Three days later.
Once the promised three days had passed, every member of the Northern Rock Tribe gathered around my small field on the outskirts of the village.
After my ancestral-god performance, the barbarians who laughed at and mocked me had almost disappeared, but that did not mean they believed me completely.
They still watched me with curiosity and a measure of distrust.
“......”
Chieftain Jakan stood with his arms crossed in front of the field.
The enormous greatsword still rested menacingly behind his back.
Gulp. If what I had said was not true, that sword would cut off my head without hesitation.
I swallowed dryly and looked down at the field.
As if by magic, green leaves had sprouted.
[Potatoes – Ready to Harvest]
The system message glowed blue.
I had succeeded.
For the past two days, I had clung to my prison bars and begged Jakan.
If I did not water them, the miracle would wither away.
In the end, I had been permitted to water them exactly once a day, accompanied by a guard.
My devoted care...... No, the power of the Growth Acceleration skill had not been in vain.
But the tension did not fade.
'Maybe...... Only the leaves grew, right?'
Fear suddenly struck me.
Lush leaves did not guarantee that the roots would be substantial as well.
What if I dug them up, only to find one or two potatoes the size of beans?
That would still be a miracle, but not enough of one to preserve my life.
“The time has come.”
Jakan's deep voice broke the silence.
“Izak. Prove it. Whether it is truly the grace of the ancestral god, or a lie.”
I nodded without speaking.
With trembling hands, I gripped the sharp shard of stone I had brought instead of a hoe.
The barbarians surrounding me watched my fingertips while scarcely daring to breathe.
When I cautiously grasped the first potato stem, it felt heavy.
As I put strength into my fingertips, the resistance of the earth grew stronger.
'Please......'
- Creak.
A faint tremor from the roots breaking underground traveled up to me.
Holding my breath, I gave the stem more force and pulled.
RIP—! Dust rose as the black soil turned over.
Then yellow lumps saw the light of day within it.
“......!”
I drew in a breath without meaning to.
“Potatoes! Lots potatoes!”
“Miracle! Really ancestral god!”
The wrinkled seed-potato pieces had turned into plump potatoes larger than my fist.
Potatoes hung in clusters like grapes and rolled across the black soil.
One, two, three...... Even a rough glance showed more than ten.
- DING!
[You have harvested your first crop! You have obtained 15 F-Grade Potatoes.]
[Crop Comprehension <Potato> increases.]
A system message appeared in my mind along with a cheerful notification sound.
[Achievement Accomplished! You are the first barbarian to harvest a crop. You gain experience.]
[Title Acquired! ‘A Barbarian Is Farming?!’ Stat Points +1, Fame +1]
I did not even have time to read the system messages.
The barbarians who saw the mass of potatoes in my hands were running wild with excitement.
“Wizard! Izak wizard barbarian!”
“Now our Northern Rock Tribe is richest barbarian tribe!”
Plop, thud.
A single seed-eye piece had produced no fewer than fifteen potatoes.
Without stopping, I dug up the other four holes as well.
Thirteen potatoes came from the second stem. Seventeen came from the third.
When I had finished digging, a small mountain of potatoes lay at my feet.
Roughly eighty.
More than four times the twenty potatoes that had been our entire original fortune.
“Waaaaah! Potato rich!”
“Izak potato god!”
At someone's roar, cheers bordering on frenzy burst out.
“One potato became ten!”
“Ancestral god watches over us. Barbariaaan!”
The barbarians hugged each other and jumped up and down.
Life returned to their eyes, which had been worn down by hunger.
...... I wondered how they had maintained those muscles while eating so little.
In any event, Chieftain Jakan slowly made his way through the uproarious barbarians and approached me.
As his enormous shadow covered me, I looked up at him tensely.
Jakan stared at the pile of potatoes on the ground for a long time before turning his gaze to me.
Those fierce eyes seemed to have softened considerably.
“Izak.”
“Yeah.”
“I was wrong.”
A short, direct admission.
No excuses and no justifications. It was the simple barbarian way.
“As you said, the great ancestral god gave you wisdom. I am sorry.”
“No.”
I accepted his apology coolly as well, the barbarian way.
“I permit you to farm.”
The chieftain's official recognition.
Only then did the tension leave me, and I felt the strength drain from my legs.
Whew...... I had nearly taken the road to the underworld over planting a single potato.
