That Time I Wanted to Be Farmer (og) c3

A piece of wood in my hands glowed white. When light settled down, all that was left was two handles for the knives.

By this point, I have accepted my crazy power. I had to if I wanted to survive. I still want to understand how it works.

‘The closest I could think of is Dao or Laws found in Cultivation stories. But isn’t it too easy? Those things take years to grasp and only work in high cultivation realms.’

After pondering for a bit, I inspected the handles. The top part had holes where the knife's bottom parts would slide in.

‘Now, I need to find something to hold them in place.’

I brought the blade part of the knife and pushed the bottom part down on the handle’s top part. The slide was practically without any resistance.

This made me think of ways to keep it like that, as the blade could potentially easily fall off.

But to my surprise, it was holding firm!

To test it out, I waved it around in different directions and ways, but nothing was happening!

It was as if some strange force was holding both pieces together.

‘Right, my power of assembly… or construction? Something like that…’

I sighed. This will take a while to get used to.

I exhaled before returning to make another knife.

Once the knives were done, I brought more wooden blocks, which I turned into utensils, plates, and, most importantly, a table from two blocks of wood.

All of this was considerably easy with my ‘cut’ ability.

By the time I was done, I had taken care of all the small details, including making a bed in my small hut made from planks.

I was feeling hungry again. What was strange was that I didn’t need to take a dump or take a piss. It was strange…

It's not that I am complaining; it was a fix I can get behind.

However, I needed to eat, so my gaze went to the mountain of meat. I went over and took one of the legs, bringing it to the table before starting to remove the fur with the knife.

The moment I started doing it, I felt a strange but very satisfying feeling of sharpening my ability to ‘cut’—it was like grinding a weapon against a whetstone.

The fur came off quite easily. Midway, I became quite good at this.

Not long after, the meat was removed and skewered on wooden skewers.

It was the best I could do.

However, eating meat without any salt or spices was…

“...ugh…”

But, it was my only option at this moment, or…

“...oh…wait…”

I walked to the cart full of apples, took a couple of them, and brought them back to the table.

First, I removed the skin before cutting the apples into pieces. Then, I ground the apples into a paste and slapped on the meat.

“...I could keep the meat in the juice for a bit…”

I walked back to the cart, brought some more apples, and then ground them to bits to get the juice.

Honesty, I have no idea what I am doing. I never did this with apples, but the acid in the apples should give some taste…

“Probably…”

Regardless, I let the meat marinate in the bowl after cutting it into smaller bits.

~~~~~~a Couple Hours Later~~~~~~

“...Hmm…Not bad.” I whispered to myself after chewing and swallowing the first piece of cooked meat.

I never expected to eat a deer monster in an alien world marinated in apple juices.

After eating a whole skewer, I continued to make a makeshift bed from furs and wood. With ‘cut,’ the entire process of processing fur was shortened considerably. There was no need to dry it or leave it hanging.

My ability simply removes all the bad stuff. At least, that is how I see it and feel about the material.

However, connecting all of the pieces was the hardest part. Since I didn’t have any sewing tools, I used extremely thin tree bark.

“There… it should hold it for a bit.” I tried to pull apart the new pillowcase.

…

…

…

“...You have to be kidding.” I sighed again; the whole thing was a solid tree itself!

“...Now I am feeling like spitting in the face of all the artisans.” I thew the pillowcase into my cheap single-room hut.

“Thankfully, no one will see it.” I felt a small relief in that.

Regardless, after adding more firewood to the campfires, I went to sleep feeling dead tired mentally.

Mostly, it’s the stress and fear of the unknown, as well as the excitement of the unknown! What a contradiction…

As I closed my eyes, my consciousness began to get consumed by darkness.

~~~~~~???~~~~~~

“Hmm… where is this?” I looked at the endless plane before me. It was multicoloured, and below me was some sort of liquid that I was standing on.

But what got my attention was the huge glass wall consuming the majority of this realm. Inside of this thing, there was something there.

As I focused my gaze on it, I was able to discern more of this thing—being. It was made from some sort of dust, which was multicoloured and revealed the actual shape of this being.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to tell what it was, as it was pitch darkness. If it was nighttime and someone removed that dust, I wouldn’t even notice it in the first place.

It was giving me vibes of some sort of celestial made from space itself.

“...What are you? And where is this?” I asked again as I was able to see what this thing was beyond the glass wall.

Not that I got the answer back.

“...Hmm…”

Then I felt a familiar flip of a switch, which helped me ‘understand’ what was going on.

“...Your name is… Aeon… as in Time? Wait!”

At that moment, I realised, yes… Time. If my power is ‘time,’ then rapidly learning laws—or, as they say, Dao—make sense.

