Chapter 116. The First Blue Flower

Tarin came running from the cucumber bed before Cosmic sent the revised offer.

"Rowan!"

Rowan dropped the charcoal beside the vegetable row and turned.

"What happened?"

"The marked vine changed. We did not touch it."

Carlos reached the protected bed behind Rowan. Mira followed more slowly, while one Hearthkeeper remained in the kitchen with the unfinished meals.

All twenty cucumber vines had climbed farther along their frames. Small yellow flowers had opened between the leaves.

One flower on the blue-marked vine was different.

A thin blue line ran through each yellow petal. A clear drop rested in its centre even though Tarin and Sela had not watered the bed recently. Blue floated to Carlos’s side.

"No Mana Water," he reminded it.

Blue nodded and stayed outside the plot while the four Slimes behind her stopped as well.

Rowan crouched beside the vine. He checked the soil first, then the trellis and the ordinary vine growing in the next row.

"Clean water only?" he asked.

"Clean water from the spring basin," Sela answered. "We did not add any Mana Water. We used the same amount you ordered."

"Any change during the night?"

Tarin opened the small record board beside the bed.

"The blue line reached the stem before sunrise. The flower opened a few minutes ago. The other nineteen vines flowered normally."

Rowan read the record before touching the soil with two fingers.

Carlos used Inspect.

--

[Clearwater Cucumber]

[Grade: Uncommon]

[Development stage: Flowering]

[Water-touched trait: Stabilizing]

[Current requirements]

[Clean water]

[Stable trellis support]

[Ordinary cultivated soil]

[Warning: Concentrated Mana Water may destabilize trait development]

--

Carlos read the panel aloud.

"We continue exactly as before," Rowan said. "Nobody changes the water. Nobody moves the vine."

"Should we remove the other flowers?" Tarin asked.

"No."

"Should we give this one more support?"

Rowan examined the frame. "One loose tie above the flower. Do not pull the stem toward it."

Sela collected a strip of soft cloth. Tarin held the frame still while she tied it above the vine, leaving enough space for the stem to move.

The Living Scarecrow turned toward a small insect near the edge of the bed. Its straw arm moved.

The insect flew away before the hand reached it.

"At least it is doing its job," Carlos said.

"No," Rowan said.

Carlos looked at him. "No?"

Rowan moved to the place where the insect had been hovering. It had not bitten the leaf or damaged the stem. A little yellow dust remained on one of its legs before it disappeared beyond the Farmer’s Lodge.

"The vines are flowering," Rowan said. "Driving away everything that approaches them is not protection. Some insects carry pollen between the flowers."

Carlos looked at the Living Scarecrow. "It is supposed to protect the crop."

"It has basic intelligence. Basic does not mean it understands every stage of growing a cucumber."

That sounded like a problem Carlos should have expected.

He inspected the blue-lined flower again.

--

[Water-touched Clearwater Cucumber Flower]

[Pollination status: Incomplete]

[Estimated flowering period remaining: 3 hours 24 minutes]

[Successful pollination required for fruit formation]

--

Tarin read the panel and immediately looked worried.

"Did the scarecrow chase away the others too?"

"We do not know," Rowan said. "So we do not wait and hope another insect returns."

He asked Sela to bring the small soft brush from the crop tools. While she ran to get it, Rowan inspected the ordinary flowers on the other nineteen vines.

He selected one fully opened flower from the same bed.

"This one has healthy pollen," he said when Sela returned. "Watch my hand. Do not press the petals and do not touch the centre with your fingers."

Rowan moved the brush lightly through the yellow dust inside the ordinary flower. Then he passed it across the centre of the blue-lined flower.

The clear drop trembled but did not fall.

--

[Pollination attempted]

[Compatibility: Sufficient]

[Do not repeat while evaluation is in progress]

--

Sela pulled the brush away immediately.

"Now we wait?" Carlos asked.

"Now we stop touching it," Rowan said. "That is different."

Tarin turned toward the Living Scarecrow.

"Can it understand if I tell it to leave the flowers alone?"

Carlos opened the scarecrow’s panel.

--

[Living Scarecrow]

[Assigned plot: Clearwater Cucumber Bed]

[Farmer assistance available]

[Simple task instructions may be given by a Farmer]

--

"It should," Carlos said. "Keep the instruction simple."

Tarin stood in front of the scarecrow. "Protect the ground, frames and leaves. Do not strike insects near open flowers unless they damage the plant."

The scarecrow’s head turned toward the flowering vines. Its straw hands lowered to its sides.

Rowan watched it for several seconds.

"One of you stays beside the bed until the pollination result appears," he said. "If it starts hitting every insect again, move them away yourself and record it."

"I will stay," Tarin said.

Sela lifted the record board. "I will write down the time and what we used."

This was more work than Carlos had expected from a single flower. But without Rowan, he would have praised the scarecrow for stopping the very thing the crop needed.

Neither Farmer looked away from the flower.

"You two did well," he added.

Tarin finally looked at him. "We only followed Rowan’s instructions, my lord."

"Stills a job well done, good job"

Sela smiled and tarin’s ears perked up. Rowan stood and brushed the soil from his fingers.

"This is the kind of work that raised their levels," Carlos said to him.

"Part of it," Rowan answered. "Planting an Uncommon crop correctly mattered. Protecting an unstable trait matters more. Levels do not matter to me, skills does."

That was close enough to praise from Rowan.

Mira remained outside the plot. She had come because Tarin shouted, but the kitchen still had its own work waiting for her.

"Call me when the cucumbers are ready to harvest" she said. "Can’t really cook a flower you know, maybe make tea with it but not food." She tried to joke to lighten the mood.

She returned to the kitchen without approaching the marked vine.

The system panel changed.

--

[Water-touched trait has entered stabilization]

[Successful fruit formation may produce a cultivable variant]

[Estimated observation period: 2 days]

--

Carlos looked at the final line. Two days was not long for him.

He had thought about using these cucumbers to help with the food preparation soon but that plan wouldn’t work anymore.

Soon, a message popped up in front of him. Cosmic had sent the revised food offer.

Carlos left it unopened for a moment and looked at Tarin and Sela.

"Keep doing exactly what you were doing. Try and see if you can grow this early, alright?"

"Yes, my lord," they answered together.

Carlos stepped away from the bed and opened Cosmic’s message.

He needed to fix this upcoming food crisis soo in order to focus on future development. Things were soon to be getting chaotic again.