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Day 15

Finished working on the farm for now. It's taking up a sizeable chunk of the pond now – all wheat, carrots and potatoes. Entertaining the idea of turning all the land around it into farming plots – it will be enough for me to never go hungry again, as well as have a sizeable stock for trading. In other news, managed to find a few green cane-things by the river – Sugar Canes, if the inventory name is to be believed. With the instructions from the System, managed to squeeze some liquid/juice out of the cane, which then rapidly turned into a syrupy mush with some hints of sugar crystals. It tasted strange, half-sweet and half-watery. The syrup eventually evaporated as well, leaving me with really sticky hands and a pile of "refined" sugar. This one tasted almost exactly like the one back home. (the other home). Pretty great, all things considered. Now if only I could find myself some sort of salt around here – my meals could really use some more seasonings.

Oh, and the sugar canes can be planted down as a "crop" too, I guess, but only right next to water – otherwise they wither away pretty quickly.

I think it's about time I checked out those lights I'd seen yesterday.


Yep, those are houses alright.


Gone to this new village. Same reaction from the folks as in the other settlement – wary, almost scared looks sent towards me, even if they tried their best to appear happy and helpful.

Village itself was…weird, for the lack of a better word: half-finished houses, huge trench running right through the middle of the place, even a house built on top of a literal cave entrance, being held by nothing more than a floating patch of dirt! I mean, it's not like it'd matter since these cubes just float in the air, but still. I'd decided to help around a little - ended up plugging up the cave entrance and fixing a couple of houses to atleast get rid of holes. I did get thanked for my deeds, but when I tried asking why couldn't they have fixed it themselves or why bother living in such a messed-up dwelling anyway, I was just met with "It's not a problem", "Doesn't matter" and similar brush-offs. There was a moment where a kid had walked up to me and straight up said that "these houses were always this way", but he got ushered away by his mom (presumably) before I could ask more.

No wall either, and no Golem this time around, though they must be doing something right if they're still alive. There's definitely some shady stuff going on, if everyone is so adamant about not answering my questions.

Not to say this place was all that bad. First, I'd stumbled upon yet another farmer – a young tanned guy this time around. He was willing to buy carrots and beetroots (I'll have to look into those later on). Didn't have any on me, but that's simply a matter of time – I predict in a day or two I'll have enough food to sell. Helped a kid climb out of a trench too – he then had pointed me to another dude who needed help. The dude turned out to be a butcher – young guy next to a huge building - who asked me to help him build a new smoker for food, the previous one having burned down.

(I almost missed the looks the passers-by threw at the poor guy as he was asking.)

Took me a few moments to fix the guy's smoker. Didn't expect quite so many thanks – apparently, without a way to properly cook food the village had been in a bit of a peril – not exactly starving, but not eating well either.

Being thanked by townsfolk so much...it felt great.

I didn't dare break their good mood (as well as my own, to be fair) with "unnecessary" questions, so I just went along with it.

As a thanks, the butcher boy gave me a bowl what he said was home-cooked rabbit stew.

It was absolutely, mind-meltingly delicious. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed properly cooked meals until this very moment. Guy was kind enough to even give me a recipe and tips how to cook and season it properly. Though, such a meal for a single emerald? I might as well just pay for it.

The best part came when I asked him where was he getting the meat from. He simply smirked (as much as he could with that humongous nose of his), and led me inside the building.

It was an animal husbandry. A freaking barn.

They were breeding and keeping animals. Cows and sheep. Everything you could really need - food, clothing, milk, etc.

My silence must have spoken volumes, as the dude just sighed contentedly and started explaining. It was all rather simple, once again: you hold a crop in your hands to attract certain animals, you feed them the crop, they get horny (?) from the crop, they do the deed, you get a small animal. Apparently the animals are either genderless, or have no qualms against incest, as you can, his words, "matchmake a grown up kid an' its own mom". I really hope the people here don't multiply the same way (and I really need to get this disgusting image out of my head now), but, for what it's worth, this means that it's possible to grow a full-fledged animal farm from just two animals (or one, or even zero, as chicken eggs can sometimes hatch chicks.)

This means I can try setting up an animal farm of my own now. I expect it to be a lot messier and more difficult to maintain than a crop farm, but it's worth a try. As good as the vegetables and fish are, I'd really prefer a little more variety in my diet, not to mention stuff like wool and milk. Sure, the slaughtering part is probably going to be as awful as before, but at least with better tools (and a little more experience) I can make it quicker (and less taxing on my conscience).

One last thing to mention: saw some bookshelves in one of the few un-ruined houses in this village. Decided to take a look at them – figured that I could possibly find out more about this place.

Obviously, it didn't turn out that easy – these books, thin as they were (most were sitting at about a dozen pages, more akin to magazines) were written in a completely unrecognizable language; what's more the symbols seemed to change every time I blinked or stopped focusing for even just a moment, making it completely impossible to make sense of anything. It took a voice of another villager to snap me out of my frustrations – the "owner" of this house, apparently. Yet another middle-aged man (though he looked way older), dressed in what I instantly figured was library attire – same kind of cloak, same kinds of glasses that the librarian over at Beacon Library wore.

After my shock of being caught and furious apologies were accepted, he told me that he was a skilled interpreter and would be able to decipher the local hieroglyphs into something more intelligible.

Unfortunately, there's always a "but". The guy said he needed a lectern – special kind of bench for reading books. Without it, the language, apparently, becomes so chaotic and nonsensical that even other interpreters such as him are only able to discern and comprehend singular words. The lectern, his words, "stabilizes" the language and makes it possible to read. To my question what kinds of "books" he had in his possession he only shrugged his shoulders – the man's been without a lectern for so long, he'd forgotten the contents.

That's where I come in. If I were to get my hands of a lectern (or create one), he would gladly offer his services as a librarian (whatever that means here), as well as share the knowledge contained within those books of his.

I suppose I'll think about it. Having more information about this place is nice, but my immediate survival still takes priority.


FOR FUTURE REFERENCE I AM WRITING DOWN THE LIST OF KNOWN ANIMALS AND APPROPRIATE FOOD (AS WELL AS BOOKMARKING THIS PAGE):

PIG: Carrots, Beetroots

SHEEP: Wheat

COW: Wheat

CHICKEN: Seeds of any variety

RABBIT (haven't seen any yet, but from butcher's words they hop around here occasionally): Carrots, Dandelions


Same deal as with previous village chapter - tell me how I did. Having ideas is one thing, but turning those ideas into something that's interesting to read is completely different (and not very easy, let me tell you).

Also there might not be new chapter for some time - probably going to have a lot on my plate in the upcoming weeks. Just an FYI.