Winston was on his computer looking over market data and different types of mortar when someone knocked on his door. It was Monday morning but with no school Winston was free to eat breakfast and listen to music as he relaxed.

“Come in.” He said without turning around. Dumping all those oranges in the Wraith Harbor market had pretty much killed it. The place just didn’t have enough demand.

Josh walked in wearing khakis and a turtleneck. He looked down at Winston in his pajama pants and no shirt and snorted. “Looks like Otherworld has been good for someone. You’re in shape, hell you’ve even got some muscles.” Josh said as he looked at Winston.

Winston looked down at himself. He was still squat but his stomach ponch had shrunk and he’d gained muscles on his arms and back. He didn’t have a six-pack or anything crazy, but he’d come along way. He felt good and he had to admit carrying all that fat around had been exhausting.

“Yeah, I gotta admit things are going well.” Winston said, then smiled. “Trish seems to be pretty happy with the change too.” He grinned. The two hadn’t gone all the way but there had been a good deal of making out. Winston was sure the hormones would win eventually.

“That brings the conversation right to where I wanted it.” Josh said. “I wanted to get a present for Jessica, thought you might wanna go shopping since I figured you’d put off your christmas shopping as long as I had.”

Winston frowned. He hadn’t gotten a present for Trisha yet. He also hadn’t spent much time with Josh. Looks like he’d be able to fix both problems at once.

“Alright, I’m in. Although, I’m not sure Christmas shopping is supposed to be for male bonding. When do you wanna leave? I’ve gotta finish my oven in game sometime today.” Winston said as he dug through his closet and pulled out a tee-shirt. It hung on him. “Might need a new shirt or two as well.” His bank account had been fattened up so he might as well spend some.

“That’s what happens when you drop 15 or 20 pounds in three monthes.” Josh said. “I planned on heading out about 11, so you’ve got a few hours.” Josh told him as he headed back out of Winston’s room.

Winston checked the time on his computer and sighed. He closed the market window. He might have to try a ship this week. He’d have to see what kind of deal Troll could make.

An hour later Winston and Josh were sitting in the car and headed away from town. Where they lived in was too small for much shopping, so they had a bit of a drive to get to somewhere with options.

The heater was on full blast but Winston kept his window cracked to feel the December wind. The scenery passed by in a blur.“Decided on a school yet?” Winston asked as the car sped down the high-way.

Josh sighed. “I swear everyone is asking me that. I’ve still got five months until I graduate.” He growsed but continued. “I’m not good enough to start D1, well, maybe somewhere crappy, but even second string would be a stretch in some places. I don’t know what I want. At a DII I could likely start, at least as a sophomore. Probably get a better education too.”

“Seems you’ve already made up your mind then.” Winston said.

“Yeah… I think so. Colorado Mesa Offered me a full ride and housing with the team. It’s only two states over and the campus is nice. The teams not great, but they’re decent and they have the major I want.”

“I’ve never heard of it.” Winston said. “Where is it?”

“Grand Junction, Colorado.”

“Are the girls cute?” Winston asked. Josh laughed.

“College girls are always cute.” Josh said with a smile. “Still though, Jessica said she might come with me. She doesn’t really care about school. She’d basically a professional gamer, and I don’t see her giving that up for a degree. Most degrees now aren't worth the paper their printer on.”

“Do you want her to?” Winston asked, carefully.

Josh sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, I like her. I do, but isn’t her following me to school weird? I mean we’ve been dating for less than a month really.”

“In most cases? Yes. I mean, following a high-school sweetheart to college is generally always a recipe for disaster. At least from what I’ve heard. I mean, I’ve heard at least six different stories that ended in heartbreak. Then again, getting your heartbroken in college and picking up a rebound or two is part of growing up as far as I understand it.” Winston said thoughtfully, then went on.

