There was a big reason why I did not just create a large number of farms to get more and more points, despite it technically being an option. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to clutter the landscape with random farms. No, if that were the only concern, I’d place them everywhere.
The problem was that farms needed farmers to function. Unlike most buildings, farms would not function if there was not at least one farmer assigned to work it. There were also regular events that happened, such as the crops needing watering or weeds needing pulled. When these events happened, the growth timer for the crop was paused until the event was cleared.
Because of this, I wasn’t able to just build endless farms to give myself essentially infinite points. I could, at most, have as many farms as I had people with the Farming skill. However, I would rather have multiple farmers caring for a single plot where possible, as it increased the speed that they could respond to the regular events.
The next day, I created my fourth ‘point farm’, which luckily grew into another Coilbarrel farm. Between these two and my passive point production, I was almost at the stage where I could buy a plot of land every day. All that was left was waiting for the ‘failed’ crops to be ready to recycle, and buy what I could in the meantime.
Soon, it was time for the Quickvine fruits to be harvested, with all of the villagers coming together to pluck the cucumber-like plant from the vines growing throughout the farm. Since this was the first harvest of the territory, everyone was excited.
In total, they managed to pick more than five tons of cucumbers. This was, quite frankly, more than the population could eat before those cucumbers went bad, even if they ate nothing else. Furthermore, we lacked a warehouse or any sort of processing facility where they could be preserved.
Worse yet, we would be getting this type of yield every other day from this farm. So I could quickly see the population becoming sick of cucumbers. Well, the cat beastfolk among the village already seemed to detest the crop, so it might not be a bad idea to convert this into a point farm. As for the leftover crops from the first harvest, they’d likely sell them to the general store.
Because of this, nobody seemed to complain when I suggested recycling the next few harvests for points. Instead, their next celebration came when it was time to harvest the softstone tubers a few days later. Unlike cucumbers, potatoes could last for quite a while, and were a good staple food with multiple ways to prepare them. Thus, even when the villagers harvested more than twenty tons of them, they weren’t despairing as they had previously.
Instead, they immediately hosted a feast for the entire village, with Hilda taking the chance to prepare various potato-themed dishes. Watching them eat the creamy potatoes, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy.
Sylphy held up a bottle of cherry flavored soda and cheered, a plate of steamed tuber in her other hand. “Finally, we can have good food without having to drain our wallets!” she shouted, earning a round of laughter from the nearby villagers.
Over the few weeks that they had been here, everyone had gotten used to Sylphy’s love of food. She would commonly strike up random conversations with people in the tavern as she ate, and had become friends with almost everyone in the village.
As she ate, she couldn’t help but glance towards the Lord’s Manor, where the avatar of the Land watched the scene from a window. “Why won’t he come to join us?” she mused aloud. “Ah, does he just not like tubers or something?”
“Nah, that ain’t it,” Lesley shrugged her shoulders, taking a bite out of her own food. “The Land’s avatar can’t eat like we can. No sense of taste either. And he doesn’t wanna spoil the mood or anything like that.”
Sylphy’s eyes went wide, looking over at the dwarven woman. “So that’s why I’ve never seen him eating at the tavern. I just assumed he had his own personal chef or something in the manor.”
Then, she looked down at the food spread out on the table, trying to imagine a life where she wasn’t able to enjoy eating, and felt sympathetic towards the Lord. However, she also knew that there wasn’t really anything that she could do to try to cheer him up, outside of being a productive member of the village.
As she was thinking about this, Wesley appeared. Along with Sylphy, he was one of the few that was liked by everyone in the village, though for a different reason. Wesley was the one that would pay them for any work that they did, no matter how small.
Wesley walked up to a dwarven man enjoying his meal. “How’s the stone mill coming along?” he asked hopefully. “There are only three days left until the harvest is ready.”
The dwarf let out a low grunt. “It’ll be done, boy. I’m more worried about the storage situation. The Land’s not exactly been forthcoming with things like that.”
Wesley put on an awkward smile. “It’s not that simple… unfortunately, the option for a warehouse simply hasn’t appeared, so we haven’t been able to purchase one. Hopefully, that will change with the next rank, but we’ll need more people for that. Until then, I can only rely on you and the others to handle it.”
The dwarf huffed, but clearly accepted the arrangement. After all, it was already unusual for buildings to be produced without any manual labor involved, so he couldn’t be getting upset that only some buildings had such miraculous properties and not all of them.
“I’ll do what I can, but we’re on a tight schedule. If you could get me more workers, it’d go by faster,” he complained, before going back to his food. However, he knew that was not an option as well. At least, not before this place started to become more appealing to settlers.
The next day was the harvest of the redflare pods, a relatively spicy pepper that could be sold for a high price in Corvath. Because of this, we only kept a single ton of the peppers for ourselves, placing the rest on a wagon that Brock and Sylphy volunteered to sell at the town.
