Vol 2 Chapter 2: The Farmer and a Hungry Beast 2

The tension in the air is thick and in the middle of it, no, this is because of these two people! One of them is a Beast Person that looks like a Leopard while the other is a beautiful girl with ruby colored eyes and long black hair tied in a ponytail!

Beauty and the Beast, this could perfectly describe this confrontation from an observer’s point of view. If only they weren’t holding weapons and seem like they’re about to fight with one another.

The Beast person that looks like a Leopard is called Lep-ahn and is holding a spear nearly as long as he is! The girl on the other hand has an even more shocking appearance. She named herself as Rhiasviel and this girl is fully armored from her neck to her feet. She is also carrying a weapon that’s taller than her called a Halberd!

Now, how did things become like this? The answer is probably obvious by now but I’ll say it once more. This is because the girl Rhiasviel is here to be a temporary guard and is being tested by Lep-ahn. Things got a bit serious when 2 trouble makers found out that a certain brother of theirs got his butt handed to him by a girl. When these 2 heard that, they both made fun of their brother and wanted to fight the said girl. They never got the chance though since I wanted Lep-ahn to be the one to fight Rhiasviel. There was no need for the both of them to fight since they’ll both lose as well. This is a fact I know because their skills aren’t that far apart from their brother that lost.

It’ll probably be good if I describe what happened to the earlier fight first. The fight between Rhiasviel and the supposedly mighty Leoparn warrior Haran could be described as conclusive and very fast. There were 3 rounds in the fight which all ended within a few seconds to a few minutes.

Round 1: Rhiasviel readies her Halberd while Haran just laughs a bit. Haran then charges while shouting and throws a left straight. Rhiasviel calmly dodges to the right and then counters with a punch straight to Haran’s face. Haran flies a few feet away then drops to the ground. There was no need for a count. Result: Rhiasviel wins. Fight lasted 7 seconds including the time Haran flew from the ground

Round 2: Haran groggily stands up after 2 minutes and claims he just got careless and remarks on how strong Rhiasviel is. Haran then attacks once more but this time he’s a bit more careful and launches a series of strikes. Rhiasviel dodges the attacks and this frustrates Haran so he tried a bear hug attack. Rhiasviel ducks down to dodge and then aimed for Haran’s chest with a palm strike which made Haran fly a few feet and then drop to the ground again. Result: Rhiasviel wins. Fight lasted 38 seconds.

Round 3: Haran gets up once more and couldn’t believe what’s happening. He then says that he’ll be truly serious this time and gets his spear. Once he has his spear, he then starts a ferocious barrage of stabs and swings. Rhiasveil deflects the stabs and blocks the occasional swings with ease. Haran again gets frustrated and even used a skill attack even though it was against the rules. The skill was “Impale” but Rhiasviel just spins around to Haran’s left, hooks the butt of her Halberd behind Haran’s kneecap then tosses him in the air. Haran in the air once more flips several times but before he even hits the ground, Rhiasviel jumps up and elbows him at the stomach and Haran crashes on the ground with a loud *BAM!*. Result: Rhiasviel wins. Fight lasted 1min 48 seconds. And we already know what happened next.

Now back to the two who are about to fight. Both of them are now readying their respective weapons while looking each other in the eyes. On my side watching the fight are the two excited Leoparn brothers along with 1 other who’s completely dejected. I get the feeling that I’m forgetting something but I push it at the back of my mind since the fight is just about to start.

“So you’re The Lep-ahn that I’ve heard so much about. The only one who bears the name Lep-ahn and is known as the “Bloody Beast”. Rhiasviel says this with complete respect and seriousness. I can also see that she’s completely focused on the upcoming fight.

“…….Hyumen, that is something from long ago. I would appreciate it if you refrain from mentioning it again…….I am here only to test your strength on Riyen’s request though by just looking at you, I can tell that you are a very accomplished warrior. Let us not waste any more time and quickly conclude this” Lep-ahn then enters his hunting stance. It seemed that he recognizes Rhiasviel as a warrior which is quite rare

“Bloody Beast? Do you guys know anything about that?” I ask the 3 Leoparn brothers about what the Bloody Beast means but before I could get a reply, the fight suddenly starts.