“I suppose I am in some sort of cultivation setting, but I haven’t figured out how to cultivate,” I murmured to myself with crossed arms.

Eventually, my eyes ended up on Aeon, who was sitting cross-legged on invisible ground of some sort.

It looked like it was meditating or cultivating or even waiting for something to happen…

‘Well, whatever. It looks like I can’t communicate with it, or it can’t communicate, or I am too weak to do it.’

After several tries, I stopped and looked around, but I felt a ‘pull’, and the next thing I knew, I was assaulted by the smell of fresh air, the sounds of birds, and the gentle wind ruffling through my hair.

“...awake…already?” My eyes trembled as I opened my eyes. I could see that it was early morning. The sun just started to rise.

“...Damn, that was quick.” I got up from my makeshift bed. I was feeling refreshed and feeling full of energy.

It was something else. I thought sleeping on wood and a couple of layers of fur would give me back pain, but it turned out better than I expected.

“I should give more credit for the unique energies of this place,” I commented while stretching out and then walking out from the plank hut.

Apart from the bed, there was just enough space to take a couple of steps. It was so small that even a table wouldn’t fit in it. 

But this was fine. It was enough to rest and cover from the outside elements.

‘I should think of what to do next.’

The first thing that came to my mind was water, which I needed to find; after all, apples won’t replace such a basic need!

‘Maybe it could, since it was super magical, or in this case… profound? Or is it divine?’ I snorted at the idea that I was in an overdramatic world of cultivation where characters are so smart— they do dumb things for the sake of drama.

‘Well, I should point my finger at the authors, but I do hope I don’t meet those.’

And I am not even joking; cultivation is supposed to make you smarter, but that thing falls flat regardless of cultivation or talent.

“...What, I am even kidding…” I signed out loud. Those events will happen.

As I left the hut, my first objective was to check out the surroundings and make sure nothing was stolen by animals or other people.

‘Well, I hope there are people, and I am not on some island.’

For a second, I pondered the idea that I was on an island. It would be a perfect opportunity to be on an island! Away from everything, I could spend my years growing stuff.

But I know that would never happen. My ability is too broken, and people will want it either way. So, if I want peace, I would need to take some drastic measures. 

Thankfully, nothing was taken or touched.

‘The deer-like beast’s aura is probably keeping beasts away. It's usually how it is. If this is true, then I would be in the area of a powerful monster.

Me killing it could have caused a chain reaction. The repercussions of it… hmm…’

I realised that people could come to investigate this place if the beast ruling the forest was gone.

But that could take time.

‘In that case, I need to beef up my place and keep them away.’

“Hmm?”

As I was pondering my actions last night, I heard a strange sound.

“Why does it sound like something is fighting?”

I looked around and focused on my hearing. After a couple of seconds, I realised that it was coming from not far away.

It was.

“Oh shit! The apples!”

I rushed forward towards the apple trees.

Less than 15 seconds later, after passing a dozen trees, I exited the forest into a small clearing. On the opposite side, there were the apple trees.

What I saw was a bloodbath.

Animals of all different sizes were fighting each other for apples.

And it wasn’t just a regular fight; it was a frenzy. One would push another just to get a bite. 

“Damn… are these apples that great?”

I realised that none of these animals were that big. Sure, some were bigger than a human, but none of them were the size of a truck like that deer monster I killed yesterday.

**BOOOM!!!**

“Did that wolf just blow up!?” I looked in disbelief as I saw one wolf with beautiful fur swallow the apple whole and then blow up!

 Yet none of these creatures stopped. They all ignored the event.

Wolves, bears, deers similar to the big one, snakes similar to cobras, and other less familiar animals like tiger-lion hybrid made from crystals. 

They all were trying to get the fruits.

“Yeah… I think I am putting my foot down here. I won’t allow a mountain of corpses close to my hut.” I lifted my hand and pointed it at the trees and animals before me.

For a second, I closed my eyes and imagined the beauty of the forest before this happened.

“Begone.”

**WHOOSHH!!!**

The sound of wind being cut apart brings total silence to the area.

By the time I opened my eyes, there were only trees and nothing else.

Not a single drop of blood or a corpse was in the area.

Just to make sure I walked over and inspected the area.

“It looks just about right. There are some missing apples, and one tree is damaged, but apart from that, it’s fine,” I commented after walking around. 

I will need to fix the tree with some wooden poles, but apart from that, it's fine.

‘I could fence it up. My power should keep these pests away.’

My gaze scanned the surroundings. That single move should have eliminated a portion of those pests.

After checking around, my gaze went to the oak-like trees. It’s time to fence up. The apples are his prize, not some snacks for wild animals!