“You were right.” Winston said as he frowned down at the spreadsheet. The prices for cloth and raw fiber were way out of proportion, almost ridiculously so. Right now the prices for grain were very high but the prices for wool and cotton were nearly that high all the time, at least from what the two students could find out. They’d had to make a few guesses on how much a players with a decent level in a production skill could actually produce. By digging through the data they’d come up with a statistic to measure the relative ‘correctness’ of the market prices for a raw material. It was mostly a measurement of time vs. profit.

Obviously it wasn’t a very exact number but it didn’t need to be. They just needed a rough measuring stick. They’d found that anything between -1 and 2 of their “effort index” was considered reasonable. Grain prices currently were at 8.3, or nearly four times what would be considered a ‘fair’ price. Meat prices on the other hand were holding pretty steady at -4. Meat was one of the most harvested and consumed resources in the game. It was because of all the hunting and monster killing players did, meat was always over-supplied and the prices were in the tank, even for high-level or rare meats.

For cloth though, the current rate was around 7.5 but from the data they had it was nearly always that high, usually bouncing between 6 and 7 with the markets. That gave Winston some food for thought. When grain prices went back down he might want to start growing textiles. He’d likely have to level a new sub-skill but it seemed to be a solid option for his future employment.

“Of course I was right.” Abby said, smugly. “You have no idea how much gold I had to dump just to reach apprentice rank in tailoring. The prices are out of control.”

Winton just shrugged at her. “That gives us our interesting fact, but how do we make it into a coherent paper. What are we trying to prove or disprove? What are we trying to communicate?” Winston asked.

“We frame it like this. We compare the ‘normal’ gathering and production professions with the ones that are only available because Otherworld is so much more realistic than older games. So look at blacksmithing and mining. Mining is a pretty unpopular skill choice as well, because it’s such hard work but there are 8 times more people with skill points in mining than farming.”

“Alright, but there’s also more demand for ore than there is for grain.” Winston countered as he ran a few quick queries. “About three times as much.”

“That’s still a large discrepancy. Large enough to make our point.” Abby said.

“Large enough to show something interesting going on but that doesn’t necessarily mean the bias is because of what players consider ‘normal’ in mmo’s.”

“It’s a high-school paper not a college thesis. As long as we make a decent argument and show how we got our figures it should be more than enough..” Abby said.

Winston had to admit she had a point. There wasn’t much use in going over the top with research when they’d likely get an A with what they already had if they framed it well.

“Fine.” He said finally. “That leaves us with two solid months to write a 10 page paper.”

“Well, we can start on it in a couple of weeks. No use doing it now.” Abby said. “Besides, I should get home. I’ve still got homework to do.” She said as she gathered up her stuff and headed for the door. They’d decided to meet at Winston’s after school since he had more room at his house.

When she left Winston was left in the kitchen with his laptop and school work. He did homework for a while before his mom wandered over from the family room.

“Good to see you doing something besides playing that damn game. A Study session with a cute girl, you’re coming up in the world.” She said with a wink at him.

“That damn game is my job.” Winston said. “I’m with Trish now anyway. We’ve got another date next weekend.”

His mom smiled. “About time you got your act together. That girl wouldn’t have waited forever. And have you made any money yet?”

“Well, if I actually got to keep what I produced I’d have made around…. Three grand so far.” Winston said doing some quick math. “The problem is I’ve gotta do everything myself as usual. It takes money to make money. I’m finally getting things to a point where I can support myself but it’s still hard.” His mom leaned closer to him and her face softened.

She gave him a rare hug and spoke to him in a soft voice. “That’s good, the only one who will ever look out for you first is yourself. Remembered that and you can do anything.” Then she let out a bitter sounding laugh. “Well maybe your brother might look out for you first but he’s too nice for his own good. Don’t know where he gets that from, it’s not from me or John.”

“Now go to your room. I’ve gotta make dinner and John will be home in a few minutes.” She said as she waved him away from the table. Winston gathered up his things and headed back into his bedroom. He had to get back to his farm.