The one that made the first move was Rhiasviel. She dashed straight for Lep-ahn and unleashes 5 stabbing attacks aimed at Lep-ahn’s head, shoulders, and legs. Lep-ahn tilts his head to dodge the attack aimed there and then lightly sidesteps to dodge the other 4 attacks.

Rhiasviel wasn’t fazed at all by the fact that all her attacks were easily evaded and just resumed her offensive. She continues to pour on the attacks with excellent speed and accuracy intended to disable her opponent. She also adds sweeping attacks and upward or downward thrusts to her attacks constantly altering her attack patterns. Unfortunately for her, Lep-ahn would respond to her attacks like a veteran warrior that has experienced thousands of battles. Lep-ahn would parry or block several attacks while completely dodging others.

Rhiasviel then backs away a few feet maybe to reassess her attack strategy. Lep-ahn has yet to attack making his position as the superior fighter clearly evident. After taking a few deep breaths, Rhiasviel then charges back in. She starts with short and quick thrusts and then makes a big swing with her Halberd’s axe blade aiming for Lep-ahn’s left side. Lep-ahn dodges the thrusts and then blocks the swing which was expected but then Rhiasviel suddenly pulls on her halberd which also pulled Lep-ahn since his spear got hooked on the axe blade. Rhiasviel then quickly moves to his side, hooks the butt end of her halberd on the back of Lep-ahn’s kneecap and tosses him in the air. This was the exact same move she used on Haran but things didn’t turn out the same as before.

Lep-ahn was slightly surprised by the move but rather than get tossed high in the air, he just back flipped once and then landed a kick on Rhiasviel’s armor. Rhiasviel was pushed back even with the super heavy armor. She was utterly dumbfounded by what just happened but Lep-ahn’s attack still wasn’t over. With an unbelievable speed he quickly closed in and landed 3 lightning fast blows on her body armor which completely blows her away. This attack was enough to drop her on her knees and reduce her Hp by 20%.

“…………as expected of the only Lep-ahn on this area. The rumors about you were clearly not just made up stories” Rhiasviel says this in a low voice but I can clearly see in her eyes that she hasn’t given up yet.

“Hyumen, you have fought well. This is enough, the bout is over”

“Over? This is far from over!” Rhiasviel quickly stands up and fixes her stance once more. At a glance, I thought this was the same as her previous ones but this time, there was some kind of red light coming out of her body.

“Huh!?” “No way!” “That’s!” The 3 Leoparn brothers cried out all at once. I glanced at the 3 of them and saw their utterly shocked face.

“What’s wrong with the three of you? It’s like you’ve eaten those unripe mangoes again” This was exactly what they look like when they ate the sour mangoes before.

“Riyen, you said you have a skill that allows you to see life energy right? Use it now and you will see something impressive” Harin says this to me without looking away from Rhiasviel.

“Hmmm? ……..Eyes of En-Il!” I don’t understand what Harin meant but I still used the skill.

Eyes of En-Il have been activated!

The user will be able to see the flow of life energy for 7 minutes and 30 seconds.

Life energy, this is something that all “living things possess”. The concept is fairly vague since I can actually see life energy flowing on the ground which is technically not a living thing. I don’t mean the living organisms there but the actual land itself has flowing life energy. I’ll probably understand more once the skill reaches intermediate and advance ranks but that’s not important at this point. What needs to be pointed out is what I’m seeing at this time.

I’m now looking at Rhiasviel and I can see her life energy flowing out of her body and forming something. This was the first time I’ve witnessed such a thing since life energy normally just looks like light around someone’s body. The stronger the being I’m looking at, the brighter the light is. At this point, Rhiasviel’s life energy has formed something like a monster that’s hovering on her back. The image isn’t very clear but I can see fangs and a snout and it somehow resembles a snake. I kept staring at it intently and then a notice window suddenly popped. *AURA SUPPORT* this was the notice that I received. This was from the “Surpass Your Limits” patch of Royal Road which was the third largest patch just before “Gods Among Us”.

