“Sir Miller, how nice to see you,” I said on the morning of the 66th day of the game and I was at the inn at the town square. I was meeting with the Squirrel Knights to hand over their order.

“Guild Leader Damian,” he greeted back with a polite bow of the head. He had two other players with him and I was introduced to them. After introductions were over, he turned to business. “So, what do you have for us?”

“Well, I have twenty buffs a day for twenty people for six days,” I replied. “Most of them are on tokens that last four days. Six with five days, and six with six days. I also included three with only three days. Just so we agree on the deals, you buy the tokens, they each have ten uses when you buy them. Cost is ten silver plus one silver per day they last. So that’ll be fourteen for the four days tokens and sixteen for the six days one. Additionally, you pay the price of the food put in, plus one silver for getting it refilled. The first fill up is free, and we’ve supplied the manastones you need for free as well.”

He nodded along. “That sounds fair. How are the buffs?”

“Because I’ve increased my Cooking skill significantly, and since it’s at apprentice tier I’ve been able to use four ingredients, so they’ve turned out quite well,” I said. “It’s grilled rabbit skewers with pieces of carrots and potatoes, seasoned with thyme.”

“He asked for the buffs, not the menu,” one of the others said, Sir Legate. Miller gave him a nasty look.

I waved it away. “True, I guess I got carried away. Anyway, you said you wanted strength buffs for all of them, so that’s what I’ve done. All except eight of them are plus on strength and buffs you anywhere from forty-five to a hundred minutes. The vast majority are seventy minutes, followed by forty-five minutes. You got twenty that last one hundred minutes.”

“What about the last eight?” Miller asked.

“They have the shortest buff time of only forty-minutes, but they increase strength by two,” I replied with a smile. “It’s actually the first food I’ve cooked that has been able to buff an attribute by two points.”

“That sounds pretty good, what about tea for curing our mana fatigue?”

I smiled, “I’ve made the same arrangements, though only one cup per day per player. It should more than cover your needs since you use relatively little mana. Just remember to find a spot close to a stream, then you don’t need to worry about water.”

“Good. Your assistant—” He paused as if trying to recall the name.

“Mia,” I supplied.

“Yes, Mia,” he said with an embarrassed look. “She told us how it works. Instead of eating before going into the dungeon, we’ll buff before taking on the bosses, so we’d like for each party to have one of those trays.”

I furrowed my eyebrows at that. “No problems on the trays, I got two of those, but I only got one kettle.”

He waved as if that was no problem. “We only want one of those, as you said we don’t use much mana.”

“Okay then. Then it’s just a matter of settling the accounts,” I replied with a smile. I did a quick tally, already having done the math earlier so I only needed to add an extra tray.

“Hit me with it,” he said with a frown.

“Four platinums and nine golds.”

Legate protested loudly, “That’s way too much. Fucking rip-off.”

“Actually, I discounted it by two silvers and fifteen coppers,” I said with an easy smile.

“It’s a bit expensive,” Sir Miller ventured.

“Sure, but you’re making an investment here,” I said, repressing a sigh and starting to use my teacher tone. “The two trays and the kettle are nine of the golds, they should last around a thousand uses. Then you have the food itself, which is close to two and a half platinums. That leaves the tokens. Sure they’re a bit extra and only last ten uses. However, you only pay this much once. Next time your order will only come to the food plus thirty-six silvers.”

“You’re right, we got a deal,” Sir Miller said with a sigh, forestalling any argument from Sir Legate. “In fact, we had already gotten the prices from Mia, it just added up to a bit more than I thought.”

“Great, I got your items right here. And yes the food is more expensive because the buffs are much better than usual. As Mia should have told you, the tokens weigh more than they should because I don’t have the skills to include a Decrease Mass rune just yet. However, before you protest,” I said the last bit looking directly at Legate and stopped speaking for a moment. “They weigh next to nothing on the trip home.”

“Okay, as I said, we had a deal,” Sir Miller said with a smile. He handed over the requisite coin and started handing over the items.

When all was said and done, I gave them a big smile. “Gentlemen, thank you for your business and good luck on your dungeon run. We might join you out there towards the end of your trip. We need to train up all the newbies a bit first.”

“I hope you do, then we can extend our stay a bit,” Sir Miller said with a big smile.

“You’re always welcome, you’re one of the few guilds around here that are not swept up by Almighty Al.”

He frowned at that. “He made a tempting offer, but you’ve been good to us. Helpful, a good friend even. It would be a smear on our honour to join them.”

“I’m grateful that you feel that way. I’m still working on getting my operation set up and get enough resources, but I hope that within the month I can start offering to enchant your weapons,” I said.

