The first four hours of the morning passed quickly; John was up before dawn and spent four hours feeding the tree space mana while he perused the forums and made notes on special plants people had found. There weren’t a lot, or at least not many people had bothered to note down plants that didn’t immediately effect or benefit them. The few that were mentioned were intriguing though.

First was the Golden Apples of Immortality, of which one total had been found and consumed. Ophanim113 had graciously (and after more than a little pestering) posted what he knew about them. First, he had obtained it as a quest reward, so he couldn’t say where they actually grew, or if they were anything other than system generated. Second, the description said the apple had to be eaten whole, core, seeds, and all, this neatly prevented anyone from trying to get the seeds for replanting (unless of course they wanted to forego the buff). Finally, the apple applied a buff to the user called ‘Contingent Resurrection’. The buff didn’t have a countdown timer, so it seemed to be static until used, meaning it was one of the few ‘indefinite’ buffs discovered. However, it did have the note ‘Use Limit: 1’ attached, which suggested it would resurrect him once and then be spent. The fact that it had a use limit and bothered to tell you the number suggested there were ways to get more contingent resurrections, but no one was sure if that just meant eating more apples, or if the effect didn’t stack from the same source.

The next item to catch his eye was Moly, which was obviously the plant from Greek mythology, with its white drooping flowers and black bulbous root. This was, again, a quest reward, and the only reason it’d come up in his search was that the owner was looking for an alchemist who could refine it. Apparently the description mentioned it could ‘break curses and cure poisons’ when properly prepared.

There were a handful of other hits, but most were for mundane herbs used in making alchemical concoctions such as health and mana potions. Of those, the one that most intrigued him was the mandrake root which, apparently, was used in several alchemical elixirs; that one had potential for planting. Although, depending on how heavily the devs went in on the myth, harvesting could be tricky.

Finished with the tree and his impromptu research, John headed back to the farm where he took care of the chookers and checked the auction. His eight life stones (which he’d put up for seven gold each) had all sold, as had the previous day’s eggs.

Exiting the coop he found one of Lady Oswald’s guards waiting for him. Seeing the man at arms he silently cursed; he’d forgotten to reserve some of the eggs for them.

“Good morning to you Mister John,” the stout man began. “If you would not mind Lady Oswald would like a moment of your time.”

“Sure,” John said, and then fell into step behind the dwarf.

Entering the guest house John found Susanna sitting at the table once more. He paused to give a bow and she waved toward the seat across from her, a clear invitation to sit. Taking the seat John looked at the dwarven woman and couldn’t help noticing that she seemed different. It was in the way she held herself; more self-confidence and certain steeliness to her spine.

“Thank you for joining me,” she said as she lifted a stone pot from the heating plate it’d been resting on. With a practiced motion she poured steaming tea into two stone mugs. “As you’ll no doubt learn later today, the testing was completed yesterday afternoon. I am pleased to say I, along with several others, passed. This does not mean that I will be the new baroness of Runic Rock; that has yet to be decided and will be announced today before the emperor leaves.” She offered one of the mugs to John, who accepted it and then took a tentative sip. It seemed to be a strong and slightly bitter tea and he couldn’t quite keep his face from showing his thoughts on the matter.

Susanna gave a small smile. “Sorry, we didn’t pack cream or honey, to be honest we only have the tea because it’s my favorite blend so I keep some on me. That said, I think you’ll find the buff useful, so I do suggest drinking it all.”

“It’s fine, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. What’s the tea do?”

“The buff is called ‘Steady Hand, Sound Mind’, and it, like all food buffs, scales to the quality of the product. In this case the tea is Incredible quality, but thanks to using basic, conjured water and less than stellar cooking options the quality of the tea has degraded to Good. In this case it will grant a fifteen percent increase to dexterity and intelligence,” she explained.

“So, what? Five percent per quality ranking?” John inquired and the dwarven woman nodded. “That’s actually really useful, I’ll have to look into growing the herbs it’s made out of.”

“I wouldn’t, not with your setup. You’re better off growing small batches of high value items, at least for now. While you could no doubt grow some high-quality herbs, the market for teas is already well established and unless you can grow them all at Exquisite quality or greater you’d be hard pressed to break into it,” Lady Oswald explained. “But I digress. I wanted to thank you once more for your hospitality these last few days; few of my peers would have extended such largess, and we could not have paid, at least up front, the frankly ludicrous rates being asked by the Titans.”

John gave a small shrug. “If you really want to thank someone, I suggest Knight Elenia, she’s the one who suggested I hear you out.”

Susanna gave a thoughtful nod. “I will extend my thanks to her as well, however just because you did something at the behest of another doesn’t mean you don’t deserve thanks as well.” She then made a dismissive motion with her hand. “In any case, I suspect that I will be leaving by the end of today one way or another and wished to convey my gratitude.”

John bobbed his head and took a long drink of his tea while trying to decide what to say. The small smile on Lady Oswald’s face said that she knew what he was doing. Finally, he put the now drained cup down. “I will accept your thanks in the spirit in which they were offered then. And I’d like to give my sincere congratulations on your success yesterday.”

She inclined her head in acknowledgement then continued. “As you have refused more gold for my stay, and I still desire to give you some repayment, I would like to offer some advice before we leave, if you are amenable?”

“I suppose? Though you really don’t owe me anything.”

