Chapter 94: Nothing wrong with a little homesteading
We didn’t waste much time celebrating Selia’s win over the jungle’s guardian beast.
We came here for a reason, and taking that beast down was merely the first step of it—a step we would have to repeat if we wasted time on nothing now.
"Let’s hurry it up," Selia said, with just the slightest smile and blush of satisfaction warming up her face. She then turned away from the fallen monster, not sparing it a single glance as it started to quickly decompose and rot away, giving back to the ground all the nutrients that originally made this whole entity up.
I followed in Selia’s footsteps without as much as a peep of complaint.
Without her, I would never make it past the jungle’s perimeter. Heck, without her, I wouldn’t even be able to spot the hidden monster in the first place.
No.
If in a city I had some means through which I could help, support, and amuse the Saintess, out here, in the wilderness?
I was nothing more than an annoying package for Selia to keep a lookout for and protect.
Still, the mission was relatively simple. And thankfully, we didn’t really need to go far before reaching our goal.
"Here should be as good as anywhere else," Selia muttered pretty much as soon as we reached the line of the trees, stepping only a few meters beyond the ones at the very front.
Then, wasting no time on ceremony, she just grabbed the smallest tree from the ones around.
Her body lit up with a golden aura, making it seem as if divine grace itself was seeping out of her skin.
Then, just like that, she ripped the relatively smaller tree from where it was growing, its roots snapping from the extensive network in the ground.
’I wonder if there’s an easier way to go about it,’ I thought, watching how Selia effortlessly tossed the excavated tree off before looking around and picking the next one in line.
One by one, she removed trees from the area, creating a small, open space in the middle of the woods in a matter of just a few minutes.
Ever since she moved the second tree, I also moved in, using my hands and feet to tilt the soil, pushing the upper layer of it into the holes left behind by the trees Selia removed to even out the area, making it as flat as possible.
And just like that, in less than half an hour, we’d prepared a cozy little space where we could plant the coffee in, hidden from view by the trees all around it and with enough mana within the jungle to provide all the energy the bush wouldn’t be able to obtain due to the lack of sun—caused by all the extensive treetops growing above it.
"Maybe we should just try burning parts of the forest down?" I thought out loud to myself, unable to shake off the unpleasant image of Selia physically draining herself just to remove a few trees.
On Earth, all of this work would be done by a machine... or by a concentrated effort of a whole crowd of people supported by farm animals.
"Why would we do that for?" Selia asked, clapping her hands against each other to dust them off from all the particles that ended up sticking to her hands and sleeves as she worked.
"To create a bigger plantation?" I suggested, already thinking of ways to expand this project from something that, if it worked, could maybe supply us with a few cups of coffee a week, into something that could become the foundation of a new coffee empire.
"It seems that you forgot," Selia smiled a little while shaking her head, "we are not here to grow those plants of yours. We came here to test if they will grow properly. And if they will, we will be able to get more seeds from a species that works well enough and just plant them elsewhere."
Summing up her response with a shrug of her shoulders, Selia then stepped to the side, retreating as far out as the very edge of the clearing she created.
"Now, I’m leaving it in your capable hands," she smiled while pointing at the small field.
’Capable hands, she said,’ I thought to myself, trying not to scoff. ’If my guess is right, she did more gardening and planting before becoming a Saintess than I did in my whole life,’ I thought, going back to the very few memories I had of playing in the garden back at my grandparents’ place or during the home economics class all the way back in middle school.
Ever since those two episodes, I had absolutely none, null, nada experience in handling plants.
But now that Selia set the expectation in place...
’How do I even approach it?’
Rather than rushing to the task, I approached Selia’s side.
Not to flirt with her, but to get a better, edge-based look at the whole field we... Saintess created.
It was roughly circular in shape, limited by the trunks of the trees that were simply too big for Selia to remove with her bare hands.
I gulped down.
Just thinking about how there was someone capable of pulling SOME trees out with their bare hands was enough for an uncomfortable shiver to move up my spine.
