The next morning, the sun rose to a different village.
By the time Riku stepped out of the inn, the square was already alive with movement.
Children dashed back and forth carrying small buckets, their laughter ringing through the air. A group of villagers clustered around the well, passing down large jugs, cheering every time fresh water splashed over the sides. One man had climbed onto a small pedestal and was making grand proclamations about "blessed water returning with the moonlight."
And at the center of it all was Chief Barou, sleeves rolled up, finger wagging like a battle commander.
"Get that water to the fields first! Not the bathhouse, Ebin! I know you haven't bathed in three days, but crops come first!"
"I haven't bathed in six!" Ebin shouted back, but still carried his bucket toward the hill.
Riku smiled, adjusting his robe as he walked into the fray.
Barou spotted him immediately.
"Ah, our hero awakens!"
"I'm not a hero," Riku said.
"No, but you're the only reason my village is smiling again," Barou replied, beaming. "Come. We're heading to the back ridge. The fields are next."
The farmland lay just beyond the village, nestled between two sloping hills. As they approached, Riku could already see the effects of the drought: long rows of withered stalks, pest-eaten leaves, and dry, cracked soil that flaked beneath every step.
The land groaned with abandonment.
Barou stopped at the edge and let out a long sigh.
"This soil once fed a hundred people," he said. "Wheat, carrots, radish... even sunfruit. But when the well dried up, we couldn't keep it going. Then the pests came. It's been... hard."
Riku didn't respond right away.
He took it all in — the brittle vines, the faded scarecrows, the villagers now arriving with makeshift tools and hopeful eyes.
He stepped forward and raised a hand to cast a wide-area purification and revitalization spell.
Ding.
[Warning: Use of mass-scale magic detected.]
Peaceful Life Class (Tier 1) may be compromised.
"True goodwill is earned, not cast like a spell."
"…Seriously?" Riku muttered.
Lila, who had walked up behind him, raised a brow. "What's wrong?"
Riku dropped his hand and picked up an old hoe from a nearby cart.
"Nothing. Just a reminder that sometimes, you've gotta do things the slow way."
The next few hours passed in a haze of honest labor.
Riku worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the villagers, tilling dried rows and yanking out rotten roots. He introduced compost layering and mixed charcoal ash into the soil. He showed the younger farmers how to create furrows with deeper channels for future irrigation.
At one point, he even paused to draw out crop rotation patterns on the back of an old signboard, explaining how planting beans after wheat could naturally replenish nitrogen in the soil.
"...and if we interlace rows with these marigold flowers," Riku explained, "they'll help repel certain pests."
"Marry-gold?" a wide-eyed boy repeated. "Does that mean they're good for finding a wife?"
"They smell bad to bugs," Riku said, smirking. "Can't promise much about wives."
By afternoon, the field still looked weary—but it breathed again. Earth had been turned. Dead stalks cleared. A new beginning, rough but real.
As Riku sat on the edge of a cart wiping sweat from his brow, Lila handed him a wet cloth.
"You know," she said, "you're terrible at staying lazy."
He laughed. "That's because this counts as therapy."
[+5 Goodwill Points Earned]
Your effort has touched lives, even without magic.
--------------------------
Later that evening, after a well-earned cleanse spell and a short nap, Riku made his way to the western edge of the village.
There stood a squat stone workshop, with a sloped metal roof and a thick chimney belching black smoke. A rhythmic clang-clang rang through the valley, underscored by the hiss of cooling metal.
Inside the forge, sparks danced like fireflies.
The village blacksmith, a barrel-chested man with soot-streaked arms and sharp grey eyes, was hammering a glowing blade on an anvil. His biceps rippled with every strike.
"Excuse me," Riku called.
The hammer paused mid-air. The blacksmith turned.
"You're the lad who brought the well back to life, aren't you?"
"That's me. Name's Riku."
The man nodded and wiped his hands on a thick cloth. "My name is Grond. Can't tell you what a blessing that was. Haven't seen the forge water buckets full in over a year."
Riku smiled. "Glad I could help. Actually… I was hoping to ask for your help now."
He pulled out the rolled blueprint the System had gifted him — the Wind Dynamo: Basic Edition. He carefully unfurled it across the workbench.
Grond leaned in, his eyes scanning the clean lines, the notes on copper coils, the wind turbine structure, and the insulation guidelines.
After a long pause, he blinked.
"...What in all the flaming gods is this?"
"Wind turbine," Riku said casually. "It spins in the breeze. The spinning generates a current through copper wires — which we'll insulate using resin and cloth. That current can power a lot of things."
Grond looked at him. And then at the paper.
Then back at him.
"You want me to make this?"
"I am sure that you can do it," Riku smiled.
"…Young lad, I've been forging blades since I was twelve, and this is the most beautiful nonsense I've ever seen." He looked down again, this time more seriously. "But you gave us water. That's not something I'll forget. If you believe this will help the village... then I'll hammer copper until it sings."
Riku grinned. "You're the best."
Grond rubbed his beard. "Gonna need some serious copper, though. Not that scrap we keep for nails. I'll have to melt down those old plates no one's buying."
"I can help gather ore later."
Grond raised a thick brow. "What kind of robe-wearing noble offers to mine copper?"
Riku shrugged. "The kind who wants a fan in summer."
The blacksmith chuckled and held out a hand. "Then we've got a deal. Give me three days, and I will have this ready."
They shook hands, and sparks once again filled the forge — not just of metal, but of momentum.
That night, Riku stood by the inn's porch once again.
The stars were out, the wind was cool, and his hands still ached from digging all morning. He had probably worked more than he ever had in one day in his corporate job.
But his heart and mind?
They were strangely light and carefree.
"Well, that's all for today, " Liam muttered and was about to go to sleep, but stopped when he saw Lila come in again with porridge bowls
"I have brought you food again. Let's eat together," Lila said with a small blush, avoiding eye contact.
Seeing the young, beautiful twenty year old girl avoiding eye contact, Riku smiled. This life was undoubtedly the best life he never knew he wanted
"Sure, come in, Lila." Riku said, holding the door open as he invited Lila in.