My Farming Domain Is Broken

Carlos checked the cucumber bed before he checked anything else that morning.

Thin green shoots had pushed out of the dark soil.

There were not many leaves yet. Most of the shoots were only as tall as Carlos’s hand, and they were still far below the wooden frames. But the bed did not look like plain dirt anymore. It looked fertile.

Tarin was crouched beside the nearest row. His dog ears were raised as he looked at one of the shoots without touching it. Sela stood beside him with a small bucket, while the Living Scarecrow watched them from the edge of the bed.

"They came up during the night," Tarin said when he saw Carlos. "Not all at once. I checked before sleeping, then they were there when I came back this morning."

Carlos looked at the tiny vines. "All twenty?"

Sela nodded. "We counted. All twenty came up."

Twenty Uncommon seeds had gone into the soil. If all twenty grew, Ironroot had something worth protecting much more than a normal field.

He opened the crop panel.

--

[Clearwater Cucumber Bed]

[Seeds planted: 20]

[Healthy shoots: 20]

[First growth stage: 4 hours 12 minutes remaining]

[Water purity: good]

[Trellis stability: sufficient]

[Plot protection: active]

--

Carlos read the timer twice.

"Four hours," he said. "So we just wait?"

"No," Tarin said immediately. Then he looked like he had spoken too fast. "I mean, we wait for the vines to grow. But we still need to check the soil and keep the path clear. If something falls on the frames, it can become a problem later."

Carlos nodded. "Then do that. Do not start making problems in your head because the system says sufficient instead of perfect."

Tarin gave a small laugh. "I will try, my lord."

The scarecrow lifted one arm and pointed toward the path beside the second row.

Carlos looked down. A loose strip of straw had blown there from somewhere near the training yard. It was not even touching the vines.

Sela walked over and picked it up. The scarecrow lowered its arm.

"It has been doing that since morning," she said. "It does not point at everything. Only things near the bed."

Carlos looked at the pointed hat. "Good. At least it has a job."

The scarecrow did not react. It just turned its head back toward the green shoots.

Blue floated closer from the spring basin with the four Slimes behind it. One and Two were near the front. The two newest Slimes had copied them and were floating in loose circles around Blue.

"Do they need water?" he asked Tarin.

Tarin did not answer immediately. He pressed two fingers into the soil between the rows, then looked at Sela.

"A little later," Sela said. "Not yet. The soil is still wet from last night."

Carlos looked at Blue. "You heard them. No water until they ask."

Blue gave him a serious nod that looked almost funny on such a small face. One of the new Slimes drifted toward the bed anyway, probably because it had seen Blue do it before.

Blue reached out and caught the Slime by the top of its round body. The Slime stopped moving.

Carlos laughed. "Even Blue has to babysit now."

Blue looked at him, still holding the Slime away from the crop bed.

"Fine. I understand. It is important."

Mira came from the kitchen carrying a covered pot. One of the Hearthkeepers followed behind her with bowls. The smell of breakfast made Carlos realize he had walked out without eating anything.

"You have been staring at dirt since morning," Mira said. "Eat before you start talking to plants too."

"I am not talking to plants."

Tarin looked down at the shoots. Sela suddenly looked very busy with the bucket.

Carlos looked between them. "Did I say something?"

"Nothing," Mira said, then handed him a bowl.

They ate beside the cucumber bed because Tarin and Sela refused to leave it alone for even a few minutes. Carlos did not tell them to relax. He understood the feeling too well.

Kaia came over from the western side once breakfast was done. The Archer was still on the Gatehouse platform while the two new Shield Militia trained below.

She looked at the cucumber bed.

"They are small."

"That is what crops do at the start," Carlos said.

"I have realized farming is not my thing at all. I wanted to give it a try, but no," she said with a serious face, but the others could not keep a straight face.

Mira laughed into her bowl.

Carlos was about to answer when the crop panel flashed in front of him.

--

[Clearwater Cucumber Bed]

[First growth stage complete]

[Twenty vines have entered the climbing stage]

[Care requirement updated]

[Maintain clean water and stable trellises]

[Potential cultivation trait detected]

[Evaluation unavailable]

[A qualified Farmer is required]

--

For a moment, nobody said anything.

Then Tarin moved first. He did not step into the bed. He walked around the open path and crouched near the third row with Sela beside him.

The shoots had changed while Carlos was reading the panel.

They were no longer just little green stems. Thin vines had reached toward the lower crosspieces of the frames, curling around the wood as if they already knew where to go.

Carlos looked across the four rows, then saw what the panel must have meant.

One vine in the third row had a faint blue line running through its newest leaf.

It was not glowing brightly. It could have been nothing more than a trick of the morning light. But Blue had gone still beside Carlos, and Tarin had stopped breathing for a second.

"Is that supposed to be there?" Carlos asked.

Tarin did not answer.

Sela looked at the leaf without touching it. "I do not know."

Carlos opened the message panel at once.

--

[Carlos Goldwin] - Cedric, tell Rowan that the cucumber bed reached its climbing stage. One vine has a faint blue line in its leaf, and the system says a potential cultivation trait needs a qualified Farmer to evaluate it. Do we touch it or stop using Mana Water?

--

The reply came fast enough that Carlos knew Cedric must have been near Rowan when the message appeared.

--

[Cedric Vale] - Do not touch that vine.

[Cedric Vale] - Do not use Mana Water again until I see it.

--

Carlos stared at the message and sighed. Things always needed to get complicated. Nothing ever went normally on this farm.

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