The room remained quiet after Adrian finished speaking.
Mara kept her eyes on the bowl of water crystals resting on the table. She understood his point, and that was precisely what made the situation so frustrating. The work he was being asked to do was worth far more than the five gold coins she had originally offered, yet she simply did not have the means to pay what it was truly worth.
As the silence lingered, Lina finally let out a quiet sigh.
"Mother."
Mara turned toward her daughter-in-law.
"We're not getting anywhere like this," Lina said calmly. "You've both made your positions clear. If this continues, we'll spend the entire day arguing instead of getting any work done."
Mara frowned.
"We still need the water."
"I know," Lina replied. "But Adrian also deserves to be paid fairly."
She glanced at the bowl of crystals.
"So let's stop talking about supplying water for an entire month. That was never part of the original agreement."
Mara remained silent.
Lina turned to Adrian.
"The five gold coins were for helping us in the fields. We'll keep that agreement exactly as it was."
After a brief pause, she continued.
"For those five gold coins, you'll fill forty crystals. Once those are finished, the original agreement ends."
Adrian considered the proposal for a few moments before nodding.
"Forty crystals for the original five gold. Anything beyond that will be paid separately at half the normal market price."
Lina looked toward Mara.
After a long silence, the older woman let out a tired sigh.
"...Very well."
It wasn't the outcome Mara had hoped for, but she also realized there was little point in arguing any further.
With the matter settled, Adrian casually moved one hand behind his back and slipped the toothpick-sized staff back into his storage ring before anyone noticed. He then reached into the bowl and picked up one of the empty water crystals.
Turning it over between his fingers, he found it surprisingly light, almost like a piece of polished glass, with only a faint trace of magic lingering inside.
"So I just use water magic on it?" he asked.
Mara nodded.
"It will absorb the water by itself. Once it's reaches its limit, it simply won't take in any more."
Adrian looked down at the crystal resting between his fingers and activated his magic.
Water immediately began gathering around the crystal, but before the spell could complete its usual sphere, the crystal started absorbing it. Every drop that formed vanished almost instantly, preventing the spell from ever reaching its finished state.
Adrian watched with growing interest. His magic wasn't continuously producing water by design. Rather, the spell was constantly trying to complete the sphere it was meant to create. Each time new water formed, the crystal absorbed it before the spell could finish, forcing the magic to continue creating more.
"So that's how it works," Adrian murmured.
The spell continued trying to complete itself while the crystal steadily absorbed the water.
Roughly half a minute later, the crystal stopped absorbing.
With nothing left preventing the spell from completing, the water sphere instantly formed around the crystal.
"So that's the sign."
Mara nodded.
"Once the sphere forms, the crystal is full."
Adrian dismissed the spell, allowing the water sphere to collapse harmlessly into the empty bucket beside the table before handing the filled crystal to Lina.
She accepted it with both hands, examined it for a moment, then carefully placed it into a second bowl reserved for the filled crystals.
Adrian picked up another crystal and repeated the process.
Now that he understood how the crystals worked, the task quickly became routine.
One crystal after another moved from one bowl to the other. By the time the fortieth crystal was filled, nearly twenty minutes had passed.
Lina carefully placed the last crystal into the second bowl before looking toward Mara.
"That completes the original agreement."
Mara nodded, her gaze drifting toward the remaining crystals still waiting in the first bowl.
"There are still one hundred and sixty left."
"I'll do those later," Adrian said. "But before that, I think it's time you paid me."
"Of course."
Mara walked over to a wooden cabinet against the wall and unlocked a small drawer. After carefully counting the coins one by one, she returned and placed five gold coins into Adrian's hand.
"The original payment, just as agreed."
Adrian briefly inspected the coins before storing them inside his storage ring.
Mara noticed the coins disappear but chose not to comment. A mage possessing a storage artifact wasn't particularly unusual.
Adrian looked back at her.
"Is there a market nearby?"
"There is," Lina answered. "The village has a small marketplace. If you're looking for something more specialized, you'll have to visit the nearest city. It's several hours away."
"I just want to look around."
Lina glanced toward Mara.
"I can take them."
Mara thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"That's fine. I still need to sort the crystals and prepare the irrigation channels."
Adrian nodded.
"I'll be back in a moment."
He and Elena returned to the small room they had been using. Adrian picked up his backpack from beside the bed, slipped the five gold coins inside, and slung it over one shoulder.
When they returned to the main room, Lina was already waiting by the front door.
"Ready?" she asked.
Adrian nodded.
The three stepped outside, leaving Mara behind with the crystals. Lina led the way along the narrow dirt path while Adrian and Elena followed behind, the farmhouse gradually disappearing behind them as the village slowly came into view.
Authors note: this novel is really unlucky I completely lost the chapter done I forget even about the novel new I need to write but I keep forgetting by the way if you feel the novel is boring than you can add what we should write it's not like I have any idea as I am just writing this as draft.