Karl slowed to a stop at the edge of the farm to approach at a more human looking jog. He wasn’t trying to terrify the people or their animals, and running across the field faster than anyone would dare to drive a car was likely to do exactly that.
As he jogged down the driveway toward the house, an older man, likely the father or grandfather of the current generation of farmers, came out to greet him.
“That’s some mighty fine stamina you have, young man.” He announced once Karl had come to a stop.
“Thanks. A long jog is good for the lungs. I came toward town looking for a few things to make a special birthday dinner for one of my team members. It’s her birthday, and we’re stationed in the wilderness some distance off, ensuring an Anomaly is dealt with.”
The man nodded. “If you need to commandeer some items, we will spare you what we can. There is more variety at the store in town.”
Karl smiled and took a pair of gold coins out of his bag. “They might be from the monsters, but they’re pure gold. The bank should take them in trade without an issue. All I need is a turkey, fresh heavy cream, butter, and some cake mix if you have it. It would be easier than making one from scratch.”
The old man was looking at the two gold coins in shock. Sure, they were from the monsters, but that was still four ounces of gold.
A young man and woman came from around the corner of the house, likely from the barn, and Karl nodded to them, alerting the old man to their presence.
“Ah, meet my boy Gerald, and his bride to be, Roxanne.”
Karl smiled. “Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. Let me see here, I do believe that I have just the thing for a wedding present.”
Karl pulled two items out, a simple gold chain with thick links in the style most men preferred, and a ruby pendant. Working men didn’t wear a ring, instead they would put their wedding ring on a necklace, so it didn’t get damaged.
If tragedy or the plague hit and nobody was left to take care of arrangements, the chain holding his ring was supposed to be enough to pay for both of their funerals, so that a married couple always knew they would be taken care of and could be buried with their wedding rings.
The farmers stared at him in shock. “Sir, we cannot accept a gift like this. It is too much.”
Karl laughed. “It’s only right. I am a Royal Rank Elite, how could I give a wedding gift like I still worked the mines? Besides, I’m here on business. I need a turkey, heavy cream, butter, and cake mix.”
“A Prince? Sir, we apologize, we didn’t know.” They all bowed in unison and Karl laughed.
“Stand, stand. You didn’t know because I didn’t tell you. I’m not here to flex my rank, just to get ingredients for a birthday dinner. A special lady to me wants turkey and dumplings for dinner, and our Cleric wants to make her a cake.”
The young woman ran inside, and came back out with a large wicker basket full of goods only a minute later.
The pantry and the freezer must have been right at the door because she was fast, and there was a frozen turkey in that basket.
Karl added one more gold coin when he saw that there was not only cake mix, but also a bag of confectioner’s sugar and a bottle of vanilla extract to make icing in there.
Those weren’t items that most farmers kept on hand unless there was a celebration coming, so they were likely bought for the wedding.
“Here, take these straight to the bank and get them traded in.” Karl explained as he passed the old man the money, then took out his notebook and wrote down some basic information.
[Prince Karl, 95988. Coins traded for luxury foodstuffs.] He wrote.
“That should be enough for you to trade them to the bank for a fair rate without being accused of anything. Now, I should get going back to camp. Good luck with the wedding, and I wish you all the best.”
He turned and jogged back the way he came, but he could hear the family celebrating, along with a few other voices from the house, before the slapping of feet headed for town marked someone’s departure.
By the time that he made it back to the camp, Karl could hear the confirmation on the radio that there was really a Prince Rank Elite in the area, and Karl’s identity code. They must have taken his words seriously, and ran directly to the bank to trade in the coins before anything could happen to them.
Three gold coins wasn’t a huge hit to Karl, not when he had a thousand or more of them in his bag. But it was likely to convert to an entire summer’s earnings for the old man, far more than the food was worth.
“I’ve got everything that you requested, plus confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and premade cake mix.” Karl announced as he reached the camp.
Then he took the basket out of his storage and placed it on the table in the kitchen area of the fort.
“You’re back already, with a frozen turkey and everything else we asked for?” Doug asked, startled by the speed.
“Yeah, I stopped at a farm just before town and they had everything. That would be the bank in the mine village that we were hearing on the radio, verifying the Monster Gold that I traded was legitimate.
Nobody will miss a coin or two.” Karl laughed.
Doug laughed. “Well, we were just going to turn them all in for credit anyhow, so I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t use them to barter. Clerics take a vow of poverty and charity, so giving it away every time we interact with others seems like the right thing to do. A few extra coins on a farm won’t hurt the economy, but it will help the farmer.”
While Doug talked, Lotus dug through the supplies to see what they had.
“Oh, you got really good stuff. This is even top quality sugar. Alright, we should be good to go for the birthday dinner. Now, are we starting first thing in the morning? Or did we have to work?” Lotus asked.
“I think we will have to do a dungeon run in the morning unless it rejects us again. They were saying the most likely scenario is one full day, so that means morning tomorrow we should be able to enter for a second time.” Karl explained.
“Perfect, then we can do the birthday dinner after that, and then have some girl time. It’s a thing that we used to do at the Seminary Academy. We would either make or acquire some makeup, and then we would give the birthday girl a makeover.”
Tessa laughed. “Oh, and some of them were terrible when we were in the early years. But we’re pretty good at them now.”
Karl could only imagine what a bunch of teen girls who had been raised by the church, who didn’t advocate or even normally stock makeup, would have done in their first attempts at a makeover.
