1 Chapter 1 - Farming? (1/2)

I glared at the small neon green sprout that was growing out of the dirt. I personally felt it was stupid to glare at a plant. While alive, I knew it wasn't sentient so no matter how much I glared at it, it wouldn't notice or care. Yet the care instructions for the plant said I had to feed it my negative emotions, so here I was glaring at a tiny little neon green sprout. Nothing happened.

With a sigh I rubbed my forehead. I was doing something wrong, that was obvious, but what?

I looked around hoping to see something to inspire me. There wasn't much to see. I had been here for two days and nothing had changed. It was a twenty feet by thirty feet space split into six ten by ten squares forming a rectangle. Four of the squares were dirt plots. Another was the home of a rough wooden shack, and the last was where everything else was. A well, two wooden bins, a fire pit and a storage shed that looked more like an outhouse.

It wasn't much, and worse I knew that it was a prison. Beyond the borders of the six squares was a endless green meadow with the hints of mountains, a forest, and a large body of water in three directions, while in the last direction the endless meadow seemed to continue on without end. I would give directions, but I had no idea which way was North or any other direction. The sun didn't rise here, there was just light, then at night the light would fade then change to imitate moonlight. Yet nowhere in the sky was there any signs of a sun or moon, just light coming from somewhere.

If I tried to take a step out of the six squares I would be stopped by a barrier and nothing I had tried was able to break the barrier. Unfortunately I was limited to my fist and the few farm tools I had available to me. Nothing seemed able to do any damage to the barrier. Or at least that was my impression. I couldn't actually see the barrier. Every attack I used was repelled, gently, as if trying to make sure I wasn't harmed.

I didn't get any inspiration.

I looked back down at the little sprout but it hadn't changed in any way.

With another sigh I grabbed the watering can by my feet and poured some of the water onto the sprout. Water rained down on the sprout gently for a few moments then the water ceased despite the fact that I was still holding the can like I was watering the sprout. The water didn't stop because I had ran out. The watering can itself was special. It only allowed me to use a specific amount of water per plant. No more could be used on the same plant until it was time to water the plant again. As I couldn't see anything unusual about the watering can I could only call determine that it was magical, or a technology so advanced it seemed like magic. Either way I had no idea how it worked. However seeing that the watering can allowed me to water the sprout made me relax. I wasn't doing anything wrong. The instructions had stated that the plant only absorbed negative emotions after it stopped absorbing water.

Then why didn't I try and water it first? Simple, I am impatient.

During those two days I had planted another crop in the four dirt squares, I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to eat. They were the simplest and easiest plant available to me. Blue Dandelions, they grew quickly in comparison, and sold for twice the price of their seeds. That money was just enough to afford food while I tried to find a way out of this prison.

The results? I was trapped. I couldn't find any way out and I hadn't seen anyone the entire time I had been here.

While holding the watering can I walked over to the storage shed, opening it up I saw the hoe, and sickle which were the only other tools that had been provided to me. Like the watering can they were magical, the hoe made perfect holes or rows for whatever I was planting, and did nothing if I was just swinging it around for fun. The sickle harvested the plant without excessively damaging it despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, and given how clumsily I handled the thing, I thought it was closer to a miracle. I set the watering can on the shelf made for it then closed the door. If the sprout wasn't ready yet there wasn't much I could do.

Glancing around again hoping for some kind of change then seeing nothing I headed for the shack.

Inside the shack there was a cot that barely fit my six feet two inch height, and was too small for my broad shoulders. It was uncomfortable but still better than the floor. I had already tried.A thin blanket was folded up neatly at the foot of the bed. It wasn't a magic blanket that folded itself. I had folded it myself because other than the cot there was no other furniture in the shack. If I wanted to sit down I had to use the cot.

Floating in the very center of the shack was a clear crystal three inches in height and a inch thick. It floated four feet off the ground. If the floating didn't give it away as abnormal the faint glow it gave off should.

The crystal was the heart of this whole place. A repurposed dungeon core.

I had no idea what a dungeon core was or how it could be repurposed but I also didn't have anyone to ask.

I walked over to the crystal and set my hand on it. A screen appeared in front of me as soon as I touched it.

Dungeon Core(Repurposed) Level 1

Dungeon Master(Temporary) Jason Nellis