After the vice principal left, I put my back into field work from morning.
I expanded the field beside the house toward the grassland outside the forest. I thought about pushing the field deeper into the woods, but clearing it would be hard, and more than that the forest is a storehouse of materials.
I looked over a huge plot, a hundred meters on each side, and took a breath.
"Right. What do I plant?"
Sweet potatoes first. Easy to grow, and food if it comes to that.
Next, the black sesame Tom brought me. Sesame yields oil. With oil, daily life opens up more.
"As wide as the field, the dreams get wider too."
I was muttering that to myself when a familiar cry carried from the academy. Through a magic loudspeaker, probably. It echoed hard.
"Right. About time for Onesco's ceremony. Too bad I can't go. I'll congratulate her later..."
Then something occurred to me.
"No need to wait. I can congratulate her now. If I don't get close to the hall, the vice principal can't complain."
I class-changed out of Mana Farmer and headed for the workshop. On the workbench made of gisu wood, I set down the bundle of distress signals from my coat pocket.
Distress Signal
Quantity: 1
Quality Level: 3 (Material Level 8 + Job Penalty 5)
A set-piece firework made by mixing gunpowder. When launched, it writes a message in the sky.
The message reads:
"Please, save me! I was an idiot to defy the vice principal! I'll quit the academy, so please save me! Sincerely, Leopin"
Distress signals were issued as a set of twelve to each student. No replacements when they run out. Pioneering life has to be covered with these twelve.
"Anyone who calls for help twelve times is more than they can look after."
From the way I'm treated now, if I got stranded they probably would not look after me even once.
"So for me, these distress signals are just fireworks."
I cut the tip off a distress signal with the great boar knife. Powder spilled out, grainy.
"It's a celebration. I'll make it flashy."
I took apart about four more and piled the powder from five of them on the workbench. In the pile, something like a small glass bead glinted.
"That's a rescue bead. The firework is the visible marker. This is the real body of the distress signal. If I launch one of these by mistake, it counts as me calling for help. I have to take them out."
I dug through the powder, gathered the five rescue beads, and pocketed them.
"Then I use the Fireworker skill and change the layout of the set piece."
I cupped the dug-up pile of powder in both hands and activated Make Launch Fireworks.
The current layout, the disgraceful plea for my life, rose in a haze over the pile. When I touched the letters with a finger, they warped like paint dissolved in water.
"Getting the shape right is harder than it looks. Like holding a whisk with my foot and writing on a cake. But I practiced untying rope with my feet. I can manage this. ...Done."
The layout changed the way I wanted. Put the powder back in the tube and cap it as before.
Set-Piece Launch Firework
Quantity: 1
Quality Level: 24 (Material Level 3 + Dexterity Bonus 4 + Job Bonus 17)
A set-piece firework made by mixing gunpowder. When launched, it writes a message in the sky.
The message reads...
"Quality went up a lot from the original signal."
I wanted to launch them soon, so I closed the appraisal window before the end.
"All right. Five in a row, make it lively!"
I bundled the five new fireworks and stood them on the workbench. I pressed the bases hard against the desk.
A huge flash shot into the sky.
I shaded my eyes with a hand and watched the ball of light climb.
"Five fireworks at quality level 24. Simple math, level 120. The highest my crafting goes..."
With the blast, a huge ring of light spread in the sky. Then nothing.
"Don't tell me it failed?"
Right after I muttered that, a single flower bloomed overhead.
In a blink that flower spread until it filled the sky. Red, blue, yellow, green, white. The sky turned into a field of brilliant flowers.
Through it ran a black panther made of black roses. Behind the panther, the scattered petals became gems of three colors and wrote letters.
Congratulations, Onesco! Sincerely, Leopin
The letters were bigger than the sun, as if the sky were wrapping around me. I reconsidered.
"Damn. I made it a little too big. This is going to give the wrong idea to every Onesco in the world."