Farmer Mage

Chapter 102: Automation

“Where are all the ships?” Cal asked the man he had seen working as Drex’s assistant. Almost all of them were gone from the harbor. The one he was most curious about was Benan’s. The small trading vessel was nowhere to be seen.

That made little sense to Cal. He remembered the deal that Benan was highly insistent on. The man wanted Cal to do him a favor in the next several days, and leaving now seemed highly unusual. He should have been happy about the sudden departure, but it was the exact opposite.

Cal would’ve preferred Benan to be in a location that was known to him.

“I—I don’t know. Maybe they went to Gale’s End?” The poor assistant looked terrified at being unable to give him a concrete answer.

Cal waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. Let Drex know I need ten carts with drivers to arrive at my farm tomorrow morning.”

The assistant nodded rapidly. “I’ll let him know as soon as I see him in the morning.”

“Good man,” Cal smiled before walking back to town. He could sense the Apprentice, who had passed him the note, watching from a building at the edge of the port.

He had no intention of initiating contact. That was Overseer Marek’s man. It would be on him to take action.

***

Cal left the lone restaurant in Mariner’s Rest with a frown. The proprietor knew nothing about Benan’s whereabouts, and that was where his ideas to ask around died.

He ignored the looks he received again as he walked through town. There was a strong temptation to return to Seris’s house and stay for the night. It felt wrong to leave his assistant as she was, but even though it looked callous, it was for her own good.

Cal preferred not to be seen in anyone’s presence for an extended period while in negotiations with Maelor. It couldn’t be hidden that he had mortal employees, but it would be best to make it look as if he didn’t care much about them for now.

He left Mariner’s Rest behind.

***

“Is it just me, or has the water level barely changed?” Cal asked his audience of a golem and the wolf pack leader. He obviously didn’t get any replies.

It had been over a day since he last cast [Rainfall] over the pond, and the amount of time the past did not match the water that the crops should have absorbed.

He quickly checked the seeds and confirmed that everything was on track for an on-time harvest before returning to the pond.

The mana in the pond became extremely concentrated without my actions. The same phenomenon may apply to water itself.

Cal couldn’t say he understood the reasons behind it. He doubted that Tavia would know either, though it was more likely that she would compared to him. This was something to ask Overseer Marek since the man would notice something so obvious when he visited. There was no reason to hide.

“Golem, cast Rainfall over the pond,” Cal ordered, intending to allow access this time.

Your Water Golem requests access to your mana core to cast [Rainfall].

Do you accept?

He accepted and immediately felt a draw from his mana core. The golem started to glow a light blue as it raised its palm to point over the pond.

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Cal didn’t look away from the formation of the rain clouds as he kept track of how much mana was being used.

It was worse than the efficiency when he cast the spell himself, but it wasn’t as bad as he assumed.

Cal thought over his next plan of action before coming to a decision. “Cast rainfall once every hour. Delay that instruction if you sense my mana core is not completely full.”

The golem gave him a blank stare, which reminded him of its past iteration. It made him nervous enough to add another order. “You are not to move from that spot or do anything other than cast rainfall under the parameters I gave you.”

Cal was satisfied with that but still addressed the pack leader. “Wake me if the golem starts doing anything outside my orders.”

The pack leader replied with a slight grumble, which he took as acceptance.

He turned in for the night, feeling strangely comfortable, although he gave the golem access to his mana core.

***

When Cal woke, he felt more groggy than usual. He sensed the golem drawing out his mana, and he dug a little deeper and found that it had happened seven other times while he was asleep.

As he had guessed when he gave the golem the order, it was well within his capabilities to handle. He planned on shortening the time between the casts every night. It would be an excellent way to train his mana core to get used to stress and long usage periods.

Cal left the house and checked the pond. With only eight casts of [Rainfall], he didn’t expect it to get larger. The most he expected was maintenance on the water level.

Once again, he was surprised by the results.

The pond is larger. Barely, but it’s larger.

Cal studied the golem and saw that it looked unchanged by the large amount of mana it channeled through the night. He made a mental note to tell Orrin to study the golem and see if anything could be applied to his smithing techniques.

“Did the golem do anything weird?” Cal asked the pack leader. The bored wolf grumbled, a standard reply of his. He took that as a no.

He could hear the sound of wheels crunching the dirt and estimated the carts were a few minutes away at most. He checked on the crops and saw that they were ready to be transported.

Cal quickly recounted and estimated that he would get around twenty gold from the sale. Not for the first time, he thought about holding back the red grain variants in storage to sell for a better price, and not for the first time, he decided against it.

Cal would instead complete the contract as quickly as possible before renegotiating a far better price. If he was desperate for money, he might have tried harder to store the red grain variants, but he honestly couldn’t care less about the loss of profit at the moment.

“Stay on the stone pavement,” Cal ordered the cart drivers as they approached the house. The stone paths that extended into the field were only large enough for a person, not a cart.

It made loading the carts a bit of a headache, but with his speed, it didn’t take more than thirty minutes. Soon, the carts were filled with freshly harvested and dried Sunfire Grains.

“Head to town. I’ll follow you closely,” Cal instructed the drivers. He turned to the golem and said, “Cease casting Rainfall, and stay in that spot. Do nothing and wait for my return.”

Cal left the farm after a quick farewell to the pack leader.

***

“—and nineteen gold,” Drex counted out the last gold coin he handed to Cal. “I’ll just round it up, so let’s forget about the change. Another great harvest! I think you should think about the next contract right now at the rate you’re going.”

“I thought the same thing, but it can wait for the next harvest. Speaking of which, I’ll need over forty carts ready in six to seven days.”

Drex stared at him in shock. “You expect to have over twenty thousand ready in that time?”

“Around that,” Cal confirmed, thinking of what to do even further in the future. He still had no desire to deal with Nismus and break the sweetheart deal he had with Overseer Marek, but he was also coming to realize that Mariner’s Rest simply couldn’t handle the volumes he would soon be working with.

Plus, Drex had got on his nerves.

Cal remembered a naively out-of-touch contact in Lumina.

Fintan. I need to speak to him soon. I’ll take Tavia to the city and make a day out of it.

“—Cal?”

He snapped out of his thoughts to see Drex looking at him nervously. He quickly understood why when he sensed a large mana signature approaching him.

“The port overseer, Brin, asked to meet with you,” Drex blurted out and continued to add details without letting Cal reply. “If you want to delay the meeting, just let me know, and I’ll take care of it. The port overseer did mention that it didn’t need to be rushed. And I have nothing to do with it. In fact, I barely speak with—”

“Drex, it’s fine,” Cal interrupted him. He recalled how confident Drex was when interacting with him at the start. That bravado had been completely stripped away, leaving a mortal that wasn’t too different from most others.

What a shame. I enjoyed Drex’s no-nonsense way of speaking.

“Apprentice Cal?”

Cal ignored the choked gasp of surprise from Drex when he realized the rank used. “I didn’t expect to see you again this soon. Is there something else you need to pass on?”

“Nothing like that,” Brin shook his head. “But there is someone who would like to show appreciation for your help. If you could follow me?”

Cal straightened in attention and gave Brin a firm nod. “Drex, take care of the carts for me.”