I walked into the blacksmith's shop as I heard her singing. "Oh whiskey, oh whiskey, you go down so smooth! I could drink you every day, and ain't it the truth! The worst part is the wait as I increase your proof! I'll drink you down in one go and then act like a goof! Oh, hey Danial, what ye up to?" She sat smiling next to a large copper still that was bigger than herself.
She rocked back and forth, tapping her legs as she impatiently waited for the alcohol to condense down to become even stronger. The liquid slowly came out the copper spout. She had already made four jars of the whiskey, and I could see another four buckets of mash she still needed to distill down to spirits. I knew my corn sold out more quickly than the other vegetables, and now I knew why.
"Ye be a great addition to thee town! Ye know what I hed to drink before ye moved here? Water!" She was so excited her dwarven accent seeped through. "Well, thank you for the compliment. I'd like to get some tools upgraded and the price of making an oven with a large surface for cooking on. The happy smile faded off her face as she put her business mode on. "What do ye *ahem* you need?"
I explained what I wanted done, and the business part of her faded as she began to smile again at all the work I just gave her. The truth was, the village wasn't that big. If someone wanted a piece of equipment made or to upgrade their gear, it would be few and far between. That's why job-type classes tended to level much slower than combat classes. I was an outlier; it should have taken me years to gain the levels I did in months, but that's because I constantly took risks, and they paid off so far.
Difficulty heavily determined how quickly your class and profession leveled. If you weren't constantly pushing the limits of your class, then you wouldn't level nearly as quickly as someone who overwhelmed themselves with work. Most farmers stuck with a single field while I was already pushing six and branching off to animals already.
So when someone who sat unbusy as she waited for someone to order a weapon or piece of armor to be made finally gets a job, a job that was bigger than most of the work she'd get throughout the entire month, then she's happy with that person who let her pull out some more levels from her class. She didn't have the copper to finish more than three tools right now, so it would take longer to have the rest made.
I had her make and upgrade the sword, daggers, and hoe first. Silk was still using the equipment she got from being a guard, and Tems only had a single chipped and dented dagger she'd been using when her class gained bonuses for dual-wielding. Most dagger-wielding classes dual-wielded, and the cost to upgrade them was the same as a single other upgraded tool. It was just another oddity that everyone agreed was commonplace and didn't think about.
Daggers were about twice the size of material I needed to make my hoe, but for some reason, I needed all five copper bars to upgrade while she only needed five for both her daggers. I could only grumble at the expensive cost and thought that I still had two other tools I'd have to upgrade. The biggest thing was I didn't fish. I could, the farmer class did get experience tangentially from fishing, it's just I wasn't very skilled at it. It was something I couldn't really worry about right now as I was solely focused on growing my farm.
In the future, once I finally felt stable, I'd love to fish to level. That was very far in the future, though. I went to the carpenter next and got him to deliver a bed before it reached night time. It was more expensive than I'd have liked, but I didn't have a bartering skill, so I had to deal with whatever I was charged unless I wanted to risk paying more.
The hardened glass panels to make the greenhouses needed to be shipped from two towns over. It meant I'd have to special order it, which would cost most of the rest of my money. The remaining gold I got from the legendary jam I had made was spent buying the herb seeds. I underestimated how much a magified herb cost as the cheapest type with barely any effect was four times as expensive as normal herb seeds.
I could make the fourth greenhouse shed, and I needed to think about what to grow inside while I waited to make enough to afford the magified herb. The final thing I did was purchase more trees to have shipped here. Peach, cherry, almond, and walnut. Cherry was named after her mother's favorite fruit. I had no plans to court the sexy elf, but growing something that would make the mayor's wife happy seemed like a good idea.
After spending all the new money, I got back to work. It was now just waiting. It would take a week to get the new tools, which meant I had to use the lent hoe for now. Cherry picked a fairly terrible time to have me be busy the entire day as we had begun planting again. We planted fairly often, but sometimes multiple crops would all fruit and be harvested at the same time, which meant they'd need to be replanted all at the same time.
The potatoes, radishes, carrots, cucumber, garlic, apples, and magified mushrooms were all harvested, and most needed to be replanted today. The chestnuts I planted in an attempt to grow more trees had sprouted and would need to be replanted soon. The birds I had living on the farm needed to be moved over a few dozen feet, and a fence needed to be put in as they were too close to the beehive and the two were attacking each other. None of the ducks had died yet, but it was only a matter of time with how many bees they were eating.
