The Idle System Box Set

by Pegaz

  John smiled and waved back. As the two groups met together, he gestured to the new puppets.

  “These are the people I’ve hired to work around the house. We talked about it yesterday, remember?”

  Chapter 46

  Orders

  Sarah vaguely recalled what John had mentioned the night before. He’d said something about finding mortal sinners to turn into worker puppets, which was fine by her. She inspected the four people, finding that they were all very similar to each other. She wondered if they were related. Cousins, perhaps.

  All four seemed to be from a rough area of town; they each were covered in scars, which only made them seem more rugged. They all shared the same black hair and brown eyes, with very similar facial features.

  Lexis heard John mention hiring workers, so she took a gander as well.

  “You sure they’re gonna work for you instead of rob you?” She commented with a sarcastic bite. John started snickering at this.

  “They wouldn’t dare rob us,” he said through his cheeky grin. “At any rate, they’re cheap labour.”

  Sarah tried hard not to laugh but could only hide so much. The inside joke completely went over Lexis’ head. The shorter woman could only tilt her head in confusion.

  “I’ve got to take these workers home and sort them out,” John finally said after a few minutes more of chatting. “Are you going to the horse racing stadium? By coincidence, I’ve got the betting odds here. You want them?”

  Sarah accepted the leather parchment from John and they parted ways.

  Arriving at the administration building with all the teleport runes, John sent the four puppets first with the order to move fifteen feet away from the rune after teleporting. He wanted to test the limit of their brain power. One by one, they walked through the teleport.

  When the fourth puppet went through, John waited thirty seconds before going through as well. On the other side, he looked around and found the puppets had followed his order, but all of them walked in different directions. With a sigh, he ordered them to follow him home.

  So they can follow a little more complicated orders, but if you’re not specific enough, then they’ll do their own thing… I need to make sure their orders are simple and specific.

  Arriving at his house, he looked at the overgrown weeds in the garden. John ordered one of the puppets to pull out weeds. To his surprise, however, the puppet only looked around, unmoving.

  Does it not know which ones are weeds? Can puppets learn?

  Looking at the puppets, John felt stupid for doing this but telepathically asked if they could read. The puppets surprised him again as all four of them nodded. After coming back from his shock, he ordered all four of them into the house to wait for his return.

  John travelled back to the administration building where he teleported to the library. He asked if he could take a copy of some general books. The grand elder librarian explained that it cost one credit point for unlimited access to the books. As long as John did not make copies of certain techniques, he was allowed to use the books however he liked. Thanking the grand elder, John paid the fee and went inside.

  Two hours later, John was on his way home again. When he finally arrived, all four puppets were standing in the corridor, waiting. They turned around to look at John at the same time.

  “That’s kind of creepy.” John shuddered. “All you need is glowing eyes and this could be the start of a horror story.”

  John took them to the living room and separated the books into four piles. One pile was dedicated to cookbooks and books about edible plants. The second pile was all about gardening, which described how to take care of specific plants. Another pile was all about how to clean different surfaces such as wood, glass, marble, and much more. The final pile is all about how to help a master with his work; it was the broadest pile and contained texts that addressed the etiquette of being a perfect underling or servant.

  John assigned each puppet to one pile, corresponding their roles to what they would be learning. It took the puppets a few hours to read all books, but they eventually got through them. John decided to test them on their knowledge and discovered that they could memorise what they learned perfectly. John wondered if they’d inherited his Mind Strength skill.

  The first order that John gave to the puppet chef was to purchase ingredients for dinner. However, after some floundering about, the puppet could not find the market. John figured that even if it had found the market, then it wouldn’t have been able to purchase items since the puppet couldn’t speak. Slightly annoyed, John changed the first order. He told the puppet to cook three meals a day for him and Sarah while using the ingredients within the house. The puppet was to wait upstairs in the puppet room when it was not preparing meals.

  Looking at the second puppet, John ordered it to clean up the yard. Specifically, John put it in charge of weeding, trimming, and caring for the lawn and plants. The third puppet was put in charge of cleaning all rooms and surfaces of the home. Both of these puppets were also to wait on standby in the puppet room when they were not busy.

  The final puppet’s orders were a little more complicated, so John took care to word it properly. He ordered the puppet to wait on his or Sarah’s commands throughout the day. Should one of them call for its help, the puppet was to drop whatever it was doing. This was unless another order specified otherwise. If a conflict of orders arose, the puppet was told to choose the first order unless the second order is an emergency. This puppet was also told to check on the other puppets at the end of each day.

  An hour later, half of the house was absolutely spotless and a quarter of the front garden was looking good. This was the sight that Sarah came home to, and she certainly was shocked.

  “Had fun?” John was sitting on a sofa in the living room relaxing when she walked through the doors.

  “Yeah.” Sarah smiled and sat next to him on the sofa. She rested her head on his shoulder. “It was fun. I even took part in the javelin throw.”

  “Oh, really?” John laughed. “Did you win?”

