It has been days since he had left and the jungle was endless. He had a few more days before the turning point where the food would become a problem. That was reflected by the sour mood of his six companions. He felt the mutiny is close.

“Listen, I have a feeling it’s close.” He spoke to his men.

“You have been saying that for days.”

“Yeah!”, “Mhh.”, “You got it right.” Others agreed.

For one reason or the other, he could hear his companions speak or at least he imagined them to.

“But if we turn back, we come back empty-handed. It would be such a waste.” He tried to reason.

“Do you even know the way back?” the leader of the six spoke.

“I sure do! There’s no way I would get lost.”

“Really? I’m not so sure about that.”

Recently his six companions were awfully talkative, well, he imagined them to be and It would be a good thing if not for the small detail that all they did was criticise him.

“I am so bored of eating TomGrape.”

“Every day it’s TomGrape.”

“And we sleep rough. It’s cold and it’s tiring.”

“All we do is walk all day. And for what?”

The mutiny was getting out of hand. But they were right, the jungle exploration was not as exciting as he had expected. The scenery barely even changed.

He pushed through an overgrown bush still keen on pressing forwards.

“Nothing could be endless…” He spoke more to himself than others. “Huh?!” He exclaimed walking out of the bush.

The scenery has changed radically. There was a huge league-wide clearing. The boring green was replaced with vibrant blue. It was a field of flowers, and nothing else.

“Come! Come!” He urged his companions. “We had found it.” The promised land of blue!

He wasn’t sure what he had found exactly, but that didn’t matter at this point. He ran deeper into the dense field until he was surrounded by flowers. His reckless charge disturbed blue bell-like petals sending equally blue dust into the air.

“Achoo!” He sneezed from the airborne pollen.

Then he plucked one of the flowers to inspect it more closely. It was entirely blue, the stem and the flower. The petals were as big as his hand and formed a bell-like shape. The bell was filled with dust like pollen.

“It’s the moment of truth.” He bit on the flower to taste it. “It’s slightly sweet!” Having the two food relating perks allowed him not to worry. He offered some to his companions, but they were more cautious than him and remained unwilling to try unfamiliar food. “Oh, the dust stains everything.” He made another discovery. “And it’s hard to get off.” He rubbed his hands but the blue dye was stubborn.

[Warning! Perk Poison Resistance is active.]

“Huh?” He blinked. “Could it be?”

He turned to look at his companions, it was good they didn’t eat any. However, the cloud of dust has settled and now clung to their obsidian carapace.

“Let’s get out of here!” He urged.

The six companions were sluggish in their rush to retreat back to the jungle.

“Hopefully this is not permanent.” He worried.

Back in the greenery and away from the flower field he weighed on this discovery.

“The negative effect of the dust doesn’t seem permanent on you guys which is good. And I ate the thing and I’m fine. Is this because I have resistance?” He weighed his options. “I am going back to collect some more. You guys wait here.” He instructed.

And to his surprise his companions understood him, probably for the first time since in reality, they didn’t listen to his commands as of yet; they only followed him everywhere.

He plucked the flowers whole and stuffed them in the [Cloth Pouches] he had previously made. He also made sure to gather some plants intact together with the soil, hoping that they will survive the long trip.

While doing so he noticed something peculiar on one of the flowers.

“What is this?” He wondered out loud. “A slug?!” He shouted in joy.

While yes It was a disgusting slug-like animal it still was the first one ever he had seen in this place. The creature was translucent or would be if it didn’t feast on the blue dust. It wasn’t hostile either, it simply wriggled its two slug antenna curiously at his fingers.

“I am taking you home.” It was decided.

…

Something new and out of the ordinary was found making the expedition a success. The way home was uneventful which was a good thing.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Another good thing was that the Farming exp still slowly ticked up even when he was away from the farm. It was a minuscule amount only but that must have added to something because…

[Congratulations! You have reached Farming lvl. 2]

[Perk Acclimate obtained.]

Well, maybe not so uneventful after all.

Back on the farm, the party was greeted by curious workers.

“Did you miss us? We come back with the spoils.” He waved a slightly wilted petal at the farmer.

It sniffed the blue plant and then recoiled from it as if it was poisoned.

“Meh! What do you know.” He deposited it into his mouth. “Mmm… Sweat.”

[Warning! Perk Poison Resistance is active]. Warning or not, it tasted delicious!

The spiders didn’t like these flowers much, but all it meant was that there will be more for him and his slug. Oh, and the slug had a name now – Johny. of course, he wouldn't let Johny starve so planting a small patch of these flowers here was a matter of urgency. Hopefully, this new perk [Aclimate] will come in handy.

…

The patch of flowers took the new soil well, no doubt all thanks to the perk. He had named the flowers as DustyBlue.

