“Casey, try this.” Jercrusher said as he poured a light amber liquid out of the cask he’d taken off that mole guy. He filled half a tankard with it and held it out to his approaching friend. Casey had the tall lithe form of an elf but was somewhat lacking their normal ethereal dignity. His light blonde hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and his white chef’s clothes were rumpled. He slid a plate of roasted meat onto the table next to the line of casks and turned back towards the kitchen.

“I’m already behind. You idiots can’t stop eating for three seconds and I’m cooking my ass off here.” He said over his shoulder.

“Just hold on a sec, seriously.” Jerry said, takin a few steps and waving the mug under the elfs nose. The elf snatched the mug and downed it in one pull. Then he looked up at Jerry confused.

“It’s just cider, hell the guy didn’t even put spices in it. It’s just apple juice.” Casey said with a bit of disdain.

“It’s high-quality apple juice.” The giant said. The elf continued to scowl at him for a moment then his face turned more thoughtful.

“If he didn’t put more spices in it then his brewing skill couldn’t have improved the quality any. Well maybe from poor to standard but that’s mostly because cider is usually made from bad apples in the RL. The good ones are eaten normally or made into pies or tarts or whatever. That means the apples themselves must have been high-quality. Who the hell would waste so many high quality apples on apple juice?” The elf asked.

“Exactly.” The giant said sounding smug. “I figured with the thanksgiving cook-off coming up…….” The elf scowled at the large man.

“Fine, who brought it? I’m still running behind.” The elf snapped.

“Trish’s boyfriend “ Jerry said.

“Trish has a boyfriend? Since When?” Casey asked. Then he waved the question away. “Doesn’t matter lets go track them down.

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

The party wasn’t as bad as Winston expected. The people all seemed friendly and Trish’s guild had put a lot of effort into the decorations and food. The guild hall was crowded but not packed and there was even some music.

He’d met a few interesting people and they’d all been pleasant. Although whether that was because of him or Trish he didn’t know. He’d guess the later but he smiled and even cracked a few jokes. Trish seemed happy so that was really all that mattered. His summon would run out in less than an hour and he could go to bed.

Trish and Winston were chatting with two of the guild’s mages when Winston saw a tall green form parting the crowd as it moved towards them. Winston smiled. He like Jerry although Jercrusher was a terrible character name. A disheveled looking elf was following the giant and Winston’s eyebrow went up as the two bee-lined towards him.

“Are you the one who brought the cider?” The elf asked as soon as he approached. He talked right over Trish’s conversation and without even greeting anyone. Trish turned with a frown on her face then sighed when she saw the elf.

“Casey, shouldn’t you be in the kitchen?” She asked. Winston took a step back. Trish was using her dangerous tone.

The elf waved a hand with impatience. “I SHOULD be, but then I found out someone used high-quality apples for JUICE! I’m already running late but some things have priority.” He said.

“I’m talking to people Casey.” Trish said through gritted teeth.

“Good for you. I didn’t want to talk to you anyway.”

Winston tried but he couldn’t hold back his snort. Trish rounded on him and shot him a glare. Winston didn’t get a chance to say anything before the elf and Jerry dragged him off.

They moved to another room that was much less crowded. “Your the one that brought the apple juice right?” The elf asked with a manic gleam in his eye. Winston was curious but not worried. Judging by the apon the elf was a chef so he was a natural ally, or at least business partner.

“Yes.” Winston replied.

“And you used all those high quality apples for JUICE? Are you Crazy?” The elf snapped. Winston shrugged.

“It was just some apples man.” Winston said.

The elf growed, which would have been comical if the man didn’t look like he was about to throttle Winston. “Do you know how hard it is to get high-quality fruits and vegetables? Even if you can find them there’s never enough supply. Where did you get them?!” The elf shouted.

“I grew them. I’m a farmer.” Winston replied.

The elf stared at him for a moment then turned to Jerry. “Hire him.”

