Oh Great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer

by Benjamin Kerei

  Well done, you have successfully used a pitfall to trap a Primitive Giant and gained a new rank of proficiency with pitfalls. You can now boast that you use a pitfall as well as any Adept.

  I realised where this was going on and watched as Jeric and I received every rank up to Master.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  CEANING UP THE MESS

  It was late afternoon when a knock on the parlour door stopped Jeric mid-sentence. “Come in,” he said.

  The right door opened and Ranic stepped in, smiling ear to ear, before pushing the door closed behind him. The smile didn’t mean anything. He’d been smiling like that ever since he’d learned his house of scholars had leveled twice due to all the farmer experience we accumulated. Apparently, the farmer experience gained from killing monsters went to the total required to level it the same as any other. It also meant there had been another bump in our overall experience gains and his house of scholars increased in size twice, reaching level three just before Adoya’s did. You could now see the top floor of both buildings above the village wall.

  “I was just briefing Arnold on the status of his farm and the experience he gained. Can this wait?”

  “No. My neighbour, Beldose, is currently outside yelling at your butler.”

  Jeric frowned. “Your neighbour the bank owner?”

  “The very same. He’s got three dozen mercenaries with him. It seems the regent informed him of our fraud three days ago and he’s quite upset. The horses he and his mercenaries rode in on look exhausted.”

  Fuck.

  The timing lined up too perfectly with the day we trapped that giant for it to be a coincidence. It meant the regent was still watching me. Still trying to screw me over. How much did she know? What was her end game? This was her third attempt at causing trouble since we’d left Melgrim. Each time she’d successfully chipped away a few more of our resources. How much was this attempt going to cost me? I shook my head. I had too little information to make a reasonable guess. But it was going to be too much. I couldn’t put off talking to her sister much longer. But we needed to be in a strong position to deal with her. We weren’t there yet, but we would be soon.

  I realised I was just borrowing problems from the future and cut off my line of thinking. Right now, I had to deal with the problem in front of me and limit the fallout.

  That was going to be difficult. Beldose had every reason to hate and distrust me right now. I’d intentionally lied to his bank. That wouldn’t have been an insurmountable problem in a few weeks, but I hadn’t sold any of the experience and come clean to him yet. Doing so now wouldn’t be anywhere near as impactful. That meant, I’d have to rely on my existing impressions of the man to form a plan. Those impressions weren’t bad. He seemed decent enough. The first thing he’d done when he found out the regent wanted something I had was give me a warning to protect me. So he clearly didn’t like her. Hopefully, mutual dislike and a chance to make a whole lot of money would be enough motivation to pull him back to our side. If it wasn’t, we’d have to change our new plans, again.

  I turned to Jeric. “Can you get a chest from the vault?”

  Jeric raised an eyebrow at me. “You want to show him a chest?”

  “I need to come clean and be honest. It’s my only hope of keeping the loan.”

  Jeric’s other eyebrow rose. “Ranic, find Emily and ask her to vouch for your neighbour’s safety within these walls. If he has had any of the mercenaries take an oath that offers secrecy, they may join him. If he hasn’t, they cannot enter.”

  Ranic nodded and the two men hurried out the room.

  It had been three days since we captured the giant and collected all the experience from defending the farm. The remaining villagers had all hurried back when I offered them max pay to help with the cleanup. Their presence had boosted the village aura back to full strength, but it wasn’t enough. The giant’s aura was cancelling most of it out. It was why Quilly and Adoya had the villagers going from to barn to barn to sift through the rubble for functional trap components while they were locating corpses.

  Whenever one of them designated that a barn was salvaged, I’d pay Emily the money she needed to make the village interface immediately rebuild it. Then Brek and his men would start making the changes necessary for us to install Quilly’s salvaged traps. We were all still running on fumes. There weren’t enough hours in the day for all the work we had and we couldn’t slow down.

  We’d only bought ourselves a few weeks of respite after culling the monsters numbers so heavily. Salem was already seeing new monsters around the village border. We needed the barns back up and running if Blackwood was going to survive the next few months.

  Thankfully, our success had encouraged the families that hadn’t sold their land to give trapping monsters a try. I had more volunteers than the 19 Jeric and I could currently have under us. I needed to quickly find more farmers who had passed through their first and second threshold to increase that number. Having a farm manor would remove the farmhand limit the system placed on me, but waiting for it to be built would take too long. I needed people now.

  I looked down the list of 168 live monsters that were currently caged in several barns, along with my new monster pits. They were being fattened on the dead trolls and ogres we were pulling from the barns to increase their levels. Most were wolves and mountain lions, beasts that couldn’t go beyond level 25 and would be at their limit in a few days. Only 23 of them could reach level 50 and those were currently secured in the monster pits. Most of the 23 were those baby komododiles that thankfully grew absolutely enormous. There was also a baby troll, two baby cyclopes, a young ogre that had lost both legs and lived, and two ape babies who could make it to level 75. I didn’t have a problem with killing any of them. I had seen them in action and knew exactly how dangerous they were.

  Still, I had a hard decision to make.

