The walk into town was uneventful and he arrived in time to find several players setting up stalls, including Sally and Ex. Seeing the two getting ready to sell, or try anyway, he drifted in their direction.

Sally spotted him first eliciting a loud “HI JOHN!” and frantic waving as he approached.

John waved back. “Hi Sally, Ex, how’s it going?”

“Eh, not great,” Ex grumbled.

“Don’t listen to him! It’s going great! We’re level 7 now and can take three levels of the dungeon!” Sally boasted.

“Doesn’t it only have three?” John inquired.

“Nope, it has at least four now,” Ex said, “No one has beat the fourth level yet though, so there may be more.”

“Huh, so the dungeon can grow?”

“YEP! Grandma Loren says that dungeons can level up by eating people who die! It had only three levels when we started,” Sally shared exuberantly.

“Makes sense I guess. Theodore also told me that items fed to a dungeon can be replicated by the dungeon,” John mused.

“Really?” Ex asked. “Maybe we should feed it more items then, all we’re getting is junk so far, and there’s no one to sell it to. Thirty-eight million players in the Americas alone and we can’t find anyone to buy our junk.”

“Isn’t there some kind of auction function?” John asked quizzically, only to be interrupted by a popup.

[It appears you’re attempting to access the Auction. Would you like to purchase a year-long subscription to the Auction Module for 20 USD or 200 Gold?]

“Seriously?” he asked the air. “No thank you.”

“Seriously,” Ex repeated. “Honestly twenty bucks isn’t so bad, if we had anything worth selling over the Auction. The Mana Stones might count, but we haven’t found any that aren’t Poor quality and low capacity yet.”

“There’s got to be some other way to move your items? Traveling traders maybe?” John asked.

“The townsfolk say that one stops here every month or so. He’s probably making a killing on mana stones given that he usually buys the town’s entire stock. But he buys them at rock bottom prices, so that’s barely any return.” Ex shook his head. “What this town desperately needs is a Portal.”

“Portal?” John echoed.

“Yeah! A Portal! Ex found out about them on the forums! They open gateways or teleport people to different places depending on the type!” Sally broke in enthusiastically.

Ex gestured to Sally. “That’s about the long and short of it. Most large cities have one or two. And from the sounds of it they’re mostly used to move small goods. But it’d be perfect for allowing us to export things like Mana Stones.”

“Huh, that’d be actually really helpful to me too, I don’t know who I’m selling my produce to at this point,” John admitted.

“Oh yeah, you’re a farmer, you would need people to sell food to. Have you considered NPCs? Word is that at the end of this month they’re going to implement a way to pull money out of the game instead of just putting it in,” Ex continued as he slotted the last parts of the stall together.

“Really? I guess that could make the… it feels weird to call them NPCs, they’re pretty real…” John trailed off.

“They think therefore they are!” Proclaimed Sally.

Ex shook his head. “Got a better word for them? They reference themselves as people, and us as Players.”

“No, it just feels weird. Anyway, yeah, that could make NPCs a potential market, but the people around here don’t need my food. Besides, my first crop is a failure anyway,” John said with a head shake of his own.

“It can’t be that bad!” Sally pressed.

“Frank says it’s going to be Poor quality since it’s growing so fast, maybe Common because of one of my racial traits, but I don’t think so. The trait is called Plant Tender and I haven’t done any real tending of my crops besides planting them,” John explained.

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“Well that sucks. Still, live and learn,” Ex said. “So what brings you into town today? Need more Mana Stones? We’ve got plenty of Earth Stones!”

“Nah, well… maybe. I’m actually here to talk to a farmer called Ellie, apparently she owns a Thresher.”

“Oh! Ellie!” Sally exclaimed. “She’s nice, she runs the fruit stall over there,” A clawed finger pointed toward the square where John could make out a fruit stall being tended by a woman.

“What’s a Thresher?” Ex asked after Sally finished.

