Chapter 52 – Acquisition of Traits

Chapter 52 – Acquisition of Traits

Well, the cultivation field should be enough with this much, and I should experiment a bit more with the Farmer system’s skills.

I leave the village and head towards the nearby forest right away. It is a nice weather to stroll around. I feel at peace. I entered the forest while yawning and look for a suitable place to grow plants. On the way, I picked up a fallen nut that looked like Walnut.

「Oh, this place is nice.」

After walking for a while, I saw a place where the vegetable that I was familiar with was growing en-masse.

The wild melon.

Though this vegetable, called Laurel Melon, has a lot of thick and short melons on its short and robust stalk, I dug a hole in order to not injure the root.

Next, I took out several items from my space bag that I deemed suitable for this occasion.

Lamp, shitotsuken*, magic crystal of flame, walnut and finally, an apple.

Though the Apple and the walnut were certainly not the same as the one from Earth, the feeling of foodstuffs was similar. By the way, the apple of this world gave a slightly “La-France”-ish feeling.

「I will―― bury this guy!」

I am burying the root stump of the melon that will become a different thing, in the hole that I dug. I carefully filled it with soil and then covered it with fallen leaves.

Of course it doesn’t mean that it’ll grow into something strange. This is necessary for my 【Form and Nature Bestowal】 skill.

This is a composite skill between farmer and enchanter. I bury something under the root of plant and when I use the skill by placing my hand above it and activate―― The nature of the buried item will be assimilated into the plant. [TL : Holy, that’s a really useful skill!!!]

I feel that it is quite an amusing effect.

To be honest, even I can’t predict how much the nature’s traits will be bestowed. So, I try to test it in a place far from public gaze.

It might become an apple-flavored melon, or a hard melon like walnut, a burning melon*, or a piercing melon, or even a shining melon**. It’ll be fun if it really turned out that way.

The practical use is…… , uhm, I wonder if there’ll be a few apple-flavored melon.

Well, realistically speaking, there’s no way it’ll grant the traits of the lamp or sword to the melon. I really wonder…

This place too, since the stump will seemingly taking sometime to absorb the nature of the buried item, I’ll let it out for a while along with the kitchen garden. The result will be amusing.

A short while later. I should say several days but, time passed by. I spent those days lazily lying around within the 2 metre vicinity of my bed.

I leave my room to synthesize vitamin D after having been in my room for several days. The first place that I’m heading for is the kitchen garden. When I was looking at the field in which I gave nutrition, on that place was a plant that had already sprouted. Its height was already reaching my knee.

While I’m surprised at the growth speed that was beyond my prediction, I did a guts pose to the success of my experiment.

The nutrition of the soil was the cause after all. Though the fertilizers were already provided to the soil, it still was not sufficient. The absence of microbes in the soil made it unable to continuously supply nutrition to the plants.

Even if I use a skill in this place, the effect won’t be for long. The microbes perform their job only when I use my skill. Though I could use it periodically, it is just too troublesome and basically not a solution.

「As I thought, it won’t work without the microbes.」

I travelled to the forest. The plant on that place was growing splendidly, the cycle should be completed with the animal decomposers and scavengers. If I bring back that soil, it might contain a lot of microbes. Of course, along with securing some fallen leaves and things similar to that.

If I include this in the field, the soil might be restored.

This side has been RESOLVED.

Next, I walked towards the other place in the forest. To see what happen to the modified melon.

When I went to that place a few days ago, the melon didn’t show any signs of transformation. I wrote each item that I had buried in the soil on boards with a marker. I’ll investigate what became of those melon according to those landmarks……… I haven’t even finished those lines–

「THE MELON IS SHINING……」[TL : EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

It’s shining. The melon which was buried with a lamp and applied with the form and nature bestowal skill, let out a dim light. It looked just like a pumpkin with a lamp inside.

Iyaa, though I suspected that it would fail, it is a nice tool indeed. I mean, I really understand the possibilities for this to happen… [TL : close to negative]

It is not just with the lamp, there’s even countless sharp thorns growing on the stalk of the melon with which I buried the shitotsuken. It’s look like, this skill will grant any kind of nature to the plant from the tools.

It is a skill with unlimited possibilities. But, I do not know how to utilize it effectively in practice. If I make a shining melon by using a lamp and consume it, it would feel like eating a lamp. It would be the more likely feeling to be experienced.

「Uhm, it has amazing flavor.」

When I eat the melon which is bestowed with Apple, it had an apple-like flavor with the texture of the melon. [TL : Drooooool….] This is a new flavor and, it’s not that delicious. But it might have opened a new field of food that would depend on the combination being employed.

The one that was bestowed with walnut had become a fruit covered with hard shell and exuded a walnut-like aroma. As expected, matching food with food is a good thing.

As for the other melon that was bestowed with a magic crystal of fire, its external appearance didn’t change. But I got the feeling that it’ll burn quite well if it was ignited.

The practicality aside, I harvested the melons since the results were quite interesting. On returning to the inn, I recorded which melon was bestowed with what nature on paper.

「Ah, please look, Eiji-san. It’s growing so much.」

I returned to the inn and while adding the soil [rich with microbes], I saw Marie in the kitchen garden. Marie, who bent over the field that couldn’t produce crops until now, noticed me and raised only her face.

「Though this field couldn’t be used so far, why is it now possible?」

While asking that question, a cheerful and delighted expression appeared on her face rather than curiosity. This kid who helped on this place was the best. Especially, her delighted expression due to the revival of the field.

I explained the situation to Marie and taken out the soil that I brought. Marie was staring in amazement at the soil while I told her.

「Marie-chan, if you mix this soil in that field, it might restore the field in a while. If it becomes difficult for plants to grow again, you can use the soil that I bring from the forest. Of course, you must be careful when you do that」

「I was never aware of the fact that you can use it in that manner. Were you working in an agricultural job before you came to this place, Eiji-san? 」[TL : If yes, then it might be harvest moon]

「No, it’s not like that, uhm, it was just that I happened to hear a little about this from some farmers」

「You’re a cultured person aren’t you, Eiji-san. ……Okay, let’s do this! 」

And then, with just the two of us, we started the work of mixing the soil. We were doing it silently while chatting intermittently in the middle of our work. During our chat, Marie took a long time to explain about what she would use this field for. She was really enjoying this after all. If she enjoyed it this much, I can expect about what she will do in the future.

When doing this kind of work, the time does pass surprisingly fast. When I noticed the time after the work had ended, it was already late.

Marie wiped her sweat with her arms to avoid the dirt from smearing on her face and then bowed while smiling humbly.

「Thank you very much, Eiji-san」

「You’re welcome, Marie-chan. I’ll also look at their condition occasionally.」

「Yes. Let’s do our best, and RAISE THEM! 」

I’m all fired up since it was the start of another enjoyable work.