was a red symbol with a number lower than his total amount of mana, representing that he only had 34 units available now.
He ignored the information slowly disappearing from his view, and walked around the area, contemplating the recent explorations he had undertaken.
In the area that once housed the Eternal Village, there was now a large empty space, with some markings of old house foundations. But there were hardly any houses left, with 8 of the village’s 12 previous houses already completed in the walled area, and over 26 people living there now.
Jonn stopped next to the animals, where the village bull slowly walked over to him, drawn by the scent of lettuce in his hands.
Jonn saw the hungry look in the creature’s black eyes, but he couldn’t do much for the animal. He massaged the big bull’s head while reassuring it about the better times to come.
“Wait a few months, Roulf. Soon you’ll have plenty to eat and breed with the cows.”
The week Jonn had been waiting for passed, and another house was completed. But Jonn was less interested in the walled area when he woke up early at his old home, eager to meet Arber and Dreue for another day of harvesting.
The two farmers took over all the harvesting work that morning, allowing Jonn to focus on his crucial task of extending the fields.
He left Arber and Dreue working in the older greenhouse and headed to his site, where he carefully began removing the crystals buried in the ground.
Some of the mana crystals had grown together, making his work more challenging and heavier than when he first did it in his grandfather’s greenhouse. But Jonn had a plan for how to proceed. By midday, when Arber and Dreue had finished and returned to the village with the new harvest, he had extracted all the crystals he could use without harming the existing plants.
Sweaty from head to toe, he paused to catch his breath, looking at the pile of crystals capable of doubling the planting area.
However, he didn’t immediately start preparing the area. Once rested, he went to Hewet’s greenhouse and repeated the process, gathering enough crystals to triple the planted area of his greenhouse.
By the time he finished collecting the crystals from the second greenhouse, the sun was slowly setting, and the light in the area had dimmed.
Alise appeared in the larger greenhouse with hot food for him and helped light the area with torches.
After eating and feeling his mana and physical strength return, Jonn worked next to the planted area, carefully choosing specific positions to maximize his gains.
Theoretically, the area planted should reach around 35 square meters (376 ft²) after this expansion. But because of the changes in the soil and the way I’m positioning the new crystals, we’ll have 44 square meters (473 ft²) of planted area here!
He smiled silently as Alise looked at him curiously, trying to discern what was going through his mind.
“Why are you so happy?” she asked after seeing him finish burying 99% of the mana crystals, leaving only two small pieces remaining.
As he began treating the soil to plant the seeds, Jonn explained through panting breaths, “I thought we’d have 35 square meters of land when I finished my work today. But I got 44 square meters, almost enough to give us four times the greenhouse’s most recent output!”
“Four times?” Alise’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “So when we expand again in another four months, we’ll be able to exceed 100 square meters of the planted area after that?”
Alise was ingenious, unlike the simple, hard-working Eliot. It was no surprise that she was almost as skilled a fisher as her father, even though she was only a little older than Jonn.
Alise had developed a fishing method on her own that was possibly the main reason the village wasn’t starving today. Through a simple system of preserving part of the East Lake, she ensured a sustainable fishery in the area, allowing them to fish weekly without depleting the lake’s fish population.
Jonn grinned at her as he wiped the sweat from his brow. After Elie, Alise was the one he relied on most among the younger members of the Eternal Village.
“That’s right. That would be almost 10 times this month’s production in about 8 or 9 months’ time. We’d be able to solve our food crisis and export food with such figures!”
Alise spent about 10 minutes watching Jonn work after this brief conversation, contemplating the many possibilities for the village, especially the positive ones. But she had almost lost her father recently and couldn’t ignore the negative implications.
“What do you intend to buy after the first food sales, Jonn?”
“Books, food we don’t produce, seeds, and meat… Basically that. There may be other things too, depending on the needs of the village. Why?”
“We need to improve our people’s strength and defenses. Are the books you mentioned for that?”
“Partly, yes…” He didn’t reveal his entire plan. He trusted his people, but he wouldn’t discuss things he wasn’t sure about or didn’t have a solid idea of.
“Well, apart from that, I think we need more horses. Fighting on horses is a great advantage, from what I understand from my lessons with Petyr. And having animals to carry fish and other food around the region will help. In particular, we need wood for building carts, carriages, and boats. It would also help if we could build a small house by the lake.” She shared some ideas she had in mind.
Jonn looked at her in agreement. Indeed, the village would need these things, and the lake was important for them to have an outpost there. “We can look into that in the future,” he promised sincerely.
Alise smiled as she clasped her hands together. That was almost all she wanted to discuss with him today, but there was something else before she returned home.
She pointed toward the last remaining crystals and asked, “Aren’t you going to use them to increase the planted area a little more?”
Jonn looked at the two small mana crystals he had saved for his experiments, seeing through the darkness that had already covered them this early evening.