Cultivation a fantasy li.., p.1
Cultivation: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Battle Mage Farmer Book 3), page 1
CULTIVATION
©2022 SETH RING
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ALSO IN SERIES
Domestication
Germination
Cultivation
Fermentation
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Epilogue
Thank you for reading Cultivation
Groups
LitRPG
CHAPTER 1
Even if this does work, I may be out of time.
Spreading the last handful of seed, John turned around and watched Ferdie pulling the rake across the field, covering the freshly scattered wheat seeds with an inch of the valley’s rich soil. Ben was riding on the back of the rake, practicing his balance while the massive bull strolled across the field. Letting out a sigh, John walked around the edge of the field, heading back to where Ellie was standing.
“Do you think these seeds will work?” Ellie asked, her eyes hopeful.
“Rebya says there’s only a forty percent chance, so no, I’m not getting my hopes up. We’ll probably need a couple more generations to breed the traits we want. Thankfully, we can speed up the growth of this field with the growth-acceleration flowers, but even that has a limit, so we’re really at the mercy of chance. I’ll bring some over tonight when I water these fields and we should see some progress tomorrow.”
“How long do you think this batch will take?”
Walking beside Ellie as they headed for the house, John shrugged.
“My hope is four weeks, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. There’s a limit to how many times we can accelerate their growth before they mutate, which we need to avoid as much as possible. But at this point, we can only wait and see how it turns out,” John said, taking the hoe and shovel Ellie was holding. “How much time do we have before lunch?”
“Maybe twenty minutes?”
“Alright, I’m going to chat with Rebya. We need to leave right after lunch if we’re going to make it into town on time.”
Ellie’s expression gained a hint of sorrow as she nodded silently, heading into the house while John walked to the barn to drop off the empty bag of wheat seeds and the gardening tools Ellie had been using. While he was organizing everything, Ferdie and Ben finished up in the field and the bull brought the rake over. Hopping down from Ferdie’s back, Ben helped pull the rake into the barn where John hung it up. By this point Ben was extremely familiar with John’s abnormal strength, and the sight of him casually lifting the heavy metal rake to hang it in its spot didn’t faze the young man at all.
“Can you let Even and Thomas know that lunch will be ready in twenty minutes?”
“Yes, sir.”
Watching Ben run off, John let out a sigh. It had been almost two full years since he’d arrived on the farm, and while a tremendous amount had changed, some things hadn’t changed at all. Opening up his status window, John checked over his skills, spells, and quests.
Name: John Sutton
Age: 28
Class: Mage
Spells: 9
Active Quests: [Grow Wheat]
Skill List: [Mana Breath: 00], [Arcane Tongue: 00], [Mana Control: 00], [Mana Reinforcement: 00], [Mental Model: 43]
Skill Points: 0
Spell List: [Fireball (Novice)], [Flame Arrow (Apprentice)], [Twisting Flames (Mage)], [Dragon’s Breath (Mage)], [Summon Water (Novice)], [Water Arrow (Apprentice)], [Downpour (Acolyte)], [Raging Waters (Mage)], [Kelvis’ Greater Scrying (Mage)]
Quest List: [Prevent the Apocalypse], [Grow Wheat]
Doom Points: 95/100
For a moment, John’s gaze hovered on his Doom Points. It had been barely two weeks since they had explored the Shadow Tower and he had slain Earl Vacek, but he had already gained two Doom Points. While the pace was already slower than the three to four per week he had gained before he came to the valley, picking up another Doom Point each week put him on a serious clock.
With just five weeks left if he couldn’t figure out a way to avoid gaining more Doom Points, John could feel the pressure building up around him. Even more concerning was the change he had noticed in his quest, [Prevent the Apocalypse].
[Prevent the Apocalypse: Ruined by war, this world is teetering on the brink of annihilation. Food and other resources are growing more scarce, and the echoes of destruction threaten to rip apart even the tightest community. Powerful beasts grow even more powerful still, their desire for dominance causing them to emerge from their lairs while corrupt class holders attempt to change the world to suit their evil whims. As one of the last Mages in the world, you have both the strength to fight against the tide of darkness that sweeps across the land and the means of hastening its flood. Should the number of accumulated Doom Points reach 100, the apocalypse will begin. This quest cannot be rejected.]
