Casual Farming 12: A Slow Living LitRPG (Sowing Season), page 1
Casual Farming 12
Slow Living LitRPG
Wolfe Locke, Mike Caliban
Fantasy Unlimited
Copyright © [2024] by [Wolfe Locke]
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Contents
Other Books
1. First Day of Summer
2. Between Windows
3. Thunderclap
4. Part of the Whole
5. Defensive Homesteading
6. Sheltered Life
7. Hot & Dry
8. Summer's Toll
9. Dusty Hands
10. Last Day of Summer
11. First Day of Fall
12. Cooler Weather
13. Prairie
14. Pride
15. Regrets
16. Big Storm
17. Follow Up
18. Beyond The Limit
19. Homesick
20. Last Day of Fall
21. First Day of Winter
22. No Rain
23. Fair Day
24. Mixed Reports
25. Poor Conditions
26. Chores
27. Over It
28. Stay
29. Rattling
30. Last Day of Winter
31. First Day of Spring
32. Flower
33. Dare To Hope
34. Approaching
35. Need Of A Break
36. Habits
37. Torches
38. These Fields
39. The Good Fight
40. The End of Spring
After
Important Links
The LitRPG Group
Other Books
Check Out Any Of These Series While You Wait For The Next Book, The Most Update To Date Can be Found at the
https://fantasyunlimited.org/
Paladin Hunter, Duty Beyond The Dungeon
The Retired S Ranked Adventure
Mana Harvest, Sword To Ploughshare Saga
Casual Farming, Sowing Season
Shop In Another World, The Ballad of Shady Greg
Third Apocalypse, Regressor
Genesis Game, Pandemonium
How I, A Normal High School Student, Went to Royal Academy And Avoided Being Trapped in Hiatus
First Day of Summer
[The alarm went off, it was 6 AM. Jason and Tess were ready to get to work around the farm. They had 61 starting actions.]
[Daniel’s Almanac: 1st day of Summer! Howdy, y’all! It’s a great day to get outside and rebuild the town, now, isn’t it? The sun is bright and hot, a wonderful start to summer, and our wonderful Mage Guild helpers are busily helping to put everything right as rain! Except there’s no actual rain. Oh, and I’ve just been informed that the mages are mostly focused on their little academy, so we’ll have to actually use our own elbow grease to rebuild things. That’s alright, though. You know, I once hit five nails into a piece of wood with one swing of a hammer, so feel free to call me up!]
Jason sighed and slowly rolled out of bed. Throughout his years on the farm, there were nights of sleep that had been better than others. All things considered, though... The previous night had been one of the worst. The bed, having been torn apart by the orcs, was in quite a state. Springs poked into his back, the whole thing was quite uneven, and the blankets had only covered about half his body. He sighed and climbed to his feet, and next to him, Tess did the same.
“Daddy?” Fern poked her head in the door. “Daddy, my window is open, and there’s a bird on my dresser.”
“Yeah! It’s a pretty bird!” Rachel stuck her head in through the door a moment later. “But then I scared it away. trying to get close.”
“It wasn't pretty! It left a mess on my dresser!” Fern crossed her arms.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Jason sighed and groaned as he felt the assortment of bruises across his body. “You’re heading out to the mages’ new academy this afternoon; I just thought it would be nice to spend one night as a family together in the house before we were separated again.”
“We’re not going to be separated again.” Tess rolled out of bed as well. She was holding it together a lot better than Jason, but he could see that she was in a decent amount of pain as well. “The girls are only going to be over the hill, you know that as well as I do.”
“I know, I know.” Jason sighed and shook his head. “I just… I don’t know. A father doesn’t think he’s going to be that far away from his little girls until they get married, you know?”
Down the hall, the two toddlers started to wail, and Tess smiled. “I’m going to go get the twins. Instead of complaining, why don’t you take everyone downstairs, and we’ll have a nice breakfast?”
“Yay!” Fern grinned. “Can we have waffles?”
“Yeah! I want a Triple Chocolate Supreme Marshmallow Strawberry Deluxe!”
Jason groaned inwardly. He’d eaten nothing but waffles for the previous year, but... If that was what his girls wanted, that was what they were going to get.
“Coming right up.”
A few minutes later, the whole family was seated around the dining room table, tucking into a lovely meal. Everyone had some variety of waffles. The twins, who were only slightly over a year old, both had plain waffles. The two older girls had piled as much chocolate and sugar onto theirs as was physically possible. Tess had one covered in fruit, while Jason had made his with a helping of chicken. As they tucked in, Tess glanced over at her husband.
“What are you thinking, as far as a plan for the day goes?”
Jason could only shrug. “I mean, there’s only one thing we can really do. We just have to dive in and get started on all of this. There’s a lot to take care of, I imagine we’ll spend most of the next year getting some of the smaller bits put together.”
