Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Chapter 5

High-level adventurers required special dishes to support their massive stamina pools. Typically, this came in the form of higher-quality or exotic meats, vegetables, and fruits. However, they could still eat anything they wanted. Champions, on the other hand, had to eat perfect quality food. If we didn't, we experienced Shrek-level indigestion, so Fitz had been importing everything he could to maintain a distress and odour-free diet. However, despite his best efforts, the list of perfect quality produce that could travel all the way to Blackwood was short.

In the beginning, I'd ignored my dietary requirements because everyone was too busy recovering from the giant waves to focus on something so trivial. Then, I'd ignored my diet because thinking about it made me remember how much I hated being a champion. However, ignoring my problems because I didn't want to think about them didn't make my problems go away. Listing out all the ways to make me miserable had shown me that I needed fresh fruits and vegetables. Meat that wasn't cured. Bread that wasn't baked into hard biscuits.

But organising all that took time.

You needed farmers with exceptional skills to produce most perfect crops, and finding those individuals and convincing them to take the time they needed to grow what I wanted was hard work. So, I'd done the sensible thing and got Ranic to do it for me.

Three weeks after I'd begun fixing my life, I went to see the results of Ranic's hard work. I waved to the farmers as they tended the crops while I approached the garden. They waved back as I opened the gate.

Ranic had fenced off 250 fields' worth of land near the main road to the southern hamlet but had only planted out a third of it so the different crops wouldn't interfere with one another. He wasn't working with highly skilled farmers like he wanted to because Blackwood didn't have any, so I'd given him an unlimited budget to get the project off the ground.

As I walked down the paths examining the new crops, Ranic fell in beside me, looking like a discount store Saruman/Doc Brown hybrid. His worn, grey scholar's robe, which provided him with numerous magical buffs, billowed in the breeze as his wild, untamed hair stuck out in all directions. As a level 99 master scholar, Ranic didn't give the impression that he was well over a century old, moving as easily as I did while we silently studied the private garden he'd grown for me.

As we reached the end of the path and turned around, Ranic smiled with pride and pointed back down the rows of fields with wrinkled fingers. "I've successfully grown perfect potatoes, squash, leeks, broccoli, carrots, parsnip, lettuce, cabbage, onions, garlic, spring onions, spinach, chives, rosemary, sage, wheat, rice, oats, sweet corn, maise, barley, and hops."

His progress was better than I hoped after less than a month of work, but that wasn't exactly surprising. Ranic was unbelievably talented. He wouldn't usually be in a village like Blackwood, but I'd helped him get through his third threshold, so now he was contractually obligated to be here for a few more years.

"Try saying the five times faster."

Ranic folded his arms and repeated what he'd said five times fast without stopping to take a breath.

"Show off."

We chuckled.

Ranic pointed out several empty fields. "I'm going to focus on herbs and spices next to give you more variety, then I'm expanding your vegetable options and attempt sugar cane and strawberries."

"Are the farmers you've been working with able to take over from you?"

His reports hadn't mentioned if they could.

"For everything except the chives and garlic. I can't do anything about the chives, but the garlic I've already grown will keep you supplied until I finish training them properly."

"And the price?"

Ranic sighed. "You'll be paying five times what you would in a city, but that's what you should expect when you want fresh, perfect crops every six days in a village that doesn't have a market or the infrastructure for it."

That was only slightly worse than the original quote, so I wasn't upset. "Where are we on fruit?"

Ranic scratched the back of his head. "Fruit trees and berry bushes take time to grow. We're a year away from knowing what we can grow here consistently."

"I mean, have you started planting them?"

The orchards were going to grow near the northern hamlet.

"No. I'm still waiting for them to arrive. And don't bother bringing up the heritage seeds again."

During the giant's monster waves, Ranic had traded one of my great boons to a large farming family who could provide me with a heritage seed of every variety. Because I hadn't purchased the seeds, the system didn't fully recognise them, so they would never be viable for orchards like my Tough Apples. However, planting them would still tell us which unique varieties of fruit my farm could grow. The problem was, Ranic didn't want me to plant them yet. He wanted me to wait until after I took the gambler class and became an adventurer, so my luck was higher.