****************************************************************************************************

It was Thursday night when Winston finally got his break. He’s been churning out wheat and buckwheat all week like clockwork. Nearly 25% of his wheat was now coming out high-grade with ⅓ of his buckwheat coming out superior grade. He swung his scythe as he stepped forward letting his brain plan his next moves as his body moved with the repetition of long practice.

He had found one problem with his new skill levels. His grain was nearly overflowing the store house. There was a single chest full of seed grain, and two large chests used to store the harvested grain. When Winston was harvesting less than fifty bushel a week everything had been fine but now he had way more than that.

He’d had to dump some of the overflow into Rimmi’s chest but now he was using all of that space as well. He really needed more storage. Which meant he’d have to buy even more stuff or just start pouring the grain out on the ground.

Maybe he should try is hand at some simple construction. He really just needed a simple silo to store some grain. It shouldn’t be THAT hard. Then again maybe he was just deluding himself. He knew nothing about building or construction.

He’d just shoved the last swath of wheat into his pack to separate out the chaff when green light exploded around him. The light nova was twice as big as usual and pop-ups filled the screen.

[Your Farming Skill Has Increased!]

[Current Rank: Apprentice Rank I]

[Bonus Crop Yield: 29%]

[Bonus Crop Quality: (21.5% + 15%) 36.5%]

[You’re Farming Has Reached Apprentice Rank]

[You’ve Learned a New Skill]

[Summon Farmhand]

[Rank: NA

Duration: NA

Cooldown: NA

Cost: Variable]

[Effect: User Summons a Farmhand to work for them. When Summoned, player can add as much Stamina, Mana, and Faith Points as they wish. Farmhand’s physical attributes will be based on the amount of Stamina invested. It’s Intellect will be based on the amount of mana invested, and it’s Willpower will be based on the amount of faith points invested. Additional abilities may be gained with a sufficient amount of energy.]

[Restriction: Only one Farmhand can exist at a time. The Farmhand will only receive 50% of the users bonuses to crop quality and yield. The user will receive only 25% of the experience and skill experience for crops harvested by the Farmhand.]

Winston threw his hands into the air and cheered. Finally, his first major hurdle was over. Now he should be in a whole new realm of farming power. The thought made him laugh and his cheer turned into a cackle worthy of any mad scientist.

This was exactly what he needed. He was expecting a mass harvest ability but a magical robot he could split the work with and would be online and working while he was at school was excellent. He could harvest twice as much grain now.

He checked his character sheet to see how much energy he could pour into his summon.

[ Name: Win Mills Level 11]

[ Race: Yawnshu Class: Grove tender]

[ Attributes Status]

[Str: 38 End: 48(+4)52 Hp: 113/113 Mana: 113/113]

[Con: 35 Agi: 26 Stam: 128/147 Panic: 1/11]

[Cord: 37(+3)40 Int: 29 Hunger: 37/100 Thirst: 43/100]

[Wis 40(+2)42 Faith: 43(+7)50 FP:145/145(178/178)]

[Res: 29(+1) 30 ]

[Guild: Seeds Titles: 1]

[Fame: 5 Friend List: 1/5]

Winston looked at the numbers with satisfaction. He was still low level but his stats were pretty high. The only really bad stats he had were his agility and intellect. The rest of his stats were all decent and his Faith and Endurance were very high for his level. It was because he spent so much of his time doing physical labor. It was hard, but it was a very good way to boost his base stats.

Unlike most games, Other world didn’t prevent players from power leveling. However because of the way the games level up’s worked leveling too quickly could cripple a character. People who leveled too fast might only get one or two points in any stat when they leveled. Two and three were basically the average with 2 being for most non-core stats and three for the stats a player used the most. Winston was getting three most of the time and his bonuses to End and Faith boosted that to four which was quite good. He’d even managed to get 5 a few times in endurace. That was about as good as it was possible to do without stacking class and race bonuses or suppressing your level to train.

It wouldn’t make much difference for the first few levels but getting an extra point or two every level for 30 levels would make a large difference in characters later in the game. Winston didn’t even want to think about how high his faith points might get. He might have 1000 FP by level 30 the way he was going. He’d be able to summon one hell of a farmhand then.

