After hearing Rex's news about the village accepting to help him, we all decided to go to bed. It was a very good thing that helped us sleep more calmly. Still, despite being in a place that was clearly safe for us, I wasn't able to sleep that well. Every small noise made me turn towards the door, worried that the Rodenti or something was going to try to attack us.
It wasn't really fair to them since they had shown to be nothing but kind. But it wasn't the type of thing that I could control. Just a reflex reaction after spending so long having to constantly watch my back. Still, when morning came, I was feeling well rested. As unlikely as that sounded. It was a strange feeling to not have to sleep as much as I was used to.
We quickly went after Rico and a few other Rodenti who wanted to talk about their food problem. And just as they had talked about, they were having some issues with food. The farmland was going very well. And the crops would give enough sustenance for a good few months. But once winter came, they always had problems. The fact of the matter was that their situation was much less dire than what we saw in the previous village of Rodenti that we helped. Mostly because they had more people. But also because the people they had were capable.
Even if they had to hunt, they had the option of doing so. However, it was something risky that they would prefer not to do. Which was understandable. Farming was always easier than hunting down something. Especially since by farming they wouldn't have to worry about risking themselves or someone they cared about. Even back in the Hidden Horn village, we always tried to avoid hunting as much as possible.
However, this also created a different type of issue for Riley. They knew how to recreate the same conditions that the greenhouse in the previous Rodenti village required. And after a quick inspection of the environment, they confirmed that it was possible to do something similar here. However, there was one big problem with it. To make the greenhouse work, there was a certain balance that was required.
Or at least, that was the case to do something like that here. Making this specific setup for farming only worked if there were a certain amount of mushrooms being grown. Once they passed that number, the mushrooms would grow naturally without having to worry. But if they lowered their amounts by too much, which would be the case during summer and spring, the entire thing would collapse. And if they kept the amount of food they were producing, then a lot of it would rot during those months where the crops were bountiful. Which was just a waste.
And while they could use the extra mushrooms to turn into compost, Riley wasn't entirely sure the System would let that happen naturally. They knew that there were some particular types of mushrooms that tended to be very resilient and even took over different crops, which, if it happened, would destroy the entire farm instead of just a small piece of it. Worst of all was the possibility that this new version of mushrooms could also harm the Rodenti. That's why it was better to keep them in an environment that would be less prone to mutations.
Another thing that was making them worried was the fact that explaining something like that to the Rodenti would be complicated to say the least. They were smart, yes, but there were also some concepts that seemed to be too advanced for them. Mutation and infection of plants seemed to be the case. And Riley wasn't saying this at random. Instead, they were saying this from experience as Rex had been talking to them about the possibilities, and it was pretty clear that he couldn't quite grasp what the witch was talking about when she mentioned fungal infection.
Which, in a sense, I could understand. It was a weird concept to think that plants could infect each other. Although some fungi are not really plants as most people perceive them.
We agreed that it would be hard to have them controlling the amount of mushrooms they would produce. Even if we were able to convince a couple of them that it was the best option, there was nothing guaranteeing that they wouldn't turn around and have other people going against what we said. And having that end result with the possibility of destruction of all of their crops, we decided to try to figure out a different plan instead.
After thinking for a moment, I turned to Riley. "What about trade?"
"What about trade?" they asked.
"Do you know if they have anyone to trade food with?"
But Riley shook their head. "I don't know. Maybe we need to ask them about that."
With that, the two of us went after Rico to ask about nearby villages. Because if they had someone to trade with who was needing food, all our problems would be solved. It wasn't hard to find the chieftain of the village, and as we did, we went straight into business.
"We have an important question to ask."
"Of course," the chieftain greeted us with a warm smile. We could see it through the corners of his mouth. Unlike humans, when Rodenti showed their teeth, it was a more aggressive stance. To smile, they just lifted the corners of their mouths, which, thanks to the shape of their heads with the long snouts, made it very easy to tell when they were smiling or frowning.
"Chief, we have an idea how to solve your food issue. But it's going to be a bit tricky," I started.
"Why tricky?" Rico asked.
