Sometimes, Li felt it more fitting for Zagan to have been a herald of sloth, not greed, but at the same time, it was not like there was anything for the demon to really do aside from hara.s.sing the occasional suspicious pa.s.serby.

"You never do get tired of the earth, do you, lad?" said Old Thane. The old man was squatting beside where Li knelt. Around them was their field, a swath of soil several shades darker and moister than the earth surrounding it. 

"Seeing as you haven't gotten tired of it in twenty years, I don't see why that's surprising," said Li as he took a chipped trowel and scooped up a patch of earth. He made sure to carve out a neat hole with a depth of nearly exactly six centimeters before placing a golden seen at its center.

"Haha, it is because I was a weary man tired of all else when I started working the land," said Old Thane as he mirrored Li's movements. "You've much youth in you, and you're G.o.dly strong. You sure you don't want to go out adventuring a bit? Spend some of that youthful blood boiling in some mighty fine fights? With fine women?"

"Don't be ridiculous, old man. You know I wouldn't be here unless I wanted to be."

"Aye, just wanted to hear it from you."

Old Thane smiled, and Li smiled back. 

"You know, for a veteran of a war and who knows how many adventures, you're surprisingly needy."

Old Thane laughed. "Aye, I've always been greedy. You should have seen in my youth. I'd have let nothing stop me from getting what I wanted. But age, like it does to all, has tempered by greed, but it is still mighty heartening to hear your words, lad."

"Talk is cheap, they say, but I always do keep my word." Li nodded to himself as he reached forwards and scooped up another handful of dirt. He thought of the oath he had made to Old Thane to grow this farm to heights so tall that none could ever forget it. 

And Li would. He had ambitions to expand the farm to more than it was just now. The land surrounding the field was untended and empty. He could easily apply to take some of it over and start expanding their harvests. 

As he learned how to access life, he would use his lessons in replicating and altering plants to slowly acc.u.mulate a vast variety of crops. 

But for the time being, Li was content to take it slow, working this one field with Old Thane at a deeply personal level. The larger the fields got, the harder it would be to have these conversations with him every day.

Right now, they were both planting on different rows of the fields, but they worked at the same pace, and so they managed to keep up consistent conversation throughout as they went up and down the fields and up and down again, carving out neat, evenly s.p.a.ced furrows dotted with planted seeds.

Li gave a nod towards the main road where Iona sat at the counter, her chin resting atop her hands with a bored expression plastered on her face. She had replicated the golden wheat the day before to keep the harvests going, but soon enough under her training schedule, he would progress in cultivating his spirithood to do that himself. 

"And that's a wrap, boys! Mighty fine job, too."

Li perked his head up as he watched Charles's builders step back from the sides of the cottage. They had finished creating what were essentially greenhouses over and around the berry and herb gardens. Gla.s.s was melted into a wooden frame that covered the gardens while a retractable roof lay above, attached to the cottage wall. 

The greenhouses were open at the ends in consideration of the fact that the gardens, too, were likely to expand. The builders would only have to extend the frames to match however much the gardens grew instead of tearing things down. 

"Old man, I'll catch up with you soon. I gotta go thank the builders." 

Li got up wiping his dirt-crusted hands on his trousers. He waved to the builders and moved over to congratulate them and to hire them again to build a stable. The job would not be part of the free job that Charles had agreed upon, but he wanted to give the builders some paid work for their troubles. 

But before Li could even get the builders' attention, something erupted out of the cottage wall, tearing berry bushes, smas.h.i.+ng the greenhouse's wooden frame, shattering gla.s.s and sending shards flying everywhere, and collapsing the roof - damage that hopefully would be covered by some kind of warranty. 

The builders all gasped before they shrunk back, s.h.i.+elding their eyes with their burly arms so that splinters and gla.s.s pieces would not strike their eyes. 

"Already?" whispered Li. 

"What is it, lad!?" Old Thane had already come to Li's side, his speed surprising despite his age, and yet unsurprising considering he had kept a good chunk of his muscle. 

"The egg's hatched."

Under broad daylight, there wriggled the clumsy form of a baby wyrm. Although covered in amniotic fluids, the wyrm was surprisingly developed. Li knew that many reptiles were basically just miniature versions of their parents at birth, but he had underestimated what it was like when the reptile in question was the size of a large building. 