My luck was already significantly higher than most people would ever dream of, but we both knew it would improve even further within a few years. If luck enhanced the chances of getting a better, unique variety, like Ranic assumed it did, it was worth the wait.

"You've already convinced me that planting the heritage seeds is a bad idea. Why bring it up?"

"You have a habit of changing your mind if you're not reminded of these things."

"I'm trying to break that habit."

"I'm sure that conviction will last until you get your next idea."

I bent down and picked up a small stone sitting at the edge of an empty field, tossing it towards the main road. "Where are we on the peanuts?"

"My first crop failed. It was only excellent. There are some local soil issues I need to figure out."

Salted roasted peanuts were not my favourite snack. However, they were something I occasionally enjoyed, so I wanted them as an option. My main goal was peanut butter. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich would be a small reminder of home, and that might make me a little happier, so it was worth the effort.  

"And the other nuts?" I asked.

"Same situation as the fruit. We're a year away from knowing anything, and they haven't arrived yet." Ranic squinted in the distance. "It appears your indentured worker has arrived early for her meeting."

I turned and followed his gaze, seeing a young woman walking down the road. Mara was my only indentured worker. Sarema had convinced me to purchase her indentured contract because I was in a hurry, and Mara was a butcher prodigy who needed help, but we'd never actually met because I didn't need the services of someone so skilled.

"She can wait until after we've talked," I said.

I looked around me, examining the fields. My overlay provided me with more information than in the past, and everything I saw was so far beyond my capabilities I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking at. Ranic had two fields for everything he was testing, which was far too much food for me to eat. Even if I sold the excess to wealthier people in the village, I'd still be making a loss because I'd be selling it at base, and we didn't have the support infrastructure to produce any of this cheaply.

Six months ago, the thought of spending so much money on myself would have bothered me. Now, I looked at it as a step in the right direction. If I could hire one of Durg'un's clan to be my personal chef, that would be an even greater step in the right direction. I still had dreams about the feast they'd prepared for me when the forge was opened. Nothing before or since had ever come close to it.

"Do you foresee any problems moving forward with this project?" I asked.

Ranic shrugged. "There are always problems when you're trying to produce perfect quality crops. I can guess what most of those will be, so it's unlikely you'll have to worry about the crops themselves. It's the staff that you'll have a problem with. There aren't many farmers in Blackwood with the skills to grow them, and those you have will leave when their spouses relocate to research your trap system in new locations."

"So, I need to hire more people."

"Before you do that, talk to Isabelle."

I turned and raised an eyebrow at the old man, unsure where his suggestion was coming from. "Are you two working on something?"

"No, but she might have asked for my advice on a hypothetical scenario she was considering." 

"She's supposed to be resting."

"Bedrest just means she can't move around much."

"So, you are working on something?"

"No. It's a hypothetical idea. I'm just hypothetically an advisor. Go and talk to her if you want to know more."

I folded my arms, not liking how indirect he was trying to be. "I don't even know what you're talking about."

"But you want to."

"No. You want me to."

"Just trust me."

"Then tell me what she's up to?"

"I can't."

"You can't."

"Hypothetically, Jeric might get upset with me if he thinks I'm raising his wife's stress levels."

I unfolded my arms and sighed. "So, you can't tell me because you want me to take the blame for raising Isabelle's stress levels."

Ranic chuckled. "Hypothetically, I'm glad you understand."

"So, this isn't a hypothetical scenario."

"It was when I was involved, but the moment you have a conversation with Isabelle, I'm sure she's going to turn it into an actual plan."

I groaned. "Can this wait until after she gives birth?"

"You may not realise this, Arnold, but a newborn is a lot of extra work. You'll be six months behind if you wait. But the choice is up to you."

"Then I'll wait."

Ranic gave me a bug-eyes grin. "I'm impressed. I wouldn't be able to hold off that long with this sort of opportunity just there for the taking."

I glared at him. "That's low."

Ranic laughed as he reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder. "I can't believe you're that willing to postpone breaking through your fourth threshold."

I winced.

He'd got me.

"Are you saying this hypothetical situation will help me get through my fourth threshold faster?"

Ranic's grin grew. "It certainly will, but you've decided to wait, which I respect."

