After his time with the tree (which was doing well, even if he was concerned about what the roots were doing), and feeding the chookers, John checked on his new greenhouses. The arch-like structures were doing well at keeping the water off, and the leaves of the plants weren’t damp any longer, making it possible for him to finally dust the crops. Three hours later he’d finished spreading sulfur to the last of the plants, he’d dumped his mana pool into the test plant, and he was on his way towards town.

Walking the road, John could see where the Titans were hard at work clearing swaths of land in preparation for construction. Given how the cleared patches were spaced, it seemed they were planning on roads of similar size to the existing one, which would mean they could expand north to south as well as east to west.

It was interesting to see how they were going about the same task that had given him so much trouble initially. They clearly had some mages working at the task, but it was equally clear they were not specialized for moving large volumes of material. In addition, many of them could be seen using earth stones, which told him that they either couldn’t aspect their mana correctly, or they had small mana pools.

He paused a moment to watch one of the casters at work. The man was oddly familiar and it took John a moment to place him. It was Shinespark, the mage who’d turned his house to a pile of sand. John continued to watch for several minutes even as a smile crept onto his face. Shinespark, for his part, studiously ignored the other man, though the sour look on his face made it clear he’d noticed John.

John started back down the road, still smiling at the thought of the mage working in the rain. In fairness, the man had been doing well. He was using Move Earth to rip out large chunks of soil, invert them, and put them back; effectively burying the grass four feet deep. However, he clearly didn’t have Increased Size, and by the look of it he was moving at a rate of a foot every five to ten seconds.

Given a plot the size of a modest house, such as John’s own, it’d take the mage anywhere from 100 to 200 minutes to complete such an area. However, the staked-out area was more like four times that size, and although they seemed to have a dozen or so mages at work, they had plots stretching all the way to town. John’s smile grew as he realized the mage must have been clearing plots for days already. Never had John been happier for the constant rain.

Despite his momentary detour John made it to town in good time. He wandered the street for a few minutes, looking at all the new stalls. There seemed to be brisk business in selling both alchemical and enchanted items. He also heard one or two people haggling over ritual services. After a short perusal he determined he’d be back to talk to some enchanters after lunch. He needed to get straw from Frank first, before he got sidetracked doing other things. Finally making his way into the square John headed straight for Frank’s booth.

“Hey Frank,” John said as he approached.

“Hello John, what can I do for you today?” Frank asked.

“I actually need some straw, and was wondering if you had any you could spare?” the younger man inquired.

Frank snorted. “I’ve got spare straw coming out my ears son, there’s only so much you can do with the stuff. How much do you want?”

“Well, I can carry twenty bales easily, so let’s go with that,” John replied.

“Well, lunch isn’t far away, so I’ll be packing up here shortly and heading home, call it two hours before I’m back. I can bring some bales with me then if you’re willing to wait,” Frank said.

“Yeah, that’d work, I’ve got to disappear for my own lunch for a bit anyway, so the timing works out for me,” John agreed. “Thanks Frank!”

“No trouble son, see you then,” the older man replied.

John nodded and then nipped into the general store to resupply on meal cakes. However, as he contemplated the near tasteless, but clearly acceptably nutritional, meal replacement he remembered the pair of apples he’d bought from Ellie, and decided that maybe it’d be okay to spend a few coppers on something that had flavor. So he purchased a bowl of mixed berries from Ellie and stowed them for eating after lunch.

An hour later the rain had (for the moment) stopped, and saw John sitting in the square and munching his treat contentedly. The berries were excellent, easily the best he’d ever tasted. Once again he wondered if the flavors of in game items were being exaggerated, he’d certainly never eaten a strawberry with such depth and richness before. However, he did have to admit that the fruits he was used to eating were produced by a society that had only embraced truly sustainable and natural farming practices within the last few decades, and before then had modified all its crops to look pretty instead of taste good. He shuddered to think what it was like when his father was a child, what with the chemical fertilizers and pesticides they used as a matter of course. Fortunately, food laws had evolved in lockstep with environmental laws, to the betterment of both.

Sally plopped onto the bench next to him. “Hi John!” she said in her typical exuberant manner.

“Hello Sally,” he replied after swallowing the strawberry he’d been chewing. “What’s up?”

“Waiting for Ex, we’ve got a delve slot in twenty minutes or so, but he hasn’t logged in yet,” Sally explained, even as she eyed John’s bowl of berries.

“No,” he said immediately as he shielded his berry bounty.

“I wasn’t going to steal your berries!” Sally exclaimed, looking hurt.

“I never accused you of intending to, but it stands out to me that you used the word steal!” John exclaimed right back.

“I am offend!” Sally said in mock indignation.

John looked at her for a moment, puzzled. “Don’t you mean offended?”

“No, I was quoting a line from an old book, don’t worry about it,” Sally said with a shake of her head.

John looked at her askance for a few moments longer, but then popped another berry in his mouth.

“You know it’s polite to share.” Sally wheedled.

“And I know you have your own money,” John mumbled through a blueberry.

“But Ellie’s not here right now,” Sally rejoined with, doing her best to look pitiable.

