My Farming Domain Is Broken

Carlos did not spend the final day of the Beginner Period trying to begin something new.

There were too many things that still needed attention, but that was always going to be true.

But more than that, Ironroot finally felt like a territory that could survive one or two disasters. It was not one bad morning away from disappearing.

Rowan and the Farmers worked through the southern fields as usual. Mira checked the reserve, the oil jars, and the meals promised through the remaining food agreements.

Kaia placed the Ironroot fighters where they belonged. They needed constant training to improve.

At the Ancient Cultivation District, Cedric sent a short report through Cosmic. It said, "Channel Three is holding. Lydia has marked the next repair points. As you instructed, no one touched the living root system beneath Channel Five."

Carlos read it and sent back one answer.

--

[Carlos Goldwin]- Keep the work safe. I will come back after the final reset.

--

He did not add more.

The four barrack obligations were complete. Joren’s first contract was complete.

The food reserve was better than it had been, even if it was still not where Mira wanted it. The Dire Hyenas were recovering. The wolf rider and its mount had stopped looking toward the gate every time someone walked past.

The Marsh Trolls still made the workers nervous, but Brann had found enough stone for them to move that nobody could call them useless.

Carlos stood in the middle of all of it and felt something unfamiliar. For once, there was no immediate order that had to be shouted. Everything was being done as it was supposed to. Head troops of every sector were instructing the troops just fine.

Cosmic’s message came an hour before the final reset.

--

[Cosmic Merchant]- Man, I really hope we get back to Earth through the same portal. Do you remember that one news where American students came out the European portal?

--

Carlos looked at it for a few seconds.

--

[Carlos Goldwin]- Don’t make me remember that, bro. Let’s just try to stay as safe as possible. This is the end.

[Cosmic Merchant]- You are getting mature and it’s annoying for me. Just go back to being a dumb block again, man.

--

Carlos almost smiled.

He spent the last hour walking Ironroot instead of waiting inside the Lord’s hut.

He passed the Dire Hyena Den, where the three animals slept close together beneath its low roof.

He passed the Goblin Berserker Barracks, where the returned goblin sat on the ground while Kaia’s trainees moved around it carefully.

He passed the fields where Rowan had marked the next seed rows, and the kitchen where Mira was still counting the ingredients needed to make the next ten meals.

Every part of the territory had a problem attached to it. Carlos knew that. But each problem also had someone facing it now.

As evening came, he called Kaia, Rowan, Mira, Brann, Nessa, One, Two, Blue, and the others who were nearby to the open ground beside the Lord’s hut.

"The Beginner Period ends tonight," Carlos told them. "The system is going to let me and the other Lords go back to our world now that we survived this stage. We will be living in both worlds."

He continued, "If I am even a little late, I am appointing Kaia in charge of Ironroot until I return. Rowan handles the fields. Mira handles food. Nobody does anything risky until I come back."

Brann gripped its hammer.

"You return?"

Carlos looked at him and smiled.

"I have shed literal blood and sweat in this land, you bet your ass I will return."

Brann touched his ass when he said that, in confusion. And Carlos decided to leave him with that.

Mira crossed her arms but did not say anything. She only nodded. Carlos could see the anxiety on her face, as if she did not know whether he would want to come back or not.

Carlos only smiled at her, which made her more confused. He was going to leave her with those thoughts and always come back, as he was supposed to. One day, she would get used to him returning no matter what.

Kaia said nothing for a moment. Then she stepped forward and put her fist against her chest.

"Ironroot will be here when you return, my lord. And it will be as you left it, except if we make some improvements."

"Just be safe, all right?"

Kaia and everyone nodded. The final seconds appeared on a small panel in front of his eyes that his troops could see.

--

[Beginner Period: 00:00:10]

--

Nobody spoke while the numbers fell.

When they reached zero, the panel disappeared for a moment in an anticlimactic way. Then a bell rang across the territory, making everyone look around in surprise.

Then a gold panel filled Carlos’s sight.

--

[BEGINNER PERIOD COMPLETE]

[Congratulations, Beginner Lords. You have survived the first stage of the Lord System.]

[Territory protections and Beginner World restrictions have ended.]

[All registered Beginner Lords will now proceed to the Earth Return Plaza.]

[Your territory remains anchored and under your authority.]

[A Beginner Exit has been established within each active territory.]

[The Earth Return Crystal will transport each Lord to the city where they lived before selection.]

[Return transfer begins now.]

--

A new portal opened beside the Lord’s hut. It stood apart from the portal entrance used for Conquests. It carried a similar blue light, but it was smaller and quieter.

For the first time since the system arrived, he was being given a way out of the Beginner World.

Carlos walked toward it slowly. At the edge of the light, he took a deep breath and looked back.

Kaia stood with one hand against her chest. Mira had stopped trying to hide her worry. Rowan, Brann, Nessa, and the others were all watching him.

Carlos grinned once and raised a hand. Then he stepped into the portal.

Hard stone pressed beneath Carlos’s boots. He opened his eyes in a vast circular plaza beneath an open gray sky.

There were no buildings around it. The smooth stone stretched outward in every direction until it met a distant ring of pale mist. At the center stood a blue crystal taller than any building Carlos had seen. Light moved slowly inside it, turning beneath the surface like a river caught in ice.

Lords filled the plaza. There were too many to count. They stood in lines, clusters, and frightened crowds around the outer edge. More appeared every second in blue flashes.

Carlos could see people as far as the mist allowed, and there had to be more than a hundred thousand Lords packed into the Return Plaza with him.

Some shouted names. Some stared at their panels. Some ran straight toward the crystal.

When they reached its light, they vanished. Carlos did not move toward it.

He turned slowly, searching through the crowd for one familiar face.

Five minutes passed. By then, thousands had already disappeared into the crystal. The plaza was still crowded enough that Carlos could barely see through the moving bodies.

He had begun to think Cosmic might have been sent to another part of the plaza when he spotted him near the outer ring.

Cosmic was standing on the edge of a group of nervous Lords, looking over the crowd with the same expression Carlos probably had.

Carlos pushed toward him, and only then did Cosmic see him and smile in relief.

"I knew you wouldn’t leave without me. What a chicken," Cosmic said with a cheeky smile.

"Bitch, I was afraid you would get lost when we got back."

Cosmic smiled and looked toward the crystal. "That is exactly how the modules and textbooks said it would look. The return portal."

"People are already using it. They are so desperate."

"Wouldn’t you want to get back to your family fast too?"

"Eh, my parents are going nowhere. So is your mom, bro." Cosmic spoke, and Carlos nodded with a deep breath. He had to get back to his family now and give them the news.

They walked toward the center together.

The closer they came, the more Carlos felt the crystal’s light against his skin. Lords vanished around them one after another, each disappearance leaving the plaza a little quieter before another group arrived from the Beginner World.

At the edge of the light, Carlos stopped once. Ironroot was waiting for him. Kaia, Rowan, Mira, Brann, and everyone else would be watching the place he had left behind.

Part of him wanted to stay inside Ironroot forever, but he had responsibilities in both places. He could not leave either one.

Just as he thought it, the light swallowed him, and he was in a different place again.