'Conjure'. 'Water'. 'Underbracket!'

  Theo swiped his finger across the air, pushing a gentle stream of uncharged mana through the short channel running within it. The expelled mana lingered in the air like glitter frozen in time. It wasn't a minute he had to wait, nor half that. The moment the bracket closed both sigils within it, the resounding chimes melded into one harmonious jingle before a large spherical globule of pure, clean water took form and subsequently fell with a flat splash.

  The water squished and sputtered into a body-sized bowl of some kind of brownish metal, a single drop shooting back up into the air, reaching its peak where the droplet had been made before it fell back down with a drip that echoed through the otherwise empty room.

  The bracket was definitely a command that meant 'end of-statement', so the experiment was an immediate success! All it took was one casting of... ten mana, exactly as he'd hoped.

  Other than the very low expenditure of actually weaving the symbol, the bracket itself cost nothing as it locked the two sigils into place and activated them. It was as it should be, he thought, yet he couldn't help but consider himself lucky of that very same fact. He barely spent half a second on the bracket itself, meaning he had just gone from waiting a whole minute before he got results to a second. It was practically instantaneous in comparison.

  He looked around the room, wondering what he should do next. He didn't know what he had expected earlier, but this experiment he wanted to do was annoyingly quick.

  He opened the book back on the page involving the bracket, seeing if there was anything else he could try. He was anxious about understanding the other symbols he hadn't been able to use yet, but they might be a bit above his level if he was supposed to use them in combinations of three or more at a time. Maybe he should focus on gaining skills after all.

  Was there something he could use this odd kind of magic for in order to gain skills faster? Did any skills include creating water? Was being a living well a skill? Probably not. Could he burn things? Firefighting? Pyromania? If those weren't skills, he might at least be getting closer to an idea of one.

  He could conjure... Wait, was conjuring summoning from somewhere else, or was it creating something from scratch? He probably didn't retrieve the water he made from a nearby well, so maybe he wasn't conjuring so much as creating. And he could create water, fire and dirt. With the exception of fire, that...

  "That's it!" he exclaimed. He then dashed out of the bathing room and burst into his own room. He ran to the window and cast his wide eyes down toward the small backyard. There were a few nearly rotten pieces of hastily crafted boxes there. Not just that, but all three of them were filled with dry dirt and dead plants of some kind.

  "I can cultivate plants!" he exploded with laughter. It was perfect! It was rather low effort, he already understood the very basics, meaning he'd probably learn fast. He could also generate new, fresh dirt and water without transporting it!

  Though, judging simply by the half-rotted crates full of death and lifelessness, Wen was maybe not the best gardener herself. He should ask if he could borrow her small planter boxes, of course, but asking for guidance or tutoring was maybe not the best idea. Still, there were likely both farmers and gardeners in this town, right? Someone would likely teach him. It seemed they needed the cash flow, after all, and Theo had some 'monetary capabilities' for now. Spending his coin to gain skills? Easy!

  It was getting late, the sun having already sunk below the horizon and left the village outside in a blanket shadow. Still there were noises vibrating through the floor from below, a sign of people, drunk and otherwise, drinking their nerves away before this ranking. That meant Wen was likely still up as Theo hadn't seen anyone else work in this place.

  Theo, not for lack of patience or anything, hurriedly walked back out of his comfortable room and headed downstairs. Despite the shabby quality of the woodwork used to raise this particular building, the flooring in his room seemed quite capable of reducing the noise. The amount of shouts and screaming that poked into his ears as he descended the stair was incomprehensible. It was like he stepped into a waterfall of cascading sound and stomps, glasses and cups crashing into each other and the poor tables beneath with liquid sludge being traded between the blows.

  Theo recognised most of the villagers by now, having seen plenty of them gathered in the square earlier or by the scamming trader's wagon. There were more women here than earlier, though, many of them seated or standing near their husbands and their friends. Everyone was pretty rowdy, but Theo had to admit that once the cacophony had evened out some, he quite liked the ambiance of it all.

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  He found Wen casually strafing between customers and tables with drinks on trays. She deftly picked up empty or tumbled cups and glasses all the while she served her guests newly filled vessels of liquor. Watching her serve, retrieve, pick up and deliver all at once, Theo quickly lost track of which cup was full or empty, which glass was filled to the brim with foamy alcohol, or simply just foamy and bare.

  She soon returned to the counter to refill her trays with more drink. Theo took the chance to intercept her, flitting toward her with a possibly too-familiar smile.