Moving the beehive was an even worse idea as I'd have to move it even further away as I couldn't move it closer because of the magified cows. Moving it closer to the forest was a possibility, but I also wanted it to provide protection for the other animals. Bears attacking cities wasn't common, but neither was growing crops and raising animals this close to the forest.
I'd rather sacrifice the honey the bees made over losing most of my poultry. The magified bull might be enough to scare it away, but I didn't want to take the risk, so that's why they were closer to our house. I was halfway done with replanting when I heard a cat screech out in pain. A board leaning against the house had fallen down and crushed its tail.
It would recover eventually, but both Silk and Tems stopped working to take care of it and make sure it wasn't hurt too badly. It meant I had to do the rest of the work myself. Just as I finished replanting, Cherry called out loudly. "Dinner's ready!" The house was too small. The four of us piled into the single-room home as the small table was filled with different types of food.
As small as our home was now, I loved it. We rubbed against each other as we ate some of the best-tasting food I had ever tasted. It felt cozy, I knew that soon enough the house would expand again; I wanted to have at least another room added before winter, possibly two or three if I could afford it. Plans kept going through my mind as I thought about the future. I was worried for our children and wanted them to have a better childhood than I did.
Chapter 28
Sex was becoming more complicated. The four of us slept in a single bed and with the inclusion of another woman, it meant the love had to be spread even further than how much it currently was. Tems and Silk were pretty much a team at this point, but Cherry fit in well as well. I had to have sex with all of them every single day to make sure the boost stays active, which wasn't a problem right now… But in the future, even just another girl or two might become a problem.
"The glass is here!" Tems screamed as I flinched from her sudden loudness. I walked over to the villager who transported the tempered glass to thank and pay him. "Thanks so much for transporting these. It must have been pretty difficult with no cart to transport them." He unlatched the tiles from his hand pulled cart before answering. "Yeah, heavy sumbitches. You wouldn't think glass would weigh more than bricks but this was a pain in the ass to move."
The plates fell to the ground as the wind was pushed out from the weight, and they landed with a loud thump. The glass was far stronger than you would think it would be. You could even walk on this glass like a sheet of wood without it breaking. I paid the villager who transported the glass, plus gave him a rather large tip. The profits from the herbs might never pay for these panels, but the experience I'd gain from growing them was worth it.
The next two days were spent setting up the glass houses and getting the herbs ready for growing. Another thing I learned, the alchemy ingredients didn't gain any benefits from the farming class and profession. It meant the bonuses from lucky farming, quality over quantity, harder and faster, or wicker quality wouldn't affect the alchemy ingredients because they weren't qualified as crops but alchemy ingredients.
It also meant that I could expect a new set of purchasable skills the next time I checked based around growing alchemy ingredients. I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but it was an educated guess. It was now just waiting. I would need to wait much longer than I was used to, to grow these alchemy ingredients.
The stamina herb was called rainbow grass and could be grown in a month. The healing herb was lightshade and it also glowed in the dark. It could be grown in about two months. The mana herb was called magebeard and took three months to grow. If growing them was the only thing I had to worry about, then it wouldn't be a problem.
They didn't have to be grown in these miniature greenhouses, but it did reduce one of the biggest problems growing them caused. Bugs and animals loved to eat these things. So not only were they fickle and hard to grow, the yield of the plants was low, and they were sought after by pretty much everything alive to consume before they were ready.
I was just waiting and making sure nothing went wrong with the herbs now as I got back to work. Another week passed without much else happening. It was then that the first payment for the assortments bundles I made came in… Everything had sold.
I was expecting a few sales, but for everything to sell, it was a clear indicator of how much of a market there was for high-quality spices like this. Twenty family bundles and five luxury bundles sold altogether. Even subtracting the fifty percent I'd have to give to Olivia, who helped keep the higher quality, it was still a huge windfall of money again.
This wasn't something that was done. If I made a few gold worth of items the first year of my farming, then I'd still be ahead of what most farmers started out with. I made more than most farmers would make over their entire careers in less than a year. How? No, not just that, but I also got to sleep with three of the most beautiful women in the entire village on top of that.
