CHAPTER 119- SERENELY STEEPED, REMARKABLY RELAXING AND POSITIVELY BREW-TIFUL

❤︎❤︎❤︎

“Yes! Level 20!” I jumped up from my chair and pumped a fist into the air. “This is great! You guys stay here and watch the water, okay? Close the water gate when you’re done. I have to go do some System stuff.”

My apprentices congratulated me and I left for my [Ranch House] where I checked all the new things I unlocked by reaching the level 20 Farming milestone.

The first thing I did was to take out the puppet upgrades that I got as a reward.

“Mr. Bear, here's a treat for you,” I said as I took the three ruby hearts from the System’s reward tab. My puppet already had a ruby heart on its chest, and when I placed the three new ones on it, the heart sucked them in and grew slightly lighter in color. “You’re much stronger now!”

[Puppet Name: Mr. Bear

A magical plushie unlike any other. This cute and cuddly bear is made of a special type of plush cloth and magical stuffing that gives it special powers. When its owner is in danger, this bear will come to life.

Though Mr. Bear is a wizard type, this puppet is also equipped with hidden metal claws and teeth.

Type: Magic

Base spell: Fireball

Upgrades: 4/99]

In addition to the puppet upgrades, I also got a few other goodies.

Players could normally unlock the first three levels of house upgrade at level 20 Farming, but I had completed a quest previously that gave me access to them. I was hoping that I would unlock the fourth one, the [Palace], but no such thing happened.

The System menu still showed the same types of houses that were available for me to build, which were the European styles of [Cottage], [Ranch House], and [Mansion], as well as the traditional [One Courtyard House], [Two Courtyard House], and [Three Courtyard House].

Hmm, maybe it was time to add a third courtyard? I hadn’t seen a need for it last year, but my household was bigger now and more people might visit me. It would be useful to have a separate place to entertain guests.

That was all very well and nice, but the most important thing was that the limit for the number of buildings I could place on the farm had increased by one. Now I could add a [Greenhouse] in addition to the [Ranch House], [Two Courtyard House], and [Mill].

I also unlocked a boat upgrade.

And last, but certainly not least, my limit for animals increased from six to eight.

The increase in my building limit was the most significant reward.

Technically speaking, I didn’t actually need to have two houses. No pro player would have two houses on their farm because it was a waste of resources. However, for me, it was very important to have a place that was solely mine, where I could have privacy.

The [Rice Mill] was important because I had a contract with the White Tiger clan to supply them with the three sacks of rice it produced every day.

What should I make for the fourth building? The [Greenhouse] was truly a no-brainer, but it was the standard operating procedure for players to constantly build, destroy, and rebuild every few days because of the limitation on the total number of buildings. For example, when one wanted to make [Flour], they would build a [Mill] until they had enough made. Then they would destroy the building to make way for whichever processing machine they needed next.

During the endgame, the most valuable building was the [Winery]. That was a building where fruit was put in [Casks] and turned into wine which could then be sold as is or aged for 60 to 90 days. Aged wine sold for a very high price, but the [Winery] was not an option for me at this time because it could not be built, destroyed, and rebuilt like the others. Destroying it ejected the wine from the casks, interrupting the aging process so that one had to start from day one again.

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

Of course, I knew the list of buildings by heart, but I browsed the System’s building type anyway to refresh my memory and maybe get some ideas about what I should do next.

I had previously built a [Smelter] which was great as a set-and-forget way to automatically smelt ores, but I could do it faster with multiple furnaces, albeit I had to smelt ores manually with furnaces.

Another [Mill] was a good idea. I could use it to make more [Rice] or [Flour].

Last year, I had built a [Sugar Mill], and we still had plenty of sugar left, not to mention the honey we got from the beehives.

The [Creamery] was also a good idea. It made butter, cream, and cheese, which didn’t feature in the local cuisine much, but they would work as premium luxury products.

I wasn’t sure, but I reckoned the [Mayonnaise Factory] that made [Mayonnaise] from eggs wouldn’t be too useful since I hadn’t seen mayonnaise in my entire year spent in this world.