Riley explained the issue. The actual issue with the mushrooms. How there would need to be a certain amount to make the farm work properly and if they turned it into compost fertilizer for the other crops, it could come with problems. Just the idea of making compost out of food was already somewhat new to the Rodenti. Although it wasn't so much the fertilizer but the fact that they could use spoiled food for that.
"So bad? We can't eat."
"No. It's bad for plants, not bad for people. That's why you can't just throw it away."
Rico frowned. "That's problem. Burn?"
Since I was already assuming most questions would be about how to better deal with the excess of mushrooms, I was the one who spoke up. "So I was thinking. Do you know any villages nearby that need food?"
Rico paused and stared at me. "Not near. Few day travel. But yes. Why?"
"What if you trade with them?"
Rico blinked slowly. "Trade?"
"I know for a fact you guys understand what trade is. Some of you trade for things you need."
"Yes."
"Think about it like this. What kinds of stuff do you need here that you can't get?"
Rico paused for a moment. "Not many animals. Not big ones."
"Okay," I nodded. "What about this other village you mentioned. Do they have a lot of leather?"
"Yes. More than us."
"Okay. Let me ask you something different. What would happen if you were to ask for some of that leather?"
"They give some. Not much, but some."
"Do they say why they don't give a lot?"
"Say it's theirs. No need share. We not them."
Rico was giving me the strangest look, as if I was asking questions that even a child would understand. But still, I continued.
"Great. Now what if instead of asking for leather for free, you gave something to them in exchange?"
Rico frowned for a moment. "Gave what?"
"Mushrooms," Riley said excitedly. "You said that they are having problems with food. You offer them mushrooms in exchange for the leather. Just like a trade."
"But why would we go there to say that and come back to get mushrooms?"
I shook my head. "No. You go there already with the mushrooms. And tell them if they want some, they need to give some leather. That way they can continue to hunt and get more leather, and you can make more mushrooms than you need. This is called being a merchant. You're going to be selling goods or food or anything else that you don't need to other people who do need it in exchange for things that they don't need and you need. Humans do that a lot. We even have some people who travel around selling things that one village doesn't need to one that does and then buying from them things that another village needs and so on and so on. They spend their entire lives doing just that. Just traveling and trading things that might help people."
Rico looked down for a long moment, almost as if contemplating his entire life. But eventually he gave a nod.
"Good idea. Make people happy. Make everyone happy."
"And you get some benefit from the trade for doing all that, right?" I nodded. "Exactly. Generally what you get is more simple. You're not going to be asking for leather or something like that. Unless you really need it. It's more things you might need to travel. But what if we make your village a village of food? You already have a lot of crops here, so as long as you can keep expanding and making more, I don't see why this wouldn't work."
"And then we trade to others?"
"And it's good to have a few people, a few strong people with them to stop any problems on the road. Monsters and maybe bad people who want to steal your food. That way you won't be wasting the mushrooms and won't be in danger of making them cause problems for the rest of the crops, and you still gain some benefit from them instead of just letting them rot."
"Actually, it's really hard for these mushrooms to rot. The mycelium infused with the system can-" Riley started speaking, but I just gave them a stare that made them shut up, which they thankfully understood right away. The last thing we needed was to confuse Rico even more by talking about the nuances of rotting mushrooms.
We explained the concept a bit more to Rico. Although it would still be sometime before he was ready to know how to do the finer details, Riley and I felt confident enough that the chief understood the idea behind trading mushrooms and was likely to do something good with it. Meaning that now all we had to worry about was the actual mushroom farm.
Since Riley had already done one of those before, it wouldn't be that much of an issue. Even then, the botanist was thinking about some upgrades she could do to the setup.
"You know that skill that you and Astrid got? I think it was called {Room For Growth} or something."
I nodded. "Yeah. {Room For Growth}. What about it?"
"I was thinking about it. What if I try to imbue that skill into the mushrooms? That way, they would be more filling for anyone who tried to eat them. Maybe it would make things even better for the Rodenti who wanted to have them."
"That doesn't sound like a good idea," I said.
"Why not?" they frowned.