“I’m not sure how I’d feel about Trish doing that. We’re still pretty new. I feel like things are going well. Thinking about the future at this point just puts more pressure on us for no reason. We’ve still got a year to feel things out. As for you and Jessica? You kinda fit honestly.” Winston said. They weren’t just the two most popular people in school. Their personalities fit. Jessica was a manipulator, but kinder than most people thought. Josh was open and honest, but harder than most people thought. They suited in an odd way.

They finally reached the city and were spat out into streets clogged with shoppers rushing around the grab up gifts in the last few days before Christmas. Winston wasn’t sure what he wanted to get Trish. He’d through to get something useful at first, but Josh told him that was a bad idea.

That put him onto jewelry shiny rocks were about as useless as you could get and it was their first Christmas together. He’d get something nice but not too nice. Too nice would seem desperate or obsessed, but he didn’t want to get something cheap she’d just toss in a drawer and never put on.

A half-hour later Winston was looking over a jewelry counter. The store wasn’t too nice but it did have some decent pieces and they weren’t gouging him on the prices too badlyl. Winston was looking at a bracelet in silver dotted with tiny emeralds. It looked like a tree with the roots twined together for the clasp. It would look good with that green shirt she’d been wearing the other day and the tree made him think of her Otherworld avatar.

As he stood at the counter two more men walked up and started looking over the collection. One was an older man, in his forties, overweight but comfortable with it. Beside him was his son, a younger and skinnier version, he was likely Josh’s age or maybe a year older and already in college.

“This is crap.” Said the younger one. “My first day of Christmas vacation and you drag me out here.” He complained.

The dad sighed. “I’d rather be in game too, but Christmas is on Thursday and I still haven't gotten anything for your mother. We need to get this wrapped up so I can get back to the Inn. Mary is a good enough cook, but she can’t run the whole place herself.”

Winston’s gold making radar pinged and he turned away from the bracelet to face the older balding man. “You run an inn in Otherworld?”

The man turned to look at Winston then smiled.“ You play too? Yeah the inn is my pet project. Always wanted to run a bar after I left the service but getting a loan was a nightmare, but for a few hundred gold and a bit of reputation grinding I could get one in Otherworld no problem. I put it in the Mistlands. Lots of Asain themed towns and cultures there. Figured the players might want someplace they could get ale, western style food. The costs are high, but I turn a good profit.” He bragged proudly.

Winston looked at the man and thought about his pitch. Sales wasn’t exactly his strong suit. Then again, if you had a good product and could find a market it wasn’t that complicated. He decided to start slow.

“I’m a farmer. Got a small orchard going in Kishik. Been making good money with the grain and fruit prices where they are. It’s interesting to play the game from a different perspective you know. I wanted to make a healer at first but I just ended up farming.”

“I play a Berserker, I’ve got Axe’s and Rage both at Professional rank. I raid for the Black Hand.” The older boy bragged. Winston nodded in the appropriate places as he went on and on about raids and PvP fights he’d gotten into. Winston tried to get the boys dad back in the conversation. He wanted to at least establish some contact.

Winston saw Josh walking towards the booth and decided to hurry things along. “Well, that’s my brother he’d probably ready to head back home. If your in the market for some fresh oranges or coffee for your patrons look me up. I’m Win Mills in game.” Winston said to the pair as he turned to the woman running the counter. He bought the tree bracelet as the father son pair said goodbye and headed towards a different part of the store.

Winston wasn’t sure if anything would come of the meeting or not. He did need to start making a brand for himself if he wanted to expand his business. The auction house was all fine and good but it wasn’t the best way to get to his customers.

Winston and Josh headed back home and Winston got back in game. He had to finish his oven.

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

The orange trees looked much like the week before as the fruit pulled down their branches. The lime seemed to have done its work. The fruit were larger, and if the yields weren’t much better the quality was. That would make sales even more difficult. Dealing with normal goods on the auction house was usually fine, but trying to sell a lot of high-quality goods would be more difficult. The buy orders would be all over the place and not too many people would be actively looking to buy something like oranges, especially in bulk. The grains he’d been dealing in before had been easier, but WInston was going to have to make some choices soon.