“He can’t hire me. I’m contracted with the Swords.” Winston explained. The elf rounded on him and started to glow with magical power. Winston raised his hands in surrender. “Easy…. I’m done this week, but I still can’t join your guild. I can’t join a guild or enter into any contracts with one for three months after my contract ends. Still, if you want to do some business on an individual basis i’m more than willing to hear you out. ”

After all, he was businessman and having a ready buyer could make things a lot easier. He’d likely get higher prices for most of his normal crops on the auction house but things at high rank or even higher didn’t usually have many open buy orders so the price could fluctuate pretty wildly. Not to mention the AH took a huge cut. If a player offered him 10% less than the AH he’d still be making 5% extra profit.

The elf snarled but seemed to get ahold of himself. “Alright, fine. You can get high-grade apples. How much would they cost me.” Winston thought about that then brought up the markets in his interface. The top buy order was for 175 but most of the sales were looking for at least 300 or 350.

“200 a bushel.” Winston said. “But you’ve gotta figure out a way to get them. I’m not carrying 200 pounds of apples halfway across the known game map. It’ll cost you at least 500 if you want superior.” Winston checked the prices for superior grade apples and saw there were no bushels for sale at all. Although there were individual apples for sale for five gold each. Winston had to do some more digging but that came to like 620 gold a bushel.

The elfs eyes widened. “You can make superior grade crops?” He asked incredulously. The elf was trembling so hard he seemed to be having some sort of apoplectic fit.

“For fruit, easily. Vegetables I’m less certain about. My Sub-Skill isn’t as high. Not to mention my hands are tied for location for a few weeks. It’s not a great time to be taking on more clients unless you want something I’m already producing.”

The elf’s face split into a wide grin when he heard Winston’s words and he began to laugh. It was a dark laugh. “OH YES. I’d like to see you bastards mock me again this year. My glorious feast will trample on all your dreams and dignity this time!”

Winston looked over to giant who caught Winston’s eye and shook his head. They both watched the elf as he ranted and crackled in a monologue worthy of any comic book villain. The elf stopped then whirled back to Winston.

“This year’s thanksgiving cook off is in three weeks. All the guilds were be sending representatives to Westriver in the 10 Kingdoms to complete. The top prize is 100,000 gold as well as a magical spatula. I need you ingredients!” The elf said.

“Alright, alright, calm down. I already said I’d sell to you. Just get me a list of what want.” Winston said. This elf was crazy but he seemed like he had a lot of money. Winston was more than willing to put up with an eccentric elf to line his pockets.

“I can’t right now, need to get back to work. I’ll send you a message with the list of ingredients I want. You’ll be compensated well for anything high-quality or better.” The elf said as he turned around and stomped off. Winston just blinked after him. He was so abrupt. Still, Winston was excited. He now had his first non-NPC customer.

Selling high quality fruits and vegetables to players was where the real money was at. At least some of it. He still thought mass producing cotton could make him really rich. He’d have to table that idea for a while. The first priority was to finish his orc quest, pay off the guild, and move. Then he could start slowly setting up his new farm.

Jerry walked over and gave me a slap on the back. “Looks like someone's gonna be rolling in the dough soon. Casey is crazy about his cooking. He’d give you his entire life savings if it would let him win that competition. Some of the best chefs in the game compete and he can never crack the top 50 even though he’s at Professional III in cooking.”

Winston whistled. Professional III was an elite in the crafting scene. There were only a handful of people who had made it to Renowned the next rank. Professional III didn’t make him the best cook in the game but definitely put him in the top 1%. Still though, cooking was a popular profession. Even the top 1% would have thousands of players.

“How can he place so well in such a huge contest with only Professional III? I mean, yeah that’s really high but it’s not top 50 in the game high.” Winston said.

“High level crafting doesn’t really work like that. Think about it, There’s only five skill ranks between Professional III and Renown III. That’s a significant handicap but not an absolute one, even with the Renown rank ability. Then there’s the participants actual skill, not skill rank but actual ability. Finally you have to take into account the quality of the ingredients the chefs are using.”