“Yeah.” Tess sighed and glanced around. The walls of the dining room displayed long gouges and marks where the orcs had slashed into the wallpaper. Windows were broken out, the table itself was rather crooked... And the plates they were eating on were all chipped. Jason imagined that it would be easier to just throw the entire farm away and buy a new one, if such a thing were possible. “What are you going to start on?”
“The first thing we’ll have to take care of is the fence.” Jason shrugged. “If the fence is down, it doesn’t matter what else we do, monsters will just come back inside and wreck everything. Last night at the festival, I put in an order at Cecilia’s store for enough fence to get around most of the place.”
Tess winced. “And how much did that cost?”
“It used up most of our savings, but I think it’ll be worth it.” Jason grimaced. “As long as I can get a crop in the ground inside of a week, we should be able to have enough by the end of the summer to cover the lion’s share of the repairs. We’re just going to have to pick and choose what we work on.”
“I’d certainly like to shore up the house.” Tess glanced around. “Though I understand if we have to wait a smidge on it. It’s summer, so we don’t need it nearly as quickly.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll buy new windows and some other things just as quickly as I can.” Jason wiped off his mouth, then slowly stood. “I’m heading outside. Milligan ought to be down anytime now.” He kissed all his kids on the top of the head, gave Tess a peck on the cheek, and smiled at them. “I’m so glad you’re all home.”
With that, he turned and walked back through the house. It didn’t take him long to pull on his work boots, and with that, he headed out into the farmyard. To his surprise, he found Milligan already there, chatting with Master Dominic of the Mages Guild. The old mage leaned heavily upon his staff and smiled as Jason walked down to meet him.
“Ahh, good morning!” Master Dominic beamed. “I was just coming to see about my new pupils. And, of course, to take care of some other matters of business.”
“The girls are inside. They’ll be along just as soon as they can, I reckon.” Jason smiled. He held out his hand, which Master Dominic shook. “How did your academy fare, through the invasion?”
“We survived with moderate damage.” Master Dominic shrugged. “The physical structures were left more or less intact, but the orcs used an ancient and powerful magic to disrupt the spells that were laid in the foundations of the academy. It will take us some time to stabilize them. At present, most of our essential staff is occupied in this work, and we have others coming to assist with it.”
Jason nodded slowly. “What happens if it isn’t stabilized?”
“Oh, you know. Portals opening into interdimensional space, temporal anomalies, and other such things.” Master Dominic spoke with such a casual nature about it that Jason’s head spun. “In any case, I do need to be getting back, so if you could send the girls along when they’re ready, I would dearly appreciate it.”
“Of course.” Jason nodded. Master Dominic started to turn away, then paused and turned back.
“One more thing. I spoke briefly with your uncle, Alfie, yesterday at the festival. He’s supposed to be coming by sometime today, I believe.”
“Yeah, that’s what I understand, too.” Jason confirmed. “What about it?”
“Well, we’ve checked out his story. As near as we can tell, it all s
“You mean the magic one that talks to the old mage, from years and years ago?” Jason raised an eyebrow.
“That’d be the one.” Master Dominic looked uncomfortable. “We’d like to borrow it for an indefinite period of time.”
Jason sighed. He had been afraid that something like this would happen. “You’re taking over for me.”
“I’m afraid so. Please believe me when I say that it wasn’t my decision.” Master Dominic raised his hand. “In fact, both myself and High Master Benedict fought for your inclusion, but at the end of the day, we’re both far enough down the ranks that we were overruled. Given the ever-increasing orcish threat, we’ve been ordered to take over the investigation, and given that your uncle seems to have a great deal more information...”
“You don’t have to justify yourself; I get it.” Jason shrugged and looked down at the ground. “The book’s up in my office. The orcs didn’t touch it, I had it hidden in the secret room. I’ll have someone bring it along when they head in your direction.”
“Many thanks.” Master Dominic bowed his head. With that, he turned and started shuffling away. As he walked off into the distance, Milligan turned and nodded to Jason.
“I sure am sorry, Boss.”
“Ahh. It’s life. I’m honestly surprised they let me keep doing all sorts of cool stuff with it for as long as they did.” Jason squared his shoulders, then slowly turned to look around the barn. “Now, what needs to be fixed around here?”
As his eyes swept the area, he couldn’t help but feel that the answer was “everything.” The fruit trees, which he had planted for Fern almost a decade earlier, had been stripped down and uprooted. The fences were broken. The barn had actually been beaten up so badly that there were gaping holes in the sides. One of the doors hung askew; it was... It was bad.
“When’s that order of fence coming in?” Milligan asked.
“About a week.” Jason crossed his arms. He caught a glimpse of someone walking up the road from Summer Shandy, probably his uncle, but didn’t move to investigate. “Come on. Let’s get to work.”
Milligan nodded, and they both opened up their inventories to pull out the tools they would need. For now, all they could do was repair what was already there, but that was enough for the time being. Quickly, Jason walked to the front gate, where he pulled out a hammer and began tapping the fence rails.