AuraS is something anyone can unlock by fulfilling certain conditions and isn’t actually rare at all. The fact that it formed something, now that is RARE. AuraS normally just appear around the user’s body enhancing attack, defense and resistance but according to several forums that I’ve visited before. They said that “High level Players” have managed to form something from their AuraS. This would mean that Rhiasviel could be counted as one of those “High level Players”. Now then, how would Lep-ahn respond to this I wonder? Thinking this, I changed my sights from Rhiasviel to Lep-ahn. I just looked at him for a second and……

“WHOA!?” I fell on my back while giving a very shocked yelp.

It was only for a second but I clearly saw something behind Lep-ahn. It was a fully formed Leopard with injuries all over its body and was covered in blood. I can only call it…..a Bloody Beast. I felt instinctive fear and was forced to look away as such I fell on my back. That bloody beast gave me the impression that it was filled with Fury, Madness and Hunger and that if I continue to look at it, I’ll get killed and eaten. That was definitely something formed by Lep-ahn’s Aura Support and it was freaking scary!

Anyway, I managed to stand back up after a few seconds and what greeted my eyes was Rhiasviel down on the ground. I hurriedly ask what happened and according to them, my loud shout became the trigger to resume the fight. Both Lep-ahn and Rhiasviel charged at the same time made several strikes when they met and then passed each other. Rhiasviel quickly turned around but acted like she couldn’t see Lep-ahn even though he’s right in front of her. Lep-ahn then slowly approached her and knocked her out.

While the three brothers were excitedly explaining the fight over and over again, I am currently staring at the approaching Lep-ahn. His Aura.S is no longer active and his life energy is flowing just the same as always emitting a very bright light. There were loads of questions I wanna ask him about. The thing about that Bloody Beast is definitely on the top of the list.

“Lep-ahn about tha-----“

“She will be fine Riyen. Someone of her calibre would wake up soon”

