31 Chapter 30

"What did you do!" Josh shouted as he burst into Winston's room. Winston looked up from his math book and blinked in confusion. His brother was breathing hard and he looked a bit wild around the eyes.

"You're gonna have to narrow it down for me. There's a lot of answers to that question." Winston replied as he looked back down at his math book. It was Tuesday night and he had some vegetables to harvest but he needed to get this math done first. The sight of his unflappable brother so worked up was rather amusing but he had things to do.

"Don't ignore me….. What did you say to Jessica?" Josh snapped. Winston had to think about that for a while. He hadn't talked to Jessica in weeks. Then he remembered.

"Oh that...."

"What do you mean 'Oh That'!?" He snapped.

"That was like a month ago. I forgot about it." Winston said.

"Apparently she didn't. She came up to me and homeroom and was all nice and polite and honest. It was bizarre." Josh said. "Now Katie won't talk to me because she thinks I'm getting back together with Jessica and you did this!"

"What!? Don't put your girl problems on me. If you didn't have a reputation for switching women so often this wouldn't have happened." Winston said with a laugh. "All I said to her was if she really wanted to give it another shot with you is she should stop with the drama and be genuine for once. The whole super hot and super manipulative thing is sexy and all but it's not exactly the sorta girl you want to get into a relationship with." Josh's eyes narrowed at his younger brother and his face darkened.

"What..?" Winston asked, taken aback at his brothers reaction. Then his eyes widened. "God, you actually like her don't you? That's so screwed up." Winston said before he really saw his brothers face and raised his hands in surrender."Ok Ok, I'll stop. You haven't beaten me up since we were kids and I rather not start back up again."

Winston tried to stay calm but he just couldn't understand.Yes, Jessica was very physically attractive and smart, but she had 'Drama' written all over her. The fact his too handsome, to popular, golden boy of a brother had a crush on her was ridiculous. Although, it did explain a lot about his behavior after they'd broken up.

Josh continued to scowl at Winston, but the fight seemed to flow out of him and he collapsed onto Winston's bed and let out a world weary sigh. Winston laughed.

He was feeling very smug. After so long having to put up with his older brother hooking up with all the hottest girls in school, now Winston was in a blossoming relationship with a great girl and his brother was the one with girl problems.

"Shut up." Josh said as he laid back and tossed an arm over his eyes.

"Sorry, but you have no idea how gratifying this is." Winston said, still smiling. "Besides why are you so upset? You've probably got the hottest girl in school chasing you. If you like her than what's the problem?" Winston asked.

"The problem is she already cheated on me once and I'm already dating someone else." Josh said without taking his arm away from his face. Winston raised his eyebrows. Seemed the truth was finally coming out. Josh must be really upset.

"Really? She never seemed the type." Winston said thoughtfully. She was definitely the type to tease but to cheat on someone, especially Josh?It just didn't seem like her.

Josh growled. "I know….but she only sort of cheated. That's what makes it all so complicated."

"How do you sorta cheat?"Winston asked with a laugh. "I mean, I understand that there's more than one way to siege the proverbial caste, but at the end of the day either the troops make it past the walls or they don't."

"She did it in game." Josh sighed. Winston snapped his mouth shut. Maybe that really did count as only sorta cheating. In some ways it was just as bad, but in others it might not count as much. He knew lots of people that fooled around in game. It was one of the game main selling points. It was especially popular with college kids. You could hop into the game, drink as much as you wanted and sleep with whomever you wanted, without any of the real life consequences.

Winston looked over at his depressed brother. Well, without most of the real life consequences. The drama and relationship problems sill carried over. Winston wasn't sure how he'd feel about it. Definitely not happy but he honestly didn't how he'd react if he found out Trish was sleeping around in game with someone.

"Well, Ruger would tell you just not to bother with her. Brad would just shrug. Jason would probablytell you to try and get her into a three-way with Katie so she could prove her sincerity. Trish…. Well, Trish would probably tell you to slap her around a little, but she REALLY hates Jessica." Winston said thoughtfully.