"Because any skill that you give the mushrooms will inevitably end up with the Rodenti whether you want it or not."
"Oh, but that's just if I give the skills to the mushroom. That's not what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about placing that skill on the spell circle I am attaching to the greenhouse. That way, the effects can still be part of the mushroom but not directly on it."
This version sounded better on paper. However, it still had one big issue. There was no guarantee that people wouldn't still get the buff. But I wasn't the only one who could think about that.
"System, can you tell me how likely are the Rodenti here to get that skill if we do what Riley is suggesting?"
Instead of an answer right away, heard silence, and Riley continued their argument.
"I don't get what makes you think this is a bad idea. Why shouldn't we give it to the Rodenti?"
"Because it's a powerful skill. I'm all for making sure that our friends are taken care of and can handle monsters and whatever else shows up to be a problem, but that's too much. It's in the same vein as giving them {Quick Tier 1 Evolution}. It's too much power right away. If we actually do that and let every Rodenti here have that skill, and we then realize that this skill actually makes us considerably stronger, then what about everyone else? What do you think is going to happen once more people have to deal with their now superpowered Rodenti? This means that every other Rodenti village, every other human, every other everything is going to have to deal with that."
"So, I still don't see the problem."
"because you're only thinking about the good people. We are being very lucky in finding only those really nice Rodenti, but what if we find someone like Nithera, or Rixnala. Then we have a real problem on our hands."
Riley stopped and just stared at me for a long moment. "Do you always go straight for the worst possible scenario?"
"I don't hope this is going to happen, but when I'm doing something that might have serious consequences, yes. I tend to look at the worst possibilities first."
As I finished speaking, the System finally gave an answer to my question.
[According to calculations that are incomplete due to the lack of information about the end result of a mushroom grown in a place with the {Room For Growth} skill on the environment, System has come up with the following numbers.]
[If the skill is given directly to the mushroom, each product would have roughly a ten percent chance of acquiring the skill after every meal.]
[If the skill is affecting the mushroom indirectly, each consumer has a five percent chance of getting the skill after every meal.]
[Lastly, if the skill is placed on the environment, not directly on each mushroom, each mushroom will have a zero point zero five percent chance of bestowing that skill to whoever consumes it. In addition, placing a skill like that into a specific area would be the first step in creating a dungeon. There are still many more requirements in order to completely create one however, this would be the start.]
I turned to Riley and asked one more question of the System. "Just to double check. If we have twenty-five Rodenti here eating the mushrooms and they have two meals every day, it's going to take what, four days for the first Rodenti to get the skill?"
[The likelihood of a Rodenti acquiring the skill within the first four days is near one hundred percent.]
I turned back to Riley, who just sighed and said, "Okay, okay. I'll keep it more basic. Just minor improvements, not trying anything fancy."
"I know, thank you. I'm not saying that we could never do something more fancy. Just either we do it in a place where we truly trust everybody or we wait until there are more humans with the System."
Riley paused and stared at me with a confused expression. "Why are those the limits?"
"The one about trusting people is pretty obvious, I think. If we trust people, we don't have to worry about them using it the wrong way. And the System. Well. Humans started late. We were not using the System for very long, and we have all these other species that can use the System and have been doing so for a while longer. If we don't be a bit careful, I'm worried that we're just going to have more predators hunting us down. I want humanity to at least have a fighting chance, you know."
"I wasn't really expecting you to be the kind to say let's help humanity. But it does make sense. I guess I've not been thinking about the effects that giving more power to those who already have power would have on human survival."
"I may not be super found of all humans, but hey, I'm one of them. I don't want us to go extinct. And while I agree that we need to protect people from the Lumerin and the Eaters. Maybe even the Aranean, but I'm not entirely sure if they are actual wild monsters or they're just being controlled by the Lumerin, not to mention this last species that is still missing from the equation. But I would like if everybody could just live together."
I glanced around, looking over the village from this part that was a bit higher up near the underground lake. All the Rodenti happily walking around and living their lives. "I think there's a lot of good in everybody. It just sucks that usually the bad is the loudest."