Ah…..I got cut off. This can only mean that Lep-ahn doesn’t want to talk about what I saw with Eyes of En-Il. I can’t do anything if this was the case so I just looked at the unconscious Rhiasviel. The 3 Leoparn brothers also quieted down when Lep-ahn reached us so we all waited in silence for the unconscious girl to wake-up.

~~~~~~~~10 minutes later~~~~~~~~~

Rhiasviel finally wakes up after about 10 minutes and slowly walked over to us. She looks really sad but that’s probably normal since it seems that she rarely losses on 1 on 1 fights.

“I lost……..” she says this in a very soft voice

“Indeed”

“I-I guess…I won’t be h-hired then……” by now tears are forming in her eyes making her look really cute while stuttering a bit. Wait…did she get the wrong idea here?

“Um…Rhiasviel, you didn’t think that you needed to beat Lep-ahn to be hired as a guard?”

“Eh? Isn’t beating him the test?” now she looks really confused

“Haaaaaa…...You know, if the requirement to be a guard is to beat Lep-ahn then this place probably won’t have any guards other than him. The test was to see if you’re strong enough to not die easily on this place”

“D-does this mean I’m hired?”

“Yeah, I never saw anyone force Lep-ahn to be serious before so there’s no question about your strength. Lep-ahn will tell you the details on what you need to do around here” When I said that, Rhiasviel’s face instantly brightens up showing her radiant beauty

*Ding!*

You’ve hired a guard!

[quart=Player,Class]Rhiasviel (Unknown),(Unknown) Warrior[/quart]

[quart=Level,Type]897,Lawful[/quart]

Further details will be added when the 1 week trial period is over.

Payment will be decided based on what is agreed upon.

It seems Rhiasviel also got a notice window and is now smiling. When she was in tears, I felt like hugging her and now that she’s smiling, it just makes me want to protect that smile. The 3 Leoparn brothers also seemed to be affected by her charm though maybe because they’re not human the effect on them isn’t that strong. Anyway, the only thing left now is how much I’ll have to pay her and judging from her level this could get a bit expensive.

“Rhiasviel, to finish things up, we need to talk about the payment”

“Ah yes, all I ask for payment is food and the rights to all the loots from the monsters that I personally kill”

“Huh? Are you sure about that?” Now this is a surprise. I know that the cost of food here is 10 times that of Versailles but just asking for food and the loots seem lacking especially if you think about her level

“Yes! I won’t ask for anything else other than that so please take care of me!” it seems she really is serious about just having food and rights for the monster loots.

“If you say so, Lep-ahn will fill you in on the other details while showing you around the place” I look at Lep-ahn while saying this and he gives me a nod

“Now then, there are still things that I need to do so I’ll be goi----“

“STUUUUUUPPPPPIIIIIIIDDDDD FAAAAAARRRRRMMEEEEERRRR!” I got interrupted by a very annoying and loud shout coming from none other than the fairy-bug Midz. Hearing his voice also reminds me of what was bothering me since a while back. I forgot that I didn’t leave any food since Rhiasviel ate it all.

“Haaaaa…..this will be all for now” with that I leave the place since I have to deal with an annoying bug

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m now heading towards a simple stable that was built near my house just 2 weeks ago. The fairy-bug Midz is now long gone after I told him that there was no food left in the house. He acted like a spoiled brat screaming “FOOD! NOW!” over and over again even though I told him there was literally no food left. I had to take out En-Il’s Hoe and threaten to squash him just to make him stop. That also made him fly away as fast as his little wings can go. He’s probably at the Elder’s house asking for food which is slightly troubling since he keeps bothering the Elder for every little thing. I’ll need to apologize to the Elder when I have a chance later on.

Just as I approach my house, I see a Needle Haired Mole Rat just outside the door. Moving closer, I recognize him as Rufus the leader of my mole rate army. I was the one who named him Rufus which he gladly accepted. Now, Rufus, the leader of the mole rats is slightly bigger and smarter than the rest of the mole rats. He’s also full of battle scars and his right eye is gone which makes him look like a fearsome mole rat. Rufus’s color has turned slightly golden as well making him different than the rest of the mole rats.

“General Rufus it’s good to see that you’ve survived today as well. Now let’s see your report. Heart’s Understanding” I got down from Ollie’s back, gave Rufus a salute and used my Special Skill on him. Rufus also salutes like a fine General that he is

Heart’s Understanding has been used on Rufus!

Rufus then sent me images on what happened this week. Even if Rufus is smarter than his brethren, he still can’t talk like a person so using Heart’s Understanding is a must. Rufus’s reports on what’s happening in the underground world on a weekly basis. Unless something serious is happening, he won’t show up since he’s a very busy mole rat. It seems this week was pretty severe. Nearly 3000 mole rats were killed this week by the invaders. TunnellingSnakes also attacked creating high casualties within the mole rat ranks.

“Hmmmm….It’s been a very harsh week General Rufus. I’ll be sure to send apples so keep up the good work!” I then give Rufus another salute.

*TIIIIIIIIIIIIITHHH*

