After waking up, the first thing Alex did was walk towards his backyard. Although he planted seeds in the farmland near the river, as an experiment, he didn't forget to plant some in his backyard. Alex had carefully planted them in small earthen pots in his backyard.
Among the seeds he planted were wheat, pumpkin, watermelon, tomato, chilli pepper and black pepper. The current climate was perfect to grow these plants. So, Alex planted them to check if they will grow in the real world.
When he reached his backyard, Alex was thrilled to see thin stalks rising from the ground. They were growing at a much faster pace than he anticipated. The stalks of wheat were almost six inches tall and the other plants were bigger than that.
'What happened?' Alex did not have any way to describe the anomaly.
'Could this be due to the different conditions of this world? The seeds that I have planted are seeds from the earth. And the earth didn't have the mysterious energy or mana in the atmosphere. Maybe it affected the seeds somehow and enhanced the growth rate! Or is it the fertiliser made from the tier 3 beast? '
'Or else, it might be due to the farm modifying the growth rate of the seeds to help me farm. But that's unlikely. Or it could be due to the combination of all three factors.' He could only confirm the reason for the excessive growth of the plant using the process of elimination. So, he decided to do it later.
'Anyway, the seeds from the farm are the best. That I can confirm.'
Embracing the happy coincidence, Alex checked the sprouts carefully.
'Considering the current growth rate, the plants might mature and fruit in a week. So, in another week it will be ready for harvest. That's much quicker than the similar plants of this world.' Alex was thrilled by the revelation.
If he could fully optimise the production cycle, he could harvest crops every two weeks for the next 6 months before the winter hits. That's twelve harvests. And if he could use a wide area of land to cultivate, the production rate would easily surpass the current output of the interdimensional farm.
A small smile blossomed on his face. This was great news for Alex. By using this method, he could slowly decrease his dependence on the farm. This was exactly what he was hoping for.
Another benefit was his ability to use the precious space in an interdimensional farm to grow magical herbs that are available in this world. Growing magical herbs was time-consuming.
But using the interdimensional farm to cultivate magical herbs would be no different from printing out money. This was awesome.
So, after making sure that no plant was damaged, Alex went to his new farmland brimming with expectation.
—-----
"Fuck!" That was the only word Alex could use to describe what he was seeing. Now he knows why the plants in his backyard grew at incredible speed. It was that damned fertiliser.
The farmland that Alex carefully created was nowhere to be seen. In front of him was a dense forest made out of grass and shrubs. The grass was as tall as him while the shrubs grew in between them. Thin and thick vine tied them up together making it impossible to peer into the dense vegetation.
"What is this crap? Where did my wheat go? Is it even there?" Alex gazed into the dense weed forest bewildered by the condition of his farmland.
"Did I put too much fertiliser?" Alex mused.
He went closer to check the condition of his farm. There he could see small stalks of wheat growing in between the shrubs.
"Thank god, the seeds germinated perfectly. The weeds were unable to harm them. But they have almost sucked out the nutrients from the soil. It will be difficult for the wheat to grow anymore." Alex made sure that the wheat seeds all germinated. And they were in good condition. Even though the weeds grew faster than the wheat, they didn't harm the wheat. This was the only good news considering his situation.
Alex never expected to come across a problem like this. In his entire life, this was the first time seeing plants grow this fast. He expected some seeds to be damaged or to be eaten by pests or birds. But this scenario trumped all that.
'If the Mupan sees this, he would definitely reject my proposal to farm. Fortunately, I came early to check the condition of the farm.'
"I can manually pluck out the weed. But what good would it do for me? Crap…How can I solve this mess." Alex was at the end of his wits.
He could burn them all down.
He could pluck the weeds.
He could even let loose some cattle inside the farm.
But all these methods had some restrictions. There was no perfect solution for this mess.
So, Alex decided to do the next best thing. A permanent and easy solution to all his problems. It was a two-step solution that was much more effective than a perfect solution that he might not ever find.
First, Alex was going to cut down all the weeds, wheat and everything before they mature. This way, he was going to prevent the weeds from distributing their seeds in the farmland.
Next, he would take care of the rhizome under the ground with an extreme method. He was going to heat the entire farmland to 100 degrees Celsius. For that, he had an ace up his sleeve, the new powers he gained.
During the past six months, Alex was trying to learn magic. He had abundant mana and didn't know any way to use them. So, he delved deeper into the world of magic. He read books and tried to figure out how to use runes.
According to the books, magic can be used in two ways. The first way was by general control of the mana with the mind and the second method was by using runes.
For mages in this world, using runes was the easier way. In the case of large and complex spells, runes allow them to create a spell faster and more accurately. And Alex agreed with them.
When Alex read the book about magic, he understood them in a completely different manner. He was seeing methods similar to computer programming used in magic.
A rune contained three things. An action, information and mana.
Mages create the runes and store them in their mind. They create spell models by combining runes in sequence. Later, the spell models will pass through their mana core to activate a spell.
For Alex, this process seemed oddly familiar to how a computer processes programs.
Creating a spell model was like creating a computer program.
Activating a spell is like running a program. Here the CPU is the mana core.
And the output is the effect of the spell.
The similarity was startling.
So, Alex believed that he could create spells on his own rather than depending on someone else. He was at the cusp of being a mage when he was faced with a new problem.
A warrior usually lets the mana flow throughout his body. However, a mage needs to focus the mana in one place to create a mana core.
So, if Alex created a mana core, he might lose his physical ability as a warrior. He might be able to reproduce the same ability after he becomes a skilled mage. Until that, he would be weakling.
This was not something Alex wanted.
It was a confusing time for Alex. If want to grow through the limit of tier 3 warrior, he needs to become a mage. But that will temporarily make him extremely weak. It was not an easy decision.
So, the greedy Alex did the unthinkable. He used a tiny portion of his mana to create a core.
If any mage had seen Alex do this. He would have mocked Alex into oblivion. This was the stupidest thing a mage could do.
The strength of a mage was dependent on the strength of the mana core. So, if he used a tiny amount of mana to create a core, you could imagine what would happen to Alex. It's not because there was no way to strengthen a core. But the complexity of spells a core can handle in the future will depend on the core they have in the beginning.
And the moment a core is made, they would become an apprentice mage.
Alex, who has a tiny core was now an apprentice mage. The weakest of them all.
However, Alex begs to differ from this opinion. He believed multicore CPUs are always better than single-core ones.
After becoming an apprentice mage, he plans to create a lot more cores before breaking through to the journeyman mage class.
So, by using his skills as an apprentice mage. Alex was going to heat the entire farmland to hundred-degree Celsius. This way, any weed, pest and other things that are hiding in the farmland would die and he could farm peacefully.
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om