Chapter 14 Librarian and Crafter

Another month passed as the dungeon rebuilt its army back up to enough forces to guard itself. I purchased the last two level ten skills, completely locking out my ability to even look at that unless I gain new skills to buy. It was nice not to have to worry about them now, but I also had to add modifiers to all my skills and then work on learning if I gained any new level twenty-five ones next.

Most people rush to rank up, but I was taking my time. Gaining skills was more important to me in the long run, as it was easier to level right now, and everything would add up eventually. Like building a solid foundation, I was more worried about becoming the best farmer I possibly could be, and that was a decades-long process I’d rather not ruin by rushing at the start.

We had another few small harvests as I made some prototype spice assortments I planned to sell as luxury goods, and handed them out inside the village. The biggest problem with me is that it didn’t make sense to make them myself; a miller would get higher-quality products than I would, but we didn’t have one in the village. The closest thing we had was the catch-all class of craftsman.

To be fair, the sex-related skills weren’t essential… That didn’t mean I didn’t pick them up. The pleasure bonus is to shore up my inadequacies in the future. I knew that I would have more than one wife; Tems was practically asking for it at this point. We were all over each other, but now, after I gained the new skills, she needs more and more time between sex because she gets so worn down, and we only do it once every three days now.

She wants to do it more often, but just can’t physically, her body needing time to recover from it, if we did it any more often, she’d need to rest the entire day after. I had made another golem and planted the magified lichen someone had found into it. The mushroom-wicker golem had developed large mushrooms on the top of his head, shoulders, elbows, knees, and hands. They weren’t tasty; instead, they worked more as pseudo armor, and the mushroom was harder to cut through than you’d expect.

The mushroom root system also slightly increased his durability and stats as well. He was able to move faster, wouldn’t need constant maintenance to function, and even seemed a little smarter. The lichen had the effect of storing water and could be used as a portable water source. If you had the two golems follow you, the party wouldn’t need to worry about food or water.

The lichen covered his entire body, giving him a more durable body overall, just with fewer defenses at the hardened mushroom points. The moss golem was dripping water onto the plants as it guarded them, reducing what I needed to do. It only handled a quarter of a field, but perhaps in the far future, I could have a ton of moss golems for watering purposes and never need to worry about that again.

The moss itself tasted fairly plain but could still be eaten. You could get by for a week or two with just the moss golem until you ate your food and water source from overuse. The smaller mushrooms picked from the golem every other day added up to about two coppers' worth of value. I was making about two gold per month now, which made making a third golem or buying goats viable.

Goats could also give milk and were far cheaper than cows, but it was far more limited amount of milk compared to a cow. I could get about a bottle per goat, which would be enough for one person… Even still, I missed milk enough to begrudgingly order it from the nearby village. At a tenth of the value, even buying them slightly older than cows was possible, and picking goats that have given birth, I can afford three right now and still have some money to spare. I’d need to have the goats impregnated again in a few months for them to keep producing, but that would just be even more profit in the end.

With that, I still needed to talk to the librarian about getting more books about farming and settle on a price the craftsman would charge for helping me produce the higher-quality wine and spice assortments. I walk into the library, my boots being loud enough to get the librarian to shoot me. Tanned skin and pointed ears, she had glasses and white hair that reached most of the way down her back.

Red eyes stared up at me as she put a bookmark in after finishing her page. “Can I help you with anything?” The elf was one of the coldest people in the village, but I knew why. She was probably mistreated because of her skin color by other elves. The mayor’s wife and daughter were perhaps the only elf and half-elf to get along with her because they weren’t bigoted and knew she didn’t care about her skin color. Like albinos, sometimes elves were born with darker skin and red eyes, which would make them outcasts from their own people. Even still, I had no hatred for her looks and found her quite attractive.

“I’d like to see about having some books for farming ordered and delivered, possibly some animal husbandry and beekeeping as well if that’s possible.” She walked over to the front desk she’d be forced to sit at in other jobs, not enough people coming by in the village to not choose a more comfy seat for herself. She looks through some papers while mumbling.

“We have three books that can be delivered for farming, and one for the other two categories unless you want to have a book made for the library, it’ll take a month for the books to be delivered and we’ll have them for a month before they’re sent back unless you have them made then they’ll be here permanently.” I ask. “How much is it to have a book made compared to delivered?”

“The delivery is part of your library card's function. You can only take one book out at a time unless you buy the higher rank card, so you’ll only be able to request one book per month. It’s a gold to upgrade your card, and that’ll let you request three books or one gold to have a book permanently made for this library.”

“I’ll upgrade my card and have the animal husbandry book made for here, please.” I handed over two gold, it was expensive, but right now, I was fairly stagnant in my growth. Having the farming books delivered, I’d read through all three of them and start making more money in the long run. The animal husbandry book I might need to refer back to after getting new animals, so I chose to have that one permanently added to the library.

She smiles for the first time, and it’s catchy, so I smile back at her. I offhandedly ask for her name, and she tells me it’s Leaf. I knew elves had two names, one they used for friends and acquaintances, the other for people closer to them, like family. It’ll take a few weeks to have the books delivered, so I leave and head towards the craftsman. I haven’t really met her yet, only seen her out buying groceries once, and the vendor I sell my produce to said she really enjoys the variety I bring to the village.

Another human… Actually, I am one of the few humans who aren’t married now that I think about it. She wore thick, padded clothing and had short hair, which gave her a tomboy look. Her pink hair and voice were the only ways you could tell she was a female. We had a carpenter and woodworker in the village, and the three of them did most of the work making my new house. The carpenter got the walls up, the woodworker did anything more intricate, like the doors, furniture, cups, bowls, and utensils, and she did everything else. The carpenter needed the most help from the people without classes linked to professions, while she did everything on her own.

She was tying a broom together as I came in. Everyone with a business is constantly working throughout the day. She looked up, revealing a soot smudge on her face as she asked. “What can I get ya, farmboy?”