  We had all done the math. There was too much experience trapped inside the dead monster’s carcasses for the living ones to absorb. We were either going to have to let a ridiculous amount go to waste or feed it to the giant.

  We could take it out of the giant when we killed him, but making a giant stronger, even a seemingly trapped giant, was not a good idea.

  I’d tried everything I could think of to kill it. Dropping it onto spikes had cost it half its HP, but the barrels of moonshine down there and the Molotov cocktails I had thrown only cost it a few extra percent. Even with the whole pit being on fire, it hadn’t run out of air or burned to death, and the few spears I’d thrown in frustration bounced off.

  For now, our only option was to leave it there.

  I went through the notes that held Quilly’s estimates for reconstruction and refitting while I waited and then moved on to her notes for expansion. We were in agreement that the number of automated barns had to increase. There had been far more monsters than we could deal with. That couldn’t happen again.

  I was grateful that trapping the giant had dissolved the monsters’ alliance. If it hadn’t we might have still lost the village. The surviving horde that reached the reservoir held hundreds of monsters, more than enough to tear everything apart. But what had looked like a retreat after the giant fell in had turned into an all-out war within a few minutes. It had started as the apes versus everything else, but once they were dead, it was a free-for-all. A dozen ogres had come out on top, and then tried to get into the village, but they hadn’t caused more than minor damage before succumbing to Quilly’s traps, leveling her further. Several dozen trolls that had fallen during the free-for-all regenerated enough to limp back to the forest just before dawn. The survivors might migrate away from the region now that the giant wasn’t in charge, but they also might start trying to grow stronger. But that was just another item in a long list of problems.

  There was another knock at the door.

  “Come in,” I said.

  The parlour doors opened.

  Emily glided into the room, wearing her noble face
, giving the false impression she was unshakable. Ranic followed next, entirely relaxed. Beldose, the bank owner, stormed in behind him with a pair of guards flanking him. He’d lost weight since I had last seen him and his suit was rumpled after travelling from Weldon to Blackwood in only three days.

  I smiled. “Hello, Beldose. I wanted to thank you for arranging that lawyer for me. He was a lot of help in a trying time. So thank you. Would you like a glass of something? It’s not a short trip to come out here.”

  The vein on Beldose’s forehead grew as he did a double-take, comparing the man he had met in his office to the gorgeous Adonis sitting in front of him. “Lord Emily, please have this man arrested at once. He has defrauded the Bank of Weldon. The regent has confirmed this.”

  Emily cleared her throat. “I am all too aware of exactly what Arnold has done, sir. However, he has informed me that none of what he told you constituted a direct lie, only many lies of omission which were purposely designed to cause you to come to the wrong conclusions. Arnold is fully aware of what he has done to your bank, but from a legal standpoint, all fault is actually with you. So if you wish to pursue this matter you will need to go through the courts.”

  He went redder.

  I sighed. “Beldose relax. You look like you are going to give yourself a heart attack.” I went to the tray in the corner of the room that held the bottle of brandy, picked everything up, and brought it all back to the table. I poured a large glass and handed it to Ranic.

  The old man frowned for half a second and then caught my intent and started drinking away his problems. I poured myself and the bank owner a more reasonable glass as Ranic’s socialite ability began to kick in.

  I handed Beldose his drink and sat down. “I understand you are upset.”

  “I’m more than upset. How a man like you could ever receive the crown’s mark, I do not know.”

  “But I did, and that should tell you something.”

  “It tells me you are a greater fraudster than any I have ever heard of.”

  An anger that wasn’t my own gripped me in its cold hand, frightening me with its ferocity as it took control of my actions and words. “Sir, I have stood before the king and he has judged me. Is that not good enough for you?”

  Beldose sucked in a breath, paused, and then visibly calmed, before speaking more slowly. “I have seen him from afar, you know. Even at a distance, he put many things in perspective for me. Nevertheless, I have a responsibility to my clients. And though it pains me, in this case, I must say no.”

  The anger was gone as quickly as it had appeared. The flip was so sudden that I had to take a drink to cover my shock. What the hell was that?

  I lowered the glass. “I hear you.”

  Jeric walked into the back of the room, put the chest on the ground, and closed the doors.

  I tapped my finger on the table. “Beldose, you vouched for your men at the door. Will you do so again?”

  He frowned, sensing something amiss. “They have taken an oath to my bank. They cannot harm you physically or verbally unless you constitute a significant threat to the bank or her properties. You currently constitute a threat, however.”

  I paused. “If that were to change, would they keep my secrets?”

  He nodded.

  “Fine, let me be completely open and honest with you. I admit I told you what you wanted to hear to make you come to the wrong conclusions and loan me the money I requested. However, I fully intended to use that money to create a profitable farm that would easily repay the interest on the loan. That is even easier now that I have the crown’s mark and this village boasts a level three house of scholars that specialises in farming.”

  Beldose snorted. “Preposterous, your house of scholars is two months old. It couldn’t have leveled so quickly.”

  “It has,” Ranic said. “Beldose, do you remember what I told you when the city guard came to my house looking for Arnold? I said that he is an exploitationist and a very good one.”

  I nodded to Jeric.

