John rose from the stone slab his bedroll was on and exited his hut. The last thing he’d added was a raised sleeping platform. It was hardly more comfortable than the ground, but he could get a mattress for it later. He surveyed his land and then wandered over to examine the growing plants. They were still a vibrant green, and now came up to his shins. After a moment of checking for weeds, and finding none, he was satisfied and moved on to check the mana stones and well. The stones were full, the well was not.

Next he considered the two empty sections of his plot. The first he was going to turn into another field and fill with corn. But what to do with the second? He considered it for a moment and then decided on a couple rows of fruiting trees. If he could get ahold of seeds or saplings.

Moving to the southwest section of his plot he cordoned off another field. Taking out his wand he tilled up the soil and then created the large channels that would hold the water. He then spent the next couple of hours broadcasting the seed corn and covering it with a fine layer of dirt. Once that was done he swapped his earth stone for a water stone and cast Create Font into the channels. By the time it was finished he’d emptied another three water stones. Carrying them over to the charging plate he slid them into the charging slots.

Looking around again he spied the large pile of cast-off dirt and chunks of stone and pondered what to do with it. The dirt itself wasn’t too hard to get rid of, he could move it to the Orchard section and spread it around; once that was done it’d probably be completely unnoticeable. The slabs of stone were a little harder to deal with, but he supposed he could just lump them together into a bolder, or maybe use them to create more amenities in the house? But what would he need? He didn’t plan to really do any cooking, though he might need more storage space; he only had 20 storage slots after all. He was really lucky all the mana stones stacked like with like, even though they had different capacities.

Nodding to himself he got to work. First he started spreading out the dirt, and within a few minutes of brisk walking and gesturing he’d applied it in a fine layer over the remaining plot. He then turned to the stone bits and began moving them as well. He moved the pieces back into the house and began molding them into shelves, building directly into the walls. Stepping back he examined his work, and then shifted a few lopsided shelves to level them out some. It wasn’t a professional job, but as long as he didn’t place anything round on them it should be fine. Unfortunately, he was still left with more than a little stone and decided, for the moment, to simply turn it into a large boulder next to the house.

Mostly satisfied with the results of his labors he started removing things from his inventory and placing them around and on the shelves. First came the shovel and hoe which he leaned against the shelving. Next out were the hammer and nails, which he put on one of the upper shelve. The stiff pieces of boiled leather armor found their way to one of the lower shelves and finally he placed the half-bushels of wheat and corn on one of the middle shelves.

Satisfied with the eight storage slots he’d freed up John left the house and looked around once more. Finding nothing to grab his attention he considered what he should do next. Obviously if he was going to grow trees he’d need to go get saplings or seeds. What else was there? Herbs and spices, he could set up an herb garden, but maybe that was stretching himself too thin? Best to stick with only a few things for now and then expand later if possible.

With that decided, and little else to do on the farm for now, John decided to head back to town. As he started walking for the western edge of his farm, he took out his wand and attached an earth stone. If he was going to keep walking back and forth it was time he had a road upon which to do so. So as he walked he kept a rolling wave of earth moving in front of him and leaving a compacted six foot wide path behind him.

By the time John reached town he’d depleted all 14 earth stones in his possession and the road had still fallen short, leaving him mildly disgruntled. He wasn’t too worried about having to recharge the stones, that’s what the Mana Well was for, and he could always make another charging plate; if he was willing to purchase more mana shards.

Looking around he found the usual stalls full of players hawking their wares, and a few stalls of produce. For a time he just wandered around looking a things. There were a great many people selling what were clearly poor quality pieces of mismatched gear, probably entirely from the dungeon. Eventually he found himself in front of Ex and Sally who were clearing off their booth, picking up items and disappearing them.

“Hey Ex, Sally. How’s it going?” John asked.

“Eh, same old same old,” Ex replied.

“We made it through the third floor of the dungeon!” Sally exclaimed excitedly.

“Find anything good?” John inquired, smiling at her enthusiasm.

“Just a bunch of mana stones and a few shards. Honestly, with how many the dungeon gives out anything but fire or wind stones are basically worthless,” Ex explained.

John pondered that for a moment, then remembered something Theodore had explained earlier. “Doesn’t the dungeon also drop coin?”

“Sometimes,” Ex said as he swept a few more items into his inventory. “Mostly not though.”

“Well, it sounds like we need to feed the dungeon more items then,” John said.

Ex stopped and Sally looked up in interest.

“What do you mean feed the dungeon more items?” Ex asked.

“Well, when I first talked to Theodore he said that dungeons duplicate items they’ve been fed, or I assume take off of dead adventurers. Apparently there are rules about feeding them items that are too expensive, but I’m not sure what those are,” John said with a shrug.

“So… what? We just give it items and it replicates them as loot?” Excelsior asked.

“Essentially.”

Sally and Ex considered that as they swept the last of the items into their inventories.

“But what do we give it?” Sally asked finally.

The three of them looked at each other and John ran fingers through his beard as he thought. “I mean… Hmm… that’s a good question.”

Ex shook his head. “The problem really isn’t that there’s nothing good to find. According to the forums mana stones go for a good price just about everywhere else. It’s exporting them that’s the problem. A few of the natives say that a trader comes through here every so often and buys them up, but that’s not really going to be a viable source of income until a lot more traders start making the trip.”

