Hmm. I knocked on a certain house’s door without pretending to know.
“Elder, are you selling today too?”
The old man who opened the door and confirmed the visitor made an “Oh my…” sound and went back inside the house. After a moment, he came out holding a bottle of fresh milk squeezed this morning and a few chunks of cheese stored in the warehouse.
“Does your knee hurt a lot?”
“Especially today. I wonder if it’ll rain…”
This village elder is a character who didn’t even exist as an extra in the game and was only created when it became reality, but he has his own meaning to me.
This person is a natural totem where if he says “Oh my, I wonder if it’ll rain,” there’s a 99% chance it’ll pour the next day.
I should plant all the seeds when I get home.
I obtained milk and cheese and turned around. Even then, I felt a gaze from somewhere.
‘What’s with him? That bastard.’
Archer soon sneakily emerged from behind a tree.
If he seriously hid, a farmer like me might not notice at all. So this meant Archer was intentionally begging for attention.
“Let’s meet regularly every day and have time for exchange.”
What kind of nauseating talk is this? Plus, it’s suspicious.
“Get lost.”
Archer, undeterred by the cold treatment, fidgeted beside me and then casually said,
“You know. Could you be my exclusive blacksmith…?”
“Exclusive?”
“I misspoke. I’ll be your doormat.”
Archer clung to me as if about to bow down. I stood crookedly and just hugged my shopping basket as if playing dumb.
“Please enhance my weapon…!”
Ah. So I’m the enhancement master.
I read yesterday’s chat too. The rankers seemed to be seriously preparing for combat now that they could survive. And they discussed the heavy forecast that enhancement without the living level bonus from the previous game would be disastrous.
So I tried it with farm tools and such.
[Would you like to attempt 1+→2+ enhancement?]
Am I also a Hunter in my own way, but weapon enhancement appears on farm tools instead?
Anyway, what’s important is what comes next.
[Enhancement probability: 90% (+10% living level bonus)]
‘I didn’t know I had this kind of advantage.’
Those who have can afford to be relaxed. I was more pressed for Belsus’s food expenses, so I hadn’t obtained his weapon yet.
Even if I got it now, Belsus wasn’t in a state to go out and run dungeons yet.
So I’d never tried enhancement even once, but this presumptuous bastard Archer started whining for me to give him my first experience.
“I’ll pay the enhancement cost!”
“There’s a commission fee. 20% of the enhancement cost per attempt. Regardless of success or failure.”
In other words, even if I hammered the anvil once and it failed, I wouldn’t take responsibility.
Archer’s face contorted mercilessly.
Others ripping me off is unacceptable. But me ripping off others was fine.
While Archer was momentarily speechless, I quickly fired off the last words.
“Collect it and I’ll think about it.”
Archer muttered “Wow, really wicked” and a few curses, but I ignored them.
You don’t know because you live alone. Try having dependents like me. You’re always short on money.
This is how you have to be cold so Archer doesn’t depend on me and grows on his own.
I left Archer behind and returned to the farm. As soon as I arrived, I planted a bunch of sweet potatoes that need lots of water.
To grow grains like wheat or rice, I need to unlock the farm size to a certain level or higher. It’s impossible with this palm-sized field.
So I’m growing sweet potatoes and pumpkins. To use as bread ingredients instead of wheat for now.
‘I need to grow variety to raise my level and increase Belsus’s meal satisfaction.’
Someday I’ll definitely obtain rice, but that’s a story for the distant future. In fact, I might be the one desperate for rice and kimchi.
Today too, I was bustling about as usual when I caught a large frame trying to sneak behind a tree to avoid my eyes. I grabbed his hem firmly.
“Where are you going? Hand over the laundry.”
Belsus hesitated a bit, then went into the room—not the barn—and brought out the laundry.
But the clothes were already all damp.
“I told you not to do laundry!”
Belsus seemed thoroughly deflated, but somehow didn’t back down and offered an excuse.
“I accidentally dropped it in water. Really.”
