Preparing the Planting Plot
Ellie certainly didn’t blame the professor for his well-meaning intentions. She always felt grateful for his concern, but she could not fully embrace the good intentions either.
"Professor, if I truly can’t manage to harvest and earn points in time, I would like to sell these products to earn money and return to live happily in my village." Ellie’s faint smile caused Medik to pause.
How could the price of ordinary rice really compare to these rare herbs? And the thoughts of the student in front of him were indeed correct, especially for a professor with his vast experience. How could a student who has bonded with a "mushroom" survive in this institution?
He himself had the element of botany and had formed a bond with a vine plant, which allowed him to support his peers in combat. This showed that even he couldn’t graduate by farming alone.
"If you have decided, then go as you wish. I don’t have those seeds on hand right now, so I will bring them to you tomorrow," said Professor Medik before walking away, looking disheartened, leaving Ellie to spend time with the planting plot she had received from the institution.
Her plot was slightly inwards, but visible from the path far away. It was a large enough plot that one could dig holes spaced 3 meters apart in a grid pattern to plant herbs, allowing for 100 holes.
Moreover, the soil they used on this building was of high quality. Given that this soil had been heavily enriched by a wealthy previous owner, it wasn’t surprising that Professor Medik said he had intentionally chosen this land for her.
Ellie observed the soil scattered with dry rice seeds and straw. She guessed that the previous owner of the planting plot had put in some effort for a while. As the professor had explained, the former owner had tried to maximize the weight of the rice to gain more points, but after the first year, upon entering the second year, the previous owner realized that the effort was futile and had given up.
Ellie considered what needed to be done first, which was to clear the plant debris. Otherwise, it would hinder the growth of the herbs she planned to plant. The roots of these herbs were very delicate, which was why they were rare and scored relatively high compared to ordinary plants.
But of course, Ellie wasn’t planning to manually pull out the rice roots and collect the seeds by hand. If she really had to do that, it could take a whole week.
Looking around and seeing no one else, Ellie summoned her "Little Purple Mushroom." Because before she sent it back, the little spore had consumed the life force of the Tree of Wishes, causing its body to swell into a noticeable large purple mushroom. Once she summoned it, it retained this fully energized form.
"Option one, disperse into many small spores," she commanded after seeing the plump purple creature bouncing around. After giving this command, the purple mushroom dissolved into tiny spores smaller than a pinky finger, scattering around. Ellie didn’t waste time pondering; her second command followed immediately.
"Root to digest the target."
After that, the tiny spores floated excitedly to the rice straw remnants around them. They performed their function well since the straw was small and no longer contained much life force. Only the rice seeds retained a little life force, awaiting to sprout, hence it took only a few seconds per 1 plant.
Ellie did not just sit idly by; the plot had been tilled around for planting rice, but what she needed to do was dig 1 palm-deep hole for each herb. While others might be unsure whether the herb seeds would flourish and thus might sow 2-3 seeds per 1 hole, causing more waste, Ellie didn’t have to worry about that. She could transfer her magic power to stimulate immediate growth.
The petite figure continued digging holes methodically while in front of her, the spores were now expanding into fist-sized purple mushrooms bouncing around, following their original command. If Ellie had time, she could command these purple mushrooms to split into more spores to increase their numbers. However, given their abundance, she didn’t need to repeat the action.
Finally, after the little purple mushrooms finished their task, they approached and lightly patted their tiny bellies, waiting for the next command. Before Ellie realized, more than 20 mushrooms had already lined up waiting for her.
"Uh, scholarship student?" A voice filled with surprise and excitement sounded from behind. Ellie paused her work and raised her eyebrows when seeing the beautiful young professor standing agape.
Ellie followed the professor’s gaze only to see the beautifully aligned group of purple mushrooms, but it was likely a shocking sight for Professor Medik.
"Is this...your power?" Professor Medik was no fool. Seeing the unfamiliar plants before him, he guessed that it must be the power of this scholarship student. Ellie watched the chubby mushrooms laugh merrily upon seeing the new visitor. Their looks seemed to ask her, "Boss, is this human edible?"
"Yes, Professor."
Ellie didn’t give the answer expected by her greedy little creatures. The power of the plant she had bonded with had to be revealed someday, so whether she revealed it now or later was equally significant. Fortunately, Professor Medik was the first to witness them, and he should at least have some good advice for her.