Though it was subtle, the inclusion of both powerful beasts and class holders as a creeping threat reminded him he wasn’t the only one attempting to influence the world. Far from it, he had already encountered the madness of the evil organization Infinitum and he had a sneaking suspicion he’d barely scratched the surface when it came to their plans. And to add to it, his ability to leverage his strength against them was decreasing with every week.
There was a lot John could do in a single second, but the more power he used, the closer the world came to the edge. He had been relying on the quests he had to try and keep his Doom Points down, but that strategy was clearly not working. Shaking his head, he let out an annoyed snort and opened up the quest he was currently working on.
[Grow Wheat: Food is important, not only to you, but to everyone in the world. Learn to grow wheat that will survive in any environment.]
Rebya, the intelligent plant who called the Shadow Tower her home, was helping him as best she could, but with a forty-percent success rate for the first batch of wheat they had created, there was absolutely no way John was going to just sit around and see what happened. At his current rate he only had five weeks, and the absolute fastest maturation rate on the wheat was four weeks.
I need to find a way to offload my Doom Points. Which means understanding how they come about in the first place.
Making his way out to Ferdie’s field, John saw the large plant at the other end of the pasture. Its broad leaves waved gently in the breeze, and as John approached a purple flower on its main branch opened as if to welcome him. Carefully controlling his mana, John sat down in front of the plant and stretched his hand out. A thin branch, looking like a finger, moved toward him, connecting with his finger and establishing a channel for them to pass mana back and forth. Closing his eyes, John found himself drawn into a new world in his mind.
Gone were the field and the warm morning sun, and in its place was a dusty library and the soft glow of different colored flowers. Looking around at the library, John saw a few vines deftly organizing the books on the shelves, dusting as they went. The first time he had been pulled into this mental world had been quite shocking, but given Rebya’s limitations, it made sense for her to develop a mental world like this.
“As you can see, the process is coming along. While I think it will take a few years to completely clear the dust and cobwebs, we are making good time.”
Hearing Rebya’s voice, John turned around and found the plant woman standing behind him, her eyes on the vines that were continuing to work.
“I appreciate you prioritizing the development of the wheat,” John said, his gaze returning to the bookshelves.
“Of course. Though, given your presence here, I would assume there is another matter that is equally, if not more, important.”
“Am I that easy to see through?”
“Because of my nature, I am hypersensitive to mana, and currently you are leaking bits of mana you would not normally leak. That leads me to believe you are disturbed in some way. Based on your response, it is clear I was right.”
Nodding, John remained silent for a moment as he carefully organized his ideas in his head. Ever since he had arrived in this world he had learned to be very careful of what information he told to the people around him, and despite Rebya’s insistence that she was only interested in helping him, he found the habit of ten years hard to break. Hearing her chuckle, he looked over and saw her smiling at him.
“I don’t mean to tell you what to do, John, but if you want my help, you’ll have to trust that I can be helpful. However, what I can help with will be limited to what I know, so it makes little sense for you to hold back now. There is a saying among Mages related to advancing research. Use those you trust and trust those you use. I hope that I have, through our interactions over the last two weeks, proven myself trustworthy. Besides, even if I haven’t, what could I actually do if I knew whatever secret it is you hide?”
Freezing, John instinctively knew she was right. At the end of the day, she already knew the world was heading toward destruction and that he was the catalyst for both its annihilation and salvation. Even if he explained every secret he had, the only two paths Rebya could tread were helping him to save the world or dooming it to a fiery death. Considering the incredibly strong, inbuilt drive to survive she possessed, it was obvious to John she would choose the first over the second. Besides, she wasn’t the only one with limited options.
“You’re right. I’m sorry for hesitating like this. It’s a habit that’s hard to break.”
