After a little cleaning on the farm, a portion of the land has been cleared with wood, stone, and weeds. Elaina wipes away her sweat after the hard work is done.
"Whew, that should be enough, I guess."
She looked at the pile of twigs and some pieces of wood she managed to gather upon cleaning it up.
"I don't know where these wood came from but having lots of them here should help me for cooking food later. With my portable cooking station, I don't need to gather wood in the forest right now."
After making a simple fence to steer animals clear from where she has planted the seeds using the wood she gathered, her farm work for the day is finally complete.
Gathering all of the remaining wood she has gathered so far and putting it in a dry place, she returned inside the house grabbed her rucksack inside, and put it on her back. Now that all of the tasks she needed to do were done, Elaina decided to start going into the forest. While it was still early, Elaina wanted to at least get familiar with the surroundings of the forest and memorize the area.
With her sword, rucksack, and Almanac, she ventured into the woods that was said to be the area where a dungeon had emerged. There is plenty of information on the area that she decided to remember while she was walking in the area.
"So, this place is home to various animals and monsters alike that I can hunt? That must mean this is a good place to gather lots of forageables," Elaina is excited about this prospect.
It had been a while since she had done something like this but back then when she was still single and had been training her swordsmanship, to train properly on it, she went to the forest and looked for monsters to kill and hunt, which also made her proficient in hunting and dealing with monsters. But since she was doing it secretly, no one knew about it except for herself. She didn't expect she would find that skill she developed back then to be extremely useful now.
Marking on the trees, Elaina glanced at the forageables that she could find in the book.
"Let's see here...I can gather fallen fruits here, some wild berries and there are even some medicinal plants huh?"
Every single forageables that can be found in the area are displayed on the almanac. Not only that but there are also pictures which allow her to know what are the looks of the forageables she can gather.
And as she moved to the nearby bushes, she soon found a few.
"These leaves... it's the same look as the medicinal plants that I can discover in this area. Didn't know they grow around here."
Pulling out her pocket knife, she gathered the medicinal plants carefully without damaging them and making sure to leave a few more to allow them to spread and increase in number.
It was followed in a few more instances and she even found a few fallen fruits in the process. She didn't venture far from her farm and yet she already found a lot of forageables that she put inside her rucksack. She now felt grateful that the Almanac was very helpful in gathering forageables. Not only did she manage to gather a lot, most of them were valuable as well
It didn't take long for her rucksack to fill up with forageables. Because there is no more space for her rucksack, there is no need for her to venture far further for the day. She returned to the farm with a big smile on her face. First day of farm work and foraging and she has done a lot already.
As she hums away and heads back to the farm, she doesn't notice the presence of someone currently watching her in the distance. It didn't linger for long before disappearing into the forest.
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"Medicinal herbs, 5 pieces. Wild berries, managed to gather a bundle, 6 edible mushrooms, 10 pieces of different wild fruits, and the rest are root crops that I found. That is a very good haul, I must say," Elaina smiled as she looked at the forage she gathered.
Then, she suddenly remembered one thing she almost forgot.
"Oh, that's right. After all of the work I have done, I think I have done those daily quests right?"
Elaina flips to the daily quests and a checkmark is present on all quests. It was glowing so she decided to touch them. In the process, the quests have been submitted and she received the rewards. As soon as she received the rewards, the god that was talking to her once again reappeared.
"[Would you look at that, it seems you have finally earned Farm Points, yes?]"
"Based on how you appeared immediately, I can tell that you have already prepared this line since earlier," Elaina shook her head and sighed.
"[Haha, just ride on it, don't be so dull. Anyways, now that you have acquired some farm points, you are now obligated to access the Farm Market!]"
"Farm Market?" Elaina frowned.
"[Yes, here, let me show you!]"
Elaina heard a snapping sound again and all of a sudden, a ledger stand with a ledger book appeared on the door.
"A ledger?" Elaina is familiar with it. After all, she had been using the ledger for business back when she was still the empress so she is not a stranger to it.
"[It is only a ledger as this is the most familiar one for you. I would have tried to implement it like the Almanac but I don't think I would like to make that book thicker than ever so I created a new one. I also thought of using the form of a visual market where you can use it anywhere but I also think it is not that appealing so I decided to imitate how those ledgers look. Go ahead and open it!]"
Elaina approached the ledger and opened it up, revealing a different kind of ledger that she was used to see and use in business. In it are several photos printed on the side with a few rows of boxes labeled with the price, amount, and buy with another one which is the total that is separated from the other three as it was placed below. She even spotted the photo of the seed bag of the questionable parsnip she used earlier.
"This is an order ledger?"
"[Sort of? But it works like a transaction market. You can even see the amount of Farm Points you have on the top right of the page.]"
Elaina glanced in the direction the god was saying and there she saw the 'Farm points' and beside it was the number 120.
"Okay...so how do I use this?" Elaina is still a bit confused.
"[Alright listen up. See those photos on the side of each page? Those are the products in the market that are available right now. For the right amount of Farm Points, you can purchase any of them as long as your Farm Points are sufficient. As to how to buy those, look at the boxes on the side of each product. See them? Good. If you want to buy the item on the side, write a check on the buy and specify how many you want to buy on the box with the label amount. The price of the product is displayed on the box with the Price on its label so that you will know how much Farm Point you will use to buy it. After finalizing the purchase, the total number of Farm Points deducted from your account will be displayed on the total.]" the god explained.
"Hmmm, I think I get the gist of it. So what about the product? Don't tell me it will appear straight into my face?"
"[Haha, no. You will receive a parcel outside your house after you close the ledger which would signify the completion of the purchase. Same-day delivery after the transaction is done.]
"Hmmm, I think that sounds amazing. So the only way for me to earn these Farm Points is through these quests issued every day?"
"[Yes. This means, the more you tend and work on your farm, the more Farm Points you will earn.]"
Elaina smiled upon hearing this. If that is the case, then she can purchase on this market for stuff she might find interesting and use the currency she earned through hard labor and gain stuff. That is indeed good.
"In short, this is the market that will resupply my needs if ever I needed to buy more of those mystic seeds?" Elaina asked.
"[Ding ding! You are correct, girl! That is the main reason we made this system. We don't want to give you seeds that you might not need to also make sure that you work on those seeds instead of receiving them for free. We don't want you to become lazy, instead, you have to work hard to earn what you get.]"
"I get your point. I will use this in the future indeed."
Elaina nodded and glanced at the ledger before her. Although she thinks the gods are a bit stingy, they do have a point, and working for them would be a lot more worth it than having them gained for free. She can't wait for what the future holds for her.
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While Elaina is busy with her new farm life, Luminiera Kingdom has finally been informed of their Empress's disappearance. The newspapers are pretty much working double time to spread the word of the news. On the other hand, the doctor who examined Elaina the other day was currently reviewing the image she printed on the piece of photo paper using her power to display the photo of the baby that Elaina has been carrying.
"Wow, it can't be..." the doctor was shocked as she removed her glasses.
She quickly grabs the records of Elaina and quickly updates the status of her pregnancy, erasing the old record she did earlier. She plans to tell this matter to her once she comes back for another check-up. After all, this isn't going to be a good thing for her especially with the laws of Luminiera Kingdom.
"The patient is currently pregnant with twins."