[Action Used: Repair Fence. Remaining Actions: 60]
[Action Failed: Fence is too badly damaged. Remaining Actions: 60]
[Action Used: Repair Fence. Remaining Actions: 59]
He and Milligan slowly began to move down the fence, putting things back in order as best they could. The sections that couldn’t be repaired, Jason pulled the wood down and began throwing it into a large pile. He would burn it later, maybe as part of the festival. Bonfires were cool, to be certain. As they worked their way along the front section of the farm, the figure approaching from town became clear, indeed revealing Jason’s old uncle.
“Top of the morning to you!” Alfie beamed, holding out a hand. He was a large man, resembling Jason slightly, but with a much more impressive beard and a taller and darker countenance.
“Morning.” Jason grunted as he hammered another plank back into place.
“I do hope that-”
A flash of annoyance ran through Jason, and he looked up at Alfie. Alfie seemed to notice it and paused. Jason opened his mouth but held back from saying many of the things he wanted to say. Finally, he let out a long sigh, and slowly nodded.
“The mages are off across the prairie. Just follow the road, and you’ll go right to them.”
Alfie nodded. “Do you mind if I wait and walk with the girls? I heard that they’re heading out that way.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather walk with them myself.”
Alfie slowly nodded his head, then turned and walked through the gate and off across the prairie. Milligan glanced over at Jason, then grimaced.
“Aren’t you being a little hard on him?”
“I don’t know. It just feels like maybe this is all a little bit his fault.” Jason sighed and whacked another board back into place. “I’ll sit down and have a proper conversation with him, but not until this farm is back in order again.”
“Alright, then.” Milligan gave a nod. “Let’s get this done.”
Between Windows
[The alarm went off, it was 6 AM. Jason and Tess were ready to get to work around the farm. They had 61 starting actions.]
[Daniel’s Almanac: 7th day of Summer! Let’s see… It looks like today’s going to be another hot one, folks! We do have a storm coming through in a few days, so if you haven’t gotten your windows shored up yet, now’s a good time to get that done!]
“Windows.” Tess murmured as Jason rolled out of bed. Well, off the mats that they had put on the floor. The bed had been officially added to the burn pile, after a few more sleepless nights on the lumpy mattress. “We need to get windows put up.”
“I know, I know.” Jason groaned and rubbed his eyes. “The shipment of fence just got in yesterday. I’ll be putting all of it up today, and—”
“Jason, we can’t wait for the money from the crops to come in.” Tess shook her head. “We need to get new windows today. When that storm comes, if we get water damage through half the house, it’s going to be way worse than it already is.”
Jason looked up at her, then slowly nodded his head. “You’re right, you’re right. Sorry.” He groaned and climbed to his feet. “We’ve still got a few days. Let me get the fence repaired, and I’ll head into town and buy some new windows tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” Tess walked up to him and put her arms around his neck. “I know how hard this is for you, and I know how hard you’re working to get everything set back in order. Just know that I see it, and I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.” Jason turned and gave her a kiss, then sighed. “Well, I’m heading out.”
“Good. Go get to it!” Tess beamed as Jason quickly changed into work clothes. “Just head on out, if you want. I’ll get the twins ready.”
“Will do.” Jason nodded and walked out into the hall. He paused and glanced down at the empty room where the older girls should have been. Sure, he hadn’t seen them for the better part of a year, but… That almost made it worse, now. They were so close, only a mile or so away, and yet, it felt like they might as well have been across the country.
Oh, well. He drew in a sharp breath, then strode down the stairs. They were keeping the girls safe, and they were helping stave off the orcish invasion. That was important, and Jason just had to keep that fact in mind.
As he walked out into the farmyard, he found that Milligan was nowhere to be seen. That was odd, Milligan was normally way ahead of Jason, but he supposed that something had come up. There were certainly enough problems to go around. Quickly, Jason glanced over the farm and took stock of things.
Over the previous week, he and Milligan had worked to clear up the debris. Rather than storing it in the farm’s inventory, which was getting rather cluttered from a decade and a half of time spent living there, they had dumped all the debris into a massive pile on the eastern side of the barn. It was unseemly, but it was the largest chunk of open ground in the place, so that was what they had to do. Meanwhile, crabgrasses crawled back and forth over the ground, along with a few razorgrasses and thistles and other such monsters, as the fence still showed a great many gaps.
Well, it was time to change that, now.
The only remaining fence was the fence that had been salvaged, all the broken pieces had been added to the pile. Jason slowly walked up to the front of the farm (where they had chopped down all the dead fruit trees as well, leaving only two still standing), where he opened his inventory and began pulling out the long list of supplies that had shown up the day before. Carefully, he dumped out a handful of wooden planks, nails, hammers, and a few other tools. And, with that, he set it.
It took all his strength, but he carefully picked up one of the planks and carried it over to an open section of the fence. At least in this area, all the fence posts had survived, which at least made the work a little easier. He quickly held it in place, pushing the plank into the small notches carved into the post, and balanced it there as best he could. Then, letting go, he walked over to the closest post.
