Getting kitted out.

Before riding back to the castle John thought it important to ask Sylvia a few things. "So have you seen any resource spots? And how did it work with the seeds?"

"I planted seeds around the woods and in the plains, they will grow well and feed the animals. I planted a few patches of single crops too, a lot less spread to gather new seeds. Those are not fields like you described to me yet, but they will do for now. I have not spotted the things we saw earlier, but there is a really strange tree I wanted to show you. " she explained.

On the way to it John used his summoning spell. He got a blue bird, a turtle and a mole out of it who would run around for one hour before disappearing. Sylvia used a quick spell to heal him from the damage the spells had caused. As always the creatures he received were totally useless, he really did not know why he never got something useful.

Sylvia pointed at a tree that looked very different from the others. For John it was glowing dimly, but it also looked less... alive than the others.

"It isn't a real tree. I can't feel it's life or spirit." she explained.

"It's OK if I cut it then?" he asked. She nodded in agreement. John took the axe from his saddle bags and began to swing at this resource point. This time the bar was filling a lot slower than on the mineral ones, but John figured that it probably would be for the whole content of the tree.

John had an idea, he used Charged Strike on the next hit and the progression bar advanced a lot. After that he continued to do it each time until the tree broke down and a pop up appeared to tell him what was added to his inventory.

50 units of wood

That was it, nothing rare or special, just lumber. But it would help a lot to improve the castle. It was time to get back to it.

"Sylvia, if you ever find one of these show them to me, please. We need to improve all of this." he instructed her. She replied that she already was intending to do it.

Back at the castle John got down to the control room. This place was too empty, there was only one chair, one bed, the chest and crafting station in the whole castle, apart from the things that couldn't be moved like the pillar, computer or scanner.

He began lining down materials and looking at what he could do with them. One heavy metal unit became 200 nails and soon John had used 4 units of wood and 20 nails to make two new chairs.

He looked into it and apparently he could build the frame for the alchemy and enchanting stations before having the special materials. He did it, using 16 units of wood, 80 nails and 5 of heavy metal.

The interface in the computer allowed him to customize his castle like in a sim game and to move furniture from room to room. He moved the new stations to the second floor and added the old crafting station to it. Apparently having one of these in his castle allowed him to use craft like he was at the station as long as he remained inside. On a whim he even made a nightstand for his room, using 2 more units of wood, one of metal and 30 nails. The thing had a drawer that could hold 20 inventory slots.

John checked the auction site on his computer. Somehow his zombie teeth had been sold for 4300$, a lot higher than their estimated value. He could either recover his money or use it to buy directly from the site.

"Sylvia, we need to find or make you a weapon if you want to come with me." he told her. She rejoiced and sat next to him on one of the new chairs to see what he would buy.

John began looking at the magic weapons on sale, but all were way too expensive when he wanted to save money and get the vault. Until he noticed something that made him face-palm for being so stupid.

The reason everything was so damn expensive was that he was on the page that displayed only magical items. He had to toggle a checkmark somewhere to let millions of other items which while usable for magic, had no power of their own. Soon he was faced with writing kits to make parchment scrolls, alchemist kits, bundles of equipment for various crafts, ammunition for some weapons....

The urge to spend all of his money on this was great, but John figured that there could be a better way to go with this. He added a few things to his basket and spent only 3500 $ on this, for this time.

He went back to his room without Sylvia for a moment and asked for the express delivery. Soon enough a drone appeared at his window and deposited his purchase on the floor in front of him before flying away where it had came from.

He had bought a full chemistry set with glass tubing, burners, a centrifuge and few other small items. With the addition of a bit of gold and his book on runes it would allow him to finish the alchemy station. He also had bought 2 boxes of 200 glass vials with screw caps, each of a 250ml size.

The next box contained a set of carving tools, a few crystals and a manual for making an enchantment table. Here too he would have to use some gold to trace the runes and circles on the wood panel.

John got back to his kingdom and found Sylvia waiting for him in what he would call his workshop. She helped him unwrap the plastic around each items in the boxes.

"What are all those for?" she asked seeing all the glass vials in the cardboard boxes.

"Well, I thought about it and I think we need to find a way to get a nice stream of income. If I want to be able to spend to improve this place and get this money achievement I can't just rely on what I'll get from monsters or the loot. I remarked that we had something valuable and in great quantities that wouldn't deplete and we could sell. " he explained.

"Really? What is it? The water from the fountain loses some of its properties soon after leaving it. It would never be of any use when the customer gets it." she remarked.

"I know that and it is a shame, but I was thinking about something else. What I had in mind was that!" he replied, brushing à finger on her pussy and showing it coated with her sap to her.

"But... Who would want to buy this?" she asked him a bit shocked.

"I honestly don't care, but the scanner down there told me that a glass of this stuff is estimated at about 200$ and that there is none on sale on the auction site. So I figure we could put a dozen or so on sale with a starting price of 300$ a pop and see what happens. " he explained.

"But that would mean... You have 400 vials... That would make a minimum of 120000$ just for some of my sap. That is insane." she said, failing to grasp that something she was naturally producing could be so valuable.

"We might get more for the first ones, before people realize that there will be a bigger supply. Now let's find you something to use on our farming trip." he told her.

He used the books on enchanting and runes to finish the two workstations. It used his stock of quartz, everything he bought online and 4 gold coins.

Once finished he gained a new skill.

New Skill: Enchant lvl1, 20 mp
You can now grant a low lvl enchantment to items.
Reinforced by using an enchanting station.
Reinforced by using exotic materials as spell focus (will be lost in process)
Can be used in conjunction with Craft to enhance results.

John then gathered a few things and sat in front of the crafting table adjoining the enchanting one. He closed his eyes and focused as much as he could on the desired result.

Craft Enchant

The air shined in front of him and suddenly he was holding a long wooden staff. He had just used craft on an unit of enchanted wood, two small amber pieces, two gold coins and half a jar of dryad sap as an enchanting focus. It also cost another 1000$ in cash but it was well invested.

The result was a mage staff made of three intertwined strands of wood spiraling up to the top where it split in many wood tendrils with two small amber shards decorating it and golden thread forming a sort of matrix in the mess of twigs.

"Is it for me? It's beautiful. What does it do?" asked Sylvia. She tried to touch it but John took it away from her.

"It's for you, but it isn't finished." he told her and after seeing her puzzled look, took something out of his pocket. He inserted the Exalted Amber piece in the gold thread matrix, locking it in place, where it began to glow with a mixture of green and golden light.

Sylvian Scepter: unique item.
This long staff is the symbol of the natural energy of this kingdom. It grants its wielder control over the plants growing there and great power.
Class restriction: druids, nature spirits, life spirits.
Modifier: Exalted Amber. Doubles the effect of the scepter.
+50% (100%) power to healing spells.
+50% (100%) power to nature element spells.
+20% (40%) mana regen
+20 INT
+20 END
gain 3 lvl to skill : control plants.
Durability 200/200

He finally handed it to Sylvia who literally began to glow with bliss when she touched it. The staff was made of the wood of a spirit tree and enchanted with as many life ingredients as John could have gathered. It was a perfect weapon for her.

"Now let's go, the night is still young and we are properly equipped." he said to her.