John snorted at the image of the large draconid doing her best puppy dog expression. “Nice try, but no!”

“Bah, was worth a try,” Sally said in more normal tones.

John bit into another berry and privately agreed with her. Given how the berries tasted, it was definitely worth a try. “So, have you tried the trials yet?” John asked after swallowing.

“Nah, haven’t decided if I want to take up a craft yet. Ex thinks he might want to but he can’t decide between alchemy and enchanting.” Sally replied. “You going to try them?”

“Nah, I’ve got enough on my plate right now without learning a craft, other than farming anyway,” John explained.

“I mean, is farming a viable craft for the trials? Could you get some kind of super cool magical farming guide?” she questioned further.

John paused, a blueberry half-way to his mouth as he thought about it. Was farming a craft? That was an… interesting view. He wasn’t sure he could trust the trials run by either Thuana or Ira though, neither was happy with him. That did, however, leave the Trial of the Mind, Ledos’s trial. A book on magical plants would be really nice, but what if he failed? He really couldn’t afford a curse right now.

Finally he shook his head. “I’m too worried about the failure clause,” he confided.

“Yeah, that’s gotten a few people already. The curses are pretty specific to the craft, like there’s the one guy who wanted to be a ritualist, but now any time he tries to craft a ritual he becomes confused and draws the wrong things. One of the aspiring alchemists can’t read or hear alchemical recipes. Everything else is fine, but alchemical writings? Completely illegible and whenever someone reads them to him it sounds like static,” Sally explained.

“Is there some kind of way to lift the curse?” John asked even as he polished off the last of the berries.

“Oh sure, they all come with an escape clause. But usually it has to do with the god that cursed them, and some kind of divine quest,” she replied.

“Oof,” John said in sympathy.

“Oof indeed,” said Ex as he sat down on the other side of John. “What are we talking about?”

“Divine curses!” Sally said with some enthusiasm.

“Ah yes, the lament of everyone who’s failed one or more of the trials,” Ex said without much sympathy.

“Wait, there are people who failed multiple trials?” John asked in surprise.

“Oh yeah, there’s the one guy who failed all three of them, each one updated his curse with some new aspect. Let’s see, the physical part of the curse was an inability to taste and smell ingredients he intends to use, the mental part was that he misreads or mishears recipes, and the spiritual one was that any food he cooks is only fifty percent as effective, or something like that,” Ex explained.

John shook his head. “And that is why I’m not willing to risk going and taking the trials over farming. A book on magical or rare plants would be great, but the chance of getting a curse that cripples my ability to farm is just too high.”

“Safe, but booooooooriiiiiiing,” Sally intoned. “Though I suppose it’s a good choice, what with this being your actual job and all,” she continued.

“Speaking of Jobs, we’ve got a dungeon to raid!” Ex said as he sprang to his feet. “Come Sally! Riches await!”

“More like ‘horrible death at the hands of the rat king again’ but sure!” Sally replied with a grin even as she too leapt up.

“You still haven’t killed that thing?” John asked, sounding surprised.

“Nope, and our levels seem to have plateaued around twelve,” Ex replied in annoyance. “From what we’ve read online that’s pretty normal, apparently no one has even breached fifteen yet. Best anyone can figure xp requirements are non-linear in addition to requiring more effort or more powerful enemies to continue increasing.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? If you could reach level one hundred in just a few months I imagine the game would be pretty boring,” John said.

“Ex likes seeing numbers go up,” Sally replied in a loud stage whisper.

Ex swatted at the draconid, who deftly got out of reach.

“Hmph,” he intoned, but didn’t refute the statement. “Anyway, later John. C’mon Sally!”

“Bye John!” Sally said with an energetic wave as she followed Ex.

“Bye,” John called back as they left.

John watched them go for a moment and then looked around the square. The crowds were a little thinner than they had been earlier. Probably because the other players were either done for the day, or taking long and leisurely lunches. He glanced over at Frank’s stall, but the older farmer was nowhere to be seen, which made sense; it’d been maybe an hour and a half since he left. After a few more moments, John decided to take this time to see if he couldn’t find someone with Journeyman rank or better in enchanting.

For the next few minutes he wandered between the still active stalls, taking in the various players and their crafts. Finally he came upon a stall that was just being set up by what appeared to be a half-elven woman, given her fuller figure and shorter ears. Her sign simply read ‘Enchanter’ in plain bold text, and she had set out two medallions made of wood, three stone tablets, and a dagger. As he approached, he could see that the two wooden medallions were identical, and the stone tablets were all the same as well. Curious, he Inspected an example of each and then the dagger.

[Name: Umbrella Medallion]

[Quality: Common]

[Description: Designed to easily be worn as an accessory or fit into a pocket, this item creates a moderate water repulsion effect around the wearer. As this device has no mana storage it must be supplied with mana from an outside source. Because this enchantment has been scaled down to fit on a device of such small size it has a 75% reduction to efficiency and mana cost. Because this enchantment was crafted by someone with the Enchanting Master feat and the Born Enchanter racial trait its efficiency has increased by 50%.]

