The next day, I woke up and saw Ceres absorbing the devotion from her statue, and her eyes glowed.
She looked in my direction with pure white eyes, making me leap outta my skin, “Hey, Caleb… are you okay?” Her eyes went normal as she laughed.
I breathed, “Sorry, I was not expecting that… since when were you gathering devotion?”
She sighed, “I thought about what you said and I agree.
Deities gain power the more worship they have and even if I don’t want to be one, I’m technically at least the avatar, so I need Devotion to become stronger… and that is going to be awkward.”
I looked at her, “Hm… what about doing a sermon”
“A sermon” her brow raised
“Yeah, that way you can get the followers directly more loyal”
She nodded, considering, “yeah… and there’s that big temple now… seriously, how did they build that?”
“I’m guessing Felen”
“Absolutely”
I turned to her, “you know, is Felen like your commander?”
She looked at me and sighed, “No, he’s not even an ascendant, making him a commander would get him killed.
He defended people in his home town, but he isn’t strong enough to beat more than a single regular cultist.”
As time passed I looked around and noticed that we didn’t have that many resources.
“Hey, Ceres” I walked up to the lamb who was writing on paper
“Ya-huh?”
“Do you think it would be possible to start a trade route for more resources?
That way we aren’t solely reliant on your crusades and my scoutings for resources?”
She thought about it, “…
one problem, the good part about this place is precisely that no one can find it, making a trade route would make it visible, and the bishops could invade.”
Right, I should’ve thought of that… “what about… what about Pilgrim’s path, we could set up a shop, use the portal to move, train some others to use it and trade our stuff for resources”
Ceres considered it, “Yeah, but what would we even trade.”
I blinked, “…
that’s… a good question”
Felen seemingly popped into existence, “what about wool?”
“Blkackv” both me and Ceres jumped badly.
“Oh… sorry?”
But, that idea wasn’t bad, “I mean… that would definitely be valuable.”
Ceres nodded, “Yeah… wool would definitely be valuable, and it’s rare, pretty much the only source people have these days are the rare yakish and llamaish, even rarer a cowish.
So, genuine sheep wool would genuinely be a steal… but… I don’t grow much wool that fast.”
Me and Felen blinked, but Ceres continued, “besides, I don’t think I could trust most of these guys with a string, much less shears.
I mean, like, just last week, Maty nearly took Helo’s head off while cutting down a tree.”
We nodded, then I thought… “what if we make a farm, and have wool as a rare and occasional thing.
Build a reputation and maximize profits, which also maximizes resources”
Ceres thought, “Okay, the real question is who would do it?
Felen is already busy with a lot of stuff, I have my Crusades which I’m still looking for one of Leshy’s Commanders to take on.
And Caleb, you still have your scouting.”
I thought, “…
what if we just train some of your other followers.
I mean yeah they’re not really competent but they still built the temple meaning they clearly have potential… if we train some of them how to negotiate and sell items we could potentially split tasks and complete the stage a lot faster, making the cult stronger as a whole.”
Both of them blinked, Ceres stood, “alright, that’s actually a good idea… but… do any of you know how to trade?
Because I don’t, and we can’t train if we don’t know.”
….
Yeah, should’ve thought of that.
“I can’t, Felen?”
“Nope, I can gather, can’t trade though, should we see if anyone in our group was a merchant?”
Suddenly, the white goat approached, “Hello, my lady, I hear you need a merchant for trade, I know my way around markets.
I used to be a merchant, as you were asking for”
I blinked, “You’re… a merchant”
“Yes”
Felen shook his head, “You spent 2 hours arguing with me about whether berries were edible outside of bowls and you’re telling me you’re a merchant.”
The goat nodded, “Of course, berries can gather dirt from anywhere if they’re not in a bowl, they can attract poisons, attract bugs.
So it’s not safe to eat them outside of a bowl; regardless, that disagreement does not make my mercantile skills any less”
Ceres blinked, “alright then, Gethel… … Caleb, you guard him, and he’ll do our first trade”
I blinked, “me?”
She nodded, “yes, because you’re big enough to scare most bad guys off, remember, you may not be strong, but most won’t want to mess with someone the size of an ascendant”
I groaned, “come on… why always me”
Gethel bloated, “Stop arguing with our patron avatar, new guy, pull your weight”
All 3 of us raised our brow, and Gethel flushed, “hey, it’s not like I’ve done nothing, I made the pretty tapestry for the temple”
I rolled my eyes, “alright then, when do you want to head out… and what do we take?”
Ceres looked around, “We could try selling some berries but those are very common… hm… I have some gems I got from one of my voyages into Anchordeep, those would probably go for a bit.”
Me and Felen put together a rudimentary wagon while Ceres and Gethel were auditing things that could potentially be sold from the camp.
I thought for a moment, “How would hair go for”
Felen blinked “Hair?”
I nodded, “I mean if I remember correctly human hair is somewhat comparable to Steel when it comes to strength so if my hair got long enough it could be sold as cords”
Felen thought for a moment, “That’s not a bad idea and your hair is decently long… what are you thinking?”
After a bit of workshopping which took the whole day, Maty, a porpoise-like girl, managed to spin a cord from my hair, and Felen made a wooden setting and Gethel fit one of the gems in, and then we had our first product, jewelry.
Of course we stress tested the cord, and while it wasn’t as strong as steel it was decided to be about half as strong which was still good for a necklace cord, given most necklaces here used grass.
Felen nodded, “This certainly could get us like five coins, that would definitely be enough coins to buy crops to farm.”
Gethel smirked, “Yes, it definitely would, of course it’d be nicer if we had sinew, but that’s hard to get, given the uncommonness of livestock.”
Ceres looked, “sinew?”
I nodded, “Way stronger than hair, that’s pretty much as strong as Steel.
If you could find archers you could take their bow strings; they’re usually made of sinew.”
Gethel looked at me, surprised by my knowledge, “Well are you a Merchant yourself where you come from?”
I shook my head, “No, no I was the kid of a construction worker.
When it comes to materials, I certainly know how to do those.”
After finishing things up, we went and rested for the night, with me and Gethel leaving in the morning.