He waved away the pop-up and raised his staff. “Summon Farmhand!” He called. Green, blue, and white light started to pour from him and he did his best to help them along. He started to get dizzy and light-headed as he energy poured out. His faith points could be emptied without problems but his stamina and mana would both cause him to faint if he used all of them. Still he needed to use as much as possible. In the end he used 100 mana, 120 stamina, and all 170 of his faith points.

There was a loud pop of displaced air and a scarecrow appeared in the space in front of Winston. The scarecrow was thin, and wore blue overalls with a red and white flannel shirt. It’s face was a burlap sack with crude buttons for eyes and a poorly sewn mouth but it seemed to radiate a sort of holy aura. Winston guessed it was because of how many faith points he’d poured in.

Winston walked in a circle around the scarecrow as it stood completely still. When he tried to inspect it a screen popped up.

[Name: N/A Species: Scarecrow Farmhand]

[Level: N/A Type: Golem]

[Sex: N/A Loyalty: N/A]

[Strength: 12 Agility: 12]

[Intellect: 10 Constitution: 12]

Endurance: 12 Willpower: 17]

[Specializations: None]

[Abilities: None]

Winston inspected the stats and nodded. Not very good, but it seemed like the creature got 1/10 of the points he poured into it as various stats. That meant it would improve as he did. Winston was about to order it to plow the field the realized the thing didn’t even have a hoe. Winston sighed as he quickly walked over the storage shed and pulled out a battered old hoe. He always used his mole-claws so he never bothered with one. He held out the hoe to the golem but it just stood there blankly.

“Take this!” He ordered. The scarecrow held out a hand and grabbed it, but didn’t move. Winston pointed towards the field he’d just finished harvesting. “Hoe this field, make sure to mix the left over straw and roots into the soil.”

The scarecrow looked at him blankly for a moment. Then moved over the the field and started to hoe. Winston watched it work with a smug look on his face. There was nothing quite so relaxing as watching other people work.

Winston watched the scarecrow doggedly hoeing rows into the field and headed over to the shrine to pray. Now that he had an extra worker it was finally time to expand his fields. He stayed on his knees praying until his faith points restored. Then he climbed over the wall. There wasn’t enough room for him in the courtyard anymore so he’d need to create a field outside.

Winston chose a spot on the East side of the keep. That side had a hill, but there was a pretty good open patch of ground between the wall and the hill which should make a decent sized field. Winston pulled out his staff and raised it. He’d only used his clear the land spell a few times but he had quite a bit of faith so size shouldn’t be a problem.

He raised his staff, focused his will, then smote it down with his best Gandalf impersonation. “Clear the Land!” The land rippled like some giant had grabbed onto it, then snapped it like a rug to be cleaned. When the ripple reached the edge of the skills range the ground bucked and the grass and rocks were flug off as the rises and dips leveled out into a flat area.

Winston looked over at the scarecrow and sighed. It was standing still not moving at all it. He watched for a while and thankfully the scarecrow started hoeing again a few minutes later. With only twelve endurance it must have to rest a lot. Then again, it was a golem so it’s not like it needed to eat or sleep. It would just rest until it had energy again then keep working. He might have to create a few more fields just so it had work to do.

Winston did some planning as he extended his claws and started to dig his own field. The scarecrow seed to need about two hours to fully hoe his main quarter-acre field. This field was larger, about three/fourths of an acre, so that was six hours. That still left a lot of time. The problem was Winston wasn’t sure how well the golem would actually follow commands.

It seemed to follow basic commands but he doubted it would understand complex instructions. He’d have to do some testing. In the meantime he needed to open up at least one more similarly sized field for all the vegetables he needed for his quest. Although, it might be easier just to plant the grain outside the keep, and all the vegetables inside. Then he could keep all his sprinklers there when Trollogistics finally got back.