For now, I had lived. No, was this only the beginning?
That was when the barbarians reached their hands toward the pile of potatoes.
“Potato! Eat!”
“I eat potato too!”
“Stop!”
Jakan's thunderous rebuke fell.
The barbarians reaching out their hands froze in alarm.
“These potatoes belong to Izak. Izak made them at the risk of his life.”
That was true.
I had nearly died because of these potatoes.
Dozens of desperate gazes turned toward me.
The sound of swallowed saliva came from here and there.
Suppressing a smile, I spoke.
“No. I did it for our tribe. Ancestral god gave me wisdom for that.”
“......”
Was it my imagination, or did Jakan's hard face relax a little at that moment?
Jakan stood looking at me for a while before speaking.
“Tell me anything needed to farm. Everyone, from now on, help Izak with whatever he tells you to do.”
“I make ten potatoes too! Excited!”
“I learn magic from Izak too! Potato wizard!”
Hearing Jakan's words, the barbarians chattered excitedly.
I had not expected such wholehearted support.
The unexpected windfall secretly cheered me, and I nodded.
“Thank you, Chieftain.”
.
.
.
Once everyone had dispersed.
I remained alone in the field for a while.
The setting sun dyed the canyon red.
In that majestic scenery, I quietly held out a hand toward empty air.
“Status Window.”
==========
【Player Information】
• Name : Izak (Kang Jin-ho)
• Race : Barbarian (Northern Rock Tribe)
• Class : Novice Farmer
• Level : 2 (▲1) New!
【Base Attributes】
• Strength : 20 / Agility : 15 / Vitality : 22 / Intelligence : 20 / Mental Strength : 8
• Fame : 1 New!
• Remaining Stat Points : 2 New!
【Farming Log】
• Potatoes New!
- Harvest Yield 80/100
- Comprehension 0%
【Titles Held】
• A Barbarian Is Farming?! New!
==========
“Hmm......”
I stroked my chin.
One point from leveling up, and one point from gaining the title.
I had gained a total of two Stat Points.
In this game, raising a stat by one was incredibly difficult according to the system.
The average Strength of an ordinary adult man was 10, while a trained soldier had around 15.
There were no stats that rose automatically even when you leveled up. You had to allocate Stat Points yourself.
'My race really is barbarian.'
Barbarians were not originally a selectable race. Jakan, a major barbarian character who drove the story of the L.O.C. setting, was a hero NPC who saved the world by helping the protagonist.
'Barbarians have high Strength and Vitality. But I read in the setting book that their Intelligence was low.'
That was probably because the soul of the barbarian Izak was that of Kang Jin-ho, a modern man.
In any event, gaining two stats just by harvesting potatoes once was completely overpowered.
I could not stop the corners of my mouth from lifting.
I could raise not only my level, but also experience and stats by farming. It was fucking sweet.
'First, I'm putting both points into Mental Strength.'
Without hesitation, I invested two points into Mental Strength.
Mental Strength rose from 8 to 10.
My Mental Strength had been so low that I had poured out nosebleeds until I was practically anemic. It was thanks to that that the ancestral-god show had succeeded.
Still, the memory of nearly dying because I could not properly explain farming gave me chills.
To resist this damned Barbarian Mind, I would invest my stats in Mental Strength for the time being.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but once my Mental Strength reached 10, I felt as though I could control this body better. It felt good.
'And this Comprehension.'
What would happen once I understood potatoes 100%? Would I even be able to talk to potatoes?
Or would I be able to obtain higher-grade crops?
I don't know. I remembered the game's setting that crops with special effects appeared when their grade rose.
'Well, I'll find out if I keep planting them.'
In any event, I had to plant potatoes like mad.
To survive the harsh Great Famine this winter, we needed an enormous quantity of potatoes.
I planted five seed potatoes in the empty field slots again, then stood up.
'Oh, right. Dinner.'
I had promised the barbarians something.
I'll show them the skills of Kang Jin-ho, former chef.
Just wait.
***
A large bonfire burned in the village square.
Suspended over it was the cauldron that usually cooked the porridge that looked like water used to wash rags.
But today was different.
I poured in water just deep enough to cover the bottom, then placed loosely woven branches over it.
It was a makeshift steamer.
Then I neatly stacked eighty thoroughly washed potatoes on top.
