Farming in the Magical World

Heishan Village, early morning!

It was still early, and the whole village was unusually quiet.

Scattered throughout the village are houses in twos and threes, while the distant Black Mountain, shrouded in a thin mist, appears and disappears, resembling a landscape painting.

However, not all the villagers were still asleep at this time. From the houses not far from the village entrance, there were rustling sounds.

Black Deer yawned, looking a little sleepy, but his hands moved quickly, efficiently busying himself with various household chores.

He wouldn't normally get up this early, but today he needed to finish his chores at home before his friends left, including feeding the grouse, cleaning the rooms, tidying up the laundry, and preparing breakfast for his father.

Although the tasks are not large, they are very trivial and will waste a lot of his time.

If he wants to join his friends' hunting team, he must complete these tasks before sunrise.

He looked up at the sky and quickened his pace.

Since his brother joined the guard, all the household affairs fell on his and his father's shoulders, and even his father picked up the bow and arrow again after putting them down for many years.

His father was getting old. Although his hunting skills were becoming more proficient and steady, his physical strength was inevitably declining. He needed to help his father with some household chores so that his father could have an easier time.

He has been officially involved in hunting for several years and is now considered a mature hunter with rich experience. However, he does not hunt with his father. Instead, he forms a hunting team with several peers in the village and hunts with them.

The advantages are obvious: everyone is young, so they can run further, and with teamwork, they can hunt larger prey. It's also much more fun than playing with older people.

Their usual destination was the outskirts of the Grumman Mountains, which required traveling along a small river through the Black Mountain Range and across the Dragonfall Ridge in the middle, a distance that was not short.

However, because the area is close to the border and sparsely populated, the prey there is naturally larger, more plentiful, and of course, more ferocious.

"Did you make plans with your friends again today?"

The father rubbed his sleepy eyes and prepared to go out to wash up. As soon as he stepped outside, he discovered that Black Deer was already up and was carrying a bow and arrows, ready to go out. He knew at a glance that the village boys were going hunting again today.

"Yes, Father, the bread is baked, and your favorite bitter tea is brewed," Black Deer hurriedly said a few words before running out the door. "I'm leaving now; Sam and the others are waiting for me at the village entrance!"

"That kid, he's really fast!" The father shook his head and chuckled as he watched the black deer's retreating figure.

This son is relatively easy to manage. Although he's not very old, he's already a seasoned hunter. He's quick-witted and learns things fast. He's only been following me around the Black Mountain for half a year, and he's already mastered the hunting skills quite well. It's much easier than teaching his two older brothers.

It was just a few kids who grew up together who formed a hunting team. The boy couldn't refuse, otherwise he could have easily gone up the mountain alone.

It took him a lot of effort to teach his eldest and second eldest sons back then.

Especially the eldest black bear, who gave him a real headache. He was slow-witted and learned things slowly. It took him several years of personal training to get him to a decent level in hunting. Unfortunately, after going on a campaign with the lord, he never returned...

The second son, Black Tiger, is slightly better than the eldest. He's quick-witted and learns things faster. After a year or two of tutoring, he's basically taken shape. However, he doesn't like to talk, like a silent gourd. The key is that he's quite stubborn, and he often argues with me during the tutoring process, sometimes making me quite angry.

When Frank came to the village to promote his security team, Black Tiger said he wanted to go and avenge his older brother. No matter how much Black Tiger tried to dissuade him, he insisted on going. They had a big argument that day, and Black Tiger didn't even see him off the next day when he left.

It's not that he isn't worried about his child, but rather that he simply doesn't want to experience the pain of losing a child again.

Years ago, he lost the mother of his children, and six months ago he lost his eldest son. Now his second son is also going to fight. How can he accept this calmly?

More than seeking revenge for his eldest son, he hoped that his remaining two children could grow up healthy, get married, and have children of their own; that would be enough for him in this life.

Fortunately, this security force now seems to be different from the previous conscription, which put his mind at ease a little.

