CH241

Man, this really wasn’t how I’d planned on spending my free days. Ben thought with a groan. He’d woken up hours before the sun had risen to make his way to Anailia, prepared some more nails to use to earn his god some faith, and then went off to start hammering them into trees deep into the untamed lands as soon as Thera met up with him.

He was excellent with a hammer so the task didn’t take him too long, with the most time-consuming bit being the moment it took to decide where to hammer it so he wouldn’t need to worry about some random passerby accidentally touching it by mistake.

At the very least though, he was getting to see that he was right. Since he took the job and got to work on it, the levels had been pouring in. Taming something was basically just a measure of how well something listened to you and followed your will after all, it was hard to say that with thousands of trees in the untamed lands doing exactly what he wanted that he wasn’t fulfilling the conditions of the job, and in a big way too. Anyone that decided to rely on plant magic or connect would have to patiently go to them one by one, slowly building up communication and trust. He was bypassing all of that.

It wasn’t to the extent that he would be able to complete the job before the crafting contest started, but there were other ways around that, ways he intended to put into practice immediately as Thera got them out of the woods and on their cart to a new destination, the gate closest to Alfheimr’s capital.

Much like Anailia, it was a nation built within a forest, but unlike the grand buildings he would see in the succubus homeland, the ones he saw there were far more modest, at least on the outskirts of the nation, with small, open homes that let the air pass through freely while letting neighbours wander easily.

They were there as a result of Ben needing some very specific qualifications met, and Pelenia had been able to help meet them. Falk had been right, it was important to use the connections you had, even if it meant being liberal with your phrasing.

Despite the new view though, Ben ignored it. He had been spending all the time he could on the small trip flipping through as many books on plants as he could, feeling it pay off by the time they reached their destination.

<PLANT KNOWLEDGE LEVEL INCREASED>

Well, there’s a little more experience to the job at least. Just gotta keep working my way through it. I really don’t want to still be a tree tamer when the contest starts.

He pushed the level up from his mind, instead going to the front of the first house and cheerfully calling into an open window.

“Hello there! I’m Ben, I believe you got some notice that I’d be arriving, albeit short!”

At that the head of a young elven man popped out, giving him a smile.

At least I think he’s young. God, ageless races are tough to judge.

“Why hello there,” The elf called back happily. “I’ve got to say, I thought the offer was a joke when I heard it, are you really sure about this?”

“I am. I don’t want to go into the details but I need to own a farm and I don’t have the time to run it. I’m looking to buy it in exchange for you taking care of it and continuing the day-to-day operations. I’ll be setting some stuff up in the animal pens to test if they improve the quality of the farmed products with how profits will be split defined in the contract, does that work with you?”

“I’ve got no complaints, but you do know there’s not much money in these sorts of animals, right?”

“Don’t worry, if things don’t improve then it’s my loss, you’ll still be paid for your work.”

The agreement was that Ben would buy both the farm and the livestock on it while hiring the farmer to keep tending to the animals. It worked out quite strongly in the elf’s favour too. Should the profits fall below what the current average was then Ben wouldn’t be making anything, he’d only make more if the profits grew.

This deal ended up pretty terribly for Ben, but it was a level of loss he was willing to accept to win in the end. He fully intended to never see any of his money again, he just needed access to some livestock and didn’t want to risk harming any that a farmer needed to depend on. Now if anything went wrong, the elf running things had plenty of funds to start again somewhere else.

With all of that out of the way, they were led back to the coops, each filled with small creatures called obbles.

“These might be the cutest things I’ve ever seen,” Thera said as soon as they got in, and Ben had no choice but to agree. They were basically just small fluffy ovals with legs, creatures that had been bred to produce eggs frequently with thick hair that could be shorn for clothing and other fabrics. Essentially a cross between a sheep and a chicken, but their meat was no good and thus they would live out their natural lifespans, a fact that heavily contributed to his choice as he went to them one by one, placing a necklace on each of their necks before setting up the small statues of his god.

“So these things are supposed to help with the quality of the produce?” The elf asked as he stared down at the cubic pendant hanging from each of the creature’s necks.

“That’s what I want to test. I’ll need you to write a quarterly report to me about how the quality and quantity of everything changes, if it does at all, but it would be great news if it works out. Just make sure you don’t touch them without wearing the pendant I’m leaving with you.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The necklaces had mental compulsions on them, the same as the nails, while the statues were designed to give off a small bit of warmth to make them appealing for the creatures to be near during the night. It was all designed to earn his god faith, but that didn’t mean what he’d said was wrong either. He was sure he’d heard that happier animals gave better produce back on earth, as well as the fact that religious people generally lived longer, happier lives. If he could see if giving some animals faith improved things for them in a noticeable way then that was a valuable bit of knowledge, but if not then all he’d lost was some money.

<And yet this still feels wrong. I can feel the faith coming in from everything, but I swear you’re missing your true calling as the dark apostle of an evil god for gathering faith through mind control.>

Don’t need the commentary, thank you very much. Do you think you’ll get enough from all of this so far to cover whatever Helori might gain?