Having emptied both of the planter boxes by himself, all three were now empty. Theo looked down at his own hands with a smile. He could never do this kind of work in his old life. He didn't have the constitution for it. Now, just the thought of getting to try it out for himself was what drove him on even into the night. The tavern was growing more quiet by the minute with just the most hardcore drunks remaining. Through a window Theo could often see Wen and exchange a few smiles and glances with her as she looked back.

  He still hadn't been able to talk to her about his spy mission and his gathered intel, but there would be time. She was busy with her work running a tavern by herself and they couldn't talk with de Santas around, even in his room, in fear of the trader hearing them.

  For now, the boxes were ready. Theo had stumbled upon wooden plates roughly the size of the planter boxes themselves. By pure genius, he then inserted them into the boxes only about a quarter of the way down. Using the plates as a bottom layer, Theo wouldn't have to fill the entirety of the pretty large crates with dirt. He wasn't sure how that would affect the gingerelli plant, but Willam had explained that the berries, at least, didn't go deep. Considering it was the roots of the gingerelli he wanted, he'd much rather prefer not to dig a whole metre down into a crate full of dirt to get at them, either.

  There was still a good quarter of a metre to fill, which would be hard work if he intended to do it by plain old manual labour. He didn't, though.

  Starting with the violetberry box that had been moved into the corner of the backyard, neatly lodged between two walls and with barely any way of being spotted, Theo got to work.

  He revved up his mana channels and felt the slight heat radiating through the skin of his finger. He then drew in the air right above the box, starting with what he had previously called 'Conjure', but he had now realised likely meant 'Create'. Next, as the symbol locked in, he drew the symbol for 'Earth', tracing it with a delicate flair. The two symbols became one function, but hummed out of tune with each other. Theo ended with an 'End' bracket.

  With a flash the three symbols resonated and turned a bright brown before they quickly crumbled into whatever mana broke down to, with an added chunk of dirt to boot.

  It was a melon-sized chunk of dense soil that shattered into a billion smaller grains of dirt the moment it fell onto the wooden plate layer. It smelled like freshly churned ground, an earthy and powerful smell that was neither cruel nor kind. The colour was a deep, hearty brown, a good sign when compared to the greyish rough soil now littering the ground in large mounds.

  Still, to fill the crate adequately would take roughly four spells. Maybe he could do with three for the berries?

  He weaved the sigils again, once more ending with the bracket. Instantly, more soil fell into the box. Again. The chunks were definitely of the same size as each other, meaning it was likely a specific amount that appeared. He'd have to find out how much and what ratio he made earth to water later, though. For now, three chunks seemed to be enough. He stirred the newly created soil around in the box, making it a nice, somewhat even field for his seeds to be planted in. It was silky smooth to the touch, like fine sand rather than dirt. Would it really be fine to plant in?

  Before laying down the seeds Theo weaved some more, this time splashing a bunch of water into a rickety bucket. It was made of iron, most likely, though it was in pretty bad shape. It was unclear whether it had simply been crafted this way or if it had just been treated poorly by its owner.

  Whether or not a 'bucketful' was a specific measurement of liquid or not, and Theo was leaning towards not, Willam did explain it like it was specific, meaning that was what Theo would treat it as. Luckily the bucket was rather uniform in its width across its height, meaning the bottom half of the bucket would be roughly the same as half a full bucket. He was glad he didn't have to start calculating more complex volumes right now.

  Also, possibly by stroke of luck, or perhaps the world itself had some basic standards put in place that coincided with the bucket standard of its residents, a weaved 'Create Water' combination filled the bucket a quarter of the way. That was exactly how much, if a bucket was exact, he needed for the berries. So long as the amount was the same each time, it would also make caring for these plants much easier with less waste. Theo appreciated unwastefulness. Was that a word?

  The man raised the bucket and tipped it over the planter box filled with fresh, delicate soil. He spread it around evenly, but stirred it around again with his dirty hands, feeling the dirt clump every so slightly as moisture started creeping into it. It still felt pretty dry, but Willam had been both specific in his measurement and even said specifically that they were best dry. Theo was happy with following instructions the first time.

  He then meticulously separated the seeds of the pouch into two piles, one with the smaller violetberry seeds and the other with the larger and more elongated gingerelli seeds. He put the gingerelli seeds back into the pouch and neatly split the berry seeds around the planter box. He tucked them gently into the barely wet soil with a smile plastered on his face. This was rather enjoyable, all things considered. Maybe he could make a life out of this.

  Having covered the small seeds with a blanket of comfortable soil and made sure the top soil was mostly flat afterwards, Theo was surprised to find that the System had a comment regarding his work already.

  Congratulations! You have earned the Level One skill Planting.

  Planting (Level One): A skill all about green fingers, dirty hands and a can-do attitude. All stats +5.

  Theo hadn't realised planting itself would be a skill, rather that it was likely just a part of farming or maybe gardening. This was good news! He might be able to gain some precious stats in no time if there were more common professions split into several skills. If planting was a skill in and of itself, would tending plants be one as well? Would harvesting be another? So many questions kept popping up, and still he never seemed to actually ask anyone the important ones.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Character flaw or not, Theo got to work on the next planter box. It was getting pretty late already and the noise back inside the Barge had been almost entirely quenched. After making sure the wood plate was nicely in place and could support a bit of weight, he looked around to make sure his new spot wasn't currently being watched by anyone. He then weaved his sigils again.

