My Farming Domain Is Broken

Boro looked at the vine around his wrist and swallowed.

"Will it hurt?"

"The description doesn’t say that," Carlos answered.

"Okay..."

Carlos couldn’t argue with him.

Rowan crouched beside the Hearthpod. "It is not tightening. The leaves are facing you and the stem remains healthy. I think it is waiting."

Boro looked toward Carlos again.

"You do not have to accept because I want the crop," Carlos said. "It chose you, so the decision is yours."

The Dogman’s ears lifted slightly. He placed his other hand over the vine.

"I accept."

Warm green light entered his wrist without leaving a mark.

--

[Caretaker bond completed]

[Boro has become the caretaker of Hearthpod One]

[Ancient Cultivation District succession trial: Successful]

--

The vine released him and produced three empty flower buds.

Boro moved one step away. The Hearthpod leaned after him until its young stem almost touched the ground.

"Come back," Rowan said.

"To me or the plant?"

"Both."

Boro returned and the stem straightened immediately.

Rowan explained that the bond did not make Boro an expert. He still needed to learn the crop’s water, soil and sunlight requirements through observation.

Carlos gave Boro responsibility for the test patch but kept him under Rowan. A new title did not remove the need for training.

--

[Boro Favorability increased]

[Current Favorability: 58]

--

The Dogman’s tail moved once before he forced it still.

"I will take care of it, my lord."

"Tell Rowan if it does anything strange. Do not experiment alone."

One made a wet sound from beside the fence.

"That includes you," Carlos told the Slime.

Rowan immediately began asking Boro what he had felt. Carlos left them to it after confirming that neither was injured.

The portal had recovered enough to move supplies again.

Mira prepared ten preserved meal packages while Cosmic examined what could pass through the restricted opening.

Large cargo remained blocked, but carried items and inventories worked normally.

"This can become a market," Cosmic said. "Not today. First we make people come to you instead of shouting offers into Trade."

Carlos looked at the meals.

"I am not feeding everyone for free."

"I wasn’t going to suggest that. Your food is worth more here because hungry Lords cannot cook while exploring."

They returned to the district and placed a simple notice beside the regulator.

--

[Ironroot Outpost Exchange]

[Cooked meals available]

[Payment accepted in Copper Coins, useful materials, blueprints and seeds]

[No credit]

--

The first three Lords stopped before they even looked at the meals.

Their attention remained on the golden barrier around the rooted fields and Carlos’s name above the regulator.

"This place has an owner too?" one of them asked.

Carlos looked at him. "Too?"

"The northern path has already been claimed by a group inside Glasswood Basin. They charge people before allowing them near the best trees."

The second Lord pointed toward the southern road on the regional map.

"Red Prairie also has owners now. Not one person, though. Several groups divided the livestock grounds and started fighting over the shelters."

Cosmic stepped away from the stall notice.

"What about the western settlement?"

"Still sealed when we checked. Thousands of Lords are gathered outside its gates, but nobody has entered yet."

Carlos opened the regional map again.

The cultivation district was not the only path being conquered while he worked. Lords with compatible Domains and troops were claiming useful structures across the entire basin.

He had gained an advantage by restoring the aqueduct first, but the rest of the region had not remained still for him.

Cosmic looked toward Carlos.

"This market might become more valuable faster than we expected."

"And the other sectors will become harder to claim," Carlos answered.

The arriving Lords looked between them.

"You are planning to claim more than this place?"

Carlos did not answer.

Cosmic returned to the exchange notice with a smile.

"Meals first. Information costs extra."

Cedric read the final line and smiled.

"That one is for us?"

"You worked for your food," Carlos answered. "It is for everyone else."

Before the first customer arrived, Carlos placed all ten meals under Cosmic’s market permission.

"Ten is the limit," Carlos said. "Nothing from Ironroot’s remaining food and no promises for future meals without asking Mira."

"Understood, bro. Now move away from my stall."

"Your stall?"

"Do you want to sell them yourself?"

Carlos moved away.

More customers arrived within an hour after Cosmic posted the location in the regional channel. He rejected every low offer without asking Carlos to intervene.

One Lord paid twelve Copper Coins for a meal while another traded fifteen Iron Ore for two. Cosmic inspected every payment before releasing the food.

The third customer offered a damaged spear.

Cosmic turned it once before handing it back.

"Ironroot is selling meals, not collecting someone else’s repair work."

The Lord added five Copper Coins. Cosmic still refused.

Carlos watched from beside the regulator while Cedric’s group continued working. He understood why Cosmic enjoyed this. Every customer tried to make their unwanted resources sound more valuable than hot food.

Another Lord offered thirty Common Grass Seeds.

Cosmic did not even look toward Carlos.

"No."

Carlos frowned. "You could have checked them."

"This is why you are standing away from the stall."

"They were seeds."

"They were grass, bro."

Food disappeared faster than Mira could safely spare it.

After selling the tenth package, Cosmic closed the exchange even though more Lords continued offering resources.

One raised his price to twenty Copper Coins. Another promised a Common blueprint if Ironroot supplied meals for three days.

Cosmic rejected both.

"Ten meals means ten meals. Come back when we post another quantity."

They registered their offers without paying and left disappointed.

Cedric watched the customers move away.

"He could have earned you more."

"Profit that weakens Ironroot is not profit," Carlos answered.

Cosmic looked toward him from the closed stall. "See? He sets the limits. I make the money."

Cedric nodded as if remembering the difference.

Then a woman entered the district with two short people made of packed clay walking behind her.

Both carried stone tools and baskets filled with pale soil.

The woman had tied her brown hair above her shoulders to keep it away from the dust. A leather apron covered most of her clothes, and dried clay remained along both arms.

She did not look like someone who had walked six hours hoping another Lord would save her. Her eyes moved across every repair as if she was already judging the people who made them.

She inspected the restored channels before looking at Carlos.

"Which one of you is Carlos Goldwin?"

Carlos stepped forward, he was already observing the girl, "I am"

Her eyes moved over him, the Warden Chain and the district barrier.

"Lydia Veyra. Claycraft Domain. I followed the same signal for six hours and found your name covering the regulator."

"I repaired it."

"You repaired part of it."

Carlos already disliked where this was going.

Lydia pointed toward the cracked southern channels.

"And from the way those walls were patched, you need someone who understands construction soil."

Carlos glanced at Cosmic. His best friend was smiling far too much.

Carlos knew that smile. Cosmic had noticed something entertaining and would refuse to explain until the worst moment possible.

"Don’t," Carlos warned him.

Cosmic raised both hands. "I didn’t say anything, bro."

Lydia frowned at both of them.

"Are you going to keep arguing, or show me the channel you failed to repair properly?"

"I don’t like the way you talk"

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