"And what do you think I should do?" Josh asked.

"How should I know? I don't know how much you like her. I don't know how much you like Katie. I don't know how much Jessica hurt you. Is it fair of you to hold one mistake against her? Was it fair of her to do something like that, even if it was in game? You both are leaving for college in a few months anyway. Do you really want to break up with your current girlfriend and start something new?" Winston explained. The he paused for a moment before he continued.

"I'm pretty new to the whole relationship thing but it seems to me that things like this are never as simple as black and white." He finished.

"That…. Is not helpful." Josh said.

"It's not supposed to be. You gotta figure this crap out for yourself. Besides, I've gotta go check on my carrots and I still don't have my Math done." Winston complained.

"You still haven't given up on your stupid farming?"

"Given up? I'm just getting ready to shift into high-gear. Things are going better than ever." Winston replied.

"Fine, Fine. I guess I just go back to my room and sulk. By myself, all alone. I've been abandoned by my uncaring brother for common vegetables." Josh sighed dramatically.

Winston threw a pencil at him.

***********************

The carrots were fine. Winston hopped in game a few minutes after Josh left. The greenhouse inside the farmers guild was just how he'd left it. The carrots, wheat, and garlic were ready to harvest. The wheat was only a 12 hour crop, with the carrots and garlic being 24 hours. Everything else was 72 hours so he wouldn't have much to do until Thursday.

He harvested the wheat first. It was superior grade, but there was only about 2 pounds of it, which was as shame. An acre of superior quality wheat would have earned him thousands of XP, and skill XP. The garlic and carrots only made it to high-quality but Winston did get a pleasant surprise as he pulled out the last carrot.

[Vegetable Sub-Skill has Increased!]

[Current Rank: Beginner I]

[Effect:Bonus Vegetable Crop Yield:6.5%

Bonus Vegetable Crop Quality: 25%]

[You Have Learned A New Passive Skill]

[Size Does Matter]

[The size of all vegetables grown by user is increased by 15%]

It wasn't a great skill bonus, but it was in line with the other beginner sub-skill rewards. Grain was 15% more filling, fruit produced 15% more juice, and vegetables were 15% larger. Nothing game changing but all decent upgrades. He was curious what he'd get at apprentice rank. The grain skill was extremely useful, but he was likely still at least a month from getting his other skills that high, maybe even longer.He set year-end as the goal to have all this farming-subskills at apprentice rank. He'd likely need at least two or three weeks to even get his new farm up and producing.

Winston thought about the future while he replanted the carrots and garlic. He made a few minor changes to the fertilizer composition. He didn't think his 5% boost in crop quality would lift them up into superior ranked, so he'd have to experiment the old-fashion way.

Winston kept working, ignoring the mud covering his hands and fur as he tried to create a new list of things to do for himself. He'd mostly cleared the old-one off. So it was time for new goals. First he needed to find transport. He tried to remember what city the cooking contest was supposed to be in. He was sure Casey had told him at the party but he didn't remember.

It took only a few minutes of forum searching to find it. The contest was in Westriver, which wasn't one of the 10 capitals surprisingly. It was instead a massive port city to the south-west. It actually was only a few hundred miles from Valor's Crossing, but with all the mountains in the way the trip would take at least a month on foot.

He changed forum filters and started searching for a teleport. From all the horror stories about massive teleportation conglomerates and the extreme competition for portals Troll had told him it was much simpler than Winston thought to find a teleport. It wasn't even really that expensive.

Paladin Portal's had an portal opening friday night at 8:00. It cost 750 gold for a single person, or 1500 for a wagon. Extra baggage weight cost extra but Winston should be able to fit everything he was taking in his pack.

With his transportation taken care of. Winston was back with nothing to do till tomorrow and at least three hours to blow. He needed to buy a bunch of things, but there wasn't much use doing any of that until he got to Westriver.

He decided to go see if the Farmer's guild had any requests. Guild's should have requests but he hadn't seen a board or anything. He'd have to go talk to the old farmer. He might be able to knock out a cheap quest or two before he left the city.

