My Farming Domain Is Broken

Carlos read the notification one more time before showing it to Cosmic.

"Cultivation District," Cosmic spoke with surprise. "You chose the path everyone was returning from and actually found a farming area. Is this what they call dumb people’s luck?"

"Hey, don’t think you can hide behind chat now, I can bash your head in." Carlos spoke with a knowing look.

"Okay. moving on" Cosmic totally decided to ignore him which made Carlos chuckle.

Carlos looked around the aqueduct properly.

There were boot marks everywhere and many dead vines had already been cut open. Some Lords were climbing the lower arches while others touched the stone and opened the same information Carlos had seen.

Most of them only stayed for a few minutes.

One group looked inside the dry upper channel before turning around. Another Lord hit the pale stone with a pickaxe, inspected the small piece that came out and left when it didn’t show a valuable grade.

Many Lords had clearly come here before Carlos. They inspected the aqueduct, saw that it was broken and decided there was nothing worth carrying away.

Even the Lords still arriving started leaving after seeing everyone else return empty-handed.

Most had entered this place looking for monsters, treasure chests and resources they could take home right away. A ruined water system only looked like a lot of work with not much value.

But Carlos had started with two empty plots of land and twenty Wheat Seeds.

Work was the one thing he didn’t fear.

Nessa climbed on one of the broken supports to look at the land ahead. A few minutes later, she came back with red dust on her boots.

"There are broken walls ahead. I also saw many rows of dead plants, stone channels and a round building in the middle. There was no movement."

"Any tracks?" Kaia asked.

"Many Lords and troops entered before us," Nessa answered. "Most of their tracks return through the same opening. Only small animals continued deeper into the fields."

Kaia still made Nessa walk ahead while Cosmic’s two Lizardmen protected the back. Cosmic didn’t complain and Carlos liked that.

The aqueduct led them toward a valley between two black hills. Red grass covered the entrance but it stopped after the first broken wall.

The sight beyond it made Carlos stop.

There were hundreds of long fields filled with grey soil. Dead trees were planted between them while small stone channels went from one field to another.

Every channel was connected to a large round reservoir in the middle.

There was no water anywhere.

The district was much bigger than Ironroot. Carlos couldn’t even see its ending properly without going to a higher place.

Cosmic slowly looked around.

"This place could feed a city if all of it was working."

"Maybe it did before."

"What do you mean?" carlos asked but Cosmic shrugged his head.

"WE don’t know much about these pocket dimensions, even though we humans have been traveling the world of the lords for so long now."

"I just know that this space will remain with us for a very long time. So we can take out time with it." He spoke.

"Wait, so this is not a timed event?"

Carlos looked at him as if he was seeing something very extrordinary.

"Bro I only joke when I call you dumb but did you really not study anything in the classes?" He asked with actual astonishment.

"Ahem, moving on" Carlos decided to change the topic and Cosmic felt that was a good thing too.

But a new topic of making fun of him had come out now, there was no way he would not take advantage.

There were no houses, tools or even bodies around. Only the fields, water channels and one broken building near the reservoir were left.

That didn’t make sense to Carlos.

Someone had created this place but there was no sign of where they had lived. There wasn’t even a storage building for the harvest.

Kaia lifted one hand before anyone entered.

"We find another exit first. Brann, mark this opening. Nessa, check the wall."

Brann placed three large stones over each other near the entrance. Nessa started moving along the wall while everyone waited.

Cosmic moved closer to Carlos and inspected everything happening without Carlos’s directions.

"Your Commander is scary."

"Yeah she be like that sometimes."

"She looked at me when she said we needed an exit. I think she expects me to run first."

"Will you?"

"Hmm nothing seems to be dangerous. I could run only when something eats Brann before me."

Brann heard him.

"Nothing eat Brann." He said with a grunt and Cosmic decided to never joke with the Bearkin again.

One of the Lizardmen made a strange sound that Carlos thought was a laugh.

Nessa soon returned after finding another opening on the northern side. Only then did Kaia allow everyone to enter.

Carlos crouched in the first field and looked at the grey soil.

He had seen Rowan check soil many times, but that didn’t mean Carlos knew what Rowan was looking for. Touching it and pretending to understand anything would be useless.

"Inspect."

--

[Dormant Cultivation Soil]

[Grade unavailable while district remains inactive]

[Condition: Severely dehydrated]

[Trace nutrients detected]

--

Carlos filled one small container with the soil. Rowan would know more about it and could compare it with Ironroot’s farmland.

He took another sample from deeper in the field too. The color was almost the same but it had some small silver pieces mixed inside it.