But thinking about it now still makes me shudder. What if the guards are like they were before, and Black Tiger is killed on the battlefield again? What would I do then?

He still hopes his second brother can come back soon and not join that security force. Even the best security force is still a place where war breaks out, and people always die in war. Even if he wants revenge for his eldest brother, he earned four merits last time; wouldn't that count as revenge?

But when he came back last time, when he brought up the matter, Black Tiger refused him outright, saying that he had figured it out now. He was not a madman who only knew hatred, but a member of the security guard who had sworn to protect the people of Caster Ridge and the respected Lord Lanny.

He spoke of these things with a proud look on his face, as if he were doing something very great and glorious.

With his sons on his mind, he picked up the wooden teacup and took a sip of the bitter tea that his third son had brewed. His somewhat listless spirits were finally lifted, and his thoughts began to turn to planning his day's itinerary.

How about we go take a stroll around Daheishan Mountain behind here today? I wonder if he caught anything from those traps he set there yesterday. Let's go check it out.

But after thinking about it, he realized that he didn't have much bitter tea left at home, so he decided to go to Xiaoheishan to get some tea leaves.

This bitter tea can be prepared before autumn, so there's no rush to store it. As long as you get some to drink regularly, it doesn't seem to take much time.

I'm a little undecided for a moment!

Outsiders have always referred to the area around the village as Black Mountain, but in fact, this area is composed of three large mountains and many small hills. Locals are more accustomed to calling the largest one Big Black Mountain and the smallest one Little Black Mountain. It is the mountain that is neither too big nor too small that is truly called Black Mountain.

Yesterday he set a lot of traps in the Black Mountain. Usually, he would patrol these traps the next day. If any prey stepped on them, he would take them back immediately, otherwise they would quickly rot and attract other animals to eat them, which would be a waste.

The bitter tea that her son brewed for her that morning was discovered by the villagers in the Xiaoheishan area. This plant grows on several hills in that area, but it is not commonly seen from the outside.

Grandma Mei in the village somehow discovered that this stuff could actually be used to make tea. Although it tasted extremely bitter, it was very effective at refreshing the mind. Once you got used to the bitter taste, it was surprisingly refreshing and even made you feel a little reluctant to put it down.

So now the villagers also call this stuff bitter tea. Almost every household keeps some at home. They drink a cup in the morning to refresh themselves and a cup after meals to cut through the greasiness and make their mouths feel better.

Speaking of which, Granny Mei has never returned since she went to the castle. I wonder how she is doing in the castle now.

They must be living a very comfortable life. That's a nobleman's castle, a place where they have endless food and clothing and no worries about expenses.

Granny Mei was truly blessed with good fortune. She was an elderly woman living alone, unable to hunt, spin, or carry anything heavy. All she knew was how to process animal hides and make paper for the villagers to sell in the city. She barely made ends meet with these meager earnings.

No one expected that she would be noticed by the lord because of this little skill and be recruited to work in the castle.

When he left, he seemed a little reluctant, but didn't the women in the village get so jealous they were practically green with envy?

He secretly admired Granny Mei for a moment, but ultimately decided to go to Little Black Mountain first and get some tea. Now that he was used to this bitter tea, he really couldn't do without it. As for the traps he had set yesterday, he would check them before returning. As long as no new traps were needed, it shouldn't take too long; he should be able to get home before dark.

"Black Tiger's father, you're out?" Just as he stepped outside with his bow and arrows, he heard a villager from not far away greet him, "We heard you set some traps yesterday, are you going to check them out?"

They used to call themselves "Black Bear's father" because Black Bear was the eldest in the family, and the villagers were used to calling him that.

Of course, it's generally only when a son becomes successful that the father will address him by his children's names. If a son is a good-for-nothing, the father himself would feel embarrassed.

Since Black Tiger returned last time, the villagers have learned that he has been promoted to second-class guard in the nobleman's guard, becoming the pride of his family and the village. In the past few days, people have gradually started to call him "Black Tiger's father".

