The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Jin knew that he had been expelling the bad waste from his body for the past week or so. Hence, instead of cultivating in his room, he went to the toilet near the kitchen to cultivate. It had a bigger space than the bathroom in his room. It was a rather pitiful place to cultivate but it was easy to clean the waste away in the morning. Not to mention, he could just wake up, have a shower and in a few steps, there would be food available in the kitchen.

"I think I could not get any lazier…" Jin woke up after a restful cultivating sleep early in the morning. Being at Grade 3 allowed him to sleep less and still be able to perform his daily work without harming his health. He figured at Grade 4, all he needed was two or three hours of uninterrupted sleep to survive each day. However, that would inadvertently affect his cultivation process since his cultivation style was based on sleeping while cultivating: the Nineteen Lazy Astral Panda technique.

Jin changed into a black tracksuit with a white shirt so it would be easier for him to move around later. A notification appeared on his phone and it was Zeru stating that he would be waiting for him in the shophouse.

"Yun, I will be leaving first!" Jin shouted out loud before he left the house and took a jog to the shophouse. As he got in from the side door, Zeru was already sitting at one of the barstools with his eyes closed and hands folded.

"Have your breakfast, then we will proceed," Zeru continued to speak with his eyes closed. Jin acknowledged his orders, took a few onigiris from the bar counter cabinet and started to eat in peace. Jin then noticed that Zeru was in a different outfit than his usual green hakama. It was maroon red in colour and it suited his long yellow hair that was tied into a ponytail.

"Ready?" Zeru opened one of his eyes and stared at Jin.

"Yes, I am." Jin nodded his head as he hastily swallowed the last bit of rice from the onigiri to drink a cup of water.

"Good, now put this on." Zeru threw a parcel at Jin and when he opened it, he discovered a set of green wristbands and ankle bands.

"Are these the infamous 100kg wristbands and ankle bands once they are activated?" Jin asked in a tongue in cheek manner to lighten the mood a little.

"Close enough. Just wear those and we will start training. Yun gave me permission to open portals just for your training." Zeru maintained his seriousness and snapped his fingers, opening up a portal, while Jin followed as he put on the bands.

When Jin arrived from the other side of the portal, there was nothing in sight but barren land all around him with a campsite prepared beside a large tree. The soil was grey in colour and the sun was shining so brightly that Jin felt like he was burning up. Thankfully, the enormous tree provided some shade from the blazing sun.

Right behind him was Zeru wearing a circular straw hat he picked up from the campsite. "They call this place the Farm World and the system assisted me to purchase this land from the authorities." Zeru seemed to be untying a small satchel from his waist.

"The land in this world is extremely fertilised and they have the blessing of their earth elementals which allowed the land to produce corps within a day or two. I have checked the time dilation with Yun and it is about half a day for 2 hours of your current Earth."

"So I have roughly a day's worth of time here before I start my shift back on Earth?" Jin checked his watch.

"Yes, and this is your objective." Zeru passed the satchel to Jin and when he checked it, he found a bunch of seeds.

"I will be generous to you as this your first time training. Grow these seeds within 5 days or I will leave your Bellator group." Zeru eyes glowed intensely and Jin realised he was not kidding.

"But Shifu, I have no knowledge regarding farming at all and if I do 10 hours worth of work simultaneously, it might jeopardise the store's intake of customers." Both Jin and Zeru had a mutual understanding that they should not affect the shop's opening hours. However, the way Jin phrased his reply sounded like an excuse since Zeru noticed Jin was already showing some mental distress at the scale and magnitude of the task at hand.

"Do not worry, I will take care of the necessary details, All you need to do is plough the land, place the seeds, and water them when needed. When you are not around, I will freeze the germination of the seeds." Jin heard a voice from behind but all he saw was a tree. A tree…? Jin quickly looked up and realised it was indeed the tree that was talking.

"Aren't you the Sakura Tree Treant in the Zither Mistress Dungeon?" Jin was taken aback that he felt the monster looked very familiar and it was talking to him in his own language.

"Hah, I am more than a thousand years old. I have listened enough to speak the language of Human." The Sakura Tree Treant replied with a hearty guffaw.

"This is Shu, he will be the caretaker of this farm when you are away tending to your store. Old Shu, I will be leaving my disciple in your care." Zeru thanked Shu for his cooperation in the training of his disciple.

"No worries, it has been a long time since I have bullied a new budding. Hahahahah!" Both Shu and Zeru laughed loudly and left Jin feeling slightly awkward.

"Anyways, those bands that you wore are magnetic bands." Zeru snapped his finger once more and Jin immediately fell to the ground with his legs closed together and his arms spread out wide like a cross. Jin felt an intense pain in his torso area as both of his hands were repelling each other. He then gathered some chi to power his muscles to maintain the movements, but it was barely enough to not feel any pain for the moment.

"The armbands will repel while the ankle bands will attract. If you put all four bands close enough together, you will probably be squeezed into a ball." For the first time, Jin saw Zeru smile widely.

"Is he a closet sadist?" Jin struggled to maintain his chi in his arms and shoulders.

"With this handicap, plough the land, sow the seeds and water them. Shu will handle the rest of it. I will be back in 2 days time to check on your progress." Zeru waved his hand and teleported away.

"Understood, Shifu." Jin bowed his head even though he was on the floor.

"Haha Budding! Although the ground is extremely fertile, which makes it easy for your seeds to grow, you need lots of strength to break the ground, else you would be going nowhere." Shu spoke as he looked at Jin trembling.

"I will do what I can…" Jin was not adept in the circulation of his chi. For the past few fights that he was in, all he do was blast the chi via his technique. Learning how to control his chi to maintain his muscle movement from the properties of the magnets while ploughing the land would indeed be a hassle.

"I have to do this, if not Zeru will leave the group…" Jin gritted his teeth and tried to stand up. He knew this Master was the real deal and it would be his loss if he could not complete his training.

"Hahaha, seeing a young budding struggling again. Brings back some memories." Shu thought to himself as he watched Jin silently for now.