He checked the in game clock and winced. He’d wasted too much time messing around. He’d have to wait till tomorrow to open a third major field. His new farmhand should be able to manage that. He’d have to do a little more work, but he could just make his Farmhand do most of the tedious stuff. He needed to log out soon either way, otherwise his account would be penalized

It took him the better part of two hours to finish digging the field simself and by the time he finished it was after 10 and his game time had run over. Now he’d have to miss the next mornings harvest. Winston sighed and went to bed. He had a lot to prepare before Troll got back.

*************************************************************************************

Friday night once more found Winston back in game and working on his fields. He’d left things half finished and his farm was in disarray. His new farm hand was standing at the end of the field it had been hoeing the night before. It stood completely frozen, the hoe still in it’s hand.

Winston sighed and moved over towards it. “Hey scarecrow!” He pointed towards the field outside the walls he’d dug last night. “Sow buckwheat in that field.” The scarecrow stared at him blankly for a moment, then moved off towards the shed where the seeds were stored.

Winston smiled. Having minions was great. He was afraid for a moment it wouldn’t be able to tell the different types of seeds apart but maybe it’s knowledge was based off his farming skill or something.Then again, 10 int was human average so maybe he was underestimating it. He watched it for a while to make sure he’d gotten the right seeds then climbed back over the wall. His current plan was to make another large field he could rotate them for his grains.

He’d plant them both with buckwheat first to boost the soil. Harvest them all day tomorrow. Then have his robo-farmer plant the first field with corn Saturday night while he was in bed. Then he’d plan the second field of corn on Sunday to stagger the harvests.

The important thing now was to get his second field ready. He grabbed his priest staff and hopped over the North wall. The north side of the keep was a plain of low rolling hills. He hoped he could level them out a bit with his spell. His ‘Clear the Land’ skill wasn’t really all that useful. It saved him hours of work but it wasn’t like he really needed to open new fields all that often. So he decided to experiment a bit.

He needed some more material for his fertilizer pits, and “Clear the Land” could cut down grass now. So, why didn’t he just use the spell as a giant lawn mower. That would be a useless spell for most people but it gave Winston at least some use. He raised his staff, then planted it down into the ground as he cast his spell. The earth rippled as divine power washed out in a wave and Winston tried to put some english on the spell to make all the grass pile up in one place. It sorta worked, the grass concentrated towards one side of the field but it was still scattered everywhere.

[Clear the Land has ranked up!]

[Current Rank: Beginner III]

Winston sighed and started clearing up all the grass. He dumped it into his first fertilizer pit by the arm full. His second and third pit were doing well, but the first needed something and he hoped the grass would be a cheap filler. He piled it all in and started to stir the whole mess with a shovel.

It took awhile but he smiled when the fertilizer changed from ‘low-quality’ to ‘standard-quality’. He didn’t know what he was going to use it for yet, but he’d find somewhere to put it. That left Winston with his original fields to harvest, the new one to dig, while his new golem farm hand planted a third.

He let his claws slide out of his fingers and got digging. He let the world fall away as he dug. There was something soothing about the work. It had been a rough week at school. Two tests and bucket load of math homework. Otherworld and Trish had been the only things to keep him sane. It felt good just to move and turn his brain off for a while.

He was about half done with the field when Winston heard the rumble of a wagon. He stood back up smiling. He left the field how it was and off towards the courtyard at a jog.

Trollogistics was sitting in his wagon looking smug. He must have had quite the harvest. Winston wasn’t sure how Wagon drivers gained skill XP but he imagined the trip had been pretty lucrative both monetarily and in experience. That was good. Trollogistics was a good resource and Winston would need someone to haul as he produced more and more crops.

“Ahhhhh! There are my favorite customers!” Trollogistics laughed happily as he hopped off his wagon. He stumbled as he landed and groaned. “Been sitting on the damn thing for half a month. I think my ass has callouses.” He grumbled as he stood upright.

Winston turned to see Rimmi heading over from the other side of the courtyard. He looked equally as excited as they both descended on the halfling. Rimmi waved a hand and a screen appeared before Winston detailing the sales. He grimaced slightly as he saw all the expenses that had been added in.

“Win, I took an extra 5% from your sugar. The Auction house prices were crap so I went around to a few bakeries. Found one that would pay nearly twice what the AH was, so I didn’t feel too bad skimming a bit.” Trollogistics explained.