I held it to my nose and sniffed. Right after openly smelling it, I caught Belsus’s reaction.
“Look. You weren’t flustered just now. Why? If these were unwashed clothes, you should have panicked about the sweat smell when I sniffed them. But you’re calm? This means you already know they don’t smell.”
Cornered, Belsus couldn’t say anything now. This sucker, I was about to confirm my victory when he belatedly muttered uncertainly.
“…I don’t smell like sweat or anything.”
Now he’s saying nonsensical things.
Well, Belsus really does have a weak sweat smell. Honestly, I braced myself when I started hand-washing directly, but he was actually less than me.
Plus, his body odor is really clean and smells nice.
Damn, my experience points… Washing Belsus’s clothes only raises it as much as a mosquito, but even that’s precious experience points.
I washed the already wet clothes once more and hung them in the sunlight.
Fortunately, with just this, the level bar that was almost full rose to the next level.
[Your level has increased.]
[Please select a reward.]
[1. Improve cabin to brick house]
[2. Acquire passive ‘Hoe’s Threat Lv.1: Reduces the probability of weeds growing’]
[3. Add outdoor oven]
To think I’d ever choose the third reward in the Lv.12>13 transition section.
[You have selected ‘Add outdoor oven.’]
Normally, I should choose 2 without question. As a former office worker, reducing weed-pulling time was a huge efficiency gain, and I need to level up the ‘Hoe’s Threat’ passive to increase harvest yield later.
However, as soon as I saw ‘option 3, outdoor oven,’ I chose it without resistance. Originally, I wouldn’t have even glanced at it.
‘Now I can feed Belsus homemade bread.’
Thus, the cabin now had two chimneys. Besides the bonfire used as both a fireplace and cooking fire, I could light a fire in the outdoor oven outside the house and bake bread.
The more my hands touch the food, the better the buff efficiency.
Rather than food bought with money from outside, food prepared and cooked directly from ingredients. Best is growing the ingredients on my farm and cooking them myself.
‘I need to feed him the best buff food as soon as possible.’
There wasn’t much time now. Only a few days remained until the first regular dungeon announcement. Not just food—I also needed to give Belsus a weapon.
‘Swords are too expensive…’
It’s not that I begrudge giving it to Belsus. I seriously don’t have money to buy a sword.
‘In the game, farmers had no reason to obtain weapons, so this expense wasn’t necessary.’
I briefly wondered if I should sell all the furniture to buy a sword. But that would be like drinking my own blood because I have no water to drink.
Shaking my head and looking around, I spotted the largest sickle in our house that I’d finished using and hung on the outer wall.
‘Can’t I just use this sickle temporarily?’
Belsus lived as a mercenary and can use any weapon. He’s a character who can use any close-range weapon, so it seems usable as a stopgap measure…
Normally in the game, it would be absurd, but here my farmer profession has been elevated to a kind of combat profession, so Belsus might be able to use farm tools.
I steeled my resolve. In good conscience, I shook off the dirt from the sickle and scrubbed it thoroughly with oil until it gleamed like new.
[Well-Sharpened Sickle]
[Durability: 95]
[Would you like to attempt 1+→2+ enhancement?]
1+… no, let’s enhance it to just 2+ for now and have him use it.
An anvil-shaped system appeared in the air. I placed the sickle on top and struck down hard with the hammer.
Clang—!
A clear metallic sound rang in my head. Light burst from the sickle as if coated with a halo.
[You have successfully enhanced to +2.]
Of course. The probability was 100%.
‘Now straight to 3+.’
But suddenly, I thought the light was continuing too long. Why isn’t the effect ending—
[You have successfully enhanced consecutively to +3.]
Flash—!
[You have successfully enhanced consecutively to +4.]
The sickle began shining like crazy. The light grew brighter and brighter until it seemed I’d go blind. Even the status window went wild!
“Uh, uh, uh, uh, uhhhhh?”
In this insanely improbable situation, I only spouted dumbfounded sounds out loud. I almost plopped down backward.
[You have successfully enhanced consecutively to +6.]
