Money Shortage

After she inspected the house and the property itself, Elaina returned to the guild and started processing the papers to transfer the ownership of the land to her name. She didn't use her name when she was married but used her maiden name instead, Elaina Blois. After all, she can't use her name back when she was still an empress or that would cause people to react.

Thankfully for her, the process of the transfer was quick and easy and she easily received it the very same day after paying it in full. The next thing she did was to apply as a farmer/supplier to the guild. Because resources of any kind are always valued in the market whether they are forageables, fish, or anything of value, they are all something that is going to be in demand which is why if one wanted to become a farmer, they have to apply to the guild for them to authorize the farmer to sell their resource directly to the market.

Of course, farmers do not have the compulsory task of shipping their harvest to the guild as they can also sell them to others. But shipping them directly would be an easy way for all farmers to gain money without the need to set up a stall to sell whatever they have.

"Are you fine with the guild setting up a shipping bin for you on your farm?" the receptionist asked Elaina.

The Shipping bin is a big chest that can be used to place all of the items she wants to sell. Not too long ago, the Magic Tower developed a shipping bin that allows farmers to place whatever stuff they want to sell inside which will transport whatever they put inside the shipping bin to the market where it will be sorted out by workers and will be distributed to stores. As for the money, it will appear the next day in the money chest that will be also given to the owner of the bin where all of the money that they earned that day will be deposited.

Because it is already calculated, farmers are ensured that they will not be cheated by the amount of money they can receive on whatever the resulting price of whatever they put. It's a fair way to get the produce sold without the farmer even handing them or carrying them straight to the market.

"Sure, I agree with that."

The receptionist nodded and she stamped the final document, which sealed the deal and now, the land is officially hers. Once the bin is installed, she can now use this bin to potentially earn money from the produce she would eventually harvest in the future.

"We will install the bin right away, in the meantime, here is your money chest that will receive the money from all the possible items you will ship. We will calculate all the stuff you ship to us and we will be giving the appropriate amount of money straight to the money chest once we conclude the final amount of what you delivered. Of course, if you can't ship anything, we don't mind as there are indeed times that some farmers can't give any sort of produce to us. Word of advice though...please don't ship any garbage to the shipping bin, alright?" the receptionist then gave Elaina a little stare that made Elaina a bit unnerved.

Elaina nodded in response which then prompted the receptionist to return to her previous happy expression.

"Well then, have a good day!"

And with that, the transaction is complete and Elaina is now free to do whatever she wants to do for the rest of her day.

"Wow, even though I knew they were dedicated to their work...I didn't know they have that scary side of them."

Elaina vowed to never do anything that would offend a guild receptionist even if she knew she could beat them in a battle.

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Now that everything was done, she decided to go into the market to buy furniture for her home. She bought a single bed for herself and some tools for cooking. She didn't buy a kitchen set immediately after seeing the state of the house and she wanted to redesign it in the future so she instead bought a portable cooking station that she can use outdoors to cook for her food. She will buy her kitchen set once the house is refurbished and repaired.

However, it seems Elaina has overestimated her money since after she was done with her shopping, she only has five thousand gold left in her pouch. And she hasn't even got any chance to buy any tools for farming just yet.

"Ugh...I didn't expect all the necessary items I needed to function daily would be so expensive. And the money left in my pouch is not enough to buy all of the tools I need for farming..." Elaina couldn't help but frown.

She had already calculated her expenses back when she was still calculating her escape but her calculations were off from the actual result. Because the prices in the Darcero Kingdom are much higher compared to the prices back in the Luminiera Kingdom, her budget has diminished and she has to cut a little bit of some stuff she needed and prioritize the stuff she needed immediately.

Knowing her circumstances, she headed to the blacksmith to look for tools she could buy there. Although she no longer wishes to buy the whole set of tools, she hoped that she could at least get to buy at least the hoe and the watering can, while the others, she would be fine without one.

