Chapter 159. Doing the farming right (1)- The First Rare Row

Chapter 159: 159. Doing the farming right (1)- The First Rare Row

Carlos went toward the southern fields after breakfast and found Rowan arguing with Tarin about a rope.

The rope had been stretched across the new Rare Farmland. Tarin wanted to put it farther back, while Rowan kept pointing at the small water path beside it.

Sela watched both of them with a basket in her hands. Carlos had expected everyone to start planting already, but the three hundred square meters were still mostly empty.

"What happened?" he asked.

"He wants the walking path over the water," Rowan said. "Then somebody carrying seeds will step into it and we will spend our morning repairing something we made yesterday."

Tarin pulled the rope toward himself without answering. Carlos understood who had won that conversation.

Rowan looked different enough that Carlos still needed a moment whenever he saw him. His white cloth floated near his shoulders, and his bare feet were resting above the grass.

The old farmer would have complained about his knees after standing this long. This Rowan was annoyed because somebody had put a rope in the wrong place.

Carlos was happy to have that problem instead.

"How are you feeling today?"

"Good. I stood near the spring before sunrise. The soil here has enough life in it too."

"And food? Mira was asking."

"I do not need breakfast, my lord. Tell her she can stop sending someone to ask."

Carlos smiled. "She has fed you for a month. Give her some time."

Rowan looked toward the kitchen before returning to the field.

Sela offered Carlos the basket, and he saw the small packets inside it. Each one had been marked by hand.

"The Sunseed ones?"

"Ten," she said. "The protected ten from the first purchase. Mira counted them before she gave them to us."

Carlos remembered expecting six days when they had first planted those seeds.

The first harvest had arrived sooner, but even five days had felt long when every jar of oil mattered.

Now Rowan could mature a plant twice a day, and there was land better than the ordinary southern field.

"We use Life Bloom on one?" Carlos asked.

Rowan shook his head.

"We plant them and see the timer first. If they grow quickly enough, I would rather use that ability on a plant which needs it."

Carlos nodded and let Sela take the basket back. He had been about to spend one charge just to see another plant grow in front of him. It had looked good yesterday, but Rowan was right to ask what they would gain from it.

They marked a smaller section inside the new plot. The Sunseed plants needed enough room that their heads would not lean into each other once they grew. Rowan checked the space himself, then made Tarin move two markers farther apart.

"There is still a lot empty," Carlos said.

"For the cucumbers and their frames. We need a path between them too. If you fill it all today, tomorrow you will ask why nobody can carry a basket through it."

Carlos looked at the ropes again. The land did look much smaller once somebody started deciding where everything would go.

Carlos asked Rowan to show him how the new ground compared with the older Rare plot.

He wanted to understand what he was multiplying every day, rather than keep calling it good land and leave the rest to someone else.

Rowan took a handful from each side and let Carlos hold them. Both broke apart easily. The newer soil had more fine roots running through it, but its recognised fertility benefit matched the older plot.

"The Spirit Farmland still has its own mana and quality effects," Rowan said. "These fields will grow food quickly. That one stays valuable for the things ordinary rich soil cannot support."

Carlos looked toward the Silverwood and nodded. They had used the Epic field to multiply common seeds before, and that work could continue.

The new Rare sections gave those seeds somewhere much better to grow after they left the small protected rows.

"Then keep the seed project going," he said. "We will need enough to plant every section you change."

He crouched beside Rowan when the first seed went in. The soil came apart easily beneath his fingers.

Even the old Rare plot had felt good when he first touched it, and he had barely understood what farming was then.

This ground had the same richness, with small roots moving below it whenever Rowan placed his hand nearby.

The panel appeared after all ten seeds were planted and watered.