“Alright, that makes sense, but there has to be a better way… isn’t there some kind of auction function?”

[It appears you’re attempting to access the Auction. Would you like to purchase the Auction Module for 20 USD or 20 Gold?]

“Alright, no auction,” John said after reading the message. Ex just smirked at him. Sally… had disappeared somewhere. John looked around but didn’t see her.

“What’s up?” Ex asked as he watched John’s head swivel.

“Just trying to figure out where sally went,” he said.

“Oh, she usually logs at this time, she’s got some online classes that start around now,” Ex explained.

John just squinted at him. “Online courses? I thought she was… uh…”

“A lot younger?” Ex grinned and John just nodded. “Don’t let the way she acts fool you, she’s a career student. Been doing college work as long as I’ve known her. Which is a few years now.”

“She just seems so… excitable, and the whole bunny thing…”

“Yeah, she gets that way, caught up in the moment. It always keeps things interesting.”

John nodded. “Anyway,” he said, getting back on topic. “There’s got to be an easier way to transport our items to where we can sell them.”

“Oh sure, if the town could afford a Portal we could sell virtually anywhere.” Ex started breaking down his stall. “Funnily we probably have all the materials we need to make one, but it’s not like we’ve got any master enchanters running around.”

“Wait, Portals are a thing?”

“Sure, apparently the main component is space stones, which we actually have a fair amount of, but you also need an enchanter and a Mana Well to feed it energy. We’d need to quarry some stone for it too. But those are basically small problems. The real problem is that we’d need someone to enchant it,” Ex explained as he put the last of the stall away.

“How much would you pay to use a portal?” John asked intently.

“What?”

“If there was a portal, how much would you pay to use it?” John reiterated.

“Well… I don’t know? Mana stones sell pretty well in most places. So I could probably get as much as ten coppers per stone for a base element, double or triple that for a rare element like space, and easily four times that for raw mana stones. So… I guess I could rake in a couple of silvers a dungeon run. Why?” Ex asked suspiciously.

“Because I took enchanting at second level, and then increased it at third.”

Ex stared at him for moment, mental wheels turning, then he got it. “You want to make a portal and charge people to use it!”

John grinned. “I’m certainly thinking about it. Not sure if I have the funds though…”

“Can you even build a portal?” Ex asked.

Thinking about it for a moment, John found that nothing came to mind. “Nope. But I bet the system would be willing to sell me a blueprint.”

[Would you like to purchase the Portal blueprint for 20 USD or 20 Gold?]

“Yup, there it is, 20 bucks. I wonder if that’s the same amount the mana well blueprint cost.”

“Oh, you bought the blueprint. I guess that’s why it didn’t explode.”

“Very funny,” John said dryly.

“But seriously, maybe I should respec as a crafter of some kind.” Excelsior’s eyes immediately started following something only he could see. “Turns out you can change your class for fifty bucks.” He waved away the prompt.

“Huh, good to know,” John said. “Anyway, it sounds like I may need to rank up my enchanting again.”

“Yeah… I know you’re big on your whole farming thing, but you should let me and Sally run you through the dungeon a couple times. If we can level you enough to get your enchanting up to a rank where you can make a Portal it’d be well worth a couple escort missions.”

“I don’t know, I don’t have any real combat abilities,” John confessed.

“What are you talking about? Earth magic is great for fighting, and defense. Sure it’s not as good as Fire magic, but you can create spikes, walls, and pits if you’re fast enough.”

“I… hadn’t thought of it like that,” John said with a thoughtful look.

“Well, give it some thought. The faster you make a portal the faster we can sell things!” Ex said. “Anyway, I’ve got to go; need to take care of some house work before Sally gets back.”

“Alright, later!” John said as Ex disappeared, clearly having logged off.

John looked around and considered his options. He didn’t really have a lot to do until his crops finished growing, given that it was supposed to take an entire week per field he had time on his hands and a Portal sounded like the perfect project. He’d need a way to move his produce eventually, and this could bring in some extra income on top of it. With a nod he started searching all the stalls, looking for the materials he’d need.

It turned out that Space stones weren’t terribly abundant, but they certainly weren’t rare either, especially because Theodore wasn’t buying them, and almost no one invested in any space powers. Going from stall to stall he found that most had at least one, and occasionally even two. Most were willing to let them go at almost any price, but as the day wore on news of the guy buying space stones started to get around, and people began trying to raise their prices. John made quick work of that problem by simply refusing to buy for more than three coppers a stone. Mostly he got away with paying only one or two. He spent most of the day in town just waiting for the other players to cycle through so he could catch the ones that were currently doing dungeon runs. By the end of it he’d managed to acquire fifty space stones for the low price of a single silver. He wasn’t sure it’d be enough for what he intended, but it’d do for now.

Finished with his spending spree, and exhausted from all the interpersonal activity it’d required, John finally got around to what had brought him into town in the first place, and started looking at the produce stalls. Looking through them he found a few that sold fruit. Mostly apples, cherries, and pears. Doing some quick googling he found that apples and cherries required cross pollination, which probably explained why there were what looked to be several varieties of the two. After carefully considering he decided he needed more research before he committed to setting up trees. Finished with his work he stopped by the general store, and made his way home.