“It’s a machine that beats grain stalks until all the seeds fall off, then blows away all the chaff leaving you with just the kernels, which it dispenses into a pan, tray, or bag,” John explained.

“That sounds really convenient!” Sally exclaimed.

“It is!” John said with a grin. “I honestly thought I was going to have to thresh the entire field by hand, I was not looking forward to that.”

“It sounds like you got really lucky that someone here owns one,” Ex said as he started pulling out pieces of armor, implements, and Mana Stones to place on the counter.

“Yeah…” John trailed off as he looked at the booth some more. “Hey, where did you get the wood for the booth?”

“Huh?” Both Sally and Ex looked at the booth.

“Oh, the dungeon sometimes spits out wood, usually in the form of planks or small logs. We got the local carpenter to put this together for us for a few coppers. Nice guy, really chatty, apparently he doesn’t get a huge amount of work out here,” Excelsior explained.

“Good to know, I was wondering where they were finding things like fire wood out here,” John said.

“Yeah, it’s one of the few things we can sell easily,” Ex said with a nod as he finished straightening out the objects on the counter.

“Alright, I’ll let you get back to your selling,” John said to the two of them.

“Ha! I wish,” Ex muttered in response.

“BYE JOHN!” shouted Sally from just a few feet away.

“Bye.” John said even as his ears rang slightly.

Leaving Ex and Sally to tend their booth he made his way across the square towards Ellie’s, pausing to wave to Grandma Loren as he went by. She gave him a smile and waved back, then turned her attention to the plated warrior sitting on the bench, apparently she was explaining something to him.

John arrived at Ellie’s stall just as she was putting out the last of a series of baskets, each containing a different kind of berry.

“Hi,” He said as he walked up.

“Oh, hello hon,” She said as she looked him up and down. “You must be John, Frank said you’d probably be by soon.”

“How did you…” John paused and then thought it over. “I’m the only Basajaun in town aren’t I?”

Ellie smiled at him. “Yes, you are,” she confirmed.

“Well, then I guess you also know that I’d like to use your Thresher?” He asked.

“Yes, I heard you’d be wanting that soon. Shame about your first crop, but we’ve all been there so don’t take it too hard,” she said compassionately.

“Nah, I’m viewing it as a learning experience. I tried to jump in immediately when what I should have done was sat down and planned everything out. If I’d just started by talking to people who knew what they were doing I wouldn’t have planted so early.” John shook his head ruefully.

“Mmm, Grandma Loren said you were a smart one. It’s good to learn from your mistakes. Now, when do you think you’ll be needing the Thresher?”

“Depends, how long do I need to wait for a crop of wheat to dry out before I can harvest it?” John asked.

“Two to three days, unless it rains, then it could be longer. If it’s a rainy season you can harvest it and then store it someplace dry to prepare it,” she explained.

“Rainy season?” John inquired.

“Hm? Oh, yes, it’s currently summer, which we often call the dry seasons, on account of how little rain we get out here during it. Fall and Spring are where you’ll see most of the rains, and winter we’ll see a fair amount of snow. Fall is of course right around the corner, could start raining any day now. Usually comes with a nasty storm or two.”

“Oh…” John said as he absorbed that. “Well alright then, I guess I’d best work on getting my farm cleared and some structures built before that happens then…”

Ellie nodded. “You’re going to want somewhere to keep things dry, and you’re going to need storage space for food and crops. You may even want a storm cellar, sometimes those are needed out here.”

“Alright, thanks for the warning, I’ll have to speed up my work. Oh right, uh, does six days from now work for you? That should be two more days of growth and three days for drying and then of course a day of harvest,” He explained.

“That’ll be fine hon. You’ll be needing a few tiny Raw Stones, an Earth Stone, a Fire Stone, and an Air Stone,” she informed him.

“Alright, I’ll be sure to bring them with me, thanks Ellie!”

“Any time hon!”

His business with Ellie finished, John stopped by the store to purchase a few more water stones, and then headed home.