My Farming Domain Is Broken

"Not alone."

"This is unreal" Cosmic knew he was going to look at some great development but the sheer development in front of his eyes was insane.

Cosmic looked toward the Rare Bearkin Guardian Hall and then at the Blue Water Slime Barrack. His eyes moved next to the kitchen, Cold Storage and fields filling the agricultural side.

"The rankings only show a level and some numbers," he muttered. "They don’t show this."

"That is why I didn’t want random Lords joining our Expedition Group."

Cosmic nodded without joking this time. Seeing Ironroot made him understand exactly how much Carlos had kept hidden from the public channels.

Mira hurried from the kitchen with Rowan and Blue behind her. Elias and Boro remained closer to the fields while watching the unknown doorway.

Mira stopped after seeing Carlos unharmed.

"You returned without being carried. That is already an improvement, my lord."

"Please don’t become Rowan, I was gone for a few hours."

"Hehe, That has never stopped you before."

Cosmic covered his mouth to hide a laugh.

"You must be Mira."

She looked at him with surprise. And then at Carlos who spoke one word, "Cosmic"

"Oh you are Carlos, our lord complains about you a lot!"

"Hm? He talks about me?"

"No," Carlos answered.

Rowan ignored their conversation and looked through the portal instead.

"What is on the other side?" He asked with so much interest it felt like this was Rowan’s clone, not him.

"A damaged cultivation district," Carlos answered. "It has twelve water channels, two are working and most of the crops are dormant. I brought soil samples for you."

That gained Rowan’s complete attention.

Carlos showed him both samples and every description provided by Inspect. He didn’t add conclusions he couldn’t make himself.

Rowan rubbed a small amount of the grey soil between his fingers before smelling it.

He checked the deeper sample next and separated one of the silver pieces with his nail.

"This did not come from ordinary dry land," Rowan said.

"Do you know what it is?"

"No. I need the field and the roots. Soil cannot explain where it came from after being carried through a portal."

Carlos nodded. Rowan didn’t invent an answer simply because everyone was waiting for one.

"I need to see the fields."

"The portal is still recovering."

"Then I will wait."

Carlos checked the northern platform while they waited. The Warden’s Eye remained inside its iron box and the suppression timer continued counting down normally.

Ironroot had remained safe.

When the portal stabilized, Carlos approved Rowan and entered the district with him. Cosmic followed while his Lizardmen returned to his side.

Rowan didn’t speak for several minutes.

He checked the soil beside both channels, examined the dormant vines and inspected the way the roots had closed around the reservoir.

Carlos waited instead of interrupting him.

Rowan finally stood and looked across the hundreds of fields.

"This place did not die naturally, my lord."

Carlos frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Rowan held up one of the dormant roots.

"Someone prepared these crops to survive without water."

Carlos looked at the root in Rowan’s hand again.

"Can crops even be prepared for something like that?"

"Some can be dried before winter. Others can be cut back until only the strongest roots remain," Rowan answered. "But not hundreds of fields at the same time. Whoever worked here knew the water would stop."

Cosmic looked toward the reservoir.

"Then they abandoned it on purpose."

"Or they could not return," Kaia said.

That possibility removed the excitement from the discovery.

Carlos used Inspect on the root Rowan was holding.

--

[Unidentified Rooted Crop]

[Condition: Recovering]

[Dormancy method: Deliberate preservation]

[Preservation period: 312 years]

--

"Three hundred and twelve years..." Cosmic muttered.

Even Rowan stared at the notification longer than usual.

Carlos looked across the fields. The grey vines had seemed dead when he first arrived, but they had actually waited longer than anyone on Earth had been alive.

"Can we restore them?" Carlos asked.

The question brought Boro and Elias closer as well. They had spent their short lives inside Ironroot working on ordinary fields, yet even they understood the value of crops that could survive for centuries.

Rowan placed the root back into the soil before answering. He covered it with both hands and made sure the restored water could still reach it.

"Not all at once," Rowan answered. "I need to know what every channel feeds. Giving the wrong amount of water after this long could kill what survived."

"What do you need?"

"Time, tools and workers who listen."

Carlos looked toward Cedric’s group.

"We have the third one. Mira can send the tools. How much time?"

"I will know after checking the channels."

It was not the immediate answer Carlos wanted, but Rowan had never lied to make him feel better. That made the farmer’s uncertainty more useful than someone else’s confidence.

That was enough for Carlos. He opened the district functions and searched through the recovered records.

Most remained covered by grey locks. One damaged entry had appeared beneath the channel controls.

--

[Emergency Preservation Record]

[District evacuation initiated]

[All viable crops placed into Long Dormancy]

[Caretakers ordered to report to Aurelian Settlement]

[Return order: Not received]

[Final entry damaged]

--

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

"Wait... does this mean?" Carlos asked and Cosmic nodded.

"It seems this place is more mysterious than I thought, his whole district is waiting for their caretaker to return..."

Cedric had moved closer while Rowan worked. He looked at the hundreds of fields with a different expression now.

"So this place isn’t as empty as we expected" he spoke, his tone becoming a lot more informal, it seemed the new group was getting comfortable now.

"It is not empty" Rowan said. "It is sleeping."

Carlos closed the record and looked toward the ten dry channels.

Something had forced an entire population to leave a working agricultural district, and whatever happened had prevented every caretaker from returning.

But before they disappeared, they had protected their crops for people who never came back.

Carlos placed his hand against the regulator.

--

[Partial Owner authority recognized]

[Caretaker succession available]

[Restore one additional Auxiliary Channel to begin succession]

--

The old caretakers were gone. Now the district was asking Carlos to replace them. It had been a long time.

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