(Walson)

When I awake from my sleep, It’s still only four in the morning.

While most, if not all, of the other [Villagers] are still deep asleep in their room, I am already busying myself working on the farm.

But thankfully, I’m not alone. Grace was crouching on the ground near my farm, and then she waved a piece of white bread – something that I crafted – toward my face questioningly.

“… Walson, no breakfast?”

White Bread (in all shapes and forms, be it toast or bagel or whatever) was a daily commodity back on Earth. But in this world, it can only be afforded by the wealthy. People in this world usually ate black bread, which was actually BLACK, and not the deep brown kind of color that people on Earth associate with black bread.

It’s small and really, really, REALLY hard. You know how sometimes French Baguettes are hard enough that they can be used as bludgeons? In this case, it’s like chewing on a piece of black rock for breakfast. And since most Orphanages are stereo-typically poor, that’s what we normally eat in the morning.

Case in point, the reason why Grace almost seems to be worshiping the white and fluffy delicious piece of bread she is holding in her hands.

Naturally, the fact that I have this kind of white bread around is a secret. Otherwise it would cause a big commotion in our village.

“I will eat after I finish my chores.” I said to Grace while I threw the hoe in my hands away, before immediately using another one. The hoe I dropped on the ground just now was supplied by the Orphanage, and the hoe I am currently using is the one I crafted with the  Minecraft crafting recipe.

There is honestly no need for me to compare the normal hoe and the  Minecraft hoe.

By using the Minecraft hoe, I automatically turn the area surrounding the spot where I softly tap, into farmland. I don’t need to use any force or strength behind the tap, just enough for it to count. Truthfully it feels like using a paint brush and dotting the canvas. It’s a wonderfully efficient tool, allowing me to be able to quickly finish my farm chores in record speed.

I am no farmer, not in my previous life nor in this new one, but I think being able to do all of this with such ease is totally cheating.

Overpowered reincarnated people and their cheat-like powers aside, I guess I have my own sort of OP-ness after being reincarnated despite having nothing flashy.

I am nine years old right now.

(An: Yes, the last chapter happened two years ago, but I’m not good enough to write about the childhood arc, hence the time skip.)

In our Orphanage, all the children who are older than nine are assigned chores, work, or training, depending on their talents every single day.

The children who have the talent for magic will start to do rudimentary control exercises, same for the Fighter children. They also have the option to become auditors in the classes for children that are ten years old or older, but most children don’t do that and wait until they are ten and attend fully.

But in the case of [Villagers], one would only be able to farm. Ideally, it would be great to send children off to the village smithy or inn, or other shops to learn the trade, but it is for some reason, not possible.

There are approximately sixty children in our Orphanage right now, and around sixty percent (36 children) are [Villagers]. All of the [Villagers] are given the burden to sustain the orphanage with hard labor while the others train.

In other words, we’re slaves. Woohoo~~~

Anyway, people back on earth said that “High school never ends”, and that school is just a small projection of society. It is also true in this case, where there are the ones that are higher up the ladder, and the ones lower down the ladder.

How cruel.

Being alive truly sucks.

But then again, I guess dying wouldn’t really be an improvement. I’m speaking from experience here.

Back to the subject, since I am nine, I am now one among many that is providing for the Orphanage by farming.

All [Villagers] that are nine years or older are given a small piece of land, and were instructed to produce something, anything really, out of it. Our daily work consists of planting, weeding, vermin exterminating, fertilizing, plowing, etc. And so long as you do your job, no one will bother you.

Miniature version of “Contract Responsibility System”.

I felt that “this was truly godsent” the moment I was told all of this. Normally it would take at least eight to ten hours to do all the work, but thanks to my special abilities, I can handle everything within one hour.

After that? I can just go off into the mountains, to my secret base, and do whatever I want. Isn’t it wonderful?

Although old hag Maressa constantly patrols and is on the look-out for people slacking-off, she has no objections for me since I have done all of my work perfectly. And since I also have my [Mini-map], it’s impossible for her to catch me unless I want her to.

The mines in the mountains still have various ores inside that I took advantage of, and I have entered it many times within the span of two years.

Honestly, I was completely surprised by how little there was for me to mine. No wonder the village did not want to depend on the mining industry for income.

But the things I can find in the mines are more than enough for one person: me.

I have found [Iron Ores], [Coal], and a very small amount of [Mithril].

It’s been two years since I have started to explore the mines, but I still couldn’t find a lot of [Mithril]. Only got kilograms in total.

As for why other people did not think of mining individually for profit… I guess it’s because of the monsters inhabiting the mines. Our village does not have anyone renowned for their battle prowess, and there was also no reason to explore the mines.

