Chapter 4: Working is Hard!
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The day started early.

The sun wasn't even quite up yet, and her father had already gently woken her up to work in the field.

Kotori quickly readied herself and soon they set off along the dirt roads through the multiple paddies. During this time, she started taking serious note of her surroundings and began to ask her father about them.

From what she learned to the north of the house, there was a large thicket, which was where much of the firewood was gathered. The south of the house had a small road that apparently if you walked for a bit would lead to a nearby village.

Incidentally, Kotori's family was a little different insofar as they didn't live near the village like most people. Most villagers lived within a 15 to 30 minute walk to the village, but her family instead preferred to live closer to the forest. The soil was a little better here they had more to eat than their village-living counterparts. On the other hand, it also meant they were more isolated if anything happened.

Kotori soon found what it meant to be a farmer.

[This is exhausting!] She thought, Kotori was a person who had never done any manual labor in her life. In her past life, she was a famous scientist who solved cancer and hid at home. She had never once gotten close to a shovel.

[Can I get a break please!]

Stabbing her stone shovel into the ground once again, she noticed a curious phenomenon. The soil around her shovel seemed to ripple.

"Ahh!" She jumped back in surprise and soon the dirt formed itself into a rabbit shape and scampered off.

She heard her father’s baritone laughing behind her.

"What's so funny” she said indignantly

"Well, you’ve never been scared of a dirt spirit before" He father said

"Don't worry," he said leaning his own shovel grinning "it's good luck, it means the soil is healthy."

[I don't want luck I want karma] Kotori muttered as she stabbed the dirt again with a renewed vigor.

As the sun approached midday her father told her it was time for a break. Which Kotori accepted gratefully.

The break was well-timed, and the rays of the midday sun were very comfortable when paired with the slight spring chill in the air.

As she laid in a nearby grass field, she felt something crawl on her leg. Sitting up she saw a dirt mouse carefully skittering along her leg.

Just as she was about to swat it away, she felt a wave of friendliness that made her stop.

She wondered if this was the same earth spirit her brother had caught yesterday,

[Are you from yesterday] She projected her thoughts onto the mouse.

The Mouse began to nod vigorously nod its head; She then felt a feeling of comfort as if she was in the presence of her parents.

[Don't tell me this damn thing imprinted on me like I'm its mom]

As she looked at the mouse and her suspicions were confirmed when it began to nuzzle her leg.

[Looks like I've made a pet] She thought.

She didn’t really want one to begin with, but she thought it would be a shame if it didn’t have a name

After thinking for a while, she decided to name the spirit "Shu"

[Your name is Shu now] She told the mouse. The mouse gave her a knowing nod and she was filled with a feeling of acceptance and happiness

[I guess it likes the name] She thought

Quickly, she called out "Status" to see the mouse's stat again

Simple Dirt Spirit (Shu)
Race: [Spirit] Age: 1
HP: 5
Mana: 2 (+1)!
Agility: 1
Strength: 1
Defense: 1
Karma: 10
Skills: none
Traits: [Minor Earth Spirit]

"Hey, Kotori is time to get back to work. Don’t let me find you slacking again!" her father called out to her

Kotori groaned and grabbing the shovel near her to go back to the exhausting work of digging a new paddy.

Interestingly, after observing for a while the Shu started helping her. Although the spirit was small, it seemed able to move dirt at about the same speed as Kotori.

The mouse didn't need to touch the dirt. Shu appeared to control the dirt with something like magic. This greatly increases her pace and together with the spirit Kotori soon found herself digging at a very similar rate to her father.

When the day's work was done, she saw that the pit they had dug together was larger than what her father had made.

Holding the mouse in her hand she petted it.

[Good job!] she projected onto ti

The mouse rolled over and exposed its dirt belly, which she took as an invitation to pet it. She gently rubbed her finger on its underbelly the feeling was weird and felt more like rubbing a pile of soil than petting a mouse, but she seemed to enjoy it, so she kept on doing it.

[At least this thing likes me] Kotori thought.

Her father interrupted her petting session

"Good work today…" he said looking in surprise at the hole Kotori was able to dig

As soon as she heard those words she felt her karma value go up slightly

She quickly whispered "status" to see it
Sato Kotori
Race: [Human] Age: 5
HP: 10
Mana: 5
Agility: 6
Strength: 4 (+1)!
Defense: 2
Karma: -99,999,999 (+2)!
Skills: none
Traits: [Spirit Seer]

Her karma had seemed to go up a little bit after helping with the paddies. Although Kotori was unsure whether the "+2" was a result of having both her and the mouse work together or if the value of the action she did was worth 2 karma.

Kotori was happy that she was the only person who was able to see this interface. It would be rather hard to explain to her father what it was if he could see it.

[I really must test this more] She thought to herself as she walked back to the house with her father.

Their brother and mother were already done with their work in their side of the field and were settled down in the house by the time they got home. Her brother was overjoyed at the fact that she had managed to "catch" an earth spirit and constantly asked her if he could play with it.

When she asked Shu for permission it outright refused and thus she rejected her brother.

Ryuji of course threw a tantrum and once again her brother had to be comforted by her mother.

She took the opportunity to see both of their stats in this time period

Sato Ryuji
Race: [Human] Age: 3
HP: 10
Mana: 0
Agility: 6
Strength: 3
Defense: 2
Karma: 114
Skills: none
Traits: none
--
Sato Hana
Race: [Human] Age: 25
HP: 28
Mana: 0
Agility: 11
Strength: 14
Defense: 10
Karma: 1,344
Skills: none
Traits: none

Evidently, it seemed both her mother and brother had no talent for magic as they both had a mana stat of 0.

That night, they once again had the same thin rice gruel and listened to her father play beautiful songs on his reed flute.

Kotori was beginning to feel a little impatient. She only had this life to work with and she still had a massive debt to overcome. Although it was only her second day of being reincarnated, she was once again struck with the feeling of impossibility regarding her task of overcoming her nearly negative 100 million karma deficit.

With a heavy heart, Kotori earnestly began her life as an average farmer girl

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