“Izak. I hungry. Just put in water and boil!”
“I hate that! Tastes bad. Smells!”
The barbarians chattered from every direction.
The barbarians' cooking methods were simple.
Either roast it—although they practically burned it—or put it in water and boil it.
The concept of steaming must have been unfamiliar to them.
“Wait! This is the method the ancestral god taught!”
“I wait! I obey ancestral god!”
Invoking the ancestral god really did quiet them down.
It was a cure-all.
I used a wide wooden board as a lid, then waited for the potatoes to steam as the bonfire crackled.
White steam rose through the gap in the cauldron.
- SSSSSS
“Sniff, sniff.”
The barbarians who caught the scent flared their nostrils.
An earthy, nutty, lightly sweet fragrance.
The aroma of carbohydrates, on an entirely different level from the sour, watery porridge they normally ate, soon had them drooling.
“Done. It is ready.”
When I opened the lid, white steam billowed out.
The potatoes revealed within had skins slightly split open, exposing their flesh.
“Pretty. Potato pretty!”
As someone cried out, I poked a potato with a branch. It sank in softly with a squish—. Perfect.
After checking the potatoes, I bowed my head to Jakan.
I did not know why, but it felt like I ought to do that.
The chieftain looked down at me silently, then stood before the cauldron.
Everyone received two potatoes each, fairly.
“Hot! Be careful......”
Before I could finish, the sounds of eager bites rang out from every direction.
Barbarians did not use eating utensils.
Jakan bit into a hot potato, skin and all, then closed his eyes.
Crack. The skin burst, followed by the sound of its soft flesh being crushed.
Hot warmth filled his mouth.
Then came the distinct, nutty taste of potato.
The faint sweetness that seeped out the more he chewed.
Above all, the fullness that weighed satisfyingly in his stomach......!
The thin porridge they had drunk until now only had the taste of tricking their hunger. This was truly food.
“......Delicious.”
Jakan murmured softly.
That single remark became the signal for cheers to erupt from all around.
“Hot! Don't care if hot! Very delicious!”
“No rag taste! First time eat something this delicious!”
The barbarians marveled from every direction.
Jakan watched them with pleased eyes, then put the remaining potato into his mouth.
“Izak. Really delicious. First time something this delicious.”
Malko bowed his head to me, his eyes moist.
“Sorry reporting you......! I thought you hiding potatoes. I bad barbarian! Give me punishment!”
THUD, THUD—. He apologized by smashing his head against the ground.
Even his apologies were violent.
“No. Malko did not know ancestral god's will then, so it is okay.”
“Izak......”
Apparently touched by that, he sprang up and raised his head.
He looked even uglier up close, so I started to edge backward under the burden of it.
- GRAB!
“Kuhk.”
My ribs felt as though they were breaking!
Malko suddenly hugged me tight, sobbing as he spoke.
“Izak jealous of handsome me because ugly! I did not know you such good barbarian!”
What was this guy talking about......?
He looked like a tiger with a horse's nose.
“Malko help Izak from now! Izak do not worry. Malko smart!”
No...... I was very worried about him.
He could not even count past twelve.
Regardless, Malko smiled brightly, pounded my back hard enough to break my shoulder, and disappeared.
'Honestly.'
Even after he was gone, the other barbarians came over and thanked me.
For nothing more than steamed potatoes.
No salt, no sugar, no butter. Just steamed potatoes.
Food that I would not even have glanced at in my previous life.
But in this barren wasteland, it must have been a magnificent feast for those who lived every day straddling life and death.
- Chew, smack.
Along with the crackling bonfire, the sounds of more than forty barbarians eating happily filled the air.
The faces that had seemed only savage and rough when I first saw them now looked a little different.
With that thought, I picked up my own potato and took a bite.
A nutty fragrance spread through the fluffy texture.
My throat tightened, but it went down even without water.
The strange feeling that my farming...... That my knowledge had been responsible for their dinner tonight wrapped around my entire body.
It was a heavy sense of responsibility, different from the satisfaction I had felt as a chef.
'Yeah. This might be worth doing.'
When I looked up at the night sky, countless stars were shining as though they might pour down.
As the chieftain quietly watched that sight, he opened his mouth.
“Izak.”
Y-Yeah?
Why, why is he calling me? He's so frightening.