The baby wyrm was nearly half the size of a man. Its skin was a dark green, almost black, and its scales were flat and smooth. Its four legs were thin compared to its thick body. The legs lacked the cords of powerful muscle that had propelled its mother, so they trembled as it raised itself up. But its eyes were almost exactly like its mothers, fierce and gleaming with a feral yellow s.h.i.+ne with intelligence hidden beneath. 

"G.o.ds, a dragon!" shouted a builder. His eyes were so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of his bald head. He flailed his arm out to the main road. "Quick, boys, call an adventurer, knights, something!"

The wyrm glared at the builder and its nostrils flared, taking in the stink of fear and adrenaline: the smell of prey. Its instincts kicked in, and it opened its mouth, revealing a single set of needle-like teeth that, though not nearly as impressive as its mother whose teeth were like swords, could still rend an average human with no problem.

Before the builder could scream, Li was already there, so quick that it appeared as if he had teleported. He knocked the builder back to stop him from being unnecessarily loud and stared at the wyrm. The wyrm sat on its haunches and c.o.c.ked its head, glancing at Li with a questioning glint in its eyes.

Thankfully, too, because if the wyrm had tried to attack Li, then he was sure Zagan would have immediately tried to unleash some h.e.l.lborne fury upon the poor infant. Would not have been the worst thing the demon had done when considering his wartime stories. 

"That's a good wyrm," said Li gently. He had no idea how to actually raise the wyrm, and its mother had given a very, very barebones explanation that essentially amounted to just letting the baby fight for itself, but at the least, he remembered there was an imprinting process involved.

And, it seemed, judging by the way the wyrm had calmed down, that process had already happened.

Li reached a hand out, holding it in front of the wyrm's nose. He did not know how to train a wyrm, so he just tried applying dog training principles that he was familiar with. His family had raised a dog in their tiny apartment when he was young, and though it was utterly laughable to compare that little furball to this beast, he figured some basic rules were the same.

Like not petting over the head to keep the wyrm comfortable and holding a hand out to get it familiar with his smell.

But, to Li's surprise, the wyrm ignored his hand and nuzzled straight into his chest, leaning its full weight into him with abandon. An ordinary man would probably have toppled over with this, but Li remained a rock-solid support pillar, and he stroked his hand up and down the wyrm's stubby neck. 

Like its appearance suggested, the wyrm was smooth. Its scales were far undeveloped. Especially compared to its mother who held scales tough like diamonds and s.h.i.+ngled like armor. Li could feel the wyrm's heart beating against him, and its heartrate was slow, far slower than that of a human's. The wyrm was surprisingly cold to the touch, too, and he realized that it, cold-blooded as it was, had wanted Li's body warmth. 

"The good sir's got it held down! exclaimed another builder. "Pick Thornn up and call a patrol down while the sir's struggling!"

Did this honestly look like a struggle?

Li looked down at the wyrm nestled in his arms. Its eyes were beginning to slowly close as slumber took a hold of it. The creature was the very image of peace and calm, but at the same time, human fear was perhaps one of the strongest sources of irrationality in all of nature.

"O-oh, it's Triple Threat!" The relief was palpable in the builder's voice, and Li decided he would let the team handle this situation for him. In the meanwhile, he would try and lull the wyrm to sleep to a.s.sess what he would do a little more calmly.

"All of you, shut the h.e.l.ls up."

Li looked back. 

Azhar faced down the builders. He stood just as tall as Li, so when he scowled down at them, the builders shrunk away. Jeanne and Sylvie stood a ways back, letting Azhar handle the situation.

"I get that you're all afraid, that you're all ordinary folk, but ain't panic gonna do you any good, ever." Azhar nodded over to Li. "He can tame creatures, but wyrms are sensitive creatures. If ya reek of fear-"

He took a sniff of the air and crinkled his nose. "And trust me, every single one of you absolutely stinks of it, it'll try and hunt you down like a cat with mice."

Iona called over from her stall, her expression still bored and her chin still cupped in her hands. "For feeble hearts and impotent wills that will crumble under the slightest of threats, I have brews to help."

"Hear that?" Azhar shooed the builders away. "We got this under control, so why don't you all buy somethin' for your nerves and take it easy. Adventurer's guild oughta' cover your day's wages if ya file a report."