The old man was in his usual spot behind the desk and Winstondidn't bother with pleasantries. He was still a little miffed about the test that had been forced on him.

"Old man, are there any guild requests for grains or vegetables I might be able to fill?" Winston asked, bluntly. The old man look at him for a moment then seemed to be weighing something mentally.

"It ain't quite that simple." The fat old farmer said. "We've got plenty of requests but where are you going to grow them? The courtyard is mostly full already, so you'd somewhere else to grow the crops. Because of that we only take the highest profit jobs so we can keep a roof over our heads here. That means we've lost a lot of contracts too."

"So basically. We've you're already taking all the contacts the guild can handle, but you've got a flood of crappy requests you can't fulfil anyway and you've lost some of the good contracts because of that." Winston paraphrased.

"Something like that."

"Well, just give me one of the crappy requests,I've gonna leave in a few days anyway."Winston said. He didn't really care that much. He just wanted to pick up some cheap XP and fame. he didn't really need the money at the moment. At least until the massive shopping spree he was planning. After that…. Well he didn't really want to think about it. The fact he'd likely be blowing all his money on building supplies right after he earned it didn't make him too happy.

The old man dug around under his desk and pulled out a roll of parchment, before handing it over. Winston unrolled it and started reading. It was a list of farming jobs. It listed the requester, the required crops and their amounts, as well as the payment.

Winston frowned as he read it over. There were over forty of them, but they were all crappy. Most only paid in silver. "Onions… no, takes too long to grow. Same with radishes, Turnips…. Does anyone actually eat turnips? Poppy seeds?... Maybe I should start my rise to the top as an opium grower."Winston muttered as he read the list aloud.

In the end he chose 5 different requests for flour. They all totaled up to about 3 bushel of flower, so around 4 bushel of wheat.

"Really you want five requests and all for wheat?" The old man said snidely. "You're really pushing yourself I see."

"Wheat grows the fastest. I can produce a lot of it in a small area. It's more efficient." Winston snapped as he slapped some gold down on the desk. "I need to steal a corner of your courtyard. About…. " Winston did some mental math. A quarter acre would get him around 6 bushel bushel judging by his yields in Brethren, but he should be able to squeeze in four harvests.So he'd need basically a quarter of ⅔ of a quarter acre. So the square root of around 11,000 square feet, divided by… Winston's brain started to hurt so he popped open a calculator in his interface. "Forty feet... squared." Winston fished after a good minute of silence.

"Didn't I just tell you we didn't have enough room." The old farmer said. Winston just pulled out another hand-full of gold and piled it on top of what was already there.

The old farmer rolled his eyes but slid the coins off the counter and waved Winston away. Winston nodded and headed back into the courtyard. He took out his staff, summoned his farmhand, and got back to work.

*********************

"Pumpkin, Pumpkin…. so large and orange" Winton sang off-key as he rubbed the large squash. His pumpkins had worked out better than he'd imagined. The vine he'd planted had produced five large pumpkins the size of beach-balls. Each was perfectly shaped and seemed to glow with luster. Even Winston was impressed. He smiled as he plucked the first off his vine.

[Pumpkin]

[Food, Superior-Quality]

[One of the oldest domesticated plants, the pumpkin is a large round squash. It is often hybridized for larger size or color, but this plant has not been. Having been raised in good conditions by a talented farmer it is a prime specimen.]

Winston smiled at the message then stuffed all five pumpkins into his backpack. The rest of the crops soon followed and Winston was surprised when his vegetable sub-skill hit Beginner II. The other vegetables had only been high-quality, aside from a single random clove of garlic. Winston wasn't sure how that had happened but he wasn't going to argue. The vegetablesshouldn't have given him that much xp though. Maybe growing a bunch of different crops gave farmers more skill experience than growing a single crop? That made some sense. It would be something to look into to.

It was a shame he couldn't stay here. Farming here was just too easy. He'd spent the last two days planting and harvesting wheat. Well, he'd only really been working on the special wheat he was growing for Casey. He had nearly a bushel of the stuff at superior quality. That was three times as much as Casey had ordered and Winston was looking forward to selling the rest for exorbitant prices.