Winstion shrugged. “Works for me. You put my gold in the bank?” He asked.

“Yep, all 2220 gold.” Troll replied. “Here are the rings you ordered. And your barrels and cider press are in the back. I’ve got the gems as well. They came to 600, about a hundred each. The dwarf who made them said they should last about two weeks.” He said pointing over his shoulder and into the wagon. Winston hopped up into the wagon and looked at the barrels. There were a half dozen with three smaller half-kegs and three normal size casks. He started to haul them off the wagon and into the storage shed.

“Time for the good stuff.” Troll said as Winston finally finished unloading the casks and cider press. He pulled down one of the crates and waved Winston over before reaching into the box and billing out a circular metal plate. It had two metal objects poking out of it’s top. One looked like an egg stand, which Winston guessed was for holding the magic charged gemstones The other was a nozzle. It wasn’t exactly a work of art but it looked sturdy and the norse looking runes etched into it’s top seemed to be in good shape.

[Arcane Area Hydro-Dispersal Device]

[High-Quality, Magical Tool]

[The Arcane Area Hydri-Dispersal Device was created to spread water over a large area for purposes of irrigation in a dry area. Although not it’s creators best work it’s still of good quality.]

[Created by: Gregson Thunderfist]

Winston rolled his eyes. The runecrafter could have just called it a sprinkler but he’d had to try and sound cooler than he was. Winston looked up to get the gems he needed from Troll but the halfling was already ahead of him and was holding out a small coin pouch towards Winston.

“Don’t start that damn thing here. I don’t wanna get soaked.” Troll said as he waved Winston away from his cart. Hurry it up. I wanna get back to the city. I’ve been gone forever and I need a bath and some dwarven whisky.” He griped as he waved Winston and Rimmi away form his wagon with their purchases.

Rimmi had a sack of his own purchases but Winston was too distracted by the four metal plates to ask what he’d bought. Winston slipped his new rings onto his fingers as he took his plates over the his field in the courtyard.

He placed the first in of the smaller gardens he’d made and dug out one of the charged mana gems. It was a nice saphire the size of a pinky nail and he stuck it into the gem holder. The device glowed with blue power then a fine mist of water sprayed into the air. It was a more powerful jet than he was expecting, covering a circle nearly a eighty feet in diameter. He quickly popped out the gem as the mist rained down on him soaking his fur. The coverage left him a bit of a problem. It was too large for his smaller gardens and too small for his larger patch. Seems he’d have to do some rearranging to make everything fit.

He stuck the sprinkler into his pack and headed back towards his field. He’d have to do some mental calculations while he dug. He’s have to move one of the smaller patches next to the other. That would let him cover both with a single sprinkler. Then if he scrapped the third smaller garden, and expanded his old main field slightly he could use two sprinklers to cover it. That would leave him a single sprinkler. He was thinking he’d use it on his apple tree. Maybe he’d plant another two or three nearby so it would cover all of them.

With his plan in place he quickly finished digging his field. It took awhile. It was nearly three times as large as his old one. Both his new fields were nearly ¾ of an acre. It would be alot to manage but he hoped with his robot working all day he’d be able to work all of it. He might only get to harvests a week if he planted both in corn but that would be… He didn’t some quick mental math. He got nearly 8 bushel on his quarter acre when all his buffs and his blessing. He wouldn’t be able to use his blessing on the big field, so that would take out a decent chunk, then his golem only got 50% of his yield bonuses, so that would be another sizable chunk. He’d use 5 bushel as the base then. His fields were three times as large, so 5 x 3. Then corn was four times the yield of wheat, so that would be 60 bushel a harvest. If he got two harvests a week on two fields that would come to…. 240 bushel a week? WInston gaped for a moment. That was a lot.

Well, a lot or not, Winston still had to finish getting it all ready so he set to digging with a will. It took nearly all day but by the time he left his room for some supper he’d finished digging his fields, rearranged the gardens, and gotten his sprinklers in place. He’d have to log back in after dinner to plant all his vegetables but then it should be smooth sailing.