The official summons arrived not by magic, but by a surly carter on a rattling wagon who tossed a sealed tube of brass into the mud at the edge of Jarine's meadow. "For the 'Lord of Blackwood,'" the man sneered before whipping his mule into motion.
Inside the tube was a scroll of stiff parchment. The Royal Academy of Territorial Management, Sub-Committee on Frontier Viability, hereby commanded Jaren, Holder of Blackwood Vale (Class: Farmer), to present himself for his First Mandatory Stewardship Review—colloquially known as the "Beginner's Trial." It was a ritual humiliation for those who'd been granted land out of bureaucratic necessity rather than merit. Most who received it were expected to fail, quietly cede their charters, and disappear.
The Trial was to be held in a week's time at the Academy's Proving Grounds, a pocket dimension used for controlled assessments. Jarine would be given a standardized, one-acre plot of poor-to-moderate land and seventy-two hours to "demonstrate foundational defensive capability" against magically spawned, low-tier monsters. Performance would be observed via scrying crystals by a panel of disinterested junior assessors and a handful of sneering academy students looking for entertainment.
The unspoken message was clear: We know you can't defend anything. Fail gracefully and give up the land.
The System's response was immediate.
[Academy Challenge: The Proving Grounds]
Objective: Survive the 72-hour Trial with your plot intact.
Secondary Objective: Achieve a Performance Rating above 'Pathetic.'
Hidden Objective: Introduce an Inconvenient Variable.
Rewards: 150 System Credits, Unlock: 'Academic Treatise' Shop Section (Theoretical Knowledge).
Failure Penalty: Territory Moratorium (Cannot expand borders or make major improvements for 1 year).
Jarine studied the notice, then looked at his thriving, if unorthodox, domain. He couldn't bring his Sentinel Thornroots, his Earthen Ward Golem, or the established Life-Web. He'd be starting from scratch on foreign, magically-prepared soil with only the tools and seeds he could carry. It was the ultimate test of his core premise: could the Verdant Sovereign establish a beachhead of order in chaos, quickly?
He spent his remaining Credits (a careful hoard of 180) not on weapons, but on rapid-establishment infrastructure.
· Rapid-Root Seed Packet (Tier 1) – 30 Credits: A mix of clover and tough grass. Germinates in hours, establishes a basic root mat to stabilize soil and provide initial biomass.
· Portable Mycelium Colony (Tier 1) – 45 Credits: A leather pouch of pre-colonized symbiotic fungus. When introduced to soil, spreads quickly, forming a nutrient network and mildly repelling subterranean pests.
· 'Groveller's' Quick-Hedge Seeds (Tier 1) – 40 Credits: A fast-growing, thorny shrub known for its use in cheap peasant fences. Grows to chest height in 48 hours.
· Tool: Earth-Binding Totem (Single Use) – 65 Credits: A carved wooden stake. When driven into the ground, it temporarily concentrates ambient earth mana in a ten-meter radius, accelerating plant growth for 24 hours.
It was a gamble. He was betting everything on speed and synergy, leaving himself no offensive summons.
---
The Proving Grounds were a stark, surreal space under an artificially blue sky. One hundred identical, one-acre plots were marked out on a featureless plain of sandy loam—deliberately mediocre soil. Around the perimeter, raised observation platforms hummed with the energy of scrying crystals. A handful of bored-looking assessors in academy robes sipped tea, while a gaggle of students pointed and laughed at the motley collection of failed knights, middling mages, and other "charity cases" assembled for the Trial.
"Plot 73!" a functionary called. "Jaren, Farmer."
The laughter was immediate and louder. "A Farmer? In a defense trial?" a student with an aquiline nose guffawed. "Will he be throwing potatoes at the slimes?"
Jarine ignored them, stepping onto his assigned plot. The soil was loose, lifeless, and dry. The horn would sound in one hour.
He moved with a planter's efficient grace. First, he didn't walk the perimeter; he jogged it, scattering the Rapid-Root Seed mix in a wide band just inside the border. He then took his waterskin and sprinkled it, not to water the seeds, but to activate the pre-applied growth catalyst on them. He felt the faint, eager spark of life immediately.
Next, he went to the center of the plot and buried the Portable Mycelium Colony pouch, slicing it open with his knife. He visualized the white, thread-like networks spreading outwards, a subterranean internet he could connect to.