  Jeric picked the chest up and placed it beside the bank owner. He flicked the clasps and pulled back the lid. 27 massive green experience crystals sat inside. Beldose’s eyes were instantly glued to them.

  I cleared my throat to gain his attention. “There is a paper with their value written on it on the table, but I can see you don’t trust me, so it will be simpler and more believable if you handled the experience crystals yourself.”

  Jeric stepped back.

  Over the next minute, Beldose pulled out each crystal and placed it on the table. The look in his eyes said he was counting. With each consecutive crystal, his anger lessened. When the last one went down, he was almost peaceful. “If you had all this, why would you need to defraud me?”

  I cleared my throat again, this time embarrassed. “Actually, tricking you is how I gained that chest and twelve others. We were trying to save Blackwood.”

  “Yes, I heard about the giant. It’s actually what made me so angry when the regent informed me of your fraud. You invested my bank’s money in a village that has no future. Nevertheless, now, I see you were creating this. Might I suggest taking it to auction slowly? If you dump it on the open market, the price will collapse back to base. Even if you ignore my suggestion, it will still take years, perhaps more than a decade, to sell so much.”

  “To be honest, I don’t plan to sell more than the chest I’m sending back with you. And I’m happy to trickle feed it into the market as long as you are willing to allow that. What I did to you was wrong, even if at the time it was necessary. If you want to, you may use the contents of that chest to pay back the loan and interest, and we can end our contract and our relationship.”

  I had to fight not to hold my breath as I waited for his reply. I’d been completely open and honest with him. I’d owned up to everything I’d done. Now, I just had to hope that he was the type of banker who put business and money first.

  He shook his head and then finally smiled, even if only for a second. “And if I didn’t want to end our relationship?”

  I almost sighed with relief. “Then your bank would become the sole bank I deal with for the rest of my life.”

  Beldose pulled at his moustache. “Before I say anything more, I would like to know what you are planning to do with the rest of the experience.”

  “I’m planning to loan it to my new workers, give them a chance at a proper life. Nobleman Jeric and his wife are currently contacting hundreds of southern nobles who have an overflow of young farmers with no levels to their name. As a favour to these nobles, Emily will agree to take them off their hands. With my current capabilities, I can take more than 23,000 farmers and level them to 10. The crown has already agreed to supply our houses of scholars with staff, which means there will be no less than seventy-five professional farming scholars, and twice as many apprentices, capable of teaching these new farmers. At the small price of 100 noble experience for each individual we take, level, and train, Emily will eventually accumulate enough experience to reach her second threshold. The reason the southern nobles will accept this proposal is because this will be considered a change of fate and will eventually earn them more experience than their initial investment.”

  Beldose’s nostrils flared and he took a drink of his brandy. The governor in Weldon was only level 35. There were a lot of cities that had a noble at their second threshold. However, there were only a couple of towns that had nobles with such a high level, so most would consider it a joke to suggest a village would have one, but I wasn’t joking, and he could tell.

  Ranic chuckled. “Leveling the farmers here will also add enough farming points to Arnold’s farm to make it as productive as a traditional operation.”

  “It will,” I said. “I should also probably inform you that Master Scholar Ranic is fully in charge of my farm and its development along with instructing its new workers. Additionally, I have gained the level 50 promotion known as the Advanced Farming Bonus which gives twice the bonus exp
erience as its more common counterpart and I fully intend to purchase the promotion crystals required to upgrade it as soon as possible.”

  Beldose took another sip and then held his glass between his hands, resting them on the edge of the table. “Before I tell you what I will want from you to continue our relationship, tell me: what do you want from my bank?”

  “I would like to keep our original loan. You may not have heard, though that would surprise me, but I have made myself an enemy of the regent. I am quite certain that no other northern bank will now work with me. I can try the southern banks, but I imagine that it will be challenging to gain their trust after what I have done.”

  “I would say that it will be the next thing to impossible even in the south,” Beldose said. “It will be entirely impossible in the north. I’ve placed a black mark next to your name and the regent has backed it.”

  “I figured as much.”

  Beldose stared at his glass for several seconds. “I’m sure you realise that helping you maintain the loan would ostracise my bank. No one wishes to cross the regent. We would be cut off from all but our most patriotic partners in the north.”

  “I do.”

  “Here is my proposal then. Before I leave, you and your people will divulge everything you are doing here, along with everything you will do in the future. You will also tell me how you have gained so much experience, but I will wait until an oath binder arrives before requiring you to do so. When I leave, I will take the chest of experience back to Weldon and discreetly auction it on your behalf. If I like what you have planned and you accept changing the interest rate we charge you from 3% to 5%, I will put the money from the sale into your personal account and maintain the first portion of the loan. The conditions for the second instalment and each consecutive one will be another change to the original loan. Before issuing each one, I will be allowed to view your progress and make the decision to veto the instalment. However, before any of that happens, I will require you make an oath to me that you will never intentionally bring harm to my bank again and that my bank will be the sole bank you use in the future. I can no longer trust your word or claimed good intentions, Landlord Arnold.” He turned and glared at Ranic. “You too.”