"So, it is. I’m glad to see your power is sufficient to summon them. But be careful. If your summoning power drops, these plants may no longer be under our control. They might dissipate or even attack their owner."
“..............” Seeing Ellie furrowed her brows, the young professor explained further,
"You might not know this, but our botanic powers have vulnerabilities. For instance, during the summoning of bonded plants, they absorb the summoner’s magic power. If there isn’t enough power to sustain them, they might disappear at any moment."
"This is crucial during combat or if they become displeased and attack their master to consume life force instead. If it comes to that, even if you can defend yourself and disperse them, their discontent remains, and next time they might not respond to your call. It could be said that the bonded plants could not be summoned again. Essentially, it would be akin to becoming handicapped!"
"................"
"Uh, of course, I didn’t mean you would end up like that. Just be careful not to run out of magic power. I, myself, have spent a lot of money on power restorative potions just in case. But if you don’t have much money, better not to summon them too often."
"............."
"Ah, I...I didn’t mean to say you have no options in life. I just...No, I mean I’ve brought the 3 types of seeds you wanted." Professor Medik, realizing he was repeatedly being rude, finally chose to stop talking and just state his purpose for visiting Ellie instead.
Looking at the beautiful professor, who still couldn’t take his eyes off her purple mushrooms, Ellie took the 3 types of seeds. Yet the professor lingered.
"Scholarship student, I’m not familiar with the use of these mushrooms, but you don’t need to feel sad. I’ll check and get back to you as soon as I find out what properties they have,"
Professor Medik said, looking at her with pity, unaware that Ellie’s face showed no sorrow.
"Thank you, Professor."
"Mmm, I will take my leave now," said the young professor as he left with disappointment again upon witnessing the unique magic powers of his only botanic elemental student.
Ellie felt pity for the young professor instead. It seemed like he was desperately waiting for an assistant in his life, or else he wouldn’t be so dejected upon seeing her chubby mushrooms.
She shook her head at herself and turned back to her work. The small mushrooms had nothing left to do, so she decided to dismiss them. Their expressions remained pitiful as they realized they had to go back. Ellie felt sorry for them but knew it was inappropriate to keep them around doing nothing. Canceling their operation was the most sensible option.
Throughout the morning and afternoon, Ellie was busy preparing the planting plot. Now that she had the seeds from the professor, she managed to complete everything in one day. She also decided to use a little of her restored magic power to infuse into every Red Zuck seed she planted; thus she saw the delicate roots slowly emerge from the seeds.
Having not eaten good food all day, Ellie was eager to find a decent dinner. She wasn’t worried about expenses since she had plenty of gold coins in a dimensional ring from the Setter family.
The institution’s cafeteria was divided into 4 levels. The top floor was for the high-class with meals starting at 100 gold coins, while the third floor for the general nobles offered meals starting at 10 gold coins.
The second floor catered to wealthy merchants who, despite their riches, could not access the third floor without permission, making their meals quite expensive, at least over 10 gold coins per meal.
However, most students frequented the first floor where good meals cost between 1 to 5 gold coins, affordable for them, or even cheaper meals costing just a few ten silver coins. As for the scholarship students, they belonged to a kitchen filled with smoke and soot.
Scholarship students were few and supposedly looked after in terms of meals, but it was merely leftover scraps. Ellie had not been to this place since she joined the institution. If she had to eat such scraps, she would rather eat her own grilled sweet potatoes, which was tastier.
Since no students were around, the dining hall had not been opened until the start of the semester. Thus, Ellie’s target was naturally the regular food on the first floor.
The clamorous noise of the crowd made Ellie secretly furrow her brow. This was hardly a mealtime, yet it seemed that many students had gathered here.
She scanned the area and spotted her destination. With 10 gold coins in hand, Ellie headed to the food ordering station. The staff member, noticing the emblem on Ellie’s sleeve, looked slightly surprised but gladly took her order since she had the gold coins ready."I’ll have the number 4 meal, please," Ellie decided on a meal set that was neither cheap nor too expensive. For just 2 gold coins, she could get this number 4 meal, which included rice, soup, and 1 piece of grilled meat. Although the price seemed a bit steep compared to the rates back in Set City, there was nothing much she could do about it.