Rufus salutes back while squealing and then runs off to return to the front lines. At first I was pretty worried since after 1 month, their numbers grew from 78 to over 2000. Their numbers continued to grow reaching 4000 making me think that I’m suffering a serious mole rat infestation. I was already planning on their eradication when I suddenly saw that their numbers fell from over 4000 to just a little over 2000. I then called the remaining mole rats asked them what’s happening and they all sent me a dizzying number of images. Since being bombarded with thousands of images is giving me a headache, I asked them to choose a representative instead and that’s when Rufus was born.

Ever since then Rufus would come and report about how many died and what monsters are invading underground. Rufus also made a defense line at the border where crops are planted stopping most underground monsters before they enter my farmland. Unfortunately, even with the brave mole rats defending the place, there are still monsters that they can’t beat.

I watched until Rufus entered one of the holes nearby and then continued to the stables. Now then, it might be odd to hear that I have stables even though Ollie is staying at my old cabin. The reason for this is because I obtained several Kairiris over two weeks ago. Actually, I was only supposed to have one but certain things happened and I now have three of them. There was a short story on how I got 2 extra Kairiris but the first one that I got was…….

“Hey Skuld! Are your girls well?” Yep, the one I got was Skuld along with 2 female kairiris and both of the females are about to lay eggs

The reason I got Skuld was of course because Krium sold him to me. The price was 400 bags of Hariya Beans with each bag weighing 20 kilos each along with 300 kilos of apples and mangoes. He also asked for 30 bags of Golden Rice from the next harvest. I first thought that it was a bit excessive but since I also liked Skuld, I agreed with his price.

Later that day Sorud came by and saw Skuld. I told him that I bought him from Krium which he then asks for how much. I, of course told him how much I traded for Skuld. He then asks where Lep-ahn was and so I also told him where Lep-ahn was at that time. He then left saying that he’ll be talking to Lep-ahn for a bit. After several hours, Sorud came back along with Lep-ahn. Amazingly enough, Lep-ahn brought along 2 other Kairiris and what’s more, both are female which was more expensive than a male kairiri. Sorud then tells me not to trade by myself anymore since I clearly don’t know how much things are supposed to cost here.

“Hmmmm…..both of them seem to be doing well. I’ll take you out for a run later so just stay here for now Skuld” After giving them their food, I checked the two females and was relieved to see that their doing fine.

After feeding the Kairiris, I head back out again. Things were a bit tense when I first got Skuld since I was afraid that Skuld might attack Ollie. Oddly enough, when they met, they both just looked each other in the eyes and after a while seems to recognize each other as equal which made me breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s already way past noon and I’m now getting a bit hungry and there’s no food left in the house. I guess I’ll be eating at the village tavern this time. I also already finished my rounds before feeding the kairiris so most of the work for the daytime is already over. With this in mind, I start to head for the village but before I could even move away from the house, I see a girl standing there.

“Rhiasviel? You’re back already?” I ask this mainly because I thought that she’ll still be with Lep-ahn

“Yes…well, Lep-ahn said that there won’t be anything for me to do today so I’m free to do what I want for the time being”

“I see……since your free, do you want to come with me to the village tavern and eat?” I’ll probably regret this but since she’s pretty I guess I won’t mind

“Yes!” an immediate reply. I guess she’s hungry again after fighting with Lep-ahn. With her tagging along, we start to head towards the village tavern

We were walking in relative silence when I thought about asking her something. It was something that’s been on my mind ever since I brought her back home. The tavern wasn’t that far away so making idle chatter should be a good way to pass the time and so I ask her this……

“Hey….um, Rhiasviel…..if you don’t mind me asking…..How can you eat so much? Isn’t eating too much bad for you?” Yep, this was bugging me ever since I saw her eat enough food for over 100 people

“Ah…that. The reason that I have to eat so much is because I’m Half-Vampire” She suddenly said something I never expected

“Half-Vampire?”

“Yes……several years back, I met a vampire and he asked me if I wanted to be a Vampire. I asked him what I’ll get if I become one and after hearing the downsides, I rejected him. He then told me that he can just turn me into a Half-Vampire which would eliminate most of the Vampire’s weakness but I won’t be able to fully use other abilities such as turning into a bat and stuff...Since the advantages seem to be good, I accepted”

“I see…..I’m guessing that rather than drinking blood, you need to eat more than…..usual?” Now the mystery of the world’s biggest eater is solved

“Yes….I only found out later though that the stronger the Vampire that turned you, the stronger you’ll become which was a good thing…Unfortunately that also means that you’ll need to drink more blood. In my case, I need to eat a lot to sustain myself and the Vampire that turned me seems to be really powerful….” Rhiasviel says this with a complicated expression. It seems that she’s regretting the fact that she got turned into a Half-Vampire