Like the Coilbarrels, these peppers could be harvested every day. However, it was unrealistic for us to send such frequent trips to Corvath, since it took multiple days to complete the round trip. As such, we agreed to send one harvest per week, and recycle the rest for points.
With that taken care of, I was now at a point where I could afford to buy a plot of land every day, if I added in the passive income from the population. Moreover, the Quickvine would turn into pure profit every other day. Even if the grain didn’t work out, we weren’t losing much anymore. This chapter was taken from novelping(.)com without permission.
It had been four days since Sylphy and Brock had left the Land, and they now drove their wagon back, a bright smile on their faces. Although they hadn’t been able to sell the peppers for their full market value, they had made an enormous profit. Two hundred gold coins had been paid for their shipment of peppers, enough to feed the entire village for nearly a week, even if they ate exclusively off the expensive menu of the tavern.
However, that had not been their only gain during this trip. Because peppers aren’t native to this area, the merchant had been stunned by their freshness. When he learned that they were a new specialty product of the rumored settlement that had cropped up nearby, and that similar levels of harvest could be produced on a regular basis, he quickly made arrangements.
That was why there were now more than a dozen carriages following behind their own wagon. Some of them were loaded up with building materials, while the one in the lead had a symbol of a pair of scales held within a large triangle on its door.
Inside the carriage, a young woman looked out the window, her eyes widening at the various buildings that she could see in the distance. She had not traveled this road in over a year, so having a few houses crop up wasn’t too shocking. However, given what she had heard, these were far from normal buildings, many of them possessing spectacular effects.
When the convoy arrived in front of the village, there was a rabbitfolk woman waiting for them, wearing a green dress with red flowers embroidered into it. The woman in the carriage emerged, greeting the rabbitfolk. “A pleasure to meet you. Apologies for the sudden visit, but my father insisted that we must speak with the lord of the land at once. If memory serves, you should be Ms. Prim, correct?”
“Just Prim is fine,” the woman nodded, though Sylphy grinned as she hopped off the wagon, carrying the bag of coins.
“Hey, Prim! You got a new dress? It looks good on you!” she said with a laugh. “I’ll go drop off the profit with Wes, so let me know if you need anything.”
Prim nodded in acceptance as Sylphy ran off, while Brock led his horses over towards the stable. Then, she turned back to the merchant woman and bowed. “My apologies. If you wish to speak with my lord, follow me. Though, I would ask what exactly you are hoping to gain from this negotiation?”
The young woman didn’t mind, following Prim towards the nearby mansion. “The Rowal Merchant Group would like to set up a shop in your village. We have brought all of the necessary materials to create a storage building that can hold your peppers prior to transit, preventing them from spoiling during the trip.”
Prim gave another nod, her hands folded neatly in front of her as they walked. “I see. I will leave the proper negotiations for my lord to handle, Miss..?”
“Jamie Rowal,” the woman introduced herself.
“Ms. Rowal, then,” Prim accepted, opening the door to the manor. Inside, Jamie found a blonde man waiting for her, dressed no worse than any merchant or noble she had seen. He almost looked out of place in such a small village, causing her to instinctively curtsy.
“Lord, my name is Jamie Rowal of the Rowal Merchant Group,” she said again, but the man simply nodded.
“I heard it on the way over,” he said, leading Jamie into a nearby office where they could sit. “My name is Cain. I have to ask, Ms. Rowal, how much do you know about the business that you’re seeking to enter?”
Jamie placed a hand on her chest, looking the lord in the eyes. “I believe I am fully prepared to help with the harvesting and processing of the redflare pods produced in this village. With the support of my company, the field can be expanded, and the yield could be increased even further.”
When she said that, she noticed a wry smile on the lord’s face, as if she had said something wrong. “Ms. Rowal, our problem is most certainly not needing the yield to increase. In fact, if we wanted to, we could export more than twenty tons of peppers every day. Moreover, this crop will grow regardless of the season, and cannot simply be cultivated on land not specifically prepared by myself.”
Jamie blinked in confusion at this, looking quizzically at the lord. “I’m not sure I follow, Sir Cain.”
“The farm is among one of the functional buildings that Sylphy and Brock likely told you about,” the lord explained patiently. “It can accelerate the growth of any crop planted in it by ten times, and allows for crops to be grown even out of season, and with no additional fertilizer. Because of this, as long as the plants are regularly watered, the redflare pods may be harvested every day.”
“Of course, our small village doesn’t have the ability to use these peppers so quickly. Neither can we send wagons to Corvath every day. Instead, there is a function to recycle the grown crops for points that can be used for other features of the territory.”
Jamie’s eyes went wide, realization setting in. When she heard that the peppers could be harvested regularly, she assumed a weekly harvest, and only a few times per year. Even that would be worth setting up a permanent shop in this village, as those few harvests alone would more than make up for the cost. Follow the newest chapters on novelping(.)com.
