Debuffed Farmer

You know the thing about sadistic, pretentious girls? There’s usually something going on inside that’s hurting them—or some other pseudo-philosophical justification. I mean, seeing everyone’s past would certainly give you an uncomfortable view of the world.

Still, I didn’t know exactly how the power system here worked, but there must’ve been some reason she wanted looking into someone else’s past to be her ability.

Or maybe it was random, who knows.

Seria actually brought some food back to me after heading to the city again with Clara.

Ah, maybe I’ve got you wrong this entire time, Seria.

*

It was the next morning.

I could hear Seria’s soft breathing from our shitty wooden bed.

Ah, I probably should begin trying to make some progress on actually developing myself. Maybe I’ll go fight some monsters or something. It’s just that my system doesn’t seem to provide any benefits when it actually comes to combat and the like—aside from the occasional buff like my Zone of Absolute Control.

About that as well, I’m not sure if I’m meant to feel it or something, because whilst I understood how it worked after Clara explained it to me, I don’t know how to actually use it.

D-waves? EM-waves? How do I use this shit?

I really should go to the local library or bookstore or whatever and actually research this stuff.

I’ll grab my beans first.

Take me to the oasis.

[Travelling to OASIS…]

[Note: Gain more space by levelling up]

[…]

[…]

Thanks for the daily fact.

Entering the clean, beautiful landscape of the oasis, I swiftly picked all the EXP Beans that had grown overnight.

[+300 EXP]

[EXP Until Next Level: 14,593]

And also (+150 more EXP Beans but it seems that the system didn’t have a notification for that, inconveniently). My berry seemed to be growing as well as it ever was, sprouting a little niblet above the soil.

Aside from that, I squeezed another 50 EXP Beans in my plot; I’d probably just plant the rest around the side of my hut or something. I wasn’t actually sure how extensive my ‘mortgage’ was, so I didn’t know if I technically owned the land around my estate. It’d be a bit awkward if I find out later that I can’t actually be planting shit there.

I guess it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, worst-case scenario, I blame it all on Seria and hit the road running. The beans are mostly for experience, so even losing a ton wouldn’t matter that much.

I wonder if my stats have changed. Although judging by the information she could see last time, I don’t know if it’s even precise enough to detect short-term changes.

Sigh.

To be fair, it didn’t matter that much. I should have a perfect understanding of my own abilities anyway. There was no need for an ego boost (or degradation) in the form of a status update. I’m sure Seria has other uses (no sus).

Take me back now.

[Leaving OASIS…]

[…]

[…]

“Rin! Where were you? I was looking for you everywhere!”

“I was in my oasis.”

“I still don’t know what that is!”

“It’s hard to explain. Anyways, we’re going back to the city.”

She suddenly brightened up and stretched out her arms. If I had to describe her as an animal it would have to be a marmot (I would say puppy but that’s too cliche), goofy, stupid as hell but actually kind of cute if you look at them for a little.

She heaved in a big breath of fresh, crisp, mouldy air.

I began to plant the rest of my EXP Beans.

“What are we doing today?”

“I want to find some books.”

“Do we have money for that though?”

“Hopefully they have a library, otherwise I’m just going to abuse the goodwill of bookstores and steal the information.”

“Ah… alright.”

…

It was a relatively normal walk to the city. Making my way through the bustling streets, it wasn’t long before I saw Gram Bookstore. I didn’t see a library anyways, so they probably didn’t have one—that’d make my life too easy.

Well, at least the store was conveniently named.

“Welcome! Can I help you guys?”

Holy fuck.

Why was bro hanging right at the front door. I opened it to immediately be jump-scared by the pale-white face of the employee. Can I have some breathing space?

“Yeah, we’re just looking.”

“That’s all good. We just have a store policy that you can only read five pages of a book.”

“How do you enforce that?”

He did have a sword by his hip. Let’s just hope that that’s unrelated to the enforcement. Still, it was a rather specific rule.

“Well, we’ll kick you out if you read more than five pages.”

“Is there a limit to the number of books?”

“You’re acting suspicious.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’ll be following you around the store. In fact, I’ve never seen your face around here, you might have an ability that copies the content or something. I’m limiting you to one page per book.”

Ah. Well, that makes things harder.

Sticking millimetres behind us, he followed as I made my way to the general science section. There was a wide variety of books, stuff that’s probably very important for me to learn. Just taking one look at the prices—12 silver coins—I definitely wasn’t going to be affording that any time soon.

“Also, no more than three seconds per book.”

Yo. My guy, how am I meant to… you know what. There’s nothing I can do about that.

“The girl though, feel free to look through whatever you like~!”

Now this was just straight sexist.

“No thanks! I don’t like reading.”

Seria, you idiot.

Alright, looks like I’ll have to make the most of my reading time. I technically (hopefully) can get through quite a number before I inevitably get removed from this commercial area.

Let’s go. Hopefully I can absorb some useful information.

I sifted through the pile of books.