The [Oil Press] and [Sausage Maker] should generally be okay, though I wasn’t excited about it. We had plenty of lard and sausages that the Demon Chef had made from the spirit animals that we hunted and the demon animals that Prince Baiyu sent.

Another thing I wanted to build was the [Soy Machine] that made soy milk, tofu, soy sauce, miso, and tempeh.

I wasn’t in a rush, so I took my time to think about it and browsed more of the System buildings. There were quite a lot of them, including some novelty ones like the [Chocolate Factory] and [Candy Paradise]. My best bet was probably the [Textile Loom] and [Tea Machine] followed by the [Creamery], [Soy Machine], and another [Mill].

When I was done with all the production buildings, I would build the [Greenhouse].

Once I made up my mind, went back to see my apprentices and brought them with me to an open spot beside the [Rice Mill].

“Watch me. I’m going to do something exciting,” I said.

“Teacher, shouldn’t we tell the others first?” asked Mo.

“You think so? I didn’t think about that,” I said. “Okay, go to the house and tell them I’m building something new.”

These days I was much more comfortable using the System in front of other people.

Mo ran off and I waited until everyone had arrived before choosing the [Tea Machine] in the System’s building tab. A large glowing magic circle appeared on the ground. It pulsed with a bright light three times then my chosen building appeared.

The [Tea Machine] was a one-story wooden building with a vaguely Japanese-looking design, with sliding screens that looked like shoji that were made of bamboo and thin, translucent white silk on the front wall. The cambered roof was sharply inclined and covered in gray clay tiles. Lari whistled loudly when we entered and he saw that the interior walls were covered in gold paint. The coffered ceiling was gilded and decorated with luminous golden pearls as big as my fist.

“It’s so fancy!” said Mo.

Lari didn’t say anything because he was busy trying to use a small pocket knife to scrape off the gold from the walls.

“Stop that! It’s obviously just gold paint, not real gold,” said Kharli.

I ignored them in favor of examining the huge industrial steel machine in the middle of the building. At one end was a small leather bag with a large opening labeled “Input.” On the other end was a metal chute labeled “Output” and there was a wooden container under it. In the middle of the machine was a red button with white text on it that read “Start/Stop.” Below the red button were smaller ones labeled “Black Tea,” “Green Tea,” “Yellow Tea,” “Oolong Tea,” "Jasmine Tea," and “White Tea.”

The central part of the machine was made of glass, and we peered into it to see what was inside. I saw a conveyor belt, rollers, fans, mesh screens, cutters, and other parts that I couldn’t identify.

“Okay, why don’t I mix some [Black Tea] for us first?” I wasn’t really asking for anyone’s opinion, so I immediately climbed up the ladder and filled the “Input” container with [Tea Leaves] from my inventory. Then I went to the “Start/Stop” button and pressed it.

Our ears were assaulted by a loud grinding noise as the machine started up. The [Tea Leaves] gently fluttered down into a conveyor belt and then disappeared into the bowels of the machine. I waited to see if anything would happen, but nothing did. Machines generally took almost the entire day to finish processing raw materials.

“Hey, guys, I’m not going to stay here and watch. Please send someone to collect the tea at the end of the day.” I pointed at the container at the other end of the machine. “It will be deposited there.”

“Spirit tea! They say it can greatly boost cultivation,” said Lari.

“It won’t have any effect on us since we're not cultivators,” I said. “Whoever wants to stay here can do so. I have stuff to do, so I’ll return to my house.”

I gestured to my three apprentices and we left the building.

“We’ve done very well so far. I remember that last year I promised to bring the three of you to hunt [Horned Rabbits]. Let’s go tomorrow,” I said.

“They're so tasty,” said Lari.

“Thank you, Teacher! I’ve been looking forward to that. I’ll show you my archery skills,” said Kharli.

“She’s been practicing a lot,” said Mo, who looked less than enthused. Of the three of them, her archery skills were the worst by far.

“Great. I think we’ll have a lot of fun,” I said.

Alas, it was not to be. The next day, when I woke up, I was shocked by the sight of a sea of blood.

“What?! How could this happen?”