--

[Sunseed Oil Crop]

[Common Grade]

[Seeds planted: 10]

[Base Growth Duration: 6 days]

[Rare Farmland fertility: Growth Speed x10]

[Farmer’s Agricultural Expertise: Growth Speed +10%]

[Verdant Growth: Growth Speed +60%]

[Estimated Growth Duration: 8 hours, 10 minutes, 55 seconds]

[Oil extraction required after harvest]

--

Carlos read the last time again and looked at Rowan.

"Eight hours?"

"That is what it says."

"We planted the same seeds before and waited days."

"They were in ordinary land before. You have seen wheat grow quickly in the Rare plot. Why should these be different?"

Carlos knew that, but seeing the difference attached to something they actually needed was another thing.

Eight hours meant they could plant after breakfast and harvest before most people finished dinner.

"Mira needs to see this," he said, getting up.

Sela had already turned toward the kitchen. Rowan called her back before she could leave.

"Finish the labels first. If everyone runs away whenever a number looks good, I will be planting alone."

Carlos went himself. He found Mira checking the wheat sacks with a Hearthkeeper, and she listened while keeping one hand on a tied bag.

"Before night?" she asked when he showed her the panel.

"Before night. These ten first, then we keep seeds for the next planting."

Mira put down her board and came with him immediately. Carlos liked that reaction a lot more than Rowan’s calm one. She stood beside the row, read the timer herself, and asked Sela to point out every seed marker.

"Do not take all the heads for oil," Rowan told her.

"I was going to tell you the same thing."

They started discussing how much had to remain for replanting.

Carlos let them talk while he watched the soil. There was nothing above it yet, but the timer kept moving.

Kaia arrived before Mira went back. She had checked the temporary tomato fence and wanted to know whether Rowan would be experimenting again that morning.

"Not beside these," Carlos said. "He tells me before using Plant Weaving. We choose the plant and the place first."

Rowan looked up from the labels.

"I agreed yesterday."

"I know, and now everyone knows too. If you say something can explode or burn someone alive, they come get me before you touch it."

Tarin gave a very serious nod. Carlos could not blame him after the stone pieces had jumped around his head yesterday.

Kaia asked Rowan to leave the tomato vine where it was while she finished the test enclosure.

The fruit had to be carried there eventually, but she wanted a cleared approach and somewhere for the observers to stand first. Two Militia would help with the stones after their training.

"We will also need something to carry them in," she said.

"Find a basket that keeps them apart," Carlos replied. "Ask Rowan what touches the fruit safely. Do not start by dropping one inside it."

Kaia understood and left with Tarin to look at the fence. Mira returned to the kitchen after making Sela promise to come for her before harvesting.

By afternoon, small leaves had pushed out of the Sunseed row.

Carlos passed it twice while working near the warehouse, and the second time he could see the difference without bending down.

Rowan was floating beside the cucumber frames, adjusting the position of one vine with Sela.

Carlos left them to it. There were other fields in Ironroot too, and the ordinary wheat and vegetables had begun growing faster under Verdant Growth.

The farmers were already changing their harvest order so the older rows would not be left standing while everybody watched the new ones.

Near evening, Rowan called Carlos over to the adjoining cultivated section. Worldroot’s timer had finally finished, a full day after yesterday’s use.

"We convert this part," Rowan said. "The beans have been harvested. Their roots can stay."

Carlos checked the path beside it and agreed. This was land they already owned and farmed.

The houses and buildings needed their space, and he would not have Rowan push Rare soil underneath the kitchen because he wanted a larger number.

Roots moved beneath the empty rows. The change took only moments, leaving dark earth where the pale bean stubble had stood.

--

[Worldroot Expansion complete]

[Rare Farmland created: 300 square meters]

[Total Worldroot-created Rare Farmland: 600 square meters]

[Next use available in: 23:59:59]

--

Carlos looked back toward the first plot. The Sunseed plants had become taller than the morning markers, their heads gathering at the tops of firm green stems. Mira was already waiting beside them with her basket.

The growth panel had less than an hour left.

Carlos walked toward her with a grin he did not try to hide. They were going to get oil made by them tonight.