That brought bright smiles, even Legate. I held up a hand, “I can’t do much yet, limited by skill and so on.”

“We understand, but that’s good news,” Sir Miller said and stood up from the table. “Anyway, we got a dungeon to raid. It’s not going to raid itself. See you around Damian.”

“See you around, Sir Miller,” I said and rose as well. They headed upstairs, I headed out. I had lots of preparations to do before we could leave on the expedition. Ed had been ecstatic when I had told it to him during our torture session with Kira. I was still horribly out of shape, but I could start seeing improvement.

Exiting the inn I headed towards Fillard’s Sundries.

“Damian! I hardly see you these days,” was the greeting I got when I entered Fillard’s.

I gave him a wry smile. “Well, I’m not doing much Butchering these days, I let my new members handle that.”

“Ah yes, Mason and his little friends, they got the quantity, but lack the quality,” he said with a sniff, putting on an affronted air, obviously faking it.

“Sorry to cut into your profits, but I’m naturing them, and soon they’ll have the quality as well as bigger quantity,” I said, still with a smile.

“Good,” he said with a big toothy smile. “So what can I do for you today?”

“I’m in need of average quality salt, a large quantity of it,” I answered.

“I have some, how much are you thinking?”

“Well, I’m making jerky, so calculating for failures and the amount I need to make, I would probably need to get around a hundred portions,” I replied.

His eyes lit up at that. “Well, then you definitely need a bit of salt. Forty-four copper per portion. So a total of eleven gold.”

“Sounds about right,” I said and pulled it out of my inventory. “Oh, I have to butcher some rabbits, so I’ll end up needing to sell some goods to you anyway.”

“Splendid,” he replied with a big smile.

“See you in a few days,” I said and headed out the door. Phil had constructed the smokehouse last night, they had wood of average quality. The only thing that I was missing was the meat of average quality. With my Butchering at apprentice tier that should be no problem.

A bit over six hours later I was standing impatiently outside the smoker Phil had built me. It could only handle ten portions of jerky at a time and there was no bonus to cooking, but that was okay. Even the fact that it took six hours to make the jerky was okay with me. It was something that required little time to prepare, and I could do something else in the meantime.

However, the first few times I would need to be here when it finished drying to finalize the recipes and assign the crafting points. Once I had one of each outcome prepped, it would be less demanding.

Seeing I still had a few minutes left before the timer ran out, I pulled up the crafting overlay.

Salted Rabbit Jerky

Cooking Level: 30 (Apprentice)

Cooking Modifier: 35

Recipe Used: No

Lucky Charm: +1%

Combined Crafting Points: 75

Highest Crafting Points of the Materials: 25

Possible Outcomes

Failure - 0%

Flawed - 56%

Success - 36%

Exceptional - 7%

Brilliant - 1%

Master Work - 0%

Base Experience: 30 XP

After upgrading to the apprentice tier, the cooking modifier line had been. The modifier had been there all the time, however, at the beginner tier, it was the same as the level. Every level earned in the apprentice tier upped the modifier with 1.5 instead of just 1. The number was rounded, so every even level it raised with 2 and odd levels it rose by one. Most other crafting professions worked the same way.

My woolgathering was changed by the fact that the overlay changed, meaning that the jerky was done. I quickly scanned over the results. 4 Flawed Successes and 6 Successes. A smile spread on my face because that was pretty darn good.

I handled the Successes first. As ordered they wanted to use it as wound recovery, so that was what I gave them. The first five points of recovery cost 1 point each, the next five cost 2 points, then 3 points and so on and so forth. With 75 crafting points that gave me a total of 25 wounds recovered. Not too bad.

Next, I turned my attention to the flawed ones. With only 56 crafting points it gave me a bit less to play with. However, they would still make pretty damn good buffs. I decided to go with a strength buff. That ate up the first 25 points. I then extended the buff time to 30 minutes, eating up another 9 points. With 22 points left to play with I was able to bring the buff time up to a total of 65 minutes. Not too shabby.

The good thing was that I could sell each pouch for 4 silvers, easily bringing in the cost of manufacturing. At the same time, they would last for seven days. I could have extended that, however with the success rate I should be able to gather fifty pouches with time to spare. They only needed a minimum of 4 days.

I quickly went about setting the next batch over and then went back to my other crafting business. First on the agenda was feeding the player population in Blackport, which still happened outside the gate, otherwise, I would wind up paying taxes on it. Though with the Dusts still in town, I would have fewer customers, nevertheless it was still more than before the Challenges had been announced.