’As far as I remember, coffee doesn’t really grow in even lines like most of the stuff I’ve ever grown or seen planted,’ I thought, recalling what little bits of gardening I could remember.
Ultimately, the coffee plant was a bush. And those tended to have shallow but dense root systems, giving me a clue on how to plant them within the given space, with the limited number of seeds I brought along.
"Okay then," I muttered to myself before stepping away from the edge and starting pretty much right in the center of the field.
There, I dug with my hands until I created a pit roughly deep enough for me to fit my leg all the way up to its knee. Then I dug around the central point of the pit until the hole in the ground reached a roughly semi-spherical shape.
Next, I started to move the loose topsoil that I’d moved before and used it to fill the very pit I’d created, before suddenly stopping and looking around.
’As weird as it might sound, I would love to get some monster shit now, but...’ I helplessly looked around. ’While this place is bound to be filled to the brim with it, it’s not exactly like we would have an easy time finding it...’
Just as I was about to give up on the idea of adding a fertilizer, a recent memory popped up in my mind. Then, my head snapped over to the jungle’s perimeter, where the guardian beast Selia defeated was almost completely rotted away by now.
Up until this point, the progress of the monster’s degradation was our clock.
If we managed to finish the job before it fully degraded, then we could safely cross the perimeter to return. IF we were too late, however, then every second that passed would increase the odds of that beast regenerating in a new and improved form!
Right now, however, I didn’t look towards the monster’s rotting remains to check on the time.
Just recalling their slimy, decomposing look I couldn’t help but smile.
"Selia, dear, it might sound awful but would you mind bringing me some of that rotting mess?" I asked while pointing out to where half of the monster’s carcass already decomposed, leaving us with a decreasing amount of material to work with.
"Huh?" Taken aback by the unexpected request, Selia looked over in the direction I pointed at, only for her face to sour the next moment. "You need its magic stone?" she then asked as a look of understanding flashed on her face.
"That too," I nodded my head. "But its rotting body is actually what I meant. Even a little bit would do."
For a moment, Selia stared at me as if I’d lost my mind.
Then, with a deep groan, she moved before shaking her arms a little as if to warm them up.
"I really hope you know what you are doing," she said before sprinting out, chasing the wind as if she couldn’t bear the idea of leaving me alone even for a second.
Or rather, to be more practically realistic, she knew full well that the moment she left me alone, the danger to me would skyrocket, even if she was just a short dash away.
Thankfully, her task didn’t take her long. And by the time she returned, I’d only managed to start working on the third pit, still in the process of digging out the main hole.
"Okay, I’ve got it," Selia said with a disgusted look on her face as she brought out and then dropped a bunch of meaty scraps oozing green blood and a nearly unbearable stench.
Yet, after my experiences with my abilities and getting a taste of Selia’s mana, I could tell one thing for sure—just like I thought, those scraps were overflowing with mana... No, it was something more primal than that.
What they were overflowing with was vitality!
"That’s perfect!" I smiled before putting my attention back to the task at hand.
Only once the third pit was fully dug out, its walls reinforced, and its volume filled with forest undergrowth did I move in to make use of those scraps.
I neatly divided them into three parts before tossing each of those parts into each separate pit. Then, without any ceremony, I tossed the seeds into the middle of this mess, two seeds per pit for a total of six that we brought up.
Then, with one more swoop, I added in another layer of freshly tilled undergrowth, covering the seeds with just enough loose soil and fallen plant matter to keep them in this nutrient-rich place.
Finally, in the very center between the three pits, I dug out a small hole before placing the guardian beast’s magic stone into it and then burying it right back down—all at roughly the same depth as I buried the seeds.
"Okay, that’s all I could do here," I announced as I stepped back and, just like Selia did before, clapped my hands to get rid of the dust gathered in every nook and crevice of my hands and clothes.
"Then let’s hurry up and leave." Selia’s tone indicated she somehow wasn’t happy at all. And, honestly, it didn’t take genius to figure out the reason behind it. "If we don’t move now, we are going to risk encountering a new iteration of the guardian beast!"