In addition, there were other crops being grown. On the way in, she saw people carrying bags of an unfamiliar grain into a mill, as well as the softstone tubers that were native to the area. “I see. Regardless, I would be more than happy to negotiate to establish a shop. Although we may not be able to export daily shipments, we can surely do so more regularly than your own residents.”
“Furthermore, we can help with other local specialties. I heard Sylphy mention a fizzy beverage that can be purchased here while we were on the road, for instance.”
The lord smiled slightly at this. “Sodas. They can be purchased from the general store at a fixed price of two small silver for a two liter bottle. Moreover, there is no issue with quantity there, as the items are automatically restocked.”
As he said that, the door to the office opened, and Prim entered. She carried with her a pair of tall glasses, each filled with fizzing orange contents. Prim set one glass down for Jamie, and held the other herself, taking a small sip to ensure the girl that it wasn’t poisoned.
Jamie looked at the drink, bringing it up to her lips. The popping bubbles seemed to tickle her nose even before she took a drink, and the orange flavor burst in her mouth, causing her eyes to widen. It was a sweet drink, one that she could already imagine selling well among the upper class. Two liters of this can be bought for only two small silver?
She was already making plans, thinking about adding this to the list of exports. However, as a sign of trust, she first needed the agreement of the local lord. “Sir, with your permission, I would like to add these drinks to the regular shipments. I will purchase them at double the market price to do so.”
The lord lifted a hand, gesturing for her to calm down. “The shop operates at a fixed price. Even I can’t influence it. If you wish to pay to export these, I would rather settle it with a small percentage of the profits rather than an upfront cost.”
Jamie hesitated, feeling as if she had been caught. Even a small percentage would surely be worth more than what she had offered. She calculated in her mind how much a noble would be willing to pay for these beverages, deducting the cost of shipping and processing. “If I may ask, Sir, what is the shelf life of this beverage?”
“They come in sealed containers,” the lord clarified. “If these containers have not been opened, the soda can last for nearly a year before expiring. However, once they are opened, it is best to finish them within a few days. They won’t make you sick if you drink them after that, but they will lose some flavor.”
If that was the case, Jamie could easily imagine selling it for twenty times the market price to a noble. If they held the rights of distribution, this would become a luxury product that many upper-class individuals would enjoy.
“Let me make one more thing clear, Ms. Rowal,” the lord interrupted her thoughts. “As I said, I have no influence over the contents or price of the shop. Nor can I revoke business. That is to say, if someone else were to purchase a large quantity of the drink to resell, I would have no means of stopping them.”
Jamie hesitated when she heard this. At first, it seemed like the lord was revealing his own weakness, saying that nothing would stop her from just buying the drink without giving him a share of the profits. However, it then clicked. He was warning her that other merchants could do exactly that, and that this business would quickly become unprofitable if she did not have an alternative.
“In that case, I would like to file for the exclusive distribution rights to these beverages,” Jamie said in a decisive tone. “I can draw up a contract with the Merchant’s Guild in Corvath, giving our group exclusive rights to resell these goods in exchange for a portion of the profits.”
“That’s acceptable, though you will need to bring the contract to me,” the lord chuckled. “I can’t leave my territory. If I try, I simply reappear back in this building.”
Jamie blinked when she heard this, but ultimately agreed. “That will make it take a little longer, but I will see what I can do. We can draft a similar contract for the redflare pods while we are at it, if you’d like.” Although the soda was a good find, the peppers ultimately had the potential of bringing in hundreds of gold coins every week.
“That is acceptable. Since you want to establish a store here, you can also keep an eye out for any other specialty products. The land is always growing, and more strange things are bound to appear,” the lord assured her with an almost mysterious smile. “Though, I must ask, how many houses do you believe that you will need? I noticed that you brought quite a few people with you.”
Jamie hesitated, thinking it over. “To quickly take care of the construction of both a small warehouse and the shop, I brought one hundred and fifty people with me. However, most of them will be returning once the construction is complete, though that may take some time.”
The lord’s eyes seemed to light up in glee at the report. “I see. I can’t provide a hundred and fifty new houses right away, but I can provide sixty-four. I assume that it will be fine for them to share?”
Jamie’s eyes widened again. “T-that would be more than acceptable, sir. We brought camping equipment for everyone, expecting to use that until we had a small shelter. What would it take to get those houses?”
The lord shook his head, pointing out towards the south. “I’ve already constructed them just now. Feel free to settle in.”
When I heard the total number of people that had been brought with Jamie, I couldn’t help myself. That would bring me to over two hundred people, which would hopefully be enough of a population for me to break my current point cap.
Though, for them to need a hundred and fifty people for the construction of the warehouse and shop, I could only assume that they were planning large projects in preparation for the land’s inevitable expansion over time.
But if this helped me break my point cap, even before I finished connecting to the forest to begin my monster farming plan? That was fine by me. I still wanted to complete that before I got around to building up points for the next round of buildings, that way I could work both angles at the same time.