  She looked up at him with a mirrored smile at first, then her eyes grew wide. She dropped the glass she held under the tap of a barrel, the glass dropping to the floor. Luckily, or by sheer humidity, the glass didn't break, but rolled away on the already wet floor. Then, Wen laughed with a furious laugh stemming from the depths of her own stomach.

  She pointed at him, unable to curb her own laugh. "Yer tongue is fuckin' blue!"

  So that's what had become 'Blue'. That explained why he wasn't able to find it earlier.

  Theo wasn't quite sure how to explain that particular magic phenomena, so he just tried to shrug it off as if he'd just eaten something and the colour remained inside his mouth. He didn't think he did a good job about it.

  "Sorry, sorry," Wen said, able to pull herself together after a short while. Luckily the rest of the crowd didn't seem to notice either the glass falling or her rampant laughter. "Have you caught Blue, perchance? I didn't think that was around anymore, but maybe out in the wilderness?"

  Luckily, she seemed to recognise the symptom for exactly what it was, though her guess as to why he'd caught it was wrong.

  "It isn't dangerous, is it? Or infectious?" he asked with relief.

  "Nah, it's just Blue."

  Theo then wondered why she hadn't seen earlier, but decided to leave it. This floor was more well-lit, all things considered, and maybe he hadn't been showing his tongue as much?

  "Good! I was growing a bit nervous," he breathed. It was a bit of a lie as the System hadn't said it was dangerous in any way, but now he knew for sure.

  "So what can I getcha'?"

  Theo thought back to the glass of swill he'd gotten earlier in the day, having no mind to try that stuff out again. There was also a blood red liquid being served he could try, but it was full of black specks floating freely in it and didn't look at all appetising. He decided not to step off of the water wagon. That said, it didn't seem water was even served here.

  "Oh, I noticed your planter boxes outside. I was wondering if I could maybe try planting in them?"

  "Them junk crates? I guess you can. Are you a farmer?" Wen asked.

  "A budding farmer, you might say," he winked. She laughed, luckily.

  "Because plants," she agreed. "I don't mind, though if I can ask you for a favour in return, I might even help you."

  "Oh? Being your spymaster wasn't enough?" Theo teased.

  "Oh, no you can use them. But, if you'll agree to plant specific things for me to use here, it'll cover a perpetual living arrangement for you, if you decide to stay."

  Theo grinned. Things were pretty much just falling into his lap the way he wanted them to, weren't they?

  "I believe I can do that, so long as it's not something too complex," he agreed.

  "It shouldn't be. I've had the worst luck with the plantin', you see. The place never did well at plants or farming."

  Theo would've expected the opposite considering the verdant grassy fields outside the town. To be honest, he wasn't sure that equalled a fertile soil either way, but it seemed healthy, at least.

  "There should already be some dirt inside all of 'em. There should be a bucket or two still capable of carrying some slosh from the well and here, too. Even got some seeds in the back you can 'ave, free of charge for the service."

  "That's very kind of you," Theo said honestly.

  "Nah, it doesn't go used. Seeds might be dead for all I know. You won't find any gardener types around here, though. Might have a chat with the farmer-kin over there in the corner for waterin' requirements and the like."

  Wen pointed to the family of villagers in the corner with dirty rags for clothes, finding the tall, lanky man from earlier along with a shorter and stouter father and equally dense mother. She then disappeared for a moment, heading behind the corner wall before appearing with a small sack she handed to Theo. He opened it and emptied part of its contents on his flat palm. Two different kinds of seeds fell out, one larger and longer than the other kind. The System triggered helpfully.

  Item: Gingerelli Seed.

  Item: Violetberry Seed.

  He put them back in the pouch, and the System triggered again.

  Item: Pouch of Mixed Seeds (Gingerelli Seeds x5, Violetberry Seeds x10)

  'Fascinating', he thought out loud.

  "There are Gingerelli seeds there, the large ones. They're used for flavourin' ale and the like. The smaller ones are Violetberry seeds, used to make wine or ciders. Well, they have more uses, but I don't do much bakin' and the like."

  "Thank you very much, Wen," Theo beamed. The hostess blushed and darted off toward the crowd of guests with just the slightest rosy tinge to her. He then eyed the pouch again. He was one step closer now.

  He should talk to the farmer next, he thought. The tall one seemed to be about his age, meaning give or take ten-to-fifteen years depending on what the hell they were feeding the man. Theo summoned up the nerve to go straight into the viper's nest of drunks and spraying alcohol.