Deadly Stories
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FiOP Chapter 40
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 14:29:56 +0000 UTCThe babies were named Hamy and Niel. She picked Hamy, I picked Niel. I named mine after an orphan friend I had. He was a thief, a few years older than me; he often stole food, but he was the reason why most of the kids in the orphanage didn’t starve to death when we were growing up. I viewed him as a brother. Tems named our daughter Hamy because she really liked ham. I hadn’t made bacon and eggs yet, or our daughter would probably be named Bacony or something similar.
Taking care of the babies was surprisingly easy, I guess the quarter kobold they were made them grow faster because it hasn’t even been a week and they’re crawling around already. There wasn’t much crying either, if any. Kobolds reach adulthood at six… Tems was considered an adult at ten. So my first children will most likely be able to get their class before they turn sixteen, like humans.
I hit level twenty-five again from the fighting. It turns out that taking part in these large-scale fights was extremely good for experience. The biggest thing was my low level; it was fairly easy to reach level twenty-five, but getting to fifty would still take me two months, and I probably could barely reach one hundred in half a year if I went all out, and I level significantly faster than other people.
Someone who was level eighty-eight might not have even reached max level, while I got the levels to pick up two skills. It really made it obvious that rushing to max level was a massive mistake; the modifiers on my skills alone were enough for me to want every skill I could possibly get. I picked up the only elemental specialization that made sense, earth.
Elemental affinity- Earth- Gain instinctive knowledge on casting Earth-based magic.
I had mana, but creating golems didn’t take any, and using animation seals or scrolls would, but I hadn’t bothered making any. The straightforward spell knowledge from picking earth affinity would allow me to spend mana without making any other items. Making a few gargoyles to animate in case the farm is attacked might be helpful, but with earth affinity, I could understand the land better, condense dirt to stone, or more easily manipulate it.
I could easily dig holes, move dirt up and down, but it would still take months of spending mana every day to make a stone fence around the farm plots, separating them from the dungeon. Fencing off the entire plot would take longer than fencing off the city, because the land I had cultivated now took up more room than the village did.
I was also surprised I didn’t unlock more skills, but it wasn’t really that surprising. Most people could go years without unlocking any new ones, and after talking with Cherry and seeing her eyebrows raise in shock at the number of skills I had, it was clear that was another irregularity about me. Most people get four skills for each tier, which means if people bought every single skill, they’d have around twenty skills once they bought all of them. I had twenty-one learned already and ten more to pick up, and that wasn’t including the ones I’d unlock at level one hundred.
I was heading down several routes that would most likely unlock more skills to purchase as well. There were most likely skills tied to alchemy herbs, animal husbandry, selective breeding, plant splicing/grafting, terraforming, and some others I couldn’t recall off the top of my head. Those were just the paths I suspected would end in additional skills to be purchased. I also had to look at some beginner spells, I put it off for too long.
Knowing even an extremely weak healing, defensive, or offensive spell could have saved a few extra lives during the bandit attack. I had been so focused on leveling and farming that I hadn’t really focused on improving myself in other directions. It was always better to know spells and not need them than to need them and not know them.
I went to trade in the last batch of produce I got before the expected snowfall sometime tonight. I hand it in, and Maxwell stops me. “Good news.” He reached under his counter before pulling out a pouch. “The bulk of your assorted spice goods have sold; here’s the money for them. Some of the specialty bundles didn’t, but it’s only a matter of time, so expect the rest in a week or two.”
I thanked him and headed to Olivia to hand her share over. Entering her shop, she wasn’t in. As a crafter, her job was to help fix the homes before winter. One house was taken out, leaving only three that needed to be rebuilt because the wife who lost her house and husband was taken in as one of the adventurer's second wives.
It was shocking how quickly some moved on, but from the rumors going around, their relationship was already rocky, and they had a swinger thing going on. I opened up the lock box before putting in her share and writing a note to tell her I did so. Fifty spice assortments at one gold, minus whatever the traders sold them for, ten of the luxury bundles at one platinum, five specialty bundles, three different kinds at two platinum each, and a single aged luxury bundle which sold for five platinum.
It meant about twenty gold, and thirty platinum for myself and a similar amount for her. It was an amount that someone with decades of experience might earn from their yearly output, and we just made it in a few hours of work and growing specialty plants for them all, because no one else was selling them. I knew next year there would be knock-offs and the price I could get for them would drop, but it was still a nice thing to happen before winter hit.
Walking home, I saw Olivia working with a bunch of the other townsfolk as they lifted a wall frame up into place. I ran over to help them, as I told Olivia in person as well. “The money for the spice bundles came in. I left it in your lockbox.” She answered me while pounding in a few nails to hold the frame up. “Alright, thanks for the heads up, how much this time?”
I let go of the wall as I turned to her. “Twenty gold and thirty platinum.” She stopped mid-hammer swing before she continued. “God damn, did they all sell again?” I could only smile as I told her. “Nope, about half of the specialty bundles didn’t, so we’ll get another ten or so platinum once they do.” I could see her hand shaking before she calmed herself. “It’s… It’s still unbelievable. Are you sure you’re not just a dream I conjured up, so bored sitting in my shop waiting for business?”
I’m about to respond before someone interrupts our conversation. “Hi, how’s it going. Nice to meet you.” The bubbly cowgirl held her hand out for me to shake as she waited for Olivia to introduce her. “Uhh yeah, that’s Sarah, she showed up just before the bandit attack and was a big help in taking them down and rebuilding. I didn’t know anyone in the town still hadn’t met her yet.” Still shaking my hand, she spoke. “Are you looking for another wife?”
