In the morning, Marie and I geared up, ate breakfast with everyone, and went on a Patrol around the entirety of South Haven. Nothing seems out of place thus far, and we were able to catch plenty of small game, as well as various medicinal, and edible herbs. We even found a decent patch of edible mushrooms. So much easier to harvest mushrooms safely with an analyze skill.
Instead of going straight back to town, we stopped by the farm, and more specifically the smoke house. I took out all the Bacon, and Sausages, storing a good portion for Blanch to use in her Inn, while taking the rest into the Kitchen for Theresa to Store away. I also handed over a good portion of the small game we had caught, and half the Mushrooms, and edible Herbs. After which we headed into town to drop the remaining food at the Inn.
"Mark dear, you shouldn't have! I appreciate it naturally, but I didn't even post a quest today." Marie answered in my stead. "Mother Blanch, please don't think on it, we harvested these while doing other things, and kept most of it for the kids, though we did bring the Smoked Meats as well." She smelled the Sausages, and just about drooled, and the Bacon was nearly enough to make her bite into it raw. "You need to fry the Bacon still, and the Sausages either need to be fried, grilled, or else boiled to finish cooking them. As long as you keep them cool though, they won't spoil nearly as fast as unsmoked meats. Slice off a thin piece of the Bacon, and give it a quick fry, should be nice a crispy, also the Fat is great to cook other things in, and will last for a good while before spoiling. Sausages are also great sliced, and added to a Soup."
When the first piece of Bacon hit her tongue, her eyes lit up, as did Marie who had also taken a test bite. "It's amazing! I can think of so many applications for this!" I just smirked at her. "Told you!" I gave her a hug, and just because I thought she might have ambushed her Husband, along with her Sister Wives, I analyzed her, sure enough she was Pregnant. "Congrats on the baby coming, I really need to meet your Sister Wives, and check them sometime too." Blanche froze in shock. "Analyze counts Pregnancy as a Status Anomaly, so I can tell." A tear slipped from her eyes, and she hugged me tightly. "Thankyou! Now off with you, I suspect you have other business to attend to."
We ran to North Haven to patrol around there, again finding nothing of note, but catching plenty of game. We swung by the Orphanage to check on the progress, to see things nearing completion. The construction workers estimated another two days till it would be finished, and furnished with the newly commissioned furniture. We stopped by the guild branch, and I was able to find suitable land for the Public Works projects I had envisioned, and made arrangements for the structures I needed to be built.
Another two hours of running and we were back on the farm. We ate lunch, and then noticed Grace's father arriving with his boys, and his wives. "Welcome, I'm guessing you're here to plant some grain." Stanley nodded in affirmation. "Right you are lad, nearly harvest time for this crop, so perfect time to plant the next." While planting went smoothly, I decided I needed to treat Grace's family to a meal, and what better time to make Alfredo, then with extended family. I excused myself to help with Dinner, with enough time to prepare everything, washed up, and joined Theresa in the Kitchen, with her Sisters, and the kids on cooking duty for the day.
With happy flour covered kids making Pasta dough, and the Sisters cutting, and hanging the pasta, I myself worked on the Sauce. Theresa had prepared Peas for the side for that evening, but I noted some slightly old bread, so I quickly sliced it all, and covered it with butter, and minced garlic. Wouldn't be quite the same as I remembered, but it would still be great.
When the rest of the family came in for dinner, everyone was surprised at the new dishes. Peas were well known, but neither the Pasta, nor the Garlic bread had been seen prior to this. "This all looks amazing Mark, but what exactly is this dish with all the white?" Stanley was naturally skeptical, but the kids, having experiences Spaghetti didn't even hesitate to mix in their Peas, and dig in, making me chuckle. "Well, I had told everyone that I would try my hand at making Alfredo Sauce, to serve on the Pasta. That's the strips of dough, and the Alfredo is the white. It's a cream based sauce, thick, and savory. Coats the Pasta quite well, so it'll be a burst of flavor, and since the Pasta is made with flour milled from your wheat, what better dish could I have served when you were planting wheat all day?" His second wife took a tentative bite, only to throw all manners out the window as she eagerly started shoveling the food into her mouth. "I think MAYBE she needs something in the food. Let me just analyze her real quick." Sure enough, she was pregnant too. "Nice, you've got another baby on the way, just curious, which one of you is Grace's Mother?"
