Finn woke for his third day in this strange new world. He left the A-frame he had been given and went to see what was for breakfast. Dale was up, and there were already people around the table. They had discussed last night that they would go down and find the wheat fields that the cook Dale had talked about.
His parents really wanted skills that would benefit farming and figured that harvesting wheat would be just the way to influence it. They, of course, assumed that was what he wanted and were dragging him along. What he wanted, though, was to fight; that was the dream of all kids when tossed into a video game world.
But for today he would go along with his parents’ plans, as he had plenty of time to get other skills after his parents were satisfied. Mark had left before they all finished breakfast, so it looked like the group going would be him and his parents along with Dale and Tom.
They left camp after breakfast and followed the trail south. Finn realized that while on the trail, they moved faster than if they stepped off it, like it gave them some magic speed bonus. The trail continued until it reached an abandoned camp. After that, they continued south without a trail, and the traveling took longer.
When they finally left the forest, they stopped and stared in amazement. Fields of gold stretched in every direction, a rolling plain full of ripe wheat as far as they could see. Unlike fields at home, where everything grew in straight rows, this was wild wheat reaching to the horizon.
Dale said, “What do you think? Think this is enough wheat for you guys to get some farming or harvesting skills from?”
Elias answered, “When you said ‘fields of wheat,’ I was thinking like a small patch. This is enough wheat to feed hundreds if not thousands of people. We could not harvest it by hand in a month with us all working; this is just crazy.”
Mara also said, “Yeah, we were thinking a small field. This will be great. This place could support a city. Maybe one should be created down here.”
They moved forward as a group to the edge of the field where Tom and Dale had harvested a little earlier.
Elias said, “To do this correctly, there are several stages. First, we cut it with the scythes Mark made us last night. After that, it needs to dry or cure. We could do that here and come back for it or take it to camp. Then comes threshing, winnowing, cleaning the grain, and finally grinding it. With this much, I think we should only cut today and lay it out to dry in the sun. We can come back for the other steps in a few days.”
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They then spent the next couple hours cutting and laying out the wheat to dry. While they were working, Tom and Dale went to explore more of the area to see what was past the wheat fields.
The family finished their work just as Tom and Dale returned. Tom told them they had found rivers and streams throughout the grain fields. Far to the south, they could see a huge lake. Open grasslands stretched to the east, and beyond the lake was something that might be a marsh.
A few small hills had given them a better view, but they saw no people or signs anyone had been there.
While they were harvesting the wheat, all three of the family members hit Level 4. It was slow going as each patch of wheat they harvested gave less XP until near the end; they were getting almost nothing. This made them realize that doing a new action gave great XP rewards the first time, but those rewards slowly trickled away the more they repeated it.
His dad, Elias, reached Level 4 and received the Crop Harvesting skill. His mom, Mara, reached Level 4 along with the Grain Processing skill. Finn reached Level 4 and received the Field Labor skill, which fit what he had done but not the skills he truly wanted. He would have to see if he could find somewhere to fight and develop different skills.
Now that they had gained the skills they were hoping for and checked out the wheat fields, they wanted to visit the Burrow Cluster that Mark had mentioned because Tom needed more leather; he was close to getting Level 8 and wanted to get it today or tomorrow but needed a better supply of leather.
The group headed northwest so they would reach the Burrow Cluster after moving back into the zone containing their outpost. He was more excited about this part of their adventure. His parents loved the farm life; he wanted more adventure. And trapping and killing giant lizards for leather sounded more interesting to him.
When they finally reached the Burrow Cluster, they could see where the name came from. There were thousands of burrows. The area it covered was nothing compared to the wild wheat but was still pretty impressive.
Finn was amazed by the number of lizards. With a gun or a bow like Mark’s, catching them would be easy. Instead, Mark had provided four traps for each person, and with so many lizards, they were bound to catch a few.
Finn volunteered to place the traps. Each was anchored and built for the size and strength of the lizards. The group had twenty in total, which they spread around the huge mounds in a pattern that Tom or anyone else could easily collect.
Placing them took time, but on the way back to the start of the line, they found two large lizards already caught. Tom was excited; he had a project for the leather and expected it would push him to Level 8 so he could see his class choices.
Tom let him do the killing and collecting so that he would get credit for it and also get credit for turning in the goods back at the outpost. With all of their tasks done for the day, they headed back to camp. They first went directly east until they found the trail and then followed it to camp.
On the way home, they made a list of what they needed. They wanted paths reaching the wheat fields and the Burrow Cluster. The wheat they had cut was now drying, but they would need somewhere to thresh it, separate and clean the grain, and then mill or grind it into flour.
The question was whether to haul everything back into the forest or build the processing structures in the south. They would need to talk to Mark.