Chapter 17: First Salary

"Did you see the produce from the shop outside?"

"The ones who are selling those amazing crops?"

"Yes! The ones with tomatoes so fresh and plump that they look like they were picked straight from paradise!"

The news about the high-grade crops quickly spread throughout the village. A crop as precious as this had never been heard of before, so everyone became curious to see them and try them for themselves.

Before long, people began coming to the shop just to buy some of the newly harvested produce.

The tomatoes were indeed bigger, fresher, and better than anything they had seen before. The same was also true for the other vegetables and fruits that Eveline had helped grow.

The shop quickly became the talk of the village because of it.

And because of that, the owner of the farm started making more money than he had ever made before too. In just a few days, his business had completely changed.

More customers came to his shop, and other merchants even started asking where he got such high-quality produce. The owner couldn’t believe how quickly his business had flourished just because of hiring Eveline and Caelan.

However, there was one thing he never told them. He never revealed that Eveline was the one behind it. That was because Eveline had asked him not to.

For Eveline, she didn’t want anyone to know about her ability. Her ability was already rare enough, and the fact that she could produce the highest-grade crops made it even more dangerous to reveal.

If word spread too far, people would start looking for her. And there was one group of people she didn’t want to find her. Her family.

She knew so well that if her family heard that someone with an ability like hers had appeared again, it wouldn’t take long for them to realize that she was still alive and had regained her power.

So she made a request to the owner about it that if anyone asked about the crops, the shop would take credit for them. Fortunately, the owner and the workers respected her decision.

And since then, a week quickly passed.

"Here. You two earned this." Caelan looked down at the small pouch placed in his hand. His eyes immediately widened when he saw the coins inside. He quickly counted them and the amount...

"100 coins?" He couldn’t believe it.

"Yes. You two get 100 coins each," the owner said with a smile on his face. "You both worked hard this week, so I thought this would be a fair amount."

"We actually got this much?" Caelan quickly looked at Eveline, who was also staring at the coins she had received. It seemed like she was also surprised by the amount they received.

"Of course," the owner replied. "You two have been a huge help to the farm. Thanks to your work, we’ve been able to produce the best produce in the village!"

Caelan looked back at the pouch in his hand and couldn’t help but smile.

[+100 coins]

[100/1000 coins]

[You have gained +10 Exp]

Caelan’s smile slowly faded as he looked at the system notification in front of him. He was happy about getting paid, but then he started doing the math in his head.

If they earned around 100 coins every week, then...

That’s going to take forever. Caelan’s face immediately became serious when he realized that.

He needed 1,000 coins to complete the objective, but they had only earned 100 so far and it’s been a week already. If they continued earning 100 coins each week, it would take him 10 weeks just to reach the required amount.

"10 weeks..." Caelan muttered to himself in a low voice. "That’s more than two months."

"Is there any way we can earn more money?" Caelan suddenly looked toward the owner.

"Huh?" The owner blinked unsurely. He wasn’t expecting that kind of question at all.

"I mean, is there anything else we can do? Maybe sell more produce? Anything that could help us earn more."

"Why do you need that much money?" The owner looked at him with a confused expression.

"We’re trying to go to the capital." Caelan hesitated for a moment before answering.

"The capital?"

"Yes." Caelan nodded.

"We want to go there, but we need enough money for the journey. That’s why we’re trying to save as much as we can." Eveline stepped in to explain too. When she realized what Caelan was trying to do, she quickly came forward to help.

"I see..." The owner scratched the back of his head. He looked toward his shop where they are before turning back at Caelan.

"Well, the problem is... we’re in a village."

"What does that have to do with it?" Caelan’s forehead creased.

"The number of customers we have is limited," The owner pointed toward the shop. "Even if we produce more crops, there are only so many people here who can buy them."

"So even though the crops are better now, we can only sell so much," the owner continued.

"Don’t get me wrong. Business has been much better since you two started working here. More people are buying from us, and some even come from nearby areas because they’ve heard about the produce."

"But most of our customers are still the same people who live here. We can’t suddenly make more people appear just because our crops are better."

That made sense. Caelan quickly nodded at it.

"If that’s the case, then..." Caelan suddenly looked at the owner with a serious expression. "We either move the crops out of the farm or just make more people come here, right?"

He could already feel that this would be a big problem.