“Each participant has to bring their own ingredients with the goal being the make the best dish possible. Think about that. Each dish is going to cost hundreds of dollars to even make. Not hundreds of gold, hundreds of dollars. How many chefs are going to be willing to throw that kind of money into a contest they knew they have no chance of winning or even winning one of the lower prizes. Not that many. So no, based on his rank alone Casey has no real hope of winning but I’d give him even odds of making the top 50 this year and if you can get him some superior ranked ingredients… He might even break into the top 25 with a bit of luck. God knows he’d been insufferable if he did mange it but even I’ve gotta admire his work ethic.” The giant explained.

Winston thought about that for a while. Then he shrugged. It didn’t really matter to him. Although, it might be a good place to do some advertising. If there were alot of high level chefs around someone capable of supplying high quality ingredients might be able to do some networking and make some business connections.

Winston stuck out his hand. “Thanks for introducing us. I’m guessing it was you who brought him over to me.” The larger man laughed.

“I did it mostly for him. He’s insufferable but a good friend. You just get to reap the rewards.” Jercrusher said honestly.

“A rising tide lifts all ships.” Winston said smiling as the giant shook his hand. “Now I better go find Trish before she starts setting things on fire.”

“Done with all your business talk?” Trish asked when Winston finally caught up with her. She was talking to three people who looked like guild officers.

“I think so. Looks like I’ve got a new, if bizarre customer.” Winston told her as he took a spot next to her.

This is Alex and Vera, Leaders of the Warrior and Support divisions of the guild. Alex, Vera, this is Win Mills. My boyfriend.” Trish said as she made the introductions. Winston shook hands with them as he took in their appearance.

Alex was a thin and reedy looking man. He looked to be in his middle college years but it was tough to tell in game. Vera was in little black dress that showed off her over-muscled figure. She looked like an amazon out of manga or anime with a bronze circlet holding her wheat-colored hair in place. She still was obviously female but her ultra-defined leg and arm muscles and pecks that showed through her modest breasts were a bit over the top in Winston’s opinion.

“So… you’re the mysterious childhood friend that Trish is always talking about.” Vera said as she released Winston’s hand and gave him a once over. “Never seen a mole race before, doesn’t look like much of a fighter.”

“I’m not a fighter, I have a production class.” Winston said.

Vera’s face twisted slightly and she opened her mouth to say something when Alex spoke over her. “Let it go Vera…..” He said calmly, turning a understanding gaze to Winston.

“Our Vera is a bit of a combat bigot. Anyone who’s not out there fighting dragons and bathing in monster blood is a coward or a failure.” Alex said.

“I’ve never said that.” Vera snapped.

“Actions are louder than words. You were just about to berate someone you’d never met over a life choice that has nothing to do with you.” Alex said. The entire little drama was a bit too smooth. These two had obviously done this before and having Alex play the ‘good cop’ to Vera’s social gaffs was likely a tactic they’d used hundreds of times. That or Winston was just being paranoid. Either way, he didn’t trust either of them as far as he could kick them, but he did have some trust issues.

“I was just here to say goodbye to Trish. My summon will run out in a few minutes and I wanted to see her before I got sucked back to where I came from.” Winston said to the pair, as Trish pulled him in for a quick hug. Trish smiled at him and gave him a peck on his mole snout.

“Thanks for coming Win. I know you don’t usually go in for parties.” Trish said.

“No, it was fine. I had fun and hopefully picked up some business so a good night all around. Not to mention I got to walk around with the prettiest girl here all night.” Winston said with an exaggerated wink.

Trish snorted. “See you at school on Monday.” She said. Winston was teleported back to Brethren Plains a few minutes later.

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

Sunday was a day of decisions for Winston. The sky was bright but cold and the cold wind bit though his fur. He really did need to get some real clothes at some point. It was just one more thing. His current problems as he saw the situation were 2 fold. He had enough grain to pay off his debt to the guild but once he did that he’d lose his base of operations. The solution to that was obvious. He’d just do the orc’s quest first. The second problem was the shrine. He’d been ignoring it for a while but he didn’t just want to leave it here for those idiot swords. Tearing it down didn’t seem to be a good option.