Winston re-summoned a farm-hand and put it to work on the trees as he started laying bricks. With the hardened clay already shaped into what he wanted, putting a layer of bricks on top didn’t take long. He just had to smear on plenty of mortar and stick on the bricks. Either he was getting better or the game was throwing him a bone because it didn’t come out half bad. Not great but decent. He grabbed a shovel and started scooping out the dried sand from inside as the bricks dried.

[Your Construction Skill has Increased]

[Current Rank: Novice V]

It took a while and he had to cheat a bit with earth-magic to get all the sand out, but soon the inside was clean. He watched his golem cap a barrel of oranges and walked into his hut. Inside were empty barrels and the ones holding last weeks coffee and cacao. Winston popped open the barrel cap of the coffee cherries and dumped some into his pack. He focused on getting out the seeds and tried to pour a couple out. They popped out, falling to the floor clean and a light green color. They came out without the goo from the cherries that needed fermented off in the real world, or the thin membrane that had to be removed after roasting. That simplified things nicely, instead of a long multi-step process he now just had to roast them.

Winston spent the next few minutes hauling the coffee crates over to the compost pits, then worked his way through. He used his pack to get out the seeds and dumped everything else into the fertilizer pits. Before putting the seeds back into the barrels. He ended with only two full barrels of beans, but that was a decent first harvest. There would be more next week.

Kisha was weeding his small garden. Which was interesting, Winston had never left a field long enough to grow weeds before. Usually he picked things as soon as they were ripe. Which might only take a few hours. The ginseng had been planted nearly a week and a half ago and they were getting a bit weedy, especially after he’d fertilized them. It was a good job for her, but seeing her there made Winston think of another thing he needed to start working on.

“Do you know where the other villages around here are?” Winston asked the young lizard-girl. There were supposed to be two more somewhere, but Winston hadn’t seen them.

“There’s one far to the West, right on the edge of the jungle.” Kishia said. “My aunt used to tell me about it. That’s where my uncle was from. It’s at least two days walk.” Winston grimaced at that. He’d have to wait until the next weekend to make the trip. He had too much to do on the farm other-wise, or maybe he could hitch a ride with troll, and hop-off at the edge of the zone. That would be faster.

“Thanks, Troll should be here in a day or two with your alchemy stuff. I ordered a few recipes and a few simple ingredients as well. I’ll try to plant a few for you.” Winston told her. She nodded and smiled slightly. She didn’t seem too happy, but at least in a better mood than the day before. Her moods bounced all over the place.

Winston let the mortar dry then went to gather some lumber for the ovens. He’d watched a few videos and he’d need to let the wood burn way down before he put the beans in. Then he’d plug the entrance and let the beans bake. Apparently it was quite the process and had to be watched closely. He need another thermometer eventually. He’d bought one for brewing but he’d need another for his oven.

Winston used a burst of fire mana to start the ovens once he had loaded in a few chunks of wood. Then got out one of his massive roasting pans. He waited for nearly an hour as the smoke cleared and the fires burnt down. Then he put in the first batch of beans and the end plug. He kept it small for the first attempt.. The beans were supposed to crack when they were nearly ready. The first crack was for a city-roast. Most people liked their coffee between the first and second crack. After the second crack was where the lands of dark and french roasts lived, but it was hard to ride that line without burning them outright.

The beans started to crackle like pop-corn a few minutes in and Winston gave the beans a sixty-count before he started to pull them out. The results were mixed, with some beans light brown and some darker brown. Winston sorted them by color as he worked through the beans he had. As he was working light flared around him. He smiled. Ranking up was taking longer with just his golem working but he should hit Apprentice in fruits by the end of the week.

[Fruit Sub-Skill has Increased]

[Current Rank: Beginner V]

[Bonus Fruit Crop Yield: 25%]

[Bonus Fruit Quality: 25%]

It was going to be a good Christmas.