I went and asked her several more questions like what her 3 sizes were and what the color of her favorite panty is……….Sorry, that was a lie. I wouldn’t dare sexually harass someone with strength of a Vampire that could pummel me to the ground. What I did ask her was what her job class is. The only answer that I got was “A knight, I guess?” which almost made me retort with “Why would you need to guess that you’re a knight”. Of course I held back since there are things that people just doesn’t want to talk about….the thing about the Bloody Beast is also still on my mind. We talked for a bit more until we finally reached the village tavern.

“Hoh~ now this is new, little Riyen is with a girl. A very beautiful one at that” This was the greeting that I got right after we entered the place.

“Haaaaaa……Vough, she’s a new guard that I’ve hired. Anyway, please tell me you’ve got some good news for me” I tell this to the barkeep of this place, Vough. He also happens to be the architect from the Antlion Company and this place is owned by them.

“Hahahaha, aren’t you the one who’s supposed to tell if there’s any good news? Before that though what can I get you and your pretty friend?”

“Hmmm…Rhiasviel, find somewhere to sit and order what you want, as for me, I’ll just have the usual smoked meat with a bowl of beans”

“Coming right up!” I took a seat right at the counter since I needed to talk to Vough. Rhiasviel chose a far corner and also started ordering. After 10 minutes Vough got my meal ready and I quickly finished it so that we could start talking.

“…..You could have at least savored it a bit….well never mind, like I said Riyen, you’re the one who’s supposed to bring the good news. It’s either getting more crystals or finding a way to prevent the worms from getting close to your farmland. It’ll be difficult for me to plan anything so long as we can’t find any solutions for these problems”

“We’re still waiting to see if any of the big cities would trade some of their crystals. For the worms…still the same problem. They’re hard to detect and the mole rats are too weak to fight them off” I say this while slumping on the counter

Ever since I started planting the Golden Rice, a good amount of water has become extremely necessary. This was because I needed to flood the field where I intend to plant the rice. Just having them grow took several trial and errors on my part but in the end, I manage to succeed. For the water that was needed, the solution was fairly simple. The solution was to create an irrigation canal connected directly from the river. This canal will also be going straight to the village giving the villagers an easy way to collect water. Well, that was the plan and it worked pretty well for a few weeks. Unfortunately, this is Vermillion continent; as such problems will always pop up halting your progress.

The irrigation canals were completed after the RockBrand Field Boss showed up and it was 5 feet deep and 3 feet wide. Vough constructed a sort of floodgate where it was connected to the river so that we could control the water that will come in. The entire canal was reinforced with mud bricks so that the gushing water won’t erode the land and also for sanitary purposes. The project involved nearly all the villagers and was quite expensive. Over-all it costs nearly 3million gold for the canal to reach the entire fields. We celebrated when the project was completed but sadly it was short lived.

The canal worked for over 2 weeks but was unceremoniously destroyed by BergWorms. They just suddenly appeared one night and wrecked havoc on my precious fields. I wasn’t online at that time so I could only hear what happened from Lep-ahn. According to him, 3 BergWorms appeared and destroyed half of the Golden Rice fields and 14% of the Hariya Beans plantation. This was the first time BergWorms were seen so they got caught off guard. They managed to kill all 3 but the damage was already done. We only manage to see the full damage that was done when morning came. The canals that were outside the Guardian Crystals protection were badly damaged by the worms making them unusable.

I didn’t blame Lep-ahn and the guards for what happened since I actually already expected that things couldn’t possibly always go my way. I guess this is what people call growing up but anyway; I made some changes on where the crops needed to be planted. The fruit trees and herbs where already inside the crystal’s range so there was no need to change them but I moved most of the Hariya beans outside so that the Golden Rice can replace them. This was because the Hariya beanstalks is quite durable that even 9 feet worms with beaks made of some kind of hard mineral would take several bites before they get destroyed.

Lep-ahn also devised a way to counter the worms. This was where the bells were first made used of but the bells would only ring if the worms were quite near them. The worms would appear irregularly and would circle around outside the range of the crystals. After several clashes, it was found out that the Elipan’s “Ground Slam” skill which was basically hammering the ground would disorient the worms making them surface. This skill works well with the Divine Skill Eyes of En-Il since I could see the life energy of the worms and can direct the Elipans to where they need to strike.

