A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 204: The Field of Four Seasons

Chapter 204: The Field of Four Seasons

As a result of this discovery, Grandpa called off exploring deeper into the dungeon. Instead, the only place he allowed Elaina to further explore was the fields on floor 1 but that is fine for her as she has barely got any interest in the labyrinth itself. But she will venture on it if the demand is necessary like taming some monsters native to the dungeon. But at the moment, that is not part of her plan.

Crouching and picking up a handful of soil, Elaina breaks it down on her hand, feeling the grains of soil properly. After several experiences on her farm, she can tell whether the soil is healthy or malnourished based on this method alone. Seeing that it is a bit moist yet not so wet, not too soft and not too hard, as well as not too sandy, the soil fits the criteria of what Elaina qualifies as healthy soil.

"The soil here is good. And the wind is also nice. I don’t know how it feels on the other seasons but in the spring season, the wind here feels very like the spring itself."

"[What about the sun? How do you even grow something if it is inside? It would be different if it were a greenhouse but this isn’t the case in this dungeon.]" the God of Farming asked, curious about the climate of the farm plots.

Elaina looked up. Sure enough, the sun is nowhere to be seen and the only thing up there is the dungeon’s ceiling. There are no cracks or anything that would allow the sun to shine from above and give any shred of sunshine to anything planted in this place.

"Hmm...despite the sun not shining, I can feel some sort of heat around the place. And from the looks of it, it seems that it is not entirely light but it seems to be some sort of substitute of the sun," Elaina pointed over to the large artifact that looks like a sun at the overhead of the spring field. It is very big as it covers the whole spring field.

"[Artificial Sun?! That’s a little huge for a normal Artificial Sun!]" the God of Farming was surprised.

"Artificial Sun?" Elaina frowned. This is the first time she heard of the term.

"[It’s an old artifact that has been around during the times when gods walked along with the humans. It was made by the Sun God and provided to many people back then. However, this artifact was lost in time as time passed on and some of it was destroyed during wars so not many are left in the human world. It would be quite lucky for someone to even see an Artificial sun the same size as a human head due to how valuable one is.]"

"How come I am not aware of such an artifact?" Elaina was bewildered since she had read many books involving artifacts before since the mining team back when she still owned a mine dug up a few artifacts and to sell them in high price, she has to at least know what they are before putting them to bids to increase its price. So naturally, she has extensive knowledge of some artifacts, including those that are said to only exist in legends. However, Artificial Sun is not part of what she knows.

"[It’s natural. Because it is very precious and only a handful is left behind, those people who know the true value of the thing will not let anyone find it, including the public, unless they want someone to wage war against the owners just to obtain it. Seeing an Artificial Sun here is quite outrageous, let alone, the big size of it.]"

Elaina approached the end of the field where the artificial sun was and below it were some mechanisms that Elaina had seen for the first time in her life. As she touched the thing, the huge sun-like artifact disappeared. The temperature remained the same, but the artifact was gone.

"It disappeared?!" Elaina was surprised.

"Aha, I see now. I was worried that people who had some knowledge of the Artificial Sun artifacts would try their hardest to take this one off of here. Seeing that it can be hidden means that these artifacts here can be hidden from anyone who doesn’t know about it. We can take advantage of this, Elaina...if you decide to use this field of four seasons.]"

"Ha, are you crazy? I would be mad if I didn’t take advantage of this. I will of course use this! I don’t have the regular greenhouse built just yet so having a land where I can plant plants without the need to wait for the new season to roll in would be a big boon to me and to everyone who needed those types of crops and food to grow. Just like the winter food shortage. With this in place existing, they can just gain access to these foods even beyond the time winter."

"[I like your plan, Elaina. Are you planning to mass produce them during winter and sell them?]"

Elaina shook her head. "No way. As much as I like to take advantage of the market without any competition. They will easily realize the problem with this and they will start to complain about how I monopolize things like this. To avoid too much trouble, I will still use it, but moderately. Only enough for me to sell a few stocks without raising suspicions and also not offending the other farmers. I would rather think of long-term profits rather than short-term profits like that. It would be scandalous for me to do it without the intention of monopolizing customers of other farms."

"[That’s true. Business sure is brutal huh? Guess I am not so much of a business person for me to think of short-term profits.]"

Elaina smiled hearing that. Even Gods are not always considered omnipotent and they also have flaws like human beings.

After confirming that the invisibility status of the Artificial Sun can be done on and off, Elaina headed to the other seasonal fields. The summer field is not so hot but it isn’t warm either. It is just a just right temperature, good for the summer climate and she prefers this kind of climate compared to the previous climate they experienced last summer. Just like the previous field, the Artificial Sun can also be hidden.

As for the Autumn field, it was quite warm and cool at the same time. Elaina couldn’t understand how everything worked but she liked it so far and once winter rolls in, Elaina plans to handle and prepare this place for planting. It will be soon enough so it won’t be long before she comes back here again to start planting.

When she headed to the winter field, the place was much colder than she anticipated so she had to run towards the artificial sun closer to warm up a bit. She mentally took note of that and she will bring a set of clothes for winter-specific climate.

Despite low crops growing during winter, some crops will indeed grow during that time so Elaina plans to grow one in this place for a more controlled environment of winter. Since winter was considered unpredictable according to the locals in the Darcero Kingdom, Elaina wanted to ensure that she would not have losses if she decided to plant something in winter.

As she was examining the soils of each field and confirming them as healthy soil suitable for planting, her grandparents suddenly appeared on a nearby apparatus that glowed green and popped the two out of nowhere.

"Oh...looks like we are back. It seems the teleporters work normally like a normal dungeon does," Grandma said as she examined the old teleporter.

"Still didn’t expect these stuff to be still functional. I am prepared to climb back up if the teleporters fail to do their jobs," Grandpa said as he dropped the dead body of a chimera down to the ground.

Elaina approached them. "Are you all uninjured? How is the situation down there?"

"We are fine, Dear Elaina. As for the things below, I don’t think we can now consider this as a dungeon and more of a labyrinth. The fact that this is a changing labyrinth makes this more unpredictable and hard to study due to how unpredictable it is most of the time. We are even lucky that we have a place of respite after the dangers below."

"Will those monsters ever climb out from those stairs or even use the teleporters?" Elaina asked.

"No. A strong barrier stops them from even stepping foot in it. However, it seems to be weakening which is why we will begin to assign a station here soon enough. Since this is a massive field, I think this is also a good place for you to plant some crops here for food or even medicinal herbs if you know how to grow a few of them. Seeing that we have a field with various seasons, I can tell you want to use this place to plant stuff, so I will not forbid you from doing so," Grandpa pats Elaina’s shoulders.

"It might also be connected as to why the barrier that stops the monsters from climbing are weakening. Perhaps planting more stuff here will restore its vigor back to its prime," Grandma explained.

So everything was indeed true. Without a farmer who will keep this fields in check, then the barrier that stops the monsters from climbing will weaken and disappear. Now that her Grandpa is trying to assemble people who will explore the labyrinth, Elaina has an idea that Julia might like and might take advantage of, especially now that she is doing well in crafting potions. This might be a good way for them to make some little money for once.