“We will need a new source of revenue. Alfred, what have the worker elves come up with.” Asked Marinus on the Second Worker Syndicate meeting of the apple grotto.

“Grandpa Thinker has a Yule village where he rents cottages to his fans.” Said, Alfred. Marinus gave it a thought, then shook his head.

“We can’t copy off him. It is not only rude; we can be sued for it. Thea, your thoughts?”

“Well, we can look after very rare and prickly plants. Like mountain tear berry or greyhound flower. Both are used to make perfumes. If we make the perfumes ourselves then we can cut even more of the losses from the profit.”

A mountain tear berry perfume sells for 1000 gold coins per bottle. Greyhound flower is used for male perfumes and it costs 700 gold coins per bottle. Sound decision.

Said Tania, the system. Then she flashed a workshop template that cost 50 000 mana.

But I rather think that this is more of a long-term goal. Theanore has the most mana between you both at 480. It is nowhere near enough.

“Ok.” Said Marinus as he wrote down the perfume idea for future references. “But can we still get our hands on the seeds for the plants and grow them? Sell the raw produce until we get enough money for the workshop?”

You can, but a single seed costs 400. There is no guarantee that it will grow.

“We have to think of something that we can make ourselves.” Said Theanore, determined. “Maybe we can make a play center for children? With a sports area and a baby center with lots of wooden toys for the youngest of the bunch.”

“In the forest?” Asked Marinus and the worker elves too began to shake their heads.

You can start looking after silk spiders for their silk. Have the ants collect it and the worker elves make it into capes. Then enchant with a level 9999 enchantments.

“And how much would that cost?” Asked Theanore. Silk was really expensive. Surely it would cost an arm and a leg for a single bug.

A colony of silk spiders costs 300 mana. Expensive, but in the colony, you have a hundred animals.

“We’ll take the silk.” Said Marinus and Theanore and the worker elves nodded.

Wonderful. The spiders need a nice, dry, space to weave and breed. I suggest a tunnel with a wood stove. You have one left. Right next to the Colorful Egg specters.

“Ok, put them there, Tania. Hmm, what do they eat?” Asked Theanore. Normal spiders ate flies but she was ready to spend the rest of the mana to buy the spider's food.

Flies, just like normal spiders. That is why the Colorful Egg specters as neighbors are perfect for them. Spend 300 mana on a colony of silk spiders? Yes/No?

Theanore pressed yes and everyone rushed inside the grotto to see the new additions to it. The spiders were already hard at work and they had beautiful webs by the time they were reached.

Oh…I was given quick weave silk spiders by dungeon core Alina. They should be harvested immediately. Least they get tangled in their own webs and suffocate!

“Ants, line up!” Screamed Theanore after the warning she was given. When an ant came Theanore pointed at the webs.

“The silly spiders weave too much. Start collecting the silk. Don’t get caught inside the webs!”

The ants rushed and attacked the silk webs. They already looked like fabric. No matter how fast the ants were the spiders still replenished the lost silk quickly. Leaving a hundred ants to take care of the spiders, the group went back to their meeting room.

“Silk is good but we can do better. We need more profit to get more mana.” Said Marinus and he received many nods.

“How about you look after rare fish? I heard the rainbow pufferfish is the rarest of them all. It is a delicacy and sells for ten gold coins per one.” Said Alfred and Marinus frowned.

“It is also very territorial and poisonous. A trained chef has to prepare it. But the idea as a whole has merit. We can have some mini whales.” Mini whales were mammals shaped like whales but no bigger than a murder muffin. They were very sickly when still young but made great pets when they grew to maturity. If they grew to maturity.

“Tania, how much for a breeding pair of mini whales?”

Orca mini- 200 for a breeding pair. Humpback mini- 300 for a breeding pair. Blue mini- 150 for a breeding pair. Fin mini- 300 for a breeding pair. Bryde’s mini- 100 for a breeding pair. Your level is too low for more selections. Waiting time for new level: four months. Pick your mini whale.

“I’ll pick a pair of Blue mini and Bryde’s mini. Please and thank you.”

The purchase has been accepted. Payment of 250 mana is being processed. Payment complete.

Four mini whales, two blue ones and two Bryde’s ones appeared in the aquarium that they kept for an emergency in the house. They were as big as a murder muffin kitten and made small whale noises that Theanore found adorable.

“This is also a long-term thing, just like the perfumes. We need something that we can breed fast and we can sell now.” Said Marinus. Then an ant scurried across the room and the merman got an idea.

“The ants!” He said and everyone looked at him.

“They are bigger than normal ants.” Clarified Marinus. “They can build houses and stoves and all kinds of things. Every dungeon would love to have them.”

“But only if the dungeon core provides a good home for them.” Said Theanore. She had more ants than she knew what to do with but she didn’t want to just get rid of her worker ants. They have helped her so much already.

“I am not saying we have to sell them to the murder dungeons. But…Tania, how many dungeons have builder ants as we do?” This idea could be shot down as soon as it was proposed if the builder ants were a common feature to any dungeon.

None. The closest to them is a dungeon that has fireflies to do her bidding. Even so, she has to micromanage their every move.

Everyone grinned. This was perfect. And if they only sold ants from a single-gender then they would have all the breeding pairs and all the future profit.