This skill was a good way to get rid of the worms but has a very bad side effect. It would make a decent size crater on the ground and would destroy nearby crops and if used near the irrigation canals, would destroy them more than the worms would. Activating Eyes of En-Il 24/7 also isn’t possible and I would often only use them when it was known that the worms are already here but by that time it’s already too late.

Now, the Guardian Crystals shape is like that of a bubble and the river is about 300 meters away from the village. You might think that the village was too far from the river but you thought wrong. According to Sorud when the rainy season comes, the river that is 53 feet wide and 12 feet deep would swell to over 10 times of what it is now. The distance of the river to the closest range of the Guardian Crystal is about 120 meters which isn’t too far but definitely not close either.

The rainy season appears every 4 years and it would start again 16 months from now. With this in mind, I can’t plant any crops anywhere near the river since they’ll just get washed away. Moving the growing village near the rivier also isn't possible so we just have to make do until we can get larger and more Guardian Crystals. Finding a Guardian Crystal is nearly impossible so we can only hope that one of the 3 large cities agrees to trade some to us. They were already informed by the Raks of Rak-ahn’s clan and the Gnues from the large city of Garveen already visited us but no deals for the crystals have yet been made.

“Vough, we still don’t have a sure way of preventing the worms and the mole rats can’t hope to beat a V4 level 540 monster. I tried talking to the ones we managed to capture but that was pointless as well. I’m just here to hear if you have any other ideas. Water isn’t a problem at this point but if we can’t get any crystal….we’ll need a way to make the canals work”

This was the hard truth. No matter how fertile the soil is, plants won’t survive without either water or sunlight. Sunlight wasn’t a problem but if I want to enlarge the fields, I’ll need an efficient way to obtain water. More and more Beast People are appearing in the village so hiring more guards to protect the fields should not be a problem and the possible damage the worms will make is something I’ll have to accept.

“…….Riyen…….if we could reinforce the canals with steel and concrete….then even the BergWorms shouldn’t be able to destroy them. Unfortunately our technology level isn’t advance enough for that. We could import them from Versailles but that would be extremely expensive”

“Import? How expensive are we talking about?” this sounded good so I’m willing to spend more if this is a possible solution

“Hmmm…..To get enough steel and concrete to cover the length of the irrigation canals….then maybe somewhere from 9-12million. It should be enough to cover about 3 acres if it’s planned properly but the costs to just transport that should be within 4milliion Arpen Gold”

“That’s a bit…..large” was the only thing I could say. The minimum I’ll need was 13million and that isn’t something I could get within just a year. I’ll also need to hire workers so the costs will just increase more and more.

“Sadly, that’s how it is Riyen. We can get materials for a cheaper price but transport needs to be from the Arpen Empire since they’re the only ones willing to travel here in the first place. The Vermillion sea is fairly dangerous that you need to ride a warship just to get here.”

Fairly dangerous was a nice way of saying it. I’ve heard from Claudia that players first tried to get here using normal ships and they all got sunk by the sea monsters lurking there.

‘Haaaa…..I guess I can only wait though I don’t even know if I’m gonna obtain more crystals or not. Lep-ahn and the Leoparns are also getting better at hunting the worms. I don’t even need to be there and they can kill the worms once they surfaced for the second time…….Vough, please continue to think of something and I’ll do the same so this will be it for now. So, how much do I owe you?”

“Well that’s Lep-ahn for you. Here’s the receipt, you also don’t need to worry. I’ll rack my brains out to figure out a way to make this work” Vough hands me the bill while smiling a bit

“……..What the heck! Hey Vough! Why the hell did my bill get this big?!” I can’t believe how much I need to pay for just a few pieces of smoked meat and beans. It’s almost as if 20 people ate……..shit!

I quickly looked back at where Rhiasviel was sitting and see piles of plates in her table. It seems she heard me and is now avoiding eye contact. Since I already know why she needs to eat so much, I can only put the blame on my carelessness. I grudgingly pay the laughing barkeep and leave the place. We’re now heading back to my house with Rhiasviel right next to Ollie. We walked back to my house in relative silence mainly because I don’t have anything more I wish to ask her. My house is already in sight and once more for the third time, there was someone right in front of it. This time however, there were two of them. One of them is Sorud and the other was…….a Hippo?

“Hyumen Riyen……this is an emissary from one of the 3 large cities. He is here to tell us that they are willing to trade a part of their Guardian Crystals”

Sorud says this just as I approach them. Finally! The moment I’ve been waiting for has arrived! The only thing that I don’t get is why they are here. I gave Sorud the authority to deal with all the trades since I’m still not familiar with how things work unless it’s with gold so there was no need for him to bring the Hippo here.

“Riyen….they have asked that you accompany them back to their city to conclude the deal” Sorud says this with a very bitter expression and I can only reply with....

“Ha?”

To be continued...