Harvest Bag

“Ohh, now the gathered fruits are disappearing!?”

At the same time I willed it, the heaps of fruit piled high began to vanish into the void as if being sucked away.

In less than a minute, the harvest was all gone.

Everything was back to how it had been just before.

The only difference was that all the grapes had already been harvested.

“So this Harvest Bag skill is basically a skill that can store huge amounts of things, just like my Storage Bag.”

“The power of a Storage Bag!? Aptitude holders of ‘Spatial Magus’ or ‘Item Bag’ are so powerful they get recruited by the kingdom itself! Woody, your aptitude keeps developing in absurd directions…”

Nadja looked dumbfounded.

And seeing her expression… I didn’t know why.

I remembered my mother’s face when she was told what aptitude I had.

—Before I knew it, I had clenched my always-held hand tighter.

And with my body trembling slightly, I asked,

“If my Tree Planting aptitude became something even worse… would you leave me too, Nadja?”

Looking up at Nadja, taller and older than me, she let out a sharp gasp that didn’t even sound like a voice.

But right away she mumbled suspiciously under her breath, then quickly shook her head side to side.

“N-no… no such thing! What I love is not your aptitude but… mumble mumble…”

She tried to say something, but kept mumbling and clammed up.

Her face was bright red, but she quickly calmed down.

Then, as if embarrassed by her earlier blunder, she blushed slightly and declared,

“A-anyway—Woody, I followed you all the way here! Even if Tree Planting evolved further and you became a demon lord who could plant world-controlling trees at will, I would still be on your side!”

“…Yeah, thank you, Nadja.”

As I felt her warmth, the unpleasant feelings I’d had earlier were gone.

All right, in that case, next I should carefully examine the details of Auto Harvest and Harvest Bag’s abilities.

“In short, Harvest Bag is like a Storage Bag, but limited to harvests.”

“Hm… but no Storage Bag has ever existed with capacity this vast. This already amounts to an ability on par with its own aptitude.”

Before I realized it, Aira, who was standing nearby, spoke with a pensive look.

Neither Nadja nor I denied it.

Because all three of us understood that this Harvest Bag ability was just as outrageous as Aira said.

After conducting various experiments, I had mostly grasped this new power.

First, Auto Harvest. As the name suggested, when activated it automatically harvested all fruits currently ready.

Using Auto Harvest cost 10 Smile Points, but it was still an extremely useful skill.

Until now, fruits would become overripe or rot, but with this I could prevent waste.

It also meant the villagers no longer needed to do the harvesting themselves.

One might think that simply harvesting would still leave fruits to rot as before—but that’s where the Harvest Bag came in.

Amazingly, Harvest Bag had three surprising features.

First, unlike a Storage Bag, Harvest Bag had no capacity limit.

That meant that, for fruits grown from my planted trees, I could store as much as I wanted.

Second.

This Harvest Bag—astonishingly, once used, time itself stopped for its contents.

I had tested it with ripened fruits, and the aptitude’s guide confirmed it, so there was no mistake.

As long as fruits were kept inside the Harvest Bag, they would never spoil with time.

Third, using the Harvest Bag cost zero Smile Points.

I could simply open the Harvest Bag whenever I needed and take out fruit.

With this power, I could say the food problem was practically solved completely.

This skill truly was, just as Aira said, a power far surpassing the others.

Auto Replanting only created a flowerpot so I could plant more easily—the actual planting was still manual… the gap was ridiculous.

…Well, Crossbreeding was quite useful, but just like Auto Harvest it cost Smile Points every time.

Harvest Bag, with zero cost, was just far too powerful.

“But even so, it’s a huge help that we no longer need villagers to do the harvesting.”

“You’re right, Woody. If they can devote themselves to their own trades, the range of industries our village can sustain will expand.”

“With fruits this delicious, I feel like we could manage even without industry… munch munch.”

What Aira held was a muscat grape so swollen it looked ready to burst—Water Muscat.

Just as Simurg-san had said, for someone with the Water Magus aptitude like her, Water Muscat tasted especially delicious. This grape was Aira’s absolute favorite.

Seeing Aira stuff her cheeks with large Water Muscats, Nadja looked exasperated and slumped her shoulders.

“Aira, don’t say that. If you put it that way, it defeats the whole purpose…”

H-hey, you didn’t have to put it like that!

It’s not like I wanted to awaken these weird powers anyway!