Ruth's First Morning

  The first thing Ruth was aware of was how warm and cozy her bed was. She snuggled into the warmth on instinct. Soft morning light warmed the room, seeping into her eyes. Chasing away the groggy fog of sleep. Ruth was awake now. Awake in a body without aches and pain. She rubbed sleep from brown eyes and brushed brown hair from her face. Stretching, she marveled at how easy it was to move.

  The undyed soft linen bedding matched the unfortunately open curtains. The light bounced off the natural wood with a periwinkle scene in a very fantasy wood sort of way. Then, the combination of the pure white walls made the morning blinding. Ruth squinted outside, blinking like that would force her eyes to adjust faster. A garden sprouted outside the large window, and it was everything she wanted. An apple tree in the middle surrounded by herbs and flowers with a small stream winding its way around with a stone path.

  “This is insane! It feels real.” Ruth marveled. Rubbing the fabric between her fingers, the softer bed linen and ruff cotton shirt. “ It doesn't feel different from real life at all,” she marveled.

  Excitement rushed through her veins, and she jumped up and out of bed.

  She practically hopped the distance to her closet and threw open the doors. It revealed a mirror with a reflection of her avatar. She scowled. “No, Ruth. This is you.” She gave herself a little shake. Thoughts like this could lead to insanity. Those live streams turn into movies. She started interacting with the equipment slots on the interface reflected in the image. She selected equipment sets and scrolled through until she found her beginner's Farmers gear. A lavender gingham long sleeve blouse with dirt Brown overalls. Rubber boots that lace up over the ankle. The set came with a straw hat. Ruth smirked as she selected the hat and scrolled until she found the one. She spent nearly $100 on it when it was on sale from a master crafter who just wanted to get rid of stock. A large brimmed sun hat with flowers embedded into the straw. If you looked closely, the woven hay has a pattern that correlates with the stems and leaves of the flowers. They form runes. The wearer of this hat will never get sweaty or sunburnt. The delicate-looking morning glories in a variety of patterns of purple and blue with big heart-shaped leaves look a little overdone. Especially in comparison to the simple cut of her other clothing with their wood buttons.

  “Okay, this is much cuter than I thought it would be.” She smiled, nodding her head in agreement.

  With Ruth's nod of approval, the clothes poke through the mirror. A freshly laundered scent burst from the fabric as she snatched out her clothes. She quickly exchanges her simple night clothes for the farming equipment. Ruth's underclothes are also expensive, temperature-controlled, permanently clean, and extremely comfortable. She couldn't hold back a giggle as she watched the reflection slowly consume her old clothes.

  “I'm glad I splurge on this closet. Otherwise I would have to have a dresser and wash my clothes. No thanks.” Ruth's stern tone turned thoughtful as she continued, “But I'm pretty sure I bought that spell.”

  She snapped her fingers in with a flash of periwinkle light. A book appeared. It fell open onto a spell list. Under chapter spells that clean things she did have a laundry and even an instant bath. “ I wonder if I went a little overboard,” she mumbled to herself. She instantly squashed such a silly notion. You can only buy deals outside, not once you come inside. She'll have to walk to town to get butter or milk. If she wants a custom weapon, she'll have to go to a custom weapon shop. And if she wants to eat, she'll have to plant and grow it. She tossed the book up, and it disappeared with another flash of light. She decided that was exactly what she would do.

  The rubber boots clunked on the wood floor as Ruth strode from her room. Out the glass sliding door and onto the porch. Past her workshop, the porch ends as she flounces down the steps. She approached her shed in the same stucco brick building with a red ceramic tile roof.

  Opening the red-painted wood door, the morning light flooded the inside. On shelves all along the wall are round lazy Susans full of racks of hand-sized miniatures of weapons and tools. Chests lined the floor along the walls. Ruth turned immediately to her left, where she found all the beginner's level zero gear. She selected a hoe, hand scythe, ax, pickaxe, hammer, wand, and dagger. Reaching into the chest below that shelf, she pulled out extra handles and a whetstone. Then she pulled out seeds for radishes, potatoes, kale, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and garlic. She also pulled out more sticks and twine to make climbing trellises.

  “Will I even get all this done today? Should I bring more?” Ruth wondered. She juggled all the bags of seed and tools onto one arm and then snapped the finger of her free hand. With a flash, her book appeared again, this time on an inventory tab. “Damn, all this won't fit,” she lamented. She could only fit the tools. Should she make trips there and back? “Oh right, where is that dimensional bag of reduced weight and increased capacity?” She turned in a circle on the spot. “Should be in here. Oh! There it is.” She reached out and snatched a picnic basket off the top shelf above the beginner's gear. She only bought one of these. They are ridiculously expensive. She lifted the lid and dumped everything inside. She picked up the normal-looking wicker basket, and it didn't feel any heavier than before. She nestled it into the crook of her arm as she left the shed.