[Total Efficiency: 37%]

[Mana Cost: 2.5/minute]

[Name: Boiler Plate]

[Quality: Common]

[Description: Made from a polished slab of granite, this device will heat any object (of up to roughly one cubic foot in size) placed above it to the boiling point (of water) and maintain its temperature there. This device may be powered by an attached mana stone of the appropriate type, or by an external source. Because this enchantment was crafted by someone with the Enchanting Master feat and the Born Enchanter racial trait its efficiency has increased by 50%, allowing for either faster heating or larger items.]

[Total Efficiency: 150%]

[Mana Cost: 10/Minute]

[Name: Neverdull Knife]

[Quality: Common]

[Description: This knife has been etched with runes that, when activated, will re-align the edge of the knife to perfect sharpness and smooth out minor nicks over the course of several minutes. As this device has no mana storage of its own it must be supplied with mana from an outside source. Because this enchantment has been scaled down to fit on a device of such small size it has a 75% reduction to efficiency and mana cost. Because this enchantment was crafted by someone with the Enchanting Master feat and the Born Enchanter racial trait its efficiency has increased by 50%.]

[Total Efficiency: 37%]

[Mana Cost: 7.5/minute]

John blinked away the messages only to find the half-elf looking at him with some bemusement. “Do they pass muster?” She asked politely.

“Uh, yeah,” John replied. “The umbrella medallions in particular look useful.”

“Oh, they are. they also take me two hours with a magnifying glass and a set of carving tools to make each one, so they don’t come cheap,” she warned.

“How not cheap and what does the ‘total efficiency’ line mean?” John asked as he picked one up and looked at it more closely. Some of the lines were indeed quite tiny and precise.

“Two silvers,” she responded firmly. “Total efficiency is how well the device does its job. For the umbrella medallions it’s a measure of how much liquid it’ll repulse, for the boiler plates it indicates how much mass they can heat and keep heated, and for the knife it changes how quickly it sharpens and the size of the nicks and dings it can repair.”

John considered carefully. He certainly had enough money to purchase one, the chookers alone netted him nearly a silver every couple days or so. Finally he nodded and made two silvers appear on the counter. The half-elf snapped them up quickly and gave him a grin.

“I’ll even throw in a necklace to hang it from, on the house,” she said even as she made a thin strip of braided leather cord appear.

John took the cord, threaded the medallion onto it, and then hung it around his neck. “Thanks.”

“No problem, anything else I can help you with?” she inquired.

“Yeah, I’m actually looking for an enchanter who can make a mana well for me. I hear you need to be at least Journeyman rank though,” John explained.

“Sorry, can’t help you with that, most of us are still sitting pretty at Apprentice. Apparently you can’t use points to increase your rank to journeyman without being at least level twenty. You can still learn the skills the hard way though, so most of us are practicing every chance we get,” she explained.

John took a moment to digest that tidbit. It seemed like there was a barrier to just buying your way to high rank in a skill at low levels. That made sense but was also mildly irritating. Still, it shouldn’t be more than a week or two before the local players made it to the required rank. “I didn’t know that,” he said finally. “I don’t suppose you know about how long it’s going to take you to rank up?”

She wobbled her head side to side and made an expression of uncertainty. “At the pace I’ve been going, probably another couple of months, three at the outside. I can only do the evenings and even then it’s a fight to find any space to work in. The townsfolk aren’t keen on renting out their houses and work spaces to players, and the tavern gets really crowded in the afternoon.”

John pondered the problem for a moment. “So, what if you had a place that you could count on always being available?”

“If I really dedicated myself to it? Maybe a month. That’d mean spending all my play time crafting though which, honestly, doesn’t sound like all that much fun,” she replied. “Though, to be honest, playing shopkeep isn’t all that fun either, and the dungeon is pretty packed making it hard to get in. So the entertainment quotient has been going down pretty steadily.”

John shrugged. “From what I can see, we have the option to do pretty much anything, but that means you have to actually want to do things to begin with. If you’re expecting the game to be like the old MMOs that involved just running out and fighting monsters over and over again with scripted story lines and quests, you’re probably not going to find all that much interesting to do,” he paused as a thought struck him. “Do monsters even respawn?”

“The general consensus on the forums is ‘no, unless there’s a dungeon somewhere nearby’,” the half-elf said helpfully.

“Good to know,” John replied. “Anyway, the game seems to be what you make of it, so, if you’re not having fun, I guess try something different?”

“I’ll give it some thought,” she said, though she sounded less than convinced. “Anyway, if you’re looking for someone trying to get to Journeyman ASAP then you want BR. He pretty much eats, breathes, and sleeps enchanting at this point.”

“BR?” John questioned.

“His tag is BambooRooster, but we mostly call him BR,” she supplied.

“Ah, alright, any idea where I can find him?” he asked.

“The tavern, if he was able to find a spot. He’s also pretty hard to miss, what with being the only gnome player I’ve seen and his shock of bright pink hair.” she said.

“Bright pink hair?” John asked.

The woman shrugged. “He said, and I quote, ‘it’s a gnome thing’.”

“Alright then. Thanks for the information, and the medallion,” John said.

“Any time,” she replied.

With that, John made his way back toward the square.