He then planted the Quick-Hedge Seeds in a dense, double line along the same perimeter, just outside the now-sprouting grass and clover. This would be his physical barrier.
Finally, with fifteen minutes left, he took the Earth-Binding Totem—a simple stake carved with spirals—and drove it into the exact center of his plot. He channeled a pulse of his own green mana into it.
The totem activated with a low thrum. The air over Plot 73 shimmered faintly, like heat haze. The rapid-root grass surged, turning from pale sprouts to a thick, green mat in minutes. The Quick-Hedge seeds cracked the soil, and thorny shoots writhed upwards, gaining inches visibly.
The student's laughter died, replaced by confused murmurs. "Accelerated growth totem," an assessor said dismissively, making a note. "A single-use item. Costly and short-sighted. He's wasted his resources on a temporary wall of weeds."
The warning horn blared. "Trial Commences. First Wave: Rock-Skitter Slimes."
From the edges of every plot, gelatinous, gravel-filled slimes the size of large dogs oozed into existence. Tier 0 monsters. Slow, mildly corrosive, but overwhelming in numbers. A test of basic area denial.
On other plots, warriors cleaved them, mages blasted them, rogues danced around them.
On Plot 73, the slimes oozed forward and hit the Quick-Hedge. It was now waist-high and fiercely thorned. The slimes tried to ooze through, but their gelatinous bodies caught on the thorns, getting tangled and pierced. The thorns weren't deadly, but they were an immense irritant. The slimes' progress slowed to a crawl as they struggled.
Meanwhile, Jarine wasn't watching the hedge. He was on his knees, hands plunged into the grass mat at the plot's center. He was connecting to the mycelium network, feeling it spread like neural pathways through the soil. He fed it mana, encouraging it to link with the roots of the hedge and the grass. He wasn't building a fort. He was establishing a nervous system for one acre of land.
The slimes eventually pushed through or dissolved sections of the hedge, but by the time they reached the inner grass mat, they were slowed, and Jarine was ready with his hoe. He moved with economic precision, using the tool to flip them over, exposing their more vulnerable undersides to the sun-dried soil, where they gradually solidified and stopped moving. It was workmanlike, unheroic, and effective.
"He's… gardening them to death," a student muttered, unsure whether to be impressed or derisive.
The second wave, at the 24-hour mark, was Burrow Grubs—fat, maggot-like creatures that tunneled. They bypassed the hedge entirely, emerging from the center of plots to cause havoc.
On Plot 73, they erupted from the ground… directly into the dense, thriving mycelium network. The fungus, now energized by Jarine's mana and the totem, reacted defensively. It wasn't an attack; it was an immune response. Thick, white hyphal strands coated the grubs, impeding their movement, secreting mild enzymes that irritated their sensitive skins. The grubs thrashed, disoriented. Jarine dispatched them, one by one, with sharp strikes of his hoe. His defense wasn't on the perimeter; it was in the soil itself.
The Earth-Binding Totem sputtered and died. The accelerated growth stopped. But he had used its window perfectly. His hedge was now a sturdy, living wall. His mycelium network was established. His plot was a cohesive, if simple, living entity.
The final wave, with twelve hours to go, was Thistleback Hares—Tier 0.5 creatures. Fast, jumpy herbivores with quills they could launch. Their goal wasn't to kill the defender but to utterly devastate any plant life on the plot, representing a "scorched earth" failure.
They poured over the plots. They devastated mages who'd neglected physical barriers. They overwhelmed warriors who couldn't catch them.
They hit Plot 73's hedge and tried to leap over.
[Event Quest: The Academy's Gaze - COMPLETE!]
[All Objectives Met! Rewards: 200 System Credits, +5 Regional Renown, 'Pocket-Dimension Horticulture' Research Unlocked!]
[New Title Earned: 'The Terrain's Architect.']
He walked out of the Proving Grounds, leaving a plot of temporary devastation and a hundred minds struggling to process what they had just seen. The narrative of the laughable Farmer had just developed its first, deep crack.
He hadn't shown them a warrior. He had shown them a principle: given time, even the most barren earth could be persuaded to defend itself. And Jarine was nothing if not patient.