19 Preparations for winter and Joseph's answer Part II

After returning to the city they first reported the matter about beasts number and Baron's plan to Chief and Grandma Melanie. However there was good news that John's fertilizer theory had worked this time on crops and showed the results which made the villagers quite relieved this time around. Even grandma Melanie was quite surprised by crops changing so fast, She had thought that it might have small changes and it would at-least have taken a month. This gave her a new idea on how she could also influence the growth of herbs and precious ingredients via studying the soil and nutrients in the herb.

First thing John did after reporting to Melanie was to go and check out his factory and its working operations. After arriving at the factory Gordon first reported him on how Joseph and Jack arrived and ordered a new batch of goods after he was gone for a whole week. It was also learnt that they paid a total of 30,000 gold coins. Gordon also reported that Jack was going to wait for him a few more days at North-frontier town.

During the time he was gone he had earned a total of 30,000 gold coins and 40,000 WDS points from his trades at various places. This time he also earned 50,000 Exp points.

So in total he had almost 35,000 gold coins, 60,000 exp points and 42,000 WDS points.

After taking the remaining money and giving Gordon required money for operating functions he first decided to visit both the Blacksmiths and take all the parts to reassemble them at the factory. The machines were going to run on coal however their production capacity had also increased.

This time though the blacksmith George was quite curious about John because he had heard that John had made quite a sum from soap making in his factories but he still didn't express it openly.

After telling Arnold and his men to take back the machines to the Factory he first decided to meet Jack first as he wondered what was it that made him wait for him and for what reason.

"Anyways I will find it out after I meet him" John thought and headed towards the market.

After some time he met Jack at the market, Jack was quite happy seeing John again and both of them went straight to business.

"I heard you were waiting for me for a few days. What happened that you left your business and waited for me?" John asked Jack after both them settled in an Inn.

"Well the thing is, your soaps were more popular than I expected among various nobles, especially the bathing soaps, which were more popular among noble women and it seems that many of the nobles are looking to snap the business but you won't have to worry about them taking your business legally but the thing is that they may try to bribe your factory workers and they would try to spy your factory from other ways."

"You also have to worry if they try to harm you and intimidate you in giving up the soap making methods" Jack said to John in a very serious manner.

Jack then repeated the same thing as Joseph on how he should leave this town and how it was dangerous over here after 6 months to which John said to him that he was going to buy this town and defend it. Jack didn't disagree John as understood how people always feelings towards the land and people which helped them. John thought that Jack was worried for nothing but he still appreciated Jack for his consideration and making time for him.

Jack asked John "If you are anyways going to stay in the town why don't you buy my poisons it would be very helpful in resisting the beast waves and this time My family has given me an extra quota as well so what do you think?"

This time Jack had came prepared if John had decided to stay at the town. It was well within his assumptions that John would most probably stay in the town.

"Okay, those poisons would anyway be helpful."

From this John also got to know Jack's family stance towards him and it seemed that it was positive from the way they provided extra quota for their poison.

Hence John bought all the 5000 bottles of poison with 500 gold. He never thought that this poison would be so expensive if it was going to be afforded only by the villagers. No wonder it was hard for the village to buy the poison.

Later he decided to go to the house of Village Chief,

"John, I was always waiting for your arrival so i can give you the good news on the situation on the farms after we tried out your methods. The plants and crops had a lot of effect from your methods and the situation has stabilized in the village for now." Sam said to John in an enthusiastic way as he knew that John and Eva's team had already arrived.

"Well I actually wanted your help this time in recruiting people for new factories. As you have heard from Eva and others, this time winter will be very harsh so I wanted to be prepared as much as possible for the upcoming disaster and apply my plans earlier."

"This time I am also prepared to buy North-Frontier town from the baron so I can support the town as much as possible." John said to Sam after hearing the Village's situation.

After thinking for a while Sam replied to John in a very serious manner "Well I can still help you get 20 more people but you can't expect me to get more people in future or else the agricultural labor would decline. You see we have a very limited population so if you want more people then you would have to recruit people from other towns. But I think it would be very hard recruiting people from other towns since you know our geographic problems. Your best bet would be to buy slaves and have them work for you."

John had long ago accepted that he would need to buy slaves if he wanted to continue increasing his operations. He was actually very glad right now that he could still get 20 more people.

They then later had lunch together with Same and they discussed the problem solving of farms and how to combat the problems they would face in winter. John also reassured Sam that he bought 5000 bottles of Jack's homemade poison so that they could resist the beast invasion this time.

Hearing this Sam was very surprised because other times the village could only buy 50 bottles of poison from Jack plus it was more expensive usually. Plus 50 bottles were always the quota for the village.

And most of the rich men like George would usually already leave for the Main town of the baron.

It would usually cost them 20 gold coins for 50 bottles.

From this John understood that Jack's family had already prepared to support Jack and John by all means possible for their business relationship.

That poison was mostly sold with such a high price because they were always in demand and its raw materials were rare and hard to acquire and hence price gap.

After their Goodbye's John set out to meet Jay and take some rest at home.

