Linus woke up early but let himself linger in bed for a while. He’d been pushing himself hard for the last couple of days and it was nice to be just a little lazy. When Archie arrived in his room he knew he’d probably pushed it too far.

  “Good morning, would you like breakfast in bed today?”

  “No, no I was just about to get up.”

  “Very well, I’ll see you at breakfast then.” Linus sighed as Archie left the room and he pried himself out of the bed. Only Archie could make him stop being lazy by offering to enable his laziness. And while the bed was nothing compared to luxury back home it was still comfortable.

  He got dressed, washed his face and used a couple [Invigorate]s on him. While it wasn’t the most exciting skill it definitely helped start the day. Maybe he should offer to the others he thought while making his way over.

  Breakfast was again the standard oatmeal and he idly thought if they should be focusing more on some fruit trees to liven it up. As he was eating Emmet made his way over.

  “Hi Linus, I was wondering if you had time today for me to start working with you.”

  “Hey Emmet, sure. I was planning to head out to the fields again today and we can incorporate your training into that.”

  “Great, I’m ready whenever you are.” Linus nodded then returned to his food, finishing a few minutes later and heading out of the outpost with Emmet. At the fields Linus talked Emmet through the three skills he most commonly used on the field and how they worked before opening up the discussion to him.

  “I was thinking these skills would be the most useful to you and you could use them to grow trees to harvest for lumber. Not sure how long it’d take to grow a tree to a useful size, but if you only focus on one tree instead of hundreds of plants hopefully not too long.”

  “That sounds reasonable to me. I’ve got several wood focused skills so [Growth] might be the easiest for me to acquire.”

  “Sounds good, then I think the next step might be to get some actual trees. We can’t grow what we don’t have. But I know nothing about trees so that’s all on you. Hopefully we can find a few ideal species, if not specimens in the woods.” Said Linus. Emmet agreed and the two set off towards the forest. They needed to walk several hours until they got past the twisted shrubs and started to find stunted but healthy trees.

  “Let’s take a bit of a break before we start looking for trees to take home,” Linus said, panting a bit. He flopped on the ground and summoned a stream of water directly into his mouth before holding a ball of water towards Emmet. In response Emmet chuckled and shook his head before pulling a waterskin off his belt and taking a sip.

  “Well glad someone was prepared.”

  “Always, need to be whenever you leave the outpost. One time I was out on patrol, and didn't see a single monster until I got back. Get home, ready to call it a day and there’s a group of monsters at the walls, attacking away. We’ve never had any real offensive powerhouses posted here and these were heavily armored, covered in scales. Ended up camped just out of eyesight of the fort for three nights, just waiting until they got tired out and wandered away. Used to pack two days of food before that, afterwards upped it to four. Nothing worse than being cold, uncomfortable and hungry.”

  “Wait, you bring that much food every time you do a patrol?”

  “No, I bring that much food every time I leave the fort. Including today. I see you’ve got water covered but you don’t have any food on you?” Linus stared at Emmet before answering slowly.

  “Of course I didn’t bring food, I’m just out here for a few hours. Where would I even put it?”

  “You’re an idiot. Get a pack, put some rations in it and take it every time you leave. Please tell me you at least have a weapon on you.”

  In response Linus summoned [Mana Blades] in each hand.

  “Nice, not much reach and dependent on you having enough mana but at least you won’t lose or break em.”

  “Glad you agree, I think that’s probably enough feedback and rest. Let’s find a couple of trees and head back to the fields.”

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  It didn’t take Emmet long to pick out three saplings, two oak and one maple.

  “I know I was just lecturing you about being prepared but I actually didn’t expect to be digging up trees today.” Emmet awkwardly said, avoiding Linus’ eyes and focusing on the closest tree.

  “Well it’s a good thing I’m so prepared then” Linus teased back, kneeling down at the base of the maple. Leaning over so he was closer to the ground he started to move his hands, using them to focus [Basic Earth Manipulation]. Thin layer by thin layer he exposed the roots, finding them extending wider out than he expected.