Susanna gave another slight smile before continuing. “If you’re going to keep animals, you’ll almost certainly need a farm hand who’s talents lay in the direction. To that end I would suggest you hire a Nymph, Domovoy, Glaistig, or Gruagach. All four species are good with animals and can leverage that into feats that will increase yield, quality of products, and livestock health.” She paused as she looked at John’s expression. “Is something wrong?”

Giving an uncomfortable shrug he gave voice to his thoughts. “It just seems wrong to hire people based on their race, er, species. It feels like I’m saying others aren’t good enough just because they didn’t have the fortune to be born into a specific species.”

Lady Oswald paused for a second, her face showing consideration, then she spoke. “John, say you needed to hire a musician, you have two candidates who’ve worked their entire lives to be the best they can, but one was born with an innate talent for music. Assume for our purposes that they are both of the same species and tell me, which do you hire?”

There was a moment of hesitation before john responded. “Probably the one with the innate talent,” he said reluctantly.

“Just so, they are, in every measurable aspect, simply better by chance of birth and I suspect you only hesitated in your answer because you see my point. We cannot help our circumstances of birth; some people are just innately better at some things than others. Does that mean we have to be defined by them? No, but all things being equal, those without talent will rarely reach the same heights as those with talent. You are doing no one an injustice by hiring those with innate talent who wish to leverage it,” she explained, not unkindly. “That said, if you’re still hesitant, you could entreat Ira for a boon that would substitute for an innate ability, though if you do so you will be building on a foundation that can be lost later should you fail to uphold your end or in some other way offend the goddess.”

John winced. “I don’t think I’m her favorite person right now,” he admitted.

“I sense a story there, but I won’t pry. Still, you should give both options some thought. Now, for my next piece of advice. There is a feat chain called Overseer that I think you might want to invest in as well. It’s unlocked by hiring an employee and walking them through what work you need done. Each rank in it grants five percent of your bonuses to those who work for you. It’s often used by large operations, such as quarries, lumber mills, and other people who want to employ others who may not have the same talents or feats they themselves do. While you can survive selling small batches of high value crops, there’s no reason you can’t also employ others at the same time and increase your profit margin,” she explained.

John blinked as he considered that. “Does that work for all my abilities?”

“Any ability that can be quantified numerically, yes.”

“So, say I have the domain feat, would they gain five percent of the bonuses from that?”

Susanna smiled. “Yes, they would, though at only five percent it wouldn’t be terribly noticeable.”

John nodded. “That’s really helpful, thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure, but I have one more piece of wisdom to dispense, though I recognize this one is going to be a bit hard to swallow. You should either sell most of your current land, or rent it out. While its obvious this area was untamed wilderness when you started, it’s swiftly becoming a more commercial area, and having a farm in the middle is just begging for trouble, if not from locals trying to get you to leave, then from your chookers getting out and causing mischief. It’s clear you’ve put a lot of effort into your current setup, but with the money you could make from what is now very high value land, you could easily pay someone to clear out and set up a new area for you.”

John ran his fingers through his beard as he considered her suggestion. “I’m just not sure I want to be that far away from the tree, its still my job to take care of it.”

“Then I suggest learning the teleport or portal spells. Given that you won’t be moving more than a few kilometers, the mana cost of reaching the shrine would be almost inconsequential if you use Imprinting; which I know you can do given your displays of earth magic.”

“I don’t suppose you know either of those spells and could show me how to cast them?”

“I don’t, but Lex does,” Susanna said, gesturing to one of her guards. “You should be aware that compensation in the form of trade or gold is the norm; usually you trade spells of the same tier, or you pay a gold per tier of the spell. Portal, which is the spell Lex knows, is a tier ten spell, that means it costs one hundred mana per second at its base. Because this spell also deals with distances, that multiplies the cost by each mile traveled. Of course, if you have certain feats such as Increased Distance, you can expand the range while minimizing costs, though normally only dedicated specialists take such feats. Finally, all portal beacons also act as dimensional anchors; that means any teleports or portals activated within five miles of the beacon will be automatically redirected to it. This includes ones that are outbound. So you’ll want to set your new farm up at least six miles away if you intend to portal back and forth.”

Lex stepped forward and gave john a polite nod. John returned it and then willed ten golds into his hand and placed them on the table.

“Alright, watch closely now,” the dwarf said, and then made a gesture.

A small bright line of light appeared in the air, then opened, creating a doorway that showed John from behind, suggesting the exit of the portal was right behind him. Ignoring the surreal experience, he focused on the weave of mana he could see sustaining the portal. He took a blueprint almost immediately, and then nodded is head. “I got a blueprint of it and should be able to learn it from that. Thank you.”

“No need for thanks, you are paying after all,” Lex said with a grin as he scooped up the gold coins. He then turned to Susanna. “M’lady, I believe you’re short on funds to pay for our lodgings, please allow me to offer what I have.”

Lady Oswald nodded her head graciously. “Thank you, Guardsman Lux, I will be sure that you are fully compensated upon our return.” She then took the proffered coins and immediately placed three of them on the table. “I believe this was our agreed upon sum, Mister John?”

Bobbing his head, John scooped up the coins and willed them back into his inventory. “That it was Lady Oswald. It’s been a pleasure hosting you,” he said, bemused by the exchange.

“And I thank you once more for your hospitality. Please do not let me keep you any longer, I suspect you have work to do, and we must prepare to depart.”

John stood and gave another bow. “Farewell Lady Oswald.”

She nodded in turn. “Farewell, Mister John.”

With that, John left the house.