I remember being upset about getting the farming class, how naive I was back then. Now, if I could choose, I'd pick it one hundred percent of the time. I quickly celebrated with my three girls before separating out Olivia's share and heading to give it to her. I had to wait because she had a customer. He wanted a weapon mount made to go ahead of his bed in case someone broke in, he would be prepared.
I mean… If he lived in a city where there weren't guards constantly scanning the village and the biggest danger was goblins, it would make sense, but we all knew each other, and he was one of the most unstable adventurers in the village. To each his own, I guess. He gave me a smile and wave as he left and I got down to why I came here.
I didn't want to give away how much I was carrying as I asked. "So… How many of those assorted spice bundles do you think sold?" She was already working on the weapon mount as she didn't look up and answered. "Oh, so one of them finally sold? That's good. I was worried that none of them would and it was just a waste of time."
"Can you look up from your work real quick so I can hand over the money?" She sighed before stopping her work. She could still finish it by the end of the day without my intrusion, I think she just didn't like getting interrupted. I start placing coins on the table, one at a time, like the sheriff did with me when he paid for all my crops getting destroyed.
"So… It was more than one that sold… All of them sold." Getting to the platinum that we earned now, I handed over her share. "Every. Single. One. Including the luxury bundles sold, so here's your share." Her eyes widened as I added more money onto her counter as what I said finally sank in, and I could see her start to hyperventilate.
Her body started to shake next as tears unconsciously leaked from her eyes. She almost yelled. "I think I'm going to throw up." She made dry heaving noises as I tried to pull her out of her panic attack. "Olivia, calm down. It's just money! There's no reason to freak out, this is a good thing." I pulled her into a hug as I patted her back. "It's fine. Everything is fine. You're safe, it's just money. Calm down."
I could feel her start to relax into me as she pushed off my chest. "Alright, I'm good. I just wasn't expecting that… I just made more money than five years of working in the village for a day's worth of work… It doesn't feel real." She pushed herself out of my arms before looking me in the eye as she moved in to kiss me. My first instinct wasn't to push her away, it was to grab her ass and hoist her up so it was easier for her to kiss me. That's why I even shocked myself as I broke off the kiss.
"We shouldn't do this with how emotional you are right now… I'd love it if things developed between us but it never seemed like you were attracted to me before. I think this might just be your emotions getting the best of you…"
She pushed me away as she smiled. "Alright then. That's fine but… What do we do now?" I smiled back at her. "What do you mean? We make more bundles obviously."
Chapter 29
Princess's Point of View
I woke up to the sound of one of my maids ringing a bell outside. I ordered them to do so after I heard them talking about my bedhead before I could make myself beautiful. Now, no one was allowed to see me before I had time to bathe and put myself together. After my morning routine, I made my way down towards breakfast.
One of the maids brought a plate in front of me as I held my hand out for her to place the fork in it. I had grown so accustomed to the routine that I didn't even notice the food looked slightly different than it normally did. It wasn't until I had a mouthful and tasted the difference did I finally wake up from my morning fatigue. I couldn't help but eat the food voraciously, it was to the point that I had dropped the noble etiquette I had been taught all my life and ate like a person who didn't care about their appearance.
Finally coming back to my senses after I finished my meal, I asked the chef. "What did you do to this food?" He had on the calming smile I knew him for. Most of the men and women who took care of me were closer to me than my parents. "That would be the luxury spice assortment that made its way to our kitchen, Miss."
The portions of my food were always perfectly chosen for me to retain my beauty, and eventually, my father would sell me off to the highest bidder; whoever could benefit his rule the most would get to become my fiance. It meant that I could only eat small portions of good food or large portions of bland food. The spices managed to make the bland food taste better.
I asked out of curiosity. "I've never heard of that before. Is it a new product? Where did it come from?"
…
Gourmand's Point of View
The gourmand class was nothing but a dead end. The only way for me to level was to eat delicious food, but the quality of food a person could earn waitressing or working as a barmaid just didn't hold up. I had tried so many things to improve the speed at which I leveled, but it would still be years before I reached the next rarity of the class.
Even then, I'd have to forgo picking other skills that would make it easier for me to level in the future; it was an ever-scaling uphill battle, and the only benefit was my rapidly leveling jobs from the experience bonus I received during my pursuit of improved food. Any time I worked a job that would give me money to buy food, I'd get the experience increase, and since I spent almost all of my money on food to level my class, it meant I was fairly skilled in multiple jobs.