  Like an archeologist he carefully revealed the entire system, working deeper and inwards until the tree was gently but completely uprooted. It was a scramble to get out of his self created hole but he managed before gesturing between Emmet and the sapling until the man reached over and pulled it fully out by its crown.

  “That was pretty impressive,” Emmet commented.

  “It was way more work than I thought it would be. I’m used to working with much smaller plants, I can’t imagine how wide a mature tree's roots would extend.”

  After a small break Linus tackled the two oak trees in a similar manner, with their roots extending even wider than the maple but being much closer to the surface except for taproot right underneath the trunk. Work done he turned to head back to the outpost and its fields, only stopping and looking back after several loud and overly dramatic throat clears from Emmet.

  “What?”

  “Which one do you want?”

  “None?”

  “Come on, it’ll be much easier if you take one and I take the other two.”

  “Easier for who?” In response Emmet just stared at Linus until he finally gave in.

  “Fine, but I’m taking the smallest one. I knew we should’ve brought Archie…”

  They walked back, carrying the trees, taking more and more frequent breaks while Linus complained.

  “You should’ve picked smaller trees… We should’ve left this one behind… I think I’m dying…” Needless to say hiking while encumbered was not something Linus ever planned to repeat. By the time they got back to the fields it was well past lunchtime and almost time for dinner.

  “I’m not planting them today. They’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” Linus said, putting down his tree and heading towards the gate.

  “But they’ll do better if we plant them today.” Linus was about to argue but had a different idea.

  “Okay, come with me, we just need to grab a few things.” Linus led Emmet over to the crafting hall and ducked inside for a minute before returning with a shovel and a pail. “Here you go, have fun digging and make sure they are well watered once they are planted. I’m going to take a long bath to get all this dirt off me and soak my aching body.”

  With that Linus left Emmet speechless and followed through on his plan. Archie was waiting back at his room and soon had a bath drawn, a tea steeping and a small snack to tide him over until dinner.

  After a long and almost luxurious bath Linus and Archie headed to dinner. They were joined by everyone other than Emmet. Over dinner they discussed their day and progress. Hanna was still excited about acquiring [Mana Manipulation] and was experimenting with how to incorporate it into her existing classes and skills. Laure and Sasha elicited a promise from Linus to set tomorrow afternoon aside to train them. Meanwhile Luke and Theodore were planning to scout deeper into the wastelands than usual so Theodore could start to familiarize Luke with the landscape, hazards and areas of interest. They were planning to set out in several days and Theodore arranged time the day after tomorrow to stock up on some potions with Linus. Archie was mysteriously silent on what he’d been up to but Linus didn’t pry. Archie would tell him when he wanted to, and was always working in his best interest. Dinner wrapped up with Emmet still out at the fields.

  “Will someone check on Emmet and stay with him until he’s done planting his trees?” Linus requested.

  “I’ll go,” Theodore said. Archie collected everyone’s dishes with his translucent [Telekinetic Hands] and headed back into the kitchen to clean up. Luke headed off on his own while Linus, Sasha, Laure and Hanna all headed towards the crafting hall. Sasha and Laure had been spending more time together focused on their adjacent goals. While all three women headed into the hall itself Linus made his way to his garden.

  A cursory sweep showed similar results as before with one of the sections demonstrably better than the other three. He decided instead of jumping straight to the usual he’d start off with some pruning. There was enough established growth that it would be beneficial for the plants. Summoning a slender mana blade he worked his way through the different plants, trimming some to encourage upwards growth while others had their main shoot clipped to encourage the secondary shoots and a denser bush. For the rarer plants he took a clipping when he could and propagated it into a new plant. Other plants hadn’t grown enough for pruning and he left them alone for now.

  Pruning complete he only did a weak, diffuse [Growth] across the garden before heading to his room. Not quite ready for bed he decided to exercise some of his less utilized skills, dropping into [Stealth] while alone in his room felt silly but he did it anyways, then activated [Blood State] Trying to limit it only to his left hand, letting it slowly transform up his arm before reverting it back down to just the hand, over and over until he was as magically exhausted as he was physically. As he lay down to go to bed he activated his last skill of the day, [Recovery Coma], and knew no more.