“Yes, Aaron’s father!” He nodded to the other man and addressed him in the same way. Seeing that the man was carrying a bow and arrows, he asked, “Where are you going so early today? You’re not going to hunt that blue-tailed leopard that came from the other side of the mountain, are you? I heard that it’s huge, almost as big as a foal. Be careful.”

The other party's son, Aaron, like Black Tiger, is a captain in the lord's guard. He was also promoted in the last battle, so this title seems reasonable.

Actually, it's not just the two of them who call each other that now; everyone in the village with a son in the security team calls each other that.

When did this change begin?

He didn't notice either. It seemed to be the day Black Tiger returned to "visit relatives"? No, it seemed to be even earlier. When the news of the victory came, many people gradually changed their way of addressing him.

It's unclear when it started, but these kids in the security team have become the pride of the village, especially those who have been promoted. He is the most envied, after all, his son is the captain of the team.

Team One sounds more impressive than Team Two, so naturally they must be the most powerful!

Aaron's father disagreed, believing that two to one was a much bigger deal and that his son Aaron was the pride of the village. The two had argued about this a lot during this period.

Of course, this does not affect their friendship as neighbors of several decades. Every day when they go out, the two still greet each other loudly.

Thinking about the changes in the village, it seems that there is more than that. Some new sayings have also quietly become popular in the village, such as "family visit leave, security guard, first-class guard, second-class guard, marching in formation", etc.

These are all new words spoken by the team members who have returned to the village to visit relatives in the past few days. No one understood the meaning of these words before, but now that they have heard them so often, it doesn't stop them from occasionally using one or two words in their conversations.

Of course, the changes didn't stop there. A couple of days ago, Frank, the castle's butler, came to the village again and said two things!

First, we want to inform everyone that the security force will be recruited for the second time soon, and it will still be based on the principle of voluntariness and will not be forced.

The last time they came to recruit team members, the children reacted strongly. Many of their older brothers and sisters had sacrificed their lives and were clamoring to go and avenge them. On the contrary, the adults were not very willing. Although they did not explicitly stop them, they certainly did not welcome them.

After all, they were recruited to fight in the war. It's just that no one really understood whether it was entirely voluntary, so no one dared to stop them.

But this time it was different. He heard that some families who didn't have security guards were secretly encouraging their children to join those security guards!

However, after several rounds of conscription, there weren't many children of suitable age left in the village, and he couldn't estimate how many people would be able to go this time.

Another thing the butler mentioned was that he would find some villagers to sign some kind of supply and marketing contract, so that these people would be responsible for supplying the castle with game.

The contract was quite simple: any hunter who signed it would have all of their daily catch, regardless of quantity, purchased by the castle. Furthermore, to facilitate storage and transportation, the cost of salt for processing the game was covered, with an additional charge per pound for curing.

Doesn't this mean that as long as a contract is signed, everyone can just focus on hunting without worrying about selling their prey?

This made everyone extremely envious, and at the same time, they became curious: with so much prey being sent over, could the lord possibly eat it all?

Upon hearing this question, the steward chuckled and then explained with a smile that the game was food for the security guards, not all for the lord. Everyone then understood.

Of course, this contract is not easily obtained by everyone. Priority will be given to the families of the guards, and only those who are not family members of the guards will be able to sign the contract.

As for what constitutes a member of the guard's family, the butler patiently explained that anyone with children in the security guard could be called a member of the guard's family.

Moreover, this is not limited to the hunting contract; in the future, whenever there are good opportunities, the guards' families will be given priority!

Upon hearing the steward's explanation, the villagers erupted in excitement, turning to look enviously at the families with guards, while the guards' families stood tall with pride.

Their family has Black Tiger in their guard, who is also the captain of the first team, so naturally they are among the first to sign contracts.

Thinking about all this, he suddenly felt that it might not be a bad idea to let Black Tiger continue in the guard.

For a moment, he couldn't understand what he was thinking!