Chapter 30 New ideas
“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 made 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 went 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 went 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 endgame 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.