Ranic glanced across the fields.

I turned and looked over my shoulder to see Mara was entering the gate.

"Oh, that reminds me," Ranic said. "I have a meeting to get to. Enjoy the rest of your day."

Ranic began quickly and purposefully walking away. His shoulders shook as he laughed because he knew he had me.

I stopped looking after a few seconds and scowled at the ground in front of me. A chance to accelerate how quickly I obtained my final threshold wasn't something I was going to ignore. I was going to have to talk to Isabelle. However, if it seemed like something that would stress her, I'd leave it alone. I wasn't going to ruin her extended pregnancy to get through my threshold faster.

I was still thinking about what Isabelle might have planned when Mara stopped behind me and cleared her throat.

The young butcher was only nineteen, and I had 163 points in charisma, so the moment I turned to face her, we ran into our first problem.

Mara saw my face and blushed, turning a bright shade of red, dropping her gaze to the ground. Her shoulders squirmed, and her breathing sped up.  

I'd been informed by numerous women that I knew that my looks were becoming a distraction. It wasn't that I was easy on the eyes. It was that I was so attractive that I made those around me unable to think straight. Even people I knew were having trouble disagreeing with me, and I didn't want that to affect Mara's decision today.

Mara wore a simple brown dress that fell to her ankles. It had her name and "Darkwood" stitched on the right breast in white thread, but no other decoration. She was around 5,6 with a body I could only describe as muscular. It was the kind of body that you built up with years of hard work. Her brown locks were tied back in a bun, revealing a face covered by freckles. Her hands, which fidgeted, were riddled with small white scars, and her only accessory was a butcher's knife and sharpening steel on her belt.

"Thank you for coming all the way out here to see me," I said.

Her eyes jumped to my face. She gave a single nod and dropped them again.

I sighed.

This wasn't going to work. Mara needed to be comfortable around me. I couldn't make my offer until she was. There wasn't just the moral aspect of manipulating someone into doing what I wanted with my good looks. There were the legal ones. My charisma was now so high that I was required to take certain steps when making business proposals.

"Look, this is going to sound strange, but I need you to get over to how pretty I am. I know it's tough because I'm devilishly handsome, but you can do it. Start by actually looking at my face."

She looked at me and then dropped her gaze again.

"You're going to need to last a little longer than that."

She continued to blush. "You don't realise how difficult that is."

"Believe me, I do."

"I doubt that."

I sighed again. "Alright, it's story time."

"What?"

I lowered myself to the ground, folding my legs under me on the grass. We were going to be here for a while. Recounting my first experience around high charisma people was not a short story.

"Take a seat, and let me tell you about my first day in Melgrim."

It took a little prompting, but Mara eventually sat on the grass with me. Fifteen minutes later, she was holding her side, trying to catch her breath, red-faced from laughter. She spoke through gasping giggles. "You thought you were attracted to men?"

I nodded vigorously, chuckling with her. "Yeah, I kept having these thoughts about this one merchant where I was like, does he look like he's carved from marble when he's naked. Does his chest hair naturally sparkle in the light like the hair on his head? Ilia had to keep compelling me to stop looking. I had no idea how to react. People aren't this attractive in my world, even with makeup."

"What's makeup?"

I froze. Ten thousand memories flashed through my head at once. There wasn't a single one where anyone was wearing makeup. This was an unbelievable opportunity.

"It's not something your world has yet. However, my research and development team will be working on it by the end of the day. But, as I was saying before we got off topic, after the first time I saw people with high charisma, I spent a month wondering if I was attracted to men."

She continued to giggle, no longer concerned about looking at my face.

Ilia had explained to me a long time ago that the easiest way for people to feel comfortable around someone with unnatural attractiveness was for them to see them as a person, and that required the high charisma individual to share their failings. As long as I remained a distant, ethereal beauty, my looks were overwhelming, but if I were Arnold, the ethereal beauty, then people could manage. They didn't stop feeling attracted, but they could function around me like Mara was beginning to do.

Mara caught her breath. "So, how did you get over it?"

"I cheated. If your charisma goes over 100, you aren't as susceptible to beauty. It works really well, but the side-effect is now people have the same reaction to me that I had to the people at the party."

