Chapter 03 Learning by doing
Another week passed, and I began chopping wood with the spare bit of time I had at the end of the day. If I wanted to ensure my crops weren’t overrun while I slept, they needed to have a decent lead-up from the forest. Monsters wouldn’t come close to a village, but some might, if I got unlucky, a goblin could destroy my field before anyone noticed. That’s why pushing the forest back even a few feet might make a difference.
I also needed the wood. The house I had inside the town wasn’t very big, and I was in the process of expanding and reinforcing it. I had started on making the second field, but it was about that time when I got my first radish harvest. I hadn’t ever really seen an uncommon radish, let alone a rare one. The color was pure red, and the size was enough to count as two. The size would fit perfectly between a golf ball and a baseball. I bit into it expecting the harsh taste, but I was greeted with the perfect amount of spice.
Compared to the poor or low-quality crops I was used to, it was a night and day difference. Selling them netted less than if I went for quantity over quality, but I was happy with the amount. I effectively made five times the cost of the seeds. I bought five more bundles of seeds and planted them in my field. The first field was only about a quarter of the way full still, but that didn’t mean expanding right now was a mistake.
In a month, I doubt I’d have any room left, and I’d be glad for the second field. Radish seeds cost about three copper and net fifteen. That’s about a week's worth of living expenses. So if I grew two seed packs, it would cover the cost of my living, with everything else being a net positive.
Little did I know the shitstorm having fresh produce of higher quality would bring. From two weeks of relative peace with only the passing guard to wave hello to. Almost every housewife came to ask me to plant different crops that their families would like. While I wasn’t against it, they wanted me to buy the seeds myself. None of them offered to pay, and it would be expensive to have them transferred here.
I gained enough experience to hit ten again on the fifteenth day and picked Harder and Faster. It would allow me to work for longer, and crops would grow ten percent faster. Everything was about efficiency. It only took six days to reach level ten again, and I bought the golem specialization. Even though I couldn’t do anything with it right now, I still wanted to lock it in. The instinctive knowledge gained would let me start planning on how to utilize it.
After another six days and after purchasing Jack of Jacks, my radishes, tomatoes, and corn came in. I had a one-to-one ratio on what my crops would yield because of the farming class. My farming skill doubled my crop yield while quality over quantity halved it, so it meant I got exactly what I planted back. I just folded all my profits into growing while keeping enough of each to satisfy my own hunger.
With the new flood of crops, even more suggestions with no form of help or payment were mentioned. I kept working with my nose down and just mentioned that asking the store owner to get in new seeds was the best way to have me to grow new crops. Another week passed, and my potatoes grew. I picked up Sweet Spot (tool) and noticed an immediate improvement in my ability to chop trees.
Most people would ignore these low-level skills, but it was part of my strategy. I didn’t want to waste levels, so anything that could be effective for helping me level faster was purchased. I looked at the sex-related skills again… And decided to wait to purchase them. I had no money and was barely getting by on what I was selling.
Another week, and more radishes and carrots came in. In just a few days, my wheat will come in. With no new skills, I’m going to look at my level twenty-fives before I think about buying the rest of the tens… Actually, I could buy some modifiers for the skills, but that would be less cost-effective. As you level, it becomes harder to level. So it really only made sense to spend the levels the moment you could. With modifiers only taking five levels to apply, it meant I should check the twenty-five skills first, then worry about modifying.
Modifying was also a gamble. You could get something completely useless or even detrimental to the purpose of your skills. I want farming right now, but later, any modifiers I get that help me with farming but hinder me while fighting will need to be changed out. That isn’t even including negative ones.
Stats weren’t that important to me, thankfully. If someone who was in the dungeons bought a fifty-level skill, they would become far weaker. An attack they could shrug off before might end them as they took a hit to their endurance. It made balancing your team that much more difficult. Most groups would let the party know before they purchased a big skill, so they could work around them, but… There was always that one person who ended up forgetting and then thought they had the strength to stop a boulder.
Two weeks later and I started to build up actual funds because I ran out of crop space. The hundred or so people I was feeding inside the village could handle all my crops, but if I made a mono-crop like a field completely full of radishes, I might see a drop in what I could get for it. There were a lot of things I hadn’t expected to know and just didn’t think of until it was my job to. Eventually, I would have four or five plots and be making enough food to supply the entire village. That would cap the amount of money I could get unless I branched out into other areas.
Which meant I needed to look into beekeeping and animal ranching as well. Milk and eggs were a missed staple in my diet. Bacon and eggs… A glass of milk with a fresh loaf of bread. Was there even a baker in the village? I knew since it was a border village, we didn’t have to pay taxes. Only the weak or strong lived here, most people were crippled or farming the monsters inside the forest.
About ten percent of the people in villages were combat-focused, but it was closer to twenty-five percent in border villages like this. That’s not counting children, of course. It still meant that I was an irregularity. The first farmer in the village in years, if not decades, the “new” products were the talk of the town. I had expected it, but not to this degree. I definitely didn’t expect the mayor’s daughter to show up at my door.