  'Create' 'Earth' 'End'. Thump! 'Create' 'Earth' 'End'. Thwump! 'Create' 'Earth' 'End'. Whump. Each clump of earth made less and less noise as it landed on softer and softer soil. Theo wanted to be sure the roots of the gingerelli plant had enough room to grow, so he added a fourth 'Create Earth' spell, the last ball of soil landing with a dampened ump. He then did the same as before, rolling through it with his hand to mix it up and spread it all into an even layer. The last ball of soil had barely left an inch of space from the soil and the edge of the planter box.

  He waved another 'Create Water' into the bucket he had been lucky enough to get to borrow, finding it pretty much exactly filled a quarter of the way to the top, just like last time. He'd like to check this a few more times to be sure, but right now, he figured it was an equal amount each time he weaved each sigil combination.

  While the gingerelli seeds needed a quarter of a bucket every six hours, Theo wasn't so invested into this that he'd rise early just to water them again in six hours. He could wait twelve hours, so that was what he would do. That meant he could double the amount of water right now. Still, he decided to plant the seeds first.

  He placed them in a neat circle, evenly spread out from each other in the box. He then shoved them deeper and covered them up with moist dirt. He splashed another sigil worth of fresh water into the bucket, checked the amount and spread the newly created liquid over the planted seeds with an agreeing grin on his face. The water sank into the fine dirt, letting itself be soaked up by it.

  Theo yawned and headed back inside, leaving the third planter box for another day when he had some more seeds on hand. Willam had offered him some neato seeds, whatever that was, so he might as well try planting them as well.

  He nearly crashed into a slightly red-eyed Wen who rounded the corner with a tall broom and a bucket in hand. She yelped in fright, but calmed the moment she recognised him in the poor lighting.

  "Theo! You've been out there all this time?" she asked, eyeing the doorway to the back yard.

  "Yeah, I felt like I should finish planting everything right away. All the seeds are now in the ground!" he answered proudly.

  "Good for you! That's some good, honest work. I hope they'll grow alright. Not everything does around here," she said while looking around the main room of the tavern. It seemed she hadn't started washing it down yet. An ungodly amount of unholy brown-red solution flowed like a river of stench incarnate. Theo had no envy of Wen's job. "I-if you don't mind... Could you get this bucket refilled? Tonight's been more work than usual since everyone's nervous about the ranking."

  Accepting the bucket from the kind and tired hostess, Theo graciously accepted the task. He was just about to ask where the nearest well was when he realised he should already know that, else the seeds he just bragged about planting would've never sprouted at all. Instead, he braved out the main door of the tavern, double-checked that no one was looking, then headed back around the corner of the building. There, he felt safe enough to weave some magic once more.

  He wasn't quite sure how full she wanted it, and with no wish to waste the water, he settled with three spells worth of pure, fresh liquid dreams. Then he cast the first spell. The water turned brown almost the instant it hit the bottom of the bucket. With a sigh, Theo used that water to scrub the sides and bottom of the iron container with his equally dirty hands. His own filth slipped off of his skin and into the bucket, which was almost black with dirt. He sloshed the water around to make sure most of it was mixed in with the water and ferociously emptied the contents.

  He sacrificed his shirt, which was pretty dirty already, actually, and wiped the tool clean before weaving more water into existence. Now it looked much more refreshing! It was barely tinged with brown and he could barely see swirling specks of debris within. It was good enough! Twice more, and the bucket was adequately full. He returned to Wen inside the Barge.

  "Here you go," he smiled. "Fresh from the well!"

  "Oh, thanks-" Wen started, then nearly fainted by the sight of the bucket in his arms. "The fuck did you get that?" she asked without pause.

  "Th-the well?" he asked.

  "This water? From that well? That looks fresher than rain from a blue sky, that!"

  "I cleaned the bucket a bit," Theo shrugged. "It was pretty nasty."

  "Aye, the whole town's water supply is 'nasty'," she... defended? "That you got there's divine nectar, that is! Fresh as a babe fish, I reckon."

  Theo wasn't quite sure a baby fish was particularly clean, but she seemed to be struggling for words. Something else he was struggling to understand was if Wen was angry or not. She seemed upset, but maybe she was just excited about it?

  "Maybe they cleaned it?" he attempted again, shrugging as if to say that he was just a traveller staying here for the first time and he really had no idea what the big idea was. He felt like he nailed the look.

  "Sure," she said disbelievingly. She then smiled wide as an open door. "This place'll be clean as all hells come tomorrow! Whatever the reason, thank you, Theo!" she said, darting forward and laying her lips on his cheek. The water of the bucket threatened to escape its confines as she did, but she expertly kept the bucket under control. Barely a drop splashed out into freedom, the droplet smooshing itself into Wen's blushing cheek.

  "N-no worries," Theo said with a gentle nod. He then headed upstairs as the girl was already busy wetting her crooked mop.

  "Oh! Let's talk about that other thing tomorrow midday, okay?" she shouted after him."

  Theo agreed and darted up the stairs and headed into his room. He breathed a sigh of relief and his eyes threatened to close the moment his body hit the bed. He checked his remaining mana for the costs of his labour.

  '397!' he thought. He'd spent 140 mana planting the seeds and giving Wen some water in her bucket. It was a steep price. It was a price he would usually need twenty-eight Level One skills to be able to pay.

  With that in mind, and with hopes of finding a way to raise the efficiency of the mana costs, he undressed his dirty clothes and fell asleep.