He didn’t want to lose all the work he’d put into it not to mention destroying a shrine might piss off Runa and he didn’t need an angry goddess trying to smite me on top of all his other problems. Well, that was a problem with less of a straightforward solution. He supposed he’d just have to beg Runa to do something. She’d likely make him complete a quest or sacrifice something but that wouldn’t be so bad.

He headed over to the shrine and knelt. This time he didn’t use any fancy words or overacted speeches. He just explained his problem to the Goddess and tried to push his faith into his request.

[You Have Received A New Quest!]

[Moving A Shrine]

[The Goddess Runa will fulfill your request if you Fulfill her’s.]

[Objective:

Option 1: Gather 10 more followers for Runa

Option 2: Sacrifice 1000 prayers with of divinite to the shrine.]

[Rewards: Runa will move the shrine]

Winston snorted when he saw the message. Get 10 followers? There was no way that was happening. He didn’t even know that many players. Luckly, like most problems he could solve this one by throwing money at it. He popped open the auction interface and searched for divinite.

He was surprised at the results. He’d expected divinite to be rare, they apparently weren’t. Not only did Verith have some for sale they weren’t even that expensive. The old orc must have been right about them not being that useful. Each was only about 10 gold each. Winton called Troll and told him to buy all of them along with some hops and brewing yeast.

With that done it was time to get back to work. He had to replant his vegetables, Harvest the buckwheat his golem had planted last night, harvest the corn in his other field, then re-dig and replant both. It was gonna be a busy day.

He was about to order his Golem to work when he remembered he’d never resummoned it. Now he had better items, and another level. He pulled up his info.

[ Name: Win Mills Level 12]

[ Race: Yawnshu Class: Grove tender]

[ Attributes Status]

[Str: 41 End: 52(+4)56 Hp: 130/130 Mana: 129/129]

[Con: 38 Agi: 28 Stam: 173/173 Panic: 1/11]

[Cord: 40(+3)43 Int: 31 Hunger: 76/100 Thirst: 87/100]

[Wis 40(+2)42 Faith: 43(+11)54 FP:172/172(211/211)]

[Res: 29(+4) 33 ]

[Guild: Seeds Titles: 2]

[Fame: 5 Friend List: 1/5]

It should be a solid upgrade for his worker. He pulled out his staff and raised it. “Summon Farmhand.”

Light poured from him and a scarecrow appeared. This one was taller and a bit better put together. Its holy aura also seemed to have increased which made its appearance a bit bizarre over-all.

Winston sent the improved golem off to harvest the buckwheat while he started planting the vegetables. The day passed in a blur as Winston and his Golem worked his farm.

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

The following week was a boring one. Winston had only two real goals for the week. Grow more grain and make Therion some beer. The first was easy but the second needed some research. Winston knew nothing about brewing. So he pulled up some youtube videos and started watching. Troll had dropped off the divinite as well as yeast, hops, a large pot, some cloth bags, and a special brewing cask with a hole in one end and a long curved metal tube. It was all fairly rudimentary, without plastics or fancy air-locks he was going to have to hope the game would throw him bone. Then again, he wasn’t drinking it.

Winston started his brewing bonanza on Tuesday. He’s done a lot of reading online and had learned more about the history of brewing than he ever really wanted to know. He did figure out the basics from the often contradictory information online.

The first step was of course choosing a grain. Beer was usually done with barley but Winston had found that was mostly due to convince and tradition. Barley’s shell made extracting the sugars during brewing more convenient. It was the same with the hops. Hops had antibacterial properties that improved the quality of the brew so people began using it instead of gruit, which was a mix of herbs used for bittering in the pre-hops brewing world. Winston thought there were some possibilities there. In a magical world full of magical herbs there would be ample things to experiment with.

The second step was malting. The site winston found was in SI measurements so he had to convert .25 kg’s of malt per liter back into british imperial. After some quick work with an online unit conversion tool and estimating the size of his half casks at about 7 gallons. He needed around 12-13 pounds of gain or about a quarter of a bushel.

He also didn’t have any scales to weigh the grain so that would have to be another guess. That would have bothered him more but he didn’t have anything to act as a thermometer either and getting the temperatures right during brewing was extremely important. The whole exercise was doomed to be slapdash from the beginning.