"So how was your Journey in the forest this time around?" Jay asked John after meeting him at home.

"Well this time I had quite a hunt plus i didn't have many problems since i travelled with Eva and her team. But there was some hassle with Baron's Son when i was in East sea city."

"It was somehow related to Eva and later he challenged me to a duel because of it." John said to Jay in a sighing tone.

Hearing this Jay was quite surprised as he understood how those guys from noble families usually behaved. But the most surprising thing for him was John's combat prowess. However he was glad that John was safe and there weren't any problems.

John later made dinner for both of them as he didn't like the bland food here. As he had a lot of money he had bought a lot of spices from East sea city for his cuisine needs.

Jay didn't decline as he had already gotten hooked to John's cuisine. He even thought if he could he would keep John in his house just for his cooking skills.

Next day he visited Paul to see how was the work on his Mansion going on. And it seemed that paying extra for labor was worth it as they had almost neared completion for building the mansion.

John later gave him another order of making 2 factories for Guns and Paper on the site of Rose soap factory. It was made according to modern architecture. Paul was quite happy these days for getting multiple orders from his rich man.

Three days passed normally, these days his normal routine was to visit grandma Melanie and later he would train by himself.

However these days it was Josephine who dropped by so that she could learn the Swordsmanship technique from John.

He had also improved her own swordsmanship techniques with the help of Sarah.

After three days his Mansion was complete and he had decided to visit it today. Today Josephine was accompanying him as he had decided to visit his mansion after they had completed the training.

During these days Josephine was quite active when it came to John, it seemed that she was quite stirred after watching Eva and John during their journey.

After visiting the mansion he first paid a visit to Sam so that he could have people to take care of his mansion.

Paul and his men had already started building the 2 factories. As it was not a big job like the mansion it was guessed that it will be finished quite early.

After arranging all the things regarding maids and servants he had decided to throw a banquet for building his new mansion.

Josephine was quite shocked after watching the Mansion for the first time.Though she had seen a lot of mansion she had never seen such a mansion in her lifetime with such furniture and architecture.

She decided to ask John "John who made your mansion this time around?" She was sure that John hired some architect from imperial city or someone who came from a foreign country.

"Well it was Paul from our town who made it. I designed the Mansion and furniture's, he made sure to make it according to my adjustments." John replied to her in a teasingly haughty tone.

Josephine was surprised at first but it seemed that she gotten used to it,

She then told him skeptically with serious eyes "Tell me honestly, do you know any profession which you don't know? You even improved my sword techniques."

This time John didn't meet her eyes and said to her with a poker face while changing the topic at the same time "Well i have thing of learning things faster so it isn't that i know everything and i was just lucky when i improved your techniques BTW why don't we go inside the mansion and take a look around and greet the servants."

Josephine still looked at him skeptically but at the mention of mansion she decided to have a look for now.

Next day the servants in the Mansion were preparing for the banquet later on. John had decided to go his factory because Joseph was going to come with his materials today.

After reaching at the factory, Joseph was already waiting there for him in the factory, soon they got busy with important talk.

"Well the raw the materials which you had asked were transported by the carriages. But i got message from my father that the family had contacted the baron about the acquisition of North-frontier town and it seemed that the baron was not happy with you but dad said that it was mostly likely him acting to get more money from you so you would have to be prepared to cough up quite a lot if you want to acquire the town." Joseph said to John.

"Well i expected something along the lines after my confrontation with Antonio. Maybe the baron was quite happy with his son getting pummeled so that he extort more money and conditions from me." John said to him after thinking for a while.

"Well it will take some time anyways so are you coming with me this time in south since you wanted labor for your factory?" Joseph said to John.

"I guess i will join you this time since i would need people urgently anyway." John agreed to his proposition.

"BTW i would need a continuous supply of metals, can you provide it on a long term basis?" John then asked him.

"Well that wont be a problem. We deal in a lot of things so don't worry about it."

Joseph then prepared to load the soaps and got into preparations of sending it to East sea city via his men. Joseph had decided to attend the banquet 2 days later and head to South with him later on.

John got busy into making preparations for the Gun and Paper making factory. This time as well he had decided to take the help of Ron and George from the town so it would save him time.

And just like that the rest of day passed. This time he was packing his stuff from Jay home's and said goodbye's to him as he was going to move into his own mansion.

"I will certainly miss your cooking while you are not here" Jay said to him sighing.

"Well you can always come by the Mansion if you miss my food so much" laughing John said to him.

After moving to the Mansion he first headed to Grandma Melanie's Pharmacy as he had promised her earlier. These days John already learnt middle grade pharmacy from all the books he had read.

These days Eva and her team hadn't gone out to the forest after hearing the news and were busy preparing for winter so that there were least casualties.

Today John met Eva when was reading the books. It seemed that she had gotten know about John training Josephine when he was training as well which irritated her quite a bit. So today she decided to ask his help in combat as well as magic.

"Its a good thing that he knows magic as well maybe he can help me improve my combat style" thought Eva as she approached John.