My class did give me one thing that I exploited whenever I could. It would alert me when there was high-quality food or products in my vicinity. It let me eat the odd uncommon burger or even rare salad, but my gourmand nose was going crazy at the new product one of the travelling merchants was selling.
The spice assortment was expensive, but I could tell it was all top quality. My chef profession was fairly high level, and I knew right away that it would improve the quality of any product I made while using the seasoning. I talked the owner of the restaurant into buying the bundle to improve his food, and it made an instantaneous difference.
I had leveled off a single meal… Normally, it would take weeks of eating higher quality foods, foods that cost on average more than the common fare by a dramatic amount. And I just made that common food able to raise my level just by adding in these simple spices. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel now. All I had to do was find who made these bundles, then marry them.
"Well, I would say I didn't see this coming, but I'm honestly shocked it took you this long to move on." I waved goodbye to the restaurant owner I had been working with the past few months; my expert cooking, waitressing and maid professions made his inn far more popular than it was. It also didn't hurt having a beautiful cow demihuman with huge knockers serving your food.
"Yep, it's time for me to move on now that I have a clue on how to level more quickly. Thank you for hiring me when I needed a job, Frances." He waved me off. "Here, take some of these spices to help you get by until you can find the source. Sarah, I'll miss you." I gave the man a hug before leaving. He was too old for anything to happen between us, and I think he saw me as more of a daughter than anything. I would also miss the old man. "Once I make it big, I'll come back to visit."
…
Third Person Point of View
Inside the inn, several bandits gathered. None of the normal civilians went inside anymore as it became the hangout for all the local bandits. The old bandit leader made a deal with the local guards to overlook them, and now one of them had replaced the previous guard captain, which was why they could live like kings inside a village instead of needing to live on the outskirts in a bandit camp.
A younger bandit came running into the inn, he looked around at all the other bandits who had started to gather so far. A larger bandit held a woman in each arm, his hands openly fondling their bare breasts. One was the previous innkeeper's daughter, while the other was the previous guard captain's wife. Both were dead, their women stolen from them. Both women bore looks of despair and disgust as they hated what had happened to their village.
It had been years since some of them had the chance to hit an easy target like a farm without a guard contingent watching it. Not only could they pick it clean like locusts, but they could steal the food as well, which would allow them to go far longer without needing to leave their hidey hole. The younger bandit spoke up. "T-the village the farmer is from are selling luxury goods. The spies who are watching the travelling merchant said that he brought dozens of gold worth of the items through, and they've already sold out."
Eyes widened as the bulk of the bandits clamored to assault the farm right now. All of their momentum was stopped when the old bandit leader yelled out. "Stop!" Everyone went silent as they waited for him to speak. "It's too soon for us to kill the fat sheep. If we go right now, every gold we take will be paved in blood. We need a better plan than just showing up and hoping the guards aren't stronger than us. We need a reason for the bulk of their capable men to leave… Then we can take what we want at our leisure."
The bandits all gained wicked smiles as they thought about overtaking another village. Who knew how big their group would grow if they succeeded.
Chapter 30
"Be with ye in a minute!" Delilah hammered away at a piece of equipment as I made my way inside. She quenched the heated metal in oil before wiping off her face and finally looking at who came in. "Oh, Danial, it's you. It's a bit early for yer wifes sword to be made. I still need another two days to finish it." I smiled as I pulled out my money pouch.
"That's not why I'm here." She looked confused before I continued. "I need the last two tools made, the scythe and fishing rod." She stopped thinking about how much money I had just spent before she asked. "How can you afford this?" I just gave her a saucy smile before teasing. "Wouldn't you like to know." She didn't pick up on my teasing before asking again. "Yes, I would like to know."
"Selling food makes a small portion, but it was the strawberry jam I had made that made up the bulk, and one of my other business ideas succeeded which brings in way more money than it should." I knew it was only a matter of time now before the bootleg, lower quality luxury bundles came out and the price of mine would have to be lowered dramatically.
The entire stock selling out was only because it was a good idea and there was zero competition. I still was going for the higher quality product in the end; I wanted to be known for the increased quality over the copycats. I decided to go full-on for quality improvements over quantity increases. That went for crops, I wasn't sure if I would do the same for animals or alchemy ingredients.