With the help of directions from the vendors and some people she met on the street, she arrived in front of the town's blacksmith. Even on the outside, she can smell the strong scent of melted iron. This smithy is a trustworthy one just based on how hot the smithy is from the outside and how strong the smell of the iron is.

Entering the smithy, she can see a few adventurers browsing on the weapons displayed. There are different weapons there and even some swords that are meant to be used by beginners are also displayed. However, she is not there for the weapons but for the tools she needs. She headed to the area where she saw a few tools like shovels and pickaxes. There, she found herself looking at the tools present and all of them looked shiny and new. They are also very well crafted even just by the looks of it. With Elaina's expertise in checking various goods and checking their qualities, she can tell this is a very good tool.

Grabbing the hoe, she was shocked to see that the hoe cost 5000 gold. It is a good quality hoe, but the price is very expensive. The price of the hoe alone is the amount of what's all of her allowance left.

"S-so expensive..." she couldn't believe her eyes and slowly returned the hoe to where it was placed.

After recovering from the shock, she decided to check on the watering cans, and just like the hoe, the can also cost 5000 gold. A very expensive tool.

"This is...ridiculous..." Elaina's face couldn't hold the disappointment that she was feeling.

Although not all hope is lost, if the tools are this expensive, it seems her alternative is to use her hands to till the land and use a bucket to water the plants. After she made her final decision not to buy any tools, the head blacksmith had just finished tending to the final customer and noticed Elaina thinking about what she should do next. The blacksmith has a very good eye and can see what predicament the girl before him is having.

"The reason those tools are expensive is because they are upgraded to iron and have been embroidered with magic, making them tough and good to use, but expensive. It was only there for those who wanted to skip the trouble of upgrading their tools. If you want a cheaper alternative, check the other room, that's where we keep the starter tools. Perhaps you can find what you need there," the old blacksmith puffed a smoke from his tobacco as he pointed to the room where he was talking to Elaina.

Elaina peeks inside the room and just like what the blacksmith said, there are indeed tools present inside, varying from shovels, pickaxes, hoes, watering cans, scythes, hammers, and whatnot. However, compared to the quality of the items before, the tools here are indeed much lower in quality. They are very crude and they don't seem to be that sturdy appearance-wise.

She picked up the hoe on display and saw that it cost 1000 gold, her eyes lit up.

"Don't worry about the quality of the tools lass, they might look crude but they will fulfill all of their intended duties. Although they won't be as good as the usual tools, they are not going to be broken easily and they can be upgraded if you want to enhance their capabilities. I can vouch for that as I intended it to work like that.

Elaina heard about tool upgrading back then but most of the time, it only happens in swords and weapons. She didn't know it was also applied to tools as well.

"If I wanted to upgrade these to increase their performance, should I just bring them to you?" Elaina asked.

"We will require the tool you wanted to upgrade, and also the materials needed, like copper or iron. You can easily purchase them in the nearby mines if you want, or if you can harvest them yourself, then that is much better. That's all we require if you want to upgrade them," the blacksmith explained.

Elaina nodded. This is the typical upgrading requirement. Because the blacksmiths don't want to use their ingots and ores in upgrades, they will ask the people who want to upgrade their tools to bring their resources. The fee is fair as well and since Elaina knows this procedure very well, she knows she can use this.

"Alright. Give me the hoe, watering can, scythe, and axe."

"Oho, a new farmer huh? Well, hope you enjoy your life here as a farmer. Here, grab the pickaxe as a freebie for me since you are starting out. Thank you for your purchase. If you want to upgrade them, just hit us up, alright?"

Hearing this, Elaina is very happy and accepts the free pickaxe on her purchase.

"I will! Thank you very much!"

And with that, Elaina obtained the tools she needed. Although these tools are much inferior than what she had hoped for, this is good enough for now. Next stop? She needed seeds for her crops. After all, she can't start farming without seeds to plant.