Village Restoration

"The Previous Master. She really died in the Level 2 Biome?"

I'd heard it back at the very start, so the memory was hazy. It hadn't seemed important enough to keep as anything more than she died early.

"Yes... the Previous Master passed away in the Level 2 Biome..."

Ruru looked back on the past with a faintly sad light in her eyes. Once upon a time I wouldn't have cared — a snort, what an idiot, and on with my day — but this time the wording left room for a serious misreading.

"You mean she died trying to break through to the Level 2 Biome? Or she died in the Level 2 Biome from some idiotic mistake?"

Was the Level 2 Biome as far as she ever reached, or did she simply happen to die there? Those were two very different readings.

"Um... as far as I know, she went to gather alchemy materials and was attacked by monsters while she was camping."

"...How far did she actually get? What level biome?"

"Mmm... I don't really remember that. I'm sorry, Master!"

Some kind of seal on her memory, then. The last time I'd asked about the Previous Master's death she hadn't been able to answer at all, and now she could. Maybe it was loosening on its own, now that my main quest was moving and I'd already pushed a little way into the Level 2 Biome. I had a feeling this was how they put limits on a helper's memories — and yet, thinking of how much I'd gained early on from the Previous Master's traces, maybe that was exactly how it was meant to work. Hunt those traces down and pocket them, and I could blast forward the way you do on a map someone's already cleared.

Which made me think the woman called the Previous Master might have gone considerably farther than I'd given her credit for. Otherwise, picking Magic plus Alchemy from the very start was a combination my brain simply refused to understand.

At the very least, a choice like that meant one of two things.

One: she was, quite literally, a romance-only lunatic. So pickled in Farming World she'd melted in it, and she'd chosen that combo because she wanted to unleash absolute endgame potential on a map like this. Ask people for the strongest late-game combination and you'll get a pile of personal taste, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠almost nobody denies that abilities built around magic power are strong. Alchemy in particular could inflate magical ability with all sorts of potions, and even setting raw stats aside, there was a small crowd who used potions as a combat style all their own.

So either she was chasing that kind of romance. Or she simply didn't know how to do anything but magic.

I used a bit of everything myself, but what I trusted most was close combat. Early on, the community had settled it: on Farming World's highest-difficulty maps, close combat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was still the ability that let you hold out and grow fast, and I'd cleared my own early game that way more than once. After that I spent ten years trying magic and everything else, using all of it in turn. The point was, not every user bothers sampling other abilities one by one. Most people just dig deeper into whatever they're already comfortable with.

And once it stops being a game and becomes reality, unless you're a genuine lunatic chasing romance, the sane move is the one I made — find what you're best at, and what gives you the biggest edge right now. Which meant Ruru's Previous Master probably wasn't a stupid lunatic. More likely, given the situation, she'd chosen the thing she did best.

"I am curious, though."

I'd hear more of the Previous Master's story through Ruru as the main quest went on anyway. It was interesting enough that I half expected it to pop as a side quest, and working the main quest while comparing notes with someone who'd taken the exact opposite route from mine sounded like its own kind of fun.

"I'm heading to the village."

I'd more or less finished sorting the rewards from the Corrupted Forest, so the village was next. It felt like the first time I'd gone there after day twenty. After commuting to the Corrupted Forest, the road to the village was almost absurdly peaceful. The map was huge, so the distance made the walk a little dull — but I'd take dull.

"When I get a minute, I should put a proper road and some flowers down on the way to the village."

The Level 0 Biome Village was the place I'd be going back and forth to most while running the farm. Even I, who valued efficiency over romance, could feel how different the mood was between dressing up the farm and the ground around the village, and leaving them bare.

"Oh ho."

As I drew near, the restored village came into view. Every trace of the settlement left to rot for ages was gone. Flowers were in bloom, and the buildings looked alive. It was clean enough that people seemed about to step outside any second, and the tall, solidly raised walls were honestly the sturdiest and largest of any village I'd seen on a Farming World map.

"And this used to look like some country backwater..."

The fences had been nearly collapsed, the kind you could step over if you lifted a leg. Remembering how even the boundary had been vague, it might as well have been a completely different place.

It wasn't entirely without problems.

"So why isn't there anyone here?"

The high walls, raised against monster attacks, had an entrance, and there ought to have been an NPC guarding it. There wasn't. I passed the tall, wide-open gate and went in. The lively village and the tidy buildings were clearly being looked after, but I couldn't hear a single sound of people living inside. It wasn't just me imagining things. There was no one.

"The hell?"

Only after I'd walked a full circuit of the village did I find a way to break that awkward silence.

At first I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Draw what? The answer was waiting on the blacksmith right in front of me.

"No. This isn't a game."

Sure, restoring the village had also meant spending Farm building by building, but I'd never imagined that even after the restoration was done, the NPCs who went inside would be decided by a draw. Calling them NPCs was ridiculous in itself. This wasn't a game. Ruru, playing the helper-NPC role, wasn't something programmed — she was a real ancient fairy, wasn't she? Or was I being filmed on a hidden camera right now? Was I inside some elaborately programmed, high-end virtual reality game?

The thought crossed my mind, but I didn't dig into it. This world sat halfway between game and reality anyway. Out in the real world, and in the Rift Dimension, I was already living by borrowing Farming World's systems. A little late to act surprised. I went ahead and pressed the draw. Whether I'd restored the place by killing the Corrupted Ogre or by spending Farm, I'd put in the work, so it seemed the first draw, at least, came as a basic.

A bright trill rang out. The moment I hit Member Draw, a single card appeared before my eyes and started to spin. Colors bled together as it turned, and then it stopped. Information was written across it the way a Farming Window would show it, and the card carrying that information was white.

"...Don't tell me it's F-rank?"

Farming World had grades — Common, Advanced, Heroic, Legendary, Mythic. They weren't the ranks you mainly used; those ran from F-rank through SS-rank. They were for stamping rarity onto chest rewards, and seeing them turn up on a card did not look promising.

"Wow... what kind of garbage is this?"

It really was an F-rank NPC. Was this right? There was exactly one card, and beneath it two buttons had lit up.

So the system was a random draw. It seemed built so I could place the NPCs I wanted into an empty village. Obviously I didn't want to select this one. I'd have to check later whether I could summon one and still draw a different blacksmith, but this would still be the first NPC to enter my Rift Dimension. An F-rank, with garbage for an ability?

If I hadn't been given a choice, fine. I'd have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠taken it as the fate I was handed. But when it looked me in the eye and asked, You gonna use this? — taking it would make me a sucker.

The true price of the redraw I hadn't wanted to see was not cheap. Five hundred Farm a try. Thinking of how many buildings the village had, even a single redraw each was nowhere near inexpensive. Was this really how it worked? I had 21,700 Farm on hand, more room than I'd expected, but Farm was as good as cash. Nice to have, and nicer the more of it you had. I weighed it, then decided.

"Just the main buildings."

The card spun again. In the end, the village NPCs existed to cover abilities I hadn't learned, or to teach me the recipes for abilities I had. How many recipes would an F-rank blacksmith even sell? In the original Farming World, village NPCs at least had backstories — reclusive masters who had come to live in the village — and they were estimated at S-rank or higher at the minimum. Here, draw poorly and you got a useless F-rank freeloader. Don't like it? Spend Farm.

"Figures there's a reason the difficulty is SSS+."

The card began to spin.