Mara sighed. "Charisma is the most useless attribute a butcher can have."

"I've been told it's not much help to farmers either."

She erupted in more giggling.

"So, now you know you're not the only one who's embarrassed themselves in front of a handsome man, let's talk about why I invited you here. Unless you have any questions."

"I have one." Her eyes moved from my face to my hair. "How do you get your hair like that? Do you do something special? How often do you brush it?"

"I don't brush it. I also don't really have to wash it unless I get dirt on it. My hair doesn't get naturally greasy anymore. Also, I don't have body odour. I've got this pleasant musk."

Her eyes widened. "Is that what that is! I thought it was some sort of expensive perfume. Also, I might just hate you for not having to do anything to have hair that amazing."

"Many women do."

"It's so unfair."

"I've given you the solution."

"Permanently screwing up my build for better hair is madness."

I placed my hand on my chest. "You wound me and my better hair."

She giggled.

"Anyway, we are off-topic again, and we need to begin pretending we're both professionals. Can you manage that?"

She giggled. "Yes, sir."

"Good, that makes one of us."

She giggled some more.

"Do you know why we're having this meeting?"

The joy and playfulness in her expression vanished, and her shoulders slumped. "You want me to stop giving experience to my siblings. I'm costing you too much money."

Monsters came in two varieties: monstrosities and beasts. Meat from monstrosities was toxic to humans but not to orcs, so it gave surprisingly little butcher experience despite the higher levels of the monsters. Beasts, on the other hand, were edible, and they offered a significant amount of butcher experience, so significant in fact that all the butchers who had worked on the high-level beasts fattened in my monster pits needed to sign contracts that only allowed them to receive 1% of the total experience from the beasts they butchered.

Mara was the best butcher in Blackwood, and she had given every point of experience she'd received to her six younger siblings. It more than doubled their levels, which in turn more than doubled the amount I had to pay them because her indentured contract required me to hire them.

"That's not the reason we're having this meeting," I said.

Her eyes widened with surprise. "It's not?"

"The butcher experience you earned for me from those beasts is worth far more than what I'll have to pay your siblings before your contract ends."

"So, you're not upset with me."

"No."

Mara took a deep breath and relaxed. "Then why did you want to speak with me?"

"Did you know that you're the only indentured worker I have in my employment?"

She shook her head. "No, sir."

"Did you know I was against the idea of employing you because I don't like the practice?"

"I was informed that you seem to think it is slavery."

"Isn't it?"

"That depends on who you talk to, I suppose."

"And if I'm talking to you?"

"Then I would say it is no worse than being a servant and significantly better in most cases. My contract has allowed me to take care of my siblings, and through hard work, I have been able to watch them grow. I know of no servant who could boast of such a feat."

I smiled. "And if I was to talk to someone without your talents?"

"Then you would hear a story about someone barely getting by. Someone who had to do something difficult so they didn't see their siblings go hungry."

"I'm told you dislike working for me."

"You are misinformed."

I raised an eyebrow. "Then you haven't been complaining that the work I have you do bores you to tears."

"It does, but that doesn't mean I dislike working for you. Allowing me to butcher those high-level beasts has bought you more than a little goodwill. Working below my skill level may be frustrating, but it doesn't negate what you have done for me."

"Good. I was hoping that was the case."

"Why?"

"I'm a champion, which means I require a source of perfect quality meat. I'm told the cost of producing it locally will be enormous, but I'm tired of eating cured meat, so I'm willing to pay the price. However, there is one little problem. The financial outlay to set up such an operation is enormous, and it becomes entirely pointless if my only qualified butcher leaves when her contract ends."

Mara frowned. "You want me to extend my indentureship."

"Hell no. I want you to end your indentureship and become my retainer."

"Yes!" She said it so fast that there wasn't a moment of hesitation. "I mean, yes, sir, I would like that."

Being a retainer involved having a long-term fixed contract with benefits that normal employment could not compare with.

"You haven't heard my terms."

"I don't need to. Even the minimum compensation for a retainer is better than anything I can receive as an indentured worker."

"Yes, but I want you to be my retainer for a minimum of ten years."

Her eyes widened, and then she gulped. "Ten years."

"Yes."