  “Yes, sir!” Sarah nodded proudly and took out a small gold medal. “This is the small medal. I need to enter the competition when the professionals are competing to win the medium-sized medal. The large medal goes to the winner of the medium-sized medal owners competition. It only takes place once every five years though, and the last one was six months ago while we were in the library.”

  “That’s not too bad,” John replied. “It’s less than five years. You can go back and wipe the floor with them soon enough.”

  Sarah giggled a little at this. After a minute, she paused and looked up at her husband.

  “Did you see me talking to a woman when you saw me?”

  “Hmn…” John thought about it for a moment. “You mean that shapely woman with the tall, dark-haired man?”

  “Shapely?” Sarah puffed her lips up into a pout, drawing a laugh from John. “Is that your type now?”

  John only laughed.

  Chapter 47

  The Deal

  “Anyway,” Sarah continued, her pout fading. “The man who was with her is Lexis’ ex-fiancé. He’s been trying to get Lexis kicked out of the sect by wooing that other woman. I had a word with the woman and told her what the man was up to, but I’m still worried.”

  “Well, If I was that woman’s parent—a grand elder—then I would suspect every man who tried to get close to her,” John replied plainly, not particularly interested in the subject. “People say that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, which is mostly true. But that only matters after you’ve spent time with the person. When you first meet somebody, if they’re not attracted to you, you won’t get enough time for the other person to see what’s on the inside.”

  What John said struck a chord with Sarah. She felt her eyes growing a bit misty.

  “So, if I was her father,” John continued. “I would suspect that her suitor would be after something. That woman might be blind to the man�
�s actions, but I’m willing to bet that said parent is well aware. If there was even a 1% chance that the parent would give the suitor what he wanted, after your talk with them, I can guarantee that it’s gone now.”

  “I sure hope so,” Sarah cooed. “I don’t want Lexis to get kicked out of the Sword Sect for choosing her own future. I did the same thing, and it worked out for me. If she gets kicked out, I’ll just have to pay that man a little visit. Maybe that shapely woman, too.”

  John laughed.

  Inside a mansion, Lexis’ ex-fiancé was sitting on a sofa, pale-faced and sweating. He was still shaken by the killing intent he felt from the woman with the skeleton mask. What he needed to do was pull himself together; he was only moments away from meeting the parents of the woman he’d been trying to woo. Try as he might, though, he could not calm himself down.

  If he didn’t follow through with his plan to remove Lexis from the sect, his time spent with the heavyset woman would be a waste. Just thinking about what he was doing to woo her made him feel sick to his stomach. The only thing that kept him going on was knowing that he would be with Lexis at the end. But, with the threat, he found his goal had disappeared completely. He felt lost, unsure of where to go from that point.

  Inside another room, the woman in question was talking to her parents. She was complaining about the female with the skeleton mask to her father, a grand elder. Her mother, an outer elder, listened closely as well. Her father’s job was to make sure elders inside the inner disciple’s area did not abuse their powers, while her mother’s job was to punish outer disciples who broke the rules.

  Since the woman with the skeleton mask was classified as an outer disciple, it was supposed to be her mother’s job to punish the woman for threatening another sect member; however, her father instructed both mother and daughter to leave it. The woman with the skeleton mask had a special identity, though he would not clarify what her identity was.

  He was more interested in what the woman had said about his daughter’s suitor. That man was only wooing his daughter to get his ex-fiancée kicked out of the sect. The man would more than likely leave his daughter as soon as he accomplished his goal. His daughter was oblivious to the man’s plot, which made the father realise that his daughter had fallen in love with the man. He was trying to think of a way to get the man to marry his daughter.

  The problem was, if the man married his daughter, his daughter would become jealous of the man’s ex-fiancée. She would want to remove said ex from the equation, no doubt. And of course, this would cause the man to leave his daughter to go after the ex-fiancée.

  And then there was the woman with the skull mask. He saw her fight in the tournament, too, so he knew that she was dangerous. She would kill the suitor as she said, and maybe even his daughter. Then there was the position of the woman, an honoured elder. He only knew this because he got promoted and could attend the elders meeting a few months before they joined the sect.

  After telling his wife and daughter to stay in the room, he went into the hall to talk to the man.

  Looking at the pale-faced man, his first impression of him was not good. He wondered what his daughter saw in the man, but then again, he also wondered what this man did to make his daughter fall for him.

  “The woman with the skeleton mask has a special identity,” the man said slowly. “If your ex-fiancée gets kicked out the sect, the woman would kill you and my daughter, too.”

  There was a pause and the air grew thick with tension.

  “If you marry my daughter,” he continued darkly. “I will help you become stronger. You will become wealthy and you will want for nothing in the world so long as you make my daughter happy. But if she so much as gets jealous of your ex-fiancée, the scenario I’ve told you will play out as the ending.”

  The grand elder cleared his throat. A bead of sweat slipped down the back of the younger man’s neck.