The monster population in the mines isn’t very dense, but the monsters are all around LV15. Not particularly strong, and their greatest strength usually lies in the element of surprise. Since I have my [Mini-map], it is virtually impossible to ambush me, so I am pretty safe.

Seriously though, anything above LV10 is enough to threaten the lives of [Villagers], and LV15 in particular is quite dangerous for newbie fighters and mages.

In our Orphanage, none of the children are higher than LV5. Even the children who are already taking classes for fighters and mages.

I am the exception since I have been doing a lot of different activities inside my secret base and the mountains. I’ve been mining, experimenting with crafting recipes, experimenting with plants, and occasionally hunting or killing monsters. So I am LV15 right now.

By the way, it is possible to gain EXP for a lot of actions. Sewing, running, swimming, organizing, smithing, farming, and sometimes even sleeping. But the best way to gain EXP is still hunting monsters.

As of now, the only person in our village whose LV is anywhere close to mine, would be the old geezer that owns the antique shop.

So I have a pretty damn high LV for a [Villager]! Don’t look down on me.

But since no one would just randomly use a [Stone Tablet of Identification] on people in the village, this hasn’t been found out yet. It will probably cause an uproar if anyone knows.

I have been experimenting extensively, and came to the conclusion that this world shares a lot of features with the world of  Minecraft. When crafting, it is possible to replace the ingredient that is unique to  Minecraft with something that is more common to this world.

For example, a [Potion of Healing] from Minecraft would require a [Glistering Melon], something that requires one piece of watermelon and eight gold nuggets.

I have the watermelon part covered, since I got the seeds and it’s just the matter of planting and harvesting them. But how is the flipping nether am I going to get gold nuggets? As I have stated before, I found Iron, I found [Coal], I even found [Mithril], but not a single scrap of gold.

Therefore, I had to find a substitute. A replacement.

There exists a somewhat rare medicinal herb called [Malbor] in this world majorly used to create healing products. I am not a plant expert, so the best physical description of [Malbor] I can give you is that it looks like grass, but not like the common grass on the ground.

I was made aware of its existence through reading the books in the Orphanage, and found them growing in the wild forests near the mountains. It’s not easy for [Malbor] to grow, and harder still for it to grow in large quantities. Yet the amount of [Malbor] that I needed to create a [Potion of Healing] was double the amount of [Malbor] the apothecary would need to create a healing potion.

I took the seeds back to my base, and grew them that way. Today is the day that I can finally harvest the [Malbor] I planted in the base.

So far, I have been able to brew three bottles of the potion, but I have never had the chance to truly try it out. I am certain that it can be used to heal, but I’m unaware of its effectiveness.

So, back to Grace.

“Hey Grace, what did you learn today?” I asked Grace this question as I put my  Minecraft hoe into my [Inventory].

I just finished the work that was required for my farm today while I was explaining some of the things I was doing in the past two years to all of you. I still say that the  Minecraft hoe is wonderfully efficient.

I turned towards Grace, and saw that she was holding out a bowl of water for me.

“… I can freely control small fires and air now.” Waving her small wand, Grace made a fireball that was the size of her fists, then added wind with a twirl, changed it into a small swirling vortex of fire.

“Wow, amazing.” Oh, I really want to use magic too…

Sadly, I do not have the talent for it, and my mana pool was also pitifully small.

“… Walson.”

“Yes?” I said while watching the swirling fire vortex dissipate into nothingness.

“… Reward.” Grace stood up from her crouching position, and held her head low to look at me.

Grace has grown taller in two years, and is now taller than me by a forehead.

Well, she used to be an Enderman. I guess she is definitely going to keep growing taller.

I awkwardly lifted my hand to pat her on the head.

“Err, sure, sure. Good job Grace.” I also rubbed her head softly.

She was blushing, and wiggling. I take this as a sign that she is enjoying it. She appears to be physically imposing because of her size, calm and collected, sometimes stoic. But that is only in appearance.

Grace is very quiet. She rarely talks, only when necessary, usually in shortened words or sentences. She still has her cute moments, and is not as cold as she appears to be. She seems to really like being affectionate with me.

Ahhhh, I can feel all the innocence coming out of her.

She is much taller than i am now, thanks to her enderman physique, but I still think of her as a little kid

If it wasn’t for the fact that she had to train and chose to attend magic lessons, I really wished to take her to my secret base and just teach her the way to play all of the nice board games that i had made.

Since she liked the White Bread so much, I wonder how she will react to all the other different kinds of food I have in my secret base?