"I think I'm going to need to listen to your terms."

"That's very wise of you."

She didn't giggle, which told me she was taking this as seriously as she should.

"Like I said, I'm setting up a portion of the farm to produce perfect quality meat. We're going to start with rabbits, chickens, ducks, and turkeys, but by this time next year, we'll also have pigs and sheep. Two years from now, we'll have cows and deer. I want you to run the butchery for me."

"How many of each animal do you intend to raise and butcher?"

"Enough to keep me in fresh meat."

Mara winced.

"Is that a problem?"

"You're one person, sir. Even if your farmers supply me with a perfect carcass, that's not a lot of work or experience for me. I'll only be butchering a chicken, duck, turkey, or rabbit every other day, with a pig or sheep once a month and a cow or deer every few months. That's significantly less experience than I get now butchering lower-quality meat."

"It is?"

She nodded. "Butchers gain the most experience by working with quantity, not quality because no one produces large numbers of high-quality animals for slaughter. If all I'm doing is acting as your personal butcher, I'll barely generate any experience."

I hadn't considered the experience aspect of my request at all, but it shouldn't be a problem because I hadn't told her one of the benefits of working for me.

"I forgot to mention that I have enough butcher experience from all the beasts that were harvested for you to reach level 100. I'm willing to loan it to you for your personal use if you become my retainer, and you don't have to start paying it back until you no longer want to be my retainer."

Her eyes widened again. "You'll make me level 100."

I nodded. "The experience you gathered butchering the beasts is sitting in a vault, not helping anyone, and I need a good butcher. Does that work for you?"

She slowly started to nod. "Would I be able to do work with lower-quality meat in my spare time?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The butchery where I trained was a specialised building with an attachment for working with perfect carcasses. If you build one here, I'll be able to move between the two sections, providing you with a better return on your investment. I don't think you understand how productive a level 100 butcher is, sir."

"I assume that requires me to build a larger butchery for you."

She nodded.

"And your brothers and sisters would be able to work there with you."

She nodded again.

"Will it be worth the cost?"

"It would be if you were willing to purchase promotion crystals for me. I'm certain I've already earned that special promotion that will allow me to double the meat I can receive from a carcass."

"If I say no to building this butchery, will you refuse to become my retainer?"

"No, sir."

That was a reasonable attitude, so it deserved a reasonable response. "I'll look into whether it's economically viable."

"Your crown's mark will make a big difference to the quality of the meat I produce, sir, so I'm sure it will work out. You also have those dwarves coming back, and I've heard they can only eat excellent-quality food or higher, which gives you a market for any excess I produce.

"Don't you need good quality carcasses to produce excellent quality meat?"

Mara shook her head. "A decent quality carcass properly butchered will allow about a tenth of the meat to become excellent quality. Add your crown's mark and my promotions, and that goes up to a third, depending on the animal. A good quality carcass properly butchered is half excellent quality, half good before your crowns mark and my promotions."

"Really?"

She nodded. "If butchers couldn't do that much, no one would need us."

I knew that butchers could improve meat quality by one grade, but not by two. It was likely something only someone with her talent could do, so it was unlikely that would apply to everyone who worked under her.

It really might be economically viable to build her butchery.

"In addition to the experience, I'll provide you with an apartment when they're ready, any equipment you need, and time and funds to study, along with any access you need to scholars. I'll also pay you twice your base rate."

Mara immediately shook her head. "A level 100 butcher should receive a minimum of triple base rate pay, and even that's considered bad."

"I'd pay you that if you'd earned the experience yourself, but since I'm loaning it to you, double seems more than generous."

She thought about that for a few seconds before unfolding her arms and nodding. "I'll accept double, but I want a clause in my contract that allows my pay to increase if the butchery becomes extremely profitable."

"Sure. Is there anything else you want?"

She got shy again, looking at the ground.

I'd had so many girls her age come on to me recently that I immediately shuffled back. If she were like them, I would have to completely rethink this offer. I was not going to deal with a heartbroken or stalker retainer.

I sighed. "What do you want?"

"Can you put my name on the butchery?"

Oh my god, she was adorable. "Mara's Butchery it is. Or do you want it to just be Mara's?"

Her face lit up. "The first one!"