  “You can not tell my daughter about this deal.” His voice was steady and menacing. “If she found out, then she would try to uncover the skeleton woman’s identity, which will only get all of us killed. In addition, there cannot be any other woman besides my daughter in your life. Should this not be the case, everything I promised would disappear and I’ll kill you myself. If you agree to these terms, then join me and my family. If not, leave and get off the Sword Sect’s planet before you’re killed.”

  After saying all he needed to, the grand elder returned to the room where his wife and daughter waited.

  When the father left, the man put his head between his knees with his hands at the back of his head.

  He could have everything he ever wanted, needed or think of in exchange for being with that woman for the rest of his life. With the resources he was being offered, he could go from a Rank 2 to a Rank 5, perhaps even higher. However, his life expectancy would also skyrocket and he would have to spend perhaps two thousand years with a woman he did not love. Meanwhile, Lexis would continue to roam about—just out of his reach. The temptation to pursue her would be great, no doubt.

  The deal boils down to bountiful resources in exchange for my happiness, freedom, and dignity. How am I supposed to get rid of the feelings I have for Lexis? Can I live with myself if I take the deal?

  The man paced back and forth while thinking for almost 15 minutes. He took a deep breath, then walked through a door.

  …

  John was struck by a question. Since he had a controller for the fighter puppets, did he have one for the workers? He opened the system to check.

  Foreign Objects:

  Worker Puppet Controller: 4

  Oh, so with worker puppets, the number is how many workers I have. The fighting puppet’s number describes its rank and level.

  “I will go check on the farm I created next to our cultivation caves on my master’s planet.” John looked at Sarah who was still resting her head on his shoulders. “It has been over six years since I planted them. I’m curious how much they’ve grown.”

  John paused a moment in recollection before continuing.

  “If they absorb more Life Power the further down they’re planted,” he mused, “then I can set up a huge farm and sell the plants to bring in more resources. We don’t have an income at all and these Life Stones won’t last us for an eternity. I plan to make a huge farm if everything goes as planned, but I won’t sell any of them for a hundred years at least. Each plant’s price rises five fold once they reach a hundred years old. The Life Stones we have now should last us that long, I hope.”

  “So at ninety-nine years, it could cost one Life Stone,” Sarah said and furrowed her brows. “But at one hundred years, it will be five Life Stones?”

  “Yes, though I don’t know why,” John said, nodding. “Maybe it’s because the seller can shout it’s over a hundred years without lying? Since they go by reputation, they can’t lie about the thing they’re selling if they want to continue their business.”

  “Mhmn...” Sarah was losing more interest by the second. She cuddled even closer to John, who continued speaking.

  “The only difference between the plants themselves is the amount of Life Power they contain.” He frowned, mostly talking to himself. “But with the healing plants, I’ve seen the same plant have 1% less impurity once it’s over one hundred years old. That’s compared to one under one hundred years old, of course. I wonder...”

  “And while you’re busy with that,” Sarah interjected. “I’ll go check on the shed to come up with a plan to turn it into medical practice.”

  Chapter 48

  Old Plant, New Surprise

  John kissed Sarah and then stood up and headed to the cultivation rooms. Once inside, he placed the leather parchment with the teleport rune he drew on the floor as this will be used to teleport in an emergency. He then placed the stone teleport rune down a few feet away from the parchment. He used the stone teleport rune to teleport to his master’s private planet.

  At the other end, he flew down the hole and arrived
at the cultivation caves. Striding past the cultivation rooms, he finally arrived at his first farm.

  He could see the holy basil, shatavari, and a few other plants. Curious, he checked with Immortal Eye.

  Holy Basil

  Life Power: 90,000

  Impurities: 0%

  Shatavari

  Life Power: 270,000

  Impurities: 95%

  My theory’s correct! When they’re planted further down, they absorb more Life Power per year.

  With the holy basil, I remember it was ten thousand per year on the surface. On this farm, though, it’s fifteen thousand per year! In fact, both plants absorb 1.5 times more than on the surface. That being said, the shatavari I won at the auction had fewer impurities... Was that because it was hundreds of years old?

  How come the Immortal Eye only shows whole numbers? It’s been a few months since the six years anniversary of the date I planted them, so shouldn’t these plants have a few hundred Life Power added, too?

  Questions aside, John was ecstatic at the results. If he made one hundred farms for the top three herbs, he could sell a bunch every year once they hit one hundred years. He could plant one farm of each herb per year. On the hundredth year, he would harvest the first one. Then, it would be a cycle of farm three and harvest three farms each year.

  John walked across the stone walkway. He noticed there were seeds that had died.

  So not all seeds can grow... Did the other plants take their Life Power, causing them to die? Do I need to spread them out more?

  None of the books he read mentioned how to care for these types of plants. John wondered if it was a trade secret.

  There were different herbs and plants that grew, but nothing came close to the holy basil and shatavari. John knew that the people at the Adventurer Guild used the shatavari to heal minor, major, and even fatal wounds. He had a feeling they would sell really well. Holy basil was also used typically to remove impurities from the cultivator’s body, or even to increase the purity of one’s Life Power. While he and Sarah had no use for them in that aspect, John was willing to bet that they would gather over a million Life Power at one hundred years old.