I had no hard numbers, but I think Blackport had seen a larger player population boom than in my previous timeline. Not massively so, but I was pretty sure there was one. I was being silly, of course, there was a boom of players. I had personally brought in 44 players who had not been here in the previous timeline, not to talk about the Dusts, the Shadowguard, the Airgead twins and so on. Yes, I was being silly.

The ripples of my going back in time were already beginning to show. I had known that in the back of my mind, but the walk through the relatively bustling streets of Blackport cemented the fact firmly in my mind. The murder of Amber and Marcus threatening me and everything had set me on the back foot, made me question myself. Even when I tried to steer the guild forwards, there had been a lot of caution.

We still needed to be cautious about our security, but the latest stunt by Dawnguard allying with and most likely funding Almighty Al and his alliance, made it clear to me that Marcus would not leave us alone. I had gone through the motions trying to steer the guild forward, but deep down I had not believed it possible. I knew it would be a hard fight, but I was equally sure I could do it.

There was a line of players at the Dusts’ little booth and I saw on the price boards that they were still selling at production cost, even taking a loss on some of the items. I was fine with that, making skewers brought little profit and little XP. Nevertheless, I felt it was necessary for us to still do it.

Next, hiring round we should focus on getting a cook and an alchemist. We were starting to grow a lot of crops and herbs. With a cook permanently stationed in Blackport, we could keep our business consistent, instead of me waltzing in and out and leaving the Dusts unopposed. As soon as I was not around to cook, they yanked up the prices to exceed our prices. They had also gotten helpers because I saw neither Lord or Lady Dust at the booth.

“Hello, Nise. Any problems?” I asked as I got to the booth. “Hey, Phil. Thanks for the rush job on the smoker, worked out pretty well.”

“Hey, Damian,” they both replied. Nise was busy making sour joy bombs and Phil was making manastones.

Phil went first, “No problem, it was a fun little project.”

“Only minor nuisances,” Nise answered, getting a hearty chuckle from Phil.

“Anything I should know?” I asked as I started setting up my table, and pulled out the barrels for Nise. Mana fatigue was starting to harass the players that had reached level 10, and even cold tea was better and cheaper than the refreshment in town.

“Definitely,” Phil said, still chuckling.

“Definitely,” Nise echoed with a huge smile.

“Spill it already,” I growled in mock frustration, earning a small laugh. I gave them a huge smile, “No seriously, what happened?”

“Well,” Nise started, stretching out the word, teasing me a bit. “The DLA attacked us.”

“Are you okay?” I asked immediately.

“Oh yes, only took a bit of damage. A good thing you recommend us going up in Vitality,” she replied still smiling.

“So a bit of damage, did Kira intervene?” I inquired.

She shook her head. “Nope, she was busy in the field. But the guards on the wall did not appreciate disturbances of the peace, so they left them in pieces.”

Phil broke out laughing at that. I joined him. “Great, so that was the end of that?”

“Of course not,” Phil snorted.

I narrowed my eyes. “What happened next?”

“They tried torching our fields outside the wall,” Nise replied. My eyes flashed over the many fields we had outside the wall. With four high levelled individuals in Horticulture and Farming, we did not have enough space at our plot of land. Most of it was taken up by the chickens anyway. I did not really see any damage.

“What happened?” I asked worriedly.

“They started damaging the crops, so the guards apprehended them, then they brought out this druid, an old woman,” Nise said.

“I heard one of them call her Lady Mira something,” Phil added, finishing a fire manastone.

“Old Millie?” I asked, very surprised to hear her leaving her gardens.

“No Lady Mira something.”

“Lady Milabelle is the Lord’s aunt, she’s often called Old Millie,” I explained.

“Oh,” Phil muttered.

Nise went on, “Anyway, they bring her out and repair the damaged fields with some kind of magic, so they’re as good as new. Then she sticks the offending guild with the bill. Ten platinum.”

Phil laughed loudly, “You should’ve seen their faces. They got so mad that they started insulting her.”

I winced at that. Insulting nobility was a good way to get yourself punished. Nise grinned when she saw my expression. “From your expression, I guess you know what that meant.”

“Yeah, more punishment, better known as executions and also a drop in reputation. Most likely the Lord’s and the Rich faction,” I said.

“That’s what we think, at least what they complained about,” Phil said between laughs.

“Which guild was it?”

“The Highlander Gang,” Nise answered.

“One of the new guilds. So they’re what, level six or seven?” I mused. “Even if they get punishment, the XP penalty is not insurmountable, but the loss of reputation is going to make them inconsequential in the race for quests for a long time. I’m just surprised they didn’t learn from their predecessors’ mistakes. I mean this is almost exactly like how the Bears got in trouble.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, right?” Phil asked. “I mean stupid enemies must be a good thing, right?”