Winston decided to use mostly buckwheat for the brew. He had no other real use for it and it had the best quality at superior. He then added in about 20% high-quality wheat and 20% high-quality corn. He tossed what he thought was about 12 pounds of the grains into a cask and submerged them in water before sticking the cask in the keeps basement.

When he logged in Wednesday morning before school he dumped the water out of the cask and checked over the grain. All of it had started to germinate. Usually it took 2 or 3 rounds of soaking but in true video game fashion Otherworld had streamlined the process. Winston dumped all the grain into his pack and then poured it all out again without the roots that had sprouted.

“I love video game logic.” He said as he did in moments what was supposed to be an hours long project. Then he divided the grain into smaller piles and sat them outside in the sun to dry. He waited until after school to start the actual brewing.

Winton figured that with his farming skills he’d be able to become at least a decent brewer. Now that his farming was in the Apprentice ranks it would be weeks between skill ups and months before he hit higher ranks. He had more time to focus on other skills and brewing was one that went hand-in-hand with farming.

He started a fire with some wood he’d gathered before plopping down his big pot filled with water. He dumped his malted grain into one of the cloth-sacks he’d bought then crushed it with the end of his staff before he dropped the bag into the pot like a giant tea-bag. He supposed that’s basically what it was.

This would be trickiest part of the process. He knew he was supposed to keep the brew at around 150o fahrenheit but he had no way to know how hot that really was. It was less than boiling but that didn’t really narrow it down. Thinking of an idea he started releasing some fire mana down into the mixture. Most fire mana was used as fuel to make fire then toss it around but that was only one use for it. At its root it was meant to manipulate temperature. Winston knew he wasn’t skilled enough for anything complex but he might at least be able to use it as a rough measuring stick for the temperature.

As he mana seeped into the brew he started to get a feel for the liquid. It wasn’t that close to boiling. He did some mental math as he tried to keep connection to the mana. 150o was around 70% of boiling. The current temperature was…..a little less than that maybe? It was hard translating what he was getting out of his half-ass spell into real words but he tossed another chunk of wood on the fire and and called it good enough.

[Sub Skill has Increased]

[Fire Magic]

[Current Rank: Novice II]

As the time ticked by and the temperature of the brew bounced between too cold and too hot Winston swore to himself he wouldn’t brew anything again until he had some proper tools. He finished steeping his grains and pulled them out, before summoning some water to wash over them before he pulled the mess out and tossed the sodden bag off the the side. The he put a big iron lid over the whole mess and added more wood until the fire was good and roaring.

He left it to brew and started gathering his ingredients for the hop stage. He planned to have some fun with this. It would likely ruin the brew but he wasn’t old enough to drink it anyway, he was still 17 for eight more months.

Winston grimaced at the smell of the hot wort as he took off the lid but he happily started tossing in ingredients. He started with about two cups of his apple cider. He was sure that violated a ton of brewing rules about sanitation and not adding other sources of bacteria and yeasts but he didn’t really care. Then he tossed in a handful of beet sugar that would hopefully be a marginal substitute for all the malt extracts he didn’t have.

To top the whole mess off he pulled out a second cloth bag and dipped it into the pot. Inside were the hops he’d bought from Trollogistics, 4 mana violets Rimmi had grown, a cup of Superior grade cloudberries, and one of the odd silver flowers growing around Runa’s shrine. His herbalism skill was too low to even find out it’s name, let alone what it would do but he couldn’t resist. He put the lid back on the pot with a smug smile.

He let the hops brew for a good hour and a half before he pulled out the hop bag and summoned more water to douse the fire and cool the pot. Then he dumped the whole thing into his special cask. That was a chore and he was glad he was in a game and had superhuman strength as he wrestled the four smelling pot into place. Once that was done he pulled out the tiny sack of yeast he had, dumped it in the cask and stuck the curved metal pipe into the hole prepared for it. It was supposed to let out the Co2 while it fermented but Winston wasn’t convinced it was going to work as advertised. He stuck the whole mess into the storage shed to wait until the weekend.