  She walked up to the gate of her walled sanctuary. “Be a deer and open wide. I need a clear path to go outside.” Ruth chanted the password. The gate opened just enough for her to pass through, then silently shut behind her. Ruth walked forward onto a smooth cobblestone road with a confident stride.

  She moved to the cleared land to the right, and she took out her hoe from her inventory. She waved the hoe above her head like a wizard staff and shouted “till,” then stabbed the dirt. The Earth turned over and swirled like stirring pudding. Ruth continued to feed the spell manna. The turning Earth stretched in a linear line. “One mana equals 1 square foot. How far can I stretch it?” She pushed all 100 mana. A 10x10 square of turning, bubbling, moving Earth erupted out. A sharp pain halted Ruth. “Aw dammit” She said through clenched teeth. A mana headache bloomed and stabbed her in the head. She dropped her hoe and clenched her skull. It brought her to her knees. It was so painful.

  “That was such a bad idea. Note to self. Never do that again.”

  The headache soon faded as her mana ticked up above five. She remained on her knee, panting slightly. With a snap of her fingers, her book flashed onto her hand. Her character sheet was on these pages.

  “Mana regeneration, two a second. Stamina regeneration, two a second. Health regeneration, two the second. Is that normal, or is that because of something I bought?” With a casual page turn, she brought up active perks. “ Wha? I do not remember that perk.” Castle law: as long as you are on your land, you will regenerate twice as fast. Landowner: You will regenerate 10 times as fast on your land. Thank you for your service. You will regenerate twice as fast.

  “My house is rather big for one person. Does it count as a castle, though?” Ruth asked skeptically. She glanced at her mana and it was already full. With a shrug, she reached into the picnic basket. She could feel everything that she had placed in it and all the food that was in it that she did not remember coming with it. She pulled out the potatoes. She held a big bag with both arms hugging it to herself. This time, using 50 mana, she called out “plant”. With that, 50 small tubers jumped out of her bag and rocketed into the ground like meteorites. They buried themselves with a mound of loose soil on top. With the spacing between the rows of mounds, she had 50 plants in 100 square feet. She changed out the potatoes for carrots and reached for the hoe.

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  The hoe was gone. All that was left was the head. She picked it up and inspected it. The metal is slightly deformed with chips on the blade. “Starter gear. Right. Whetstone.” She plucked it from the basket. “Just move it across the surface, right?” With a smooth motion, she dragged the stone across the blade, and it returned to normal. “Hum, how many more times can I get out of this before it turns to dust?” She popped the hoe head back into her book inventory. “ Durability permanently reduced 90%, so I guess 10 more times. Should I go back and get my beginner? I don't even think it'll work, and I won't level until I sleep. Well, I'll just keep going.” She removed the head and an extra handle. Shoved the handle on the head and moved to an untilled spot.

  The process repeats for the six remaining seeds. She continued tilling 100 square feet and planting 50 of each. Repairing her equipment. Between. After she finished, she had barely filled an acre of land. It has only been a little over an hour, and she has already done so much, though.

  “Magic is cheating! Have I exposed a bug, or is it this simple on purpose? Makes feeding everyone easier… or maybe not? In the grand scheme of things, I can only do very little at a time.”

  Ruth snapped her fingers to bring up her spell list again. Then cursed herself. She didn't fertilize. “Maybe it will be fine if I do it after planting.” She read the spell description for this one.

  Fertilize: Use mana, stamina, or health to enrich the soil. Use any target. Fertilizes the immediate vicinity. The spell can kill the target.

  Ruth sucked on her teeth. “If this hurts, I'm sacrificing dungeon spawn for my fertilizer,” she stated dryly. Razing both hands in the middle of her crop, she shouted Fertilize and put 50 MP, SP, and HP into the spell. It did hurt. Her skin cracked, and blood bloomed out like a fountain out of her and watered everything within 50 yards of her in a circle. Cursing, she wobbled out of the carnage. By the time she got back to her basket on the road, she was completely healed but unwilling to self-fertilize ever again. “I would rather use my poo… if I pooed anymore…” She checked her book. She doesn't. She selected the option for no human waste. Though her house does have a toilet. She would need to visit a church to change it now. Ruth groaned as she cast laundry and instant bath on herself. She snapped for her book again to read her watering spells. She selected rain and with her wand cast it over her morning's work. “Drizzle softly, lightly fall. Give us a drink, but don't drown us all.” With a flick of her wrist and all but 5 mp, a dark cloud formed over her crops.