Aside from tasting slightly sweet and being Johny’s favourite food, these flowers had a few useful properties. They produced dust in ample quantities. The said dust was that special thing which made these flowers different. Aside from causing torpor and sleepiness to his farmers, the dust was a herbicide – it killed all other plants except for the flower. Which made so much sense thinking about that flower field. Also, the dust was a great dye if dissolved in water. No longer will he need to suffer the dull brown colour of the cloth. Incidentally, all of his clothes were now dyed blue.

In addition to all that there was another small discovery. It was an odd one and it’s better if no one asks how he had found this one, but Johny made a special jelly. The jelly concentrated the sweetness of the DustyBlue leaves making it a special treat which even his spider pets could enjoy. Too bad Johny was so little and could make only so much. He made sure to feed it plenty of leaves so it grows big and strong.

All in all, things were good and his little village was prospering. The spiders had expanded the TomGrape fields, it was quite a large area already. A bit further away there were fields for BanditAgave and StemLeaf. The two didn’t even compare with the area assigned to TomGrape, after all, he didn’t need that much cloth or ropes.

The DustyBlue field was the smallest of them all and it was by intention. His little workers kinda stayed away from the flowers, likely not too pleased about the debuff the dust had. He had to tend to this one on his own, and it was okay since he had Johny to keep him company. That and the fact the exp he was getting then tending to the flower field was very sweet indeed. Each time he harvested a bell he was met with [Farming +5exp] message.

…

The next step in his plans was to begin dyeing the cloth on an industrial scale, which was of course only an exaggeration. To achieve that he had dug a pool and filled it with the stream water. Then he filled it with the DustyBlue dust. He was very lucky the dye worked in cold water. A source of hot water was still a dream far away.

Then he would fill the pool with cloth at let it sit there for a couple of days. For better or worse, the dye was a potent one. He would only need to do this once, after which the vivid blue colour wouldn't wash off; It was even able to stain wood permanently.

Naturally, in no time at all he had a shed full of rolls of blue cloth; he even died all his ropes and twines blue.

“No longer will I need to suffer the boring brown.” It was nice.

Now and then, he would need to do some digging and other dirty work, that’s when he realised that the blue cloth he used was more than pretty fabric. It was both water resistant and dirt repelling. It was like magic, the dirt just didn’t stick to it.

“I wonder why when I inspect this it didn’t telll me about this?”

[Blue Cloth], was the simple prompt he would get trying to inspect the item.

Regardless of the mystery, he had so much of it now that he needed to do something about it. And why not make some clothes for his workers? And his six jesters looked amazing in theirs.

“A company uniform!” He beamed and then frowned at his own idea. “No, this is not a company, this is a kingdom! And every one shall dress appropriately.” Then he shook his head as if to refute that. “Even better. I pass the first law…” T

here were better, and more important laws to make, but despite that. This was the first law: “No one shall go naked.”.

Thus he began the production of clothes for his people. He decided that different workers will have different attire. A bunch of designs were made, and he made sure to test each on his jesters. The blue clothes really did look well on his spiders, making them much less monster-like.

“It’s funny how something simple like this makes you look less like a simple animal and more…” he looked for a good word, “civilized…” he didn’t know if he found the right one.

It wasn’t easy to fashion a cloth so it fits the spider well, but he managed somehow. For the farmers he made pants, which were more like sleeves for their six legs, the sleeves were held taunt on their bodies using twine and rope belts.

For the fibre-processing spiders, he made robes, which ended up looking more like a shirt since the spiders were quite flat. Imagine a horse with one of those blankets to keep them warm on their backs, the ones reaching only to their knees.

The weavers had ribbon tape wrapped all over their bodies, with plenty of gaps in between. This wasn’t proper clothing, but the contrast of obsidian black and blue was pleasant to the eye.

The jungle clearers ended up with the heaviest design. They had spider ‘pants’, spider robes and even head wraps covering their body. They were clad blue from head to toe. The reason for that is simple. It was to protect them from the sticky plant juice and matter then they churned at the greenery with their mandibles.

Even if he didn’t have guards, he had made an uniform. It was unlikely the spiders needed extra armour since they had their carapace so he kept it light. It was just a cloak attached to their backs.

For the last set of clothes, he just went wild. It was strips, belts and patches of cloth all over to give this crazy look. He even fashioned a small top hat to complete the look. This was the attire worthy of a jester.

The completion of each uniform gave him +50 Crafting exp. – which was a significant amount.

With the designs done, he paraded his six models all over the farm to see what the public thinks. The reception was overwhelmingly positive. His people were extremely curious about these clothes.

One of the farmers was eyeing spider pants with interest, appreciating the design and the vivid blue. Curiously he tugged at the sleeve and then nibbled at the twine on the back holding it. The design was good, the pants were not coming off easily.

The jester raised his body higher off the ground to tip tow on its legs and to look bigger. It was obvious, he was proud of his clothes. It was just there standing perfectly still and willingly subjecting itself to these curious inspections.

This scene repeated itself all over the farm. Eventually, the spiders stopped working altogether, a rare sight for otherwise always-busy creatures.

His people were demanding these clothes! There was a riot about to happen.

“I better go and craft some more!” He was all fired up now.