“Of course. Additionally, you’ve only known me for a few weeks. It makes sense for you to be wary. Many of the Mages of the past were incredibly jealous of their knowledge so I understand the feeling. Even my creator was that way when it came to her research. This is simply not the time for it, because if we do not work together, we are doomed to failure.”
“Well said,” John replied, walking over and pulling out one of the chairs by the large table near the center of the library. “I guess it’s time to come clean. I don’t want anyone, and I mean anyone, hearing about this, so keep a lid on it, alright?”
“Certainly,” Rebya replied, joining John at the table. “I shall keep it in strict confidence.”
Taking a moment to organize himself, John kept his eyes closed as he began to speak.
“Somehow, I am causing the coming apocalypse. I have a means of tracking it. Call it a sixth sense or something. It’s very accurate, but I haven’t been able to figure out why I’m moving down this path. On occasion I’ve been able to walk back as well, specifically when I take action tied to helping others. And by others, I don’t mean specific people, but rather people in general. You mentioned the voice of the world, right? Well, I have something similar, and it points out specific actions I can take to walk back along the path that leads to the end of the world.
“However, if the path is one hundred steps long, I’ve already taken ninety-five of them, and I’m currently averaging at least one step a week. Furthermore, every single time I use my mana, I take another step forward. That’s not entirely true, actually. Whenever I use my true mana, I take a step forward. I can use trace amounts of mana, and I can cast spells, but when I manipulate my mana directly, I take a step. As you can imagine, I need to figure out how to solve this problem, otherwise we’re all dead.”
Pursing her lips in what John considered a very human gesture for a plant to make, Rebya shook her head at him. Unsure of what he had said that wasn’t true, he gestured for her to speak.
“We’ll all be dead. You’ll be fine. Rather distraught, I’m sure, but fine nonetheless. You’re right, this must take our absolute priority. This means we came close to the end when you charged my primary power source, didn’t we?”
“Very. Within two steps.”
Letting out a low whistle, Rebya leaned back in her chair, her gaze lifting into the air as she tried to process what John was telling her. After a few moments of silence, she shook her head.
“According to what you’re saying, we only have five weeks until the world ends. I will divert all activity to solving this problem, but there is so much unknown that I don’t know how long it will take me. Furthermore, from the fact that you’re bringing this up with me, I surmise the path the voice of the world has given you is not achievable within these five weeks. Am I correct?”
“Yes,” John said, rubbing his forehead. “I need to grow wheat that can survive in any environment. I’ve been taking that to mean irradiated land where forbidden level spells have been triggered.”
“A noble pursuit.”
“Well, I was hoping the Shadow Tower would hold the secret on how to create plants that could process mana.”
“Ah, of course. My creator did, in fact, succeed with her research, but the result was, well, me. I’m sorry, I don’t fancy feeding parts of myself to the world to ensure the food supply.”
“Yeah, let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point,” John said, grimacing. “Any initial ideas or things I could try?”
Thinking for a moment, Rebya shook her head.
“Not unless you know other ways to keep yourself from walking forward. Have there ever been times when you’ve taken a step back unexpectedly? Even if it was a single step?”
This time it was John’s turn to think. While it was incredibly rare and seemingly random, he had, on occasion, lost Doom Points out of the blue. In fact, it had happened a number of times in the first year he’d been in the valley. Since his trip out of the valley it had not happened again, but thanks to John’s Mental Model skill, the situations were as clear as day to him. Thinking back over each one, he began to describe them in as much detail as he could manage, sparing no thought for the feelings of hesitation rising in his chest as he talked about some of his deepest feelings. Across the table, Rebya listened quietly, absorbing every single piece of information John revealed. When he was finally done, she nodded and held up three fingers.
“I have at least three angles to explore with this. All of them should be either confirmed or eliminated in the next few weeks. In the meantime, as silly as it might sound, I would suggest you try to bring yourself to a place of peace. The one thing binding all of those situations together is that you felt a sense of peace with the world, as if you were part of it instead of against it. Seek out that feeling if you can. Finally, can you tell me about your Mana Breath? What school is it from?”
