CSA 31 - I Played in the Dirt (Patreon)

After a while, the evil brat’s father came alone.

“Would you mind talking to me for a minute?”
“What is it?”
“It’s about this tree, but do you have any plant-related Skills? If you do, it would be helpful if you could help us with our fields. Of course, we will pay you properly. What do you think?”
“A job request, is it...?”

Hmm, I don’t have anything special to do, so I guess it's okay.

“I understand. Is it okay to receive the harvested crops as payment?”
“Aah, if you’re okay with that, then it’s helpful for us too. We're poor farmers after all.”

Well, I guess there's no way people living on the outskirts of the city are rich.
(It was Lotorl who thought of such a very rude thing, by the previous life.)

When I jumped out of the window and landed using my Flight Skill, the father was shocked.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard his name.

“My name is Lotorl.”
“Y-yeah, I'm Tan Hee. Nice to meet you.”

We shook hands and headed to the field.

“It’s about this field, only this area is not growing well. Can you do something about it?”
“I'll take a look for a bit.”

When I appraised the soil, it appeared to be heavily infested with mold fungi.

At first glance, it doesn't seem like there is any mold growing anywhere, but this is isekai, and the isekai mold that only feeds on plant nutrients is doing something bad while making sure that humans don't notice them.
To think I’d come across molds that are cunning enough to not propagate on growing vegetables, and do their harm only in the soil, isekai sure is scary. Could it be that mold monsters exist?
I got scared when I imagined it.

“Fumu fumu, it looks like it’s infested with mold, so please give up on this whole area.”
“...I see. Then I'm counting on you to help me with the safe fields.”
“That’s what I'd like to say, but it's okay. I'll make sure you can use this field as well.”

And so, I liquefied the field contaminated with mold along with the crops, then hit it with Fireballs and brought it to a boil, exterminating the mold. Then, I used my Compounding Skill to remove a moderate amount of water and sprinkled it with a fertilizing potion to return it to healthy soil.

“It’s done. All that's left is to mix the fertilizer, plow the land, and sow the seeds. Then, I’ll leave that to Tan Hee-san.”

I haven’t learned Farming Skill or Earth Magic, so there’s no way I can plow the land, right?
If I was asked to make a vinyl greenhouse, I could probably do it with my Alchemy Skill though.
Piling up soil and planting seeds are works that need to be done by hand, so they’re a bit bothersome.

“...Y-yeah, I guess I should. I'll go get a hoe, in the meantime, could you please check the other fields to see if there are any problems?”
“I understand. If there are any crops that are ready to be harvested, I can have them, right?”
“Yeah, I don’t care. Take as much as you want.”
“Thank you very much.”

I took a quick look around and the other fields seemed fine, so which field should I harvest from?

“Melon! I chose you!”

I said that, but they are still small melons that have just ripened.
Just in case, I examined the soil once more and confirmed that there was no problem, then I sprayed high fertilizer potion with a sprayer and harvested the melon that had turned into a large ball.

“Let's eat some.”

I took out the adamantite all-purpose knife and cutting board from Storage, cut the large-ball melon in half, and put the other half away in storage.
Next, I take out a spoon from Storage, and then, itadakimasu.

“Slurp slurp, yum yum, so sweeeet!”

It was so delicious that it would cost more than 10,000 El if I bought it at a store.
I eat until I’m satisfied and put the rest in Storage.

Let's move on to the next crop.

“Carrots, green peppers, cabbage, green onions, turnips, daikon, grapes, watermelon, oranges, strawberries... this is way too broad.”

I don't know much about fields, but I feel like this will deplete the soil of its nutrients.
Well, if it were me, I can probably do something about it with potions though.

I harvested every crop that was ripening and put them into Storage.
Let's carefully compound, synthesize, and alchemize them later.

“How are the other fields doing?”

Tan Hee-san came back with a hoe.

“I'm worried about the nutrients in the soil, but other than that, they seem fine. I have some high fertilizer potion with me, so I'll sell it for 100,000 El each.”
“I can kind of tell by looking at you that this high fertilizer potion is a good thing, but I’m poor, you know. I can’t really buy it, I’m sorry.”
“I see. Then, at least please let me test it out even if it’s just to see its effect.”

After saying that, so that it would look easy to understand, I sprayed a small watermelon with it and it grew into a giant watermelon. When I did that, Tan Hee-san opened his mouth wide and was really surprised.

“...Amazing. If we had that, there would be a revolution in agriculture.”
“I'm just mixing fertilizer with Hi-Potion though.”

This won’t happen just by mixing them together, though.
At the very least you can’t do it without Synthesis Skill.

“You're such a lavish spender I see... I don't think anyone other than you would think of mixing fertilizer with Hi-Potion and would actually do it.”
“Do you want to buy it now?”
“Yeah, but I don't have any money after all. Sorry.”
“Is that so? That's a shame.”

It's true that 100,000 El is expensive if you're poor, but no matter how you look at it, it's a cheat item. If it were me, I'd buy it even if I had to borrow money.
I could see a vision of him using the money from selling crops grown with high fertilizer potion to purchase more, and once his income was stable, he would offer discounts on regular purchases, and eventually rise to become the king of agriculture.

...But wait, that means I have the power to take life and death, so if I were a villainous daughter, wouldn't the slave route be confirmed?

I'm not a particularly evil villainous daughter, so I wouldn't do such a terrible thing, but from the others’ perspective, I suppose there’s no way they’ll do business with an incomprehensible and inexperienced beautiful girl. How rude.

Well, from my perspective, he still missed an opportunity, so I didn't need to get any more involved with him, so I said my greeting and headed home just like that.

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