Carlos had no idea what those pieces were. That was another thing Rowan would have to check.

"Taking dirt samples back to your farmer?" Cosmic asked.

"Yeah, Rowan could help with it."

"How is Rowan like?"

"He is my first Farmer. You will meet him after we return here again."

"Is he normal?"

Carlos remembered Rowan telling him that names didn’t help crops grow.

"No."

Cosmic was left speculating while Carlos moved forward.

He closed both containers carefully and placed them inside separate inventory slots.

Carlos then stopped in front of one of the dead-looking trees. He couldn’t tell whether it was truly dead by looking at the bark, so he used the only method he actually understood.

"Inspect."

--

[Unidentified Rooted Crop]

[Condition: Dormant]

[Weak life signs detected]

[Detailed identification unavailable while district remains inactive]

--

"This tree is still alive," Carlos spoke after reading the panel.

Cosmic looked at the hundreds of dead trees around them.

"Don’t tell me all of them are alive too."

"I don’t know yet."

They followed one of the channels toward the reservoir. It was filled with stones, dirt and broken roots but the bottom was still sloped properly.

Carlos didn’t know anything about irrigation, but the direction of the stone channels was obvious enough.

The largest channel came from the aqueduct and ended at the reservoir. Twelve smaller channels left the reservoir and went toward the fields.

The round building was right beside the main channel. Its roof had collapsed and there was a stone wheel inside that was bigger than Brann.

Carlos walked inside and inspected it.

--

[District Water Regulator]

[Condition: Inactive]

[Primary obstruction detected]

[Auxiliary channels: 0 of 12 functional]

[Reservoir integrity: 71%]

[Restore limited irrigation to establish temporary claim]

[Temporary claim will prevent removal of rooted district crops by unregistered Lords]

--

Cosmic read the last part over his shoulder.

Carlos kept staring at the words ’temporary claim’ for a few seconds before looking outside the broken building.

The fields continued farther than he could see properly. The reservoir, twelve channels and the giant aqueduct were all connected to the same place.

"Wait... I can get ownership of this entire district and the aqueduct by repairing the water?"

Cosmic looked at the panel again before shaking his head.

"Not permanent ownership, bro. It says temporary claim."

"What is the difference?"

"Did you sleep through every Pocket Dimension class?"

Carlos stayed silent and Cosmic got his answer.

"An unclaimed structure can recognize the person who repairs or activates it," Cosmic explained. "The claim gives that person control over its functions and stops other Lords from immediately stealing everything. It doesn’t turn this place into your territory. You need to keep protecting it for it to be yours."

Carlos looked at the aqueduct again.

"So I can control it but I don’t own the land?"

"For now. Every Pocket Dimension has different rules. The claim could expire, become permanent or require more work. The system will tell us when we actually establish it."

That was still far more than Carlos had expected.

He had only come here looking for resources. Now the system was saying that repairing one water channel could place a cultivation district larger than Ironroot under his temporary control.

A grin slowly formed on his face.

"Then we repair it."

"So anyone can take these trees until we repair it?"

"They would have to come this far and inspect the trees first. Most of them turned back at the aqueduct. Also, they look dead and useless. Even I as a merchant wouldn’t want them."

"We came this far. Someone else can too."

Carlos looked toward the entrance again. The red grass hid the broken wall but the aqueduct itself could be seen from very far away.

They needed to work fast.

The problem was that none of them knew how long the repair would take. It could be as simple as clearing the channel or it could require materials that they didn’t have.

Carlos opened his inventory and checked the tools again. The Iron Pickaxe, Iron Axe and rope were there, but there was no spare wood for making a large support.

"We check the problem first," he said. "If we can’t repair it, we at least learn what is needed before someone else comes."

Brann grabbed one of the roots wrapped around the wheel and pulled it with both hands. The dead outer part broke but the root under it tightened around the wheel.

--

[Warning: Living regulator root detected]

[Forced removal will reduce district integrity]

--

He followed the root through the broken floor. One part went under the fields while another went below the reservoir.

One moved closer and touched the dry channel with its body. The slime trembled before going back.

"What happened?"

One didn’t give him any answer. Its body turned away from the channel and faced the fields instead.

A dry scraping sound came from the soil.

Carlos looked toward it and saw one of the pale vines slowly rising from the ground.

"The vines are moving..."

Kaia suddenly pulled her sword out and looked at the fields.

Nessa had already placed an arrow on her bow.

The pale vine turned toward Carlos and opened one dry leaf.

Then every dead tree inside the valley moved its branches toward him.

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