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The woman I had just analyzed raised her own hand, a little embarrassed about her behavior. "That would be me Mark, I'm Allison by the way, but what do you mean we've got another baby on the way? I know you're the one who told Stanley he could play with us, without getting messy anymore, but does that mean we can really have more babies?" Smiling broadly, Grace hugged her mother tight. "Not only can you have more babies Mother, but you ARE having another one. Mark can check someone's status, and it shows if a woman is pregnant, the same as if you were poisoned, or cursed. Anything that isn't your normal state of being, is counted as an anomaly, so YOU are pregnant, though that doesn't mean the others aren't." Stanley's other wives looked at me with sparkling eyes. After analyzing them all, I shook my head. "Not yet, but just keep going, and I'm sure you'll all have another one on the way soon enough." Stanley grinned fit to burst, and Allison had tears in her eyes. "What's on the toast?" Harmony had just taken her first bite off the toast, and wasn't expecting the extra flavor. "Garlic, and butter, I applied it before toasting it, makes old bread taste great when you toast it up."
"Oh yeah, before I forget Stanley, I'm assuming your Sexual Technique skill levelled up. Just so you're all aware, at some point, you'll unlock a Perk that makes it certain to impregnate whatever woman you lie with, regardless of time of month, or her own fertility stat, or even if there's normally a species barrier. If you get that perk, you need to keep going as often as you can, with your already pregnant wives, until you get the next perk that will let you choose if you will get them pregnant. Seriously I don't care how exhausted you get, or even if you're sore, just keep going till you get that second perk." A look of horror crossed his face. "Yeah, I would love a couple more kids, but not every single time we play. I'll power through if that happens, you can count on that." All his wives giggled in anticipation.
It was at this point, that a long overdue system notification went off. Skill unlocked Glass Working level 1, past life experience modifier level 99 Master Craftsman. Marina gasped, having clearly gotten a similar notification. "Let me guess, Glass Worker finally came out?" She happily nodded. "It says I'm level twenty, how can I be level twenty, we only just make those flat pieces." I chuckled. "I told you it was an Alien Concept, the system probably took that into consideration, but also, those aren't just normal panes of glass, every single one we made is tempered glass, which is an order of magnitude higher than standard glass. Mine is already at Master Craftsman level, which isn't too surprising considering it's a new skill all together, and I know more than I've shown so far. I bet your head is swimming with new knowledge too, about blowing glass, among other things. I wonder if it's going to effect magic in any way."
"Why would it effect magic Mark?", asked Alian. "Well, Glass blowing requires Meditation, so it stands to reason, that anything that can benefit from meditation, such as Mana Regeneration, would synergize with the Glass blowing skill. Both skills would feed off each other, bringing regeneration up, as well as breath control for glass blowing." The princess nodded in understanding. New Synergy detected Meditation level increased, level 60. Breath control increase level 80. Mana regeneration increased when meditating level 70. "Speak of the thing, and it appears. Nice boosts to Meditation, Breath control, and Regeneration. I'm guessing it's been quite a while since the System had to deal with something wholly new, so it took much more time to update our Status. Only things I use Mana on are my storage, and analyze, so not sure how much good it will do me."
Alian spoke up again. "There are a few magic tomes in my collection of books, you should attempt to cast some magics, I assume with two skills boosting meditation, and already using some Mana for your storage, and analyze skills, that magic shouldn't be too hard to unlock, and with whatever it is that Mother Ruth is being so quiet about, I'd feel much better knowing you had more than just physical prowess to deal with it." Her impassioned plea made sense, even if it did tug at my heart strings to hear her so desperate. "I'll try, it makes sense, you don't need the puppy dog eyes to get me to do something that makes perfect sense, and thanks for suggesting it." She smiled relieved that I took her suggestion so readily.