It made sense for me to also focus on quality for animals. I'd love more delicious milk or eggs, but the biggest problem with potions wasn't that there weren't any high-quality ones; it was that there just weren't enough to go around. Improving the success of growing the alchemy ingredients made more sense than going after improved quality, in my opinion.
She agreed with making the better items. She gave me the upgradeable versions of these tools, but both went practically unused. The scythe was great for harvesting wheat, but it was so infrequent that I didn't really mind it being more difficult to harvest for now. It would be good for getting hay or fodder from tall grass before winter hit for the animals, but that still wasn't for months.
I wanted to make a man-made pond near the village at some point, possibly next year, because it would do wonders for making money. One of the most expensive ingredients near us was fresh fish, because there were no large bodies of water even a few days' travel from here. There was a small creak that bled into a river, but the fish in those bodies of water couldn't grow to any large scale. Growing and harvesting fish from a nearby pond might be another huge money maker in the future.
"Well, besides that. How long do you think it would take to make this?" I handed her a schematic before she asked. "What material do you want this made with?" I thought about it before answering. "Iron is fine for the bottom half. I'm not sure how much it will be, so finish the other tools while you think of a price to charge for making it. We might need to make it piecemeal if it's too expensive."
It was weeks later before I could show my new idea for bundles to Olivia. I thought of what would make the spice bundles better, and that was to cater more to people's preferences. I barged in on Olivia as she was working her way through her lunch. She was eating a steak with a bowl of mixed vegetables. Looking up with her cheeks puffed out from the vegetables, she quickly chewed the rest before swallowing and asking. "What's up?" I asked her. "What can we do to improve the luxury bundles?" Bringing another mouthful of vegetables up she thinks about it while she eats. "I-uno."
I think she meant to say 'I don't know'. I continue. "The bundles we produced before and have sent out now are a random assortment." I pulled out the three different bundle prototypes I had made before handing over the one I thought would be her favorite. She quickly read the different tabs as her smile started to grow. Taking the one with the red top, she fingered out a small amount onto her steak before sprinkling the rest onto her vegetables and licking her finger clean.
"Damn, that's good. Taking another bite, she looked to be in pain before moaning in pleasure. "It's so spicy, I love it!" She grabbed at the pepper flakes before I explained what she already knew. "That is the spicy assortment. I bought and grew three different kinds of peppers to let you pick the level of spice you like and also make the pepper flakes. The bundle will also come with a big container of pepper."
She looked to be enjoying her meal far more now as she finished her steak before licking the plate clean. She sucked in air to try and cool her mouth down before looking back at me and realizing what she looked like. Calming down, she looked at the two other bundles. "This bundle is for sweet ingredients, the other is for savory. I'd like to sell a miscellaneous bundle after these catch on, and the end goal is to have most houses own the family bundle and another one or two of the specific bundles."
I pointed out what I had grown and what I planned on growing in the future to add to the bundles. Learning how to get sugar from beets was an ordeal, but now that I knew, I was going to start doing so more often because I could feed the cast-offs to our animals.
You don't realize how much farming was just you learning how to do new things, but it was dramatic. If you added up everything I learned this year, it would easily equal five years' worth of information. It seemed less impressive than it was from an outside perspective, but at the same time, that was why I could make so much money compared to other farmers who go for the safe route.
I loved buying new crops to grow and learning new ways to get more out of each of my products. I wanted to learn how to distill next; making stronger alcohol wasn't something I ever thought I'd want to do, but here I was thinking about my future products. "I got some sample products for something to add to the luxury bundle as well."
I pulled out a cigar before handing it over and guiding her on how to hold it. Pulling out a spill, I lit it off her candle before moving it over to her to light the 'cigar'. Tobacco wasn't something many grew. It was once again relegated to a single farmer who grew all of the tobacco for the entire region. It meant that while cigars and cigarettes were popular to some, none have really enjoyed higher quality versions of the product.
"That is for the aged luxury bundle I plan on making. We'll fill it with products that don't expire but instead get better with age." She coughed as she didn't understand the big deal about this product. "I don't get it, but if you think they'll sell, I'll make them."
I didn't think she'd understand it, but it was something that would only show its true value after years. Aging products that only got higher quality as they aged was an end game idea I had to secure the future of my family. If we could upgrade the quality of several tiers, it might be an easy way to make legendary products in the future.