He'd let his golem do all thework on his 'quest patch' as he'd started calling it. He'd taken a hit on the yield but it was all small-time stuff anyway. He double checked his pack then headed outside where Troll was blocking the street with his cart.

"Hurry up! I'm pretty sure that half-orc is about to gut me." Troll cried as Winston hopped onto the wagon. Troll flicked his reigns and the two took off down the street, finally unblocking the road. "Now where's this mill supposed to be at?" He asked, looking over at Winston.

"Head for the East gate, it's supposed to be about a half-mile down the road." Winston said.

"I can't believe you talked me into this." Troll complained. "This has to be the biggest waste of time mission I've ever heard of. We're only carrying ten bushel of grain, and we're only going a mile. Why didn't you just have someone in the city do it?"

"Because, I need the best. I asked some alchemists to do it initially, but everyone I talked to either laughed in my face or asked for way too much money so I'd just go away. I had to go to an NPC eventually, and she's outside the city in Fisher's Mill and although 10 bushel isn't much for you it's still 600 pounds of wheat. That's at least three trips for me, so it's two miles of driving for you or six miles of walking for me." Winston said as they took a left and picked up speed slightly.

The two continued to argue as they passed under the city gates and headed out into the countryside. The mill was visible right away as soon as they got beyond the wall.

"There ya go." Winston said pointing. "I knew we'd find it."

"It's a giant windmill right outside it city. It's not exactly hard to find." Trollogistics snapped back at him.

"Anyway… You coming to Westriver with me? I'm planning on buying most of my supplies there. So I'm gonna need a ton of stuff moved. If not you can meet me in Wraith Harbor. It's apparently the closest town with a bank and auction house to where we're headed." Winston asked.

"Well, if you've got work I don't see why not. Although the portal fee is going to sting." Troll said, a but sourly.

"Yeah, it's pretty cheap from here to Westriver,1 500 for a wagon. The portal leaves tomorrow. I was planning on going solo, but now that I think about it we should take your wagon. Otherwise they'll prolly charge me double for taking Bog along and I'll end up paying the same amount anyway." Winston said. He'd totally forgotten about Bog when he'd booked his trip. There was no way they'd let her through for free.

Troll turned the wagon off the road and up the small dirt path that lead to the mill. As soon as they stopped a stout looking woman came out and scowled at them.

"You lost?" She asked rudely. Winston blinked at her tone but ignored it. Usually people running a business were much nicer, at least the people who had to deal with customers.

"Don't think so. We've got wheat we need to turn into flower." Winston said, waving at the crate in the wagon holding the wheat.

The woman scowled but picked up the crate and sat it against one hip. Winston blinked at her. That crate weighed 600 pounds. What the hell was the woman's strength score?

"Just the one?" She asked as she walked up the store steps and into the mill.

"Uhhh, sorta. We need that 10 bushel turned into flower. Then I've got about another thirty pounds of real high-quality stuff I'd like you to really take your time with. I'll pay extra." Winston said as he jogged to keep up with her much longer stride.

"Fine, just put the 'special' stuff there." She said flatly, pointing towards a large table. Winston just shrugged and dumped out most the superior-wheat he'd grown. Casey still wanted twenty-pounds in wheat form but Winston would turn the rest into flower. That way when he set-up shop outside the contest the chef would be able to use it directly. Winston put ten gold coins on the table next to it. It was a ridiculous price to have flower milled, but Winston fully intended to charge dozens of gold per pound when he sold it.

The process didn't actually take that long. Less than a half-hour after they'd arrived they were headed back towards town, the wagon now holding sacks of flour rather than a crate of grain.

"Where to now?" Troll asked.

"I gotta turn my quests in. We've got two bakeries and three inn's to hit up. Then you're free. The portal opens at 8:00 tomorrow don't be late." Winston said. An hour later Winston had turned his flour into 2500 xp, 2 gold pieces, and 20 fame.