“Yeah, generally it’s good but it makes them unpredictable, which means they might do something so stupid we can’t even think of it, so we can’t defend against it. Anyway the ten platinum they owe Old Millie is nothing to sneeze at. I guess it’s worth paying five silver per plot for a week after all,” I answered. Because we needed so many I had thought about moving it out of the town’s safety zone so we would not have to pay for it.

“Five silver is better than the ten in the start,” Nise pointed out. “Thanks to your reputation, and that of the guild the guards aren’t trying to earn a little extra on us any longer.”

“True,” I said and finally finished setting up the mana grill. “I guess I better get some food prepared. How many do you think will be eating here today, seems they’re all lining up over there?”

Nise shook her head. “Plenty, don’t worry about it Damian, our prices might be a bit higher, but the Dust has pissed off the older player population by jacking up the prices when you aren’t around, so they’ll come over here instead, the extra copper or two are not going to ruin them.”

“That reminds me, I have these for you to sell,” I said and handed the four pouches of jerky. “I was thinking that four silvers would be a good price.”

“Mia is going to complain if you sell them for that. It’s the same price you would take for rabbit skewer with the same properties,” Nise pointed out. “It can last a long time, I’d say six silver is a good price.”

“I’d feel like I’m ripping people off. I’m already earning around a silver on that.”

“Yes, but you also have to pay me eight coppers for selling each one,” she said.

“If we do six, I would pay you twelve,” I pointed out.

“True, let’s do five then,” she offered.

“Okay, I guess that’s a fair price, but accept four if someone tries to barter. We don’t have a lot of them and I hope I don’t get too many of them since they’re the Flawed Successes,” I said.

“Sounds good, now get cooking. Some of the players are getting impatient,” she said. I lifted my eyebrow as a question and she laughed. “Messages Damian, messages.”

I shook my head, irritated that I had forgotten about them for a second. I almost never received any, and I did not use the ability enough. However, there were plenty of people within my range, so while I started Cooking I sent out messages that we were selling food buffs and so on.

The food was selling quickly, and the different members came by as well, needing some food as well. Kira was basically bouncing in place when she came back.

“Damian, starting a war with those assholes was the best thing you ever did,” she said with a big smile.

“I didn’t start it,” I pointed out.

“Pfft, I don’t care, the only lacklustre thing about them are their skills. I don’t mean in-game skills. I mean their combat sense, they’re only a bit dangerous if they’re five of them against little old me,” she said.

Blaze standing nearby said, “So you’re saying that one of them can’t satisfy you?”

Petals narrowed her eyes. Some of the others groaned, so did I, I knew where this was going. Kira was still hyped up and answered without thinking, “Yup, five of them at least.”

“Didn’t know you were into gangba—” his sentence ended in an explosion of air as Petals hammered an elbow into his solar plexus. Some of the others started laughing at him.

Kira looked uncomprehending for a few seconds, before groaning. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

“Yup,” Hei said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I think I’m man enough to satisfy you.”

“What?” she asked, shrugged his hand off her shoulder and gave him an evil look.

“You still only beat me two out of three times, meaning I can satisfy some of your need for a good fight,” he said, clearly struggling to keep from smiling. “Whatever did you think I meant?”

That got a laugh from everyone, even Blaze who had recovered. Kira looked around us all, “Haha, very funny. Remember who’s in charge of training.”

That cut off the laughing real quick. Blaze was still rubbing his sternum and looked at his girlfriend. “Why did you hit me so hard?”

“You were being an ass,” she replied with a sniff.

“It was too good an opportunity, I couldn’t help myself,” he said. “Sorry.”

“Good to see that you’re starting to get him housetrained,” Nise said to Petals.

Petals nodded. “Yeah, sometimes I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

“Hey,” Blaze protested, “I’m sorry, right. I’m trying real hard, don’t be like that.”

Petals reached up and stroked his cheek. “I’m only kidding.”

“That’s not funny,” he pouted.

“Exactly,” she said and left it at that. He did get a thoughtful look though.

Kira took pity on him. “It’s okay Blaze, it was kinda funny and I should’ve known better. It’s okay occasionally, but don’t slide back and be the pervy assholes all the time, okay?”

“Okay,” he said.

Nise looked around at our guildmates. “Well, if you guys are done munching, start scramming. We got paying customers.”

“Aye aye, ma’am,” one of the new members said and saluted her with a cheeky smile before leaving.

I could not help laughing a little. She spun around, trying to hide her smile. With a pointed finger in my direction, she said, “And you should be cooking, not laughing!”

“Aye aye, ma’am,” I said and saluted her with a meat skewer, earning a laugh.