SSS-Rank Talent: Super Upgrade System-Chapter 151: Free Food!

Daniel stood speechless, locking eyes with the gatekeeper in stunned silence.

The offer, if one could even call it that, lingered in the air between them, thick with the scent of damp earth and an almost strange sense of absurdity.

A part-time medicine farmer. Him. The man who had faced down S-grade beasts, forged S-grade weapons, and whose very existence was a statistical anomaly that gave the Academy’s power grid a nervous breakdown.

The gatekeeper, a scruffy man named Hassan, scratched his messy grey beard, a trace of weary amusement in his tired eyes.

He seemed to enjoy Daniel’s surprise.

"Well, boy?" Hassan grunted, leaning on his rake. "Cat got your tongue? Or was the offer simply too prestigious for words?

It’s a coveted position, you know. Not just anyone gets to commune with the sacred soil of the Eastern Medicine Garden."

Daniel finally found his voice, though it felt weak and reedy in his powerless state.

"A... a farmer? You want me, an aspirant of Astralis Academy, to pull... radishes?"

The final word escaped as a sharp note of indignation.

His SSS-Rank [Soul Assimilation] talent felt deeply, personally insulted by the very concept.

"Radishes are just the beginning, sonny," Hassan replied with a casual wave.

"We have turnips that build strength and carrots sharper than your instincts.

It’s a tough job, but the benefits are... excellent."

He puffed out his chest, as if preparing to announce a king’s ransom. "The treatment is second to none!"

A faint, desperate hope stirred in Daniel.

Maybe this was another test. A trial of humility. Perhaps the excellent treatment involved access to rare herbs, or a small salary, or at least a decent meal that wasn’t radish-based.

"What kind of treatment, exactly?" he asked, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

Hassan leaned in, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, his breath smelling faintly of cheap wine and disappointment.

"Our medicine garden," he declared with the gravity of a man revealing the secrets of the universe, "guarantees... food and accommodation!"

He paused, smiling broadly, clearly expecting a reaction of surprised delight.

Daniel just stared at him blankly.

"That’s it?" Daniel asked after a long, awkward silence. "Food and a place to sleep?"

"What more could a man want?!" Hassan exclaimed, genuinely baffled.

"Three meals a day, mostly radish-based, mind you, great for your health and a roof over your head!

No salary, of course. The honor of working here is its own reward. And no, you can’t take any of the herbs.

"That’s theft," he growled, eyes narrowing.

"And around here, we don’t take kindly to thieves.

We castrate them, skin them alive, and burn what’s left publicly. Don’t think of even getting clever."

Daniel’s glimpse of hope didn’t just die, it was brutally murdered and buried in a shallow grave. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

He could almost hear Principal Finch chuckling from his comfortable workshop miles away.

"There are also a few... conditions," Hassan added, pulling out a worn, slightly sticky-looking contract scroll.

"Just standard procedure." He unrolled it with a flourish. The list of rules was long, written in a cramped, spidery script.

"Rule #1: All workers must display a cheerful and enthusiastic attitude towards radish cultivation at all times," he read.

"Rule #7: Do not attempt to reason with the sentient turnips. Their logic is circular and will only lead to madness.

Rule #13: Under no circumstances are you to leave the garden without a signed permission slip from the Garden Master, and he’s on vacation for the next six months.

Rule #24: If you underperform on your daily radish quota, you will be summarily fired, expelled from the garden, and permanently banned from re-entry. No second chances."

It was an outrageous, almost slave-like contract.

A dead-end job with impossible conditions, offering nothing but the barest sustenance.

And yet... it was the only way in. The Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng, the key to reforging his very foundation, was somewhere within these walls.

He had to endure this. His pride, his status as a genius, meant nothing here.

With a sigh so heavy it felt like it might collapse his powerless lungs, Daniel nodded. "I accept."

Hassan’s cynical eyes widened slightly in surprise, then narrowed with a grudging respect.

"Hmm. Didn’t take you for the desperate type or maybe just a fool. Either way, sign here." He gestured to the line at the bottom of the scroll.

Daniel picked up the offered quill, his hand shaking slightly from the weight of his manacles, and signed his name.

The moment the ink dried, the scroll flashed with a faint purple light, a magical seal snapping into place.

A thread of energy, faint but unbreakable, seemed to connect him to the garden itself.

He was bound.

"Right then, Farmer Vance," Hassan grunted, a cruel smirk on his face.

He handed Daniel a rough, splintery wooden token with a single rune carved into it.

"This is your entry pass. Don’t lose it. Replacement fee is one hundred million Federation credits."

He said it with the casual air of someone discussing the price of a cheap cup of coffee, a price Daniel, in his current state, could not hope to pay.

"Touch the token to the gate," Hassan instructed, then turned and shuffled back to his shaky booth, already anticipating his next nap in the name of surveillance."

Daniel looked at the small, crude token in his hand, then at the immense stone gate before him.

This felt like the lowest point of his life since arriving in the Verge.

With a deep breath that did little to calm his frayed nerves, he reached out and touched the wooden token to the cold, runed stone.

"Boom!"

It wasn’t a loud explosion, but a soft, deep pulse of energy that resonated through him.

The runes on the gate flared to life, not with threatening power, but with a gentle, welcoming light.

A vortex of green and gold energy swirled to life in the archway, drawing him in.

He felt a familiar, dizzying sensation of being pulled through space, the world dissolving around him.

When his vision cleared, he was standing in a different world.

The air was thick, almost sweet, saturated with a concentration of life and elemental energy so potent that even in his sealed state, he could feel it soaking into his skin, a soothing balm on his aching muscles.

He stood in a vast, lush valley, surrounded by towering ancient trees with leaves that shimmered in every color of the rainbow.

Glowing herb fields stretched to the horizon, and in the distance, rustic wooden houses sat among rolling green hills.

A soft breeze drifted through the valley, carrying the scent of countless flowers and the promise of rare botanical wonders.

It was more than a garden, an entire self-contained dimension, a flawless terrarium designed to cultivate the rarest and most potent ingredients in existence.

Daniel finally understood. The gate outside wasn’t the real security.

The teleportation array, accessible only by a token held by a grumpy, napping guard, was the true lock on this treasure trove.

The power needed to sustain a sub-dimension this vast was immense, far beyond anything he had imagined.

His awe, however, was short-lived.

A new, more immediate reality was about to set in.

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