"You-" The shopkeeper- who Jacob simply dubbed as "Bob," in his head - fumed as he swiped the small packet of seeds from his hand. Those were supposed to be the potato equivalent and are called as such, - and they do start off as seeds yes, - in this world and he plans on growing them for the foreseeable future because he generally likes the stuff, there's a lot of things that one can do with potatoes that didn't just include turning them into chips of fries after all, and what's more, Alexis did say that she's pretty good at preparing the stuff in a variety of souped dishes so Jacob had no choice, he decided to buy an entire bag of the things for the farm.

Bob though, didn't seem eager to part with them for a measly 1 silver and is still trying to sell it to him for 3, which is kind of expensive considering that an entire silver coin is enough to feed a small family in this city for 3 days if they spend it right. So selling the bag for 3 silver is essentially daylight robbery and Jacob's [Haggling] skill has told him as much, and that's why he's been trying to lower the price for them.

And again, Bob here is making that kind of difficult for him to do, because the man simply refused to lower the price to something more reasonable.

Case in point, "- how much of an idiot do you think I am?" He asked, face red, "I know the actual price of my wares and 3 silvers for a bag of potato seeds that can last for seasons is more than fair,"

"Fair?" Jacob asked, voice questioning, "Anyone can buy the damn things for less than 1 silver anywhere else," he did not actually know if that's the actual case though, but that seemed like a fair guess given that [Haggling] is essentially telling him that the man is trying to rob him of his money, "Hell, I can probably walk down the street and buy something like this for a silver and a half at most! And 2 when people are in dire need of money!"

He yelled a tad too loudly, hoping that anyone hearing it would intentionally lower the price of the same stuff unless they want to look unreasonable and desperate, and if his words tricked Bob, he didn't let it show because the man still refused to hand over the bag of seeds for a silver coin, "I'll take it for 1 silver,"

"and a half," Bob added.

"And a half." Jacob replied, smiling as he took out two silver coins, "give the change to my maid over there," he said once Bob reached out a hand with a single, large copper coin on it. At his words, the man immediately gave it to the maid who followed after Jacob as he started walking around the marketplace, observing wares and trying to spot anything that will interest him. He turned back to Alexis, who had the coin in her hand, and said, "Keep it,"

"It's mine?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's the best I can do for all this right?" He did feel a bit asshole-ish for doing this to her, especially since she also came from a decent background but treating it like he was giving her a tip didn't sound so bad in his head so that's a good reason as any, "think of it as a Tip." He added, emphasizing the word so that she can understand what it actually means thanks to the world auto-translating it, "You can save it, spend it on yourself, that sort of thing."

"I- thanks," Alexis bowed before putting the coin inside one of her pockets.

"Anytime," Jacob replied as he threw the bag of potato seeds inside his Port.

Their walk across the market lead them to buy a few interesting things, mostly ones that involved farming equipment such as hoes, shovels, trowels, pots, and everything else that Jacob thought about as well as the few items that Alexis had pointed out to be quite vital in farming such as barrels for compost, a spit fork, as well as a few ghome homes.

Jacob actually bought three of the last one, curious as to how something like that could attract a minor Earth Fae but inspecting it pretty much gave him nothing and when he asked Alexis about it, all she said was- "Gnomes find things like that comfortable," she explained, "so they go there and enchant the place themselves,"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"That's neat," Jacob said as he stuffed the dome like thing designed to look like a mushroom inside his Port, "what do Gnomes do for farms?"

"They enrich the soil," Alexis replied, raising a hand as well as one finger, "they also keep pests away by their presence alone," two fingers, "and also, they're quite useful when it comes to protecting your home from other minor spirits while also acting as a literal ward for any earthen hazards."

"And they just what? Willingly go to farms to do this?" Jacob asked again.

"Well no, they do benefit from it, mostly because they get to have their own domain that's safe from most of the things they consider dangerous because of other physical presences, like humans or animals," Answered Alexis, "It's a fair exchange really, Gnomes get to have a safety place to live on for a few years, and humans get to have a farm that has a rich and well protected soil."

"Should I buy more?" Jacob asked, suddenly feeling a bit too lacking now that he knows that Gnomes are pretty useful.

"You don't need to," replied Alexis, "Gnome communities naturally form on their own underground, and if you're lucky, they might even call other spirits that aren't just of the earth variety, or if you're really lucky, Gnomes can call earth spirits of higher grade and standing,"

"I wanna buy more now-" Jacob turned back but stopped when Alexis grabbed him by the hood and pulled him back.

"As I said, you don't need to," she said, "you don't want your spirits to overpopulate a farm that's not really producing anything yet,"

"Why's that a problem? Do they eat?" Jacob asked.

"No, but they can cannibalize each other because the natural energy that your plants would otherwise produce would be insufficient, and unless you want that, don't do anything rash and stupid."

"Okay," Jacob said, raising a hand in surrender.

By the time they finished, Jacob had spent a single gold in buying all the farming equipment that he thought he'd needed, things such as the sprinklers, he thought, wouldn't exactly be that useful after he heard the amount of maintenance the enchanted water sprayers needed and thus, he decided to just buy a can-and-spray with an enchantment that expanded its interior- which should be enough for what he needs but just to be sure, he also bought another one as an extra.

"Okay, so we're now done with buying all the things we need right?" Jacob asked as he closed his Port and placed it back on his belt, locking it in place to prevent theft.

"If I can suggest something," Alexis said and Jacob responded with a single nod to gesture that she can, "why did you buy two water cans? You said that your farm had a river on it correct?"

"Yeah?" Jacob said as they made their way to a nearby flea market, which should have all the seeds that he'll need to get the actual farm started, and they're all cheap to boot. "What's wrong with buying the cans?"

"Can't you just dig a watering system?" She asked and Jacob stared at her, confused, which Alexis quickly got so she made another suggestion, "Wouldn't it be easier if you make troughs of water run across your farm?"

"Huh?" Jacob asked, genuinely confused. "What?"

Alexis scratched her head, frustration slowly growing on her face, "you... make lines on the dirt along the river," she started explaining slowly, hoping that this would allow her master to understand what she was getting at, "and you can change how much water they can provide by changing their size, from small for the potatoes to large for things like grain and wheat?"

"Huh?" Jacob looked around, no one seems to be refuting Alexis and some people even had expressions of agreement, "You can do that?"

"Master... did you not look at the farms of the people from your land back in your plane?" She asked, now sharing Jacob's confusion.

"My family didn't really dabble in farms," Jacob reasoned, continuing his walk across the place, "We had a business that sold energy to the masses so everything keeps working," or in his siblings' case, processed food because they couldn't be bothered in making deals with oil companies, creating powerplants, and overall, buying factories and modifying them through equipment just sounded so much easier.

"... I understand," Alexis replied, bowing, "I am sorry, I'm afraid I was mistaken in my initial impression of what your family did for lordship,"

"Eh, it's fine," Jacob waved her off, "appliances aren't really common here so I get it you know?"

"Mhmm." She hummed, "Then for a tip, we can fill those cans with pesticide, so we should buy those in the flea market we are going to,"

"Or we can buy them here?" Jacob replied quizzically as he eyed the farming store they passed by, they do give the impression that sell pesticides so checking it out is probably worth the shot. "Is that a good idea?"

Alexis nodded, "Of course,"