  Ruth sat down on the road out of the heavy mist and reached into the picnic basket again. She selected a sandwich and juice in a glass, of all things. She tapped the glass. Normal glass. Then a sip of juice, apple, cold and delicious. The sandwich she chose was chicken salad with lots of pepper and pickles. When she chewed her first bite, she decided she must have bought the picnic items because it was perfect. She just doesn't remember it even a little. As breakfast goe,s it isn't bad. She slowly masticated her breakfast as she watched her crops grow. She already saw sprouts. She decided to price food while in town. If it's this easy, she can't make money doing it. Maybe she should go today. Harvest some dungeon spawn while I do so. As the sprouts turned into young plants, she reconsidered her land purchase. Having 2 acres cleared around her house is probably too much. The beans already have vines halfway up the terrace. She washed down the last of her sandwith and cast laundy on herself again. Cast an instant bath on her hands after she dropped her glass back in the basket. She stretched as she stood. A sudden thought struck her. “Maybe they are growing so fast because my blood fertilized them… that better not be the case.”

  “Time to review my experience,” Ruth said, and with a snap, the book opened on notifications. She skimmed all the welcome and abundance of tutorial notifications. “Sending those to the archive for prosperity. Short and to the point please.” she turned the page with a flourish.

  You have leveled up the spell Till to level 5

  You have leveled up the spell Plant to level 5

  You have leveled up the skill Repair to level 2

  You have leveled up the spell Rain to level 5

  You have leveled up the spell Fertilize to level 5

  Unlocked earth, mana, water, and blood manipulation

  Earth manipulation level 6

  Mana manipulation level 6

  Water manipulation level 3

  For uniquely using the spell Fertilize, you have unlocked blood-manipulating magic.

  Blood manipulation level 3

  “Oh shit. Level 5 is a bottleneck. I didn't expect to level so fast. Maybe I should read the Fertilize description again,” Ruth mumbled but kept reading.

  You have discovered jobs. Jobs above common have requirements.

  Common: farmer, mage, handyman, bard.

  Uncommon: weather mage, singing sorcerer, blood mage, plant mage, handy farmer, farming mage, water mage, earth mage.

  Epic: Blood Farmer.

  Legendary: Sorcerer of Plenty. Bloody Harvester

  Ruth sucked in a lung full of breath “Okay explain Fertilizer.”

  With a frown, she flipped the page, keeping her finger on the one before.

  Fertilize: Use mana, stamina, or health to enrich the soil. Use any target. Fertilizes the immediate vicinity. The spell can kill the target.

  “So I was being dumb, wasn't I? I could have used mana or stamina and not my health. Or even weeds, I bet,” she blushed with embarrassment. Fidgeting with the page, she suddenly shut the book. “What is blood magic good for? Healing maybe. Mass slaughter. Pandemics. Blood magic is probably illegal. Even if I just use it for healing.” She paused her rant to glance at her plants again. They were nearly mature! “If I just use dungeon spawn, maybe it won't be so bad. I bet I'm not the first one to do this, either. The natives would have figured it out. They are better at exploiting the system than us streamers.”

  Ruth stood up suddenly, feeling antsy. The bloody crop will be done by the end of the day. She sighed to herself. “Postponing it won't change anything. You need to get to town,” she headed to her house. “I need money, so I need to harvest some dungeon spawn. Practice herbalism in the forest on my way down. Price all the food that I just planted. See about some livestock like chickens and goats. Maybe a cow. One for milking with another for eating later.” To the gate, she said, “ I'm back home. No need to roam.” Then slipped inside. She skipped to her room. “Bard class is all about rhyme. And being on time. Finding my rhythm it's an algorithm. Whoo, that might be a stretch. So then I just need to do that with my spells.” She speculated. She opened the closet and started throwing clothes in. Except for the hat. She swiftly changed into a white Victorian-style silk blouse with puff sleeves. The grey pants she picked go all the way up to her waist. The legs have so much fabric that it looks like a skirt. The deep pockets are big enough for her wand and dagger. With no danger of falling out. Calf-length leather boots for a walk in ruff mountain territory. With the picnic basket in hand, she flounced back to the shed. She put the seeds left over back in the chest and the farming equipment back as well. They shrank back to hand sized as soon as she went ot put them in the rack. She took a battle staff out for a walking stick.

  She went away, practically running from her crop that is now nearly full-grown. “Im retired dame it. Farming is supposed to take months. How am i doing this wrong?”